I took the plunge!

[Binkie The Clown]

I got sick of Windows/7 harping at me to upgrade to Windows 10, and of all the bloat and BS associated with Windows and finally (after several months of playing with double boot) backed up my files to an external hard drive, and installed Linux (Mint-Mate) as my sole OS.

Four days on and everything is humming along smoothly. I should have made the change years ago.

[arcane1]

1. How different is the interface, etc?

[Binkie The Clown]

3. Same functionality

just a few slightly different names and places to learn. Plus there's a MONT forum you can go to with questions, and they are very helpful.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Congratulations!!!!!

There is so much to learn about your OS,,,,,be sure to check out Applications>>>Ubuntu Software Center for apps.
And this is a good group for any questions.

I have not missed one day of Windows since we went to Linux several years ago.

[Binkie The Clown]

4. I have some books on the way from Amazon

One on Mint, one on Linux command line, one on gcc (to help me migrate away from MSVCC for my coding needs), one on GNU Make (MSVCC always hid the details of make files from the programmer so in umpteen years of C++ programming I've never had to look at a make file. It's time I learn that too.)

I've already found several of the programs I use on Win/7 including Audacity, Filezilla, XAMPP, and a decent replacement for Winamp. I haven't played with GIMP yet to see how it compares to Paintshop Pro, but I'm sure it will be fine. The Netbeans IDE looks identical, so that will be no challenge. All in all, it's gone very smoothly so far.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Program called Wine is a Windows emulator.

I have it in my puter but honestly do not know how well it works.
The only Window program I missed was their money/banking one, but found KMoney works fine, just a slight pain in copying stuff over.
The Libre Office suite for Linux is good, and it offers to save Window files into Linux language.

Also, zilions of tutorials on the web, of course.
Best thing is....Linux is smooth and mostly intuitive, not at all clunky, and it sandboxes areas so even if a virus creeps in, it will be isolated.
I don't bother with anti-virus programs now.
But I DO use 3 T external hard drive for my books, music and important files,cause we live in lightening storm country.

Any problems I have, I just turn to Mr. Dixie to fix, he is the puter guru, but has insisted I learn a bit about Linux.

And we are looking at Pale Moon browser.
http://www.palemoon.org/

You are gonna have so much fun!

[cantbeserious]

6. Congratulations - Linux Is Very Mature And Stable - Enjoy

eom

[w0nderer]

7. congrats n/t