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Thanks for doing this series.

I switched away from Windows when Microsoft decided to shove Windows 10 down our throats.  First I moved to Linux Mint.  But I kept having integration issues with my Apple phone, so I finally made the decision to move to Apple.

When I did so, I found that Apple is so *nix-like under the covers that I was able to use the scp (secure copy) command to copy files directly from my Linux Mint machine to my Apple machine across my home network.  Just had to tweak the Apple’s settings to allow this kind of connection, and then provide my Apple password in the scp command on the Linux box.  This probably won’t help someone coming from Windows 10, but for Linux folks, there you go.  (Settings –> General –> Sharing –> Remote Login)

Thanks for doing this series of articles.

I didn’t see any mention of LibreOffice. This software is available for Linux and can edit Microsoft Office files, including the newer 2009+ formats (.xlsx, .docx, etc.).

Guess what? It’s also available for MacOS.

I moved from Linux Mint to the Apple platform about two months ago. It was pretty seamless, actually. Because MacOS is very Unix-like under the covers, I was able to transfer files from my Linux box directly to the Mac across my own network using the scp command-line tool.  The Linux-Apple transition was much smoother than the Windows-Linux transition I went through several years ago.

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windbg

Should you decide to make the switch to Linux, it’s a pretty painless process.  And…there are Linux forums here at AskWoody.  You can install Linux Mint on a flash drive, boot from that drive, and test drive Linux Mint on your existing machine if you want.

I’ve been using LibreOffice in Linux Mint for quite some time.  It does everything that I need it to do, and it can read and write MS Office file formats.  Updates generally don’t break anything, but that’s usually been my experience for most things in Linux Mint.  I certainly have not had the same issues that Susan has been tracking with MS Office updates lately.  I am mainly still here because I support people that use Windows/Office.

I am encouraged to see AskWoody branching out into other platforms and providing e.g. information about iOS and other Apple updates, forums for Linux, etc.

I agree with your assessment of the Linux upgrade process.  Upgrading from LM 19 to LM 20 was a huge dumpster fire for me; I ended up doing a full backup and installing LM 20 from scratch, then restoring data files from backup.  I had to do this because every time I attempted to use the published upgrade process, every piece of software that tried to access the Internet would have DSL lookup issues.  Upgrading from LM 20 to LM 21 took less time, and the published upgrade process worked for me.  However, the Update Manager was then broken due to an apparent spat between Ubuntu and Mint over which version of libssl to use.  I installed the old version of libssl and Update Manager worked like a charm.  (I can do that in Linux because it’s my system, running on my hardware – it’s not Microsoft’s test bed.  If I want to accept the risk of running the old library, that’s my decision.)  Now the upgrade to 21.1 is even smoother.  Hope this trend continues.

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bassmanzam, DrBonzo

Just upgraded from Linux Mint 21 to Linux Mint 21.1.  Did so through System Reports, which alerted me to the existence of the new upgrade.  Made sure to do a Timeshift backup first.  Went into System Reports and told it to do the upgrade.  Rebooted afterward.  This may be the smoothest upgrade I’ve ever had with Linux Mint; it happened through the Upgrade Manager.  Am liking the new green accent color (Mint-Y-Dark theme).

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Microfix, DrBonzo

Wonderful article.  Reading through the paragraph about creating CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT made me feel like I was right there with you.  Your comment “Man, this is old stuff!” was an echo of what I was thinking.  And the XT keyboard connector took me back to the best keyboard I ever owned that I acquired with my first 286 clone.  Then you took us back to the future by plugging a solid-state drive into an IDE interface.  Nice!

 

I’ve updated my phone to iOS 16.1.  Mine is an iPhone 13 Pro Max.  I did this two days ago, and I’m not seeing any issues.  Your mileage may vary.

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Alex5723

This is the first time I’ve seen the term “moments” related to Windows updates.  I haven’t really kept up with Windows 11, so I had to go look up what it meant.  Suddenly, I was craving some General Foods International Coffee.

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Cybertooth

Intel started inventing processor “brands” (Pentium, Celeron, etc.) because there was a court case some years ago that said Intel could not lay claim to “486” as a brand, for example, because legally it was just a product number (referring to the 80486 processor).  They needed something that they could call their own, so 80586 became “Pentium.”

Now they apparently have something that they’re calling “Intel Processor.”

This has legal confusion written all over it.  I’m not a lawyer.  How does this not put them back in the same boat in which they were when 80486 was the official name?  Maybe because the official name is “Intel Processor,” not just “Processor?”

What a mess.

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rc primak, Charlie, Will Fastie

“One thing you’ll discover is that many of the new features, especially those regarding security, are available only to enterprises, at least for now.”

Good.  Let them debug for a change.

“My favorite example is the search bar, which migrated from its position just above the message list to Outlook’s title bar. I didn’t like that change, but I adapted.”

I still hate this, and probably always will.  The title bar is for repositioning windows on the screen; it should not contain fields.  They did this same nonsense in MS Teams.  Now I have to actively look to ensure that I’m not opening the search field every time I want to move a window.  And the search field is only a slightly different shade than the title bar itself, so it’s not obvious.

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Cybertooth

Upgrade instructions are now available here to upgrade from Linux Mint 20.3 to Linux Mint 21:

https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade-to-mint-21.html

I just did this successfully this morning.

When I moved from LM 19 to LM 20, I had issues with DNS lookups in the initial installation of LM 20.  Tried several times, went back to LM 19.  I finally ended up backing everything up multiple ways and installing LM 20 from scratch.  I really did not want to do that again.

The upgrade from LM 20.3 to LM 21 was exceptionally smooth when I followed the process in the above link.  Running from the command line opens a dialog window which guides you through the process; the installation is reflected in the command window.  There’s a point at which the installer looks for foreign packages; if you have installed LibreOffice, say, from the command line, you will have to get a list of these packages and add them, one by one, to the list of foreign packages that are preserved, otherwise they will be removed by the installer.  This was somewhat tedious, but when the installation was finished, LibreOffice ran just fine under LM 21.

Be advised, the installer will run for some time.  I think it took approximately an hour for me.  YMMV.

The only thing I had to do was change my symbols file to allow scroll lock to work again (so I can toggle my KVM switch); I generally end up having to do this after every major LM upgrade, as they replace this file during the install.

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Microfix, DrBonzo

This same thing happened on Windows 10.  For Home users, Microsoft has decided that they own your hardware, and they will decide what you run.  Customer bedlam resulted in the introduction of the switch to postpone monthly updates, but they’re just postponed.

I switched to Linux Mint as my primary OS during the Get Windows X fiasco, and I’ve never been forced to upgrade anything.

My mom and sister will be using a laptop with Linux Mint as their next OS.  My only Win10 support duties are now comprised of one machine, my wife’s machine.  She got a new Mac last year and is in the process of transitioning.

Microsoft, your Windows Beta Home Test users are going to go elsewhere if you keep up with this nonsense.

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Tom-R, Charlie, johnf, Microfix

Edge: The QVC of browsers.

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Cybertooth

I don’t know how many times this one has happened to me, but the number is up there.  It’s just like filling out a piece of paper, right?  It’s all just spaces, people can read what’s in the next box and see what I meant.