For Linux newbies
I’ve been singing the praises of Ventoy, a free and open source tool for creating multi-boot drives, for some time now. In what’s been a barren freeware landscape, Ventoy has been like a breath of fresh air – innovative, simple, and highly effective for checking out multiple Linux distros.
So far, I’ve shown you how to create a multi-boot flash drive with Ventoy and how to try out multiple Linux distros from a single USB flash drive created by Ventoy. If you’re new to Ventoy, I strongly suggest you check out those two articles first:
In this article, I’m going to take you through one of the most popular Linux distros, Mint Cinnamon Edition, and compare various aspects with Windows.
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What To Look For In A Linux Distro
Obviously, those transitioning from Windows will want their distro to be as close as possible to the Windows experience. Here is the Mint Cinnamon desktop:
(click images to enlarge)
As you can see, it’s very close to the same layout as the Windows desktop. The System Tray includes:
- Bluetooth
- Removable Drives: only displays when a USB drive is connected
- Internet Connection
- Volume Control
- Battery Indicator: for laptop users
- Time & Date
Let’s take a closer look at the Start Menu:
Down the left-hand side, we have: Firefox (shortcut), Software Manager, System Settings/Control Center, Terminal, Files (same as File Explorer in Windows), Lock Screen, Log Out, Shutdown/Restart.
The center panel lists shortcuts to various applications and accessibility options. The software is listed in categories, and hovering the mouse cursor over an item will display all software relevant to that specific category.
Linux Software Manager
All popular Linux Distros come with a wide range of software pre-installed, so you’re good to go right out of the box. However, they also come with a built-in Software Manager (aka the repository), which opens up quick and easy access to dozens of additional applications:
Simply click whichever software you want to install and… bingo!
BOTTOM LINE:
Forget the old Linux days when the Terminal was king; modern distros are very much GUI-driven, in the same way that Windows is GUI-driven.
The comparisons in this article are very similar across all popular distros, so once you’re familiar with one, you’ll be pretty much familiar with them all. The main difference being which particular desktop layout suits you best.
Important note: when you boot into Linux for a look around, you’ll see a shortcut to “Install”. DO NOT CLICK THAT SHORTCUT.
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You can even bring many of your favorite Windows applications to Linux, if there’s no native app, using wine (Wine Is Not Emulation). 7-Zip, Sumatra and PDF XChange Editor PDF tools, 3DYouTube Downloader, MPC-HC media player, IrfanView image editor, and many others run well in wine. But keep Windows as a secondary OS, if you rely on an unsupported tool… If I could just find a version of tax software that works on Linux, I’d eliminate Windows alotogether.