after my recent issue with windoze 8 messing up on my laptop (and me having to get a pc guy to fix it) am seriously thinking about switching to linux on my laptop now.

what is the best way to go about it (for a computer numpty) and how to delete win 8 along the way.

ta 🙂

1. Backup your data to an external hard drive.
2. Create a bootable USB with Ubuntu on it (see the Ubuntu web page)
3. Reboot and follow the instructions.

Done.

One word of warning: you will need to use the command line terminal (similar to Dos on a Windows machine) at some point, it’s inevitable.

I use Linux as my main operating system but I struggle to recommend it to people.

You will have trouble with it, you’ll use the terminal typing commands you don’t understand, sometimes things don’t work, you can’t get apps you can get on Windows, your Garmin probably wont work any more, Google Earth never works, graphics drivers are hit and miss, Flash is discontinued for Linux.

etc etc.

It is great if you know what it is and what it does and what you need to do.

and you will probably cry the first few times you realise that you’ve wasted half an hour looking for an issue when it was because you forgot terminal was case sensitive

what is the best way to go about it (for a computer numpty) and how to delete win 8 along the way.

In all honesty if you are a computer numpty Linux isn’t the way to go. If you want to try it download Ubuntu and running it from the CD/USB for a bit.

Linux is OK, but it can be a nightmare to get simple things working as nothing works quite as it should so it can take a fair bit of tweaking.

thanks everyone,might give it a miss then for the moment.

I think my experiences must be similar to Chambord’s

At first bung it on a computer that isn’t your main computer until you are comfortable with what it is, and you’ve at least got the hang of things to a certain extent. You will need to mess about with cmd line at some point or other.

I’ve messed about with it in a half hearted way for about 18mths, but took the plunge 2 months ago to build a home server. Naively I installed the latest Ubuntu server version (14.04) but it’s implementation for servers was appalling – basic stuff (VNC) didn’t work…I then switched to an “old” version 12.04 and it all worked perfectly as I wanted it to, and I now have a fairly robust home server made out of an old PC that’s cost nothing except the terrabytes of Hard drive I put in it.

OK I know you want to run a laptop, not a home server so its not quite the same, but…don’t expect to have a “install it and everything will just work” experience.

As ever…back up all your data somewhere else. Try running Ubuntu off CD first without installing it on your machine…that will give you a flavour of what it is (albeit at a slightly slower speed) without actually committing yourself to anything and giving you an easy way of walking away from it.

I find Ubuntu is nice as a desktop though, and I like it and happily use LibreOffice instread of MS Office anyway. Rest of the family would moan if I swapped main house PC to Ubuntu though, what with MS Office/Windows being standard school and work software in their worlds….although if it was just me using it I would have done it by now.

after my recent issue with windoze 8 messing up on my laptop (and me having to get a pc guy to fix it) am seriously thinking about switching to linux on my laptop now.

If you had trouble with Windows and couldn’t fix it, you’ll be screwed with Linux. You will have to google for answers, you’ll find loads of things that might not work, and might screw up your system, and you’ll have no-one to turn to to fix it. Your PC guy probably won’t.

what is the best way to go about it (for a computer numpty)

Burn a Linux live ‘CD’ to a USB stick and have a play with that. Then if you don’t like it, you can take the stick out and reboot.

As others have said, Linux is very good but there’s a fairly sharp learning curve. If you had to ‘get a man out’ to fix Windows, you’re almost certainly going to regret attempting to wipe it in favour of Linux.

I find Ubuntu is nice as a desktop though, and I like it and happily use LibreOffice instread of MS Office anyway. Rest of the family would moan if I swapped main house PC to Ubuntu though, what with MS Office/Windows being standard school and work software in their worlds….although if it was just me using it I would have done it by now.

I loaded Ubuntu onto the main house PC, no complaints from the family. It does help that their school software is all LibreOffice, though. And of course any problem with the computer is my problem, not theirs 🙂

I loaded Ubuntu onto the main house PC, no complaints from the family. It does help that their school software is all LibreOffice, though. And of course any problem with the computer is my problem, not theirs

I wonder how much our local authority could save by moving all the schools to libreoffice instead of persisting with Microsoft.

As said, if you struggle with Windoze, Linux probably isn’t the way to go. But, if you can do the following, it might be worth playing with. If you can’t, Linux probably isn’t for you

If you can re-format your drive and reinstall everything, you might want to partition the drive, install Win on one partition and Linux on the other. You can then have a dual boot system. Then you can happily install whatever apps you want on Linux and see how you get on. Then you can start learning your way round the Linux forums which are generally helpful. But you can forget help from your local IT guy – when my laptop was new the battery stopped holding a charge and PC World’s staggeringly inept tech support claimed that they wouldn’t take it back under warranty because it had Linux on it and they didn’t have in the in-house expertise to deal with it (and everyone knows that choice of OS means the battery doesn’t charge even with the laptop switched off, right?)

I wonder how much our local authority could save by moving all the schools to libreoffice instead of persisting with Microsoft.

Local NHs are punting MS-Office in favour of Open Office (£5/licence for commercial use). With 5000+ users, I have a fair idea how much they’re saving

‘ve messed about with it in a half hearted way for about 18mths, but took the plunge 2 months ago to build a home server. Naively I installed the latest Ubuntu server version (14.04) but it’s implementation for servers was appalling – basic stuff (VNC) didn’t work…I then switched to an “old” version 12.04 and it all worked perfectly as I wanted it to, and I now have a fairly robust home server made out of an old PC that’s cost nothing except the terrabytes of Hard drive I put in it.

Sure that was the server version? As it’s console only, can’t see much call for VNC on that, you’d be missing a load of libraries.

Try Linux Mint 16, much like window and less of a learning curve.

Try Linux Mint 16, much like window and less of a learning curve.

Mint is OK, but as its got a lot of immature software it can break in interesting ways.

Linux on laptops can also be a nightmare if they are newer machines as lots of stuff doesn’t work as it should; especially with Debian/Ubuntu (nvidia drivers, e1000e drivers to name two).

Local NHs are punting MS-Office in favour of Open Office (£5/licence for commercial use). With 5000+ users, I have a fair idea how much they’re saving

I’d love to see what impact that’s had on their support costs.

If you struggle to fix windows issues yourself forget Linux. Really, don’t bother.

I haven’t used my Lubuntu partition for ages now, in the end I realised that my time wasn’t worth the constant fannying about I have to do to keep it running or do something “quirky” like have a 3:4 second monitor (normal aspect turned sideways to make reading docs easier). Back to Win7 and not looked back, just need to get rid of GRUB and I’ll be shot of it.

As others have said, if you are asking these questions then Linux probably isn’t for you.
Have you considered putting Windows 7 on?

I have become quite a Windows fan since 7 but I must admit to struggling with using 8. Not tried the updates though and I’m sticking with 7 at home. Patently waiting for 9 I think.

Try Linux Mint 16, much like window and less of a learning curve.

Mint 17 is out now and is the LTS (long term stable) release with support until 2019.

I changed to Linux Mint ages ago, and although it was hard getting away from Windows at first (think like getting used to new wife/girlfriend!) I now only use it at work and it drives me nuts! Libre Office reads MS Office files fine, but MS Office throws up all sorts of warnings when trying to open Libre Office files, I think that MS are just trying to put people off other products as I’ve not had a problem after OK’ing all of Microsoft’s warnings.

A good way to try a Linux distro with peace of mind if you’re new to it is to buy a new hard drive (get a cheap SSD one if you can) and pop it in your laptop, it’s not hard to change. Then you’ve still got your Windows drive intact to put back if you don’t get on with Linux. Have a look at some magazines as they usually have a free disc that includes Mint or Ubuntu.

Try Ubuntu. It has a great and easy to use GUI (Unity)

Hehehe.. how do you create a link on the sidebar to something?

I think that MS are just trying to put people off other products as I’ve not had a problem after OK’ing all of Microsoft’s warnings.

I have. Compatibility is good but not great. And it’ll be that time you most need it.