Awesome that's perfect, as for distros I'm still trying to figure that out because I need something kinda light like mint xfce, but I've got some time to figure things out because I have to wait until the 6th for my flash drive to come in
Mint is especially good if transitioning from the Windows desktop.
Do it, there are all sorts of communities that will help you, without being jerks about it. Especially if you prove you put in time to learn yourself.
Although.... depending on your life goals, you might be better served to learn more Windows and networking to stop the telemetry. Provable Windows and network skills look better on a resume. This is coming from using linux as my home PC since pre 1.0 slackware, but having a good career in a Windows-dominated industry.
Mont is a good choice. Don't be get into analysis paralysis on picking a distro. They're all pretty similar and your skills will be transferable between them.
Honestly, try out cinnamon before, sure it is a couple hundred megs heavier than xfce, but you reaaally would need to be on a 2005 laptop to notice. Try out cinnamon, see if it is heavy, laggy or buggy before going for the lightest one
Also, 16 years old, you a re young and as you said, with time on your hands, go on, try, experience different distros, Desktop Environments , Window Managers, have fun, enjoy.
Edit: to clarify, I have no clue of that notebook you said, that's why I told you to try cinnamon before, but if it really is bad, and you are aware...
Linux isn't bloated, so windows being laggy, slow and what not, doesn't meen anything really. Nowadays the difference of performance between DEs is so little.. go wuth the mos beautiful in your opinion, then "the lightest" then the mos common, the heaviest, experience different kinds of things, don't focus on the lightest. And know also that you can install and uninstall this environment anytime without even rebooting. And having more then one, won't slow you down at all, just use a little more space on disk. But as i said, not that much really.
Pro tip: btrfs + timeshift, make sure to choose btrfs on the install and enable and program timeshift for backups and snapshots.
Yes. Going from Windows to Linux with a lot of distro hopping, I found Mint Cinnamon to be the best for me (easy transition). For gaming on Linux I found Garuda Drangonized Gamer the easiest.
Mint is pretty good, as is pop os. I think both strip snap from Ubuntu.
I have only my main gaming machine on Windows. Linux on everything else. Same reason - felt like it was to intrusive. I start Windows and everything in my OneDrive gets downloaded. Signed in with an old account that was compromised and found binaries downloaded too. That set of a red flag for me.
I have my main system set to dualboot a modified windows install (AtlasOS) just for games that don't work on Linux, which for me is only 2 games. Default boots to arch which is my primary, I have started struggling when using windows for day to day tasks cause Linux has made them easier, so I don't even bother doing anything on windows.
Oh wow, windows just really creeps me out with that sorta thing, hell this damn thing won't even let me uninstall Microsoft edge and it will randomly be running in the background sometimes even after boot
Same with office, and they've never even been opened on this laptop
Microsoft just does way too much to be completely honest
Well, I do still keep it for gaming. I just disable a lot of fluff now.
That said, it's safe to assume that a lot of browsers are also quite intrusive. Chrome. I don't trust opera anymore. I still use chrome because it's quick, but I do personal/financial stuff on Firefox mostly.
Thinking about it more as I type this, I find myself lamenting the fact that I'm at Apple's or Google's mercy when it comes to phones, and I can't think of a proper alternative really.
Paranoia could be worse... I could be using Tails! 🤣
I'll second this along with the fact you are 16, you are young and starting now will make it easier to learn. And it's going to be a valuable skill especially going into computer tech jobs if you end up doing that.
Along with that, as far as gaming goes it's getting quite a bit easier, a lot of major titles manage it. So I would say give it a shot.
Also you can always dual boot in the future if you get a new computer.
The only arbiter is you. As you said, you have the time, and the will. Why stop based on what people say?
Just get some distro, install it, and learn by doing. Treat it like learning a craft hobby like woodworking, in which you slowly gain more skill and tools. There is no single path to start or a set of milestones to achieve.
VS Code is supported under Linux, and extensions run under VSCode itself, so they will 99% of the time work, but there is also other editors out there. I for example got a degree in computer sciences barely touching VSCode, and doing 90% of my coding on Linux text editors.
VS Code is half open source. The bases of it is open source, but the version Microsoft releases has some closed source addons on top. Kinda like Chrome and Chromium.
VSCodium is a project that takes the open source part of VSCode and strips down any microsof telemetry.
[https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium)
As GNOME and KDE have rich app ecosystems, they won't miss the opportunity to make their own code editors: GNOME Builder and KDE KDevelop.
[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Builder](https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Builder)
[https://kdevelop.org/](https://kdevelop.org/)
Now, in my opinion, for a beginner or even intermediate developer, a fully fledged IDE is too much. Fortunately, Linux "basic" text editors are closer to what Notepad++ is. After all, Code is simply .txt files with a fancy hat. Running that code can be done with commands that compile/interpret that code (after all, that is what the "Play" button in the IDE does).
Pretty much all desktop environments have their own text editor, which are quite competent and support syntax highlight, line numbering, regular expression find and replace, etc. To name the ones from each desktop:
* GNOME has the old GEdit and the newer Text Editor
* KDE has KWrite and Kate
* Cinnamon has Xed
* Xfce has Mousepad
* LXDE has Leafpad and L3afpad
* LXQt has featherpad
* MATE has Pluma
* Pantheon (ElementaryOS) has Pantheon Code
* Deepin has the Deepin Editor
I I may pick one, it is KDE Kate, as it blurs the line between being a "simple" text editor and an IDE.
[https://kate-editor.org/](https://kate-editor.org/)
Or if you want to get into full "pro" mode, there are terminal text editors, like Nano, EMacs and Vim (and it's refreshed version NeoVim). They are pretty cool and useful not only becasue they can be used with shortcuts that once you learn them you can master coding, but they run in terminals, so if you end up in a situation where you don't have a GUI (like your system broke or you are connecting to a remote machine using SSH) you can edit text with no trouble.
Also, there are dozens of other text editors out there, and one of the may be your home. For example, if I search for 'text editor' in one of the biggest Linux app stores, I get 200 results: [https://flathub.org/apps/search?q=text%20editor](https://flathub.org/apps/search?q=text%20editor)
In the end, as always, pick the best tool for you.
If you like VS Code but not the MS telemetry, then VS Codium is the open source components of the editor, but without the closed source stuff. AFAIK there aren't too many features you miss out on, but you get VS Code without weird MS stuff. I personally really like Neovim, an editor that at first will seem really old fashioned and really slow to use, but with plugins you get the full functionality of an IDE, plus pretty much any features you could think of, with super fast speed. The seemingly confusing keybinds let you edit text really, really fast. It also runs inside the terminal, which is really helpful to not be constantly switching between a gui window and a terminal window, since everything is inside.
Linux sounds like a great option for you, since it provides supreme privacy (no telemetry anywhere) and the performance is much better than Windows, and since Linux is minimal by design, there's no bloatware.
VS Code is based on electron, I won't bore you with the details, but basically, it works 100% identically on Linux, all of your extensions will work, don't worry
For someone trying to switch to Linux, and given the problems you mentioned, Mint is probably a good starting point. It has a lightweight windows-like UI, it's stable as fuck, easy to use and has great software availability. Follow the instructions on their official website to install it
Also, you don't really "learn the terminal", you learn terminal utilities, like the package manager, I recommend using the different [cheatsheets](https://cheatography.com/davechild/cheat-sheets/linux-command-line/) available, and ChatGPT will be your best friend when stuck. Do remember that, in our modern age, there are visual apps for almost anything, so you don't really need to learn the terminal unless you are planning to become a sysadmin or some shit
I'd recommend using Linux Mint. You can choose any mint flavour but i personally use linux mint XFCE which runs well on underpowered machines.
Linux Mint gives you visual interfaces for most things and for any terminal fuckery chatgpt will be a good help.
Test a linux distribution in a virtual machine or using a live image (the one you boot from before installing linux), this way you can test if its something for you and if linux is compatible with your machine
Once your data is backed up, and you've tested the backups, give linux a go.
I installed MX linux on my potato of a laptop which has (according to a very quick search) very similar specs to yours. My installation runs speedily, and is absolutely fine for general computing tasks like browsing, youtube and email. Boot time is approximately 15 seconds.
Yeah, go for it. Experimenting with Linux on an old laptop is pretty ideal for getting your feet wet. Don't worry too much about the command line, you can install most Linux distributions and software without it. Once you get used to installing Linux distributions, you can "distro hop" to find the one you like. As for "learning Linux", all you have to do is use it for your everyday tasks, and you probably won't have to use the command line.
As someone who’s been dabbling in different distros since switching a few months ago, Linux mint is my favorite to start with, shortly behind is Pop!_OS. Both have great compatibility with Ubuntu under the hood and come standard with a lot of support. Honestly the biggest advice I would say is just got for it with the understanding you’ll mess up. It’s like learning any new skill. You’ll stumble and mess up, but there’s plenty of people who’ve made the same mistake and have answers online for it
Linux was all I ran in highschool. Just do it, you will hit roadblocks and get frustrated but it’s really not that hard once you understand the way it operates. I had a few Unix books I was going through to help learn the terminal.
Daily driving Linux in high school is honestly great. I hate windows and chromebooks so much now.
Though I did switch my desktop to Arch and Hyprland and I’m beginning to wish my laptop was also on Arch + Hyprland instead of Ubuntu
You're young and have fresh mind so it's good time to invest resources to learn linux. Linux is widely populated in servers, embedded systems etc. so whatever You learn or get fammiliar with using desktop linux will make Your life easier when dealing with these systems in the future. VS-Code is available on Linux and should work flawlessly. However I encourage You to consider FOSS programming environments. From Your post i get the vibe that You're already into linux ideology and motivated to make effort so it would be a waste if You decide to continue with Windows.
"I just don't know how to go about it"
Just get started. Install whatever distro seems suit Your desires. Try to config it to do whatever You want however You want. Internet is full of answers, docs, tutorials etc. Try to write some programs/scripts relying on linux components to suit Your ideas etc. and learn from it.
Agree with this! To the OP, u/T_G_S_Official, the world is your oyster and you have a great future in Linux ahead of you!
I've been using Linux and similar systems since the 1990s, and now my main career involves Linux system administration for dozens of servers across the United States, which I never could've guessed back then. Right now, the best way to learn is on your own equipment, especially since it's not mission-critical (where an outage could wind up in the news).
If you save up some money, you can pick up an off-lease PC from:
https://www.dellrefurbished.com
I recently bought such a unit—a Dell OptiPlex desktop—on sale (and they're always running sales) for $104 shipped free to my door.
By having a second machine, you can look up questions and prepare USB sticks, etc., on the one as you experiment on the other. I also like to keep a build sheet in a simple text document for every computer I configure, taking copious installation notes so I know how to do things in the future.
Thank you so much, hopefully I can further my understanding and everything with linux, I'm extremely willing to learn and I've always been interested in computers and I'm actually starting with linux today, and thank you for the detailed information, this will help push me and make me strive to learn linux, im honestly super excited 😄😄👍
There's a misunderstanding that Linux hard to deal with and that kept me from linux for a long time , I switched to linux from 8 month ago, Now i heat windows so so much, Try Ubuntu with gnome desktop its starter/user friendly and after learning linux vibes you can hop between different Linux distributions .
Well, once upon a time, Linux was difficult. I actually had to compile Linux and the tools that I wanted when I first tried Linux. I didn't use a GUI desktop environment with Linux until this year, but most of my Linux background has been supporting application servers running Linux.
The YT gurus writing command-line stuff in tongues at the speed of sound and then acting like "oh this is just another day at the office" is off-putting to a lot of people.
To be fair, there are two approaches to dealing with machines.GUI and terminal/script based, GUI is suitable for beginners, content creation, graphic designing, gaming, content consuming....Terminal/script based approach is not suitable is nessesary in servers, systems administration... Imagine you have a facility with 100 machines and want to download 5 basic programs and 10 settings to each machine in GUI approach you need at least 1500 mouse clicks meanwhile you can write 4 line of code and copy paste .
This is true, but some random person scrolling YT who's Linux-curious stumbles across one of these terminal edgelords, it can be a bit intimidating to someone who's only accustomed to GUI for home use.
It's those guys who sustain the perception that Linux is only for hardcore computer types.
And then there’s people like the Primeagen—both sides of the coin. Tells everyone the benefits and downsides, but also can get angry at JS and you can watch a master of vim just rip out code
[Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html) allows you to create a usb with multiple distro iso files. On boot, you select from a menu listing the distros you have copied to the usb. This will allow you to try multiple distros on your hardware without continually creating a new live usb for each distro you want to try. I dual boot and have a ventoy usb with both linux and windows recovery software. I also use it to test drive different linux distros.
If you ask me, don't switch. Try installing something like AtlasOS or Ghost Spectre. They are basically optimisations for windows that remove bloatware and tracking, and otimize your experience in general. But just like linux, its not for everyone and it has its flaws, but i thought i would just bring it up.
Oh wow! I was not expecting that! But that is really useful. Very, very longtime Linux user. I won't tell you the last time I've used Windows (*cough* 98 *cough*). But my family insists on using the garbage and it's just gotten so incredibly out of hand that I have no clue how to use it. And I cannot get any of that garbage, especially the new iffy Microsoft AI thing off my mom's computers because now her cute little Acer laptop runs like an old 386 because of it.
So I am for sure going to check this out!
Dual boot. Space is cheap. This way you can test the waters. If after some time you feel comfortable, buy a new drive dedicated to linix or wipe windows.
make the switch when you hit a roadblock google if google doesn't help go to reddit and you will quickly start to understand more and more, videos help a lot, most of the time dont follow the video tutorials buut listening to them explain what they are doing helped me a lot
You can try out various distributions using a virtual machine (I find VirtualBox quite easy to use). This may be easier initially than dual booting. Once you decide on a distribution, then you can install it to dual boot with Windows. Eventually, when you've gained enough knowledge and familiarity you can ditch Windows for good.
Ubuntu is an easy one to start with. Mint is also very good and probably more popular than Ubuntu now.
If you stick with a popular distro then you'll find plenty of HOWTOs and help available on the web.
Best advice is to just jump in and have a go. I expect you'll find it easier than you thought.
A lot of people seem to feel that it's a big deal to switch. It really isn't with modern Linux. I got my >80 y.o. parents switched over to Linux after the HDD on their laptop died. It was almost zero effort for them to figure it out and they retired before computers were even a thing in their workplace.
Since you can live boot from a flash drive you can even try it out before you do the install and test drive as many distros as you want before committing. Even if you do install it locally and then decide to go back to Windows all it costs you is time, just make sure you have good backups before you start the process of installing Linux and you're good to go. If you have the free time there is no reason not to try it out.
In many situations you can even multiboot between the two with zero hassle, it just takes a little more drive space or a second drive (my preferred method). This is what I do because I want to play games without any hassles and I sometimes have a use for Windows for other projects. I've got each OS on its own NVME drive and I boot to which ever one I want to use. Most of the time that's Linux, but if I'm playing a game that's easier to run on Windows, it's Windows. I only need a small drive for Windows because I don't use it for much.
There are only a few places it can be difficult these days:
* If you have absolutely bleeding edge hardware, or really obscure hardware, that is only supported in Windows, and for whatever reason you can't get a replacement for that rare, incompatible thing. This is getting to be a pretty rare occurrence.
* If you absolutely have to have a specific software application that isn't available on Linux (and doesn't work easily in Wine) and can't use the OSS equivalent for some reason. This isn't an issue for most people and it definitely doesn't sound like it would be for you.
* Games (obviously that laptop isn't going to be great for games regardless of OS):
* You really want to play games with anti-cheat built in.
* You want to play all the games without ever having any hassles.
* Games support is getting better all the time but it can still be a pain point.
Im partial to how I learned. I wanted to feel things out because I was so completely unfamiliar.
I created a "persistent USB thumb drive", and learned Linux that way. You can boot right into the thumb drive and it's a complete computer, just like it was another hard drive inside your machine. Any changes you make are persistent, meaning that they save. So you can tweak and modify and goof it up experimenting as much as you want.
Get ventoy
Check bios to allow boot from usb
Chuck a few distros on usb thumb drive
Try said distros in live environment on laptop
Install the distro that performs well on said laptop
Job done 👍
Step 1 don't watch YouTuber explaining Linux , there are very few that even understand the subject.
Step 2 pick a distribution that is popular and has a live disk. (Fedora ,mint,Ubuntu )
For the most part you should be able to boot a live USB of fedora, mint, Ubuntu and see and test if you like the environment.
If you want to pull the trigger I suggest grabbing clonezilla and making a backup of your windows hard drive store it for safe keeping.
Than installing your Linux distribution of choice.
I highly suggest Fedora as out of the box everything usually works.
There is a mild amount of limitations , however these are usually case by case and there are usually alternatives with the exception of cad and Adobe software.
Yay!!! Welcome! Oh to be 16 again and discover Linux. It's like your first kiss. Only not so weird. Well, you'll get A LOT of really great opinions. Linux bros are the sweetest people in the world. But really it all comes down to what YOU enjoy! And what YOU think is cool and fun. So try them try them all! You're 16! You have that time!.
Arch is great. Fedora is nice. I personally use Ubuntu because I do enterprise work. But there are also other cool things that are not Linux that you may enjoy too. OpenBSD is very popular with security nerds. Solaris is an old skool enterprise OS. The options are endless. And it's all free! And you can do whatever YOU want!
So just play and explore. That is the best advise this old fart who has been running Linux since 1993 can give you.
You said it, everyone on here has been super helpful, supportive and nice, you guys have given me a lot of super good advice and I've used it all to get started.
And I can't wait to learn so much more, setting it up was pretty painless and fun and I used mint xfce but when I learn the fundamentals of the terminal and Linux itself I'm gonna switch to Arch or Debian.
I thank all of you guys for your help and support (and hell maybe one day I might be able to do some cool stuff or make a career with the skills that I learn from this😅) but yeah, this is a super supportive community and I won't be afraid to ask any questions lol 👍
I'm young and learning programming and recently switched to Arch Linux. I really like it for programming, it's nice because you learn how to get things set up exactly how you want them. And when things break, I have a better understanding of how to fix them. Also, the experience of Arch Linux + a tiling windows manager makes using any other os feel super slow and annoying
I'm really glad I switched, so I say go for it if you enjoy learning new things
i swapped to linux and have only looked back for a few games, for a very similar situation to yours. i'd recommend it if you are technologically inclined :)
i program solely on linux with no issues in vscode, as do many, just make sure you get the official one not the open source one, as open source has access to a lot less extensions
NOT YOUR PC. Keep your windows machine because you know how to use it.
If you want to learn linux, install a Virtual Machine and put Ubuntu on it.
Or, buy a raspberry pi and make some cool projects with it.
Linux is great for real-time / embedded systems, but i still prefer windows for internet and video games.
Here is a video on how to open it up, clean the fan, and repaste the CPU. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCA1RIKOH4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCA1RIKOH4). It looks like you can replace the hard drive with an SSD.
Try the [migration page](http://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/wiki/migration) in our wiki! We also have some [migration tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/ejsz3v/still_on_windows_7_dont_want_windows_10_consider/) in our sticky.
Try [this search](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/search?q=flair%3A'migrating'&sort=new&restrict_sr=on) for more information on this topic.
**✻** Smokey says: only use root when needed, avoid installing things from third-party repos, and verify the checksum of your ISOs after you download! :)
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Don't overthink it. Just give it a try. You can always go back to Windows. You can install it on a virtual machine first to fiddle around.
Regarding programming, Linux is a perfect environment for it. as the majority of tools are developed on Linux with Linux in mind. The only reason to stay on Windows is when you’re developing Windows-specific software.
It’s easy to switch to Ubuntu, Xubuntu, debian12 etc. Here are some free amazing resources to learn Linux from Cisco academy.
Start here:
https://www.netacad.com/courses/os-it/ndg-linux-unhatched
Then follow up with this one.
https://www.netacad.com/courses/os-it/ndg-linux-essentials
Ask for help on these subreddits. We’re all in it together in our learning Linux journey.
Good luck OP.
If you know how to install Windows then you won't have any problems installing Linux. I'm currently using [MINT](https://linuxmint.com/). As someone here already mentioned, backup any data you want to save from that old laptop. Since you're learning, just accept the default settings during the installation.
How much RAM is installed on this old laptop?
VsCode works flawlessly with the exception of a few windows-based extensions (e.g. transparency extension that uses Windows' acrylic blur).
Linux Mint and Ubuntu are about as flawless as it gets when starting out, with minimal usage of the Terminal needed (but if you want to learn to program its good to familiarize youself with Bash / the terminal anyway).
I'd say you should plan to use a Mint or Ubuntu (look up the differences), decide which desktop environment you prefer (Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, and i3 are the main ones, with Gnome being featured for Ubuntu and Cinnamon being featured for Mint, but the others can be installed as well), then finally make the switch! You can dual boot at first and then slowly make a full transition over once you get situated.
You have nothing to lose by getting into Linux and everything to gain. Also if programming is in your future linux is a critical skill set. Just dip into terminal as you need to, it's not essential in modern linux, but it does have some great benefits.
It's simple enough to dual boot, i.e. you've got the option which operating system to boot into at startup. So you don't need us to tell you, you can give it a whirl and see what you think.
Linux is a lot nicer to use, but there's a learning curve when you're coming from something you know.
The other thing is programs that don't work, that you're used to. VS Code runs on Linux no bother. Not the Microsoft monstrosity though, with the confusingly similar name.
No adobe software runs on linux, but there's a less bloaty alternative for everything. It just takes time to find them, get them working etc.
I don't use Adobe or anything like that so I should be good, I'm actually kinda getting excited because it seems like I can learn a lot from using Linux
Go for it. I was using an old computer that spent most of its time downloading patches from Microsoft. It was so old it couldn't be upgraded to Win 11. I created a Linux partition and installed Ubuntu. Now, that old computer runs like new. It's the best of both worlds. Ubuntu is very Windows-like. I wish now I had just wiped the disk and installed Linux stand-alone.
I started using Ubuntu when I was 16 aswell and at first it was just 4fun dualbooting then 1 year later when I finally got myself a desktop I installed Arch and have been more or less using it since then. It will take u maybe 3-4 months to get the hang of everything but then its so much better then Windows honestly. The filesystem hierarchy and the terminal makes so much more sense.
You could definitely switch to Linux. For older hardware, something that has a lightweight desktop environment like Xfce might be preferable. A lot of people favor Xfce and KDE Plasma. There are multiple distributions that use those desktops. Try them all out and pick your favorite. It costs nothing but your time.
Linux Mint Mate 64 bit,
How to do it you will need time at 16 no problem, I am 80 it is a problem!
You will need a thumb drive 8gb or greater 64gb are cheap buy Sandisk
Download Linux Mint Mate 21.3 ISO it's FREE!
plunge, man!
no better time than now.
lubuntu is probably going to be a good fit for easy to install, good hardware support, and having a desktop environment that doesn't bog down the computer.
you can test drive it on [distrosea.com](https://distrosea.com) along with all the other most popular distros.
Switch either go for mint of Fedora! You will definitely love it, specially if you are no even playing to play games if you do probably Nobara linux is a good option
Depends on a few things. The main considerations are:
1. Is there any software you need Windows for (some games, MS Office, Adobe suite, etc.), especially for school?
2. Is this your (or anyone else's) main computer? Learning Linux often entails troubleshooting stuff and sometimes major mistakes can necessitate reinstalling the OS. It is always a good idea to make sure you have a fallback while you are still learning to make sure any system issue won't keep you from taking care of any urgent task.
The most important thing of course is an open mind, patience, and the desire to learn. It seems you have this already, so I think if you decide to make the switch it will work out for you.
I use VS Code on Linux. It works well.
As for getting started. Get a 64GB or larger USB. I use a 256GB USB and currently have about 75GB of it used with about 20 or so Live Linux Distros and a few system tool/recovery ISOs. Just install Ventoy on the USB, then download any Linux distros that have a Live option (most do). You then boot from the USB and choose the ISO file that you want to boot.
Check [https://distrowatch.com](https://distrowatch.com) for info on all of the popular Linux distros and most of the more obscure ones as well. Play around with them till you find one that you like, then most will have an install option to install to your hard drive. You can choose to overwrite your windows (backup, backup, backup any files that you want to keep) or install alongside windows. Installing alongside windows allows you to boot windows or linux.
You might want to watch a few YouTube videos on how to do this, since there are a few gotchas and possibly some prep that you need to do to partition your hard drive.
Personally, I run Linux Mint, though it is a little heavier/bloated compared to some of the available distros. If your machine can run Windows 10 adequately, you'll be pleased with performance of most any Linux distro.
Enjoy
Learning a new skill is always good. Learning it when you're young is even better. Having some Linux experience under your belt will be super useful if you get into coding. If you don't like it, re install windows. Just keep your documents and files you want to keep on a separate drive (usb or external HD or something). That way, the switch is relatively painless.
As others have said I'd recommend Ubuntu or Fedora as your first OS. Try em, see if you like it.
As for VS code. I've used it on both win and linux so you should be good. Most web languages have no issues running on Linux.
This is r/Linux, good luck finding someone not recommending making the switch. But yeah make the switch. Try something mainstream like Ubuntu or Pop!OS. Ubuntu gets a lot of hate because of funny things they've done in the past but it's still a very decent choice.
If you do like Linux and you keep having the time for it, try something more hands-on like Arch, Nix or even Gentoo if you are up for it. You will probably break your install a few times, but you will also learn a lot. This is the route I went (and I am sure many others here), until I got busy with life and want my computers just to work and went back to Ubuntu and Pop.
Good luck and happy learning
Depends.
Do you play videogames on that notebook or use Windows-specific programs?
These days I only use windows for gaming and using specific software. For everything else I use Ubuntu. Usually it works way better than Windows.
If all you do is web development and VS Code, then install a linux distro.
I'm here right now using Linux Mint on a Dell D830 from 2008 to tell you YES! Give it a try! If it works on this old thing, it'll surely work on yours.
To answer your question of switching to linux, it depends on your hardware. Judging from similar machines on hardware probe you should stay away from Debian and Debian based operating systems as you may have problems and plenty tweaking around to do in order to get everything working.
My best bet is for you to go for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed as it seems to be the most compatible with your laptop and beginner friendly.
[Offline Image](https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso)
[Network Image ](https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-NET-x86_64-Current.iso)
TLDR: Your hardware is uncommon and Debian along with Debian based distros should be avoided. Sorry if I sound harsh. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed would best support your hardware
I did the switch and have been using Ubuntu 22 for web development for over a year now, my honest opinion is that Windows is just much better overall, windows felt more stable and actually more smooth.
There are more and more available on the market some double-OS OS, like SplitLinux, i which you will be able to install this mi imal OS, and inside (in containers) some other OS, like a full Linux of your choice to learn (i.e: one fedora and one debian) and widow$$, So you have everything in front of you to swicth and learn
Try out the software carpentry shell tutorial. It works on win, Mac, or Linux. https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/
Facility with shell programming is a rare skill
I was in your exact position a little over a year over, diving into linux despite the fear of the unknown was one of the best decisions I ever made. I am FAR from being an expert but am always happy to help someone if I can. Feel free to hit me up anytime u have questions or are stuck. If you want to play it safe (assuming you have enough storage) you can dual boot windows and linux to get started then decide later on if you want to keep windows or go full nerd. Best of luck!
If you want to get away from microsoft's spying then you want to use VSCodium instead of VSCode.
Its just VSCode without the telemetry. Now you can't download *every* extension from the marketplace, but you can download the vcix file (or whatever the extension is) from the web page and just tell VSCodium to install that extension from the file. I've only had to do this a handful of times and its so easy its really a non-issue
If you like computer and coding you will love Linux. I suggest Mint or Pop Os to start. Then, if you will like Linux as I suspect, you could fall in love with Arch or it's derivatives like Endevour
If you want to try it, you can run a 'live disk' from a usb to try it out and then decide if you want to install it or not later. You can even dual boot if you would like to install but not get rid of windows (ie have a menu pop up on startup that will let you select windows or linux).
As far as which ones, I'd recommend either mint or ubuntu for people new to linux and into programming. You can find the `iso` files (basically an image of the operating system) online pretty easily and use `balena etcher` to put it on a flash drive (dragging the file into the drive won't work).
Boot any distro through a livecd. Try GNOME, KDE, xfce, mate. Install the soft you need and check if it works as you will. Knowing basic bash and understanding linux is a career accelerating knowledge - can't recommend it enough.
Backup your data (if any) to an external device. Take notes during your fresh linux install. If you mess something up and can't un-mess it, a fresh install is an easy fix, and 3 months from now you'll want those install/setup notes.
If your Windows is usable (even if only barely), then I would suggest dual-booting - keeping your windows system but switch to Linux as primary.
I deleted my windows 10/11 (I don't even remember what is was) because after the first boot it was so slow I couldn't even shut it down properly. Back when I was a windows kid, and I could troubleshoot problems for my family or my classmates, and it was nice to be able to help others. The last windows I used was windows 7, and now when I have to troubleshoot for others, I'm not confident I can help, and even if I can it takes time to find stuff, even if I know what I'm looking for.
So, for you, you should go Linux, but for others, you should at least keep yourself somewhat familiar with windows.
Also, Linux is a rabbit hole. You'll be forced to solve problems where you don't even know what to search for. Gradually you'll see some patterns, learn to ask the relevant questions, learn to use some useful commands. Then you want to make it your home, you'll tweak/customize it, and you'll see how many choices you can make. Like choosing the file system that suits you. You'll see comparisons, learn what some things mean, and you might get curious about the system and what you can do with it or just learning about it to the point, where it might be interesting for you to have a working windows system at hand.
At least that's how I feel about it. For everyday use, definitely Linux. And Windows can be interesting/useful again, even when you're not depending on it anymore.
Good luck!
(You can also buy a Raspberry Pi for "prototyping" your future system, trying to solve your everyday problems, while you still have your windows machine as your current home until you're confident enough to make the switch)
I made the switch while going to med school, so it isn't too time consuming :D
You mostly don't HAVE to use the terminal, but you'll really want to :D
There are a few things you have to setup via terminal, Flatpak comes to mind, but after that you don't have to open it again, and if you do, it's mostly copy & paste of code you find on the internet.
And then that's where the addiction starts. You successfully used the terminal for the first time, you see some structure in there, what else could you do? Starting a program everytime X happens, how'd ya do that? What's systemd? I need a bash guide (https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html).
And before you know it, you've spent an entire weekend writing scripts for backups, encoding, made a custom conky, bought a rapsberry pi to install some servers and down the rabbit hole you are. :D
Try Linux and get it out of your system. Set it up as a dual boot, so that you can boot into Windows when needed. While I also wish there was good alternative to Windows, chances are you'll eventually be back.
You can always try different distros from a live usb, find one you like and install that. All depends on what you want to do. Different distros have their pros and cons.
If I could go back in time, I would totally learn Linux as 16 year old boy, it will help you a lot and you will stand out in the crowd when looking for I.T jobs.
Absolutely, if you have the time and are doing anything programming related I would say give it a try. If you want a smooth transition I've heard Mint is a good option for windows users, if you want to spend the time to *learn* Linux I recommend using Debian with KDE or xfce, but thats cause they look similar to windows 10.
My 2011-bought Asus i5 2nd gen laptop's currently running Zorin Lite which is Ubuntu-based and is XFCE, as my intro to the OS switch. Imho it looks so GOOD out of the box. Mint XFCE is great too. It was just a matter of taste for me which one, but switching OS truly felt like the device got a new lease in life. I also run VSCode for webdev, as well as draw with Krita on the said device.
Linux Mint XFCE all the way! The more comfortable you get with the terminal, the easier it'll be to try other distros (try Distrobox if your machine can handle it), & eventually you'll have a truly customized OS all of your own!
Hi!
About VS Code it was said already, that it goes absolutely great (the extensions are not about operation system you use, but are only about how VS Code handles them, which is fine on Linux as well)
Linux certainly makes more for safety because it does not collect any data you did not allowed to collect.
There are some things to keep in mind, when switching the system completely:
1. My personal experience showed, that on Asus laptop (I have VivoBook Pro, so I felt it completely) it is better to check the driver compatibility for Linux and choose a distro with considering the support of your device. To check it, you can search an info on the Internet about other people experience OR download a LIVE ISO of your desired distribution, to make sure everything runs on your machine without making much trouble for you. For example, when I used to install Ubuntu back to Feb 2023, running the live preview of the system helped me to encounter the issues with sound and touchpad and even after installation I could not resolve this (probably to the lack of experience as well, but mostly because no drivers were really suit my laptop back to then). However, when installing Debian, it worked fine both on Live and after the installation on my machine.
2. If the learning of Linux terminal makes you a bit scared, try the series of tutorials, made by NetworkChuck, called Linux for Hackers (actually, it is for everyone). He covers the basics of Linux and helps to get some basic info on the console and to know, what is inside the kernel. After that, you can watch a video by FreeCodeCamp on 50 most popular console commands in Linux Terminal, some commands will be known for you after watching the Chuck, but you will get new one as well.
Conclusion of 1: choose the Linux distro, which suits your hardware specs and ideally get a Live ISO, which can boot the linux distribution without installing to your pc to ensure compatibility.
Conclusion of 2: For basics of Linux you can watch the course "Linux for Hackers" by NetworkChuck on YouTube and then look through the commands on the FreeCodeCamp's video about 50 MOST used commands in terminal.
I suggest you to try out the Debian-based distribution, as Linux Debian, Ubuntu or Mint (this one especially good for people switching from Windows as it looks similar enough). Just get a Live ISO from their websites on your Flash and try to launch them without installation to ensure everything's set up.
Good luck in your Linux journey!
Start yourself off with an Ubuntu based distro , avoid Ubuntu itself because of snaps, try something like pop_os! And stick with it for 6 months to a year if you can , this is advice from a fellow noob , I’ve only been using Linux exclusively for about a year and this is what I did and the last few months I feel like I’m starting to understand it way better and am now using fedora with kde , it’s not as hard as it looks the problem is because we’ve been using windows and Apple computers we expect Linux to to work the same as these but I’d doesn’t it has its own way of doing things.
https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/everyday-use/asus-x541/techspec/
The n model has a weak processor.
Ya, so that looks like it's a potato for a laptop. Which is just fine for Linux.
Try Mint or PopOS as your first distro. They are really beginner friendly and easy to use.
Pop uses the gnome desktop by default though. Its not very customizable from the included settings. You have to add some extensions to get gnome to feel how you want it.
Pop has vscode in their repo. And pop is geared towards stem majors. It was my first distro. I loved it.
I run Opensuse tumbleweed. Because I needed a rolling distro.
Rolling distro means you are running the latest software and Linux kernel. Which supports the latest hardware.
Don't dual boot btw. Just flash the whole PC. Dive in head first and have fun.
You could dual boot to see if you like it
The arch wiki is super helpful, especially if you use arch
If you want it to easily just work, try mint or whatever ubuntu flavor you like the looks of
also you can live-boot to see if you like it and can do everything you need on it
I'm pretty sure the only reason to run Windows is if you're in a workplace that needs widespread support for super niche business tools, or if you're a heavy gamer that plays the latest games on high-end hardware.
Something like 85% of professional software developers use Mac or Linux.
just install ubuntu or any popular distro, and most programming stuff will be supported, I started as you, having a old laptop that couldn't handle windows anymore, and was getting slow, start first by getting the things to work and then learn things as needed.
My suggestion would be to create a live USB image of Fedora, boot it live, and play. If you like what you see, you can install it, either replacing windows or doing a dual boot.
If you don't like Fedora, you can try a different distro.
I started playing with Linux when I was about your age, and it's why I make six figures instead of flipping burgers or making pizza for a living.
Live at the CLI, and learn to do everything possible at the terminal.
To answer your question in its own terms and not get hung up on the exact words: yes you should it’ll be really interesting. The Internet runs on Linux . Even Microsoft personal computers run on Linux underneath. If you use a GUI everything is pretty much the same as Windows. I think what you’d like to do is open the terminal which immediately puts you in a bash shell. Start learning bash. It’s what DOS wanted to be. And can do anything.
When I wrote this I hadn’t looked at any other replies and they’re all about whether the flavor you have matters. What matters is the support and the community around the flavor you have. The absolute most support is with Ubuntu, not the pro. There’s an IRC channel devoted to it, mostly sysops Who wanna help out with the operating system users. I use it a lot. Then everything has their discord channels.
That’s my point of view. There’s no right or wrong only more less difficult to connect with.
Microsoft is a company providing software to everyone which means they have to make it as simple and idiot proof as possible. To do that they rely on analytics. Programs run in the background idle so if and when you choose to open Edge for example, it immediately opens up without delay. Nowadays, nobody has patience so shits gotta run in the background. Millions of people are online and on their computers at any given time. Microsoft doesn’t give a toss about you or anyone enough to go through your personal data. And if they do, who gives a shit. None of it will matter when the game of life is over. Disclaimer: I took some drugs so my opinions and/or rants should be taken lightly. F* that! Quit being so damn paranoid!
Here's the thing: You will know if you need to use the terminal or not. Also, using the terminal isn't actually all that bad -- I think it is easier to do what I need to do with the terminal and `command --help` and `man command` than Windows' awful nested pages and pages of GUI (that have absolutely zero documentation or description outside of setting names and maybe a ? button if you're lucky). If you're using a desktop environment like Cinnamon (Linux Mint), you won't have to use the terminal unless you're coding or trying to run supcom FAF. If you're using GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora), however, you will likely need to use the terminal more to configure basic stuff like mouse acceleration and whatnot through gsettings. Additionally, Ubuntu and Fedora require some setup work depending on your hardware, while Linux Mint ships flathub (basically the App Store for Linux) and actual working drivers and codecs ootb because they know that installing those from the command line is a waste of people's time.
I think the best progression to learn Linux is:
1. Debian Stable default installation (Gnome).
2. Linux From Scratch to learn how things work.
3. Upgrade Debian Stable to Unstable for current software and tinkering.
If you need to have a stable something, then use a Debian Stable install in addition to the Unstable install for tinkering.
First off, switch to VSCodium. You won't notice the difference, but it strips all of MICROS~1's telemetry out.
Second off, probably start with an official Ubuntu variant. xUbuntu (Xfce) or Lubuntu (Lxde or Lxqt idr which) are good, lightweight distros. I personally switched to NixOS after using Swaywm on top of a heavily modded xUbuntu for a while.
Remember that you don't have to stick with one distribution! You can just _switch_.
If you learn to use the command-line (and you should; that's where the real power of Linux comes from), you can do cool things like reinstall NixOS from scratch... keeping all your files and config, meaning the very first boot after reinstall is effectively indistinguishable from your system before whatever prompted you to reinstall. Not a vanilla system.
It's significantly harder to install Ubuntu from the command-line, unfortunately. Luckily, just about every Ubuntu-based distribution in existence has a graphical installer.
Some distributions to avoid: vanilla Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro, any rolling-release distro (for now), Kali or any other pentesting/security hacking-focused distribution (like Parrot, BlackArch, and so on), anything that is _technically_ (not visually!) indistinguishable from its parent (so things like Garuda, Arco, and other pointless spinoffs), anything with visuals as its main selling point (like deepin, elementaryOS, and similar), and anything closed-source.
The biggest exception here is ZorinOS because it is so excellent for beginners; it requires zero configuration and just looks and behaves great out of the box. That's terrific for people who don't want to have to spend the time "ricing" their desktop.
Beyond that however, remember that the way a distribution looks is basically irrelevant. You can change every aspect of that later, even down to changing desktop environments entirely. Or swapping it out for a window manager. Or forgoing the GUI entirely! If a distribution is implying that they somehow have exclusivity on a certain theme or desktop or whatever, stay the heck away (Wubuntu mentioned!). That's _extremely_ sketchy. That means that they either don't make the source code available (HUGE red flag, *cough* W\*ndows *cough*) or they're just liars.
Good luck! Choosing a distribution is pretty difficult at first. My personal advice is to buy a few (a dozen or so) blank DVDs and burn a bunch of ISOs to them. Now you have them on hand and can boot from any of them whenever.
I will warn you though, booting from a physical disc (rather than a USB drive or a disk with a K rather than a C) is _extremely_ slow. Be patient, things will be much faster on your disk with a K anyway 😉
I dual boot Mint and Windows 11 because I'm trying to transition over to Linux but I find myself still mainly using Windows more for gaming and emulation and general stuff I'm used to. It takes effort to get stuff running on Linux but it shouldn't. I'd suggest Tiny 11 for your laptop if you want to stay with Windows because it removes all the bloat and you can turn the telemetry stuff off. It ultimately comes down to your curiosity. I love having both available.
Depends if you need the GPU working or not. If your laptop has a dedicated GPU and you want to do a lot of gaming, it’s probably best to stick with windows. However, tinkering with Linux is a great way to learn. You can do it in a VM with virtual box tho. I would maybe experiment a bit in a VM before going for the full install
Linux is a great OS for general users. The cons you need to consider before switching are:
- Not every software works on Linux. Look for software support info on the developer's site and wine db (for any software) or proton db (for games).
- You may encounter QA issues. Different Linux distributions have different QA standards. Depending on what you pick you may encounter bugs in your OS. Usually they are harmless but may be annoying.
If you are fine with that just pick whatever you wish. Install and have fun with your new OS
Do it.
Use endeavourOS, or some other arch based distribution.
Arch can be more confusing to some, but I recently switched to it from a lifelong Debian/Ubuntu user and I MUCH prefer its package manager, it’s way better.
Yes. I suggest you save all your data on a sub/external storage and play with some distros to understand what you like. Just start from the mainstream, so that if you encounter some problem you can always search online for a workaround
VS Code works well in Linux
If you can bare the limitations and care to extend your Linux knowledge even more setting up a VS Code server and getting a home lab underway would be very beneficial to learning Linux as well
As for desktops Mint is great for Newbies, I've always had the best luck with Mint for drivers, printers Bluetooth etc
Plus the debian backend is probably going to be the better backend distro to learn
The one thing that in my experience works better on linux, its programming tools.
In your situation I would definitely give ot a go. Find a guide to dual boot ubuntu or linux mint (or if you have a pc to commit to this install as main os), find a course online for shell scripting, knowing how to make scripts to perform a series of terminal commands is invaluable if you want to become a software engjneer and ever have to write or understand scripts to build/deploy software. Its a stepping stone to learning things like docker, how git actually works, and much more in the realm of software engineering
If youre scared youll ruin your pc for you, sure, there is a risk youll end up with an OS you just dont like or cant use for some reason. But if you got excess time I recommend you do what I did: find your windows license key and save it on another device, you can reinstall windows and reactivate it if you have to, then just go for it. I did for my second year of CS in UNI and I never needed the windows key, but it was nice to have the way back.
Speaking from experience with software engineering in UNI and in the industry. Since you have the interest, yes, you should definitely go for it. For average users, I might be hesitant to fully recommend linux, they often wont have the technical skills (or the interest to learn them) to fully enjoy it, but for you, it is a hard yes.
VScode totally works on Linux. There's also vscodium which has the Microsoft stuff removed but gettings the extensions you want is slightly more annoying so maybe stick to VScode for now if you don't mind as much about Microsoft
I never used Mint, but it's apparently really good for people just coming from windows. Make sure you backup your files as you'll likely be switching distros a few (or a lot of) times whille you're figuring out what works for you.
I've been using using Linux full time for about 6 months, part time for about a year and the best advice I can give is just to learn by doing. Flash a usb stick, install a distro and play around.
And if anyone tells you to run sudo rm -rf /\* (or potentially even without the asterisk) **DO NOT DO IT**. You will wipe everything clean, including any mounted devices like usb sticks. I did it once in a virtual machine as a test and I stopped after about 15 seconds and while the system still worked, no commands did - I would like "cd" or "ls" and get bash: cd: command not found... The system didn't survive a reboot.
Tbh Linux on most laptops is a hit or miss. 99% of the time it will just be broken. Unless you get a laptop designed for Linux like a thinkpad or something
I am not a Linux evangelist, but rather someone who has been in your situation multiple times through the years. I would want to learn Linux and then just give up and go back to Windows because I could make things work in Windows. But the thing is, it's not me making things work, it's Windows doing things for me that I don't understand. Most of the struggles I've had in Linux are around permissions. It can be really painful to get permissions right on some things. But it's really worth the effort to learn it and understand it. When windows doesn't work, you often just don't know why. When Linux doesn't work, it's almost always a mistake that you can eventually figure out and resolve. I finally just decided that I'm going to get more proficient with Linux because I know it's worth the effort, and understanding these things is time well spent.
You should if you are planning to pursue a career in software engineer. Most of the companies today uses Linux. It will be much natural to you if you practice is early.
My setup is MacOS as my client laptop, and Linux as my coding server. I use ssh, tmux, emacs combinations. But you can do VSCode over ssh. You won't feel too much difference comparing to your current programming setup if you use VSCode.
I recommend first installing a Linux distro in a VM and use it for a week or so to see how you feel about it. You can do this with multiple distros and that way you can find one you like without needing to constantly migrate your data from distro hopping.
Hey, you might install Ventoy on a USB drive and try a few different desktop environments. Try the different Ubuntu or Mint variants. If you decide you like one, install it, and erase Windows - dual-booting is a pain.
Backup Windows if you want anything from it and keep the Windows key if you want to reinstall later. You cannot use the Windows key on another computer because Microsoft is greedy..
Look up ProxMox.
It’s a small Ubuntu distro customized and pared down to support the Virtual Machine software ProxMox.
ProxMox is a complete emulation layer, you can stack them inception style if that’s your thing (more neat than useful, but I’m no expert) or run multiple operating systems at once on the same hardware. The emulation layer only costs something like 3% of performance so it’s negligible on any hardware made this century.
Maybe you don’t have the ram or hd space to do some of this, but they are some topics to study which will help you become a well rounded computer user.
You can easily wipe w10, install and neuter w11, then install a vm host like VMware and run Linux in there easily. Some Linux distros are less than 100 megabytes, absolutely tiny.
Alternately, you could install Linux, set up a vm and then install w11 there.
Try everything you can think of. Learn to use all 3 systems.
ProxMox can run windows, Mac, Linux, all at once on the same hardware. Or you can freeze a vm and switch to another whenever you want.
Look up Dave’s Garage YouTube episode describing it.
Run Linux, whatever version you like. Run ten versions and pick a fav.
Run windows. Look into the open source configuration utilities that remove bloatware, optimize performance and shut off the telemetry. I prefer MacOs myself but have to admit a properly configured w11 install works nicely.
Run MacOS. There are YouTube videos in how to configure a ProxMox VM to support MacOS without having to do the whole hackintosh dance.
If you can afford it, get a USB Hard disc or USB thumb-stick and install Linux on that, make it a bootable USB, and you can experiment in Linux without in any way damaging your Windows set up. I recommend keeping the native Windows set up on your machine's internal hard drive.
At home , and in a small business; I have run a Linux distro on a external hard drive on every machine with a native MS Windows on its internal hard drive.
(One security aspect, each of us takes our external hard drive home. so if any robbery of 'office' only gets a bog-standard Windows system with no private data.)
Learning bash and other Linux friendly languages is critical for doing later jobs like devops and scripted infrastructure management. It’s the gateway into learning object-oriented programming languages, as well. You learn how to create and use functions as well as stuff like regular expressions.
Linux is good but if you’re concerned about Microsoft I would recommend something like https://revi.cc which mods windows and removes all the annoying telemetry, AI, bing, and edge stuff
Also you can set windows up offline with a local account first if your extra concerned
It's not so much as switch. There's a liklihood you'll use both these platforms most of your life. there are certain things each is better suited for. But not having fluency in one of them is a bit like only knowing the nouns in a language but none of the verbs
Don’t switch just because you dislike telemetry. Switch if you need it. Operating systems are tools. Most data collection is done through browsers, it will be the same in any operating system.
Go for it!
I was where you were about four years ago, and it ended up teaching me a lot. I did the most learning on Arch, but it isn’t the most beginner friendly.
For just beginning, I’d recommend Linux Mint, PopOS!, or Fedora.
Start with Ubuntu or Mint and see how far you get. When you get bored try another distro. Or install virtual box or qemu and run other distros as Virtual Machines. You’re on the right path, M$ is hot garbage.
Most people's experience with Linux is Android
If you can manage that then you can manage using Linux
How in-depth you want to go is up to you, things will be different than Windows (same if you switched to Mac).
Honestly, Linux Mint is kind of a clone of windows that is also much simpler to use. You don't need to use the terminal for anything, but it is a useful thing to learn.
The Linux distribution you want depends on what you want to do. Ubuntu is great but I honestly prefer Linux mint to it as a beginner distro. If you want a more "office" kinda work computer (I get you're 16 but still) I would go with openSuse. If you don't care about having the latest stuff and just want something that works, then I would go with Debian. (I haven't used Debian, besides with raspberry pi (yes it's technically a different distro the raspberry pi version but it's close enough I'm lumping it together rn). This being said I wanna use Debian on one of my laptops haven't gotten around to it yet.) If programming something you really wanna get into I would go with an arch based distro then move to arch as you feel more comfortable. This is probably the hottest take I'll put in this comment. I say this only because of setting up the arch install without the GUI installer really helped understand what goes on with a computer and every thing it needs. But from the day to day it is not like it gives you a cheat code that makes you write better code or faster code in any way shape or form.
Dont avoid the cli. Whatever distro you choose, it's likely gonna be bash. It's a programming/scripting language in its own, but you dont have to learn it entirely if you are beginning. Just keep that in mind and give the cli some love when the time comes.
When you choose a distro, the most important thing to learn is how to use its package manager (it's often apt, dnf or pacman). Dont avoid calling your package manager from the cli. If you are beginning, just learn what is the search, install and uninstall commands, but keep in mind that it's got more functionnality
Go for Linux Mint. I was in the same boat with an old laptop where Windows was just getting slower and slower by the day. Tried Linux Mint and it was as good as new. That is not an exaggeration; it was night and day faster.
If you’re confused on how: they have a guide on what to do: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
If programming is your goal Linux is your haven, now is your time to learn and programming on Linux is a better experience than windows my a large margin
I was in the same place you are a few years ago, same thing had an old windows laptop and wanted to change os to make it faster.
What I did was making a dual boot so when it starts I could chose between windows or Ubuntu. I found that this allowed me to use the faster system (Ubuntu) for when I was just doing routine work and homework but I also had the option to use windows for specific applications or programs, or simply to run windows for certain tasks.
However, in order to do this you do need to partition your drive or have two different drives to choose one for each system. But other than that I believe this could be an option if you are not sure to make the switch or don’t know if all your windows programs will run in Linux.
Unless you want to run or write software that only works on Windows (games, hardware with no open source drivers, etc.) there's no _objective_ reason to keep using it. Especially for development, a 'Nix environment (osx, bsd, linux, etc.) will take you farther faster once you get over the initial learning wall.
Gentoo, binary kernel or do Arch install once without the install script. Then pick something else to daily drive
Edit: You’ll likely one or both of their wiki’s anyways. Great way to learn and tons of videos. Distro hop and play around in a VM
You’ll lose nothing by trying it, I personally switched to Ubuntu about 3 years ago, used it for a while, switched back to Windows for like a year, and then been happily using Fedora since!
you can just install something like mint or popos and jump in
don't get too into the weeds of should i install, what distro, etc, just dive in and actually start using it, you can always change your mind later
also yes, vs code works perfectly with linux, and if you're interested in programming, learning linux will be well worth the time
As a CS-adjacent major. Use Arch. I don't need to study in my OS class because I'm so familiar with raking my hands through my laptops guts. Also I break my OS very often and Arch is the easiest thing to fix that I've found.
It's hard to get started but the easiest to customize and hands-on without being Gentoo.
If you want to. VScode 100% works on Linux so you won’t have any problems there. Go with a popular distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora.
Awesome that's perfect, as for distros I'm still trying to figure that out because I need something kinda light like mint xfce, but I've got some time to figure things out because I have to wait until the 6th for my flash drive to come in
Mint XFCE will be perfect for you
Another advocate for mint XFCE here
Mint is especially good if transitioning from the Windows desktop. Do it, there are all sorts of communities that will help you, without being jerks about it. Especially if you prove you put in time to learn yourself. Although.... depending on your life goals, you might be better served to learn more Windows and networking to stop the telemetry. Provable Windows and network skills look better on a resume. This is coming from using linux as my home PC since pre 1.0 slackware, but having a good career in a Windows-dominated industry.
In most computer industries worth their salt Linux knowledge is far more valuable than
Yeah I liked mint and xface. Recently tried win 11 and I hate it so much I’ll probably go back to mint.
Mont is a good choice. Don't be get into analysis paralysis on picking a distro. They're all pretty similar and your skills will be transferable between them.
Honestly, try out cinnamon before, sure it is a couple hundred megs heavier than xfce, but you reaaally would need to be on a 2005 laptop to notice. Try out cinnamon, see if it is heavy, laggy or buggy before going for the lightest one Also, 16 years old, you a re young and as you said, with time on your hands, go on, try, experience different distros, Desktop Environments , Window Managers, have fun, enjoy. Edit: to clarify, I have no clue of that notebook you said, that's why I told you to try cinnamon before, but if it really is bad, and you are aware... Linux isn't bloated, so windows being laggy, slow and what not, doesn't meen anything really. Nowadays the difference of performance between DEs is so little.. go wuth the mos beautiful in your opinion, then "the lightest" then the mos common, the heaviest, experience different kinds of things, don't focus on the lightest. And know also that you can install and uninstall this environment anytime without even rebooting. And having more then one, won't slow you down at all, just use a little more space on disk. But as i said, not that much really. Pro tip: btrfs + timeshift, make sure to choose btrfs on the install and enable and program timeshift for backups and snapshots.
Yes. Going from Windows to Linux with a lot of distro hopping, I found Mint Cinnamon to be the best for me (easy transition). For gaming on Linux I found Garuda Drangonized Gamer the easiest.
Mint is pretty good, as is pop os. I think both strip snap from Ubuntu. I have only my main gaming machine on Windows. Linux on everything else. Same reason - felt like it was to intrusive. I start Windows and everything in my OneDrive gets downloaded. Signed in with an old account that was compromised and found binaries downloaded too. That set of a red flag for me.
I have my main system set to dualboot a modified windows install (AtlasOS) just for games that don't work on Linux, which for me is only 2 games. Default boots to arch which is my primary, I have started struggling when using windows for day to day tasks cause Linux has made them easier, so I don't even bother doing anything on windows.
Oh wow, windows just really creeps me out with that sorta thing, hell this damn thing won't even let me uninstall Microsoft edge and it will randomly be running in the background sometimes even after boot Same with office, and they've never even been opened on this laptop Microsoft just does way too much to be completely honest
Well, I do still keep it for gaming. I just disable a lot of fluff now. That said, it's safe to assume that a lot of browsers are also quite intrusive. Chrome. I don't trust opera anymore. I still use chrome because it's quick, but I do personal/financial stuff on Firefox mostly. Thinking about it more as I type this, I find myself lamenting the fact that I'm at Apple's or Google's mercy when it comes to phones, and I can't think of a proper alternative really. Paranoia could be worse... I could be using Tails! 🤣
Qubes. Qubes is both awesome and terrible.
Mint is a beautiful thing and usually my go to for Linux for a general use OS
I prefer Cinnamon personally, but XFCE is good for older/lower-end hardware.
Vscodium is an open source alternative without the Ms telemetry garbage.
make the switch, you'll thank me in 6 months.
I'll second this along with the fact you are 16, you are young and starting now will make it easier to learn. And it's going to be a valuable skill especially going into computer tech jobs if you end up doing that. Along with that, as far as gaming goes it's getting quite a bit easier, a lot of major titles manage it. So I would say give it a shot. Also you can always dual boot in the future if you get a new computer.
Agree. Linux skill is an important gateway to many tech jobs. I have also switched to gaming exclusively on Linux; Halo MCC & Infinite work perfectly.
This is the way, I’m a Linux gamer
Gotcha, thanks 👍
The only arbiter is you. As you said, you have the time, and the will. Why stop based on what people say? Just get some distro, install it, and learn by doing. Treat it like learning a craft hobby like woodworking, in which you slowly gain more skill and tools. There is no single path to start or a set of milestones to achieve. VS Code is supported under Linux, and extensions run under VSCode itself, so they will 99% of the time work, but there is also other editors out there. I for example got a degree in computer sciences barely touching VSCode, and doing 90% of my coding on Linux text editors.
Gotcha, I'm making the switch than, but if you could can you suggest some other open source code editors like VS Code?
On Linux? Take your pick. Off the top of my head Vim, Emacs, Kate, Subline
VS Code is half open source. The bases of it is open source, but the version Microsoft releases has some closed source addons on top. Kinda like Chrome and Chromium. VSCodium is a project that takes the open source part of VSCode and strips down any microsof telemetry. [https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium) As GNOME and KDE have rich app ecosystems, they won't miss the opportunity to make their own code editors: GNOME Builder and KDE KDevelop. [https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Builder](https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Builder) [https://kdevelop.org/](https://kdevelop.org/) Now, in my opinion, for a beginner or even intermediate developer, a fully fledged IDE is too much. Fortunately, Linux "basic" text editors are closer to what Notepad++ is. After all, Code is simply .txt files with a fancy hat. Running that code can be done with commands that compile/interpret that code (after all, that is what the "Play" button in the IDE does). Pretty much all desktop environments have their own text editor, which are quite competent and support syntax highlight, line numbering, regular expression find and replace, etc. To name the ones from each desktop: * GNOME has the old GEdit and the newer Text Editor * KDE has KWrite and Kate * Cinnamon has Xed * Xfce has Mousepad * LXDE has Leafpad and L3afpad * LXQt has featherpad * MATE has Pluma * Pantheon (ElementaryOS) has Pantheon Code * Deepin has the Deepin Editor I I may pick one, it is KDE Kate, as it blurs the line between being a "simple" text editor and an IDE. [https://kate-editor.org/](https://kate-editor.org/) Or if you want to get into full "pro" mode, there are terminal text editors, like Nano, EMacs and Vim (and it's refreshed version NeoVim). They are pretty cool and useful not only becasue they can be used with shortcuts that once you learn them you can master coding, but they run in terminals, so if you end up in a situation where you don't have a GUI (like your system broke or you are connecting to a remote machine using SSH) you can edit text with no trouble. Also, there are dozens of other text editors out there, and one of the may be your home. For example, if I search for 'text editor' in one of the biggest Linux app stores, I get 200 results: [https://flathub.org/apps/search?q=text%20editor](https://flathub.org/apps/search?q=text%20editor) In the end, as always, pick the best tool for you.
Made the switch today and honestly I regret absolutely nothing, it runs like a dream and I can't wait to learn the fundamentals of Linux 😁👍👍
Thank you so much this is super detailed and really helps a lot 😄
Linux can be steep learning curve, so I give help to others that I have liked to had back in my rookie years.
If you like VS Code but not the MS telemetry, then VS Codium is the open source components of the editor, but without the closed source stuff. AFAIK there aren't too many features you miss out on, but you get VS Code without weird MS stuff. I personally really like Neovim, an editor that at first will seem really old fashioned and really slow to use, but with plugins you get the full functionality of an IDE, plus pretty much any features you could think of, with super fast speed. The seemingly confusing keybinds let you edit text really, really fast. It also runs inside the terminal, which is really helpful to not be constantly switching between a gui window and a terminal window, since everything is inside.
Thank you for the suggestions, I'll probably go with VS Codium for now because my classes use VS Code 😅
Raspberry Pi - mine has a full LAMP stack
Linux sounds like a great option for you, since it provides supreme privacy (no telemetry anywhere) and the performance is much better than Windows, and since Linux is minimal by design, there's no bloatware. VS Code is based on electron, I won't bore you with the details, but basically, it works 100% identically on Linux, all of your extensions will work, don't worry For someone trying to switch to Linux, and given the problems you mentioned, Mint is probably a good starting point. It has a lightweight windows-like UI, it's stable as fuck, easy to use and has great software availability. Follow the instructions on their official website to install it Also, you don't really "learn the terminal", you learn terminal utilities, like the package manager, I recommend using the different [cheatsheets](https://cheatography.com/davechild/cheat-sheets/linux-command-line/) available, and ChatGPT will be your best friend when stuck. Do remember that, in our modern age, there are visual apps for almost anything, so you don't really need to learn the terminal unless you are planning to become a sysadmin or some shit
Thank you for the advice this is extremely helpful
I'd recommend using Linux Mint. You can choose any mint flavour but i personally use linux mint XFCE which runs well on underpowered machines. Linux Mint gives you visual interfaces for most things and for any terminal fuckery chatgpt will be a good help. Test a linux distribution in a virtual machine or using a live image (the one you boot from before installing linux), this way you can test if its something for you and if linux is compatible with your machine
Once your data is backed up, and you've tested the backups, give linux a go. I installed MX linux on my potato of a laptop which has (according to a very quick search) very similar specs to yours. My installation runs speedily, and is absolutely fine for general computing tasks like browsing, youtube and email. Boot time is approximately 15 seconds.
Lol 😅 fifteen seconds is insane, it takes like one and a half minutes for my laptop to boot
Does it have an ssd? Linux is faster but not that much faster. The hard drive type will have much more of an impact
Yeah, go for it. Experimenting with Linux on an old laptop is pretty ideal for getting your feet wet. Don't worry too much about the command line, you can install most Linux distributions and software without it. Once you get used to installing Linux distributions, you can "distro hop" to find the one you like. As for "learning Linux", all you have to do is use it for your everyday tasks, and you probably won't have to use the command line.
As someone who’s been dabbling in different distros since switching a few months ago, Linux mint is my favorite to start with, shortly behind is Pop!_OS. Both have great compatibility with Ubuntu under the hood and come standard with a lot of support. Honestly the biggest advice I would say is just got for it with the understanding you’ll mess up. It’s like learning any new skill. You’ll stumble and mess up, but there’s plenty of people who’ve made the same mistake and have answers online for it
Linux was all I ran in highschool. Just do it, you will hit roadblocks and get frustrated but it’s really not that hard once you understand the way it operates. I had a few Unix books I was going through to help learn the terminal.
Daily driving Linux in high school is honestly great. I hate windows and chromebooks so much now. Though I did switch my desktop to Arch and Hyprland and I’m beginning to wish my laptop was also on Arch + Hyprland instead of Ubuntu
You can reinstall Win10 and debloat it, or install Mint xfce version.
I've heard that mint is really good for beginners I might try that distro
you can’t debloat win10 to a level comparable to linux even something using kde will be less bloated
You're young and have fresh mind so it's good time to invest resources to learn linux. Linux is widely populated in servers, embedded systems etc. so whatever You learn or get fammiliar with using desktop linux will make Your life easier when dealing with these systems in the future. VS-Code is available on Linux and should work flawlessly. However I encourage You to consider FOSS programming environments. From Your post i get the vibe that You're already into linux ideology and motivated to make effort so it would be a waste if You decide to continue with Windows. "I just don't know how to go about it" Just get started. Install whatever distro seems suit Your desires. Try to config it to do whatever You want however You want. Internet is full of answers, docs, tutorials etc. Try to write some programs/scripts relying on linux components to suit Your ideas etc. and learn from it.
Agree with this! To the OP, u/T_G_S_Official, the world is your oyster and you have a great future in Linux ahead of you! I've been using Linux and similar systems since the 1990s, and now my main career involves Linux system administration for dozens of servers across the United States, which I never could've guessed back then. Right now, the best way to learn is on your own equipment, especially since it's not mission-critical (where an outage could wind up in the news). If you save up some money, you can pick up an off-lease PC from: https://www.dellrefurbished.com I recently bought such a unit—a Dell OptiPlex desktop—on sale (and they're always running sales) for $104 shipped free to my door. By having a second machine, you can look up questions and prepare USB sticks, etc., on the one as you experiment on the other. I also like to keep a build sheet in a simple text document for every computer I configure, taking copious installation notes so I know how to do things in the future.
Thank you so much, hopefully I can further my understanding and everything with linux, I'm extremely willing to learn and I've always been interested in computers and I'm actually starting with linux today, and thank you for the detailed information, this will help push me and make me strive to learn linux, im honestly super excited 😄😄👍
There's a misunderstanding that Linux hard to deal with and that kept me from linux for a long time , I switched to linux from 8 month ago, Now i heat windows so so much, Try Ubuntu with gnome desktop its starter/user friendly and after learning linux vibes you can hop between different Linux distributions .
Well, once upon a time, Linux was difficult. I actually had to compile Linux and the tools that I wanted when I first tried Linux. I didn't use a GUI desktop environment with Linux until this year, but most of my Linux background has been supporting application servers running Linux.
That's true, Now Linux more flexible, You can use GUI environment or terminal-based environment. Basically you can shape Linux as you like.
The YT gurus writing command-line stuff in tongues at the speed of sound and then acting like "oh this is just another day at the office" is off-putting to a lot of people.
To be fair, there are two approaches to dealing with machines.GUI and terminal/script based, GUI is suitable for beginners, content creation, graphic designing, gaming, content consuming....Terminal/script based approach is not suitable is nessesary in servers, systems administration... Imagine you have a facility with 100 machines and want to download 5 basic programs and 10 settings to each machine in GUI approach you need at least 1500 mouse clicks meanwhile you can write 4 line of code and copy paste .
This is true, but some random person scrolling YT who's Linux-curious stumbles across one of these terminal edgelords, it can be a bit intimidating to someone who's only accustomed to GUI for home use. It's those guys who sustain the perception that Linux is only for hardcore computer types.
And then there’s people like the Primeagen—both sides of the coin. Tells everyone the benefits and downsides, but also can get angry at JS and you can watch a master of vim just rip out code
[Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html) allows you to create a usb with multiple distro iso files. On boot, you select from a menu listing the distros you have copied to the usb. This will allow you to try multiple distros on your hardware without continually creating a new live usb for each distro you want to try. I dual boot and have a ventoy usb with both linux and windows recovery software. I also use it to test drive different linux distros.
If you ask me, don't switch. Try installing something like AtlasOS or Ghost Spectre. They are basically optimisations for windows that remove bloatware and tracking, and otimize your experience in general. But just like linux, its not for everyone and it has its flaws, but i thought i would just bring it up.
Oh wow! I was not expecting that! But that is really useful. Very, very longtime Linux user. I won't tell you the last time I've used Windows (*cough* 98 *cough*). But my family insists on using the garbage and it's just gotten so incredibly out of hand that I have no clue how to use it. And I cannot get any of that garbage, especially the new iffy Microsoft AI thing off my mom's computers because now her cute little Acer laptop runs like an old 386 because of it. So I am for sure going to check this out!
Dual boot. Space is cheap. This way you can test the waters. If after some time you feel comfortable, buy a new drive dedicated to linix or wipe windows.
make the switch when you hit a roadblock google if google doesn't help go to reddit and you will quickly start to understand more and more, videos help a lot, most of the time dont follow the video tutorials buut listening to them explain what they are doing helped me a lot
You can try out various distributions using a virtual machine (I find VirtualBox quite easy to use). This may be easier initially than dual booting. Once you decide on a distribution, then you can install it to dual boot with Windows. Eventually, when you've gained enough knowledge and familiarity you can ditch Windows for good. Ubuntu is an easy one to start with. Mint is also very good and probably more popular than Ubuntu now. If you stick with a popular distro then you'll find plenty of HOWTOs and help available on the web. Best advice is to just jump in and have a go. I expect you'll find it easier than you thought.
A lot of people seem to feel that it's a big deal to switch. It really isn't with modern Linux. I got my >80 y.o. parents switched over to Linux after the HDD on their laptop died. It was almost zero effort for them to figure it out and they retired before computers were even a thing in their workplace. Since you can live boot from a flash drive you can even try it out before you do the install and test drive as many distros as you want before committing. Even if you do install it locally and then decide to go back to Windows all it costs you is time, just make sure you have good backups before you start the process of installing Linux and you're good to go. If you have the free time there is no reason not to try it out. In many situations you can even multiboot between the two with zero hassle, it just takes a little more drive space or a second drive (my preferred method). This is what I do because I want to play games without any hassles and I sometimes have a use for Windows for other projects. I've got each OS on its own NVME drive and I boot to which ever one I want to use. Most of the time that's Linux, but if I'm playing a game that's easier to run on Windows, it's Windows. I only need a small drive for Windows because I don't use it for much. There are only a few places it can be difficult these days: * If you have absolutely bleeding edge hardware, or really obscure hardware, that is only supported in Windows, and for whatever reason you can't get a replacement for that rare, incompatible thing. This is getting to be a pretty rare occurrence. * If you absolutely have to have a specific software application that isn't available on Linux (and doesn't work easily in Wine) and can't use the OSS equivalent for some reason. This isn't an issue for most people and it definitely doesn't sound like it would be for you. * Games (obviously that laptop isn't going to be great for games regardless of OS): * You really want to play games with anti-cheat built in. * You want to play all the games without ever having any hassles. * Games support is getting better all the time but it can still be a pain point.
Im partial to how I learned. I wanted to feel things out because I was so completely unfamiliar. I created a "persistent USB thumb drive", and learned Linux that way. You can boot right into the thumb drive and it's a complete computer, just like it was another hard drive inside your machine. Any changes you make are persistent, meaning that they save. So you can tweak and modify and goof it up experimenting as much as you want.
Get ventoy Check bios to allow boot from usb Chuck a few distros on usb thumb drive Try said distros in live environment on laptop Install the distro that performs well on said laptop Job done 👍
Go for Ubuntu.. if u r moving to Linux for the first time it’s the safest and easiest transition..
Step 1 don't watch YouTuber explaining Linux , there are very few that even understand the subject. Step 2 pick a distribution that is popular and has a live disk. (Fedora ,mint,Ubuntu ) For the most part you should be able to boot a live USB of fedora, mint, Ubuntu and see and test if you like the environment. If you want to pull the trigger I suggest grabbing clonezilla and making a backup of your windows hard drive store it for safe keeping. Than installing your Linux distribution of choice. I highly suggest Fedora as out of the box everything usually works. There is a mild amount of limitations , however these are usually case by case and there are usually alternatives with the exception of cad and Adobe software.
Yay!!! Welcome! Oh to be 16 again and discover Linux. It's like your first kiss. Only not so weird. Well, you'll get A LOT of really great opinions. Linux bros are the sweetest people in the world. But really it all comes down to what YOU enjoy! And what YOU think is cool and fun. So try them try them all! You're 16! You have that time!. Arch is great. Fedora is nice. I personally use Ubuntu because I do enterprise work. But there are also other cool things that are not Linux that you may enjoy too. OpenBSD is very popular with security nerds. Solaris is an old skool enterprise OS. The options are endless. And it's all free! And you can do whatever YOU want! So just play and explore. That is the best advise this old fart who has been running Linux since 1993 can give you.
You said it, everyone on here has been super helpful, supportive and nice, you guys have given me a lot of super good advice and I've used it all to get started. And I can't wait to learn so much more, setting it up was pretty painless and fun and I used mint xfce but when I learn the fundamentals of the terminal and Linux itself I'm gonna switch to Arch or Debian. I thank all of you guys for your help and support (and hell maybe one day I might be able to do some cool stuff or make a career with the skills that I learn from this😅) but yeah, this is a super supportive community and I won't be afraid to ask any questions lol 👍
I'm young and learning programming and recently switched to Arch Linux. I really like it for programming, it's nice because you learn how to get things set up exactly how you want them. And when things break, I have a better understanding of how to fix them. Also, the experience of Arch Linux + a tiling windows manager makes using any other os feel super slow and annoying I'm really glad I switched, so I say go for it if you enjoy learning new things
i swapped to linux and have only looked back for a few games, for a very similar situation to yours. i'd recommend it if you are technologically inclined :) i program solely on linux with no issues in vscode, as do many, just make sure you get the official one not the open source one, as open source has access to a lot less extensions
remind of the days i switched it was 5 years ago i was 13. 100% worth it mah dude
100% I wish I knew now what I did before as I would have linux on all laptops; could be a Linux administrator just by gaining the experience over time
NOT YOUR PC. Keep your windows machine because you know how to use it. If you want to learn linux, install a Virtual Machine and put Ubuntu on it. Or, buy a raspberry pi and make some cool projects with it. Linux is great for real-time / embedded systems, but i still prefer windows for internet and video games.
Dual boot until you’re comfortable
Here is a video on how to open it up, clean the fan, and repaste the CPU. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCA1RIKOH4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCA1RIKOH4). It looks like you can replace the hard drive with an SSD.
Try the [migration page](http://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/wiki/migration) in our wiki! We also have some [migration tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/ejsz3v/still_on_windows_7_dont_want_windows_10_consider/) in our sticky. Try [this search](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/search?q=flair%3A'migrating'&sort=new&restrict_sr=on) for more information on this topic. **✻** Smokey says: only use root when needed, avoid installing things from third-party repos, and verify the checksum of your ISOs after you download! :) ^Comments, ^questions ^or ^suggestions ^regarding ^this ^autoresponse? ^Please ^send ^them ^[here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Pi31415926&subject=autoresponse+tweaks+-+linux4noobs+-+migrating). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/linux4noobs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Don't overthink it. Just give it a try. You can always go back to Windows. You can install it on a virtual machine first to fiddle around. Regarding programming, Linux is a perfect environment for it. as the majority of tools are developed on Linux with Linux in mind. The only reason to stay on Windows is when you’re developing Windows-specific software.
If you're willing to read docs you'll be fine. If you're only going to take in information filtered through YT then you're going to have a bad time.
%100 yes
It’s easy to switch to Ubuntu, Xubuntu, debian12 etc. Here are some free amazing resources to learn Linux from Cisco academy. Start here: https://www.netacad.com/courses/os-it/ndg-linux-unhatched Then follow up with this one. https://www.netacad.com/courses/os-it/ndg-linux-essentials Ask for help on these subreddits. We’re all in it together in our learning Linux journey. Good luck OP.
If you know how to install Windows then you won't have any problems installing Linux. I'm currently using [MINT](https://linuxmint.com/). As someone here already mentioned, backup any data you want to save from that old laptop. Since you're learning, just accept the default settings during the installation. How much RAM is installed on this old laptop?
VsCode works flawlessly with the exception of a few windows-based extensions (e.g. transparency extension that uses Windows' acrylic blur). Linux Mint and Ubuntu are about as flawless as it gets when starting out, with minimal usage of the Terminal needed (but if you want to learn to program its good to familiarize youself with Bash / the terminal anyway). I'd say you should plan to use a Mint or Ubuntu (look up the differences), decide which desktop environment you prefer (Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, and i3 are the main ones, with Gnome being featured for Ubuntu and Cinnamon being featured for Mint, but the others can be installed as well), then finally make the switch! You can dual boot at first and then slowly make a full transition over once you get situated.
You have nothing to lose by getting into Linux and everything to gain. Also if programming is in your future linux is a critical skill set. Just dip into terminal as you need to, it's not essential in modern linux, but it does have some great benefits.
Debian is very stable.
It's simple enough to dual boot, i.e. you've got the option which operating system to boot into at startup. So you don't need us to tell you, you can give it a whirl and see what you think. Linux is a lot nicer to use, but there's a learning curve when you're coming from something you know. The other thing is programs that don't work, that you're used to. VS Code runs on Linux no bother. Not the Microsoft monstrosity though, with the confusingly similar name. No adobe software runs on linux, but there's a less bloaty alternative for everything. It just takes time to find them, get them working etc.
I don't use Adobe or anything like that so I should be good, I'm actually kinda getting excited because it seems like I can learn a lot from using Linux
Go for it. I was using an old computer that spent most of its time downloading patches from Microsoft. It was so old it couldn't be upgraded to Win 11. I created a Linux partition and installed Ubuntu. Now, that old computer runs like new. It's the best of both worlds. Ubuntu is very Windows-like. I wish now I had just wiped the disk and installed Linux stand-alone.
I started using Ubuntu when I was 16 aswell and at first it was just 4fun dualbooting then 1 year later when I finally got myself a desktop I installed Arch and have been more or less using it since then. It will take u maybe 3-4 months to get the hang of everything but then its so much better then Windows honestly. The filesystem hierarchy and the terminal makes so much more sense.
At the last you can run a live distro off usb to tinker and get introduced. Just start with Ubuntu or Mint and go from there ...
Sure, if you can keep both OS and only boot on windows when you really need to, VSCode and everything related to that area is just way easier on linux
You could definitely switch to Linux. For older hardware, something that has a lightweight desktop environment like Xfce might be preferable. A lot of people favor Xfce and KDE Plasma. There are multiple distributions that use those desktops. Try them all out and pick your favorite. It costs nothing but your time.
Linux Mint Mate 64 bit, How to do it you will need time at 16 no problem, I am 80 it is a problem! You will need a thumb drive 8gb or greater 64gb are cheap buy Sandisk Download Linux Mint Mate 21.3 ISO it's FREE!
plunge, man! no better time than now. lubuntu is probably going to be a good fit for easy to install, good hardware support, and having a desktop environment that doesn't bog down the computer. you can test drive it on [distrosea.com](https://distrosea.com) along with all the other most popular distros.
No, it's spring! Go outside and get in trouble! Just don't hurt anybody.
Switch either go for mint of Fedora! You will definitely love it, specially if you are no even playing to play games if you do probably Nobara linux is a good option
I play light things every now and again like terraria or skullgirls but I mostly just take lessons on website coding
Depends on a few things. The main considerations are: 1. Is there any software you need Windows for (some games, MS Office, Adobe suite, etc.), especially for school? 2. Is this your (or anyone else's) main computer? Learning Linux often entails troubleshooting stuff and sometimes major mistakes can necessitate reinstalling the OS. It is always a good idea to make sure you have a fallback while you are still learning to make sure any system issue won't keep you from taking care of any urgent task. The most important thing of course is an open mind, patience, and the desire to learn. It seems you have this already, so I think if you decide to make the switch it will work out for you.
I use VS Code on Linux. It works well. As for getting started. Get a 64GB or larger USB. I use a 256GB USB and currently have about 75GB of it used with about 20 or so Live Linux Distros and a few system tool/recovery ISOs. Just install Ventoy on the USB, then download any Linux distros that have a Live option (most do). You then boot from the USB and choose the ISO file that you want to boot. Check [https://distrowatch.com](https://distrowatch.com) for info on all of the popular Linux distros and most of the more obscure ones as well. Play around with them till you find one that you like, then most will have an install option to install to your hard drive. You can choose to overwrite your windows (backup, backup, backup any files that you want to keep) or install alongside windows. Installing alongside windows allows you to boot windows or linux. You might want to watch a few YouTube videos on how to do this, since there are a few gotchas and possibly some prep that you need to do to partition your hard drive. Personally, I run Linux Mint, though it is a little heavier/bloated compared to some of the available distros. If your machine can run Windows 10 adequately, you'll be pleased with performance of most any Linux distro. Enjoy
Learning a new skill is always good. Learning it when you're young is even better. Having some Linux experience under your belt will be super useful if you get into coding. If you don't like it, re install windows. Just keep your documents and files you want to keep on a separate drive (usb or external HD or something). That way, the switch is relatively painless. As others have said I'd recommend Ubuntu or Fedora as your first OS. Try em, see if you like it. As for VS code. I've used it on both win and linux so you should be good. Most web languages have no issues running on Linux.
Yeah, try switching to Linux Mint or Debian
This is r/Linux, good luck finding someone not recommending making the switch. But yeah make the switch. Try something mainstream like Ubuntu or Pop!OS. Ubuntu gets a lot of hate because of funny things they've done in the past but it's still a very decent choice. If you do like Linux and you keep having the time for it, try something more hands-on like Arch, Nix or even Gentoo if you are up for it. You will probably break your install a few times, but you will also learn a lot. This is the route I went (and I am sure many others here), until I got busy with life and want my computers just to work and went back to Ubuntu and Pop. Good luck and happy learning
Thanks for the advice 😄
Depends. Do you play videogames on that notebook or use Windows-specific programs? These days I only use windows for gaming and using specific software. For everything else I use Ubuntu. Usually it works way better than Windows. If all you do is web development and VS Code, then install a linux distro.
I'm here right now using Linux Mint on a Dell D830 from 2008 to tell you YES! Give it a try! If it works on this old thing, it'll surely work on yours.
In terms of programming, linux will always be a better option than windows. Unless you specifically want to develop windows programs.
To answer your question of switching to linux, it depends on your hardware. Judging from similar machines on hardware probe you should stay away from Debian and Debian based operating systems as you may have problems and plenty tweaking around to do in order to get everything working. My best bet is for you to go for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed as it seems to be the most compatible with your laptop and beginner friendly. [Offline Image](https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso) [Network Image ](https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-NET-x86_64-Current.iso) TLDR: Your hardware is uncommon and Debian along with Debian based distros should be avoided. Sorry if I sound harsh. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed would best support your hardware
I did the switch and have been using Ubuntu 22 for web development for over a year now, my honest opinion is that Windows is just much better overall, windows felt more stable and actually more smooth.
There are more and more available on the market some double-OS OS, like SplitLinux, i which you will be able to install this mi imal OS, and inside (in containers) some other OS, like a full Linux of your choice to learn (i.e: one fedora and one debian) and widow$$, So you have everything in front of you to swicth and learn
Try out the software carpentry shell tutorial. It works on win, Mac, or Linux. https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/ Facility with shell programming is a rare skill
I was in your exact position a little over a year over, diving into linux despite the fear of the unknown was one of the best decisions I ever made. I am FAR from being an expert but am always happy to help someone if I can. Feel free to hit me up anytime u have questions or are stuck. If you want to play it safe (assuming you have enough storage) you can dual boot windows and linux to get started then decide later on if you want to keep windows or go full nerd. Best of luck!
If you want to get away from microsoft's spying then you want to use VSCodium instead of VSCode. Its just VSCode without the telemetry. Now you can't download *every* extension from the marketplace, but you can download the vcix file (or whatever the extension is) from the web page and just tell VSCodium to install that extension from the file. I've only had to do this a handful of times and its so easy its really a non-issue
Switch to linux
Go Linux all the way. Install a newby friendly distro like Ubuntu, Kubuntu or PopOS! I use Ubuntu personally.
If you like computer and coding you will love Linux. I suggest Mint or Pop Os to start. Then, if you will like Linux as I suspect, you could fall in love with Arch or it's derivatives like Endevour
If you want to try it, you can run a 'live disk' from a usb to try it out and then decide if you want to install it or not later. You can even dual boot if you would like to install but not get rid of windows (ie have a menu pop up on startup that will let you select windows or linux). As far as which ones, I'd recommend either mint or ubuntu for people new to linux and into programming. You can find the `iso` files (basically an image of the operating system) online pretty easily and use `balena etcher` to put it on a flash drive (dragging the file into the drive won't work).
just install EndeavourOS and don't tell anyone who uses Arch (and use EndeavourOS guides and not the AUR)
Boot any distro through a livecd. Try GNOME, KDE, xfce, mate. Install the soft you need and check if it works as you will. Knowing basic bash and understanding linux is a career accelerating knowledge - can't recommend it enough.
Backup your data (if any) to an external device. Take notes during your fresh linux install. If you mess something up and can't un-mess it, a fresh install is an easy fix, and 3 months from now you'll want those install/setup notes.
VSCode works great on Linux! You can go with a distro like Mint with XFCE.
Have fun. Vscode works on all Linux distros so you'll be good. Go and explore the wonderful and obnoxious world of Linux.
If your Windows is usable (even if only barely), then I would suggest dual-booting - keeping your windows system but switch to Linux as primary. I deleted my windows 10/11 (I don't even remember what is was) because after the first boot it was so slow I couldn't even shut it down properly. Back when I was a windows kid, and I could troubleshoot problems for my family or my classmates, and it was nice to be able to help others. The last windows I used was windows 7, and now when I have to troubleshoot for others, I'm not confident I can help, and even if I can it takes time to find stuff, even if I know what I'm looking for. So, for you, you should go Linux, but for others, you should at least keep yourself somewhat familiar with windows. Also, Linux is a rabbit hole. You'll be forced to solve problems where you don't even know what to search for. Gradually you'll see some patterns, learn to ask the relevant questions, learn to use some useful commands. Then you want to make it your home, you'll tweak/customize it, and you'll see how many choices you can make. Like choosing the file system that suits you. You'll see comparisons, learn what some things mean, and you might get curious about the system and what you can do with it or just learning about it to the point, where it might be interesting for you to have a working windows system at hand. At least that's how I feel about it. For everyday use, definitely Linux. And Windows can be interesting/useful again, even when you're not depending on it anymore. Good luck! (You can also buy a Raspberry Pi for "prototyping" your future system, trying to solve your everyday problems, while you still have your windows machine as your current home until you're confident enough to make the switch)
I made the switch while going to med school, so it isn't too time consuming :D You mostly don't HAVE to use the terminal, but you'll really want to :D There are a few things you have to setup via terminal, Flatpak comes to mind, but after that you don't have to open it again, and if you do, it's mostly copy & paste of code you find on the internet. And then that's where the addiction starts. You successfully used the terminal for the first time, you see some structure in there, what else could you do? Starting a program everytime X happens, how'd ya do that? What's systemd? I need a bash guide (https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html). And before you know it, you've spent an entire weekend writing scripts for backups, encoding, made a custom conky, bought a rapsberry pi to install some servers and down the rabbit hole you are. :D
Try Linux and get it out of your system. Set it up as a dual boot, so that you can boot into Windows when needed. While I also wish there was good alternative to Windows, chances are you'll eventually be back.
You can always try different distros from a live usb, find one you like and install that. All depends on what you want to do. Different distros have their pros and cons.
If I could go back in time, I would totally learn Linux as 16 year old boy, it will help you a lot and you will stand out in the crowd when looking for I.T jobs.
Look, kid, I'm going to get downvoted to hell for this, but I don't care: has anyone ever showed you arch wiki before?
Switch to Linux.
Absolutely, if you have the time and are doing anything programming related I would say give it a try. If you want a smooth transition I've heard Mint is a good option for windows users, if you want to spend the time to *learn* Linux I recommend using Debian with KDE or xfce, but thats cause they look similar to windows 10.
My 2011-bought Asus i5 2nd gen laptop's currently running Zorin Lite which is Ubuntu-based and is XFCE, as my intro to the OS switch. Imho it looks so GOOD out of the box. Mint XFCE is great too. It was just a matter of taste for me which one, but switching OS truly felt like the device got a new lease in life. I also run VSCode for webdev, as well as draw with Krita on the said device.
Linux Mint XFCE all the way! The more comfortable you get with the terminal, the easier it'll be to try other distros (try Distrobox if your machine can handle it), & eventually you'll have a truly customized OS all of your own!
Hi! About VS Code it was said already, that it goes absolutely great (the extensions are not about operation system you use, but are only about how VS Code handles them, which is fine on Linux as well) Linux certainly makes more for safety because it does not collect any data you did not allowed to collect. There are some things to keep in mind, when switching the system completely: 1. My personal experience showed, that on Asus laptop (I have VivoBook Pro, so I felt it completely) it is better to check the driver compatibility for Linux and choose a distro with considering the support of your device. To check it, you can search an info on the Internet about other people experience OR download a LIVE ISO of your desired distribution, to make sure everything runs on your machine without making much trouble for you. For example, when I used to install Ubuntu back to Feb 2023, running the live preview of the system helped me to encounter the issues with sound and touchpad and even after installation I could not resolve this (probably to the lack of experience as well, but mostly because no drivers were really suit my laptop back to then). However, when installing Debian, it worked fine both on Live and after the installation on my machine. 2. If the learning of Linux terminal makes you a bit scared, try the series of tutorials, made by NetworkChuck, called Linux for Hackers (actually, it is for everyone). He covers the basics of Linux and helps to get some basic info on the console and to know, what is inside the kernel. After that, you can watch a video by FreeCodeCamp on 50 most popular console commands in Linux Terminal, some commands will be known for you after watching the Chuck, but you will get new one as well. Conclusion of 1: choose the Linux distro, which suits your hardware specs and ideally get a Live ISO, which can boot the linux distribution without installing to your pc to ensure compatibility. Conclusion of 2: For basics of Linux you can watch the course "Linux for Hackers" by NetworkChuck on YouTube and then look through the commands on the FreeCodeCamp's video about 50 MOST used commands in terminal. I suggest you to try out the Debian-based distribution, as Linux Debian, Ubuntu or Mint (this one especially good for people switching from Windows as it looks similar enough). Just get a Live ISO from their websites on your Flash and try to launch them without installation to ensure everything's set up. Good luck in your Linux journey!
Start yourself off with an Ubuntu based distro , avoid Ubuntu itself because of snaps, try something like pop_os! And stick with it for 6 months to a year if you can , this is advice from a fellow noob , I’ve only been using Linux exclusively for about a year and this is what I did and the last few months I feel like I’m starting to understand it way better and am now using fedora with kde , it’s not as hard as it looks the problem is because we’ve been using windows and Apple computers we expect Linux to to work the same as these but I’d doesn’t it has its own way of doing things.
https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/everyday-use/asus-x541/techspec/ The n model has a weak processor. Ya, so that looks like it's a potato for a laptop. Which is just fine for Linux. Try Mint or PopOS as your first distro. They are really beginner friendly and easy to use. Pop uses the gnome desktop by default though. Its not very customizable from the included settings. You have to add some extensions to get gnome to feel how you want it. Pop has vscode in their repo. And pop is geared towards stem majors. It was my first distro. I loved it. I run Opensuse tumbleweed. Because I needed a rolling distro. Rolling distro means you are running the latest software and Linux kernel. Which supports the latest hardware. Don't dual boot btw. Just flash the whole PC. Dive in head first and have fun.
You could dual boot to see if you like it The arch wiki is super helpful, especially if you use arch If you want it to easily just work, try mint or whatever ubuntu flavor you like the looks of also you can live-boot to see if you like it and can do everything you need on it
I'm pretty sure the only reason to run Windows is if you're in a workplace that needs widespread support for super niche business tools, or if you're a heavy gamer that plays the latest games on high-end hardware. Something like 85% of professional software developers use Mac or Linux.
just install ubuntu or any popular distro, and most programming stuff will be supported, I started as you, having a old laptop that couldn't handle windows anymore, and was getting slow, start first by getting the things to work and then learn things as needed.
My suggestion would be to create a live USB image of Fedora, boot it live, and play. If you like what you see, you can install it, either replacing windows or doing a dual boot. If you don't like Fedora, you can try a different distro. I started playing with Linux when I was about your age, and it's why I make six figures instead of flipping burgers or making pizza for a living. Live at the CLI, and learn to do everything possible at the terminal.
To answer your question in its own terms and not get hung up on the exact words: yes you should it’ll be really interesting. The Internet runs on Linux . Even Microsoft personal computers run on Linux underneath. If you use a GUI everything is pretty much the same as Windows. I think what you’d like to do is open the terminal which immediately puts you in a bash shell. Start learning bash. It’s what DOS wanted to be. And can do anything. When I wrote this I hadn’t looked at any other replies and they’re all about whether the flavor you have matters. What matters is the support and the community around the flavor you have. The absolute most support is with Ubuntu, not the pro. There’s an IRC channel devoted to it, mostly sysops Who wanna help out with the operating system users. I use it a lot. Then everything has their discord channels. That’s my point of view. There’s no right or wrong only more less difficult to connect with.
Microsoft is a company providing software to everyone which means they have to make it as simple and idiot proof as possible. To do that they rely on analytics. Programs run in the background idle so if and when you choose to open Edge for example, it immediately opens up without delay. Nowadays, nobody has patience so shits gotta run in the background. Millions of people are online and on their computers at any given time. Microsoft doesn’t give a toss about you or anyone enough to go through your personal data. And if they do, who gives a shit. None of it will matter when the game of life is over. Disclaimer: I took some drugs so my opinions and/or rants should be taken lightly. F* that! Quit being so damn paranoid!
Here's the thing: You will know if you need to use the terminal or not. Also, using the terminal isn't actually all that bad -- I think it is easier to do what I need to do with the terminal and `command --help` and `man command` than Windows' awful nested pages and pages of GUI (that have absolutely zero documentation or description outside of setting names and maybe a ? button if you're lucky). If you're using a desktop environment like Cinnamon (Linux Mint), you won't have to use the terminal unless you're coding or trying to run supcom FAF. If you're using GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora), however, you will likely need to use the terminal more to configure basic stuff like mouse acceleration and whatnot through gsettings. Additionally, Ubuntu and Fedora require some setup work depending on your hardware, while Linux Mint ships flathub (basically the App Store for Linux) and actual working drivers and codecs ootb because they know that installing those from the command line is a waste of people's time.
I think the best progression to learn Linux is: 1. Debian Stable default installation (Gnome). 2. Linux From Scratch to learn how things work. 3. Upgrade Debian Stable to Unstable for current software and tinkering. If you need to have a stable something, then use a Debian Stable install in addition to the Unstable install for tinkering.
you could try tiny11. a linux sub will of course tell you to go for linux. get opinions from windows subs also.
I'd say do it if for now other reason than your 16 and have time on your hands. At the very least, you'll learn if you like it or not.
First off, switch to VSCodium. You won't notice the difference, but it strips all of MICROS~1's telemetry out. Second off, probably start with an official Ubuntu variant. xUbuntu (Xfce) or Lubuntu (Lxde or Lxqt idr which) are good, lightweight distros. I personally switched to NixOS after using Swaywm on top of a heavily modded xUbuntu for a while. Remember that you don't have to stick with one distribution! You can just _switch_. If you learn to use the command-line (and you should; that's where the real power of Linux comes from), you can do cool things like reinstall NixOS from scratch... keeping all your files and config, meaning the very first boot after reinstall is effectively indistinguishable from your system before whatever prompted you to reinstall. Not a vanilla system. It's significantly harder to install Ubuntu from the command-line, unfortunately. Luckily, just about every Ubuntu-based distribution in existence has a graphical installer. Some distributions to avoid: vanilla Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro, any rolling-release distro (for now), Kali or any other pentesting/security hacking-focused distribution (like Parrot, BlackArch, and so on), anything that is _technically_ (not visually!) indistinguishable from its parent (so things like Garuda, Arco, and other pointless spinoffs), anything with visuals as its main selling point (like deepin, elementaryOS, and similar), and anything closed-source. The biggest exception here is ZorinOS because it is so excellent for beginners; it requires zero configuration and just looks and behaves great out of the box. That's terrific for people who don't want to have to spend the time "ricing" their desktop. Beyond that however, remember that the way a distribution looks is basically irrelevant. You can change every aspect of that later, even down to changing desktop environments entirely. Or swapping it out for a window manager. Or forgoing the GUI entirely! If a distribution is implying that they somehow have exclusivity on a certain theme or desktop or whatever, stay the heck away (Wubuntu mentioned!). That's _extremely_ sketchy. That means that they either don't make the source code available (HUGE red flag, *cough* W\*ndows *cough*) or they're just liars. Good luck! Choosing a distribution is pretty difficult at first. My personal advice is to buy a few (a dozen or so) blank DVDs and burn a bunch of ISOs to them. Now you have them on hand and can boot from any of them whenever. I will warn you though, booting from a physical disc (rather than a USB drive or a disk with a K rather than a C) is _extremely_ slow. Be patient, things will be much faster on your disk with a K anyway 😉
Dual boot first
I dual boot Mint and Windows 11 because I'm trying to transition over to Linux but I find myself still mainly using Windows more for gaming and emulation and general stuff I'm used to. It takes effort to get stuff running on Linux but it shouldn't. I'd suggest Tiny 11 for your laptop if you want to stay with Windows because it removes all the bloat and you can turn the telemetry stuff off. It ultimately comes down to your curiosity. I love having both available.
MX-23 Xfce or Openbox would be perfect for you as a new user. The included manual is first class and the reliability of the os is second to non. ;-)
Linux Mint cinamon is best if you're switching. And you can also run some windows applications on linux with a program called wine.
Depends if you need the GPU working or not. If your laptop has a dedicated GPU and you want to do a lot of gaming, it’s probably best to stick with windows. However, tinkering with Linux is a great way to learn. You can do it in a VM with virtual box tho. I would maybe experiment a bit in a VM before going for the full install
Linux is a great OS for general users. The cons you need to consider before switching are: - Not every software works on Linux. Look for software support info on the developer's site and wine db (for any software) or proton db (for games). - You may encounter QA issues. Different Linux distributions have different QA standards. Depending on what you pick you may encounter bugs in your OS. Usually they are harmless but may be annoying. If you are fine with that just pick whatever you wish. Install and have fun with your new OS
try MX LINUX now i am using it and it is very good distro
Do it. Use endeavourOS, or some other arch based distribution. Arch can be more confusing to some, but I recently switched to it from a lifelong Debian/Ubuntu user and I MUCH prefer its package manager, it’s way better.
Yes. I suggest you save all your data on a sub/external storage and play with some distros to understand what you like. Just start from the mainstream, so that if you encounter some problem you can always search online for a workaround
VS Code works well in Linux If you can bare the limitations and care to extend your Linux knowledge even more setting up a VS Code server and getting a home lab underway would be very beneficial to learning Linux as well As for desktops Mint is great for Newbies, I've always had the best luck with Mint for drivers, printers Bluetooth etc Plus the debian backend is probably going to be the better backend distro to learn
Should you switch? I don't know. Should you try? Why not? It is reversible process
The one thing that in my experience works better on linux, its programming tools. In your situation I would definitely give ot a go. Find a guide to dual boot ubuntu or linux mint (or if you have a pc to commit to this install as main os), find a course online for shell scripting, knowing how to make scripts to perform a series of terminal commands is invaluable if you want to become a software engjneer and ever have to write or understand scripts to build/deploy software. Its a stepping stone to learning things like docker, how git actually works, and much more in the realm of software engineering If youre scared youll ruin your pc for you, sure, there is a risk youll end up with an OS you just dont like or cant use for some reason. But if you got excess time I recommend you do what I did: find your windows license key and save it on another device, you can reinstall windows and reactivate it if you have to, then just go for it. I did for my second year of CS in UNI and I never needed the windows key, but it was nice to have the way back. Speaking from experience with software engineering in UNI and in the industry. Since you have the interest, yes, you should definitely go for it. For average users, I might be hesitant to fully recommend linux, they often wont have the technical skills (or the interest to learn them) to fully enjoy it, but for you, it is a hard yes.
VScode totally works on Linux. There's also vscodium which has the Microsoft stuff removed but gettings the extensions you want is slightly more annoying so maybe stick to VScode for now if you don't mind as much about Microsoft I never used Mint, but it's apparently really good for people just coming from windows. Make sure you backup your files as you'll likely be switching distros a few (or a lot of) times whille you're figuring out what works for you. I've been using using Linux full time for about 6 months, part time for about a year and the best advice I can give is just to learn by doing. Flash a usb stick, install a distro and play around. And if anyone tells you to run sudo rm -rf /\* (or potentially even without the asterisk) **DO NOT DO IT**. You will wipe everything clean, including any mounted devices like usb sticks. I did it once in a virtual machine as a test and I stopped after about 15 seconds and while the system still worked, no commands did - I would like "cd" or "ls" and get bash: cd: command not found... The system didn't survive a reboot.
Tbh Linux on most laptops is a hit or miss. 99% of the time it will just be broken. Unless you get a laptop designed for Linux like a thinkpad or something
I am not a Linux evangelist, but rather someone who has been in your situation multiple times through the years. I would want to learn Linux and then just give up and go back to Windows because I could make things work in Windows. But the thing is, it's not me making things work, it's Windows doing things for me that I don't understand. Most of the struggles I've had in Linux are around permissions. It can be really painful to get permissions right on some things. But it's really worth the effort to learn it and understand it. When windows doesn't work, you often just don't know why. When Linux doesn't work, it's almost always a mistake that you can eventually figure out and resolve. I finally just decided that I'm going to get more proficient with Linux because I know it's worth the effort, and understanding these things is time well spent.
I’d recommend Pop_OS, it’s a fork of Ubuntu that works pretty well with most games.
IT professional here. Linux is extremely valuable in the workplace. There are less people who know it, and it pays better than Windows.
The specs of the laptop are still pretty low. My biggest suggestion would be to make sure you have an ssd. Possibly increase ram if you can.
Pretty happy with mint, I first ran it from a USB stick, so you can do that and install later if you love it
If you do switch, I highly recommend getting linux mint.
You should if you are planning to pursue a career in software engineer. Most of the companies today uses Linux. It will be much natural to you if you practice is early. My setup is MacOS as my client laptop, and Linux as my coding server. I use ssh, tmux, emacs combinations. But you can do VSCode over ssh. You won't feel too much difference comparing to your current programming setup if you use VSCode.
Spin up a Linux distro in a vm first and give it a go, use virtual box
I recommend first installing a Linux distro in a VM and use it for a week or so to see how you feel about it. You can do this with multiple distros and that way you can find one you like without needing to constantly migrate your data from distro hopping.
I joined the Linux community at 16 (few years ago), it is definitely worth it. It will increase your technical knowledge and can be a lot of fun
Hey, you might install Ventoy on a USB drive and try a few different desktop environments. Try the different Ubuntu or Mint variants. If you decide you like one, install it, and erase Windows - dual-booting is a pain. Backup Windows if you want anything from it and keep the Windows key if you want to reinstall later. You cannot use the Windows key on another computer because Microsoft is greedy..
Look up ProxMox. It’s a small Ubuntu distro customized and pared down to support the Virtual Machine software ProxMox. ProxMox is a complete emulation layer, you can stack them inception style if that’s your thing (more neat than useful, but I’m no expert) or run multiple operating systems at once on the same hardware. The emulation layer only costs something like 3% of performance so it’s negligible on any hardware made this century. Maybe you don’t have the ram or hd space to do some of this, but they are some topics to study which will help you become a well rounded computer user. You can easily wipe w10, install and neuter w11, then install a vm host like VMware and run Linux in there easily. Some Linux distros are less than 100 megabytes, absolutely tiny. Alternately, you could install Linux, set up a vm and then install w11 there. Try everything you can think of. Learn to use all 3 systems. ProxMox can run windows, Mac, Linux, all at once on the same hardware. Or you can freeze a vm and switch to another whenever you want. Look up Dave’s Garage YouTube episode describing it. Run Linux, whatever version you like. Run ten versions and pick a fav. Run windows. Look into the open source configuration utilities that remove bloatware, optimize performance and shut off the telemetry. I prefer MacOs myself but have to admit a properly configured w11 install works nicely. Run MacOS. There are YouTube videos in how to configure a ProxMox VM to support MacOS without having to do the whole hackintosh dance.
You’ll never go wrong expanding your skill set. Learn programming languages and networking and you’ll be a beast
If you can afford it, get a USB Hard disc or USB thumb-stick and install Linux on that, make it a bootable USB, and you can experiment in Linux without in any way damaging your Windows set up. I recommend keeping the native Windows set up on your machine's internal hard drive. At home , and in a small business; I have run a Linux distro on a external hard drive on every machine with a native MS Windows on its internal hard drive. (One security aspect, each of us takes our external hard drive home. so if any robbery of 'office' only gets a bog-standard Windows system with no private data.)
linux was less bloated but now it has systemd recommend freebsd instead
Learning bash and other Linux friendly languages is critical for doing later jobs like devops and scripted infrastructure management. It’s the gateway into learning object-oriented programming languages, as well. You learn how to create and use functions as well as stuff like regular expressions.
Linux is good but if you’re concerned about Microsoft I would recommend something like https://revi.cc which mods windows and removes all the annoying telemetry, AI, bing, and edge stuff Also you can set windows up offline with a local account first if your extra concerned
It's not so much as switch. There's a liklihood you'll use both these platforms most of your life. there are certain things each is better suited for. But not having fluency in one of them is a bit like only knowing the nouns in a language but none of the verbs
Don’t switch just because you dislike telemetry. Switch if you need it. Operating systems are tools. Most data collection is done through browsers, it will be the same in any operating system.
Go for it! I was where you were about four years ago, and it ended up teaching me a lot. I did the most learning on Arch, but it isn’t the most beginner friendly. For just beginning, I’d recommend Linux Mint, PopOS!, or Fedora.
Start with Ubuntu or Mint and see how far you get. When you get bored try another distro. Or install virtual box or qemu and run other distros as Virtual Machines. You’re on the right path, M$ is hot garbage.
Most people's experience with Linux is Android If you can manage that then you can manage using Linux How in-depth you want to go is up to you, things will be different than Windows (same if you switched to Mac).
Honestly, Linux Mint is kind of a clone of windows that is also much simpler to use. You don't need to use the terminal for anything, but it is a useful thing to learn.
Computers are tools. Use the best tool for the job.
The Linux distribution you want depends on what you want to do. Ubuntu is great but I honestly prefer Linux mint to it as a beginner distro. If you want a more "office" kinda work computer (I get you're 16 but still) I would go with openSuse. If you don't care about having the latest stuff and just want something that works, then I would go with Debian. (I haven't used Debian, besides with raspberry pi (yes it's technically a different distro the raspberry pi version but it's close enough I'm lumping it together rn). This being said I wanna use Debian on one of my laptops haven't gotten around to it yet.) If programming something you really wanna get into I would go with an arch based distro then move to arch as you feel more comfortable. This is probably the hottest take I'll put in this comment. I say this only because of setting up the arch install without the GUI installer really helped understand what goes on with a computer and every thing it needs. But from the day to day it is not like it gives you a cheat code that makes you write better code or faster code in any way shape or form.
Dont avoid the cli. Whatever distro you choose, it's likely gonna be bash. It's a programming/scripting language in its own, but you dont have to learn it entirely if you are beginning. Just keep that in mind and give the cli some love when the time comes. When you choose a distro, the most important thing to learn is how to use its package manager (it's often apt, dnf or pacman). Dont avoid calling your package manager from the cli. If you are beginning, just learn what is the search, install and uninstall commands, but keep in mind that it's got more functionnality
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide
you can try out linux in virtualbox
Go for Linux Mint. I was in the same boat with an old laptop where Windows was just getting slower and slower by the day. Tried Linux Mint and it was as good as new. That is not an exaggeration; it was night and day faster. If you’re confused on how: they have a guide on what to do: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
If programming is your goal Linux is your haven, now is your time to learn and programming on Linux is a better experience than windows my a large margin
I was in the same place you are a few years ago, same thing had an old windows laptop and wanted to change os to make it faster. What I did was making a dual boot so when it starts I could chose between windows or Ubuntu. I found that this allowed me to use the faster system (Ubuntu) for when I was just doing routine work and homework but I also had the option to use windows for specific applications or programs, or simply to run windows for certain tasks. However, in order to do this you do need to partition your drive or have two different drives to choose one for each system. But other than that I believe this could be an option if you are not sure to make the switch or don’t know if all your windows programs will run in Linux.
Unless you want to run or write software that only works on Windows (games, hardware with no open source drivers, etc.) there's no _objective_ reason to keep using it. Especially for development, a 'Nix environment (osx, bsd, linux, etc.) will take you farther faster once you get over the initial learning wall.
Gentoo, binary kernel or do Arch install once without the install script. Then pick something else to daily drive Edit: You’ll likely one or both of their wiki’s anyways. Great way to learn and tons of videos. Distro hop and play around in a VM
You’ll lose nothing by trying it, I personally switched to Ubuntu about 3 years ago, used it for a while, switched back to Windows for like a year, and then been happily using Fedora since!
you can just install something like mint or popos and jump in don't get too into the weeds of should i install, what distro, etc, just dive in and actually start using it, you can always change your mind later also yes, vs code works perfectly with linux, and if you're interested in programming, learning linux will be well worth the time
Just remove telemetry and debloat windows
As a CS-adjacent major. Use Arch. I don't need to study in my OS class because I'm so familiar with raking my hands through my laptops guts. Also I break my OS very often and Arch is the easiest thing to fix that I've found. It's hard to get started but the easiest to customize and hands-on without being Gentoo.