I share my PC with my family, should I switch to Linux?

[blueonred]

I'm looking at Linux as someone affected by the MS end of support and I want to ask a few things to see if this is right for me and my family

I have checked, my laptop qualifies and with Linux Mint all of the above (and more) should run smoothly

ASUS GF65 Thin 10UE
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60Hz 2.59 GHz

My personal laptop is used by two other people -- my sister uses it for a weekly event and my guardian uses it to back up their files and verify their subordinate's work for accurate data

The following are commonly used:

• Google Chrome
• PowerPoint
• Excel
• Google Docs
• Gmail and Yahoo Mail
• Messenger and Facebook
• YouTube
• Netflix
• Firefox
• Obsidian
• Steam

I'm worried my family would not be as eager as me with the learning curve

I'm poking at the beginner's guides and I feel overwhelmed at the information, and I don't want to accidentally lead my family into a rabbit hole for the most basic of commands

Is it worth it?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I'm worried my family would not be as eager as me with the learning curve

I think you should ask them what they think about it.

• PowerPoint
• Excel

Do not exist in Linux but there is Linux alternative called libre office.

Is it worth it?

See:

Linux is NOT Windows

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome to the forums

• Google Chrome..... Chrome browser is an option in the mint software repository
• PowerPoint ... Libreoffice is very similar
• Excel ... dito
• Google Docs ... dito [and more secure]
• Gmail and Yahoo Mail,,, both can be installed into Thunderbird [default mail client]
• Messenger and Facebook yes [ if you use Firefox browser you can containerise FB for better security]
• YouTube .. yes
• Netflix ... probably works best on Chrome browser
• Firefox default browser in most distributions
• Obsidian... is multi-platform
• Steam, ...most games run better on Linux [except those with anti cheat s Linux security will not allow 3rd party apps to be imbedded in the Kernel ]

you could always go for a multi boot, the more secure Linux for you and leave the windows for the others, as long as you tell them of the risk of using an unsupported distribution

 

[Condobloke]

G'day blueonred, Welcome to Linux.org

The simplest solution has to be, to choose one pc/laptop from what you have and boot it up to LIVE version of Linux mint.

Note emphasis on LIVE.
This means that Linux Mint is NOT fully installed.....and yet it will run well enough to give everyone a really good idea whether or not they can live with its differences.
There is only one caveat.....as long as it is left running, the live version will continue unabated.

If it is shut down or rebooted, any changes that have been made will be lost. An example of this would be installing Chrome. After installing it and using it etc etc....if one of your family were to reboot or shutdown....the entire install of Chrome would be lost. To get it back, you would need to boot to the Live version again, and reinstall Chrome again.

This applies to any changes, any apps installed etc etc

(Just to flesh out that story for you, if the "Install Linux Mint" icon on the desktop is double clicked....Linux Mint will be fully installed....and then the apps stay in place and survive shut downs and reboots)

Those are my thoughts...other members are sure to think of other scenarios

 

[gvisoc]

Welcome @blueonred . I think most of your questions depend on knowing your family. If you can, you should try Linux yourself before making the full household change to it.

Live version is an option, VirtualBox can probably work to test things consistently for days or weeks.

 

[kc1di]

Hello @blueonred
Welcome to the linux.org forum.
I don't know that you will be able to get the whole family on board, You could try virtual box or dual boot for a bit see if they will come along with you.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@blueonred :-

I echo m'colleagues sentiments above.

I learnt long ago that we human animals are very much creatures of habit. By this I'm referring to the fact that once we've learnt how to do something - and have become comfortable with it - we generally see very little reason (or need) to have to learn how to do the same things all over again in a different way.

Many folks are highly-resistant to this view.....and some will actively jump down your throat IF you attempt to "force their hand" by giving them no say in the matter.

Dual-booting is fraught with issues. Windows & Linux will constantly squabble over the boot-loader, and Windows will often arbitrarily overwrite the Linux boot-loader (so you can't boot into it); the pair of them insist on using different modes for timekeeping - which leads to browser issues due to site certificates refusing to function correctly. And that's just the start of it. Frankly, I wouldn't even go there. I did so ONCE myself, many years ago. Never again......the hassle was NOT worth it.

Most of us recommend keeping Windows and Linux as far apart as you can.....like on separate machines.

Some will recommend installing Linux fully - letting it have the whole disk to itself - then re-installing Windows inside a VM. However, I feel that in your case this is pushing things a bit far.....especially if you only have the one machine AND other people are used to using it as well for THEIR preferred apps/programs.

My "recommendation" would be to install Linux to - and run it from - an external HDD or SSD (but not a flash drive). Running a 'full' OS install from a flash drive is the quickest way to wreck it, due to the constant read/write operations going on all the time in the background. The NAND flash memory used in thumb drives does have a limited number of read/writes before the "cells" start to break-down.

An external USB 3.0 HDD or SSD has far greater tolerance for this kind of thing, being designed for it in the first place. And the type of NAND used in SSDs is usually far higher quality than that of a flash drive.

That would be my suggestion.....but the ultimate decision as to what you end up doing has to be yours. And do ask other family members; they have a right to know.


Mike.

 

[MikeRocor]

If your family is not 100% on board with switching to linux, I would suggest to A) make sure your data backups are kept current and then B) just keep using Windows until it craps out (be patient, it almost certainly will and if it doesn't then the problem goes away). Then offer to try Linux Mint instead of paying a few hundred dollars for a new laptop with Windows 11 on it. Assuming everything can be made to work, I doubt the transition time from the older Windows to Linux would be any longer than the transition time from the older Windows to Windows 11.

The success or failure of switching your family to Linux may come down to what their use cases are for Excel and PowerPoint. Yes LibreOffice includes equivalents for those applications but, just as "Linux is not Windows", "LibreOffice's spreadsheet application is not Excel". For basic spreadsheet use, it's probably close enough but the more complex the use case, the more likely it is that something won't work in quite exactly the same way. If they're sharing files with someone else (who is staying with Windows), the likelihood of such things causing problems increases. If you've got someone who is a dyed in the wool "Excel guru", they are probably irretrievably wedded to MS (at least in their own mind). I assume the PowerPoint vs LibreOffice situation would be similar.

 

[KGIII]

just keep using Windows until it craps out (be patient, it almost certainly will and if it doesn't then the problem goes away).

If I'm understanding this thread properly, which I may not be, I'm not sure that I'd suggest this. That'd entail using an OS that's no longer getting any security updates.

 

[gvisoc]

I agree with @KGIII --running an unpatched device for the life admin, work and study, etc., of a whole household, should be a no-no.

 

[The Duck]

I wouldn't because good chance they ain't going to be willing to learn a new OS and give up their Windows OS.

That's the way it was in my house and still is.

My Wife will never give up her Windows OS.

If you are using an up to date current Windows OS.

If the family uses one computer than create each family member their own user account and keep yourself as the administrator.

 

[MikeRocor]

If I'm understanding this thread properly, which I may not be, I'm not sure that I'd suggest this. That'd entail using an OS that's no longer getting any security updates.

I think you probably are understanding the thread correctly. That's why I suggested keeping their backups current as item "A" . While it was nor explicitly mentioned as one of the common uses, I would mention that using the machine as-is for, for instance, online banking would be a out of the question.

To maintain a fully updated MS Windows system, they're already effectively at the point where Windows has "crapped out", though I initially used the phrase to mean "stopped working", so ideally, they ought really to either switch the old machine to Linux or spend the money to replace it with a machine that can run Windows 11. But in a less than ideal world, they may or may not have the cash on hand to run out and buy a new computer just because MS said they have to.

Once they get a new machine and all of their data has been migrated to it, then there's likely no reason -not- to install Linux on the old one and see how it works for their purposes.

 

[KGIII]

While it was nor explicitly mentioned as one of the common uses, I would mention that using the machine as-is for, for instance, online banking would be a out of the question.

Hmm... I would not suggest that they use the computer at all, at least not on the public internet. Windows 10 is EOL. It's not just about them and their security; it's that they be compromised more easily (especially as time passes, though more on that in a moment). If they're compromised, I'm not worried about their data. No, I'm worried that they become a spam relay, a node in a botnet used for DDoS attacks, a C&C node, etc...

The amusing bit is that 'as time passes' in that last paragraph. (See? I said I'd get back to it!)

For a while, malicious people are going to concentrate on exploiting all those Windows 10 devices that are EOL and still online. This interest is actually going to fade out over time. Those systems will decrease in numbers to the point where they're no longer a viable target. The juice won't be worth the squeeze, to use a metaphor.

At one point in time, you couldn't put an unprotected Windows XP device on the 'net without being quickly compromised.

While I'd not suggest it, you could probably put an XP system online and more or less go unnoticed by malicious actors/bots. They're no longer looking for XP systems. They're not looking to exploit them because there are so few of them remaining.

I mean, I wouldn't suggest doing that, but I suspect you'll be just fine if you did. I mean, hardware won't work. The modern web won't work. In fact, when I last poked at XP (a few months back), the web was darned near impossible to navigate. I've since learned that there are a couple of small browser projects that keep XP going, but they're forced to be https instead of http, which means you can't access the downloads via the web with said XP system.

I should spin up that Windows XP VM again and let it sit there online to see if it gets compromised like it once did.

Anyhow...

Also, there's a slight uptick in people mentioning that they're coming here from Windows 10.

Windows 10 is dead. It reached EOL on the 14th (?) of last month. They can pay $35 for a year's worth of additional support if they want to remain with Windows. I am of the opinion that no Windows 10 device should be connected to the public internet. Doing so, in my opinion, makes you a bad netizen. It's not just your data at risk.

In the real world, it'd be analogous to willfully letting your vicious, biting, rabid dog loose in your community. In that case, I don't care if your dog bites you. I care if it bites me or someone I like. (Yeah, that's a bit over the top, but those compromised devices have real-world impacts.)

 

[Kojack]

Have a look at Zorin OS. It has MS and OneDrive support. Unless the family is doing crazy stuff in Excel, The web versions work fine. These are usable no issue with Zorin. it's the software we are moving to. No more Microsoft in our household. We have found that WPS Office is a very good replacement for Microsoft Office.

 

[Condobloke]

Be aware folks, @blueonred has not been heard of since the day after he posted this topic

 

[blueonred]

Thanks for all of the advice! My sister doesn't use my laptop as much and I'll see if I can get her to use Canva instead of PowerPoint as her group supports it

With my guardian though, they mostly use Excel to review data and do light edits

I'll look into Zorin OS as @Kojack suggested and try the live version of it and Mint