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| I believe in the principle of Due Process  |
How does one do this? Don't you have to fiddle with BIOS or some such? Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| Member |
Yes, you have to go into the BIOS and make sure that the machine boots from USB before the hard drive. It's easy to do. I'd boot up and write down which BIOS you have, then search on Youtube to see if anyone's done a video of making changes. Everything's easier if you've seen it done before.  === I would like to apologize to anyone I have *not* offended. Please be patient. I will get to you shortly. | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process |
There are a bewildering variety of Linux versions out there. How does one choose which ones to go with? I assume there is some rationale, advantages and disadvantages, behind each of the numerous versions. Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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Don't Panic |
Linux has its fans, but I'm not one of them. Have been working in/with PCs since before Michael Dell started PC's Limited in his dorm room. Volunteered at a local non-profit that resurrects dead/donated PCs to give to students that teachers identify that need one. So I'm not a Luddite or a complete noob. If you are looking to move into somewhere simpler, more comprehensible and easier for the casual hobbyist to run, diagnose and fix than Dell/Windows, Linux is in the exact opposite direction, and pretty far along that road. If you are looking for a new hobby, sure, or if you are hacked off at Austin/Redmond and want to rage against the machine, go for it. But it sounded like you started off looking at repeated hardware failure, and are now off considering something with a fairly steep learning curve which is not going to address anything that might cause failed motherboards. Two cents worth supplied, I'll fade out. | |||
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| Member |
This, in spades (posted from windows running in a virtual machine on top of linux....) Grab Ubuntu or Mint, make a USB, then boot from USB & play around. You can do anything you can do in windows & more, but it will just be unfamiliar for a long time. remove the USB & go back to windows whenever you want. Just don't make changes to the hard drive (you can even unplug the HDD prior to booting if you want). I've cursed windows every time they move a setting from 98/xp/7/10, but it's nothing compared to the shock change that you get going to another ecosystem. It's not hard, it's just annoying to think about 'where is xxxx' when you've done it a million times before. | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process |
I wouldn't say I'm "hacked off" at Redmond/Austin, despite being a long suffering victim, not necessarily of Dell, though. Most of my machines have been home made, with a Compaq, an HP and even a genuine true blue IBM PC some time ago, and the two Dells besides. My purpose in exploring Linux is curiosity more than anything. I'm retired, in poor and worsening health, and can't do very much anymore except read and learn. I'm just now getting into W10. Most of my internet use now is via this iPad. The machine that I was trying to resuscitate was an XP Pro device. My laptop and our other computer still run XP. I may have been on the last train out of DOS and into Windows! Decades ago, I made a brief foray into FreeBSD. There was a user group in San Diego and I attended meetings. I did not get very far into it, and that was interrupted by the press of business. My wife's nephew and his buddy from France were here and had quite a good time with the FreeBSD stuff I had. I thought maybe I would replace one of the dead Dells with some low end device to dink around on, but with this thumb drive idea, maybe I don't have to even do that. It also occurred to me that I would be getting a W10 system machine, whether I wanted it or not, and could use the old surviving XP box as long as it lasts for Linux learning if it came to that. So, who has thoughts about the best choice of Linux versions? Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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quarter MOA visionary |
Ubuntu or Mint Nothing wrong with trying something for the experience. Go for it. | |||
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| Live long and prosper  |
Hi Jim, Before you start fiddling with your BIOS in order to boot from an USB drive I suggest you pay attention to your boot screen. It might show some optios using the fuction keys. Most boot screens nowadays use either F11 or F12 to let you pick your boot lrder for the next boot. This way, you might boot from the USB drive if you wish to do so but otherwise thing will remain as usual. You won't be changing anything that needs to be reverted to an original state in the future. 0-0 "OP is a troll" - Flashlightboy, 12/18/20 | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process |
OK, I have accessed the BIOS, with very little cursing and the machine still works. Onward and upward! Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| Member |
I think dell is F9 to choose boot device (not 100% sure). Put 4 fingers on F9-F12 and hit each one a couple times (separately) just after you turn power on - I'm 100% sure that will work. That way, you don't have to enter the BIOS, change boot order, save/exit, rinse & repeat. When you want to boot from USB, just plug it in, do the above & you're off. When you want to boot from C: normally - do nothing extra. Ubuntu is 'linux for dummies' & probably has the most examples you can google for beginners. Mint is probably still 2nd, but has gained quickly. | |||
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| quarter MOA visionary |
If in your bios is set to boot from USB then when you insert a bootable USB it will boot to it. It is usually set by default to allow although I always disable when I configure a computer. Additionally, there are different "F" keys that will get you in to the BIOS or to apply a boot menu. Usually the those keys are prompted when booting unless that display is disabled. Agree an Ubuntu or Mint. Like I said before as an alternative to bootable USB you can use virtualization with a few requirements. YMMV | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process |
I accessed the BIOS yesterday and changed the default to boot first from USB, then C: One uncertainty was the choice between USB hard drive and USB floppy drive. I assume a thumb drive is a species of hard drive. Next, I found a site (https://www.lifewire.com/create-uefi-bootable-linux-mint-usb-2202084) that seems to have a play-by-play tutorial. Hopefully that will work, whatever an ISO is. The next puzzle is over thumb drive vs. installed. Somewhere I read that these distributions have "everything you need." What about printer drivers? How can they have drivers for every printer and device out there on one 4GB thumb drive, along with the free versions of Office and a lot more? What size thumb drive does one really need? Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| Member |
You want a thumb drive bootable version NOT INSTALLED. Unless you are going all the way & getting rid of windows or want to dual-boot on hard drives (or partitions). For test-drive, you want a USB 'live' version. When you shut it down, there won't be anything left of the OS on your computer - it all runs from the USB drive & you can boot back into windows like it never happened. She won't even know you cheated. You can also install from the bootable USB, don't do it first thing. I've only used Mint 1 time a while back & for a very short test drive I didn't need instructions, so I ignored them. Ubuntu walks you through it. Printer drivers are really small, the reason it normally takes so much space is for all the junkware that HP et all load on your computer. They don't bother making the junk for linux. Your printer will likely work, all-in-one machines can be a little more of a problem but that can be taken care of after. I think 4GB will be enough, if that's what you have. 8GB is barely more expensive if your're buying. I have a 16GB stick with Win7, Ubuntu & backtrack iso on it + a bunch other utilities (memTest, AV, backup/clone, etc) | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process |
Is security a problem? Is there a need for anti virus software, etc? Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| quarter MOA visionary |
You have to think > what do you have to lose? There is always some security risk when connected to the Internet. However, an experimental Linux build on a USB drive is not the upper tier of concern. If you start keeping critical data on it the use necessary precautions > ie: common sense. YMMV | |||
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