Linux adventures
Dec. 16th, 2021 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoSo, I took that old secondhand netbook, and I put Linux on it. Success!
After reading through some options, I decided to go with Linux Mint 20 in Cinnamon. It suited the netbook's specs, and the installation seemed very beginner-friendly. And, I'll confess, it helped that the local library had an approachable book on Mint specifically (Linux in Easy Steps). I like instructions on paper, what can I say... ;V
Anyway. Making the flash drive was challenging, but exciting (and only took one try to do correctly. Nailed it). Installing it was not quite as easy as expected - ran into one issue where I had to go into the BIOS and change a setting, but after that I was able to get it to install and boot Mint correctly.
And then I tried to download all of the updates at once, which promptly broke something. ...So I just re-installed Mint, then downloaded updates in batches, and then everything seemed to be running smoothly. ;)
Not going to lie, having the ability to easily wipe and re-install the OS is very comforting. It's not all that easy for Windows these days, since Windows doesn't automatically come with installation discs the way it used to. It used to be a relief to know that if I totally fucked something up, reinstallation was as simple as shoving a disc in the drive - and considering I had Windows ME on my primary computer for years, this was uhhh something past!me had to do on more than one occasion.
So, it's nice to know that if I screw up something on this "experiment computer", fixing it will be extremely simple, too. I don't plan to do much customization for this netbook, since I intend to use it mainly for writing fic and occasional web browsing (though that includes resource-intense sites like Youtube). All my needs are covered by what comes pre-installed.
I don't really plan to get very adventurous with Linux. Though I do feel like I should gain some familiarity with the terminal, even if I don't plan to actually use it much. I guess I'll have to see what the Mint book has to say about it. And I should probably learn how to install programs that aren't in the application selector, even though I currently don't need to. It would be useful information to have.
I do own a second netbook that I was thinking about installing Linux on, but it would probably have to be a different distro - that particular netbook is from 2010, and I don't think it could handle Mint 20. For now, I think I'm going to leave it as-is. It's just a word processor at this point - I don't even have wifi enabled on it at the moment, and I think it's going to stay that way.
To be honest, though this was interesting, the whole process took me to like... the edge of my ability. I'm only moderately literate when it comes to computers. Most of my experience is practical stuff related to using decrepit Windows systems - in other words, trying to make Windows ME and Windows Vista meet my very minimal needs (for perspective, I used Windows ME up until like 2008, and didn't stop using Vista until 2019; in both cases the switch was because of new computer purchases). I'm somewhat okay at searching, which is how I managed to fix the BIOS setting that was giving me issues with Mint. But for the most part, I'm just flailing blind and working through as best I can from documentation and whatnot. Unfortunately, all this means that both family and coworkers have the impression that I'm some kind of computer genius, since I know stuff like "what is an external hard drive, and how do you use it" and "how to set Google as your web browser home page" (or even "what is a web browser, why would you want to install a different one, and what is an adblocker"). orz
...Anyway. I'm glad that I did it! I found it interesting! I will stick with Windows for my main computer for various reasons, but I'm very happy with Mint on my travel computer. I probably won't try any distros other than Mint any time soon, though it's nice to know that if I do want to give one a shot, it's possible to make a bootable drive and try it out before committing.
After reading through some options, I decided to go with Linux Mint 20 in Cinnamon. It suited the netbook's specs, and the installation seemed very beginner-friendly. And, I'll confess, it helped that the local library had an approachable book on Mint specifically (Linux in Easy Steps). I like instructions on paper, what can I say... ;V
Anyway. Making the flash drive was challenging, but exciting (and only took one try to do correctly. Nailed it). Installing it was not quite as easy as expected - ran into one issue where I had to go into the BIOS and change a setting, but after that I was able to get it to install and boot Mint correctly.
And then I tried to download all of the updates at once, which promptly broke something. ...So I just re-installed Mint, then downloaded updates in batches, and then everything seemed to be running smoothly. ;)
Not going to lie, having the ability to easily wipe and re-install the OS is very comforting. It's not all that easy for Windows these days, since Windows doesn't automatically come with installation discs the way it used to. It used to be a relief to know that if I totally fucked something up, reinstallation was as simple as shoving a disc in the drive - and considering I had Windows ME on my primary computer for years, this was uhhh something past!me had to do on more than one occasion.
So, it's nice to know that if I screw up something on this "experiment computer", fixing it will be extremely simple, too. I don't plan to do much customization for this netbook, since I intend to use it mainly for writing fic and occasional web browsing (though that includes resource-intense sites like Youtube). All my needs are covered by what comes pre-installed.
I don't really plan to get very adventurous with Linux. Though I do feel like I should gain some familiarity with the terminal, even if I don't plan to actually use it much. I guess I'll have to see what the Mint book has to say about it. And I should probably learn how to install programs that aren't in the application selector, even though I currently don't need to. It would be useful information to have.
I do own a second netbook that I was thinking about installing Linux on, but it would probably have to be a different distro - that particular netbook is from 2010, and I don't think it could handle Mint 20. For now, I think I'm going to leave it as-is. It's just a word processor at this point - I don't even have wifi enabled on it at the moment, and I think it's going to stay that way.
To be honest, though this was interesting, the whole process took me to like... the edge of my ability. I'm only moderately literate when it comes to computers. Most of my experience is practical stuff related to using decrepit Windows systems - in other words, trying to make Windows ME and Windows Vista meet my very minimal needs (for perspective, I used Windows ME up until like 2008, and didn't stop using Vista until 2019; in both cases the switch was because of new computer purchases). I'm somewhat okay at searching, which is how I managed to fix the BIOS setting that was giving me issues with Mint. But for the most part, I'm just flailing blind and working through as best I can from documentation and whatnot. Unfortunately, all this means that both family and coworkers have the impression that I'm some kind of computer genius, since I know stuff like "what is an external hard drive, and how do you use it" and "how to set Google as your web browser home page" (or even "what is a web browser, why would you want to install a different one, and what is an adblocker"). orz
...Anyway. I'm glad that I did it! I found it interesting! I will stick with Windows for my main computer for various reasons, but I'm very happy with Mint on my travel computer. I probably won't try any distros other than Mint any time soon, though it's nice to know that if I do want to give one a shot, it's possible to make a bootable drive and try it out before committing.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-17 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-17 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-17 03:25 pm (UTC)My experience is that you will have to become familiar with the terminal whether you like it or not to fix the things that keep going wrong, but hopefully Mint on your hardware will have fewer issues than Ubuntu on mine and yours just stays working ;;
no subject
Date: 2021-12-18 03:28 am (UTC)Ew. Well, that's good to know, even if I'd rather not. xD Out of curiosity, what kind of issues have popped up for you? Like, stuff not working properly after updates, or what? (I want to get an idea of what to expect).
no subject
Date: 2021-12-18 04:05 am (UTC)...I think I have just been unlucky, hah, so you will probably have a better time xD Fortunately, my experience has also been that there are lots of advanced users who have probably written the command to fix any given issue somewhere on Stack Overflow for you to paste into the terminal.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-18 05:47 am (UTC)It does sound like for any given problem, there's somebody out there who's also had the same issue, and also somebody who's figured out a way to fix it - so it's just a matter of finding the right info!