Help me understand Linux Mint

[Bren]

OK, so I erased Windows 8.1 and put Linux Mint back on that laptop I gave to a lady who's not computer savvy.

Now I'm having the same problem I had before, which is that when you download a program directly from the publisher's Web site, the Archive Manager seems to maybe extract the compressed files, but there appears to be no automatic installation, as there would be with Windows.

Thus, I can find now way to install or launch the program.

The program in question is Geekbench 4. I first tried searching for it in Software Manager, but it doesn't show up there.

So I went to Geekbench's Web site and downloaded it.

Archive Manager did its thing.

Geekbench's Web site says, "Once you have finished downloading Geekbench, just double-click on the downloaded file to start Geekbench."

The downloaded file is a tar.gz. The only thing that happens when I double-click on it is that Archive Manger launches.

I get a message saying "extraction complete" when I click "extract," and I can then click "show files," but clicking on those doesn't translate into Geekbench launching.

What am I missing here?

[Yori]

I just checked and it appears to need to be run in the terminal.

Navigate to the directory you extracted it to and type:

./geekbench_x86_64

[Yori]

FWIW, the Linux Mint forum is very friendly and helpful.

[Bren]

Thank you, Yori!

That is so very much the opposite of user-friendly, though.

God damn it.

[Bren]

Geekbench is now running in the terminal. This is so weird. It didn't give me a chance to enter my license key, so it's running in "tryout mode." I wonder if there's some damned terminal command I can enter to enter my license key.

This is SO very much not user-friendly. It's exactly because of crap like this that I had originally deleted Linux and put Windows on this machine.

[Bren]

Does not entering my license key have any effect on the final Geekbench score that the app reports?

[dv]

Does not entering my license key have any effect on the final Geekbench score that the app reports?

No. It just doesn't give you the bells and whistles.

[juice]

I’m watching this thread as it seems to contradict Par’s insistence that Mint has moved past the need to muck about in the terminal.

[dv]

I’m watching this thread as it seems to contradict Par’s insistence that Mint has moved past the need to muck about in the terminal.

Once you try to install software that's not available in the package manager / app store, you do have to actually know what you're doing a bit.

[Bren]

Geekbench 4 score under Windows 8.1

Single core: 1031

Multi-core: 1247


Geekbench 4 score under Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.1 (or something like that):


Single core: 1039

Multi-core: 1858

[Bren]

Can i make the scroll bars on the sides of windows thicker, and easier to see?

The lady who will be using this computer would probably appreciate that.

[dv]

Geekbench 4 score under Windows 8.1

Single core: 1031

Multi-core: 1247


Geekbench 4 score under Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.1 (or something like that):


Single core: 1039

Multi-core: 1858

Slow.

[dv]

Can i make the scroll bars on the sides of windows thicker, and easier to see?

The lady who will be using this computer would probably appreciate that.

Probably should ask in the Linux Mint IRC channel (you can get to it from within the OS) - IIRC it's not configurable, but there's probably a way to do it if you rewire the flux capacitor or something.

[Bren]

Geekbench 4 score under Windows 8.1

Single core: 1031

Multi-core: 1247


Geekbench 4 score under Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.1 (or something like that):


Single core: 1039

Multi-core: 1858

Slow.

True, but look at what a huge difference Linux makes on that multi-core score.

This is a Dell Inspiron 15-3552 with some kind of Celeron processor in it.

When I tested it out after getting it back from the lady I gave it to, I was truly dismayed by how sluggish the Web browsers were under Windows 8.1. I think Windows is definitely terrible.

[dv]

True, but look at what a huge difference Linux makes on that multi-core score.

This is a Dell Inspiron 15-3552 with some kind of Celeron processor in it.

Geekbench single/multi CPU benchmarks scale just fine on my Windows systems. But even my old desktop gets ~3500 single-core. That's what I mean by "slow" - all the web browsing tasks that are bottlenecked by single-CPU performance are going to suck. (Browsers are multithreaded to an extent, but most individual tabs are single-CPU affairs.)

Multi-core scores are actually a bit less important for most light desktop/web/email type applications.

When I tested it out after getting it back from the lady I gave it to, I was truly dismayed by how sluggish the Web browsers were under Windows 8.1. I think Windows is definitely terrible.

There may have been something wrong with your particular installation, but of all the issues Windows has, performance isn't really one of them.

[macnuke]

threads like this just make me want to install linux on everything.

[user]

keep back!

[Pariah]

I have figured out how to kinda read between the lines in a lot of CLI instructions which are written for people who love using the cli.
Do this: Open a terminal window. Find the file:
geekbench_x86_64.
Drag and drop that file into the terminal window and then type "run".
Geekbench will run as expected and automatically upload your results to geekbench.com, providing a link to copy and paste into your browser for your viewing enjoyment.
Here is mine:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13136550

[Betonhaus]

<redacted>

[Bren]

I have figured out how to kinda read between the lines in a lot of CLI instructions which are written for people who love using the cli.
Do this: Open a terminal window. Find the file:
geekbench_x86_64.
Drag and drop that file into the terminal window and then type "run".
Geekbench will run as expected and automatically upload your results to geekbench.com, providing a link to copy and paste into your browser for your viewing enjoyment.
Here is mine:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13136550

That's super slick that you can just drag and drop an app's icon onto the terminal window!

[user]

You can do the same with OS X terminal. I look for ways to drag and drop using that.

[Ribtor]

Same in windows.

[Pariah]

I have figured out how to kinda read between the lines in a lot of CLI instructions which are written for people who love using the cli.
Do this: Open a terminal window. Find the file:
geekbench_x86_64.
Drag and drop that file into the terminal window and then type "run".
Geekbench will run as expected and automatically upload your results to geekbench.com, providing a link to copy and paste into your browser for your viewing enjoyment.
Here is mine:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13136550

That's super slick that you can just drag and drop an app's icon onto the terminal window!

Linux has strong drag and drop support but you don't hear about it much.

[Yori]

Geekbench is now running in the terminal. This is so weird. It didn't give me a chance to enter my license key, so it's running in "tryout mode." I wonder if there's some damned terminal command I can enter to enter my license key.

Part of the text at the start of the terminal output reads as follows:

Code: Select all

If you have already purchased Geekbench, enter your email address and license 
key from your email receipt with the following command line:

  /home/lew/Downloads/Geekbench-4.3.3-Linux/geekbench_x86_64 -r <email address> <license key>

[Pariah]

The bottom line is that nothing is going to run fast on your old hardware. Browsing the web has become a pretty intensive task, it has been a long time since it was just a matter of rendering HTML.
Web "pages" are now applications running inside of what is practically another OS, your browser. You can snip around the edges, run XFCE instead of Cinnamon, use a lighter browser like Brave but none of that will make more than a teeny tiny difference.
Slow hardware is slow and there is no magical combination of software that is going to fix that.

[ukimalefu]

The bottom line is that nothing is going to run fast on your old hardware. Browsing the web has become a pretty intensive task, it has been a long time since it was just a matter of rendering HTML.
Web "pages" are now applications running inside of what is practically another OS, your browser. You can snip around the edges, run XFCE instead of Cinnamon, use a lighter browser like Brave but none of that will make more than a teeny tiny difference.
Slow hardware is slow and there is no magical combination of software that is going to fix that.

Yeah, what he said.

I believe all the ram you can put in an old computer, plus an SSD, can actually help, but not much if the computer is too old.

But the thread is about linux mint, so just do what pariah says.

[Pariah]

On that old rig I would be running either MATE or XFCE. Cinnamon is a bit heavier and requires 3d HW acceleration while MATE and XFCE do not. This will leave what little GPU you have to help render pages.
Going into system prefs and turning of all the desktop effects will help a little. Drop shadows, animations, shut them all down.
I am sure that thing has a 5400rpm drive, if you could replace that with a cheap SSD that would make some difference as well. As slow as this rig is I bet it is still slowed down waiting for reads and writes while browsing.
More ambitious would be to put a PiHole between this and the internet. Offloading ad blocking to dedicated HW would probably produce a noticeable benefit and would be quite cheap.
That is all I can think of to suggest.

[Bren]

This thing has an SSD. And it's not for me. I'm setting it up for somebody else.

[Pariah]

This thing has an SSD. And it's not for me. I'm setting it up for somebody else.

Question:
Does your friend need a laptop or does she need a computer and you happened to have a laptop to give her? I ask because if she just needs something to use at home I think you and she should be looking at the used desktop market. 2 years ago I bought a nice, used i7 3770 system for just over $300. A few months ago I bought my wife a nice i7 3770 system for $155.
There are powerful desktop systems out there going for a song. Around here I am seeing decent complete i5 powered systems (KB, Mouse, Monitor, Tower) going for under $150.
Sometimes old HW is just to old to bother with anymore.

[dv]

This thing has an SSD. And it's not for me. I'm setting it up for somebody else.

Question:
Does your friend need a laptop or does she need a computer and you happened to have a laptop to give her? I ask because if she just needs something to use at home I think you and she should be looking at the used desktop market. 2 years ago I bought a nice, used i7 3770 system for just over $300. A few months ago I bought my wife a nice i7 3770 system for $155.
There are powerful desktop systems out there going for a song. Around here I am seeing decent complete i5 powered systems (KB, Mouse, Monitor, Tower) going for under $150.
Sometimes old HW is just to old to bother with anymore.

It's not old, it's just a laptop powered by a tablet CPU.

[Pariah]

This thing has an SSD. And it's not for me. I'm setting it up for somebody else.

Question:
Does your friend need a laptop or does she need a computer and you happened to have a laptop to give her? I ask because if she just needs something to use at home I think you and she should be looking at the used desktop market. 2 years ago I bought a nice, used i7 3770 system for just over $300. A few months ago I bought my wife a nice i7 3770 system for $155.
There are powerful desktop systems out there going for a song. Around here I am seeing decent complete i5 powered systems (KB, Mouse, Monitor, Tower) going for under $150.
Sometimes old HW is just to old to bother with anymore.

It's not old, it's just a laptop powered by a tablet CPU.

Regardless, it is too weak. That thing has less power than an 10 year old C2D. The C2Quad I replaced for being to slow was twice as powerful+.

[Bren]

So this story has a happy ending. She's very pleased with how the thing performs, now that it has Mint on it. And nothing about it is any more confusing than Windows would have been.

[Pariah]

So this story has a happy ending. She's very pleased with how the thing performs, now that it has Mint on it. And nothing about it is any more confusing than Windows would have been.

A thing that Makes Mint better for non-techies compared to Windows is that Mint, like OSX does not have all those disconcerting and useless error and system alert pop-ups that Windows is always generation. My fave is always the "something happened!!!" with just an OK button to click...so pointless.