In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, April 12, 2025 13:02
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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 2:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Looks like upgrading to Windows 11 isn't going to be easy for me or my aunt.

Our computers are way too old to have TPM 2.0 in the bios, even if I did a bios upgrade. When I do a "health check" on then the only computer I have with TPM only has version 1.2 which is outdated, and they're telling me the processor is not supported either.

It turns out that for years now Microsoft has had a page up giving directions how to install Windows 11 by bypassing these hurdles by making edits in your Registry key, but recently they took those articles down and now warn that you might not get your updates properly unless you're running a machine with their specs. (Opinions on the truth of that statement vary wildly). The directions are still up elsewhere, along with even easier solutions that have been made available after MS announced this was allowed years ago.

I think, just to be safe, I'm just going to advise my aunt to buy a bare-bones Dell laptop for $300. It will be better than the one she already has and comes preinstalled with 11. All I'd have to do is migrate all of her photos and browser settings and a few other things. She still doesn't use it for a ton and migration should be fairly painless.

I'll probably give her $50 and buy the old one back from her so I can make something cool with it.

I think I'm going to just let it ride myself. I'll upgrade to 11 the way that it was done before and see what happens. If I get really worried about it maybe I'll just buy whatever cheapest option I can find that will run 11 for the computer I'll do any financial stuff on.

There is no future where I see myself learning Linux and using that as my main OS between now and October.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
IDK how much you've been using MS command line so IDK how much time invested, but Linux is just the operating system. Nobody (well, hardly anybody) actually needs to "learn Linux" since it operates invisibly in the background. There are a lot of look-alike programs and utilities available, including a graphical user interface (GUI), Firefox web browser, a full office suite, and various file management utilities that I find especially useful. One utility that really helps me is a block "find and replace" function for filenames, for example if I want to preface the filename with the year it was created.

My workplace was exclusively a Microsoft shop, and I switched between MS Word and Excel at work and Office Word and spreadsheet at home, and except for some menus or commands being a little different (linux version using semicolon where Excel uses comma for example) it's a seamless transition.

The hitch is that Linux uses a different file system, so (a) disk(s) would need to be reformatted.

If that's something you'd like to pursue, there are a million distributions out there, but hubby uses the Debian distro since they maintain backward compatibility all the way back for decades.

Chrome is another option.

I've tried it a couple of times using a couple of distros over the years. I will say that they've come a long way, but I still don't like Linux. It's just different enough that doing pretty much anything there irks me, and with my older and mix-n-match tech, I've never had a successful install with all the correct drivers for everything. There's always a problem with a Linux install. And unlike with Windows, if something is broke that needs me to go into terminal, I don't know any of the "sudo" crap commands they use so I'm always reading stuff off of one computer desperately trying to get this failed install to work properly. I might not know more than just basic coding in MS, but I'm very familiar with the command prompt since I'd spent years using the MSDOS command prompt before my first Windows. Everything about how Windows works behind the scenes and the directory tree makes perfect sense to me. I still can't even figure out the file structure in Linux.

But Windows sucks at this point too. The file explorer is basically worthless today and you need to download a 3rd party app just to have a speedy and responsive way to browse your files. This was the perfect experience in Windows XP and has gone downhill every year after they discontinued it.

What's happened is that Microsoft has ruined their OS because they wanted to make it work nice for people who don't understand anything about hardware or software.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 3:55 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, the install... I can see how that could be a problem.

Huh.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 4:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, the install... I can see how that could be a problem.

Huh.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

Like I say, it's gotten much better over the years. A lot of that is upgrades to Linux, but it's probably due more to the fact that a lot of software has finally been written with a version of Linux in mind too and you're not nearly as limited in that environment compared to Windows like you used to be.

When I tried running some various distros around a decade ago the results were pretty disastrous. But again, this is because I use desktop computers that I built on my own, and there's no doubt parts that are 15 years old in my current computer. My cheapness gets in the way of Linux working out of the box.

I did install it on a laptop once without any issue, but my intent was to set up a dual boot Linux/Win 10 setup and I started with the wrong OS first and got bored of all the waiting and haven't turned on that laptop in years.

I have several backup PCs and that laptop. I'm probably going to first try installing Windows 11 with the compatibility checks stripped from the install process (and the ability to sign in locally instead of creating a Microsoft account).

I think I'm then going to try doing a dual Linux/Win11 boot on that laptop again, and figure out the best order to do that. The desktop in question doesn't ever go on the internet for any reason and I use it to manually backup everything I've got everywhere on a massive hard drive. It really serves no other purpose than that. The laptop could come in quite handy if I got that dual boot set up right, especially when I try doing something with the other computers that I'm more concerned about security issues.

Maybe, if I can figure out the dual boot process and git' good at it, I can do that to my two main computers that I would want to be secure, and I could just do all my banking and secure stuff through the Linux OS, and when that's done I can go back to Win11 for everything else.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 5:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Just wrapped up my taxes and some other paperwork I've been sleeping on for months while I was obsessing over my project.

A couple hours worth of house cleaning under my belt today. Shouldn't have any problems getting that done by the weekend too. You don't realize how bad it gets when the mess slowly builds up over time until you see how just a few days of de-cluttering and deep cleaning transform your space.

Good. Now nobody will know that my toilet looked like a truck stop bathroom last weekend.

It's like it never happened.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 7:26 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Looks like setting up a dual boot might be even quite a bit easier than I thought it would be to do, and easier than it was even just 3 or so years ago when I last tried it.

In theory, anyway... This remains to be seen.

I got a program called Rufus to install the version of Windows on a thumb drive that allows it to do all sorts of things other than just passing the requirements. Unfortunately they do NOT have any setting in there to bypass CPU requirements as some have incorrectly stated. Although it seems a reasonable mistake however because although there is no option regarding the CPU, it automatically identifies the amount of cores and speed of your CPU and it will force the Win11 install even if your CPU is not on their approved list. So without knowing what it was actually doing it was widely being reported (and commented on Reddit) that this thing did something it's completely incapable of doing. It can ignore the MS approved list only if the CPU meets certain minimum thresholds.

It remains to be seen how many of mine or my aunts will qualify even under these better circumstances. I'm doing one of the desktops first, so despite it being older than the laptops it probably has the best specs out of all of them. I didn't see before if the CPU was not on the MS list, but I know that problem exists on my AIO.

I got a warning saying that my computer doesn't meet the requirements and a disclaimer that I'm going forward with the install knowing this and the stated implications such as outright denying future system updates at some point. That being the case, this is very likely only a temporary solution since I don't doubt that they'd pull the plug on it and/or bloat Win11 to the point you couldn't even think about using that old tech anymore with it anyhow.

On the Linux end, I've also used another program Etcher to make the Linux Mint bootable drive. Rufus doesn't do this as well as Etcher, or more accurately, Rufus allows far too much customization and ways to get yourself into trouble and Etcher makes a perfect bootable stick with just the distro ISO loaded.

You install Windows first, shrink down the Windows partition, then you install Linux. Otherwise, if you did it in the reverse order, with the age of my computers I don't think there would be any easy way to fix Windows overwriting the Grub bootloader (the problem I ran into 3 or so years ago).

I really love hearing some of the things I'm hearing about dual booting with new computers though. I know none of my BIOS would allow any of this, but with new computers you can actually install Windows on one external drive, and Linux completely on a 2nd external drive and then just point to which OS you want to run when you boot or restart. That sounds freakin' awesome. It's like somebody finally got around to doing something that should have been possible with PCs 30 years ago I was able to do it on an Apple][e when I was in kindergarten.

I'm hoping this all goes smoothly on my PC, and then on my old laptop. I'm doing this with enough lead time to see if I can adjust to the current state Linux before we're forced to upgrade. And after my aunt spent the last 3 or so years learning the Windows 10 environment, I'm hoping that Mint/Cinnamon is a good fit for trying to transition her over if it came to that.

If I can do everything that I normally would do on my Main with Linux, I'll probably skip updating Win11 on anything I regularly use on the internet. The one thing I know I won't be able to use anymore in Linux would be the video editing software I'm familiar with, but truth be told I actually have more powerful PCs I could be using to do that stuff if I set up an office in one of the unused rooms. I just do it on my main AIO because I'm right there all the time. I could keep one of the more powerful desktops on Win10 and just never connect it online to do my videos. The one that I use to edit videos is not really up to the task anyhow. It's just easy.

If nothing else, this all is probably going to force me into better habits anyhow.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 8:51 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

If anybody tries upgrading to Win11, don't freak out if it gets stuck at 85%. There's something about that part of the install that can hang up for a long time, and nobody really seems to give any decent explanation for it. Looks like some people either never got it to work, or they were too impatient and didn't let it finish. I've seen some people say that it finally successfully worked after a full day. I'd say it hung for me for around one hour before moving straight to 92% and finishing up quickly.

So far, so good. Outside of the warning on the install, it hasn't screamed at me at all and it is downloading and installing all the current updates along with all the security stuff.

Got it starting on my laptop now too. I didn't even realize that I did ultimately just install Win10 on there, so that made starting the install easier than it would have forcing the USB stick boot.

It doesn't appear to copy over previous authentication keys. I installed all of these with the keys that were on the cases when I bought them 2nd hand and the keys were accepted when I used them. Looks like Win11 is not activated though. This could be because I used Rufus to install it instead of the MS stick creation tool. Don't know if I can fix that, but one potential downside to putting 11 on a device they don't want you to put it on is that you might lose your activation and have to look at the watermark. I've had that thing on my main PC for years and I don't even notice it anymore.

Looking forward to trying to get Mint on both of these things and see what it can do. Dreading the idea of trying any of this out on my Main that is set up exactly the way I want it to be.

Oh... and File Explorer is ugly as hell in 11. I'm hoping there are settings to turn everything back to the way that Windows 10 looked, and they're not locked behind the activation paywall.

I'm hoping that it works at least as good as Windows 10 does, which is to say like crap. But I'm hoping Explorer didn't get even worse in 11 than it is right now in 10.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 12:03 AM

BRENDA

Dry day today. Got back around five and not a good afternoon. Took me at least a good half an hour or more to break 1,000 points. Three tries to get winds & dragons and then not even anything really good.

Regular game tomorrow morning.

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 12:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wow Sigs...

Even with my old tech, this has gotten pretty easy in 2025. The only hiccup so far is the one that I've always run into with a Linux install and that's the fact you need an ethernet connection. No wireless when running the OS from the drive, and still no wireless after formatting the blank partition and doing the full install.

Updates seem to be taking about an hour, but there were a ton of them. Though I didn't see the wireless driver among them while I scrolled through it, from the looks of what else it's customizing post-install I think it will work.

The laptop is probably faster. I was actually waiting on the desktop to finally give up the Mint install stick so I could get the laptop started.

This is going so smoothly in fact, that I'm thinking about doing it to my Main, and really forcing myself to try to adapt to Linux. I could put all this effort into everything else and never use it. Grub works flawlessly. If the wireless works after updates, I might be doing a 3rd computer soon.

I think I might even do this to my aunt's computers early and see how she gets along in Linux too. She would probably adapt better to it because she wouldn't have to un-learn everything I do. I think she's only even seen File Explorer once so far and I was walking her through something on the phone. I was probably telling her some 20 year old super-difficult way of sending a photo when she could have done it 100 times easier with her phone if I knew anything about them to tell her how it's done.

Mint/Cinammon does a good job of mimicking Windows. I hate the file explorer though. For the life of me I can't get a "Properties" dialog box that tells me the full size of the Linux OS partition. It says the amount free when I hover over it, but can't find that option to know the full partition size. I just want the simple Right-click-on-C-Drive-click-Properties option, and that doesn't pop up. It's these little things that all build up over time that really annoy me when using a different OS.

Oh... BTW... This is going to sound silly, but I accidentially figured out something pretty cool today. I had to buy a new coffee maker recently since mine took a crap. I didn't know until I got it that it came with one of those reusable filters. I had one years ago but it gets crapped up pretty quick if you don't wash it all the time and I threw it out.

I noticed while using this one that I was getting some grounds in my pot. I don't blame the basket since this is the crappiest coffee maker I've ever owned, but for some reason I thought to try using a disposable filter inside of the reusable filter.

I'm shitting you not, I couldn't believe how much stronger and better tasting this brew was than any before.

It was such a difference to me that I kind of laughed and thought I was an asshole for not doing this the whole time, and that this was something that everyone else just knew to do and I never thought about doing it before since nobody taught me it.

Nah... I don't see anybody online talking about it much, other than asking if they should do it and people throw their two cents in. But nobody mentioned the taste thing.

Hmmmmmmm....

Maybe I'll have to just keep doing it and see if it's constant. Maybe I just had a real good sinus day and my taste buds were working better than they usually do.

Seems like a good thing to do anyhow though. I didn't get any grounds in my pot that time, and if you're using a double filter that reusable one won't get extremely crudded up right away, if ever. My thinking right now is that there's more taste because the 2 filters caused the water to sit in the grounds longer before falling through.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 1:37 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

And we're done...

Relatively painless this time around.

I can tell now that my suspected problems with Linux in the past were due to me always lagging so far behind in the current tech.

I didn't go out of my way to see what year my Laptop BIOS was, but it had a decent looking GUI. The Desktop looked like DOS and was from 2016.

The Desktop did exactly what any other device I've ever installed Linux on and required me to have an ethernet connection before it would even begin the install with the stuff it still needed to download. And I actually got a little nervous about it when after updates were installed and I did a restart that the wireless network option still wasn't even showing up.

Then, after messing around with my laptop for a few minutes and making more progress there I went back to the desktop and suddenly there it was. I could finally connect wirelessly and pull the hard cable out. I didn't even have to reboot again. It was just there 5 minutes later.

But the kicker was when I installed Mint on the Laptop. The entire installation process went different because it automatically found the right driver for the wireless connection right out the gates and I never had to connect the ethernet on that one.

That laptop is probably 7 years old now, and it's my newest one.

I still think I'm going to need windows for a lot of things I do just because I won't be able to find suitable Linux replacements for programs I use, but I think I can make this work and use the Linux side whenever doing things that need to be secure.

I'm going to tinker around with the laptop for a few days and see how things go. The desktop isn't really ideal to do any stuff on for prolonged periods of time, sitting under the TV on my TV stand. Maybe I'll be surprised and I find suitable alternatives to most of the things.

Setting up a plex server is a freakin' chore compared to Windows though, but at least it can be done. There's no downloadable program like there is for Windows to control it. You need to do about 15 commands from terminal and have your IP address handy. Just little things like this, yanno....

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 5:17 PM

BRENDA

All done for today. Not too bad a morning at mah jong. Managed 3rd place with over 5,00points. Winds and dragons once with six doubles.

Also all rewired for upgraded modem and HD box. Not too much difference but remote and HD box have shrunk.

Still trying to rain.

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Friday, April 11, 2025 1:31 PM

BRENDA

Out soon and have umbrella with me incase of rain. Need groceries and sort out a couple of other things.

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Friday, April 11, 2025 2:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Getting there on the house cleaning. Boy, that was long overdue. Got some company in the next week. The plan is that nobody will know that it ever got dirty since the last time they were here.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, April 11, 2025 6:08 PM

BRENDA

Back and in with groceries.

Got some paper sorting done and working on a plan to get a little cleaning done this evening or before supper. Kitchen floor needs sweeping and maybe one other thing.

Man, I miss the clock on the HD box. This thing is so small now there is no face on it at all. Just one little light to show it is working.

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Friday, April 11, 2025 7:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Done cleaning on the 1st and 2nd floors. I forgot how nice it was to live like that.

Basement is going to have to wait for another day. Got a bit of sweeping done down there just so I'm not tracking crap back up and onto the carpet pads on those painted steps. They've held up really nice and I don't see any damage to them after almost a year of walking up and down them many times in an average day.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 12:58 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Now I'm getting adventurous...

I'm using Gparted to create a third partition by shrinking my linux partition first. I'm going to install a hyper-specific fork of Linux that might be able to do some interesting things. It's awesome how all of these different installs can access the same pool of media on an external hard drive without any problems.

So far, Linux does most of what I would need it to do, and aside from a few issues like the completely different filesystem, it shouldn't be too difficult to adjust to. It looks like these days you can use an app in the distro that will essentially act as a GooglePlay Store for all of the apps available for use. It takes a few GB of space to set that up, but once you do that you don't have to be arsed with installing everything from the terminal window.

My one dealbreaker is that Paint.NET isn't made for Linux. It's the best image editing software out there for novices to intermediates, and highly customizable. I might have to keep a Win11 install just to use that program. One day I'll have some better tech and I'll be doing all this in virtual boxes.

Kind of fun learning this so far. Especially when I have all this set up on 2 devices and I can bounce around from one to the other while I've got one doing things.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 1:02 PM

BRENDA

Laundry day in a bit then a walk in the sunshine as long as it holds.

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USER	POST DATE
6ixStringJack	04.12 00:58
Brenda	04.12 13:02