Switching to Linux from Win11

[Tacomike73]

I'm looking for some help and suggestions for switching to Ubuntu from win 11 23H2.
My computer is a self made PC I put together in 2019 with parts from new egg. I have a

GIGABYTE AB350M-DS3H AM4 system board, Ryzen 7 2700, 16 GB of ram, Nvida 1650 super video card. ​

I think it should run Ubuntu well. I also run Plex on the computer. I have a few drives besides my NVME boot drive with media files and documents that are formatted NTFS. I know Plex will run and should be easy to install. I also use MakeMKV to rip discs. Not sure if that can be installed. The other thing I have here I'd like to be sure still will work is my Brother DCP-7065 printer/scanner connected by Ethernet. ​

Can I still keep my drives with my files on them during the transition to Ubuntu and have them usable to read ad write to after or am I going to need to back up everything and reformat those drives?
Sorry if any of these questions seem silly. I'm just trying to figure out how to make the switch smoothly with out data loss and still be able to use my computer how I basically do now.

 

[Brickwizard]

Can I still keep my drives with my files on them during the transition to Ubuntu

yes you can multi boot either using another clean drive or by using the windows drive and partitioning it

 

[Tacomike73]

I was thinking I could reformat the solid state drive windows is currently on since it has nothing but the OS and programs on it which will all be different with Linux, install Ubunu there and then the Files on my 4TB and 16TB drives would still be usable in my new Linux install. I thought that Linux could read NTFS drives, Not sure about writing to them.
I was kind of thinking of just going away from windows completely at some point.

 

[Brickwizard]

could reformat the solid state drive windows is currently on since it has nothing but the OS

yes you can use it, if there is nothing else on it to keep, you can let the installer do it for you.

. I thought that Linux could read NTFS drives,

Linux usually uses EXT4 format, it is a tad quicker and a lot more secure, and yes it can read your NTFS files

 

[Tacomike73]

yes you can use it, if there is nothing else on it to keep, you can let the installer do it for you.

Liux usualy uses EXT4 format, it is a tad quicker and a lot more secure, and yes it can read your NTFS files

So only Read the NTFS....? My situation would be that once I set it all up again I'd be using Plex to record live TV so it would need to be able to write to on of those drives. This makes me think that I would need to backup and reformat to EXT4 and restore my stuff. That also would be the best too once I know I'm never going back to windows.

 

[Brickwizard]

I don't know about TV streaming, watching TV and playing games not my bag,

this may help

Does Linux Support NTFS? A Comprehensive Guide

The NTFS (New Technology File System) is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft and is the default file system for modern Windows operating systems. Linux, on the other hand, is an open-source operating system with a wide range of file systems it natively supports, such as ext4, XFS...

linuxvox.com

 

[Tacomike73]

I don't know about TV streaming, watching TV and playing games not my bag,

this may help

Does Linux Support NTFS? A Comprehensive Guide

The NTFS (New Technology File System) is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft and is the default file system for modern Windows operating systems. Linux, on the other hand, is an open-source operating system with a wide range of file systems it natively supports, such as ext4, XFS...

linuxvox.com

Playing game isn't my bag ether but I have a big collection of Movies TV show and music that is all ripped from DVD and CD that I like to have access to on any device anywhere with out a monthly subscription(s). other than that the PC is used for normal PC stuff like browsing the internet, paying the bill email and some documents. I hate to see a computer that works and does what I need become E-Waste because Microsoft wants me to buy a new one that supports TPM2.0 and can run co-toilet to spy on you.

So That article really confirms what I expected. I can keep my Data on NTFS drives and read and write to them Its just not a good idea to do so long term. Best practice would be to copy the data to a new drive with EXT4 formatting if im staying with Linux

 

[CaffeineAddict]

My situation would be that once I set it all up again I'd be using Plex to record live TV so it would need to be able to write to on of those drives.

You should first verify whether Plex supports ext4, so that in ideal scenario you reformat free drive to ext4.
If it doesn't there is ntfs3g driver to read/write to NTFS file system.

I didn't test but you can expect worse performance using NTFS in Linux so I'd reformat to ext4 if Plex can handle it.

That also would be the best too once I know I'm never going back to windows.

Sudden switch to Linux if you never used it may be hard to grasp, expect to take at least a month to get used to it.
Once you do you'll see there's nothing in Windows that makes it better, quite the opposite.

 

[Tacomike73]

You should first verify whether Plex supports ext4, so that in ideal scenario you reformat free drive to ext4.
If it doesn't there is ntfs3g driver to read/write to NTFS file system.

I didn't test but you can expect worse performance using NTFS in Linux so I'd reformat to ext4 if Plex can handle it.


Sudden switch to Linux if you never used it may be hard to grasp, expect to take at least a month to get used to it.
Once you do you'll see there's nothing in Windows that makes it better, quite the opposite.

I have tried Linux a few times. 1st time was over 20 years ago with Mandrake Linux on a 366 Celeron box I have that was mostly integrated all on the board. Horrible experience I never got the video drivers to work and gave up. I've put Ubuntu on a few old Dell laptops at work just to tinker a little bit. I work in IT but mostly only have exposure to Windows and Mac.
what I think I should do is get out one of those old Dells and st up Ubuntu. install all the programs I want to use on it and play with before committing my main system at home.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

1st time was over 20 years ago with Mandrake Linux on a 366 Celeron box I have that was mostly integrated all on the board. Horrible experience I never got the video drivers to work and gave up.

My first interaction with Linux was with Backtrack, that's about 15-19 years ago, then and now is significant difference, a lot of stuff have changed to the better and it's easier to use Linux today than decades ago.

what I think I should do is get out one of those old Dells and st up Ubuntu. install all the programs I want to use on it and play with before committing my main system at home.

Biggest obstacle is getting used to it and saying good bye to Windows with no intent to go back, it's all in the head, I needed some 3-4 months of daily use on bare metal to get the feeling that I no longer want to go back to Windows.

Getting used to new software that doesn't exist in Windows and vice versa, forgetting about Windows software that doesn't exist in Linux is another hurdle that takes time and getting used to it.

 

[Tacomike73]

I did a little google search on Plex and supported file systems.

Plex is filesystem agnostic and
works with a wide variety of file systems, but its compatibility depends on the operating system hosting the Plex Media Server. For optimal performance and compatibility, it's best to use the native file system for your OS (such as APFS for macOS, EXT4 for Linux, or NTFS for Windows) or a cross-platform format like exFAT. The key requirement is that the operating system must be able to read the files for Plex to access them.


File system compatibility

• Linux: Native support for EXT4 is excellent.
• macOS: Native support for APFS is excellent.
• Windows: Native support for NTFS is excellent.
• Cross-platform: exFAT is a good option for external drives used with multiple operating systems.
• Third-party drivers: Third-party drivers can be used to make other file systems accessible, but this can sometimes introduce complexities

So for my final configuration EXT4 would be the best. Seems like loading NTFS drivers to get it to read and copy my drives to an EXT4 formatted drive is with in reason to do.

One thing I do appreciate is that you all are helpful and not snarky and dismissive to a NOOB.

 

[Brickwizard]

One thing I do appreciate is that you all are helpful and not snarky and dismissive to a NOOB.

It has been said we are the friendliest of the Linux forums, many of us have been using Linux long enough to remember the bad old days when what forums there were , had elitist, condescending and often obnoxious members, luckily for newbies these days these sites that still exist are few and far between.

 

[Tacomike73]

What I Plan to do for now is get a Dell Latitude 5440 out of the recycle bin at work and load 24.04 LTS on it to play with. The idea is to load up app the Linux versions of the software I use and see how it works as a test platform. I'm pretty sure most everything will be fine or something I can easily live with. The only thing I see now that might be a challenge is getting my Brother all-in-one to work. Brother's website seems to be down in part for maintenance this weekend so I can't see and download a driver package. I've found a page that listed supported OS's and Linux was listed. I found other pages talking about a Brother install tool and a Deb.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Sorry if any of these questions seem silly.

They're not - you are obviously giving consideration to any hurdles or obstacles.

Welcome to linux.org

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Brickwizard]

Dell Latitude 5440

you should not have a problem, I always use Dell lappy's

 

[Brickwizard]

Brother all-in-one to work.

most popular ones are plug and play with inbuilt linux drivers,

 

[Tacomike73]

I also did some work on my desktop this weekend. I have not updated the bios in years. So after several updates I got to the latest bios for my Gigabyte board. Then windows showed i had a TPM 2.0 which previously it didn't have in device manager. I previously did the work around with Rufus to get win11 installed without TPM but it wasn't allowing me to automatically update to 24H2 or 25H2. To my astonishment this morning days later it was telling me it was ready to reboot to install 25H2.

SO now part of my issue of being left without updates after Nov 11th is not a problem. Still now that it updated the start menu has ads in it now and it put that co-pilot crap Im hearing spies on you on my computer.

Despite getting my computer up to a supported level with M$ I still feel like it's time to find something else. It grinds my gears that I paid for a pro version of windows when I built this system and now Microsoft is making me the product by putting advertising on my screen.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Then windows showed i had a TPM 2.0 which previously it didn't have in device manager.

Your computer may not have dTPM (discrete TPM) however there is FTPM (firmware TPM), for intel boards that's PTT and for AMD it's fTPM.

FTPM stands for Firmware Trusted Platform Module and is implemented into a semiconductor's chipset.
Leading semiconductor manufacturers, like AMD and Intel, offer fTPM within their later generation
chipsets to allow for additional protection and convenience without the need for a separate physical module.
A firmware-based TPM does not have its own dedicated storage.
It relies on operating system and platform services to provide it access to storage within the platform.
One of the implications of not having dedicated storage involves the presence of an Endorsement Key (EK) certificate.

 

[Tacomike73]

most popular ones are plug and play with inbuilt linux drivers,

I hope so..

Mine is a DCP-7065. I connect to it in windows via ethernet. I would like to still use it that way and not USB but if I have to do it that way it may not be a deal breaker.

 

[Tacomike73]

Your computer may not have dTPM (discrete TPM) however there is FTPM (firmware TPM), for intel boards that's PTT and for AMD it's fTPM.

Before I did all the bios updates I was on version F24 from 2018. Yeah I never updated it ever. Old school was not ever doing so unless it fixed a known issue you were having. In the notes for several of the newest updates were fixes for TPM.
In the device manager under security devices tpm 1.2 was always there but not 2.0 which I now have.

Anyhow im working on a tough book laptop to experiment with all the software I regularly use to really see if I can live with Linux and kiss Microsoft goodbye