I'm not quite 100% linux, but the wife's and my laptops we use in front of the TV are linux (Ubuntu and Mint). The desktop in the basement is Win 7, mainly because of some music recording software.

I manage 2 laptops for church. Win7 and dWin8.1. The only reason is for the best PowerPoint compatability with other members and guests. If I had the power to make a decree, they would be on linux. I run LibreOffice myself. The computer that runs our digital sound mixer is linux.

We use iphones and I have an Android tablet. I don't use the tablet a lot because I just prefer the laptop format.

Oldfeller, I for one enjoy your posts, as I don't follow a lot of computer hardware, but I do think that the Wintel stuff is way too big and complicated and is starting to fall behind.

Windows for media manipulation and conversion,... some file sorting. Photos, videos, music. Disc burning.
Linux for most everything else...

Irfanview, Photshop, Audacity, Freemake, AShampoo, Dupe Finder, MP3Trim,... can't be replaced...

Linux OpenShot is a pretty good video editor...
Audacity doesn't work as well on Linux for me.

I read a lot of your stuff. I do it
Knowing
It's probably gonna be over my head
Or
My Ken Doll won't do what you are talking about.

They were telling you that you have to have the DVD drive boot first, which is the default setting with most normal Windows machines anyway.

So you actually got stopped by Windows, not by Linux.

Stick the DVD in the drive and turn the machine off and then turn it back on -- see what happens after about 5 minutes.

As far as your white rectangle covering up what you need to see, I have not a clue what that was all about.

The important thing is that you have started, you realize it works and that it isn't going to charge you an assload of money to mess you around into spending even more money for something else.

Is it totally totally easy?   No, not always, but like most thing here on the list you can ask for help and get it if you get stuck on something.


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Neat trick, type your question in in plain English into a search engine and you will get an answer or 10 as Linux Mint Mate is supported by a world full of fellow users.

Do you use Firefox or Chrome at all already?    You are not going to find any MS products being used in Linux and the first thing you are going to need is a browser.   You obviously found one already, so that is good.   Firefox comes stock on the distro so that is always a good place to start.   Chrome requires going on the web to Google Chrome to download it.

Did you really install the 32 bit disk?    That is the big question now.

You can answer that question by taking out the DVD disk completely and turning the machine off and back on again with nothing in the DVD drive -- wait 3-4 minutes until it finishes loading and tell us what you get from that exercise.

ALWAYS REMEMBER, If you want to dual boot to Windows, you have to say yes to the dual boot question when it comes up in the installation menu series of question/responses.



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You can always decide to use Firefox as it is built in to the distro itself.    If you go 64 bit you can try downloading Chrome again and by trying to do so you will see if your machine is really a 64 bit machine.   If not, it will not install.

What machine do you have, anyway?   True 32 bit machines are sort of rare these days ......

I use Windows 10 and am logged into Linux servers all day at work using Putty.  I wouldn't need Window except that my company develops software in C#.  That said, I don't hate Windows like I did 10 years ago when I was a staunch Linux supporter.  Looking back, I did that mostly because I hate paying the Windows tax on hardware and though it made me "smarter than you".  Then I realized having to send my laptops back to the manufacturer to get a $65 Windows tax refund wasn't even worth wasting my time over.  

We have ZERO Windows machines at home.  I mostly use my phone, but we do have 3 Mac Books and a laptop with Lubuntu on it.  On the rare occasion that I need a computer, I usually prefer the MacBooks over my Linux laptop.  I can log into Linux servers or surf the web with either, but prefer the trackpad on the MacBooks.  Otherwise, I don't care what I use.  

I actually don't really give two craps about desktop OS.  To me, they all accomplish the same tasks just fine.  I mean, 99.9% of the time all we ever do with them is web browsing, email, and composing a document every once in a while (which I do in a browser. anyway.)  I don't really understand why anyone cares much beyond the increased security risks with Windows (which can mostly be attributed to user stupidity).

If you forced me to buy a new laptop today (assuming I don't have to code C# on it) I would be torn between a Linux machine or a MacBook.  I would probably get the MacBook because I like the trackpad better and the gestures work out of the box.