There. That’s out of the way. I recently installed Linux on my main desktop computer and work laptop, overwriting the Windows partition completely. Essentially, I deleted the primary operating system from the two computers I use the most, day in and day out, instead trusting all of my personal and work computing needs to the Open Source community. This has been a growing trend, and I hopped on the bandwagon, but for good reasons. Some of those reasons might pertain to you and convince you to finally make the jump as well. Here’s my experience.
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It’s no secret that Windows 11 harvests data like a pumpkin farmer in October, and there is no easy way (and sometimes no way at all) to stop it. The operating system itself acts exactly like what was called “spyware” a decade or so ago, pulling every piece of data it can about its current user. This data includes (but is far from limited to) hardware information, specific apps and software used, usage trends, and more. With the advent of AI, Microsoft made headlines with Copilot, an artificial assistant designed to help users by capturing their data with tools like Recall.
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After dealing with these issues and trying to solve them with workarounds, I dual-booted a Linux partition for a few weeks. After a Windows update (that I didn’t choose to do) wiped that partition and, consequently, the Linux installation, I decided to go whole-hog: I deleted Windows 11 and used the entire drive for Linux.
I can confirm that the ultra-low-maintenance variant can work as well: Years ago, a dear friend of mine needed a replacement for her antique Windows laptop, to write reports for her job training as a psychotherapist. She had two jobs, no money, a little daughter, and zero time to bother with computers.
I gave her a Thinkpad X220 with Debian on it. I got zero support requests from her. That was 2016, and she is still using it.
Oh my, I hope she knows how to
sedthe release name in/etc/apt, or else it’s very out of date by now…Well, I was saying ultra-low maintenance, and most of the time, we both had much more important things to do (apart from navigating a pandemic). For example, going ice skating or trampoline jumping with her kid. And she is also not the type of person who likes yearly breaking UI changes. But as you remind me, I’ll get her another dist upgrade and browser update, so that online banking continues to work for her. That’s what you have friends for :-)
In 2017 I bought a used laptop released 2011 and put mint cinnamon on it. About a year later my niece threw it off the table and keyboard and touchscreen broke. I shelfed it for a year before I bought a USB mouse and keyboard. Booted it up, used it a bit, updated, everything just worked. I don’t use that machine anymore since a year, as last year I bought a “new” used laptop released 2018. I recently booted the older laptop just to see and it works just fine. It hasn’t been updated in a long time.
The newer machine runs debian 12 gnome and also doesn’t get updated regularly (as I don’t have WiFi). Both machines are as fast as on the first day. I never had any stability problem with both machines (except maybe the table stability, where former laptop fell from).
It does become insecure, so it’s not recommended. But old Linux installations don’t stop working just bevause of age. What becomes too out-dated eventually is web browsers.
Also, hardware requirements for Linux are much lower. My own main PC is from 2009 and works like a charm with new Debian. The one before lasted about ten years, it had a Pentium II like CPU.
I know, but the older machine runs offline. If I intended to connect it online, I’d update it. The other one that I currently use is rarely online and gets updated every 2 to 4 weeks.
About a year later my niece threw it off the table and keyboard and touchscreen broke.
That’s the cost of not using old Thinkpads ;-). They have a magnesium frame coated with rubber, everything available as spare parts, and a maintenance manual on how to change things like keyboard and display. Not fast by modern standards, but more than good enough to run Linux.
I understand your enthusiasm, as I am a Thinkpad lover myself. I’m worried that in future I won’t find a good nipple laptop anymore.
That said, before the Acer I had a Thinkpad X220, but the WiFi card kept failing. Opening it and cleaning the WiFi adapter helped, but it got worse over time.
Since I was low on budget, the Acer was a good compromize, although I hated the casing and the screen. Anf the floating keyboard, man that really sucked! The screen is slowly failing with visible darker spots. But it still works and should be okay for my kid’s occational minecraft game.
Last year I bought a refurbished overprized T480s and I’m very happy with that machine.
Durability is important for me, as I live very remote (next computer store is about half a day away) and in a small house, where things often get stacked and kids run around. That’s why I also usually go with Mint or Debian. I am rarely online, no WiFi here.
My usercase is very simple, so an old machine no problem to me. Mostly I use it for light gaming (most of the games I play are 20 years old, so no problem with onboard graphics and older hardware), doing some office stuff and occasional internet, although I mostly use my phone. And rarely a movie. But I must say, the speakers on that Thinkpad really suck. But I have a bluetooth speaker and miraculously nowadays bluetooth on linux just works. At least on the T480s.
The battery is also alright, which is kind of important as power often fails here and I like to work in my garden. I’m surprised how far linux has come with battery life. That used to be a drawback compared to Windows, but now I think Debian is better than win11 (I still have dualboot, although rarly boot into windows. Mostly only for 2 games, I didn’t get properly running on Linux).
Same here, I installed Debian on the laptop of my nan and I got zero support requests ever since from her. Debian is so good ans stable!
i’ve changed for linux mint cuz my computer simply can’t run windows 11
no, it can… but they won’t allow it because of all their dogshit background spyware crap. zero reason, other then microshits spyware. glad you made the best decision and dumped their stupid ass
Excuse me, it’s microslop. ;)
Gotta love Linux newbies talking about their first experiences and they’ve already tried 3 distros that I have barely on my radar. A few months in, I hardly knew what SystemD was and this guy’s already on a distro that explicitly removes it.
While I just land a recent Debian stable on my laptop, install cargo for new Rust apps (for things like jujutsu), and Guix package manager (for stuff like kakoune or vis), and call it a day.
Well, after 25 years the pursuit of agressive distro-overoptimization becomes a bit boring. But who am I to criticize what other people spend their free time with?
The guy clearly has some previous experience.
For beginners I recommend Mint. It just works and it has the most compatible software.
What do you mean it has the most compatible software? How does its software differ from that available in other distros?
It’s based on Ubuntu and just about everything will run on it. Including Steam games. Also it’s very stable, some other distros might update and break something. If you just want something that works, I would suggest Mint.
I think it’s a bit outdated now though, they are behind on Wayland support and their DE is quite poor.
I agree that it’s very stable however and easy to run software.
These days I would recommend Fedora or Ubuntu, maybe Debian.
Expect that the app store default to flatpack packages, so installing a tool that normally requires 100 KiB takes up 4 GiB.
It doesn’t make any sense.
That’s a downside but most people would rather just have the software work and not have to fiddle with the command line.
That is because you already had the dependencies installed on your system. Flatpak can share dependencies as well so if you use a lot of them it doesn’t really make much of a difference. And since it’s bundled together it is great for having up to date apps on distros that are not rolling. Also good at isolating apps with different toolkits from mucking up your system.
Made the switch after hearing alarming news about how shitty windows 11 is, I was scared to do it but it was my new year resolution. “What do you meeeaaan you’re stopping updates for windows 10 basically forcing us to switch to an inferior ai filled spyware-like poduct???” I’m pretty n00b when it comes to complex tech, but thanks to the guidance of a dear computer savvy individual I found the install of endeavour the distro I use simple, it takes some getting used to but I don’t miss windows at all and the vague sense of nerdy superiority that comes with the switch is kind of fun. I’m like; so brave Stoked to see others feel the same
Don’t have to dump Windows 11, never had it to begin with. I been all Linux minus one special services machine Win 7 for years already.
I’m setting up a headless Ubuntu server on my beefy home desktop and all my other portable devices will just talk to it via ssh.
I would love to, however Linux is just not yet compatible with my Dell Inspiron laptop with Snapdragon X Elite. I know there are efforts to make this happen, it’s just not quite there yet. I’m hopeful for one day. For now, I’ll keep with Windows, begrudgingly.
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