Three reasons to hold off on Windows 10

[Terry N4TLF]

I agree on Mint.  I really don't like the Ubuntu Unity desktop anymore, with 
the icons only along the left edge.  Mint allows you to put the icons on the 
desktop like "normal".  I currently have computers running Ubuntu 8.x, 10.x, 
12.x, 14.x, Mint 17, and various distros on Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, 
Red Pitaya, Parallella, and other small boards.  Most of these are 
dual-boots or triple boots with their age Windows equivalent.

The biggest problem that I have with Linux is that the developers love to 
change where libraries and other important things are put with each release. 
This often breaks things in a development environment.  I've spent more time 
trying to fix broken library links than actually working on the target 
application programming.  It's interesting that I can find and run the same 
target program on the various ages of Windows, while it can take days to get 
the same target program to compile and run on the various Linux 
distros/ages.

I'm getting a t-shirt made that says: "Life is to short for Linux" even 
though I've been riding that Linux train since the 0.95 release or so.  It 
continues to be a bumpy road.

I'm actually OS agnostic, I have several versions of Windows (XP to 10) and 
Linux (various distros), and one Macbook Pro (yuck).  They ALL are great in 
some areas, and I hate dealing with other aspects of each one.

Pick your poison.
73, Terry, N4TLF

-----Original Message----- 
From: fgentges at mindspring.com
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2015 12:48 PM
To: tacos at amrad.org
Subject: Re: Three reasons to hold off on Windows 10

Phil,

I have been having good results with Mint Linux here.  I am using the
Long Term Support Version 17.2 and get updates every day or two to
something.  I use Firefox as a web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird as
the email program, both downloaded from the Mint Linux site. I am moving
over to this as a replacement for Windows.

Rob has given you some good info.  I was going to pass you similar info
when Rob provided his email.

Frank K0BRA



On 9/4/2015 8:42 AM, Philip Miller Tate via Tacos wrote:
> 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
>>
>
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