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WSsppenguin
AskWoody LoungerThank you “houndhen.” Your observations are important to a lot of folks who have older XP qualified hardware or better and are looking at a way to keep computing on a shoestring. Over the past years several of us have refurbished older computers and made them available to those who could not afford the upfront cost. Given the licensing restrictions for Windows and OSX it became useful to try linux, first Ubuntu, and then Linux Mint. The advantages are ease of installation, a huge app base, and no drive by downloading of apps you didn’t want. Yes, there are some limitations, but part of the fun is to find alternative linux apps that get the job done after simply downloading and installing the app.
One of the things that has helped newbies is the realization that the Google Chrome Browser works the same way on linux as it does on Windows thereby easing the transition for those whose main concern is receiving email and surfing the net. You mentioned LibreOffice suite and I use that on all my boxes. Nevertheless, the driving force is that there are no worries on licensing. Download the iso image, burn to dvd and install on a thousand computers if you choose. The user is notified when security and other updates are available. Moreover, I have found that the OS is 99% plug and play for a desktop connected to the internet by cat5/6 cable.
So Windows is a fine product and the wheels of corporate America and the world run on its roads. However, not all of the good software engineers reside in Redmond or even America. Thankfully, they are everywhere. And a lot of them contribute to Linux. The end user can choose from many flavors of Linux and desktop GUIs, whether or not you use “touch,” and get the job done.
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