I do NOT miss winduhs!!

[_rabbit9_]

Been doing computers and IT for 30 years, and I'm so glad to finally give windows the boot. I've dabbled with Linux for decades, starting waaaaaay back when I had to build & compile my very first RedHat 1.7 system..... uffda, how things have improved! I love building new machines, refurbishing older ones, and tweaking everything else. What I hate, is having to deal with drivers, licensing, system reloads, and the inevitable "move" from an older machine to the "new" one. As a windows user, it's never simple -and sometimes NOT cheap.

That. Is. All. Done. Now. (Yes, I one-word-sentenced that whole thing. Sorry) I'm using Mint 18.3 because it runs well and I have all my software set up on it. I could update to 19, but I don't feel the need to do so. ( I have 19 on other machines, and the differences are not enough to push me) Did I mention my games? Yup. warcrack...er, craft, STO, SWTOR, BLess, Lin2, and a few others. (battle.net is a bit of a pita, but I blame them, not my distro...) And of course, the Steam interface. Up until this week I was running an older 2 core Dell Optiplex 700 series. Not a speed demon of a machine, but Mint ran circles around the same machine under Windows. This week my new machine arrived: a quad core Intel 3.4ghz box. Speedy thing compared to the other machine. I pulled the hard drive straight outta the old Dell, and swapped it into my new I3 box. I had 8 g8igs of ram sittin on the shelf, so they went into the new box while I had the case open. Closed up the case and booted the new machine up. A quick click to the Drivers menu, toggled the Intel suite, and a reboot. And just that fast, I was back to my usual habits in computing.

No more waiting for windows updates, system sign in credentials, new license agreements, more waiting for system updates, re-personalizing EVERYthing.. Oh, and the dreaded "ooooh crap I have to install all of my old software again" -garbage. Nope. Just pull the old drive, stick it in the new box, and carry on.

Nice!

[WharfRat]

No more waiting for windows updates, system sign in credentials, new license agreements, more waiting for system updates, re-personalizing EVERYthing.. Oh, and the dreaded "ooooh crap I have to install all of my old software again" -garbage.!

Seriously though, don't you miss all of that and the threat of viruses too

[Shadow in Fire]

Linux Mint is such a great starter distro. It's funny that it's based on Ubuntu (another newbie-friendly distro), yet I often hear more praise and worship going the way of the former. Why is that? I think for one, it cuts through the nonsense that Canonical likes to put its consumers through (such as Unity), and it comes with a very nifty GUI for managing updates. A lot of people are really fans of Cinnamon as a DE, too. You could always just install Cinnamon elsewhere, but that it's an exclusive offering from Linux Mint makes it that much better. I also like the handy USB image writer that comes with the distro.

[Pierre]

what's actually really great - - is that your Gaming Needs are satisfied.

that's quite often an Deal Breaker.

[lsemmens]

Welcome rabbit9, Ain't Mint grand!

[Hoser Rob]

While I often tell beginners not to be too hasty in overwriting their Windows parrtitions I haven't had any WIndows for years. No, I don't miss it a bit. But I'm not a gamer.

[_rabbit9_]

Linux Mint is such a great starter distro. It's funny that it's based on ...

I actually moved from Red Hat7 something to Correl/ Mandrake (Mandriva) to Lycoris, and then Into Ubuntu. Kinda watched Ubuntu "grow up" so to speak. I stumbled across Mint in it's 13x and 14x series and used it as a Live CD distro in my workshop. It's been my desktop distro since 17x right next to my Win7 partitions on several boxes. Now as the world succumbs to W10, Mint is my main OS. I still have Ubuntu on a webserver but it's just a terminal install. No real need for a UI on that box. Cinnamon is nice, but I've always been a KDE nut. I know.... not everyone likes K. That's cool, I can be the oddball. haha (confession time: too lazy to set KDE up so Cinnamon it is... if it aint broke, no need to meddle. Right?)

[MartyMint]

While I often tell beginners not to be too hasty in overwriting their Windows parrtitions I haven't had any WIndows for years. No, I don't miss it a bit. But I'm not a gamer.

If I had a nickel for every new forum member that rolled in, breathing fire and cursing Windows (complete with dollar sign spelling)...only to disappear after a few weeks...

...I'd have enough money to buy a System 76 laptop.

[Pjotr]

Welcome, _rabbit9_!

Desktop Linux feels like being a child in the toy shop. With all toys for free. Have fun!

[bob466]

Windows...what's that ? See how easy it is to forget.

[bulevardi]

Windows...what's that ? See how easy it is to forget.

No... hell.... I still have to use Windows at work... obligatory poor me.
And now they're running Office 365 (awkward), and OneDrive that never synchronizes, ... and so on.

I'm always happy when I'm back home where I have a perfect system.

[farkas]

If my post seems to ramble a bit please excuse me because I might be called an old dog. I went around the sun on this planet for 70+ orbits
I have been using computers for a long time at work and at home. My first PC was an Apple II+.
Went through MS DOS, Windows series from 3.1, 95, Millennium, finally to XP.
Buying the new OS or a new desktop each time. Each one had it's strong points and faults, XP was a good one for me,
I liked it and stuck with until bitter end until Windows ended support for it.
Got tired buying a new OS or PC each time Microsoft decided to get more $$,s out my wallet.
Didn't really want to pay for Win7 upgrade, wasn't sure if it work on my machine. The PC I had at that time was a Dell
with a Pentium II processor, floppy drive, DVD/RW and USB port. It was almost top of the line when I got it.
About ten years ago, +- a couple of years, a friend and co-worker mentioned that he was trying out a new OS called Linux,
penguin stickers on his tool box, talked about for a while. He said he liked it but it was to hard to get it up and
running so he reverted to windows. Eventually he settled on Apple PC.
With that germ of an idea in the back of my head about Linux, I searched on line for info about Linux.
Found a wealth information. It was an eye opener!
Tried several live Linux ISO versions burning them to DVD. Didn't know about live USB. After sampling them I settled on Mint.
Took the plunge and installed Mint 17.1. It worked and have no desire or need to use windows again.
I built a home brew PC with the components that are just right for my needs. It does what I want, without busting my budget.
Clean Mint install, the few problems I had were solved with help of Mint Forum responders. Thank you again to all.
My mother, she is 91 years young, was complaining about how long it was for her PC to to start. It was an old Dell with Win7.
Checked it out, she was right.
Maybe I'm stretching it a little bit but buy the time she pushed the power on button and it was ready to use she could go and make pot of coffee.
Built her a new PC with LM 18.3 as the OS. Installed Linux versions of her familiar applications.
Donated the old PC to my sister, she's diehard Win7 user. Tried to get her to see the light, but she resists.
After a couple of days personal hand holding and phone calls going through how to access e-mail accounts, internet, etc. she had no problems with it, she is very happy with it!
About gaming on Linux, yes I like to play games, but my fast twitch muscles in my hands aren't what they used to be. I prefer to use the fast twitch muscles of my mind playing puzzle games like chess and "the old time" Myst, 7th Guest, Uru, etc. They don't need exceptionally fast GPU.
Being a Vietnam vet shoot them up video games are definitely not my cup of tea.
I hope I didn't bore or offend anyone with my ramblings.
Sign Me ;
Old Fart!

PS
When I was in high school they had typing for girls. Boys had other manly things to study. It took me almost forever hunting and pecking to write this post.

[bob466]

Windows...what's that ? See how easy it is to forget.

No... hell.... I still have to use Windows at work... obligatory poor me.
And now they're running Office 365 (awkward), and OneDrive that never synchronizes, ... and so on.

I'm always happy when I'm back home where I have a perfect system.

I have a CD Wallet...it contains several Anti-Virus Scan Disks...several Repair Disks (8) and have used all of them trying to fix many Windows problems over the years.

Since switching to Linux I've never needed to use any of them because Linux Mint is sooooooo much better...it just works...who in their right mind would ever want to go back to that Windows crap.

[AZgl1800]

me neetha, ( slang )

2 days ago, laptop battery died a horrible death, and in the process scrambles blocks badly.

Fresh install, apply updates, run Aptik, and wallah!
right back where I was, nothing lost.

the /home partition was good to me, it is still just fine

[ganamant]

When I was in high school they had typing for girls. Boys had other manly things to study. It took me almost forever hunting and pecking to write this post.

That's weird if you think about it: for many years following that era, computer use/programming has been a man-only activity. In the early 90s, I didn't know a single woman who could use a computer on type on a keyboard, but a few guys I knew could.

[catweazel]

That's weird if you think about it: for many years following that era, computer use/programming has been a man-only activity. In the early 90s, I didn't know a single woman who could use a computer on type on a keyboard, but a few guys I knew could.

Maybe you had your eyes closed.

[michael louwe]

Specifically, many computer operators/users do not miss M$'s forced auto-updates in Winduhs 10 Home & Pro. ...
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 46920a41cb = a long list of Win 10 computers broken/borked by M$'s buggy forced auto-updates for the past 1 year.
....... Personally, I do miss the more user-choiced or more-freedom updating process in Win 95, Win XP, Win 7, Linux Mint 16.x and LM 17.x.

With the recent "bad" changes made to Update Manager from LM 18.2 onward, ie to "push" users to install all updates, will "pushy" Linux Mint end up similar or the same as today's forceful Winduhs 10 wrt buggy updates borking/breaking computers.?
.
.
P S - Without the forced auto-updates, Win 10 is a decent OS, eg using Win 10 Ent LTSC with maximum 30-days deferred "quality"(*sic*) updates or totally un-updated.

[Moem]

With the recent "bad" changes made to Update Manager from LM 18.2 onward, ie to "push" users to install all updates, will "pushy" Linux Mint end up similar or the same as today's forceful Winduhs 10 wrt buggy updates borking/breaking computers.?

Can you please give this poor tired hobby horse some rest? It's been trotted out quite enough in the last few days.

[farkas]

Reply to ganamant.

I graduated from high school in 1964. Young ladies were taught typing and home economics. Young men studied wood shop, automotive repair and for some college prep. I took collage prep. When I started collage my professor in English 101 required all papers to be type written, double spaced, I was in deep doodoo to say the least. At that time if you made an error you either tried to use an eraser or retyped the whole page, on a Manual Typewriter, no copy, paste or save. If you wanted a copy of your work you put a piece of carbon paper between two sheets of paper. I was deeply regretting not taking typing classes. Still hunting and pecking but I don't need carbon paper. With all the edits I made while making this post I'd never done it on a Manual Typewriter.
I don't miss the good old days before personal computers.

PS.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think "cc" in e-mails is short for carbon copy.

[Moem]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think "cc" in e-mails is short for carbon copy.

No, you're not wrong, that's exactly what it is.