Security updates for Windows XP end today

[Oldrottenhead]

actually now laptop is booted up. it runs a lot faster, than it did under xp.

it is like an alternative reality for now, as minimize buttons are on other side from what i am used to.

there is a stack of music applications. i clicked on hydrogen drums and it opened right away. this could give my old laptop some new life after all. thanks for the heads up guys.

[Oldrottenhead]

latest songs player, is blank, is there a plug in to sort that?

[64Guitars]

it is like an alternative reality for now, as minimize buttons are on other side from what i am used to.

Yes, that takes a bit of getting used to. But once you're used to it, it feels natural and you'll find it strange when you go into Windows and they're the other way around. When I first started using Linux, the minimize/maximize/close buttons were on the right, the same as Windows. But at some point, Ubuntu decided to move them to the left because they had plans for the space on the right. It was awkward at first but I soon got used to it.

I believe there is a way to move the buttons back to the right. So if you find it too strange and want to move them you can. But try living with it as it is for a while. You'll probably find that it's not a big deal and you might as well just leave them as they are.

there is a stack of music applications. i clicked on hydrogen drums and it opened right away. this could give my old laptop some new life after all.

There are a bunch of drumkits you can download for Hydrogen. Some of them might already be included with KXStudio but there are probably some that are not. From the Hydrogen Instruments menu, select Import Library. Then click the button that says Update List. It will show you a long list of drumkits and indicate whether they're installed or not. The ones that are not yet installed say "New". Select any of those, then click the "Download and install" button.

[64Guitars]

latest songs player, is blank, is there a plug in to sort that?

Yes. You need to install Flash. One of the nice things about Linux is that you don't have to go searching the web for programs and wondering whether they're safe to download like you do with Windows. Instead, Linux uses "repositories" which are central locations where all of the available programs are stored so that you can install them directly from one trusted place. It's something like the Apple Store or Google Play. To install Flash or any other programs, just open the Ubuntu Software Center program and search for "Flash". One of the programs you should see in the resulting list is "Adobe Flash plugin. Installer for the Adobe Flash plugin for Mozilla." Select that and click the Install button. Once installed, all of our jukeboxes should work just fine in Firefox.

[Hook]

You 2 are like freaking pioneers!!!!!
Rock on!

[Oldrottenhead]

magic installed flash.

[64Guitars]

Anyone who's already switched to a newer Windows with a newer machine is unlikely to go this route

That's true. However, if your Windows 7/8 machine has enough available hard drive space, it's worth considering the installation of Linux alongside Windows. Then you can boot into whichever operating system you want to use at the time. But you must make a complete backup of everything before you start the install just in case something goes wrong and you end up wiping out your Windows partition.

When I first decided to try Linux around 2007, I had the same concerns as many of you have now. There were certain Windows programs that I didn't want to give up. So, to play it safe, I installed Ubuntu alongside Windows XP. That way, if some of my programs didn't work in Wine under Ubuntu and I couldn't find suitable replacements, I could still boot into Windows XP and run those programs there. As it turned out, I was so amazed at how awesome Ubuntu was that I no longer cared about most of my old Windows programs, so I seldom ever booted into Windows XP. When I bought a new computer a couple of years later, I got one with no operating system and installed Ubuntu myself as the only OS on the computer. It has worked great for me and I don't miss any of my Windows programs at all.

The only program that I have a slight problem with is Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program). It runs under Wine but it won't print many of the reports properly. So I use it on my Linux computer for maintaining my family tree data. But when I want to print a report, I have to save the database on a USB flash drive so I can copy it to my old Windows XP computer and print the reports there. It's a bit of a pain but I don't print often so I can live with it. There is good genealogy software available for Linux such as Gramps. I tried Gramps and it's a good program, but I prefer the graphical reports produced by Family Tree Maker so I continued to use it. It's too bad that the one thing I like best about Family Tree Maker (the reports) is the thing that doesn't work properly under Wine.

More recently, I downloaded the Windows software for the Arturia BeatStep because I'm thinking of getting one. Unfortunately, that software doesn't work under Wine. It might be because it's looking for an attached BeatStep on startup and I don't have one yet. Or it might be something else. If I buy a BeatStep and the software still doesn't work, I'll complain to Arturia. There's no reason why it shouldn't run under Wine. All of Roland's BR programs work under Wine. And the editor that came with my AKAI MPK25 keyboard controller works fine under Wine. I don't know what Arturia's doing differently but I'm sure they could make it work if they wanted to.

2) But my main PC - I think we'll look at getting Linuxed-up on that. Turn it into a "music only" machine. I've already started reading up on it (so thanks for the links ).

There is another option - on the old laptop, unlikely to switch it on in anger using XP again, In fact, I was actually wondering how to dispose of it safely/securely. So why not just download and install a Linux OS on there and use the experience to find out what the hell it's all about?

Yes. Installing Linux on an older computer that's no longer needed is a great way to get started because you don't have to worry so much about messing up your existing Windows installation. You can just replace it with Linux if you don't need it anymore. Or you can install Linux alongside Windows, knowing that if it doesn't work out as expected and you end up trashing Windows, it's not a great loss since you weren't using that computer anyway. But when you've got a nice new shiny computer with Windows 8 on it and you're considering installing Linux alongside it, it's a bit scarier because you don't want to mess up your Windows 8 installation. By learning about Linux on an older machine, you have less to lose. And when you get more comfortable with Linux on that older machine, you'll be in a much better position to decide if you want to try installing it alongside Windows 8 on your new machine.

[64Guitars]

my old laptop specs are "Intel(R)Pentium(R)M processor, 1.60GHZ 590MHz 504MB ram. with a 74.5GB hard drive.

Now that you've installed KXStudio, how much space is left on your 74.5 GB hard drive? It might help others who are considering KXStudio so they can decide whether they have enough space for it, especially if they're planning to install it alongside Windows.

[Oldrottenhead]

when i click on my computer a program called dolphin opens saying i have 74gb hard drive but i have no idea who to find out how much space is used or left. dvd was 1.8gb.

i still have a lot of learning to do.

[64Guitars]

when i click on my computer a program called dolphin opens saying i have 74gb hard drive but i have no idea who to find out how much space is used or left. dvd was 1.8gb.

Sorry for the delay. KXStudio uses a different desktop than the default Ubuntu install that I'm using (KDE vs Gnome). So I booted into my KXStudio DVD so I could give you more accurate information specific to what you're using. For example, Gnome uses a file manager called Nautilus while KDE uses Dolphin. I'm not very familiar with Dolphin so I needed to boot from the KXStudio DVD to actually see it. Unfortunately, all the input boxes in Firefox had black text on a black background which made it impossible for me to type a message. But I've got that fixed now (obviously).

Go into Dolphin file manager and press the F7 key. This brings up the Folder Panel at the top left. Right-click on the "Home" folder and select Properties. Down at the bottom it will give you the "Device usage".