Linux

Always install Windows first then Linux in dualboot, otherwise microsoft messes with your boot area. Have a separate boot partition for Linux and some distros have foreign OS probe and will auto setup your grub menu to chainload to windows. This stops Windiws messing with your Linux boot partition since it has no clue it exists

If your laptop has room for a second drive, it's easiest to put Linux on its own drive.

Windows and Linux keeps track of time differently. One stores the time in your current time zone. The other stores the GMT time and adds an offset. I forget which one does what but it results in your time being wrong each time you switch from Linux to Windows or vice versa. You can search for how to fix it, its not very hard, or you can just ignore it and reset your clock each time you switch OS.

Boot with a live USB image first. Check and see if everything is working. Don't be married to the first Linux distro you try.

I would now say never on the same disk. A shame because many laptops only have one slot. But Windows 11 may do anything and you never know what happens after a "Windows update"

Just incase you're unaware, if you're looking to learn Linux but keep the windows until you're familiar enough with Linux, there is a way to install Linux in windows as a container, it's called WSL 2.0

Might be easier for you to learn with, and if you brick it then you can just wipe the container and start again, takes minutes to do

I did this, and now I would say 'is it really worth it?'

After a while of dual booting I realised I was never using Windows, I was only using it originally for playing Oblivion.

It's probably good experience though, and you will learn a bit about GRUB.

I would argue instead, identify which applications you need Windows for, and then determine what is required to run those on Linux or find alternatives. And then just make the switch.

Linux is kinda simple. Everything is a file.

Install windows 1st, Linux 2nd. Generally speaking Linux installers won't mess up a windows install, however most of the time the windows installer WILL mess up a Linux install.

Don't think of Linux the same way as windows, think of it as desktop android. Do not download applications from the browser, unless they're not available literally anywhere else, use the app center instead. Use a popular distro (Ubuntu/Ubuntu variant, fedora, etc...).

Use Wayland.

Windows likes to fuck with your Linux boot loader after every feature update!

The simplest and the most windows like in looks distro would be Linux mint, it's probably better than trying Ubuntu or other distros for your first experience with Linux.

If you want a challenge then go for it but just letting you know it's better start off with a few wins under your belt then getting freaked out by complex systems like fedora made for advanced users.

Some day you may find your machine booting into linux without displaying a grub menu. You were promised a menu giving you boot options. Where is it? The problem may be your grub timeout is 0. Set the timeout in /etc/default/grub and then run update-grub. See section 6.1 of the info grub manual.

Turn off secure boot and just check if anyone has ever run your device with linux before. And kde plasma is a de not a distro.

That you eventually delete the Windows partition.

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Backup all your personal data on windows prior to attempting anything. On a separate disk and cloud if possible. For cloud backups, just pick the important stuff. No need to backup steam libraries since steam servers are the backup in this case.

Like others have said, if you can use a separate disk, do that. If you can't do that and you just want to try out Linux, use a USB live disk to test hardware compatibility and the user experience, or if you have an old laptop or desktop that isn't being used, load Linux on that first.

Pick a popular distro for better community support. If you have a recently released laptop (less than a year old) might want to pick a distro with newer kernel for better hardware support. My personal recommendations are Pop!_OS, Fedora (both gnome and KDE versions). Both work well on newer hardware. Others you might want to try are Linux Mint and Ubuntu.

After getting Linux installed, try and keep your home partition backed up, especially if Windows is on the same disk.

Try and use Flatpak for all your apps, flathub is the web "store" for Flatpak apps.

Be open to trying the Linux alternative to apps since the windows version might not be available.

This is a new OS so expecting things to work a certain way isn't realistic.

Most of the time a GUI is available for what you need to do, but learning the terminal is super helpful and a lot of people prefer it once they make the switch.

When searching online, try to include your distro and its version. It will help narrow down results.

If you're gaming, check ProtonDB for game compatibility, and be willing to tinker a bit.

If you do have Nvidia graphics, Pop!_OS and other distros that bake the drivers into the disk image or install process are better for beginners.

Opinion portion: Firefox is a better holistic choice over chromium based browsers (see Google's web environment integrity aka DRM for the web). KDE is a great desktop for people who like the Windows workflow, but I prefer Gnome. Nvidia graphics are much less problematic these days, but I still prefer amd and Intel hardware.

Life is hard; everyone is doing their best; be hard on problems and soft on people.

Good luck ;)

Install windows as usual. And then install your Linux distro. Quite alot of them give you the option to easily install alongside windows

Keep your Linux partition backed up! Windows update deleted my EXT4 partition and all Linux data on my laptop. (No, it wasn't a Grub problem, the partition was gone.) There are reports this Microsoft BS going back years.