So like it says in the title. I’m looking to make a change. The only coding I ever did was like, some very light HTML on stuff like LiveJournal 20 years ago (because I’m ancient in internet years, haha) and even that I barely remember.
I’ve seen people talk about LinuxMint in other comment sections and how that one might be closest to something like Windows (in that a layman like myself can use it out of the box like buying a new laptop from Best Buy or whatever store). Is that actually a good one or is there something better for somebody like me?
I’ve seen enough people go ‘NO UBUNTU!!!’ to steer me away from that one, but otherwise I have no clue what would actually be good for somebody in my shoes.
I have a laptop that still technically runs Windows 8 that I just use for downloads so I’d be trying it on there so that if something goes wonky I’m not fucked. After looking at the LinuxMint website, the specs on that laptop meet the requirements for it.
Thanks so much!
Parroting the no need to code.
Follow the comments about trying a distro/type of Linux.
Something you may not know is what is called a live disc. You can run a type of Operating system without installing it. This lets you try it out without actually installing anything. However know that if you install a program to try out it will it safe when you reboot or shut down.
Please use this. NetBoot.xyz
It essentially lets you burn a cd that you boot from. This then lets you try out countless types of Linux before you install them. This way you don’t need to burn 20 discs or flash a new usb drive each time you want to try a different Linux.
Try installing mint! Make sure you’ve cleared everything you want from the hard-drive before you start (and decide now if you’re going to dual-boot. If so, clear up space so you can do the partitioning you want before you start the process.)
When I have the proverbial spoons to this I will be backing everything up that I want to keep - no worries there!
I think dual-booting and having two OSs on one computer is something that is beyond my wheelhouse, so no worries there either. Just one OS on the computer. That’ll be easier for my brain, lol.
You don’t have to code for most any linux distro. command line and config files is not the same as writing a bash script, much less compiling something. That being said I use zorin because its great out of the box. Its based on ubuntu like mint but comes with software that I honestly sorta expect my laptop to have out of the box. That being said it uses gnome and I finally pulled the trigger and added kde/plasma and oh man I should have done that to begin with. kde/plasma is way better. Still annoys me the zorin guys don’t move the distro default to kde/plasma.
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In what ways is mint more compatible? I would expect them to be exactly the same since isn’t mint based on Ubuntu?
I haven’t once in fifteen years needed to do any coding whatsoever to use my Linux computers day-to-day.
depending on how complicated it is to swap out the hard disk, i’d swap out the windows drive and put in a new one (preferably an ssd, they make a big difference even in older computers) - this way you’ll keep the option to put it back if you’re really lost, you can back up stuff there
mint is a good place to start, no need for coding.
you do need to get adjusted a bit, the complaints about “how difficult it is to do things on linux” is often because people try doing stuff exactly like they did on windows, and sure, you can do exactly the same thing but you need to set up, sometimes compile tools for it - or you can search in the software manager or search on the web for “xy linux alternative”
for instance file sharing - yeah linux supports samba (the windows file sharing protocol), it works, but imo it kinda sucks (but tbf it sucked on windows too), so i started looking for alternatives and just allowing an ssh connection allows you to directly connect to machines with your username, and also allows sftp file transfers, and it works so much betterI don’t trust myself with swapping out hardware, but maybe one day that might be an option for me, lol.
it depends on your pc/laptop, some models are super easy, usually the ram and disk is on the more easily available side. try looking up a youtube video like “<my model> hd swap” or “<my model> disassembly” if the first doesn’t work
for example fujitsu-s are super simple, they have a compartment for the disk, just unscrew the cover, unscrew the hd, screw in the new one and pop it back in
others are more complicated, but it’s usually just removing the back cover
in case you do it, keep track of the screws, where they come from, where you temporarily store them. it’s a common issue that one ends up with a couple “extra” screws
Mint is a great distro for beginners. Coding is not required, but coders prefer Linux because it makes our lives easier in some ways.
I would like to take the opportunity to give you two advices that I think everyone who wants to use Linux should hear:
Install from package manager
In windows the way to install something is to look it up on a browser, open a sketchy website, downloading a binary and executing it on your machine. That is definitely NOT the way to do stuff on Linux. Think on Linux the same way you do Android (which is actually a Linux distro), if you want to install something you look it up on the play store, and only if it’s not there you consider alternatives like downloading a random .APK from the internet. Linux should be the same, except there are several alternatives before downloading a binary from the internet, like adding a PPA in debian based distros (Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian, so this applies to you) which essentially gives extra packages to the package manager or using flatpak/snaps (two different technologies that try to do the same, i.e. a new way of packaging software for Linux)
Keep /home in a different partition
In Linux any folder can be in any hard-drive/partition. So it’s possible when you’re installing your system to have what you would normally think as
C:\(which is called/in Linux) in one partition and/home(i.e. the folderhomeinside/) in another. This is great because it allows you to reinstall or change your Linux distro without losing your personal data.Ok, wait…I thought a partition meant that it was in effect a wall between different OSs if you had multiples on one computer, not like separate folders like in Windows Explorer (which is what I’m getting from this comment, if I’m wrong please let me know).
A partition is a dedicated space on a disk. In windows there’s not much use to partition a disk, but it can be done, and you would have a C: and D: drives with only one physical disk. I used to do that back in the day to have a partition for backups.
If you only have one disk and want to have multiple OS, you need to partition the disk, so that each OS can write their data without interfering with one another. Essentially what you’re doing is, like you said, putting a wall between areas in the disk, but you can do that regardless of having different OS in each side.
In Linux things are a bit different, the representation of your disks is a file inside
/dev, for example the first disk (non-nvme) Linux finds will be/dev/sda, the next one will be/dev/sdbso on and so forth, but since disks can be partitioned the first partition in your first disk is/dev/sda1, then/dev/sda2, etc. Then there’s a file called/etc/fstabthat has lines like/dev/sdb3 /home, this means that the 3d partition in the second disk will be accessible in the folder/home. You don’t really need to worry about this file in general, during the installation there will be a nice GUI to let you say which partition goes where.How is that useful? Well, if you have the system in
/dev/sda2and your/homefolder in/dev/sda3you can format/dev/sda2and reinstall the system or change the distro entirely without losing your data stored in/home.PS: I’m simplifying some stuff, but for reference :
- you might see partitions jump from 2 to 6 in older systems, this is due to limitation in partitioning schemes for old disks
- if you have a really old computer you will see
/dev/hda1, this is because the s in sda refers to SATA, which essentially all disks are nowadays - nvme drives are
/dev/nvme0n1 /etc/fstabhas other parameters to tell it certain flags like mount read-only. Also it rarely used/dev/sda1style naming because that might change if you swap the cables in your computer, instead it uses a unique identifier that’s points to the correct partition regardless of order.- Partitions are not really a wall, instead the first bytes of a disk contain a table saying stuff like byte 0-61648716832 partition 1, bytes 61648716833-9274816418393 partition 2, etc. Old drives had limited space in that table so you had to create one partition for the rest of stuff and repartition that again, which is why partition numbers jumped from 2 to 6.
but all that’s besides the point.
What do you use the laptop for?
That’s a huge factor.
Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff and on occasion I connect it to my TV to play a video, but it’s really not often I do that. I’d still download stuff and then play around with basic everyday stuff on it to make sure I’m happy with it since that’s mostly what I do on my main.
End game would be to switch my main to Linux if I like it. Beyond basic, everyday stuff that most people do, I edit videos on my main. That’s about it.
Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff
What do you mean by download “stuff”? Like games? Books? Torrents? This is Lemmy, there is no need to hide :P
For external video, specifically, I’d avoid any distro that’s too ‘old’ and use a popular DE (KDE, LXQt, maybe Cosmic?) so that it works seamlessly, especially if the laptop’s output is hardwired to the internal graphics. Weird distros, or ones that use old stuff, may not ‘just work’
Mint, for instance, is suggested a lot, and it would probably be fine, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some graphics related thing doesn’t work because something’s too old.
And if you’re gaming (for example), that’s a whole different set of recommendations.
Oh, I didn’t mean to be mysterious with shit, lol. Just basic torrents of TV shows and movies, haha. (Never went the streaming route, kept sailing the high seas.) I might download a book once in a while, but that’s actually on my main.
I use VLC and Media Player Classic as my main video players on Windows, so VLC should be ok and if it isn’t I’m sure I can find something else (I know MPC is Windows only).
I only do mobile games, not PC games, so not a concern for me there.
MPV is the golden standard on Linux (and windows) TBH. There’s also some stuff to do to try and get picture quality and HDR looking better, if you’re interested.
But yeah, if you aren’t gaming you don’t have to worry too much about distro choice.
Mint is a good option, yeah. Should feel familiar if you’re coming from windows.
Note that coding experience isn’t really relevant. Only the most advanced users ever really need to write code for their system. 99% of linux users, including the experienced and power users, don’t have to regularly code, per se. Note that I’m referring to actually writing programs, not terminal use. Using a terminal isn’t coding but that may be what you were thinking of, it’s similar but imo not the same. If you wanna do more advances stuff, you’ll definitely want to learn the terminal, but for most stuff you’ll get by just fine with GUIs like you’re probably used to. Mint is particularly good at keeping stuff to GUIs.
Something to note: coming from windows, you’ll be used to getting programs by finding downloads on the internet. On linux, that’s generally best avoided - you should always look on your distro’s package manager first. On mint is believe it’s called something like “software center” or “software manager,” can’t remember off the top of my head but it will be preinstalled for you.
Why would it be an issue to download a program if it’s not for Windows or Mac? So long as there’s a Linux-based option that works with your version, that is. There is one program I use multiple times a week that I doubt would be on any basic install package and the only place to find it is online. (Not an issue for the computer I’ll be trying it out on as it’s not my main, but if I find a version of Linux I like a put it on my main then it’s something I’d have to consider.)
It’s not necessarily a problem, it just shouldn’t be the first thing you try. On windows people are used to always downloading the program directly from the internet first thing, but on linux you’ll have a better time if you check the package manager and/or flathub first for programs. Then, if it’s not there, then yeah download direct from the internet.
I run immutable Fedora distros (Bluefin, Bazzite) and they are the most stable distros I’ve ever used. Immutable distros restrict writing to sensitive parts of the OS so you’re less likely to break things. You’ll mostly install Flatpaks which looks pretty similar to using the Windows app store.
I’ve seen some people say that immutable distros aren’t good for beginners. I’m really not sure why. My best guess is because they’re not the norm and you might run into support issues if things do go wrong.
If all of that sounds too scary then Linux Mint is a good choice. Never used PopOS myself but I hear that’s a good starter OS too.
You don’t need to know how to code to use Linux. It helps to know how to use the terminal, but you don’t even really need to know that anymore either.
Mint is a great choice. Fedora is another great choice, and it’s what I use. IMHO, Cinnamon (Mint) and KDE are easier to use coming from Windows than Gnome (Fedora). So yeah, I’d agree with the sentiments you’ve read and cited in your post. You can also use Cinnamon or KDE on Fedora if you like though.
Agree with everything you’re saying. I’m using Mint for a year now and never had to open the terminal. It’s a great distro.
Yes. I main Mint in my laptop, and it’s been my go-to for general purpose use (gaming included) for the past 10-15 years. On servers I prefer other distros, but Mint has consistently been the one that works best out of the box in a laptop desktop environment.
How did you use Windows without understanding coding? lol
Mint is a great starting point. I might also recommend having a look at KDE (the desktop environment) which will feel very familiar coming from windows and is available on quite a few distributions. I use it with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed - less beginner friendly than Mint, but still an ok plafe to start.
The only time you might have issues with Ubuntu is when it comes time to update/upgrade it. I’ve seen people on Mastodon, every time an update rolls out, say that its broken something. But I think those cases are few and far between.
Mint is a good choice to get your feet wet. Install it with KDE Plasma so it will at least feel familiar to you. Cinnamon is fine but I always found it a little bit wonky. When I first started on linux I got kinda carried away with customizing Cinnamon and it totally just wrecked my install.
There’s a lot of documentation and support for Mint/Ubuntu so you can pick up stuff pretty quickly. Once you get comfy with it you can always switch your distro to something else. But yeah there’s nothing wrong with starting on Mint to get a feel for it.
Just lost a Mint install to a bad kernel update. I don’t bother to fix my OS failures anymore. I just load ventoy through refind and start over.
It’s not a common occurrence but I’m just not precious about my OS installs anymore. Keep a script around to backup anything important to a network share and let it rip.
