20 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I have an extended 12 month support from Micky$oft, but my current workstation doesn't have the security code on-chip that Win11 now seeks. I'm gradually working on moving off Windows and on to Linux, one of the tasks for the New Year.

If that's your plan then go for it. It's a very simple and painless process from past experience but admittedly that was some time ago now since I last ran Linux.

I have a 2017 Asus X555 (I think it is) that's now redundant but serviceable I was thinking of wiping the SSD and installing Linux on.

Might be worthy of a topic in the Tech Shed for more input.

By the way, I highly recommend upping your Vitamin D from around September when the days start getting shorter. I've done that for a couple of years now and IMO it definitely helps.

Another tip is to ignore BST/ GMT clock changes. They always throw my circadian rhythm out of kilter. Not easy if you have fixed start times/ employed etc but I think we're both old enough now not to have to.

Edited 30 December, 202530 Dec by Lee01

1 hour ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I have an extended 12 month support from Micky$oft, but my current workstation doesn't have the security code on-chip that Win11 now seeks. I'm gradually working on moving off Windows and on to Linux, one of the tasks for the New Year.

If its throwing a TPM 2.0 issue as a reason for not updating it might be worth checking the Bios to be certain it's not present if you haven't already. My desktop was saying the same and wouldn't update but I double checked the bios and found that it simply wasn't enabled by default and that was causing the issue. A quick change in the bios and it updated perfectly.

Edited 30 December, 202530 Dec by skomaz

2 hours ago, Lee01 said:

If that's your plan then go for it. It's a very simple and painless process from past experience but admittedly that was some time ago now since I last ran Linux.

I have a 2017 Asus X555 (I think it is) that's now redundant but serviceable I was thinking of wiping the SSD and installing Linux on.

Might be worthy of a topic in the Tech Shed for more input.

By the way, I highly recommend upping your Vitamin D from around September when the days start getting shorter. I've done that for a couple of years now and IMO it definitely helps.

Another tip is to ignore BST/ GMT clock changes. They always throw my circadian rhythm out of kilter. Not easy if you have fixed start times/ employed etc but I think we're both old enough now not to have to.

That's a good idea with the Linux; it is worthy of a separate topic, one which I'm very interested in. I have a second desktop which I have installed a copy of Lime but not done much else with, as I'm finding it a bit heavy going, to be honest. I have only just got Thunderbird running for emails, but although, it dragged over all my emails from Windows Edge, it did not do my contacts or the calendar. 😒.

So I'd for one, would welcome some guidance on Linux and how to do things on it and on how to source software to run on it, I have LibreOffice, and that's it. I have decades of Windows experience. But Linux seems to defy logic to me.

5 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Should wr not all be on Windows 11 by now as 10 and below no longer supported ?

Windows 11 Pro PCs, refurbished, from just over £100, i7, quarter terabyte SSD, 16Gb RAM !

I'd recommend something more powerful than that; it will just about crawl along with Windows 11 and will struggle to run some basic games and videos.

I have a HP Elitbook 8540P laptop (desktop replacement) i7 cpu running Windows 10 and it struggles at times to run some videos, whereas my desktop Windows 11 machine will happily play blu-ray 4K HD videos. That said, 3 months ago I treated myself to a brand new Lenovo Ideapad slim i7 2025 model with the latest version of i7 family, 16GB ram and 1TB SSD and it too struggles with some items that the desktop AMD Win 11 flies through.

I’m starting the spin out for people to discuss Linux (including myself..)

Have at it here @Lee01 @Graham Butcher and @MikeTheThinker

Leave me chuckle thread alone 🙃🤣🤣

I went over to Linux Mint after Windows 7, it just works, unlike all the bloat and pop-ups of Windows.

Cheers @mac11irl for starting this. I was too tired last night to open a new topic but it was in my head to start today.

Re: Linux Mint - I was reading this earlier...https://uk.pcmag.com/linux/124238/how-to-make-the-switch-from-windows-to-linux however I'll probably use Ubuntu myself https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

I've nothing against Ubuntu, if you're planning on getting into the more tech stuff like running servers, it's probably a better choice out of the box. Mint seems to be a more straightforward desktop OS, but it's all down to personal taste. It's all based on Debian, so either way there's no difference in what you can make it do, just how you get there.

Ooh missed this.

Big Linux fan here, started using Slackware and YellowDog back in the early 2000s. Built a free proxy web filter for a school I worked at using Squid and DansGuardian.
My desktop went EoL for W11 with the TCM2 issue and tbh I dislike and distrust W11 a lot so rather than throwing some perfecty usable kit away (Ryzen 7 processor, 32Gb ram and 2Tb SSD) I have switched it to Lunux.

I started using PoP!OS as this was suppsoed to be the most compatible with NVidia kit out the box. I liked the interface a lot but it did have a lot of issues that were a PITA to fix most notably the NVidia drivers, which were supposed to be the OSs MO.
Gave up after a while and went easy mode by installing Mint. TBH nearly 100% problem free. Gaming still a bit of a hit or a miss and I think my particular gfx card (and old 1060) might not be the most compatible. but for everything else it's solid.

My laptop is runing W11 but when that finishes it will go to Linux as well. I lucked out and pumped the RAM in it before the prices started to rise. Even more as I bought a thick ol' workstation style Lenovo and it's had free slots for more memory and an MM2 1Tb SSD.

If you're stuck with Linux or having issues it's one of the things that AI is very good at helping you with. It's amusing that you can get Copilot to help you build a Linux system to get you away from it.

Edited 24 February24 Feb by Aspman

Ooh - you've just reminded me I was going to try and resurrect an old laptop and a couple of EeePC 901's using a light version of Linux...

Does anyone know if there's still 'live' versions of Ubuntu/ Mint available where you can run them on a Windows PC with a CD (in the past) or a USB drive?

I guess dual booting is still available?

1 hour ago, Lee01 said:

Does anyone know if there's still 'live' versions of Ubuntu/ Mint available where you can run them on a Windows PC with a CD (in the past) or a USB drive?

I guess dual booting is still available?

The current version will do that. A USB stick is probably better as not sure you could get the whole thing on a CD. Most versions of Linux can be run from a USB stick to try them on your PC.

https://linuxmint.com

On 26/02/2026 at 20:35, Lee01 said:

Does anyone know if there's still 'live' versions of Ubuntu/ Mint available where you can run them on a Windows PC with a CD (in the past) or a USB drive?

I guess dual booting is still available?

Partitioning drives is still a PITA. Actually it's maybe worse than it was as the Windows partitioning tools are disfunctional now and Linux ones still feel like you need a PhD in maths to work out.