I JUST ACQUIRED A NEW computer, a Made-In-China HP 7z laptop. It came with Microsoft Windows 10 installed.
I don’t expect a long life from the laptop; sadly HP isn’t what it was when Carly Fiorina ran the company.
I DO expect the HP laptop will outlast Windows 10 (Win 10) since Microsoft’s heavy hand just cost it another customer.
I HAVE USED MS WORD since it came out as a single 5 1/4” floppy insert to a popular computer magazine. It was great. WYSIWYG – wizi-wig – a character string many readers are too young to recognize.
Then, with each iteration of Windows and Word – bundled into Microsoft Office – the user interface (UI) changed.
THAT was bad enough.
But now Microsoft – still thinking it is the only game in town and behaving like the madman of North Korea – decides that IT will determine what operating system (OS) and application updates I will install – never mind if I want the updates of not. See http://tinyurl.com/y762bc3u
In Win 7 on another machine, MS pushes out an update with a description of the update’s purpose and politely asks if I want to install it.
Not so with Win 10.
No description.
No option to reject the update. It can be delayed, but the computer’s owner and who also holds the MS license will be nagged until the unidentified “upgrade” is installed.
The MS support page1 is replete with horror stories of upgrades that have made the OS untenable.
When I bought this latest computer I planned to split the 1 TB hard drive between Microsoft Win 10 and Linux Mint or, perhaps, Ubuntu’s latest and greatest.
There are a few applications that run under Windows that cannot function under OSs other than Windows.
ON THE OTHER HAND, there are other applications with the same form, fit, and function that DO function on other OSs. The most difficult one to find was one to support my security cameras. I found, after a little surfing, not one but two that work with Linux2/Ubuntu3.
Granted, I will miss my old favorites, but like old friends who have moved away, I’m sure there will be new favorites. (This blog entry is keyed using Libre Office’s Writer running under Win 10, the general equivalent to MS Office’s Word; in the end, it all gets dumped into the blog and turned into plain – albeit HTML coded – text.. Yes, Virginia, I hand code as I create.)
THERE WAS A TIME when using anything but shrink wrapped applications for either Microsoft or Macintosh OSs was the only way to go for a novice.
The novice that depended on Microsoft or Macintosh paid a price for this convenience; usually a high price.
Unix, DEC-VAX, and similar “professional” OSs were the domain of the computer specialists.
No longer.
Linux and Ubuntu are free and come with business bundles (such as Libre Office4).
The applications also are free – no cost. Libre Office, for example, has everything MS Office has. Different names. There may be some slightly different ways to accomplish something, but IMO, it is no worse than learning a new UI from Microsoft. Many of MS Office commands, e.g., Save (Ctrl-S), Bold (Ctrl-B), Undo (Ctrl-Z), are identical.
If intrigued with an OS other than Microsoft or Macintosh, usually a hard drive can be partitioned to support two (or more) OSs. Win 10 makes it particularly difficult to share a drive, but – with a little patience – it can be done. For all that, having a pro at hand, or even having a pro do the job, may be an option worth considering.
Many non-Microsoft and non-Macintosh OSs offer a way to try the OS without partitioning the hard drive. If you don't like it, nothing lost.
1. MS Support: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_update/how-to-disable-windows-updates-in-windows-10/c4c82c8c-c5eb-462b-ad56-bc27e1a6aa02?auth=1 – this is the same as the Tiny URL above.
2. Linux: https://linuxmint.com/
3. Ubuntu: https://www.ubuntu.com/
4. Libre Office: https://www.libreoffice.org/
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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