Brian's Computers

  
 

[June 2024] This is my "Software" page. I have enjoyed using computers from the day of Windows 95/98/NT*. Because my first PC had Windows 98 on it some of my preferred software is from then:

  • Microsoft FrontPage (2002), for working on this website

  • Jasc PaintShopPro 7, for editing pictures

  • Winamp, for playing music

These worked fine up until Windows 10, but I refused to switch to Windows 11, so now I move over to Linux. While my main desktop computer runs Ubuntu 22.x with the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment installed; this gives me a much preferred traditional desktop/start menu. However, I actually prefer Zorin OS and I now have this installed on a little netbook I use regularly.

Since I could not get the above Windows software to run satisfactorily under WINE I use VirtualBox where I have Windows XP installed for FrontPage and PaintShopPro.

VirtualBox Tips:

If you can't get VirtualBox to install an OS then you might need to disable SecureBoot in your system's BIOS; I seem to have this issue on a Dell netbook and even though I disabled it, it still won't an OS.

If you can't get the shared folder thing to work, make sure you have done: Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image... and if that appears to fail then you can activate it from My Computer in the Windows XP environment.

Latterly I have been getting more to grips with GIMP for image editing, and RhythmBox for playing music. These and other software I use are listed below along with certain preferences and notes:

  • GIMP: Interface > Theme > Light, and Icon Theme > Legacy
    notes: I find it annoying that one has to 'Export' to jpg and there is no inline preview window.

  • RhythmBox: I have always struggled with media player interfaces from the days of Windows Media Player and Apple iTunes, and RhythmBox appears to be like those. But I persevere. I prefer a dark theme (Preferences > Plugins > Alternative Toolbar > Preferences > enable Dark theme if available).

  • LibreOffice

  • VLC Media Player

  • Firefox: Add-on: AdBlock and Brave Search

  • Thunderbird

  • Stellarium

  • DaVinci Resolve for video editing

Ultimately I prefer to keep things simple rather than tweaking settings too much, so things are easier to set back up or reinstall if need be.

*I did have a couple of Windows 3.11 machines but they were already out of date.

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