My mom told me to wipe of microsoft windows and install linux mint 9 is she raving mad or …?
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at
12:25
Is it as good as she says!
Main concern is computer wont work with software I’m use to such as office 2007 and also last time i installed linux it was SO confusing?
Tagged with: last time • Linux
Filed under: Microsoft
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Linux will probably not work with Office 2007 unless you know your way around… I don’t think it’s the smartest thing to do, but mint 9 isn’t all that bad, of course it’s not as simple as windows…but then again windows ain’t as simple as Mac so…
Depends on what you’re doing.
If you need all the little macros and fancy feature of office, then you need office. If you just to basic stuff open office is just fine. The UI is very similar to office 2003 and prior so it’s not that difficult to adjust. (To turn in homework, convert stuff to a .pdf which is a universal format that will archive pretty much forever)
(Itunes also has a lot of problems, as do the most recent of games)
It’s not really confusing (much of the layout is fairly logical) it’s just that it’s different. I would never suggest that someone just switch over cold turkey either. You can dual boot, or install mint in such a way that it’s behind the windows boot loader rather than vice versa. (just ask another question on either topic and you’ll get links from the people who use mint)
Mint 9 also has a user manual you can take a look at before you decide anything.
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/20
Trust your mom, she’s knows what she’s on about!
OpenOffice is excellent (or, the new Libre Office – see, on Linux, you have a choice!)
Linux is now simpler, I believe than Windows Vista or 7, and certainly more reliable.
After all, Google, Yahoo, FaceBook and YouTube trust it.
Mint is pretty straightforward. Your existing software won’t work, but there are typically free alternatives. For example, instead of Microsoft Office, you have Open Office, etc. The good news is that you won’t have to worry about viruses anymore. The other good news is that you don’t have to search for software on the Internet, download it, install it, and keep it up to date. Mint has something called a Software Center built into it. You find what you want there, and Mint will automagically download the software, install it, and keep it up to date for you.