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One year to the day

Hard to believe it, but I’ve let a full year go by since writing about Linux.
Make no mistake, I’m still using Linux, both as Dual-Boot and as standalone systems on a laptop.

So, what’s changed or different since last time? Ok, here’s a list:

  • The HP G60 Laptop – sold
  • The Dual-booting 2009 Macbook – sold
  • Desktop PC? No longer own any
  • Acquired two laptops with decent specifications, both run only Linux
  • Still have Dell Laptop, dual boots Windows 10 & (surprised yet?) Fedora.

The Dell laptop underwent an accidental transformation. I spent too many hours “fighting” with the UEFI and Secure boot firmware in order to Dual-boot. And when it worked, it worked. I had (up until recently) the best experience dual-booting with Ubuntu. I switched to Ubuntu Mate (my favorite Ubuntu spin).

So, what is this “accidental transformation” that you speak of? The transformation was the accidental erasure of some data in the Linux partition that rendered the system non-bootable. Completely bricked it and wasted (again) lots of time just trying to get the Windows 10 side of the machine to boot up. No luck – at all. Even using the Boot Repair CD several ways, several times… no joy.

Finally, I just went ahead and did a full-on reset. Starting from 0 with a pure Windows laptop. But you can’t keep a Linux geek down. Why have 2 machines booting Linux, when you can have 2 machines, and a dual-booting windows 10 laptop, right?? Right.

I decided this time around, to align some work-related projects which are remotely-hosted on Redhat derivatives. Hence, Fedora (with its secure boot signed kernel support) seemed like a good choice. Have to admit, following a couple of advice tutorials regarding how to prep the BIOS/Firmware… came in handy and made the Fedora Install a smooth (one-time install) experience. All without needing to repair the MBR. This was the surprising part. The machine simply brought up the GRUB screen, and each system can boot up, no fuss. So happy.

Now, will Fedora actually perform well on that machine? Hmm. Good question. For it is an older laptop by today’s standards.
Even with its 8 GB of Ram and i7 processor, it does feel slow.

Do Linux Geeks give up? NO!! Of course not. I installed the i3 tiling Window Manager. It does give back some speed but you really do have to memorize (and in some cases “un-learn” a lot of keyboard shortcuts. It is worth it to learn though. It is so light on resources.