I'm a very new old person who wants to become free of Microsoft and Apple operating systems. I'm sick to death of the constant "updates" from Microsoft because everytime they do update, they screw up something in my computer that had been operating just fine prior. So my question is, if I change over to Linux/Ubuntu or whatever is the best platform, will I become free from those idiots who seem to delight in messing up what used to work great. Thanks for any and all advice. Keep in mind, I'm old (77) so please talk in language that I can understand. I'm sort of "tech" saavy but not always.

Ray

Being old has nothing to do with knowledge or being able to learn. And didn't you do this seven years ago???
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...er-4175457948/

And you have to define "messing up" in some sort of quantifiable way before anyone can help you. Doing a major version upgrade will change things in Linux, same as it does in Mac or Windows. If you use Gnome and they change some things behind the scenes, then it will 'mess up' things. Either you need to be comfortable with things changing, or computers really aren't for you. Ubuntu has changed a LOT in the past seven years, so has Mint, KDE, Gnome, and pretty much all other tech. It will change again in the future.

Unfortunately not. Linux is about choice, sometimes too much as you found in your other thread (which I only briefly skimmed).
Most Linux variants (distros) have a regular update cycle which usually pops up a notification, just like Windows. Can be random, can be regular, but each has the potential to break something you had working just fine. Hate to mention it given your trials so far, but video rears its head here, as does wifi. And 32-bit is on the way out for the popular distros.
Even if you buy a new rig, there are potential breakages on the horizon.

I see you have been trying to get Mint going - I would persist with that were you to get a new system. But if 10 people offer an opinion, you likely get 8 different answers. Sorry, but that's the nature of the beast.

With Linux you definitely have more control. I'd strongly recommend an LTS(Long Term Support) distro instead of the rolling model(this is what Windows 10 also uses).

There will be updates, and even though it's best to install them for security reasons, there is nothing keeping you from not updating or turning off those annoying notifications informing you that there are updates available. Updates are installed when you want and not the next time you reboot, and in fact you usually don't need to reboot after an update.


They say it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks but I've got a friend who's in his 80s that's very happily running Linux on an old desktop. That's not saying you won't have problems figuring out Linux.

You might also find useful information in my signature.

Debian Stable might be the best choice for you.
But if you get deadly sick and start calling people idiots as soon as something changes, I foresee that you won't be happy even with that most conservative distro.

At least in Linux, you carry out the updates at a time of your own choosing. They don't just come down the line automatically and crash your system as I understand is common in Windows 10. You can do a backup before each update as a safety precaution. But in my experience updates don't usually break things unless you are using one of the rolling release distros like Arch or Debian Sid. Those are definitely not suitable for people of our age.

Remember that big, complex packages are more fragile than little ones, so for stability I would go for a simple window-manager-based desktop, not a full desktop environment like gnome. In Linux you can choose your desktop; you don't need to use your distro's default DE if you don't want to. Not having a DE simplifies your system internally which has a double bonus: it makes it more stable against updates and easier to understand.

Hazel,
I have three Windows 10 boxes on my home network and non3 of them has ever “crashed” because of updates. Yes, it’s a PITA that the updates are pushed unconditionally (I left my quickbooks open...the update screwed it up...my bad)
That said, I don’t disagree with you otherwise …

Try Linux by installing it on a not presently used PC. Figure out what you like and don't like and learn how to steer things on a Linux system. Then think about converting to everyday use.

As others have said, using Linux shouldn't mean you escape updates: they are important for patching security issues and fixing bugs. However, the differences between Linux and Windows are:

1. Updates are at the discretion of the user. You can decide when or, even if, to update your system. You can disable update auto-checking.
2. The frequency and extent of updates you receive will depend upon the distribution you use.

In the case of point 2, it is worth saying that rolling-release distributions (e.g., Arch, Manjaro and Debian Sid/Unstable) will have the most 'dramatic' update schedule, with potentially tens of updates (at least for software packages) from one day to the next. By definition, the rolling-release distributions will also ship distro updates as they become available. Although there are some differences of approach between distributions - for example, the Manjaro maintainers are slightly more cautious than those for Arch (and particularly the Arch User Repository!) - rolling-release distributions as a class present the greatest risk of either a system break or simply a software package update that makes considerable changes for the user. Given your expressed concerns, I would avoid any rolling-release distribution.

That brings us to point-release distributions. These receive security updates and important fixes, but otherwise they should be pretty stable in terms of the distribution itself. Package updates can vary from distribution to distribution (e.g., Debian Stable is more conservative in package releases compared to Ubuntu), but software versions will generally lag the very latest release, or at least take a little while to be added to the repository (unlike with rolling-release distributions). The big thing to watch out for with point-releases is whether the version you're considering is a long-term support (LTS) version. For example, Ubuntu 20.04 is an LTS release and will receive full support for five years, with extended security support for another five years beyond that. The upcoming 20.10 release will receive Canonical's support for just nine months.

As someone else has said, I think you would be best served by trying Linux Mint. Mint's main edition is based on the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, and you can expect support for about five years. Moreover, Linux Mint are more cautious with software package version updates (not security updates) compared with Ubuntu. This means you might have slightly older software than on Ubuntu, but I think it provides better insurance against having a program update that changes a user interface or similar. If you select the Cinnamon desktop version of Mint, you will find the user interface the most similar of any mainstream Linux distribution to a Windows 7 desktop (and Windows 8 and 10). That said, by the nature of changing your operating system you should expect to learn to do some things differently.

Actually rolling release doesn't inevitably mean problems. I've been using PCLinuxOS for 8 months now and only had one bad update. That was to a game, so not a major disaster, and the problem was fixed in 24 hours.

Nevertheless, what you want is a distribution that

• is user-friendly
• is reliable
• has good documentation
• has a community which is knowledgeable and helpful

The Mate version of Mint covers those points: here's the documentation
https://linuxmint.com/documentation.php

PS Like Hazel, I too belong to your generation — don't under-estimate yourself!

Agreed; I use openSUSE Tumbleweed, and have had one issue in years of use, which was fixed rapidly as well. And it was a small issue..nothing that prevented normal operation.
I am not far behind myself.

Newbie_2_Linux,

It would be useful to know details of your current hardware (make and model of PC/laptop, RAM, CPU etc).

Have you changed your hardware since 2013?

See link at post #2:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...8/#post4930536

1 members found this post helpful.

Broken link. I believe this is the post beachboy2 is referring to.

Ok, first let me say thanks for all of your help and advice. I have one desktop PC that I pretty much use for everything. I do have a couple of laptops but only for when we hit the road in our motorhome. Anyway, what brings me to this point is the latest update of Win10 seemed to disrupt my video and I had to do a driver update in order to get my computer to stop freezing up. Upon buying a driver update program, it did a search of my box and found 6 drivers that had to be updated in order to stop what was happening. I did try Linus Ubuntu and Mint some years ago but for some reason I removed it and never went back. I may just build another box and set it up with only a Linux platform but now that I have done all the above reading, I'm more confused than ever. I had no idea there were that many different OP's. Thanks to everybody. I will continue to read up on the subject but my head is very cloudy right now with all this new info. I think I will go back to the beginning and read up on the subject.

Not sure what you're confused about: the entire point is, "Everything updates and changes, no matter what". That's it...Mac, Windows, and Linux are ALL going to update.

You haven't quantified what you mean by 'messing up', but it sounds like your entire problem was that you didn't keep your system up to date. And Linux (like Windows), stops working well with old hardware at some point. Nothing new there...if you expect an ancient video card to work with a current OS, your results may not be what you want, simply because the manufacturer doesn't support the hardware any longer.

And if you actually PURCHASED A DRIVER UPDATE PROGRAM...that is your biggest problem, since it most likely was either malware or plain junk. Drivers for all of your hardware are available from the various manufacturers websites **FOR FREE**. So if you bought that program, it is likely that you purchased others like it....that is not the fault of Windows.