Geek Factor: 10

[Mogg]

Just a thought but as a newbie to Linux and Mint I'm a bit amused at the degree of 'geek' involved in the venue. Linux is a valuable and fun experience that can provide hours of entertainment. Teeth grinding, hair pulling, nail biting entertainment because there seems to be a price you must pay, geekiness, for all that wonderful free stuff we are provided. I just spent two days trying to install Mint 19 on a recalcitrant, ancient, XP laptop. Between downloading the right version of Tara, getting it formatted on the Live Media, and getting my PC to recognize and install the USB stick and HDD I waded, as all newbies must, through miles of Google search results. Why, I cried, why? Well, because the damn thing is FREE and Linux is great, and Mint is top of the line for newbies.

That all said, I'm now trying to give back a little by sharing my documentation of the process to fill in the void the geekmasters do not, cannot and should not provide to cover all the gerry rigged, dug out of a dumpster, hardware WE try to pimp with Linux. The developers and dedicated documenters who do the work of creating Linux distro's have enough on their hands, deserve our appreciation and I would be ashamed not to fill in needs to quell frustrations I witness in the posts of others trying to find Linux and work out what this mystical stuff is all about by passing on my own sagas. So here goes.

[Pjotr]

Disagree. Linux Mint is easy; far easier than Windows.

You apparently simply had bad luck. With your hardware and/or with the how-to's that you've dug up.

[yertchuk]

Not that it helps the OP, but I've had no trouble installing Mint on a variety of systems, including a 10+ year old Toshiba xp laptop. A lot of the google advice that you find is unduly complicated in my opinion. No need to dive into HDD partitioning, etc., the Mint installer will do all that for you. Just select the 'install alongside Windows' option.

It does help to create the USB stick with the right tool, though. I like etcher, very easy to use.

[JerryF]

Yes, Linux can be daunting at first. I was a Windows guy for decades. When I came across Linux, mainly Ubuntu, Mint, and Lite, I was perplexed, especially with Ubuntu Unity. But finding this forum was the best thing for me.

I first did a few installs. First was with the default. Then I delved into the Something Else option. After a few years, I'm very comfortable with installations. I've even been able to help members.

It may seem that Linux is a geek factor of 10, but in hindsight, you may change your mind.

[trytip]

@Pjotr
linux mint is not easy, if it was we wouldn't have so many no sound, no video, no wifi connection, bad colors, bad fonts, threads

if it were easy, we'd be here posting kitteh pictures and the help forum wouldn't exist

maybe you and i and mods can say it's easy, but not grandma and grandpa and that one human always using apple things

[lsemmens]

If Windows were as easy as Linux we would not have Linux. Nor would there as many Windows "help" forums out there. Let's face it people usually only post if they have troubles and given the fact that the number of Linux forums compared to Windwoes forums is miniscule and Mint is just a tiny sub-set of that. Of course you are going to see more "issues" in one place. A Holden dealership is going to be fixing far more Holdens than other marques, does that mean that Holdens are more trouble than, say, Ford?

[kc1di]

Hello Mogg and welcome to the forum,
Linux and Mint in particular have come a long way since the early days 1990's and installs are normally quite straight forward now, but one thing linux has problems with not as it's own fault is hardware. vendors over the years have built for Windows and a lot of that stuff is not really compatible with linux.
That is not linux's fault as those same manufacturers will not release their drivers and software to open source and allow the linux community to modify it to work. Enough of the rant,
Welcome to the world of linux you'll catch on fast if you stick to it and you'll end up enjoying the journey.

[WharfRat]

Hello Mogg

Welcome to Linux Mint and the Linux Mint forum