Linux

Trying something different here, and so far it seems like a good investment. If you could call free software an investment. For years I’ve had solely Windows computers, and have gone through the inevitable iterations of Windows XP to it’s successors, finally having an issue with Microsoft’s recent ultimatum of “get a new computer or you won’t be able to upgrade to Win 11”. Which to me is kind of a cross between a power play and a money grab. What are you supposed to do with the computers that are suddenly not good enough for your newfangled software? Trash them? Recycle? Not everyone has the spare money to invest in a new computer just to be able to kowtow to the latest shiny bauble. There has to be another option.

And fortunately, it’s sort of been under my nose the whole time. I even dabbled in it several years ago with another computer, because I was getting tired of it always being slow, and no matter what I did, the slowness remained. At that time Linux was just moving away from the Red Hat only days, and there was a new OS version called Ubuntu that was gaining interest and traction in the computing community. Being open source, it was free, so you didn’t have to pay a license fee. As long as you were a bit tech savvy (or could follow somewhat sketchy directions), in theory, you could get yourself a different OS and hopefully be content with something that was neither Windows nor Mac. So I gave it a whirl. Burned an iOS image onto a CD, loaded it into the computer aaaaand…..was disappointed. It just wasn’t enough of a change to make it worth my while. The hoops were just a bit too big at the time, and I didn’t have the patience to make it work for me. Honestly, I don’t think I gave it enough of a shot, because it was just easier to go back to my Windows computer and try to fix the issues I was having. So I put that to bed and went on with my life.

Fast forward to the cusp of 2025-26. For the past year I’ve been having issues with my Lenovo laptop. Windows 10 has always been a bit slow on the computer, even when I got it from the seller on eBay. I thought a change in hard drive (the one it came with was a small 250 gig mechanical drive) would speed things up, along with reinstalling Windows to start fresh. I bought a 1TB SSD, installed it and reinstalled Windows. And after a day or two, it started to slow down. Not just in boot, while I was trying to work with it. And as each day passed it just got slower and slower. Not wanting to spend $$ letting someone else fiddle with it, I tried reformatting the drive and another reinstallation. Same result. It worked for a day or two, and then it just started to drag. It shouldn’t take 10 minutes to boot a computer and then several minutes to do anything on it. Even opening a program took forever. This is not what I signed up for.

I went into the Disk Management portion of the Settings and changed the size of the Windows partition, halving it so I could install something else on the remainder. I’d been kicking around the idea of dual booting the computer, so I could try out a newer version of Linux. Something a little more streamlined, something that looked like Windows but was definitely not. Doing a bit of research, at first I thought about Zorin, because it mimics the look of Windows 11, but it just seemed a bit too complex. I finally hit on Linux Mint as it looks and acts a bit like Windows 7/8, so it’s a bit more of what I liked Windows to be, before the massive upgrade to version 10.

Next problem was how to do the dual boot. It’s been a minute since I’ve had to do something like this, and the process has changed a bit over the years, since computers don’t normally come with hardware like CD & DVD burners anymore. Now it’s all iso’s and bootable flash drives. Luckily Google is your friend, and ask it the right questions and you get the right answers. After familiarizing myself with the capabilities of a program called Rufus; I was able to successfully navigate creating a bootable flash drive with the Cinnamon iso, and it was ready to go. But the computer still needed a little prep work.

Fortunately, all it required was a change in the boot order; making the computer talk to the flash drive first before it went on to the main hard drive to run the machine. That accomplished, booted to the flash drive and let the whole thing work it’s magic. About 45 minutes later it was all done. Mint was installed on the empty partition and it was good to go. I removed the flash drive, rebooted the computer aannnnddddd…..it worked! Booted up flawlessly, ran very speedily, and I was presented with a desktop that looked quite familiar, and in some ways not. But that was to be expected. A little housekeeping, and it was able to connect to my network very easily. It found my printer (instead of a printer or USB cable I have my printer connected to my network switch) without a hiccup and it’s been running like a top ever since I first started with it. Friends, I think we have a winner.

Sure, there are a few flies in the ointment; not every Windows-compatible program works with it, but the vast majority of them do. My tried and true password program is a no-go, but there are alternatives, I just have to learn how to make them do my bidding and learn their ins and outs. Ditto for my usual photo imaging software, that’s sort of a kick in the shin, but I understand there’s a pretty good one called GIMP that does a lot of the same things. Just have to learn it. Luckily, I have time.

So that’s basically it. The great Linux experiment is off to a good start. Now, it’s not like I’m completely abandoning Windows, I still have a used HP business computer running 11, and I have several other computers that I’m planning on putting other iterations of Linux on, just to learn more and keep them running. Never know when you might need a computer upstairs for guests if we ever have them again. So, here’s to experimentation!