A Windows user tries out Linux Mint

On 27Mar2021, Linux Mint ate Microsoft Windows 10 on Legolas. Three months on, I conclude beyond any doubt that wiping out Windows was the best decision I ever made. The second best decision I ever made was to test Linux Mint in Virtual Box five years ago. The third best decision I ever made was to take ownership of the learning curve that migrating in Windows really entails. A quick reminder: what’s Microsoft Windows like nowadays? I still need to use Windows at work. I cannot easily describe how painful it now is to use Windows. So I’ll try to describe it difficultly. My work machine is a powerful beast, but it exhibits constant latency. For a keyboard-orientated power user, this means that some keystrokes go walkabouts when other services on the Windows machine go to nuclear war with each other, scrambling to feed their narcissistic self-importance for besieged system resources wholly at the user’s expense. Something on Windows tends to clear the keyboard buffer randomly, resulting

Life got a little bit busy in 2020.  Can't think why.  It might be something do with the world throwing its brains out of the window and doing the proverbial headless chickens about a supposed disease with a measurable mortality rate so low that, of course , it justifies nonsense because, after all, we need to abolish death by natural causes.  Even though the same promoters of this nonsense also believe that the world is overpopulated.  Go figure. So the game is back on to move away from Microsoft.  And also from other mainstream IT providers.  They all seem to want to engage heavily in "cancel culture".

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. Having established that there is no way to migrate fully from Windows to Linux , the project now needs to consider running Windows apps in Linux.   This is a big change to the strategy of the project.   This is a big change to the deployment of a Linux workstation, a crushing admission of failure, and the opening of a whole new world of risks to an otherwise secure operating system. Environment & required functionality For this blog post, Wine was tested on: The Linux Mint Xfce 19 virtual machine " Bilbo ", on host Windows 10 laptop " Saruman " The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli ", on host Windows 10 host " Legolas ". Alternatives There are alternatives to Wine/PlayOnLinux, notably the paid software Crossover. Software selection Wine and PlayOnLinux are present in L

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to testing full-disk encryption using VeraCrypt . Environment & required functionality Full-disk encryption needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The objective requirement is to protect user data from the physical theft of the physical machine, to provide an additional line of defence against data loss. This is probably more important for Windows than for Linux Mint.   Even so, in both cases, the operating system is likely to log activity which can reveal personal data and user (meta)data. Full-disk encryption does not mitigate against Microsoft’s sinister telemetry functionality, for which the main solutions seem to be: Either to use tools whose developers are constantly on the prowl, hunting for t

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. After a few months of continuous use of Linux Mint – mainly for simple browsing during workday lunchtimes and weekdays –   the headline of the project remains that wholesale migration from Windows to Linux is not functionally possible , for the reasons cited therein.   In this instance, the short story is no Microsoft Excel, no Foxit PDF browser for Windows, no on-the-fly VPN client. Consequently, there is no further development use of Gandalf.   Gandalf has other issues as well: even in last days as a Windows machine, the hard drive had developed a nasty habit of intensive operation, wasting time and resources on misadventure not commanded by the user.   The habit has returned to Gandalf as a Linux machine, meaning that the user needs to sit around for up to fifteen minutes from time-to-time while Gandalf faffs around for no good reason.   There

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to scanning paper documents to PDF and digitising the scanned text via optical character recognition. Environment & required functionality The scan-and-OCR function needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; A Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". In any modern office - whether at home or at work - some transactional documents and documents from public authorities still arrive by snail-mail. This requires the ability to scan all documents, optionally with the digitisation of scanned text (typically via optical character recognition). The hardware is an old HP OfficeJet Pro 276dw, connected to the LAN instead of directly to a workstation. Alternatives There are two strategies: To use the software pr

As at mid-May2019 , it was clear that the path to migration from Windows to Linux was obstructed by a lack of apps that are fit-for-purpose being available in the Linux environment. Since May2019, there has been no change to the apps/functionalities then listed in the section, "Path to migration is obstructed by apps which are incompatible or otherwise unusable."  Developments in the interim have merely confirmed that the apps available for the Linux environment are not fit-for-purpose, and are unlikely to be fit-for-purpose for the foreseeable future . So, it's time for a change of tack.  The time is right to deploy Occam's Razor. In short, the Linux Mint offers a perfect solution to the jaded Windows user.  The only problem with Linux Mint is not of Linux Mint's making.  The problem is a lack of apps that are fit-for-purpose in the Linux environment.  By fit-for-purpose, I mean apps that meet the hygiene requirements of office-based, corporate lackeys who