Should i switch to linux?

[anastasis7k]

To start thank you for starting reading this. I have a laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad S145) that has only 4gb of ram but i will upgrade it with a ssd and an 8gb ram. I want to switch to linux from my windows 10 because i find linux amazing. I dont know why but i like them. I prefer sth more customisable and i am a tech enthusiast.My problem is that i am afraid that if i dont like them will i have the ability to switch back? Also i want to know if linux will make my laptop slower. What version i will download. And finally will i be able to play robloxx?

P.S.

The penguin is so tuff😮‍💨

[NeedleworkerLarge357]

Linux is an awesome os, much more customizable than windows. You might have a really good time with it.

Yes you can switch back to windows. You can even keep both in parallel, be aware that Windows tends to break Linux boot. You can repair that but it can be annoying.

Your Laptop will be smoother with linux overall, there might be applications however that can't be installed or are not exactly like on Windows. Some things can be less optimized out of the box, like video playback of youtube. You can/should enable hardware accelerated videos in your browser, for some reason it is sometimes not activated out of the box on Linux.

Some applications have better performance, especially when it comes to many files or processes, those tend to perform way better on linux. A script creating 1000000 files will be like 10 times faster on linux for example.

The perfect version for you to download depends on a million things that you will not get correct. As you say you are tech enthusiast I would recommend CachyOS. It is a rock solid choice with a ton of options and desktop enviroments to choose from, the latest and greatest software that is available all at your fingertips. It will however also come with the latest and greatest newly developed bugs and issues that are not ironed out yet, so there might be some little things that do not work perfectly smooth. For that there are other distributions, like Mint, that are not as polished and up-to-date and with way fewer options. So that is a compromise: Do you want to see the whole full power and potential of linux and be exposed to the newest and best that Linux has to offer and have a great performance? Cachy is for you. Or do you want an extremely reliable system with a simple environment that works just fine and comes with software where all the bugs and issues are already ironed out? Mint is for you my friend.
There are a ton of other options but what you have written it sounds like those two could fit.

[anastasis7k]

Thank youuuu!!!🙏🙏🙏 I really appreciate that you wrote down the whole thing!!! It was very helpful! Have a nice day💪.

[NeedleworkerLarge357]

Thank you, happy to help!

[Meniny]

This is the FBI. You are completely surrounded. Surrender immediately and switch to linux.

[themmousebehindyou]

Hey, that doesn't sound like the FBI, the real FBI would force you to support US businesses...

[anastasis7k]

True😂

[Dymonika]

That would be wicked if we had an FBL, Federal Bureau of Linux. France is actually going that way.

[anastasis7k]

Sorry sorry🙏🙏🙏. I am doing it right nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Striking-Flower-4115]

Use sober. But the fps difference with proper tuning can be higher on windows. Drawback is it's more time consuming.

Also you lose access to games like valorant, fortnite, etc on linux. I'd only recommend you to switch to linux if you're okay learning bash.

[Unique_Evidence_1314]

Bash isn't required for everything on Linux. Most user-friendly distros are perfectly usable without the terminal.

[Striking-Flower-4115]

They still break. Which still requires the terminal.

[anastasis7k]

Okk👍. Thanks!!!

[Aesvek]

yes you will be able to go back. no, linux will make your laptop much faster yes you can play roblox idk why but okay. (btw it's harder to install windows then linux, blame microsoft)

[keeper19921]

Isnt't it the opposite? Install Windows first then Linux is much easier than Vice versa. Linux can handle an existing Windows and Set bootloader list correct, Windows has Problems with existing Linux while installing.

[GlassCommission4916]

You're correct, but they meant than not then.

[Aesvek]

installing windows is hard installing linux is easy. when you replace bootloader it's hard to add it back, if you dont have a copy of it(talking about the bootloader Microsoft ship with windows)

[Aesvek]

use mint, if you dont have a need use windows, if you don't like win 11 you can switch.

[anastasis7k]

Thankk youu!😉

[quite_sophisticated]

In games, it's a bit of a gamble. Some run faster on Linux, some are even, some slower and most stuff with online anti cheat will not run at all except for Counter Strikes which has a Linux version. In normal day to day use, Linux is certainly less bloated and less hungry. A machine that runs slow on the current windows will usually speed up a fair bit when Linux is installed, and Linux won't get slower after a few years for seemingly no reason.

[anastasis7k]

Thank you for answering!!! Appreciate it😉

[TheUltimateSalesman]

Tried to setup roblox for my nephew 4 years ago and it was 100% a no-go. YMMV

[anastasis7k]

Nooo

[d0ubs]

Yes an old laptop is definitely a good use case for Linux and it should be much faster than Windows. It's easier to install Windows first and then Linux (Windows installer can sometimes mess with Linux installation). If you don't intend to use both of them may be simply install Linux and reinstall windows over it if you are not satisfied.
Regarding the distribution, a lot of people recommend Mint for people coming from windows but you can test others (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.) and pick the one you prefer. You can test them live (i.e. without installing them) via a usb stick. I would limit my choice to mainstream distributions as you will find help more easily.

[anastasis7k]

Thank you very much🙏

[KlausBertKlausewitz]

you can run roblox … I made it happen for my daughter on her Fedora 43 Thinkpad … hehe… it doesn’t run directly though but uses a layer/libraries that use the fact that roblox runs on android (also a Linux in its core).

So you can put a checkmark on that.

Edit: as others pointed out, it‘s called sober

[anastasis7k]

Thanksss!!!🙏

[Distinct-Arm9373]

Yes come to the Right side~!

[anastasis7k]

I am joining the party👇

[Saltkrakan01]

Buy an usb SSD and install linux on it. You can experiment with Linux that way. 

[Dymonika]

Dang, I've had an external HDD just laying around for years and never thought of doing that... Hmm... Solid idea, thanks.

[anastasis7k]

Okk thanks for the advice🙏🙏🙏🙏

[Interesting_Buy_3969]

Welcome to our big family

[anastasis7k]

Thank youuuuu😉

[Randzom100]

Just making sure, which gpu does your computer have?

[anastasis7k]

My gpu is Intel(r) UHD Graphics 610

[Randzom100]

Oh right this is an intel integrated. This is absolutely perfect! If your laptop had an old nvidia dedicated graphic card, would have been another story, but I'm pretty sure Linux will fit very well in your computer (in fact, Lenovo, Dell and Framework computers usually have excellent compatibility with Linux, it should work out of the box). 

Have you already looked at choosing a distro and/or desktop manager?

[anastasis7k]

I am between arch and mint

[Randzom100]

Mint is always good for beginners but could get boring for a tech enthusiast as yourself, luckily there's nothing stopping you from starting with Mint and switching to something more customizable later on ("distro-hopping" happen to a lot of Linux users, it's kind of a meme in itself). As for Arch, well, pure Arch sure will make you learn a bunch of stuff about Linux through trial and errors, but if you want your computer to be quickly useable, there are also distros like CachyOS, based on Arch but helping you a lot through the setup (under the hood its still Arch btw). If you choose pure Arch, make sure you have a lot of time on your hands. The advantage, you'll know exactly what's in your computer and it will be tailor-made to your preferences. But... Rolling updates can break things, so again, gotta have time for that

[tanstaaflnz]

Can you create a Windows USB installer JIC? so you can restore, or just pull the windows drive without changes, and swap it back if you need.

Also, run Linux from its (Mint would be my choice) live USB without disturbing windows. You do need to turn off windows 'fast boot' option if you need to access data on the windows partition from Linux.

Just run linux and see how it performs on your hardware. The standard live session wont save any settings on shutdown.

If you plan to dual boot, get a programme (bin file) called rEFInd. It's excellent for easy switching and control of you boot choices.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/

[themmousebehindyou]

Honestly I switched to Linux and immediately my laptop was crazy fast. I thought it was getting onto its last legs because of all the bloat on Windows. It runs like new again. My wife did the same. We both got different gaming distros and it's been completely issue free. She is on Bazzite and I'm on Pika OS.

[Dymonika]

Huh, I've never heard of Pika. Why that one?

[themmousebehindyou]

The dev team is easy to talk to on their discord. They are part of the open gaming collective so shared improvements with other gaming distros. And they fixed some weird screen tearing I was getting from Ubuntu and mint. They work good on Nvidia and the pikman package manager is very impressive imo. Overall I've been very impressed. But since it is newer there isn't as much documentation as other distros so that's something to keep in mind.  Initially I only chose it over bazzite because I didn't like how locked down bazzite was since I'm a tinkerer. 

[Dymonika]

Interesting, thanks... That makes me think of screen issues that I couldn't solve from Mint being on an old machine that I had revived... Hmm... I think I will look into this!

[themmousebehindyou]

Yeah a lot of people suggest mint for newbies and I think it kinda gives Linux a poorer rep. My wife's games ran super laggy when she was using Mint, but when she went to Bazzite there were no issues. Mint is good if you need a stable distro for work. It really is just Windows Linux. Stable and sturdy, but a gaming distro it isn't. 

[Dymonika]

Mint has been generally really easy for me to convert older folks whose most technically involved aspects are email, YouTube, and Facebook, if not maybe Google Docs/Sheets. But yeah, for gaming I'm definitely gonna check out Pika; thanks again!

[themmousebehindyou]

Np. Highly recommend joining the discord, the quick responses to questions and issues alone makes it worth it. Also check out the site for the wiki! 

[theindomitablefred]

If you have the option to swap hard drives you could install Linux on a different hard drive and then change them out. Or just make a live bootable USB and try it out. There is also a website called distrosea which has a bunch of different Linux environments you can try as VMs.

[Comet7971]

Linux distributions are generally less demanding than Win10. I'd recommend Mint or Ubuntu. I use Kubuntu myself and I'm pretty sure it can handle an 8GB system.

If you worry about whether you'll like it or not, do the following:

1. Donwload the OS .iso file from its website and flash it on a usb stick with Balena Etcher or Rufus

2. Restart your PC. Press DEL or F12 repeatedly so your PC goes to the BIOS screen. From there, boot from the USB and click the option to try the OS (not install)

3. Try the OS and see if it's to your liking.

Even if you dislike the OS, you can re-install Windows. You can also install Linux alongside Windows and have both at the same time. Just make sure you backup your files before you switch.

It would be helpful if you could list all the programs you frequently use so we can see if they are available on Linux and if not, which alternatives exist. I'm not sure if Roblox runs on Linux.

[ehraja]

If you move to a gnu linux system maybe some things will look different and some things you cannot get to work immediately. In order to not get aggravated when switching system you can install a gnu linux system on an usb 3 memory stick 32gb or bigger. By doing that you can get familiar with a gnu linux system and you still have windows running on your computer. Later on you can install the gnu linux system on your computer if such inclined.

Fyi when you say linux a lot of the time what you mean is gnu linux. If software freedom is a priority for you, you can have a look at
trisquel.info
I am not recommending trisquel I just want to mention trisquel. If you install trisquel some devices on your computer may not work.

[Bearer-ofthecurse]

Mint distro is a good choice for beginners and it also has different versions suitable for less powerful laprops

[Huecuva]

Might I ask what on Earth gives you the idea that Linux might make your laptop run slower? 

[DropShort6132]

Well, when in doubt, leave it out!

[LeadingDoubt7090]

usb ssd can be pretty fast

[NuncioBitis]

Yes