I bought a laptop yesterday, it came pre-installed with Windows 11. I hate win 11 so I switched it down to Windows 10, but then started considering using Linux for total control over the laptop, but here’s the thing: I keep seeing memes about how complicated or fucky wucky Linux is to install and run. I love the idea of open source software and an operating system without any of the bullshit that comes with Windows, but most of the open source stuff I have is on my android and fairly easy to install. Installing and using Linux just feels like it’ll be a whole different beast that’ll eat up most of my time and I’m kind of intimidated by it.
TL;DR Linux scawy, how does a barely computer literate scrub like me who’s used nothing but windows since the dawn of their life get started with Linux?
- Download Mint
- Download VirtualBox
- Setup a Mint VM
- Get used to it (this is a long step, you’re free to try other distros, take your time)
- Download Rufus, install a Linux ISO of your choice to the USB
- Shrink Windows’ partition
- Turn off Secure Boot and RAID in your BIOS (steps vary by laptop/motherboard manufacterer)
- Boot your USB (try booting it in EFI mode instead of BIOS mode first, if you can)
- Follow the install instructions to install it alongside Windows
I gave what I think are the easiest and most beginner friendly instructions (Mint over Debian, Endeavour, Fedora or Ubuntu for example). Not all are the best suggestions (I suggested VirtualBox over QEMU and Rufus over Ventoy), I recommended you to go with your own preferences if you have any
If you run into any problems, this Lemmy community, the Ubuntu SO (also for non-Ubuntu questions, everyone is there) and the Mint Forums for Mint related questions are always there for you, don’t be afraid to ask and “don’t ask to ask” ;-)
Good luck!
An excellent place to start is https://linuxjourney.com/ to get you started!
Step one is back up your data.
Step one is always back up your data.
Enjoy! Welcome! And I don’t even run it as my primary, just on servers and stuff (Apple guy).
Just dive in head first. You will likely find things you miss about windows but if you give Linux a fair chance I promise you in the end it pays off.
My switch was first a dual boot but I quickly realized I was rarely booting into windows and eventually just formatted the drive to purge all Microsoft from my system.
These days even games only built for windows run just finez if not better than Linux.
LibreOffice is great alternative to MSOffice and most other windows software will run with some form of wine (wine is not a windows emulator).
Freedom isn’t free. But it sure as heck is worth the extra steps to get there.
Linux Mint is a great starter Distro.
Agree about linux mint but need to be aware that he bought new laptop and kernel in version 21 quite outdated for modern hardware ,recommendly would be for him to wait for 22 version already i guess.
Seconding Linux Mint!
I came to linux because I was building a new pc at the time win11 came out, and I saw how much more like apple it looked.
I wasn’t afraid to try linux because I’d already done some easy mods to my steam deck (decky and retropi). Using the steam deck’s computer desktop was almost like using older windows to me; I appreciated that.
Downloading programs was like android to me; using the system’s app store, or sideload an app or a second app store, or follow the dev’s readme.txt. Easy, fun, free, ad-free.
I downloaded different linux distributions to a bunch of spare thumb drives and tried them one at a time. I figured, the moment I had a problem that lasted more than an hour with one distro, I’d move on to the next. If I couldn’t hack it past four tries, I’m going back to windows 10.
Linux Mint was the second attempt, and it’s pretty intuitive to use, imo. It feels like the ease of using android, but with a desktop and my beloved windows-style taskbar.
