New to Linux

[mrjimphelps]

Hello everyone. My name is Jim, and I am a recent Linux convert.

I started in IT way back around 1980, when I took a ForTran class using punch cards. A few years later, I decided to take a Pascal class. When I found myself spending hours and hours working on my programs, I decided I should do it for a living, so I changed my major to Computer Science.

After graduating from college, my first job was C programming. I soon moved to desktop support, realizing that I enjoyed that more. I have worked mostly in desktop support or on the helpdesk ever since.

My first computer was an Atari ST. A few years later I got an IBM PC 8088. Other than the Atari, my first OS was DOS 3.3. I have been in the IBM/DOS/Windows world ever since.

Recently Linux Mint became my primary system at home. I am not happy with the change in attitude with Microsoft since the Windows 7 days, and so I decided to look at Linux. I first tried Ubuntu and some of its variants; now I am on Linux Mint. It took a little bit of getting used to, but I am beginning to feel very comfortable with Linux Mint, Libre office, Opera and Firefox, Gimp, and other Linux-compliant software. Other than at work, I rarely use Windows.

Since I have the best computer at home, my wife has been using Linux Mint as well. She seems to like it. I never hear any complaints from her.

Soon I plan to install Linux Lite on my ancient eMachines computer. This computer maxes out at 2GB of RAM, and so nothing runs very well on it. (32-bit Mint does better than anything else I've tried.) I'm optimistic that Linux Lite will breathe new life into that old machine.

The way I made the jump to Linux was, I installed two additional hard drives in my computer (Windows 7 was on the existing hard drive), along with a SATA power switch:

https://www.amazon.com/PW4101-Aluminum- ... dpSrc=srch

I have Linux on one drive, Windows on another drive, and my data on the other drive. Whenever I want to switch to the other OS, I power down, turn one drive on and the other off, then power back up. My data drive stays on all the time (unless I am reinstalling an OS), so my data is available in both OSs. I have found that this setup makes it very easy and trivial to switch from one OS to the other, and it allows me to keep Linux and Windows totally separate from each other.

The only issue I have found with this approach (three hard drives) is that Windows and Linux track the time differently; Linux is UTC, whereas Windows is local time. So whenever I switched between the OSs, the clock would always reset either forward or backward. I installed a fix in Windows to fix this, and I haven't had an issue with it since.

[catweazel]

Welcome, mrjimphelps!

[all41]

@mrjimphelps
Hi Jim--you should feel right at home here.
Welcome

[Tomgin5]

Welcome.
Your emachines toy sounds like one of mine. A MSi MS1012 scraptop. A single core Pentium M and I have not found the RAM yet but it says it had 1GB, 180 BG HDD, running LM18.2 Cinnamon 32. For some reason it is running just fine although I do not have the driver for the WIFI card (a PCIe) made by intel. I am checking in their archives to find it. Dropping into their offices at one of the foundries tomorrow.
Good luck on the emachine.

[jimallyn]

Welcome aboard, Jim! If Linux Lite doesn't meet your needs on your old computers, there are a bunch more distros that might. I like antiX, and have it running surprisingly well on a computer that had Win98 on it when I got it.

[kc1di]

Hello Jim and welcome to Linux Mint Forums,
Glad you found us hope you'll feel right at home

[WharfRat]

Hello mrjimphelps

Welcome to Linux Mint and the Linux Mint forum

[jjwi]

Hi Jim,

Which fix did you install in Windows to fix the local time vs. UTC issue?
I'm having the same problem.

(I run Linux on an external SDD and Windows 10 on the hard disk in my computer. My data are on the SDD and on the computer hard disk. They are kept synchronized via a daily back-up, using LuckyBackup, In that way the data are accessible from both Linux and Windows.)

Kind regards,

Jean-Jacques

[mrjimphelps]

Hi Jim,

Which fix did you install in Windows to fix the local time vs. UTC issue?
I'm having the same problem.

(I run Linux on an external SDD and Windows 10 on the hard disk in my computer. My data are on the SDD and on the computer hard disk. They are kept synchronized via a daily back-up, using LuckyBackup, In that way the data are accessible from both Linux and Windows.)

Kind regards,

Jean-Jacques

Here's a post I put on Windows Secrets Forums, explaining the fix I did in Windows:

https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showt ... ost1068675

Someone else approached it from the Linux side:

https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showt ... ost1069150

Here's another post with a whole lot more detail:

https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showt ... ost1069184

[jjwi]

OK. Thanks!
I will try it next time I'm in Windows.

[MintBean]

Welcome aboard, Jim. Have you tried the XFCE flavour of Mint on your old machine? It should be a lot nippier on old hardware.

[mrjimphelps]

Thank you, MintBean, for the welcome and for the suggestion about XFCE.

I have Linux Mint Sonya 32-bit with the XFCE desktop on my old computer. It runs better with that than with any other flavor of Linux I have tried. In fact, it runs fine as long as I am not streaming videos from Netflix or YouTube. And it has a real solid feel since I installed my IBM Model M keyboard!

Nevertheless, I would like to try Linux Lite, to see if that helps.

[mrjimphelps]

I installed the new Firefox 57 on my old computer, and I can stream videos now! I successfully watched a Netflix video the other day -- no buffering!

It seems that I'm about as "light" as I can be on the old computer, with FF 57 and Mint 32-bit xfce.

I've decided to stick with Mint, rather than going to Linux Lite, because I understand that Samba doesn't interact well with Linux Lite.