The only PC I own that I wasn't able to get Windows 10 to run on is a mid-level Dell laptop that first came out in early 2005. It would occasionally start up correctly, but most of the time it booted up to a black screen. Plugging in an external monitor showed the normal Windows interface and it worked correctly, but something weird was clearly going on at a low level. There were lots of suggestions for how to deal with this issue on trouble-shooting forums, but none of them worked for me.
After a lot of faffing about with trying to figure out how the hell to install Linux and which distribution I preferred, I installed Mint. It ran fine on the laptop, so just for the hell of it, I got an adaptor that allowed me to replace the slow and noisy IDE HDD with an SSD.
The laptop reliably boots up, and it gets to the Linux home screen in about 45 seconds, which I'm sure is at least twice as fast as it managed when it was new and running XP. It is usable, although just for fairly basic stuff since the processor is 1.3 GHz single-core, it's maxed out at 2 gigs RAM, and the maximum disk size the mainboard can handle is 120 Gb.
I keep the laptop updated just in case some weird shit comes down which means that all my family's Windows 10 machines suddenly stop working, but I don't use it regularly.
I do see the appeal of Linux for those who want to opt out of both the mainstream OS providers on principle and for those who like the flexibility of Linux because they're into messing around with computers at a low level. But the absence of native Linux versions for much software is a problem for me. I'm sure I could figure out some way of dealing with this, but I've spent a good part of my life struggling with computer software and hardware, and I'm far beyond the point of finding it fun. These days, it's just a pain, and there are more rewarding and enjoyable things I can do with my time.
Which version of Windows was the best?
↑ View this comment's parent
← View full post
The only PC I own that I wasn't able to get Windows 10 to run on is a mid-level Dell laptop that first came out in early 2005. It would occasionally start up correctly, but most of the time it booted up to a black screen. Plugging in an external monitor showed the normal Windows interface and it worked correctly, but something weird was clearly going on at a low level. There were lots of suggestions for how to deal with this issue on trouble-shooting forums, but none of them worked for me.
After a lot of faffing about with trying to figure out how the hell to install Linux and which distribution I preferred, I installed Mint. It ran fine on the laptop, so just for the hell of it, I got an adaptor that allowed me to replace the slow and noisy IDE HDD with an SSD.
The laptop reliably boots up, and it gets to the Linux home screen in about 45 seconds, which I'm sure is at least twice as fast as it managed when it was new and running XP. It is usable, although just for fairly basic stuff since the processor is 1.3 GHz single-core, it's maxed out at 2 gigs RAM, and the maximum disk size the mainboard can handle is 120 Gb.
I keep the laptop updated just in case some weird shit comes down which means that all my family's Windows 10 machines suddenly stop working, but I don't use it regularly.
I do see the appeal of Linux for those who want to opt out of both the mainstream OS providers on principle and for those who like the flexibility of Linux because they're into messing around with computers at a low level. But the absence of native Linux versions for much software is a problem for me. I'm sure I could figure out some way of dealing with this, but I've spent a good part of my life struggling with computer software and hardware, and I'm far beyond the point of finding it fun. These days, it's just a pain, and there are more rewarding and enjoyable things I can do with my time.