this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Windows, in the past has been known to sometimes overwrite the Linux boot loader after a windows update, so be careful with that, since windows assumes no other os exists in the universe. Depending on your windows version, it might not be a bad idea to backup the license key. Recent versions store your computer's information in the cloud, so unless you change a lot of components, it should reinstall without much hassle. But it doesn't hurt to extract the key just in case. Microsoft gonna Microsoft. There are tools for this. E.g. jellybean key finder (or something like that).
Depending on the distro, it might help to disable secure boot in the uefi bios.
That being said, take it one step at a time. Don't try to recreate everything you were doing in windows right off the bat. Get comfortable with the desktop first. Try different apps for certain tasks. If you have an Nvidia GPU, the experience can vary greatly between different distros. As others have mentioned, most distros have a "live environment" on the installation cd, which you can test to see if your hardware is recognised straight away. That being said, don't feel like you're married to a specific distro. Most Linux users will distro hop quite a bit, before they settle on one that just feels right. And even then they might change again after a while, if they get bored.
Linux (ubuntu) do that pretty often too, people just don't notice it because they're unlikely to be running any other bootloader if they have Linux'.
Yes, but if e.g. openSuSE installs its Grub 2 on top of Ubuntu's Grub 2, you end up with a different theming. If Windows overwrites the bootloader, the Linux boot options are gone.