Linux

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
I ditched windows years ago. Initially I used Ubuntu but found it used resources a lot, was slow and I didn't like its general feel. Also found it was limited in software. I then used windows 7 for two weeks and tried Mint Cinnamon 15 I think and since have stuck with Mint. I'm now running Mint 19 Tara on my laptop and the "new" PC in the shed, Mate in the shed and Cinnamon on the laptop.
My 10 Year old HP Photosmart 3200 is recognized on either USB or as a network printer on the laptop, no faffing around, same with two Android phones and my RTL dongle for GQRX etc. Mint comes with Firefox, Thunderbird and Libre office. All sorts of free software is available that costs a fortune for similar things on Windows.
I'd suggest running a live mint USB stick or CD to see what you are missing.
You can also run virtually any other OS and program in virtualbox too.
Have fun.

[ppppenguin]

Trevor, thanks for giving your firsthand experience.

Since Mint is based on Ubuntu (I think I've got that right) the main resource issue is the graphics user interface. Unlike Windows, with all Linux you have a choice of GUI. From very whizzy and resource hogging to lightweight. Or ultimately none at all - drive it from the command prompt. Or headless - the UI is on another computer.

I really must put some Linux VMs on my main PC to have a play. I already run XP in Virtualbox to access some older software so I'm familiar with using VMs. I reckon there's about 25% performance hit from running in a VM. On a powerful PC that hardly notices on most programs, but I'm sometimes running some older Xilinx tools which use a lot of resources. On a low power machine like the OP's running a VM is probably not a good idea.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
LDME Linux will run nicely on an old low spec PC, to be fair though you can pick up 64 bit PC's with at least 250gb HDD's and a reasonably fast processor for not a lot of cash these days. Running a VM on a low spec computer is hopeless so I'd steer clear of that TBH.
When a new distro comes out I download it and then using brasero I extract the image to a DVD or with the inbuilt USB image writer to a stick, its all there on Mint and is faultless. I then change the boot to read off the disc or stick and play around with the latest release. Inevitably a couple of weeks after the release you can upgrade to it from your existing mint installation, also remember you can add Linux alongside a windows installation assuming you have enough HDD capacity.

[ppppenguin]

When you say "Linux alongside Windows" I assume you mean dual boot. So you choose whether to boot the PC into one or the other. This has the merit of both running natively on the hardware. The disadvantage is that you can't instantly switch between them as you can using VMs.

There are "bare metal" hypervisors that allow multiple OS to run simultaneously without the host/guest arrangement of Virtualbox. These are widely used in data centres to provide multiple VMs on each physical PC. I looked at them briefly and for an ordinary user it's intimidating stuff. IMHO to be left well alone unless you have a genuine need.

[Murphyv310]

Al.
The spec of your laptop should run even a recent mint distro. 18.3 Sylvia using the Mate format would be OK but at 75gb you might be struggling for HDD space. Like Jeffrey and the others rightly say you do get a decent OS with good standard packages, eg, libre office, Firefox, Thunderbird mail, media and photo packages all as standard. You need the laptop to connect to the internet for the final installation of packages and updates. Linux will find and configure Bluetooth dongles and wireless USB dongles without driver discs, mint Tara 19 will even find a USB or network printer and configure it so long as its powered on. If its a combined printer scanner, "simple scan" will also work straight out of the box with no configuration needed.
You'll see a little green tick or a blue exclamation mark in the taskbar, this is the upgrade notification, make sure you set it up and do the upgrades its self explanatory, I do them when the tick changes to the explanation mark but I also do the kernal updates, this is reason why Linux is more secure, leave the upgrades and the PC gets more vulnerable although much less than on a windows distro especially XP which I'd not consider using on the internet.

[Alistair D]

Mint 18.3 loaded up very easily. It seems quite simple to use and runs at a reasonable speed. So far so good.

One problem that has defied all attempts  to solve so far is that no propriety drivers can be loaded. As a result the software does not know about my wireless LAN card so I'm stuck with a wired Internet connection. The hard disk cannot be mounted either although the file system etc can be displayed. Trevor, have you come across anything like this before?

jeffrey, earlier on you mentioned that the web browser was Firefox. The recommended software list now has the option of loading Chrome. I'm not the greatest fan of Google but I have to say the Chrome with Startpage as the search engine does make a pretty awesome combination.

I'll keep plugging away at the driver problem and report back later.

Al

[ppppenguin]

AFAIK proprietary drivers are a recurring problem with Linux. I assume you've googled your laptop and/or wireless card to see if there are any Linux solutions.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Been running Mint for a few years, it's a lot less hassle than Windows but if your not a computor whizz kid it can be tricky to do things. There is a thing called Terminal where you type mumbo jumbo like "sudo apt get python wonk fobble hows your father linkwist" and bish bash bosh things happen.

When I get a problem I search online and usually find an answer, there is also a great community and forum for Mint where folk tell you to put stuff like the command line above into Terminal, I just copy and paste mumbo jumbo like that above and keep pressing enter till it works, so it's the same as Windows with less crashes and 24hr updates.

Not got Linux Jeffrey? But you are the Penguin!

Seriously, Linux is great, would go back to Windows if you poked me with a pointy stick and offered me a pallet of Gold bars covered in chocolate.

Andy.

[Murphyv310]

Hi Al.
Are you using the live disc still? If so you won't be able to mount the HDD as you at this time don't have the permissions.
You may find that as the PC is getting old the wireless LAN may not respond. There are ways round this though, the Mint forum is very helpful but you can plug in a raspberry pi wireless dongle that will work, under a fiver too.

[ppppenguin]

Don't know about Mint, but when I've run Ubuntu live from CD my HDDs have been mounted automatically. I've been able to see files, open Word docs in Libreoffice etc.

The concept of "mounting" a disk drive may seem alien to Windows users. The usage dates back to massive interchageable hard disk packs whre you physically mounted a disk pack (weighs abut 10kg!) on a drive the size of a washing machine. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/rp04.html I've actually done this a couple of times. These days it's a logical process to say to the computer that a drive is available to use. Windows handles mounting and unmounting more or less automatically. It can matter with USB sticks where if you pull one out while there is still activity it can fail to unmount correctly.