A new laptop for the Spouse-Unit

[MurphCID]

Yeah no kidding. I had to have Best Buy work on her laptop since an update in Anniversary edition broke the webcam which would have made her head explode since she is going to be using it to Skype our daughter at college. MS never seems to get it, stability is the key, make it work, make it right, and make it stable. I loathe being a beta tester for software.

The only thing to make her head explode worse than Linux would be a Mac O/S. She is a windows user 100% since that is what they use at her office, and she has used windows since Windows 1.0.

Well then, brace yourself for more problems.
One of the reasons I wanted to move my wife off Windows is that Windows is not "Windows" anymore. Time was that Windows was what you wanted if you wanted a stable. steady and reliable OS but with Win10 MS has committed to a never ending stream of mandatory updates and upgrades that has already given Win10 a nasty reputation for breaking hardware and software.
My 35 years of using all manner of computers has lead me to one conclusion: Use Unix or a Unix-like OS or suffer the consequences. Unix is based on sound principles, Windows is an ad-hoc jumble of pieces stitched together with hope and promises.

[MurphCID]

Thanks.

@Murph- If you prefer Firefox (I know I do) there is now a way to use it with Amazon Prime Video (and I think it works for Netflix according to others). Just mark the checkbox Preferences->content->play DRM content in Firefox.

[pdhunter1987]

Your wife sounds much like my wife and probably many other people's wives.
They want it to work.

They don't care if its windows Linux DOS or even Mac osx.

We have one computer at home now, I made the decision 6 years ago just before we got married to switch entirely to Linux (FYI it was Mint 11 )

My wife loves Linux, she watches netflix, she browses via chrome, she listens to music, uses kodi for movies, WPSoffice for office things, prints with our printer, uses youtube via chrome.
My two kids love it (like they have a choice)
They are 4 and 2 years old, I created a side panel for them, they use Tux paint, Tux typing, Gcompris learning suite and Netflix.

I ofcourse love Linux and especially Linux Mint, I do python programming, use chrome, email, office, terminal, play music, use kodi and a few other tools and programs.

If you aren't into technology I believe that isn't a reason not to use Linux, but infact the best reason to use it.

[MurphCID]

I had to take it back. It had a bad webcam, and that was a large part of this purchase. Best Buy was super cooperative, and got me in and out (with check to make sure the webcam worked in less than 45 minutes. Kudos to Best Buy. Now the agony of setting up and configuring begins.

[MurphCID]

Well she has it, and I am now installing mint 18 on her old laptop. Happy New Year everyone.

[MurphCID]

After I gave her the laptop, she is loving it. She tried Mint XFCE on her old one, and liked it as well. I am having some video issues with Skype on Mint, with video getting "wonky" and not working right. She said that XFCE is "pretty", and she likes it, but wants her Microsoft Office and iTunes. Maybe I can get her to Linux in a year or so if I keep working on her.

[JerryF]

She has a Nexus 7 (2013) that has all of her books on it. and she likes it (as well as she likes any technology). She has Netflix on a Chromebook which she shares with my daughters (and all three fight over it), which I have to show her weekly how to log in, and do things since she claims to never remember how to do it. Her old G6 HP laptop will probably get Mint 18 XFCE since I want to try that version. My 13.3" laptop has the cooling vents on the bottom so I guess it is a notebook.

Maybe you need a new spouse unit instead of a new laptop---ONLY KIDDING!

If you do plan on keeping Windows for her, that one looks good, but if you are going to switch her to Mint, seems like overkill for what she will be using it for.

[MurphCID]

Lots of happiness from the spouse unit over her new laptop. A happy wife is a happy house.

I, on the other hand, am eagerly awaiting the Ryzen chips, since I am planning on a new build for my desktop.

[Moem]

A happy wife is a happy house.

That doesn't rhyme! How about
"A happy spouse is a happy house"

Then it works both ways, as I'm sure for most people it does

[MurphCID]

Well I am having lots of trouble with my old desktop, and it looks like it is time for a new computer for me. I have been saving for months, and will probably buy the parts in June/July. Here is what I am thinking about putting in the system:

Ryzen 1700X
Gigabyte X370 Gaming 5 motherboard
16 or 32 gb of DDR4 3200 ram (G.Skill or Corsair)
Nvidia 1060 6 gb video card
Corsair C70 Military style case
Western Digital Black M.2 NVME drive 512 gb
Western Digital Blue Caviar 4 tb drive (plus two 1 gb from my current system)
Corsair H110i water cooling
Corsair Blue Cherry MX keyboard
Logitech gaming mouse 500 series
Asus or Dell 25/27" 2560x1440 monitor(s) x2

I think this will get me about another decade before I have to upgrade. Now my old system which will be reduced to an Athalon 4 core 2.6 ghz, 4 gb of ram, and an older Nvida card, it will get a Crucial or Western Digital SSD (500/575 gb) to replace the Seagate 1 tb in it. I built this thing back in 2009, and it has been great, but now it takes five minutes to boot up to usable status. It was going to be a linux machine, but my youngest daughter wants it badly. So it and the 1600x1200 monitor will go to her.

As with most things in my life, I have to Min/Max what I can afford. I might only get 16 gb and one monitor at first, and then add more as I get more money, but the 8 core 1700x is not negotiable at this time. Also I have had great luck with Gigabyte motherboards, as well as ASUS top of the line ones. I would love to get the Gaming K7 out before I build, and use that instead.

[greerd]

Ryzen 1700X
Gigabyte X370 Gaming 5 motherboard
16 or 32 gb of DDR4 3200 ram (G.Skill or Corsair)
Nvidia 1060 6 gb video card
Corsair C70 Military style case
Western Digital Black M.2 NVME drive 512 gb
Western Digital Blue Caviar 4 tb drive (plus two 1 gb from my current system)
Corsair H110i water cooling
Corsair Blue Cherry MX keyboard
Logitech gaming mouse 500 series
Asus or Dell 25/27" 2560x1440 monitor(s) x2

I'm envious, looks like a great box and speaking of boxes that C70 is quite the case, I'll keep that in the back of my mind. The GTX 1060 should get you about 500 kppd when Folding@Home!
From what little I've read, the Ryzen's don't seem to be able to go past 2667 MHz with the DDR4 memory, maybe lower spec'd modules would allow for more? What are you using for a Power Supply?
Have fun with the new build!

[Citizen229]

I have seen some ryzen 5 benchmarks for gaming. It pulls the near same statistics as the r7. Linustechtips did a video on the ryzen5 explaining how they are binned 8's with 2 cores eliminated. ryzen 7 suffers on the low end speed ram. the level3 cache gets bottlnecked.As greerd pointed out the max speed ram makes a difference on ryzen 7. Now with the binned ryzen5 it does not have the bottleneck since 1 core on each side is missing.So with the higher speed ram and a ryzen 5 it will do better than 75%(75% core count) of what a ryzen 7 does with the same clock for computational tasks like encoding etc. It has less cores and still has the full 16m lvl3 cache of an 8 core. So for gaming and occasional encoding,compiling etc, you should definately consider a ryzen 5

[MurphCID]

Corsair 750 watt platinum

Ryzen 1700X
Gigabyte X370 Gaming 5 motherboard
16 or 32 gb of DDR4 3200 ram (G.Skill or Corsair)
Nvidia 1060 6 gb video card
Corsair C70 Military style case
Western Digital Black M.2 NVME drive 512 gb
Western Digital Blue Caviar 4 tb drive (plus two 1 gb from my current system)
Corsair H110i water cooling
Corsair Blue Cherry MX keyboard
Logitech gaming mouse 500 series
Asus or Dell 25/27" 2560x1440 monitor(s) x2

I'm envious, looks like a great box and speaking of boxes that C70 is quite the case, I'll keep that in the back of my mind. The GTX 1060 should get you about 500 kppd when Folding@Home!
From what little I've read, the Ryzen's don't seem to be able to go past 2667 MHz with the DDR4 memory, maybe lower spec'd modules would allow for more? What are you using for a Power Supply?
Have fun with the new build!

[mariad_10]

It is a difficult thing to make your wife get used to some new thing be it anything. In this case, my brother got his wife a linux laptop before that she was using a windows one. It has been 6 months now and she is still complaining.

[MurphCID]

Well I finished the build, and the final specs are:

Ryzen 1700 w/stock cooler (not overclocked)
Gigabyte X370 Gaming K7 motherboard
G.Skill FLare X 2400 DDR4 ram- 32gb (4 sticks)
Asus GTX 1060 OC card (White)
Western Digital 512gb NVME SSD
Western Digital 2 tb Black Caviar data drive
Corsair HX750 Platinum psu
Asus DVD drive
Asus PB227Q 1440p 27" monitor
transferred over one 1tb Western Digitlal Green drive from my old system.

Oh.My.God! This thing screams compared to my old system. In a month or two I will be adding a Crucial MX300 2tb SSD for Mint Linux and a Corsair H110i watercooler. I built for stability, not overclocking, and it still screams compared to my old system. Had two BSODs since yesterday, but things seemed to have settled down as drivers and such work in. I can't wait to get MInt installed on this thing, it should fly.

[BeHarley]

It is a difficult thing to make your wife get used to some new thing be it anything. In this case, my brother got his wife a linux laptop before that she was using a windows one. It has been 6 months now and she is still complaining.

Well, not only wives but my cousin is also complaining about Linux complexities. He's been using Linux for almost a year now.

[Moem]

Well, not only wives but my cousin is also complaining about Linux complexities. He's been using Linux for almost a year now.

I think it's just that some people take to Linux like a duck to water (I certainly did, I made the jump happily, not because someone pushed me) and others... don't.
I don't think this is a gendered thing. My mother found it easy enough to get used to Mint; I doubt that my father, even if he were willing which he is not, would find it as easy. Some people are just more set in their ways.

Also, you can't really 'make' anyone get used to anything.

[BeHarley]

Well, not only wives but my cousin is also complaining about Linux complexities. He's been using Linux for almost a year now.

I think it's just that some people take to Linux like a duck to water (I certainly did, I made the jump happily, not because someone pushed me) and others... don't.
I don't think this is a gendered thing. My mother found it easy enough to get used to Mint; I doubt that my father, even if he were willing which he is not, would find it as easy. Some people are just more set in their ways.

Also, you can't really 'make' anyone get used to anything.

Yes not gendered thing. Its more about preferences.

[InkKnife]

Well, not only wives but my cousin is also complaining about Linux complexities. He's been using Linux for almost a year now.

I think it's just that some people take to Linux like a duck to water (I certainly did, I made the jump happily, not because someone pushed me) and others... don't.
I don't think this is a gendered thing. My mother found it easy enough to get used to Mint; I doubt that my father, even if he were willing which he is not, would find it as easy. Some people are just more set in their ways.

Also, you can't really 'make' anyone get used to anything.

Yes not gendered thing. Its more about preferences.

Indeed. My wife and two daughters adjusted to Mint very fast with very few questions and since I got them switched to Mint I get far , far fewer times I have to give them tech support. Linux is not harder or more complex than Windows or OSX for ordinary desktop users. The people who run into problems are medium to advanced users who go mucking around doing things no regular desktop user ever does.
My experience with my family is that it is Windows that is harder and more likely to confuse less technical users than Mint and Windows is more prone to glitches and weirdness than Mint is.