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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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short question by an aspiring user (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello, apparently hanging out in Lemmy inadvertently makes you thinking about using Linux. I am planning to install Linux Mint cinnamon on an older laptop, which I want to bring to LAN Parties. From what I read I can just format my C:\ windows disk, install Linux via bootable drive and from what I understand, proton is basically included when installing steam after setting up my new Linux OS? Thanks for your comments:)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

@OmnipotentEntity makes a good point. Most (and definitely older) laptops have 1 drive. Which would mean your C and D 'drives' are actually 2 partitions on 1 physical hard drive. This is fine, but you need to be extra cautious when installing Linux. Many linux installers push you to the easiest choice and select 'wipe whole disk and install linux', which in your case would possibly lead to inadvertently wiping the D partition too.

You might want to pay extra attention to this during the installation, when selecting which disk to use for installation. Make sure you only let the installer delete the C partition (which will probably not be named as such, so be ready to find another way to identify the correct partition (maybe by its size?)), and let the installer use the free space that gives to create linux partitions it needs there (next to the D partition).

NB: Still in Windows, you may also want to check whether or not your D drive is encrypted with Bitlocker, as that is a Windows-type encryption and cant be unlocked without a recovery key (aside from it not being practical to use Bitlocker encryption in combination with linux (or NTFS for that sake, as OmnipotentEntity also already mentioned)). If so, you might want to decrypt the D partition so you can still access it from Linux (while it is of course better to have encryption enabled, it may be a temporary convenience).

Edit: Solid choice of Linux Mint btw. It's been a while since I've used it, but in my memory (also as a starting Linux user) it made the right things easy. If your laptop is quite old, and Cinnamon (also solid) doesn't feel quite snappy enough, you could give XFCE a try. It's less polished (some say ugly 😆) out-of-the-box, but also less resource hungry (Cinnamon and XFCE are both Desktop Environments (DE's). On Linux you can have multiple DE's installed side-by-side; and then make a choice which DE you want to use when you login)