Gary's Summer of Hell 2015

**Fred C** · 25 May 2015, 03:50 PM

Hi Gare,

I'm glad you're back!

You have given new meaning to "Fall" and "Spring break"...OUCH!

... and you've even become a more valuable member of TG
"The $80,000 Man (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price)" [plus 'labor']

Here's wishing you pain free therapy and a speedy recovery!

**gray** · 25 May 2015, 04:09 PM

I just read this, I'm a little slow you know. Glad to hear all went well and you're back in action.

**Rik** · 25 May 2015, 05:13 PM

Thought I'd take a bit of a break from the bank holiday, here in the UK, and check in on TG.
To find that Gary is back home. That is great news, I'm sure we'll all agree on.

Make sure you take it easy, friend.

**wizard509** · 25 May 2015, 05:23 PM

Glad to see you are back Gare.

**Gare** · 26 May 2015, 01:45 PM

Gary is not only home, but he's working on content for the June Xara Xone. Let's face it; I'm a little late for May.

Thanks Rik, thanks everyone.

I wouldn't wish the pain on my worst enemy.

Okay, strike or revise that last thought.

My Best,

Gary

**Crow Haven** · 30 May 2015, 11:42 PM

WOW! So sorry to hear of your accident but glad you're mending, Gare! Heal up fast!!!

I ditched Windows and have converted fully over to Linux so I haven't been in touch.

**stygg2003** · 31 May 2015, 04:35 PM

Nice to hear from you Maya, glad your still around. How you finding Linux, keep thinking about doing the same myself but not to sure about Linux and Xara? me being a thicky on these sort of things

Stygg

**Crow Haven** · 31 May 2015, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by stygg2003

Nice to hear from you Maya, glad your still around. How you finding Linux, keep thinking about doing the same myself but not to sure about Linux and Xara? me being a thicky on these sort of things

Stygg

Hi Stygg!

It's been quite a bit since I've checked back here. Gare's accident was a real surprise (and recently two other friends have had broken bone injuries -- one broke both her arms falling off a treadmill and a nearby neighbor just broke his ankle in an accident when his tractor rolled over on top of him last week)!

Regarding Linux, I've been thinking about abandoning Windows for some years actually and finally I just decided I've had enough with expensive forced updates and intrusive software. I haven't experimented with Xara yet, although Linux does have a compatibility program called Wine for working with many Win applications. I don't expect it to work with newer versions of Xara -- I don't know. However, Linux does work with many freeware and opensource artwork programs -- the 3D program Blender and Gimp (sort of like PS, with animation also) and Inkscape (vectors) along with CAD programs, and many other artwork programs. More are being developed and improved all the time. There's loads of great free programs of every type, even LibreOffice which can do more than everything I'd ever want to do (even has LibreDraw in the suite). Linux is different, I love it and jumped right in. These days you can have the Linux Os versions of your choice and the versions which offer very similar graphical user interfaces are the distributions called Mint 17.1 and Ubuntu. You can use them with the GuI or you can learn the commands and type what you want done through the terminal (like the DOS prompt in Win). Actually once the commands are learned many things can be done quicker that way. For general use, though, I use the GUI. I'm surfing the net and typing right now with Linux and everything looks just the same as it did when I used a Win box. The computer is faster (no bloatware) and safer because of how things function in Linux. I still have Win boxes to use for some art programs I use only offline as I want to preserve them as long as possible from intrusive updates which could eventually lead to them no longer functioning as companies decide to change things. I'm loving the freedom!

So long Microsoft, Adobe, etc...