Any fellow Linux users on here?

[Judge]

Wow. I even installed Wine 7.0 and I still wasn't able to run Photoshop 5.5. Still a huge mystery given that I was able to install Adobe Illustrator 7 on the same system. And on Linux Mint 21.2 , both Wine 8.0.2 and Photoshop 5.5 still install uneventfully. A real mystery, that is heartbreaking to me. But time may be running out for me to run such an old Windows program.

Funny as I just thought of perhaps one last act of desperation. To attempt to install Photoshop 4.1 which I also have, though I haven't used it in decades. LOL. No reason to think it would work any better, but I'm out of rabbits to pull out of my hat.

Guess it's the end of the road for me and Pop! OS that pooped out on me. Maybe I'll take a look at Elementary OS and their Mac-like GUI.

 

[Judge]

Elementary OS was a total bust. I couldn't even install it. But then their system requirements seemed to indicate that my 3rd generation CPU probably won't cut it.

 

[Judge]

One more time! I reinstalled Pop!OS for the twelfth time. Did so without the intention of fussing with Wine and Photoshop. Yet I crashed it all over again for the same old reason. Icons in the "dock". The bottom menu where you can place your favorites. It simply doesn't like altering the basic icons and punishes anyone who tries (moi) with "unrecoverable errors" upon the next boot.

I loved that this OS handles Gnome Extensions very well, and allows one to customize the GUI itself. But being so sensitive to changing icons really chaffs my hide. I mean, some of them are just butt-ugly and need replacing. Ironically the OS itself has tons of better icons. But I guess they amount to a "forbidden fruit" if you pluck them off that apple tree. Even when it's in Pop's own backyard!

That all said, Pop!OS22.04 can be great if you intend to use it "out of the box" without tampering too much.

Of course along with all the other distros that didn't work for me, I have to take it all with a grain of salt in terms of using a relatively powerful PC that is eleven years old now. I bitterly resented Microsoft forcing people to buy or upgrade their systems, but the reality is that one can go only so far before their computer gradually becomes obsolescent.

The one upside continues to be Linux Mint, which continues to get better and better, and yet still works optimally for those of us using older computers. No point in continuing to distro-hop when Mint allows me to have my cake and eat it too. But at some point I'll have to build another PC. No way around it.

 

[Outdated]

I've enjoyed reading about all your dramas with it, I also feel a little guilty that we all profit from your pain.

I just wanted to comment on the 'butt ugly" icons. I agree if they're anything like what comes with Fedora and Ubuntu now. I still use the old Adwaita icons.

 

[Judge]

I've enjoyed reading about all your dramas with it, I also feel a little guilty that we all profit from your pain.

I just wanted to comment on the 'butt ugly" icons. I agree if they're anything like what comes with Fedora and Ubuntu now. I still use the old Adwaita icons.

That's why I continue to post. To help out others who may be as adventurous and curious as I am about altering most any computer graphic interface. Far easier to attempt in Linux than Windows.

Ugly icons are what frankly turned me off over Zorin OS16. It runs quite well on my system, but it's simply not "visually elegant". I know, shame on me...lol. But I relish the attempt to "personalize" whatever OS I use. To me, getting a GUI just right is comparable to wearing old, but very comfortable shoes.

Then again maybe it's just my OCD getting in the way as it always does.

 

[Outdated]

I'm not all that good with change, I've been using the Cinnamon desktop and the Adwaita icons for years now, it doesn't matter what system I'm running, it has to look like it does now.

 

[Outdated]

I did find this interesting - a mainstream linux distro for your phone now. I might seriously take a look at that soon, no more interference from google.

Fedora Phosh | The Fedora Project

The Phosh spin provides a mobile friendly, touch based desktop interface. It's built for mobile devices like phones and tablets, but also laptops with touchscreens. Phosh allows you to use a touch based device to quickly launch and switch applications as well as handy settings like battery...

fedoraproject.org

 

[Judge]

I'm not all that good with change, I've been using the Cinnamon desktop and the Adwaita icons for years now, it doesn't matter what system I'm running, it has to look like it does now.

I've enjoyed my Cinnamon version of Mint. Though I also like the "Cinnamenu" extension that improves the basic menu system. It blows away Windows 11's menu system. Versatile and especially resizeable.

 

[Outdated]

I also run a hotspot in the top left corner of the screen that lets me see all open windows at once, I like that.

 

[Outdated]

I've enjoyed my Cinnamon version of Mint. Though I also like the "Cinnamenu" extension that improves the basic menu system. It blows away Windows 11's menu system. Versatile and especially resizeable.

View attachment 111327

What screen capture program are you using? I wanted to grab a shot of my menu open but couldn't work out how to.

 

[Judge]

What screen capture program are you using? I wanted to grab a shot of my menu open but couldn't work out how to.

With Linux Mint, I have no idea. It's built into the OS and doesn't seem to individually show in the repository. The dialog box has no references to who it belongs to. Though it might be related to Gnome Screen Capture.

I just hit the two buttons at the same time- "Fn" and "Prt Scn". Natively outputs to .PNG format.

 

[Judge]

My repository shows available screen capture programs like "Shutter" and "Flameshot". But not the one that actually functions inside Mint 21.2.

 

[Outdated]

I had to try a few then I found one - gnome-screenshot.

 

[Judge]

I just couldn't let go of this. No, I didn't go back to Pop!OS. I went back to Ubuntu 22.04 and spent a lot more time with it than the first time. I still am not a fan of their color schemes and use of Snaps, but it was worth it. POP!OS and Ubuntu appear quite similar on the surface, but "under the hood" they are clearly two very different distros.

Pop!OS being crap, and Ubuntu 22.04 being quite functional and smooth-running in comparison.

Right up to using the same Wine 8.0.2 script that makes my 25 year old Photoshop 5.5 work like a charm. I win! LOL....well, not quite yet. I still have to figure out how to hack the GUI, especially the application overview (main menu). Right now it has a solid black background. I already used two Gnome shell extensions to make the dock and the top bar translucent. The application overview may be a bit tougher. We'll see.

I'm still a bit gunshy about monkeying around with the dock icons, though clearly they are set up differently in Ubuntu compared to Pop!OS. Ubuntu gives you a choice of either keeping icons in the application overview, or make them "favorites" in the dock. But not both in two places at once as it is with Pop!OS. Whether this would allow me to introduce new icons into the dock as favorites and not have it crash the OS is anyone's guess.

In the meantime I have a new toy to play with! At least after I do all the housework I've put off to get this damn project to work. All it really comes down to is having two very different Linux distros to use with swappable SSDs

Here's what the application overview screen looks like. Ideally I want to make it translucent, if the desktop image (above) is actually underneath it. Otherwise I'll probably just try change the color from black to a very dark grey. Or make it outright transparent altogether.

 

[Outdated]

I'm curious about your desktop background image too. Tomb Raider 4?

 

[Judge]

I'm curious about your desktop background image too. Tomb Raider 4?

Nope. It's a street image of Lausanne, Switzerland. Typical downloadable wallpaper.

 

[Judge]

Well, Ubuntu has failed me much like Pop!OS22.04 did. Turned out there were many more issues other than just the ones I was focused on. Made my head spin. Seemed the whole "Snaps" issues didn't help either.

However it also allowed for me to see firsthand what made Photoshop unusable after installing it. What was the difference between Pop and Ubuntu? Pop allows you to download an .iso file dedicated to those of us using Nvidia drivers. Ubuntu installs with the open source Xorg driver. Photoshop 5.5 and Wine 8.0.2 have no immediate issues with this video driver. But when I tried using either Nvidia's 470 or 525 proprietary drivers, they broke Photoshop with the same error message.

Of course I should reiterate that what I am attempting technologically speaking, is somewhere between impossible and pointless. Seriously, does anyone in the industry care about whether someone can operate a particular 32-bit program that is 25 years old? LOL...uh...no, not really.

The logic of why I'm having so much trouble with these two Ubuntu/Debian-based systems is obvious. But what makes it all one big mystery is the fact that on the OS I'm on right now, runs Photoshop 5.5 thru Wine 8.0.2 flawlessly, and with an updated Nvidia 525 driver. What is Linux Mint doing that the others are not?

At the moment I'm actually thinking about reinstalling Pop!OS22.04 again, but with one major change. To install it with the open source video driver rather than a proprietary Nvidia driver. Of course it amounts to cutting the video acceleration capability in half, but whatever it takes to be able to run Photoshop 5.5 uneventfully. Other than that, I figure the main thing not to do is to arbitrarily change icons that are not "theme-based". That seemed to crash Pop with unrecoverable system errors every time. Weird too that it involved not any and every icons, but only those "favorites" that were default icons to the dock when the OS was initially installed.

For the most part, either of these two operating systems seem acceptable provided you run them out-of-the-box, with only minor alterations. Though both seem potentially capable of rich customization through Gnome Shell Extensions. Which is really the one thing I'd like to explore more in depth. Provided of course I get Photoshop running and don't keep encountering more unforeseen problems. And while Pop! uses a swap partition, Ubuntu does not. Making it clear that neither are an issue as far as Wine and Photoshop go.

I may ultimately give up the idea of running Wine or Photoshop if I can get everything else running acceptably. After all, I always have Linux Mint to fall back on, which seems to do most everything quite well. Go figure.

Much obliged to those of you willing to read my online diatribes.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

This is rhetoric from people with Microsoft tattooed across their foreheads. As long as you don't go playing around with any of Linux's security settings you Can Not get a virus. It is simply not possible.

In truly secure systems like Fedora even if I wrote my own Linux specific virus and gave it my root password Fedora would simply refuse to allow me to run it. It will not allow any of it's system files to be corrupted.

My bother has been using Linux for close to thirty years. I would join him if I was computer literate enough. each of us has their own gifts.

 

[Judge]

My bother has been using Linux for close to thirty years. I would join him if I was computer literate enough. each of us has their own gifts.

Well said.

The truth of the matter is that unless you have a state-of-the-art computer, odds are you are going to have to work for it to make most any Linux distro work to your satisfaction. Something that is likely to discourage most computer users out there, other than the three percent of us who make up the Linux share of the market. Yeah, it's big news....lol. They went from two to three percent recently. But then it's no secret that Windows 11 is a total bust, likely to be replaced prematurely by Windows 12.

But if you are a self-starter and have an insatiable sense of curiosity, come on board to Linux. Funny to think that had I not started with Linux Mint 20, I probably would be still be on Windows 10, which I hardly use anymore other than to periodically update it.

 

[Outdated]

But what makes it all one big mystery is the fact that on the OS I'm on right now, runs Photoshop 5.5 thru Wine 8.0.2 flawlessly, and with an updated Nvidia 525 driver. What is Linux Mint doing that the others are not?

It may well be the graphics driver and it's associated firmware that's giving you all the dramas. That could also be what's responsible for the crashing when changing icons.

I've also had problems with precompiled nVidia drivers but had no troubles if I downloaded the source and compiled it myself. This was true for both Ubuntu and Fedora.