Windows 10 EoL is fast approaching, so I thought I’d give Linux a try on some equipment that won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 11. I wanted to see if I will be able to recommend an option to anyone that asks me what they should do with their old PC.
Many years ago I switched to Gentoo Linux to get through collage. I was very anti-MS at the time. I also currently interact with Linux systems regularly although they don’t have a DE and aren’t for general workstation use.
Ubuntu: easy install. Working desktop. Had issues with getting GPU drivers. App Store had apps that would install but not work. The App Store itself kept failing to update itself with an error that it was still running. It couldn’t clear this hurdle after a reboot so I finally killed the process and manually updated from terminal. Overall, can’t recommend this to a normal user.
Mint: easy install. Switching to nvidia drivers worked without issue. App Store had issues with installing some apps due to missing dependencies that it couldn’t install. Some popular apps would install but wouldn’t run. Shutting the laptop closed results in a prompt to shutdown, but never really shuts off. Update process asks me to pick a fast source (why can’t it do this itself?)
Both: installing apps outside of their respective stores is an adventure in terminal instead of a GUI double-click. Secure boot issues. Constant prompt for password instead of a simple PIN or other form of identity verification.
Search results for basic operations require understanding that what works for Ubuntu might not work for Mint.
While I personally could work with either, I don’t see Linux taking any market share from MS or Apple when windows 10 is retired.
Can you explain to my sister why she can’t play DVDs on her brand new laptop that she paid a fortune for that came with windows.
She’s not a complete idiot. probably average maybe slightly above-average.
She was on the verge of RMA-ing her perfectly functional DVD drive though.
Ooh in actual know this one: licensing. It costs money to commercially distribute the decoder.
thanks, that might actually explain it.
I always thought those fees were tiny vs the price of the os.
But i guess they’re probably only charging dell a small amount on a pre install.
They could still put a codec pack in the store though and have the user pay a few quid for it - or whatever.
They do that for hevc but I suspect they looked at the telemetry and realized no one was using their built-in apps to play dvds? I honestly don’t have a dvd player to even test it out. my ps4/5 does a good enough job.
Because no new laptops have dvd drives? Seriously do any new laptops whatsoever still have dvd drives?
If it’s an external drive I would just tell her to install VLC if the normal media play doesn’t work (but I think it does work pretty well for DVDs).
She could also try searching for “windows dvd” and pick the first article she finds and at least every article I found tells you to install VLC.
Sorry i wasn’t clear about my point - I’m pretty sure I could get windows to play a dvd if i really wanted to.
But all i needed to do was prove that the dvd drive wasnt broken, and a live linux mint usb did that in 3 extremely “complicated” minutes.
My actual question was more like:
" how come - if windows is so simple and so much easier to use and set up for normal users - she couldn’t do something she’d been accustomed to doing for years."
The windows software centre or whatever it is was not keen to offer VLC, didn’t seem to mention it, but it was very keen to tell her she could buy the film from MS store or something affilliated.
anyway, it’s ok, i think the next dude has given some interesting info.