Should I use Linux instead of Windows?

[Xdqwerty]

I'm using Windows 8.1 and I heard Linux is a lot better, and I saw that everyone here uses Linux, but i'm afraid of switching to Linux since i'm very used to Windows, and i have understood a lot of programs arent compatible with Linux and you have to write code to install the ones that are compatible

 

[ScarletDreamz]

1. I use Windows 8.1 which is outdated
2. Everyone here uses Linux

1*- Yeah
2*-No

If you are using Windows 8, you can just switch to 10 if it feels better for you, the specs for Win10 are pretty low nowdays.

If you want to try Linux just for fun (trust me, Linux is not for everyone + if you come straight from windows, you might even get overwhelmed with this), You can try Puppy linux as mentioned before, or DamnSmallLinux:

https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/

If you want to try something more "Windowish" you can try "Wubuntu".

Dont go switch directly to Linux just because you think "everyone" here uses it. if you do, you are about to get familiar with some of the terminal commands, even for simpler task.

 

[bonkmaykr]

I would recommend something like Fedora KDE Edition if it's your first time. Their package management is super easy, and KDE out of the box mimics a Windows-esqe interface.

The only caveat is that 1. Modern KDE is a resource hog and 2. you may need to set up an X11 session if you're on NVIDIA. Wayland is kind of a shitshow right now, still in the experimental stages and lots of development hiccups.

If you want something similar to Windows that runs well on older computers, try Trinity Desktop. It's based off of a much older version of KDE from the early to mid 2000s and it works on basically everything, it only requires a Pentium and a few hundred MB of total RAM at the bare minimum (not taking into account how much more memory modern Linux kernels use, but that should be no problem these days).

Do keep in mind, this is just the DESKTOP experience, the underlying interaction with Linux is still going to be different and you still will have to learn new things.

When you're ready, if you want to get comfortable with the terminal, get VMware, try installing Arch Linux onto it, and make it a goal to set up a complete X11 login screen and a desktop of your choice. It's actually not that hard, unlike certain distros e.g. Gentoo, but it will force you to maintain your system and get familiar with it. If it's too overwhelming for you, you can go back to a more beginner friendly distro and use the things you learned from Arch there.

 

[Xdqwerty]

I guess I will never have Linux in my PC since i'm uncapable of installing a new os in it (cuz I have no experience and I don't have any avaliable external drives to do that) and my older brother is too busy to do that

 

[Dud]

I guess I will never have Linux in my PC since i'm uncapable of installing a new os in it (cuz I have no experience and I don't have any avaliable external drives to do that) and my older brother is too busy to do that

Depending on the distro, installing can be pretty user-friendly. Anything Debian-based (or Fedora as others have mentioned) usually is. You can test out live sessions on any spare USB drives - there's no time limit to commit.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Depending on the distro, installing can be pretty user-friendly. Anything Debian-based (or Fedora as others have mentioned) usually is. You can test out live sessions on any spare USB drives - there's no time limit to commit.

I use my only USB drive to install games on my PS3

 

[Plazorn]

I use my only USB drive to install games on my PS3

Use for Linux, then you can reformat it and keep using it for ps3.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Use for Linux, then you can reformat it and keep using it for ps3.

Well there was a program to create Linux live sessions but it got discontinued a while ago

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I guess I will never have Linux in my PC since i'm uncapable of installing a new os in it (cuz I have no experience and I don't have any avaliable external drives to do that) and my older brother is too busy to do that

Let me summarize what options I can think of (hopefully remembering the situation correctly):

• Buy a new computer → That would be the best, but you mentioned being short on money.
• Backup your current Windows installation to an image and install some Linux distribution
  • Not a good idea if the main storage is a classic HDD. It should be replaced with an SSD for Windows and for Linux
• Try dual booting keeping Windows
• Accept bad performance of virtual machines on an old PC
• Buy a cheap additional SSD to replace the internal laptop drive keeping Windows on the old drive
  • I could literally pay a small SSD by collecting money back bottles
• Run a Puppy Linux from CD-R → That works pretty good by reading the whole disc sequentially to RAM. It is better than one would expect

Forum posts are sadly unable to do the work for you. You have to become active yourself. There are enough things to learn→

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Xdqwerty]

Run a Puppy Linux from CD-R → That works pretty good by reading the whole disc sequentially to RAM. It is better than one would expect

My PC doesnt have a disc drive

 

[Plazorn]

Well there was a program to create Linux live sessions but it got discontinued a while ago

On windows, all you need is Rufus. BalenaEtcher is also a good choice. You usually don’t need a special tool to use live cds, unless you want to make your own.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

My PC doesnt have a disc drive

I thought it was an old laptop. These are supposed to have a garbage grade slim DVD drive.

An external DVD drive should also work

Spoiler: Please not

I don't have an external drive!

USB sticks, SD cards, external HDD, optical drive... Anything should be usable.

 

[Xdqwerty]

USB sticks, SD cards, external HDD, optical drive... Anything should be usable.

Alright

 

[linuxares]

Well there was a program to create Linux live sessions but it got discontinued a while ago

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

Put that on a USB stick (Run it and format the stick for Ventoy special setup) and just copy over the ISOs you wish to feel out.

I got to try to boot a VHD with it... seems to powerful to be true.

 

[bonkmaykr]

Well there was a program to create Linux live sessions but it got discontinued a while ago

You don't understand. Most distributions come with a live DE out of the box.

Also you don't need a whole new drive, you can just resize the Windows partition and make a new ext4 partition to boot from (just be careful not to nuke your MBR if you still have one). The installer that comes with most Ubuntu derivatives has an option to do all of this for you with a single click.

 

[Joom]

seems to powerful to be true.

Nah, it's just good ol' GRUB chainloading. YUMI was doing this years ago, but I don't think it could boot a VHD. GRUB really didn't get more flexible until grub2.

Edit: Neat, YUMI is still being actively developed, and can also boot VHDs now.
https://pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

 

[linuxares]

YUMI... now thats a name I haven't heard in a while

 

[bonkmaykr]

nerd tangent tl:dr; UEFI rulez ok??

Nah, it's just good ol' GRUB chainloading.

GRUB is okay but I had to move away from it. Because it relies so heavily on being able to read it's own filesystem to load modules (a bootloader with modules made just fucking for it, sheesh! bloated?) you can't really do secure boot without pulling your hair out because doing so requires figuring out what specific modules you absolutely need, which is extremely poorly documented, and then baking them into GRUB at install time (similar to your initrd... is GRUB just a mini-Linux?). if you fuck up once and you don't have a spare bootloader or chroot handy, congrats, you don't have a computer anymore.

rEFInd is just so much better in nearly every way and aside from some customization bits missing it's way more practical and simple to set up

Realistically speaking though, @Xdqwerty you will be using GRUB 2 anyway since it comes with just about every distro released within the last decade and auto-configures itself on most of them. Which is fine. As long as you're not planning on signing your own secure boot keys like a weirdo, I mean like me

The nice thing about EFI bootloaders is that they're essentially just EXEs for the BIOS's built in mini-OS, computers are a lot less restrictive now than they used to be. All bootloaders now are just layers upon layers of chainloaders: your BIOS contains an initial program loader, which loads your other IPL, which loads your kernel, then your init system, blah blah. The Linux kernel itself actually contains an EFI executable stub meaning that it can act as it's own bootloader, provided you have the correct setup for it, but that's a manual process.

 

[64bitmodels]

Go ahead if you're curious. It doesn't hurt. And yeah for someone in your situation dual booting is the best situation.

It's the most fun and customizable os of the big 3 (r/unixporn always has me drooling) and its secure and private unlike big brother spydows.

I used to use it and while I dropped it due to software compatibility concerns with music VSTs (as well as a bunch of other problems that turned me off) it's a very good os if you don't care about that. And as the user base grows the solutions to obscure use cases like that will grow as well. The gaming experience is actually better in some respects due to the built in dxvk eliminating stutter in many AAA games

 

[Joom]

GRUB is okay but I had to move away from it.

I'm not a fan of it anymore, either. Works well for USB sticks and chainloading, but I much prefer to use systemd-boot on my installs. It coupled with kernelstub makes boot management so much simpler than any of the standard loaders. I've not actually ever gotten around to using rEFInd since I've never really had a need for it. I don't dual-boot, and just need something that makes Linux kernels easy to manage.

 

[GamingIsDead]

@Xdqwerty What laptop do you have?