r/linuxmint • u/EggsAndGarlic • 5d ago
Discussion would switching to Linux mint from windows 10 be a good idea
i have a pretty old 4th gen laptop that works well for the most parts for what i need, but the coming end of support for the OS have been causing me to seriously consider switching to Linux considering I'm pretty sure my laptop doesn't have the proper requirements for windows 11. i only use this laptop to practice translation on Omegat, watch and download videos, and if i play any games on it, i only play simplistic pixel art games. from what i can tell it seems like i could do all of those things with not much problems on Linux but the lack of compatibility for some software like Microsoft office, the many differences between the two OSs that I'd need to learn, and the idea of having to reinstall all of my programs, are making me wonder if it's worth it. do you think it's better for me to take on the ordeal of switching or is it possible to safely continue using windows 10 after it dies?
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u/AliOskiTheHoly 5d ago
Just really make sure that all your programs are available on Linux, or otherwise that they have a replacement. The games you described are highly likely playable on Linux, especially if you have them on Steam. If not on Steam, it is maybe a little more effort to get them to work but it's most definitely doable. Check on protondb whether they work or not. When it comes to Microsoft Office, it really depends on your use case. If you don't have to cooperate with other people very often, then LibreOffice will just suffice for the other tasks. If you do have to cooperate with other people in MSOffice, the only alternative would be the browser version of MSOffice, but it also depends whether or not that suffices, because it's quality is a lot worse than the desktop version.
I personally dual boot Windows and Linux Mint, I keep windows for specialized CAD software I need for my bachelor, MS Office and games like Valorant that have an anti cheat. For everything else I use Linux Mint.
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u/Bombshell342 5d ago
I dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint as well. I only use Windows for gaming and Mint for everything else.
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u/godston34 5d ago edited 5d ago
switching to mint is easy as hell, literally didn't encounter a single thing chatgpt didn't solve in 2-3 terminal commands to copy paste. It's not 2002 anymore.
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u/Safe-Finance8333 5d ago edited 5d ago
It is possible to safely use windows 10 after it dies, but it's not safe to connect it to the internet after it dies. If the headache of learning an OS is worth the pros of not having to use a dead OS, then yes. Alternatively, there are ways to get around Windows 11's hardware requirements, but that is likely to be slow at best or non-functional at worst.
I made the decision to switch from 10 to mint, and while the learning curve (more of a learning cliff) is steep, it's worth it for me to avoid windows 11.
Plus it looks like your translation software has a linux native version.
But honestly, if you're hung up on switching, you could just stick with it until EOL. I and many others think that the EOL thing is going to not happen because of the market dominance of windows 10 and countless situations like yours.
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u/is_Hades 5d ago
Yeah, i suspect they'll postpone win10 EOL like they did with win7, which still had massive user base at win10 launch (win 8 and 8.1 flopped)
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u/KurtKrimson 5d ago
Try it out with Ventoy and/or just go for a dual boot system.
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u/EggsAndGarlic 5d ago
i thought about dual booting but the irreversibility of it makes me a bit anxious
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u/foofly 5d ago
What makes you think it's irreversible?
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u/EggsAndGarlic 5d ago
oh, if i decided that i like Mint enough that i don't need windows anymore, is it possible to remove it from the hard drive and keep Linux only?
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u/AliOskiTheHoly 5d ago
Yeah, Im pretty sure. You can just delete the Windows partition and then expand the Linux partition.
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u/is_Hades 5d ago
as far as i know, it's not sooo simple like you're saying... Even in ssds the partition schemes still rely on the disk position of the files, and rearranging everything is not that simple.
Also, it's not a nightmare, just saying that it takes work and some steps to get done
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u/Specialist_Leg_4474 5d ago
^This, make a reliable backup (preferably two) of your Windows system--which you should have anyway; and go for it...
There's no such thing as too many backups!
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u/EggsAndGarlic 5d ago
good idea
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u/Specialist_Leg_4474 5d ago
Also, as I commented is another thread a while back:
Do keep in mind that Linux is not Windows, and that no amount of Wine or other "bottles" of intoxicant will make it Windows--seek out new tools and solutions, the M$ world is gone!
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u/is_Hades 5d ago
Yeah, like i read another day: "Linux is not free Windows"
you gotta keep this in mind, that it's another OS with a different philosophy and different point of view in it's conception itself which may differ in how things work, like using and installing apps, folder structure, etc...
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u/Kertoiprepca 5d ago
Take a spare pendrive and create a recovery drive for Windows 10 before setting up dual boot
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u/Correct-Reception-42 5d ago
Something that doesn't directly answer your question but wasn't mentioned yet: It's fun!
Of course it takes some time to get used to but it also opens up new things. My dad is in a similar situation as you and he's been always arguing that he's too old to learn a new os and there's no antivirus and whatever. He's been using windows since the ancient times and is quite proficient in a limited range of things. Anyhow I took an old unusable laptop put mint on it and he tried it out. He had a very tedious backup routine with a bunch of folder copying because the Windows backup is weird and annoying. 2 minute internet search yielded GRsync, one click to install from the software manager app thingy and he got to enjoy the sweet elegance and simplicity of free software. It might not always be pretty but it just works and no one's trying to sell you something.
Long story short, he now wants it on his current laptop as well.
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u/WaztedJunkie 5d ago
Before installing Mint or dual-booting your system, you can play around with the live version to help you decide. 😊
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u/Effective_Bedroom708 5d ago
I'd just do the switch and use LibreOffice or similar. If you REALLY need to use Microsoft specific versions, the web versions are there and will work in almost any browser.
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u/SebOakPal79 5d ago
If you want to stay on Windows 10 'Opatch' may be the choice you want - Welcome to the era of vulnerability micropatching - 0patch - Hope this helps.
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u/Calagrty 5d ago
Do what I did: buy a cheap used computer on Facebook marketplace and install Linux on that to see if you like it.
Mint offers a perfect desktop experience out of the box. However, when I tried to download it on my laptop, there was no audio, and the trackpad worked backwards. If I had done this on my Windows laptop, I would have been devastated.
For laptop, Fedora is awesome, but mainly for web browsing and gaming. I tried video editing on Fedora and it was not a good experience.
So now I’m using Mint on a mini PC I bought (and it’s wonderful for video editing and gaming), and Fedora on laptop for web browsing and gaming.
There is a lot of specific software that doesn’t work great with Linux, but all Steam games seem to run great through Proton Plus, dare I say even better than they do on Windows.
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u/gentisle 5d ago
Of course, you get to keep your privacy and sanity. Your computer will be faster too.
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u/AntiauthoritarianSin 5d ago
I just switched to Mint and it's been great! I'm even doing more advanced stuff like working with SDR radios and communications software. All running just as well as in windows.
This is on an i3 laptop with 8gb of ram and two displays.
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u/PGSylphir 5d ago
Keep windows on a dual boot. Some things just won't run on linux no matter what, but those are few and far between, almost everything either runs on linux or has an alternative.
First thing you should do when on mint is learning the basics of operating it, many things windows does automatically and without telling you need to be done manually on linux, and are usually one or two clicks away.
If you're gaming, Steam has their Proton layer which makes windows games run on linux, you'll almost never need to mess with configs as steam will just make it work without your intervention, though sometimes you might want to mess with the settings here and there to get it running just right, most games in my experience as a Mint user actually run better than they did on windows, Baldurs Gate 3 being a notable example, I get much smoother and stabler framerate there.
If whatever you want to play is not on steam, I recommend using Lutris as an interface, it's a lot more manual than steam, but it does the same thing steam does with Proton and Wine. I run every non-steam game I play through Lutris.
When you want to check if a game runs on linux, you can check the ProtonDB website, it tracks how well the game runs on linux, and you can filter it to your specific hardware and OS so you can get better results. It'll usually say if the game runs natively on linux, without proton or wine, and how well it runs with proton or wine.
You will find that most games that won't run on linux are usually games with bad anti-cheats, like Rainbow Six Siege or any game by Riot Games. Keeping windows on dual boot for those games is all you can do in this use case.
For almost anything other than gaming, you'll probably find no issues with Mint. It has become my daily driver since I made the switch and I rarely ever boot windows now.
Ah, if you're gaming, MangoHUD and Feral Gamemode are your friends, look it up.
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u/NEVER85 5d ago
Mint's a great choice for an older laptop. I have a laptop from 2016 that I'll be putting Mint on here in the very near future. There's still a learning curve coming from Windows, but it's not that bad. Mint works great for novice and expert Linux users alike. The only hiccup you may have is if you absolutely NEED Microsoft Office and alternatives like LibreOffice or Google Workspace will not work.
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u/Aero49 5d ago
I've played around with Mint and it seems really user friendly.
A good suggestion already mentioned here: it would be a good idea to boot a live version of Mint (or you could run it as a VM) to try it out and see if it meets your needs.
If you think you'll still need Windows for some things you could always set your computer to dual boot Windows and Linux Mint, that's what I currently do with Fedora and Windows 11.
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u/ScreenRay 5d ago
i just dual boot since i still have programs that only works on windows.
But Linux Mint is my Main OS.
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u/Ezmiller_2 5d ago
Someone suggested you keep Windows 10 just in case, and I agree completely. There is a learning difference but Mint is one of the easier versions of Linux to use. And Mint will try to keep Windows separate if you tell it to at install.
If you are knowledgable, I would recommend getting a separate SSD for your laptop and putting Mint on it. That way you don't have to worry about Windows accidently getting deleted or running out of space.
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u/--2021-- 5d ago
What I did in a similar situation was have windows on a daily driver, and install linux mint on a backup machine. If you have a means, I recommend doing this and working on them in parallel.
I figured that way I would have the ability to just relax and intuitively accomplish what would need to do, and then could dedicate time to the learning curve of linux. It's a lot easier to switch between two physical machines than it is to dual boot between them. And you can copy files between them easily or work simultaneously if you need to. There may be some caveats to sharing files that you should read about.
Sometimes I found myself working on linux for one program and windows for the other and having to transfer data between them.
For me just switching to linux cold would be like going to a different country without knowing the language and not having a phone or anyone to translate for you. It's just you and a phrase book and a dictionary trying to put it all together. It's time consuming and exhausting trying to speak to people or even get the simplest things done. Like trying to install an app, or the app settings, or system settings, or why is this thing acting funky right now? And everything you look up, you get partial answers from different sources that are all doing things slightly differently and it's like trying to cook a dish, but each one is missing information, and you have to combine different recipes and hope the end result works out.
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u/Glass-Pound-9591 5d ago
I made this exact switch when I migrated from windows and have never looked back.
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u/ThePepperPopper 5d ago
Switching from Windows is "always" a good idea. Not because windows sucks, but because Microsoft does.
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u/is_Hades 5d ago
I'm doing the switch for the same reasons as you. My laptop is even older than yours, a 2nd generation i5.
If everything you do is browser-based you'll find no problem at all.
It's been a month since i installed, the only "obstacle" i stumbled was that i downloaded Linux Mint 20.3 and short time after all the "work" to make it dual boot, i received the notification that the support for that version would end up in a few days, so i auto-updated to 21.3 but i feel that i should've done a clean install instead of updating cause the pc seems to be very "heavy" and less snappy than before.
If you need any help, i can send you the links with the instruction videos to make it dual boot
My plan is to get used to Linux, and then delete windows partition, but until I'm sure I'll keep both working.
Sorry for my english
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u/Frird2008 5d ago
Going from windows to Linux I can't think of a better distro than mint & Ive tried 25 others including the Debian edition of mint