After many years of trying to figure out Linux and to move to it (Window$ power user that goes back to pre-Windows and DOS days but still found Linux very challenging), found with Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela that it was now much, much easier to install and get up and running to the basics. (Though a Linux install might be "basic" but head-and-shoulders to what a fresh Window$ install is that has nothing, of course!!! <g>).

I'd worked several times with LiveCDs, mainly Fedora 11 though I tried others way back when but I must say that it's now so much easier. Which is great since it's a scary thing to do, completely leave something familiar behind no matter how much you hate it! <lol>

I've been only one week on this new OS and have come a long way but now it's the nitty gritty the last couple of days finding alternatives to my critical apps. Thankfully I found LibreOffice a couple months back which was indicator that times had changed and we really could become free of M$ (unlike OpenOffice, LibreOffice I clicked with).

So thanks for all the hard work! It's much appreciated.

Cheers,

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

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Steve Stites

Hello and welcome to the forum

I'm quickly becoming a convert as well. It's not just the money aspect; I don't like the idea of Cortana being a real entity. If MS can't distinguish between fiction and reality, I'd say it collectively needs to see a psychologist.

Side note: I hate spelling "psychologist"; it messes with my brain.

Cortana ... once again, just a "me, too," this time of Siri ... is insidious and therefore, like Siri, "a thing to be feared."

This computer application wants to "get to know you." Wants to discover everything about you ... and to send it ... to who-knows-who, who-knows-where, entirely without your knowledge or consent.

Thousands of people, who don't live in the United States, who in fact live only a few hundred air-miles from a place where the United States has been continuously at-war for more than fifteen years now, will have access to these "juicy details" about your life, and the lives of your children ... and you will never even know it. The more you share with these "personal assistants" of yours, the more vulnerable you become ... and you will never know it.

Today we live in a time in which we seem to think that "Knowledge is not Power." That computer technology and a world-wide intercommunications network cannot be used for very bad things. Where, it seems, there is no fact about one's life that should not be broadcast to the world using services that make no secret of the fact that they intend to keep it (forever) and analyze it. We are stupendously naive about the actual implications of this.

When we think of "World War III," we can only think of navies and armies. When we think of "secret ops," we can only think of Cold War era spy movies. We think that it takes trillions of dollars to "be secure," and that, if we do spend "trillions of dollars," we are secure. But the truth is: we live in a day where vulnerabilities that never before existed are now common. Those vulnerabilities are entirely of our own making. We imagine that no one who is pure-evil exists, or has imagination. Every glittering coin that we see has no dark side.

1 members found this post helpful.

Great that you found what you were probably looking for. Ideal solution for me isn't total dedication to a single OS but combination of several. I shall and will forever keep Windows7 on my laptop with Centos 7 being an alternative boot. I've seen enough of failures of linux on desktop to just rely solely on it. An Android phone and a tablet, and it's complete.
And oh, Windows 10: a laptop that talks back at me creeps me out. Absence of Windows Media Manager just cemented my decision. No to 10.

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Not feared, just avoided.

Regards...

I've been windows free for 3 years and it FEELS GOOD!!!!!

1 members found this post helpful.

I too was a "power user" with Windows for many years. However, I started playing around with different Linux distros about 15 years ago, starting with Knoppix. I only devoted a few hours a year to these. About 6 years ago, I finally settled in on Linux Mint-MATE, and now am using v17.2. I must say, that I am dual booting with Win7 on most of my machines, but use Linux 99 of the time.Actually, I only need Windows in order to run TurboTax. And yes, as you have found, there are many free, comparable, programs in Linux.

Me too. I wish they'd get with it, though, I now use the wife's pc for that and my own stuff all runs Linux.

JSheppard,

Welcome to LQ.

Glad you have seen the light.

Thank you to everyone's kind replies!

I'm sorry for delay, though I had pesky issues in WinXP, things were more or less functioning and I really need to get that functionality back here. One of those was my POPPeeper ... when it worked, it kept me abreast of all my email accounts in the systray. So my first question will be here how to get Mail Notification, Linux equivalent to POPPeeper, to work! I miss all my emails when they're not there in the systray <g>.

Cheers!

JSheppard,

According to this thread you should be able to use your original XP POP Peeper via Wine:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=92686

These links may help:

https://www.winehq.org/


https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorial...tions-on-linux

Welcome aboard.

(I've been free of 'that' OS since 1999!)

JSheppard,

Mail Notification has mixed feedback from users:
http://community.linuxmint.com/softw...l-notification

MN:
http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/


There is also Mailnag:

http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/...-notifier-ppa/

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/07/mailn...new-major.html