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Linux Mint Mate edition - is that with or without cinnamon and xfice or whatever else there is.
Hello and welcome to the forum
Without. MATE is a different DE (Desktop Environment) than Cinnamon or XFCE. However, if your system has the hardware to handle Cinnamon without slowing it down, then Cinnamon has some nice "eye candy." However, to be sure, please post your system specs (or brand and model, including the model number,) as requested by beachboy2.
For more information and some screenshots of the different desktops, please see here for more information.
Distribution: Cinnamon Mint 20.1 (Laptop) and 20.2 (Desktop)
Posts: 1,671
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Welcome to Linux Questions!
I'd also go with Linux Mint as being fairly easy. (Must be, I use it!) Asking questions here is going to get both useful and no doubt confusing answers initially, but it just shows how everyone wants to help!
Just in case you have any preconceived notions about Linux it's always worth reading this article; "Linux is Not Windows" which will give you a pretty good idea of the differences and what to expect.
Even though it relates to an older version of Windows, XP, it's still relevant.
Enjoy!
Play Bonny!
Last edited by Soadyheid; 05-31-2016 at 07:38 AM.
Reason: XP note
"Don't change your existing host system! (At least, not yet.) Install VirtualBox, a free virtual-machine monitor that's sponsored by Oracle Corporation. (Yeah, the database people ...) Install Linux into a virtual machine, leaving your host untouched."
One day, you might decide to make Linux the host and to put Windows into a virtual machine ... which you certainly can do ... but, "not yet." Don't muck-around with partitioning or dual-booting or any of that rot. Use virtual machines to freely and safely explore the world of Linux. (Consider purchasing an external hard-drive and dedicating this drive to your virtual machines, especially when you want to start exploring issues like "partitioning.")
Virtual machines allow you to "have your cake and eat it, too." And, by the way, they are very efficient. Today, most of the web-hosts that you will encounter are being run on virtual machines.
When you embark on the exploration of Linux, be prepared that the journey will be more difficult than you expect. When I first encountered Linux ... and, mind you, I'd already spent dozens of years in computing and had even worked first-hand with IBM's "VM" operating systems ... it was definitely a "take a sip from a fire-hose" experience, and it stayed that way for a long time. However, you will come away with a much deeper understanding of operating systems, including the Windows operating system.
VM's let you do wonderful things, such as:
Hmmm... I wonder about (this) ...
So, let's take a snapshot of my machine as it is right now.
(hack, hack, hack) ...
(clouds of smelly smoke)
"Oops ..."
Restore from snapshot!
"Don't leave home without it.™"
Last edited by sundialsvcs; 05-31-2016 at 08:38 AM.
One day, you might decide to make Linux the host and to put Windows into a virtual machine ... which you certainly can do ... but, "not yet." Don't muck-around with partitioning or dual-booting or any of that rot. Use virtual machines to freely and safely explore the world of Linux. (Consider purchasing an external hard-drive and dedicating this drive to your virtual machines, especially when you want to start exploring issues like "partitioning.")
Virtual machines allow you to "have your cake and eat it, too." And, by the way, they are very efficient. Today, most of the web-hosts that you will encounter are being run on virtual machines.
I concur with this, "For the OP, for now". Which is to say that my style would be to definitely obliterate Windows entirely and make a full Linux. However I will bow to the UEFI BIOS situation and honestly have not dealt with that nor transcended it, just because of situations where I've never had a truly brand new computer that causes that complication.
What I would instead do is find an older system, and install Linux entirely on that and explore that, but I would start with either a Live boot or a virtual machine to see what it's like and that it does work. And then I'd go full steam ahead an install and play.
I'm just not a dual boot'er, nor someone who uses virtual machines on an everyday basis. I use them to explore, as has been suggested to the OP, and then I do what I'm saying, install Linux on the system I've tested it with.
Just style differences and once again I am suggesting that the OP do try live boot or VM's first before trying a full install where they could disable by accident.
One day, you might decide to make Linux the host and to put Windows into a virtual machine ... which you certainly can do ... but, "not yet." Don't muck-around with partitioning or dual-booting or any of that rot. Use virtual machines to freely and safely explore the world of Linux. (Consider purchasing an external hard-drive and dedicating this drive to your virtual machines, especially when you want to start exploring issues like "partitioning.")
sundialsvcs,
I agree.
Dual-booting makes up a large percentage of the enquiries on LQ and the situation seems to be getting worse with problems related to UEFI, efi boot, Secure Boot, Fast Start etc, plus "we don't want you to use anything but Windows on this machine, even though it is your computer".
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