Switching to Linux: A Beginner’s Guide

How to switch from Windows to Linux, including reasons to switch, applications, distros, testing, installation and broader migration.

The other ExplainingComputers episodes I’ve referred to in this video are as follows:

Running Windows Programs on Linux:
   • Running Windows Programs on Linux  

Ventoy: Multi-boot USB Drive Tool:
   • Ventoy: Multi-boot USB Drive Tool  

Linux Mint 22 (2024 review):
   • Linux Mint 22: Excellent Distro for W...  

Zorin OS 17 (2024 review):
   • Zorin OS 17: Linux for Windows Users  

Ubuntu 24.04 (2024 review):
   • Ubuntu 24.04: An Excellent Linux Distro  

Linux Mint: Tips & Tricks:
   • Linux Mint Tips & Tricks  

Linux Tips for MS Office Users:
   • Linux Tips for MS Office Users  

Linux Survival Guide #3: GPU Drivers & Printing:
   • Linux Survival Guide #3: GPU Drivers ...  

And all of my Linux videos are listed and linked here:
https://www.explainingcomputers.com/l...

DOWNLOAD LINKS
Linux Mint: https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Zorin OS: https://zorin.com/os/download/

Ubuntu: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Balena Etcher (tool to write Linux ISO image to USB drive): https://etcher.balena.io/

BOOTING FROM A USB DRIVE
Exactly how you boot from a USB drive does I’m afraid depend on your particular computer. Often a boot menu can be accessed by pressing a particular key when you power-on, which may be F12, F11, F10 or Esc. And if you can bring up such a menu, you can simply select the USB drive.

Alternatively, you can enter the BIOS/UEFI, again by pressing an appropriate key, which is commonly F2, Delete or Esc. Once in the BIOS you can hopefully find a setting that will change the boot order to have USB first, so that your computer will always first try to boot from an inserted USB drive. However, to work, this may also require you to disable a feature called “Secure Boot”, which you may then have turn on again to allow Windows to boot on your PC (it depends on the version). However, once in the BIOS, there is often an “Exit” or similar menu (usually on the end on the right) that offers a “boot override” facility. And this allows you to select to boot from a USB drive without having to make any BIOS changes. So here you would select your inserted USB drive, and your computer would then happily boot from it.

Sadly, UEFI/BIOS settings and USB boot configurations are just not standardized, so I cannot give you a definitive set of instructions here! But I do provide more guidance in my video on “PC BIOS Settings”:    • PC BIOS Settings  

More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:
   / @explainingcomputers  

Chapters:
00:00 Titles & Intro
00:42 Why switch?
01:51 Applications
04:25 Distros
05:43 Testing
14:24 Installation
17:30 Migration
19:05 Linux Success

#Linux #Switch #Tutorial #Windows #explainingcomputers