scared of installing Linux

[Deleted member 598242]

I'm considering switching from Windows 10 to Linux as it is a more lightweight OS. I did look into it and I decided that I'm going to install Linux Mint - I hope it's a good decision.
Anyway, I can not bring myself to do it because I'm scared.
Especially concerning software and drivers made for Windows that I'm not sure if they will run on Linux. Also, I'm tech illiterate and a clumsy person. I don't know if Linux is safe for me, but I'm convinced it's better than Windows because there are too many aspects that I dislike about it.

Is there anything I should know before installing Linux (and is it dangerous)?

 

[godreborn]

maybe try wsl first? or a virtual machine like virtual box? then, you can have both installed without any risk just to give it a test run. I personally use wsl for most of my linux needs, but it's limited, so maybe vb would be better?

 

[Kazesama]

you can boot linux from usb to test it out before installing anything.

 

[Deleted member 578956]

Linux in gereral is nitoriusly non-user friendly and has you use the cmd prompt foir alot of things like alot of software installing.

Things like most Video games, software suites, Plug-and-play shit, Hell even DirectX are NOT on linux .as well as issues ive had in linux but never popped up in windows. Best to try it out on a VM. If you hate it, use the Windows 10 Decrap script

https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater

It give you an extra half gig of headroom and removes some BS MS spyware but if you want to remove even more BS for windows (However this bricks the MS Store nobody uses) use this bitch https://www.getblackbird.net/

However if you do want to take the plunge the installer CAN be configured to dual boot so you can try it for a bit and see how you like it

 

[smilodon]

No one is born with innate knowledge of Linux! You will be fine, the days of having to launch a terminal for every problem in your way is gone nowadays.

 

[Kioku]

Linux in gereral is nitoriusly non-user friendly and has you use the cmd prompt foir alot of things like alot of software installing.

This is partially true. It's not that it's not user friendly. It's that there could be a steep learning curve depending on what your end goal is.

Linux Mint is an excellent starting point as it's a simple distro with a good enough community that can help you if you needed it. If you were leaning Arch, that's another story.

 

[godreborn]

This is partially true. It's not that it's not user friendly. It's that there could be a steep learning curve depending on what your end goal is.

Linux Mint is an excellent starting point as it's a simple distro with a good enough community that can help you if you needed it. If you were leaning Arch, that's another story.

arch is frustrating at times. I have it as wsl, and there's a lot of things missing from dkp-pacman, so compiling a lot of things is next to impossible, at least in my experience. that's the only reason I use wsl, linux.

 

[Sypherone]

If you will use Linux, you will have to learn command prompt using the Terminal. And will going into deep of the Linux system. You will have solve roblems by yourself by understanding Linux. Its not that userfriendly like Windows with klick klick klick, update and ready steady go.. On Linux are a lot of similar Programms to Windows. But there are some Distributions they give a good start like ubuntu wich is near on the way to Windows, its based on Debian wich is normaly very hard for beginner. And there exist some very good wikis for Linux.

For trying you may run it from USB, use a VM or install it on the same drive along with Windows and choosing then at boot the OS.

But maybe you are going to have fun with a Raspberry Pi as Linux Home Server then you learn it fast. And set it up as server for different projects like PLEX as home medialibrary, Pihole as Addblocker, DNS Server, DHCP Server, local SMB/FTP/NAS share, NextCloud, GOGS/Git for your own code base or remote music player with MPD or raveberry. There are a lot Projects out there.

 

[godreborn]

I use debian, ubuntu, and sometimes msys for compiling everything. though, a lot of Nintendo things can be compiled in cmd prompt. debian is what I'm most used to, but ubuntu 20.04 has a lot of older packages for some older projects. it gets easier over time, but sometimes I do have to look up what an error means.

 

[godreborn]

I suggested my dad get a chromebook after his old laptop died. he only uses it for internet and email, and it was like $130, so you can imagine the power of that thing. haha, anyway it has linux coordinated into it. it's debian (not sure if all use this), but I had to use it to install thunderbird, since that's what we normally use for email. very easy.

 

[Deleted member 598242]

Thanks guys. Now I decided I'm going to have to give this a bit more time. Dual boot and other methods seem to complicated for me. I am going to wait this out as well as learning more about it and hopefully switching eventually.

 

[tech3475]

Personally, I would start with using a virtual machine like Virtualbox.

This way you can experiment without affecting the host computer and you can make 'snapshots' to easily revert changes.

Either that or purchase something like an old computer off ebay to mess around with.

 

[FAST6191]

Thanks guys. Now I decided I'm going to have to give this a bit more time. Dual boot and other methods seem to complicated for me. I am going to wait this out as well as learning more about it and hopefully switching eventually.

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity
Pick anything in the top listings there/major page that is vaguely aimed at new users (most things that are not arch fitting this bill)


Virtual machine.
Most would suggest https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads for personal use.
Open program, press load this iso, set hard drive size (other default settings should be fine), press go, follow on screen instructions. If you choose to install it there then it will make a file/folder of however many gigabytes on the drive and you can copy that around almost like any other file (or delete it, though better to go to the program and do it there) and then you can open the virtual machine and press go to have it load up.
You can also reverse this and install Windows in the virtual machine on Linux if you wanted.

Dual boot.
Burn iso to disc if old school or USB otherwise ( http://unetbootin.github.io/ is generally what is suggested). You can play with that all you want and get the general experience, some will even save changes to a USB and load those back up next time if you want. Optionally install to second drive if you want/have one* or install to partition on existing hard drive (which it can handle too -- say shrink this by this much before installing to that and let it do it for you). Select during boot (can set to whatever to autoboot as well if you want) and load accordingly.

*depending upon what your machine is, laptops being more annoying to have second drives or replace them quickly (though USB3 is fast enough to count), then some will spend a token sum and get a secondary drive to play with -- nice SSDs can be had for next to nothing these days.

Some will have the third way where it exists within the Windows setup (WSL is but one take, other takes have existed since Windows XP was current).

Re command line. Did we all fall into a portal to 2006 again? Certainly you can use it and it is very powerful, would not discourage learning it either (command line is fundamental to being an accomplished computer user whether you are on Windows or Linux and has massive power when it comes to doing tasks that are desperately annoying to accomplish with a graphical user interface). 99% of stuff for desktop Linux will be clicking on UI elements if you want with most of the major distros aimed at anything like being user friendly (get one that actually is and even more so). Even in the 1% then 95% of that will be copy and pasting things in an instruction list.

Re tech illiterate. In some ways that might be an advantage -- it is usually when windows "power users" try to go across under the auspices of I are good at computar (and indeed they might have the common fixes for things almost on muscle memory -- while I can read French it was not that which sorted disable and enable before rejoining a wifi network for someone with a French laptop) then find it different. Going from scratch then being a boon if they have specific fixes and modes of operating down as their troubleshooting method rather than https://xkcd.com/627/ .

Re software. Yes modern games are annoying (WINE is useful but not necessarily something I would go wholesale in, though I am returning to the virtual machine thing above), and yes big money software packages tend to be that. Most things being done in a browser though means Firefox and its ilk or Chrome and its spinoffs (which includes Opera these days). Equally if you are paying for Microsoft office you are going wrong somewhere, not to mention there are methods that work for that. I have some more sympathy if you are wound into Adobe products though I will stand up for the open source options there as well as being far nicer once they click for you.

 

[XDM]

I am a power user that makes videos, games, music and 3d animation and I made the jump to linux last year, NEVER looked back. I have tried MANY distros. (debian, arch, and rpm based) and i had a HORRIBLE with ubuntu (debian based) & oses like pop os. my favorite is arch based. Believe it or not I personally feel its fine for beginners despite what people saying about its difficult. its NOT. and if you still need to run some windows apps the WINE infrastructure does a GREAT job of running windows apps in linux. i can still run a ton of windows apps and games in wine/proton
I am running endevourOS right now and if your not fond of command line just install "Bauh" (its a app store like experience) download most apps before you even open the browser to google them.
the only shortcoming I can think of is sometimes dont expect a new windows triple A game to work on day one. sometimes it may just work and sometimes it might take a week or more for a update to come and make the game playable.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I'd try Zyron or Elementary. At a point, I used Elementary for a few months and then went back to Windows 7 (years ago).

Now, I'd feel more confident about using.

 

[Taleweaver]

Can't speak for all distros, but for mint, dual boot is really the way to go. I was scared at first as well, but on hindsight, it really was easier than upgrading windows.

It's as follows:
0. Make a backup of your data. I give it about 95% chance I won't need it, but it's good practice. Cleaning up data is also a good idea.
1. Get the freeware program rufus
2. Download the latest iso from Linux mint website (i recommend cinnamon, but that's just how i like my desktop style)
3. Start rufus, point to the iso and insert an empty USB drive or at least 4 gb (iirc)
4. Rufus will make it a bootable usb drive
5. (arguably the hardest part) restart your pc and try to start from the USB drive. This is usually through F11 or F12, or going into the bios to change the boot order. You know you've done it correctly if you're seeing a mint prompt, shortly afterwards followed by the Linux mint desktop environment

IMPORTANT: not a single byte on your hard drive is modified at this point: it all runs from your usb drive. In fact, you're somewhat more secure, since you can use the drive to troubleshoot in case of a windows error

6. Try out mint. Try browsing the web, checking your basic inputs (keyboard, mouse) and perhaps even your printer. It's a perfect test environment, since what you see is what you'll get
7. Other shut down when you're done or go the next step. If you shut down and unplug the USB drive, you're back to your trusted desktop

8. On the (virtual) desktop, there's a shortcut to install mint. Click it and follow the prompt. It'll find the windows partition and ask what you'll want to do. Pick dual boot, assign space to each partition and that's mostly it. When installing mint, it'll also install grub: a small program that let's you pick your operating system upon booting. There are ways to pimp and tweak it, but it's fine as basic

9. Done. You'll now have two pc's in one. Of course you've halved your free space, but it's a good way to get your stuff up and running




Anything else... I concede that installing stuff isn't as straightforward unless it's a common tool(eg chrome). Common tools are installed through the equivalent of the app store. For games, steam really is the way to go. Even if most of your games aren't on steam.

 

[LainaGabranth]

Imo, Linux is very user friendly with many distributions meant for new users. Ubuntu is one of the industry standards for Linux in fact. Google Stadia runs on it for example, and many other servers run on it. I'd recommend starting there, because it's the most accessible out of the box. If you're able to google solutions to problems, you're able to use Linux. That's how simple it is.

 

[Professor_Pootis_PhD]

I've been using Mint for about half a year now, 2 things I'd recommend doing is learning how Linux differs from windows and the big one: Don't be afraid to ask for help. Some people can be rude or condescending when you ask for help, but the vast majority just wanna help. Also the terminal may look scary, but most of the time when I was starting out it was simple copy paste.

 

[Dust2dust]

I've been using Mint for about half a year now, 2 things I'd recommend doing is learning how Linux differs from windows and the big one: Don't be afraid to ask for help. Some people can be rude or condescending when you ask for help, but the vast majority just wanna help. Also the terminal may look scary, but most of the time when I was starting out it was simple copy paste.

It's just like here on GBAtemp. 97% of users are nice and like to help, but there is this (sometimes very vocal) remaining 3%. For someone not tech savvy at all, like the OP seems to be, Linux could be a challenge to use. But usually just googling the error message itself gives an instant solution. So if a user can copy/paste, he'll usually be just fine. And no need to deal with all the crap associated with Windows.

 

[Marc_LFD]

And no need to deal with all the crap associated with Windows.

I'm very satisfied with the Windows 10 version I'm using, but after 2029 I'll have to see if I'll stick with Windows (12?) or a Linux distro of my choosing.

Zorin looks very comfy for Windows users:



I previously called it "Zyron" not sure where I got that from.