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[Helen Pixels]

After taking a close look at both Ubuntu and Linux Mint Cinnamon, I've chosen the latter. I Created the live boot USB device today with unetbootin, and took a look around. THIS is what I wanted, not just most of what I wanted but EVERYTHING I wanted. I was worried about finding a video editor, there is loads of them to pick from! I spent a good half hour looking through the software repositories in amazement. In my excitement I forgot to check for a screen recorder, but there has to be one given that the audio and video section is as big as it is. Everything is so easy to find, it's more intuitive to me than Ubuntu, especially coming from Windows, actually, more intuitive than windows 8.1. To this day, I still hit the start menu and expect a list like it used to be traditionally, rather than a screen full of tiles. Hit the start button and get a list of apps has been sort of drilled into me since adolescence.

Actually, I feel a bit emotional right now, I knew Mint would be a good match from what I'd seen on youtube, but for it to be THIS good is overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I liked Ubuntu and I could have used it well given a little time, but I like this even more. I don't think that my daughter or my ex who both use this computer would find any difficulty using it either. For what I need from an OS this is perfect. Obviously for one or two things I need to learn wine, but honestly, once I am up and running and I learn how to sort out any minor niggles I'll be right at home here.

Thanks to everyone who gave me distro advice, I really do appreciate your time and input.

[Helen Pixels]

Update, I've done it. I didn't want to wait another day because windows was once more failing to boot up. I showed my daughter mint from the live USB, and she liked the look of it, so it's now installed! I no longer have windows I am shocked at how little time it's taken me to get up and running, literally half an hour, and that includes the updates! I'm extremely impressed, and all I need to sort out now is the software side of things.

[DavidMcCann]

One tip. Create a file with a word-processor or text editor and record any programs you've added from the repository and any configuration you've done. Disasters do happen and when I lost a hard drive it was a great help to know exactly what I'd done!

You can also keep a list of things you discover and would never remember, particularly if you use the CLI for clever tricks. One command that I discovered a few years ago, for example, is

Code Select Expand

for file in folder/*.odt; do unzip -p $file | grep -iq search-term && echo $file; done
It examines every word-processor fine in ~/folder and prints a list of any that contain search-term.