Looking to change to a Linux-based OS on a laptop, but I don't really understand coding so I haven't tried any of them. Is LinuxMint a good place to start?
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Do:
- Mint if you're coming from Windows
- Ubuntu if you want lots of help online
- Fedora if you want strong and stable
- Bazzite Gnome if you want indestructible, grandma-safe and Apple-like.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Regarding the lots of help online:
Linux Mint is made so that they take the most recent Ubuntu, make certain alterations to it and then ship it as Linux Mint.
Because of this, over 95 % of advice for Ubuntu works on Linux Mint out of the box. But of course, sometimesthe few changes Linux Mint has done causes the advice to not work. So, first look for
Computer physically explodes killing me when I launch Solitaire Linux mintBut, sometimes that doesn't work and you find no solutions. Then try
Computer physically explodes killing me when I launch Solitaire Ubuntu...and you almost surely find a solution that solves the problem.
Just remember, it is impolite to go ask for help on Ubuntu forums if you're using some other distribution, such as Mint. But, sometimes it could be the only good option. In those cases begin with something akin to "I am running Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu and nobody on the Mint forums was able to help, so I'm trying my luck here."
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The only time you might have issues with Ubuntu is when it comes time to update/upgrade it. I've seen people on Mastodon, every time an update rolls out, say that its broken something. But I think those cases are few and far between.
Mint is a good choice to get your feet wet. Install it with KDE Plasma so it will at least feel familiar to you. Cinnamon is fine but I always found it a little bit wonky. When I first started on linux I got kinda carried away with customizing Cinnamon and it totally just wrecked my install.
There's a lot of documentation and support for Mint/Ubuntu so you can pick up stuff pretty quickly. Once you get comfy with it you can always switch your distro to something else. But yeah there's nothing wrong with starting on Mint to get a feel for it.
I think the reason there are so many messages about Ubuntu update problems is that Ubuntu is by far the most used desktop distro. When you have mire users, even the rarest problems are likely to occur on someone's computer at least.
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Cool, I'm not against that. It's just the opposite of beginner-friendly.
Like you can browse through 5 menus and find the thing
I sure would've appreciated a guide on how to do that for, I don't know, something so exotic und unusual like installing my tablet driver, just to get the thing working. So that next time I can find things on my own, learn the structure of the system by exploring stuff and see what else there is, instead of just mindlessly copy pasting some command. Efficiency in doing things can come later, after I'm settled in.
wrote last edited by [email protected]The "mindlessly copypaste this command" culture is dangerous anyway. It's easy to insert some malicious commands there. You can be simply devious and make the user delete all their files. Or, they can make you do something that installs a backdoor for criminals to use for remotely using your computer. Then the Russia or somebody else does a cyber attack against some power plant that gets severely damaged and people die, and the police come to your home suspecting you of manslaughter because your computer had been used for the attack...
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I have several older laptops that would not perform well on windows 11 running Linux mint, Debian, Ubuntu with no problem. If you stick with distributions that let you try the os from a bootable usb first, this should increase your comfort level and help you feel better about your decision.
One note, depending on your laptop BIOS, you may have trouble booting a live USB. I experienced this with Ubuntu and Pop-os, but the issue is solved by creating the bootable USB with a GPT partition instead of the default MBR. The only reliable way I have found to do this is using Rufus on Windows, so keep in mind you may need a Windows machine around for this purpose.
Good luck and have fun!
Ok, I'm assuming that a 'live boot' is something you plug in anytime you want to use it rather than the installed OS that automatically boots? Yes?
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Try installing mint! Make sure you've cleared everything you want from the hard-drive before you start (and decide now if you're going to dual-boot. If so, clear up space so you can do the partitioning you want before you start the process.)
When I have the proverbial spoons to this I will be backing everything up that I want to keep - no worries there!
I think dual-booting and having two OSs on one computer is something that is beyond my wheelhouse, so no worries there either. Just one OS on the computer. That'll be easier for my brain, lol.
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You don't need to do any coding or have any experience in coding. Linux is for everyone and doesn't need any special skills or knowledge to use it. Everything can be done with a mouse and keyboard just like Windows.
You can install Linux exactly as you would Windows - stick in a USB stick and follow the prompts. You can even try Linux using live USB sticks although it'll be a little slow to load compared to an actual install (as USB sticks are generally slower than hard drives).
Linux Mint is a good place to start. It's user friendly and stable, and there are lots of guides out there if you need help, even just to install it.
So anybody that I've ever personally known that I can think of and uses a Linux-based OS is either a programmer by trade, a CompSci grad that didn't go into the field in the end (but understands it if they were able to graduate obviously), or programs as a hobby. I personally know of no people outside of the realm of those that understand coding on some level that use Linux anything. So hopefully you can see how I would make that link in my mind.
I could have been confusing seeing somebody on Linux using the Command Box thing as more intricate coding, but for somebody in my shoes, with limited tech knowledge, it all looks like coding and is a little intimidating.
And yeah, the plan is to do an out-and-out install, not what I'm assuming a live boot is (I have a comment in a thread above). What I'm thinking feels very beyond me. An install feels like the better option for me.
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I responded this on an alt account:
The most important decision as a new Linux user is the desktop environment, the most similar desktop environment to the Windows desktop are KDE Plasma and Cinnamon. This means your best options are:
- Linux Mint (Cinnamon): They are the creators of the Cinnamon desktop environment and will be the default on installation.
- Kubuntu (KDE Plasma): This is Ubuntu's official KDE Plasma flavour, it comes with everything as usual just different desktop.
- Fedora (KDE Edition): Same story as Ubuntu here, only that with Fedora's own packages and environment.
First I would check if the hardware is compatible (99% of the time is). Then I would check what software you need and/or want and check if it is available at these distros, and get familiar on how to install the software packages (either with their respective app stores or in the command line).
There is a lot to learn but with these distros you can just install, forget and simply keep using them for eternity.
The last and more important tip I have is to not to worry about the sea of options out there, you will not be missing anything huge by picking one or the other. Which is how most of new users feel (I did in my time).
Hope you have a great Linux journey mate!
The specs on the laptop meet the requirements for Mint according to their website so I assume that the hardware is compatible for it. But for stuff like my printer...somebody above mentioned that they were having issues with it working with Linux which isn't something I thought about.
Funnily enough, I did sit and wonder about the programs I use on my main laptop before right now, just not stuff like printers. My Office Suite is LibreOffice and as far as I'm aware that's Linux compatible since they're both in the open source world and the writing/author program I love has Linux options I just don't know if they'd work with Mint. (One is Debian and other comments were saying that Mint is based off Debian at it's core, so maybe that would work?)
ANYWAYS, without getting further in the weeds, I'll have to look into some things further in that regard. Thank you for bringing that up.
And this is probably a dumb follow-up question, but would my ISP be impacted by Linux then? Like, the router might not be compatible or something? The simple aspect of my printer being compatible didn't come to mind at first, so maybe that could be a thing, I dunno!
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What do you use the laptop for?
That's a huge factor.
Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff and on occasion I connect it to my TV to play a video, but it's really not often I do that. I'd still download stuff and then play around with basic everyday stuff on it to make sure I'm happy with it since that's mostly what I do on my main.
End game would be to switch my main to Linux if I like it. Beyond basic, everyday stuff that most people do, I edit videos on my main. That's about it.
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I would say Ubuntu, Mint or Debian. They have a lot of documentation online and years worth of forum posts and stack overflow threads answering various questions a user might have.
If you have a seperate computer or hard drive to install on, you can go wild trying out anything you like. In my case, I had one laptop so I needed something stable with good hardware detection and online resources.
(For context, I've tried Mandrake Linux, SUSE, Gentoo, Slitaz and a few others. I keep going back to Ubuntu / Debian.)
My Windows 8 laptop is an old one that I just use to download stuff. My main is a separate device, so all good there!
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First and foremost, you don't have to stay on the distro you start with. You can try a few, spend a week running it, and then reinstall with something else. Distro hopping is the process if changing distro frequently and is in my opinion a very useful start for learning Linux.
Second, Ubuntu is a perfectly fine distro. I don't like or use it, but I also don't really like chocolate but love licorice, it really is a matter of preference. If you never try it you will never know if it is good for you.
I think the best path would be to either use virtual machines on your main system or try a few distros out on your Windows 8 machine. I would recommend trying a few of the most popular distros including Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, EndeavourOS, elementary, and maybe Pop!OS. That should cover most of the different desktop environments, packaging systems, and overall design methodologies and give you a really rounded sense of what is out there. It should also give you opportunities to have things break a little and for you to try to solve those problems. I find that different distros present failures a little differently and their solutions also work differently, so finding one that works well for you is key.
I personally ended up switching from a vanilla Arch install to EndeavourOS a year or two ago because it had great sane defaults, good packaging, and fantastic performance. The clarity of the logs was better in my mind than what was available in Ubuntu based distros and while I love Arch it was a bit too demanding of my time to figure out each and every choice of package. EndeavourOS gave me good solid defaults and reduced my work load.
Just remember, your choice of distro is like your choice of underwear. You have to wear it, make it comfortable for you and your junk, not for someone else's.
The sound of virtual machines on my main doesn't sit well with me. If I do something and brick my main laptop I'm fucked and I can't replace it and some of the programs I use won't run at all/run well on my old Windows 8 machine because it doesn't have the processing power. (I got a gaming laptop so I could have the video processing I needed for video editors to not take a day to render a 15min video on Windows 10, never mind and older Windows 8 laptop. sigh) Experimentation and tech FAFO'ing will happen on the Windows 8! lol
I've seen Pop!OS come up in a few comments here, so if I don't end up liking Mint maybe I'll try that one out next.
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Mint is a good option, yeah. Should feel familiar if you're coming from windows.
Note that coding experience isn't really relevant. Only the most advanced users ever really need to write code for their system. 99% of linux users, including the experienced and power users, don't have to regularly code, per se. Note that I'm referring to actually writing programs, not terminal use. Using a terminal isn't coding but that may be what you were thinking of, it's similar but imo not the same. If you wanna do more advances stuff, you'll definitely want to learn the terminal, but for most stuff you'll get by just fine with GUIs like you're probably used to. Mint is particularly good at keeping stuff to GUIs.
Something to note: coming from windows, you'll be used to getting programs by finding downloads on the internet. On linux, that's generally best avoided - you should always look on your distro's package manager first. On mint is believe it's called something like "software center" or "software manager," can't remember off the top of my head but it will be preinstalled for you.
Why would it be an issue to download a program if it's not for Windows or Mac? So long as there's a Linux-based option that works with your version, that is. There is one program I use multiple times a week that I doubt would be on any basic install package and the only place to find it is online. (Not an issue for the computer I'll be trying it out on as it's not my main, but if I find a version of Linux I like a put it on my main then it's something I'd have to consider.)
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Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff and on occasion I connect it to my TV to play a video, but it's really not often I do that. I'd still download stuff and then play around with basic everyday stuff on it to make sure I'm happy with it since that's mostly what I do on my main.
End game would be to switch my main to Linux if I like it. Beyond basic, everyday stuff that most people do, I edit videos on my main. That's about it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff
What do you mean by download "stuff"? Like games? Books? Torrents? This is Lemmy, there is no need to hide
For external video, specifically, I'd avoid any distro that's too 'old' and use a popular DE (KDE, LXQt, maybe Cosmic?) so that it works seamlessly, especially if the laptop's output is hardwired to the internal graphics. Weird distros, or ones that use old stuff, may not 'just work'
Mint, for instance, is suggested a lot, and it would probably be fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if some graphics related thing doesn't work because something's too old.
And if you're gaming (for example), that's a whole different set of recommendations.
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The only coding I ever did was like, some very light HTML on stuff like LiveJournal 20 years ago (because I'm ancient in internet years, haha) and even that I barely remember.
Hi,
Fear not: I switched to Mint when I was already in my 50s... and before that I had been a lifelong Apple user (got my first Apple computer back in the early 80s).
I tried a few distro before settling on Mint and the only reason I picked it up was because, back then at least, it was the only one that would let me use my... Airpods, seriously. Fast forward a few years, to this very day, and you can be assured I would not want to go back to Apple. And I still am using Mint, as I never had any issue with it, not a single one (beside me doing stupid things, but hey that's how one learns :p). It works perfectly well for me.
Not saying that as way to push you to use Mint. I mean, like others have already suggested there are plenty excellent GNU/Linux available and Mint is just one of them, but to let you know there is no need to be an expert in order to use it.
BTW, Mint is based upon Ubuntu (which is based upon Debian), the hate towards Ubuntu is because they force certain tools/choice onto their users which, unlike with Apple or Microsoft, is not something a lot of people in the Free Software world will agree with (I certainly don't, as that's the main reason I quit using Apple ;). Ubuntu is still an excellent distribution, just their policy doesn't sit well with the freedom & choice Linux is supposed to be promoting.
I don't like how certain things are being forced onto us through almost every goddamn tech thing so yeah...I get that sentiment. Good to know that about Ubuntu.
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depending on how complicated it is to swap out the hard disk, i'd swap out the windows drive and put in a new one (preferably an ssd, they make a big difference even in older computers) - this way you'll keep the option to put it back if you're really lost, you can back up stuff there
mint is a good place to start, no need for coding.
you do need to get adjusted a bit, the complaints about "how difficult it is to do things on linux" is often because people try doing stuff exactly like they did on windows, and sure, you can do exactly the same thing but you need to set up, sometimes compile tools for it - or you can search in the software manager or search on the web for "xy linux alternative"
for instance file sharing - yeah linux supports samba (the windows file sharing protocol), it works, but imo it kinda sucks (but tbf it sucked on windows too), so i started looking for alternatives and just allowing an ssh connection allows you to directly connect to machines with your username, and also allows sftp file transfers, and it works so much betterI don't trust myself with swapping out hardware, but maybe one day that might be an option for me, lol.
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Mint is a great distro for beginners. Coding is not required, but coders prefer Linux because it makes our lives easier in some ways.
I would like to take the opportunity to give you two advices that I think everyone who wants to use Linux should hear:
Install from package manager
In windows the way to install something is to look it up on a browser, open a sketchy website, downloading a binary and executing it on your machine. That is definitely NOT the way to do stuff on Linux. Think on Linux the same way you do Android (which is actually a Linux distro), if you want to install something you look it up on the play store, and only if it's not there you consider alternatives like downloading a random .APK from the internet. Linux should be the same, except there are several alternatives before downloading a binary from the internet, like adding a PPA in debian based distros (Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian, so this applies to you) which essentially gives extra packages to the package manager or using flatpak/snaps (two different technologies that try to do the same, i.e. a new way of packaging software for Linux)
Keep /home in a different partition
In Linux any folder can be in any hard-drive/partition. So it's possible when you're installing your system to have what you would normally think as
C:\(which is called/in Linux) in one partition and/home(i.e. the folderhomeinside/) in another. This is great because it allows you to reinstall or change your Linux distro without losing your personal data.Ok, wait...I thought a partition meant that it was in effect a wall between different OSs if you had multiples on one computer, not like separate folders like in Windows Explorer (which is what I'm getting from this comment, if I'm wrong please let me know).
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Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff
What do you mean by download "stuff"? Like games? Books? Torrents? This is Lemmy, there is no need to hide
For external video, specifically, I'd avoid any distro that's too 'old' and use a popular DE (KDE, LXQt, maybe Cosmic?) so that it works seamlessly, especially if the laptop's output is hardwired to the internal graphics. Weird distros, or ones that use old stuff, may not 'just work'
Mint, for instance, is suggested a lot, and it would probably be fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if some graphics related thing doesn't work because something's too old.
And if you're gaming (for example), that's a whole different set of recommendations.
Oh, I didn't mean to be mysterious with shit, lol. Just basic torrents of TV shows and movies, haha. (Never went the streaming route, kept sailing the high seas.) I might download a book once in a while, but that's actually on my main.
I use VLC and Media Player Classic as my main video players on Windows, so VLC should be ok and if it isn't I'm sure I can find something else (I know MPC is Windows only).
I only do mobile games, not PC games, so not a concern for me there.
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Ok, I'm assuming that a 'live boot' is something you plug in anytime you want to use it rather than the installed OS that automatically boots? Yes?
Yes, exactly. You would choose your Linux distribution that has a âlive bootâ option, download the appropriate .iso file, and then make a bootable usb drive using that file, via software like Rufus. When thatâs all complete, you would plug in the usb drive and reboot. (You may need to press a key or access your systemâs BIOS settings to ensure your system boots from the usb as well - sometimes this is not automatic.)
The chosen OS will load directly from the USB and give you a chance to try it out. You may not have access to the data from your existing system in this mode, but you may not need that if youâre just kicking the tires.
This exercise also helps focus you more on what you actually need/want your system to be able to do. Most of my personal use is web browsing, media consumption, and basic documents and Linux is more than capable of delivering on all of that right out of the box.
If you get stuck on a step, there are probably hundreds of posts out there where someone had the same problem, so you should be able to find solutions to any problems that occur with some patience.
I have found the journey to be very freeing and rewarding, and hope you find the same.
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The sound of virtual machines on my main doesn't sit well with me. If I do something and brick my main laptop I'm fucked and I can't replace it and some of the programs I use won't run at all/run well on my old Windows 8 machine because it doesn't have the processing power. (I got a gaming laptop so I could have the video processing I needed for video editors to not take a day to render a 15min video on Windows 10, never mind and older Windows 8 laptop. sigh) Experimentation and tech FAFO'ing will happen on the Windows 8! lol
I've seen Pop!OS come up in a few comments here, so if I don't end up liking Mint maybe I'll try that one out next.
I would ask how many times you have bricked your Windows machines in the past? That said, if you did stop it from booting it would be the same as it not booting a native Linux install.
That said, I would recommend installing first on the older machine. New life for that machine will feel good and it is very low risk. Once you have done a few installs and not botched anything too badly you could give it a go on your new machine. I find the performance boost from using Linux over Window is enough to out weight significant hardware differences most of the time.
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The specs on the laptop meet the requirements for Mint according to their website so I assume that the hardware is compatible for it. But for stuff like my printer...somebody above mentioned that they were having issues with it working with Linux which isn't something I thought about.
Funnily enough, I did sit and wonder about the programs I use on my main laptop before right now, just not stuff like printers. My Office Suite is LibreOffice and as far as I'm aware that's Linux compatible since they're both in the open source world and the writing/author program I love has Linux options I just don't know if they'd work with Mint. (One is Debian and other comments were saying that Mint is based off Debian at it's core, so maybe that would work?)
ANYWAYS, without getting further in the weeds, I'll have to look into some things further in that regard. Thank you for bringing that up.
And this is probably a dumb follow-up question, but would my ISP be impacted by Linux then? Like, the router might not be compatible or something? The simple aspect of my printer being compatible didn't come to mind at first, so maybe that could be a thing, I dunno!
My Office Suite is LibreOffice and as far as Iâm aware thatâs Linux compatible
It is very much compatible, haha. And usually comes pre-installed as the desktop office suite in many distros like Ubuntu and Debian that ship the Gnome desktop environment pre-installed.
but would my ISP be impacted by Linux then?
It should not be impacted at all.
The simple aspect of my printer being compatible didnât come to mind at first
If you install any popular beginner friendly distro (like the ones I recommended) everything should work out of the box and it is very unlikely that any extra drivers need to be installed. For example on Archlinux no printing programs/services and drivers come pre-installed or enabled.
So do not worry at all, if your laptop cover the main requirements, the distro should handle the rest automagically. If you have any more questions you can talk to me directly here on Lemmy, or we can figure something out.
One thing though, Mint is based on Ubuntu which itself is based on Debian. But it doesn't really matter.
Since you are going to check what software you need/want for your new Linux device, you can always fill the gaps with Flatpaks on Flathub, these are meant to be universal packages for every Linux distro and usually you can find there the packages that your distro does not package natively. You can even find proprietary software like Discord and such.
And again, if you have any more questions be sure reply or send me a message directly her eon Lemmy.
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I would ask how many times you have bricked your Windows machines in the past? That said, if you did stop it from booting it would be the same as it not booting a native Linux install.
That said, I would recommend installing first on the older machine. New life for that machine will feel good and it is very low risk. Once you have done a few installs and not botched anything too badly you could give it a go on your new machine. I find the performance boost from using Linux over Window is enough to out weight significant hardware differences most of the time.
A Windows computer I had got massively fucked once like, 15ish years ago. No idea what happened. No new downloads or installs, I hadn't done anything different from any computer I've had before or since, just one day it stopped and it wasn't even that old, two years tops. Not a custom build, straight outta the box from Best Buy (maybe even Future Shop it was so long ago). My friend couldn't tell me what happened when they figured out how to get it at least booting up again. Only time it's happened. It was weeeeeeeiiiiird.
Glad to know about the performance boost.
