I'm now using Linux Mint on my laptop to test it out. I am booting it from a memory stick.

It seems to work OK - and is faster than Windows - but I have noticed that the thing where you can scroll down the page by using two fingers on your touchpad doesn't work in Linux. I'm not sure if I can endure such a major obstacle.

Everything looks bluer than normal.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

I'm now using Linux Mint on my laptop to test it out. I am booting it from a memory stick.

It seems to work OK - and is faster than Windows - but I have noticed that the thing where you can scroll down the page by using two fingers on your touchpad doesn't work in Linux. I'm not sure if I can endure such a major obstacle.

My experience of Linux seemed to involve a lot of Googling, then copy-pasta commands into terminal.

It's educational they say.

Well, for the first part:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=262139

somebloke wrote:

Go to Settings --> Mouse and Touchpad. Under the tab "Touchpad" there is a point "Panel layout". There you can change the scrolling mode to two-finger scrolling.
Hope that helps.

Couldn't you 'update' from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free until recently?

Or was that just Windows 8?

My laptop doesn't have the specifications needed for Windows 10.

WhatDoesThisButtonDo? wrote:

My experience of Linux seemed to involve a lot of Googling, then copy-pasta commands into terminal.

That's why I gave up on Ubuntu when I tried it out.

I decided to give Mint a try because a video on YouTube said it's more user-friendly than older versions and you can install things on it in much the same way as you do with Windows, just by pressing things.

WhatDoesThisButtonDo? wrote:

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

I have noticed that the thing where you can scroll down the page by using two fingers on your touchpad doesn't work in Linux. I'm not sure if I can endure such a major obstacle.

somebloke wrote:

Go to Settings --> Mouse and Touchpad. Under the tab "Touchpad" there is a point "Panel layout". There you can change the scrolling mode to two-finger scrolling.
Hope that helps.

Thank you, Stevie-Bachy-WDTBD-Baby. Have some karma.

I have now installed Mint alongside Windows - and have enabled two-finger scrolling.

It turns out it has GIMP and Libre Open Office pre-installed, which are the programs I use most.

So far, it does seem a lot simpler to use than Windows.

I have just downloaded and installed Google Chrome. As promised by that video on YouTube, no coding skillz were needed. It was just like doing it with Windows.

Welcome to Linux land!

It seems to be putting a lot of strain on my laptop. The fan's going like mad.

I can never hear the fans in my computer.

All you can ever hear are the processors doing those creaky noises.

I deliberately went for the smallest, prettiest quietest computer I could find, my days of being able to boast it can do something or other 3.87% faster are over.

Currently installing the latest version of GIMP. Is it going to work?

2.74 MBs downloaded so far.

mtPaint is a compact alternative to GIMP if you can't get GIMP to work, and if you don't want to do anything too complicated artworkwise.

Thank you, Fangy.

Happily, GIMP is working perfectly for me.