Linux, Linux, Linux…..
The better and probably the best alternative to using Windows
That’s the background image (one of several beautiful images that come shipped) of my laptop’s desktop after installing Manjaro 21.0 XFCE version called “ Ornara “ that I installed on my decade old laptop last Saturday. Yes, my laptop has been resurrected! And yes, I am using the same laptop to write this.
I am not sure why I deliberated this long to go the Linux way as I have been planning for years. Maybe it was some of those made for Windows only applications that I was using heavily that I kept postponing the event. But after struggling with a lagging Windows 10 on my laptop last Friday I decided to install Ubuntu Linux. By the way if you are installing Ubuntu Linux you do not even need to take a backup of your non-system drive i.e if you have partitioned your HDD or SSD into a c:(normally the system drive) and into other partitions such as D:, E:, F: etc., that hold the bulk of your valuable files. The system drive is of course where you can install Ubuntu and if you have anything to be backed up there you must do so. Of course there is no harm in backing up your other drives as well which I did anyway when I was installing Ubuntu. Also note that in Linux (as in Unix) your drive will not labelled as a C: or D:. Instead you’ll see something like /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and so on. How to find this? You can run Ubuntu off the flash drive. As you boot up from the flash drive you are given the choice to run it or install it. Run it to get a feel of the OS and check your drives for the various partitions and make a note of them and their sizes from which you’ll be able to tell if it was a C:, D:, E: etc.,
Ubuntu worked fine from the USB flash drive too but then I saw it lagging terribly after I installed it. Maybe my old laptop, an Acer, running 2'nd gen Intel i3 2310M CPU with 4 GB RAM wasn’t the perfect place for Ubuntu. Another problem I had with Ubuntu was that all my notepad text files were only “read only” and honestly I didn’t have the time or patience to figure out how to make them writable. So on Saturday 24'th I installed Manjaro XFCE. I was looking at other distros such as Mint LInux and the heavily praised Fedora but Manjaro LInux blew my mind away. Installation is not easy but not difficult either. Manjaro needs a GPT Partition table and it will prompt you to create the same. But in the process your entire disk will be erased SO DO BACKUP YOUR DRIVE before installing Manjaro. In the process you will have to delete existing partitions and then create them, i.e create space for a system partition (where Manjaro is installed, this has to be an ext4 type), and other partitions for your data which can be in the NTFS format. Please refer documentation if you aren’t aware of these terms or get a techie to install it for you.
For me Manjaro works literally out of the box. Unlike Windows I didn’t have to install even one driver and the laptop is flying with the drivers that Manjaro installed. Audio, video, internet connectivity, file searching, OS updates all work perfectly fine and at blazing speeds my laptop never knew before. Best part, for every common Windows program out there (not the ones such as Help + Manual for example that runs only on Windows) there are similar and even better programs in Linux. For instance I use Foxit reader heavily on Windows for my .pdf documents. The equivalent in LInux is Okular which I find even better than Foxit. You do have a Foxit version for Linux but it is buggy and very slow. For ages, even on Windows I had already migrated to Libre Office which is the standard on Linux. And for every issue you have with Linux and its software there is a solution. All you have to do is search online. All these for free! My notepad files which would open only in “read only” mode in Ubuntu Linux were easily editable in Manjaro.
Another amazing part is the command line interface (it’s a translucent beauty on the XFCE environment) where you can run commands and you will not believe how you can install software with just a few commands unlike Windows where you need to search, then download the software, then run it to install it. As I keep using the OS and discovering more software it only gets better by the day.
I am only wondering how much companies can save if they only moved to Linux. Even individuals can. I knew someone who became a Linux and Open-Source Evangelist years ago and I am sure he has helped many an organisation save valuable time and money by migrating to Linux. Unless you have Windows specific software (that will run only on Windows) you must consider Linux. By the way, you can run Windows applications inside Linux too though I am yet to explore that. There are a plethora of distributions to choose from (I am seriously considering Garuda Linux form India, for a newly built system) but I highly recommend Manjaro that comes in three popular environments. Extensive documentation and YouTube videos exist explaining how to install Manjaro. Try, use and enjoy.
Note: Manjaro comes with two other variants the KDE and GNOME environments. The KDE definitely requires better graphics (in fact the GARUDA Linux page clearly mentions using a Graphics card to install their version of KDE) and therefore it is a good bet to go with XFCE on older computers.
Complete tutorials and videos on how to install Manjaro Linux and use the incredible software that come with it, coming soon! So watch this space.
Read my 45 days of Linux story here —
Originally published at https://www.subashsl.com.
