This post idea was inspired by a recent post by [email protected] in this community.
I have been a Windows user for my entire life. I recall having an iMac in my bedroom as a small boy, maybe 7-8, playing random offline games on it, but aside from that, my experience growing up was with Windows 98, XP, Vista, 8 and 10. I wouldn’t say I was ever a “power user” per se, although I could do several tasks that were more technical if needed, like locating driver files, updating .dlls, configuring compatibility settings, etc. I think being a good Googler made me seem more capable to my family than I really was, and I’m sure a lot of people here would share my experience!
With the impending sundowning of Windows 10, an OS that I “begrudgingly accepted” (rather than actually enjoyed using, as with Vista), and realizing that 11 was only going to bring more ads, force-installed applications, background processes that were nigh-impossible to disable without a lot of tomfoolery, AI bullshit and general bloat, I figured that I would try dual-booting Ubuntu, installing it on a partition of my storage HDD. Windows did not want to play ball, no matter how much I begged and pleaded and bargained, and eventually I was met at a point where I had to decide what to do going forward. My system was just not behaving the way I wanted to with two OSes (“This town ain’t big enough for the both of us”), and figured,
Oh, what the hell. I’ll primary Ubuntu and when I need to use Windows I’ll run it on a thumb drive or something.
Well, it’s been several weeks now and, even with a couple bumps along the way, I have not booted into Windows once since the switchover. How many of you had a similar experience? I was frankly a bit scared of CLI and thinking that I was going to brick my PC before I even had a chance to use it, so I kept all my personal files safely tucked away in a removed HDD until the break-in process was relatively complete. As time has gone on, I’ve gotten comfortable enough to have a backed up copy of my files on here, and every new program I go to install that I used on Windows has worked swimmingly on Linux.
I can only thank the helpful, enthusiastic people here in the Linux community for making my experience so smooth. It’s rare you encounter a group of people where you can post what is ostensibly a stupid question, and be pummeled with dozens of well-formed, thoughtful, detailed responses to the question. There’s very little of that infamous grandiosity and self-righteousness that I’ve heard runs rampant in the Linux world, and maybe Lemmings are just more prone to being helpful than the wider internet, but for what it’s worth, I appreciate everything you all have done here so far.
I feel so much more capable as a computer user with Linux than I ever did on Windows. I’m automating tasks, I’m fine-tuning network drivers, I’m getting in the weeds of file architecture, and it’s all been a real blast to learn about. I actually feel a desire to learn so that I can help others have a similar experience to what I had coming into this.
Always nice to read so great posts. Welcome to a brand new world of possibilities. I promise your journey will be long but full of self accomplishments, learnings, satisfaction. You will probably run into one or two times when you’ll have to search for a solution but in these situations the Linux community will always be there for you and you’ll feel so proud to have learn something along the way.
You realize how much Linux is different to other OS only when you live with it. There’s a real philosophy, it’s not just some branding wording. If you feel adventurous enough you’ll certainly see your mindset and way of thinking evolving as time goes. You have so much possibilities to discover, I’m jealous of this sentiment of new user you’ll experience. I’ve personaly used to tweak Windows back in the days and its limitations (amongst other things) is one of the main reasons why I switched to Linux. Twenty years later I’m wondering how I didn’t know earlier that another world existed.
Beyond the fact that Linux has improved my workflow drastically compared to my Windows/MacOS colleagues, it also helped me grow intellectually. The best part is that it never ends because there’s always a new tool, app, distro to experiment, play with, and learn from.
Working with a system and not adapting to it or fighting against it is a huge difference. Linux has so many options that you can litterally build the system that fits your specific needs and liking to perfection (and even better than you can think now). It’s just a matter of few efforts. We’re not used to make efforts nowadays and prefer opting for the laziness of being the slaves of a system/brand but I can guarantee you will be rewarded for these efforts beyond your expectations.
Enjoy your new life!
It’s really nice to see a post like this.
Back in the day I was also dual booting windows and Ubuntu but windows was messing with the system clock.
Then I decided to just have a windows VM to be able to backup my iPhone (not my own choice😞), but I’d want to replace that VM by a MacOs so that at least I learn how to use a new system since I have to keep using windows at work anyway.
The community is a big plus on Linux and you always find someone ready to help you.
I also love the spirit of Linux where you rely way less on big corporations.
People switching nowadays have it so easy lol. When I switched, you’d still have to configure ALSA or OSS, tweak xorg.conf, use Nvidia because AMD was just not working (I did try and dual boot Linux before when ATI still existed but didn’t fully switch), DXVK didn’t exist, Vulkan didn’t exist and WINE was still pre-1.0. And all this during a time when Microsoft had what some people consider the best version of Windows.
I don’t really miss those times. And I know that it was even less convenient before. I also had a copy of SUSE Linux 9.0 or something from a family friend who ordered these from SUSE. And Mandrake I tried very briefly. But I wasn’t really computer literate enough to teach me all that stuff myself so I consider my Linux journey starting in 2007 when I ordered a new PC and decided not to install Windows on it so that I wouldn’t have that alternative in case something doesn’t work.
The first time I installed Linux, I had to calculate vsync modlines for the monitor to get X running. It wasn’t worth it, and I used Amigas and then NeXTSTEP (for x86, I wasn’t rich) and Solaris at Uni and work for a few years until it was easier to get X running.
It should be noted for the newer users that miscalculating your modelines could destroy your screens, so getting them right was kind of important.
It was resolution and refresh, it wasn’t rocket science. I love a Linux war story as much as the next person but come on. You were more likely to destroy your screen by dropping it off the desk.
The refresh rate most people think of doesn’t go into the modelines. An 800x600 60Hz modeline looks like this:
Modeline "mymode" 38.22 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 622 -HSync +Vsync
Very inspiring post! Thank you.
I started on win 95 btw. But my reasons for switching were similar.
Linux has just been far and away the best change I could make. I fully agree about feeling a lot more competent after getting settled into Linux. I started running Manjaro on an old laptop just so I could get used to CLI and general Linux-ness, but it never really “took” until I fully switched my primary pc to Manjaro (and then Fedora and now Nobara). I could kinda use powershell or cmd on windows when I needed to but otherwise nada. Now on Linux, I’m writing shell scripts and running most everything I can in my terminal. I feel like not having every program in existence available and adapted specifically for my OS has forced me to actually understand how my computer works and how to troubleshoot issues.
In addition, The ease of package managers means I can just try whatever software I want without dealing with the annoyance of uninstallers and cleaning up system files and messy directories. It’s easier to start de-googling as well when a lot of the convenience of google services doesn’t exist for me anymore.
Welcome to a larger world. IF you ever need dual boot working well on linux, I found the best robust method is install Windows first, leave space for more partitions. install Linux and make a separate boot efi partition. Many distros offer to probe for foreign OS. this will find windows and add a chainloader entry to grub. Set the Linux partition as the boot one in BIOS/EFI. Grub will start and if you choose Windows it handsover the boot to Windows boot ( and Windows doesn’t know it). Windows will leave your EFi linux boot alone. You can also share a ntfs partition between them if needed
Windows will leave your EFi linux boot alone.
I wish that was True. Windows loves to overwrite boot partitions during major updates in my experience.
Thats why you have two. windows efi and linux efi on separate partitions. Windows never knows the other one exists and ignores the rest of what it sees as unalloated space. it even lets you shut down a windows update, boot linux and come back to windows later which continues the update. I have been running this way for 7 years, Windows has not touched my other EFi partition.
Oh, I see. I had it on different disks with one efi partition at the start of each. Windows didn’t like that.
Should still be fine if you set BIOS/EFI to only boot from the Linux EFI, and it has chainload entry to Windows. If you left it up to some Windows Dual boot thing it will wreck you for sure
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ is your friend.
Been using Linux off and on for a few years now, but dual booting between windows/linux and occasionally using osx, it still amazes me just how much faster linux loads, especially compared to windows
Oh man no kidding! I’m using a relatively slow, large Linux OS (Ubuntu) and even it is snappy as hell compared to W10.
Congrats! Linux user since december 2022
Cool! Welcome on board of Planet Linux. 🐧
This post idea was inspired by a recent post by [email protected] in this community.
❤️❤️❤️
I wouldn’t say I was ever a “power user” per se, although I could do several tasks that were more technical if needed
It’s great to see other people out there too who aren’t programmers or have an IT-background.
When I entered the Linux-world 3 years ago, I had a very rough start. I had to learn everything from scratch and didn’t even know how to download something from GitHub.
Nowadays, and I’m extremely glad for all those evolutions that occured in this time frame, everything is way more accessible now.
Still, you will probably encounter some stepping stones, just like it is usual when learning something new! ✌️
Just keep going, and eventually, you’ll use Linux as intuitively as everything else.I’ll primary Ubuntu
Good choice! You’ll hear people say “Ubuntu sucks, switch to xy”, but, honestly, it isn’t bad and a good choice.
As long as you’re happy, everything is great!
You’ll distrohop someday anyway, so enjoy your peace for a while… 😅I can only thank the helpful, enthusiastic people here in the Linux community for making my experience so smooth. It’s rare you encounter a group of people where you can post what is ostensibly a stupid question, and be pummeled with dozens of well-formed, thoughtful, detailed responses to the question. There’s very little of that infamous grandiosity and self-righteousness that I’ve heard runs rampant in the Linux world, and maybe Lemmings are just more prone to being helpful than the wider internet, but for what it’s worth, I appreciate everything you all have done here so far.
I had the same experience. The patience and welcomeness is just unmatched. 90% of my experience has been just like that, and only a small percentage are jerks. Just remember, those 1% are a loud minority, so don’t get discouraged when there are asshole comments one day.
I think the whole “noob-support”-thing is some kind if generational contract. We all got help learning our first steps in the Linux world, with the same experience as you, and now wanna pay that back.I feel so much more capable as a computer user with Linux than I ever did on Windows.
Same. Starting Linux was the first domino piece for me.
Now, I have a homeserver, flashed my first Android custom ROM the hard way, radicalised myself in the FOSS-mentality and began to interact intensely with the community (Github, Lemmy, etc.). Using Linux made me a cliché somehow, it’s a slippery slope.
Thank you for your post! It was a great read! 🙌
Welcome to Linux! Enjoy the stay.
Now when it comes to me, I had my windows system break on me when I tried to diagnose a HDD issue and decided that since it’s just a data drive I can just disconnect it and see if it was the right drive. How wrong I was, couldn’t even get it to boot after that. So since I didn’t like how windows 10 handled stuff like that and knew at the time that it would get worse… I set up a dual boot with windows 10 and Ubuntu. Figuring that I would probably use windows the most and only sometimes use Linux. After a short while I actually had moved everything I could to Ubuntu and only used windows for the very few things that were just too stubborn at the time. Mainly anti Cheat stuff. It was still 2018 after all. Since that eventually got solved I ditched windows completely and have never looked back. Though I still sometimes wonder about a few of the issues I see and hear about on windows these days.
Well done! Your curiosity will be rewarded. I would recommend learning some basic bash to start services, read the logs. Basic cli can really help with debugging when you encounter some new challenges (journalctl command for example).
Another thing I can recommend: When I started with Linux I bought a raspberry and used it without a gui to experiment so my shenanigans were less risky on my main pc. This was 3 years ago and now I’m working at a tech company managing 200 servers because the curiosity and empowered feeling never went away.
Good luck!
Gabba gabba we accept you one of us one of us!
Two tips:
KEEP BACKUPS, ALWAYS. Systems can be reinstalled in short order and you can set /home/ on a different partition to make it easier, but keep backups of the important stuff still.
Youtube “bash tutorial beginners” and find one to follow along with, it’ll come in handy if you haven’t yet.
Welcome friend!
Agree. I love Linux too and cannot switch back, even though the instability of KDE hurts a lot
I tried GNOME with dash to panel and it is really okay, middle click on taskbar icons is missing but gnome is pretty cool. It is not a “middle-way-poweruser” desktop at all though. Installed 2 apps from different sources? Good luck editing their desktop entries to make them distinct.
They basically outsource way too much to extensions and apps which also sucks.
Welcome to the free tech world.
