I Took the Leap of Faith and Dumped My Windows 10 in Favor of Linux
And now I am twice more productive as a writer
If only, I had a new laptop. If only, I had faster Internet. The things our inner critic wants us to hear.
For us writers, if only, I had a nicer pen, if only, I had the inspiration. If only I had— and there are many more you can add here. It doesn’t stop, but it doesn’t mean you have to listen to it.
This year, I rediscovered my love for writing. I stopped years ago, in part because I never thought I could do it, and do it with regularity. I fought the inner voice. Today, I am still writing after eight months of doing it, day in and day out. Like many of you, writing is my remote work.
As a writer, I only need a laptop. I still use pen and paper, to scribble my thoughts. A writing tip I wish to share with my fellow writers, writing on paper gives a different writer’s high. Each stroke of a pen, touching the surface of a paper is a pleasurable experience.
I use my old laptop, it still works and why wouldn’t it as it is only 5 or 7 years old. I used it to surf the Internet and access social media. The very same things I do with my old iPhone 6.
I use my laptop when I want to watch Netflix or YouTube on a much bigger screen. I don’t own a smart TV or even a regular TV. I use my laptop if I want my Spotify music streamed louder, as it has an old speaker attached to it.
Everything is beginning to get old, me, and my stuff.
Whew, what a long introduction. But I want you to know where I am coming from. When I started to write again this year, all I needed and all I have is my laptop. It runs on Windows 10 Home Edition and it has 4 GB of RAM.
The laptop would fail me when I try to write and do my research on Google at the same time. Also, when I am on social media, or Spotify or YouTube.
My laptop wants to give up and I want to give up. Yes, I want to give up writing, when the laptop freezes or the Google Chrome freezes and stops responding. Now that I am writing about it, shouldn’t I be giving up on the other things I mentioned and not give up on writing?
The solution is either to get a new laptop which I can't afford right now. To add another 4 GB of RAM, or the dreaded last option, to reinstall Windows.
Without a doubt, my choice would be to reinstall windows as it will not cost me a dime.
But the whole process of it, like doing a proper backup of my data, documents, photos, will take days for me to do. All of which, I don't have time for, because I am writing, or is that my ego, now talking.
The other solution is to install another operating system. An operating system or OS is what makes a computer works. It is the software, that makes a hardware device as your computer comes to life.
Linux, here I come.
I am familiar with Linux. I geek about computer stuff. I have done it in the past, install another OS on my laptop. For some reason I would always come back to Windows, it could be because of some programs I felt, I needed, like Adobe Photoshop.
I can choose to do a dual boot for my laptop. It is my best solution, it will keep my Windows, and install a fresh Linux OS on my laptop. I would have the best of both worlds, and not only that, it will take less time and less effort on my part.
Which Linux Distro to choose?
What is a Linux Distro or distribution, think of it as the different flavors of Linux. There are many to choose from, but all I need is the simplest and the one that will use minimal resources. I opted to try Linux Mint.
It is one of the most popular Linux Distros, like the other open-source Linux distros, it is free. It is a derivative of Ubuntu, another popular Linux Distro.
It took me days, procrastination is my enemy. I tell myself, it can wait, because I am writing. Until one day, in the middle of writing, Google Chrome came crashing. If not now, when?
How to Install Linux Mint 20 and create a dual boot laptop with Windows installed.
I did some research and found this link. The instructions are easy to follow.
First, a disclaimer. This worked for me but I can’t guarantee it will work for you. All I can say is, have the courage and be brave.
For your safety, you can do the following steps.
1. Back up your data: You are going to touch disk partitions. Normally, it’s not a big issue but just in case you touched the wrong partition, you may lose data. So my advice is to back up your important files, documents, music, movies, etc to an external disk or cloud, whichever suits you.
2. Have a boot repair disk: If your boot gets messed up, you can try to repair it with boot repair disk. If you have an extra USB or CD, you can use that to create a boot repair disk.
3. Have a live or recovery disk of Windows ready: If your boot gets messed up and despite all efforts, you ended with an unbootable system, you can use the Windows disk to reinstall Windows.
How to Install Linux Mint
Follow these steps
- I have to check my laptop if it has bios or UEFI. I need the information when I create the UEFI bootable USB flash drive. To check, on Windows, go to Systems Information by typing it under the Start panel.
- Download Linux Mint 20 Ulyana disk image or the ISO, always download the latest version.
- Before you create your bootable USB flash drive, make sure you have already created a new partition for Linux Mint.
- There are ways to create a bootable USB flash drive, but I found Rufus as a light and easy software to do the job. Follow the instructions, and use the Linux Mint 20 Ulyana disk image or the ISO, you have downloaded.
- Now, that you have a bootable USB flash drive. Continue with the instructions here, and read it twice and carefully.
Everything worked out fine. I haven't done Linux for years, and it has become even more user friendly for newbies. It will not take an hour to finish everything.
When I did the final restart it is as if my old laptop is reborn. It feels fresh, like a new laptop out of the box.
Out with the old and in with the new.
I had to install Google Chrome. There is a browser preinstalled with Linux Mint, the reliable Firefox. But with Google Chrome I can use the extensions like Grammarly and sync it using my Google account.
The caveat being is that Google Chrome for Linux works only with a 64-bit operating system.
The final test would be, if Google Chrome will freeze on me, or will it stop responding, that was my problem with my Google Chrome on Windows.
I do my writing on Google docs, I work on a browser tab along with some other tabs, which I know I should correct. As a rule, I should stop opening too many Google Chrome tabs while I write.
Habits die hard. I had too many extensions installed with Google Chrome on Windows 10, another reason why it keeps on crashing.
Everything is working as it should be. I opened Google docs and started to write.
Everything now is on the cloud. I save everything on my Google cloud account. It dawned on me, in the last eight months of writing, I didn’t use nor need any Windows application or software. It was all in the browser.
I still opened a few tabs, okay, a lot of tabs, and Google Chrome didn't crash.
I promised myself to use my laptop no matter how old it is, exclusively for writing.
I have found a simple text editor called Ghostwriter, it can be another way to instill in me the discipline of distraction-free writing. Although, when I looked there is already one pre-installed with Linux Mint.
Takeaway
I realized how most of us, especially writers don't need a Windows laptop or even the more expensive Apple MacBook. More so, what we need from our laptops is minimal.
Writing has never been about the equipment you use. It is the will to continue writing not only when it is easy and convenient but when writing becomes hard and difficult.
As I am writing this on my “new” laptop with Linux, I can only listen to the words playing in my head.
The laptop will not produce the words, it is the writer in you, who will.
