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Message started by Oldfeller on 02/26/19 at 00:56:50

Title: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/26/19 at 00:56:50

Let's see, WHY are you buying another Linux computer ....... I thought they never died.

Answer is that they don't, I am typing this on my old Dell and it is still working great. Linux Mint is a pleasure to use and I would have/use nothing else personally.

My wife's laptop is dying because MS says it was too small to hold a large spring/fall major upgrade on top of what was already loaded on it and MS will do nothing to fix the damage that they did a few weeks ago with their spring upgrade disaster.

The little Lenovo laptop machine tha got broken in the last major upgrade, it has stopped recognizing its own built in USB ports and can only be run by the trackpad. This is now a repeater MS update issue having happened twice now. MS keeps breaking the little laptop machine .....

The Wife can't live like that and wants something done about it --- but don't spend any money because her retirement account got hit by the market decline and she is on a frugal mode kick because she lost so much money out of her retirement account.

So, while looking forward in time to a Linux Mint for Everybody future, I still have to provide Windows 10 right now for the wife to use to communicate with her work environment.

So, lookie see what I spotted on Ebay and bought. I couldn't even get a Win 10 Home license for the money I paid for this machine. Quad core early i5 processor, 500 gig hard drive and a brand new (documented) Win 10 PRO license ...... not bad for $38.95 plus shipping.

Total with shipping is $59.72 and I can pack it slam full (8 gigs in total) of memory for an additional $13 shipped but I will wait on that as Office 2010 doesn't require but 2 gigs and it has 4 gigs in it already as shipped.

Wife will recognize everything since her school uses these things in a lot of their computer labs and offices. Once she retires I can trust MS to give me a good excuse to flip it over to Linux Mint before too much time elapses.

If you want to expand the image so you can see it, just click on the screenshot.png link listed immediately below for a full sized image.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/26/19 at 09:00:45

I spent the morning getting back into the Windows frame of mind again ....... lemme tell you Linux Mint is worlds and worlds and worlds simpler and easier to deal with. Linux is different though, and a tiny bit of that makes it past the Linux Mint "tuned to be like XP" interface. It doesn't take much though, Windows people are known to ADVERSE to change of any sort.

I spent 2 hours downloading utility this and utility that and running them against the laptop just to see how screwed up it really was. My final impression was that it WAS NOT filled up 100% on hard drive space as reported by Mickey, but the Windows Registery got screwed up instead. Some key Logitech drivers got "missing" too ......

I cleaned and deleted and cleaned again and deleted more and cleaned again --- there were layers of MS crap on top of layers of MS crap on top of ..... until it got all filled up with MS CRAP. It needed a laxative. I freed up 25% of the hard drive just by cleaning useless temp file Mickey poo off the machine.

----- you get the impression.

Final thoughts, I think the little laptop can be used again now and it will work "better', but I fear MS will break it again in a couple of months.

In Mickey I Trust (he can screw up anything) -- a wet dream isn't even Mickey proof. Yep, 'ol Mickey can foul up ANYTHING that he touches.

But my darling will be pleased that she can get her stuff off the old machine with a working standard mouse and preserve it on jump drives or move it over to her new machine .....

..... for a while anyway.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Eegore on 02/26/19 at 11:20:18

I am still trying to find the motherboard for the unit you use, actually I need six of them.

Would this one from eBay be similar and possibly interchangeable?

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/26/19 at 11:25:47

No, this one is two generations more modern than mine. What are you trying to do that you need so many older moldier machines?

From what you have said earlier you already have multiples of far more current machines than this stuff.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Eegore on 02/26/19 at 16:15:43

I am attempting to replicate your machine.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/26/19 at 21:26:22

Step #1

Decide if you are a Windows world person or a Linux user.

Completely different worlds here -- I just spent 2 days dusting off my Windows skills and getting Nancy's laptop running well enough to get her information off of it. I have spend 16 hours doing this and I had to upgrade her pointing mouse to something Win 10 supports better currently (so Mickey will stop deleting the drivers for it, in other words).

What did I learn -- Windows takes over twice as much hardware (processor CPU and systems memory and hard drive space) to run more slowly and be less reliably than Linux.

I also learned that Win 10 Pro is a somewhat different beast than Win 10 home upgrade, something I never had "fingers on" before. Win 10 Pro is better, but it essential operates the same.

My gut is that I am simply expending effort to flog Windows 10 along for another couple of years so my wife can indulge her yen to teach college for another couple of years. It is a labor of love, not something I enjoy doing.

It's funny, we both use the same browsers and the same internet connection. I program all the stuff she uses so it is available on my machine. One works, the other dies repeatedly.

Linux works it works tomorrow just like it does today. It is Boring ...... (but sometimes boring is good).

I am building her an over powered "pro grade" Windows 10 box to do a relatively few simple things. I am going heavy on systems memory and quad core CPU and large hard drive space (relatively) to give Win 10 enough room to roll over in bed at night. I am getting the IT grade of Win 10 Professional so Mickey will stay out of it at night as much as possible.

I am trying to avoid all the shite Mickey has done to her over the last 5 years in as much as I can ......

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/27/19 at 13:59:34

Large orange note taped over the on button of the new computer.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT WINDOWS 10 CAN TAKE 10 MINUTES OR LONGER TO INITIALLY START UP THE FIRST TIME WHEN YOU TURN IT ON, WHICH IS NORMAL.

DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER DURING THIS TIME !!!
IF YOU DO YOU WILL CORRUPT WINDOWS 10 AND THIS IS NOT COVERED IN YOUR WARRANTY.

Mickeysoft is such trash -- really, I mean it.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by verslagen1 on 02/27/19 at 14:40:35

This is probably an issue with the refurb house rather than MS.
They probably loaded the hard drive from a ghost and it has to register everything.
They probably thought the same thing... 10 minutes... F that, make the customer do it. You get what you pay for in the end. Just hope it don't stick out to far. :-?

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Eegore on 02/27/19 at 16:51:37

I for one am interested in comparisons as I do not have any of these issues on about 40 or so machines. They start up in seconds and run fine. I loaded a 1200 page spreadsheet in Excel in less than 20 seconds from a complete shutdown, yet I hear of these disaster stories where people can barely use their PC. We loaded a 3D model from SurfacePRO device remotely to 12 machines today and allowed for 12 separate revisions to run simultaneously seamlessly.

My computers are all individually bought, with my money, with MS individually owned programs, not a company, business, group, PRO or otherwise non-personally owned and installed PC unit. All of them Dell so maybe that's part of the equation, for instance none of my PC's came with any indication that it would take 10 minutes to start up initially, other than the setup process where you input information such as a PC name, Time/Date etc.

Also none of them are registered to an MS account as I have no MS account. I just click the install with no registration option.

I am currently attempting replicate the setup that Oldfeller uses to start seeing how it works. Linux is easy to find, but Dell had many options for the OptiPlex platforms.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/27/19 at 19:36:25

I do not believe you have to pick and choose so much between the various Dell motherboards when installing Linux. I think any of the relatively older full sized Dell 760-780 generation machines (less expensive FULL SIZED mid tower machines sporting the 305 watt power supply) are what you need for your Linux experiment.

The smaller Dell half sized case stuff is unsuitable as it gets real prickly about only being able to seat half height adder cards (and only having ONE (1) full length expansion slot on some of the small case units pared up with two of the short length slots) and not having enough power supply to run whatever you wind up getting for a gaming video card.

It is Catch 22 crapshoot when using the smaller Dell flat case units ......

Another benefit of using the older mid-tower Dells is that you can stuff them with sticks of memory for like $13.95 shipped -- older pulled memory sticks that are DIRT CHEAP and easily gotten on Ebay.

Key thing is to get Microsoft completely off the machine so Mickey will stop fighting to own all the hard drive real estate and trying to control the drivers and such.

This 100% Linux approach also gives you a full Linux hard drive reformat of your entire hard drive, which is most conducive to no errors, no faulting, and not requiring defragmentation or re-compression or other forms of routine Windows-style hard drive maintenance.

My new Dell Win 10 machine is on pause for a couple of days while I wait for the 2 sticks making up the 4 additional gigs of memory to arrive -- then we will install the memory and go for a full boot up and find out if all the warranty voiding crap and slow start up really is just the reseller just being a lazy SOB and not initializing the hard drives properly after dropping an image on them (as Verslagen thinks).

;)

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 02/28/19 at 06:33:40

Memory came in, I installed it and then tried to boot the computer -- it did not "initialize" Win 10 and then it ran the "i'm busy" dots in a circle for a half hour then it restarted itself and it has been spinning its dots for 2 hours now.

Got a message in to the people who sold it to me -- the people who failed to send me a machine with Win 10 fully installed on it to see just what they have to say.

===================================================

I got some sympathetic noises and got told to go download an ISO, burn it and install it. Was given a link to a Microsoft download site to download an ISO image for Win 10 Pro.

Followed up on it and learned that Mickey just screwed the pooch by carelessly putting out an ISO image that is 50 megabytes too big to fit on to a standard DVD.

Mickey needs to pay attention to the little details when they do stuff, huh.

The forums are saying you will likely have to burn Mickey ISOs using double layer DVDs in the future. Question is --- is your DVD write drive modern enough to handle that sort of action?

Mickey, just leave off some of the less used stuff (or supply some older revisions that are a lot smaller in size) and fill it in during the nightly update cycle that you do now anyway ......

Most older computers are not set up to boot off a USB drive --- and MS isn't smart enough to only put the needed files on the DVD ISO to cut down on the pork butt effect they are currently suffering from.

I have a 5 pack of the double layer DVDs on the way from Amazon so I can see if any of my drives are good enough to burn a double layer DVD Win 10 ISO.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/02/19 at 09:47:21

With help from the seller, I got the errant vendor image replaced and got the new machine booted finally.

Issue that showed up the very next day was related to MS upgrading the Win 10 Pro OS that very same night in an extensive fashion that shuffled around all my just installed and organized stuff on the desktop and stuck in WHOLE WAVES of competing MS products into my various Win 10 menu views of this and that --- Mickey is attempting to be helpful, I think.

Or jest trying to sell some trial version stuff --- you take your pick.

Mickey, I don't use SKYPE, I don't like it and I have deleted it from the machine three times now --- try to pay attention, please.

Ditto for Edge. Trying to force users to use your sub-par programs works to your disadvantage in the long run.

I don't want Candy Crush Saga on my machine AT ALL --- I don't want the sequel either. Mickey, I am not a little girl (where did you get that from anyway, I wonder --- probably my wife's name on the machine ID).

Mickey uses Skype and Edge as key parts of their "total MS system" which is why Mickey keeps putting them back on the machine -- key dependencies for the other stuff they are loading at night get put back endlessly I guess.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/02/19 at 09:57:38

You got it running good? Pretty cool. I'm enjoying my old emachine, with Linux that you helped me with.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/02/19 at 10:25:00

I am running Windows 10 pro on an overstuffed large frame Dell machine completely dedicated and assigned to a simple task -- my wife, the making happy thereof.

My older box that runs Linux outperforms the new Win 10 box in all items ....... except Turn it in.com and other teacher only software that have to run on Windows.

The wife has a both desktop and a laptop that are both working on Win 10 --- she is equipped in as much as I can equip her.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/04/19 at 04:33:50

Next issue ---- drivers.

Mickey started deleting all of Brother printer's comprehensive driver packages as part of routine nightly updates. Mickey's drivers for Brother stuff don't work for much at all on some of the older, less popular Brother laser - drum type printers.

This is a new catch 22 situation with no instant "easy" answer --- not right now anyway.

I have gone through the "corrected" set up drill 3 times now with Brother printer support and I have printed out check pages that worked afterwards, but nothing survives the next night's MS updates.

===================================

Did you know ????

In a single night of routine Win 10 updates your Win 10 machine will create up to 3,000 and some odd temporary files on your hard drive that if not scraped away routinely by the use of some sort of third party software will BUILD UP ENDLESSLY until your machine gets CONSTIPATED ???

This gives you a rough count of the number of items Mickey changes in a given night.

Yep, I am keeping track of this stuff on my wife's brand new virgin Win !0 box ....... ;D

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Eegore on 03/04/19 at 09:23:33

"In a single night of routine Win 10 updates your Win 10 machine will create up to 3,000 and some odd temporary files on your hard drive that if not scraped away routinely by the use of some sort of third party software will BUILD UP ENDLESSLY until your machine gets CONSTIPATED ???"

I sent this message to my IT guy and got this response:

"You do not have nightly updates and never have. I separated 10 laptops as a control and quarantined them as per your request. They are running in a building with no internet access and as an additional security measure I physically removed each wifi card. There is no difference in the ones on 24/7 internet access and the control units on a nightly basis. There is not 3000 additional files on the internet connected machines since the last official update that I had you come in and approve, there is not one additional file so far that we can detect.

The only difference I can see is that you run your MS programs with no account. If you can get more information on what these files are, or where they are I will call in a few techs and go through each PC again."

Can I get a reference or something to send him so we can see if the online laptops are filling with files?

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/04/19 at 12:23:20

When Win 10 updates, it leaves temp files behind. Might be mostly empty, but the file listings it used in unpacking and executing the update action remain behind as the husks of the update. Sad thing is that they aren't always empty ---- and they do mount up over time.

Use good clean up software on your Win 10 machine and it keeps COUNT of (and reports) all the temp files, orphans and husks that it scrubs each time you use it.

https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ my favorite defragger

I routinely use Auslogic Disk Defragmenter (free and safe to use) to keep my Windows machines both defragmented and file compressed as it is far quicker acting than the built in defragmenter that is in the Windows Maintenance Utilities. I routinely crank it up then minimize the window and check it after 10 minutes to see what it did -- it requires no "personal management" and it does both of the defrag and optimization jobs automatically.

One of the settings in Auslogic is "Remove Temp files before defragmenting" and when clicked Auslogic scrubs and deletes all the broken orphan files and husks and temp files before resorting everything very neatly with all the file blocks contiguous and whole again. This is where the numerical count data comes from, btw. Window's built in defraggers (the two of them) does NOT routinely do this (nor does it keep count of the husks and temps it kills) which is why it is slower and more cumbersome to use the built in MS tools.

(Does wasting clock cycles actually defragging the orphan fragments and empty husks and temp files make any sense to you ??? Not to me ..... :P )

Windows is a seriously messy camper, it simply slings file bits and husks and temp files all over the place as it goes about doing it's nightly update routine. It leaves your campsite as a trash covered mess in other words ........

Why does Windows breaks new file stuff up into chicklets during its normal operations and does not lay the partial files even close to each other on the hard drive is beyond me but Windows doesn't make any effort to clean this up. The new file data just gets dumped in the next available slot that is big enough to hold it.

So, each file that has to grow gets fragmented by Windows and the Windows NTFS File Allocation Table (FAT) spends time and processor cycles keeping track of all the little bits and fragments that make up the entire Windows file. Each unnecessary hard drive "seek" is wasted time which mounts up by the partial seconds into whole minutes inside a few days worth of hard drive activity.

Linux hard drive file systems operate completely differently. Linux spreads your files over your entire hard drive space EVENLY with an equivalent amount of free space preserved between each separate file. Then if one file changes or grows, the file simply changes or grows into that free space quietly, using up some of the free space between the files but all the while staying continuous and whole. If a file grows enough to actually hit the following file, then the entire growing file gets moved as a whole to the next free space that is big enough to hold the whole thing.

Linux routinely completely deletes the husks of any temporary files just as soon as each action is completed -- such things never build up by the thousands like they do in Windows.

Eegore, give this post to your IT guy and see what he has to say about it.

;)

Ask him about the "confetti effect" (Windows nightly update chopping up your NTFS file allocation table finer and finer each time it pulls an update or upgrade) and then ask him "What causes Windows to run slower and slower over time?"

Ask him about file name "zdkjhsywwdusqqaavbvnmtyuioqq.***" and all its monolithic brothers and sisters sticking up out of the hard drive hilltop outline like Stonehenge.

Then ask him about these very sizeable chunks of wasted space -- the even bigger things that do not get deleted very well and leave HUGE ICEBERGS behind them eating up your hard drive space big time.

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/anniversary-update-wasting-space

https://www.komando.com/happening-now/425661/windows-latest-update-leaves-behind-30gb-installation-files

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by verslagen1 on 03/04/19 at 12:43:09

Since the new drives have gotten so quiet, I've forgotten about this issue.
Thanks for the reminder.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Eegore on 03/05/19 at 11:01:03

He sent this:

"You do have large file cleanups after an update from Windows, I can't say for sure without going down and accessing the save logs. Its possible that it could be in the thousands but this is not a nightly thing.

You are scheduled for full system cleanups every 14 days so you shouldn't experience any clutter ssues related to updates."

NOTE: The following text is a representation only and may not be accurate in size, color, font or other defining features in comparison to their original posted format:

"Ask him about the "confetti effect" (Windows nightly update chopping up your NTFS file allocation table finer and finer each time it pulls an update or upgrade) and then ask him "What causes Windows to run slower and slower over time?"

"You do not have a nightly Windows update."

Ask him about file name "zdkjhsywwdusqqaavbvnmtyuioqq.***" and all its monolithic brothers and sisters sticking up out of the hard drive hilltop outline like Stonehenge.

"I will make not of that file name and look for it on Friday when I come in."

Then ask him about these very sizeable chunks of wasted space -- the even bigger things that do not get deleted very well and leave HUGE ICEBERGS behind them eating up your hard drive space big time.

"You don't have these issues, but we can continue to look for them. Your Windows usage lifetime is under two years since you purchase a new software package with each new PC unit so there is little reason to have concern, you will have discarded the product before it has had time to accumulate static issues even if you didn't have bi-monthly sytem-wide maintenance done."

So I guess if I made more long-term use out of Windows, with an active account, I would experience more of the problems listed above.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/05/19 at 14:10:57

I think your IT guy put his finger on it when he said he cleans you up extensively -- "a full system cleanup" -- every 14 days -- which also says that those here on the list that haven't been doing regular clean ups are cruising for a bruising in the long term.

Also, I am also noting that Win 10 Home CAN be set up to be self-cleaning after a fashion if you go into your system after pulling up some guidance How-To information on a separate phone or laptop and you then go through all the steps to tell Win 10 Home to go clean itself up on a scheduled regular basis.

Think of it ....... a Windows 10 Home operating system that is somewhat broken at its very very core functionality ---- an OS that requires clean up every month to run well and that is so secretive about it it is NEWS to you that you have to do this to have a somewhat more reliable, somewhat faster OS system. A Windows 10 OS that requires a factory tune up at night every few days to keep on working as well as it does, which is far from perfect .....

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/11/19 at 11:51:13

Been on the phone with Brother USA customer service. My question was "Why does MS delete your drivers off my machine within a week of me putting it all back together again?"

My motus operandi was to ask to be forwarded to their boss when the help person ran out of answers.

I worked at it fairly diligently, at least an hour a day with periods of several days between elevation responses.

Brother is a supplier of printers that come with a Brother Driver setup CD which installs and configures the Brother drivers which are required for proper function. MS leaves them alone unless MS has a built-in driver that supposedly does the job for the Brother printer in question. Then MS defaults to their driver ...... and scrubs away the Brother driver during a nightly update.

The original HL-L3205 Brother laser printer communicated through a parallel port. Then USB came on board. Then later, wireless printing came on board. Mine uses USB 2.0 ports and wireless communications.

MS keeps plugging in their generic Brother driver, the one which assumes a parallel port.

Brother, at all levels, is helpless to stop what MS does to my Win 10 machines at night.

:P

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/11/19 at 16:58:20

OF, can I insert a quick question here on another subject? I have a laptop that runs win 7 . I haven't updated it for a couple years, since there was a discussion about updates causing problems. Its running pretty good, do you think its still unsafe to update it? Thanks!

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/11/19 at 21:04:49

You can always ask a question on any thread that I have started, I don't think you can hijack a thread on a computer topic.

Microsoft has issued the Extended Support death notice on Win 7 for January 14th, 2020.

Primary support has ended already, so MS is just patching "severe problems, large security problems" at this point anyway.

If your old Win 7 machine is working well, I would leave well enough alone. Letting MS review your machine any at all means they will load up with their nightly review stuff on your hard drive and then they will attempt to roll you over to Win 10 against your wishes using a variety of methods. Example: Mickey will send you a security alert message about an issue and offer to fix whatever it is by YOU signing up for nightly updates and YOU signing up for Win 10 whatever --- so don't do this.

Do you have your Linux picked out yet? Have you started to use it part time verging on full time yet?

You will soon get to the point where you need to be "fully functional" on Linux because that is your future pathway going past the end of Win 7 at this point.

Some VERY SMALL very mild hope still exists for the new planned Windows 10 Lite, but you will not be able to use your existing programs the way it is planned out now, Mickey will want you to go buy all new stuff from the MS store if you go that way.

Mickey wants your money, if not A then B -- it all costs a lot of money.

Linux Mint Mate works better (really, it does) and it is free of charge, including all updates and upgrades to ALL the software.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by zipidachimp on 03/12/19 at 00:05:26

if anyone has an old laptop with a dvd, why not change the boot sequence to (1) optical drive, then install Mint 18? cheers! 8-)

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/12/19 at 16:22:20

I have mint installed in my old xp machine, you helped me set it up. I've been using it , I'm on it now. I don't know how to use the terminal, and mint seems harder to do a disk cleanup .I'm interested in the win 10 lite, for my win 7 laptop. Thanks.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/12/19 at 20:49:58

...... and mint seems harder to do a disk cleanup.

With Mint you don't have to do any form of disk cleanup, it uses a native Linux format that doesn't screw itself up like Windows does (if you give it the whole drive i.e. get Windows completely off the machine).

I remember now, you are dual booting right now, right?

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by jcstokes on 03/13/19 at 01:47:14

Just keeping you posted OF, I'm using Linux at least 90% of the time now, will probably get rid of Windows next January, as an illiterate like me is still in a learning curve. Drive for photos didn't work out that well, but I've learned to upload to Google Photos, photos off my phone which demonstrates my level of tech illiteracy. Sanning and printing are ok, but I'm still learning how to print double sided. That'a printer thing and not Linux.
I did note the other day when I had a power cut, Linux wouldn't connect to the internet once the cut was over. Went to Windows and internet was back on, immediately closed Windows, back to Linux, internet ok.

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/13/19 at 08:00:56

Oh, I didn't know that about disc cleanup. I was doing a dual boot, with 32 bit linux, that didn't work to good. It worked for a while. Then you determined I could use the 64 bit version and I installed mint 19 and it has the whole hard drive. After downloading chrome browser , runs great! Firefox wasn't as good. Thanks, I get a kick out of using it. Are there any important functions I need the terminal for?

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/13/19 at 17:50:44

I haven't used the terminal at all, ever, except to copy and paste REAL EXPERT instruction strings from a support web page directly into the terminal box, type in my password and execute the instruction string to go fix things that I want fixed.

As far as I am concerned, that is the only reason why the terminal is still in Linux Mint, so it can be used for copy and paste by folks like us.

Now that you have crossed the Rubicon and have a pure Linux machine, is there anything that isn't working right for you or are you green across the board ?

Have you been getting a series of small updates (keeping an eye on your little green checkmark shield in the bottom right hand corner of the Mint desktop screen?)

Both Chrome and Firefox got updated this past week, fixing some DRM oddities and giving Firefox a leg up on Chrome for playing Hulu movies because of a more modern DRM set.

When Chrome lags behind Firefox, I will use Firefox for the week or so until Chrome catches up, or vice versa as the case may be.

Having a backup good browser is a nice thing to have ....

===================================================

Now this is for all the Windows users out there --- it takes us Linux Mint people less than 2 minutes to go get our upgrades and to install them ---- and then just works right from then on, it never requires REBOOTING at all. No time wasted, no fuss. Seriously done inside 2 minutes or less.

Oh, and I bet by now you have also figured out why I said to have a dirt simple VERY short password because this is one of the few times you ever have to use it.

We NEVER come back to use our machine and find our stuff is not working at all like you Windows guys can remember having happened to you a time or 5 in the past year or so. We never have to wait 5-10 minutes for our machine to go auto shut down, download a bunch of stuff and then reboot itself to install it all, then reboot itself again so it can go back to work ......

Getting Windows completely off our machines signals a period of peaceful existence that we cannot really express to you poor Windows sufferers in words.

http://https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1438006864692-327506ca1997?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/13/19 at 18:28:50

Funny occurrence --- this past afternoon my wife had an important teleconference where she was speaking to a tele-group to give a text book review. With TWO (2) working Windows 10 computers sitting at her desk, she had gotten stuck on a file download / upload and did what she always does when it absolutely has to happen -- she jumped over to my big Linux Box and got 'er done.

She told me about it when I asked where my sound had gone later on that afternoon. She had cut the sound off so it would not interfere with her presentation. She told me the whole story and I just smiled and pointed out how that she worried about Linux not being able to do her school stuff because it wasn't Windows, but when her Windows stuff breaks or won't go, what gets the job done for her in the pinch --- Linux Mint.

It is simple and easy to understand, the menus all hark back to the basic XP and Win 7 so you instantly remember how to use it. Your quick finger keystroke tricks all work as expected when you plop one down reflexively. It just works .....

;)

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by zipidachimp on 03/13/19 at 23:16:48

Connecting my Mint desktop to my plasma tv lets me watch youtube vids on giant screen. Connecting my mint desktop to my stereo allows me to listen to radio stations/music from anywhere in the world.
That is how I survived a recent bout of bronchitis/ nasty cold weather. Cheers! 8-)

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/14/19 at 06:01:43

It seems like everything is working fine, I haven't tried to burn a CD yet. I did the updates but can't really make out what they are about. If I have info on a flash drive that was created in windows, can I copy to the Linux machine? I appreciate your input. Thanks!

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/14/19 at 06:21:49

Linux reads and writes files in any Windows format, but you have to generally know which exact file format you want and you have to use the "Save As" function not just the simple Save. Remember, Linux CAN do this if told to, but it will automatically use .ODF format on a simple Save unless you reset your system default format to do something else.

In my house all the machines are set to use the default format for whatever my wife currently uses at school, and we do a lot of translating of old file formats as some of her stuff goes back through like 7 generations of forced Mickey Word format "upgrade" forced willy nilly changes.

She thinks it was clever of me, that she can open up some moldy old shite from one of her buddies that they can't even read anymore on any of the equipment the college owns and my big Mint box opens it and lays it back down in their current MS Word format so they can all use it again --- its plumb magical, it is .....

It is funny, Libre Office can open and save files in ANY of the many many many file types MS frog marched the world through at gun point (forcing everybody to upgrade multiple times as they went for over $80 a seat each time). MS Office itself cannot do that once they roll like 2 revisions past it --- Mickey then sells a translator program for each level for big $$$$ and expects you to pay them to use the files written by their old stuff THAT YOU PAID FOR on your new stuff THAT YOU PAID FOR. Mickey is a little greedy, sometimes.

Libre Office is a great tool for folks who get files sent to them from all over the world as it can handle most all of them (and translate the files between them too).

I learned originally about the old FOSS Open Office software 20 years ago from an executive secretary who had it on her machine to use as a file translator for her boss who got files from people scattered all over the world and he expected her to be able to "handle it for him".

So, remember "Save As" and use it when dealing with other people's stuff that you plan to send back to them. You have to use Save As when dealing with Windows files that you plan to read again on a Windows machine.

Or else tell your Mint Linux box to do it automatically for you .....

https://www.howtogeek.com/281166/how-to-change-the-default-file-format-in-libreoffice/ Detailed "how to" on changing your default save format in Libre Office

And for those who remember Open Office, here is what finally happened to it once Oracle got done screwing everybody in the world over about it. This is the same story as to what happened to Star Office, Star Office was the predecessor to Open Office and Oracle did them at the same time they did Open Office.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/openoffice-is-dead-long-live-libreoffice/

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by Oldfeller on 03/14/19 at 07:36:52

70796A7572792D2E25251C0 wrote:

If you are talking thumb drive, stick it in and Linux will read it. COPY over anything you want to your Linux box but do not put anything back on that thumb drive from your Linux Mint machine or Windows will refuse to read it (they can read it you know, but you are being punished because you touched Linux and got Linux cooties on their MS thumb drive).

Title: Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Post by rl153 on 03/14/19 at 12:38:39

Thanks!