So I am sure many of my readers can identify with this…chatting with a dear family member and they mention their old Toshiba laptop is now basically a brick due to years of malware downloads and failed Windows updates.

“Hey, back up whatever you might want off that thing and bring it over the house,” I reply. “In fact, you picked a perfect time, we have about a month or so under the Windows 10 is free plan from the ever so generous Microsoft Corporation.”

When did things start to go horribly wrong? When my stepfather walked in and I opened the Toshiba (a real monster in size) and I saw a little sticker on the keyboard…Windows Vista. Uh oh. Windows 10 ain’t a free upgrade from that. I guess the rational there is, if you stuck with the crappy OS for this long, you deserve the brick!

“Sorry Dad, no free upgrade for you. Windows 10 is around $100 bucks, but this old laptop is just not worth that investment. We can go grab you a new one for about $250. That would be money better spent…”

Just then, it hit me…”hey, what are you using this for???” The answer – like so many these days – one thing…INTERNET.

Hello Ubuntu!!!! It is so wonderful to have choices. A quick download of the 32-bit ISO, a quick burn to DVD, a quick boot to DVD, and an efficient scorched Earth install of his new OS. Needless to say, he was stunned to see performance of his desktop like he could never remember.

As my readers know – I am a huge fan of almost all things Microsoft. With that said, it is so important for us to have choices today. And today I certainly found that important.