Re: [tlug] Help with Mint

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Thomas Blasejewicz writes:

 > Well, when I bought the new computer with Windows 8.1 I suddenly
 > found, that the OS accesses the Win 7 notebook I have and even my
 > daughter's PC - without my permission.

You're observant.  Many people don't realize that's an issue.

 > I am now running my PC with this offline account and deleted the
 > online one.

But the same thing will happen with any Windows system you bring into
your network, or that's on a network they join.

 > That is why (as I wrote earlier, for years now) I thought, Linux might 
 > give me an alternative (and more freedom?).

Alternative, yes, freedom, yes, "free", no. :-)

 > Do I understand you correctly, when I interpret your advice as "stick to 
 > Windows"?

Not yet.  It's certainly an obvious option given the preference of
your clients.  "The customer is always right," you know. :-/

 > (for one: I cannot afford to buy me another new computer; and
 > buying a Windows upgrade for 3-400 USD is not very appealing
 > either)

Do Windows upgrades really cost that much?  (University employee, site
license, nobody talks about prices where I work.)  The reason I ask is
that it occurred to me is it occurred to me that you could switch the
older XP box to Linux (which can be configured to run more lightly
than even Windows XP, at some cost of your existing "muscle memory"),
and installing Windows on the new one.  But at that price it's quite
ridiculous.

In fact, you have plenty of computers.  I suppose you have operating-
system sized pieces of disk free on several of them.  You asked before
about single-partition installs vs. multi-partition installs.  I see
no reason for a personal workstation to use a multi-partition install.
The main advantage to a multi-partition install with modern file
systems is that you automatically get protection against things like
having log files overflow the disk and being unable to save a couple
megabytes of work.  But you shouldn't have huge rapidly growing log
files, and from what you said, it sounds like at any time you have at
most a few kilobytes unsaved.

What you do need partitions for is installing multiple operating
systems in a multiboot configuration, including making bootable copies
of /boot as Christian mentioned in the context of backups.  Of course
additional physical drives would do as well, if you're more
comfortable opening the case and plugging in three connectors (each
end of the data cable plus the drive side of the power cable) than
repartitioning existing drives.  And those cost less than $50/TB last
I looked.

Anyway, you need not pay much attention to any of the above at this
time.  The point is that Linux (or other free OS) does give you a lot
of cheap options.  You just need to figure out which is best for you,
then compare that one with sticking to Windows for work.