I'm brand new to Linux in general but a friend suggested I try Mint. I had previously read some articles about switching from XP to Mint since Windows is stopping support. I have an old desktop that has stayed on XP but my laptop is Win 7. So, I started considering Mint but wasn't brave enough to jump.
Then my home network got hacked and every bloody computer on it got infected with ransomware. Blew through router and software firewalls and antivirus like nothing was there and I'm reasonably good with security. But between myself, my hubby, son, and my dad - I've got too many computers to clean up!
Trying a reformat didn't help because Windows didn't give me enough control. I discovered the virus was hiding as a "bad sector" and when Windows stumbles across that, it doesn't write any data to it and tries to rescue any file it can find. So basically even after reformat, reinstall - that lead to reinfected even before connecting to the network. When my friend heard this, he really encouraged me to try Mint because of Gparted.
I tried a live version on my laptop and I am in love!
It's slim, it's sleek, it's like a sports car blowing the doors off the old rattle-trap. I love the fact it's so lightweight. Then I stumbled over something fun. Mint Live allowed me to open and save files in directories locked by the ransomware. I couldn't pull all of them - if they were completely encrypted, I couldn't get to them. But just locked directories - no problem, Mint let me right in. I used the live version to email them to myself since I knew it wouldn't save them.I'm definitely looking forward to this relationship!
I'm just saying hi right now and reading various threads/tutorials before I jump in with trying a "real" install.
Cheers,
Warchant
