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Whoa! Windows 7's market share surged, tripling in users last month (www.pcworld.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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As the article notes, the increase seems to be driven mainly by users in Asia, where recycling and reusing older hardware is quite common. I wonder if third-party companies are offering extended security patches there, which could make affordable second-hand Windows 7 machines more appealing for people who just need them for browsing or light tasks. It would certainly make sense given recent fiascos and Microsoft’s current stance on AI, especially with generative AI being used to develop system-level code.

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[–] 11 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I’m thinking about mint vs Ubuntu. Got any thoughts about which is easier for a tech-illiterate moron like me?

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  • [–] 32 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    If you want my two cents, Mint's default Desktop Environment (Cinnamon) is far more windows-like compared to Ubuntu, and Mint includes more quality of life applications for less tech savvy people compared to Ubuntu out of the box. (Mainly graphical apps for updates, backups, disk management, etc...)

    I first tried Ubuntu when I was starting my Linux journey, but it didn't really click until I used Mint. Save yourself some pain and go for Mint first :)

    Edit: Also, Ubuntu contains ads for things like their "Ubuntu Pro" update service, and they're known to commit some tomfuckery when it comes to installing apps and compatibility (see Snap Controversy)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Snap Controversy

    Just today at work other team wrote a bunch of ready-made images on their SBCs. In about 10% of them snap shat the bed by corrupting one json file which rendered their environment unusable. They did it in a pretty stupid way by writing an sd card, inserting it into SBC, booting up and disconnecting power after very short visual confirmation that system gave some signs of life. And snap was doing whatever it's doing in the background. So I had the pleasure of removing said json-file and reinstalling all their crap manually on those failed units.

    So, maybe not strictly speaking fault of snapd, but yet another problem it caused for me without any practical reason other than the environment they chose just uses snap instead of something more robust.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Raspberry pi's didn't even have power buttons until this latest version. I fully expect to be able to unplug an SBC at any point with very low chances of corruption. It's not like they're designed for that, but they don't really give you much choice. Having 10% fail like that is ridiculous.

    In fact, I've done it hundreds of times and never had an issue.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    I've been around the block with linux. I'm no expert but I have used it since the 90's off and on. And I always go back to Mint. It's by far the best out of the box. Easy to set up and very intuitive. The only thing I've ever had to configure after the install, is sometimes I have to use a proprietary video driver (not hard to change). My Dell 2in1 will not go into tablet mode with the open drivers. You can test drive it from a USB stick before committing to it.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I can confirm Mint, specifically with the Cinnamon Desktop environment. Although I would also recommend Debian with the Cinnamon Desktop. Ubuntu has been making some pretty weird choices lately for a while now. And while Mint has been trying to move it's upstream straight to Debian, they haven't done so yet.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    There's Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). Does that count?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Surely it does. I also have a secret dream that they will make LMDE the default Linux Mint. No sense basing Ubuntu when they are stripping away everything ubuntu

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    There is a rational reason for it - some types of software expect Ubuntu during their installation and usage (especially game server panels for some reason), and I'd imagine they wouldn't work properly if Mint was closer to Debian than Ubuntu.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Ubuntu was created as supposedly the first Linux "made for people" of course there were other version of Linux trying to do that but Ubuntu also had funding, including for advertising (it was created by a billionaire Mark Shuttleworth) which helped.

    Mint took Ubuntu and shaped it further to be even simpler.

    I think Ubuntu tried to replicate UI of MacOS while Mint tried to look more like Windows.

    I personally did not use Mint, but from the comments you can see that it has a significant following.

    I used Ubuntu for some time, but stopped over decade ago as I got very frustrated that they frequently introduced instability (note that since Mint is based on Ubuntu it is not completely immune to that), though I hope that things improved and now Ubuntu is more stable.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    I landed on Mint after Ubuntu gave me some grief right after installing it and I wasn't in the mood to chase it around. Mint installed super easy and has given me no trouble at all. It does what I do with a computer just fine.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Linux mint is the loveliest distro. Apart from desktop shock you will get in Ubuntu coming from windows, it also has some controversial decisions. If you use Debian version of mint (LMDE), it is more stable than Ubuntu, which is already rock solid like pyramid of Giza (cf windows).

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