For many users out there, Linux may not be their main OS.
This may be because of a few reasons –
Most computers you buy come with Windows Pre installed.
Your Job offeres you a laptop with Windows OS pre installed.
The worst of all – Intimidation (probably seen codes and command lines and dont know what they are all about)
Linux is not very hard indeed. These days, there are different Linux distributions that looks alot like Windows interfaces.
And the best of all, unlike Windows, Linux is highly customizable.
These are the few ways you can run Linux
- Fresh install on Standalone computer
- Dual Boot alongside another OS
- Virtual Machines such as Virtual Box or VMWare or Windows Hyper-V
- Windows Subsystem for Linux
- Cloud instances
- Live images
1. Fresh install may not be an option for beginners. There may be issues with drivers and pre configs, backups etc – depending on the Linux distro you want to use.
There are some hardware that come with Linux pre installed. Like System 76. Its got PopOS and I hear good things about those devices.
2. Dual boot although dual boot is my preferred choice of installing, you may need to consider hard ware limitation, legacy support, bootloader etc. This may be for more advanced users.
3. With Virtual Machines, you are sharing resources with host machine. There are different Virtualization engines out there. You can simply install one, download the Linux image and run on it. It may be one of the easiest way when you start to migrate to Linux.
4. WSL provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft and allows a user to chose a Linux distribution to install from the Microsoft Store. Since it can be easily downloaded from Microsoft Store, within a few clicks, you can try a taste of linux.
If you try to locate the path, C:\Users\AppData\Local\Packages\YourLinux, you will get a better idea of what its doing. You will also not find wireless interfaces in WSL. So you will need an external wifi adapter for doing some wifi tests.
5. Cloud VMs. If you are already using some cloud services, which in these days many offices are, you may be able to try installing cloud instances and try linux there.
6. Most modern Linux distros these days come with Live images. you can install it on any USB device, and plug it into your laptop and try your flavor of linux before you are actually installing it. It may be the easiest way to try out different flavors of Linux.
Regards
Teza