To add on to this, if you don’t have an old PC/laptop around, you can also try out practically any Linux distribution in a VM! Tools like virtual box are quite easy to setup.
You can also run most distributions on a live USB without it actually modifying your system, and can give you a better idea about hardware compatibility.
Thanks for this, I’ll look into it. I don’t have easy access to an old laptop right now, so I’ll have to do one of the options you mentioned. I think I’ll look into the USB option first and see if it’s something I can figure out. If not then I’ll try the virtual machine. I appreciate the added info.
Of course, no worries! For the USB route, I can provide some instructions just in case you don’t already have them (it looks like a lot, but I promise it only looks like a lot! I’m known for being quite verbose). If you end up with questions on any of this, I’m happy to answer 'em:
Download the ISO for the distribution that you want to use, for Linux Mint Cinnamon as was mentioned earlier, that can be found by selecting the mirror closest to you over at https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=319
[This next second step is skipped by a lot of people, however, it’s best to get into the habit of actually following through with this one]
Typically, once the ISO is downloaded, most distributions will give you something called a “SHA256” hash, this is a unique long string of characters that is unique to a file and it allows you to verify that the file you’ve downloaded is exactly as they intend to provide (both as a “someone hasn’t tampered with it from the download source” and “to ensure the file downloaded correctly”) - if even a single byte of the file changes, then it causes the entire SHA256 hash to change. Since I don’t have a specific tool I use on Windows that I can vouch for, I’d point towards the PowerShell Get-FileHash command to do verification with, I’ll expand more at the end just in case you do want to do this [1].
Then it needs to get “burned” onto a USB drive, which is a bit different from just dragging the ISO file onto the drive. There’s a lot of utilities that can do this for you, my favorite is balena etcher because it is compatible with the three major operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS) and its incredibly simple to use. Plug in your flash drive, open balena etcher, it will ask you for the ISO file, then the flash drive, and finally a “Start” button. Keep in mind, all data on the USB drive will be wiped after starting this - back up anything important you have on the USB drive!
With the drive plugged into the computer, reboot/start the computer and usually there will be an onscreen help text at the very start indicating a few keys that have different operations, generally one will be called “Boot Menu” (or along those lines - unfortunately its different for each mobo manufacturer, so I cannot be more specific than that - its usually either F2, F12, or DELETE/DEL), press that button a few times quickly and you should get to a screen that gives you some options, and one of them will have your USB drive in there (so long as you had it plugged in when the PC was booting - if you just plugged it in at this point, it usually won’t appear, so in that case just do this again)
From here on, it should just boot up [2], and most distributions, including Linux Mint will just have an install option on the desktop - so long as you don’t enter that and walk through it, it won’t actually make any changes to your PC’s drive, allowing you to test drive the distro. Just be aware that some things might be a bit slower, since it is not a full install.
[1]: I just installed PowerShell on Linux to test the Get-FileHash command so that I can make sure I explain it correctly here, definitely not something I expected to do today ha! You’ll need to open PowerShell, Windows 11 I believe uses this by default in Windows Terminal - Windows 10 you might need to search “PowerShell” in the start menu. Then at the prompt, type Get-FileHash (there is a space at the end of that), and drag the ISO file onto the Terminal window so that it automatically types out the full path to the file, then hit enter. You should get some output that looks like this:
The Hash bit is the important part, and you’d compare that against the SHA256 hash text file that Linux Mint (or your chosen distro, most of them do have it somewhere next to the downloads) and make sure that it matches up. You can copy the hash from the windows terminal to your clipboard (highlight then right click does a copy, IIRC), then in the notepad that opens from the sha256sum.txt use Ctrl+F and paste the terminal’s hash into the find dialog, it should come up with an exact match and that saves you from having to look at each character individually (now in theory you really only have to compare the first 4 or so characters and the last 4 as its extremely rare to have those line-up while the other characters don’t, buuut just for the sake of being proper - this is how you’d do it proper). An exact match means you’re all good to go, but if it doesn’t match then that generally means that the file didn’t correctly download (or isn’t the file that you’re intended to have by the developers).
[2]: If it doesn’t boot, its possible “Secure Boot” is getting you. You can disable (Note: warning up ahead) this in your PC’s “Setup” utility, which is another key at boot-up, though again due to each motherboard’s BIOS being different, it’s hard to provide you the exact instructions as to where its at. Linux Mint supports Secure Boot from what I’m aware of, but if you’re trying a different distribution that doesn’t support it (and are on a relatively newish computer that has it enabled) then this can stop it from booting. As a warning: Verify whether your PC is using BitLocker first before disabling Secure Boot, if it is, make sure you have the recovery key - as BitLocker might be tripped by toggling Secure Boot, and not having the recovery key if this occurs could result in having to do a complete reinstall of Windows, and losing the data within it.
To add on to this, if you don’t have an old PC/laptop around, you can also try out practically any Linux distribution in a VM! Tools like virtual box are quite easy to setup.
You can also run most distributions on a live USB without it actually modifying your system, and can give you a better idea about hardware compatibility.
Thanks for this, I’ll look into it. I don’t have easy access to an old laptop right now, so I’ll have to do one of the options you mentioned. I think I’ll look into the USB option first and see if it’s something I can figure out. If not then I’ll try the virtual machine. I appreciate the added info.
Of course, no worries! For the USB route, I can provide some instructions just in case you don’t already have them (it looks like a lot, but I promise it only looks like a lot! I’m known for being quite verbose). If you end up with questions on any of this, I’m happy to answer 'em:
[This next second step is skipped by a lot of people, however, it’s best to get into the habit of actually following through with this one]
Typically, once the ISO is downloaded, most distributions will give you something called a “SHA256” hash, this is a unique long string of characters that is unique to a file and it allows you to verify that the file you’ve downloaded is exactly as they intend to provide (both as a “someone hasn’t tampered with it from the download source” and “to ensure the file downloaded correctly”) - if even a single byte of the file changes, then it causes the entire SHA256 hash to change. Since I don’t have a specific tool I use on Windows that I can vouch for, I’d point towards the PowerShell
Get-FileHashcommand to do verification with, I’ll expand more at the end just in case you do want to do this [1].Then it needs to get “burned” onto a USB drive, which is a bit different from just dragging the ISO file onto the drive. There’s a lot of utilities that can do this for you, my favorite is balena etcher because it is compatible with the three major operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS) and its incredibly simple to use. Plug in your flash drive, open balena etcher, it will ask you for the ISO file, then the flash drive, and finally a “Start” button. Keep in mind, all data on the USB drive will be wiped after starting this - back up anything important you have on the USB drive!
With the drive plugged into the computer, reboot/start the computer and usually there will be an onscreen help text at the very start indicating a few keys that have different operations, generally one will be called “Boot Menu” (or along those lines - unfortunately its different for each mobo manufacturer, so I cannot be more specific than that - its usually either F2, F12, or
DELETE/DEL), press that button a few times quickly and you should get to a screen that gives you some options, and one of them will have your USB drive in there (so long as you had it plugged in when the PC was booting - if you just plugged it in at this point, it usually won’t appear, so in that case just do this again)From here on, it should just boot up [2], and most distributions, including Linux Mint will just have an install option on the desktop - so long as you don’t enter that and walk through it, it won’t actually make any changes to your PC’s drive, allowing you to test drive the distro. Just be aware that some things might be a bit slower, since it is not a full install.
[1]: I just installed PowerShell on Linux to test the
Get-FileHashcommand so that I can make sure I explain it correctly here, definitely not something I expected to do today ha! You’ll need to open PowerShell, Windows 11 I believe uses this by default in Windows Terminal - Windows 10 you might need to search “PowerShell” in the start menu. Then at the prompt, typeGet-FileHash(there is a space at the end of that), and drag the ISO file onto the Terminal window so that it automatically types out the full path to the file, then hit enter. You should get some output that looks like this:The
Hashbit is the important part, and you’d compare that against the SHA256 hash text file that Linux Mint (or your chosen distro, most of them do have it somewhere next to the downloads) and make sure that it matches up. You can copy the hash from the windows terminal to your clipboard (highlight then right click does a copy, IIRC), then in the notepad that opens from thesha256sum.txtuse Ctrl+F and paste the terminal’s hash into the find dialog, it should come up with an exact match and that saves you from having to look at each character individually (now in theory you really only have to compare the first 4 or so characters and the last 4 as its extremely rare to have those line-up while the other characters don’t, buuut just for the sake of being proper - this is how you’d do it proper). An exact match means you’re all good to go, but if it doesn’t match then that generally means that the file didn’t correctly download (or isn’t the file that you’re intended to have by the developers).[2]: If it doesn’t boot, its possible “Secure Boot” is getting you. You can disable (Note: warning up ahead) this in your PC’s “Setup” utility, which is another key at boot-up, though again due to each motherboard’s BIOS being different, it’s hard to provide you the exact instructions as to where its at. Linux Mint supports Secure Boot from what I’m aware of, but if you’re trying a different distribution that doesn’t support it (and are on a relatively newish computer that has it enabled) then this can stop it from booting. As a warning: Verify whether your PC is using BitLocker first before disabling Secure Boot, if it is, make sure you have the recovery key - as BitLocker might be tripped by toggling Secure Boot, and not having the recovery key if this occurs could result in having to do a complete reinstall of Windows, and losing the data within it.
I appreciate the write up! I’ll refer to your comment the next time I’m at my PC and give it a shot. Thanks again.