switching from windows to linux for the first time. what to expect?

Question

switching from windows to linux for the first time. what to expect?

Answer 1

There are several "flavors" of Linux. Two of the most popular are Ubuntu and Linux Mint. I've used both. I suggest you play with each one using a USB drive until you decide which you like best. There is no need to replace your existing OS. Once you decide which one you like, you can set your computer up to dual boot during the installation process. Once installed, when you boot up, a screen appears asking which OS you want to load. If you do nothing it defaults to load the first one one the list, which in your case would be Ubuntu. Scroll down to windows 7 (or whatever is on the computer) and click enter and your computer boots into Windows 7 instead. Both Ubuntu and Linux Mint come with LibreOffice free as part of the installation. LibreOffice is similar to Office 2007 in its interface. Unless you do complex things, like footnotes, track changes, etc, it's very similar to Office Word, Excel, etc.



What to expect? Your computer will be faster. (My 8-year-old laptop loads in 48 seconds. It took over two minutes with Windows XP. Surprisingly, when I loaded Linux Mint on my brand new laptop, it didn't boot significantly faster than the older laptop.) You won't be bothered by virus software and threats of viruses. You may have some problems with drivers for audio, video, printers. If so, there are fixes online in the various Linux forums. Or, you could just switch from Ubuntu to Linux Mint or vice versa. There are forums and a lot of YouTube videos to answer most of your questions.



By the way, Ubuntu looks a bit more like an Apple OS. Linux Mint looks a bit more like Windows 7. if you prefer the Linux Mint look, but want to stay with all the Ubuntu features, you can change Ubuntu to look like Linux Mint by loading Cinnamon. Just do a search for the key words and you'll find out how to do this.



Warning: If you have Windows 8 and you set your computer to dual boot, you may have problems with Windows 8. Microsoft is frantically updating Windows 8. I would only boot into Windows 8 once every couple of weeks and it would take 15-30 minutes to do all the Win8 installs before it would load.

Answer 2

Thats true but its very basic OS, and not many applications support it. Yes its faster and you do not need to worry about drivers there build into the kernel.



are you installing it as a second OS or replacing? I wouldnt use it as a replacement, its better to run from the disk, use linux mint if you want that it has better multimedia capability.

Answer 3

Like the others say, there's no need to go cold turkey Linux...use the dual boot method until you get the hang of Linux.

I've several like that, and use Linux exclusively for Internet work...not viruses that way.

There are still tricks and misleading junk that you must watch out for on the Internet.

Help defray a lot of that with these mods' for Firefox: https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20121212075149AACJ9PY



I use Windows for in-house creative work & light gaming only.

Here's how to dual boot: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing

----------

Configuring Ubii to look and 'feel' more like Windows...

Ubii behaves much like Windows in some functions, one of which is the "right mouse click", which gives a pop menu indicating choices of what can be done with the item your cursor is over.



One of the first things you can do is put the top 'bar' (called a 'panel' in Linux) down on the screen bottom.

The empty 'stock' bottom panel can be omitted for beginners: Right click panel> click "Delete this panel".

Back to the stock main panel: Right click panel> Properties> General tab> Orientation drop menu> tick "Bottom"> Close.

(Note this window has other options for the look and behavior for the panel.)



Corresponding to Windows 'Control Panel' is the "Control Center".

To display on panel topic "System": System> Preferences> Main Menu> left panel, "System"> check Control Panel.



On the main panel> System, and either "Administration", or "Preferences"; and what is displayed there can be modified for quicker access to specific 'topics' you access frequently.



To modify what's displayed within the 2 'sections' do this:

Panel> System> Preferences> Main menu:

On the left are the "Menu" headings (Applications & System). Click to expand the heading.

Under "System> Preferences" you may want to have checked "Appearance" (for changing the 'look' of Ubii desktop); "Cursor" (choices); "Display" (for monitor); "Main menu" (brings you back to this Display mod section); "Mouse" (behavior); "Network connections" (control how you get "connected"); "Screen saver"; and "Startup applications" (what gets running right away).

Other items not mentioned can be selected as you like, but in general they are relevant to specific items. Feel free to display them, and at your leisure 'open' them to see what the topic is, does, and if you would need quick access to it.

As you become familiar with Ubii, you may want to explore these powerful tools.



Available software installations (beyond the default) are found in the panel "Applications"> Ubuntu software Center> category is by icon, and within that are the various specific items.

Linux is not completely immune to malicious junk, and updates do come along.

Make sure to keep up with those, with a 'Notify' setting; then install when convenient.



Gone will be the days of virus scans and file maintenance: no defragmenting for instance.

Hardware failures are always possible, so get a backup system up and running.

I use "DejaDup"; from the Applications> Ubuntu Software Center. Super simple operation.

Answer 4

To give you a bit more information of what to expect.



1. Dont expect major gaming. You CAN play some games on linux , but they need tweaking and its kind of a headache in a lot of cases. Playonlinux is a good program to start with to use for gaming, but dont expect it to be perfect. Also Steam finally got on linux, but only certain games are ported for linux at the moment.



2. Expect Variety & CUSTOMIZATION! Unlike windows you can set up some nice looking themes/looks for your linux system.



3. Ubuntu is a good start and looks nice. A lot of people are liking Linux Mint more as a transition because of the look/feel. I use mint over ubunutu, but its really about preference :) There are tons of distros out there. Grab a USB and use UNETBOOTIN to make a bootable USB and try others out and see which you like best :)



4. I would suggest DUAL booting first if like I said you game or like to edit music/video. While I love linux for EVERYTHING else, those 3 things are lacking for me. If you dont really do any of those then good!



5. Expect a cleaner PC! Since most virus/malware is written for Windows and secondary Mac's you have a extremely less chance to get any issues :) (My favorite part!)



6. Expect to do some researching for certain things. Look for youtube videos/tutorials for terminal/customizing with conky/ and just programs in general to use.