No bloatware, no spyware, no bullshit

[balletinthestars]

Windows 10 support and updates ends today. If you don't want to switch to windows 11 but Linux looks too hard, I have made the most basic guide I possibly could. It explains everything fully and has the meanings of words in easy to understand terms. This is the guide that I wanted when I went through this so I hope it can help others too.

Proton Drive

Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.

[switch-to-linux]

A very detailed guide for switching to Linux, well done!

Note that balenaEtcher has been reported to be a possible privacy risk, Rufus is a safer alternative.

[balletinthestars]

Hi, so I realised I can't edit the documents in the folder above without breaking the links. BUT, I've made a new one (with information on Rufus and a few other new things). I will continue to change add to these documents as new things come up. So please use the one below.

Proton Drive

Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.

[switch-to-linux]

hey I need some help with figuring out what to do from here

I switched to Linux mint cinnamon a couple weeks ago from Windows 11, but even though it's generally so much more freeing basically none of the programs run as smoothly and basically nothing I tried changed anything. I think it's something with the drivers, and the only ones that work are proprietary drivers. Should I try and troubleshoot more or switch to another distro like steamos?

Well, I don't know what kind of setup you have and what you've tried so far but it very well might be a problem with Nvidia drivers if you have one of their GPUs. You could ask for help on the Linux Mint forums or try out alternative distros from a live USB and see if they work better. SteamOS is not officially available for non-Valve systems, I'd suggest trying something like Pop!OS or Fedora instead.

[switch-to-linux]

France is switching to Linux

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/french-government-say-its-ditching-windows-for-linux-country-accelerates-plans-to-ditch-us-based-software-in-digital-sovereignty-push

Yeah, this is some fantastic news! France's government is implementing a plan to switch their entire tech environment from Windows to Linux in the next few years in order to be less reliant on the US and less vulnerable to cyberattacks. This will likely prompt other European countries to do the same and it'll provide a boost to open source software development. And Microslop is gonna lose serious money.

[bloggingthings]

going from windows to linux is like going from my parents' house to my cool sibling's and feeling all the weight lift off of me

[atreidespacito]

[atreidespacito]

[manjaro-official]

the awesome thing is that outlook lets you use a different authenticator app to sign up but you can only use it 3 times before you have to set up with MSAuth. imagine running out in space

[dragon-in-a-fez]

I hope everyone involved in the decision to make astronauts use Outlook on their way to the moon never goes a day of their lives without stepping in a fire ant colony

[395nm]

Holy shit, it’s real. In 1969 we got to the moon on 4 KB RAM and 72 KB ROM. In 2026 the moon mission has laptops running Windows 11, and they don’t work right >.<

[kennedy-the-genderfluid-punk]

@switch-to-linux i feel like you, of all people, may have something to say about this, for no particular reason, just a hunch

[switch-to-linux]

Houston, do I have to come there myself?

[switch-to-linux]

Girl help my mint start to freeze upon the green spinning logo shows up on startup. It only works when i get to advanced option and got to resume bootup. I didn't install any new app and updated to the newest version. Any tips or wisdom?

Hmm, hard to say what exactly is causing that. Opening the Driver Manager and making sure you have the latest drivers enabled may help. Ultimately, doing a clean install of the latest version of Mint from a USB drive should fix it (just remember to back up your files). If you don't want to do a full re-install, you can try describing your problem on the Linux Mint forums, they're more knowledgeable about tech issues than me.

[switch-to-linux]

hello! i have an old old laptop (model is macbook 6, 1, so 16 years old) currently running linux mint xfce, but it gets graphical glitches semi-frequently (firefox text glitching, windows and desktop showing glitched textures). ive heard there are some distros that work better with nvidia graphics cards, like pop!_os? but im worried they wouldnt run well on my old hardware. would you suggest switching to some other distro, or would that not help in this case? ive used linux regularly for a few years now, but only ubuntu and mint, so im not versed in the other distros thank you for your time!

I think in your case the best thing to try would be to install the latest Nvidia driver, or switch to an older one if you're already on the latest, or switch between official and open source ones. I've never had to deal with Nvidia drivers on Linux myself but apparently it can be trial-and-error like that. You may be able to just switch drivers in the Driver Manager and see if that helps, or may have to look up how to download and install specific drivers that work best with your GPU.

In any case this kind of issue should be fixable by configuring Mint without needing to switch distros, it's probably the graphics driver. I hope you can figure it out!

[switch-to-linux]

I just want you to know that you're the reason I switched to Linux a few months back.

Your guide was super easy to follow and I've had almost no problems with it.

There's a bit of a learning curve but honestly it not that steep so I didn't mind.

Thanks a ton.

👍 I didn't make the guide but I'm glad to hear this blog has helped someone!

[switch-to-linux]

a while ago i tried installing arch on my old computer since i had just gotten a new one, and my old computer's a dell inspiron 3650, i'm pretty sure. and, uh, i think i bricked it??? lmao

one of my friends tried to help me install it manually a few times, and we failed, and then we finally used archinstall. but each time it would take longer for the computer to restart. i was used to that on windows 10, genuinely taking half an hour to become useable when booted up, but even after wiping the hard drive and booting into a usb?? concerning

eventually it got to the point where after pressing the power button, it just sort of... sits there. like it doesn't look like it even gets to bios. when i press the power button, it shuts off immediately, instead of needing to be held down like normal. it's not beeping or anything, so if it's hardware failure, it's not communicating it - granted there's no speakers, but i'd assume it shouldn't need any for that?

it's not super important that i get this machine working, and i'm honestly kind of fascinated lol, but i would like to get some use out of it if possible, so i'd like to know what's going on. do you have any ideas as to what might be happening? anything to look into?? i don't even know what to look up here lol

I'm not an expert in computer repair but that definitely sounds like a hardware issue. My guess is it's faulty RAM that needs to be replaced. If you can't even boot from USB then there's probably no way to troubleshoot it short of taking it to a repair shop.

[switch-to-linux]

have you heard about the bill that was passed in california that will force all operating systems into making the user input their date of birth? i keep seeing conflicting info on if this will have an effect on linux or not.

i thought i finally escaped privacy-invading bullshit when i stopped using windows but now i feel doomed no matter what. should i be worried as a mint user or?? 🥲

Linux development is a global effort and open source developers are not going to immediately implement invasive features like age verification just based on some local laws.

Mint however is based on Ubuntu which is developed by a commercial company that might decide to comply so as to not lose customers in places with such laws. That most likely would affect Mint in some way, possibly a "Are you a resident of California?" type checkbox on install or a forking of different versions of the OS.

It's too early to say where this is leading and it's a concerning global trend but there's no reason to panic yet, Linux users are much safer from this than Windows or Mac users.

[switch-to-linux]

HELLO UHHH i have a problem between choosing linuxes, Ive been thinking about ZorinOS or Q4OS - my hp laptop is so ass, 17 years old, 4gb ddr2 ram but an SSD tho.. And windows 10 was eating up all of my RAM and i gave up. The reason I'd choose smth between zorinos and q4os because it quite reminds me of windows 7 aesthetic and i love it. Heard that Q4OS is more retro but is less popular and less community support, but would be much faster for my laptop. But zorinOS? I also like it, but apparently it'd be heavier for my laptop. I like both, but it's hard to choose between these two..

You can flash the two distros onto USB sticks and try them out by booting into a live environment before deciding which one to install. I'd generally recommend a more popular distro over a more niche one since it'll have better support and updates, but if Q4OS runs noticeably better on your machine then it's probably the better choice.

I'd also recommend giving Linux Mint a look: it has three desktop environments to choose from which are all reminiscent of classic Windows and the Xfce version in particular is good for old computers. You can try all three versions as well as Zorin and Q4OS on a virtual machine at DistroSea or from a live USB.

I think Mint is the best distro of the three (it has good features and the biggest development team and is very beginner-friendly) but it's up to you!

[switch-to-linux]

Hello, I need help please x. x I am still using Ubuntu because I don't want to try messing with the computer right now lol, I hope it doesn't make a difference for this that I'm not on Mint—

How do we get other icons to use? I hate how almost all of them look the same so I have to hover over each one to figure out what to click lol, also it won't let me pin shortcuts onto the screen? I tried looking up icons in the app store but there's nothing that looks like it's a legitimate program

It does matter a lot if you're using Ubuntu or Mint since Ubuntu's GNOME desktop is not easily customisable while Mint's Cinnamon is!

On Mint you can just right click on a program in the app menu to edit it or create a desktop shortcut. On Ubuntu I believe you'd have to go to /usr/share/applications/ and copy one of the .desktop files onto the desktop to create a shortcut. To change a program's icon you'll have to edit its .desktop file with a text editor or use a program like MenuLibre.

[maxofs2d]

Firefox 148 rolls out with the promised AI kill switch: here's how to enable it

The "Block AI Enhancements" toggle was originally introduced in Firefox 148 Nightly in January following significant community backlash afte

The Firefox "AI kill switch" is here.

Go to Settings > AI controls. There, you can toggle the "master kill switch" on to fully block all the features, which means two things:

you won't see them,

you can't even be asked about them.

The default state is, like before, "available". This means the features are NOT on by default (they never were), but Firefox will let you know about them where they exist (e.g. when you create your first tab group) so that you can choose to opt in.

Please note that Firefox for Android or iOS have never included AI features, so you won't see these settings on your smartphones or tablets.

Please also note that, unlike popular belief here on Tumblr, besides "chatbot in sidebar" (which is simply embedding the same page you'd have normally browsed to), none of these features have ever interacted with anything outside your PC, because they download a small model to your computer, to do everything locally. These small models have never been and are not downloaded until you explicitly agree to turn on one of the features.

[switch-to-linux]

Hello! I was wondering if you know of brands where a desktop (tower) was good for Linux? I've been trying to look them up but I'm not sure, like do lenovo towers also do well with Linux? I know the thinkpads are good for it but I need a tower pc.

Also how do I install Linux on it without having to use windows 11 first to see if the computer works? I mean would i still be able to tell if there's nothing wrong with it even if I made Linux boot up first?

There aren't any specific brands of desktop PCs that would be better or worse for Linux, there's just some laptops that are locked down in a way that doesn't allow for changing the OS. If you're buying or building a new PC just be mindful that Nvidia graphics cards have less good compatibility with Linux than AMD, and some WiFi cards can cause problems on Linux. There's also some fancy hardware features like Intel Optane memory that only work on Windows and should be avoided, and any just released brand new PC components might not be fully supported by Linux yet.

If you flash a Linux distro onto a USB drive beforehand you can boot into it and install it on a new computer without having to touch Windows. If you can boot into Linux fine then there shouldn't be any problems with that PC. And if there is something wrong then Linux will give you more information about it than Windows would!

[switch-to-linux]

Hey, can I ask a (maybe stupid) tech question? I want to switch to Linux, but I'm a little worried to fuck something up, so I figured I would take out (like physically) the hard drive that contains the windows installation folders and then install a linux distro on one of the remaining hard drives

Would that work?

Thank you very much in advance! I hope you have a lovely week :)

That's not a stupid question at all! Yes, this is a good way of installing Linux alongside Windows. Afterwards you should be able to select which OS you want to boot from the BIOS menu and when using Linux you can access the files on the Windows drive. Also remember to disable Fast Boot and Secure Boot first!

[markovchaingang]

honestly looking at the guides for un-fucking windows 11 i think we're at the point where the stereotypes need to be reversed. linux is now the less tedious option for people who don't want to have to deal with a bunch of computer bullshit