this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
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Not tech savy person here who's interested in switching to Linux but afraid of fucking it up and the one guy I knew in real life who used Linux and would've helped me out died during covid so I'm on my own.
My old computer won't support windows 11 and I'm not in a position to upgrade my hardware. I've been poking around trying learn about linux but I'm more of a hands on learner so basically I'm going to have to learn as I go which is quite scary for someone who's never even seen a computer running it.
If you aren't ready to fully commit to installing it on a hard drive, you could probably make a live USB stick of Linux. There are installers built to run on windows that will install Linux onto a USB drive, which you can boot from after turning off your PC. That way, you don't need to worry about wiping or resetting an old computer just to see if you like it.
Got an extra USB stick and an old laptop kicking around you're okay with wiping? Ideally 4GB RAM but 2GB would be okay. Start with Linux Mint and follow their installation guide - verifying the ISO image in Windows is probably the toughest part.
Or make absolutely certain you're on the official Mint website, torrent it and don't bother checking, I'm not your mother. "Who the f**k checks those anyway?" (Mint hasn't been hacked since, but it's part of why they're pushing verifying, they know that their users have been targeted before. Also if something goes wrong with the download the install will fail and you'll waste more time than if you just checked.)
If you don't have a spare computer, a live USB can let you try Linux without making changes to your computer, but it's going to be slow - a proper install is going to be a much nicer experience. If you're okay without persistence (ie you can't change anything or install additional programs for the next time you boot into it), just follow the Linux Mint website's installation guide and stop before the actual install step. For persistence, try this method instead, but you really don't want to use it long term, USB sticks aren't designed for this.
Once you've tried it live and you think you like the desktop environment, but if you're not sure you're ready to fully commit, if your computer has an extra slot for an SSD you could buy a second one and dual boot, that's what I did. (Dual booting on the same drive is doable but more of a headache, and even on a different drive Windows doesn't always play nicely.)
Thank you much for this! I really appreciate that you took the time write all of that out
I do have an old laptop I can use for learning on, don't know why it didn't occur to me to try linux on that first, but I'll definitely do that, follow your instructions and see how it goes.
I genuinely want to switch, just didn't have the confidence to actually try. Thank you again for the great advice! I gotta go dig out that old laptop.