Finally decided to get rid of Windows

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wtburnette

2[H]4U
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Jun 24, 2004
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For years, I was in IT support and was also a gamer. Because of that, it was better for me to be a Windows guy. A few years ago, I got into Information Security and also my desire to game has gone way down. Over the weekend, I finally decided to install Linux Mint on my main PC, instead of the Windows 7 I had been using. Now, I'm not new to Mint. I've been using it since version 14 or 15 on a spare laptop. I've enjoyed it so much I just decided to dump Windows entirely. Installed it without any issues and it's up and running fine. Screw Redmond... :D
 
I did the same on my Ideapad U310. The last update to Windows 10 caused the wireless card to flake out and it wouldn't stay connected for more than 5 minutes. I never had the issue with Win 8.1 and the previous build of 10. I decided to install Elementary OS and to be honest it hasn't bothered me that I don't have Windows on the machine. I do have a VM that runs windows 7 just so I can VPN back to the house when I travel to RDP into my servers. I could do it with a bunch of apps in Linux but that is just easier to open the VM for 5 minutes.
 
Yeah, I realized that 90% or more of what I do on a computer I can do just as well, if not better, under Mint. Some of the games I'd hoped to play won't run under Linux, but I'm not sure I really care.
 
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Hi All

I too dumped Windows a while ago. I have Mint on my laptop & now have Manjaro on this machine.
 
Welcome to the dark side!

I think it's a great switch that pays off more and more the longer you stick with it. Honestly Steam has a growing library of linux games and I even though I rarely have time to play anything I like to support developers that take this path.
 
When I installed Mint on my laptop a couple years ago, I was so impressed I haven't put the hard drive with Windows on it back in since. Been itching to put it on my desktop, but always stopped because none of the games I play were supported. Finally got to the point where I rarely game, so I figured what the heck. I still have Windows 7 installed on a separate drive. If a game comes out that I just have to play, I'll just plug it back in and carry on... :D
 
Congrats! Once Windows 7 and 8.1 stop working I'll be joining.
 
For anyone looking to switch to Linux, Don't forget Ubuntu MATE. It's all a matter of personal opinion, but I prefer Ubuntu MATE over Mint. Best of all if you like the layout of Mint, Ubuntu MATE can be configured to look literally identical.
 
DPI said:
Congrats! Once Windows 7 and 8.1 stop working I'll be joining.
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My original intent was to wait for the EOL for Windows 7, but then Redmond did their idiotic move to only allow rollup updates and not individual updates. Screw that. I've been burnt by MS updates one too many times to want to go through that BS.
 
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wtburnette said:
My original intent was to wait for the EOL for Windows 7, but then Redmond did their idiotic move to only allow rollup updates and not individual updates. Screw that. I've been burnt by MS updates one too many times to want to go through that BS.
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Just skip the updates and stop using Win7 for anything outside gaming. Use linux for daily runner. That's what I do (except that I have the house full of Apple gear through work so I'm using linux mainly in server role atm).
 
Pretty much. Windows drive is still intact, just unplugged. If I want to game I can easily switch, but I don't see that happening for a while.
 
I moved to Ubuntu full-time about this time of the year in 2010. So I'm coming up on my 6th year anniversary. (First dabbled with Linux in 1999 though, and used it at work before making it my daily driver at home.)

I think I might check out Solus next. Those guys are doing some good work and have their heads screwed on right it seems.

As for games... frankly... there's so much out there these days that it's easy to keep myself entertained with what's available on Linux or Android. I've already given up on getting through my Steam backlog.
 
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BulletDust said:
For anyone looking to switch to Linux, Don't forget Ubuntu MATE. It's all a matter of personal opinion, but I prefer Ubuntu MATE over Mint. Best of all if you like the layout of Mint, Ubuntu MATE can be configured to look literally identical.
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I went with Mint but with the MATE desktop instead of Cinnamon. What's the differences over all between Ubuntu MATE and running that manager on Mint?
 
auntjemima said:
I went with Mint but with the MATE desktop instead of Cinnamon. What's the differences over all between Ubuntu MATE and running that manager on Mint?
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TBH I never used Mint MATE, I always used Mint Cinnamon and found that it didn't quite allow for the customisation that the MATE DM allows for. However I prefer the updater used by Ubuntu MATE over Mint, I find the Control Centre to be more featured and out of all the distro's I've used I find Ubuntu MATE to be the most stable.

Honestly though, if you've already installed Mint you may as well just stick with it and configure the updater to install all updates.
 
Alright. I wouldn't be against trying Ubuntu itself, but I've already configured my Updater to install all updates.
 
auntjemima said:
Alright. I wouldn't be against trying Ubuntu itself, but I've already configured my Updater to install all updates.
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Honestly, I've got nothing against vanilla Ubuntu - But the only time I ever had issues under Linux oddly it was always when running Vanilla Ubuntu with the Unity DM.
 
I find Ubuntu to be very out of date with newer stable software releases, especially when I'm looking to find a specific version. No thanks to that with any Ubuntu-based distro.
 
BulletDust said:
Honestly though, if you've already installed Mint you may as well just stick with it and configure the updater to install all updates.
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So the recommendation is to install all updates? I just read the descriptions and it was talking about category 4 and 5 updates possibly being unstable, so I only selected the "safe" updates. Someone school me :)
 
wtburnette said:
So the recommendation is to install all updates? I just read the descriptions and it was talking about category 4 and 5 updates possibly being unstable, so I only selected the "safe" updates. Someone school me :)
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I used to install all updates including category 4 & 5 and kernel updates and I never had an issue.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
I find Ubuntu to be very out of date with newer stable software releases, especially when I'm looking to find a specific version. No thanks to that with any Ubuntu-based distro.
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I just add the PPA containing the latest version of the software I want, never had an issue with third party PPA's.
 
I dumped windows for work purposes 7 or 8 years ago and have been linuxing ever since. Started with Ubuntu, then Kubuntu, then Mint, then Xubuntu, back to Mint, now back on Xubuntu and have been staying put.
All of the distro jumping was because of software and version compatibility. For instance, I really liked Ubuntu, till Unity. Tried Kubuntu, was slick, but seemed resource hungry. Then Xubuntu, but it was missing a lot of stuff I liked. Then Mint. Really like the desktop but it used old buggy version of software I needed. Back to Xubuntu which used newer versions, and worked. Had to get use to the spartan feel but I like it well enough.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
I dumped windows for work purposes 7 or 8 years ago and have been linuxing ever since. Started with Ubuntu, then Kubuntu, then Mint, then Xubuntu, back to Mint, now back on Xubuntu and have been staying put.
All of the distro jumping was because of software and version compatibility. For instance, I really liked Ubuntu, till Unity. Tried Kubuntu, was slick, but seemed resource hungry. Then Xubuntu, but it was missing a lot of stuff I liked. Then Mint. Really like the desktop but it used old buggy version of software I needed. Back to Xubuntu which used newer versions, and worked. Had to get use to the spartan feel but I like it well enough.
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All the distro's you mention are all based on Ubuntu, so they should all use the same Ubuntu repositories? Even if they don't, you can just add the repository's as needed for the latest software.
 
BulletDust said:
All the distro's you mention are all based on Ubuntu, so they should all use the same Ubuntu repositories? Even if they don't, you can just add the repository's as needed for the latest software.
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True, but what you run into is that version of dependencies for software can very greatly. For instance Pidgin; It is the only IM software client that work well with our wonky XMPP private company server. Older version of Libpurple had a bug that prevented logging into XMPP servers with self signed certificates. The bug was fixed in later version. At the time Mint didn't support the newer version of Libpurple. Xubuntu did so that is what I went with.
 
BulletDust said:
I just add the PPA containing the latest version of the software I want, never had an issue with third party PPA's.
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As you know my stance already, I don't like adding a ton of PPAs since it can garble a system's stability quick (in my experiences).
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
As you know my stance already, I don't like adding a ton of PPAs since it can garble a system's stability quick (in my experiences).
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Ah, forgot.

You'd frown at the number of PPA's I've added, I refuse to use anything but the latest software. ;)
 
Dr. Righteous said:
True, but what you run into is that version of dependencies for software can very greatly. For instance Pidgin; It is the only IM software client that work well with our wonky XMPP private company server. Older version of Libpurple had a bug that prevented logging into XMPP servers with self signed certificates. The bug was fixed in later version. At the time Mint didn't support the newer version of Libpurple. Xubuntu did so that is what I went with.
Click to expand...

It's really not an issue if you add the official PPA and install the software from somewhere other than the official PPA of the OS in question. I've run almost every Ubuntu variant there is, and i include Mint as an Ubuntu variant, and I've never had an issue with software fragmentation nor have I ever had a single issue adding PPA's.
 
So, allow all updates is the preference for Mint? Just making sure before I change both of my machines... ;)
 
BulletDust said:
It's really not an issue if you add the official PPA and install the software from somewhere other than the official PPA of the OS in question. I've run almost every Ubuntu variant there is, and i include Mint as an Ubuntu variant, and I've never had an issue with software fragmentation nor have I ever had a single issue adding PPA's.
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The PPA route was the first thing I tried; but it would only pull down the supported version instead of the latest (don't ask me why). That version was buggy. I didn't want to try to shoehorn something in that might cause issues, so I went with a distro that worked fine with the newer versions of libpurple. I was very cautious when poking around with software then. I had caused a no boot a few times by poking around without knowing 100% what I was doing.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
The PPA route was the first thing I tried; but it would only pull down the supported version instead of the latest (don't ask me why). That version was buggy. I didn't want to try to shoehorn something in that might cause issues, so I went with a distro that worked fine with the newer versions of libpurple. I was very cautious when poking around with software then. I had caused a no boot a few times by poking around without knowing 100% what I was doing.
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If the older version was still the only one downloading are you sure you entered sudo apt update before downloading the latest version of the software? Sometimes there may be a 1.01 and a 1.02 version of the required software and the copy/paste commands haven't been updated, are you sure you didn't enter sudo apt install 1.01 instead of 1.02?

Just some ideas as this shouldn't be a problem between Ubuntu variants.
 
wtburnette said:
So, allow all updates is the preference for Mint? Just making sure before I change both of my machines... ;)
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This is what I used to do when running Mint and I never had an issue. However this is simply my experience, if you enable all updates and things go pear shaped, you own the wreckage!
 
BulletDust said:
This is what I used to do when running Mint and I never had an issue. However this is simply my experience, if you enable all updates and things go pear shaped, you own the wreckage!
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My concern is the security of the OS. I'm not a linux guru, so I'd hate to wreck my install, but the installation is fast and easy and all my data is backed up, so worst case scenario is the nuclear option :)
 
wtburnette said:
So the recommendation is to install all updates? I just read the descriptions and it was talking about category 4 and 5 updates possibly being unstable, so I only selected the "safe" updates. Someone school me :)
Click to expand...

As with anything, unless you have a reason to actually switch it, then you don't need to worry about it. (Which also applies to the title of this thread) I wouldn't even worry about that setting until you come across an actual scenario where it's a problem, such as the pidgin issue Dr. Righteous had. When that day comes you can decide if what you are trying to accomplish is worth the tradeoff to make the switch. Chances are when you get there you can look at the updates being offered and know what they might affect. I normally don't bother changing it as I don't have a reason to, but it seems to when I looked at what it was wanting to update it was only kernel patches anyway.
 
People running Linux Mint, bear in mind that the software updater also allows for kernel updates, use at your own risk though.
 
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