Moving to Linux

I have used almost all of the Ubuntu releases since the 5.0X versions. I went away from Ubuntu around 2012 when the traditional desktop and went to the touch screen oriented display. I was working in software development at that time and was used to having multiple open applications displayed at the same time on a desktop. It was very difficult to do with Ubuntu's desktop.

The Mint releases kept a traditional desktop. Plus the release included a lot of drivers and audio and video applications that were not part of Ubuntu since they are not open source.

The Mint releases are based upon the Ubuntu so most of the help for Ubuntu works on the Mint. Both have very active and useful help forums.

Get several 2 gig USB sticks and use LiLi USB Creator to create bootable images of the Ubuntu and Mint releases. This allows you to use each for a while to see good or bad in each release. I did this on most new releases so I could decide if I wanted to upgrade before making any changes to my main computer.

The only problems I have had, was with MS Office documents. Large documents with a lot of formatting and multiple fonts can be problematic doing group edits.

dryfly wrote:
I've been through all the versions of Windows over the years and have currently got Win 10 up and running with only a few problems left unsolved. HOWEVER, I can see the future for Windows and I'm not impressed.

I have to agree. I was given a newer low end laptop that only has ONE memory slot ! With 8 Gb of memory, Win10 runs like a dog !

In my previous life I was the admin on a couple of different medium sized Unix/Linux servers. Not sure why I want to even bother with Win10 (I am writing this old Win7 laptop witn 8 Gb memory and a SSD. Does everything I want it to do.)

dryfly wrote:
So I've decided to gradually get my feet wet with Linux with Ubuntu 16.04.1. I preciously had looked at Mint but found more step by step instructions available for the beginner for Ubuntu.

I have played with Mint in the past and I would recommend this as a good starting point. The best part about Mint is it is setup, ready to go as soon as it is installed.

The biggest issue with any flavor of Linux is choosing your desktop. The simplest one (IMHO) to deal with is Xfce.

About the only thing I missed last time I played with Linux/Mint was a simply graphics editor, like Windows Paint. Gimp is overkill. I just want something to crop and resize images.

dryfly wrote:
I only have one piece of hardware, a Canon flat bed scanner, that will not work due to no Linux drivers.

I have successfully run several pieces of Windows software using WINE. I had an old Epson flat bed that I just threw out. New ones are not that expensive these days.