I have been a subscriber to Computeractive magazine for many years, but of late as a Linux user driven to be so by the action of Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 11, I have found it to be less and less of us to someone like me. I have emailed the magazine once or twice about this, to no avail, and it now appears that other readers are joining in. Today I have penned (typed) yet another email to them which, for your delectation, I append below . . .
Dear Sir,
Re : Computeractive, Issue 654, 29 mar – 11 Apr 2023
Mr.David Ball and Mr. Frank Clarkson in their published letters raise the problem, which I have emailed you about before now, of those of us who have perfectly serviceable computers rendered unsuitable for Windows by the action of Microsoft in going over to Windows 11. Is your magazine now a magazine for Windows users only, or is it a computer user’s magazine ? If it is the former, carry on as you are, tell us what you are doing and we will cancel our subscriptions. If is it the latter then do something to help the Balls, Clarksons, and others like me who subscribe, and have quite probably subscribed for many years, to your once helpful magazine.
Tell them about the available linux distros. Review those which are best for novices, intermediates and advanced users. Explain how to download a distro as an *.iso image, how to install it on a bootable flash drive, how to get into their BIOS and adjust the Boot Menu, and how to get going in an initially unfamiliar operating system. In actual fact the likenesses are more apparent than the differences and a newbie can be up and running in no time at all.
All this will likely cost nothing, or very little to buy a flash drive, and obviates any necessity to spend several hundred pounds on a new computer.
Perhaps the time has come for “Computeractive” to become “Windowsactive” and to set up a new title for those of us who have successfully, and gratefully, eschewed Microsoft and all its works.
