It's been almost exactly a year since I bought a second hand Dell Latitude 7490 laptop computer, loaded with Linux Mint as its operating system. I had experimented with several flavors of Linux in the past, including Mint, but none of them had actually stuck, until this one. A year later, this one is still my daily driver.
When the Dell arrived, I was immediately impressed with its performance and user friendliness. The computer practically configured itself, automatically adding both of my printers, and finding my wireless network so that I only had to type in my WEP password to get online. I was literally ready to roll in minutes. Most of the applications I needed were present, although I chose to replace the outdated version of LibreOffice with the latest one, downloaded from the LibreOffice Website, and installed manually, using one terminal command I had learned from the Crostini experiment. I had everything configured to my liking within an hour, and quickly realized this computer was exactly what I was trying to turn my Chromebook into, but which it was simply not capable of being, and thus the Chromebook was almost instantly retired.
The novelty of having a new (to me) computer was enough that I set my old MacBook Pro aside to take some time to acclimate myself to the Dell, but the funny thing was I never really picked it back up again, except to retrieve needed files and transfer them to the Dell via a Web-based tool called Snapdrop. After a couple of months, I realized that it, like the Chromebook, had effectively entered retirement.
The eBay seller from whom I had purchased the Dell had thoughtfully included a bootable flash drive with a copy of Linux Mint to be used to restore the system, if necessary. But after being greatly satisfied with the Linux Mint experience on the Dell, I decided to use it to load the operating system onto my HP Windows 10 laptop, creating a dual-boot system. I did this so that I would still be able to access both the files I had on the HP and the applications with which I had created them. Linux Mint ran marginally better on that computer than had Windows 10, but in the end, it was just too slow, especially compared to the lightning fast performance of the Dell. Such are the joys of running a system with modest system requirements on a machine with resources far greater than that system needs.
About a month after I had acquired the Dell, I spotted an eBay listing for another Dell 7490 laptop at less than half the price I had paid for mine, albeit with a quarter of the onboard storage capacity. Its internal solid state drive held 256GB, versus my Dell's 1TB. Still, for such a modest price, I decided it would make a good replacement for the HP, so I took the plunge. The computer was advertised as not having an operating system, but in fact had an unregistered copy of Windows 10, loaded down with enough adware to make it next to useless. Within an hour of being delivered, the second Dell was booting into Linux Mint, courtesy of the same flash drive, never to see Windows again.
Over the past year, a couple of things about Linux have been reinforced for me. One is that desktop Linux need not be difficult to use, and the other is it isn't just for programmers. It is true that there are dozens of Linux distributions out there, and some have steeper learning curves than others, but if you stick with the more mainstream distributions, such as Mint or Ubuntu, you will find they are mature, user friendly, well supported, and well suited for most users. Some people think the only legitimate way to run Linux is from the Terminal screen, and that's their prerogative, but I am no programmer, beyond knowing the rudiments of HTML, and I almost never type commands into the Terminal. When I do, I most often just copy them from a Web site, and if it doesn't work, it's because I mistyped something. Day in and day out, it's just point-and-click, no different and no more complicated than Windows or Mac OS. The ironic thing is many people don't realize they're using Linux already, as both ChromeOS and Android are based on Linux.
So, for the past year, I have been using Linux Mint on both of my daily driver computers, and for the first time in more than 30 years, I do not have a Mac OS machine in daily use. This was never a scenario I would have imagined a year ago, but I feel just fine about it; in fact, it is rare that I even think about what operating system I'm using, or that I have become a full-fledged full time Linux user. I'm just using my computers to do what I need to do, and they're far more than adequate for my needs. I won't say 'never' again, but I have no desire to ever own a Windows computer again. I use them at work, because that is what my employer supplies, and they drink deeply of the Microsoft Kool Aid. Another, Mac at home? Maybe someday, but for now, count me firmly on Team Penguin!*
*For those who are not aware, Tux the penguin, as pictured at the top of this article, is the official Mascot of Linux.
No comments:
Post a Comment