Top Tips For Migrating from Windows to Linux

Datamation ^ | 05 October 2015 | Matt Hartley

[Desron13]

Bookmark

[Scrambler Bob]

M4L linux

[stylin_geek]

You and me both.

[stylin_geek]

It’s possible to buy Dell computers with Ubuntu installed instead of Windows.

[RepRivFarm]

Can someone suggest a good, modern, easy to understand book that would hold your hand and take you step-by-step through the process described in the above article? First installing it on a bootable jump drive and then on your computer?

Covering where to get the open-source code, how to set up security, best browsers, office tools, video tools, and so on? Really interested in trying this.

Thanks

[daniel1212]

One great thing about Linux to which the article alludes is that you can take an old, end-of-life PC and turn it into a modern system just by installing Linux.

Having tried every major and some minor Linux distros, that is what i have found. I have Xubuntu installed on an old laptop (dual with XP) , which distro i found to be the best for old HW, as other distros failed on wifi. And I installed Debian recently (instead of Mint this time) on a another HD. Rather than messing with my window partitions, i unplug that HD and connect another via a cheap sata USB adapter cable (and use the PC power supply) and install Linux on that. Then i shut down and also plug in the Windows drive and tap F12 (may differ on other PCs) to get a boot options screen, and boot from Windows.

By so doing i can easily save docs in my Windows drive, as well as Firefox profiles and LibreOffice (i still like Apache better). And Wine works to run BPBible, which is critical for me.

But despite the hype of some, Linux invariably has problems (often with a myriad of solutions proffered) and or fails to provide certain customization one can easily get with Windows.

Full or any functionality with printers and wifi can be buggy, and getting permissions over your own files, even if temporarily, can require opening up a terminal to learning what to code, while (depending on the Distor) things like simply right clicking on an icon and finding the source, and making a shortcut can be missing. I spent a lot of time on forums to no avail trying to find a way to remap the CapsLock key to ctrl+c, and Esc to ctrl+v, as that really helps me is my stiff arthritic fingers, and which AutoHotKey easily enables via adding to a script (CapsLock::^c Esc::^v mbutton::^x) . AutoKey simply is not on the same level. But which is why I am using Debian, as I found I can at least change the first two.

Then there is the lack of legal multimedia codecs (US) unless you buy them. Yet Windows is also messing with that model.

Posted under my W/10 (free upgrade), which with easy customization (such as classic shell is like W/7 but better. Thank God.

[ShadowAce]

While I have not been looking (so I'm not the most up-to-date) at general Linux books, I think that something like that would be very difficult to write. There are several reasons for this

• Linux is constantly changing. While people complain about how many updates Windows has, Operating systems built around the Linux kernel tend to have just as many, if not more. Thus, any book that was published would almost certainly be out of date before it hit the shelves..
• "Best" of any software category is very subjective. However, there are many choices, with many feature sets. This allows you to experiment and choose those which work best for you--in your situation.
• There are many distributions ("distros" in Linux jargon) that you can get from multiple sources. Each distro fills a specific desire or need that the developer thought needed to be filled. This allows Linux OSes to fit into an environment based on the needs of the environment, and not have to be shoehorned in like a one-size-fits-all OS like Windows.

With the above in mind, I will say that if you are truly interested, you need to start researching and determining your needs/wants regarding the OS on your computer. The first place I would start is "a href="http://distrowatch.com/">DistroWatch which follows the more popular and common distros out there, with links to the website for each distro and some reviews. Each distro's website will have a download link and install instructions.

Keep looking even beyond DistroWatch--Search engines are your friend in this case. You will get more hits than you know what to do with.

There are two major divisions in the Linux world that are based on how software is handled. RPM-based distros tend to follow and are modelled after Red Hat. Debian-based distros are based after--wait for it--Debian. There are minor filesystem difference between to the two types, but the kernel will be the same.

I've heard good things about Elementary OS, PCLinuxOS, Kirin, and Mint as good introductory distros for Windows users. I have not, personally, tried any of them out. I run Fedora, which is Red Hat's community distro. You can get the details on each of the previous distros on DistroWatch.

[upchuck]

Thanks for preserving the links, formatting, etc. from the original article.

[ShadowAce]

Arrgh. I hate typos.

The first place I would start is DistroWatch which follows the more popular and common distros out there, with links to the website for each distro and some reviews.

[daniel1212]

If you have reason to use W/10, with a little easy customization you can have your Start Menu (Classic Shell) and right click menu look like this, and add the Quick Launch (%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch) toolbar

"

[Mr. K]

what do you do for a living?

[zeugma]

I have not seen a blue screen in 10 years... what version of Windows are you running?

I've had 2 over the last year on win7. It's a laptop provided by my employer that I've only messed with from the basic provided load to install vmware player so I can do real work in a linux VM.

I figure 2 in a year is pretty good for microsoft, so I don't worry about it.

[zeugma]

Re: Evolution. I used that for a long time when I needed the ability to connect to exchange (ugh). Do they have a GPG plugin for Evolution these days?

[wally_bert]

Those three things has generally kept linux use limited for my purposes.

[daniel1212]

Note: The ability to add a multiplicity of commands to right click menus referred to above is via the http://www.thewindowsclub.com/right-click-context-menu-extender-for-windows-7-released

[TexasTransplant]

BKMK

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Try any one of the Linux books in the “xxxxxx For Dummies” series. Not joking. They do exactly what you are looking for.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

In general, data processing.

You?

[Delta 21]

Classic Shell was installed within 30 minutes of Win10 installation but not before 3 unexplained crash/reboots.

My Freeping is much too important than to leave it in the hands of Microsoft.

If all they want to do is hide all the useful commands as part of the planned obsolescence of the OS.......well, I’m just done with them.

[daniel1212]

Yes, hiding the useful commands (and paths, but finding them is harder in some Linux distros), and setting the default explorer view to small icons, and hiding file types, and system files, while populating the start menu with icons, as things i normally quickly attack on a fresh install. Of course, i also change the default view in Linux to Details, and “show hidden files.

But Winkey +X is a help, to which you can add things to.

But making changing time made difficult under W/10. Solution: Run (press Windows key and tap r key, let both go, then paste the following) control.exe /name Microsoft.DateAndTime and hit OK.

Other Canonical names that work via the Run command: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee330741%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms

control.exe /name Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters

control.exe /name Microsoft.Display

control.exe /name Microsoft.FolderOptions

control.exe /name Microsoft.IndexingOptions

control.exe /name Microsoft.InternetOptions

control.exe /name Microsoft.Mouse

control.exe /name Microsoft.Personalization

control.exe /name Power Options

control.exe /name Microsoft.ProgramsAndFeatures

control.exe /name Microsoft.Recovery

control.exe /name Microsoft.Sound

control.exe /name Microsoft.Taskbar

control.exe /name Microsoft.NotificationAreaIcons

control.exe /name Microsoft.UserAccounts

control.exe /name Microsoft.WindowsDefender

Some obscure system paths:

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

or %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

“C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp”

%UserProfile%\Desktop