Diy Hands On Projects

[Sonoran Sam]

After many failures, I am finally posting on this forum from my old 2004 Athlon 2800 machine running Antix Linux.

It was a fun project and I learned a lot. When I did the initial install of Linux, I failed to make a swap partition. Because this old system kicked, screamed and complained the whole time I force fed Linux down its throat, I wasn't looking forward to wiping the hard drive and starting over from scratch.

Luckily, I found some software called "gparted". I was able to burn that software to a CD, boot from it, create a new partition, make it "swap" partition, then "swapon".

My ultimate goal is to take my Windows 10 machine and run Linux on it when support for Windows 10 ends. I figured I would make my mistakes on this machine and learn what not to do.

Mission accomplished.... Bye-bye Microsoft.

Now I want to learn more terminal commands and how to use LibreOffice.

 

[Hog]

gparted is a good program, I use it alot when setting up new drives as backups. I find using 2 1/2" ssd's is perfect for backing up the laptop using an external drive cable. No swap partitions on ssds! Libre office is good, pretty much a clone of MS office, with extra benefits, as it can read old MS publisher files and make pdfs on the fly. Switching a file back and forth from Libre to MS Excel has caused me minor formatting issues, nothing I couldnt correct. The menus in Libre are not very intuitive like MS is, just have to learn where they all are.

 

[Hog]

So far, the only thing I cannot get to run on Linux is my CD copy of Autocad 2002. Even Photoshop runs well (even faster than on MS).

 

[Sonoran Sam]

@Hog Thank you...

Yes, my computer usage is pretty mundane. Home budgeting, a few letters (here and there), on-line banking and some light surfing the web (with the occasional purchase).

The brief time I have spent using Libre Office and I'm getting the hang of it. Like you said, just trying to find where each task I need is in which menu.

I really couldn't justify the money for a new Windows 11 machine with that light usage. So when October comes, I'll swap out the hard drive, just to keep my original Windows 10 hard drive intact, install a new one and load Linux. Now that I've been exposed to "gparted" and "swap partitions", etc.; the installation process should be smooth.

Thanks again for your input, I do appreciate any and all advice.