Justin, it is all relative.   I know more Linux than you.   Kirill knows more Linux than me.   Dave is a better bike mod man and Lancer is a better mechanic.   Big Zuk could ride us all into the ground on a Savage and never even break a sweat doing it.

We are all different.

However, WE as whole are a pretty good mechanic and a pretty durn smart computer person.  

And that is why I am still asking if anyone knows of anything better to take XP people over to that is better than Linux Mint Mate.  

Anything more XP like or easier to use once you get it installed.

So far, no suggestions have come forward, so we go on forward with the project.


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


Justin is going to take some time off to finish his generator installation before he hauls out his old Dell computer stuff.

So far I count 3 new people who have successfully installed dual boot Mint Mate without requiring very much in the way of hand holding.

Four if you count Serowbot, who has done a couple of times in the past and is thinking about not doing it again until he has to.  

(which is fine, but he'll be totally dead in the water with no distro sitting there on a DVD when he needs it -- or better yet already set up as a dual boot on his hard drive)

Everybody else will have a dual boot machine up and running, going XP whenever they want and Mint whenever the root kits and viruses are acting up again.

That's a thought -- if you ran Mint for the normal easy stuff and only went XP when you wanted to run a program that required it that might work to extend the lifespan of XP on your machine.

You would do most of your net surfing on Mint (and really wouldn't be catching much in the way of illnesses accordingly).   Most stuff gets on your machine by visiting web pages or opening something containing Hidden Evil while running a vulnerable Windows machine.

Linux Mint on the net is like walking in a mine field wearing an Iron Man suit -- your might step in it and it might blow up on you, but has little to no effect because it simply can't reach your flesh.    

Most times you don't even hear the BANG because it isn't even in the same plane of reality as you are when you are running Mint.



I hope MS hasn't disabled Serowbot's XP installation CD yet,  he's gonna be sick if he sticks it in and it doesn't work when he needs it the most.

Remember guys, According To Microsoft that CD belongs to them and you only have the right to use the software on the CD according to the rules they set down.

And according to those Microsoft rules XP ends one month from now on April the 8th -- and, having tried last year to get a replacement CD for my official XP installation disk when it crapped out on me, I can tell you they won't give you one.

"XP is unsupported at this time"  

"Reference the Version Life Schedule page for additional information"

"You need to update your Windows to a more modern version"

"You can't get upgrade pricing to anything past Windows Vista"

"Windows Vista is unsupported at this time"

"You can't get upgrade pricing to Windows 7 from Windows XP"

Serowbot wrote on 03/09/14 at 09:38:35:


Serobot

Here's a preliminary report from a non geek that might make you feel a bit better. I installed the 32 bit version of Mint 16 alongside XP on my old Dell Inspiron 5305. I used this dvd:

https://www.osdisc.com/products/linux/linuxmint/linux-mint-16-mate-install-li...

Installed without a hitch and I can now boot to either Linux or XP.
Mint found my printer, and my network - everything works perfectly without my having had to do anything. The Mint desktop and menu system look a lot like XP and will be no problem for anyone used to XP.

The firefox browser that comes with Mint works great - I'm using it right now; It's as fast as Chrome and way better than IE.

The other preinstalled programs in Mint look very similar to their windows counterparts. The only one that I've spent any time with so far is Libre Office Write. I moved my documents over - most created using Microsoft Works- and Write handled them perfectly.

I have stuff on the XP side of my machine that I use that doesn't require an internet connection. I plan on doing all my online stuff with Mint and keeping the XP side as a stand alone box. Should run forever that way. At least that's the plan

If an old Luddite like me can do this, I think just about anyone should be able to handle it.  

Quote:


About an hour I think, but I didn't bother to look around at anything first. I just went ahead and installed it. I had defraged my drive while I was waiting for the DVD so more than half of it was just empty space. That might have helped.

While I'm typing this I'm listening to an album that I imported using Banshee. No more difficult to figure out than Media Player. I think I'm going to like this. There is a learning curve, but for the stuff I do it dosen't look like it's going to be too steep.

Oops, I think I boogered it.

Retrying now. Had to let my little sister use my comp to resolve an ebay thing. But I am now back on task.

I'll get it figured out, at least I'm trying to do this with dino-laptop and have a newer one for my usual stuff so if I screw up really bad I'm still good.

The Lubuntu install is kicking a$$ now. It seemed to have stalled for a while there but I went and left it alone and it picked back up. It's still installing so don't know results yet.

Oh and OF, I did do the chksum, all was good.

oldNslow wrote on 03/09/14 at 15:17:47:


Just going by memory but I think it only took about 20 minutes to go from insert DVD, re-start computer, remove DVD when asked and press enter to re-boot.  And maybe another 15 - 20 minutes to update through the up date manager.
Gerry

I wrote over the Ubuntu 13 with the Mint Mate Pettra 16 on Friday and all seems to be working well. My initial attempt to dual boot with a split partition for the Ubuntu failed so I over-wrote all and now am very happy with Mint. My wife was frustrated with the Ubuntu interface but loves the Mint and even the 6 and 8 year olds are navigating with ease. I did the download iso to USB and boot from the USB, worked great!!