With the Windows 10 end-of-life date approaching rapidly, I’ve decided to upgrade my aging PC to Linux instead of Windows 11. The problem is, I haven’t used Linux properly during my entire time using computers. The best I’ve ever done was about a decade ago, when I installed Ubuntu as a dual boot, tried it for a day, then went back to Windows and scrubbed Linux off my system again.
Now that I know I enjoy Linux Mint, I’ve been making the move over from Windows. However, that isn’t to say I haven’t made a few mess-ups here and there during my journey. So, here are some mistakes I made in making the jump that you should avoid if you plan on doing the same.
So there’s a setting in Windows called User Account Control, or UAC. Some Windows users (including myself) find it a real chore to enter a password every time they want to do something sensitive, and fortunately, Windows lets them turn this feature off. So, I’ve always gotten into the habit of doing that, and I haven’t suffered any issues yet (at least, none that I know of).
So, when I hopped over to Linux Mint, I noticed that it was asking me for my password a lot. My first instinct was to find a way to turn it off, but I couldn’t find one; as such, I hit up Google to see what others had to share. Sure enough, I found plenty of ex-Windows migrants who were complaining about the pop-up, all of whom had Linux enthusiasts in the replies expressing great distress as to why someone would want to turn it off.
When you’re moving from Windows to Linux, you’re going from a multi-billion-dollar company’s for-profit product to a free, open-source, community-led project. As such, it’s a really, really good idea not to disable the security on your Linux system, no matter how annoying it may seem. After all, it’s your operating system, so it’s up to you to keep it secure; nobody else can be blamed if something nasty happens on your system. And even after all that, the pop-ups in Linux Mint only show you the dialogue box for the first time you set something up, so once I had used it for a while, they weren’t bothering me anymore.
So, yes, you’ll have to give up some apps when moving over to Linux. Some apps don’t have a Linux version, but there’s usually an alternative you can use instead. That part’s pretty obvious. What isn’t obvious is that, sometimes, the apps that do support Linux still work a little differently.
For instance, while gaming on Linux has come a long way with Valve introducing Proton into the mix, it’s not a 1:1 experience with Windows. As such, you may still find some quirks and weird issues with supported apps and services that you’ll need to iron out before you can get comfortable with them again.
During my transition to Linux, I wanted to experiment with some things before I got properly settled. One of those things was installing Linux on the HDD, rather than dual-booting on the SSD where I have Windows. The idea was that, instead of having both operating systems competing for space on one drive, I could allocate each its own.
It turns out that Linux doesn’t run as snappily as it does on an SSD. After completing the experiment, I headed back to Windows, erased the Linux partition, and then restarted my PC. I expected to return to Windows. I didn’t expect to be brought to a command line that says “grub rescue” and waiting for my input. Uh oh.
Turns out, when you choose to dual-boot Windows and Linux, it installs Grub to get the job done. Then, when you delete a partition, Grub no longer knows what to do and goes into rescue mode. So, if you’re messing around with partitions, do remember that Grub will get mad if you delete one.
Fortunately, you can regain access to Windows by entering the “exit” command, followed by a few commands to remove Grub and revert to your normal bootloader. So, if you want to wipe your Linux partition and try a different distro, be sure to swap to the Windows bootloader in the BIOS before you do anything to avoid a nasty (but totally fixable) surprise.
Unlike Windows, Linux comes in a variety of different flavors. It’s really important to keep that in mind if you’re doing what I’m doing, because it’s easy to get tunnel vision on one distribution. And if that distro doesn’t do the job you want it to do, you may be tempted to give up on Linux and go back to Windows, which is what I did back when I first tried Linux.
Source: Simon Batt xda-developers.com
