Three reasons to hold off on Windows 10

[Philip Miller Tate]

Hi Rob

I did what you said, and... guess what? It worked! In fact, I'm sending 
this e-mail from my new Ubuntu machine right now.

Having a Vaio laptop compromised by a botched Windows 7 installation (my 
fault entirely), I found and downloaded the Ubuntu installation on my 
Mac laptop and saved it to DVD following clear instructions from the 
provider. I then transferred the DVD to my Vaio and started up - and it 
all worked as described. Perfectly. No incomprehensible questions or 
uninformed options. Better still, the screen kept me reassured that 
things were happening - unlike the Win 7 installation which sat there 
for hours looking like it had frozen, or...? I got the distinct 
impression that this installation process had been designed by 
professionals.

The adventure begins... Thanks for your concise and accurate advice to a 
Linux newb.

Phil M1GWZ



On 03/09/15 17:21, Rob Seastrom wrote:
> Phil via Tacos <tacos at amrad.org> writes:
>
>> Folks keep telling me of the joys of Mint Linux, so I have looked into it for
>> my old Vista laptop. Trouble is, I was immediately confronted with a choice of
>> four different editions (all of which looked much the same to me) and two
>> documents telling me that, if uncertain, I should definitely load Cinnamon. Or
>> MATE, depending on whose advice you take. Add to that some unclear
>> explanations as to how I could download and install, plus several pages of
>> 'simple' Linux programming for setting configurations, and I was totally
>> lost. I haven't got time to read "Linux for Dummies", so if some knowledgeable
>> AMRADer could direct us to "How to get Linux running usefully on an old laptop
>> for complete Dummies", I guess at least two of us would be very grateful.
> The people who are getting you down in the weeds on which window
> manager or edition of a fringe fork of Debian/Ubuntu you want to load
> are not doing you any favors as a novice.
>
> If you:
>
> a) don't have the time to read Linux for Dummies
> b) want to maximize the number of people you can ask intelligent questions of when stuck or confused
> c) are more interested in getting something that works than engaging in petty politics
>
> then you probably want to get the most recent (14.04) LTS (Long Term
> Support) version of Ubuntu Desktop, and not goof around with trying to
> re-skin it or otherwise change what the GUI looks like.  You'll figure
> it out easily enough.
>
> As part of installation, you will be asked to set a password for your
> default account (which you'll need subsequently to log in).  If asked
> if you want to enable disk encryption or other silliness to complicate
> your life, say no thanks - after all this is a toy and a learning
> experience, not your office laptop.
>
> A getting started guide (pdf format, free as in free beer) is here:
>
> http://ubuntu-manual.org
>
> There are plenty of us here who are willing to field questions about
> Linux.  Some of us more useful than others - for my part I'm more
> useful for knowledge domain stuff where there is a ton of overlap with
> other Unix flavors than I am with things like device drivers.  I can
> usually figure out the sysadmin stuff given a little time to fool with
> it.
>
> -r
>