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View Full Version : [Solved] Steps to do before switching to Linux - Switch from Windows to Linux without worries



Fli
08-15-2024, 07:30 PM
Do not worry switching from a Windows to a Linux.
It is possible to do everything important via GUI in Linux and in rare cases when not, you can cope/paste commands found in online tutorials found using search engine or on the support forums.

1. Find Windows applications alternatives for Linux at https://alternativeto.net
You may write down the list of your most important Windows apps and their Linux alternatives. Even if there is no alternative (not likely), you may run many Windows apps on Linux using software called Wine https://www.winehq.org

2. Check your computer support at https://linux-hardware.org - you can also check it under step 4b, if uncertain, ask a search engine mentioning your computer name and a question: "Computer 123A Debian Linux network adapter support OR issue"

3. picking right Linux distribution: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop/
Usually is mentioned Ubuntu (https://ubuntu.com/desktop) (forum 1 (https://ubuntuforums.org), 2 (https://askubuntu.com)), Zorin (https://zorin.com) (forum (https://forum.zorin.com)), Mint (https://linuxmint.com) (forum (https://forums.linuxmint.com))

4. You can try Linux easily by
a) installing it as a virtual OS using https://www.virtualbox.org or
b) using bootable Linux flash drive https://ventoy.net which you can fill with .iso/.img images of various Linux distributions (it will boot Linux for you without installing it).

5. Installing. You can either:
a) reuse your current Windows drive for Windows (is more complicated, because you would need to backup current data to external drive)
b) get a new, even second hand drive aimed for Linux (SSD is the way to go), that way you can easily switch back to Windows by changing the physical drive

6. After installation, copy over your data and if you are not certain about something, search engine will provide a tutorial or a support forum users can help (after you have used the search engine, which is often faster way to find the solution).

Would you suggest any improvements to this?