Windows and Linux operating systems

Ubuntu 22 - Gnome desktop is like Unity desktop that preceded it. The icons with dots indicate those applications are running in this case minimized, there is one dot for each instance.

Picture above is the task window of the installer, which is also running whilst I am using the Live desktop. That is, I saved these print screens to my photos.google.com whilst the installation was being carried out.

Picture above; Is the application screen also showing the current task in use. Scroll through or search to run the program you wish.

Linux's desktops distributions provide all the common things' people generally use a PC running Windows for, games, office, camera tools, picture scanning, and web browsing. Linux desktop's also have many of the specialized things such as computer-aided design, embedded programming CAD. But if you want to use Linux and Windows programs, then have the system dual boot Linux or Windows is the usual option. Depending on the PC, setting the system to legacy mode and installing Windows 10 1709 is the best option with another not-recent Ubuntu and most other Linuxes.

The Ubuntu wiki entry which is quite old explains how to install Ubuntu in legacy mode and how to use boot repair disk to change it to legacy boot. I did not mange to do it recently, but at that time I did not realise there was a problem with the particular PC's secure boot.

My objective is to consider operating systems that are reasonably flexible, that do not require an overly technical understanding;

To be able to fix or make adjustments without needing a deep technical knowledge but have enough control and context-sensitive help or support groups to be able to set up what I need, for example, a printer. I have found in the years that I have been using Linux, those things are different to Windows but are covered well.

Linux does not have the registry wear out and become broken issues that were a big inconvenience in using Windows 95 to Windows XP. Linux filing systems take care of themselves, don't fragment files (and therefore do not slow down) even when the disk is very full. Linux checks the filing system when you power up the computer, and carries out any repairs required quickly. You never get hours of disk checking. What is common to all operating systems is that they carry out some repairs, corrections and installations at power up or power down.
Linux Desktops have changed, and many high-end desktops completion update installations at the next start-up. But by comparison, this is a brief operation.
All Operating systems, carry out some updating discretely whilst you are logged on and running,

You will need to restart Firefox for example when advised too.

And some lower-end Linuxes carry out all updating whilst they are running. So that a server never needs to be turned off.

Distro Watch does a good job of reviewing Linux distributions. What I have said about Linux changes, and these two pages are not updated often.

Part of completing the installation is to configure the repositories, which is easy ticking of boxes in snap or synaptic settings - the nature of the licence with you is that you need to select the non-free and contributed (contrib) repository sections so that you can use commercial but free items. You also need to deselect the CDROM repositories, and you don't need the source code either.

Ubuntu by default clock uses UTC time (GMT), whereas PCs have always used local time. So the clock can be wrong during summer-time, but there is a fix. This is not an issue with any of the Debian, Windows and many other desktops. It is also not an issue if the PC only runs Ubuntu operating systems.

Ubuntu - set the PCs clock to local time.

Terminal command; "timedatectl set-local-rtc 1"

Grub boot menu offers Linux, Windows and any other operating systems.

The first screen you see after the PCs opening logo or screen.

Windows Start up repair may find other operating systems, but Windows Boot probably won't boot any Linux it finds and lists.

It is unusual for Windows start-up repair to find and list any Linux.

Many Linux distributions can be installed on most computers in a straight forward way, It did not use to be like that. There are also many Linuxes which you do need to be a Linux Nerd to use. In any case, you need to be reasonably comfortable with technology. Unlike Windows though, you don't need to worry about; virus scanner, registry maintenance, disk defragmentation and Check Disk to keep it running efficiently. Also updates occur whilst you are logged in, and just briefly in some cases at startup, so there is no significant delay whilst the operating system configures or updates, they don't do those things that way.

Some Linuxes also have a period of a number of hours carrying out a major update or first installation, but it is then done and does not continue for a week or so by comparison with Windows which does.

Installation of Windows XP with British English settings was within a difficult to find in a sub menu and a sub menu of that. Whereas Ubuntu and Mint stood out at that time for being far easier. Now the installation of Windows or most Linux's is quite easy though you need to take care particularly with partitioning.

Lubuntu 18, Lubuntu is similar to Windows 7 but plainer. The desktop shortcuts to partitions are generated automatically and change if the partitions change.

New installation on a new faster SSD

If the PC has space for at least two Hard Disks or Solid State Drives.

Take the Hard Disk out install Windows on your new SSD, it does not need to complete but have got to the point of restarting. Take the installation media out, fit the Linux install media at this or a later stage. Install Linux. Put the old installation HD back in the PC, but as the second drive.

You can start your new Linux or Windows normally now, or use the boot-loader key (possibly F12 or ESC) to select and start the old operating system. Copy across what you want in your own time as the two new operating systems complete their installations.

At some point, your Linux will update and include all operating systems on your PC of the same boot type, UEFI or legacy boot. That is, unless it is configured to not do that?

I may take the old HD out and keep it as a backup. And put an older HD in to back up to also with Windows and Linux. These OS's are all listed at start up, and I make it so that one drive will start up on it's own.

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Try Linux without installing it on your PC.

You can download a Live USB Linux distribution for a 32 bit or a 64-bit PC to create a DVD or USB stick, then try it on your PC. Start the USB in the Boot mode (legacy or UEFI) the same operating system(s) already installed on your PC. ?ubuntu and Mint installers are about the best, and the outcome is a running Linux that will update in order for the installation to complete whilst you continue to use it. You can use the Linux trial as it is installing that distribution.

With Debian, and Mageia Linux full installers have all the desktop options and more of the drivers. During the installation, accept the GNOME default or unselect it and select another, for example LXDE. They are straightforward to use.

Persistence is an option in some USB installation tools. This option can work with some Live USB distributions. It allows you to save settings, but the installation might fail, and persistence is not very useful.

The information you need is provided on your chosen Linux Distribution website. Plus, see Installing Linux as a second operating system to Windows

When you have your PC running Windows, download Rufus (this seems to be the best of a number of tools for creating an installation USB), for the Linux distribution and many other things.

A good strategy is to have a second PC available and to download and make a Boot Repair USB or DVD. Plus, have or make a Windows repair, or installation disk. You may need these if you chose to uninstall Linux and return the PC to a Windows only PC.

The second Windows 10 boot option has occurred because Windows Start Up Repair has been run without the boot and efs partition flags being set, on the Windows boot partition. This step is required if partitions are moved or cloned to another HD but can occur anyway. Use Linux Gparted to set the boot and efs flags first. There is one instance of Windows (10) Boot, Windows 10 and one instance of Windows 7 on this PC, plus the two Linux's. That is, don't use the second instance of Windows Boot in this GRUB menu.

Note: I do not think any of these things, partition edit or move? Can be done on a UEFI boot Windows, but you need to re-install Windows then copy across what you need.

If you move a Linux distribution on the disk or move it to another disk in the system GRUB usually finds it, but this is not true of a Windows installation, you will need to run Windows start up repair if you move the beginning of a Windows partition. Have ready some 8G USB sticks, you may be able to use DVDs instead?

Installing Linux as a second operating system to Windows

I have found Toshiba and DELL PCs run Windows and Linux dual or multi-boot well. On the other hand, older Lenovo PCs have only worked properly with legacy boot operating systems. But do not work properly as secure boot installations on that PC make.

In any case, install Windows first, that installation only needs to have got to the point of restarting, when you can remove the Windows installation media, and insert the Linux installation media. If I use more than one hard disk with one or two operating systems on each HD, I place each HD in the computer on its own and install Windows, then install Linux one at a time. Finally, I place the last HD to install Windows, fit the other HD's and set the bios to boot the last HD, and install my last instance of Linux. In this way I can take one HD out and the PC will start up the operating systems on what has become the first HD.

If in taking out one of the Windows installations you use another Windows bootloader you will need to run Windows repair disk, startup repair. This can happen anyway, but this issue does not arise with Linux and GRUB. That is because grub tends to fix minor changes due to OS updates.

Fix for Ubuntu so that the time is correct on dual boot PC. See; Set Ubuntu to local time

IF AFTER INSTALLING OR UPDATING LINUX, OTHER LINUXES AND, WINDOWS ARE NOT LISTED IN THE GRUB BOOT MENU?

You will need to use Linux terminal to uncomment, therefore include the line in the grub configuration file, GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

See; linux-windows-maintenance#h.85uosxlnjbxz

This is a new issue that has arisen from a new feature added. I see it as an obstruction to the open use of a PC because it makes what had been a very easy to do installation, difficult. The "feature" was added as a security measure for big organisations to prevent individual users leaving other things on the PC and those things be found by other users and run subsequently. But it seems to be a major drawback, as the setting could have been by default False!

After installing a Linux, it is necessary to start Windows and run Check Disk. Subsequently, you can use Linux to resize or move any partition, but each time return to Windows and run Check Disk or command (administrator) ChkDsk /f, and it is safe to use Windows shrink partition.

Window's and the sweet period at its end of life

Windows XP was in full support from 2001 to 2014, then it entered end-of-life support that was reduced progressively to just security updates only, then no updates, and eventually fewer optional features and drivers. By November 2021, all support, had ceased it was not possible to authenticate when that becomes necessary periodically or for a new installation. At present, XP will only run for a month from installation, unlike earlier versions of Windows which should run. Drivers had been withdrawn by some computer manufactures websites such as Sony and therefore Windows update, consequently whilst those versions of Windows were in support or End-Of-Life support were not fully supported. This is not the case for US companies such as HP, XP 64 drivers and optional features were still available on HP's website until XP stopped working.

Windows 7 and 10 are in or are moving in to that sweet end-of-life period now. I do not know if Microsoft installation completion will continue for, but probably not for 7 years, this time? That depends on how many users carry on using them. Free virus scanners, Firefox and Thunderbird should continue for a number of years. I suspect that newer Windows will continue to run regardless of there licence status, as they do during there normal supported period?

A newer minor version of an established operating system or of anything is usually better than most new things. But Linux distributions are well tested and seem to be a lot better tested before they are released. I use the long term stable versions a little while after they are new. I do not use the testing versions, although I have read that even those are better than new versions of Windows.

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Bexhill-on-Sea Old Town, May 2015 - To break up the text with something else. The bendy road leads your eye into the picture.

Comfort at your work station

It is important to break off from your work with a distraction and to move to improve your comfort.

I moved the keyboard and mouse further away from me when a repetitive strain injury on my wrists started to arise.
Setting the screen lower, nearly vertical to reduce reflections on the screen, with the brightness and contrast set low, significantly reduced eye strain and allowed me to work intensely on CAD work for longer.
Break off from work periodically, have proper tea and food breaks. They are statutory (Trucking Acts) built into work to increase your productivity as well as keep you well, so they are mutually beneficial.
After break off from what you are doing, then do something else. When you come back to it, you often see that you were a little on the wrong track, so you can put that way aside and explore that another time, perhaps.
Plan things on paper before you do anything on a computer. When you have years of experience using a computer, you will find this tip less important. First plan in a general way but then plan in more detail as much as you can see, when you can see further, plan further and add detail. The plan will change anyway. You, of course, need to plan how you come to completion and with a view in mind of what that will be rather than wandering aimlessly. You may feel, but not be able to write or say, what you envisaged until after you have finished.

CAD work is intensive and that level of concentration is particularly tiring, most noticeably on your eyes. When doing this sort of work, it is more noticeable that setting the light level and contrast so they are noticeably lower helps. Our eyes perceive sharper detail and strain less when using low brightness and contrast settings.

I suspect that the simplest not vary-focal and with no corrections but for short or long sight a bit under powered are the most comfortable spectacles. It did not surprise me that I suffered eye migraine [a fuzzy blind spot] with vary-focal spectacles.

Change things and move before your physical aches set in.

The guy in the picture picks the computer up and chucks it, then smashes it. The World is full of demanding expectation, intolerance, discrimination and good legislation that is not enforceable. So he's not sitting next to someone who might chat, help or say have a break mate.

Walking or cycling home after work is probably the best stress relief there is, and until the post World War two political consensus was the normal way for most people.

It is also true that unhappy employees can be more productive, burring themselves in their work. True of Stalinist USSR, but neglect to deal with our own buying on price, neglect or concealment of ethic, and criticism promoted against unions that if well-supported do correct these things.

What an awful work cell he is working in;

A lot of places of work have people facing a wall. It seems efficient, but is not an ergonomic use of space.

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Is UEFI (Secure boot) best avoided?

It used to be good advice to avoid installing an operating system in UEFI boot mode but use legacy boot mode PC. There are fewer issues now, and using UEFI boot operating systems has becoming unavoidable with Windows 11, the current versions of Windows 10 and the Ubuntu Linuxes. But you can instal Windows 10 version 1709 or 1803, then let it update to the current version. And old versions of the Ubuntu's (18.? And I believe 20.04) will install legacy boot then let it update. Most other Linuxes will also install in Legacy or secure boot mode.

Lenovo M71e Desktop computer's latest BIOS update of 2012 leaves the PC unable to power off (As of January/February 2019 and March 2020). The PC works properly, provided the operating systems are installed as legacy boot.
With a Lenovo, Think Server TS140's of 2015 the bios update to a version dated 2021 did not fix or change anything. This PC does not dual boot with secure boot Lubuntu and a secure boot Windows. It launches UEFI Windows 10 or 11 directly, by-passing the grub (GRand Universal Bootloader) menu and therefore none of the other Linux distributions or UEFI Boot Windows were offered.

Where Linux can not be booted and Boot repair USB won't fix it.

Install another sacrificial Linux, boot the required Linux,

Use gparted to remove the sacrificial Linux,

Either

run '"su" in terminal, then "update-grub"

run "sudo update-grub" in terminal.

If this does not work, you may need to install a legacy boot Linux, keep both and use F12 or whatever to select UEFI Windows start or Legacy OS's boot.

For a long time, IBM, under the name Lenovo, has not given the support level it once did, but then people throw things away before all the features worked properly having lost interest in it. This is true of Samsung Tablet, but their other products such as washing machines are very good. These two companies have a good reputation though. Sony turn off support much sooner than other makers and also have their drivers withdrawn from Windows update system unlike other makers. There are very much better bicycles, comfortable and light to pedal, thrown away than the new bicycle that replace them, there is no excuse such as software has not gone out of date, those bikes are very repairable.

Installing Windows On a legacy boot PC

Or installing with the PCs bootloader configured for legacy boot instead of UEFI boot. The setting may be Legacy Boot preferred.

Windows 7 can still be installed, and it will update to the final version with all drivers. It will continue to receive security updates until sometime in 2025, I believe. After that, you will need third-party security software, the free versions do the job well. Firefox and Thunderbird should continue to be supported for a number of years.

Windows 7 installation patch you need to download

After installing Windows 7 you need to download the patch "windows6.1-kb3138612-*" and run before Windows 7 can proceed with Windows update and complete the installation.

This patch was still available on a Microsoft link in January 2025.

Ubuntu and variants; installs to a UEFI boot PC, but a legacy boot Linux will include Ubuntu in the GRUB menu. But most such as; Debian, MX and Mint install to either UEFI or Legacy boot PC.

Installing Windows 10 to a legacy boot PC

Windows 10 1709 was installed on a Legacy boot laptop PC in November 2024. Whilst I was using it, version 1709 has updated to the full update version and drivers.

I don't know if Windows 10 1803 the last installer to support legacy boot, will update to 1809 then to 22H2, but it is listed in Microsoft's archive catalogue. So I think you can download it. Microsoft does not support all older Windows only some of the final versions.

By comparison, a PC that has not been run for a year or two, Linux will complete updating more quickly than Windows will. Both cases you need to leave the PC running and carrying out those updates such as overnight.

Unfortunately, Windows "updates" may reinstall the clutter of unwanted programs and settings you spent time removing or improving.

Sony Vaio; Two weeks after Windows 10, 1709 updated to Windows 10 22H2 after a number of retries, because Windows was also installing drivers and other things.

Major Windows updates in recent years take a number of retries until everything is ready for the update to succeed. That takes about a week and as that time goes on you can add your own program's and use the PC more.

Debian major update requires you read the Debian wiki. This will also explain how to remove older Linux kernels operating systems and tidy up. But Mint, you just click the update button.

Update from Debian 11 to 12 is different to how it is done between earlier versions.

Legacy boot Debian 11 to 12 update required the line; "GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false" be added by uncommenting this line in the grub configuration file. This issue arose after the update completed, Windows was not listed at the startup grub menu. After, this modification, the start-up grub menu listing all operating systems on the PC, as it had done previously.

See; Editing the Grub boot configuration file You can also change the configuration file so that the PC reboots the last operating system to be used, thereby ensuring updates at shutdown complete, and the PC turns off.

This change is said to be a resolution of a security issue. But if you find anything in the startup grub menu that should not be there, remove it from the hard disk!

How other Linux distributions manage this change may differ?

You need to open and check snap to see if there are any updates due. That is, the toolbar in Debian GNOME does not flag those or display the Dropbox icon if you are using that.

At the present time (3/2025) Debian 12 GNOME - update does not update Dropbox after snap - download - update and restart are repeatedly applied did not complete. Synaptic - mark updates - apply updated, Dropbox, then updated, And update waiting message cleared from snap subsequently. In any case, there is an issue with Debian GNOME that Dropbox icon is not placed in the top tool/status bar. The solution given by Dropbox is to completely removing and reinstalling the version from Dropbox website did not work last year.

Debian 12 is the current version, so some issues like this will arise.

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There are fewer reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

There is not a compelling reason to switch to Linux from Windows now. Many things that did not work on Windows do now. Windows 10 running on a Solid State Drive is now not slower than most Linux desktops running on an SSD, but some things like large memory stick support still do not work reliably. NTFS formatted disk is well established, is as robust as any of Linux partition formats. Linux takes care of all the routine maintenance required on an SSD or a traditional hard drive. So you only need to trim or defragment and run Check Disk on a Windows operating system now. Maintenance varies with the specific Linux desktops.

Ideas cross between different operating systems, and unfortunately some good things are lost in making different operating systems look and feel similar. That is, even though there is no obvious commercial pressure, but like art is not recognized in its time neither is big change in tools, the product promotion and customer expectation is quite conservative.

I came across a PC that had not been logged off but had been switched off, something like how a smart device seems to work, though they never fully turn off. Consequently, Windows and Linux ran badly until they were cycled enough times to fix themselves.

OS9 if you are copying a file or folder to another folder as a background task, whilst that is happening you could rename the new file or folder as it was being copied. This was a good feature, which Linux might have had long ago, but it has gone now. (OS9 and BASIC09 were written for MC6809 microprocessor).

OS9 was a text entry multitasking operating system but more flexible than DOS both OS's could run tasks in background and both could copy with source and destination with different names. This feature is lost in GUI based Operating Systems, though the OS9's would have handled this feature, applied to a GUI.

In recent years, I have not seen the issue on Windows of files becoming duplicated, or locked and undeletable. But when it occurs, the duplicate or the undeletable file sometimes can be deleted or rename from Linux. Cloud sharing programs are better at changing characters that are allowed in one operating system but not another so they can be used in the other. Take care, though, to avoid copying files with names that are not legal format or characters on Windows but don't worry it is uncommon, but it can occur with a Windows program on Windows.

However, Windows has become cluttered with features and things you never wanted. Linux, on the other hand, remains loaded with everything you need without clutter. It also does not suffer not being able to switch off, sometimes taking a long time to complete an update or a repair, as Windows did.

Windows appears to have started, although it continues to load up whilst the desktop is running. Linux's vary on how quickly they start up, but most start up more quickly than Windows, and once the desktop is visible it has fully started up.

Windows is better than Linux at being able to run very slowly on a low spec PC, so the user can still shut down the PC or stop a program running.

Repeating the point, conventional hard disks do not slow a Linux much, Windows 7 also runs at a reasonable speed. But Windows 10 is a lot slower running on a conventional Hard Disk, but runs faster on a Solid State Disk.

Firefox tends to run faster on a slow PC under Linux but will cause the PC to freeze with more than one or two tabs running or when viewing a slow website. Windows does not freeze with Firefox. Chrome (therefore Chromium, Edge) runs more slowly but does not freeze on either OS. That is, things keep changing, but Linux tend to fix things sooner and the fixes quickly ripple through all variants of Linux. Web browsers also run faster with add-ons disabled.

To keep an older PC running longer,

I said Windows will run more and more slowly on a low spec PC, but not freeze. But AntiX and Puppy Linuxes don't slow enough to freeze, though it is still possible that a fast Linux will freeze when browsing a slow web page, for example or running out of memory, so do watch the indicators. Of the full feature Linuxes, Debian XFCE and MX are both fast.

Repeating the point, start with one of the full feature Linuxes, they are good and are easier to install and the applications work in a straightforward way. Ubuntu, Debian GNOME, and Mint Mate are each a good choice to start with.

Windows won't turn off, when carrying out updates. It may restart a few times during the process and take more than an hour before it finally switches off. Many Linux distributions may also update and restart at switch off, but they do this quickly. Use last OS used configuration of GRUB so that the PC cycles back to the OS last used, completes the update and turns off.

I don't recommend Puppy Linux's, which are very lightweight and fast, to start with.

Avoiding data loss on an SSD when using partition tools

In this case, the SSD was very full, and all data was eventually lost on this PC. Lesson from this are;

* Use Windows; Command (administrator mode) - ChkDsk /f to fix anything then shrink the Windows partition to make space for a Linux Puppy of 2 to 10G, EXT4 partition.

Possibly Paragon 17 attempted to shrink the Windows partition too much, but using ChkDsk might have fixed this. I also used Gparted and this tool was also a factor. In any case, trying to shrink an already quite full disk partition is risky, and Windows - create_format_partition - shrink is the safest tool to carry out this operation. But this built in Windows tool's add, merge and delete partition functions are not safe and are the most likely ultimate cause of all the drives partitions and data being lost.

Considering a Puppy Linux

Running a Puppy Linux installation is different to other Linuxes. You could create a USB stick, plug it into your PC and launch Puppy from it, in that case run Puppy in RAM and copy your Thunderbird email profile, if it is big, to a Linux partition on the memory stick then create a not relative symbolic link to the home/spot/ or home/ directory depending on the Pup {which I discovered, is a RAM disk}.

Use a symbolic link to a large working directory

There is of cause a limit to how much RAM you should let be used. My Thunderbird profile is large at 2G and too big to run on this particular PC, and in any case would make closing down slow, saving the changes back to HD. The solution with USB stick is to have two partitions, the larger one a Linux format, say f2fs. Make the first partition a larger FAT or NTFS, then the memory stick remains useful for keeping data with you.

The solution with hard disk or SSD Puppy running in RAM and also have a Linux partition say EXT4. But with SSD puppy won't need to run in RAM it will be fast enough.

Why it is best to put Puppy in a Linux partition

If you don't have a lot of data, you can just use the Windows/DOS FAT or NTFS partitions, but not exFAT and run the Puppy in RAM mode is fine. But take care with Windows, it can lock the partition for various reasons, including being put into hibernation. If you are using a lot of data and programes the amount of time to save when you shutdown and RAM used increases though and will, if too much, stop the Linux running.

Use RAM mode on a USB stick installation;

Although the Puppy could be faster running in RAM, Puppy is very fast anyway and whatever mode you select, Puppy like all operating systems partly runs in RAM anyway. It will save wear in a USB stick.

When Puppy first starts, you will be offered options to set language, time zone and keyboard. Wi-Fi is set up by selecting Wired connection - Connman - Wireless or another wireless tool.

The user interface is a nice, working Linux, but the installation section seems like a clutter of install options.

Use Gparted to create a Linux partition, before doing this it is safer to run Windows - Settings - search for Partition_Create_format, then use it to shrink the Windows partition. {try making an EXT4 partition of 2 - 8G and resize the partitions later depending on what you need}.
In Puppy create a directory in the chosen partition such as "PuppyXYZ" {this step is not necessary if you are using a Linux Partition for just one Linux}
Run the FrugalPup Installer - Or run one of the other installers, depending on what you want to do?
Run one of the bootloader installers. If Boot or what is offered can not run then run GRUB4DOS or GRUB2 if you don't have any FAT partitions in your system.

Or run Install Puppy, which will take you through these steps.

Other option are; FrugalPup Installers - I have not fully worked these out; FrugalPup, DiskPup and four USB installers for Hard Disk/SSD or USB installers.

You can just continue running the Puppy installer USB it has all the functionality, but it will be a single FAT type partition.

I have a PC with Windows NTFS and the Linux EXT4 partition for Puppy. In that case, I needed to use the Grub4Dos or Grub2 menu option to create the boot menu with Windows or Puppy.

Finally
Run Windows and use Windows 7 - properties - check and fix option, Windows 10, check or, command (in administrator mode) - ChkDsk /f.

Puppy's have no password security

Puppy Linuxes, unlike other Linuxes, do not use login or have administrator modes, though there are security options.

Puppy Linux, based on Debian 12 (the current release, Feb 2025)

The menus are quite good, offering lighter office, web, graphics and support tools than other full feature Linuxes.

The installer options are a clutter of what seems different ways that either do or don't work. They are fine, and you will find they are straightforward.

If you chose to have the installation in Windows partition, puppy directory off the route the installation can only run in RAM loaded from the Windows partition, sub-directory I created; C:\PuppyDeb\ and has a save file with my work in it.

If the green box in the picture in the right bottom toolbar goes to amber or red, then consider increasing the size of the save file by right-clicking that box, only available if installed to run in RAM, Or increasing the partition size, click the box to see the disk partition space.

Puppy Linux's work well, straight from the USB created from the downloaded .iso.

Webpages use much higher density of text and pictures, so a slow PC will only be a little faster web-browsing using a light Operating System.

Three main Puppy Linuxes offered, I briefly tried the 64 bit version's of, they are;

The Puppy Based on

BookwormPup64 10.0 Debian Bookworm 64

F96-CE_4 Ubuntu Focal 64

S15Pup64 22.12 Slackware 64 15.0

I have reinstalled the Puppy Linuxes a number of times, and depending on the method there may be a choice of disk or RAM mode in the boot menu.

Adding Thunderbird was done using the Synaptic software installer or by adding an .sfs module in the Slackware Puppy. This resulted in a large increase in the Puppy installation size.

The swap file should be turned off as recommended for a Solid State Drive, but I have not found out how to do that. The performance is not improved by using a swap space on an SSD.

HP Compaq Presario Laptop C061 (2009–2012), runs at good speed with Puppy when watching a video on Dailymotion, ran more smoothly than it would on Windows 10 or Debian 12 Gnome. It will run very slow and freeze if running in RAM, with an overly high save file size.

Sony Vaio Laptop of about the same age also legacy boot additionally supports GPT partitioning but not secure boot, which is fine with Linux, though Windows old enough to run legacy boot only works with traditional MBR partitioning. Only the Slack based Pup runs on this PC and takes a long time to start up. The Boot-loader GRUB4DOS only finds Windows and this Pup, but not Mageia Linux that is on this PC.

Mageia Mate had been slow, AntiX 22 and 23.2 I could not get to run but both MX and Debian XFCE work very well on this PC. Debian GNOME was quite good, and the SSD has the space for those.

Guessing the security question answer was the hardest thing when registering on the Puppy Linux forum, because you only get three guesses a day.

The three Puppy Linux's I looked at Debian and Ubuntu based were tidy with an LXDE style desktop, the Slackware distribution used XFCE style desktop, with similar menus.

Shutdown is slow whilst it saves your changes back to Hard Disk if run in RAM mode. Otherwise, A frugal installation running on a Linux partition on disk will shut down quickly.

GRUB4DOS bootloader; Puppy, Windows and Debian are listed, but Debian can not be launched.

By comparison, Debian and Mageia Linux GRUB 2 does not find this Slackware Puppy Linux. Therefore, you can't run this Puppy Linux or Debian or Mageia Linux without further intervention. Mageia's boot managing tools do not find Puppy Linux either.

The two laptop PCs, I used, are both Legacy Boot with MBR partitioning. They were originally installed with Windows 7.

Running a Puppy sounds complicated on a UEFI boot PC, but the Puppy Wiki describes what needs to be done.

Puppy Linuxes don't update conventionally, but updated versions should be downloaded and applied. I have not carried out this procedure.

Running a particularly old PC

Fix start up (grub) menu - Puppy Linux - Debian - Windows

Help from the Puppy Linux forum solved the problem, thanks. This is a reconfiguration of Debian XFCE Grub menu to add Puppy Linux and to fix Sony Vaio slow start up. With Slackware based pup.

Pasting this below the warning text to; \boot\grub\custom [easy] Or \etc\grub.d\40_custom [followed by update-grub] Will add your chosen puppy Linux. You need to edit this a little for your Pup and your disk partition ID (which you can find using Gparted or Disks).

menuentry "VoidPUP 64 22.02" {

search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set de90c74d-d15e-4b75-aff6-324cbed674f0

linux /PuppySlack/vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pdrv=de90c74d-d15e-4b75-aff6-324cbed674f0 psubdir=/PuppySlack

initrd /PuppySlack/initrd.gz

}

This Linux is slow starting on the Sony Vaio, but that can be worked around by holding a key down until the word done appears another fix by editing this entry kernel parameters suggested did not work. Editing and adding parameters to the kernel is occasionally necessary with old PC's.

A change to remember last used OS did not remember that the Puppy Linux had been used last, but all else to do with selecting an Operating System is fine.

Remove puppy

- Delete the instance of puppy Linux such as the puppy Linux EXT partition or folder.

- You can leave the grub menu item unless you are reverting to Windows only then you must run boot repair USB and restore the MBR boot.

- Where another Linux remains, You probably dont need to do anything just ignore the grub menu entry. You can reinstall and reconfigure grub. A boot repair USB may guide you through complete removing grub and reinitialise grub, so you will need to re-enable OS probing so search and include other OS's occurs and to remember last used OS.

Old PCs and Puppy Linux.

Puppy Linux's may work with just 500MB disk and 500MB of DRAM, a 1990s Compaq PC's BIOS supported up to 20G disk partitions and 1M DRAM this increased to 250M to 2G during the 2000s. In practice, you need 2 - 8G and at least few Gig or DRAM, which is more than PCs had up until 2000 though, by now all Hard Disks over 15 to 20 years old will have failed. Older PCs BIOS may not support larger Hard Disks. Otherwise, the PC should start up and run.

Electronics last until the electrolytic capacitors start to failing at 60 years old. Of course, over stressed parts will fail sooner, cooling, cables, connectors and switches are likely to break earlier.

Having second thoughts about trying and installing Linux.

Installing any Linux distribution alongside Windows on any PC can be straightforward and easy. Follow the distributions' advice, and read each step carefully. In any case, installing Linux also instals GRUB bootloader, which gives you (or can) a menu to select from all operating systems on the PC.

Issues don't usually arise with a Legacy boot PC or a PC configured for legacy boot first with all Windows operating systems on it are installed legacy Boot. A Linux installation USB, other than recent Ubuntu, will find, and will install GRUB boot that lists all Legacy Boot operating systems on your PC plus include pre-existing UEFI boot Linux's such as Ubuntu.

GRUB and Windows you need to use the first instance of Windows Boot on each of the drives.

Note there can be a second instance of the same Windows, this can occur if Windows has been repaired using Windows repair media, just ignore that second instance.
But if you do have two instances of Windows on a drive then launching the first instance of Windows from the grub menu then that will give you the Windows boot menu listing all the instances of Windows on the drive and maybe on the PC.
- Many instances of Windows listed by Grub menu;
  - sda1 (this is correct), sda2 (don't use this).
  - sdb1 (this a second instance on the second drive and is correct), sdb2 (don't use this).

Linux device naming; for example, "sda1"

sd - a drive.

a/b/c.... - which drive.

1/2/3.... - which partition of that drive.

If any of your operating systems are missing from the grub list, then follow repair grub procedure.
If Windows is missing from a Windows boot menu - disconnect all hard disks except the one which has the issue.
- Run Gparted and ensure the boot or the boot and esp flags are set on the first which the boot partition. Then boot a Windows repair or install media and run startup repair. Windows 7 repair is often better than legacy boot Windows 10 repair media.

If you are running more than one instance of Windows, they will be identified by GRUB as on ....sda1, ...sdb1 etc. Occasionally, Windows update will not update the second instance of Windows boot. When this occurs, the same update keeps repeating and the solution is to disconnect the drive with the first instance of Windows so that the second instance is found and updated by Windows.

Therefore, occasionally it is necessary to briefly swap the first boot drive to other drives with Windows installed so that those Windows can complete the updating. But this is a very rare event.

Similarly, a secure boot installation of Linux will install Grub that lists all secure boot Windows and all Linuxes which ever boot method on the PC. It won't include legacy boot Windows, such as Windows 7, though.

That is, Legacy boot installed Linux will install GRUB that listing all legacy boot Windows and all Linuxes.

Windows 11 and more recent version's Windows 10 will only install UEFI secure boot, these can not be switched to legacy boot.

What can go wrong;

BIOS of two Lenovo PC's only works properly in legacy mode and in one case the PC can't be turned off and another case GRUB with Linux is bypassed, and the PC just launches Windows. A fix or work-around;

PC won't turn off in UEFI mode;

If you need to use secure boot operating system then you will need to leave the PC running, when it seems to have closed down then turn the PC off at the mains socket.
But the better option is to run legacy boot Windows and Linux on this PC.

PC won't boot Linux.

UEFI Boot Windows is already installed on the PC.
Fit a second hard disk
Make this second hard disk the first drive to boot in the Boot-loader, and set the Boot-loader to boot UEFI first.
Install UEFI boot Linux only on this second, now first, HD.

Or;

Fit a second hard disk
Make this second hard disk the first drive to boot in the BIOS.
Install Legacy boot Windows and Linux's.
Use F12 bios set up menu and select which Hard disk to start - this might be a little more tricky than it sounds as you need to experiment with Legacy or UEFI first priority.
- But, install just one instance of UEFI boot Windows on the PC, for example Windows 11 on a second disk.

A new DELL laptop has too many features turned on

DELL all the features are turned on, so BitLocker prevent tampering and RAID was turned on but not used, that is no second Hard Disk cable and Hard Disk were fitted. Desktop operating systems don't usually include the support for RAID by default, as that is used with Servers with many disks that run continually with parallel redundancy. This occurred with a nearly new DELL laptop that I have. This laptop has space for a second hard disk, although the cable is not included, so one of the RAID configurations might be useful had a second HDD been fitted.

After booting Linux installation USB, the Hard Disk disappears.
Then booting normally a blue warning box required the 48-digit number to unlock the PC. You can then launch Windows and turn off BitLocker.
You can find the security code by searing the web for BitLocker, enter your Microsoft password. This gives you the code. If you can't get or don't have the code then the only option will be to delete the partitions and install everything, Windows first, then Linux. I have not looked up, but there are answers on the internet on how to make the hard disk visible with everything deleted, ready to do this?
You need to have a Microsoft account set up on that PC, but it works on a licensed or unlicensed Windows installation.

The link to look up your BitLocker code may be; https://login.microsoftonline.com/

Windows "update" caused Linux Grub to be bypassed

Toshiba UEFI boot Laptop - ran for years dual boot Windows 10 and Linux - usually one of the Ubuntu's. Just for a brief period of a month or two in 2024 after a Windows update, the only way to boot Linux was to launch the set-up and select Ubuntu instead of Windows. The fault cleared up after another Windows update.

I can't say that anything went wrong with that particularly fast C500 Toshiba laptop other than requiring that I remove and put the battery back in occasionally and that one Windows issue, which I could work around. Although, it recently stopped working, possibly for good, after a lot of use over 10 years.
The fault that occurred after a Windows update meant that the GRUB list was not displayed, and the PC launched Windows or Ubuntu from the BIOS menu.

This was a one-off, warning I guess?, event but shows how vulnerable we are to what Microsoft can do, leaving us without the alternative Linux we have chosen to add.

Using an encrypted disk to make a stolen PC's user files not accessible.

Linux user directory can also be encrypted, but I have not used that feature, and I do not know what issues can arise. It is a feature that has been part of Linux for a few decades. I believe this will prevent someone from looking at or tampering with a user's personal data without effecting other users on that PC.
Windows NTFS filing system has always had encrypting options. NT3.x gave the installer NTFS or FAT option since the early 90s, but I do not know when partition tamper locking became available? FAT, does not have encryption feature built into it, is less robust, but DOS can be run on it.

I believe you can use BitLocker on a USB stick with Windows and Linux. You also need the Linux utility Dislocker, I understand. It should give much faster access than using a password protected very large compressed Zip file, for example, for backup up. Compressed directories are slow to search and use a lot of space with Zip.

Dislocker is in some Linux repositories. You may find it in Synaptic, but not Snap.

Making a DELL laptop ready to try or install Linux

Generally, Desktop operating systems have robust hard disk and filing systems but backing up is always important. Making the DELL laptop work normally again so that Linux could be installed. Not all methods on the Internet work, and they differ for other makes of PC;

Turn on safe-mode boot on Windows.
Switch from RAID to AHCI in the PC's Bios.
Turn off safe-mode boot on Windows.
This was the case for a DELL laptop running Windows 11.

See; https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps/switching-from-raid-to-achi/647f9b7af4ccf8a8def5ff19

The PCs hard disk is now set to AHCI, so that more Linux Distributions can be installed. Not all Linux desktop distributions include RAID drivers.

JOKE; Such a long code is best placed above the keyboard, in that way I am able to enter the code without mistake. Ha ha - it now gives no security at all, but the PC user is, now, not vulnerable to being locking out!

The computer was secondhand but nearly new in 2024.

In addition, turn off any Boot-loader security options and disable BitLocker on Windows.

Using a virtual machine is an alternative to multi-boot with many operating systems;

Installing VirtualBox will run one operating system on another operating system, but this will make the PC slow and the guest OS screen size will be smaller. You can set up share folders and set up paste between the operating system modes. https://www.virtualbox.org/

The new Dell laptop, above, is not noticeably slowed up by running VirtualBox, it is a fast PC with a vast amount of RAM. Windows version of VirtualBox 7.1.4 runs Debian 12 without issue by comparison. An update to 7.1.6 ran after Windows update completed.

There are other ways such as run Wine on Linux that allows you to run some Windows programs on Linux. It has limitations, and it is not free, but it does not slow the PC. https://www.winehq.org/

This does not give the two OS redundancy that dual-boot with two disk PC has. On the other hand, having two OS running concurrently allows you to look at things on one OS, copy and paste to the other OS when at times Windows blocks Linux from accessing the Windows partition.

Download Virtual Box for your operating system and install it. It comes with guest additions which offer a better display driver plus sharing support.

Find The extension pack and add it to the next attached drives and install the extension pack.

After running the extension pack, use right CTRL and 'F' to switch between scaling which makes the text fuzzy and any size or a smaller sharper window size, then use the guest OS display setting to best fit to the largest smaller window size.

The first Virtual Machine in fiction probably was Dr Who's TARDIS as becomes apparent in the story, The Edge Of Destruction where the two time-lords are part of the system and the fault and the two kidnapped teachers can see by symbolic warnings given by the machine that suggest the nature of the fault. This was broadcast in 1964 when the only high level programming languages were Fortran and BASIC, which ran on mainframe or mini computers.

Warning; don't take science fiction's technobabble seriously, it is fiction. The two Voyager spacecrafts launched in 1977 took until 2012 and 2018 to move into interstellar space just beyond the solar system. I think they only have enough power to point the aerial and radio back to earth periodically, all other equipment has been turned off or will soon be turned off to save power.

At the moment, April 2025, there are issues with Virtual Box, and it does not run Widows 10 22H2 or Windows 11 on Ubuntu 24.04.

This is the case with Virtual Box 7.04 (registry version) and 7.16 (downloaded version) in April 2025.
- The Ubuntu host, update, required another password for secure boot to be set. Then you need to follow instructions and sign lots of library files. The default app centre does not explain, but using terminal to install the .deb does explain some of the problem.
Finally, Ubuntu 24.04 does not run Windows 11 on VB at the present time. I went through a number of steps, then gave up. There were 3 more things needed signing, I have not investigated how to do that or what else to do?

Galaxy Tablet purchased from CEX second hand but not working well because not all the software updating had completed. Samsung decided not to continue updating the operating system before the tablet was running smoothly in late 2024 year, 2 years after the model's launch date. It had been nearly new when I purchased it. It received updates Samsung's plan changed, and it won't get Android 13, or apparently it seems a more smoothly running Android 12.

Evidently, people buy them as toys and lose interest in them before they are running smoothly with well finished off functionality. Consequently, makers stop completing the product development early.

Samsung Galaxy tablet

Does not always connect and may need to log in, in order to switch it off, and Firefox which generally runs very smoothly does not run well in this tablet.

The tablet runs a bit more smoothly having been backed up deleted and restored, automatically but with manual interventions in December 2024. I bought it second hand but quite newish in 2022 from CEX and more information was given to me than if I had bought it new elsewhere. I would not have been told if it was new old stock if I had purchased it new, I discovered. Furthermore, I found that out of support Android operating systems offered as new tablets in a few big stores. Which means fewer apps could have been installed on it.

I don't blame companies for making things that don't last though many do that, and in any case, not all companies do that. It is the people who throw things away, often before they are out of their initial early flawed period. They cause unnecessary waste, early discarders are called early adopters. Consequently, people buying second-hand now don't get a finished off product necessarily. Also, many makers turn off updating so if the fixes were not taken at the time or a user chooses to reinstall an OS they May never be able to get a fully finished off product.

Windows 7 is in end-of-life support and receives security updates only (Was until about June 2023, but this has changed to 2025). Also, earlier versions of Windows 10 before 1709 can not be updated (2020 and 2024). Windows 7, the last uncluttered Windows, is still receiving security updates in November 2024. Many internet-based programs are still maintained, though Google programs all ceased being maintained in 2023 on Windows 7. Windows 10 is scheduled to move into end of life support in 2025.

So-called end-of-life support or long-term support is the sweet period when the operating system user is not bugged with changes, and it is now developed to the best that it will be, and the security is still maintained. The operating system is at its best and is better than its successor. In the next period, you can either find a security solution and also take more care using the internet. You should not stop taking care in any case!

Economic growth causes unsustainable waste and poorly designed product.

There is evidently popularity for new things that have not completed development, these like Windows 8 are not used by industry but are liked by the gadget buyers to play with briefly and discarded perhaps taken off of the second-hand market by retailers who for example modify back to basic no gears bicycles and send them to Africa as a donation.

Memory sticks have never been well-supported on Windows and become locked.

Some flaws in products or software are left unfixed for years, or never fixed. Firefox is not always the best or the fastest browser, but it returns to first place periodically. In any case, there is lots of cross-licensing, so you will see features, fixes as well as flaws move to other browsers.

Features of Unix, Linux and Windows cross over

Some highest high-end Computer Aided Design Tools were only available for Linux or Unix, but they have been ported to Windows.

CAD tools and support are comprehensive, and training manuals are large compared to many things. Cadence Allegro (OrCAD), PCB design Computer Aided Design.

Electronics PCB and Circuit CAD are not demanding programs for a PC with reasonable graphics. But two large screens are worth having as you need to work with both the PCB and the circuit, and also the design rules.

This Computer Aided Design tool you could design and manage a circuit and PCB the size of a football pitch, significantly because you can navigate, search and organise your design particularly well with this CAD. Duplicate circuit blocks without needing to redraw them in a particularly well-thought-out way, for example.

Running Windows with no updates in order to keep the PC running fast

Compared to most things you can do with a computer, mechanical CAD places a big demand on a PC. Many companies run Windows on high spec PCs, through a proxy server, and block all updates in order to keep the computer running fast. Kent libraries also do this running Windows 10, 19.xx until later in 2024 when Windows was brought up to 22H2. But this would have been done in order to save testing cycles, though they also run with the PC set to US language rather than UK, I have asked many Windows versions ago why but not had an answer?

If you install Windows 11 it's sub-version numbering continues from where Windows 10 version 22H? stopped. Windows 11 23H? Introduces things that did work don't work now, and may need a new licence key. Or else it will run most features unlicensed. Or it will run with the existing licence if it is the same edition Home, Professional, etc? There is no option to run legacy boot. The last version of Windows 10, 64 bit that could be installed on a legacy boot PC was 1709 or possibly 1803*, and start using it while it updates to update to 22H2.

* Windows 10 1803 install disk was the last legacy boot Windows, it finally transitioned to install secure boot only, 1809. I do not know if this version will update to version 22H2?

Apple OS and Google Android are spurs off of Linux that are developed independently. Both are Open Source and their code can downloaded. By comparison, Windows is not open source but owned by Microsoft. Much of how to use Windows requires back engineering, or asking in various support forums to understand how to use it.

DOSKEY almost lost

When Windows replaced DOS with Windows 95. By comparison, Linux kept text entry with a graphical user interface option, so a record of what you did or did wrong is to a degree there. Just like Doskey.

Linux terminal is similar to DOS 6.21 or Windows Command window. You can use terminal and text entry for everything, I believe, on Linux. That is, there may be no GUI only programmes for Linux?

Gem and Windows up to 3.1 were applications that ran on DOS that provided a graphical interface, but Windows 95 was an operating system.

There were a number of other graphical interfaces prior to these such as Wordstar's office suite included a better user interface with friendly names for menu items such as "Copy" rather than CP/M's "PIP" but they had no mouse support in there time and the printer interface and port had to be configured manually. They supported dot matrix and daisy wheel proportional space or not proportional space text and were much faster than the Windows drivers of that time.

Windows numbering or naming system

Is a bit of a mystery, Windows 3.1 went to Windows 95 then 95 second release then 98. DOS 3.3 worked well enough in its time DOS 4 was more-or-less unusable, DOS 6.21 and 6.22 were the final versions. DOS runs on any of the FAT formats 12, 16 and 32 but not exFAT. The NT line succeeded those with Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, XP, and the disappointing Vista. Then numbers returned, Windows 7 was another good version. And those had to be installed with NTFS filing system on a non-removable HDD or SSD.

Intel PC processor nameing also meandered about using numbers skipped i80186 which was an embedded microcontroller, and later used names starting with Pentium.

Computer Freezes

You need to avoid that happening and close a slow running program before the PC Freezes, which maybe when the disk activity light gets busy. Firefox is prone to this on a slow Linux PC. On the other hand, Firefox is probably the only browser that will run on a slow PC and runs better on Windows. Use CTRL-DEL (Windows), CTRL-Backspace (Linux), or pressing the power button briefly and wait, does not work then turning the computer off and on again by holding the power button for a longer time is the only thing left but if this is done too often, the Operating System won't be being closed properly, and eventually will not repair and recover properly subsequently. Windows or Linux usually do some repairs on the next start-up. Linux may suggest filing system repair commands, these usually work. Eventually switching a PC off, the operating system rather than shutting it down repeatedly the operating system will break and will need to be reinstalled.

USB memory sticks seem to be the most likely to cause a PC to freeze. Nothing you can do but wait a bit, then turn the PC off, and repair the USB flash later using Windows - file manager - properties check and repair.

Reducing the clutter in Windows 10 and 11

Linux and Windows programs have become more similar looking and feel. Many programs have both Windows and a Linux versions, but it does not follow that one operating system version is better or more sophisticated than another any more.

Task View is excellent in Linux Gnome, but with everything else Windows has adds more clutter. I usually reduce the number of Linux windows to one [the feature might be useful at work if you are looking at smut and need to switch rapidly to a screen with your work when the boss comes in].

Adding or removing Windows toolbar shortcuts - launch the program and the icon will appear on the toolbar - right click and pin it to the toolbar. Right click and unpin any program shortcut icons you don't want.

Windows Clutter on the toolbar - this can not be removed the same way so it is not obvious - Right click in a blank section of the toolbar then select turn off; News and Interest or Widgets, Cortana, Task View. On more recent versions of Windows 10 you can uninstall Cortana, Copilot, and Weather which pops up randomly in the middle of something I am doing, but it seems to have stopped doing that with more recent versions of Windows. You can alternatively hide the Copilot toolbar icon.

Picture; World War Two, one of the British secret weapons Jane. You might want to switch screen window quickly, so the boss does not catch you not working.

Unwanted games and programs in the start menu. The Start menu would be a good place to add groups of shortcuts to things you use, except that you have to go through it removing or uninstalling Windows added clutter if, it will let you? Right-click on the Program to add it to the start menu.

Windows disk defragment, project planning and multi-factor problem-solving

Allegro Printed Circuit Board auto-router operates differently to how probably all that went before, in that it takes many passes using progressively more effort, rather than taking a single pass to carry out PCB track routing.

Similarity to project planning;

Project planning Is best carried out by only planning as far as can be seen. That is, you plan in less detail as you plan further ahead, but you still consider late obstacles that could arise and re-prioritize some work on those. The plan should be reviewed periodically and priorities changed. I have seen ridiculously over detailed project plans drawn up in one place I worked.

Similarly, again;

Windows Defragment now takes many passes. It used to operate in one pass. This tool is for Hard disks and floppy disks because file access is faster if all the pieces of the file are stored close together on the disk surface.

Cadence Allegro is so different to OrCAD Layout that many designers switched to another CAD when OrCAD Layout moved to its end of life and Allegro replaced it, subsequently also called Layout. It is necessary to set up much more, but it support for manual routing using many personal macros is particularly good. I switched to CADSTAR it suits me better, tool having many things preset for me. OrCAD (Cadence) Capture remains the best tool for circuit or system diagram drawing.

PCB Auto-routers have become very good, many engineers use them for low speed digital design, but they become used less. I never use the auto router, but semi-automatic track routing is very useful, making tracks, data pairs and buses tidy with orthogonal lines with 45' or radius corners as you draw them.

Project planning, disk defragmentation and PCB track layout are the type of problems generally called the travelling salesman problem take forever to solve, but good result can be achieved in a reasonable time. PCB designers do a better job than a machine because the engineer can add a new rule, restriction or apply an exception as the track placement brings up new issues that are seen at that time, rather than the more difficult way of finding them later or planning for all of them in advance.

Windows requires the hard disc to be de-fragmented and be checked periodically. By comparison, Linux filing systems do not fragment files even when the partition is very full. Solid State Drives, you need to run trim with Windows, but Windows 10 now does that automatically and Linux also takes care of trim automatically. SSD's make Windows 10 a lot faster and Linux faster, but you should install Linux on an SSD without a swap partition. That may require a manual step at the partitioning stage to remove a swap partition that would have been created, such as when installing Debian. Or with Ubuntu adding a swap partition to a conventional hard disk.

Hard Disks use magnetism and simply writes over old data, they have moving parts and require disk management (Linux) or management tools (Windows de-fragment) to minimize the amount of head movements to maintain fast operation. There has always been (1970s anyway) two types of disk operating systems, ones that don't fragment files Flex, Apple, Linux, Acorn and BBC micros and others that do, e.g. all Windows/DOS (FAT and NTFS), and CP/M operating systems.

Flash SSD or memory stick Use capacitive charge, they are written one byte at a time but are erased in blocks. Therefore, data is written in files or fragments of files, when one block is filled, another block starts to be filled. When a block is filled with a lot of old data the good data is copied to another block and the block's of now all old data is deleted. This tidy up exercise is called trim, carried out subsequently.

Part of the strategy was to minimize data write/erase cycles to maintain life and have good speed. Unlike a hard disk, a flash drive's speed not being compromised by being accessed randomly, so de-fragmentation is not required and must not be carried out.

Recent versions of Windows 10 automatically trim an SSD, I read. I had been running trim weekly but unlike a number of years ago it is evident that Windows is now taking care of trim, because the operating systems do not slow if I don't do it for over a week with the same SSD. The EVO850 120G SSD has slightly flawed firmware which meant Linux and Windows needed to handle it differently, which they do now automatically.

Shared Software.

The drawback with greed and unregulated capitalism is that ideas are not shared, so it takes decades before you see features of Linux appear in Windows, whereas intellectual property spreads throughout Linux quickly and freely. Linux does somewhat let you keep older PCs running longer.

The recipe for making mortar was a secrete-handed down but lost. Concrete serves the purpose, but for its thermal expansion coefficient, is wrong when used on historic buildings to replace dug, blood and straw plaster (in this context it is called shit). The Egyptians used the metric system base on the constant size of a drip of water, mortar and melting granite to build the pyramids. People worked their farms and built the pyramids for part of each year over the 20-year period it took to build a pyramid. Their technology was very advanced, and they used it all over the world. Granite was melted using the sun, a big lens and moulded the stone not cut or chiselled and carried, but using local materials.

That is, knowledge is lost, hidden, destroyed for various reasons but usually due to selfishness.

I spoke to an engineer who had cleverly developed a fast software controlled power supply system, but he complained a big manufacturer stole their idea. But calibrating or presetting a control loop so that it corrects in one step is something I have done as well, in that case, to control a LED light source for a linear image sensor, for spectrometry or bar code reader integrated circuit.

Good lawyers and barristers that big companies use can argue black is white and win. Running two File Allocation Tables provided extra protection to FAT and many filing systems, but when Microsoft then used the same strategy with their disk compression, Stacker complained that MS had stolen their idea and won, this was an exception MS had a sound case. But in most cases, the general view is that MS won when they should not have.

DOS 6.21 remains the last and best of Microsoft's text entry Disk Operating System DOS 5 and 6 being their first professional text based OS's. 6.x includes Double Space, and this disk compression was very robust and much more robust than the Stacker's disk compression, I found. But DOS 6.22 replaced Double Space with Drive Space, to comply with the court judgement.

I had to switch from using legal Sun now Oracle, Java to using the Microsoft's illegal copy of Virtual Machine to access internet banking. Under the court judgement, users could continue to use Virtual Machine, but Microsoft were not allowed to offer Virtual Machine. I could use a copy I found on a non-Microsoft, a website, but I chose to wait until the bank worked with the legal Sun Microsystems, Java I had installed.

NTFS filing system has file compression built into it. You turn it on or off from Windows drive - properties, and best carried out before too much is saved to disk. You do not need to wait for the operation to complete, but shut the PC down when you chose to and next time you start up just new files will be saved compressed.

All software runs on a circuit which in turn uses parts licensed by manufactures, for unrestrictive use. Copyright is restrictive, and using copyright could conflict with the licence given by the parts makers. I tend to treat my own work this way, in any case checking copyright on hundreds of novel bits of design work sounds impossible. Parts made for a high volume users usually include additions that also make the part generally useful, which means small manufactures may need to wait a long time before another production batch of the part is made again for the major user.

Intellectual property ownership leads to compromise.

Crystal's (Cirrus Logic) Delta-Sigma A to D converters worked without suffering 100uV noise spikes that the Analog Devices and probably other makers parts suffered. The ADI parts were harder to use, but the Crystal parts were easy to use, and are highly regarded in the audio industry. The significant intellectual property was probably developed by Ferranti who were working to resolve that issue on their ZN450 development sample ICs I evaluated, had this issue Ferranti advised me, although the basic idea had been developed decades earlier. If this very profitable government owned company had continued, the part would have worked +-199.9mV or +-19.99mV and to +-1.999mV, and it is possible to include external circuitry into the IC's, calibration loop.

Manufacturers of electronic parts do not get into conflict, with users of parts, even if their solution does the same thing without using their IC. Subsequent developments of the EMI body scanner for health resulted in legal fights, this may have limited the health benefit of original and competing equipment. Microsoft when led by Mr Gates used lawyers in an aggressive and what seems unfair ways. Linux the improvements are shared freely without cost provided the terms of the licence are met and the sharing goes both ways.

Companies I've worked for do receive legal claims of copy right violation, an application board that Reticon sold to demonstrate its image array IC was supposedly copy right, but we did not use the design anyway it was unnecessarily complicated, but the company did receive a claim, on the off chance that we had. Old archives also countered other claims by proof of prior invention by the company I worked for.

Microsoft, do not share details of their NTFS filing system. A variation of Linux GNOME desktop called Unity was developed and sold to Microsoft by Canonical, the company that develops Ubuntu. The GNU licence system used by Linux works well without preventing open source work from being used by commercial companies, provided they also share and credit work fairly. But what is known by Linux community of NTFS filing system has been discovered by back engineering it.

Many of our internet routers connected to the landline use shared software, possibly Linux based? Most of these work with any network, except BT's. So perhaps the terms of the licence have been compromised, but in any case it results in more discarded junk when people switch supplier, discard good hardware. I use my previous provider's, not BT, router with my provider Co-op phone.

Software update back compatibility is often poor

Cadence circuit CAD (Capture) file format remained unchanged between about 1995 and 2006 (when the Layout tool was changed to the Allegro version, the old tools continued to be supported for a number of years), so circuit design work can be shared on different versions of the Capture. Capture the circuit design CAD used to only be available for Windows. It has many output formats and can be used with many makes of PCB CAD tools.

OrCAD Cadence Circuit and PCB tools are particularly good and support very well doing work Circuit Capture or PCB design on one of them and completing the work with another CAD. So much so that the extra effort making the transfer is still modest and in any case well-supported, but this tool is the most expensive of any to license consequently.

All CAD makers need the same income, they are low volume products so they must charge a lot or obtain the same income by requiring a licence fee, and a system that makes it necessary to upgrade all copies held by a company. One of the limitations of capitalism that we are used too and in a way we cultivate the worst excesses, waste, war and unkindness. I'm not making a case for any other system of government, I am making a case for picking the best from other systems of government, the mixed economy that we used to be working towards before 1979 Thatcher and Reaganism ideologies. Even so, these ideologies were much more open to working with all systems including the Soviet Union rather than destroying them in case the influential middle class electors liked them, as they had done particularly in the 1920s and 30s.

Word processor documents such as Word .doc, LibreOffice and OpenOffice files are similarly fairly compatible with older versions, but much CAD does not easily allow you to save work in a newer version then open it in an older version of the CAD. Many programs when installed or updated convert an older profile and configuration found, but this is not necessarily the case with Thunderbird email client.

LibreOffice ODF output formats changed in March 2025 this means that output from version 24.? Isn't compatible with earlier version 7.? The earlier version of LibreOffice reports the file is broken and offers to repair that file, which fails.

LibreOffice update - can save in an older format.

The answer received from; https://ask.libreoffice.org/ is a bit difficult to navigate to, but is good; Go to Tools>Options, Load/Save>General. At bottom, you can choose which ODF variant to save documents: from 1.0 to 1.3 Extended. Version 1.2 Extended was the lowest version I used, so I set the newer Versions of LibreOffice to that.

I have also found save to .doc and .docx format works with no apparent loss of formatting or data. In addition, reading the files in Debian LibreOffice there was a warning about a missing "hyphenation en-gb" which I found in synaptic, installed and this means there are now no warnings. There is a general warning, though, that formatting could be lost.

Thunderbird, for email, must go up by each significant version at a time;

If you have Linux that has not been run for a while, it is likely to update in too big a jump past many versions of Thunderbird and corrupt the your old email profile. A way around this is to not use the Linux repository version but use an old downloaded version and in that way, Thunderbird will manage its own updates step by step converting your profile with each update to that version's format. When Thunderbird update reaches the same version as the Linux repository version, you can switch to using the repository version. Linux repository versions of programs are the safe option but are a little older than the current versions.

It is important to make a copy of the hidden file .thunderbird directory before running Thunderbird that Linux could have updated by a big step. See Thunderbird Email I keep a backup of thunderbird or .thunderbird for Windows or Linux.

The versioning though has changed so ordinary users use the ESR version going up in bigger major steps less often. You now need to avoid the non-ESR (extend support release), whereas some years ago you avoided the testing version that used to be archived separately.

Start up a PC that you are not using, periodically, and run all the significant programs so they update to the current version is a better strategy than just leaving it.

What I have not already mentioned

Major updates of operating systems;

Windows now updates automatically, but it has stopped unexpectedly restart, abandoning your work. Linux distributions probably never had this issue.

Major Windows updates generally does not let you update from one major version to another (XP to 7 to 8 to 10 to 11). There are exceptions, but these do not always leave the system clean and tidy.
Significant Windows updates are varied, but in any case, there is a period of time when you can not use the computer. The installation does not complete but carries on for a number of days, mostly adding clutter that is not wanted.

Some Linux distributions can be updated and run whilst you continue using them, they will go up one significant version at a time. Debian LXDE, for example.
For others, you should stop using them while they update, although they may still run your programs, they warn you to not use them at this time. Ubuntu for example works this way.
For others, again, you need to download the new major version and install that, and any programs you use. It will mostly replace the operating system, but may keep your data if you select that option. MX Linux works this way, for example, with some major updates but may continue running for other major updates.
Arch Linux, which I found too complicated for me and have not used. This is a rolling release. Manjaro is an easier to use distribution based on Arch.

Depending on the Linux Desktop and the distribution, for major updates you may need to update the repositories, mark the updates then apply them in Synaptic or whatever software management tool is provided.

There is a terminal utility for removing old kernels after a major update, or you can leave them but not use them.

With all operating systems, it is a good plan to re-install everything periodically and copy across what you need. I keep the old installation hard disk for several years, then re-use it.

Windows tools Defragment must be used weekly to keep the PC running at reasonable speed and reliably. Check Disk be run weekly or when advised to in Windows 10.

Windows 10 occasionally run check disk even though there may have been no warning. Particularly if you have recently installed Windows.
Windows 10 now supports Solid State Drive's (SSD). The Defragment tool function changes to the Trim tool when an SSD is selected, but it is not required to be used with the current version which takes care of trim automatically.
Windows 7 does not support an SSD, but the SSD manufacturers provide utilities to maintain Solid State Drives. In any case, do not use defragment in Windows 7 with a solid state drive.

There is no Defragmentation required on Linux, it is taken care of as part of the filing system and ChkDsk called fsck is carried out automatically. fsck may be required exceptionally, such as after a power interruption.

Solid State Drive - different Linux's may handle them automatically, such as Ubuntu, but others many require trim be run once a week.
By comparison, Debian 8 started to run slowly after a week until the trim function was used every week. But Debian 12 takes care of trim required automatically.
I think all Linux’s now look after SSDs trim, including the puppy Linuxes intended for very old PCs.

Do make legacy boot Windows 7, 10 and UEFI boot Windows 10 and 11 start up disks and a Linux Boot repair disk.

The Windows installation disks is also a start-up (repair) disk.
Linux installation disk (USB) may have some of the Linux boot repair tools. Puppy Linux's USB only has the Gparted tool. Therefore, do not try to repair a full feature Linux Boot with the grub tool on a puppy Linux USB.

Boot repair disk (very small Lubuntu based Linux) can fix, copy or change many things in both Windows and Linux.
- You will need at least an old and a new version of the 64 bit Boot Repair Disk. One might report a bad magic number and the other work. Additionally, one of them may repair a legacy boot PC.
Before running, the Windows start up disk run the Linux or a boot repair disk and use Gparted to ensure that the Windows boot partition has the boot and ECP flags set. If you move by cloning a legacy boot, Windows to another hard disk, the boot and maybe the ECP flags need to be set. These important flags to Windows should be checked anyway even if you have not altered the partitions, they seem to sometimes become not set. Those flags ensure Windows repair disk, repairs the startup properly.
A Windows 7 start up disk might repair Windows 10 start up when a Windows 10 startup disk fails to. These tools have no use for Linux only PC's. I do not think a Windows 10 installation or startup disk will repair the boot on a UEFI secure boot Windows PC, in any case it won't do that on a cloned disk? That is, if you need to replace the disk, you also need to reinstall Windows.
Linux Boot repair disk will restore a Windows boot if Linux is removed. It also has Gparted which can be used to delete, copy, move and resize partitions.

USB Memory stick,

It is best to avoid writing data to USB memory sticks from Windows, on the other hand they work better with Linux, and I am told also work well on Apple operating system.

USB flash memory, and Solid State Drives, must not be defragmented, their firmware and the OS driver takes care of that. The USB firmware and the OS driver also takes care of spreading the work load (wear) across the whole device rather than continually using one part of the storage, unlike hard disk drives do. You need to run Windows Check Disk with USB flash often if you are using a Windows format partition. Linux has 'fsck' command, but generally takes care of Linux partitions checking automatically. Check Disk can be found in file explorer, chose drive, for example, E: properties - check - check or check and repair. Note, ChkDsk is the Windows command line version of the utility.

EraseUS, Paragon, Linux Disks will also check and repair Windows format partitions. They work well. I am advised that Apple operating system is also good at straightening out a memory stick used with Windows.

Memory Sticks work better if files are saved individually rather than create one big zip file. Smaller compressed up to 2 or 4GB folders can work and also provide password security. But a very large backup to zip file is slow to create, unzip, and searching the zip file uses a lot of disk space.

It is easier to use NTFS format USB with compression enabled and use BitLocker rather than to use compressed files. I have not used BitLocker. Writing to a well-used USB stick with NTFS and compression enabled is not faster, as far as I can tell, is slow.
- I found 80-90G of data saved takes 30 [5] to over 100 [1] hours to save on a 120G flash USB.
ExFAT - light Windows format intended for Flash USB. This format can not be encrypted.
- I found 80-90G of data saved takes less than 10 to over 100 hours to save on a 120G flash USB. {I need to repeat this test when the USB has been used with Linux save instead of Windows save previously}
FAT32 - is usually the initial format that the USB formatted to the maximum file size is 4GB and the filing system is said to be less efficient on a USB flash stick.
- Installation memory sticks are formatted in FAT32 originally and all PCs can boot from it, and it supports DOS.
f2fs - light Linux format intended for Flash USB. This format can be encrypted.
- I have not used this format?
EXT4
- Not used for back up, though I have run Linux on a flash USB.
Copy one file or folder at a time, therefore when copying one folder at a time will consequently copy each of the files within it one at a time. That makes all the save operations faster than trying to copy many files and folders concurrently. Some file managers will queue up copy work and save files consecutively which is good, others will have them all running concurrently, probably should be avoided. So at least associated data saved and will be marked deleted at the same time should reduce the amount of trim effort required?
- I found saving files consecutively is the fastest way, so saving files concurrently slows save time by at least 10.
- Windows file manager does not appear to support cueing files and folders, copy and save files and folders repeatedly then starts many save operations concurrently, which is bad. It is necessary to copy one file or folder at a time. But selecting many files and folders and copying them does apear to cause those to be copied consecutively, which is good.
Windows offers a faster, enable cache, setting for the USB rather than the default safe removal mode, this setting is only valid whilst the USB stick is mounted and configured returns to safe removal mode when it is ejected. In any case, always use safe eject and wait for the USB to be ready, even when it is very slow. This USB setting is from Windows - file manager - properties - hardware - the device - properties - change settings - policies.

After a long wait for the flash USB to eject, I have given up and unplugging a USB stick. I do not know if this has caused harm to it, made it become slower, or caused no harm but all those can happen anyway!

What to do if the USB stick with a Windows partition is mounted but removed. Regardless of if, it was being used with safe mode disabled or enabled.

Windows format partition; Start Windows - file manager - properties - check disk.
The dialogue box may advise, no errors found but proceed anyway, this took a little time, but then reported no errors.
Linux Gparted can check Linux partitions or use terminal command "fsck"

Using a file manager that save files consecutively;

Or wait until each file/folder has completed before starting another save operation. If you do start more than one concurrent save then pause or cancel the other save operations.

Start Debian GNOME (or some of the other Linuxes) - File manager - copy the large folder that copy had been interrupted. Run chkdsk on Windows then return to Linux. Or Linux gparted to check a Linux partition.

The example below is how I handle completing save after cancelling save, checked/fixed the USB flash, then restarting save;

You could have a number of hidden, similar to FOUND.000 folders of files. By running copy/merger, you have restored the missing files. So I delete these found files;

File manager - copy and save, overwrite dialogue boxes; Proceed with copy anyway, so in this case ignore the warning. We already know that there is adequate space because we are restarting a save operation, after cancelling that save operation.

Merge all files and folders. And the next dialogue box skip all files and folders instead of replace all files and folders.

A small progress pie chart in the file manager toolbar can be opened to check the progress. The pie chart icon will disappear when the copying has completed.

Copy will now skip first, then copy files. At first looks very fast. The time to completion estimate will vary depending on how many files are skipped or copied.

This Debian gnome - saves files consecutively, on at a time, which is the fastest method with a USB flash stick.

It is safer and quicker to select eject the USB stick and wait for that to complete, remove the USB flash, before you log out and switch off your PC. Or at least not ambiguous as to what is causing the delay in shutting a PC down.

It turns out that memory sticks greater than 64G work particularly badly on Windows and memory sticks often don't last long, become very slow if you use them on Windows. They remain slow written to from Linux only subsequently as well.

Most or all partition formats work on a USB stick.
There is no way to measure the relative speeds of different partition or flash memory types because flash memory speed varies greatly and depends on how much it has been used. A 120G USB stick is now working again, having recovered and used it almost solely with Linux plus Windows for checking and repair only. It can take 10 to over 100 hours to save 90G to the USB flash stick. Another 64G memory stick has failed, having had very little use on Windows, but mostly written only using Linux.
Ejecting the USB stick can take a few minutes to more than an hour if a lot of work has been carried out on it.
New memory sticks are usually formatted FAT32, but it is a good strategy to reformat them to exFAT or F2S format if you are going to back up to it. Otherwise, FAT16 or FAT32 formats are okay if you are going to run software from the USB flash. These file formats would be less secure, but the USB firmware takes care to correct data errors. So you do not need robust filing systems such as EXT4, NTFS, they are not recommended be used on a flash USB because they cause greater wear.

Lubuntu - I selected two folders, but now that it is copying you can see one folder has been created and in an hour or two the other will be created in the destination.

By comparison with Debian, GNOME - Lubuntu will queue a selected group of files and folders, saved. If you then select and copy more files and folders, this group is saved concurrently with the first group (not added to the queue). That concurrent copy operation should be stopped {Mint Mate's file manager offers pause with the save dialogue box}. Start another select and save operation when the current save operation completes.

When I had started another copy the process slowed greatly and would have taken many days, but if I had saved files consecutively a 90G download would have taken less than 24 hours. But took over 30 hours after checking and copying lost files.

The filing system on the USB flash stick is NTFS, which is compressed.

I have only used zip files for saving work compressed and password protected. But I do not recommend zip or other file compression, and I am evaluating not using it any more on my USB sticks for backup.

I have not used any of these file, folder or partition encryption options;
- SanDisk offer a Windows or Mac but not Linux disk encryption utility.
- BitLocker for NTFS filing system can be accessed via Windows, Linux (dislocker), and MAC.
- Some Linux Partitions can be encrypted using the terminal utility "fscrypt". https://packages.debian.org/sid/fscrypt This can lock individual files rather than the whole partition.

Once a large memory stick has become corrupted or have errors (which they have from new anyway), it will easily take a day or so for Linux to check, format or Windows to check and repair it. Ultimately becoming usable, though slow, after a week of fixing unlocking and fixing repeatedly.

There are Windows command line and Linux tools to unlock a USB stick that has become write protected, such as;
- Linux terminal commands hdparm; https://askubuntu.com/questions/101637/usb-turn-write-protection-off
- Windows administrator command line tool Diskpart; https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-recovery/remove-write-protection-in-windows-10-8-7.html?srsltid=AfmBOooTre_tOOnh_2NH5UUlUgXDlCBbJYRP1QfRWqaTI9Ahau7R2abR
- Windows Paragon (the free version) will do a good job checking and fixing a memory stick, it has some support for Linux partitions as well. And also the Linux Disks check and repair partition. After leaving these running and trying again, the memory stick can be partitioned again, but it will take many days to write to a 120G memory stick.

In the end, I have thrown some USB sticks away because they became locked. But how long they last is very variable and does not correlate with the price paid for them. Their life is usually much shorted than 3,000 and 100,000 for the management area, write/erase cycles with that work spread across the device, claimed for them would expect. Presumably the firmware or a driver is managing the flash badly?

Hard Disks, Solid State Drives and S.M.A.R.T

I have made a 2010 built Compaq laptop much faster replacing hard disk with a SSD but an older Toshiba Laptop was not improved by fitting one, this is because the originally SATA interface was not much faster than a conventional IDE cable hard disk, but newer versions of SATA interface are faster, and the same SSD is much faster. Many SSDs are high endurance, but may have flaws in their firmware worked around by the operating system rather than firmware update.
Slack or free space required. Samsung's data on their EVO 850 and similar - requires 10% slack or free partitioned space at the top of the SSD in order to manage the good data collection cycle called Trim. The computer will start to run slowly and then very slowly after 25 hours use or so if the SSD is very full and trim is not run. THE FIRMWARE IN THIS SSD IS FLAWED AND THERE IS NO UPDATE, AND THIS MAY HAVE A BEARING ON WHY THIS SSD REQUIRES TRIM TO BE RUN PERIODICALLY?
- This SSD now runs smoothly on newer versions of Linux and Windows, even if I don't run trim, it is now done automatically by those OS's.

Hard Disk;

In conclusion, Windows NTFS, Linux EXT4 are robust on any drive. In addition, hard disks are also robust. With S.M.A.R.T enabled, you can see the condition of a hard disk. The Disks utility for Linux allows you to set;

- Fastest speed will be louder operation and give the best reliability.
- Turn sleep off for best reliability. I had a laptop in which the hard disk had had a very short life partly because errors were in a bad place on the HD where key settings are kept, but possibly the sleep setting had been used?
- Enable cache for best speed. Confusingly, the box says Disable Cache when it is enabled, but the benefit is unlikely to be apparent.

Alternatively, Linux smartmontools may manage the S.M.A.R.T settings and do some or all of these things?

It is likely that the operating system's power settings section also configure these things?

Flash drives do not appear to have S M A R T settings - I do not know if there is an equivalent drive wear status tool for flash drives?

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If you need support, looking at either the Debian, Ubuntu or the forum or Wiki for your chosen Linux. There is a lot of good support on the web, the answer is similar but vary with each distribution. Mageia is (.rpm) based and little more different. There are also groups on Facebook. Whether you prefix every root terminal command with 'sudo', or use 'su' before entering the lines, differs between Ubuntu and Debian.

Generally the help explains the solution using the terminal and typing text, but very often there is an easier GUI solution. You need to look at the keywords and consider those when using a GUI.

The chosen desktop runs on a choice of Window Manager's - which also affects things such as speed and appearance. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_manager

Debian 11, LXQt desktop installation option gives you a choice of two window managers. When installed, the login options at the top of the screen include Lxqt or Gnome (November 2021). Some Linux distributions offer a choice of window manager's also in a pull-down, usually at the top of the screen at login.

Debian 12 XFCE desktop - this is one of the oldest and popular desktops and is Debian's fastest. In addition, it is fairly complete after installation.

-------------------------

Picture right; Debian 12 GNOME

Main Screen

Task view

Application screen.

This is also one of the oldest and popular desktops. It is quite fast, full feature but with more of the features hidden under shortcut keys.

Debian 12 LXDE is one of the faster Desktops, but it also does not come loaded with all the drivers, so it might start up full brightness. And you will need to spend time sorting that. The driver will be in the Debian repositories.

On the surface Cinnamon, Mate and KDE (now LxQt-KDE) look similar to LXDE, but they are nicer with smooth task opening and closing and also has the simpler snap installer and delete popular programs interface. Cinnamon will run slowly on PCs that do not have suitable graphics handling hardware.

Debian Desktops are about the fastest full feature Linux distributions, but they take more steps, and you may need to looking up more things to complete their installation.

The XFCE desktop is one of the oldest current desktops. KDE then XFCE, GNOME were all launched in about 1996-1999.

Linux repositories

This is an older synaptic tool repository set up screens, which you need to change or add to after installing one of the plainer, faster Debian desktops. You need to edit this but if you use one of the full feature desktops, the settings are by tick boxes the same as Ubuntu.

The CDROM repository should deselect, and the following added or changed for Debian 12;

https://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm non-free main non-free-firmware contrib

https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security non-free main non-free-firmware contrib

https://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates non-free main non-free-firmware contrib

The high-end desktops also include snap for popular program selection, and the configuring of repositories is more simply by tick selection. In any case, use the Debian Wiki for up-to-date information. I have added two important repository areas, "non-free" and "contrib" for commercial and other Linux programs that are shared under a different type of licensing. A new area name has been added, "non-free-firmware"

If you want to add software not in the repositories, Snap may do that, or you can install gdebi. You can download and install a *.deb file if all requirements are met. Or use terminal entry follow the instructions given by the software provider.

Debian LXDE 32 and 64-bit update from 8.x to 9.x to 10.x and 11.x ran amazingly smoothly and without fuss, no need to restart or discernibly slowing an already slow computer on the times I carried the update out. I continued to use the computer without interruption in these cases. The update from GNOME Debian 11 to 12 was smooth, but the repository names changed and at the conclusion other OS's were removed from the grub menu, as I mentioned previously.

Restore the missing operating systems

When Debian GNOME updated to version 12 the new Ubuntu style repository settings pictured right replaced the old style above. 'snap' installer had been introduced earlier in addition to the established 'synaptic', which has more software and drivers.

The high-end Debian and Ubuntu desktops only require ticking four boxes. Then deselect the two (CDROM) lines in the second tab. The extra lines are inherited from the previous release and mostly are redundant.

This is the setting - repositories or settings from Synaptic or Snap software management tool.

All Linuxes use repositories, they are a place where known good working software and drivers are kept and can be used safely. But makers of those drivers and programs will often prefer you use their newer versions. Google Chrome gives you extra features for agreeing and acknowledging their licence with you, and downloading chrome from their website.

----- Linux Distributions ----

Linux's distributions are generally not based in one country, but are part of many worldwide projects and individual involvement. Improvements pass freely between all who take part in those Linux projects. There is a lot of good checking before and after a part of Linux is shared. There are rules on sharing and use that insist on openness, sharing, including source code. There is a provision for commercial licensing parts, but in a not restrictive way.

I am not considering forks from the Linux Kernel, such as Android or Apple. Or how well Windows 10 implements Linux type Bash terminal, which I don't know in any case.

Mint Mate

Is a very safe choice. So is Mint XFCE. Mint Mate was the first one I used in 2013. Mint is Ubuntu-based, which in turn is Debian based.

Mint Cinnamon (includes WINE) - Cinnamon looks similar but has nice expanding and closing windows. Suits a PC with suitable graphics hardware, otherwise it is slow.

Mint XFCE - also looks similar but is slightly plainer and is the fastest desktop that Mint offer.

Mint also have their LDME version that uses Debian instead of Ubuntu packages. It was not so well-developed when I tried it years ago.

Mint Mate 22.x

Despite some weaknesses, Mint Mate is one of the most recommended Linux's to start with ; (March 2020)

Mint uses older software, which is not generally a problem, except when EXT4 partitions started to be used. There was an update to EXT4 soon after that Debian and others introduced it, but Mint did not implement for a long time.

Mint 18 and 19 still did not support Ext4 properly, but supports the earlier version. Ext4 partition type was introduced in Debian 8, and was soon amended in a subsequent miner version update of Debian 8 in 2016. For a long time, all distributions support the updated version.
The problem is, if you try to manipulate a partition or data on another distribution from within Mint, a feature difference will cause a warning and prevent you doing what you wish to do. That is, there will be no harm, your action will be blocked.
When dual boot, you probably need to paste this line into terminal; timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 to set the clock to local time. Such as if you are also running Windows or other operating systems.

Mint Cinnamon 18.2 to Mint 18.3 and to Mint 19 update works but unlike Debian update, the PC will be impractically slow whilst this is occurring to do anything else with it. It recommends, like most Linux's do, to not do other things whilst the operating system is updating in any case.

Ubuntu

The long-term stable version is also a safe choice, very different slick comparable in speed to a well-running current Windows 7 but faster than Windows 10 (April 2020) in 2024 is slower than windows. I have used this for many years, it is the flagship Linux desktop. Ubuntu' was a branch off from GNOME and was called Unity, but now Canonical has sold Unity to Microsoft and has returned to being part of improving GNOME, as of April 2018. Some of the Ubuntu versions did not support Dropbox properly for some years, but that is fixed now (April 2020).

Odd number major versions are less stable with more new features. The even number major versions are more stable, And the even numbered LTS versions are going to be kept in support longer.

Minimal; This desktop is minimal, and you will find it difficult or complicated to do anything but the simplest file managing things with Ubuntu. For example, you need to use the terminal to create a symbolic link, whereas on many Linux desktops you either drag a file and choose symbolic-link or right-click send-to-shortcut. This has become more so in recent years, but it is very uncluttered consequently and opposite to the strategy Windows and many of the tablet operating systems have gone. (December 2021).

That is you need to look up the shortcut for example to hide or un-hide hidden files use Ctrl-H.

Canonical Ltd of London funds Ubuntu set of desktops and the development is based in South Africa. Ubuntu is an African word for Human. These are the easiest to use, and most features are very well-developed, but they do not run so fast on a PC as other Linux distributions, but they are faster than the current Windows.

Software Update - can be slow and may need to occur at shutting down, meaning you have to wait to turn the computer off, though usually not for long. Updates of user interface programmes can not be carried out whilst they are used, by comparison to other distributions and earlier versions of Ubuntu in which they can be updated whilst in use, and they can be switched over easily to the new version.

Weaknesses are that it is the flagship, therefore, leading Linux and so seems a little less stable than others. Conversely, many issues will also be fixed sooner.

Note on speed comparison, Windows 10 is improved greatly running on a fast Hard Disk or Solid State Drive than Linux is, so the comparison of the two is not clear-cut. On the other hand, Ubuntu takes care of the HD or SSD automatically and continually, whereas with Windows you used to carry out the weekly maintenance. That is, Linux does not have any long downtime's, and even a major version update is much quicker than Windows.

Payment;

All operating systems rely on advertising, donations and payment. Ubuntu now requires a user to register for updates, which are free for a home user for up to five copies. Windows runs with minor restrictions and advertising until it is licensed. But with Windows, you now always get loaded with so-called Free but is clutter and the task search now has irrelevant clutter.

Disk care;

If you install Windows to a new or second-hand hard disk or SSD, then you need to repeatedly run Windows check disk for a few weeks so that the HD can is cleared of surface errors that will otherwise have made the OS run slowly for a long time. Linux will be doing that anyway.

A PC will run slowly if one hard disk has errors, that is even though the disk may not be in use, until they are dealt with by checking and repair option of Windows Check-Disk. So an HD can start to run slowly for a long time until the bad fragments are marked and removed, NTFS and EXT4 filing systems are very good and protecting your data very reliably.

Once the errors are dealt with, normal checking will keep the hard disk running reliably for at least a few decades. I have only come across a problem with FAT filing systems which are less robust and another hard disk where the errors were in the MBR section of the disk, which caused the disk to last a much shorter time. I believe setting power saving for the hard disk also shortens its life a lot, two hard disks one replacing the other both had, had exceptionally short life spans on this laptop. Eventually, a hard disk will fail to start up, but there usually will have been prior S.M.A.R.T warnings, usually they ceased being useful before that time because their capacity is low.

I set the hard disk for loudest fast operation, no power down, and turn the cache on (Disable Cache displayed confusingly). Linux, disks and smartmontools allows you to do this and also check the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard disk.

Old versions of Lubuntu or many OS's to run on an old PC;

There are two alternative installers that instals an older version, Lubuntu 16.? Or 18.? to older computers that the regular installer may not run on. These installers are text based, similar to the Debian non-graphical installer.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/16.04/release/

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/18.04.5/release/

https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/

https://www.mageia.org/en/about/

Old versions of Debian and many distributions are also available, but the older you chose, the more difficult it can become to use and update them. You update it one major version at a time. Always install the newest version of any OS you can, in any case some OS's will not update to the current version, but these should.

Lubuntu 19.?
Odd number Ubuntu's try new features than the even numbered versions. And the long term supported versions are more stable.

There are Linux versions for some tablets and smartphones - I am advised that it is better to keep the old tablet going with its most update original OS as long as possible. I have not managed to swap the operating system myself. They can sit on top of the old OS or replace it.

Prestigio Tablet (left) running Android 4.2 Purchased in about 2014. I stopped using it in 2023. This Tablet was otherwise in good order and ran at reasonable speed. A nicely finished off, and complete tablet compared to the Samsung Tab-A7 tablet further above.

MX Linux

This Linux is very light, fast and installation is straightforward. The user interface is plain, and I find its single click configuration makes it difficult to avoid clicking the wrong thing. Functional and will run on most PCs that are now too slow to run anything else. It will also automatically find all the drivers, better than many Operating Systems.

Like other Linux desktops, it has a command search similar to that introduced in Windows 7.

MX has many maintenance tools included. So it is quite a good OS to have alongside your favourite operating system(s).

MX 16 which is in long-term support gets some security updates but had not got a security update, and it was necessary to download an updated public key in order to continue using the repositories in 2019.
Thunderbird and Firefox were downloaded and run outside the repository system. This meant updates occurred in sequence, walking through changes to my profile step by step. This was still working in Autumn 2021.

MX 17 32 bit installed fine on another computer, then updated to MX21 and allowed me to install Megasync for Debian 9. MX may let you update a version or two, but will come to a point where you need to install a fresh copy.

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AntiX - This is a lighter, faster, small but much more fiddly to use as a desktop. Is also offered by MX.

The menus are more cluttered than Puppy Linuxes, on the other hand the installation is more conventional than the puppy Linuxes of 2025. It is very light and is one of the fastest, but it needs more disk space than a puppy Linux but less space than anything else. It installs easily, though versions 22 and 23 did not install to my Sony Vaio of about Windows 7 era, whereas MX is fast and runs fine on that laptop.

Picture is an old version of AntiX 16 or 17?

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Safe Web-browsing

Look at the URL to see if it looks correct or plausible. For example, if you wish to download Firefox the domain is; mozilla.org is highlighted and you will see something like;

https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/

Thunderbird is now not part of Mozilla and the URL is;

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/

Once again the registered domain is highlighted do not download it from anywhere else. But you should use the Linux repository version they are the safest and best version unless it is for Windows or you are running an out of support version of Linux distribution. Conversely, some programmes such as Chrome are best downloaded and installed from its website in order to accept conditions, pay or donate and so get all its features.

You can do some degree of checking a domain with whois.com;

https://www.whois.com/ then search "thunderbird.net" for example.

The first web browser;

Mosaic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_%28web_browser%29

Netscape Navigator - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_(web_browser)
Internet Explorer - Introduced after Netscape split from Mosaic. I.E. credited Mosaic for some licensed Intellectual property it uses. There is a lot of cross-licensing which is evident when you see the similar error message "restore tabs" in Firefox, Chromium, Chrome and Edge.
Mozilla - http://www.mozilla.org/

But for name changes Netscape was the first commercial Web Browser it became free to individual users (Microsoft did not charge extra for IE 3.x for Windows 3.1), installing Internet Explorer made it easy to get a dial-up connection if you did not have a paid-for ISP such as CompuServe. Open Source caught on subsequently, and perhaps that marks the end of using patent and copyright to take things created for the good of all away from all of us? Microsoft copied Sun Micro-Systems' Java, calling it a Virtual Machine, but had to stop doing that and supply Java on subsequent editions of Windows 98.

Some internet banking for example did not work with the legal version of Java for example.

It is necessary for companies and countries to protect openness there is very strong evidence that Microsoft protect their own by making thing not work with competing products. Conversely, IBM have always protected the openness of the PC specification, consequently any operating system that is PC compliant software should run on any PC, of the correct level of hardware.

Debian Linux uses a more stable version, Firefox-ESR. This is also the version of Firefox that supported end of life versions of Windows for a longer period than other web browsers do.

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Windows recovery disk and portioning tools;

Here is how to get back to Windows boot by restoring the MBR; https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/win7-windows-7-mbr,10036.html But do use gparted, such as from the boot repair, disk or Linux installation disk to ensure that the boot and other flags are marked on all partitions.

Ultimately, installing or fixing a PC by moving the HD to another PC then putting it back fixed, and completing the installation usually works well.

Using newer programs on older Linux distributions in order to maintain the PCs speed;

Add more DRAM used to be a good strategy to keep a PC running, but the older PCs now tend to have enough memory. Either way, 2GB is probably the absolute minimum now.

Making Thunderbird email work again - see Thunderbird email client

In order to run newer versions of Thunderbird and Firefox, it may be necessary to install other library programs. I found in 2021 that neither Thunderbird nor Firefox would run on Debian 8. The solution was to try to start them in Terminal then read the warnings, I then installed the most similar library and both programs then ran.

I also ran MX16 multi-boot as described here, in the Vaio laptop above and below - this distribution has taken care of finding and installing the correct drivers most likely from the Debian repositories.

Repositories may need to be changed when using unsupported old versions of Linux.

For Debian 8 look up the Debian Wiki but for MX 16 which is partly supported lookup the MX Wiki, it will advise you to change some of the repositories.

The thing that can arise if you install an old version OS is that the security certificates have become out of date, so then software update and install may not work. I have seen this with Mageia 7 to 8 and with MX Linux. You may also need to change the names of the repositories to use the archived repositories.

Installation of Linux Desktop

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32 bit and older 64-bit computers use legacy BIOS and MBR partitioning, Newer 64 use UEFI boot system and GPT partitioning. GPT partitions do not require the creation of extended partitions in order to have more than 4 of them on a media (hard disk).

Windows 7 has two partitions; Boot (100M) and the Windows partition (big),

Windows 10 has either two partitions, Boot (500M) and the Windows partition (big),

Or secure boot PC, Windows 10 has, four or five partitions,

Legacy BIOS v UEFI

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The best home computer

When the microprocessor was launched commercially in the 1976 people did not understand what it was film and fiction had portrayed them as a tool, an oracle, or a big powerful machine for good or bad with power to control and sense beyond its electrically connections.

Most office and home computers of the 1970s were single task operation. Interrupts store or retrieve characters from keyboards, serial and to the centronics ports. Keyboard scan using an interrupt driven timer. The interrupt handler then placed in or took characters out of buffers. The time these interrupt handlers take is known and is within the handing capability of the processor, so that nothing is missed.

Multitasking operating systems, interrupt handlers, sets flags when an event occurs. That is, unlike the first case, no characters are stored or retrieved, that occurs when the particular task using the device is given a time slot and is running then the event flag is read, and the task then handles the character. So how busy the processor can be is indeterminate, consequently multitasking operating systems can miss events.

Multitasking operating systems are not used in safety critical situations, but Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) are used, and their function is as the early home computers I have described, running single task with interrupts and all processor tasks well within the processor capabilty.

The MC6800 microprocessor operation cycle is, check for an interrupt and handle that, which includes preserving program counter and other registers, loading the program counter from the interrupt vector. If there are no interrupts pending then read, perform an instruction and change the program counter, then repeat the cycle which may be the main program or interrupt handler program.

A computer runs a program sequentially, one instruction at a time, the impression of multitasking is achieved by switching between programs (tasks) using interrupts, and timers.

Acorn Atom cost about £100 in common with many others. The BBC cost about £500 and many of the imported US computers cost over £1,000, In about 1980.

The best-performing home computers of the 1970s-1980s were the Acorn Atom, and the BBC micro, which displaced the Commodore PET as the desirable home computer. The microprocessor used in these and also the Commodore 16 and 64 was a MOS Technology or Rockwell R6502. The R6502 was the cheapest microprocessor, and very creative software developers created better than what was generally being created for on paper the better i8080, Z80 and the 16 bit i8086s. Development tools were basic, but Intel's tools were so were expensive, so you were tied in or avoided them.

Compared to the Motorola MC6800, the 6502 had a clock generator, whereas the Motorola part needed a very good quality two-phase clock input. The MC6800, I understand, was quite old, when it was first launched commercially in 1976.

These home computers generally consumed 5W plus 100W for the monitor. Compared with 250W power supply that a modern PC is fitted with. Notebook PC's power consumption is more modest but still, they consume much more power than an Acorn Atom. A laptop's power supply is 60W or less, e.g. 25W.

At the same time, good office computers were being made. Epson QX10, Newbrain ran or could run CP/M and the Psion organiser used in industry had many sensor options and was used by supermarkets to manage stock. Psion had been a software developer for Sinclair and others.

The 6502 based computers generally included an assembler which the manufacturer gave away freely, and the manuals were comprehensive, so with these computers people were writing software for example games in BASIC with fast sections written in assembler.

The second-hand value of these computers used to remain high for many years, say over 50% to 80% of its new cost. The term dumping for selling new products cheap went out of fashion in the 1980s, banks were deregulated, and much more money was created. Buying from abroad was the thing to do instead, and much higher levels of wastage became fashionable.

There are a number of Pascal and BASIC like programming language, many are free.

Scripted interpreted programming languages;

BBC BASIC, Qbasic should be good to learn with and that do everything most people need.

For internet as well as general programming, Python is used with web servers and generally, Java is used with PCs.

https://www.doulos.com/events/webinars/python-in-one-hour/?source=tdx

Complied and optimise to target microprocessor object code, if the target is a different microprocessor, is called a cross-compiler;

Take care with C, C++ they do anything that is possible there is no protect. You should use lint. pclint, splint or MIRSA which are like spell and grammar checking for C programming you should buy and use. Optimised code should be at least as fast and efficient as code written in assembler, and more robust if it has been written clearly and unambiguously, which is what the optional checker is for.

RUST is a newer programming language combines C, C++ and Lint like checking. Much of Ubuntu is written in Rust, C libraries can be used with Rust.

ST, TI and NXP evaluation boards or your own target board can be programmed using these boards which have a debug interface and the ARM evaluation microcontrollers. These evaluation kits cost about £20 whereas in 1979 they varied from £200 to over £1,000 for the basic with hex keypad entry to £10,000 for the full version with an assembler.

MC6812 the smallest variant of MC6800 but much faster embedded microcontroller which was not object code compatible whereas earlier microcontrollers were. It has Motorola's "one wire debug" programming interface, which like most all of Motorola's microprocessors were much more advanced than other makers micros.

This microcontroller might be found in a PC mouse. The leading edge features in Motorola microprocessors were generally not used in industry though many years later something simpler and similar was offered.

Parts with more pins also have a bootloader programming so they could be soldered to the PCB then programmed quickly via one of the serial, SPI or I2C ports.

In 1976-1978 the i8748 became available it had 1K EPROM, and 64 bytes of RAM on chip, you probably could start without the £1,000 basic development system, but really it was necessary. The MC6801 was also available it had much bigger 64K of memory support and, required an EPROM, it could include a debug monitor (LiLbug). You therefore did not need to buy an evaluation kit or a development system, but making a prototype on Vero board worked fine, and buying an EPROM programmer was a worth doing. Later, the MC6811 included a bootloader, which you could use to load debugging, FLASH or EPROM programmer and your own program (which you could also do with MC6801L1, and LILbug also ran enough on HD6301 to start up and prove your hardware.

MC6800, MC6801, and MC6811 were all object code interchangeable, so you should be able to get started with MC6801L1 to develop code for MC6800. This was not possible with the Intel parts, the object code was not interchangeable, although the source code was similar. Intel's claims were misleading, but once you had purchased a much more expensive development system, you were both tied in and well-supported.

Ethical buy phones pcs and laptops;

https://ethicalconsumer.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a8ca94202812f2c92c29fbe59&id=798cf7dd32&e=66b6f56dfe

Conclusion - What you get with Linux is not better, but it is different. Linux is better all the same. FreeBSD is another OS similar to UNIX, many of the desktops run on Linux are also run on FreeBSD.

One-Page Linux Manual Basic Linux Commands YouTube

To discussion this, go to;

https://blog.andrew-lohmann.me.uk/p/an-engineers-perspective.html

Next Page; Linux and Windows maintenance