Retired, finally, got a new laptop. Need advice for a free software

[aribert]

As far as office is concerned, you don't need to do the 365 route. You can still buy office 2019 stand alone without the monthly script. And if you look
on ebay there are people selling unused corporate licenses for under ten bucks. Office 2019 is a free download, you just have to register it
with a license. I have installed dozens on these and there is no problem. You do have to follow the somewhat involved instructions to install
but it's not that bad. Do note that ebay frowns on these and deletes them when they notice them, so you have to catch them while they are up....

2X to what Mike A wrote above.

My wife recently bought a new laptop and bought Office 21 for about $150 thru Best Buy instead of renting Office 365. Around Thanksgiving this past year I bought one of the 2019 Office licenses for: $5.00 I figured if it was a scam, I would just loose the $5. It was legit! Took me about half an hour to download Office 19 and get the license registered. I had been missing access to PowerPoint on my laptop. I just wanted to be able to combine multiple images on one page and to be able to place text on photos and Paint was too much of nuisance for me. BTW, there are several different versions (packages) of Office 19 - some have just Word, Excel and PowerPoint other versions have 5 or 7 programs.

[Danl]

The last I looked - for windows - open office is still 32 bit. Libre office for windows is 64 bit.

I think you are correct, unless it's running on Linux, which does have a 64 bit version.

[Mike72]

Originally I had XP set up on a stand alone computer and when I tried to transfer my documents and drawings from windows 10 the formatting was lost on almost all of them. No problem transferring them to Libre however. I ended up installing linux on the stand alone, saying good bye to XP and now have two linux machines internet connected and everything works fine.

[skunkworks]

The last I looked - for windows - open office is still 32 bit. Libre office for windows is 64 bit.

[J Tiers]

Hard to keep up with all this, for sure....

I've not tried to see if documents created in M$ Word lose formatting when opened in Open Office.

That's what I saw happening. But I think Libre Office was not the latest version.

[Danl]

Hard to keep up with all this, for sure....

I've not tried to see if documents created in M$ Word lose formatting when opened in Open Office.

[gellfex]

Hmmmm..... Apache OpenOffice may not be the same as the one you are referring to, but they've been around for 20 years, open source, public community developed, and works great for me. The license for it was last updated 17 years ago, but maybe there has been no need to update it. I'm running Open Writer version 4.1.11, last updated September of 2021.

Compatibility with M$ garbage is not a requirement for me.

Dan

I guess I was not up to date that it's been given to Apache and still supported. According to this article, the 2 forks are virtually identical.

https://www.howtogeek.com/187663/ope...hould-you-use/

[Danl]

FWIW Open Office is long discontinued, it was forked to the free LibreOffice that is basically the MS productivity suite. Foxit PDF reader is excellent, and does a certain amount of editing. You can create a signature imager file and use it as a stamp to electronically sign docs without printing them out and then scanning them. It also does the legitimate 'e-sign' stuff.

I've used Gimp a long time, but I still struggle to do things that were easy in PS. I've not figured out how to select noncontiguously.

Hmmmm..... Apache OpenOffice may not be the same as the one you are referring to, but they've been around for 20 years, open source, public community developed, and works great for me. The license for it was last updated 17 years ago, but maybe there has been no need to update it. I'm running Open Writer version 4.1.11, last updated September of 2021.

Compatibility with M$ garbage is not a requirement for me.

Dan

[J Tiers]

Except for actually installing it and adding drivers for wifi😀 I finally got LinuxCnc installed on a NUC after at least 7 failed attempts, but so far no luck getting it to recognize the built-in wifi adaptor. Linux works fine until there is a problem.

Sounds more like older Apple OS....... A prior employer scrapped all their Apple computers (used in the art dept) when even the regional Apple people could not get them working right.

[skunkworks]

I haven't been really up with what the latest livecd is for linuxcnc. The last I tried it I didn't like it. I think it was based on debian buster. They tried to strip it down (removing libre office and such) plus the network manager they picked I had a hard time using..

Debian is kind of the 'purist' version of linux. They really frown on non-free stuff. (things like network cards that require closed source binary blobs to make work) This make it seem like some hardware doesn't work on linux because it just doesn't have the required files to make it work. I usually grab the 'non-free' livecds. (this is stuff like ubuntu just take care of)

I grab the livecd from here..
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...ding-firmware/

If you want to see if linuxcnc will work with all the hardware on your system I would grab the xfce non-free iso here
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...ce+nonfree.iso

Then install linuxcnc following the directions in the documentation.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Linuxcnc is currently being vetted for addition to the debian repositores. When this happens - you won't need a linuxcnc livecd. you can install your favorite debian based disto and just install linuxcnc using your favorite package manager. This has been a long time coming and is a result of a lot of work on debian and linuxcnc sides. The addition of the rt-preempt realtime patches to the mainline linux kernel and the work that linuxcnc has been doing to make it repository ready has been epic,

sam

[elf]

Linux has come a long way and keeps getting better.

Except for actually installing it and adding drivers for wifi😀 I finally got LinuxCnc installed on a NUC after at least 7 failed attempts, but so far no luck getting it to recognize the built-in wifi adaptor. Linux works fine until there is a problem.

[skunkworks]

Yah - unless you are playing a high fps game - you are not going to see a difference between real hardware and a virtual machine. The linux kernel mode virtual machine is very good. In my experience it seems to boot faster and run better. We have proxmox running at work. (think of it as open source VMware). We virtualized a ton of our hardware machines (from xp up to windows server) and we have noticed how much more stable it is. After a few months one of my coworkers said - hey - have you noticed we haven't had to reboot the vm's compared to when they were on real hardware? Amazing. These machines where cloned - and restored in a vm. (so not a fresh install) Plus we have replication between nodes that makes for almost zero down time. (and don't have to pay for per core licencing from vmware or microsoft)

And if you want to run high fps games on a vm you can.. (assuming it just doesn't run through the proton compatibility layer..) You can do things like pass through - where you pass a dedicated video card to the vm.

Linux has come a long way and keeps getting better.

sam

[Glug]

If you are running windows anyhow, and just adding it under a simulator that is running under Linux, then I see almost NO advantage in adding the extra software. You are still running a windows program, under windows, or something that is claimed to "act just like Windows" (but we know it does not, see post #25).

Actually, running windows in a virtual machine has many substantial advantages. And it is free.

I believe we covered this quite well over a year or two ago and you dismissed it and refused to try it. That's fine, it is your choice. Though if you've never actually tried something you might want to mention that when scoffing.

Also, running windows apps under Wine emulation has a lot of advantages.

[mochinist]

Laptops? My wife has one, my kids have one. I dont. Never liked them. I guess that why I dont do anything on my cellphone except phone calls, its a telephone!! NOT a computer.

Naw, all my computing is done on a PC (cant afford apple).

Everyone else, including my Son, can day trade in the market with a laptop. So stupid..

I can build a PC that will make ten laptops seem like they are all stalled out. Takes more money and space sure. But not much more.

I dont get the laptop thing when you are in your house?>

Im on a PC, right now with an RF keyboard. Just like a laptop, cept I have a 55" screen.

Oh mean when you go to the park and want to "computer" while in nature? Hahaaa! JR

Weird flex but okay… I use dell windows based laptops to run Solidworks and a few modern CAM programs just fine, and have been for the past ten years or so. I have dual 26” wide screens and a bluetooth keyboard at home and work, the laptop just sits on a base and is rarely even opened except to turn it on. Never used it in park, but it regularly goes with me to business meetings and unfortunately on vacations, so I guess the desktop wins in regards to vacations. It’s mostly just like a desktop except I don’t need an expensive desktop computer for home and work, just one nice laptop. I wont deny that in certain use cases like large 100+ part assemblies in Solidworks, a properly configured desktop is going to be better when compared to a similarly priced laptop, but they are few and far between for your average home user unless you’re a gamer.

[skunkworks]

Yes - Amd has been doing very well - only the latest intel alder lake seem to do just a bit better.. I bought a amd 5700G for my home work station 8 cores - 16 threads with an apu. It's on board video is really pretty decent compared to intel - and because I would have a problem getting a decent nvidia video card even a 3060ti... (not that I game much at all...) but the system is rocking. Love it. Bought motherboard, processor and memory and put it in a case I already had.

sam

I'm typing this on a 2008 Thinkpad T61. People love the T61 for the great full stroke keyboard and ease of repairs. Every few years I re-goop the cpu heat sink. I finally bought a new CPU cooler this year. It was $15 shipped. The machine has 4 GB of memory, a dated dual core CPU and two SSD drives. I have been using virtual desktops for decades, and currently have 167 windows open, across 9 virtual desktops.

Nearby is my dual xeon system with 48GB of memory, for heavier tasks.

I use the laptop a lot and I've done a huge amount of work with it over 13+ years. It's like an old tool. Sometimes you use a file when any number of power tools could do the job quicker.

Modern laptops are incredibly awesome, in every way, except the keyboards are awful. Also, AMD has been completely dominating intel for a number of years.