For anyone who might be interested - don't laugh, it is within the realm of possibility that someone might be - I have been using Linux Mint for the past few days and am coming to finding it as entirely satisfactory as I have any other operating system I've used. No, that's not true, I'm finding it more so than either the object of cult devotion that is the Mac OS or any of the various DOS (ugh!) or Windows versions I've used. It is entirely superior to either Windows 10 or the odious Windows 8, which might be the OS's I've hated the most of any I've used.
I got a clean and very inexpensive disc of it from OSDisc.com in the end, after finding the free download system with its incredibly frustrating regime of checking md5 checksums and the like more frustrating than helpful. With that clean disc, once I found out how to disable the "safe-boot" monstrosity of Windows 8 and deciding to just install it, wiping Windows off of my computer [AFTER COPYING ALL OF MY WANTED FILES TO FLASH DRIVES] it was easy as anything. Mint is designed to be an easy step from Windows to Linux and I found it to be that, though it has a few differences I'm still learning about.
I'm using the
same Libreoffice word processor so that wasn't much of a change, the
same for Audacity audio-editing (though I'm hoping to be able to use my
dear old Audiolabs editor with it through the Wine application) and most
of the other software is either exactly the same or identical.
I've also tried Puppy Linux and like it, having installed it on a flash drive so I can carry it around to other computers I might have to use. I also tried Tiny Core which is, indeed, fast due to its tiny size but which has a limited repertoire of applications. I'm still working on learning what uses it reportedly has in running old computers.
Mint got some bad raps from the geeks, I suspect because it was designed for non-geek comfort and peace of mind. I use my computer to do things in the real world, not as an exercise in geek vanity.
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