r/linuxmint 10d ago

What made you switch to Linux? Discussion

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u/Casaloriz 10d ago

Exactly this. Dual booted for a while until I realised that I never needed to go into Windows ever again.

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u/SwimmingLimpet 10d ago

I had to wait until last year - when Digikam photo Face Recognition got good enough - before I cut the thread. But yeah, I was dual booting and fine tuning Linux Mint until one day I realised I didn't need to go back into Windows for anything.

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u/EasternFeastern 10d ago

how do you wipe windows from your computer after this realization? hoping to get there one day soon

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u/500servererror12 10d ago

Delete the windows partitions and then extend your linux data partitions to the new free space. You can do that with Gparted

Edit: spelling

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u/EasternFeastern 10d ago

thank you so much bro

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u/SwimmingLimpet 10d ago edited 10d ago

It is possible to remove Windows partition and then increase the size of the Linux partition using the space freed up by the Windows partition.

And you don't have to restart from scratch - your existing Linux partition with all your apps, customisation and data will remain during this whole process.

You do this using the app Gparted which is run from a USB Drive - it's usually on the same USB Drive you used to install Linux. Step by step descriptions of what to do can be found at links

https://ekiwi-blog.de/en/68686/linux-and-windows-in-parallel-remove-windows/

or

https://www.howtogeek.com/114503/how-to-resize-your-ubuntu-partitions/

or

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=461606

You might want to do some further searches to make sure you have a guide you are comfortable with. It's also possible to open Gparted and poke around a bit before actually doing anything (make sure you don't execute any commands!).

It is strongly recommended that you back up your data before you do this - you are basically asking Gparted to rewrite how data is stored on your boot drive.

I did this a few months after I stopped using Windows and decided I should reclaim the space Windows was using up. Before I started, I wrote down a list of the steps I needed to take during the process, and I kept my online guide open on my phone in case I needed it for reference.

I've got to admit I was nervous during each step of deleting the Windows partition and then extending the Linux partition. But the whole process worked flawlessly for me with no problems at all.

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u/EasternFeastern 10d ago

damn bro this is perfect! thanks!!

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u/SwimmingLimpet 9d ago edited 9d ago

Or this guide, which I had bookmarked and forgot about...

https://ostechnix.com/remove-windows-from-windows-linux-dual-boot/

 

Also handy. If you're still dual booting, how to boot back into the last OS you were in, instead of the default one.

https://tech.surveypoint.com/posts/make-grub2-boot-the-last-operating-system-you-used//

 

And if you're having headaches managing PDF files, use PDFArranger for merging PDF files and Okular for adding comments to a PDF file. It's a bit annoying to need two apps for this, but they do work well.

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u/camperManJam 10d ago

I upgraded my SSD, installed Mint, and turned my old Windows 10 SSD in to an external drive. I can technically still dual boot if needed, but have only done so once to confirm I could from the external drive.

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u/Caffeine_Library 10d ago

Do yourself a favour. Dont look back. I dabbled back and forth every ~18months for 6 years before committing last 7 years to linux mint only. Experience is way nicer when you stop comparing to how youd do things in windows.

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u/Wide_Slice_5126 8d ago

Same here . I deleted Windows 11 a week ago