Windows 10 Alternative

[xrocketengineer]

I have several old computers that are not upgradeable to Windows 11 since they don't meet the requirements plus either they have little non upgradeable memory or a gutless CPU and ran the latest version of Windows 10 like crap. I have been looking for a Linux distribution that would make them usable (not great) again and it would also be usable for a "Windows only" user since some of my relatives are in the same boat. I played with Linux over the years on and off but never found anything worth spending a lot of time on as a user and not a tinkerer since I am not an expert. Finally, I have found a distribution that allows to try using it and installing it on these low power machines without a lot of hassle. MX Linux to my surprise works much better on these machines that Windows 10 did. I initially installed the "Fluxbox" desktop version since it is supposed to use minimal resources but the sound needed further work and it was also a pain to try to add shortcuts to the desktop. From the desktop software package installer, I picked the "KDE Plasma" desktop thinking that it was going to bog down the machine. Amazingly, it fixed the sound, added the battery charge indicator and not only it was more "Windows like", I could add desktop shortcuts for apps just like in Windows. Updates come in at least daily and and a couple of clicks take care of the installation. Google Chrome, Firefox even MS Edge are available for installation and can be synchronized with my Windows machines. YouTube videos run fine with no jerkiness. The other usual suspects are available too for installation with a couple of clicks, like Libre Office as a MS Office substitute, The Gimp as Adobe Photo Shop stand in, Mozilla Thunderbird for email client and many others. The touch screen works and also there is a screen keyboard called Onboard.
The only things that do not work are teleconferencing apps like Google Meet and MS Teams due to camera or sound issues.
Here is my desktop:

If anybody is interested in the topic add to the thread or send me a message. Like I said, I am not an expert.

 

[JohnDB]

Thanks for posting about your experience. I have been wondering what options exist for my Win 10 laptop when eventually something forces my hand and will keep this in mind.

 

[sagor]

A few years ago, my sister was having problems with her Win7 and trying to migrate to Win10. Never worked right. The processor was very old (Q6600), before the i3-i5-i7 series. I put Linux Mint on it, and they are still using it to this day. It is still snappy, and all accessories (scanner, printer) work just fine. I only had one glitch once when the SSD got corrupted somehow, but the Linux utilities fixed it (had to research that a bit)
For simple uses, Linux does everything most people want, surfing the Internet, email, photos, and office packages like LibreOffice (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) are fully compatible with MS Office (for the most part). MX Linux is popular, as is Linux Mint, and variations of Ubuntu (Mint and Ubuntu are based on Debian).
Only drawback of Linux is where some Windows applications don't have a Linux equivalent, and Windows emulators like Wine help with some of those, but not all. I have one particular Windows app that just will not run properly on Linux under Wine, but it is more likely due to poor Windows app coding than other things...
Bill Gates and MS are forcing more people to look at Linux now, by forcing hardware upgrades to people that don't want to. Also, Win11 wants you to have a MS account so they can watch what you do even more (there are ways around that, but not easy). In effect, MS is forcing more people to switch to Linux (or Apple's OS)
End of rant....

 

[jimh406]

There was an article I read the other day that there were workarounds for systems not compatibles with Windows 11.

Unless you are using Windows apps, virtually any linux distro should work. I’d watch some youtube videos to help choose which one they try. Otherwise, install open office and a browser, and you can do most things that you’ll want to.

Fwiw, Bill Gates is more interested in your health or how he makes money off of it. At this point, it’s been a couple of decades since he was involved in the day to day.

 

[xrocketengineer]

The particular computer that I have been trying to revive is an Asus TA100, convertible laptop/tablet with detachable keyboard. It originally came with Windows 8 32 bits (even though it has a 64 bit processor), 2GB of RAM and 64GB SSD. When I started trying to run Linux on it several weeks ago, I had a hard time. I was not aware that even though the CPU was 64 bit, the UEFI BIOS was 32 bit. A very rare bird. Due to that, Zorin OS would not even show up. Same with Linux Mint. Q4OS had a 32 bit version that worked but there was no Google Chrome and Firefox was on its last legs since 32 bit OS's are not being supported anymore in Windows nor Linux. I managed to hack the 64 bit version of Q4OS with the 32 bit startup files but it looked ugly and the final product still was not "Windows user friendly".
When I finally got around to MX Linux, I did not have high hopes but I already knew that part of the trick to make the live media work from USB on this computer was to use Rufus to create the bootable USB drive but to use FAT32 for the formatting with the UEFI setting. Incredibly, this worked right off the bat with no hacking. It also worked on a second computer and there is at least two more to go.

 

[#40Fan]

I found a Win 11 lite that works on older "non-upgradable" computers. Then I used a program to make the startup look like Win 7.

After installing anything, you need to go into the startup settings and disable all of the BS it thinks you need to run. If you look in the bottom right hand corner of the picture in the first post, you will see quite a bit of stuff. If you don't need it, disable it, which is likely everything.

 

[Scm]

I've been using PCLinuxOS for years now on older Macbooks and love it. There is a KDE version that I currently use. But I'm testing the XFCE version. Less bells and whistles, but better performance on old machines. PCLOS has rolling updates and has not/will not adopt systemd. The website was recently lost when the provider burned to the ground, so the new site is simple at the moment. The forum is a great resource for help.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I upgraded all 4 of my computers a year or so ago.
Several were just too old to do anything with.
I had rebuilt them for years.
Sometimes you just need to know when to throw in the towel and move on.

I need a lot of speed and power for some of the things I do.
I have a small mini computer in the garage to order parts, look at blueprints, schematics and WSM's when I need them.
It's fast and boots from full off to full run in about 15 seconds.
It lacks any real heavy power but for the tasks it does it's great.

My main computer is... well lets just say its big fast and powerful.
It can pretty much handle anything you can throw at it.

 

[Donystoy]

My old computer (upgraded to windows 10 when 10 came out) I built myself from components about 12 years ago. I put one of the first solid state drives in it that I ordered from a supplier in Oregon at the time. That drive is just about full with every upgrade from Microsoft using up more space. A couple of months ago I bought an off the shelf windows 11 desktop with two drives like my old one. Just using the old computer now to copy DVDs etc.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I plan to buy a new computer and run Linux, and keep the old computer on Win 10 and use win programs off line.

 

[xrocketengineer]

Well, I am very impressed with MX Linux so far on this little under powered computer. Not only it works better than with Windows 10 but I have found some interesting User Interfaces under KDE that make things more familiar:

 

[dlsmith]

Many Linux flavors give you a wide spectrum of customization options for the user interface, far more than Windows does.

 

[old and tired]

Well, I am very impressed with MX Linux so far on this little under powered computer....

So are you duel booting with a partition or did you wipe the old computers clean and install MX Linux with a fresh start?

 

[xrocketengineer]

So are you duel booting with a partition or did you wipe the old computers clean and install MX Linux with a fresh start?

On this Asus T100 laptop, I wiped out Windows 10 32 bit since the SSD is only 64 GB and installed MX Linux. On another Acer laptop, I split the 520 GB drive for dual boot with MX Linux and Windows 10 64 bit.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

hmm..might add LINUX on this desktop for a triple boot.....
I do run stand alone Excel 2003 on this PC, in Windows10, something 'they' said I couldn't do..supposed to use the 'browser version'....
Not too sure what LINUX would gain me....

 

[DaveFromMi]

How well do MS Office Apps run on Linux? Is there a run time version or a Windows emulator?

 

[Scm]

Not too sure what LINUX would gain me....

Privacy

 

[Scm]

How well do MS Office Apps run on Linux? Is there a run time version or a Windows emulator?

Wine runs windows apps on Linux,
There is Native LibreOffice too.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

Not too sure what LINUX would gain me....

Performance.

A few years ago the windoze version I had got a bit too old, so I was looking at Linux again.

I was writing an IC simulator at the time. After I switched to Linux the simulator ran three times as fast compared to windoze. Same source code, same compiler, very little screen I/O. Don't know where Gates was wasting all the processor time.

Eradicated everything microsoft related at the time and never looked back. Any application software required is available under Linux too. Windoze is on it's way out, in my humble opinion their concept was garbage from the beginning. Thousands of API functions with millions of parameters. Just rubbish.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

Wine runs windows apps on Linux,

WINE (not, "Wine") runs SOME Windows apps on Linux. Some run reasonably well, some run poorly, and some run not at all.

There is Native LibreOffice too.

Yes, if you don't mind the horrible interface on Libre.

As much as I hate Windoze, and have been trying to make the switch for about two decades now, the Linux community is still fixated on being not Windows, and has paid very little attention to usability.

Yes, can force yourself to get basic things done, but I do far too much on Excel & Word to have the time to put up with LibreOffice.


But if you are going to dive in, before you chose a distro, here's the most important tip - check the support community. As two examples, Mint has an excellent community. Many of the users are sysadmins and really know their stuff, and are willing to take the time to help newbies.

Last time I tried it, PCLOS was horrible. Most there didn't really know much, but they were happy to either share their ignorance (giving very bad advice) or to demonstrate their superiority. For example, one newbie posted about a video problem. He explained that he was completely new to Linux and didn't know anything. He put effort into explaining the details of his hardware and the problem he was seeing, and he was completely lost.

The very first response to that post? Here it is, in it's entirety: "Edit your video.conf".

That's it.

And that was typical of that forum.

Choose well, and don't be bamboozled by the bells and whistles. Spend some time in the support forums and see what kind of help you are going to get.