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Mainly Linux Mint

I have been using Microsoft Windows since 1982 when the first edition was released. I have had every version Microsoft has ever produced. I have upgraded and installed every single one. Some of the editions I have found to be very reliable and capable of doing most anything you ever wanted to do on a computer. However there have always been frustrations and learning curves that varied with each upgrade.

I still have to use windows 7 and 10 because of my business in order to serve my clients - all of whom have some version of windows on computers and laptops.

So....I do have windows on one each of my desktop and laptop computers for that express purpose. And sadly there are specific programs I need that only run on windows, so there is that advantage to the windows machines.

That being said...I have also been a fan of Linux for almost as many years and have installed and tried out so many flavors or Linux it is hard to recall all of them. I even recall one called "Lindows" that I played around with until it "died away" forever. There was Knoppix (which I used to great advantage whenever a Windows computer would not boot up) that would boot and allow me to recover files from failed computers. A really neat advantage in those cases that seem to come more and more frequently with the Windows system.

So, after trying so many different distros of Linux, I came to discover Linux Mint. I fell in love with Mint almost from the start of the first version.As a long time user of Windows I found the user experience in Mint very easy to transition to....

I now have a desktop running Mint 16, an old HP netbook (would you believe it?)running Mint 17, an HP i5 running Mint 18.3 on a SSD drive that just "Smokes!!!", an ASUS 11" netbook on SSD with Mint 17, an HP i3 running Mint 18 that is used as a personal cloud that is always on, a Toshiba i3 with Mint 18 that I keep attached with HDMI to my big screen TV to show movies, access the web and can even (using linux) display 3D movies on the old TV, and then my main notebook, a new ASUS 2n1 i7 running Mint 19.

When I purchased this ASUS 2n1 it had Windows 10 as you might suspect. It was as slow as it could be. I was so frustrated I nearly returned it, but then I thought "how would it be if it ran Linux Mint?".Well....I just Love this machine now. So quick to start up and runs like a dream.It is now on Mint 19, which was the edition at the time I set it up, but I look forward to 19.1 in the near future. I use the new ASUS to design my web pages and have found the "Brackets" web authoring program to work really well.

So..that's my story, and how I grew to like Linux Mint.

I decided to create this site to share the things I have learned along the way, problems I have resolved (with the help of many on the web) and hopefully to provide help and incentive to others who will give Linux Mint a try and learn to love and respect it as I do.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find things you can use to your advantage on my site.

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