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[wildcrafter]

Years ago I gave up on the Apple straitjacket and now Windows 10 has me bound up. Is there an easy way for an old luddite who only uses the computer for Media Center, Firefox, and to type a letter occasionally to escape my chains?

[BryanC]

I would recommend Linux Mint for the best out-of-the-box experience for a former Windows/OSX user.

If you like to tinker, there are far better options but Linux Mint has a familiar desktop environment (Cinnamon) and a lot of packages preinstalled that do not normally ship with the big 'freedom-respecting aka don't sue us' distros. Linux Mint is a fork of Ubuntu, which is itself a fork of Debian (the platform that MC for Linux is built for). Like Ubuntu, it has a software center that makes it very easy to download and install popular software. The desktop environment itself (cinnamon) has a lot of cool 'applets' that are easily downloaded and installed using its applet manager.

[Awesome Donkey]

Second for the Linux Mint (Cinnamon) recommendation. Or Ubuntu if you desire more eye candy.

[wildcrafter]

Thanks for the recomendation. I went to the Linux site and it seemed fairly straightforward. I was ready to take the plunge, when I read the Jay Fora post in "21 for Linux". I can't even see those little lines of code to read them. I didn't realize using Media Center in Linux would involve entering code. I imagine that using Linux would involve entering code more often, than I am prepared to. If this was a one time thing, I might tackle it. Is this a valid accessment or am I just an old baby?

[astromo]

Thanks for the recomendation. I went to the Linux site and it seemed fairly straightforward. I was ready to take the plunge, when I read the Jay Fora post in "21 for Linux". I can't even see those little lines of code to read them. I didn't realize using Media Center in Linux would involve entering code. I imagine that using Linux would involve entering code more often, than I am prepared to. If this was a one time thing, I might tackle it. Is this a valid accessment or am I just an old baby?

I can understand your trepidation. I felt similarly myself but in hindsight, it was simply fear of the unknown.

Entering code? Well, Windows has the "DOS" command window that gets fired up on my system every now and again. Same thing in different clothing. If you follow the guidance available here, as I recommended to JF, then you should be pretty right.

If you can't see the code, just increase your zoom %'age.