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1. Embed this notice
   TheJen will not comply (thejen@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:54 JST TheJen will not comply

   I have cut basically every major American retailer out of my life. The only one left is Gmail, and that has to stay for now until I sell this house as the utilities are on it, and it's frankly too much trouble to change it before we GTFO OF HERE.

   I don't use it for anything else. I still have protonmail only because the friggin internet archive won't recognize tutamail.

   My laptop is on Libre office. Vivaldi browser. Of course I rarely crack the thing anymore.

   I killed Amazon last year. I have had some trouble with ebay sellers, but no more than expected, really. I get everything else I need from people with an e-commerce website.

   Fancy that.

   • Embed this notice
     Steve's Place (steter@mastodon.stevesworld.co)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:48 JST Steve's Place

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows @TheJen I use and suggest Linux Mint. It's more Windows-like than other Ubuntu offspring. The team deliberately does not include the latest releases of kernels and other important software, which might have undiscovered bugs, and makes bug fixes in their own versions of released code. It's pretty solid. If you do not have the very latest video card, it should detect everything and just work. The desktop look and feel should be familiar. This PC is running it, as is the one I use for Unreal Engine game development.

     There seem to be many Linux Mint users on mastodon, so should you run into trouble, ask.

     Make backups of all documents on the Windows system that are worth keeping. The storage medium will be re-partitioned and reformatted.

     Firefox is pre-installed. Other browsers are available.

     If you create the installation medium and it boots, you're already running Linux Mint. There are instructions at the website. Essentially, make sure your BIOS allows the installation medium to boot before the hard drive.

     Double-click on the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop (whatever it's called - it should be the only one).

     https://www.linuxmint.com/

   • Embed this notice
     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:49 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     @TheJen Thanks.

   • Embed this notice
     TheJen will not comply (thejen@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:50 JST TheJen will not comply

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows It's a lot better now than it used to be. More user friendly, but it still takes a minute.

   • Embed this notice
     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:51 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     @TheJen Thanks. Was the transition hard? I'd love to leave Windows but don't really have the bandwidth for a thousand hour learning curve.

   • Embed this notice
     TheJen will not comply (thejen@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:52 JST TheJen will not comply

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows Linux. I don't remember which one. I don't really use it much.

   • Embed this notice
     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:44:53 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     @TheJen What OS?

   • Embed this notice
     Steve's Place (steter@mastodon.stevesworld.co)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:55:17 JST Steve's Place

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows @TheJen I used to do that, but got annoyed with rebooting back and forth. I haven't tried with Windows 11, though.

     Linux Mint should not have any problem with the BIOS settings required for Secure Boot.

     An alternative might be to make backups of everything that matters, then making a full Linux install. If it is unworkable for you, just reinstall Windows and copy the data back. I've done that a few times in the past.

     It's a bit scary when it's your only computing device. I'll see what others have posted about dual booting these days.

   • Embed this notice
     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 12:55:18 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     • Steve's Place

     @steter @TheJen Thanks! Can I do a dual boot so Windows is still there in case I need to revert?

   • Embed this notice
     Steve's Place (steter@mastodon.stevesworld.co)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 13:02:23 JST Steve's Place

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows @TheJen This looks like a decent instruction guide for dual booting Windows with Linux Mint. I can't vouch for the free software they suggest.

     https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-linux-mint-16-dual-boot-windows/

   • Embed this notice
     Steve's Place (steter@mastodon.stevesworld.co)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 13:17:43 JST Steve's Place

     in reply to

     • M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     @msbellows @TheJen I have a copy on a hard drive. It was their last good operating system, but my reason was purely to build Windows versions of games I work on. I could install it in the same computer. Whether it's set to dual boot or not, if it's infrequent, changing the primary boot device in the BIOS will work, too.

   • Embed this notice
     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 13:17:44 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     • Steve's Place

     @steter @TheJen I just don't want to lose the Windows 10 that's currently on it before Microsoft forces me to.