On my kitchen laptop I have Linux Mint installed as the operating system. Yes, I have a laptop just for the kitchen. This laptop is used mostly for watching internet television, checking my email and other tasks wile I’m cooking and eating. It’s an old, cheap Dell laptop which had Windows Vista on it when I got it. Vista was so messed up that I couldn’t or didn’t want to repair it. It’s possible I may have replaced the hard drive or RAM on it as well. and this turned into a good entertainment laptop for a place that may get wet or dirty. I decided to put the safer, more stable Linux on it and I’m glad I did. I don’t worry about viruses or malicious web sites using Linux. Unfortunately, the last couple of months the computer has been slowing down and freezing during web browsing and I sometimes need to force a shutdown. This computer is on Linux Mint 17.2 and version 17.3 is available. I want to upgrade to 17.3 to see if it solves any problems and to reacquaint myself with the Linux upgrade process. To perform an upgrade, open “System Tools”-“Administration”-“Update Manager”. Under the Edit tab is the option for “Upgrade to Linux Mint 17.3” and once this is selected it can be downloaded and installed. There is a chance to view release notes and new features and you may want to do this so you won’t have any surprises. When I performed the upgrade, all my personal files and programs were preserved and the start menu was back(it would disappear frequently under 17.2). We’ll see how it goes as time goes on. If this doesn’t solve the problems, I’ll look at hardware issues.