So, a bit if an intro: I’ve got a 2011-purchased HP laptop that seemingly runs fine when I fire it up. “Ol’ Gurdy” has survived several deployments overseas, and still has her OEM Windows 7 installed. She has not seen an internet connection since 2016, when I got a “fancy-new” desktop that currently runs Windows 10. Replacing the desktop, or converting it to Linux is a separate thread.. I’m a good engineer, and I trust myself with a lot of projects, but software is not one field I’m comfortable in . .
A friend recommended that instead of a liberal application of Comp-B to Ol’ Gurdy for a glorious sendoff, I convert it’s OS to Linux–“It’ll still be serviceable, and will run fine if not much faster!”.
Gurdy’s BIOS doesn’t seem to want to boot from a USB stick , so I assume its as straightforward as downloading the Linux Mint ISO file, burning it to a DVD, and booting up the machine, right?
Tripler
I’d like to give Ol’ Gurdy new life again.
There’s a couple options to install, some wipe it and the others allow you to partition unused space to a Linux file system. Then it installs a boot loader (GRUB) that lets you pick your OS on every boot.
This is FQ, but I’ll throw in an observation that is, in fact, absolutely factual: there is perhaps no greater divide in the world of computer technology than over the question of whether or not a Windows user should migrate to Linux. And I am firmly on one side of that divide, though I know that many will violently disagree.
Here’s my view on the matter, though keep in mind even the most recent of these experiences go back at least a decade. I found that Linux required far more geeky obscure knowledge than Windows, and finding drivers and support in general for anything other than very common bog-standard devices can be a challenge.
I was informed several times by Linux fans that I had been doing this with older now-obsolete versions of Linux and if I just tried one of the latest packages like (some named distro) I’d have no problem. Wrong. I had all the same problems.
You might as an alternative consider the possibility of keeping Windows 7 for a while longer, provided you get a decent free anti-virus package. Avast is still available for Windows 7 SP1, 32-bit or 64-bit. You can get the ESR (Extended Support Release) of Firefox, and/or a now-unsupported older release of Microsoft Edge. I have both, and both work fine almost all of the time, and if one doesn’t work on some particular feature of some particular site, the other one will.
Just something to think about. Linux and I have just never gotten along. I’m still running Windows 7 on several computers, and recently bought a Windows 11 laptop only because my tax prep software now requires Windows 10 or 11.
I should add to this that I did eventually get my experimental Linux system operational, but it was – if I may coin a metaphor – like pulling teeth while simultaneously jumping through fiery hoops. For example, a USB wireless adapter that simply just worked with Windows did not work at all with Linux. It was an obscure brand and I had to figure out what chipset was in it, and then source drivers for that particular chipset, and then light candles and burn incense and perform the ritual incantations required to install the drivers while sacrificing a live chicken. I admit that part of my frustration was that I was familiar with some of the internals and more intricate aspects of Windows and not at all with Linux, but that was only part of the problem.
Mint is mostly designed to “feel” like Windows and it does, so it’s not a hard transition. The hardest part for some will be terminal and installing and updating through there. Like Windows, there’s a GUI software center than handles 99% of that, but you might need to install some non-commercial software that requires you to apt-get it, or worse, compile the code, so you certainly can.
Other Linux distros can be rough. Ubuntu is about the same, or better Kubuntu which is closer to Windows and better environment in most opinions I think
I have no desire to shed Windows but like OP I’m using an older PC for work purposes that doesn’t handle the OS as well, so I did Mint to compensate. I’m no expert and had some previous Linux experience, but the transition is pretty easy. The main things I miss are:
MS Office, Libre Office is lesser, especially Calc instead of Excel. You can still run the online 365
I would go with Ubuntu or Kubuntu.
One thing about laptops and installing a new OS is the probable loss of some of the widget software that is installed on them. If you are used to using those, it can be a bit annoying for a while to find the different routes to control things in Linux. But you get used to it. Libre Office will do most of what Microsoft Office does. It was annoying to find all buttons, but lately Windows has been changing things so often, it can be a wash.
Best of luck.
If you have a lot of stored passwords and links. You may be able to export the links/bookmarks. But may have to write down the passwords that go with them. I would clone the whole drive first. Just in case.
Or buy a new drive if it is easy to install. Save the old one. You will still be able to get things off it if needed.
I’ve been using Linux exclusively with the exception of games or when work required it since about 2000. For ease of use, I’d still usually advise Ubuntu or LxUbuntu. I think you can still try out either of those through a LiveCD, and install it if you like it. If you do, then installing while preserving your old Windows system isn’t that hard, provided you understand the underlying PC technology. I could boot this machine into windows right now (if I still remembered the password, I could probably guess it), but I’d only do that if I wanted to start up iRacing again (tons of fun, but no Linux client).
But aside from a few games that require a Windows client program, I can do a lot of things more easily with Linux than I can with Windows. It’s a different world, and you’ll have to learn stuff to get the most out of it, but it’s really an easy to manage system once you learn it. I’m about to switch my work laptop from Windows to a Mac. Partly because I can, and it gets me a step closer to my comfort zone. Also partly because I don’t have to debug a stupid Windows outlook plugin any more because it’s finally been discontinued.
Windows is stupid. Here’s a quarter, get a better operating system.
ETA: My personal laptop is a 2013 or so Toughbook running LxUbuntu. Still runs flawlessly, but I don’t use it that much any more.
I’ve been using Linux in various contexts for 20 years or so, alongside Windows; I recently converted my last machine to Linux - that process for me was a little bit bumpy, but only because of one piece of proprietary software that I wanted to keep using (which does have a Linux version, but is difficult to set up).
For users who just want the machine for web browsing, web-based stuff, document writing, maybe some light image editing etc, modern desktop distributions of Linux (Mint in particular) are no more difficult or technical to use than Windows. It’s entirely possible for an end user such as I have described above, to never need to open the terminal - updates can be automated and even if not automated, there’s a GUI thing for them; software is installed via an app store (unless you have very specific requirements). I almost felt like Linux Mint was too easy and it was cheating.
Whilst I am on neither side of the polarised debate, I would say the only real difficulty with switching from Windows to Linux, for anyone, is if you have specific software requirements (Adobe creative suite, for example).
Mint is probably a better choice than Ubuntu (even though Mint is based on Ubuntu) - Ubuntu has committed to ‘snap’ packages for software, whereas a lot of the rest of the Linux world seems to be gravitating toward ‘flatpak’ - choosing Ubuntu might just mean a less diverse set of available software somewhere down the road.
There is also Zorin OS, which is another Ubuntu-based distribution, but has desktop configurations that are styled to very closely resemble Windows or MacOS. I personally wouldn’t recommend these, specifically because they do look like (for example) Windows, but they’re not Windows - so a non-technical user might run into difficulties trying to follow some online troubleshooting that is for Windows, and obviously won’t work on a different OS. The regular, common desktop environments for Linux are similar enough to Windows or OSX to make transition easy, but different enough to make it obvious the change has happened.
Also this allows both operating systems to access each other’s file systems. You seem to be wanting a complete replacement, but my suggestion (not recommended, I’m not a physical tech nerd, just a software nerd) would be to install as dual boot (my Macbook also runs Windows. And Linux).
So you can access files, I dunno, like your 2013 tax return you saved somewhere, and suddenly are being audited. It’s not gone, it’s just on the other partition.
I personally run OSX, Windows and Ubuntu on my machine…but hey… I am a nerd.
Also, if there’s a boot from USB option but the stick doesn’t boot, it may not have been prepared correctly. For instance, I have a backup program that can create CD or USB rescue media. The USB version won’t boot unless I first use DISKPART to create a primary partition on the USB stick and then make it active, then format it, and only then run the “create rescue media” option.
Windows 11 has something of a reputation for breaking the grub bootloader when windows updates are applied - this isn’t exactly hard to fix, but it is a bit more technical than some users will want to get.
It can be circumvented by turning off windows updates, but thats not a great idea in itself.
I’m currently dual booting Windows and Linux on the machine that I have just migrated but I intend to nuke the windows partition as soon as I’m sure I don’t need to go back in there - I have a backup but there have been a couple of recent times when I just needed to dip back in to collect some little thing (not just a file - that would be easy - I exported a video editing project for example). I disabled the WiFi connection on the windows installation to prevent it running updates, which is bad, but temporary.
The OP has a windows 7 machine though. I don’t think it’s sensible to try to keep running windows 7 unless it’s an air-gapped machine that is required for some specific purpose.
That seems to be the common consensus, so I’m not going to recommend staying with Win 7, but I did suggest it as a possibility to the OP. Personally my main everyday computer still runs Windows 7, and I still use it because it’s not upgradable to Windows 11 but still serves almost all my needs. My reason for sticking with it is that’s a beautifully quiet and reliable Dell Optiplex business desktop (you literally cannot hear that it’s on) with a Dell Ultrasharp 24" IPS monitor and is a pleasure to use. For security, it has a router firewall and an enterprise-grade anti-virus that updates daily. Browsers are Microsoft Edge (unsupported) and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release). I’ve had no issues with this configuration over the course of many years.
It also has a VM that runs Windows XP, although I don’t use that any more. It might be interesting to try installing Windows 10 on the VM. I think I still have an unused key for the retail version of Windows 10 Pro.