Finally... > Life Advice

Considering Switching to Linux - What do I need to know?

(1/8) > >>

AzyWng:
I can’t say my laptop hasn’t suffered from its own problems with Windows 10, and yeah, plenty of the things that Microsoft’s doing now are pretty sketchy as it is...

Which has go me considering installing a Linux OS.

Thing is, I still want to be able to play games on my laptop. I know there’s programs that let you do that - (WINE) comes to mind - but I’m still a bit afraid of what changing OSes will do -can I still keep things like photos?

Anything I should know before installing Linux in general?

ChairmanPoo:
I'd backup everything. Best way to go around this is to repartition the hard drive. . You can do it without a backup resizing the partitiion but hat might threaten data stability -caveat emptor.

You might if you want make a big partition with a format compatible with both linux and windows, a smaller partition for linux, and preserve the windows partition, or alternatively, split the windows partition and use the splint to make two partitions for linux*, one for OS and another for data. I did that in my old netbook. Done correctly it allows you to boot in whichever OS you prefer at a given time. WINE will work with many games, but not all games, and not all will perform as well as they would under windows. Go with native games if you can.

*it's better to keep the OS and the data in separate partitions. Among other things it makes installing a new distro over the old one simpler, and helps preserve your data

pisskop:
I went with the easy way.  Linux Mint and reinstalling windows on my computer.  I moved all my datas to a hard drive, and mint is easy to learn.  Plus I now get a convenient grub menu to boot, and keep a spare install disk around.


One day Ill go full Arch, but for now this works.  Plus Linux is not windows, so there's that major boon.


P:

https://www.linuxmint.com/

Id go and use an old computer if possible.  I put the program onto a usb and installed from that.  Used the boot menu to set the usb to load, and an option on the usb to delete windows.

Il Palazzo:
Do you like driving splinters under your fingernails, and then acting all smug towards splinterless persons?

But more seriously, even couple years back, when I flirted with Linux, there were many streamlined and user-friendly distros available. You can expect all the Windows-standard formats of photos, videos, sound files, archives and docs to be supported.

What you need to get ready for is two things:

1. Having to consciously choose, install, and/or manage your everything, because Linux community would never dare to force any single standard on you. You can get some well-rounded distros with many pre-installed utilities and ease-of-life features, that can take the edge off of it. But inevitably there will come a time when you need some specific tool, or there's some missing driver or other, and you'll have to search through and personally configure seventy bazillion poorly described downloads to get what you need.
You'll get the first taste of this when choosing a distro - there's like a million, and everybody's got their favourite. So you either choose at random, or spend an afternoon or two reading about them and weighing your options. Then installing one, deciding it's not what you wanted, and repeating the process.

2. While the day-to-day operation should be rather painless and even satisfying in a smug way, once you encounter a more serious hardware or software problem e.g. with configuring your network, there won't be any easy, Microsoft-grade solutions. Any problem you had in Win 10 will be significantly harder to solve in Linux. You'll have to git gud. Learn the lingo, learn the console commands, and drive that splinter full length in.
But then again, that's kinda the point of going Linux.

Maximum Spin:

--- Quote from: Il Palazzo on August 29, 2018, 08:44:52 am ---1. Having to consciously choose, install, and/or manage your everything, because Linux community would never dare to force any single standard on you.
--- End quote ---
It is pretty clear that you haven't been in the Linux community for a few years now. The whole Systemd fiasco is a good example of how this is no longer the case at all.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page