Linux MInt

How to install Notepad++ on Linux Mint

PaulSeptember 13, 2021

Using Wine

I like the Windows version of Notepad++ so I thought I would at least share with you my current shell script, I usually call it install_notepad++.sh but you can call it anything you would like to use for the shell script. If you want to understand shell scripting on my site, please visit my other pages. You’ll need to make sure to allow execution of the shell script before you can use it.

install_notepad++.sh

echo y|sudo apt-get install wine-stable echo y|sudo apt-get install winehq-stable xdg-open https://notepad-plus-plus.org Echo "What's the current Version of notepad-plus-plus? (example Current version 7.9.2)" |Read Version_number wget https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/download/v$Version_number/npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe wine npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe echo y|rm npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe

You can easily remove

Echo "What's the current Version of notepad-plus-plus? (example Current version 7.9.2)" |Read Version_number

if you want to use the shell without that could, You can add:

"$1" = $Version_number in the first line of the shell script. echo y|sudo apt-get install wine-stable echo y|sudo apt-get install winehq-stable xdg-open https://notepad-plus-plus.org Echo "What's the current Version of notepad-plus-plus? (example Current version 7.9.2)" |Read Version_number wget https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/download/v$Version_number/npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe wine npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe echo y|rm npp.$Version_number.Installer.exe

then to use the shell script you can type:
install_notepad++.sh (insert the version numbers you are wanting to use)

Once you launch this, notepad++ will be installed. It will be under the Wine menu but can be launched like any other Linux GUI program.

Notepadqq

The next one is notpadqq which is a really good version of notepad++ but I like the look for Notepad++ better and can be used just like everything else. To install notepadqq
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:notepadqq-team/notepadqq sudo apt-get update |sudo apt-get install notepadqq

Then it will be installed in the Linux. You can also create a shell also or just copy and paste this one into the terminal. Each one of these are really useful with programming and writing scripts of many different programs.

What is your favorite program in Linux to edit or code with and why? why not leave a comment and tell people what you’re favorite editor is.

3 alternatives OS to use instead of Windows 11

PaulJuly 12, 2021

Windows 11 and Secure Boot

Some of the hardware people have will not be able to run Windows 11. Microsoft has said they will stop updating Windows 10 in 2025. This will leave people in hardware limbo because there system is still quite fast and works perfectly well. I thought today we would talk about some other operating to use that might work for you and not require you to have secure boot, which Windows 11 will required. I’ve talked a little about secure boot in my previous post. So I am sure Microsoft is doing this to get more Windows 11 revenue. After all if you have to upgrade your hardware you will most likely have to get a new key from them unless you try to call them and get a free one because you tell them you had to upgrade. It could work you just have to upgrade the system and when the system boots back up, you have to call and validate that you are using your system. I think you’ll allowed one or two times like this before you have to go and buy another 100$ key. I really don’t know if it will, but it is a way around paying for a new key.

Linux All the Way

This will be a Linux post about the different OS you can use that are free. I am sure you could go buy a Mac and be happy with that also. Any way it goes, this will at least help not waste the hardware you have and let you use it even longer than you thought you could. I will always be one of those who advocates for a free OS. Linux seems to be the only OS that will do the job after Windows 11 is released and Windows 10 is retired so I am hopeful people will at least look into using Linux as an Alternative.

Ubuntu

As you can see Ubuntu can look almost like Windows 11. I wonder if Windows 11 got the idea from Ubuntu or from Apple. Any which way, you can customize Ubuntu and have the Start menu anyway you like it. So You have full control of what you can do with it and how to use it. In a way, I like to say that this is the easiest to learn. It’s pretty easy to start using it and still be able to browse the web and other things. Once you get your feet wet per say. You’ll be looking for other OS that might be more of your tastes but this is a good choice.

Download Ubuntu

I personally love Linux Mint and use it more and more. I have been playing around with it in terms of playing games like Microsoft Flight Simulator. You can do a lot with Linux Mint and I like it because of what you can do with it. You can play games on it that you think you wouldn’t be able to play on Linux or even run video editing programs that you thought would only run on a MAC or windows. In the End, Linux seems to be getting more and more useful. I think in the end Microsoft and Apple will always be competing with Linux due to the universality of what you can do with it.

Download Linux Mint

Manjaro

Manjaro is the last one I suggest looking into for those that are new to Linux. it has been one of those that has started growing the last few years. As you can see they also can let you customize the windows and how you the look of it can be. I’ve only tried this Distro for a while and went back to Linux mint.

Download Manjaro

I like Linux Mint much better than any other one that may come my way. I like it due to it’s look and how well it works out of the box but I am sure there is more Distros out there. There are so many distros out there that I like to look at distrowatch for any new and upcoming distros that I might like to try and look into because you never know when there is one that will do something better than another Linux. Which Distro do you like the most and why? I’d love to hear your opinions on this and what your thoughts are on Windows 11. Why not leave a comment and tell me your experiences.

How to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Steam version on Linux Mint 20.1

PaulJune 30, 2021

Run Microsoft Flight Simulator

I’ve been trying to get this to work the last few days on Linux because of Windows 11 set to come out in the follow months. However, I was also wondering if this would work on Linux as it should be able to to do. As you know steam has some great ways to run windows games on it. The problem that most people have is just to figure out the right way to run it. I am here to help those who might still be having difficulty in running Msfs2020(Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) on Linux because it seems to have so many people having issues with running it. According to ProtonDB, This game should be playable with Gold standards which means it should run perfectly after some tweaks. I don’t know about the rest of you but It’s more than some tweaks but I digress.

Install wine

The First step you will need to do is check out my other post about installing Wine on Linux Mint. If you followed those instructions you are half way to getting it to run on Linux. You’ll however want to install all the Wine DB and API’s that are associated with Wine to get it to work. That includes but not limited to Q4wine, Playonlinux, Winetricks, All Wine Compatibility layers(Windows-Desktop-files also), Wine-binfmt and the API layers that is associated with Wine. I found sometimes they don’t automatically install these but they are necessary for several other games.

Install Graphics Drivers

Go to your driver manager app and make sure you have the GPU driver for your system. I currently have a NVIDIA 1660 Super and an Intel 10-850 Core. First I’d try the recommended but we’ll discuss this at the end. Always download the recommended driver on Linux Mint but if you have a different Linux and want to download the NVIDIA drivers, check out the NVIDIA Unix Drivers for them to work with your system. If you have an AMD GPU, you can visit the AMD website for your Linux Driver. Once those are installed, you will probably need to reboot your system to make sure your drivers are active when playing on Steam or other games. Each time there is an update, it will probably be a good idea to reboot just to make sure the drivers you want are being used by the system.

Install Steam

It seems Linux Mint 20.1 or some earlier version installs the Flathub version of Steam when they install Linux Mint. Uninstall that version first, I’ve found that it doesn’t do as a good as a job as the one you can get from the package manager. I also found that it won’t run some games with Proton. So that is the reason I say, just go ahead and uninstall it and install the real one. This is the easy part of the installation. Once done you are more than halfway there to be able to play your games like you want.

Download and Install Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Once you have steam, You can now go ahead and download and install MSFS2020 into steam. This will be a quick process. Steam however will not allow you to download the game until you enable proton. Go over to the Gear icon in steam and left click properties and go to Comparability tab. I’d recommend trying Proton 5.13-6 first because that is what everyone else used to get it to work on their systems according to the ProtonDB. Once you do that, you’ll be able to download MSFS20 and install it. Once installed, you’ll also want to add ‘-FastLaunch’ to the Launch options. Once done with that, hit the little “X” button and try clicking the play button and seeing if it will run.

If it doesn’t work

Sometimes each system is a little bit different. So I’ll talk about ways you can tweak it to get it to work on your system. Some things to try:

Get a New or Older version of the GPU driver
Change the Proton version to a New or Older version or try the experimental version.
Check your Wine Settings(Although I didn’t have to do much with mine just install and try to run the q4wine once that was ran. I didn’t do anything else but quit the program.)
Check the ProtoDB to see what everyone else has done to get the game to run.

I suggest making one change at a time and seeing if the game will run after the change. If it is a GPU driver change, I suggest rebooting to make sure you are using the GPU driver you want to try to run with the program. Also Don’t expect the game to run as smoothly as it does on Windows so be thoughtful when you are playing the game. Sometimes there will be crashes and other things going on. You can however try different configurations to see if you can resolve those issues also. If you like this post please consider buying something from my affiliate list to support my blog and my time in write.

Three ways to speed up your Laptop

PaulFebruary 1, 2020

Laptops all around

You probably got a old laptop, which is probably slow and very sluggish. It is a single, double, or quad core low megahertz system and you really can’t do much with it because it is so unbearable slow. I grew up with 9600 baud rates, for the younger generation that is very slow internet. It can be very disheartening to have to just wait for the system to boot or a program to run. You could of even bought this laptop from a yard sale. So what can you do with this laptop besides make it a door stop? This article will tell you how I refurbish my laptops to make them faster and more responsive when I don’t want to buy a better laptop.

2x or 3x more RAM!

If your laptop can support another laptop memory module then you should install another RAM module. It however is dependent on what speed of ram you currently have installed. If your laptop only has one module slot you will need to go buy a bigger ram and install it instead the one you have. So you need to know how big you can install into the laptop. You can easily Google it and find out how much you can add to your laptop. I wouldn’t install anything to big, something like 8 GB to 16 GB will do to make it even faster. The faster the ram speed the faster the system will respond but it must be capable with the current module so I suggest installing the same speed if you aren’t going to replace the module.

Replace the HDD with SDD

If you’re considering doing this, I strongly recommend you backup your current system. Remember the rule of 3. You should always have at least 3 different ways to restore your current system. What’s is an SSD? It is short for Solid State Drives and don’t use mechanical plates to write data. Think of a HDD has having several layers of DVD plates that are much smaller and use magnetism to read and write data. SSD are almost like RAM and have no moving parts and thus are more responsive to reading and writing which makes booting the system way faster than you probably ever realize. You can find some SSD at Amazon if you need one. You can find some really cheap SSD because you probably don’t need a lot of space for your old laptop,\.

Install Linux

I’ve talked about this before but I will say this again. If you are using a really old laptop you probably can’t use Windows 10 and since Windows 7 is at it’s End of life. You really can’t go wrong, by going to opensource operating system. I personally love Linux Mint but I am sure there are other Linux system that might be better for your laptop because it might require a very simple Linux desktop. You want your system to boot up and be able to use your laptop with ease this is definitely the best recommendation I can give you. If you are planning to install windows 10, you should make sure your laptop can support it.

Got a favorite Linux system? Or maybe something else to make your Laptop speed up and more responsive why not leave a comment and let me know and others.

Windows 7 End of life – What you need to know!

PaulJanuary 17, 2020

Goodbye Window’s 7!

As of January 14, 2020, Microsoft has issued the End of Life (EOL) for the popular Windows Operating System. This has been coming for years and most tech enthusiasts knew about this and prepared their system for this date. If you haven’t know this until you turned saw that dreaded screen that talked about it being end for Windows 7. You’ll probably asking what does that mean and why is Windows telling me this. I will explain it to you and what you need to know!

No Windows 7 Support

When Microsoft issues this than it means that you will no longer get any Windows 7 updates and any programs you download and install will not be supported by Microsoft to run on Windows 7. You are still mostly protected by having all the updates installed on your system but you will no longer be getting any security updates or have to worry about needing to reboot due to updates, since you are no longer getting them. In the short term, there isn’t much to worry about and you can run windows just like every else with no worries.

In the long run, you will need to consider just how long you plan to use Window’s 7 and if you plan to keep the system for a really long time if your hardware can support Window’s 10. If you plan to install Windows 10 than I wouldn’t wait no more than a year!

What if you Don’t want to install Window’s 10?

You can always keep Windows 7 for as long as you own your system but the longer you use the more likely some hackers will find flaws in the system and exploit the system. Just like Windows XP it was a strong system but as it got older and not updated we started seeing exploits in the system that brought viruses and Trojans to the system. So I will give you some other operating system that you can use instead Window’s 10!

Linux Operating Systems

I personally use Linux on old systems that can still be used for everything. Most of the Linux systems I recommend are all new user friendly and you can really quickly know where to go as soon as you start using it. Most of the Linux systems that I will recommend have Windows Similarity. You will probably have to learn how to use it a little more than you would with Windows operating system but they can be learned quickly enough.

Linux Mint

An Ubuntu version that is highly modified to look even more like Windows than the original. I’ve found this system to be the best of both worlds. You can run everything you want on it with very little configuration and it works really well. It will run like Windows and update like windows without much prompting if you so desire it to,

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a good system for those who aren’t completely novices when it comes to Linux. Most of the time I find Ubuntu to be a little more rigid than I like but I does what I like when I want it to. I still prefer Linux Mint because of how well it does with looking like a Windows Operating system. You can do everything in Ubuntu as you can with Linux Mint but you don’t have to do it manually and move stuff after installation.

These are the main two that I suggest to new users to Linux but if you want to see if there is one that you like more than another. You can go to Distrowatch and check out each Linux and download and try them as you wish. Each one has their own unique qualities and does essentially the same thing. Most of them a Free to download and free to use but a few require payment just like Microsoft and Apple to use for long term. They however do let you try them out for free most of the time. I do recommend you install them on a USB and use them on USB and play around with them until you figure out which one you like to install. If you are using a Windows system, you can use a program like YUMI to install multiple Linux Distros on a USB and try them out at your leisure. Have Fun!

Got a favorite Linux operating system why not leave a comment and talk about why you like it. Don’t Forget to subscribe to receive updates on my website.