I turned my Windows laptop into a Linux laptop, easy.

On Oct 14 Microsoft stopped keeping Win 10 updated for security. I didn't want to continue in the Windows and the Apple "no privacy" ecosphere so I looked into using Linux. Linux is made with security in mind from it's invention until now. It leaks a lot less personal info to advertisers. This converting my laptop from Windows to Linux was the easiest computer project I've ever done. My ancient laptop runs like new again. Linux doesn't demand nearly as much from the PC running it as Windows.

I had to create a bootable USB thumbdrive, the Linux people show you how and it's easy.
Then I replaced my hard drive with a new $30 replacement 1TB drive.
Then I plugged in the USB drive, turn on my laptop and followed the prompts to pick my language and time zone.

The last time I worked with Linux was 5 or more years ago where I bought a Raspberry Pi and created a home movie server. All of the commands and programming was done by the command line. It was not fun. That is NOT what Linux is anymore. You can do that if you want. Everything I described above was done with Windows like pointing and clicking with a mouse. I use a flavor of Linux called Ubuntu, not sure how to pronounce it. It's the biggest, most stable, and most supported (meaning easiest to use to get answers about) version of Linux. I made my decision for ease of use and installation. There is another very easy to use version called Mint. And another version which is aimed at former Windows users and seeks to replicate Windows user habits to make life easy.

Ubuntu doesn't cost anything. You don't have to make a new account to use it. I have my documents, browser settings, bookmarks, password manager, email, everything I wanted to preserve on my "new" laptop working as expected and it took about 1 hour to make it happen. The hardest part was waiting for my new hard drive to show up from Amazon. Using a new hard drive allows me to keep the old driver exactly as it was the day I stopped using it. If Linux turns out to be a problem I can always swap hard drives and resume Windows like I never left. I

This is the video that caused me to switch to Linux. He walks you through the steps of how to do it for people not comfortable with Linux or changing Operating Systems. It's not hard at all.

 

Yes, thank you. for responding. I've also seen that a program called Tiny11 allows you to preemptively not install any of the bloatware that is built-in to Win11. I've been reading about Copilot and other AI tools that essentially are like keyloggers, as far as privacy is concerned, and decided the Win 10 end of support was enough motivation to break away from Microsoft finally. I had been using it since everything was DOS based and command-line with storage being 5.25 inch floppy drives and when hard drivers costs thousands of dollars.

So far everything I've wanted to run on Linux I have found a version for Linux. So far, I love it. My 12+ year old laptop is like a new machine. The only downside is I haven't yet found a way to make USB hubs work with more than one USB device plugged in.

Thanks for responding.