Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Linux Mint: comments....


This map, showing where its users are, is probably something you haven't seen from Mighty Microsoft. They're too busy telling you how good they are, and why you need to throw out your acceptably working current version for their latest untried one coming out of the back rooms in Redmond, Washington.

Why isn't Linux more popular? It might have something to do with whoever writes their instructional materials. Before installing this, I spent about three hours on various sites where those who should know tried describing what to do to get it into your computer and then up and running. One kid went on and on about a series of failed attempts, wasting his and my time in the process. A "newbie" to Linux doesn't want to hear what to do wrong - we want the correct method.

The good news is, its installation disk which you burn from the .iso is almost idiot-proof. You just set your computer to boot from a disc, by going into your BIOS as it reboots, and changing its boot priorities. When the disc boots up, it shows you a virtual version of the system, and you can play with this while it does its thing. Then it asks you a few simple questions, like do you want this to be installed on the complete drive, or would you like it to share space with another system? Then it detects that other system, and carefully preserves it, while re-formatting its own section of the drive. Nice!

May I also add here that it does all this quicker and easier than either Windows or my other favorite Unix-derived system, PC-BSD, both of whom have much larger installation discs. And while doing this, it recognizes your peripherals, like that ancient Wacom Pen Tablet you cherish, and when the install is finished, you are pleased to find those things are working, just like you hoped they would. And I'm here to tell you Mighty Microsoft's 118,000 dedicated minions can't seem to get that part right, even yet with Windows 10. And I would know, because I've been testing Windows 10 since the 15th of November, 2014, until this week. And I'm finding these other operating systems a pleasant change. I wonder why?

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