Hello from the UK

[Neke]

Hi everyone!

New boy checking in. I guess I'm getting banished from the House of Windows 7 in January, so I decided to migrate to Linux Mint as a complete Linux beginner. Still on Win7 at the moment and going through software auditing, data backups, etc. Thought it a good idea to jump into the community now so I'm not doing everything last minute in January, and panicking.

I'm new to Linux, but old to practically everything else! Started computing in 1980, got a BBC Microcomputer in 1982. Then I guess it was DOS (PC) from 1988-91 (in the days where we had to type a command to park the hard drive!) Apple Mac up to 2000. Then PCs (Win XP, Vista, 7) up to now. So it's only right I spend some time with Linux.

The software seems to be pretty well covered - I've been using GIMP for 10 years and kinda got into Inkscape a year or two ago (still trying to figure out the learning curve on this software). But it looks like I can use LibreOffice once I make the switch; hopefully I'll be able to open and edit old Word and Excel files(?)

Other stuff would be new to Windows, so it's no problem if it's also new to me in Linux (eg Scribus).

I'm probably going to update some hardware for the migration. Taking out the Windows HDD once I've backed up data onto my external drive. I'll replace it with a fresh HDD for data, and add a new SSD boot and programs drive to squeeze a bit more speed out of my old-aged PC.

Well, that's probably enough for a nice introduction. Glad to be here. I'll have a good rummage around the forums and elsewhere to see if there are any known Linux-based problems with any of my hardware. Best to know beforehand, huh?

Onwards and Mintwards!

[deepakdeshp]

Welcome to the forum. Yes your old office files can be read by Libre office.

[Richardj]

Hello and welcome, I'm also from the UK.
I jumped from windows 10 a few months ago and although I still have win 10 in a dual boot Linux Mint Mate is my preferred OS now. I have found programs for linux that are close to the programs I used on win 10 so that's me happy.
I use WPS office as a posed to Libre office, I find WPS very easy to use and it opens all word, excel and other MS office file formats.

[Neke]

Thanks for the welcomes and info about Office compatibility into the various Linux software.

I was planning to opt for Mint Cinnamon, but found out there might be a few problems with my ancient on-board graphics (NVIDIA GeForce 7100/ nForce 630i). Not sure exactly what the problems were, in pretty old threads on this forum and others. I think odd white margins at top of monitor and Youtube videos not working in full screen mode.

Looks like I might need to opt either for an older version of Mint (which I don't really like to do) or install MATE instead of Cinnamon for the time being, as I think one guy in a 2015 thread on here said it stabilized things nicely and worked with his graphics (only stated, IIRC, as GeForce 7100). Maybe I'll need to do both if the old NVIDIA drivers are deprecated in newer Mint versions.

I'd better get a bootable USB sorted and try to test some of this before Windows 7 Death Day.

Nice to meet you deepakdeshp and Richardj.

[murray]

Welcome Neke!

I too remember the old days of having to park the heads of your hard drive before turning off!

[phd21]

Hi Neke,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum!

[bob466]

Welcome to the Forum.

[WharfRat]

Hello Neke

Welcome to Linux Mint and the Linux Mint forum

[kc1di]

Hello Neke,
Welcome to the Linux Mint Forums, enjoy

[BG405]

A warm welcome from me as well, a fellow Brit. I too have been using Open Source software including GIMP since some time before the switch; certainly makes the transition a lot easier!

Great avatar, by the way.

Enjoy ..

[Neke]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes, folks. I appreciate it.

Just finally got around to downloading the MATE iso, and once again, thanks to this forum, managed to navigate the verification, authentication and create bootable USB steps. It's so good to have step-by-steps to follow along with.

Reckon I'll do my fresh backup of everything to external HDD before trying to boot into live Linux, to see if any of my hardware says, "Nuh-uh!"

Getting closer....

[Neke]

BG405: thanks re avatar.

Five minute dash and grab of a few bits from Pixabay. Figured I'd wear an L-plate at least until I've actually got Linux permanently installed!

[Neke]

That's it, then! Finally made the jump into Linux Land.

Loving the speed improvements, probably partly the Linux and partly fitting a new SSD drive to replace the 10 year old mechanical.

(And it only took 30 minutes to figure out what I was doing wrong in the BIOS settings to prevent the SSD being used as the 1st Boot Device! It was a rookie error. Ugh. Apart from that - nothing to do with LM - the whole thing was a breeze. )

[BG405]

That's great! Maybe you will be losing the "L" Plate soon.

[Neke]

Thanks BG405.

I reckon 6 to 12 months before losing the L-plate, judging by the last 3 days - steep learning curve for a "Go to PCWorld, buy a PC and use its software"-type of guy.

Never installed an OS before, until 2 days ago.

Still haven't ever created partitions on drives, and I'm kinda struggling on what to do with that regarding Timeshift.

Or whether I should reformat my "storage" mechanical internal drive to Ext4 (rather than NTFS), now I'm only using Linux. Whether to keep both of my internal drives as giant single partitions. Lol. I'll figure it all out over time - just a tad bewildering at the moment.

(Not even sure whether it's safe to unplug my external backup drive. I Unmounted it, but there's no option to eject or Remove Safely, unless those options were in older versions of LM - I'm finding a lot of info from articles/posts from years ago.)

Anyway - I was expecting a ton of "unknown unknowns" to crop up once I made the switch to Linux. They'll keep me on my toes!