Windows 11
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I spoke with corporate security.
We’re not upgrading.
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Tuesday was the big day when Microsoft showed us what pricks they are. I read that over 400 million perfectly good PCs would be thrown away due to their irresponsible decisions.
As you know, I've gone back and forth on what to do... what to do... and I finally made a decision Tuesday. I decided to go with Linux. Linux Mint with Cinnamon. I've worked on Linux systems a lot at my old job (all the servers) although never used one as a desktop, even though I had a Linux partition on my desktop for some time.
I've just created a bootable flash drive from which to install the new OS. Since I have a lot of room on my disk, I've decided to keep Windows 10 as is for now and install Linux Mint on a separate partition just in case I need to go back to Windows for something I might have forgotten about. But if this Mint build works well for me, I'll eventually give it the whole disk.
Wish me luck.
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since the only thing I use my old non-Windows 11 eligible computer for to do my taxes every year, I was planning on splurging on the $30 one year extension for support rather than buying a new computer. when I went into the process to buy the one-year extension, it turns out because one time in the last 7 or 8 years I played around with backing up my computer to the cloud, they said I was eligible for the one-year extension for free. (I don’t use their automatic back up. I think I literally tried it for one day.)
so I’m good for one more year. 30 bucks saved!
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Saying hi from Linux Mint! It went reasonably well... about 6 attempts, but three of those were because I kept going back to make sure I wasn't overwriting what Windows calls my "C:" drive. A few hitches with compatibility but easily fixed. It was almost like being at work again. One glitch was quite alarming (it was fatal) because it couldn't write the boot partition, but again, that was a compatibility problem that was, after some fretting, an easy fix.
So, $35 for a 512 Gig flashdrive from which to install Linux and 2.5 to 3 hours work and waiting. Much better than forking out for a new PC or MAC (which I seriously considered). And when I want (unlikely) or need (probably) to go back to my Windows PC, it's still here.
Bye, Windows. It's been an interesting 40 years.
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Linux gaining ground.
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@dougg - Maybe this is a place to start your Linux exploration:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-switch-your-windows-10-pc-to-linux-mint-for-free/
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Finally, not everyone is thrilled with Windows 11 being turned into an AI-agentic operating system. Despite all the AI hype, some people don't want AI second-guessing their every move or reporting on their work to Microsoft.
No kidding.
It's been over a month since I switched to Linux Mint with the Cinnamon UI. Since most of my time on the computer is now spent in a browser, there is little difference in look and feel. The only difference is I'm using Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge. Almost every software is going to have a few annoyances. Firefox is no different, but the adblock extension works well with it, and that (besides security) is my highest priority.
I am very happy I switched over to Linux. For decades all the programs I wrote at work were meant to run on Linux, so although I was not the systems person, I knew enough to get around. That helps. It's not entirely foreign to me. Plus, I was always comfortable with the command line because I started programming pre-Windows. (Command line knowledge is not entirely necessary to run a Linux UI, but it's helpful.)
Mint has been taking little longer to boot than my Windows OS did so I'm looking into that. I ran all the pending updates and switched to a local mirror, but it still takes a little longer. I may try one of the other distributions at some point, for comparison. But for now, I'm pleased with Mint/Cinnamon.
eta: Mint comes with a great photo editor for free: Gimp. But unlike Photoscape, that I used on Windows, it is sophisticated enough to sport something of a learning curve. I'm still learning.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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Finally, not everyone is thrilled with Windows 11 being turned into an AI-agentic operating system. Despite all the AI hype, some people don't want AI second-guessing their every move or reporting on their work to Microsoft.
No kidding.
It's been over a month since I switched to Linux Mint with the Cinnamon UI. Since most of my time on the computer is now spent in a browser, there is little difference in look and feel. The only difference is I'm using Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge. Almost every software is going to have a few annoyances. Firefox is no different, but the adblock extension works well with it, and that (besides security) is my highest priority.
I am very happy I switched over to Linux. For decades all the programs I wrote at work were meant to run on Linux, so although I was not the systems person, I knew enough to get around. That helps. It's not entirely foreign to me. Plus, I was always comfortable with the command line because I started programming pre-Windows. (Command line knowledge is not entirely necessary to run a Linux UI, but it's helpful.)
Mint has been taking little longer to boot than my Windows OS did so I'm looking into that. I ran all the pending updates and switched to a local mirror, but it still takes a little longer. I may try one of the other distributions at some point, for comparison. But for now, I'm pleased with Mint/Cinnamon.
eta: Mint comes with a great photo editor for free: Gimp. But unlike Photoscape, that I used on Windows, it is sophisticated enough to sport something of a learning curve. I'm still learning.
Thanks for sharing your Linux experience!
@Bernard said in Windows 11:
Firefox is no different, but the adblock extension works well with it, and that (besides security) is my highest priority.
I was using Firefox but switched to Brave several years ago. I think it's better in a bunch of ways, including being faster than Firefox.
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Finally, not everyone is thrilled with Windows 11 being turned into an AI-agentic operating system. Despite all the AI hype, some people don't want AI second-guessing their every move or reporting on their work to Microsoft.
No kidding.
It's been over a month since I switched to Linux Mint with the Cinnamon UI. Since most of my time on the computer is now spent in a browser, there is little difference in look and feel. The only difference is I'm using Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge. Almost every software is going to have a few annoyances. Firefox is no different, but the adblock extension works well with it, and that (besides security) is my highest priority.
I am very happy I switched over to Linux. For decades all the programs I wrote at work were meant to run on Linux, so although I was not the systems person, I knew enough to get around. That helps. It's not entirely foreign to me. Plus, I was always comfortable with the command line because I started programming pre-Windows. (Command line knowledge is not entirely necessary to run a Linux UI, but it's helpful.)
Mint has been taking little longer to boot than my Windows OS did so I'm looking into that. I ran all the pending updates and switched to a local mirror, but it still takes a little longer. I may try one of the other distributions at some point, for comparison. But for now, I'm pleased with Mint/Cinnamon.
eta: Mint comes with a great photo editor for free: Gimp. But unlike Photoscape, that I used on Windows, it is sophisticated enough to sport something of a learning curve. I'm still learning.
@Bernard said in Windows 11:
not everyone is thrilled with Windows 11 being turned into an AI-agentic operating system
This is a huge pain in the rear for me. My work machine is a Windows 11 machine, and I have little control over most of.
Copilot (MS's AI) wants to insert itself into everything and it's hard to turn off. It's like Clippy. I mostly have figured out how to get it out of my way, but it still tries to get me to turn it back on periodically. It is hugely annoying.
Also, in MS Word, I feel like MS's grammar checker comes up with incorrect suggestions more than it used to. I ignore them, but I notice the inaccuracy more. I type fast and sloppy, so in the past the grammar checker + spell check were pretty helpful but much less so now.
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@Bernard said in Windows 11:
not everyone is thrilled with Windows 11 being turned into an AI-agentic operating system
This is a huge pain in the rear for me. My work machine is a Windows 11 machine, and I have little control over most of.
Copilot (MS's AI) wants to insert itself into everything and it's hard to turn off. It's like Clippy. I mostly have figured out how to get it out of my way, but it still tries to get me to turn it back on periodically. It is hugely annoying.
Also, in MS Word, I feel like MS's grammar checker comes up with incorrect suggestions more than it used to. I ignore them, but I notice the inaccuracy more. I type fast and sloppy, so in the past the grammar checker + spell check were pretty helpful but much less so now.
@ShiroKuro said in Windows 11:
Also, in MS Word, I feel like MS's grammar checker comes up with incorrect suggestions more than it used to. I ignore them, but I notice the inaccuracy more. I type fast and sloppy, so in the past the grammar checker + spell check were pretty helpful but much less so now.
I noticed the incorrect grammar suggestions when I was using Chrome. It was very annoying.
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Thanks for sharing your Linux experience!
@Bernard said in Windows 11:
Firefox is no different, but the adblock extension works well with it, and that (besides security) is my highest priority.
I was using Firefox but switched to Brave several years ago. I think it's better in a bunch of ways, including being faster than Firefox.
@wtg A question regarding Brave. I'm giving it a spin. It's fast. However, visited links are not greyed out as they should be. Example: coming to this site, all the topics are the same color--nothing I've already read is greyed out, so it's hard to know if there are new posts anywhere.
Is this the same for you? Did you have to do something to fix it?
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Interesting. I never noticed if there is anything greyed out. I look at the Unread icon in the upper left area, and if there's a number there I just click on it and it brings up the list of things that I haven't read. That's my driver to read new stuff.
I logged in as my admin persona in Firefox and am trying a few things out.
I wonder if some of these features operate differently depending on the skin you use. Which skin are you using? I do see that at least one skin (the one I picked for my admin account so I know if I have superpowers on) seems to change the color of the thread title after I look at the thread. On my regular account I use
FlatlyVapor, which is a dark skin. -
Interesting. I never noticed if there is anything greyed out. I look at the Unread icon in the upper left area, and if there's a number there I just click on it and it brings up the list of things that I haven't read. That's my driver to read new stuff.
I logged in as my admin persona in Firefox and am trying a few things out.
I wonder if some of these features operate differently depending on the skin you use. Which skin are you using? I do see that at least one skin (the one I picked for my admin account so I know if I have superpowers on) seems to change the color of the thread title after I look at the thread. On my regular account I use
FlatlyVapor, which is a dark skin.
