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  OK, Plan "B"-ish

  Apr 16, 2025

  Although I did build new Windows 11 machines for Jan and myself because we needed to be productive immediately, I didn’t want to spend that kind of money to replace the remaining PCs and the laptop that we have.  So, I’m constantly on the lookout for a Plan B.  I did look closely at Chromebook.  I even tried installing the ChromeOS in one of my old PCs.  I found them to be fine for school students but too restrictive for the type of use I’m accustomed to.  Like I said earlier, I’ve been dabbling with Linux operating systems for over fifteen years.  It usually worked out like this: I periodically investigate some new distribution just to see how it works and ultimately conclude that, as a complete networked Windows replacement, it’s not quite ready for Prime Time.  So, what are the pros and cons that lead me to that conclusion? Let’s start out with the Pros.

  Almost every version of Linux is free to download and use.  The only exceptions are when the distributor charges for providing Linux software already on a DVD or USB drive, and/or if they offer paid support.  Almost any Linux version, or distribution, installs easily and works extremely well with older, stand-alone computers.  Old machines that couldn’t upgrade to the next version of Windows generally run quite happily with Linux, not to mention faster.  In almost all cases, Linux distributions include not only the operating system but a full suite of features and productivity software like clones of MS-Office, Adobe acrobat, and Photoshop.  You also have your choice of Internet browsers, like Chrome, MS-Edge, FireFox, Opera, and a host of others.  Importing your Internet favorites and passwords is very easily accomplished too.  Most distributions will readily connect to Windows PCs or servers that have a drive available to share with others. Finally, Linux easily connects to any USB thumb drive or USB external storage drive.  There are more pros, but I think you get the picture.  Now, the cons.

  The desktop experience (icons, themes, etc.) don’t seem as polished.  Some of the theme’s appearance trend toward the cartoon-ish.  Fine for home but iffy for an Enterprise environment.  The downside of free software is that usually no support other than software and security updates are included.  There may be user-based message boards and FAQs from the distributor, but otherwise, you’re on your own.  This is when one of those “Linux for Dummies” or “Learn Linux Visually” books come in handy.  It is very much akin to learning a new language because, well, it is.  Making almost any deep change from the out-of-the-box experience is likely to be command line-based.  Anyone remember DOS? C:\Headache\Asperin\Location\Please?  Finally, for me, it’s the alternative office suites.  Examples are Libre-Office, Open Office, and Only Office.  They are prohibited from including and distributing, many of the TrueType fonts that Microsoft uses.  This means that while they can open, edit, and save files from MS-Word, Excel etc., they will substitute a font if the one you used in the original isn’t otherwise available.  It will make your documents and spreadsheets look quite goofy.  The only work around it to download the Microsoft font collections (which are available for free on the Internet) and install them yourself.  Once that’s done, you actually have a fairly nice replacement for Office and, by extension, Windows.  The only exceptions are the distributions specifically designed for the enterprise environment (Suse, Red Hat, etc.).  These look and work great because the purchasing company IT department handles all the support.  So, what lessons did I learn this time around?  

  I tested the latest versions of: Open SUSE (free), Open Mandriva (free), Fedora (free RedHat), Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Q4OS and Zorin Linux.  While some worked in an old PC, some wouldn’t work in an old laptop.  Any of these are far closer to Windows than any previous versions.  Of those tested, I found Q4OS the one that best worked in PCs as well as laptops.  I was able to tweek it to resemble Windows closely (screen shot, above).  The old garage PC even runs faster with Q4OS Linux than it did with Windows 10!  Best of all the software is free and perfectly adequate for my needs after adding the Microsoft TrueType fonts.  For now, it looks and functions well enough that I decided to keep it for my garage computer instead of spending for a new Windows 11 setup.  This saved me about $800 in parts and software that would’ve been necessary to upgrade it to Windows 11.  I’ll wait and install Q4OS Linux in my laptop when Windows 10 support finally ends.  Not bad for a Plan B, but I’ll also stick with Windows 11 for a bit longer too.  So, I supppose it's Plan B-ish.

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