It's been well over a year since I made the switch from Windows to Linux and can report that I have had absolutely no regrets about having done so. Unfortunately the great company that I found through the wonderful Distribution Watch which sent me several discs of OS systems and an enormous repository of applications went out of business shortly after I gave them some free plugs here. I don't know if there is another such company but if there were I'd expect they would be as generous as the man who ran that one was, I've really enjoyed the generosity of the Linux world, so different from the Windows-Mac corporations.
Just in case anyone is curious, if you've got an old Windows laptop that sort of still works, I'd recommend installing something like Linux Mint on it to see if you like it. Make sure you opt to install 3rd party software when it asks you if you want to. First time I didn't do that and I couldn't get the WiFi to work, second time, no problem. I also learned my lesson that after more than 30 years of picking clever, hard to guess passwords, no one in the world friggin' cares about what is on my computer so I just used a single character. No one who wanted to break into my computer is going to have the patience to go through every available one to find out which one it is. I don't do anything that would reward that kind of obsession, anyway.
I've revived three ancient computers to useful condition with various distributions of Linux, though I have not yet tried to revive my, alas, once beloved tower that I couldn't part with. I am not enough of a geek to try to get Tiny Core on it - I'd have to get it onto a floppy. I'd ask a young'un to help me but I don't want to risk the exposure that might require.
The best thing about working from home is that the school system requires me to change my password every six months, and I can't reuse one that's less than a year old.
ReplyDeleteI'm old, I can't keep up with multiple passwords, and I can't store the password on a school computer (we have access through teacher's lounges on the floors, but you never know which machine you can get when). Finally I can just let the computer I'm on at home pick a new password for me. Or I don't have to remember which one I set up last. Really doubt anyone wants into my account that badly anyway. It's security theater, IMHO.
Besides, I saw that the best password is a sentence. Pick something memorable (well, besides "Call me Ishmael") and use it, spaces and all, and it's virtually uncrackable. Problem is, security systems aren't set up to accept that kind of password.
It's always something.
When I had my last birthday I decided I'd reached an age when I shouldn't care what I look like so instead of always wearing a shirt over my undershirt, I'll go in public in just an undershirt. Or as much of a public as I see these days which isn't much. And after thirty years of picking officially approved passwords, just a single letter, not that anyone has ever tried to violate the privacy of my computer. One of Bob and Brad's physical therapy videos, I think it was Bob who said, "No one is interested in looking at an old man's ass." I can report from the day that I got a rip in the back of my pants and no one noticed, it's true. How liberating!
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