This is a survey where you write a simple quick post.

All of you have been Windows Jerked before, it involves MS forcing you to buy a new machine yet again.    This time MS is claiming "security" is the reason, something that makes me chuckle to hear it coming from their MS lips .......

Some of you went Linux last go round, this time around some of you are going Chromebook as your choice of fix (yes MM, I am talking about you).


WHAT THE GROUP NEEDS FROM YOU IS THE BACKGROUND FOUNDATION FOR YOUR CHOICE AND YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE FEED BACK.


We all have choices to make and I am suggesting that making the same PC/Windows 11 choice yet again is going to be counterproductive to your wallet.

Many of us are retired now and do not NEED a Windows computer running Win 11 just to light the same old browser.  

Many of us just use a PC to just run a browser and do some occasional Facebook / Twitter and we only ever do some fairly simple shite with our expensive computer ......   all of which you can do off a Chrome Ready conversion of your old Windows hardware.    Ditto for Linux Mint, your old hardware is still plenty good enough using Linux drivers and is plenty fast enough to do the jobs you need done.

Being coerced into buying a brand new full power PC machine to do this simple type of stuff is just a big waste of money.

MM uses a Chromebook, how is that going for you MM ????

For my main box I use an old Dell box running Linux Mint Mate, and by my bed I keep a 8" Fire tablet that is Chrome enabled.    Mostly, I read books off of it, but when the interest strikes I can do a Chrome search or buy something off Amazon with it just dandy.

What ya got and how is it doing for you ???

For those thinking Chromebook, here is the best deal going at the moment, this one is a Walmart 2 day deal @ $129.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Chromebook-311-11-6-HD-Intel-Celeron-N4020-4G...




Rumor has it that all of Chromebook's short life span issues will be addressed by ChromeReady, giving Chromebooks life spans similar to Linux machines.

Still, you will have to convert your Chromebook to CloudReady when the time comes ........    the same CloudReady can also convert your old dated Windows machine into a Chromebook just as easily.

CloudReady skips booting the machine to an OS and then separately having to go on line with a separate browser --- you just skip directly to the Chromium browser.   Google bought CloudReady and is incorporating CloudReady's tricks into their own Chrome Browser Software.


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Downside here is if you have a piece of old style program that has to run from Windows you may have to get an on-line version of that software or find a Linux program that picks up and writes back to the old format you are using.

Another good trick to remember is to use Libre Office software (Libre Office software has Linux, Windows and Mac versions available)   People keep forgetting that Libre Office reads and writes all the old MS formats, so if you are caught out in this old version situation you should try Libre Office to see if it can open up your old MS format and let you see your data again.  

If Libre Office software  can open it, it can write back into any of the old MS formats, and you also have a chance to change the extension type to whatever the current MS standard you need for it to be.   You can also reset the defaults in Libre Office to open up old stuff and then save your files automatically into the newer format that your end user can read.    

I set this auto open auto save stuff up for my wife while she was still working, and she got a lot of kudos from her instructor buddies as Windows would abruptly stop supporting old file formats that had important teaching stuff in them, but Nancy could open the old file and then save it back in the more modern extension type and thus save all the work folks had invested over the years.   This was much appreciated by her peers.

I'd find my wife sitting at my machine jest a chunkn' away at saving somebody else's butt time and again.

Fast650, I have been a Reaper user for years. I think I got in on version 1. Previous to that, I was doing ADAT 8-track on digital tape. Before that a TEAC 3440s 4-track open real.

It does everything I need to do. However, I haven't really gotten much into VST instruments.

Have been using Linux Mint Mate 17 for about 3 years on your advice, seems to work ok, except for the power cut issue. I have owned HP desk top for just over ten years and it was probably a run out model when I brought it. Still have WIN7 in the computer, but I will need a professional to get my photos on WIN7 on to a memory stick or CD before I get rid of it. Can't do it myself because of so called CONFLICTS. No intention of getting WIN 11.

Eegore, for your work world, you are pretty much locked into Windows software ---- this is a familiar situation we have all faced at work over the years.   You will have to dance the MS upgrade dance and it will cost $$$$$ and aggravation and you will do that dance again and again every few years.

For home use for retired people, Windows is not so much a lock any longer.    

We don't have the large free flowing  $$$$$ going any longer, so sometimes we make choices based on what works for us.

MM likes his new Chromebook, he likes the touch screen.

jcstokes keeps a dual boot Mint system.

bobert_FSO likes Ubuntu and Mint but he keeps an older Windows machine around for "just in case".

These are all folks who made this decision to get off the Windows upgrade treadmill.   We will get a few others ringing in eventually.   And I don't think anybody paints themselves into a corner unnecessarily,  I for example keep one Windows machine (Win 10) that my wife uses for the ghosts of her old work stuff.

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 07/12/21 at 13:13:49:


Okay, if you like that song there is a Swedish band that you should check out, called Siena Root. They are trying to bring back that style of music again. A bunch of their music is on youtube.

Chrome book only has 32 (?)bites of memory  ,   I'm thinking of using memory sticks to plug-in what I need.
You got that part all figured yet .  ?

Mike, you have tons of on line storage available to a Chromebook.   When you use it as it was intended, if you drove a truck over your Chromebook you could open your account on a replacement unit and it would all be there.

Think 30 kids in a class, they each walk in and take a Chromebook from the charger rack and log in to it --- all their stuff is there immediately.

Two kids throw their units out the window and smash them up on the sidewalk --- but they still turn in their classwork at the end of class using another unit from the charger rack.

I agree that Linux is very shaky with printing, especially wireless printing.    This shakiness derives from MS carelessly buggering up the drivers that came with the actual machine as written by the original vendors.   The resolution for this buggering can happen later, when Linus's boys build their own driver for the machine and put it into the Linux kernel itself.

I can buy a new printer, one that supports Linux LAN printing of all my machines and it all works great as installed ----- and I can count on it failing within 1-2 years before MS screws it up with the driver updates they insist on sending out to everybody.

I will fight to get it fixed when it goes bad, with about 50% success rate, then I start eyeballing a new printer to coincide with the running out of the 5 pack of toner cartridges that I bought to support the new machine.

My wife used to print a whole lot for school, now that she is retired and all her old set of buds got laid off at the University she really does not print a whole lot any more.

I too will take whatever I need over to a jump drive and then run the graphic I need printed off on my wife's old machine.   This is my signal to start eyeballing a new printer on super sale around Thanksgiving to Christmas time.

It's funny, MS will break everyone else, but their stuff will keep on working "fairly well".

Then, if the inside the Linux kernel support does not arrive on time for that Brother printer, I will consider buying a replacement printing machine and starting the cycle over again.