Finally did it. Oh the serenity!!!!!

After years of frustration with windows, I just couldn't take it any more. The system resources it uses at idle is bad enough, but with anything past Win7 the background "maintenance" that it does to itself is absolutely ridiculous! My three year old laptop has been freezing due to lack of available RAM while using some fairly light duty graphics programs I've started needing. That, combined with the already existing frustrations that most windows users are accustom to, prompted me to start looking elsewhere.

Where to look?  Apple, of course! Everyone knows Macs are great right? Well.......... Let's just say I have some issues with them as well. (and have you seen their price tag?)

Now what?

Hmmmm....  You know, this open source thing might have something going for it. Before I was ready to commit, though, I had to try a few things out. I started searching for open source (free) software that was intended for Linux, but also had a windows version available. That way I could play around a bit with the "type" of software Linux systems had to offer. Guess what I found........ EVERYTHING!!

Also, I realized that Linux based programs aren't a "type" as I had naively thought. They're just programs, and even better, they just work! I was so impressed with the few programs I tried (VLC player, Firefox, Libre Office, Inkscape) That I knew what needed to be done. I needed a Linux based computer.

So now I have one, and I'm never going back. I LOVE my new system. Ubuntu 14.04.01 LTS, 2.7Ghz quadcore, 8Gb RAM, solid state hard drive, and a 23" touch screen monitor! Couldn't be happier.

To anyone out there considering the switch, I'll give you my thoughts as a user of windows for the past 20-25 years.

Linux is not as scary as you think. You do NOT have to be a computer programmer to use Linux. The software might go by different names, but anything you can do on your windows machine, you can do with Linux. The funny thing is, I find it to be quite a bit EASIER to use than windows. Everything makes sense when I go to do something, it's intuitive, easy, and fast. Good Lord, is it fast. And what I've found most impressive, is that everything just works the way it's supposed to. Plug in a touch screen monitor? It works immediately. Wireless mouse and keyboard? Yep. Wifi access? Automatic, right out the gate. Bluetooth? Networking? System updates? Software installation? It all works flawlessly and easily the first time. No drivers to install, no software support packages, just plug-n-play.

What a fantastic operating system.

And if that ain't enough.... it's free. Free, yep, no dollars paid. (for the software, anyway)

Those are my ramblings. I know there are a number of Linux users on here already, so this is all old news to them, but it's still new and exciting to me. Hopefully this will help a few of you make a decision if you're as pissed off as I was with windows.  

I've played with the Linux mint stuff, so what the difference between Linux mint stuff and  Ubuntu 14.04.01 LTS?

I recently downloaded the win10 program and it seems to run fairly quickly with no slow downs.

I'm not a fan boy of anything.... just want to find a good system OS that is going to work with my World of Warcraft habit....

@1st2know- Great screen shot !!

@Old_Rider- Mint, like many of the Linux distros, is Ubuntu based. From what I understand, it still uses the Unity interface (which I prefer over Gnome) but looks a little different, and some of the qualms people have had with Ubuntu have been addressed. All in all, I think it's very similar, but someone like Oldfeller could shed more light on that. That's the thing with Linux, if you don't like the way you interact with the OS, try a different one. There are dozens of great Linux distributions out there, and since they're free and easy to install, try a few and see what you like best. My netbook, for example, is now running Easy Peasy Linux. It's lighter weight than Ubuntu so runs faster on an older machine, and still looks great.

As far as Wine goes. Wine is a windows compatibility layer that will translate windows based software to "speak" to the Linux kernel. It works ok. For less complex software, like many of the "ships with windows" programs, it's great. It helps make the transition to Linux easier because you can still use some of the programs you're familiar with. But for anything like games, graphics, or audio manipulation software, like Steve H said, it's a bit buggy.

A better option, if you have something that just HAS to run on windows, is to use Virtual Box. That allows you to install windows INSIDE Linux so it's basically another program on your desktop. As I'm typing this, I have three programs open on my machine, one of them is Windows. I have it open to use one of my outdated CAD programs that I haven’t found a suitable replacement for yet. For gamers running Linux, it's a great way to go. You get Linux, you get Windows, and if you want, MAC OSX, all running at the same time on the same machine, and you can switch between them or drag and drop between them or copy and paste between them, just like any other programs you use. It's wonderful.

And my 3 cents has always been based on easing XP users over to Linux, which means Linux Mint Mate (full France release) is the one I recommend because it is the most XP looking and acting distro.

Linux Ubuntu and the Unity interface is quite different and is somewhat off-putting to XP type users.    But it would be perhaps more familiar to a 8.1 or Win 10 user (perhaps).

You get into Linux and you can spend your whole life distro hopping from one to another.    

Mint gets rated as the "most refined" of the distros as far as bug removal because they take a stable Ubuntu LTS and debug it and refine it to a level beyond what Ubuntu can do with their crazy fast 6 mos development cycle.

Linux Mint takes a Ubuntu long term stable release and refines it for 3 full years before attempting to go to the next stable Ubuntu LTS.   Much time at first is spent removing some of Mark Shuttleworth's experimental "improvements to Linux" as his hit/miss ratio on his "improvements" is about 80% success rate so far.    But he DOES make successful improvements, and they all do make it into Linux Mint.    Then they get debugged and refined and integrated into a cohesive system that is painlessly easy to use.

You see, many of us want something we don't have to understand, or control or do upkeep on.   Of the Linuxes, this means Linux Mint Mate much more so than the rest.

The only OS that beats Linux Mint Mate for "total ease of use" is Google Chrome, but that one actually requires you to understand a whole new way of doing stuff, a consequence that makes Linux Mint Mate actually easier to pick up for someone coming from an XP background.



Last item of interest is "where is your distro based from" as in which laws control its development and distribution.   Linux Mint is based out of FRANCE, which does not allow copyright of software features or functions.   This means Linux Mint can include "proprietary drivers" and other proprietary non-free softwares as a matter of course on the full featured French distro releases.   And this means music players, video card drivers,  Java and Flash support baked right into the distro from the very get-to which is still a useful thing to have, since adding them after the fact is somewhat problematical to a layperson.   And if they actually do missed a proprietary bit that isn't commonly used, it is sitting in their repository for Software Manager to plunk in place for you.

To find the Mint Mate version with all the stuff already in it, look at the lists and find the English version that is the biggest one byte wise.