Linux Mint upgraded to 22.3

 recently I did the upgrade of my old ASUS laptop from Linux Mint 22.2 to 22.3 successfully.
The upgrade tools get easier to use each time.
As I said in the past, if you got an old PC or Laptop that is too old and slow for MS Windows, then recycle it and install a flavour of Linux on it for a new fast, lease of life.

Upgraded my Linux Mint laptop to 22.2 "Zara"

 I finally upgraded my Linux Mint laptop,  I keep reminding myself to do it, but never get around to it. It has been on 21.3 for quite some time, I doing the patches regularly, but stopping to upgrade is another thing. I upgraded in the recommended steps, 21.3 to 22.0, 22.0 to 22.1, then 22.1 to 22.2 "Zara", each step proceeded with its snapshot for safety. All went well, no side effects or issues detected. The Linux Mint 22.2 built on Ubuntu 24.4 LTS. It works great, nice and fast on my old ASUS N550JK laptop.
This is a great time to remind those about to throw away their old laptop or PC because of Windows 10 now being unsupported, (as of 14th October) that you can recycle those old PC's and laptops giving them another lease on  life by installing a flavour of Linux O/S replacing the old Windows 10.
You have nothing to lose,  Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint to name but a few for you to try. I use mine mainly for browsing, WSJTX and Arduino IDE.

latest Linux flavours as of February 2020

I was just checking up  on the latest non-commercial flavours and spins of Linux going around, predominantly w.r.t. 32 bit versions that may still be available, considering Ubuntu, Centos, Fedora, RedHat have long dropped their 32bit versions and that I still like to run Linux on my old Dell Xeon based servers.

so as of February 2020 this is what I found :

Peppermint  Linux version10,  LXDE desktop, based on Lubuntu, Community oriented, 32 and 64bit

Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS  this was the last 32bit version.  18.04.3 LTS and 19.10 only in 64bit.
flavours Kubuntu with KDE desktop, Lubuntu with LXDE desktop, Ubuntu with MATE desktop, Xubuntu with Xfce desktop.

Debian 10.2  -  choice of GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Cinnamon and MATE desktops, 32 and 64bit  and of course, Debian is very community oriented.

Linux Mint - has two streams:
 - LMDE3 based on Debian Stretch 9.11
 - Mint 19.3 based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS  with choice of Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce desktops
both offering 32 and 64bit, but not expecting any further 32bit releases of this Mint stream.

MX Linux version 19.1 based on Debian  with Xfce 4.14 desktop.  32 and 64bit. and is community oriented.

What caught my eye here was that there still some 32bit streams being produced, they will eventually dry up, but I can still experiment with latest Linux versions on old 32bit servers whilst they still work.
The second thing was the Cinnamon and MATE desktop offerings, as I have not tried these desktops before, so keen to try them out. The MX Linux I had not heard of before, but talking to my work colleague he seemed pretty keen on the MX Linux, he looking at it from a Developer perspective.

Comparison_of_Linux_distributions

ADDENDUM:
since writing the above, I  had a further look into the desktops, in particular Cinnamon and MATE, so basically these are forked development streams off GNOME2,  as GNOME3 was a major departure in that desktop environment in term of looks and behaviour.   Just think of Cinnamon and MATE desktops as spinoffs of GNOME2.  IMHO I preferred GNOME2 over GNOME3, because I not looking for flash presentation in a O/S, its about running applications and speed of doing work and  the ability of the O/S to integrate between the applications easily and how fast you can do it.  Think of it comparing Windows XP with Windows10,  you could strip down Win XP and make it fast.

linux update

Attempted installs for Slackware, Gentoo and OpenSuse versions of Linux, the Gentoo I couldnt get past the basic search & load drivers, the Slackware installed ok, but failed when booting. The OpenSuse works well, a very nice gui based installer and equally good looking gui when running.
I installed the KDE 4.3 desktop with my OpenSuse. There was the option to install either Gnome or KDE. Nil amateur packages on OpenSuse, but still a good easy to install and use package, for those new to Linux and just wish to experiment.

Next, I wish to give Fedora 12 a test run, maybe Debian 5.04 too. I have been holding off upgrading my two Ubuntu boxes from 9.10 to 10.4, as I deciding whether to reallocate one of these boxes to another project.

In summary, for amateur radio related activities, still best to use either Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora bundles. For a ham that is new to Linux, probably Ubuntu is best choice, as it is just so easy to install and use.

EchoLink node 1494

well, I have been doing some more with this over the last few weeks, although time has been scarse, I have managed to install LXDE ontop of the standard Gnome based Ubuntu, and run Echolink (via WINEHQ) to prove that I have more resources on the Echolink Node PC using LXDE, so outgoing audio (from radio to IP side) is now being processed. This proves that Gnome is more resource hungry and not suitable on a dedicated server based applic like Echolink when implemented on older hardware. I definitely recommend Xfce or LXDE for your dedicated applics, but Gnome and KDE are still perfect replacements for a desktop 'workstation' replacement for a Wintel box.

However, having said that, running LXDE created a new problem, incoming Echolink (from IP side to radio) is now non-existant, but this is a soundcard output issues with LXDE which I will have a look at time permitting, so at this point in time, my Echlolink node is running, but not functioning. Realistically, running Echolink via WINEHQ on Linux is not really desirable, but a short gap solution.

Long term, I would like to do some work with 'The Bridge' and 'TheLinkBox' which are Linux based packages, available of SourceForge to provide a Echolink conference bridge (TheBridge) and a conference bridge/radio gateway (TheLinkBox), but looking at the documentation, these
are not simple click, install, run, as compared to the original Echolink package for Wintel, but anyway, it's still a work-in-progress project.

APRS update

now running Xastir APRS Client Node on Ubuntu 9.04 at home

now running UIView32 Node on W2K3 at work.

also did a test run of Xastir on Debian 5.0 at home, it works fine.
plus I did a test run of Xastir on Xubuntu 8.10, it works fine as well.

The TT3 is working well in the car, but noticed some dead spots along northern beaches not covered by VK2US-1 and VK2RAG-1. hopefully will get an iGate running at the clubsite to fill those missing spots along the beaches.

EchoLink node 1494

Node 1494 is off air at the moment, having issues with Ubuntu 9.04, WINE and Echolink with the TX Audio dropping out most of the time. Rx Audio is fine.

Trying to determine if it is the PC at fault, as this particular Dell GX240 PC was erratic with Win Xp and is slow & randomly freezes using Ubuntu 9.04 and same when it was Ubuntu 8.10

Suspect the Dell PC, as my older IBM PC works fine with Ubuntu 9.04 and runs faster.