I really need to move my PC over to Mint, but change makes me deeply uncomfortable :(
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Just put it on a USB stick. No install, no commitment. Baby steps.
Honestly this is the best suggestion especially if you can mount your windows partition read only. You get the benefits of Linux while still having access to your files.
For most folks, the biggest hurdle is getting compatible apps. Once you find the apps you need, moving over is just a backup and restore away.
Take it slow. Install a VM with Mint. Play around with it. Get familiar. Move your regular usage over to it gradually. Make the jump when you are ready. It's perfectly OK to have reservations about a big change like that. But you don't have to do it all in one go.
It's not using it that's the problem, I have Mint installed on my work PC and my laptop, and I like it. But for some reason installing it on my main PC, which I use pretty much every day, has me worried for reasons I don't get myself. It's like a soft phobia, an irrational fear.
It took me 3 years from when I first started dual booting to when I launched Windows for the last time.
Take your time, move as slowly as you want, and always leave a way back. Eventually you might notice that you're feeling more comfortable with Linux than Windows, and if you're lucky, you might not even notice when you've stopped using Windows.
It took me over a year too. I was using a mini PC with Mint but still kept my old Windows PC under my desk. When I built a new PC, it never got defiled, though.
Dual boot? Keep like 200GB for windows, and the rest mint. If you need windows for something, boot over. But otherwise, I legit feel more worried when windows has access to my data.
Ironic, the fact that I hate change is the whole reason I ended up using Linux. I felt that Mint was closer to Windows 7 than 8.0 at the time.
You have Arch on your username and you're not using Arch Linux? You are doing a disservice to your username.
It would appear to be a reference to Magic the Gathering
lil bruh just move to mint already u gon be fine 💔
but osrs mint is widely regarded as best for transitioning to different OS. All the shit you did on win has alts on mint/ubuntu
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I screwed up so bad. I bought a laptop to trial different Linux distros and also because my old one is 12yo now and has its own problems. However, the manufacturer ONLY provides Windows support drivers, so the keyboard won't work without a kernel level patch and I am not a kernel-patch level guy yet
wtf how does a laptop need drivers to use the keyboard? i thought they just used usb/ps2, that is truly fucked
Right? It's some firmware level issue, but I haven't looked deeper into it recently because I got frustrated with a couple failed patch attempts. I guess you have to include the laptop model explicitly or it doesn't know to look for it
What laptop model?
Asus Q533M. I found a user patch on stack but it was for older models. Tried to update it myself and run a rebuild, but I might have missed a step since it errored out
If you're using an Arch Based distribution and have access to a USB keyboard so you can use standard HID drivers during setup you should be able to follow along on this wiki to use the software included in the ASUS Linux stack. It appears they have some nonsense going on. Tbh I didn't know about this until looking just now and I'm gonna be going through here and getting the tools I need since I've got an ROG mobo I think would benefit
Sweet, thanks! I haven't settled on a distro yet, but from what I've seen this is something Asus does to kneecap as much of the community as they can
Or... just return the laptop?
Then purchase basically anything else
I'm surprised though, I thought Asus wouldn't be a company to do something like that.
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I'm seeing a lot of advocacy for Mint on Lemmy but not as much for Fedora it seems?
I've only ever run one Linux distro and that was Fedora KDE Plasma, havent tried Mint yet. Are they not mostly the same or am I missing something?
Mint is the best distro for people who need you to tell them the distro.
I use Mint on my Laptop but once Windows is done for I'm switching to:
- Fedora, OpenSUSE, Secureblue, or something with KDE Plasma (security, stability, and ease of use priority)
- Bazzite (for games, and dual-booted into to protect the security of my daily driver)
- OpenBSD or something (so if something like Crowdstrike or Wannacry happens but for Linux, I have an alt)
I've never understood the fedora hype. The fact that it is adjacent to Redhat should be enough for people to want to stay away lol.
It's easier to install/use. It was my first distro before I switched to CachyOS for my latest build.
Apt is a massive and reliable package manager. Im not very surprised. However I am surprised no one is specifying LMDE
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I put Mint Cinnamon on an older laptop just this past weekend and had a lot of fun with it. Are there any migration tips for my main Windows machine? I was thinking of going with Bazzite since it's my gaming box. What about saved game data and whatnot? I was reading about Putty and SSH ing over to the laptop, but I'm not sure what a good strategy is for my desktop.
Step one: back up your data.
Step two: back up your data again.
This person backs up.
This but what they forgot is on multiple drives. Power failures, drive failures, lost, stolen, dropped, you name it. A good set of backups is fucking worth everything peace of mind and more. Automate your backup process and never look back!!!
Bazzite is a lot less user friendly than mint in major ways. You get everything in mint as you do on Bazzite. I switched to Bazzite and it lasted 2 days before going back to mint. KDE is too deep unnecessarily so. Bazzite doesn't gain you much at all, at this point in time 3 years ago or so I'd not said the same thing. Mint is so polished for gaming shit usually just works now. It's not worth the hype, hassle. I've distro hopped and always came back to mint.
Source is I been there and done all that and more. Your not missing out on anything. Spin up a live USB and try it but believe me dearly it's not worth moving all your stuff reinstalling etc etc. Keep the work flow you got and master it. Other options have more maintenance and headaches.
Bazzite is a lot less user friendly than mint in major ways.
Would you be so kind to substantiate the above claim beyond what's found below?
KDE is too deep unnecessarily so.
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i'd recommend getting a new SSD and installing Linux on that, then you can read your windows drive from Linux and copy over the files you need
Game files can be copied over the same way (obvs to different directories)
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Can't help with saved game data, but Bazzite is a solid choice, not just because it's a gaming based distro. It's one of the immutable distros, so all the important stuff that keeps it running, you can't mess with (easily). And all your personal stuff that doesn't keep the computer running, it doesn't touch. So your computer is always up to date ( faster than steamOS, and if something goes wrong, just reboot into the previous) and you can't screw it up without trying.
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I’m trying, I really am. My current issue is that Wi-Fi completely ignores IPV4 if I’m on a network with additional IPV6 support.
Don't let Lemmy mislead you into thinking Linux is a drop-in replacement or easy to switch to. It's a difficult process that takes learning, but hopefully you'll find it worthwhile. Good luck with your troubleshooting.
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Ubuntu in the corner, crying.
Linux users: "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself!"
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I have been putting up with the ads, spyware, and lack of control for years: this was the last straw for me. Couldn't upgrade to Win11 and now they're ending support for Win10?
Just wiped my SSD and booted Linux Mint. I'll miss certain games and Paint.net (slowly learning GIMP) but I can't put up with this shit anymore.
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