Full Circle Magazine FR

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I have been using the Ubuntu strain of Linux for about six years. I dabbled with SuSE in the mid-nineties but did not get very involved as this was the start of the age of Microsoft and Windows.

Since my incursion into the world of Linux, the scenario has changed completely. Gone are the days of having to fight with the software to get it to recognize certain hardware. As did many other Ubuntu users, I switched to Linux Mint as soon as Unity came to light. Now, after the years, I am more up-to-speed with the command line and the intricacies of Linux.

An interesting development, in my case, has to do with kids and my eleven year-old grandson and all of his mates. When he was six, he was given an old laptop with Windows ME. An organ grinder would be a friendly description. I installed PC/OS Linux and it worked a treat, well enough for him to play Club Penguin. He was then given, as a present, a netbook with Windows XP. I changed this to Ubuntu and subsequently to Linux Mint. So he has been using Linux for five years with no complaints. That is until a couple of months ago when he started at an up-market and very demanding Secondary School in London with a very noticeable uniform and strong dress code. His IT Teacher told him that as a Linux user he is very much on his own as the school uses Macs and MS products; no Linux. This was a serious setback to someone just starting a secondary education. The face of my grandson said it all.

I decided to give a helping (if not devious) hand. A dual boot computer would solve this anomaly. However, finding a computer that does not have Windows 8 pre-installed is not so easy. There was an article in FCM about companies in the UK that sell computers with no operating system, but I live in Spain and all the major department stores and computer suppliers here insist on selling you Windows 8. I managed to find a computer consultancy company that supplied me with a high-spec notebook with no OS and a Spanish keyboard. There is very little difference between an English and Spanish keyboard.

I used a boot-able Gparted CD to format the hard disk and then installed Windows 7. Using the Windows Disk Manager, I shrank the MS partition and then using Gparted again to create a swap partition and an extended partition for Linux. The Windows installation was a nightmare as it would not recognize Wi-Fi, LAN, bluetooth, or the keyboard, out of the box. You have to download the drivers, which takes forever to find the right ones. There is also the added frustration of having to install some kind of anti-virus software. The Linux Mint 15 64-bit installation worked like a dream, instantly recognizing all hardware at a glance. With the dual boot installation, Linux Mint boots by default, with a 10-second delay if you want to boot into Windows. I installed all the extra packages that would be of use to an eleven year-old school boy and sent it off to the UK.

The feedback I have had so far from my grandson is: “awesome, all my classmates are very jealous, and my IT teacher is really impressed.” I am sure over the coming months the school may change tack when they see the huge advantages of Linux.

Regarding the saga of MS and Windows 8, the company is going in the wrong direction. I can state my opinion with respect to the Spanish market. People are not buying Windows 8 computers because it is for touchscreens and these are so much more expensive. It also requires a lot of RAM. The 28% unemployment in Spain may also be another reason. If you want to install Windows 8 on a machine running XP, Vista or 7, you have to get a bank loan to buy the software as there is no upgrade available. In several major stores that sell computer equipment here in Spain, I asked about the sales of Windows 8 machines and the answer was a very negative look that they are not selling.