Greetings! Long time user of *nix. I started Linux in the Yggdrasil/Slackware days… 0.99 kernel? 1993ish if I recall. I have been mostly on the server side, but have used it personally. Recently tried my old HP laptop… and cratered it. Linux just won’t go on there easy… Finally got Fedora installed and working, but cannot stand the interface etc… I have now convinced my wife, so a laptop is on order so she can work on converting her business. Her old laptop is the same as my old one, and I am not about to crater hers (even though she did say I could try). Never had an install fail that way before.
Anyway, here to learn the ropes. I also have a RPI 4B that I use for Ham Radio in my camper, and one of those cheap china NUCs running Ubuntu for my Ham Radio here at home. System76 Meerkat is on the way as well. Plus I have an old HP server that I use for testing etc running VirtualBox.
Got Linux Ubuntu installed on an old HP desktop about 9 months ago. so busy, now with the AI MS fascism I have taken most of my docs/files off both hardrives which use Windows and onto external hard drive, uninstalled OneDrive, and backed up to proton drive. Now is the time to learn Linux so I can use my desktop, and convert my surface pro 5. Once all that works, I can look into converting my new HP laptop - HATE windows 11!
Welcome! Those Rasberry Pi are great on your new Linux network. Try an ad blocker and DNS replacement for you router are nice ways to #boycottbigtech on a Pi. Linux Mint Cinnamon seems to be very friendly with old laptops, quickly finding and setting up old wifi, printers etc.
sold my Horseman 4x5 years ago … still have a complete color lab in storage …Omega enlargers Poormans package printer …just waiting for some museum to contact me …
Hi, my name is Paul. Online I’m Paul TheCajun. This is my second attempt at learning about Linux. My motivation is the ever increasing assault on our privacy.
I’ve been a “laptop user” since the 70’s. Back in school I wrote a couple of programs in Fortran and COBOL. Yea, I’m that old.
Honestly, I don’t know where to begin. Here are my thoughts. What should I learn first: which old computers should I use; how do I determine which Linux systems are best for me; and on and on.
Can you tell that I’m a bit perplexed?
Thanks
Greetings Paul!
What hardware do you have? Perhaps we can help you ‘pick one’.
As for Linux… there are a ton of versions out there, some with more specific interests than others. In the end, they are all similar. To start, pick one of the main distributions (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian to name a few). Load up your computer (which is a learning process), and play about some. Then maybe reload it again with something else. One of the reasons I love the Raspberry Pi is that the OS is on a chip, so I can create a bunch of chips, and swap the OS in seconds.
@Sunflower I grew up in the Willamette Valley! I also live in an RV and split my year between WA and AZ. I’m learning the Linux lingo, but I have yet to dive in. I’m greatly encouraged by this community, however. I need my laptop for work and I have yet to get some things switched over to FOSS so I can cut loose from Big Tech. My laptop is not doing well with Windows. I hope to switch to Linux soon as I expect it will do much better based on what I’ve read.
Hi. I’m just getting started. I have an old hp laptop that I had wiped clean from windows 7, by a guy from church, and he installed Ubuntu.
When I get it back, I’ll have to learn how to use it. Lol. So I’m here to do just that.
There are 3 major flavors of Linux - Red Hat, Suse & Debian. Most of the distros are based on these. Ubuntu is derived from Debian and in turn, Ubuntu has many distros based on it. Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distros are the most popular for desktop use. These distributions will have the most help available to you online.
Linux distros have come a long way in the past 5 years or so and they keep improving from the standpoint of usability for newbies. Of the Ubuntu based distros, Mint and Zorin OS are the friendliest to use, IMO. I like Elementary OS too but they have run into some trouble (management as well as financial) which brings into question their longevity and future updates.
I suggest you try out Zorin OS and Mint and install the one you like best. Zorin OS follows the Ubuntu LTS timelines while Mint, although based on Ubuntu, does depart from Ubuntu in some significant ways.
You may also want to consider installing Timeshift, which is a backup solution for your distribution. This way, if an update breaks your distro then you can recover to a previous working state. You will also need another backup solution for your home folder that is different from Timeshift. I would not backup user data using Timeshift. If and when your distro stops working correctly, use Timeshift to resotre the distro and your chosen backup utility to restore your data files.
I’ve adopted and modified a backup script created by someone else to backup my data files. The original script (which works well) can be found via the instructions linked below. I don’t like using backup software that encrypts and compresses my backups since I have had bad experiences attempting to recover my files using such tools.
Most distributions of Linux come in many flavors. LTS and Rolling are terms that indicate how the vendor (Mint, Ubuntu, Debian…) offers their versions. Rolling will update with the newest patches, while LTS is going to be more conservative and only patch important issues.
On older machines and to get started with Linux, an LTS is a good idea. If you need drivers for new video cards and such, that is where folks prefer the rolling versions.
Welcome! @Sunflower too
I got my 2013 Macbook to run Linux Mint and later Manjaro. Linux revived that mac. It was so slow after upgrading,it was barely usable and THEN adobe stopped supporting old systems and began subscriptions!
Now a complete Linux convert, when I do launch the Mac partition, I find it pretty, nasty LOL
I also have and old Lenovo Flex which is now running CNIX and windows is gone forever.
Every step towards Linux is a step in the right direction.
Hi, I’m new to the Forum and the Linux classes. Been on the Telegram channel for some months now.
I started using Linux about 8 months ago, Ubuntu mostly, and have done installs at least 4 times on my own computer and external hard drives. So I have a basic understanding of the install process, and have been able to troubleshoot some issues along the way. I use Terminal when I find scripts for specific tasks (not fluent yet). I have some background in Windows tech support (some years ago) and have also used MacOS for some years. I consider myself fairly tech savvy, but am relatively new to Linux.
I’m looking forward to learning LOTS more, so I can get completely away from Windows (still using Windows 7). I enjoyed today’s class about virtual machines, as I had been considering using Wine for some Windows apps I can’t get away from. Are there any benefits to using Wine vs. Virtual Box, VMWare, or QEMU/KVM?
Welcome!
I haven’t started using Linux, yet, because I have yet to figure out how to sandbox Windows. I agree that finding out about Wine is helpful. I’m still learning the lingo and getting the lay of the land while I figure out how to use Linux on the 2 laptops I have available. I need Windows on both of them, so it has slowed my progress considerably.
I admit, I have yet to install Linux alongside Windows, on my main PC, but I want to. I’m trying to learn more first. I’m still using Windows 7. I have a 2nd computer (Mini-PC) with Linux on it that I use, and also an external hard drive that I can boot to with Linux while using the Windows PC. There’s plenty of room on the Windows hard drive for the Linux install, but I haven’t tried that yet. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but I want to understand the hard drive partitioning better before I do it.
You can always try out Linux by launching an .iso Linux “Live” instance from USB drive, on your Windows machine, via the “Boot Menu” option (F12 or F8 in some cases). It doesn’t install anything, you just run Linux from the RAM (memory). Then shut down your computer when finished. That way you get some experience with Linux without installing anything.,
Launching a “Live” instance of Linux would probably be helpful to you. You can install Linux alongside Windows if you have enough hard drive space available, but as I said I haven’t tried that myself yet. It comes down to the drive partitioning, which you can manage with software tools, also while doing the Linux install. Linux can work on 10-20GB of hard drive space I think, but you can tell it what space you want it to occupyl
I also live in an RV and split my year between WA and AZ. I’m learning the Linux lingo, but I have yet to dive in. I’m greatly encouraged by this community, however. I need my laptop for work and I have yet to get some things switched over to FOSS so I can cut loose from Big Tech. My laptop is not doing well with Windows. I hope to switch to Linux soon as I expect it will do much better based on what I’ve read.
