Linux Mint is real nice from the ‘it just works’ perspective. Common things like you mention are preinstalled and the default (cinnamon) UI feels very familiar coming from Windows.
Back to this comment to report that I took the dive. I have a second laptop that wasn’t getting used so I wiped it and installed Linux mint. Love it so far and no issues with any of the basics. Took me all of 1 hr to get up and running.
If it works well (and I mean very well), I will consider doing the same on my main machine. The one the family uses. Maybe just set it up so I boot both windows and Linux… Either way. Very happy with the results so far.
I’m currently using it on my HTPC and laptop with pretty good results on both. Going to switch over on my main machine in the near future as well, whenever my next format is, which will probably be when Win 10 goes EOL.
Main growing pains for me has been just re-learning stuff I previously knew. But, I’m really liking that I feel like I’m in charge of the OS again, the same way I felt back when Win 7 was a thing and the OS did its best to get out of your way.
Good to know and thanks for the tip. This was back when I did more on a personal computer, but I remember spending hours just trying to get software to work. Again, this isn’t something I need to worry about today, but getting Octave (free version of Matlab) to work on Linux was a nightmare.
Linux Mint is real nice from the ‘it just works’ perspective. Common things like you mention are preinstalled and the default (cinnamon) UI feels very familiar coming from Windows.
Back to this comment to report that I took the dive. I have a second laptop that wasn’t getting used so I wiped it and installed Linux mint. Love it so far and no issues with any of the basics. Took me all of 1 hr to get up and running.
Fuck yeah man! Glad to hear it is working well for you so far! <3
If it works well (and I mean very well), I will consider doing the same on my main machine. The one the family uses. Maybe just set it up so I boot both windows and Linux… Either way. Very happy with the results so far.
I’m currently using it on my HTPC and laptop with pretty good results on both. Going to switch over on my main machine in the near future as well, whenever my next format is, which will probably be when Win 10 goes EOL.
Main growing pains for me has been just re-learning stuff I previously knew. But, I’m really liking that I feel like I’m in charge of the OS again, the same way I felt back when Win 7 was a thing and the OS did its best to get out of your way.
I do like the control aspect. I also really enjoy how clean it feels compared to windows.
Good to know and thanks for the tip. This was back when I did more on a personal computer, but I remember spending hours just trying to get software to work. Again, this isn’t something I need to worry about today, but getting Octave (free version of Matlab) to work on Linux was a nightmare.