Something to look at if you’re fed up with Microsoft and Windows.

I wrote my first program (in FORTRAN IV) in 1969. Over my life I used a lot of different operating systems. I had to use WIndows for most of my jobs, but a few years ago I found Linux. I tried different "distros" , and settled on MINT with Cinnamon. I've converted many people to Linux Mint, mostly because they didn't need the power of Windows. I don't worry about them doing the updates, because even an old version of Linux is still safer than Windows. To see how to install and/or use Linux there are many KZfaq videos out there.

Primarily, only kernel updates require a reboot but even that reboot is not mandatory. After a kernel update, it will give you a message telling you to reboot as soon as you can. Your take on the life of a distro is very misleading. I started with Linux Mint 17 and have stuck with it to current version 20.2 without having any issues or catastrophes with moving to the newer version. I have been able to do upgrades just like doing updates, so it really is not as bad as he makes it sound. I highly recommend Linux Mint for new users. The multiple times per week updates are true but they take no time as compared to the disaster of Windows Updates. I have been able to install a clean version of Mint and get all updates available in less time than the typical Windows patch Tuesday routine. Don't be afraid of Linux, especially Mint. Very easy to get used to

I started with Linux the hard way at the university. My first distro was Gentoo Linux.

I left Windows after paying for MS Vista and being rather disappointed... I started on Ubuntu with dual booting for Windows, then Linux Mint Cinnamon, and then moved to Manjaro KDE. Most distros check daily for updates and just notify you (you can change that checking to longer periods, but it should be realised that an "update" on Linux allows you to carry on working, and it does not force reboot your machine, so the impact is just about zero). 95% of my Windows games play fine on Linux, and in most cases I have found good native Linux apps as alternatives to any Windows apps I was using eg. MS Money (KMyMoney), MS Office (LibreOffice), Movie Maker (KDENlive), etc. Big thing in beginning, is to stick to stable releases and don't mess with bleeding edge stuff, and of course always have your automated backups running daily to a second drive (for any OS).

There are also versions of linux which does not have "end of life" so to speak because they are called rolling release example Arch linux. They are always on the latest versions of software and desktop. That is critical information I thought you should've mentioned.

When I first jumped back to Linux after a 16 year hiatus, I tried 15 or 20 distributions (I partitioned a large SSD into a lot of partitions and configured Grub accordingly). After trying the top 12 or so distributions listed on Distrowatch and some others, I ended up choosing Linux Mint Cinnamon as my daily driver. Great distribution. I have multiple SSDs and periodically jump around to get a change of scenery, but I always have a SSD with Linux Mint installed on it.

rolling release distributions are supported forever if anyone wanted a no upgrade distro, manjaro is a rolling release that focuses on stability over bleeding edge software, there's also openSUSE Tumbleweed, which is bleeding edge and stable rolling release distro

I made the switch after the Windows 11 crime. The best move I ever made. Linux is the way forward

Very well done, and quite complete. I would add a couple of small thoughts: 1) The frequent updates on Linux are often over quickly -- 1-5 minutes start to finish, without a reboot. Even the longer updates (like the Kernal update mentioned in the video) don't consume the time my Windows updates do. And by letting me choose when to do the updates, I do not have to deal with Windows hijacking my system when I needed to get some quick information and get on with my day. I usually run the update in my free time -- getting ready to get a coffee, go to lunch, quit for the day -- and most are finished and my system is up to date before I return with the coffee. Longer updates that require a reboot can be done when you might ordinarily shut off the system (over night), and your reboot is the start up in the morning. 2) The available "apps" or software ... I used to be a Windows fan, going all the way back to Windows 286 on my first PC. But Microsoft made a few changes I didn't like, and wouldn't help with a problem they caused (2 weeks on the phone didn't help at all). So in 2006 I began looking seriously at alternatives. Within a few months I had made the switch to Linux Mint. As Leo mentioned, there were some issues when going from what is LibreOffice back to MS Word. On occasion I would start with a document on one, and have to reformat it a bit on the other. But I liked the LibreOffice user interface, so I stuck with that -- even to the point of using LibreOffice on my Windows machines. And over the years, LibreOffice has made added some functions that make it far less likely that I'll use MS Word more than a few times a year. The Linux software -- the better ones -- do update and improve. 3) One other option not mentioned in the video is the "Dual Boot" option. I have 2 good laptops, an HP and a new Lenovo, both with an SSD for Windows and a HDD for data. When I loaded Linux Mint on these, I ended up going with the dual boot option on both -- I can choose which to use at start up. Mint is my default choice, but I can choose to run Windows 10. I don't, but I can. 4) And a final thought on the forums -- Leo is right about the approach to the forums: be polite and follow directions -- BUT, take some time to research the forums before you post. Over the last 15 years I have had maybe 5 issues I needed some help with, but I've only needed to ask one or maybe 2 questions ... as a user, I'm not alone nor unique. On my old Windows XP machine, I had a video issue ... and by reading the forums I found an answer that fixed it, perfectly (computer is still running, but it's too old for most Distros, now). On this Lenovo, I had another video issue -- but by reading the forums I found a "better answer" ... I chose a newer version of Linux Mint. Just learning to search the forums can save a person a lot of frustration with the few individuals who might be less than welcoming. Now, I'm NOT a Linux guru -- a 70-year-old retired clergyman. But Linux works well for me. I still keep an eye on the Windows universe, though, and pay attention to what Leo says. Thanks!

I switched to Linux 12 years ago and its been great!

I was introduced to linux via the Raspberry Pi OS. It made me curious so I installed Linux mint on an old laptop. Never looked back. Lots of people invest a lot of time for no cost to the user. I am grateful because my old laptop is still going strong.

Loved the video, very helpful. I still think it would not hurt to learn something new, one can still keep windows but also have an alternate system. Whether it's keeping an older build still alive, turning it into a NAS, as a learning machine or just something to play with. I find each OS has it's own unique way or purpose for whatever it is one is looking for. There is good and bad in all of them.

Parents that have a computer, mainly to surf the web, but constantly get viruses that you have to fix because they click on anything if it is free, might want to try Linux. Many browsers run on Linux. If you put Chrome on Linux you can't even tell the difference between Chrome on Linux and Chrome on Windows. Libreoffice is also very good, a lot like Microsoft Office, but it is free. It also comes included with every distro of Linux that I know of. If you are doing simple things, Linux can be simpler to use than Windows. It can be a bitch to run on printers and the software for photo editing or accounting that runs on Linux really sucks. On the plus side, if your parents are always getting viruses, there are very few viruses written for Linux, and the ones that are, are mostly written for servers.

I've been using exclusively for my desktop since Windows 7. I use it for web surfing, video playback, DVD ripping, spreadsheet, word processing, email, virtualization, web hosting, ebooks, and programming. I don't really play games, so I can't say anything to that. I learned a lot of UNIX during college, so I had a big advantage there. I love the fact that I have complete control of my system. For the most part, all the programs I use come from the repositories, so I know they get updated regularly and don't come with any bloatware. All configuration and settings are either in my home directory or in the /etc/directory, so I only back that up. The OS itself is expendable, so I don't bother backing it up. I generally do a complete OS reinstall every couple years when a new long-term release comes out. Since the OS is on it's own partition, I simply overwrite it, install the packages that I need that didn't get installed by default, and put back the configuration files in /etc that need changing.

After Windows 7 support ended, I went to Ubuntu on my office machine. Basically it is used for bill paying, online banking, medical records and such. When I decided to go with Ubuntu, my mind was made up that there was no going back to Windows. It took awhile, but since that machine has limited and specific usage, it didn't take long to get comfortable with the new system. Plus that machine runs alot faster than when it had Windows on it.

I recommend to my customers to learn Linux on a second computer or to get a cheap SATA power switch module to boot from the drive with the OS they want at the time (avoids dual booting problems).

I started using Linux going back to back to Ubuntu 8.10 never a power user, something always drawn me to the freedom of Linux, recently I was using Windows 10 no issues but I notice my older Dell XPS second generation iCore 5 with 12 gigs of ram was getting bogged down with Windows 10 , it had the legacy Bios so Windows 11 was out, so wiped it and just put Linux Mint 20.2 a new machine was born, the question is can Linux work in the office, well we are using the Cloud today more and Linux can do that, in fact o365 can be used online, I use it now , and these older machines don't have to be thrown in the scrap yard environmentally that's a bonus, Linux Mint is my daily driver it runs great with this one time top of range Dell Desktops, the interface of Cinnamon kinda a Windows 7 feeling but I just love the sleekest of Mint , and the simplicity of the system, I do have a 32bit version of Linux running on a single Core Ibm laptop my Mrs uses that for You Tube and Social Media and it does the job perfectly, keep your older machines throw on Mint , one less machine in your local tip,

I'm not a techie, but I found that if there was a kernal update, it is best to wait a week before installing it. Usually if there is any bugs with it, they are sorted by then. Found that when I updated it emeditely, sometimes it would have an issue. Rarely, but to lessen the chance issue I just delay the update. Also in general I usually update my pc once a week. That way if other items have issue, the bug fixes are already done for the most part. Also if you do leave them for quite a while. I find going in and first doing a bit of quick and easy maintance. Gotten into the habit of doing so before any updates. With mint, you click on the 'window' button and just type setting in the search bar - Software Sources. once open to to maintance. You only need to do the first 4. The last 2 are not needed and you may roll back on something you don't want to. Once the maintanance is done, then do your update. If it still says can't install everything or error. I just reboot the pc and say for it to update again. Found that sometimes the reboot is needed, so the other software can take affect before you can do the other updates. But if you are worried of something going horribly wrong. Timeshift (system restore) is your best friend :-) Saved my bacon on more than a few occasions. Create a copy of your computer using Timeshift, before doing any updates. To help with the change over from Windows to Linux. There are opensource programs that work on both. Start seeing if they can replace your windows only programs. Then you can start learning how to use the opensource stuff. It will make it so much easier to jump over to Linux later, if you don't have to learn all of that stuff at the same time trying to learn a new operating system. Just a warning if you expect Adobe to work on Linux. You are out of luck. But if you are not a power user, there are quite a few different programs that either do some or most what you need. You will just have to mix and match till you find what works for you.

Thanks very much for your explanation of the day - to -day usage with linux distros.

As a Note, I Built a New PC in Early 2021 (Using an ASUS Motherboard) and ALL of my HARDWARE was Recognized and Works Very Well in LinuxMint 20.2 and using the Cinnamon Desktop.

Excellent and honest video. I have used Linux based operating systems on and off since the late 90s and full time for the last few years. I would like to offer a few words of warning to prospective users. One major hardware compatibility issue revolves around closed source Nvidia drivers. Some distros support them by default (Ubuntu, Manjaro, Pop OS), some do not support them by default but let you easily opt in and install them (openSUSE), and some distros offer no support and require a painful manual installation (Debian comes to mind). Also, some distros do not support proprietary video and audio codecs by default. This means your many of your video files and video websites will not work right off the bat. Adding this functionality in openSUSE and Fedora is fairly easy but does require extra post installation steps that might be a bit disconcerting to a new user. I love openSUSE, but recommend a new user stick with Leo's suggestions at least at first. If you decide to try a different distro that is great, but do some research so that you can address the above issues if they affect you.

Thanks Leo, You Done a Stellar Job in this Video. I commented to a Post below before seeing the Complete Video with additional info but you Covered it in Your Video. You are Very Thorough. Thanks Again for a Great Video. I am Definitely Subscribing to your Channel.

Thanks for the helpful video!

Difference with linux support and windows support is that by upgrading to a new version you usually don't get radically different UI and most of the time it just looks like you've made a minor update of software. And those grande updates look and feel like minor updates which strains much less that having to do windows all over again. To the contrary, on windows even minor updates make you growl because you know it will halt on loading screen for who knows how long, reboot 2-3 times and then wait on loading screen for some more time. What do you mean major updates on linux are "install from scratch"? It's exactly vise-versa. Windows can't properly upgrade from 10 to 11 and you have to whip out a usb stick, while debian upgrades from 11 to 12 with couple of commands and without even logging off. And that's what I dislike deeply about windows. They make updates annoying.

I really liked this video! Please make more Linux content! :)

I think you forgot something called Live Environment. New users should use this feature to test new Linux Distribution to experience it before installing Linux Distro in real machine. And you don't have to make backup whatsoever as long you don't mess up with partition. Many distribution has live environment feature. Still, there is a problem regarding this which is Secure Boot option being locked by hardware manufacture which is tinkerable. OR Just VirtualBox or Virt-manager/QEMU and boot up a Linux Distro inside Windows Operating system. I use Linux for 2 years already and ditched Windows completely just fine.

I've been running Kubuntu for quite a while and gone from major release to major release, lts to standard to lts without having to reinstall. sudo do-release-upgrade

do you know anything about arcaos i have a old ncr laptop with a 14 inch screen 512 meg ram 1 gig hard drive running os/2 warp

Linux is going to become a mandatory alternative to Windows on hardware that does not support 11, once the official end of support date passes. Unless Microsoft provides an alternative for those devices. The funny thing is that you can run it completely off a USB drive, as you mentioned, so there's not really a good reason not to try it. All it takes is a disc burner application and knowing how to boot from a USB from BIOS. It's actually at least as easy to do as installing Windows, and you can run it off a thumb drive.

not me im a windows user here currently on windows 10 64bit 20h2 here and staying on 10 till 2025

Nonsense consideration. Just the software compatibility should answer the question. I still use XP on one of my systems, and Win7 on all the others. So far no problem at all with 7. I would still stay with XP if it were not for software suppliers now locking out older systems.

Too long; didn't watch: YES. Switch to Linux. I have been using Linux for over a decade; I don't plan on moving back to Windows, though I have a Windows virtual machine.

There's a lot of misinformation in this video, I'll say that. You make it seem as if software and system upgrades are a make or brake issue. If I were thinking about moving to Linux and I saw this video, I probably wouldn't. And as far as Windows apps on Linux go, most Windows apps that I'm using on Linux work flawlessly. I need Photoshop for work and Autodesk 3D Max. Never had an issue with any of them. I do however agree that you should learn and embrace the Linux software instead of relying on the Windows alternatives.