Yesterday, I finally decided it was time to be done with Microsoft. Between pricing and privacy, I just cannot justify giving them any more of my money and I’m sick and tired of playing ‘whack a mole’ with their oft covert actions that either compromise my privacy choices without telling me, or retroactively remove them and hope I never notice. (I do. Shame on you. Done with you, too.)
So, after consideration, I landed on Mint with Cinnamon on top and to be quite frank, nearly every issue I had with them in the past (i.e., poor GUI/UI design, convoluted and difficult troubleshooting processes, having to learn a whole new paradigm for things that are simple for their competitors, etc) has made significant progress in the last two decades.
Not all, sadly. Through no fault of their own (so far as I can tell), my sound card manufacturer isn’t supported. Of course, it took me two days and pulling my hair all but out to conclude this, but finally, it was obvious and now, I’ve got a USB sound alternative on the way to close that last loop.
I could get on my soap box about error handling for user friendliness, getting comprehensive links and directions in place (you know, the stuff that can keep a new user from fleeing back to Evil Corp?)… but I understand that these open source alternatives are usually staffed thinly and since I cannot pick up code well enough to contribute, I’ll opt for understanding.
No more fees to companies, no more whack-a-mole privacy, and pretty much every application I want to use is available these days (and those that are not usually have some manner of VM or Wine option).
Pretty happy with it thus far. Will be more so when that sound solve shows up.
8/10 for new user experience here. Why spend more when you can spend less for the cost of some focused reading and a willingness to look up answers?