Greetings from Tennessee boy living in Detroit

[infantmarsupial]

Actually an old guy from Tennessee..................
Brand new user here. I hope I don't ask too many dumb questions.
It has been a looooonnng time since i've used anything other than windows. So I'm pretty much starting from scratch here.

Decided recently that since my kids are both grown and moving on and had their own machines to work with I could build something for myself that suited my needs.
So I dug up an old Dell D630 and tried Chromium. That went pretty well so I decided I would try something that would be more suitable for daily use.
So here I am. And I'm anxious to start playing.
Now that I have Maya loaded, what should I do next?

[The-Wizard]

welcome to the Mint family forums

wizard

[xenopeek]

Hi infantmarsupial, welcome to the Linux Mint forums Thanks for joining the forums! As for what you should be doing next, now that you have installed it, that depends mostly on what you use the computer for or what you want to learn about. Are there some specific things you want to use the computer for? Hobby or family related perhaps, like setting up Skype to talk to your kids with a webcam (if they have left the nest and moved farther away).

Be sure also to check out the Community website (ideas, tutorials, and hardware and software reviews), and the Cinnamon Spices website for adding even more themes, applets and extensions to Cinnamon.

You can also chat in real-time with other Linux Mint users. In the Mint Menu, in the Internet section, start the application XChat IRC. You will automatically get connected to #linuxmint-chat for general chat and #linuxmint-help for support with other Linux Mint users.

Have fun with Linux Mint

[infantmarsupial]

Thank you for the Welcome!

Probably the best thing for me to do is simply "use it".
Then jot down things that I would like to do then figure out what I need.
The bulk of my time is internet use, but I can definitely see using Skype, "some" picture editing and of course music.

I can't sufficiently express how pleased I am with the install and how easy it was to get up and running. ALL FROM A THUMB DRIVE!
And the whole process took me less than an hour!

We recently loaded Vista. Older device with an 80gb hard drive. Now there's only 20gb of free space and I'm getting "low memory" errors with 1gb of ram!
I loaded Linux mint onto my other "old" laptop with 1gb of ram and I still have 69gb of freespace and I swear it renders webpages twice as fast (at least).
Awesome job and THANK YOU for the great documentation for getting it loaded.
I've just started and I am just scratching the service but I look forward to exploring what Linux Mint can do.

[rivenathos]

Welcome to the forums!

[theaphro]

Hi there. I'm actually new to the forum myself but wanted to say welcome to Linux. I too am a Tennessee-born Detroiter, though now living on the East Coast. Also crazy enough, one of my systems is a (Dell) D630 running Mint!

Great to hear that you've made the switch to Linux. I hope you continue to explore, reap its benefits, and most of all, have fun! When in doubt don't hesitate to ask questions. Also, if you haven't already done so, good to connect online or in person with the Linux Users Group near you.

Good luck and enjoy!

[digitalking]

Learn, explore, read, and push buttons! Welcome to the forums and Linux Mint Maya.

Most of my PC and electronic experience is based on learning from those before me and trial and error. My original forray into Linux was a wubi ubunutu installation that only last a couple of weeks. When I really decided to start learning I read, and read, and read information from multiple forums, asked questions, and then basically broke things. I did this to learn what not to do and to figure out how to fix them.

For example, I'd say I wonder what happens if I do "X"? Ultimately, I continued to try out different methods of installting software, DE's, distros, learned about aptitude, yum, etc. The greatest part about Linux is choice, and Mint is a great choice. If the system works the way you want to, just enjoy it and don't do anything. If you'd like to learn more, read up on some of the great sticky'd threads (or start pushing buttons).

NOTE - I backed up all my files (and continue to do so) on a flash (and/or external) drive so everytime I broke/break something I could/can copy things back over on a fresh install.

[infantmarsupial]

Thank you all for the welcome.
I've been using Linux Mint for just a few days, but so far I'm very please. Haven't really found anything that I want to add yet.
I am having a little difficulty with themes. But heck that's just "look and feel" as far as I'm concerned.
I'll check that out in the forums though.

Yesterday I logged in and decided to put together a quick to do list for some work I needed to do on my Jeep.
Figure I'd have to go load an app for that, Nope, found TomBoy notes and went to work.
Then while I was rummaging thru some old Jeep parts I ran across a box/book/install guide for RedHat.......

Go figure........