Mastodawn

I desperately want to switch to Linux but I'm terrified of breaking my computer still. I'm sitting on a GTX 980 and Windows 10 (computer is old and I'm very poor).

EDIT: To clarify, I have used a bootable USB stick before to test Linux Mint. It gave me a good impression but was kinda laggy (10 year old USB ports aren't very fast).

Anyone out there willing to poke me in the right direction?

I am dependent on Discord for friends and Microsoft Teams (no matter how much I hate it) for many job search reasons. #linux #windows

Zelphir Kaltstahl 1d ago

(1) Discord runs on GNU/Linux. It is an app based on Electron, which is a cross-platform framework/thing.

(2) MS Teams you can use inside Chromium, which you can easily install on GNU/Linux distributions.

(3) For your graphics card (I think GTX 980 is one?) you should check the driver situation online. Worst case is that you have use proprietary Nvidia drivers, but that's still easily possible.

In what way are you terrified to break your computer specifically?

@zelphirkaltstahl

For your question: I just cannot afford a new one. So it's like... alright, so i did a Mint installation on a USB just to test the general user experience and get a feel for it. But I've never tried installing on my PC as is.

1) Great.

2) Alright, that sounds... like it could take some time (just extremely cautious and trying to not overestimate my fluency in Linuxing) but is doable.

3) Mm... yeah, so it'd work but it'd be better to switch to an AMD card from what I understand. But it'd work. At least.

Zelphir Kaltstahl 1d ago

@jaeder Open source AMD graphics card drivers I think are coming with the Linux kernel or at the very least are easily installed through the official repositories on many GNU/Linux distributions. I have a desktop with an AMD graphics card myself and all I had to do was to install GNU/Linux (in my case Debian) and the package `amdgpu` was already installed and my graphics card just work.

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Zelphir Kaltstahl 1d ago

@jaeder With Nvidia cards the situation is different. Choices being https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/ driver and the proprietary driver. Afaik Nouveau lagging far behind, and any modern card basically needs the proprietary driver to get anywhere near its potential. Please someone correct me, if I am wrong.

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nouveau · freedesktop.org

freedesktop.org

@zelphirkaltstahl Alright. That helps clarify it. I guess I'll see if I can get my hands on another SSD and install Linux on these one for a dual-boit setup. I can't wait to get out of the Windows experience.

Zelphir Kaltstahl 1d ago

@jaeder Just know, that you don't have to switch completely from one day to the other. Many people feel a bit overwhelmed with all the choice and possibly different ways of doing things on another OS. Feel free to ask people on here for ideas/help, before potentially giving up =)

@zelphirkaltstahl Haha, yeeeh, I appreciate that. I have tried Mint a little, but I think a gaming+Dev+creative suite is what I after. I don't know if Mint is a good fit for that or if I should opt for another. How easy is it to change boot installation if I want to just... jump around for a bit in the beginning?

Zelphir Kaltstahl 6h ago

@jaeder If you have sufficient storage, you can install multiple systems in parallel. Otherwise you could try them out in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. I think some installers for GNU/Linux distributions also give an option to install over an existing system, but I have never done that.

What helps is having a list of things that need installing/setup, and backups. Then you can quite quickly install a new system and get it set up.

Zelphir Kaltstahl 1d ago

@jaeder I don't think you have to fear anything in terms of hardware damage. In my experience computers work longer when not running Windows and when running GNU/Linux. At most what issues I had were some part simply not working, because of drivers not being available, but then that's not hardware damage.

Infoseepage 1d ago

@jaeder Most desktop computers support selecting the boot device at startup. If you have an old spare hard drive or SSD, you could install Linux to that and trial it without blowing away your existing Windows installation. If you want to play around with it casually, there are also many bootable Linux distros which can run from off a bootable CD-ROM or flash drive.

Daniel Lakeland 1d ago

@jaeder
i would definitely start by testing everything on a bootable live USB stick. Make sure you can get WiFi and graphics and sound and stuff working. its about 99% chance all that stuff works out of the box on a popular distro. I am told Linux Mint is very popular as a first distro and has good hardware support and a boot able ISP you can put on a Ventoy USB stick. I would start by making a Ventoy stick in Windows, and adding the mint ISO, and then boot it and mess around

@dlakelan Yeah. I should have clarified that I've already tested on a bootable USB-stick, that I felt safe to do, it just "feels" different to approach an SSD. God. I only have one other SSD and it's the only one that works (my two HDD:s are not working as they should for some reason) so... mm... I probably have to look into getting a third SSD (may the cosmic entities bring me one affordable) and try it on that one.

Daniel Lakeland 1d ago

@jaeder
Do you have some other way to get online if an install goes wrong? (phone, tablet, library computer?)

Here's my take, if it runs properly on a USB, and you have a way to get online and look up error messages etc with a different device or a library computer, then you really dont have much to fear. I honestly think you should just go for it. Staying with Windows is also harmful in its own ways. Linux Mint worked for you so I would use the USB stick to do a full install.

Daniel Lakeland 1d ago

@jaeder
pretty much worst case if the USB stick worked with network and audio hardware is you spend a certain amount of time realizing you dont have a program you need and then installing it until that stabilizes and you have most everything.

of course your data files should be backed up somewhere in 2 places before starting.

@dlakelan I do have a phone with Android 9. Alright. Then I'll do a new install once I get a new SSD(both HDD:s are dying anyway). Thank you for the help!

@jaeder I guess your very first step should be to try out a linux distribution with a live usb key for a day.

You boot into it so there are no changes to your pc. Your current hard drive isn't implicated.

Save in the cloud or on another usb key if you want to keep something.

Don't like it? Reboot, remove the key and you're back. No hassles, no danger.

I recommend Zorin OS or Linux Mint.

@obc I have updated my post to clarify that I have tried Mint through a USB boot before. It just feels like I could be missing a lot of stuff moving to an SSD.

But I've decided to do a dual-boot setup on a new SSD when the time comes around.

@jaeder Missing like forgetting to back up something or missing like something going wrong between the live and real versions?

@obc Something going wrong between the live and real versions

@jaeder From my experience, that's unlikely. But I'd check first if a Teams meeting works fine (with camera) and log into discord. Also try to use your network/usb printer or scanner.

If those work fine, in my experience, there's no difference between live and real.

The one thing I had to do with Mint 17 was to open the terminal to increase the volume to 100 from 0 with alsamixer.

@obc Hmm... alright. I'll keep an eye out for that when I do an installation. Thank you for the Help!