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It's been a while, and -oops- I never finished writing about that Lenovo AIO. Longstoryshort: installed Win11 IoT on it and it's still waiting for a use-case; I'm sure it'll come in handy one of these years.
I haven't done anything particularly technical with computers for a few months (thankfully, I guess!) but a week ago, it finally happened: the end of Windows 10 (or more accurately: ‘normal’ Win10 (i.e. not LTSC\IoT) won't get any more security updates).
Two PCs are still on Win10 Pro (which seemed so modern & alien when I first used it back in 2017!) so they need something doing to them. I'll probably IoT the other household laptop, maybe with Win11, but I have other plans for my main computer…
I made the leap from Win7 to Win10 back then. Initially I tried to make Win10 look like Win7 but eventually resolved to just get used to Win10 because one day I would have to get used to it.
…and get used to it I did! I even became comfortable & familiar with it (it’s not a huge jump from Win7 really). I got so used to it that I was annoyed many, many times when then starting to use Win11 (which I also resolved to get used to; again, it wasn't a huge jump from 10 to 11 really).
Well, this week brings an even bigger leap, possibly the biggest leap ever, and something I first thought about (and dismissed…) doing 20 years ago: it's time to properly try Linux.
I've dabbled with it a few times (indeed, this log started with wasting a lot of time on Linux) but have never used it on a ‘main’ computer. As I'm sure I've said on here, two things put me off Linux: the terminal (which shouldn't really put me off; I began computing life by inputting commands into a command prompt on Amstrad\C64\MS-DOS) but I'm sure I can get to know it, and a lot of the time it's just a case of copying commands from a website.
…which kinda brings me onto the main reason I've always given up on Linux (and even sold all of my Raspberry Pis): the “community”. Zark, they can be tiresome. It's fine if you search for a solution to a problem, and someone has already documented it, but if you have to approach a community and ask for help… well, you'd have more fun just slamming your fingers in a drawer. Even if you go in saying you're a beginner, they will always assume knowledge, meaning you'll have to go down other rabbit holes trying to find out what they mean. The best is when they insist on you copypastaing some configuration settings; just this evening I found two dead threads where an evident beginner was asked to do this, they did it, and there are no replies afterwards…
But I mustn’t let this put me off. Even though I've got Windows 10 IoT on a few machines up until 2032, and Win11 IoT on a few more for (hopefully) a few more years after that, eventually the gravy train of Windows will run out (even if I wanted to buy more copies of Win11, it won't run on most of my computers because of arbitrary requirements…) and I'll have to make the switch to Linux. It's best if I do that while I'm still (relatively…) young.
The best time to learn Linux is 20 years ago; the second best time is now.
Today I bought a second 5TB external HDD as a backup store and am currently copying stuff onto it before I begin messing around with the HP desktop.
Maybe I'll have a fun evening of installing Ubuntu on that second Lenovo AIO! Nothing to lose there…
