I am 86 years old and illiterate, need help.

Hollow Antlers

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I started Learning the computer 2003,Without Dragon NaturallySpeaking A third party speech to text software I would have never been able to do it, It took me about six months 4 to 6 hours a day. I started with XP, now I am on seven, my son says he does not like 10, so I do not want to use it.Windows is all I know.I have been reading about Linux,( when I say reading I mean third-party software). I have been quite pleased with myself for the past 17 years, I have done everything I have ever needed to do.If there is any one of you that would like to help me with this transition to Linux I would appreciate it.
I have A 2005 Dell Computer laptop Which was XP now has been converted to 7, I would like to test Linux on this laptop.
If all goes well I will buy a new computer. The computer I am using now is a 2011 inspiron one all-in-one 7.
I am self quarantine, a computer is my only communication.
Dan
 


Welcome to the group. It sounds like you are quite a few steps above illiterate, and gaining every day. Congratulations on your journey of enlightenment. Have you set up a Live distribution of Linux on a USB thumb drive yet? The advantage of this is that you can boot from the thumb drive, and "test drive" the distro without affecting the installed operating system. I tried to determine what hardware is in your laptop, but there are many different models in that series. Can you give us the model from the label on the computer? This will allow us to determine what system will best function on it.

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
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I looked at the website you suggested, pages and pages of reading, which generally boils down to a few sentences or a page.
(You asked this question)
Have you set up a Live distribution of Linux on a USB thumb drive yet? NO, don't know where to start. I can't locate the serial number for my laptop, did have XP, it has been converted to seven seven. I have my laptop open, give me a URL and I can download.
Dan
 
ok i'm a minimalist person but we will need a smidgen of info from you if possible, now to save angst later. i'm going to suggest to you to try Mint
https://linuxmint.com/


@70 Tango Charlie

Charlie remind me , which one are you using I know your using 64 bit Cinammon ? or

has had good experience with it i believe. ALso @Condobloke is another user, not sure who else on here.. but i've tried it live

in order to give you the right link we need to confirm whether your PC is 32 or 64 bit

Code:
ctrl + R

msinfo32

or you look around in control pannel -> system->system info
 
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ok , so the steps I will set out are basically :

1) get the Linux you want (in the form of an .iso file)
2) stick that on a usb stick (in the appropriate way)

3) Boot from that usb stick

At 3, you will have Linux Mint operating system running live from the usb stick. On the screen Mint has an icon , which when clicked will start a full installation from the live OS to your PC.

Thats a bare bones set out .

The users i listed above are experts in Mint compared to me and by listing their user name have alerted them to this thread.

This is the url for 32 bit cinnamon flavor Mint https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=253

First thing if your happy is to download eg click on this: http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/stable/19/linuxmint-19-cinnamon-32bit.iso


you will see as in attacjed image. make sure you lieft click from open fiel to "save file"
 

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Ok, to avoid confusion I will leave you in captain-sensible's very capable hands. Have fun.:)
 
captain-sensible's has led me into some confusion sites, I am getting messages that my computer is not private, never received such a message before. Can't deal with captain-sensible's.
Your help will be appreciated.
Dan
 
captain-sensible's has led me into some confusion sites, I am getting messages that my computer is not private, never received such a message before. Can't deal with captain-sensible's.
Your help will be appreciated.
Dan
I will leave you then in @VP9KS hands
 
ok i'm a minimalist person but we will need a smidgen of info from you if possible, now to save angst later. i'm going to suggest to you to try Mint
https://linuxmint.com/


@70 Tango Charlie

Charlie remind me , which one are you using I know your using 64 bit Cinammon ? or

has had good experience with it i believe. ALso @Condobloke is another user, not sure who else on here.. but i've tried it live

in order to give you the right link we need to confirm whether your PC is 32 or 64 bit

Code:
ctrl + R

msinfo32

or you look around in control pannel -> system->system info
Cap,
I'm using Mate on my everyday machine.
OG
 
@Hollow Antlers @captain-sensible @VP9KS
Greetings Dan,
Welcome to the Linux Forum. Best one I know of!!!
You and I are the old fogies around here. I'll turn 86 in a couple months {if I make it that far. LOL}
I have Windows 7 on an old machine that my wife plays games on.
The machine I'm using to post this has Linux Mint Mate 19.3.
I have tried several different Linux distributions {Distros for short} so have some experience with them.
I'm convinced that Linux Mint Mate is the easiest Linux to learn for someone coming over from Windows 7.
If you have any questions that I feel I can answer, I will jump in and try to help.
I am not a computer guru by any means: but perhaps because of my age I may be able to see things more like you see them, and then make suggestions that might help you.
I have to call it a night now, but tomorrow afternoon I will come back and check up on your thread.
Just call me Old Geezer, Tango Charlie
 
@Hollow Antlers For 32 bit computers, try out MX Linux. Click the following link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Snapshots/ and scroll down until you see a file called MX-19.2_August_386.iso , it should be the fifth option. Click on it and it would automatically download onto your system.

Once finished go and download balenaEtcher from this link: https://www.balena.io/etcher/. Once dowloaded, double click the tab found in the bottom of the browser with the name of program, in order to install it onto your system.

Once completed, run the program. Plug in your USB flash drive or memory stick onto the USB port of your computer system It should then automatically detect the device. Next locate where you put the iso file, normally it should be in the "Download" section of file explorer (or any file manager that you are using) then double click on it.

Afterwards, you should see an option in the program, balenaEtcher called "Flash". Click on it and it'll flash the iso onto your flash drive. It should take a few minutes. Once that is done, safely remove the flashdrive from your computer.

Shutdown your laptop, then turn it back on. As soon as you start the machine, keep pressing the key labelled "F12" on your keyboard. This will access the boot menu, where you can change the bootable device. Within those options, locate your USB flash drive (it should be easily indentifiable with its brand name being visible). Press the down arrow on your keyboard and click on that specific device in the boot menu.

You will then be greeted with MX Linux live environment (basically where you can test out the operating system without installing it). If you choose to install it, there should be an icon that states that exact function called "Installer" as seen in this link: https://distrowatch.com/images/ktyxqzobhgijab/mx.png. You will then be guided though its installation process (it isn't that difficult). You can change the look of it in the settings to make it appear more like Windows, if you so desire.
 
Geez @Jared. ta very much ;), you probably said in half the space what I would have said.

@Hollow Antlers - G'day Dan and welcome to linux.org :)

Only thing I would add for now is that if you wish to safeguard the Windows 7, for eg personal data held on it, you generate a recovery disk or stick first before actually installing Linux. We can tell you how to do that if you are not sure.

Cheers all

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 

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