I used to have one machine with 98SE on it and one Icon, I think it was :"My documents" would be replaced with something else from time to time, I have no idea why... heck, I even still have that machine.. might drag it down and see, its a Celeron 633 IIRC
I'm curious, besides one gaming machine and some backup systems I'm running mostly on Linux, did anyone else make that jump as well? I have a few modern machines running Linux Mint 17.3 LTS with the Cinnamon desktop and also older machines which also run this OS, mainly older dual cores and one single core Sempron 145. I started long ago with Fedora which I didn't like, it was troublesome on the machine I tested it on, this was around 2004, that machine was to be fair already a bit antiquated, Compaq Deskpro P-II 400 I also tried SUSE Linux on it and this did run quite well, it was version 9.0 or 9.1 IIRC, later on I always kept a few Linux test machines around and I switched to Ubuntu/Xubuntu around 2006 until 20103, after that I tried Linux Mint 13.xx which is still running on some of the really old machines, on the more modern ones it will be 17.3 until 18 comes out, so far Mint has been the most comfortable Linux distro for me, the range of machines I have it running on is quite diverse and none of them has been troublesome. That's my story so far, anyone else have his/her own Linux story?
I've played with various variants of Linux on various computers, but for the most part have stuck to Dos or Windows. The one that I do recall off the top of my head is DSL and running it from a USB still With the Raspberry, I think it's time to play a bit more with it.
I made the full switch to Linux Mint and planned to leave Windows in the dust. That was the PC before this one, and it lasted exactly 3 weeks before that PC bit the dust (I've since repaired it). My new PC came with Windows 10 and a metric *yay* ton of new technology. While I'd like to switch everything to Linux Mint 17.3, many of the programs that weren't accessible to me before now are via Windows 10, and now I have to decide whether or not I want more privacy or more flexibility.
I understand your dilemma, I can do all ordinary tasks with Linux, word processing, browsing, you name it, it does it except a few things like gaming, for that I still need Windows but that is slowly changing, despite the almost hilarious amount of different distros and being fragmented Linux is growing up.
I dabbled about with Linux at uni, got pretty good with it, then forgot about it when I stopped working IT. At the back end of 2014 the i3 Windows 7 office PC was running like a well oiled donkey, so I needed to reinstall it. The restore partition didn't work and I didn't have a disc, so out of frustration, I stuck Mint on it. Brilliant operating system, I can do anything I need to do (I don't play games), and it just sits and works. The only downside lately is the shockwave player has given me stability issues. I've switched yahoo mail back to the old interface and things have improved a lot. I run a Mint/Win7 dual boot on the laptop, mainly because I need Publisher for a document template our car club uses a lot and a specialist printer, the rest of the time it runs mint as it's faster and the battery lasts longer. Personal opinion of Mint as a none-1337 luser, it's a great desktop OS. I have one Windows-only computer left, it's an old XP box under the desk that literally does big FTP uploads and nothing else.
You don't really have to do that anymore, not really. I have the family computer setup with Linux Mint 17.3, and I let the niece and nephew use it, and they have no trouble. They're both under 10.
I haven't used the terminal in ages, the only thing I use it for is to setup one monitoring program and even that is as simple as running an old DOS program, in the past you indeed needed it for setting up stuff like graphics and the like but nowadays Linux is quite easy.
Yep. I set it up last night on the family PC. It had Windows Vista on it and was being buggy, so I figured this was the best time to do it. I setup the primary account (mine) and two user accounts, one for each of them. Mine has everything, while I removed access to the menu and the terminal for them, and hid the applet bar (I put all the games and education tools right on the desktop). They'll be able to have fun, and enjoy the system and all without ever having to use the terminal.
I hope so because everytime I watch a youtube about linux they always do the more neat stuff via typing and that kinda bugs me about ever trying it.
The terminal is more of a bonus feature, something handy to have if you're a power user. Linux, though, can do almost everything via its point and click interface. Linux Mint 17.3 is currently my favorite flavor, and is probably the best for balance between power users and casual users (IMO).
Nah if I get the urge it will be a clean install. I do have a spare 120gig SSD on hand I could try that.
I have a USB question. I have a USB 3.0 enclosure which can hold a 2.5 HDD or SSD and it works fine with a mechanical drive inside but the moment I put an SSD into it it starts misbehaving and not connecting properly. Seems odd that that might happen. I'm somewhat stumped. BTW tested the same SSD drives inside the PC to rule them out but they are fine. Could there be some kind of issue with the enclosure?
Sounds like its indeed not entirely compatible with an SSD, might be that the SATA controller of the enclosure is of an older type which, since USB speeds are not that high SATA I would be fast enough for a HDD but maybe unable to deal with an SSD.
Hmm.. had to google fu that, seems that even old SSD's rarely draw more than 4 watts, newer ones around 2 watts and that is about the same as a 2.5" harddrive, guess you'll have to stick to that powered dock then.