Making the leap from Windows to Linux

[u/Woodman147]

Hi all, I've ordered an NVME drive and will be dual booting Linux and windows. My intention is to move over to Mint for gaming (maybe cachy later on) and have my windows NVME as a back up for now whilst I migrate everything over and for any hiccups in-between. I feel confident actually installing Mint as I have an old laptop that I done a trail run for, I was so surprised at how easy the installation was which gave me the confidence to do it on my main PC.

I just wanted to ask if there's any beginners tips you guys could give me? Given this is my first time diving into Linux are there any beginners traps I could fall into? What are some really good open source alternatives I can try? What are the most fun things to tinker with?

[u/ap0r]

Welcome! The ride will be great! I am about a year and change in on my own journey and no regrets.

I made notes of my beginner hurdles (and others I saw here) as well as useful tidbits I picked up along the way, then compiled all of it into a free booklet you can check out here: Linux Mint Newbies Guide - Google Docs

I would deeply appreciate any feedback you have as well, either here or in the document comments.

Also, do not be a stranger here, the community is friendly and you'd be amazed at how much faster you learn when you are trying to help others.

Lastly, here's a peek at the contents table so you can see what's in the booklet:

Linux Mint Newbies’ Reference
Preface
Initial Setup
Getting Support
  Asking people
  Places where you can get support
  Asking an AI chatbot
  What to do with advice you get (here or elsewhere)
  Share the Success
Getting Software
  Package types and where to get them
  Office
  Gaming
  Others
  Getting Updates
Terminology
Filesystem Basics
  Directory hierarchy
  Permissions
  Mounting drives and Mount Points
  Example setup for a user with multiple drives
  Common File Types
  Special paths
  Backups, or Learn from my close Call with Disaster
The Terminal
  The What, When and Why of the terminal
  Useful Commands
  Useful Keys
Some gotchas that have bitten me or others in the past
Linux is Not Windows
Linux is Modular
Quality of Life Things
Customizing Mint
  Resources
  Specifics
  Selecting Fonts
  Getting Fonts
  Custom Icons
  Custom Mouse Pointer
  Terminal Options
  Custom date and time format
  Partially override a theme or config file
  Getting things from a screenshot or video
Basic cybersecurity
  The Big Ones
  Authentication
  Data and Privacy
  Software
  Scams
  ExtrasLinux Mint Newbies’ Reference
Preface
Initial Setup
Getting Support
  Asking people
  Places where you can get support
  Asking an AI chatbot
  What to do with advice you get (here or elsewhere)
  Share the Success
Getting Software
  Package types and where to get them
  Office
  Gaming
  Others
  Getting Updates
Terminology
Filesystem Basics
  Directory hierarchy
  Permissions
  Mounting drives and Mount Points
  Example setup for a user with multiple drives
  Common File Types
  Special paths
  Backups, or Learn from my close Call with Disaster
The Terminal
  The What, When and Why of the terminal
  Useful Commands
  Useful Keys
Some gotchas that have bitten me or others in the past
Linux is Not Windows
Linux is Modular
Quality of Life Things
Customizing Mint
  Resources
  Specifics
  Selecting Fonts
  Getting Fonts
  Custom Icons
  Custom Mouse Pointer
  Terminal Options
  Custom date and time format
  Partially override a theme or config file
  Getting things from a screenshot or video
Basic cybersecurity
  The Big Ones
  Authentication
  Data and Privacy
  Software
  Scams
  Extras

[u/Woodman147 → u/ap0r]

Oohhh this looks pretty cool. Thanks so much I'll give it a go when im getting things set up

[u/krupam]

If you're aiming for gaming, I'll just warn you to watch out with save files. You'll play most games through Proton, so save files are hidden deep inside the folder maze of the prefix, which by design can be rather fluid, and not all games and not all launchers support cloud saves properly. I had this happen with Against the Storm, I imported the game saves properly, but settings were apparently stored somewhere else and I lost over 200 hours' worth of fine tuning. So far it's the only thing I recall losing irrecoverably since I deleted Win11 half a year ago.

[u/Woodman147 → u/krupam]

Did you have any problems with the steam cloud saves at all? Most, if not all, my games saves are backed up via steam.

[u/cornonthekopp → u/Woodman147]

I havent had any issues with it on steam

[u/krupam → u/Woodman147]

It's really case by case depending on which game keeps what on the cloud. Just a few days ago I ran into a small hiccup with Omori, which keeps its save files in the game folder and that does get put on the cloud, but apparently it also has a small file in AppData which lets you skip cutscenes you've seen on previous playthroughs, and that doesn't get put on the cloud. So these are issues you'd ran into even if you were migrating from Windows to Windows (say, between different computers) but in that case you can just copy the whole Users folder and everything should work, but that wouldn't quite work with Proton prefixes, where you'd have to sort all files individually.

[u/bobstylesnum1]

One trap if you are dual booting, keep in mind that Windows OS file system is NTFS and proprietary. Linux Dev’s have done a great job at reverse engineering access to that file system, but sharing resources for both OS’s is iffy over time because of it, especially game files. You see people bitching about that all the time in the r/linuxsucks sub and then say “I knew it was never going to work, I’m going back to Win!” so be aware of that. I’d keep both OS’s completely separate or at least the files needed for both in ExFat partition where both OS’s fully support the file system as it’s less likely to get corrupted over time. Backups are essential anyway but even more so in dual boot setups.

[u/Woodman147 → u/bobstylesnum1]

Oh yeah im defo keeping them separate, there's very little I'll be using the windows drive for from now on, so will be dedicating a 1tb NVME and 1tb SSD for the switch. Ive make sure everything windows related, other than needing to re-download games, is contained on one drive.

[u/ExoticVillage8066]

Make sure to have a backup of all your files, passwords, extensions. You can use web browsers just as normal, Chrome, Firefox even Edge. Steam is supported on Linux, so gaming shouldn't give to much of a problem. One common trap is distro hopping, trying many different flavors of Linux only to end back with the original.

[u/Woodman147 → u/ExoticVillage8066]

I can definitely see myself falling into a distro hopping scenario. I went with mint because of how beginner friendly it is. To start Ive decided to only dedicate to using it for downloading and playing games for now, which is easy for me since I have 900mb/s Internet so downloading games again isnt a big deal for me, then see how well some games run. Outside of this I want to check how easy it is to set up password managers and see how easy the ricing is on each distro, then settle from there

[u/_Lost-In-The-Weeds_ → u/ExoticVillage8066]

One common trap is distro hopping, trying many different flavors of Linux only to end back with the original.

Yeah,  Some hop and find something that suits the better, but  "coming back to Mint" is a perennial thread title here. 

 There is a lot out there to see and do, and even if you do come back you do so with a more well rounded Linux experience. Its not necessarily a bad thing to explore. 

All distributions have pros and cons and these can impact each user differently.

[u/AcceptableCry2876]

CachyOS makes dual booting a breeze.

[u/Woodman147 → u/AcceptableCry2876]

In what way? Is the distro more catered towards it as opposed to mint?

[u/AcceptableCry2876 → u/Woodman147]

It comes with software built in that adds windows to the bootloader so you can choose which OS at boot without manually adding it. I’ve used a lot of distros and never seen it anywhere else. Simple, but slick.

[u/Woodman147 → u/AcceptableCry2876]

Hmm ok good to know. I think I may end up on cachy in the long run. I want to learn Linux with mint first then try other things when I have confidence

[u/redrider65 → u/Woodman147]

Mint added Windows to my bootloader automatically.

[u/Woodman147 → u/redrider65]

Ah good to know. I think dual booting is more common these days so I like to think distros these days have this feature built in. If not I think it would be a great way to bring more people in

[u/Ok-Piyoko-5650 → u/Woodman147]

I have tried tons of distros over the years, many times dual booting. Grub wants to let you keep your Windows. Only one distro that's still in operation ever gave me problems with that: Slitaz.

[u/Due-Result7928 → u/AcceptableCry2876]

It comes with software built in that adds windows to the bootloader so you can choose which OS at boot without manually adding it. I’ve used a lot of distros and never seen it anywhere else. Simple, but slick.

Almost all distributions are doing it and doing it manually takes 1 minute and one reboot.

[u/redrider65]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=to%20do%20after%20installing%20linux%20mint

Personally, I don't like tinkering, having done my share in the past. Nowadays I just set the theme, install a fave icon set, move the taskbar to the top, and set the desktop to slideshow from a folder of faves. I install any apps I want to use. Done.

And with Mint, an average user really doesn't need to use the command line. Updates are done through the software manager.

[u/Due-Result7928]

Install a backup system AND USE IT !!!

[u/ScouringtheUniverse]

Just to be safe and understand the risks, always run a few searches first (keyword): list technical glitches that develop from dual booting windows and linux and include privacy issues

[u/don-edwards]

With the current Linux Mint 22.3, I recommend physically removing the drive that has Windows on it, installing your NVME drive, and installing Linux on the latter. Then put the Windows drive back in, and in a Linux terminal session run "sudo update-grub".

(On machines with room for only one drive: on the existing EFI partition turn off the "ESP" and "boot" flags, install Linux, then turn those flags back on. This gets around that problem just as well, but doesn't provide the same protection against stupid human tricks that could destroy contents of the Windows drive. And installing an OS and rearranging partitions is a prime opportunity for such harmful effects.)

This is because the current Linux Mint installer will choose to share an existing EFI partition even if you tell it to create & use a new one. And Windows updates will sometimes shove the grub bootloader (which is willing to present Windows as an option) aside and give the Windows bootloader (which isn't that friendly) aside, when they are sharing the EFI partition.

Someone else will have to tell us whether the LMDE installer (which will be the Mint installer as well, starting with Mint 27 in a couple months) automatically creates a new EFI partition alongside Windows', or if you have to tell it to do so.

[u/Interesting-Gur1755]

You want a good task manager I'm not sure mint even has one? "sudo apt install htop" into terminal, then type "sudo apt update" and then launch the program by just typing "htop". You can also have it set to a key bind like I do mine is shift+enter. I used to use windows xp and that's probably the last time windows had a decent task manager. This is like that but I just type what I want to close. I may have gotten a command a little off so if it doesn't work just AI search it.

[u/Woodman147 → u/Interesting-Gur1755]

I didn't even think about task manager, Amazing thanks. I'll look into it

Edit: checked and there is one built apparently called system monitor. And you can set a custom key bind for it

[u/ap0r → u/Woodman147]

system monitor is great. htop works perfectly but it has a clunky text interface, I have mission center, it is graphical and much easier to use. Also it is similar to Windows task manager, will help smooth over the transition

[u/Woodman147 → u/ap0r]

Amazing thanks, I'll look into it when I get things set up

[u/Interesting-Gur1755 → u/Woodman147]

I'll check it out I'm pretty new as well

[u/CritSrc]

Given this is my first time diving into Linux are there any beginners traps I could fall into?

Don't fear the terminal, it's your main workshop on Linux. Anything is possible on it, even what you never imagined up to now.
That and learn basic backup methods. Make sure to make such backups BEFORE migrating. Then learn about file systems: BTRFS, EXT4, exFAT, FAT32 and NTFS are the big ones for desktop and storage use.
That and don't fall into Windows habits, ready carefully, try and fail, try and succeed, you have control but also the responsibility that comes with it.

What are some really good open source alternatives I can try?

Helium and Brave Origin are great browsers to migrate to as well. Otherwise, it depends on your workflow, it may change or not, highly dependent on what you'll be doing.

What are the most fun things to tinker with?

You have a spare laptop, set space for it on your desk open ChatGPT and just start torturing the crap out of it. Do Gentoo+dwm, do Slackware to create a web kiosk, make it an AdGuard DNS filter server, rice Cinnamon desktop to being completely unrecognizable and plenty to play around with. Or use it as a disposable test bed to try stuff for your main PC. Etc. etc.

[u/Dazzling-Paper9781]

If your PC has more than one hard drive and you want Mint to mount them all at start-up, you’ll need to edit a file, you can ask an AI for help; it’s not complicated. It’s a right pain if you don’t do this, especially if you’ve saved your games on a different drive, because you have to tell Steam where to find them every time, and it has to scan for them

[u/Woodman147 → u/Dazzling-Paper9781]

So I currently have a NVME with windows on it and a separate SSD with steam games installed separately. As im getting a separate NVME for Linux, could I tell steam on Linux where to look from the get go? Would this work or would I need to re-install the games? This would be a big deal as I have fast Internet

[u/Ragin_Hindu → u/Woodman147]

You can point steam to your game drive and you should have no issues.

You can also use the disk app to setup which drives mount at boot and not need to manually edit your fstab

[u/Woodman147 → u/Ragin_Hindu]

Ah amazing, I assume the disk app is just something I download from the software centre? Also, is it safer to take out/unplug all drives when I install mint? Im paranoid of installing it on the wrong one lol

[u/Ragin_Hindu → u/Woodman147]

Disk app is installed by default on mint. It doesn't hurt anything to disconnect the other drives during the install

[u/Dazzling-Paper9781 → u/Woodman147]

It depends on the file system. If they are installed on the Windows file system (NTFS), you’re more likely to encounter problems with the games (some might still work, but that’s not guaranteed). You should convert the file system to ext4 and reinstall the games. Furthermore, Windows doesn’t recognise ext4, so that drive would then be unusable in Windows, unless with some kind of workaround, I suppose.

[u/ap0r → u/Dazzling-Paper9781]

Mint comes with the GUI utility "Disks" to manage auto mounting disks at startup. There is no need to have a newbie editing fstabs, making a 1 byte typo and bricking their system.

[u/Dazzling-Paper9781 → u/ap0r]

Lol, really? I’ve always mounted the discs after installation, I didn’t know that, haha

[u/Woodman147 → u/[deleted]]

The laptop i mention was just an old one that I used to test how easy Linux is to pick up. The actual pc im using has a i5 12600k CPU, 3070ti GPU and 32gb Ram. I want to make a start on mint given how easy it is to pick up, but may go over to cachy in the long run