Home Computing -- it works for me

[timmy]

What to do about browsing the internet and performing home and small business computing tasks?

Years back, I worked with PCs from DOS 3.0 up until the beginning of the Windows 2000 and Windows XP timeframe. My personal wars with Microsoft products became less relevant when, in 2001, I took a contract to work on a VoIP system for a large company. By this time, I'd grown so frustrated with Windows that I decided I'd either have to shut up and deal with it, or leave the Windows world.

Even though I'd had very bad experiences with Mac products at a previous job, I'd seen some wonderful things (for the time) from Steve Job's NEXT company running BeOS. When Apple switched to a flavor of BeOS -- OS X -- I decided that this was the way to go. As an old telephone person, I valued UNIX very highly and considered it a better way forward than the CPM-derived Windows OSs. I'm no computer scientist, but I'd had a lot of familiarity with Bell Labs and UNIX.

So, for that contract back in 2001, I bought a Mac laptop and didn't look back until recently.

Linux -- I'd played with it a few times over the years, trying various flavors of SuSE Linux, but about seven years back, I was working with a very bright young man who was educated in the Computer Science discipline, and he recommended Linux Mint to me. He suggested the commonly understood idea that Linux Mint was best oriented to Windows 7 and above users. Even though I was a committed Mac man, i still had to use Windows 7, and later Windows 10, at work.

Microsoft had just combined Linkedin with their Office 365 applications, and I was not pleased about this intrusion into my private security. I quit Linkedin as soon as Microsoft's acquisition of the company was announced.

Later, questions arose over the security of Apple OSs, OS X and IoS. As I was headed to retirement and the cost of Apple computing was steep, I felt that it was time to make another move.

I still use my iMac (and my Wife uses her Mac Mini) for general use, but I have found Linux Mint to be a very good alternative to the products of large corporations.

My first system was for Home Theater. I built a system for this that was partially destroyed by a lightning strike (this system still lives as a NAS -- another story) and now run what is now an older system that provides our entertainment: Movies, TV shows, internet videos, and Music clips all run on this machine.

In the last year, I bought an older used HP laptop that dual boots between Linux Mint and Windows 7 64 bit. I bought this because I needed a Windows system that would support several shooting programs I use, and also diagnostic software for my old Volvo. I downloaded Linux Mint for it and the Mint software partitioned the laptop's 500 GB hard drive so that I can use the laptop for everyday functions, and also take it out to the shooting range or out to the garage for tasks that require mobility.

Linux Mint comes with a well-rounded software suite: Open Office handles word processing and spreadsheet functions, Thunderbird handles email (I still use my Mac for email, not Thunderbird, but I've tried it in the past and it works OK), and Firefox available as the browser.

The thing is, one can never have total confidence of security on the internet, but Linux and the Mint distribution is probably a very good choice, as it is continuously updated to fix problems.

Finally, I use a stripped down Linux Mint installation on an old Intel Atom motherboard for repetitious duty that requires it to be continuously powered. Since this is a fanless cooling system that I've built with an SSD hard drive, it is very efficient in power consumption. I stripped all of the applications that I don't use from the Linux Mint Suiite and so it has a very efficient profile in my home network.

Now, I'm not saying that Linux Mint is the "best," whatever that means. What I am saying is that, if you are tired of Microsoft's second rate software spying on you, and if you can't or don't want to swing the expense of an Apple system, I suggest you should think about running a Linux distribution system. This might be something that you buy or build yourself, or it might be an older system that's getting a little "long in the tooth." Whatever you have, Linux Mint can partition your hard drive and, if you have enough space on it, allow you to keep your old work and compatibility, while allowing you to extract a few more years of use.

How old of a system can run Linux Mint? I found that I was unable to run it on an old Pentium 4 system, but for many systems more capable than that (my Intel Atom system is barely a notch above the Pentium 4 system in capability and power), it certainly works.

Linux Mint requires some, but not very much "computer savvy" to install, and one can quickly become used to navigating it, especially if one is currently a Windows user. Lacking working knowledge of computers, it may be reasonable to have a friend install it on one's machine, new or old.

I'm not saying that Linux Mint is the best distribution to use, if one is contemplating making a move to a different OS. There are many others out there. There are even Linux distributions for very old systems (which I'm going to try on some of my pre-2000 systems in the future). I'm only saying that I've found Linux Mint to work well for me, and perhaps you might, as well.

I recognize that what I've said may not find wide usage among our members here at IFG, but it may be helpful to a one or two of our members, and it's to those folks that this post is directed.

[Corliss]

Great to hear about your positive experience with Linux Mint! It's refreshing to see alternatives thriving outside the dominant operating systems. Your detailed journey from Windows to Mac and finally settling with Linux Mint showcases the versatility and adaptability of open-source solutions. Thanks for sharing your insights and encouraging others to explore beyond the mainstream choices. It's always valuable to hear about different computing experiences. Cheers to a diverse and customizable computing landscape!