Linux: an alternative to Windows 10

[greybeard]

Here You go my friend

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0UTCV3690

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by onawah (here)
Usually I find that online directions for such changes are not adequate for individual problems.

That can be a problem - the number of ways that computers and humans can lose each other in the jungle of technology is practically infinite.

If you can find a way to have, at least for a week or three, two computers - one that "already just works" for you, and the other that will become your future Linux computer, then you do have another option now - some of the better AI models can now step through these infinite combination of ways for technology to mess up with more skill than all but the best human technical assistants.

Whether using AI or not, I have always did my best to have a second working computer whenever doing something difficult with a computer, so that I could use the tools (search or whatever) on the working computer to help me do the brain surgery on the other computer.

At the very least, try Linux on a second disk, perhaps an external USB-C connected hard disk, so that you can boot back into your working Windows system anytime you want, until you're comfortable doing all you want to do on the new Linux boot.

[onawah]

Thanks guys!
It makes me panicky just thinking about Linux, but perhaps I will muster up the courage before too long.
Meanwhile, I am still running Windows 10 because just one glance at Windows 11 made me want to hurl

Posted by greybeard (here)
Here You go my friend
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0UTCV3690m

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)

Posted by onawah (here)
Usually I find that online directions for such changes are not adequate for individual problems.

That can be a problem - the number of ways that computers and humans can lose each other in the jungle of technology is practically infinite.

[Vicus]

Question for savvy Linux users:

The last straw that broke the camel back (with Windows) was try to play again and old game , and that Bitch system came with blue screen error blah,blah,whatever! without any
warning before...none explication! OK, you wanted? you get it ! OUT from my life!

Linux Mint was install in the little hard drive ( 60 GB) , but dint delete stuff yet from bigger hard drive (200 GB) full with movies ,videos,photos,music,etc,because wanted check stuff

The question: can I delete the big drive from my Linux install disc alone or need Linux a new install from scratch ?

[Szymon]

Posted by Vicus (here)
Question for savvy Linux users:

The last straw that broke the camel back (with Windows) was try to play again and old game , and that Bitch system came with blue screen error blah,blah,whatever! without any
warning before...none explication! OK, you wanted? you get it ! OUT from my life!

Linux Mint was install in the little hard drive ( 60 GB) , but dint delete stuff yet from bigger hard drive (200 GB) full with movies ,videos,photos,music,etc,because wanted check stuff

The question: can I delete the big drive from my Linux install disc alone or need Linux a new install from scratch ?

Could you post your hard drive partition layout? You should be able to do it with the partition manager. Check this one out.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7y9zNMMho34

I've been using Linux for a long time. I mostly use Ubuntu here.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Vicus (here)
The question: can I delete the big drive from my Linux install disc alone or need Linux a new install from scratch ?

It's dangerous to answer such questions w/o detailed knowledge of exactly your setup, preferably hands-on. But that seldom stops me ...

For example, I don't know off-hand whether, when you speak of drives and discs, you refer to the physical things you can uncable or disconnect from the computer and throw across the room (and perhaps break doing so), or the C: and similar such big bags of data that you can see in some software admin screen.

If you're speaking of physical disk drives, and if you're as comfortable as I am taking computers apart, you'd power down your computer, disconnect or remove the Windows disk drive, and power back up and see if Linux still works (which I'd wager it would).

If you're speaking of the "drives" (e.g. C:) that show up on administration applications, then I'd use a program such as Mint's "Disks" application to select which such "drives" (which I would call "file systems") are mounted (visible by default) at boot.

According to my favorite AI for such questions, perplexity.ai, the usual tool on a Mint Linux installation for managing what shows up as mounted file systems is the "Disks" application, probably visible on your menu of system administration options. Perplexity goes on to explain:

=== Begin Quote of Perplexity.ai ===

On Mint, you typically find [the "Disks" application] in the menu as “Disks”; enabling “Mount at system startup” on a partition causes Disks to add or adjust an /etc/fstab entry behind the scenes.

How to use it for boot‑time mounts

Open Disks from the main menu.

Select the drive, then the target partition in the left pane.

Click the gear icon, choose “Edit Mount Options…”.

Turn off “Automatic/User Session Defaults” so the fields become editable.

Check “Mount at system startup”, adjust mount point/label if desired, and confirm.

Next boot, that partition will auto‑mount as configured, with Disks having generated the appropriate fstab line for you.

=== End Quote of Perplexity.ai ===

If you use that "Disks" application to turn off automatically mounting the Windows C: (or whatever letter(s)) drive each time Linux is booted, then those Windows drives will still be there and accessible on your disk ... just not "mounted" (made visible and usable) when you boot.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Szymon (here)
Could you post your hard drive partition layout? You should be able to do it with the partition manager. Check this one out.

That gparted is my long time favorite disk partition manager, across a variety of Linux distros for decade(s). Sometimes the favorite road vehicle of an old long haul truck driver is not the same as his young nephew however.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Vicus (here)
but dint delete stuff yet from bigger hard drive (200 GB) full with movies ,videos,photos,music,etc

If you're like me, you wouldn't delete that stuff, but just keep it around. Disk drives keep getting bigger and costing less per byte ... been doing that at least since I worked with a 1 MByte drive on a PDP 8i back in 1978. I've got files on the system I am typing on now that go back at least 30 years.

[Vicus]

Thanks for you quick answer ThePythonicCow.

All that stuff from bigger hard disk, is already duplicate/save in an external/transportable hard disk /drive...

I just need the place (in the 200GB hard disk),for whatever come (games install, photos, music,etc.) "translate" into Linux files/ lingo...and that way to get access to change/transform/whatever...

That way let the small hard disk/drive (60 GB) only for Linux ...

And yes, the install "disc" is physical too ,like the 200 GB "hard disk/drive", just a CD...with Linux Mint already for install.

Note: first time learning computer/Windows/internet was in German language, then needed to learn All that lingo in English and Spanish...

Using https://www.deepl.com/en/translator p.e : festplatte(German)- Hard Drive (English) or another version (hard disk/disc...

you see what for a nice salad...

[Valknut3301]

I've been using Linux Mint for several years now, after switching from windows 10, and I haven't regretted it once. I switched more because I don't like Microsoft as a company, though the annoyance of Windows and it's backwards user experience was a factor. I never used Apple, though I also find it repugnant as a company.

As for the myth that Linux is difficult to use or set up, it's just that; a myth, one I suspect is propagated by Microsoft and Apple to scare people away from Linux and keep them trapped. Linux is just as easy to use and, in many cases, much better than Microsoft or Apple computers. It doesn't support many of the apps that people are used to, like adobe software for instance, but there are myriad alternatives which, in my opinion, are better than anything Windows offers. And if you absolutely can't do without a Windows program there is always WINE, a Windows emulator for Linux that will run just about anything.

I tell people to try Linux and see if they like it first. You don't have to ditch your old OS, Linux can be booted off a thumb drive and it's very easy to set up. If I can do it, anyone can

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-...ows#1-overview

[Vicus]

Valknut 3301:

Amen to all that, I'm done with Windows for EVER!

The only way I tolerate that crap is OUT of my window...

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Vicus (here)
Thanks for you quick answer ThePythonicCow.
...
you see what for a nice salad...

ok - you've got me confused - I'll bow out like I should have earlier

[onawah]

Could you expand on that a bit? Are you saying that someone like me (very computer unsavvy, who is so used to Windows that the thought of switching to LINUX is daunting) could switch to LINUX but not really have to relearn anything because it would be like using Windows 10? (Thanks!)

Posted by Valknut3301 (here)
And if you absolutely can't do without a Windows program there is always WINE, a Windows emulator for Linux that will run just about anything.

[JackMcThorn]

Posted by onawah (here)
Could you expand on that a bit? Are you saying that someone like me (very computer unsavvy, who is so used to Windows that the thought of switching to LINUX is daunting) could switch to LINUX but not really have to relearn anything because it would be like using Windows 10? (Thanks!)

Onawah, there is a bit of a learning curve and there is sometimes driver problems depending on your computer's setup. I do not trust wine but I ran a Linux system years ago so it might be better. Linux is more like a mac than a pc. I would hate for you to think it is so easy and then you run into problems and are stuck and it is very hard to help someone remotely. Do you have a computer savvy friend nearby that can help?

[onawah]

Well, I never think it's so easy when it comes to computers!!
( It boggles my mind that this world is so dependent now on something so complicated, vulnerable, fragile and hackable. )
I don't really have a friend who is likely to be computer savvy enough to deal with the problems I would likely have if I try to switch to LINUX.
So I will probably just stick with Windows 10 and hope that enough people hate Windows 11 like I do, so that Microsoft will have to back down and stop bullying Windows 10 users into surrendering.
Or perhaps I could buy a cheap second hand laptop with LINUX running on it, and see if I could figure out how to use it, and if that worked, then perhaps converting my desktop to LINUX wouldn't seem to be quite so daunting a task.
But I would still probably need a computer savvy friend to help, so that's all still just a future possibility...but not a probability as yet.
(Though Windows 11 really sucks! )

Posted by JackMcThorn (here)

Posted by onawah (here)
Could you expand on that a bit? Are you saying that someone like me (very computer unsavvy, who is so used to Windows that the thought of switching to LINUX is daunting) could switch to LINUX but not really have to relearn anything because it would be like using Windows 10? (Thanks!)

Onawah, there is a bit of a learning curve and there is sometimes driver problems depending on your computer's setup. I do not trust wine but I ran a Linux system years ago so it might be better. Linux is more like a mac than a pc. I would hate for you to think it is so easy and then you run into problems and are stuck and it is very hard to help someone remotely. Do you have a computer savvy friend nearby that can help?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by onawah (here)
Could you expand on that a bit? Are you saying that someone like me (very computer unsavvy, who is so used to Windows that the thought of switching to LINUX is daunting) could switch to LINUX but not really have to relearn anything because it would be like using Windows 10? (Thanks!)

Posted by Valknut3301 (here)
And if you absolutely can't do without a Windows program there is always WINE, a Windows emulator for Linux that will run just about anything.

Wine re‑implements the Windows API on top of Linux so Windows binaries can run as normal user‑space processes on Linux.

So Wine wraps a single Windows program in a Linux "overcoat", so people like me, who are "at home" in a Linux environment, can run a program that is only available on Windows, and have that program seem like just another Linux program to us, and have that program able to still work, even though the program only knows how to "speak Windows", thanks to that "overcoat" that translates whatever that program needs to do (like read and write files and interact with your keyboard, mouse and display) from the native Windows commands that program makes, into something that works on your Linux system.

Imagine you only speak English, but wish to hire a butler who only speaks Japanese. It would be difficult for you and your butler to communicate. So imagine you can get a "magic coat" that your butler wears and that translates between Japanese and English, so your butler continues to listen and speak in Japanese, but you hear and respond in English to him.

This is the opposite of what you might have hoped for. Wine doesn't turn your Linux system into something just like your familiar Windows system; rather it can wrap that one or two critical Windows applications you can't do without in "Linux magic coats", so that those native Windows applications work and look and respond just like another Linux program.

[onawah]

Yes, exactly right. So Wine is definitely not a good option in my case. Thanks.

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
This is the opposite of what you might have hoped for. Wine doesn't turn your Linux system into something just like your familiar Windows system; rather it can wrap that one or two critical Windows applications you can't do without in "Linux magic coats", so that those native Windows applications work and look and respond just like another Linux program.

[onawah]

Ironically, the following irreverant criticism of Windows from a LINUX user from the channel SomeOrdinaryGamers just appeared on Microsoft News at:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...s/vi-AA1WtE8h?

Is this the beginning of the end for Windows?
"Frustration around Microsoft, Windows, and aggressive AI integration is reaching a boiling point. Users are questioning the direction, the forced features, and the growing complexity of what used to be simple systems. The criticism isn’t just about bugs — it’s about trust and long-term vision. Whether this is a temporary stumble or something bigger remains to be seen, but the cracks are getting louder."
And there is a 16 minute podcast as well at the link.

[Richter]

Posted by onawah (here)
Could you expand on that a bit? Are you saying that someone like me (very computer unsavvy, who is so used to Windows that the thought of switching to LINUX is daunting) could switch to LINUX but not really have to relearn anything because it would be like using Windows 10? (Thanks!)

Onawah, I switched to Linux about 6 years ago and it took me a couple of days to get the hang of it.

Linux is fast, smooth and safe.

For instance installing updates, a real nuisance with Windows.

Linux: 20-30 seconds and that's it.

Linux is really easy to work with and it will make you so happy.