Posted on 01/22/2019 3:55:51 AM PST by ShadowAce
Many of you are Windows 7 users. I get it. Windows 7 just works. But the clock is ticking for Windows 7. In less than a year, Windows 7's free support ends.
Come that day, you'll have a choice: You can either run it without being certain you'll get vital security patches (that would be really stupid), or you can pay for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) on a per-device basis, with the price increasing each year. We don't know how much that will be, but I think we can safely assume it won't be cheap. Or, you can migrate to Windows 10. And, yes, for now, you can still update to Windows 10 for free from Windows 7.
But Windows 10 came out in July 2015. If you haven't upgraded by now, I'm sure you don't want any part of Windows 10.
I actually sort of, kind of like Windows 10. Yes. Really. Well, I did when it first came out. My affection for it waned with every Windows 10 failed update. Take the infamous Windows 10 October 2018 Update, aka version 1809. When it first came out it deleted user files, would sometime fail at unzipping compressed files, and could fail while opening files on networked drives.
Quality assurance? What's that?
It's only now, three months later, that Windows 10 October 2018 is finally being automatically rolled out to users. So, maybe Windows 10 isn't really what you want to "upgrade" to right now. In that case, I have another suggestion: Linux Mint.
But, wait, say you need Microsoft Office. Fine. Run Office Online. There you go. Welcome to 2019, when you don't have to be running Windows to run "Windows" programs.
For all your other desktop software needs, there's usually a free open-source program that can do just as good a job. Gimp, for example, instead of Photoshop. Evolution instead of Outlook. Or LibreOffice for full-featured Microsoft Office.
That said, there are some programs you can't replace on Linux. If I were making videos, for example, I'd be using Corel's Pinnacle Studio, which only runs on Windows. If you're locked into such a program, you'll need to move to Windows 10.
On the other hand, desktop Linux tends to be far more secure than Windows. Oh, you can run into trouble, but it's not like Windows where having an antivirus program is a must.
There are many good Linux desktops, and I've used many of them. I recommend Mint, but there are numerous others you can consider such as openSUSE, Manjaro, Debian, and Fedora. I have one big reason to think Mint is a good fit for Windows 7 users. Mint's default Cinnamon interface looks and works a lot like Windows 7's Aero interface. Yes, there's a learning curve, but it's nothing like the one you'll face if you move to Windows 10 or macOS.
Another advantage, which Mint share with other Linux distros, is it is rests lightly on your system. Mint can run on any of your Windows 7 PCs. All Linux Mint needs to run is an x86 processor, 1GB of RAM (albeit, you'll be happier with 2GB), 15GB of disk space, a graphics card that can handle 1024x768 resolution, and a CD/DVD drive or USB port. That's it.
Mint, like the other Linux desktops, won't cost you a red penny. You also don't have to commit to it. You can try it first, and if you don't like it, just reboot back to Windows, and you're done. No fuss. No muss.
Ready? Let's go.
After downloading the ISO file, which takes up about 2GB, you must burn it to a USB stick or DVD. I recommend using a USB stick -- since that's makes it easier to give a trial run. Running it from a DVD can be quite slow.
If you don't have an ISO burner program, download one. I recommend freeware programs ImgBurn (for optical drives) and Yumi for Windows (for USB sticks). Other good choices are LinuxLive USB Creator and UNetbootin. These are all free programs.
Once you've installed the burner program and have the latest Linux Mint ISO file in hand, burn the ISO image to your disc or USB stick. If you're using a DVD -- Mint is too big to fit on a CD -- check your newly burned disc for errors. Over the years, I've had more problems with running Linux and installing Linux from bad discs than all other causes combined.
It's better to use a USB stick with persistent storage. With this, you can store your programs and files on the stick. This way, you can carry Mint with you and use it as a walk-around operating system at a hotel, conference, and library PC. I've found this to be very handy, and there's always at least one Linux stick in my laptop bag.
Next, reboot your system, but stop the boot-up process before Windows comes up, and get to your PC's UEFI or BIOS settings. How you do this varies according to your system.
You should look for a message as the machine starts up that tells which key or keys you'll need to press in order to get to the BIOS or UEFI. You can also do a Google search for your specific PC or PC brand and "UEFI." Or, with older PCs, your computer brand and "BIOS." For example, with Dell PCs, you tap the F2 key to enter system setup; with HP, you tap on the escape key once a second; and on Lenovo systems, you tap (Fn+) F2 or (Fn+) F1 key 5 to 10 times after the power-on button is pressed to get to system setup.
Once you get to the BIOS or UEFI, look for a menu choice labeled "Boot," "Boot Options," or "Boot Order." If you don't see anything with the word "boot" in it, check other menu choices, such as "Advanced Options," "Advanced BIOS Features," or "Other Options." Once you find it, set the boot order so that, instead of booting from the hard drive first, you boot from either the CD/DVD drive or from a USB drive.
Once your PC is set to boot first from the alternative drive, insert your DVD or USB stick and reboot, then select "Start Linux Mint" from the first menu, and, in a minute or so, you'll be running Linux Mint.
Now play with it for a while. Take a few days if you like. Windows is still there. Anytime you reboot without the drive or stick in, it will go right back to it. Like what you see of Mint? Then let's install Mint on your PC.
Like any serious upgrade, you'll start with making a complete backup of your Windows system. Installing Linux in the way I'm going to describe shouldn't hurt your Windows setup at all, but why take chances?
It used to be that installing Linux on Windows PCs with UEFI and Secure Boot was a major pain. It can still be annoying, but Ubuntu and Mint have made booting and installing with Secure Boot system a non-issue. All pre-built binaries intended to be loaded as part of the boot process, with the exception of the initrd image, are signed by Canonical's UEFI certificate, which is implicitly trusted by being embedded in the Microsoft signed shim loader.
If, for some reason, you can't install Mint with Secure Boot running on your PC, you can always turn off Secure Boot. There are many ways to switch Secure Boot off. All involve going to the UEFI control panel during the boot process and switching it off.
Now, let's get on with the actual installation. Make sure your PC is plugged in. The last thing you want is to run out of battery power during an operating system install! You'll also need an internet connection and about 8GB of free drive space.
That done, reboot into Linux again. Once you have the Mint display up, one of your icon choices on the left will be to install Mint. Double-click it and you'll be on your way.
Next, you must walk your way through several menu choices. Most of these decisions will be easy. For example, the language you want Mint to use and your time zone. The one critical choice will be how to partition your hard drive.
Partitioning a hard drive can be a real pain, but it doesn't have to be for our purposes. We're going to set your PC up so you can dual-boot both Windows and Mint. To do this with the partition command, just pick the first option on the Installation Type menu: "Install Linux Mint alongside them."
This procedure will install Linux Mint next to your existing Windows system and leave it totally untouched. When I do this, I usually give half my PC's remaining drive space to Mint. You'll be asked to choose which operating system you want to boot by default. No matter which one you pick, you'll get a few seconds to switch to the other operating system.
You'll also be required to give your system a name; pick out a username for yourself, and come up with a password. You can also choose to encrypt your home directory to keep files relatively safe from prying eyes. However, an encrypted home directory slows systems down. It's faster, albeit counterintuitive, to encrypt the entire drive after you have Mint up and running.
Mint 19.1's setup menu enables you to automatically run several processes. These are to set up a system snapshot with Timeshift. This way, if something goes wrong later, you can restore your system files and get back to a working system. I highly recommend. While you're at this, set up a regular Timeshift schedule.
Next, you can have it check to see if your computer needs any additional drivers. You should do this, and after, you can install proprietary multimedia codecs such as drivers to watch DVDs. That's a good idea, as well.
You should also set it to update your system to the latest software. Unlike Windows, when you update Mint, you're updating not just your operating system but all your other programs such as the web browser, office-suite, and any other programs you installed afterward from Mint's Software Manager.
To do this manually, click on the shield icon in the menu bar. By default, you'll find this on the menu bar on the bottom part of the screen, and the icon will be on the right. Once clicked, it will prompt for your password and ask if you really want to update your system. Say yes, and you'll be ready to give your new Mint system a real try.
The setup routine also offers to let you look at system settings and find new programs with the Software Manager, but since you're probably a new user, you can skip those for now.
That's all there is to it. I've installed Linux hundreds of time, and it usually takes me about an hour from starting my download -- the blessings of a 400Mbps internet connection -- to moving from booting up to customizing my new Mint PC. If you've never done it before, allow yourself an afternoon or morning for the job.
I think you may just find that, while you'll still miss Windows 7 at first, you'll appreciate how much Mint can do for you.
“Be nice to have a complete portable Linux PC on a thumb drive only needing to borrow a host and display to plug it into.”
—
Yeah, that’s why I always have one handy. You can also just install it in full on a stick - live USB to an OS destination USB.
In the Ubiquity installer when it asks where to install the OS, choose “something else”. In the GParted part of installing, you can skip making a swap file if you want, set the USB as the mount point and it’s easy from there.
One thing - if you want to make a stick you can pop into any PC, you should install the 32 bit version (if one is available)of whatever distro. That makes it compatible with both 32 and 64 bit PCs.
I’v tried Mint on USB stick as a full install, it works pretty good. It’s not as fast as an install on a normal disk, it’s a stick afterall, but good enough.
A 16 GB USB would be good enough for Mint, so you’d have about 8 GB left for updates/downloads/files on it’s drive after a full install. 32 GB USB or more is even better.
Thank you for the tips! I think I would just start with a 32 gig and be done with it. I wouldn’t really need a whole lot as portable because I can clean it out into my home system now and then. :)
32 GB should work fine. The reason I suggested skipping setting aside part of the USB drive as a swapfile partition is that USB drives aren’t made for lots of ongoing writing and rewriting when in use.
Unless the PC you’re putting the Linux USB stick in has no RAM, it’s not really needed - the distro will use the PC’s memory.
Some distros work better than others fully installed on a stick. Sometimes the stick itself may not be good for running an OS on.
Anyways, having a USB stick or two handy just for test driving different distros is a good idea - especially if you enjoy “distro hopping” without commitment, as I do. Fun way to play around with all the flavors of Linux (that can be installed on a stick).
Oh, also - if want some PCs to boot up using Mint/Linux on a USB stick, you might have to make an adjustment in the BIOS.
This explains it pretty well -
https://www.howtogeek.com/175641/how-to-boot-and-install-linux-on-a-uefi-pc-with-secure-boot
Cool thing about having a Linux USB Stick - or even install CD - is you can often use it as a “Rescue Disk” on the PC it’s plugged into. If nothing else, you can use it to copy/move/ save files from the host PC system.
On the Windows 7 thing in your original post; I’m planning on keeping Win 7, but not for use online - just for offline use. There are some good Windows programs that I’m not ready to give up yet!
Otherwise, I’m ready to go with a Linux distro as my primary OS in 2020.
Yes, I am familiar with needing to set the Bios to boot from a stick. Or the boot option menu HP has.
“Otherwise, I’m ready to go with a Linux distro as my primary OS in 2020.”
I didn’t wait, I got on it as my primary right away. Love the security for normal everyday use. :)
“I didn’t wait, I got on it as my primary right away. Love the security for normal everyday use.”
—
Indeed. I might buy a year’s worth of added virus/malware protection via Not Eset32. You can use the fully-functional trial version for a month.
https://www.eset.com/us/home/products/antivirus-linux
Linux is pretty secure to start with, most user don’t bother with additional av-malware protection - it’s just more a peace-of-mind thing to me.
Their are other, free AV programs for Linux, but Eset is a quality brand anti-malware I’ve used on Windows and found it does a pretty good job with real-time protection.
I meant to ask you; what software/kernel update level(s) do you use for Mint? I believe it has 4 levels? Is there a super-safe setting that gives you only security fixes/updates important updates, but doesn’t break your installation?
What I found is with Linux you don’t need any anti-viruses for Linux it’s self. But... If you receive an infected file and forward it to someone with windows it is still infected for them as a hand me down.
So the only reason to really install antivirus ware would be to scan stuff before you pass it on just to be nice. lol
But AVG has a realtime version for Linux, And ClamAV is realtime and supposed to be pretty good and designed specially for linux and they are free. But I haven’t installed any yet.
” Is there a super-safe setting that gives you only security fixes/updates important updates, but doesn’t break your installation?”
With my cinnamon update manager, it lets you adjust it to automatically update or just go check and then you can update when you want to manually. And it let’s you decide what you want updated with check boxes. But from my experience so far, and from what I have heard, linux updates don’t break things.
Often the default tool settings are whack. You have to adjust them to make them usable. But it's all there, the new warp tool is fantastic, rubber stamp works better now, layer masks, clipping paths, etc... It's not exaclty PhotoShop. I often had to go to youtube to get something to work right, but overall, pretty impressive. No where's near as horsey as it's always been. If you spend some time with it you can do anything.
I am finally ready to jump back into the Linux world.
I have three older laptops. I am sure that one of them does not meet the 1024x768 display requirement mentioned in the article above. I am sure one of them had trouble with Linux wireless connections ten years ago or thereabouts.
Do you have any ideas as to which distributions of Linux would be wisest to look into to use on such older equipment? How would you suggest I research that question?
I hope that helps. I've heard some good things about Manjaro Linux in this regard, and it is listed as one of the top 10 best for old laptops.
Thanks so much for your search. I have been out of the house for a couple hours, and just saw your response.
Thanks again. You are a real asset.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.