Katta Mar 16

Thinking about switching from Windows to Linux yesterday created a cascade of thoughts in me I didn’t expect and I would liket to tell you a bit about it, about me. I am an AuDHD cis woman (she), somewhat fluid in gender (autigender) and personality, I constantly grow and adapt.

I am a Xennial and worked as a concept developer and PM in tech during my 20s until my first huge burnout, that made me spend several months on an almost empty island in Thailand and in India and quit my job. During my 30s I worked as a yoga teacher, but I never really recovered from the burnout. Because of that and other health problems, I have been unemployed for several years by now. I live together with beagle Lumi, a rescue from animal testing.

Since I found out that I am autistic 4 years ago, things slowly improved, but I cannot change the fact that I am an autistic, disabled person in an allistic, ableist world. Because of my sensory issues and other aspects of my disability, I can barely exist in the outside world. Besides my daily walks with Lumi and very few planned activities, I spend most of my time at home, so it’s almost impossible for me to meet like minded people IRL. The fact that I live in a very conservative country, city and neighborhood doesn’t help with that either.

As an Anarchist I believe in community and mutual support, but switching to a new operating system with only the online-community here on Mastodon as support is scary. I have an IRL friend who is a sys-admin, but he is specialized in Windows and very busy. I am a fast learner and have exceptional analytical skills, but I am not a programmer, my math skills are extremely limited and the burnout affects my capacity for learning new things. I have a very monotropic mind, am very attached to objects and change can be difficult for me as autistic person.

But currently I feel the need for change, for tidying up my life, my data, myself.

I still have my information architect and project manager skills and I already have a list in my mind of all the things that will be affected by the change and I have a lot of questions. I will write about that in another post, probably several other posts.

Thank you for reading this, thank you for helping me, boosts are welcome.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #neurodivergent #Linux

Show threadKatta 

@tizlit @BjornW @zompetto @LeelaTorres @20000lbs_of_Cheese @dirkdierickx @mosgaard

Thank you so much for your helpful comments. 🤗
Here’s the plan:

I will choose the dual boot option for the beginning.

On Wednesday my sys-admin friend will help me to install mint or ZorinOS (I have to figure that out until then) on my notebook. I already created an 80 GB partition for the start. With his help I will successively make it bigger and the Windows part smaller in the future.

This will give me time to get used to the GUI, find and install the apps I need and do research concerning hardware problems, that might occur in the future.

So the current task is making the decision if I want to use mint or ZorinOS.

Please correct me and my language if I got anything wrong, I really want to learn how all this works.

#linux

Mar 16 at 10:21amWeb
Show threadKatta Mar 17

@tizlit
@LeelaTorres
@mosgaard
@cybervegan

It was a difficult decision, but because of the broader knowledge base I chose mint.

I also gave my notebook a new name. It's called Voyager now. 🤗✨🖖

Everything is prepared for the installation tomorrow.

Show threadcyberveganMar 17

@KaCi Nice. I name my computers after fictional starships, so I definitely approve! Though of course voyager could refer to the NASA space probes, but it tracks.

Mint is a good first choice, but you can try other distros later if you like. Once you've got the itch, you might want to try them all!

Show threadTizlitMar 16
@KaCi @BjornW @zompetto @LeelaTorres @20000lbs_of_Cheese @dirkdierickx @mosgaard
Sounds like a good plan. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable anyway. You could already do some work before your friend comes by backing up everything and making sure that you know the bitlocker key of your Windows license (which can be helpful for when something goes wrong)
Show threadMurray NuttallMar 16
I'm a big fan of ZorinOS for the out-of-box experience.
Show threadPatternChaserMar 16

@KaCi @tizlit @BjornW @zompetto @LeelaTorres @20000lbs_of_Cheese @dirkdierickx @mosgaard

I *was* a software designer, for many years. But as I age, and MS nibbles away at my brain, I'm less competent than I used to be. But I *am* considering trying to install a dual-boot Windoze/Linux-for-hifi-audio. I shall watch your progress with interest...

Show threadRalph de RijkeMar 16
You're gonna love Linux: it's so much more understandable, configurable, secure and efficient than Windoze.
I've been using Linux Lite on older laptops. Everything (except the fingerprint reader) works out of the box, it's fast and pretty, and updates (OS and apps) are easy and frequent.
Have fun! And if you have an issue, post it - there are lots of Linux geeks here willing to help. :-)
Show threadcyberveganMar 16

@KaCi @tizlit @BjornW @zompetto @LeelaTorres @20000lbs_of_Cheese @dirkdierickx @mosgaard

I'd strongly suggest Mint as its installer is very easy to use, though I haven't used Zorin recently, or seriously, I HAVE used most Linux distros at some point, and mint it's one of the best for beginners as it has an interface which is very comfortable and familiar feeling for Windows users.

Before you actually install, I'd suggest you get comfortable with mint by booting from usb - this is actually how the usb installer works anyway, and you can do most things this way to test out how it feels. It will run slower, but it's fast enough to use for real work, e.g. web browsing, word processing, even digital art. You can use it to test that all your hardware works as expected - especially WiFi, graphics, sound, camera etc. The only hardware thing I have found that doesn't usually work is fingerprint readers.

80gb is more than enough to start with. Dual boot is a reasonable way to start, but bear in mind that windows is apt to break booting other operating systems sometimes during updates, because it might mess with the boot loader or boot configuration, so make sure to find out how to fix that - there is a utility on the mint usb for fixing just this problem.

Show threadMorten MosgaardMar 16

@KaCi this sound like such a good solution, especially since you have the sys-admin friend, helping you getting a good start.

Know that both Mint and Zorin is being recommended as good beginner-distros, so both would be a good pick in each their own way. So take your time checking out the websites and documentation for both, and choose what ever resonates with you the most.

@tizlit @BjornW @zompetto @LeelaTorres @20000lbs_of_Cheese @dirkdierickx

Show threadDavid Culley2d ago

@KaCi Both Zorin and Mint are excellent choices for a very gentle introduction into the Linux world.

Zorin is made specifically to look almost like Windows, to make the switch as easy as possible for very casual users of Windows with little experience with computers. With a start menu instead of a dock, etc.

Mint is also very gentle … as gentle as it currently gets, but it probably looks a bit more like macOS than Windows.

If you're willing to let go of your "Windows ways of working" and embrace Linux, and especially since you think of yourself as a fast learner, I would recommend Mint.