Posts by mickaroo 144 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Oct 2016
I'm 'weaning myself off of Windows'.
I have a mostly stripped Linux Mint as my daily drive, and Windows10 in a VM for those days when I can't find any pins to stick in my eyes.
I'm slowly discarding 'Everything Comes With Copilot' and replacing it with FOSS. It may not be a straight 100% replacement, but it gets the job done.
When I shared my goal with a colleague, I received this reply:
"But Microsoft is the industry standard!"
Stuff that...
I feel that the term 'bloat' is relative. I have Linux Mint Mate installed on a Unibody MacBook (dual core processor and 2GB RAM). It has an 80GB SSD with a swap partition enabled. Granted, you wouldn't want to play Crysis on it, but for everyday cooking, it's more than adequate.
I could try installing Windows 10, that might be fun. Windows 11 is a total non-starter...
>> If you are repurposing a Windows machine, you're using the hardware you have and hoping it's all supported <<
I have Linux Mint Mate installed on four different laptops:
1. A moderately recent Lenovo ThinkPad.
2. A somewhat older Lenovo ThinkPad.
3. An much older Dell Latitude.
4. A positively ancient Unibody Macbook.
It installed and worked on all four, without any faffing around.
Granted, installing Mint Mate on my Asus Chromebook wasn't an unqualified success. It works if you have plenty of time to spare and don't need sound. But then, I'd categorize the Chromebook as an "edge case". And good luck installing Windows on it...
The joke used to be:
Canada could have had French Culture, British Politics and American Technology. Instead, we got American Culture, French Politics, and British Technology.
Perhaps the Brains would like to Drain to The Great White North instead? And we could have American Technology after all!
That's if we don't become the much more bigly and much more safely 51st State...
Years ago, I spent many a happy hour playing with xorg.conf to have something resembling a working display. However, I haven't done that in a very long time. These days, I install Linux Mint Mate, and It-Just-Works.
I guess Wayland is coming. But in the meantime, X11 works for me, too...
>> The only verified backup is one that you have restored from <<
Back in the day, we ran an application on OS/2 that generated sequences of files with OS/2 long filenames. Our backup department (off in another building) ran backups of our data daily.
One day, we needed to restore some data. The restore was successful with one caveat... all the files restored with DOS 8.3 filenames and were completely unusable.
After faffing around for a couple of weeks trying different things with different backups (same result), one of the ladies in the backup group called and said "There's a checkbox in the top right corner to restore long filenames. Should I try that?"
That's a big "YES"...!!!
I played with BeOS back in the day and really liked it, but there was no ecosystem. Since then I've messed with Haiku "just because I can" through its slow but steady development. It finally sounds like Haiku may be ready for a serious revisit.
Now... Where did I store that old Core-Duo Unibody MacBook...?
My first computer was a clone 286 with 1MB of RAM and a 20MB HDD (WOO-HOO!). It came with DR-DOS install.
I was still young and knew no better, so I wanted MICROSOFT DOS - THE REAL DOS! I pirated a copy of MS-DOS from a friend and installed it.
Two weeks later, I re-installed DR-DOS and ran it all the way up to Version 6.
I've been running my Mint Mate desktop now through Uma and Una, Vanessa, Vera, Victoria and Virginia, and now Wilma. Only minor tweaks each time...
Unlike 2000 to XP to 7 to 8.0 (briefly) to 8.1 (briefly), back to 7, then to 10. Each required me to relearn stuff. The 7 to 8.0 move was akin to sticking pins in my eyes.
I shan't have that problem with 11, because 11 ain't ever happening on my computer.
I don't even bother with the secondary fermenter. I just let it ferment out in the bucket. Cost per pint? About sixty cents Canadian**.
And yes, homemade beer is drinkable after fifteen days. But it's greatly improved after fifteen weeks.
** Imperial pint that is. Not that 16oz U.S. rubbish...
Many years ago, I was on a project with half a dozen colleagues. They were all running Windows; I was running PC-LinuxOS on an ageing Compaq. We had no Ethernet, we had no Wireless, so file sharing was sneaker-net using flash drives. And someone had a virus…
I’d be given a flash drive with work files on it. I’d open the flash drive, see the “hidden” Windows virus files and delete them. Then I’d do whatever I was supposed to do with the work files, and return the drive.
After about three days of this, one of the ladies on the team put together that when I returned a drive, it was virus-free. And promptly refused to accept a drive from anyone else until Mickaroo had scanned it.
I've been using Softmaker Office 2024 on Linux Mint for some months now.
Good file compatibility and the same "look-n-feel" as M$ Office.
My Office 365 subscription may expire this summer. Terminally.
I do pharmaceutical consulting now, but I used to work for a large, multinational pharma company.
Said company had run foul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We were in an all-hands information meeting to share the findings of the FDA audit, and its impact. One impact was a fine of several hundred million U.S. dollars. One person in the audience asked about the fine. The presenter at the podium replied, without missing a beat, "It's budgeted"
$15,000 is pocket lint.
I've been "retrenched" three times in my career. None of them because of poor performance:
#1: Parent company closed facility because it thought it could make product more profitably somewhere else.
#2: Company swallowed in takeover. Our operating group "no longer core to company's business".
#3: Getting old and costing too much money. I had received an award and a five star rating the previous year. The following year, I received a one star rating, a bullshit written warning, and a severance package.
Just follow the money...
I have a not-so-old Lenovo; it's my daily drive. It runs Mint Mate as the primary OS, with a Windows 10 VM, for those days when I'm feeling masochistic. Mint is a rolling update. The Windows VM is updated every month.
I also have an aging Dell, similarly configured. as a backup if the Lenovo has a terminal brain-fart. It sits in a drawer for months at a time, until I remember to update it. I did that this morning...
Mint updated in about ten minutes with one restart (kernel update). The Windows VM took something approaching three hours. I lost count of the number of restarts.
Masochism at it's best ];-)
>> I know this will be an unpopular opinion with El Reg's population of elderly, misanthropic shut-ins <<
I see what you did there... We're either with you, or we're a "population of elderly, misanthropic shut-ins".
Thinking about it, I am an elderly, misanthropic shut-in. And proud of it ];-)
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