Hello from New Zealand

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nzlemming

Hello from New Zealand

Post by nzlemming »

I'm Mark, I'm 54 and I've finally made the jump to Linux, from Win7. I wrote my first program at school in 1974 (on punchcards) and bought my first computer in 1985, a Commodore Plus/4 (a week before they discontinued it!). I've worked in IT solidly since 1989 and been a big booster of open source for philosophical as well as financial reasons.

My laptop was getting slow with lots of disk thrashing, so I bought some more RAM to take it up to 8GB. I never dreamed that a "modern" OS would still be limited to 4GB! So, I figured that if I had to install 64bit Windows to use the extra 4GB, and then reintall my apps, I might as well go straight to Linux and install apps from scratch. Most of my applications were FOSS anyway, and cross-platform as I also have an OSX desktop (like GIMP, Inkscape and LibreOffice), so I guess the 'culture shock' is milder for me than many. I have to say, I am loving my computing again. It had become very tiresome to wait for Windows to get around to obeying the keystroke I had entered 10-20 seconds ago. I was getting worried that "Not Responding" was getting burned into my screen! (not really).

I tried to jump to Ubuntu on this machine when I first got it, but the drivers weren't available for video, so I had to reinstall Win 7. I've used Mint on a thumbdrive before asa disaster recovery tool and was impressed with its speed and clean approach. Again, the machine lets me down as it won't install 17.1, but I'm trucking happily along with Maya :D

I look forward to learning a lot more.

Cheers

~mark
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kc1di
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Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by kc1di »

Hi Mark and welcome to Linux Mint.

You will have lots of fun and learn a lot along the way also.
Enjoy.
Easy tips : https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/ Pjotr's Great Linux projects page.
Linux Mint Installation Guide: http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
Registered Linux User #462608
The-Wizard

Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by The-Wizard »

Welcome to the Mint family forums

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tenfoot
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Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by tenfoot »

Hi! Welcome to the Linux Mint family. There are a lot of very helpful folk here and if you give details of your machine and the problems you are having installing LM 17.1, I'm sure someone will be able to sort things out for you.

BTW I, too, am in New Zealand. In Waipapa, near Kerikeri.
tenfoot
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds darkness always got there first, and is waiting for it." Terry Pratchett (Reaper Man)
vrkalak

Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by vrkalak »

.

:mrgreen: ..:: Welcome to LinuxMint ::.. :mrgreen:

Read everything you can -- Forums - Wiki - IRC

Linux: Tricks of the Trade > http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=38355
"All Linux OS-Distros" Forums and Tutorials > http://linuxquestions.org/questions/
What works for Ubuntu, usually works for Mint > http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community
Linux Alternative to Windows > http://www.linuxalt.com/
LinuxMint Community Forums - Tutorials > http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/welcome

** Remember, all OS-Distro, Apps, DE/WM are Open-Source and have a Help-Forum
..................................................................................
From a technical point of view it’s no longer tied to the Ubuntu schedule, so it could be released at any time, there’s no technical relevance between 14.10 and 17.1. Now, with that said, the 6 months cycle gave us rhythm and although quality and content dictate releases going public or being held back more so than dates or vague deadlines, the idea of a late November release is still there within the team and it helps us working towards that target.
vrkalak

Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by vrkalak »

nzlemming wrote:My laptop was getting slow with lots of disk thrashing, so I bought some more RAM to take it up to 8GB. I never dreamed that a "modern" OS would still be limited to 4GB! So, I figured that if I had to install 64bit Windows to use the extra 4GB, and then reintall my apps, I might as well go straight to Linux and install apps from scratch.
We (Mint OS) are not limited to using RAM (more that 4Gb) ... the Mint Servers (as well as, Ubuntu/Debian) are pretty much limitless.

Unfortunately, most the PCs/laptops in the World do not. They have limited to RAM (usually 4 Gb), not saying anything about 'network neutrality' and the individual ISP provider.
linux-dummie
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Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by linux-dummie »

Greetings, Lemming! Great intro you gave! I really hope you'll eventually be able to get everything working with the latest Mint setup on your system, as Mint is the most refreshing thing to come across PC's in probably forever. It's a shame for anyone to miss out on it.
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austin.texas
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Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by austin.texas »

Mint 18.2 Cinnamon, Quad core AMD A8-3870 with Radeon HD Graphics 6550D, 8GB DDR3, Ralink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI
Linux Linx 2018
Crewp

Re: Hello from New Zealand

Post by Crewp »

Welcome :D
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