I wonder if you were being scammed? From the Fedora (getfedora.com) website:
Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.
So I don’t know why you were being charged.
You might want to give Ubuntu a spin. It’s easy to install and you can achieve a lot without delving into the command line.
I might give Linux another go when if I upgrade my present dinosaure and acquire some more disk space.
My dealings with Linux where back in early days then again around 2003, as I said that was about the time I contracted Lyme desease which caused even making marmite on toast a massive chore and I had 2 young kids to keep an eye on (all I remember is Debian, Suse, Fedora and Mandrake) and very unhelpful people who would push Linux but not have the patience to help you out.
EDIT: Not to mention some of the worst chipsets and processors and dodgy RAM ever known to mankind. Anything labelled Celeron or Pentium I won’t touch because of that era.
Did he still carry his blanket around with him?
You’re still prowling and pouncing I note, just clumsy fingers again, I needed to move my keyboard just 1.5 cm diagonally to the left and away from me. 
Edit: no wonder I’m having problems actually needed to move the keyboard diagonally 1.5 cm to the right and closer to me. I’m now exhausted as I had to move it, again, 3 cm diagonally . 
Appraoching the end.
Just have to briefly outline the upgrade from windows 7 to 10 on my daughters laptop.
This I did 1st and after installing all the latest drivers for the hardware I just clicked on the upgrade link on the Microsoft site I just followed the instructions. Had to uninstall a few things like iTunes and it just happened.
Once in Windows 10 everything was fine except the sound both from the miniscule speakers (which sounded like they were going to disintergrate and headphone (I really don’t like headphones but gave them a try anyway) the sound was better from the headphones and improved when activating the Microsoft spatial surround option but really wasn’t of good quality.
So I went to parameters and noticed DTS and Dolby was activate so disactivated them (these just shouldn’t be activated as they can damage speakers in outside sources unless processed through an adequate ditital analogue converter). Also the sound quality was set very high 24 bits 48000Hz, 16 bits 48000Hz is sufficient and on lowering to DVD quality and was the solution to preventing the loadspeakers from disintergrateing.
Still the sound was poor tinny and feable. I debated whether to go back to the older drivers or load up newer ones. I found that the drivers installed where from 2014 (Microsoft) on the realtek site they had a newer version however those on TousLesDrivers and I presume those Realtek supply to motherboard makers where even newer (2018) . So I plumbed for the 2018 version. After installing I had to lower the quality again from 24 bits to 16 however DTS and Dolby hadn’t been reactivated. There was a distinct sound quality upgrade still a bit thin and tinny but what can you expect from a laptop with miniscule speakers? So sorted.
Btw the new driver package also installed a Dolby Pro ‘engine’ i haven’t looked at it yet but it might be a way of not having to pay for the application in Microsoft store, it can not be worst than the Microsoft spatial sound surely?
In any case I’m a stereo freak and all these surround gimmicks aren’t really my thing.
My daughters laptop is 8 years old so I was really pleased how easily this upgrade went. Also it was free!
Both my daughter and son had the same laptop make and model and my son having a newer laptop said I could take his old one and do what I liked with it. So I made a hybrid, parts from my son’s laptop and from my daughters to have one that had double the RAM (from 4 to 8 essential really) and stockage (my son’s HDD was chock a block, so I tested it with firmware and reformatted it, and his laptop didn’t work without some manipulation) and all in working order. My son’s keyboard and pointer pad didn’t work correctly yet his computer worked faster and quieter than my daughters. Both Mother boards needed new CMOS batteries (thats only about a euro each and I only needed 1). I mean these laptops have been through the wars, my son’s had to put up with tea, coffee and drinking chocolate being spilt on it my daughters had to put up with all sorts of physical abuse so recuperating a super laptop from them was very pleasing.
Changing the motherboard meant I had to ‘reactivate’ Windows 10 which was a very simple process after having activated on the previous motherboard on the microsoft account. just click on ‘I have recently changed the hardware on this computer’.
So 2 stable systems, that’s good!
Got a message 2 days ago, ‘your version of Windows 10 will stop recieving updates soon’. WtF. I thought my version looked different to the one I put on my daughters computer. I used a downloadable .iso image copied onto a USB stick (gives more controll. So yes I got ‘build’ 1909 and the new version is 20H2. Nervously I clicked the Update to new version text. What wonders will this have, will the sound get messed with again or the Chipset not be recognised.
After about 5 hours and ‘Installing Updates’ coming up at least 6 times after other messages like ‘Preparing’ and asking myself is this on a boucle? I eventually had the new version installed. Check chipset no changes, check sound no changes. Perfect stable system check oh! wait machine blocked, frozen screen what’s this about. Can’t even get task manager up. Only one solution turn off computer and turn back on. On booting it became apparent the Upgrade had forgotten to Install some of itself. Phew all seems good now (I presume it was that not all the .NETframe files had been completely install (comes in multiple packages I think).
Anyway there we are next up what I think of the finished product.
Ok, so after correcting the problems incurred, above all the more than necessary adjustments to the sound, what do I think of a fully functional stable Windows 10 OS.
I quite like it in fact, It really has everything I need for the moment, an anti virus that is relatively descreet and inclus (there were problems before with Defender and Security essentials that support was given then taken away, I hope Micrsoft will keep supporting this Defender based? anti virus (even though Security Essentials was my preferred one as it was more descreet less gormand).
The pop ups were annoying so configuring them so they didn’t annoy me was another challenge. On that point I don’t like how they push Microsoft Edge and when you click for help this monstrosity with Bing bar opens ignoring your default internet browser (in my case Google that I have been using for years and even if it’s not the best intend to use for as long as it lasts as I am used to it).
Speed well this isn’t a big criteria for me, it does take a little longer to start than Vista did however I always start my computer before taking a coffee and cigarette pause which is by far long enough. Google Chrome takes longer to charge (this might of course be due to google itself I actually have the latest version now which allows me to watch videos and stream videos correctly). At first I was impatient with it and clicked repeatedly ending up with numberous google pages opened, now I’m used to it and have no problems.
For my usage I find Microsoft has added far too many gadget applications that are useless but charge on starting. They really should leave things up to the user a lot more rather than the user having to find the useless gadgets and then go through the hassle of desactivating them (then this isn’t just a problem of Microsoft hardware manufacturers install a lot of useless gumph in there software and driver packages).
So apart from the sound card issues, which I remind you where horrific it’s all together a good package. As with any OS hardware compatibilty can be an issue with ancient and new material. The new material should be supported by the manufacturer, the ancient stuff you will need to find the best and most upto date driver package you can find. I let Intel install drivers on my daughters computer which worked but I didn’t like it as I don’t think it’s the best drivers for her product so won’t do that again will do manual searches for driver packages and install them myself.
MS released an update on Thursday that has trashed any Win 10 machine printing to a Kyocera printer. Just 140 in one school…
I didn’t give details of my configuration at the start but here they are.
My 12 year + dinosaure:
Motherboard: ASUS P5E with Intel X38 chipset and ICH9 Sata controller and a JMicron PATA controller.
8Go of memory Kingston 667MHz DDR2
Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 at 2.4GHz
Hard drives had 2 Western Digital 250Go drives on Raid 0 as boot cloned onto a 1TO western Digital Blue to get ‘back to’ SATA AHCI (for cloning used seagate diskwizard (which is by ACRONIS). In total I have 2.5To of disk space all Western digital (had a problem with Maxtor drives so went through a phase of not touching Seagate drives).
Video card NVidea GT610 I did have an NVidia Geforce 8800 GT but broke it
Sound Card: SupremeFX II ADI1988B 8 channel CODEC
So a mid range DIY effort that is imo great value.
My daughter and son both had an ACER ASPIRE V3-771g with an I5-3210M 2.4GHz processor.
Intel C216 chipset, Intel serie 7 sata controller.
Each had 4Go RAM so boosted to 8Go now (essential for gaming if using ORIGIN (that fucker uses 1.5Go of RAM).
Each had one seagate 500Go hard drives (so now one is the boot drive and the other 500Go of stock space)
External graphics card NVidea GT630M
Sound card Realtek HD audio ACL271X CODEC
N.B these 2 laptops have been through the wars just fantastic products, my son spilt lots of coffee and my daughter was extremely clumsy 8 years of abuse and I still managed to recuperate a decent computer.
If you use it mainly for the internet, have a look cloud ready.
Easy way to install ChromeOs on any PC. You can also allow Linux apps to be installed.
There was one problem I haven’t mentionned.
My daughters laptop connects via WIFI to internet. when I set it to connect automatically the time it took for Windows 10 to shutdown tripled and to start up doubled. I now have it set on manual so have to click connect after starting and diisconnect before shutting down or it bugs. I guess its that before shutting down it tries to stop the connection (as it’s a running programme and then automitically tries starting it up again over and over (creating a conflict as the screen blacks out and come back on again). I didn’t mention it as I have no problem with switching the WIFI connection on and off as required.
This leads me to another problem I encountered with the WIFI, not sure if it’s windows or the WIFI card, which was a real pain in the arse. In putting 1 computer together and repairing broken parts I had to take the things apart (and of course put at least 1 complete laptop back together). To do this I had to disconnect the WIFI aerial when I started the computer back up the WIFI didn’t work (I tested with the other laptop and got the same). Thankfully the WIFI installed on the motherboard I wanted to use came back to life after some use and a number of reboots. I have no idea how or why it came back to life as I repeated the same thing with the other motherboard and it remain as dead as a dodo. I tried asking Windows to resolve the problem but all it came up with is turn the WIFI on manually which of cause is impossible as there’s no manual switch it’s an integrated card. Looking up solutions via google gave no enlightenment just nonsense that didn’t work. My guess is that perhaps by disconnecting the aerial some ‘charge’ dissipates so no signal is recieved by the WIFI card until the charge rebuilds itself (seems daft though). Anyway if anyone has any ideas on this I’m all ears as I found it strange and am interested in possible reasons. (Note I think this was a hardware problem however Windows diagnostics could be a lot more useful, my searches via google indicated this is a regularly encountered problem after disconnecting the aerial on Qualcomm Atheros Wireless boards and there doesn’t seem to be a solution to it other than the chance it restarts all by itself).
Yes. Not able to uninstall that bloody update. Even resetting the machine didn’t work. Have to scrap and reinstall the OS. Wasted half a day for 1 machine.
140 machines… You are gonna die mate.
They’ve launched a patch which works. Comes up as optional though. You can download separately and distribute thankfully.
Good. On 13th there was no patch and no update from Microsoft. I was left to find a solution on my own. 
Good to know that there is a patch to solve this from MS.
I rarely use my printer these days however as Windows 10 didn’t recognise it (make and model) I looked for firware. Canon indicated that printing through windows 10 could have problems when it comes to ‘mise en page’ (fitting the print 'correctly on the page) and you might have to fiddle with the page sizes. I mean how did they manage to fuck up page sizes. They are pretty standard aren’t they?
Time for an update or should I say check up.
Checking files or image as they call it. One runs the famous sfc /Scannow command and low and behold after a few months of tranquility an error wtf. So we try all sorts of manipulations mainly DISM stuff cherches on internet. It doesn’t appear that these problems have been much of an issue for some while looking at internet, used to come up frequently under Windows 7. Anyway nothing worked.
So start at the beginning and look at the CBS and DISM logs. I should have started with that. 
1 corrupted file so what is it and when did it occur? slmng something that correlates your microsoft licenses. Last updated the same day some visuel C++ update was downloaded. i.e a programme update that comes with a licence (EULA). My guess is the update changed the licence file without telling the file manager (image). The update is an old one (that I probably didn’t get before as I was running on Vista (this update is recorded as having caused problems with Windows 7 (internet searches). So all good I can ignore this completely (just accept that windows will continually give me image errors that will end when they send another update that needs me to accept a licence (and is correctly cnfigured) then all should be resolved).
I’m also haveing problems accessing other PCs connected to my routeur. I’ll sort it out, I think it’s because I set up access when using Vista and as I consevered my configuration the vista security thingy is blocking stuff.
Anyone with older PC and want to try out Windows 11? (Stupid MS definition of older PC = Intel Gen 7 processor, which is only 3 years old.) I am trying it on VMWare without being flagged for processor being out of compliance. But then again, it’s only a VM.
Don’t ever touch a new Windows OS until the first service pack has been released…
Not used it but the spiral had been downwards since Windows XP for those of us who have to implement it across hundreds of computers. My hopes are not high.