Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Seriously Tired Of Microsoft

Do some research and then get back to us.

I'm not sure what your complaint with the local phone co. is but if you have the option of land line DSL service it will solve your problem. Satellite service is metered and you pay for the usage. DSL is only billed for the download speed so they can update all they want. It might slow you down when it's updating but that usually happens during the night.

Well, I swapped out a Microsoft Windows 7 HDD from a desktop PC and switched to Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon on a new drive, took a little learning curve, but installed easily and updates are fast and easy. This is the PC I'm using to post this message.

Completely burned Windows 10 off a laptop, installed Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, and was up and running in minutes. Setup my home network, Internet connection with VPN (HMA) and it runs flawlessly. These OS's can be setup to dual boot, but Windows is just like finding a soggy cigarette butt in your cup of tea, not very appetizing, so I don't plan on keeping them around.

I put Linux Lite on an old netbook with only 1 gig of memory because the automatic update from Win 7 to 10 made it a dog. I really like Linux Lite.

There are grundles of different Linux OS's. You might want to search for "best linux OS for me" or something like that. I found many different such lists, with reviews, comments, and suggested uses. Mucho helpful. Many of them come with Firefox, Open Office, games, and more included - without all the usual Windows bloatware.

On my desktop, I'm still running Win 10, and have absolutely no complaints. I'm on Comcast cable for internet only, and so it's limitless, fast, and very reliable. I have a few "must have" programs like Quicken that only run on Windows, or I'd probably change the desktop to a Linux system, too. Financial programs are the one area where Linux sucks ditch water. There just don't seem to be any programs that are as versatile and easy as Quicken. Developers must assume we're all accountants or CFOs, because Linux-based financial programs all seem to be geared that way.

I have never used a phone as a computer, or a camera, or a GPS, or a coffee maker, as some folks do. I like dedicated tools for given jobs. If you use one machine do do everything, none of the above may apply to you. Your choice.

Isn't that why he's asking for options?

Bullchit

Rocky: You need to look up WINE . It allows running Windows programs under LINUX. Frankly, I was amazed at the capabilities of WINE. It's isn't 100%, but it comes remarkably close. I'm now 100% converted from Window to Ubuntu with only a couple WIN 10 boxes around the house for archival purposes.

I'm about done with Windows myself and have been using a Chromebook for travel for several years now. My two sons both used them in college as well....smaller, lighter, quick to start up, no viruses (!) and they did everything they needed to do. Most anything can be connected to them externally through USB and HDMI ports. Large amounts of data can be stored on a flash drive if need be. Mine is touch screen capable, but I use a wireless mouse with mine. I have never tried hooking up to a desktop monitor, but I'm sure it could be done. Prices run anywhere from just under $200 to over $400 depending on what you want/need.

I was driving. And he did almost die.

When he told his wife...

We went down this road until last month, using cellular only at home for the past 2 years. Found the tethered chromebooks to be extremely limiting, even though our needs are pretty basic. So we learned to use our phones or a tethered tablet for everything. Then caved after the first year and bought a Macbook pro (also tethered) so we could at least do business stuff (print, sign, scan, return, compose) in a pinch. That tiny screen though... ugh.

Last month was the final straw. Sold the chromebooks and the laptop. Bought an iMac and ordered the satellite internet from Dish ($80 for 50 GB, and another 50GB during the night)

It's like the sun came back out after a long winter! Life is normal again. And we don't have to watch our cell limit anymore. Guess I was getting what I paid for and that's what I get for being a cheap bastard. $80 a month is expensive, but it sure is convenient.

Next years step is to phase out all the PCs running W7 at work, and convert over to Mac. I wont ever have anything to do with W8 or W10 (again). I just need to find solutions for Quicken, and for our employee timeclock software.

Thanks for all the help guys. I picked up on a thing or 3 with this thread.

ViaSat...

Tag

Ubuntu and UBlock.

You can get Linux up and running for less than $10 or be lazy like me. I got a xtrapc USB stick $25 and booted up my old desktop and it did the setup. No more MS updates and twice as fast.

It's office software is like basic excel and word but works fine. Comes with firefox for internet. After two years I am still happy with it.

I have been in I.T. For 40 years and also hate MS but need to use it at work.

You can get Linux Mint, a fork of Debian, up and running for free.

Nice installation guide.
Can boot from a DVD or USB flash drive so you can fool with it without committing to your system.
Several flavors of graphical user interface.
Easy install - had drivers for all my hardware.

Just purchased a new PC for my mother for her Christmas present. Her current PC has Vista on it, and only 2gb of ram. Between my mother constantly having every possible program open that she can and the grand children thinking that it's a gaming machine, it just slows the thing down to a stand still. The sad thing about about it is, it's only used as a word processor and for email. I tried to get her to use Linux, but she's not up to it.

The new machine I purchased for her has Windows 10, an I5 quad core 3.4ghz processor and 16gb of ram. I'm going to put a password on the new PC to keep the grand kids off of it.

Once I move the files from her old machine, I'm going to load up a SIMPLE version of linux. Puppy ? DSL ? Mint ? Lite ? Im not sure yet, but the grand kids can play all they want with the linux box.

What is your favorite version of Linux ?


Jeff

I see Mint has gone to forking from Ubuntu. So they'll track updates from the very popular Ubuntu. For a while they had both forks.

I used the Mate version and I was comfortable with it coming from Windows. I'll probably go with the Cinnamon version now that I have a reasonably powerful machine, requires more resources than Mate. It's a more powerful GUI but not as traditional as Mate.

I have used Ubuntu for years and love it.