Turns out the reply in my thread telling me the best way to combat not caring about Linux is to care about Linux was absolutely correct.

I picked up a laptop, installed Linux Mint Cinnamon, and I’m already obsessed. I haven’t had this much fun with a PC in a long time and it’s just a cheapo Dell Inspiron 3520.

  • Flobaer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Easiest (and cheapest) way to get into Linux and find out if you encounter any problems in your workflow is to try it out using a virtual machine. Basically you can run Linux (or any other OS) in a sandbox on your Windows machine. Virtualbox is a popular and easy-to-use tool for that, just download it and an ISO (basically a virtual CD) of the Linux distribution you want to try out, start up a new VM from inside Virtualbox and tell it to boot from the Linux ISO.

    Install Linux inside the VM (the ISO is an installer) and then just try to do everything you would normally do on your Winows machine and see if there are any problems. If you choose that Linux sucks or is too much work to get into, you can just delete the VM and your Windows machine will be unaffected from the entire venture.

    This is all free (and legal) and you get the 100 % Linux experience of your distribution (minus some performance, you’re running two operating systems after all).

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      I agree that this is an easy way to try out Linux; but I wouldn’t advice doing it like this if you have intentions to eventually make Linux your main OS. If you’re using Linux in a virtual machine, then it will always feel like it’s another layer of work, another layer of abstraction, another few clicks to get started… it just adds a bit of friction. So although the virtual machine can show you what the OS looks like and how it works etc. The experience of possibly using it as a main OS will be skewed in a negative way by having to set up and run a the virtual machine.

      So I’d say virtual machine is ok if you just want to look around for curiosity; but if you have intentions to make it your primary OS, then I reckon go straight to dual boot, and make Linux the default boot option so that the friction is in switching back to Windows rather than in trying the new and unfamiliar OS.

      • Flobaer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        If this was the typical use case of a private person unsure whether they should use Linux for their personal computer, I’d whole-heartedly agree.

        However, since OP is making the decision whether to use Linux for their business, I think they should definitely try it out first and especially try to simulate their workflow in order to ensure Linux will suit their needs. It’s one thing if your operating system is wonky while you’re trying to watch Netflix, it’s a whole different thing if you can’t watch evidence videos which will prevent you from doing your lawyer work but woopsie, you fully committed to Linux.

        Definitely just try everything out before making the business decision to switch over to Linux.

    • JaxNakamura@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      And if you plan on trying different distributions, use Ventoy. It will create a bootable USB memory stick that you can copy your various ISO files to. When booting from it, you can then select which ISO to boot. Saves you from overwriting the same memory stick time and time again. Or having multiple memory sticks, one for each ISO.