Windows XP support has ended

[traq]

"touch" meaning the filesystem command? yes. meaning "touchscreen"? yes, but drivers for the specific touch device (screen) may/not not be shipped by default with whatever distro you choose.
I have a Wacom tablet that "just works" out-of-the-box.
Installing stuff is not difficult, however. Linux invented the "package manager" concept.

Graphics is one area where you might need Win/Mac (or, at least, WINE; which is a windows API compatibility layer). Major players (Photoshop, etc.) don't support Linux. There are alternatives for basic graphics work (Gimp, Inkscape), and things are getting better by leaps and bounds. I do a fair amount of image manipulation, vector art, 3D modeling, and even a bit of video editing using various Linux programs. Of course, if you really need Windows for something-or-other, most computers are powerful enough nowadays to just run Windows in a virtual machine, as needed.

Interoperability is great, however. Linux can manage a wide variety of filesystem formats, and there is software (free, open-source software, even) that can work with the file formats other use. LibreOffice, for example, is pretty much a drop-in replacement for the entire MS Office (extra features too), and can read/write .doc files (in fact, I've recovered corrupted .doc files that Word couldn't open). ffmpeg covers just about anything audio. Even PC gaming support is getting good.

[james438]

It's going to take me a little time to find my way around Ubuntu, but I have it installed. It looks like it is the Operating System (XP SP3) that was causing me to have almost no access to my personal websites. Without getting into too much detail I have thoroughly tested my website and called my ISP and hosting service and reinstalled windows, so I am pretty sure it is XP SP3's fault that I have had almost no access to certain websites (firewalls and virus filters set to off as well).

I'll get Windows 7 next, but I plan on holding onto my XP SP3 installation disc just in case.

As a side note I am having trouble installing Opera onto ubuntu, but there are still countless things I have not tried yet.

[traq]

Are you using the package manager or the terminal?
opera is in the mint repos by default; I'm sure it's available in ubuntu.

Just open a terminal and do sudo apt-get install opera and then enter your password.

[james438]

I tried that and a few other things, but with no luck. Opera is a bit of an odd bird after all. I installed wine and that seemed to do the trick.

It has been fun playing around with Ubuntu this afternoon, but I am in need of sleep. I look forward to continuing to configure ubuntu and learning more about what it can do.

[traq]

I installed wine and that seemed to do the trick.

…really?

There's absolutely no reason you'd need wine. Maybe you downloaded the windows version of opera instead of the linux version? What did apt-get tell you when you tried it?

[james438]

As I recall that everything was fine. My friend who uses linux all the time couldn't understand why it was not working either. I made sure to install the linux version of Opera. Most everything I have seen supports the theory that Opera is just not supported in Linux based systems as of 2013. It is not offered as an approved browser and is not supported. Just to confirm, are you able to get it to work without wine?

[traq]

Yeah, I have it installed for (admittedly, occasional) testing.

I dual-boot for IE; I don't have wine installed at all on this machine.

I am running Mint (not Ubuntu), but, for the most part, they share repos. I'm pretty sure Opera is from an ubuntu repo...