I wish I understood what you guys are talking about. I have a desktop pc, copier and printer at my business and an Android cellphone for home internet usage. Until I retire, I can't make myself tool up beyond that at home.
I wish I understood what you guys are talking about. I have a desktop pc, copier and printer at my business and an Android cellphone for home internet usage. Until I retire, I can't make myself tool up beyond that at home.
People hate throwing away their obsolete systems. That includes me. So when I upgrade then I put Linux on the old equipment and use it for other reasons. I have one in my home office that I use for surfing the internet. I have one that I use as a music server. I even have one that i use to open up questionable emails with attachments from unknown companies or unfriendly countries that respond to the website. I can wipe it clean and have it back up and running in short order.
For those that hate to be spied on, Linux gives you the ability to escape the worst spy of all which is called Window 10.
bdtex (09-24-2021)
OK, so to keep this going, after reviewing a number of top-recommended systems1, I've decided to go with Linux Mint Cinnamon.
Linux Mint Cinnamon was also persuasive in its detailed instructions: https://linuxmint-installation-guide...io/en/latest/#
First step is to prepare an ISO image on a bootable USB stick. DVD can be used but none of my laptops have DVD players.
- Download the installer from https://linuxmint.com/download.php. Size is 2.0GB. The bootable version will be slightly larger.
- Download sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpg from https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=288 and verify per instructions at https://linuxmint-installation-guide...st/verify.html.2
- Download balenaEtcher from https://www.balena.io/etcher/, a simple tool to create the bootable ISO USB stick.
- Create the bootable ISO USB stick...
Stopping there. Ordered a USB stick from Amazon. I think 3-4 GB will do, but I got larger for additional uses and they're cheap. Will resume when it arrives.
The next steps are booting off the USB stick. That brings up Mint Cinamon where you can play around or install.
1 Some reviews:
https://www.stackscale.com/blog/popu...distributions/
https://www.howtogeek.com/191207/10-...ions-compared/
https://www.tecmint.com/linux-distro-for-power-users/
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-...t-linux-distro
2 Required downloading GNU Privacy Guard for Windows and using DOS commands.
Last edited by Chris; 09-25-2021 at 10:39 AM.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
countryboy (09-28-2021)
Of the subject a little but they also have Linux Live versions. I have a Knoppix live CD that I burned and I should do the same USB now that my labtops no longer has a CD/DVD drive.
You can boot using these and run the OS right off the disk or USB. They allow you to get into password protected systems and copy the files to another drive. Since Windows protection and any system security is not running then it cannot stop you. It also allows you to sometimes get into drives that Windows tells you are dead.
I have found this useful when an employee leaves and decides to change passwords on his company desktop or laptop. Also, for retrieving information from drives that windows will not boot.
Chris (09-25-2021)
carolina73 (09-26-2021),Chris (09-26-2021)
I'm in, running Linux Mint Cinnamon from USB boot.
PITA to get this thing to boot off USB. Tried different USB slots. Nothing. Had to go to BIOS and change optimization to boot Windows and boot another OS.
Still no go. F12 wouldn't show boot menu. Had to push the NOVO button to start from boot menu. First had to find the NOVO button. Maybe this? Hey, boot menu.
Selected USB, mint initializing, and boom, fast, it's up and running.
Able to connect to WiFi and use firefox for now.
Want to back some recovery files from Lenovo off the D drive and then install....
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
Linux Mint Cinnamon installed.
Installed Google Chrome. From what I understand this is not the Chromium version. But I signed into my Google Account and it synced all my bookmarks and extensions and they all work except my password manager--working on that.
Only irritation so far is having to enter my password for any changes.
So I'm set to go.
Easy peazy.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
I didn't give many details on installation steps because I simply took defaults and did what was recommended to set up virus protection and install updates. I did opt to erase what was on the HDD, namely Windows, as I had no intention of ever going back.
Prep time, that is downloading linux iso and tools, maybe 30 minutes, most of it for the download. Buring the USB stick took 5 minutes. Installation, maybe 20 minutes.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
As a follow-up, I've had absolutely no problems since the mint cinnamon install. Admittedly I don't use the laptop for much other than to browse the Internet.
In case anyone wants to try ChromeOS, here's a video with instructions. Interestingly, you first have to install Linux to then install ChromeOS.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
Yeah Linux will work fine on that computer...
You can have your pick of the type of Linux you want, you can check it out here: https://distrowatch.com/
I would recommend something with a lightweight desktop... Perhaps something running XFCE?
Here's a Fedora version with XFCE which I use as a virtual machine because it doesn't eat up too much resources:
https://spins.fedoraproject.org/xfce...oad/index.html
If you're looking for more ease of use and you're coming off of Windows I suggest LinuxMint with Cinnamon desktop but it is heavier and your computer might not run as fast... That said, LinuxMint gets its packages from Ubuntu and they support a lot of them so you are more likely to find a program of need on it without having to search the internet and then compiling it yourself...
All can be installed easily from a thumb drive and you can actually run it from a thumb drive... This way, you can test it out first without installing the OS or removing Windows at all and when you find the one you like, you can install that one...
Anyways, good luck!
Edit: Nevermind, I see you al;ready got it done...
Last edited by invictus; 10-27-2021 at 12:57 AM.
Chris (10-27-2021)