Mint and Me: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Linux

I first heard of Linux in 2004 or thereabouts. It was interesting, but I didn't have my own computer, so it wasn't like I could install it or anything. All the computers in the house belonged to my parents.

I had a classmate who used Linux in 2007. She had trouble using Stella, the program we were required to use for our mathematical-modeling class. It would crash frequently on her machine. So I didn't get Linux.

After Vista, Windows 7 and 10 were pretty darn good. So I didn't get Linux.

Then, support ended for Windows 10, and I heard some concerning things about Win11. I'd also used it on my work computer for 6 months and was very unimpressed. The Start menu defaults to only showing 3-4 programs, and you have to select each new program individually to get it to display on the default view--a really dumb change after 30 years of Start showing everything. Not only does it integrate genAI in all of the worst ways, but "Shut Down" no longer turns your computer off.

I have been using computers for nearly all of my 40 years. When you choose "Shut Down," it is supposed to shut down the OS, and in newer computers, it is supposed to also turn the machine completely off. Not "Sleep." Not some additional standby mode. OFF. No power. No Internet. OFF.

I use a laptop. A gaming laptop. If I leave it in a bag in sleep mode, it will get very hot. This is dangerous. I would rather gargle molten glass than have a laptop that cannot turn all the way off when I want it to.

And so, I needed to install Linux. A helpful friend gave me info on which instance of Linux was easiest for a beginner (Mint) and what to use to run Windows apps when I wanted (Wine). All without ever having to install Win11.

(That's right, kids, it took something as astonishingly bad as Windows 11 to get me to make the switch.)

Doing this was scary. I'd been using Windows computers almost exclusively since Win3.1. That's a long time to get used to one company's idiosyncracies.

I also discovered that since all of my flash drives were in storage, I'd need to buy a new one. A minor setback, but worth the trouble.