A Beginner's Guide to Switching from Windows to Linux on an Old Laptop

Windows 10 has reached the end of its support window, and a lot of perfectly serviceable laptops were left behind with it. If yours still boots, holds a charge and has a screen you can live with, you do not need to buy a new one. Linux will run on hardware that Windows has given up on, and it often feels quicker. The catch is that the first hour is the fiddly bit. Here is how to get through it without losing your files or your evening.

First, work out what you actually have

Before you download anything, spend five minutes finding out what the machine is made of. In Windows, press the Windows key, type "About your PC" and check the processor and installed memory. Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), then the Performance tab, tells you the same thing plus whether the disk is a solid-state drive or an older mechanical one.

A rough guide:

• 8GB of RAM and a dual-core chip from the last decade: almost any mainstream distribution will run comfortably.
• 4GB: choose a lighter desktop, or a distribution designed around one.
• 2GB or a single-core processor: possible, but expect compromises.

Copy your documents, photos and browser bookmarks to an external drive or cloud account before you go any further. Partitioning a disk means moving the boundary between two operating systems, and mistakes there are unforgiving.

If you use BitLocker on Windows, switch it off and let the drive finish decrypting before you touch any partitions. A locked drive makes resizing risky.

Choosing a distribution

A distribution is a Linux kernel packaged with a desktop, an installer and a set of default programs. For a beginner, only two differences really matter: how heavy the desktop is, and how long the release is supported.

Safe choices

• Linux Mint (Cinnamon edition): a familiar taskbar and start menu, sensible defaults and long support. The most common recommendation for a reason.
• Ubuntu LTS: the largest community, so most problems you hit have already been answered somewhere.
• Zorin OS: deliberately Windows-like, good if you want the least relearning.

If you have 4GB or less

Look at the XFCE editions of Mint and Ubuntu (Xubuntu), Lubuntu, or MX Linux. They look plainer and use far less memory, which matters more than anything else on an old machine.

Stick to a long-term support release for your first install. Rolling releases are fine once you know your way around, but they bring bigger updates more often.

Making the USB installer

You need a USB stick of 8GB or more. Its contents will be erased.

1. Download the ISO from the distribution's own website, not from a mirror you found in a forum thread.
2. Install Rufus or balenaEtcher on Windows and point it at the ISO file.
3. Write the image. Rufus will ask about GPT and UEFI; the defaults it selects for your machine are usually correct.
4. Restart and open the boot menu. The key varies by manufacturer: F12, F10, F9, Esc or Del. If you cannot find it, hold Shift while choosing Restart in Windows, then pick Troubleshoot, Advanced options, UEFI Firmware Settings.
5. If the USB is ignored, check Secure Boot. Most current distributions are signed and boot anyway; if yours will not, turn Secure Boot off temporarily and try again.

Try it before you install

When the stick boots, you land in a live session: a full desktop running from the USB stick, using your memory rather than your disk. Nothing is written to your drive unless you tell it to.

Use this to test the things that annoy people later. Connect to Wi-Fi, play some sound, check the brightness keys, close the lid and see whether it wakes up, plug in a printer, open a few browser tabs. Everything will feel slower than it will once installed, because it is running from a USB stick.

Wi-Fi is the one component that regularly causes trouble, usually on older Broadcom chips. If the live session cannot see your network, note the model number and search for it before committing. A fix often exists, but it is better to know in advance.

Installing alongside Windows, or wiping the disk

The installer will offer to use the whole disk or to install alongside Windows. Both work.

To make room for a dual boot, shrink the Windows partition from Windows itself: open Disk Management, right-click the main partition and choose Shrink Volume. Leave 30 to 40GB for Linux, plus space for your files. Then run the Linux installer and pick the alongside option.

Wiping the disk is simpler and faster, and on a laptop used for browsing, email and documents it is usually the better answer. Keep the Windows recovery media somewhere safe in case you change your mind.

One quirk of dual booting: occasional Windows updates reset the boot order, and the laptop starts going straight into Windows. Nothing is lost. You change the order back in the firmware settings.

Replacements for the programs you use

Most of what you do day to day has an equivalent, and much of it is already installed.

• Microsoft Office: LibreOffice opens and saves .docx and .xlsx files and includes UK English spellchecking. OnlyOffice has a more familiar ribbon layout. The web versions of Word and Excel also work in a browser.
• Outlook: Thunderbird, with a calendar add-on if you need one.
• Chrome or Edge: Firefox, or Chromium if you prefer the Chrome engine.
• Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator: GIMP for image editing, darktable for photo catalogues, Inkscape for vector work.
• Windows Media Player: VLC, which plays practically anything you throw at it.
• iTunes: Rhythmbox or VLC for music. Syncing an iPhone is the weak spot on Linux, so plan to back up through iCloud in a browser instead.
• OneDrive: use the browser, or a client for Dropbox or Nextcloud.
• Teams, Zoom, Slack: the web versions work well; some have native Linux apps.
• Adobe Acrobat: Okular or Evince for reading PDFs, LibreOffice Draw for light editing.

For the odd Windows-only program, Wine runs some of them, and a virtual machine such as VirtualBox or GNOME Boxes runs almost all of them at a cost in speed and disk space.

UK services generally behave themselves in a browser, including online banking, HMRC's Government Gateway and the catch-up TV players. A few streaming services lean on copy protection that can be fussy in Linux browsers, so test yours during the live session. Several banks also push customers towards their mobile app for certain tasks; check that your phone can handle those jobs first.

Your first fortnight

Keep the USB stick. It is a rescue tool as much as an installer, and booting from it is the quickest way to get online if a system update ever goes wrong.

• Do not install everything at once. Get Wi-Fi, a browser and email working, then stop for the day.
• Use the software centre before copying commands from a forum. Mint's is called Software Manager; Ubuntu's is the App Centre.
• Once the machine is set up the way you like it, take a Timeshift snapshot. It is a one-click undo for the whole system.
• Ask in the distribution's own forum. The Mint and Ubuntu communities are busy and patient, and your question has almost certainly been asked before.
• Give it a month before deciding anything. Menu positions and keyboard shortcuts take about a week to feel normal, and that is true for everyone.

If it does not work out, your files are still on the old drive and Linux can be removed as easily as it went on. The worst realistic outcome is that you spend an evening learning something and go back to Windows.

Photo: DennisBuntrock / Pixabay