A Windows user tries out Linux Mint

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to GPS Prune (a Java applet). Environment & required functionality GPS Prune (a Java applet) needs to be used on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives There are no known alternatives to GPS Prune . GPS Prune's primary objective is, as the website says: Basically it's a tool to let you play with your GPS data after you get home from your trip. This is fundamental to the process of recording walking trips.  When a GPS machine is stationery, it cannot accurately log its location, so the raw data contains ludicrous points, which contaminate the data and result in garbage.  GPS machines typically compress the GPS data in real-time,...

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to reading and annotating PDF files.  It is a test of a secondary piece of software following a fail of Foxit PDF Reader for Linux . Environment & required functionality Reading and annotating PDF files need to happen on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives From the fail of Foxit PDF Reader, alternatives are required. Sources: https://alternativeto.net/software/foxit-reader/?platform=linux https://pdfreaders.org https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=170780 https://www.tecmint.com/linux-pdf-viewers-and-readers-tools/ https://www.linux.com/news/3-alternatives-adobe-pdf-reader-linux http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/9-best-...

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to reading and annotating PDF files. Environment & required functionality PDF files need to be read on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives There are two main PDF readers: Adobe and Foxit. Adobe's PDF reader is terrible in Windows: it's slow bloatware, grossly inefficient, used (badly) by governments and is so mouse-obsessed that it is unusable in the hands of a power/keyboard user.  That leaves Foxit, which works well in Windows, and is fairly fluent for the keyboard/power user. There are loads of alternatives to Foxit PDF Reader, from two sources alone: https://alternativeto.net/software/foxit-reader/?platform=linux h...

Following on from the first test , it seemed unlikely that Calc 6.0.3.2 and Excel 2016 could share data cross-platform without damaging the data. A second test confirmed that Calc and Excel do indeed damage data relative to each other's data specifications. This second test used the same two files - " dbase " and " cashbook " - reset back to their fully operational level in Excel. And the same two machines, " Legolas " the Windows 10 and " Gandalf " the Linux Mint Xfce 18.3.  The files reside in Google Drive, so are synced to each machine using Google Backup & Sync for Windows and Grive2 respectively. Actions On Gandalf, the two files were opened and updated in line with normal practice.  Backups of both files taken (copy & paste & rename on Gandalf). Findings Using Calc is quite OK, quite fluid, quite normal, as it should be.  Getting used to different menu commands is fine; once learnt, it's learnt, just get on wit...

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to networking the Windows 10 machine to the Linux Mint machine. Environment & required functionality The network should be a local network - to share files and folders - between the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas "; The network is a local area network from a domestic router, the usual 192.168.x.x thing. Windows 10 is already configured to use Samba  ( wiki ) (the SMB protocol , wiki ) out-of-the-box, although it turned out that there was a twist to the configuration. Alternatives There are ways to transmit occasional data between the two machines other than peer-to-peer networking, e.g. grive2.  However, peer-to-peer networking (file sharing, simple two-way server-and-client relationship) is the most efficient way for bulk data tran...

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to the first test of LibreCalc for its compatibility, functionality and methodology relative to MS Excel 2016. Environment & required functionality Excel and Calc both need to be used on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas "; Potentially another Windows 10 machine, name withheld to protect the guilty. The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives The salient alternative to LibreOffice is Apache OpenOffice.  At first glance, these two offerings seem too similar to eachother. Thus, OpenOffice is disregarded for now.  As LibreOffice came with Linux Mint Xfce 18.3, might as well test LibreOffice. There are loads of alternatives ! Could spent an entire lifetime testing software instead ...

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to updating LibreOffice from the installed version 5.1.6.2 to the current available version (in this case, v6.0.3.2).  The process started and completed on 29Mar2018. Environment & required functionality The environment is Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 (“Gandalf”) Installation experience On 29Mar2018, https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ revealed that LibreOffice was on version 6.0.3. sudo apt-update  or the equivalent in Synaptics Package Manager had no effect, because, at the time, the repositories defined in Gandalf pointed to those of Linux Mint, which continued to host only an older version of Libre Office. The download instructions  resemble the typical Windows thing of downloading something and running it to install it, not the expected Mint behaviour of plugging a repository into the machine and us...