Easier PC Brands and OS?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Capricornia, Oct 7, 2022.

  1. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    I'm not sure if this should go here, but after a harrowing experience, which is described in another thread, I would like to ask this forum: Are there easier personal computer brands and operating systems compared to Microsoft and Windows?

    Additionally, a friend of mine told me that the (Chrome or Chromium OS?) was better than Windows. And I had started my research on this, but does anyone have any insight on this OS or any other brand or OS in comparison to Microsoft/Windows?
     
  2. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I would not describe your issues with Windows Media Player as being a harrowing experience. You didn't lose any media files. For some reason Windows Media Player was not showing its library. If it happens again (and it may not), there are plenty of alternative media players you may want to consider using. Anyway, what other issues are you having with Windows that are making your consider switching to another operating system?
     
  3. Freki123

    Freki123 Registered Member

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    You should mention what you plan to use your pc for. Some software may not be available on other OS.

    I just stick with windows for "gaming". And my most important lessen was having a good reliable backup program (e.g Macrium Reflect free). So whenever a "freak error" happened that only seem to happen to 0,005% of "lucky" users with no with real solution I just go back (1-2 days) before it happened.

    If you have time you can try Linux (e.g. Linux Mint) but if you do more than just browsing, office or email it can also have a steep learning curve. (Setting up app armor and firejail took me quite some time, or problems with Laptop to TV connection...)
     
  4. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    That's easy for you to say. ;) Because I have spent hours and hours on my computer trying to figure out what the problem was with this, which included wasting time on wild goose chases researching and trying methods that had nothing to do with fixing the problem. Plus, I have a deadline of having to convert 50 songs in a playlist to MP3s without having that playlist. Because I have other things to do in life other than sitting in front of my computer wasting time for hours and hours.

    I've tried several of them in the past, which were not intuitive for me, therefore, I settled on WMP because it was the easiest and most intuitive.

    And then there was another problem that I had where I was on a wild goose and had asked for help on the internet and was given the wrong answer and was even insulted by the person who gave me the wrong answer. However, I cannot really remember what incident was unless I try to look for it.
     
  5. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    Just web searching, forums, online shopping, email. Things like that. However, when I do researching or shopping, I often times tab up a lot a pages or websites, which does make my browser slow, and sometimes even freezes it.

    Well, I do have the Windows 10 (Refresh?) program, which I had to use a couple of times years and years ago. Plus, I do have the Windows points (or whatever they're called) where you take your computer back to a particular point in time.

    Okay, thanks. I'll take a look as Linux or Linux mint, however, at this point in my life, I am definitely not into anything that has a steep learning curve. lol :D
     
  6. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    What happened in your case is I believe, not a common scenario and it is an issue with Windows Media Player rather than Windows itself. There are plenty of alternatives such as MusicBee and MediaMonkey which are much better. Not many people use Windows Media Player anymore. I'm not saying you shouldn't ditch Windows, but just pointing out there are much better alternatives to WMP.
     
  7. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Consider the learning curve of a new OS before you jump.
     
  8. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    Okay, thanks. And by the way, I had to ditch my VLN player because I couldn't make heads or tails with it. And every time I looked up instructions for it on the internet to convert WMA files into MP3 files, I noticed that there were always different version of instructions. Almost as if there were old instructions and more update instructions.
    But the ones I saw never quite matched up with how the version that I had looked. So, it they told me to do this or that, the version that I had didn't have this or that on it.

    But anyway, I looked some easier free versions of software that converted WMA to MP3 files, however, the Wondershare Uniconverter, which did a good job at converting a file that I tired out and was very easy to do, but it turned out not to really be free. :thumbd: But I looked at some of the other ones, which were website based, such as Convertio, but I still have yet to learn if they have players where you could put and store the converted MP3 files into playlist, and where you could download those playlists into USB drives or devices. (And so far, the one file that I converted with Wondershare was downloaded onto my computer.) However, I'm wondering if I can do all that with MusicBee and MediaMonkey.
     
  9. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    For sure.
     
  10. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    Those players have a lot of nice features from what I've read about them so far. Also, the last time that I noted how many albums I have in my WMP from about a year ago, it was 678. And by multiplying that by 10 (which is the average amount of songs on an album), I have over 6780 tracks in my music files and I think that MB said that it can manage over 10,000 files and MM said that it could, "Manage 100,000+ audio and video files." Therefore, from what I read on both of those sites, so far, things sound pretty good. :)
     
  11. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    If you are looking for a really free and good audio converter I would recommend fre:ac https://www.freac.org/

    I have used it in the past and it is very simple and straight forward to use. Keep in mind that it is just an audio converter and will not do anything else, like make playlists etc.

    -

    And as far as your other question about which operating system to consider, I would recommend you learn Windows as it is still a dominant OS and the one you will most likely encounter at workplace and friend's homes. There is a learning curve and I would recommend you search "Windows for beginners" on YouTube and follow some of the tutorials. Some of them are really good.
     
  12. Capricornia

    Capricornia Registered Member

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    Thank you for all that. Much appreciated.
     
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