Laptop Saved From VISTA Virus

[Robin]

So I take it that the point of putting following my description of my experience is ridicule? I think you'll find that alot of folks find Debian at least more difficult if not incompatible with their hardware. That has been my experience. It wasn't offered as a swipe at Debian! Rather it was intended to express gratitude to the people who make Debian usable for kids like me with hardware like mine.

So all you want to. But I feel for scoffers and mockers with nothing better to do than poke fun at autistic kids, beginners, and others you deem "unworthy of Debian."

[junkman51]

I have a fair amount of computer experience (first sat at a Teletype 33 used as a dialup terminal in 1969 as a college student, retired in 2006 after a career as a mainframe/VAX programmer/sys admin /VAX terminal server admin/PC tech) and this survivor of the paper tape/punchcard age sees no reason to look down on or belittle anyone's Linux computer experience.

I appreciate the developers of all Linux distributions for their efforts to bring us choice besides Microsoft and Apple, which in my opinion both want us to buy their newest and greatest software which requires us to buy newer and more powerful (using more energy) hardware to keep up with the software, not to mention having to run virus and malware protection.

I think Linux is "the operating system for the rest of us" who want to get the most out of the hardware we already have. A sad fact is that printer/scanner/other hardware manufacturers seem to take advantage of the introduction of a new operating system to introduce new hardware and not put in the effort to updating drivers of the older hardware to work with the newer operating systems. These hardware manufacturers love to encourage us to buy everything new and put all our old hardware out on big trash pickup day or turn it in on community electronics recycling day.

I applaud Clem and company for doing a great job with MINT. I think the UBUNTU based MINT versions currently are easier for me to get running the way I want from an installation from a live disc. I haven't tried the newest DEBIAN based releases just yet, but the ones I have tried seem to need a bit more rolling up my sleeves, tinkering a bit under the hood, and getting my hands dirty.

I also see that it looks like UBUNTU is heading in a direction requiring more powerful hardware to run properly, so DEBIAN is now used as a base for some MINT versions. I think the MINT team will be able to add a level of polish to DEBIAN so it will become easier to use out of the box.

I will now step down from the soapbox. I don't intend to demean anyone in the LINUX world and hope that any discussion this might generate will be positive.

[ibbill]

Agree a standing ovation for the MINT team. As a X user of ubuntu I have found the system leaning toward the laptop users.I am now a converted Mint user.As far as the other system is concerned it has made a lot of money for computer shops. Would strongly recommend any window users that want to switch over than MINT would be my choice since the change in ubuntu with unity.

[DrHu]

I just finished repairing a malware infested HP Pavilion DV6500 laptop.

That's one way of cleaning a computer, putting a better OS on it
--the other standard way is to stay on that OS train and collect all the repair points needed.

Anyway nice message, and I think you will find Linux to be solid and reliable, provided you are prepared to pay attention to any problems/issues and suggestions available and probably not be the the first to jump to a new release of the version you use

• No different from how you would consider updates to Microsoft or Apple OS
  --one needs to carefully pay attention and consider the problems an update may cause

[Robin]

Mint and Ubuntu have the same goal: To "tame" Debian and bring it to the "ordinary desktop user." The main edition of Mint improves upon Ubuntu's success at "taming" Debian for the desktop. If Mint can achieve the same level of excellence that Ubuntu has on it's own (without relying on the Ubuntu base), that would be awesome. I think Mepis has done it already, but being locked into a KDE base limits Mepis' success. Although now that Ubuntu has followed suit with it's own unique "DE-lockin" (not counting of course, it's derivatives, Kubu, Xubu, Lubu), Mepis and Mint may see many more users from the Ubuntu camp.

[helterskelter]

I used to have a PC infected with the "XP Virus",I just rubbed some "Linux" on the Hard Drive and its much better now!

I,ve lost count of the number of "XP" "Vista" and "7" infected pc's I have had to rescue files from-All have since been advised to get a USB attached drive for backups.

One is now running LMDE Xfce.

eddie