Move from Windows 10 to Linux Mint?

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I have two PCs running Windows 10 that according to Microsoft are unable to run Windows 11. I don’t like the idea of throwing them on the trash heap when Windows 10 expires. So I am thinking that I need to convert them to Linux Mint and somehow convert my current processes to run under that operating system. I wonder if others have experience with such a transformation.

One is a production machine running several programs in R, particularly using the RSelenium package. This machine uses quite a few Windows command files (which I suppose can be converted to Bash scripts) and some PowerShell scripts.

I am curious to know what others’ experience has been.

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There are many pros and cons of Linux or Mint, but thinking your computer is incompatible with Windows 11 should not be a main one, if you are a home user.  If your PC has SSE 4.2 (made in the last 14 years or so) it can very likely run Windows 11 in unsupported mode.  If the PC has at least 8gb (preferably 16gb of ram) and you are willing to install an SSD, it will likely run very well.  Unsupported is easiest to install using Rufus.

For a user doing serious work or a business, I would almost always suggest to get new machines for Windows 11 if their old ones claim to be incompatible.  Old hard drives are not a good risk.  If they wanted a little extra time to transition, the first year of ESU security patches from Microsoft is quite cheap at $61.  Switching to Linux should have a better motivation than the small (compared to business costs) cost of new hardware.

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I would also recommend seeing what Microsoft will do for Windows 10 ESU offerings to consumers as well as using Welcome to the era of vulnerability micropatching – 0patch

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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According to their website, RStudio does support Linux (though I didn’t see Linux Mint there).

Posit Platform Support

https://posit.co/about/platform-support

Here is another link you might find useful:

How to install and use R and RStudio in Linux

The documentation does not list Linux Mint, but Ubuntu 22 and Debian 12 are mentioned. Both are similar to Mint.

As Mopmop mentioned, using old hard drives for production machines is problematic, so while you may be able to save your old hardware (might want to check on RAM requirements as well for RStudio), a bit of a refresh to SSD’s would be sensible.

You may want to replace the production machine if it’s older than seven years, anyway, though age isn’t as big a deal with a non production machine (for example, I’m typing this on my trusty Thinkpad x200 vintage 2008, 8 gigs ram, new SSD, MX Linux!)

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Cybertooth

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johnf wrote:

The documentation does not list Linux Mint, but Ubuntu 22 and Debian 12 are mentioned. Both are similar to Mint.

Linux Mint is derived from Ubuntu, so @huntpt is in luck: RStudio indeed should install and work without issues.

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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About 1 year and 5 months ago I moved two personal desktop computers to Linux Mint (from Windows 8.1). Both are Dell Inspiron 3670’s from 2018 with Intel Core i5 CPU, 16 GB RAM and that originally had Windows 10. The only hardware changes were to replace the HDD with a SSD and added a discrete graphics card: NVidia GeForce GT 730 (when they used Windows and the same now on Linux Mint). For more details about the move see my posts linked below.

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-win8-1-past-jan-10-or-what-have-you-already-done/#post-2514048

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-win8-1-past-jan-10-or-what-have-you-already-done/#post-2514657

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-win8-1-past-jan-10-or-what-have-you-already-done/#post-2612373

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