Linux installation on Vista

Hello Floriane

I recommend that you turn to a mainstream distribution. I recommend:

• either Ubuntu (which is based on Debian),
• or Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu)

Regarding the download:

• For Ubuntu, there are several variants (including Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, ...) which are all variants of the same distribution (Ubuntu), ranked from the most resource-heavy to the lightest. Each of them preinstalls a different graphical environment: KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and LXDE.
  • In your case, I think that for Kubuntu and maybe Ubuntu, your PC will be a bit tight.
  • I would therefore lean more towards Xubuntu or Lubuntu, which are a bit less complete, but much lighter.
  • Note that this choice is not definitive. There's nothing stopping you from installing multiple graphical environments and choosing the one that suits you best at startup (and even uninstalling the initial one if you don't like it).
• Mint uses Cinnamon. It's an environment similar to Windows and quite light, and should normally be light enough for your PC.

Once you've made your choice, there are several strategies for installing Linux. I will just outline the major points as the goal is for you to see what to expect for each strategy and choose the one that seems best to you.

Heavy Virtualization:

Either in a virtual machine (VM) like VirtualBox. In practical terms, you install VirtualBox under Windows, then you install Linux in a virtual machine under VirtualBox. At startup, you thus launch Windows from which you launch VirtualBox, from which you launch Ubuntu.

• Advantages: everything happens under Windows, no big risks
• Disadvantages: a virtual machine thus installed is not very performant, particularly because the guest system (here Ubuntu) does not directly access the hardware.

WSL:

For modern Windows (Windows >= 10), it is possible to install Ubuntu through WSL. Practically, you continue to boot under Windows and from there you launch a Linux terminal.

• Advantages: everything happens under Windows, no big risks. More performant than a VirtualBox solution.
• Disadvantages: there are additional steps to install a graphical interface (see this link).

Live USB:

It is possible to install Linux on a bootable USB stick (see this link) using software like Rufus. In broad terms, you need to install the installation ISO of the Linux you are interested in, install Rufus, have a blank USB stick, and prepare it with Rufus to install the ISO file. Once the installation is done, when you start, either you insert your USB stick and boot into Linux, or you don't insert it and boot into Windows.

• Advantages: you don't touch the hard drive partitioning. You can carry your Linux without carrying your computer.
• Disadvantages: a USB stick has a limited lifespan (in particular, you should avoid creating a swap partition on it to preserve it), as swap is used if your PC runs out of memory or if you want to put Linux in hibernation.

Dual boot:

This is the most classic installation. The hard drive is partitioned so that Windows has its own partitions (C: ...) and Linux has its own (swap, /, /home).

• Regarding the installation:
  • If the Windows partitions cover the entire hard drive, you need to start by shrinking them to create vacant space in which you will install Linux.
    • This can be done under Linux in the disk manager or when installing Linux (at the partitioning stage).
    • Personally, I prefer to go through the disk manager (reserve at least 30GB).
  • You download the ISO of the Linux you are interested in and then prepare a USB stick or CD (like for a Live USB) with software like Rufus.
  • You back up all important files on another medium (a false manipulation can happen quickly)
  • You restart the computer using the Live USB, and then follow the installation procedure.
  • At the partitioning stage, be careful not to do automatic partitioning (to avoid overwriting the Windows partitions). Personally, I always do manual partitioning:
    • 20 GB for / in ext4 (Linux system)
    • 4 GB for swap in swap
    • The rest for /home in ext4 (user documents)
  • At the end of the installation, install grub on the main hard drive.
• Once the installation is complete, when you restart your computer, a menu (grub) appears and allows you to choose whether you want to boot into Linux or Windows.
• Advantages: it’s a real Linux, as performant as it can be.
• Disadvantages:
  • A bit technical the first time.
  • During installation, care must be taken not to overwrite your Windows partitions.
  • To uninstall Linux, it’s not enough to delete its partitions like a brute under Windows, because grub will always be present and in an inconsistent state. Therefore, you need to follow the instructions given in this tutorial.

Good luck

Hello,

I recommend linux Mint XFCE for its ease of installation and use.

Here is some documentation to install it:

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

First, you need to check the number of partitions used by Vista because you are limited to 4 primary partitions maximum on an MBR formatted hard drive.

When your installation media is ready, start a live session as explained in the documentation, open the terminal and type the command sudo fdisk -l (letter L)

Copy/paste the result here (in the terminal, the ctrl/C shortcut does not work, select the text with the mouse then right-click / Copy) and we will tell you what can be done.

Also provide the brand and model of your scanner, it is possible that there is a driver for linux (and therefore that you can do without Vista).

Thank you very much for these thorough answers.

I will study all of this.

My scanner is HP Scanjet G3110.

I'm going to use Mint XFCE installed on a USB stick.

Perfect, it works, thank you for your help.