Most users thinking about a conversion from Windows to Linux will - nonetheless - require Windows interoperability. Several of these situations are easy…to…medium difficulty to set up a 1st time, and then “Just Work” from then on. For example, file sharing among your home or work-group machines can be as simple as:
doing a “Share” on Windows boxes, and then using a Samba client on the Linux box.
Alternatively (as I’ve done), one machine in-house is the file server: a Linux box with 18 TBy running a Samba server, and every Windows box in the household having a “remembered” “mapped drive” for the Samba export. Everyone knows that shared “Music” is at N:\Music, “Documents” and N:\Documents, etc.
Remember that a couple of distributions feature Samba pre-installed and operational at the completion of the Linux install.
Although an increase in risk to any Linux machine’s setup, the problem of a Windows user being able to install software or do other simple administrative tasks can be minimized by making the converted user administrative (or a member of the group wheel). Most administrative tasks they’d do become approx. the same as answering the “Windows Account Control” dialog box (variously a repeat password request or an [ OK ] button: the need to “sudo” or answer to most GUI utilities pop-up requesting the password of an administrator-authorized user.
this article (below) popped up in my feed reader today and i thought it was a decent overview of your same question, but obviously focusing on mint as the target install. one of the first things (after deciding which distro of course) that seems to garner a lot of questions on the linux4noobs and linuxquesions subreddits is the creating of and using the live usb.
both your article (farther below) and the zdnet one cover pretty well how to create boot media. i think i originally used yumi as zd listed among their choices and the multiboot never gave me any issues. zd does also cover making a boot dvd which i think might be helpful. their article suggests setting up a persistent usb which doesn’t seem necessary to me for a one-time first install.
one of the things that i rarely see mentioned is that any live media write can just plain fail or not go as planned. people manage to boot into it only to be met with a wall of code/system initialization log readouts and then they (again, i see this mostly on reddit) want someone to troubleshoot them out of a glitchy/possibly badly written live environment.
all of that to say that (as pedantic as it may sound) including instructions to reboot any such session to see if it reoccurs and then (if it does), not think twice about rewriting boot media. usb’s fail. dvd’s fail. interactions between either of those and third-party windows software can have good and bad days.
after that is the field day of to disable secure boot or not?, disable fastboot on windows so the partition can be read by the linux partition, uefi or legacy mode or both?
though my experience was fairly easy (ubuntu mate fit in nicely beside my win10 partition and i didn’t use that hdd long enough for the update overwriting grub disaster to rear its ugly head) and i switched to linux only within a few months, i feel like getting the live media/install process described correctly could be a gatekeeper to anyone having actual success with a distro.
quite agreed. it is a hefty undertaking to be sure. a noble path to guide people on the path to linux, but one (please to pardon the pun) with many forks.
The safest way I know to create live media, is certainly Rufus. If everything else fails, this should work. I write images in UEFI-only DD mode. This is the best and safest way for UEFI (CSM toggled off) machines to install a Linux distribution from thumbdrive, because it should work even with the most annoying HYBRID-ISO images out there.
Like was said previous GUI, GUI for everything (or almost) is the key or to make non linux people become linux users! I already spoted in the comments some hardcore linux users saying that new people should learn cli’s, but those people have no idea how elitist they look and much people get away from it. Maybe is someone that just want to play games and that’s fine.
The idea of the free linux os is that is for everyone should inclusive and not exclusive!
No one referred opensuse but is pretty simple to get in to linux and most of the stuff can be done graphically!
Ps: must be root for printer configuration!
OMG!!.. The Terminal?!! I’m telling you, the Terminal is Terminal! Do NOT touch it!! You’ll anger those little green men. You know, the one’s that live in the magic box.
There is a ton of information online on making the switch. I tend to recommend Mint or Debian based Distros for those coming from windows. The transition seems to be easier.
Some of the biggest hurdles to overcome for longtime windows users that I’ve seen are the following:
MS Office to Libreoffice - This is a hard one for many to learn. Though they are very similar in many ways, things are done differently in Libreoffice.
The amount of choice in Linux - compared to Windows there is a ton of choice in Linux that the Windows user simply is not use too. – There are many guides to choosing the right linux Distro/ desktop for you- I tend to recommend Cinnamon or Mate. But Like Xfce personally. This page is helpful - https://www.lifewire.com/choose-best-linux-distro-for-needs-2201172 and this may be of help also https://distrochooser.de/en
I often recommend that they dual boot with windows for awhile and as the learn linux they will know when it’s time to make the switch. Or alternatively have them set up a Vritual Box window 7 install to use when needed. Info here is pretty good -https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/virtualbox.html
it was an interesting surprise/learning experience when i logged into regular debian 9 for the first time to find out that i couldn’t sudo because i wasn’t in the sudoers list. it was easy/quick enough fix, but definitely involved the command line. 99% of my experience with linux so far has been ubuntu-based and i wanted to take a look at the “progenitor” distro (as it were) do the ones you recommend take care of that beforehand?
when I say debian based it includes all of Ubuntu/Mint and MX-16 through 18 There are many others - not sure which ones use sudo and which do not. But they all have a common base that include dpkg and apt or aptitude as the package manager and use .deb package system. I have used RPMs and still do on some machines. But perfer .debs
The Optional Gesture System will let users navigate their computers with barely even having to touch a keyboard if that is their wish, The more Traditional users don’t have to enable gestures, they can simply use the operating system in much the same way they are used to navigating Linux. Core Also offers many “Instant Access” features like a one click wallpaper changer or one click 3D option, easily control every aspect of your OS with a simply few clicks. Core is designed for extreme ease of use and comfort.
i thought i would take a look at their page. their 2018.10.12 build was called LinDoz
MakuluLinux LinDoz Is not designed to be a Clone of Windows, it is merely familiar territory for both Windows and Linux users, the themes aren’t replicas of windows, but mere similar designs.
I’m going to make the assumption that the target audience here are people who are only familiar with Windows, and are fairly competent computer users rather than experts.
For most such people, the idea of formatting disks and installing a new operating system will sound challenging and risky. They will have concerns over safeguarding their data, and over what to do if it all goes wrong. They will have questions about what programs will continue to work, and which will need to be replaced with Linux alternatives (and what those alternatives should be). They may well be interested in being able to run Linux alongside Windows, for a while at least.
I would start with something covering the options for the transition (complete replacement, dual boot, using VMs), and identify the steps to be taken before any changes are made (data backups, OS installation disks). I would add an explanation of disk partitioning, explaining the tools that should be used and suggesting possible partitioning schemes for the different installation options. There might also need to be something covering the issues arising from different BIOS architectures (MBR or EFI) and, in the case of EFI, steps to disable secure boot (and why this isn’t an unsafe thing to do).
At this point, it would be time to consider the choice of distro. Linux can be bewildering to newcomers, so I would suggest directing them towards one of the ‘easier’ distros for Windows users - say Mint with either MATE or Cinnamon as the desktop.
Most distros come with a selection of software to replace Windows alternatives, but a simple list of the main applications (office suite, browser, e-mail client, video player, music player, picture viewer etc.) would be helpful.
do the ones you recommend take care of that beforehand?
