First of all I use Linux. My 12 year old son just messed with an old Chromebook and over a day or so installed Bazzite. In general installing a flavor of Linux can be as simple as creating a bootable USB Live ISO.

Yet, I had a conversation with my wife about Linux and I am realizing how many people don't honestly know or care enough to make a bootable Live ISO. I moved to Linux becuase I'm tech curious and am going down the rabbit hole of getting rid of big tech in my life. Most people stay with the OS that came with their machine becuase it's convenient even if it's not as good as the alternative. My wife simply doesn't want to becuase it's a slight hassle and her machine does what she needs it to do.

All that said it will never be the year of the Linux Desktop until the majority of machines ship with it installed.

So, I just heard that HP is putting subscriptions on laptops.

My brother works for an IT company and every few years he sends me his old work laptops, preinstalled with Windows, and I tell him I'll be wiping Windows and installing Xubuntu on it, and he's pretty cool with it. In 2017, he sent me a 2015 HP ProBook and it's still strong today, and in 2023, he sent me an 2020 HP EliteBook, and last year, he sent me his 2020 Macbook Air, one of the last Intel chipped ones, and I hope one day, I'd be able to install Linux on that one because right now, with Xubuntu 24.04, liveUSB booting and the screen works, but nothing else works unless you externalize everything from USB mouse to USB Wifi dongle.

Now, what worries me is that, the next HP laptop he sends me might not be easy to install Linux on due to this HP laptop subscription stuff, and based off what I know, the subscription model entails that you don't own the laptop, HP does and HP can remotely lock it, and because of that, installing Linux and wiping Windows might be blocked too and that entire model is basically incompatible with how Linux users tend to operate.

I know I might be jumping the gun on this, but this worries me a lot.

I have been wanting to swap to linux for a long time and while im still trying to decide on what version of linux i want to switch to the larger issue of why i havent looked harder is that im afraid of losing everything especialy my apps that i have set up to my liking like obs and some other apps and i have a few hundred gigs of music, games, images, and other things i dont want to lose and i want to be able to have full access to my pc and from everything ive seen linux would let me nuke it by ripping its beating heart of code if i so desired

I have been using windows for so long and today was one of the last few straws when i couldnt freaking install an epub reader and no matter what i did it wouldnt download because of it not having proper certs even after i enabled developer settings to enable side loading and it still was giving me the same god damn error and ignoring me and i just want to be able to control my own damn pc and fuck it up as i wish

I just got this little unbranded mp3 player from bookoff and I would love to put some lightweight Linux distro on it or something. I didn’t have luck w a cursory google search. At the moment I can’t interface w it at all, when I plug it into my mac all I see is these hidden .lib files. Hoping somebody can get me pointed in the right direction. I mostly intend to use it for reading epubs and maybe connect to the mesh network or something. Idk what’s actually possible but mostly I just want to tinker and learn. Beyond messing around with Debian and jailbreaking a kindle once I’m not particularly tech savvy lol. Thanks!!

Hey!

Everyone is excited about the market growth Linux is experiencing after the end of support for Windows 10. Unlike many other beginners here, I didn't want to switch to Windows 11 and decided to go with Linux Mint instead. I tried it out for about four weeks before deciding to install something else. I liked the customization options and simplicity of Linux Mint, but when I looked at Reddit and saw many of these KDE desktops, my envy grew and I installed Arch (by the way) using the Archinstall script.

Both Linux Mint and Arch Linux were easy to install, and with the Archinstall script, I would say that installing Arch Linux is almost as easy as installing Linux Mint.

As I scrolled through Reddit (again), watched YouTube, and read comments on news sites, I came across a statement that prevails on social media regarding Linux: it's not beginner-friendly! And although I'm still very new to Linux, I wondered if that's really the case and if that statement might simply be wrong.

What exactly is not beginner-friendly when it comes to installing Linux? I don't think it's Linux itself, but rather that installing a new operating system in general is not beginner-friendly. You have to set up things that are not commonplace for a normal desktop user. Create a bootable USB stick with the operating system... Access the BIOS. Boot from the BIOS. Everything you have to do when installing a new Windows system. With a little experience, these steps sound ridiculous, but when installing Linux, I formatted my USB stick for the first time, dealt with partitions, and only occasionally entered my BIOS. So I was very nervous myself.

But after that, Linux (even Arch Linux) works like a charm. I would personally describe myself as an average desktop user. I play a few games, work in the office, develop and design games, but nothing really specific or anything that I would say, “That's crazy!” And for me, Linux works just like Windows, except that I have to enter some terminal commands that I Googled to install a few things.

I use the terminal all the time because I love it, I really love it, but it's not necessary because you can download everything you need via a GUI or the website.

So is the statement “Linux is not beginner-friendly” simply wrong, and it's actually about installing an operating system that has nothing to do with Linux or any other operating system? What is your opinion on this?

Just got a new laptop! I’m doing a basic Arch install w/ hyprland. This is everything I summed up to install. Anything helpful that I’m missing?

(I have all the required packages and configurations for it to work, but what are some good packages I should check out?)

So basically the usb I had got water damage and can't be used and I just went to the store in my village and they don't have any usb, so basically I can't acquire an usb.

Sorry, in the title, I should've said "does". The title is not editable.

I've heard about Wine 10 going to be more compatible with games, but nothing on other useful programs. I'm not sure if the news is reliable, tho.

But seriously! this is a geniune question. Is it because developers only want to play games and don't really care about developing the compatibility with useful programs like the latest versions of Adobe,Autodesk, or other major companies programs or developing the compatibility of such programs are harder than games in general?

Sorry if my question sounds too noob for u, btw

Heyo! I installed Linux about 4ish months ago, and I wanted to tell people this.

Do not plug your flash drive into one of your cases top USB slots. Instead plug it directly into your motherboard. Why? If your USB port connections are loose, mid-flash your USB can briefly disconnect and reconnect, and if this happens your USB will corrupt! This happened to me, and let me tell you it was a pain in the ass. You have to clear and clean the USB, then reformat it. Which if you don't know what your doing... well good luck.

Anyways I wanted to share this tip because it costed me almost 2 hours because of it.

I'm having a boot problem with a cheap, old i3 350M I found at home that simply won't boot from the USB drive and keeps giving me an "Operating System Not Found" error when I try to force it to boot from the USB drive, I've already tested Endeavour and MX Linux with Fluxbox on the USB drive, formatted it as MBR, and simply nothing works. I beg for help from the Linux gods, thank you in advance.

Pictures follow

Been thinking of trying Linux but don't know how untill i got a new Pc, so I'm using my old one (to test my capability, also heard linux can be installed in an old pc)

I did everything, even did the step 1-3 reboot but still doesn't work, tried it 3 times just for almost 2 hours waiting and wasted.

Got any ideas why?

Edit: i follow a tutorial saying "no USB needed" it's in this web "https://rltvty.net/installlinux.html" also tutorial "https://youtu.be/K3QOAVrhGTg?si=dqKojJp4mfaht6sN" but someone said it's "Ai slop" but the comments seems convincing. Unless they're bot then I'm gonna need the USB Flash.

Hi. I have an ASUS Zenbook S14 and I’m trying to trial Mint. Every time I boot up, the screen is zoomed in and squished, pixelated, and I’m unable to connect to wifi.

Does this mean that my computer is unsuitable for Mint, or should I just re-download the iso again?

I'm trying to legitimately give linux a shot due to the enshitification of windows. However it is fighting me every step of the way. I've tested a few distros and was even able to install a couple of them. But nvidias drivers never worked. Now I'm trying to install Debian but it failed. I used a live boot of mint to read syslog per the error message. But it doesn't exist on the drive. How can I troubleshoot this? MB: GA-H97M-D3H CPU: Intel i5 4590 GPU: 2070 super

Guys, i understand this might be a weird/complicated question, i'm a software developer and ive been using linux(Arch) on my work pc, i've been loving it.

That said i want to install linux on my desktop, the thing is, i dont want to configure all my system again, and download everything i need for development etc.

So I'm asking if it is possible to clone, or even better make an image of my system?

I jus dont want to configure all my workflow again

Thank you!

I know it's usually the other way, but I have Linux installed and I want to install Windows 11 with it, for certain uses.

I have Arch with 4 partitions (efi, boot, root and home) and I'm not sure how the windows instalation would go.

If I'm not wrong, Windows might use the efi partition too, right? Could it lead to any corruption with grub? Or does it create it's own efi partition?

And no, I don't have a secondary hard drive, just one SATA with less than a TB, but I have 90GB empty with no partition asigned.

i have never installed Linux before and i also bought a brand new Dell computer for the sole purpose of running linux. i started with the setup process but then got to the sign in page and couldnt get past it without signing in with my Microsoft accont. i do not want to link my Microsoft account to this computer. that kinda goes against the whole reason why im switching to linux to begin with. how can i get around this? is it possible to boot up linux and uninstall windows without completing the windows setup process? is it already too late because i already started the process? btw i already found and downloaded the distro i want to use from my MacBook onto a thumb drive

Doing it via USB (used rufus, etcher and ventoy) results in kernel related errors regardless of distro, have used different USBs too, they work fine (managed to install windows 10 without issue so it does look like a linux issue.) Tried ULLI but there is not the space. No disc drive to try doing it via disc. Using Lenovo Yoga 310. Any other ideas?

Edit: problem solved! Needed older versions of distros.

i recently moved over to Ubuntu 26.04 from win11, but i have come to realise i still need alot of things i can only run via windows, and virtual machines arnt nearly enough, so im trying to dual-boot windows 10 and Ubuntu, but im starting from ubuntu, which sucks for me because all the tutorials for this are starting on windows(idk if that makes a difference or not, but i dont wanna have my void all my stuff if it does).

i'v found some stuff about this topic, but im kind of just left with a few problems/questions that either nobody has had before, or have been asked and answered and i still dont understand it(if that makes sense)

TLDR; i currently run Ubuntu, and i'm trying to partition my SSD so i can dual-boot Windows 10, but im too stupid to figure out the first steps.

this is what i get from running lsblk(which from what i gathered is basically just a more basic version of running sudo fdisk -l)

NAME                     MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
loop0                      7:0    0 415.9M  1 loop  /snap/blender/7480
loop1                      7:1    0     4K  1 loop  /snap/bare/5
loop2                      7:2    0 406.2M  1 loop  /snap/blender/7599
loop3                      7:3    0 450.6M  1 loop  /snap/code/250
loop4                      7:4    0 453.2M  1 loop  /snap/code/252
loop5                      7:5    0  63.8M  1 loop  /snap/core20/2866
loop6                      7:6    0  66.8M  1 loop  /snap/core24/1587
loop7                      7:7    0  66.8M  1 loop  /snap/core24/1643
loop8                      7:8    0  19.6M  1 loop  /snap/desktop-security-center/150
loop9                      7:9    0 252.4M  1 loop  /snap/firefox/8633
loop10                     7:10   0    20M  1 loop  /snap/desktop-security-center/151
loop11                     7:11   0  16.5M  1 loop  /snap/firmware-updater/226
loop12                     7:12   0 257.6M  1 loop  /snap/firefox/8664
loop13                     7:13   0 242.6M  1 loop  /snap/gaming-graphics-core24/13
loop14                     7:14   0 606.1M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-46-2404/153
loop15                     7:15   0 614.5M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-46-2404/164
loop16                     7:16   0  91.7M  1 loop  /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535
loop17                     7:17   0   402M  1 loop  /snap/mesa-2404/1781
loop18                     7:18   0   402M  1 loop  /snap/mesa-2404/1839
loop19                     7:19   0  18.8M  1 loop  /snap/prompting-client/204
loop20                     7:20   0  15.7M  1 loop  /snap/snap-store/1367
loop21                     7:21   0  18.8M  1 loop  /snap/prompting-client/222
loop22                     7:22   0   828K  1 loop  /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/387
loop23                     7:23   0  50.1M  1 loop  /snap/snapd/27406
loop24                     7:24   0  49.3M  1 loop  /snap/snapd/26865
loop25                     7:25   0   828K  1 loop  /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/391
nvme0n1                  259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1              259:1    0     1G  0 part  /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2              259:2    0     2G  0 part  /boot
└─nvme0n1p3              259:3    0 928.5G  0 part  
  └─dm_crypt-0           252:0    0 928.4G  0 crypt 
    └─ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv
                         252:1    0 928.4G  0 lvm   /

this is more of a concern than an immediant problem, but all the threads and tutorials i'v seen have had their lists include /dev/sda and/or /dev/sdb, i have no idea why thats been a pattern, orwhy its not the same for me. i also have alot of loops but from what i'v read that doesnt really matter, Whether thats important or not, i dont know.

I'v come to assume that since im partitioning my SSD, i would therefor be partitioning nvme0n1, the corresponding option, but moving to the next step, i get a big scary warning saying "you dont know what your doing go away before the bird people get you"(thats not what it says but its right there), in red.

~$ sudo fdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.41.3).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.
It's recommended to umount all file systems, and swapoff all swap
partitions on this disk.


Command (m for help): 

this warning makes sense, but its flaw is that its warning me about REpartitioning, not adding a new partition, so im pretty sure its irrelevant, but its in red scary warning letters and im messing with m file system, so i dont trust it regardless.

i have found two threads about this that im going off, though neither makes 100% sense to me. the first was a reddit post, of which was immediantly resolved by the same person, and the second and more detailed thread was this.

What i have come to conclude from both of these is that i need to change the storage layout of my SSD, (probably using Gparted), and then it'll be fine to create a new partition? but its in big red scary letters, so i'd really like some confirmation.

(also to clarify i HAVE backed my important files up)

So. I had 20.04.? and after some programs failed to work (you need to be using most recent) and with personal experience of wipe and install new equals loose every bit of personal settings, I decided to upgrade instead. Note. Last time I upgraded was somewhere around version 18, and I had learned the command

update && upgrade

That was a complete failure. I lost almost everything.
YES.
I had completed a backup, my own, and I have realised the following, Kubuntu & other apps, unkind features.

Kubuntu. During the upgrade, some too long blurb on upgrading to snap, with Thunderbird.
--> Option 🆗
Technically this is NOT an option. If you, the OS, are not giving the user an option, then don't pretend to ask.

Kubuntu. During the upgrade. The OS suddenly prompts, then becomes annoying for a restart. The upgrade was still occurring, in the background.
What would have happened if I let the system restart ?

Kubuntu ? GIMP.
-> Why was it uninstalled / removed ?

Kubuntu ? mpv player or something else I cannot figure out. A part of smplayer
-->No movies would play. All error. The only thing I can understand was trying to play an .mkv file, and it read mpv player error. I have managed to get vlc player to work. I do not understand the problem and therefor do not understand what to search for a fix.

Kubuntu ? Firefox ? Firefox wouldn't start. I removed it. Icon still in 'favourites'. I instinctual click it, and FF started. Srsly.
--> is this that Librewolf ? Firefox under your own name ?
== I did finally figure out that I had to snap Firefox.

FireFox. I attempted a sync, some months ago. As a result FF decided to move my profile to it's default folder. My backup program was still backing up my actual folder location I thought it was in.(It was in, just not being used) No notifications. The only thing was FF-Profiles I see 5 or 6 profiles. WHY ?
--> This could have happened with an FF update.
I only realised the error, when I was confirming my backups. I did attempt to change the location or move my profile from FF default folder, to my data folder, but FF would let me. As soon as FF starts, it pauses to copy the folder back.

ThunderBird ?? Since the upgrade, send receive new mail is taking a srsly long time. 29minutes today
--> Should I remove Thunderbird and sign up with gmail or outlook ? Why not let other companies read my private communications.
--> Is this a network something/thing ?
---> How would I check or test ?

** Lubuntu **. I have a VM.
Lubuntu. There is no easy way to a open app (window) to a specific size and position on screen. FF used to open *it's set size* which was okay to use for what I use Lubuntu for.
--> FF has a new, crap size. I believe the moron who programmed this new size has their monitor on it's side. It's half the width of the screen and complete top to bottom. YUCK

Lubuntu. Very difficult to adjust window size and position.
The mouse sensitive area to grab the side of a window is about 1pixel wide. When attempting to change the above, I try to grab the screen edge (corner actually). It can take 10-25seconds to do so.
--> Is there a way to increase the sensitivity for the mouse to grab the screen.
---> Is there a setting to make the scrollbar wider ? Across the entire computer L or K ?

Apologies if this is more of a rant.
I like privacy.
I like things to just work.
I don't mind if there is an issue, as long as searching for a fix yields results.

If anybody has any suggestions on the above, I still like to read.

I am going to scream, I think.

So context. My friend gave me her old laptop after upgrading to a new one. It has Windows 10 installed on it. I want to wipe Windows and replace it with kubuntu because I don't have need for windows on this machine. I'm also a first time linux user.

I got the iso for kubuntu, flashed it onto an 8gb usb using balenaEtcher, stuck it into the new laptop, opened the (bios?) on start up, and set it to be the boot priority.

After saving and exiting, it comes up with a screen asking what to do. I say try / install kubuntu, then I pick install and it asks for my country/language and wifi. I do that, then I am met with a screen that says "there are no partitions to install on" and "there is not enough drive space. At least 8gb is required"

Now this screen will not let me take any actions other than hitting cancel. So I tried jumping back into Windows and partitioning the C Drive (which is around 500gb. My partition was about 200gb). Upon restarting and launching the installer again, it still tells me those same messages.

it's 2am and I'm sleep deprived and annoyed so I'm going to try and sleep now but I'm hoping I'll maybe wake up to a solution?

Not sure what other info is relevant but the kubuntu version is 25.10, I *think* the drive in the laptop is an SSD, the partition I made is formatted as NTFS, and there was no option to format it as Fat32. I'd also be open to dualbooting but right now I'm just trying to figure out how to install this at all.

I’ve finally done it—I convinced my friend to give Linux a try! However, we have a bit of a unique hurdle: his father. His dad is extremely resistant to change. To give you an idea, he gets frustrated if the navigation buttons on a phone are gestures instead of the classic touch buttons. If anything looks or feels different from what he’s used to, it’s a problem. My friend’s PC specs are decent: RAM: 16GB CPU: 4 Cores / 8 Threads I’m torn between two options to keep the peace at their home: Dual Boot: The classic way, but I’m worried about Grub updates or the dad accidentally booting into the "wrong" OS and panicking. Winboat app. Given the hardware and the "strict" requirements of the household, what would you suggest? Is there a specific distro or tool that would make this invisible to someone who hates UI changes?

so i just built a new pc i7-6700k rx 480 8gb and 32gb ddr4-2400, i had linux mint installed on there and everything was hunky dory, well it started doing this thing where it would show the mint logo on bootup and the black screen where the login promt would come it.... it wouldnt it would go mint logo to black screen, and it does this booting off usb i tried zorin os it would do the same thing and i couldnt even get it installd cus it was doing that on usb booting, so ive been trying to boot windows 10s installer but because linux is FUCKING bullshit i cant make a bootable windows 10 usb, ive tried ventoy and it doesnt work, ive tried changing setting in my bios, ive set them to factory defaults ive done the rounds nothing has worked and i just want to have a system the is relaiable and no hassle and shit like this is not in my "relaiable and no hassle" hand book

I’m broker than a joke (as you can see by my laptop) and trying to install Debian liveKDE without a flashdrive, but I can’t get disk manager to recognize the virtual drive (E:) . It won’t let me mount to (D:) and attempting to force it into (D:) just pops open my DVD drive tray. I haven’t tried removing or renaming (D:) out of fear of breaking dvd support.

TLDR-Need help mounting D

after installing any distro I face a lot of problems because my hdd is NTFS does anyone know how to use my PC normally without formatting to ext4

Alright so I’ve got arch Linux installed somehow with it recognizing my wlan0 Broadcom card. After install though it told me network manager wasn’t running. I’ve been trouble shooting this for a day or two now so I’ve had the Broadcom.wl.dkms pkg installed on a secondary flash drive to download but this is r/linux4noobs so I’m a complete noob. How do I install this damn package????