Convert to Linux from Windows

Elgoog

nandohyphen1 I've switched from Ubuntu to Fedora since 11 September. Just be sure to resize your Windows partition in Windows before installing Linux.

nandohyphen1

Elgoog Every Linux installation I've done has been successful so therefore I don't know if this wrecks anything since I've never done it. But say I get partway through an installation (not have clicked on install yet) and I either change my mind or something isn't working properly. If I shut down the computer and remove the flash drive, will Windows (or Mac) still boot or will I have to go back into the menu and move the system back up to the top, so it boots first?

Elgoog

mar2112 For security, Fedora, Gnome and Wayland are recommended over Debian-based distros, KDE and X11 by privsec.dev. Debian-based disros include Ubuntu and Mint.

xxx

Elgoog
Gnome is the most evolved Desktop for Linux for sure.

Elgoog

TrustExecutor

TrustExecutor If anyone wants to try Fedora, give Secureblue a shot.

I would like to try SecureBlue or at least SilverBlue, but when I tried to install the latter (installation is obligatory, as there is no live ISO), I couldn't figure out how to do it without overwriting my Windows installation, which I'm not (yet) ready to do.

Is there a guide somewhere to dual-booting Fedora Atomic?

xxx

Elgoog

You must shrink your Windows partition if you want to setup a dualboot. You can boot Fedora Workstation live to take a look.

neotux

Elgoog

Elgoog I couldn't figure out how to do it without overwriting my Windows installation

If you are going to shrink your Windows, as has been suggested, do it from inside the Windows using its own tooling. Then use the space that you have freed up to install your Linux.

Elgoog

nandohyphen1 My only experience with an incomplete installation was when I gave up trying to install SilverBlue when could not figure out how to avoid overwriting Windows. In that case, no changes had yet been written to disk, so I simply powered-off, and everything was as it had been when I rebooted.

charlatan

As others have mentioned, expect a learning curve. The size of that curve will mostly be the inverse of the popularity of the distro.
Mint, Fedora, Ubuntu... They're all great starters.
If you have windows only apps you can either virtualize a Windows machine, or find a comparable substitute.

A year from now you'll be distro hopping :) Eventually, you'll get to a point where you'll realize that all distros boil down to 4 things.

The ethos of the distro and its upstream source
init system
availability of software
package manager

Personally, I'm done hopping and landed on chimera Linux about a year ago.

Eirikr70

charlatan Why Chimera Linux (it's the first time I hear of it) ?

Guila

They use Debian at NASA and in the International Space Station for security and stability reasons. Each will be made his opinion.

Use chatGPT to write an operating system / kernel update automation script and for cleaning and you won't risk much anymore.

Anon6095

custardbomb I've read various posts highlighting the benefits of Qubes, Swcyre Blue and Arch.

I don't have time given family life with my one year old, work and charity volunteering to learn what I would need to transition to an environment that is targeted at more experienced Linux users.

If you don't have much time, you should go for a distro that allows you to do anything with the GUI (Grafical User Interface).
I can recommend Fedora, I use it as a daily driver and I'm very happy with it.
Fedora is always up to date with everything but not bleeding edge like Arch.

TrustExecutor

Eirikr70 Chimera Linux is built from the ground up and not a derivative of any of the common distributions such as Red Hat or Debian. It is a very well designed distribution where the devs has scrapped the old way of doing things using the GNU tools, and instead implemented more modern tooling and simplified everything. Examples include using the LLVM/Clang compiler instead of GNU GCC, ditching the legacy GNU glibc for musl libc. They also ditched systemd for dinit, made their own packaging system and adopted Alpine's APK package manager. If you think about security then already then you have a lot of attack surface reduction there already. It is a work in progress but still a well functioning distribution. It does not have as much attention that it deserves in my opinion. Go try it out and advertise it far and wide so it can be more widely adopted, because it is for sure a great distribution with a bright future.

https://chimera-linux.org

Here is a presentation about it at FOSDEM 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZUm4nuxFfs

charlatan

TrustExecutor

I literally couldn't have stated it any better. Thanks!
I'm partial to simple, fast package managers, and APK is the best I've used, with xbps (void) a close second.

TrustExecutor

charlatan Thanks!
Something that would be very nice to see in Chimera Linux, is SELinux security policies á la secureblue, and also the other stuff they implement, like hardened_malloc and the Trivalent browser (that is a hardened Chromium fork with some of the GrapheneOS patches on top). I am personally not competent enough (at least not yet) to package it myself and contribute it back to Chimera Linux's repositories but if someone competent in this area reads this and feel it is worth their time, feel free to evaluate it!

Eirikr70

TrustExecutor á la secureblue

The accent is the other way around "à la SecureBlue" ;)
French lessons, 35 €/h.

TrustExecutor

Eirikr70 Aha, so now I found out now I had to press shift while doing it. Thanks!

Eirikr70

TrustExecutor ;)
Trying to understand how to install it (as a French, I hardly understand the instructions in english ;)).

KCne

custardbomb I don't have time given family life with my one year old

I would not recommend a traditional Linux distro, especially given this context. A learning curve is almost certainly required for traditional Linux, and Linux is less secure than Windows.

If substantial privacy and security gains are desired, I would either use a Mac or an iPad, or consider waiting until Android QPR1 releases for GrapheneOS on Pixels 8 and newer, then using Android's Desktop Mode and displaying to an external monitor.

Before doing the GrapheneOS or iPad route, I would advise making sure iOS or GrapheneOS respectively, have all the apps you need for desktop use. GrapheneOS and Android are technically Linux distros, but far more user friendly than distros like Fedora or Debian. Mobile operating systems are far more private and secure than desktop OSs.

23Sha-ger

KCne and Linux is less secure than Windows.

Most traditional malware is still tailored for Windows. Not sure what your meaning of "less secure" here means. Less secure than what? Windows is as secure as the person sitting in front of it clicking "accept" buttons.

KCne

23Sha-ger Not sure what your meaning of "less secure" here means

https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/secureblue-is-this-the-most-secure-linux-distro/29432/34

Is the average Linux system more secure than the average Windows or MacOS system? Hard to quantify and very user dependent… then again, how many linux users are running with no mandatory access control?

Then there’s the question of if you were to configure Windows/MacOS/Linux to be as secure as possible without fundamentally rearchitecting core system components, which would be the most secure? And for that, Linux unfortunately isn’t in the running.

0-days are one of many many concerns… Desktop linux has fundamental architectural gaps.

23Sha-ger Most traditional malware is still tailored for Windows

it’s not useful to talk about security in terms of the lowest common denominator or pathway of least resistance, because then you’re just playing whack a mole. If developers in the desktop linux stack were to start focusing heavily on security, and the rate of zero days were to fall, attackers using them would just move on to new approaches. Relying on CVE counts/journalists/news reports for security analysis is a reactive approach. Security needs to be proactive and in-depth. It’s this depth of proactive security that’s lacking on linux, as opposed to timeliness in fixing zero days (although that’s of course still important).

I believe this quote would apply to malware as well. Linux isn't sufficiently proactive in the security landscape, even if I were to assume a lesser amount of malware is made compared to Windows.

23Sha-ger

KCne
I don't particularly like the "privacyguides" community because they follow gimmicks and trends, not facts.
How many Linux users had malware in the recent decades? I will give the benefit of the smaller usage number.
But still. Objectively saying "Linux is not secure as Windows"... Cmon man.

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