COMPUTER NEWS – ACER UPDATE
Since my last post, there have been further developments.
Not booting into Linux
The USB drive with the Linux installation on it functioned perfectly and I was able to install Linux Zorin on my hubby’s Acer laptop. However, the computer would not boot into Zorin whatever I tried.
I went on the Zorin OS forum and the wonderful Aravisian, a Linux community leader who is also a forum moderator, worked through the whole procedure with me over about three days, but in the end he was tearing his hair and we had to admit failure. His last suggestion was to remove something called the CMOS battery from the laptop and then reinstalling it in the hope of “clear[ing] the lock on nvRAM and reinstall Zorin OS to see if it will accept the bootloader change and enabling the computer to boot Linux.” Earlier in the discussion he said, “With non-volatile RAM locked, it cannot overwrite the boot order. So, it is trying to load Windows OS.” He said that finding the CMOS battery could be difficult with some laptops which is why he hadn’t suggested it before. I have to say I drew the line at this point as I’m not experienced enough to start digging around inside the physical works of any computer…
During the whole conversation on the forum (total of 137 posts!!) he talked me through a load of different procedures to try, which involved copying a lot of code. I had to do this slowly, and double-check every character, because a misplaced space or capital/lower case letter would render the code invalid, and it was very time-consuming and took a huge amount of effort and concentration on my part, because this is a completely foreign language to me and I have no idea what any of these codes mean or what they do. We got through it, though, but the computer obdurately refused to recognise that Linux Zorin OS had been installed, and kept trying to load the now non-existent Windows 10 which had been overwritten when I used the Zorin installation drive.
Aravisian said that he suspected that Microsoft had probably made some sort of a deal with Acer to prevent any other operating system over-riding the Windows installation. All this was taking place at the deepest level in the firmware, and we did a lot of messing around in the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) which my hubby referred to as the Biomass lol – he knows even less about this stuff than I do! – trying to force the computer to recognise Zorin. It saw the USB drive when it was plugged in, and I could move this to the top of the boot order in the BIOS, but when I removed the drive, it kept trying to find it on reboot, which of course was unsuccessful, and the computer gave me endless scrolling white text on a black screen as every attempt failed.
In the end he said, “…this particular machine is coded to inhibit the efforts and it seems to be winning.” I had to agree with him.
Throughout all these efforts my hubby was continually trying to get me to give up. He is not nearly as tenacious as me when it comes to solving problems and I was NOT prepared to give up – to do so would invalidate all the hard work that both Aravisian and I had put into this problem. However, in the end, it did seem that Aravisian was right and the computer had won. You can’t win ’em all.
Decision time
At the end of the conversation I asked if he could recommend the best brand of laptop to run Linux. He said it was hard to do so as things change very rapidly these days in the computing world, but I probably couldn’t do better than to get a second-hand refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad, which is what I did for myself at the beginning of this adventure. I have discussed this with my hubby and he has agreed. He started looking on Ebay and found a load of refurbished computers with Linux already installed, but I said it wasn’t as simple as that – the correct brand and specs of the laptop are important, and also, when I looked at what he had found, all these computers were running different Linux distros and not Zorin. I told him he needed to have Zorin because this is what I am using, and if he experiences any problems at least I will know what to do – or where to seek help – and Linux Zorin OS is recommended as one of the best (along with Mint) for newbie Windows migrants.
I know that my USB Zorin installation drive works fine as it has now worked successfully on three computers (the problems encountered with the last one were nothing to do with Linux but everything to do with Microsoft and Acer), and I should be able to install it yet again on another Lenovo ThinkPad. As long as I can get one in good condition and with the right hardware specs, it doesn’t matter what OS is already installed because the USB drive will over-write it.
So now the hunt is on for a suitable replacement laptop for him. It doesn’t need to be super-powerful because all he does on the computer is a bit of stuff in Microsoft Word, surfing the net, watching YouTube and using Ebay.
The move to Linux
Aravisian said that Lenovo’s latest models are less desirable now and becoming problematic. I’ve done a bit of my own research and some people are saying that what might appear to be loaded spyware is actually nothing more than something which helps inter-corporation communication. Another thing that is significant is that Lenovo, a Chinese manufacturer and actually the largest computer manufacturer in the world, has now quietly made the decision without fanfare, to abandon the automatic shipping of new computers with Microsoft installed by default (which costs computer manufacturers dearly with Microsoft’s licensing fee for each unit) and shipping them with Linux installed instead, with the choice, for an additional payment, of having Windows installed as an optional extra for those who need or want it. This is a very significant move, and being the largest global computer manufacturer, could signal permission to other manufacturers to follow suit. This must have Microsoft in a state of high anxiety because they are raking in billions through this default system. Consumers are purchasing computers at a higher cost because the manufacturers are obviously passing on the cost of the Microsoft licensing fee to the customers. With its removal, new computers will cost less, and operate better with Linux. I heard some statistics the other day (can’t remember the actual figures) which said that for a large health district, the financial saving could be put into better services for patients, more medical equipment and the employment of additional doctors and nurses. This puts the scale of this in proportion, big time.
Some customers are opting to have both installed, because they are somewhat fearful of Linux. They plan to try it for a day or two to see how it goes, and if they don’t like it, they can continue with Windows, but many of them are so pleased with the ease and efficiency and smooth running of Linux, contrary to their expectations, that they are simply not using the installed Windows at all but just continuing with Linux.
I have done some further research into the Lenovo ThinkPad and it has the reputation of being an extremely robust computer as far as build is concerned, and has the potential to last a lot longer than other brands. This is one reason why so many large corporations choose them, and why, when they routinely replace all their laptops after a period of two years, that there are so many reconditioned and perfectly serviceable second-hand ones on the market for the likes of you and me.
Conclusion
This has been a disappointing adventure with a great deal of very hard and concentrated work. However, I appreciate more than I can say the work put in by Aravisian on my behalf – he is like Richard who came and sorted out my HP laptop for me – he enjoys helping people with their problems and likes a challenge, and gains a great deal of satisfaction from a successful outcome. He said at the end that this was “frying his brain,” of which I apologised for being the cause! The way forward is now to abandon ship and embark on a fresh journey on a vessel that is more sea-worthy – but I’m not looking for “unsinkable” – we all know what happened to the last “unsinkable” ship, don’t we…
It is not all doom and gloom, though. Throughout this whole process I have learnt quite a bit about the inner workings of computers, and now want to learn more, especially in the area of understanding the Terminal in Linux. It is just a question of learning a new language. Many people have done this very successfully – and they probably include in their number people like myself who are not naturally tech-savvy. Many Linux users online encourage newcomers to embrace the Terminal and learn the language because entering the correct code is a simple matter once one understands it, and produces very quick results. I am also the sort of person who thrives on learning new skills and I do enjoy a challenge.
As for my own continuing adventure with Linux, after Richard’s visit and after the Zorin forum helped me sort the non-visible mouse cursor problem, the HP ZBook is working fine, as is the Lenovo ThinkPad, now resident in the office upstairs. New ways of doing things in Linux are becoming so familiar that I don’t really have to think about it now as muscle memory develops. For now, I have decided against going ahead with DaVinci Resolve for my video editing and am using Shotcut on the HP ZBook, and while it takes me a long time to do anything because I keep having to look up how to perform certain functions, I am finding it a quite excellent video editing app and much better than anything Windows had to offer. The HP ZBook is powerful enough to cope with video editing and so far it is working very smoothly. I have abandoned all attempts to run any Windows software on Linux with the aid of the Wine platform, with the exception of Directory Opus (excellent file manager) which I still find useful for certain functions which would be a lot more complicated to do via Linux methods, and am embracing Linux-dedicated software which is working well. I am now using Krita as my photo editor and becoming familiar with the interface. I do miss my ancient Serif PhotoPlus which has been my favourite photo editor since time immemorial, but it simply won’t work on Linux. I have the old HP Envy upstairs in the studio, running Windows 11 and disconnected from the Internet, and can still run it, as well as Serif PagePlus, an equally good desktop publisher which also won’t run on Linux – I have a lot of templates and files designed with this software which are useful for my art and it’s good to be able to continue to use them on the old HP. So I’ve got all bases covered, really.
