Goodbye Windows, and Good Riddance!
I have been getting so fed up with Microsoft, and finally I could take no more! I really loved the looks of the 27" iMac, but I was a bit appalled at the price tag. It took me a while to figure it out, but today I completed my (free!) transition to Linux, and this machine no longer has Microsoft ANYTHING! I am running the Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop, and my old (15 year old) machine is doing great.
Recent Comments
5
I did upgrade the hard drive a few years ago to a 1 Terabyte drive, since I had filled up the 300 MB it came with. Overall the adjustment has been easier than I imagined.
That's probably a really great idea for an older machine. AND no viruses! Maybe not the most important aspect, but definitely nice lol
See more comments
I should have told a little more about the transition. I started looking for an alternative because our computer was having a harder and harder time doing the same things it has always done. Editing videos was pretty much out of the question, and just booting up took forever.
The basic instructions for installing Linux are to burn it to a disc, and then boot from the disc. Our disc drive no longer works, so I found an option for putting the program onto a USB thumb drive and did that instead. You can run the operating system from the disc or thumb drive without it being installed on your computer, but it runs faster if you install it. When you choose to install you can either install it alongside Windows (and then each time you turn your computer on you decide which system to use), or you can wipe the hard drive and have just Linux. The first option is recommended so you can still use Windows as needed, but I was just fed up with Microsoft and did the full wipe (after having first backed up all my files!). Something went wrong at the last moment of installation--a "fatal error!" I turned off the computer, turned it back on, and NOTHING. A black screen with a cursor--not even a message! I thought I was toast, but I got onto the laptop and was able to put "Boot rescue" files on the USB thumbdrive as well. Those files allowed the computer to boot up again using the thumb drive. I tried the install again and it worked!
There's a bit more to the process than I explained, so if someone does want to try Linux just PM me and I will help walk you through it. It has not been long enough to truly judge, but so far I'm very pleased. So pleased, in fact, that even if I had a brand new Windows computer I think I would switch to Linux!