Hello everyone, long time no see!

I've spent the last few weeks moving my main Gaming/Streaming/Development desktop from Windows 11 to Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.

So far, outside of one major hardware incompatibility, everything has gone really well! My capture card, a rather old Datapath E2S has poor compatibility with newer kernels, so I've moved it to a remote SFF PC, and send the video over NDI.

Keen to know if anyone else has made the switch recently? Any difficult hardware or software challenges? I've tried to make the switch once a year for ages, and it's only been this year that enough stuff "just worked".

I'm hoping it'll stick! At the very least, I don't get a random iteration of "Logitech G733 USB Headset (1)" at each bootup!

Cheers,
RetroSwim

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

On 03 Aug 2025, RetroSwim said the following...

Hello everyone, long time no see!

I've spent the last few weeks moving my main Gaming/Streaming/Development desktop from Windows 11 to Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.

So far, outside of one major hardware incompatibility, everything has
gone really well! My capture card, a rather old Datapath E2S has poor compatibility with newer kernels, so I've moved it to a remote SFF PC,
and send the video over NDI.

Keen to know if anyone else has made the switch recently? Any difficult hardware or software challenges? I've tried to make the switch once a
year for ages, and it's only been this year that enough stuff "just worked".

I'm hoping it'll stick! At the very least, I don't get a random
iteration of "Logitech G733 USB Headset (1)" at each bootup!

Cheers,

I made the switch about a year or so ago. There are some incompatibilities with hardware on my Laptop, but overall I am more than happy I made the switch. I run Debian 12, and other then a mistake I made when installing on my Desktop with the GPU drivers (AMD), that machine runs like a charm, I have gradually moved from using Windows software in a VM to all Linux (Office, etc.) Anything that I need that there is no Linux alternative, I just run with Wine (DirMaster for C64 Disks, Pablodraw, and a couple of other things). Besides being in full control of my computer again and not having to deal with Microsoft forcing updates down my throat then crashing my system. Linux has been a godsend! I only run 2 VM's now of Windows, 1 Win10 LTSC for my BBS Door Server, and a Win 10 VM which I use to assemble WinVice (C64 emulator) for Windows users of a BBS on a Stick project I do for the C64 Image BBS.

Would I do it again? Hell yea, but I would do it much sooner!!


|11 Bucko |14- |06Wrong Number Family Of BBS' |07- |03www.wrgnbr.com

... The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

Re: Year of Linux on the Desktop (for me!)
By: RetroSwim to All on Sun Aug 03 2025 01:21:18

Keen to know if anyone else has made the switch recently? Any difficult hardware or software challenges? I've tried to make the switch once a year for ages, and it's only been this year that enough stuff "just worked".

well, not recently. I switched some years ago from Windows 7. Kept Windows 7 on a VM for some Banking Software that was available on windows only.
Had a little extra config work to make an epson scanner work. Bought VueScan, cause it is much better compared to Epsons own Scan software.
I used some of the software i was used to on windows via Wine. Like Irfanview and Notepad++
I am not a PC gamer, so never head a big GPU etc. I have mostly everything on MiniPCs. If you don't need much GPU power, they do quite well.

Oh, my choice first was Ubuntu. That made me stay on Windows, but then was told to try Linux Mint and this is what i use until today. I love Mint. It just works!
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
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I made the switch about a year or so ago.

Hell yeah!

(Office, etc.) Anything that I need that there is no Linux alternative, I just run with Wine (DirMaster for C64 Disks, Pablodraw, and a couple of other things).

I can recommend IcyDraw as an alternative to Pablodraw and/or Moebius. Written in Rust, cross platform, uses TheDraw fonts, and has nice QoL features like layers!

Would I do it again? Hell yea, but I would do it much sooner!!

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing your story!

Cheers,
RetroSwim

--- Ezycom V2.15g0 01FD0295
* Origin: >> Pool's Open - The RetroSwim BBS (21:2/121)

Re: Year of Linux on the Desktop (for me!)
By: RetroSwim to All on Sun Aug 03 2025 01:21 am

Keen to know if anyone else has made the switch recently? Any difficult hardware or software challenges? I've tried to make the switch once a year for ages, and it's only been this year that enough stuff "just worked".

Not fully, but I've set up my main PC to dual-boot between Windows and Linux. I actually still spend most of my time in Windows on it. One thing is the PC games I like playing occasionally.. I know Linux gaming support has come a long ways, but there were a couple I tried running on Linux that still just didn't run very well.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.29-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

Re: Year of Linux on the Desktop (for me!)
By: Mindsurfer to RetroSwim on Sun Aug 03 2025 15:37:49

Had a little extra config work to make an epson scanner work.

That's the one stumbling block I have keeping me from switching over. I have a Microtek scanner that isn't supported by SANE, nor does Microtek provide Linux drivers, so I've been waiting until it dies to get one that SANE does support.

However, now that Win10 is reaching EOL, and I don't want to move to "take it to 11", I'm gonna pull the trigger and move over to Linux and just use a VM when I need the scanner.

I love Mint. It just works!

Don't let Apple hear you say that. They'll sue! :)
Yeah, Mint is awesome. I've messed with all the major distros, but Mint just feels more comfortable. At some point, I do want to try my hand at Arch Linux; that should be an interesting challenge.
--- SBBSecho 3.29-Linux
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Re: Year of Linux on the Desktop (for me!)
By: Mortar M. to Mindsurfer on Mon Aug 04 2025 14:26:45

That's the one stumbling block I have keeping me from switching over. I have a Microtek scanner that isn't supported by SANE, nor does Microtek provide Linux drivers, so I've been waiting until it dies to get one that SANE does support.

https://www.hamrick.com/ thats the vuescan website.
try your scanner model in their search. i was using vuescan for several years. But it is a commercial software with a subscription- and a one time price-model. i think it was worth the price. depends on how much you use your scanner.

I've messed with all the major distros, but Mint just feels more comfortable. At some point, I do want to try my hand at Arch Linux; that should be an interesting challenge.

Back then I thought about using a different linux with rolling releases, but Arch was not it for me. I just wanted something reliable that had a gui similar to windows and does not cause much headache. The bigger the userbase the better, since you can always find answers if there is an issue.

And if you want, you can always try other colors of linux in a VM :)
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
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I've spent the last few weeks moving my main Gaming/Streaming/Development desktop from Windows 11 to Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.

So far, outside of one major hardware incompatibility, everything has
gone really well! My capture card, a rather old Datapath E2S has poor compatibility with newer kernels, so I've moved it to a remote SFF PC,
and send the video over NDI.

Keen to know if anyone else has made the switch recently? Any difficult hardware or software challenges? I've tried to make the switch once a
year for ages, and it's only been this year that enough stuff "just worked".

I'm hoping it'll stick! At the very least, I don't get a random
iteration of "Logitech G733 USB Headset (1)" at each bootup!

YO!~!!! i used debian consistantly since 2010
since version 5 and such we are on 13 now! such a long time! <3

if you need some help let me know xD

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

On 03 Aug 2025, Retroswim said the following...

I can recommend IcyDraw as an alternative to Pablodraw and/or Moebius. Written in Rust, cross platform, uses TheDraw fonts, and has nice QoL features like layers!

I have heard of it but never gave it a shot, I will check it out...


|11 Bucko |14- |06Wrong Number Family Of BBS' |07- |03www.wrgnbr.com

... It said "insert disk #3", but only two will fit...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

BY: Retroswim (21:2/121)

|11R|09> |10I can recommend IcyDraw as an alternative to Pablodraw and/or Moebius.|07
|11R|09> |10Written in Rust, cross platform, uses TheDraw fonts, and has nice QoL|07
|11R|09> |10features like layers!|07
I miss TheDraw since I am stuck in windows 64bit land.
:(


--- WWIV 5.9.03748[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Use DosBox-x to run The Draw.

On Aug 04, 2025 08:04pm, Utopian Galt wrote to Retroswim:

|11R|09> |10I can recommend IcyDraw as an alternative to Pablodraw
and/or Moebius.|07
|11R|09> |10Written in Rust, cross platform, uses TheDraw fonts, and
has nice QoL|07
|11R|09> |10features like layers!|07
I miss TheDraw since I am stuck in windows 64bit land.
:(

--- WWIV 5.9.03748[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023
(21:4/108)

... Platinum Xpress & Wildcat!..... Nice!!!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: The File Bank BBS! https://tfb-bbs.org (21:5/100)

On Aug 04, 2025 08:04pm, Utopian Galt wrote to Retroswim:

I miss TheDraw since I am stuck in windows 64bit land.

IcyDraw is on Windows too!

On 05 Aug 2025 at 03:23p, Terry Roati pondered and said...

Use DosBox-x to run The Draw.

100% this! TheDraw, AcidDraw, all the good ones work great in DOSBox.

... Real Programmers balance their checkbooks in hex

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

I miss TheDraw since I am stuck in windows 64bit land.
:(

If you can get dosbox to work on your Windows machine, TheDraw should work there.


* SLMR 2.1a * A KGB keyboard has no ESC key.
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Re: Year of Linux on the Desktop (for me!)
By: Mindsurfer to Mortar M. on Mon Aug 04 2025 22:15:44

try your scanner model in their search.

No Linux support for my model.
--- SBBSecho 3.29-Linux
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Re: Re: Year of Linux on the
By: Dumas Walker to UTOPIAN GALT on Tue Aug 05 2025 09:56 am

If you can get dosbox to work on your Windows machine, TheDraw should work there.

I love DOSBOX - I've recreated my DOS environment from the early '90s in mine - THEDRAW, QEDIT, a QWK reader, XTree, Geoworks/Windows 3.1, and Telix.

My only misgiving is that I can't go full screen on an 24:9 ultrawide monitor. With font scaling, you could fill an 16:9 wide screen nicely.
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* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Re: Re: Year of Linux on the
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Dumas Walker on Tue Aug 05 2025 09:55 am

I love DOSBOX - I've recreated my DOS environment from the early '90s in mine - THEDRAW, QEDIT, a QWK reader, XTree, Geoworks/Windows 3.1, and Telix.

My only misgiving is that I can't go full screen on an 24:9 ultrawide monitor. With font scaling, you could fill an 16:9 wide screen nicely.

I've done something similar. I also liked using QEdit and TheDraw, and I installed some DOS games I used to like to play, as well as Windows 3.1. I also set up a virtual modem on a COM port so I could use Telemate and Telix (for DOS) to dial BBSes if I wanted to.

I've run that in full screen, but I don't mind not being able to completely fill a widescreen monitor. In fact, I'd sort of rather not, as it would stretch the image horizontally, which wouldn't look right. My thinking is that different things have different aspect ratios, which won't all completely fill the screen, and that's okay. If the image is only 4:3, it's basically the same as viewing it on a 4:3 monitor.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.29-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

I love DOSBOX - I've recreated my DOS environment from the early '90s in mine THEDRAW, QEDIT, a QWK reader, XTree, Geoworks/Windows 3.1, and Telix.

I have several of my old DOS programs (like the two I am using to reply --
SLMR and QEDIT) working in DOS emulators. I primarily use dosemu on my
linux machine, but have also used DOSBOX and DOSBOX-X for some things.

It has been a while since I need to fire up THEDRAW but, IIRC, it works
better under one vs. the other (dosemu vs. DOSBOX).

My older DOS BBS -- GT-Power, BinkleyTerm, and all the door games -- is currently running in DOSBOX-X instances.


* SLMR 2.1a * Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
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I've spent the last few weeks moving my main Gaming/Streaming/Development desktop from Windows 11 to Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.

That's nice. I have it on my MacOs since 2011.
No windows otherwise than remote desktop on some servers as my point of contact.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)