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Scholar
#101 Old 20th Jul 2019 at 11:56 PM
Photoshop CS 6 works under wine, some newer stuff does not (It's really not my area of expertise) because of the way how the dev works with authorisation. Simple (and a waaaaay better) FRAPS alternative is SimpleScreenRecorder or - if someone wants more serious and pro utility: OBS.

Sims' utilities works just like the game, they need to be installed within the same bottle (the game virtual windows installation folder)* as a game to work ofc. Some may need additional installation of a few VisualBasic libraries (just like in Windows).

Gimp is not a fully functional equivalent (it never meant to be "a clone") to the Photoshop and it has grown from different approach, though there are things (as professionals says) it does a lot better than Photoshop. Still - these are a big applications with sharp learning curve, mastering GIMP is as hard as mastering any that kind of software. Blender and such are native (they always were). PSP works better (much more stable) in wine than on my wife W7 machine.
Some things works (with wine), some not, some have native (even superior as I've heard: like KDE Live) alternatives.

Funny fact: my wife, which proudly says she is "computer ignorant" hates Word ("distracting piece of s*t" putting her words midly) and prefers Emacs.

*simply put:
wine creates for each program its own imitated windows environment as is needed, so basically it works like you'd have multiple windows installations on separate disks for each wine "bootle" with program. It's very easy to backup and manage.


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
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Theorist
#102 Old 20th Jul 2019 at 11:59 PM
SimPE needs .net framework which is a Microsoft thing which is why it would never work on Macs. I think someone above said that it will work on Linux, though.

And yeah, when I say PSP I mean Corel's Paint Shop Pro, although when I started using it the company was Jasc. The only thing I don't like about my current version is that it doesn't like transparency in Win 7 so it pushes it into XP mode. Version 7 didn't do that but it was also missing some of the features that 9 has so I went ahead and installed 9.
Scholar
#103 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 12:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Misty_2004
SimPE needs .net framework which is a Microsoft thing which is why it would never work on Macs. I think someone above said that it will work on Linux, though.



it's not a problem, you can install original ms libraries, mono versions or special ones embedded in wine (usually the 1st and especially the 3rd options are the best)

-------------
EDIT:
em and one thing: speaking of software for *ux these are all Free Softwares and they're accessible from repositories (no need to hunting sometimes on dev pages) for particular distributions (it's like Apple Store thing, or to be more precise: The Apple/Google/Android Store is an application modelled on repos). Some very specific or distribution agnostic tools are distributed through github (or its non-Microsoft version), PPA (AUR on Arch), or as snap/appimages (mostly big applications which demands very specific environment like Skype, some games etc.) With some rare exceptions they are Free in both senses.


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Instructor
#104 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 12:17 AM
Photoshop is for rich people and pirates.
Undead Molten Llama
#105 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 12:23 AM Last edited by iCad : 21st Jul 2019 at 12:54 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by ElaineNualla
Photoshop CS 6 works under wine, some newer stuff does not (It's really not my area of expertise) because of the way how the dev works with authorisation.


Ah! Excellent. Thank you. I won't be having anything newer than CS6 because I do not like Adobe's cloud scheme. I will not pay $50/month for the rest of my life just to use Photoshop. I might feel differently if I were a professional artist or if I used any of the other Adobe products besides Photoshop, since you get access to all of them for that monthly fee, but I'm just a hobbyist and I only use Photoshop (and very occasionally Illustrator), and I'm not paying $50 a month just to use Photoshop. Nope, nope, nope.

Uh, sorry. Rant. Anyway, thank you very much for the info and your other suggestions. I have filed them away in the little cache of info I'm slowing building about Linux and things related to it.

ETA:

Quote: Originally posted by MattGo74
Photoshop is for rich people and pirates.


If you could get the student editions, which is what I always got, it really wasn't that bad. I homeschooled my kid, so I could get all kinds of software pretty cheap. But yeah, on the whole, it was expensive, mostly because it's meant for professionals, and professionals will write off the cost on their taxes as a business expense. It is really way, way more than an average hobbyist needs, certainly much more than you need if you're just going to make CC for Sims. For hobbyists with no aspirations of being professionals, a much less expensive program, like PSP or even Photoshop Elements (which could often be gotten for free) or, heck, even Paint.NET will do perfectly fine. But yeah, a lot of people did/do pirate Photoshop. I suspect that's part of the reason why Adobe went with the cloud thing.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#106 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 1:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by iCad
I have never noticed any significant slow-down in any of my computers over time unless I was running out of storage space (which is understandable), or I was using a program that was straining its resources,...


My old laptop is occasionally slow (browser issue mostly, and it has so little storage space left I get prompted every single day), but the thing is closing in on 7 1/2 years now, never been dusted on the inside, so I'm giving it a pass on the occasional slowness. I've been better at doing regular cleanups and backups on it than on my previous laptop, so that probably helps. My XP laptop was reeeeeeally slow in the end, particularly the last couple times I used it (last time I played TS2 and tried to place down some flooring, it spent 5 minutes from clicking to actually placing it - should've been a warning sign right there), and then it quit working entirely.

In contrast, Mom's laptop is like trudging through syrup drenched in mud, but she doesn't really take care of it, and gets really annoyed every time I do some basic desk cleanup on it (did so today, and then a website didn't want to print properly, then paper got stuck, she thought it was my fault, so she rage-quit to go do something else. I managed to fix the stuck paper in the printer after about 2 minutes, printed the page via Firefox - she refuses to use anything else than an old, possibly never updated IE which is almost slower than dial-up internet on our old Win98 computer was in the end - and then everything was fine). I think her laptop may be a bit older than mine and was a much cheaper, but she mainly does internet and looking at pictures and it isn't used every day and certainly not for any demanding tasks, so I'm not too surprised if it outlives mine (which is still hanging in there despite the battery dying one and a half years ago - it may have jealousy issues over the new one and decided to hang in there for a while yet ), though it won't do so particularly gracefully. Even cleaning out most of the junk, it's still quite syrupy despite barely having any of the harddrive filled.

A lot of pre-built computers come with a lot of junk programs installed these days, and even a "clean" Windows10 install can be loaded up with a bunch of app junk (even on a do-it-yourself install). Getting rid of the ones you don't think you'll ever use, plus doing some cleanup and maintenance really does help a lot on the performance. Turning off background programs and programs running at startup helps, too.
Instructor
#107 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 2:01 AM
Well, I am 45 graduated college in 1996 and have no kids so no dice on student edition. I don't mess around with anything using that cloud shit. I don't understand it enough to trust it and it sounds like a HUGE security risk.
Forum Resident
#108 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 3:03 AM Last edited by natboopsie : 21st Jul 2019 at 3:27 AM. Reason: linking, wordiness
Just a reminder, @mattgo77 , that we prefer that you use other words that aren't profanity. "Stuff" or "crud" would work just as well and...not be an issue in our PG-13 environment. Thanks in advance for substituting different words!

@joandsarah77 I actually did exactly what you were asking about in your next-to-last post, about two years ago: bought an inexpensive laptop with Windows on it (can't recall now whether its version was 8 or 10) and installed Linux Mint instead, not as a partition but as the only OS. I searched for tutorials and was able to do it from those; in fact, it was easy enough that I also was able to go through some extra steps and install the Linux OS with full-disk encryption (FDE), to keep all the data on it much safer in case the laptop was lost or stolen during the extensive traveling that I was going to be doing.

I found the easiest way was just to use a flashdrive containing an image of the OS I intended to install (you can download most Linux distros directly as an image, or ISO file), then set the computer's BIOS so the system would boot from the flashdrive---and from there it did most of the work for me! I can't remember now the extra steps involved in setting up the FDE part, but although it was more of a hassle, it added more time but not more difficulty, really. Then again, I don't think that the average user necessarily needs FDE. (Especially because you have to shut the laptop all the way down whenever it's unattended, otherwise you yourself have already entered the FDE password and your data's vulnerable as normal anyway.)

All the steps were clearly described in at least two of the tutorials I found; I can try and get links for you if you'd like.

One thing that may have helped was that the laptop I used for all that was described by some other purchasers (I found it on Amazon) as being great for installing Linux on. To me, that meant there wouldn't be trouble with drivers getting fussy and components (like Wifi) not working with the new OS. But I don't know how critical that is, since @ElaineNualla was apparently saying it's getting easier to find drivers and such. My install is still going well; I'm typing on it now and it's my main system for everything but simming.

I do know that there's some kind of certification that components and systems can get, to say that they're compatible---at least with Ubuntu; this is the main link for that program.

At the top of this post, I mentioned about my personal experience with Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu. So I prefer Mint, but it sounded like if a system sold for PCs works with Ubuntu, Mint would be fine too, because they're not so different (and probably someone else could give you technical details about the differences, if inclined!). And of course, there's lots of other distros too. You can try a few of them out if you like by running a copy of each distro from flash drive (not installing it, just running it). I think that's the other use of ISOs---you can install the distro on the flashdrive or just run it temporarily, to try it out and see what it looks like. But someone else should definitely confirm that for you besides me!

Also, if you don't want to install, or pay someone else to install, Linux on a computer you bought with Windows on it, there are companies which sell laptops and desktops with Linux pre-installed; I know previously, even though I hated Ubuntu, I was happy with the experience that I had with System76, though that's been years. They and several other companies are included in this list of Linux-system vendors that claims to be curated (I have no idea how recently curated or whether the source is even reliable). I offer it because it does list an Australian site. As I recall, not all the sites were nearly as pretty as you might see when shopping for more mainstream stuff, but that seemed to be part of the Linux culture! My System76 netbook was nice, I recall---good quality all round. You might want to read independent reviews from around the Internet of any seller you're considering.

ETA: My favorite thing is still how it's always up to me when to install updates, and how the system will keep right on working, apparently indefinitely, even if I put off installing those for months. The runner-up thing is how you can get a lot more responsiveness out of a system with Linux on it, compared with if you were running it with Windows. So a low-spec Windows system (which is what the machine is that I'm typing on now) rarely feels like a low-spec system when run on Linux. Booting and rebooting, especially, are almost a joy. No need to walk away---un-encrypting, which on my system has to happen first, takes well under a minute (remember, mine's a low-spec machine in Windows terms) and is the *slowest* thing that happens if I reboot or restart.

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
Undead Molten Llama
#109 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 3:35 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MattGo74
Well, I am 45 graduated college in 1996 and have no kids so no dice on student edition. I don't mess around with anything using that cloud shit. I don't understand it enough to trust it and it sounds like a HUGE security risk.


Yeah, well, you can no longer legally get a physical copy of Photoshop, so having kids or even signing up for a cheap class at community college just so you can get at the cheap software won't help anymore, I'm afraid. The cloud thing...It has its benefits in certain environments. If you are a professional, full-time artist or photographer or video producer or whatever, you can write off the subscription cost on your taxes. If you use a lot of Adobe's products or want to use them, it makes sense. If you work in a collaborative environment, it makes sense because it's easy to collaboratively work on one copy of a file if it's on a cloud rather than passing around copies of it. If you are a business owner and have a bunch of employees who need access to these programs, it makes sense to buy a subscription to a cloud service instead of dicking around with buying a bunch of licenses and installing software on individual machines and then keeping track of who's using what and how many licenses you have left, etc. So, there are some cases where it makes sense. But if you're a hobbyist who just uses one Adobe product, then no, it doesn't make much sense. I haven't heard of any security issues, no more than any other online activity; it's just a matter of cost-effectiveness, really.

THAT said, most hobbyist-type people -- and anyone who just uses it to make Sims CC would certainly fall into that category -- don't really need Photoshop. PSP or Photoshop Elements or the like will do you fine -- basically you just need something that supports layers and can save as a PNG file -- and they tend to cost around $60 or $70, as opposed to Photoshop that used to sell for around $600 as a standalone or for much more as part of a bundled suite. Or, yeah, there's GIMP, which is free.

@natboopsie
Thank you, too, for the Linux info. I don't know what I'm going to do when the time comes for me to switch. I'm kinda hoping I can find a bare-bones system with some form of Linux already loaded on it that I can then plug in the hardware I want, if it's compatible. But...we'll see.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Instructor
#110 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 4:18 AM Last edited by HugeLunatic : 21st Jul 2019 at 7:27 PM. Reason: Merged posts: 5552274, 5552276
Quote: Originally posted by natboopsie
Just a reminder, @mattgo77 , that we prefer that you use other words that aren't profanity. "Stuff" or "crud" would work just as well and...not be an issue in our PG-13 environment. Thanks in advance for substituting different words!


Seriously? The link doesn't show that and I don't truck with sites so sensitive to not allow swearing. Such sites might as well be the Hello Kitty site. And 13? LMAO At 45 I knew all those words at 8. Kids today know them at 5. It's also 74, not 77.

There is also Paint.net, also free and reccomended on this site's official pages for such things, hello?
Theorist
#111 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 4:35 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MattGo74
There is also Paint.net, also free and reccomended on this site's official pages for such things, hello?

I saw you mentioned that earlier and here was my response:
Quote:
There are things Paint.net is great for like straighten crooked pictures (it's so much easier than PSP) but it really is missing a lot of things I use regularly in PSP. I think a free copy of PSP 9 can be downloaded at oldversion.com


One thing I've always used a lot in Paint Shop Pro is the Hue Map tool because I can select as many or as few colors of something I want changed without having to go through a lot of selecting and such. Say I have a wallpaper with a black background, green leaves, and red flowers and I want to change the color of the flowers but leave the rest of it the same. I just go to the hue map tool and adjust the red to the color I want and I'm done with it.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#112 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 4:39 AM
Quote: Originally posted by iCad
You mean Corel Paint Shop, Jo? Or Paint Shop Pro or PSP? Many people use that. Unfortunately, I don't know if it'll run under Linux. I don't know if SimPE will run, either, though I suspect it will. It seems like open-source software ought to run on an open-source OS. But if you're running Linux, there'd be no need to have a separate computer for online stuff. Linux is fine with internet browsers and, as I understand it, Linux is also always "supported" since it's open-source. No need to put up with Microsoft's forced-"upgrade" idiocy. Linux isn't usually a target for people who make malware, either, since it has a much smaller market share and is generally used by people who are a little more computer-savvy and are therefore less likely to have security holes to take advantage of.


It's Corel PaintShop Pro X6 (64bit) I bought it off ebay for quite a reasonable price because it wasn't the latest version. I could never figure out Gimp and Gina taught me how to recolour using v6 because it's the same one that she uses.

I have upgrades turned off and simply scan with Bullguard. This computer has given me so much trouble with sims 2 especially the first update to the graphic card that if something isn't broken I am not updating it.

I figured some programs might need to be online, but if Linux can go online I am surprised it isn't more popular. I have seen Win 10 on both hubbies and daughter laptops and I do not like it.

I asked hubby if he liked Win 10 and got back "umm" I have a feeling many people are not so keen on it but simply go along with the flow.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Undead Molten Llama
#113 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 4:39 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MattGo74
There is also Paint.net, also free and reccomended on this site's official pages for such things, hello?


Yeah, there's that, too, although I am not personally familiar with its abilities because I've never used it. I have personally used GIMP (a long time ago), Paint Shop Pro (also a long time ago), and Photoshop Elements (Often and recently).

I think many people want to use Photoshop, particularly those who recolor hairs, because of all the color actions out there. (Pooklet's, Io's, Poppet's, etc.) Actions are built and run in Photoshop, though people have also made equivalent "actions" (which are called Curves) for GIMP. I'm not sure if those other programs can use Photoshop actions or not, even Elements. I never looked. I know Elements doesn't have all the filters and stuff that the full Photoshop has, so if it can run Actions, it'll get SNAFU'ed if the Action in question requires some filter or layer blend or or adjustment layer or what-have-you that Elements doesn't have.

The profanity thing: Yeah, this is news to me, too. Last I looked at the rules it said to use it sparingly and not for lobbing insults at people. (Like calling another poster a "f'ing idiot" would be bad, but the f word by itself would be OK, sparingly. Something like that.) I do know that the "S" word is fine in PG-13 movies even in the pearl-clutching US, so...yeah.

EDIT @joandsarah77
Yeah, Paint Shop Pro is a good program, quite adequate for CC-making. Though maybe not if you want to retexture/recolor hairs using Photoshop Actions. But for all other stuff, it'll do ya just fine.

And yes, Linux can do everything that Windows can do...except possibly run some Windows programs. Web browsers and the internet are fine with it. But it's never "out of date," you have complete freedom to update it or not or, really, do whatever you want with it, because it's open-source, which essentially means that it's not owned by anyone and anyone can make changes to it and release it as a new distribution. And because there are so many different distributions of it, I imagine it's hard for the nasty malware-makers to target it. It's not more popular because it's a SCARY GEEK PROGRAM RUN AWAY! No, seriously, it used to have a steeper learning curve, but more modern distributions of it are quite user-friendly. It's just that MS and Apple have such market domination that it's hard for other systems to get their foot in the door. Especially because most of the companies that make prebuilt computers (i.e. Dell, for instance), which are what most average computer users buy, are slaves to Microsoft.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Instructor
#114 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 5:19 AM
Yeah, here in the US is bad. We are one step away from being Gilead. If it ever got to that point I'd be one of the revolutionaries.
Field Researcher
#115 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 5:48 AM
GIMP is amazing! The TS2 community (thankfully) does have GIMP users. I am now able to make hair retextures, edit my photos, make skins, and do a lot of crazy stuff I haven't even explored yet. Plus, it's free and open-source! :D
Undead Molten Llama
#116 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 6:04 AM
GIMP is a perfectly good graphics editor, but it, like Photoshop, is also overkill if all you're doing is making Sims CC with it. And if you're used to using Photoshop or probably any other graphics editor, you'll have some unlearning/relearning to do to use it effectively and efficiently. That said, it is free, so if you're OK with overkill and a steeper learning curve than you'll have with less-expensive non-open-source graphics editors, you might as well get it for free. That said, I'm pretty sure a good percentage of people who are using Photoshop CS6 or older pirated it, so they got it for free, too.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Inventor
#117 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 6:41 AM
I use Photoshop CS5 only because I couldn't get CS6 to work on my computer. I use CS5 mainly to recolor hairs/edit screenshots, and I used to use GIMP for non-sim stuff when I was in high school but I still keep it . Though I will say, Photoshop was a huge learning curve in the beginning, I can't imagine how Photoshop CC is

what_makes_you_haha.mp3
SFS uploads
Field Researcher
#118 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 7:21 AM Last edited by redandvidya : 21st Jul 2019 at 7:23 AM. Reason: added more
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#119 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 2:50 PM
Scholar
#120 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 3:16 PM
in general: distribution does not matters (much), the "distribution" it's just a way how particular "flawor" (maybe that will be more "noob-friendly"?) is composed, what kind of software is in repositories, which package manager (understand that as "universal installer") is there and overall "philosophy", and sometimes very specific usage, behind that particular distro. For example: there're distributions specifically built for very old hardware, for "hacking", for network security, data storage and management, or for artists or gamers. In general (it will be very non-precise statement) we have 4 main lines currently:
- *Ubuntu and its derivatives like Mint;
- Fedora, very popular in the industry;
- Arch and its derivatives e.g. Manjaro;
- SuSe, once very popular in Europe, especially in Germany;
(and the legion of others, really just look at distrowatch).
Sometimes there are very fundamental differences like relation with systemd - some distributions refuse to use this software and prefers old linux ways, most just embraced the functionality. Sometimes just cosmetic (for the end user).
At the end of the day it's just a matter of expected usage and taste. I usually advice going into stable branch (like *Ubuntu and derivatives) - it's, by definition - less frustrating for the new users, but there is nothing wrong with going on the "bleeding edge" (Arch and derivatives). Manjaro - very popular among gamers, is friendly for begginers and more stable than standard Arch, still retaining that "I've got the newest stuff possible!" feel. There are also distros which try to give the user kind of "complete experience" focused mostly on "computer illiterate" folks (e.g. SolusOS), someone in love with Mac's way of doing things would find that appealing. It's always safer for the user, especially a new one, just stick to the bigger fishes - a lot of tutorials, helpful and big community (don't worry, there're idiots and jerks among the *ux users, too), big software library.

One thing - newcomers sometimes mistakes the DE (Desktop Enviroment) with a distribution. DE is a way of interacting with visual interface of the system (and set of default applications), not the distribution. You can have whatever DE as you wish in whichever distribution. It's not a Windows or MacOS, there are no daddies telling you "what's the best for you" and how you should interact with your machine. Some of DE are very similar to the XP interface, or W7, or Mac, and some are completely different, built around different philosophy.

Encrypting the whole disk (or just home folders) in Mint is just as simple as selecting the option during installation. You can do this at any moment, anyway. Bear in mind that encryption slows all IO operations (obviously).

It's the best to just try to peek and poke in VM for the start, getting familiar with the interface and the way of doing things first. It costs nothing (except the time and a bit of effort).

Most existing hardware will work without an user intervention with exception for some outlandish one or very (I mean *very*) new. Because of better overall quality, *ux is used often to revive older hardware - well you can test it for yourself, most *ux distros will work faster in VM than a host system itself (or at last - just the same) with just a half of resources. The bottleneck may be disk speed (and sudden mess made by services which often happens in W10) .

EDIT:
Mint is often advised for the newcomers as "noob friendly", which is somewhat true (especially for the Windows users, it's very familiar, just much better). It does not mean it's sub-par distribution. I use it myself because I'm terrible lazy and it's just working without a hassle. The same I'd say about MX Linux, PopOS etc.


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Forum Resident
#121 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 4:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Misty_2004
This whole situation reminds me of an episode of "Little House" I watched last night. A banker had moved to Walnut Grove and after he settled in went out to a pond for some fishing. It just happened to be the same pond Laura liked fishing at so they both ended up fishing at the same time. She chatted with him and caught fish, even offered him some of her bait, while he insisted he had read all the books and knew everything about the fish in that pond and what kind of bait to use. Laura went home with a panful and the banker went home empty-handed. In this case Laura had her experience and what is called "street smarts". The banker had his book learning.


Did Laura go home and grill up an 8 serving platter from one fish; each plate sparkling, and completely filling everybody's stomachs after 4 bites? And then some annoying a-hole in a puke colored sports jacket rang her doorbell and left a box with a computer and a sims game inside it? I think i remember that episode...


-gE
>=)
Forum Resident
#122 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 6:28 PM
About the profanity thing: yeah, after talking with staff, it does sound like I misinterpreted the profanity guideline I linked you to, Matt. iCad pretty much described it right: use sparingly and not directed at other members. So it's all good.


Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
A lot of pre-built computers come with a lot of junk programs installed these days, and even a "clean" Windows10 install can be loaded up with a bunch of app junk (even on a do-it-yourself install). Getting rid of the ones you don't think you'll ever use, plus doing some cleanup and maintenance really does help a lot on the performance.

Had meant to respond to this before and forgot.

That has been another one of the things I've loved about installing Linux; I could feel confident that there wasn't (what I think of as practically) product-placement software on the machine, seemingly there more to advertise a brand than actually be of any use to me. I remember poking around my current Win10 system when trying to get the UC to run and look good and thinking, "So this logo'd program acts like something that allows me to tweak...a few small things in the way that something works. But how much processing power is it really taking up, and what else is it doing?"

I really disliked that feeling of having no good way of knowing what programs were really for---and hence not being sure whether I could uninstall something even if I didn't see why I needed it. Which is why I adore the whole open-source thing; programs produced that way could still contain bloat or spyware, but the chances are way more tiny because of how many people can freely poke around in the software.

When it comes to Win10, I have been the kind of user iCad describes: I get my programs (TS2 and related utilities) to run and that's really all I want to know about it, because it's so difficult to learn what's really under the hood! That's pretty much why I don't have a Win10 system that is allowed to connect to the Internet: it was the simplest way for me to guarantee my peace of mind, given that I didn't think I could trust the OS.

I feel much more empowered with Linux, as if I can learn anything about my system and installation that I want to know, as long as I'm willing to put the time into it. Just as important, with Linux I don't have the feeling that the OS developer actively wants me *not* to know too much about it.

Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
I have upgrades turned off and simply scan with Bullguard. This computer has given me so much trouble with sims 2 especially the first update to the graphic card that if something isn't broken I am not updating it.

I figured some programs might need to be online, but if Linux can go online I am surprised it isn't more popular. I have seen Win 10 on both hubbies and daughter laptops and I do not like it.


I didn't realize we had the same kind of thinking about Windows, jo, with refusing to allow updates, lol. I definitely understand your husband's skepticism---you can't turn updates off at all in Win10, which is again why I cut mine off from the Internet...as a way to take back that control.

Linux has pretty much all the same non-MS browsers as Windows does, and although I use browser email, there's a great email standalone program too (Thunderbird). I'm happy browsing with Opera, but there's also Firefox and even Chromium (the Linux version of Google's Chrome), and lots of others too.

redandvidya, thanks for those GIMP resources for simmers---I don't create, but I'm still pretty excited to know there's already some decent material out there that a Linux-based creator could use.

Quote: Originally posted by ElaineNualla
Mint is often advised for the newcomers as "noob friendly", which is somewhat true (especially for the Windows users, it's very familiar, just much better). It does not mean it's sub-par distribution. I use it myself because I'm terrible lazy and it's just working without a hassle. The same I'd say about MX Linux, PopOS etc.


Bingo! Mint to me was very much "plug and play," with everything working just fine from the beginning; I was actually kind of amazed, considering that I had installed it on my own---something I had certainly never done before with Windows. And if I recall, I picked the Mint distro because they make a special effort to make it "complete" for average users coming from Windows, ensuring few if any moments like, "why can't I get X to work? I had it on Windows!"

Linux desktop environments: EN also made a good point that they are separate from distros. Here is an article from last year that has some good pictures of a few Linux desktop environments. I like that it talks about which distros can run which DEs, so it becomes more clear that distros and DEs are not the same thing.

I use and enjoy the Cinnamon desktop on Linux Mint, but I believe you can get it on other distros, like Ubuntu. I am curious about MATE, which I believe is the one other desktop that Mint fully supports right now. However, I'm very satisfied with Cinnamon...and I have heard that changing to MATE might mess with my drivers, so I am not curious enough to casually switch DEs. (In my link above, Cinnamon and MATE are #3 and #4, respectively.)

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
Scholar
#123 Old 21st Jul 2019 at 10:04 PM
Mint supports any DE, just like the other distributions. Preferred flavors (Cinnamon - default, Mate and XFCe) are just backed up by the community and actively developed within the Mint environment. But there's nothing particularly hard with using different DE - just it's good to remember that Gnome based (like Cinnamon) does not like KDE and vice-versa. It's because they're *large* environments with theirs own applications, libraries, lots of dependencies and such. So- it's good to purge Gnome before installing KDE or in opposite way: purging KDE before one installs Gnome-based. There is no problem with using big apps like KDE Live! in the Cinnamon for example, they just need to be installed as appimages/snaps* to avoid making mess. Smaller Windows managers (OpenBox, WM, Tiling ones) works in any environment.

Mate, or any DE, won't mess with the drivers (DE has nothing to do with them, this is another system layer), it just lack some of the Cinnamon functionalities, but has some other, specific to itself. The worst consequences of simultaneous installation of all of them are usually multiple entrances in the menu for standard applications (like file manager, default text editor etc.) because each of these DE has its preferred one. And you use more disk space. Bear in mind that officially Mate is still in the beta stage, though in *ux standards the "beta" would be 2.0 in the Windows world (and Windows typical "beta" would be 0.1 gamma-testing-build). The quality standards are really different there.


* simply: appimage/snap it's a way to distributing a program in one set completely independent of distribution, it's usually bigger package because it contains all necessary stuff in exact version that said program needs (normally installed apps uses system ones), but on the other hand: it allows to work application in the environment normally not supporting it well.


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Scholar
#124 Old 22nd Jul 2019 at 7:37 PM
UPDATE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnE4F-IYnHg

see as: def HaveFun($self == self) { return true; }


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Forum Resident
#125 Old 23rd Jul 2019 at 10:54 PM
I’m just here thinking EA is missing out on big money?
Like if they did ts2 over again it would sell big time. I’m pretty sure it would do better than ts4 which have only done extra great lately due to back in December it cost $5 and not to long ago they gave it away for free which makes people buy more packages but I know so many people who don’t play sims anymore - mainly due to the lag on new computers - there’s would love to buy sims 2 if it was reworked!
I would surely be one to even buy collectors edition!
For all I know EA is missing out big time!
From my experience is sims 2 players just as popular as ts4 players. Yes we are less in number but I got so many ts4 players coming to me these days with ts2 problems and what to do, how to get the game etc after I began posting my ts2 content on Facebook! I swear it’s wild ride!
There is a whole nostalgia talk going on because of me

Also to note that sims 2 works perfectly fine for me on my laptop (windows 10 system) but first after a few problems. It personally loads better and faster than my ts4 does
Making me play sims 2 more than sims 4
Plus I like neighborhood stories :D
And that the people seem to have personalities
And the attraction system is just ~<3
I love all the small but important stuff with ts2

I build small houses *^*
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