Linux saved me today
I'm an educator, and my Windows PC crashed during my first period class.
I had a cinnamon mint USB drive in my bag. I booted to it, and it saved the day!
I don't have anybody to tell just how much of a godsend that was, but I figured you guys might appreciate it!
25 replies
Don't tell @[email protected] he has such a hateboner for Linux he runs [email protected] and will think you are lying or paid shill.
Running from USB is extremely cool as a feature.
This is me, but it's Kali.
So many useful apps bundled makes it a great live distro to keep in the bag just in case.
I always keep a bootable drive in my bag. It has come in handy many, many times
That's pretty cool!
Reminds me of when the Windows podium computer decided to randomly update during a student presentation in my college class, no word of warning or anything. A crash would have been preferable! At least in both cases, we get to preach the gospel of FOSS, lol.
Windows in general is pretty good at warning before running updates, you usually get a few days before being forced to run the updates.
There is much to blame Windows for, but if it forces a reboot on you, it is because it was ignored it earlier.
You mention this being a "podium computer", so probably a shared machine that no one cares about updating.
For future reference, if you are using a shared computer for presentations, you can see the update status in the system tray, Windows will show the update icon with an orange or red dot if it is waiting for a reboot.
I am an IT guy and I often get tasked with preparing the presentation computer for large presentations, I will go down to the event room an hour before and boot up the computer to check the status of it so I have time to deal with the shit it might throw up.
I know that story doesn't really go anywhere, but it was a big deal to me!
Might be worth permanently defenestrating, if possible.
Already a step ahead of you there!
As soon as I saw all my drivers were working and all my software needs were met, I went ahead with the install after work.
💪
Haven't seen getting off Windows referred to that way before, but I love it.
Richard Stallman said it best:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/defenestrate#Verb
It went from a disaster to your day being saved! It was a great story!
Glad to hear it saved the day and that you're trying Linux full time. Love a good success story!
For you or anyone else who want to keep an emergency kit on a USB drive on hand, I recommend checking into Ventoy. With it, you can keep multiple ISOs on a single bootable USB drive and choose which one you want at boot time. Keep an emergency Linux desktop, rescue disks, etc on it and you'll be good to go. You can easily add more or update existing images just by writing files to the drive. No reformatting required.
yeah ventoy has been a life saver for me. I have multipe linux distros and BSDs on there as well as important immediate files I need access to on a fresh install. I know it's "shoddy or sketchy" but it's the only tool out there that does exactly what I need it to do. i.e. save my ass.
Fun nano-side-story: I discovered Batocera Linux while searching for distros that have a dedicated spin for USB.
It let my kids experience the glory of my youth including the crappy Atari 2600 games
This is good to know! Thanks!!
Could you tell more about the story? I also love Linux but I'd probably just restart a windows pc if it crashed as a first step
I keep a live usb in my bag just in case as well. Glad to hear it saved the day for you.
I have been testing the waters on my home PC, and was thrilled to see the live USB in my bag.
It might be time for me to bite the bullet and load it on my laptop too. I am beyond fed up with Windows at this point.
The minimal software compatibility issues were the only thing holding me back. (and GeForce drivers...)
Do it. Rip off the bandaid and don't look back.
I’ve been on a straight Linux laptop for a while now. So far, the one major issue is getting Scrivener to work. Everything else is fine.
Minor self tech support getting Calibre loaded. And working GOG games (pathfinder) onto the machine. As an IT noob though, it’s not bad. I liken it to suddenly learning browsers and the internet alongside windows back on the 90s, in terms of difficulty. Steam games are a click and go so far.
Granted I bought an S76, so I’m starting with a base that is supposed to work right out of the box. It mostly does.
The most major hiccup is mods for games. My partner is still into DDO, for example, but needs a windows partition to run his favorite mod.
My only issue is fan noise. So I just use the Sony corded headset and it works. Yeah, I know, but they’re the industry standard for sound and purchased before the shitstorm re ownership of games.
I'm with /u/Lka1988, rip the bandaid off and don't look back. Linux is getting better and better so fast these days, it's wild. You can probably ride that bootable thumbdrive for a good while. Once you get things sorted out, six months from now, you'll wonder how you ever lived without Linux.
In any case, glad to see Linux saving the day. If anything, Linux should be a tool that you familiarize yourself with so you can use it when you need or in a pinch.
Literally is a big deal! I carried around an ubuntu usb for so long when I tried to use it to save someones old laptop, it was already corrupted. >.<