My set-up of Linux Mint and GRUB seems to have messed up my Windows drive, as now I can’t boot from it directly anymore, but only by going through GRUB first, and I want to uninstall Linux. How would I go about figuring out the issue and fixing it?
As for why I want to uninstall Linux, it’s mostly two reasons 1: My father gave me a spare HDD he had since I’m not a fan of buying things when you already have them. Turns out (coming from a teen who’s been booting from an SSD for most of their life) HDDs are slow, too slow for my liking. 2: Linux, Mint at least, feels incomplete, sort of like a tech demo, with extremely limited support for anything that wasn’t directly intended by the developers. The concept of having to compile something yourself is basically foreign to me, and the few times I had to do it in Windows I could easily find a way around it. Plus having to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website and having the program, whatever program, up and running reliably within a minute, the concept seems ridiculous… I’m not sure, I could be really spoiled by Windows 10, or simply too used to it.
TLDR: HDDs are slower than I thought and Linux doesn’t seem good for people like me
Ps: Yes, I know, mass storage is “super cheap” nowdays, but for someone who only reliably gets money during their birthday and Christmas, €20 may as well be €200
Also, I am pretty sure that I will come back to Linux in the future once Windows has devolved to the point of being garbage (which from what I’ve seen might be very close) and I’ve gotten better at general computer usage (which may be close too since I’m starting to familiarize myself with CLIs)
The concept of having to compile something yourself is basically foreign to me
There’s no need to, what software do you need that you can’t find on Mint repositories?
having to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website and having the program, whatever program, up and running reliably within a minute, the concept seems ridiculous
Having an app repository is way more secure than downloading software from random websites, it’s also way faster.
But it’s fine if you don’t like it, each person has its own preferences.
I haven’t been dual booting for some time now but I think this should help you put Windows on the menu in GRUB.
Linux, Mint at least, feels incomplete, sort of like a tech demo, with extremely limited support for anything that wasn’t directly intended by the developers. The concept of having to compile something yourself is basically foreign to me
Usually Linux installation is only the the base system (in case of Mint much more than that, since it installs X/Wayland and a DM by default) because there’s no point in installing everything. Packages of a distro offer much more than Windows. The idea is that after you have your system up, you can install the software you want.
In Mint and being new, I think you shouldn’t need to compile anything.
Package manager is the support you are looking forhaving to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website
Thing is, this is not a store. This is not a place that random people put stuff. Distro package manager is the place where people that maintain the distribution (compile things for you in a way that will work with libraries from the other packages in the repo) put the packages and define what needs what.
Interesting part is that I feel exactly the other way round. If package comes from the repo, then this is something official. If I’m looking for ssh client, I type a package manager search for ssh and I know that packages downloaded this way should just work. While in Windows I always have a small panic attack that I’m downloading something shady when putty page has an address like it hasI never tried, but I think you can ignore the problem with GRUB, just keep it and set Windows as the default OS to boot with no wait (set the timeout to 0 or 1 second)
As for the rest, I don’t agree with you. The way the distros (with some exceptions) handle the installation of new software is pretty easy. Add some others ways like AppImage, Snap and the like and usually to run a new software you really just need some mouse clicks (and download time ;-) ).
And yes, the HDD are way slower than SSD. There is a reason why SSD are taking over HDD ;-)
Plus having to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website and having the program, whatever program, up and running reliably within a minute, the concept seems ridiculous… I’m not sure, I could be really spoiled by Windows 10, or simply too used to it.
I’m not trying to make fun of you but that is just too funny. Download crap from website is way worse not only by security standard but for the convenience aspect, is so bad that even Windows have app stores.
I’ve reflected a bit, and I think the reason I have a general dislike of such online app databases is because they don’t give you a file, but rather just do everything their way, and the way I organize my stuff isn’t compatible, at least as far as I know. Would there be a way to have something similar to what I have on Windows? Something like a “start” menu manager (i don’t know what it’s called in Mint), to allow me to create folders in the menu
Sorry for the delayed response.
I never try Mint so I can help much but after sometime searching I found a program called Alacarte that can help you.
Basically, you’ve got to let your “inner DIY” fluctuate so you can use Linux/GNU. Which is a rather easy thing to do when you acknowledge the “know-hows”.
