New to Linux, settled on Lite

[redrobo66]

Hello everyone. My story.

For the past decade or so I've been using mac OSX on various iMac and Macbooks.
Then back in March this year the graphics card failed on the expensive Macbook Pro which was of course just out of warranty by a few weeks  >

A replacement was going to cost crazy cash and I was becoming disillusioned with the locked down Apple ethos, so I started looking for a refurbished PCs running Windows 10 and after some research settled on a Thinkpad, a 2012 model X220 and the last to use the classic IBM style thinkpad keyboard but a still new-ish core i5 processor. Popped in the 8gb of ram and 1TB SSD from the old Macbook and I was a happy bunny. This like-new Thinkpad cost me $220. Having been away from windows for many years, I must say that Windows 10 is a pretty decent operating system - but oh they want to know everything, and it's invasive, and you can't stop auto updates...... far from ideal.

A friend suggested Linux so I've spent the past 2 months trying out the different flavors but mainly KDE Neon (nice), Mint Cinnamon (nice but limiting) Manjaro KDE (bios errors/fail) Deepin (lovely but resource hungry), and Antergos (Gnome). Of the bunch, Antergos worked really well but as someone new to Linux but not a computer newbe the rolling release Arch base left me uneasy. Countless daily update notifications means that something was bound to break sooner rather than later. I'd prefer a more stable platform.

So I happened across a Youtube review of Linux Lite and as I'd not yet experienced XFCE decided to install a copy.
Well this really is light on resources but certainly not light on features. I was very pleasantly surprised at just how customizable this is, and with a nice set of flat Papyrus icons installed and a dark theme, Lite looks very sharp indeed.

It flies along on this Thinkpad which actually runs cooler and with about an additional 1 hour of battery life compared to something like Deepin or Neon.

Well done Jerry and the team!

Rob

[banko]

Hi Rob and a warm welcome from a fellow Brit.


Keith.

[Valtam]

Welcome

[rijnsma]

Great story. Welcome! 

[Jocklad]

Welcome Rob 

[TMG1961]

Welcome

[bitsnpcs]

Hello redrobo66,

Welcome

[Coastie]

Welcome aboard, Rob. I too left Mac quiet a while ago for similar reasons. In December 2005, I bought the "latest and greatest" iMac ever. Unfortunately, it was a PowerPC Mac and at Mac World Apple introduced the new Intel Macs. My last update from Apple was 10/10/07. So actually Apple abandoned me so I will never buy another Apple product. I went to the dark side with Windows until January 2014 when I switched to Linux full time and have never regretted it.  ;D

[Artim]

I was put off at first by the exorbitant price of an Apple computer.  It was the first alternative I looked at after getting really ticked off at Windows intrusive updates, interruptions, and slowdowns.  It took only a little bit of looking on Google to find an alternative, and an online "distro chooser" directed me to Ubuntu (9.04).  Since then I have toyed with several distros, from Debian and Ubuntu-based to some really intriguing others like Salix (Slackware -based, very fast, Xfce desktop, but not for beginners) and PCLinuxOS.  Xubuntu became the one I always "ran home to" when the others disappointed me, until I found Linux Lite in my efforts to keep an ageing desktop out of the landfill.  It's simple, fast, and works satisfactorily even on this ancient relic.

Welcome!  This is a safe and helpful place to learn more.