Thanks & Newbie Feedback

[Cdn_Guest]

Greetings,

A global and heartfelt THANK YOU to the Linux Mint developers, users and community. You are wonderful people.

I thought I would share my experience (2020–2021) and a few tips for anyone considering installing and adopting this operating system for the average long-time Windows or Mac user like me (i.e., non developer, non power user).

#1 First, watch as many videos with practical tutorials on installing Linux Mint as possible! Stick with the presenters who you understand and connect with. Also read “how to” articles. These were all extremely helpful to me. When I felt confident enough about what to expect (I wrote a plan), I went ahead and partitioned my laptop for a dual boot setup, changed the UEFI settings as instructed, and created a bootable USB by downloading the ISO and Etcher. Follow instructions.

#2 Next, take it slow. Read relevant Linux Mint guides and forum postings. I simultaneously used another computer to look up anything I was uncertain about (YouTube is great!) and application by application, task by task, I was able to transition everything I do on Windows to Linux Mint over the past year.

I mean everything. I use Libre Office (word processing, spreadsheets, PDFs, etc.), Kolour Paint (reminds me of MS Paint), FireFox and Brave browsers, Calibre (Kobo e-reader), video calls (Zoom, etc.). Still Learning! I discovered that all of my devices talk to my ThinkPad E595 running Linux Mint. Amazing.

Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised at how smooth my transition to Linux Mint has been, with the occasional hiccup. I find most of it straightforward and clean (unbloated), but as a newbie at anything, I had to take the time to learn. My transition took effort and commitment.

Using the terminal can be intimidating – be brave! – and setting up TimeShift, applying LM updates, backing up documents, are all now familiar tasks. But they were mostly unfamiliar to me until I rolled up my sleeves and just did them. I would never have had the courage to try without the online community support.

The satisfaction of not being dependent on Microsoft or Apple is indescribable. I am now almost exclusively using Linux Mint and am soooo happy I made the leap, because it is BETTER once you feel comfortable as a user.

Merci beaucoup.☺

[benali72]

Thanks for your post and some good advice. Glad your experience has gone as well as mine. Cheers.