Starting to investigate a Linux Mint notebook

[Skybird]

Thanks, will have fun, I'm sure (and if not, that toy at least makes for a pleasurable sight on my desktop - the looks are sexy ).

My timing also is nice, since Linux Mint 18 still is young and has been released just weeks ago.

To answer my own question on the Linux kernel versions: yes, Mint 18 has kernels of at least 4.4 integrated already.

[aanker]

Great Topic Skybird, I will be following in your footsteps when my time comes. I've had enough of MS - especially with the new all in one update procedure.

Thanks for sharing and congrats on the new rig.

[STEED]

I will when time comes get Win10 but it will never be connected to the web, it will be used off line. As for on line Mint sounds good to me.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by STEED

I will when time comes get Win10 but it will never be connected to the web, it will be used off line. As for on line Mint sounds good to me.

Keep in mind, you cannot seal off W10 to not go online or simply unplug the wire if you depend on for example Steam or any game or software that demands online connectivity. I reported last late autumn that I got hit by by GWX updates on my old installation of W7 even although I had WU switched off. Microsoft sneaked in via other, non-documented ways, probbaly the al-ways active, W7 embedded Explorer that Windows 7 depends on for background tasks. On W10 you cannot trust to prevent updates while leaving the wire connected, only delay them a bit, you also cannot select and chose between wanted and unwanted updates anymore. W7 seems to get the same treatment now from Octobre on.

Best advise for new installations is to use an older Windows like W7, and patch it to a standard of mid-last-year by using a patch archive on DVD. Do not download stuff from microsoft servers anymore. They have lied so often now and intentionally mislabelled patches to make people downloading them unsuspiciously that all trust is gone. If you even cannot trust them anymore that a labelled essential security patch is indeed a security patch only, then you have no reason anymore to invest any trust in them.

[STEED]

The Win10 will only be used for writing letters and other stuff and if I need to print anything off I just make a copy on a USB stick and pop up to the library to do the printing. Apart from that I still got a few old games that don't need the Internet, so in many ways this desktop PC will be my last one as I will switch to a laptop when the times comes. My router will never be switched on while using the Win10 laptop nor will I take it out the house so no need to worry about wifi. Just to add when I'm on the Mint on the Internet I will unplug the power to the Win10.

This is of course still a few years away so I got time to continual researching and dropping into this thread. Any luck the MS crime bosses will be bought down..we hope.

[danasan]

Well, I would expect a BluRay drive in such a machine.

[Skybird]

Bluray, I thought about it, but then - at 17" you simply do not need Bluray movies, on that screen diameter, no matter the 1980 resolution, you simply do not see a difference to a DVD, its all too small. At best it would have made sense with a 4K display which also is available for this machine - but not with Linux preinstalled, and for much higher price, around 1700 bucks. I think it then has Bluray by default - and is Microsoft-infested by default as well.

My TV is 80cm, and at my seating distance, ca. 1.90m, I cannot see the difference between DVD and BluRay as well. Bluray only becomes visible in effect if I seat myself MUCH closer to the screen so that I would see single pixels of a DVD. And that screen is much wider than that of a laptop.

4K and BluRay and all that becomes interesting only on really big screens, imo, on small and medium sized screens it is a waste of money, me thinks.

[danasan]

Don't forget that Bluray is a medium to write on as well.

The capacity is something like ten DVDs.

And they are affordable today.