Moving away from Windows OS

I have 3 personal laptops at our home for our personal use, which we bought in the years 2012, 2016, 2020. The one I bought in 2016 is the highest configuration with 1 TB HDD and 16 GB RAM with a xx MHz processor. The remaining two we bought just for "Face Booking" and "You Tubing". As our kid grew up, he removed a couple of keys from the 2012 machine. My wife said she couldn't work without those keys. "Face Booking" requires all keys to work in great shape, avid FB'ers must be knowing it already. We had to buy another one in 2020 as a replacement for 2012 machine.

All these machines came with MS Office pre-installed. After one year it got expired, I had to buy one MS Office family License that can be shared on 3 devices. Since then, every year I kept renewing my MS Office license to update my resumes in MS Word. One Drive other stuff come along with MS Word was not greatly useful to me.

Things went well. "No, this not a happy ending story".

During an upgrade, Microsoft offered an innovative feature called "Microsoft Login", instead of the age-old "Windows Login". Using it, we can see all the products can be clubbed together under one user credentials, and the list of devices where they are installed including Xbox its subscription plan, etc. I started logging in via Microsoft Login with my age-old Hotmail email account in my higher configuration machine, the one with 16 GB RAM. I saw no difference. I created 2 more Microsoft credentials for my wife and kid. I forced them to use them, instead of Windows User credentials that exist in our local domains. They too found no difference.

A year or so back, they started complaining, that it was taking so long to use the machines after logging in. They were not able to open Chrome or YouTube (to open YouTube, we need to open Chrome first. Correct?). Screens froze without any response for a long time. They started losing their patience after staring at the screen for hours. Ultimately those two machines became unusable. One was with 4 GB RAM and the other one has 8 GM. Relatively lower configs. Correct? In the meanwhile, they got accustomed to Android Mobile apps for FB and YouTube.

Those two machines kept gathering dust without human attention.

In the meanwhile, Windows 11 came out. My higher configuration machine did not qualify for the upgrade. I spent $650 on this one, I can't throw it away. I kept using it with Windows 10. In due course, it started showing its colors. My higher config machine too started slowing down.

What the heck? I can't use it after 8 years? Did I get enough ROI for my $650? Putting together, $1300 investment on these 3 machines need to be written off? Such questions popped out. The PC I bought in the year 2020 upgraded to Windows 11. It was better running with Older Windows. It too became unusable with "new" Windows 11. Kudos to Microsoft Engineers. I don't blame them, after all they are also fellow human beings like me, you see.

One fine day, I thought it could be because of internet-aware "Microsoft Login" instead of local "Windows Login"? I thought it was due to the latest updates are getting downloaded once your credentials are validated with Microsoft online servers. Who needs latest upgrades during every login?

I decided to get rid of "Microsoft Login", and brought back the local Windows login again. Things improved only in my higher configuration machine, in the other two it was of no use. Earlier in the day, I promised my family that I would bring back those machines to their old glory. Since Microsoft was not in favor of my wishes, I couldn't do it. At the end they asked me "What you're doing in the IT field for last 25 years?", and went back to their Androids.

Living with non-IT family members & friends is not easy, you know. I have been asked very, very difficult questions than my customers would ask me.

Okay... I don't want my hard-earned $1300 to go in vain. What should I do?

Viola... An idea popped up... Why can't I install Ubuntu OS on all three?

I decided to implement it. I chose the machine which I bought in 2012, the one with 4 GB RAM and 512 GB HDD. Anyway, now its unusable already, nothing to lose if it goes wrong.

To my luck, all three were compatible with Ubuntu. Initially thought of installing the duel boot option. Let Windows and Ubuntu live together on my machine at least. But it did not allow me to do so. In the end, I had to go for Mint OS, a different flavor of Linux, lighter than Ubuntu.

Now... All my 3 PCs are running on Mint OS Cinnamon, with LibreOffice, and other free accessories with considerably better performance.

Long live Windows...

Now I clearly understood, why Microsoft is bringing AI Co-Pilot Windows PCs with high speed NVIDIA processors. Let them bring those wonder machines.

But, one of my prayers to my ancestors and gods is...

"Please don't make me to buy another Windows Personal PC again for the reminder of my life."

@@@