I bought this 17" IdeaPad 520 i7 16GB RAM Windows 10 128MB SSD 1TB HDD Laptop to be my carry on luggage and computing system for when we landed back in Japan end of 2019. It was 2018 and my desktop PC was still Windows XP. It takes months for your possessions to arrive when you move to another country, and taking what you really need on the plane with you is our approach. I did a similar thing in 2001 with a Cannon Win95 laptop when we moved Japan to Australia,
I used the Lenovo for about 2 years before upgrading the old PC to be Windows 10 with 16GB ram and become my main system, The Lenovo has been pretty much left in a laptop carry bag since. Taking it out every so often to keep it up to date with security updates.
Then Windows 11 came along, and the i7 CPU in it wasn't supported.
This forced obsolescence was all purely a cash grab by Intel/Micro$oft to offset a decade plus of intel idiot CEOs who spent money on stock buy backs rather than less on staying competitive in their market, and also allows Micro$oft to force subscriptions or such Enshittafacation onto customers in the future.
My big i7 PC suffered the same no road to Windows11 fate, so I bought a Japanese MOUSE PC, spec'ed as I needed it, as my new Windows11 PC late last year.
Been thinking about what to do about the laptop since Win10 support stopped though, as not connecting it to the Internet made it pretty useless. Finally decided to keep the Laptop usable, I needed to install Mint Linux 22.3 Cinnamon on it. Made a bootable USB memory stick, added a 33GB SDD partition, dual booting, and away we went.
After playing with it for a few hours, and more great application, found that wasn't enough disc space.
So deleted the Windows partition and gave it all to Linux with the Gparted tool.
I had been involved and developed a few things using Debian Linux on Raspberry Pi's in the last years before I retired from the tech world, so I wasn't a complete stranger to low level shell Linux, but this is the first time I have used a GUI with it on a PC. MINT Linux is so like windows. File drag and drop, file Explorers and usable applications. Except really fast and light, so far. It will eventually fill up with a gazillion log files, but that is an issue for later.
When I set up my MOUSE PC with Windows 11, I didn't reinstall my very old versions of WORD and EXCEL and used LibreOFFICE instead. Been using that the last months and have gotten used to them now. They are part of the MINT Linux install too, and so familiar.
Amazed to see LibreDRAW open and display my CorelDraw .cdr files and the Xreader can display my comic .cbr files too.
Discovered today KRITA opens Photoshop files and has all the layer and filter type effects I ever use too. But it was the first to show a problem that must be all over linux, that the open file dialogue doesn't have a way to get to other mounted drives in the system. The other Applications all have a + to get to away the the drive the application booted from.
The editor KATE is similar to Notepad++ .
Spent much of last 2 days playing with MINT Linux, and being really impressed. There is a version of REAPER DAW for linux, but that isn't much good to me without matching linux versions of instruments and other VSTs I use.
Having said that, I don't intend to do any graphics or music on it anytime. I set the Laptop up with Internet tools, web and email, text stuff, to be useable as a computer (rather than just use our smartphone) if I need to visit Australia, for events such as the eventual funerals of parents.
My big old Win10 PC is currently unplugged from the internet and is just a MOVIE file player attached to the TV, using the KODI media center. Yet to decide if replacing the Window10 on that with MINT Linux Cinnamon is worth it or not yet.
I moved to web based email years ago, so accessing that stuff from a laptop, phone or desktop is all the same now. I made the mistake of using THUNDERBIRD on Windows 7 many years ago and discovered the difficulty of moving that to a new PC, and issues of access from a phone is just not worth it.
Found this video very useful about installing MS Fonts, regular back ups to a Linux partition and setting up TRIM to look after the SSD.
Other Things
Two and a half weeks since surgery and improvement seems to be getting slower. Haven't been out much last weeks, but intend to go to the cinema Friday first session. Sometimes I get a shot of pain more than before, but I may not have been as careful recently.
We can be found at ArtAndTechnology KYOTO JAPAN
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