I too, just installed Linux Mint. I found an older laptop with Win 7 on it and I had managed to...

[TreasonousBastard]

install a dual boot with Ubuntu on it, but it seems there was a password involved, so I couldn't use Ubuntu. And Win 7 never thrilled me.

So, I downloaded Mint to a thumb drive, booted from the drive, and it asked me if i wanted to destroy the partitions on C: and wipe the drive.

Sure, why not...

So it installed itself without any hassles, left me with a desktop that looked pretty familiar, and pretty much everything works with just one network printer out in the cold. It came with Thunderbird, Firefox, LibreOffice, and Gimp-- all of which I am already familiar with. Downloaded Opera, Vivaldi and a few games and I'm ready to go. Still have to find some replacements for Windows stuff,

Infinitely simpler than the horror show with Red Hat years ago.

I still have two working Win10 computers, and another two that may be working again some day, so this is mostly for fun. But what fun it is-- Linux is ready for prime time.

[ramblin_dave]

1. I've been playing with Linux Mint Cinnamon

Just trying to learn Linux, but the learning curve is steep.

A simple thing like getting the PC to autoplay an audio CD with VLC has stumped me. I can pick VLC to run when I load a CD but the audio will stutter and the playlist will not download from the internet. But if I launch VLC manually and select Media - Open Disc - Audio CD then everything works great. Online help forums have not been helpful.

But what did work out of the box was surprising.

[mitch96]

2. Downloaded Opera,

Last I heard is Opera is owned by a Chinese company... If true that would be some amazing spyware!!
M

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Yup. In 2016 Chinese investors bought it. The sale was approved by various regulators, but...

who knows what they are doing behind closed doors. I've just been using it for so long it's second nature. Curiously, it comes with its own VPN and a bunch of other privacy goodies.

There's this new one, though, Vivaldi, which is based on the Chrome engine, but without the Google spyware and bullshit. It has a few bugs, but I like it a lot, and the bugs aren't fatal. They deal with them pretty fast, too. It uses most Chrome extensions.

And good ol' Firefox. It went through some tough times, but seems to be on the right track now. I'm using it more and more. Only been playing with it for a couple of hours on Linux, but it seems stable.

[mitch96]

4. "it comes with its own VPN"

That's why I used it.. When I was a pi-rat.... (Arggggg ) and stopped after the chinese bought it .
I always wanted to mess with Linux but never got around to it. Hell The million dollar Whiz ban GE cat scanner I worked on used Linux!! Don't remember which flavor though.. Which ever version was electro mechanical, not affected by radiation kinda sorta robot friendly...
m