New to Linux - a few questions before starting

iuliflr

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Hello,

Heard about Linux since I basically started using computers but I never tried it.Now I am thinking to try it but i don't know where to start.My laptop which I am currently using has 1 x 2.5 inch HDD and 2 x M2 SSD support.So I have a 1TB HDD and 2 SSD's ( 256 and 512 GB).Let's say that I will install Linux on the 256GB SSD and keep Windows on the 512 GB SSD.Now here are the questions:

1. Can I use the 1TB HDD on both of the operating systems since Linux and Windows use different drive format ( ext2,ext3,ext4 vs NTFS).If the HDD is in NTFS,is it still readable by Linux?

2. Can I use both the SSD's on one certain OS,for example,if I will boot up with Windows,can I acces files from the drive where Linux is installed and vice versa.As far as I know,Linux can read it's formats and also NTFS but I am not sure if Windows can read Linux formats.

3. Will it affect the performance if I boot up on Linux,like will some Windows processes still be active while I am using Linux ( or while I try to acces some files on the SSD with Windows)

4. Can malware migrate from one drive to another?Since Windows is more vulnerable to malware( I have Windows Defender activated and bought Bitdefender license,but still) I am thinking that if I get a virus on the Windows SSD,it can still acces files on the HDD or even Linux SSD

5. My laptop has Intel Core i5-9300H CPU and GTX 1650 4GB GPU.Are all the distro's compatible with this hardware or there are some distro's that are compatible and some which are not?

I want to keep Windows for a while because I will be onboard a vessel for the next 6 months with limited internet connection,so if I will have some problems with Linux,I can not search for solutions on the internet so I will have Windows as a back-up.If everything is OK,maybe I will keep only Linux afterwards.I want to try Ubuntu or Mint Cinnamon

Thank you! :)
 
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Heard about Linux since I basically started using computers but I never tried it.Now I am thinking to try it but i don't know where to start.My laptop which I am currently using has 1 x 2.5 inch HDD and 2 x M2 SSD support.So I have a 1TB HDD and 2 SSD's ( 256 and 512 GB).Let's say that I will install Linux on the 256GB SSD and keep Windows on the 512 GB SSD.Now here are the questions:
You might want to take a look here https://distrochooser.de/en/
 
Thank you,it seems like Red Hat Enterprise Linux is my recommended distro according to http://distrochooser.de/en/.

I already tried Elementary OS on a USB stick and I like it but I already face a problem.Only my HDD and my 256 GB SSD apperead in my files but I can not find my 512GB SSD in that menu.Anyway,if anybody can answer to my questions or atleast a few of them,would be great.In the mean time,I will try some other distros on the USB stick and after it becomes more familiar,I will install the one which I like the most on the SSD.
 
1. Can I use the 1TB HDD on both of the operating systems since Linux and Windows use different drive format ( ext2,ext3,ext4 vs NTFS).If the HDD is in NTFS,is it still readable by Linux?

Yes. The hard drive can have multiple partitions. Each partition can have a different format.

2. Can I use both the SSD's on one certain OS,for example,if I will boot up with Windows,can I acces files from the drive where Linux is installed and vice versa.As far as I know,Linux can read it's formats and also NTFS but I am not sure if Windows can read Linux formats.

You are correct, Linux can be made to read NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32.
Windows can not read EXT4, XFS, or BTRFS.

Having said that, there is 3rd party software you can install.


3. Will it affect the performance if I boot up on Linux,like will some Windows processes still be active while I am using Linux ( or while I try to acces some files on the SSD with Windows)

It depends how you implement this. If you're doing a dual boot. Only
one OS can be active at a time. No windows processes will run while Linux is booted, and no Linux processes will run while Windows is booted.

If you run the 2nd OS as a VM, then yes processes from both OS's can run.
Virtually all CPUs made in the last 10 years or so are multi-core. Many of them are multi-threaded as well. So if you have a 4 core (8 thread) CPU, you really won't notice any performace difference. 1 OS uses some of the cores, the other OS uses the other cores.

4. Can malware migrate from one drive to another?Since Windows is more vulnerable to malware( I have Windows Defender activated and bought Bitdefender license,but still) I am thinking that if I get a virus on the Windows SSD,it can still acces files on the HDD or even Linux SSD

There is virus/malware software for Linux, ClamAV and others.
But as a rule, most viruses written for a specific OS don't run on another OS.
So even if the virus gets copied to a Linux drive, Linux itself usually won't run that virus. Vice-versa for Windows. Virus's are a lot less common in the Linux world. For one thing it's harder to write them for a kernel that is always deleting un-used, un-known, un-parented processes. There are probably 100 times more virus's for Windows than for Linux.

5. My laptop has Intel Core i5-9300H CPU and GTX 1650 4GB GPU.Are all the distro's compatible with this hardware or there are some distro's that are compatible and some which are not?

The Intel i5 series is a pretty mainstream CPU. It's a 64-bit CPU that supports virtualization. I can't think of any Linux that wouldn't run on this.
The nVidia GeForce vidia cards are another story. It easily answered in a short paragraph, but I'll try to keep this short.

Many flavors of Linux do not support he proprietary nVidia GPU drivers at all.
Linux will still run with un-acclerated graphics. Some of the more popular distro's include a open-source version of the nVidia drivers called nouveau.
Not all distro's have this, but the popular ones like Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, OpenSuSE, and CentOS do. The nouveau driver is better than no accelerated video, but it's still not near as fast as the proprietary nVidia drivers.

Some (certainly not all) linux distro's support installing the proprietary nVidia drivers. I know Ubuntu and Fedora do. There are probably some others but I don't know where there is a list of which distro's do and which distro's don't support the nVidia drivers.

If anyone knows of such a list, it would be awesome to include it here.
 
Code:
apt install ntfs-3g
and you'll be able to read Windoze.

Different partitiions on same drive each formatted to the OS's required file systems in question, also, in answer reiterating another's suggestion.
 
Hi & Welcome to Linux.org. :)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a server class distribution and you have to pay RH for a subscription.
CentOS is the free version of RH if you want to try it:-

Whatever distro that you go with you'll have to run 'sudo update-grub' in order for Windows to show up in your bootloader menu.
Once you run that command reboot and than use your up and down arrow keys to select either Windows or Linux.

Good luck with your fresh installation.
 
. . . (which) linux distro's support installing the proprietary nVidia drivers . . .

Debian distros (like antiX and MX Linux) could be added to your list, as well. But I believe it is more a question of kernels than distros.
 
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