Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
This series of articles was initially developed for the newsletter of a computer users’ group in which almost all of the members run Windows exclusively. The approaching end-of-life for Windows 10, and the potential restrictions on upgrading to Windows 11, suggest a strategy to which many FCM readers will no doubt subscribe - switch to Linux! The articles are intended to assist in making this transition as easy and painless as possible.
Those of us whose computers aren’t supported by Windows 11, either because of an old CPU or the lack of a TPM chip (or perhaps both!), can still run Windows 10 until October 14, 2025. And, we can do so secure in the knowledge that patches to the OS will be provided on a regular basis until this end-of-life date. So, there is no need to panic; we have more than two years to consider our options.
Nevertheless, ultimately, the basic choices will be to purchase a new computer that is Windows 11 compatible, continue to run Windows 10 in an insecure manner (definitely not recommended), or switch to an alternative OS. In the latter case, it’s Linux that comes instantly to (my) mind.
So, if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Windows user and are considering upgrading to Linux, or if you just have an interest in seeing how Linux functions, let me share with you three ways to try Linux without losing any ability to run your current version of Windows.
The first option is the easiest but the most restrictive. Nevertheless, it will provide an excellent opportunity to try out Linux without making any changes to your Windows system. In addition, if you have a 4 GB (or larger) USB flash drive handy, it won’t cost you a cent.
Essentially, we are going to download a Linux distro (distribution) and burn this to a USB flash drive to create a bootable, live-USB. [This assumes that your computer is capable of booting from a USB drive rather than only from a CD/DVD.] This will enable us to boot a live version of Linux that will run directly from the USB drive.
There are lots of Linux distros that we could use but, for me, a tried and tested option is Linux Mint. At the time of writing, the latest release is Version 21 (Vanessa). Most users will want the 64-bit distro which comes in three “flavours” (desktop environments). We will be using the default Cinnamon Edition as this is the desktop that perhaps most closely resembles Windows.
So, let’s get started…
Our first task is to download the chosen distro as an ISO file. Point your browser to: https://linuxmint.com and follow the links to download the software. By default, you will be offered the 64-bit Cinnamon Edition. One choice to make is the software mirror from which to download the file. Scroll down the page and select the Manitoba Unix User Group which will allow you to download the 2.4 GB file linuxmint-21-cinnamon-64bit.iso.
Next, we need some software that will burn this ISO file to a flash drive. Our choice for this will be Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/). Download rufus-3.20.exe to the hard drive. No installation is necessary. Just run the program which will bring up the window shown in the screenshot below.
In the drop-down menu for Device, select the USB drive that is going to be the target for the Linux distro to become our bootable disk. Next, click on the SELECT button and browse to the Linux distro file (linuxmint-21-cinnamon-64bit.iso).
Click on the START button and select the option to Write in ISO mode. Note that you will have to accept the warning that all data on the target USB drive will be destroyed. The START button is now greyed out and a green progress bar is displayed. Creating the bootable drive will take several minutes. Once the process is complete, the progress bar changes to READY. You can now click on the CLOSE button.
Before shutting down the computer, make sure that you know how to boot the machine using the USB flash drive. You may have to go into the computer’s setup utility in order to change the boot order of the available devices. The User’s Manual for your computer will indicate how this is done, or just search on-line for a relevant how-to tutorial. On my Dell laptop, I can simply press the F12 key as the machine is powered on. This brings up a menu of boot options from which I can select the bootable flash drive.
You may see a few lines of text flashing by as the computer boots but these can be ignored. The lm (for Linux Mint) logo will be displayed as the boot process continues. After several seconds the desktop screen will be displayed. You may also notice a text box briefly displayed in the top-right corner of the screen and indicating that a Wi-Fi connection is available. Don’t worry that the message disappears. We will make the Wi-Fi connection next.
Before we explore the Linux system in any great detail, let’s establish the connection to our Wi-Fi network, the availability of which was indicated on boot-up. Left-click on the networking icon in the panel. This will bring up a menu with a list of available network connections. Click on your Wi-Fi network and enter your Wi-Fi password in the pop-up dialogue box. Click on the Connect button and a new pop-up box will indicate that the connection has been established. We can now load Firefox, type opcug.ca in the browser’s address bar, and check that the club’s web site is displayed.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the on-screen icons. Double-clicking on the Computer icon loads the Nemo file manager with a list of icons showing the available disk drives. One of these icons may include Windows 10 in its label. This is your C: drive and if you double-click on the icon you will see some familiar folders such as Program Files, Users, and Windows. However, note that Linux doesn’t use drive letters so, rather than seeing Drive C: as a label, you may find your drive displayed as just Windows 10.
Double-clicking on the Home icon once again loads Nemo, this time showing the folders in the Home directory of our Linux drive. This is similar to the personal folder in C:\Users that is associated with your Windows username. Note that some of the folders on the Linux system disk have familiar names and purposes, e.g. Documents, Pictures, and Videos.
I indicated at the outset that using a live-USB was a restrictive method of using Linux. The reason for this is that we have no capability to store files in, for example, the Linux Documents folder for later retrieval since when we shut down the live Linux session the entire folder structure will be lost. (However, note that we can “cheat” and save such files to a real folder such as Windows 10\Users\<username>\Documents.)
Linux distros come bundled with lots of useful software and Mint is no exception. All of the available applications can be accessed through the main menu. So, clicking on the menu icon brings up the on-screen menu which is similar to the Start Menu in Windows.
The available programs are arranged in categories. For example, a single click to select Office will change the right side of the menu to list the Calendar, Library (recent documents and favourites), and the modules in LibreOffice (including Writer, Calc, and Impress – similar to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
The icons down the left side of the menu include Firefox, Software Manager, System Settings and, at the bottom, Quit (the red “power” icon). Once again, any changes we make, such as installing new software, will not be maintained through a reboot; however, all of the features of the Mint distro are available to us for testing. So, think about what you would normally do when you boot into Windows and explore how to do the same (or similar) things in Linux!
To shut the live session down, navigate to Menu – Quit and select Shut Down. A message will ask you to remove the bootable USB drive. Once you have done this, press Enter and the computer will power down.
We are now ready for our second expedition into the world of Linux. But that will have to wait until Part 2 of the series.