I’m considering switching to linux but I’m not a computer savvy person, so I wanted to have the option to switch back to windows if unforeseen complications (I only have 1 pc). Is it just a download on usb and install? And what ways can I get the product key or “cleaner” debloated versions.
It depends on how far down the rabbithole you go.
I switched to Linux 27 years ago. My wife asks me to help her with her Windows computer every now and then, and I can’t really do it for more than a few minutes before my blood pressure is in the risk zone.
similar here. im still ‘new’ to linux but have to use windows for my apprentice. also my father uses windows. so often i have to click a button multiple times, ads, or window not responding, ads, sometimes its slow af. did I already mention ads?
so often i have to click a button multiple times, ads, or window not responding
Maybe you should use something faster than a potato as a computer. 😂
did I already mention ads?
If you’re capable of installing Linux and getting a productive desktop experience with it I’m sure as shit you are also capable of disabling a few toggles under Windows.
Potatoes are free hardware though? You can grow them yourself, study the source code, make changes to it and release it for others to use. Pretty sure you can’t do that with most modern computers
i love that comment😂
You can always reinstall Windows and the license is registered to the motherboard so it’ll be fine.
You could alternatively buy a hard drive and keep your entire windows system for later just in case. :)
I would buy a SSD
You dont even install. You download, write to usb and try linux.
Give it a good hour or more, trying to do a couple basic things like browsing the web, using some apps.
If you find yourself liking the experience, hit install and go dual boot. You can then decide on every boot if you need windows or linux today.
In case you feel like getting rid of windows, you can just disable the item in the boot menu (tutorials online) i guess.
So as you see, there are many failsafes which you can use to not get stuck without a computer that you understand.
Have a good one.
@[email protected] fyi, when you run Linux off of a USB drive (aka live USB), it’s likely going to run a lot slower than when installed on an SSD. Just take that into account when you’re testing it if you go that route. I wouldn’t want you to think Linux is slow as frozen molasses and forgo the full experience because of a misunderstanding.
To that point it’s probably going to be a lot slower than running it on an HDD too. That said, the USB performance is surprisingly good when you consider you’re literally running an OS over USB and the OS isn’t even in an optimized state.
I would agree way this, with one caveat: Does OP plan to game on Linux?
Gaming on Linux has come very far, but it’s not perfect and not something you can really get a feel for in a USB live environment. At that point rather to dual boot and try sticking with Linux for a while.
Uhm… you do realize that dual booting is step two in what I said right?
You’re right, my bad.
Hi!! 👋☺️
If you want to test out Linux, try running a virtual machine instead. There are a few good free software programs to do this. VirtualBox used to be a good option. It’s a free and harmless way to dive into Linux.
Just buy a new SSD to install Linux on. If you decide to switch back just plug the old one in.
The easiest way to preserve an existing Windows installation is to take out the drive it’s on and put in a new drive for Linux. That way if you want to go back, you can just swap in the old drive again. Installing M.2 or SATA drives is very easy and 100% doable even if you’re not an expert.
this 👆 dual boot doesn’t always work because windows can be finicky with boot partitions as well as boot partition security issues. Save yourself a headache if you want to go back, just pop your current drive out, and put it in a external case so you can access the files. Hard drives are cheap.
So I will get some flack from this I am sure but my daily drivers since about 2004 are Linux I have always had a Mac laptop up to a few years ago in that time frame and Windows work laptops.
Honestly Windows 11 has a lot of nice creature features that KDE has had for a while and with WSL I can use a lot of my Linux commands. Can tell you how many times I have used egrep for things along with having native ssh built in. Powershell is a very powerful shell language especially if you want to go down the .Net rabbit hole but that’s not usually needed
Still my main desktop is Debian stable with distrobox for apps I need more modern versions of. But it’s not hard to switch back and forth
You can install Linux on a flash drive to test it out. Or spend $50 on a SSD and just have both
It’s not the fanciest solution, but if you’re really not sure what you’re doing, not wiping out your Windows in the first place could be the best option.
Other answers got you covered, but please back up your personal data before doing anything big, even if you are feeling confident
Story time, I once was reinstalling windows and I could not remember which drive had all my important data on it and I was getting ready to go out. But windows xp installer was on the disk selection screen and I couldn’t remember which disk was windows and which was my data. I said fuck it I’ll figure it out later. I get home and my monitor is off. I jam enter a bunch of times to wake it up. Woops. Installed windows on my data drive.
Υou can download the Windows iso, burn it in a usb stick before you nuke it to install linux, and find free legal serial numbers online (there are various serials for all versions of win10/11, all legal – it’s considered semi-activated with these).
If the device ran Windows before the key is stored in hardware
burn it in a usb stick before you nuke it to install linux
This is very very important unless you have another windows computer around. Took me a whole day to figure out how to properly burn a windows install USB from linux. It isn’t straightforward.
There’s a very good chance the key is stored in the EFI, making this the absolute easiest part. I’d just make sure to get the Windows installer on a USB stick before installing Linux, if there aren’t any other Windows machines around. And also make sure I have a wifi/ethernet driver available before reinstalling Windows, if it comes to that. It can be tricky to install Windows without network, these days, and even if you get past that (which I’d recommend, to bypass a Microsoft account), you still need it once you’re in the installed OS.
Ok, so I’m assuming you have never installed Windows before. It’s not that complicated (especially nowadays that Windows finally learned how to automatically search for drivers, that used to be the most annoying part). First of all make a note of your current Windows CD Key, you will need it to reinstall and not every computer can retrieve it if you uninstall windows.
After that, you need a windows USB drive, just like the Linux one you’ll use to install Linux. You can get it from Microsoft website, but again I advise you to get it while on Windows (Microsoft hides the way to download the iso on Linux).
Finally I strongly recommend you DON’T uninstall windows, instead keep it and install Linus side by side. This is called dual booting, every time you turn on your computer it will ask you where to boot.
Get a second SSD, install there
Yeah but make sure you disconnect your Windows SSD before doing anything.
Since you’re not computer savvy, I really think you should watch some YouTube videos on how to dual boot linux with windows. That way you can keep windows without having to reinstall it if you ever wanna go back.
Easy in terms of installing windows? No harder than a normal install in any situation. Easy in terms of usability? Can’t even imagine ever trying. Have a hard enough time using my windows cloud r at work.
Do a dual boot, that’s what I did. If after some time you feel like the windows partition is unnecessary, delete it. If after deletion it suddenly seems to become necessary, it is always possible to reinstall windows, there are tutorials online on how to do that.
