Are they doomed?

Mint is much more like Windows than any other distro I have tried. Mint is also super easy to learn. Not trying to be a Mint fanboy here but it works very well for me.
This is why I toss Mint on any of the computers that can't run 10 or newer that I donate to the local outreach and support facilities. It's familiar enough that folks who have never used it will be able to easily get online and search for jobs, send e-mail...etc.
 
Exactly. VPN's have their uses for sure, but the way they are marketed as being this huge boon to your data security is pretty deceptive.

"Just send all of your Internet traffic through our system and everything will be fine. You can trust us. We promise we won't spy on you, even though that would be hugely profitable for us."
Yes, the mythos regarding the perceived anonymity that a 3rd party VPN provides is beyond the pale.
 
Install using the method in the second video I posted. I installed it on an ancient core 2 duo 1.2 ghz with 4 gig ram just to see if it would install and work properly. It does!
Did you notice any drawbacks? Can it be updated normally?
 
Exactly. VPN's have their uses for sure, but the way they are marketed as being this huge boon to your data security is pretty deceptive.

"Just send all of your Internet traffic through our system and everything will be fine. You can trust us. We promise we won't spy on you, even though that would be hugely profitable for us."
Except in many countries it isn't legal to collect and sell user info; the US has laughable data privacy laws, others countries do not.

US internet users think it is "normal" to have all their activity collected and sold. They have been conditioned to think that is the way it needs to be.
 
Do you expect those who exploit your unsupported system to leave you a pretty note?!

Very literally, every single one of us on this forum who makes a living in IT in any way, shape or form speaks with unambiguous solidarity that it is **extremely unwise** to run an unsupported OS. It is harmful to yourself and others when your system is vulnerable. Your statement that I have quoted sums up entirely what it is that consumers simply do not understand.
I still go online with Windows 3.11, not sure how much 16 bit malware I can spread on dialup
 
Did you notice any drawbacks? Can it be updated normally?
No issues whatsoever, I kept all programs and files and they all work fine. Yes it updates normally, it says installing windows server but ignore that when you check "about" in system it is windows 11 pro.

about.jpg
 
No issues whatsoever, I kept all programs and files and they all work fine. Yes it updates normally, it says installing windows server but ignore that when you check "about" in system it is windows 11 pro.

View attachment 197340
Thanks for the response. I may try that just to see how it goes. I have had Windows 11 Pro on my laptop for at least a year now. I haven't noticed any benefits over W10 Pro but I'm not going to be running a no longer supported OS on my desktop PC. There's also a chance that MS will add official support for 7th Gen CPU.
 
I used tweaks to even make it look like Win 10, it is no faster or better from what I can see for what I use it for, the only difference is it remains supported.
 
Other OS to consider is ChromeOSFlex. My 5 year old son wanted to start using some websites he's allowed to visit in school. I put ChromsOSFlex on an old laptop and really surprised how well it runs on basic hardware.

How secure is it? Who knows.
 
The Linux advice is good. As a lifelong user of every version of Windows, for work and play, and doing lots of development work at my job, writing logic for software, I came to hate Windows. Lots of reasons for that, but mostly that trying to do things was so complicated, since the system was closed to most development, and had to be compiled. Security is not built in to Windows, but an afterthought. I must say, I have been playing with Windows 10 some, and then upgraded to Windows 11, and I like 11 a lot. It's a much better OS, but still quite in disarray, with multiple tools doing the same thing. Anyway, I started using Linux back in the '90's and it has been my primary OS since. I think I've used every version available, except not too much Arch linux. Linux is easy to learn and easy to maintain. There are, for all practical purposes, no viruses in Linux, and even if you did somehow get one, it would not have admin control to do anything. That's a simplified explaination of how it works, but it's close. If one were to start with a distro like Linux Mint, you would find that it just works out of the gate and very little knowledge is necessary. Better security, much faster than Windows, and free software is Valhalla to me. It's like the Beta/VHS debate. If Linux had been around and advertised like Windows, then Windows as an OS would cease to exist right now. Does it help to know that 95%+ of all commercial servers run Linux, that IOS and MAC OS are linux derivitives, that Android is Linux? Almost every critical computer in the world runs UNIX, which is the Linux underpinning, from which it was developed.
There simply is too much commercial success and commerce tied to Windows. It's like going to a flat tax, the tax preparation industry would cease to exist, but cheating would be eliminated, ever wonder what keeps it from being law? Same deal with Windows, several software industries would no longer be needed.
 
that IOS and MAC OS are linux derivitives,
Darwin (the basis for OS X and IOS) was heavily based on NeXTSTEP and FreeBSD (and, to a lesser extent, other BSD OS's), not Linux.
that Android is Linux?
Yes, Android is a Linux project, funded by Google.
Almost every critical computer in the world runs UNIX, which is the Linux underpinning, from which it was developed.
Unix isn't really the Linux "underpinning". Linus took it upon himself to write a Unix-like/Unix-compatible kernel (UNIX was/is a paid product, like Microsoft Windows, with various licensed versions from many vendors including HP, DIGITAL, Sun, SGI...etc, which all trace back to the original AT&T IP) that, in a somewhat similar spirit to the xBSD projects (which themselves evolved at Berkeley from the AT&T Bell Labs code into their own kernel and OS), spawned an entire free (Open Source) platform, which has become incredibly popular.

I'd assume that far more servers run Linux than UNIX nowadays, given the extremely limited number of UNIX OS's still actively maintained. IBM AIX is still "active" (as is z/OS), and HP is still maintaining HP-UX, though it hasn't seen a major release in a very long time. The rest of them are all dead.
 
Unix isn't really the Linux "underpinning". Linus took it upon himself to write a Unix-like/Unix-compatible kernel
Linux aims toward POSIX compliance.

Linux killed every commercial UNIX variant ever made - Sun, IBM, HP, SGI, DEC, SCO, etc. Why? Because Linus refused, often viciously, to let any crap code into his kernel. His public triads against anyone who dare submit a bad patch into the kernel were well known. This resulted in very high quality code and as Linux gained more attention, it attracted more top-notch developers. The commercial UNIX companies scoffed at Linux, because it was just a toy and could "never do what their commercial UNIX did". Pretty soon there were hundreds of highly skilled developers writing Linux kernel code. The kernel became incredibly stable, fast, and flexible. Many enterprise level feature were developed and when Linus decided they were ready for inclusion into the kernel, he would merge them, but not until he gave it his blessing. One guy has total control of what does and doesn't go into the kernel. Nobody would pollute his kernel with bad code or dumb compromises. Today Linux is enterprise grade. Most of the world's server run Linux. Microsoft even runs much of Azure on Linux. Linux probably runs your watch, router, smart thermostat, car entertainment system, streaming box, etc. Linux runs the world. Commercial UNIXs should have spent more time trying to be more like Linux than making fun of it.

I have been using Linux since 1996 and have never one time seen it crash. This website runs on Linux and has since the beginning of time. Not one Linux crash in 25 years and the server gets pounded 24 hours/day.
 
Linux aims toward POSIX compliance.
Yep, as do the xBSD's. Darwin/MacOS is actually UNIX compliant (though not to the current standard).
Linux killed every commercial UNIX variant ever made - Sun, IBM, HP, SGI, DEC, SCO, etc.
I mean, TECHNICALLY HP-UX along with IBM AIX and z/OS are still supported ;) Just going by the Wiki, but AIX 7.3 was released the end of 2021 and the latest z/OS release is 3.1, from September of 2023, so pretty recent.

HP-UX, the most recent release was 2007, but it's supported until 2025. They claim it's not a dead man walking though 🤷‍♂️ (see linked roadmap)
Why? Because Linus refused, often viciously, to let any crap code into his kernel. His public triads against anyone who dare submit a bad patch into the kernel were well known. This resulted in very high quality code and as Linux gained more attention, it attracted more top-notch developers. The commercial UNIX companies scoffed at Linux, because it was just a toy and could "never do what their commercial UNIX did". Pretty soon there were hundreds of highly skilled developers writing Linux kernel code. The kernel became incredibly stable, fast, and flexible. Many enterprise level feature were developed and when Linus decided they were ready for inclusion into the kernel, he would merge them, but not until he gave it his blessing. One guy has total control of what does and doesn't go into the kernel. Nobody would pollute his kernel with bad code or dumb compromises.
(y)
Today Linux is enterprise grade. Most of the world's server run Linux. Microsoft even runs much of Azure on Linux. Linux probably runs your watch, router, smart thermostat, car entertainment system, streaming box, etc. Linux runs the world. Commercial UNIXs should have spent more time trying to be more like Linux than making fun of it.
Yep, I'm not sure how much market share AIX, z/OS and HP-UX have at this juncture, but I expect it's extremely small. My PACS servers run RHEL, my Pi-Hole runs Ubuntu server, almost all home routers run BusyBox-based Linux distros. Cisco moved to Linux, their Meraki series is all underpinned by Linux, Ubiquiti gear all runs Linux, OpnSense runs on Linux (though PFSense runs on FreeBSD), my smart thermostat probably runs Linux. It's everywhere.
I have been using Linux since 1996 and have never one time seen it crash. This website runs on Linux and has since the beginning of time. Not one Linux crash in 25 years and the server gets pounded 24 hours/day.
I've made it crash, but that was hardware related, lol. First Linux distro I ran was Slackware, think that was 1994 or 1995? Before that, I used FreeBSD (and after). In the early days, I preferred BSD to Linux, and still have a soft spot for FreeBSD. I've done LFS just to say I have, ran Gentoo for many years in the early 2000's. Probably the most used was RedHat, which later became Fedora as the split between desktop and commercial server product emerged there. Was a fan of SuSE, also used Sun's foray into the Linux space for a while (looked like Solaris). There were some other interesting Linux distros like Mandrake and the firewall ones like Smoothwall and IPCop. I'm sure if I took the effort to think on it, many more names would emerge 😁
 
OPNsense actually is based on FreeBSD, like PFSense.
Doh! Yes, you are right, it's a fork of the PFSense project. Openwall is the Linux-based one I believe I was thinking of, or maybe I'm just getting old, lol.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top