Don't have a clue how to start.

tpc2019

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Hi - I want to begin using Linux as my Windows 7 computers won't be supported. I got a Linux for Dummies book from the library but apparently it does address my level of "dummness" Is there a rough step by step guide? It seems like everything I've read so far assumes I know more than I do.
Thanks
 


Hello tpc2019 and Welcome to the forum.

Documentation.
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Downloads.
https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php


Have read and read as many times as needed although written for Linux Mint 18.3 it works for most Linux Distros.
https://www.linux.org/threads/how-to-try-linux-mint-on-your-windows-pc.20993/


Another good choice.
https://www.ubuntupit.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-peppermint-linux-os/

Downloads.
https://peppermintos.com/

https://forum.peppermintos.com/
 
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One thing that I'd suggest is that you try it out before you install it. Download Linux Mint, or Linux Lite, or whatever distro you've chosen. Mint would be my suggestion. Anyway, when you do, you'll be downloading an ISO image, which is basically a CD image. You'll then need to burn it to disk or to a USB drive. There's a free burner I've heard people refer to called Rufus. After you burn it then you reboot your computer, during the reboot you should see the BIOS screen where it says to press F2 to go into setup or 12 to choose the boot menu (your words and options may differ from what I have here). Choose the boot menu option and you should get a menu to choose which device to boot to, choose whichever media you burned the ISO to. It'll then load up Linux and give you a working playground. Unfortunately with this method nothing will be remembered everytime you reboot. But this is good because you can't break anything either. So do whatever you want, if you break it, reboot. Once you decide you like it and want to move forward, follow the instructions in arochester's message above for dual booting. Dual booting will allow you to have both Windows and Linux on your hard drive.
 
One thing that I'd suggest is that you try it out before you install it. Download Linux Mint, or Linux Lite, or whatever distro you've chosen. Mint would be my suggestion. Anyway, when you do, you'll be downloading an ISO image, which is basically a CD image. You'll then need to burn it to disk or to a USB drive. There's a free burner I've heard people refer to called Rufus. After you burn it then you reboot your computer, during the reboot you should see the BIOS screen where it says to press F2 to go into setup or 12 to choose the boot menu (your words and options may differ from what I have here). Choose the boot menu option and you should get a menu to choose which device to boot to, choose whichever media you burned the ISO to. It'll then load up Linux and give you a working playground. Unfortunately with this method nothing will be remembered everytime you reboot. But this is good because you can't break anything either. So do whatever you want, if you break it, reboot. Once you decide you like it and want to move forward, follow the instructions in arochester's message above for dual booting. Dual booting will allow you to have both Windows and Linux on your hard drive.
One thing that I'd suggest is that you try it out before you install it. Download Linux Mint, or Linux Lite, or whatever distro you've chosen. Mint would be my suggestion. Anyway, when you do, you'll be downloading an ISO image, which is basically a CD image. You'll then need to burn it to disk or to a USB drive. There's a free burner I've heard people refer to called Rufus. After you burn it then you reboot your computer, during the reboot you should see the BIOS screen where it says to press F2 to go into setup or 12 to choose the boot menu (your words and options may differ from what I have here). Choose the boot menu option and you should get a menu to choose which device to boot to, choose whichever media you burned the ISO to. It'll then load up Linux and give you a working playground. Unfortunately with this method nothing will be remembered everytime you reboot. But this is good because you can't break anything either. So do whatever you want, if you break it, reboot. Once you decide you like it and want to move forward, follow the instructions in arochester's message above for dual booting. Dual booting will allow you to have both Windows and Linux on your hard drive.
Is there a special type of USB thumb drive I see something about persistence ( don't know what that is). What size etc.? Thanks
 
Is there a special type of USB thumb drive I see something about persistence ( don't know what that is). What size etc.? Thanks
It depends. If you just want to try it, you only need something like 2 GB. The ISOs are usually 1.something GB. There are options for loading one of these ISOs and having persistence, but I don't know a lot about those. But basically what they are is that you load the ISO on 1 partition of the pen drive and then it has a second partition which stores your changes. The ISO part is read only, so no changes will be saved after a reboot. The persistence part fixes that and saves all your changes to a read/write section. This would include applications you install, wallpapers you set, browser favorites, etc. Someone else will know more about this, but I think that partition is restricted to 2 Gigs. So a 4 or 5 Gig pen drive would suffice, if I'm right. There's another option and that's to install Linux onto the pen drive, just like you would to a hard drive. This will remove the size limit of the persistence partition and you'd have as much available space as the size of the pen drive. So if you have a 128 gig drive, you'd have 128 gigs available. This option also allows you to try it without touching your hard drive.
 
Hello @tpc2019 and welcome!
Although you have already so many response to your question, I would like to introduce you this guy !
It's the best you tube tutorial that I found so far. Specially if you are a "visual" guy like me, you will find it very useful.
Series Ubuntu Server Essential is actually basic Linux commands.
 
Hi - I want to begin using Linux as my Windows 7 computers won't be supported. I got a Linux for Dummies book from the library but apparently it does address my level of "dummness" Is there a rough step by step guide? It seems like everything I've read so far assumes I know more than I do.
Thanks

I know exactly how you feel ! ;)
Best way to start is with a "Live" version of a Linux distro.
You can try it without making any changes to your current computer setup.
Next question is - how do we get to the point of trying a Live distro? What is a 'Live distro'?
After checking out the links provided in the previous posts come back with any questions or comments :)

P.S. I found it much less stressful for me to use an old spare computer to learn on so I did not have to worry about 'borking' my main computer.
 

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