Windows 11 is a car crash, you’re sick of being a product and you’re desperate for a better way. Good news: You have options. The vast majority of Windows games work perfectly fine on Linux and a surprising number of commonly used apps have Linux versions ready to go!
Don’t get me started on the privacy benefits – it’s a long list. You even have total control over when to apply updates!
Have I convinced you? Cool.
The aim of this guide is to teach you how to install a stable, familiar and above all comfortable Linux desktop. Beyond the initial installation, I’ll also give you a quick rundown on some basic Linux concepts and show you how to utilize some of your new operating system’s unique strengths.
Go grab a USB memory stick or an SD card – about 16 gigabytes of space will do. Make sure nothing you want to keep is on it.
I’ll wait.
You ready?
Good, let’s get started.
Go grab Etcher. You’ll need this to create your installation media.
Next, let’s go grab ourselves a copy of Linux Mint. It’s free – get used to that. If you’re coming from Windows, you’ll find the interface nice and familiar.
Now we’re going to start Etcher. You should see something like this:
Click Flash from File and select the Linux Mint ISO you just downloaded.
Okay, now insert your memory stick or SD card, click Select Target in Etcher and select the device you just inserted. Now click Flash!
Assuming everything went to plan, your new installation medium should be spinning up. We’re creating what’s called a Live Media – a full, functional instance of Linux Mint will be sitting on your storage device when we’re done.
While you’re waiting, now’s a good time to double check that you’ve backed up all of your files. We’ll be wiping Windows out and starting from scratch. Don’t blame me if you lose something important!
If you’re paranoid, you might choose to create a separate Windows installation medium as a fail-safe. Microsoft provide a tool for this here.
Go ahead and close Etcher once your device is done flashing and verifying, then power off your system.
Assuming you’re coming from Windows 11, you probably have Secure Boot enabled. That will be a problem for us in the future, so it’s time to learn a magic trick!
To do this, we need to boot into your PC’s BIOS menu. Power on your system, then immediately begin rapidly pressing the delete key. If your system boots as normal, you may need to look up the specific key your system uses for this – try searching for “[Your laptop model/motherboard model] BIOS key” on Google.
Assuming you’ve managed to boot into BIOS, you should see something like this:
I’m going to guide you through the process for my specific BIOS, but yours will probably be a little different. You might need to use a little Google-fu if you’re stuck.
First, let’s head to the security section to locate and deactivate TPM like so:
Next, I go to Advanced/Windows OS Configuration/Secure Boot and disable it:
Finally, we save and back out:
Once again, I stress that every BIOS is different. If you’re not sure about what something does, look it up before you go changing things around. I would urge you not to go poking around willy-nilly while you’re in here.
This next part is a bit odd: We need to insert your Linux Mint installation medium (the USB stick or SD card) and spam the F8-F12 keys as we’re booting! One of these is usually the key for bringing up the boot menu.
Once in there, just select your installation medium as the boot device. If the boot menu didn’t appear, look up the specific key for your motherboard, laptop or pre-built desktop and spam that at boot instead.
If you did it correctly, you should see the Linux Mint boot menu – the hard part is over. Just hit enter to move things along. Once you’re done booting, you should see this:
This is your opportunity to take Linux Mint for a test drive before you commit to any lasting changes. Feel free to poke around and get a feel for the interface, but do note that you won’t be able to save data in this live environment.
(As a side note, these live environments are super handy for data recovery and other system rescue tasks!)
When you’re ready to install the system, just click Install Linux Mint on the desktop. This window should pop up:
Select your language of choice and click Continue:
Same deal here. If you’re from the US, feel free to continue with the default.
Next, click Install Multimedia Codecs. This is made optional for those who believe that proprietary software is the devil, but we want these. Let’s continue:
Now we’re finally going to install Linux! Assuming you’ve backed up everything you want to keep, click Erase disk and install Linux Mint, then Install Now down below.
You should see something like this. I’m installing Mint in a virtual machine, so the labels you see will likely be a bit different. If it looks like you’ll be installing to the correct drive, click continue.
Here’s where you can search for your current location for Timezone purposes. New York is fine for me, so I’ll just continue:
Just fill out your info as desired and make sure “Require my password to log in” is checked unless you have a very specific use-case in mind. Aside from security, automatic login can become a headache in the course of normal use. We’ll leave “Encrypt my home folder” unchecked.
Continue when you’re ready.
Now we just wait while the system installs itself. Feel free to go grab a drink or something!
Go ahead and restart once you see this. You might be prompted to remove your installation medium, so go ahead and yank out that USB stick and press Enter if so.
Now, just wait for your PC to reboot and…
Ta-da! Now comes the fun part. Enter the password you set earlier!
Welcome to your new Linux desktop! Click Let’s Go!
You can stop and set up your desktop colors or system snapshots (for backup/rollback purposes) but at the moment we’re concerned with the Driver Manager.
If you’re running Nvidia graphics, you’ll be able to download and install your drivers here. You’ll want the proprietary (or non-free) drivers. This doesn’t mean that they cost money – just that they aren’t open-source, meaning that Nvidia have chosen not to make their source code freely available. Install the drivers if needed and restart if prompted, then meet me back here.
Next, we’ll head back to the Welcome window and scroll down to Update Manager:
Go ahead and switch to a local mirror if prompted. You’ll get the fastest possible download speeds this way. Apply any updates as prompted. You’ll be asked to enter your password.
You should see something like this. Click Install Updates.
Click Okay on any prompts that appear and you should eventually see the above. Congrats, your system is up to date and all is well. Go back to the Welcome window and check out the Software Manager:
This is where you’ll be getting the lion’s share of your software from now on – No need to go hunting stuff down on the internet or to update stuff separately. Everything on your system will update all at once!
…Except Steam, because it’s weird like that. Speaking of, go up to the search box and type Steam for me:
See the version of Steam with the Flathub icon? Click that.
This is a flatpak! Flatpaks are a convenient and secure way of packaging software. They’re isolated from the rest of your system, using their own dependencies and drivers. This isolated flatpak environment typically includes more up-to-date software than what your OS would normally provide.
For this reason, I encourage you to check for a flatpak first whenever downloading new software. Your base OS can remain lean, stable and secure even as you benefit from utilizing newer software in an isolated environment where potential bugs won’t break your system!
You might have different ideas and that’s okay – This isn’t Windows. It’s YOUR system and you can build it however you want.
At this point, I would encourage you to go digging around in your system settings to get things just how you like them – gamers will want to max out their refresh rate and probably disable adaptive mouse acceleration, for starters.
This concludes the primary portion of this tutorial. If you’d like a rundown on Linux gaming, you can find that here. If you found this tutorial useful, feel free to feed my ever-growing hunger for caffeine at Ko-Fi:
By using this tutorial user agrees that they hold sole responsibility and liability for any damages, inconveniences or loss of data incurred, including potential financial damages. No warranty or ongoing support is offered or implied. Linux and Linux Mint are the property of their respective copyright holders and the author of this website claims no association.
Thanks to Pinball for the sneaky site icon!