Preferably a linux “flavor” thats more MacOS like in aesthetic, but that also has good availabillity of apps and stuff?
Many (if not most) linux distros have a ‘live USB’ option, where you can boot into a fully functional system contained within a USB drive, without making any changes to your computer.
If all you want to do with it for now is ‘playing around with it’, then that would be a great solution. Lets you know how well it works on your hardware, doesn’t have the slowdown issues of a VM*, doesn’t require any drastic changes and has no risk of breaking anything.
*A live USB will still be a bit slower than a real installation in some respects, especially when it needs to read anything from storage, since USB storage is much slower than your hard drive.
This is the beat option. Also make sure if you’re considering fully switching to see if any of the software you’re using is supported on Linux or has an alternative.
You can! You already have Windows, so your dual boot would be fine. Grab a easy to use Linux Distro like Mint or Ubuntu and just install, it will keep you existing Windows install as is and install linux on the side. However, If you install Linux first and then Windows you have to restore you grub etc. because Windows being Windows will destroy your dual boot setup.
But in your case you have Windows already so you will be fine!
Elementary OS is very Mac Like
Read this
You don’t need to use arch, but it’s a good starting point. Google any words you don’t know as soon as you read them.
You would first use a disk tool to make a new partition on your drive(s) and then choose that as where you want to install when running an installer, usually from a USB drive that runs when booting the PC.
Yes, you can make your pc dual boot. Many guides are out there. Elementary linux is probably what you are looking for.
I put Linux on an external 2.5 inch SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure. That way I could disconnect the Linux drive if I needed to boot Windows, that way Windows couldn’t accidentally bork my Linux install.
When I didn’t end up booting Windows for a month, I removed windows and installed Linux on the internal nvme drive. That was 18 months ago and I haven’t looked back
not an answer to your question, but I personally never felt dual-booting or VM’s were a good way to get into Linux. If your experience is the same, you might enjoy just getting a different computer for Linux. E.g. you could get a raspberry pi to use as a Syncthing-server, or an old laptop if you have a stationary computer-
As for the aesthetic - if you’re new to Linux, you should not prioritize aesthetics when picking a distro. Find something reasonably stable and well supported, like Mint or Kubuntu, and play around with themes and such in stead.
VMs are definitely better than dual booting.
I went through the apps I was using and found the Linux versions or an equivalent. Installed Linux as the primary and put windows in a VM to handle the residual. For a lot of things I have found that Wine runs most of the residual windows apps ok.
same - although I’ve never used a VM to run photoshop or other tools for making stuff, just games. Having to use software from inside a VM in a creative workflow seems like a pain, but maybe there are possibilities I haven’t thought of for file syncing and such.
VM’s are fine - the world runs on VM’s.
Dual booting is asking for a failure.
You have two options: create a new partition and dual boot, or run a virtual machine on windows to try it. The VM solution is the easiest, but it’s also a bit slower.
A VM is the best option for getting started. If you mess it up, you can just delete it and start over. Dual boot can be problematic because Windows actively tries to sabotage that. Another great way to get started is to find any old machine that you can just wipe and install Linux on.
Yep, x2.
Windows will get an update and actively fuck up your boot loader, if not worse.
Windows is like a petulant child that can’t be allowed to do group play with other kids, without constant supervision.
Bare metal dual booting is not worth it.
Hi, not OP. May i ask, can you briefly expand a little bit about windows trying to sabotage a dual boot? Since when is this happening? I remember having a dual boot some 7 years ago, but can’t remember any sabotage issues. Is this because of the now enforced bios updates and such?
With windows 10/11 after most updates you will get your boot partition overwritten… At least that’s what I read on different forums. I haven’t used windows on my personal PC for over 15 years.
There are all kinds of issues that are being reported after Windows updates. In my opinion it just isn’t worth the hassle. I tried dual booting for a while but I quickly got fed up. I absolutely would not recommend it for a beginner.
I recently replaced my laptop and would like to try mint on the old one. How would i go about wiping windows and installing Linux? I’m not super the savvy, but i am a quick study…
“Explaining Computers” is a great YouTube channel that covers Linux quite a lot. I think he recently did a video about installing Linux Mint. There’s plenty of this stuff around. Just search "installing your-distro-of-choice"and you’ll get plenty of content. I’d suggest watching a few of those before getting started.
Appreciate it
Underneath it was said that Mint will “deal with deleting windows”. What it really does is ask “do you want to use the whole hard drive?”
If you say “yes”, it will erase windows and whatever else was on the hard drive, including any photos and documents and such. Which you can of course copy on a USB stick beforehand.
When you install Mint, it’ll deal with deleting windows on its own.
Installing it will be broken down mostly into:
- download the right version of Mint.
- make a USB to install ( it’s not just putting the file onto the USB)
- plug the USB into your old laptop, turn the laptop on, then follow the steps.
A much better guide (with pictures!) is https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Thanks!
Do i need any additional physical materials to do that like burning the installer to a disc or putting it on some bootable drive or something or can it all be done from the Windows side as is?
Like another commenter said, look into Ventoy. You install it on a USB stick, and then you can just copy over ISOs of different distros to try out and choose which one to run at boot time. AFAIK all Linux distros have a Live option to run the OS off a USB without installing it to your hard drive.
