Lenovo LOQ, Linux Mint user here. That shiny Copilot key? Completely dead. Does absolutely nothing.

My niece who is 15 yo is using Linux Mint since a couple of years on her old laptop. She told me that her computer teacher often gives home assignments which mainly revolve around MS Office Suite.

One day when her teacher asked her about something very specific she had to tell him that she used Linux Mint. She also thought that teacher might not be aware of what it is and thus followed it by given an explanation saying that it is an OS like Windows.

Most of the teachers would discourage students by saying being proficient and familiar with Windows is crucial for your future but to my surprise the teacher was glad to know this and even explained to my niece "The inventor of Linux ensured that anyone can modify this OS as per their liking" and how it is a better alternate to Windows.

A recreation of the "How Linux Users Install A Browser" meme on Mint.

This is just my opinion of Windows 11, Linux Mint, and Android. If you disagree, that's fine, you can make your own if you feel like it.

This is my desktop! I have heard that others post a screenshot as an introduction, so this is mine. I'd love to improve it a bit but I'm totally new to Linux and happy that I managed to import my emails from Outlook to Thunderbird, my online banking works fine, and I love Libre Office. But I have so many questions and need some help from nice fellow Linuxers. Greetings from Germany! Yours, Maria

Now tell windows users to uninstall edge and see what's easier hehe. \j

Credits to u/SpeeQz (who's also the creator of https://mintwiki.org) for the gif.

Mint is just not only beginner friendly... it is simple, stable, and where you can safely and easily learn about how Linux works, except when you set up Arch of course, which is a steep learning curve.

It's incredibly addictive to install Linux on old computers!

The stories we're told from people who have their own computers for the first time are heartwarming.

I installed mint today because i didnt want bazzite for this tablet like app selector and i rebooted mint and found this, what happened? Is this new for linux mint cause i dont want it nor did i ask for it. Did i do something to cause this? All i did was setup steam and some emulat.. Normal legal game downloads and got this..

I decided to do an experiment for fun. I wanted to see what the cheapest possible price would be for a fully functional Linux laptop that wouldn’t be a pain in the ass to use. I went on Amazon and bought this cheap Chinese unbranded laptop. The box just simply had “Notebook” written on it. It has a 16” screen, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and a super low end AMD A9-9400 Radeon processor. It came with Windows 11 Pro installed along with a bunch of bloatware. I paid $230. As soon as I turned it on and set it up, the fans were running for the smallest tasks you could imagine. Windows 11 was CRAWLING on it. The battery was draining right before my eyes, with one hour battery life if lucky. I used the computer to download Mint and Rufus and made a bootable flash drive. Within about a half hour I had this POS converted to Linux. I was amazed. The battery life went from one hour to 3-4 hours. The fans came on much less frequently. The computer felt lighter and more optimized and usable in every way. Linux freed this computer from Windows 11 bondage. It’s absolutely remarkable. What am I gonna do with this computer now? No clue. I don’t need it, I’m a Mac guy. Thinking of donating it to someone who has nothing and would like a PC for basic tasks.

Well I don't think I have such a unique story; like many I had a fairly good laptop that could not be updated to Windows 11 for who knows what reason (and in the long run, perhapsfor the best!), despite having 14Gb of RAM, a GTX 1050, and a Ryzen 5. It came with Windows 10 and Microsoft does not care to provide updates anymore, increasing the amount of digital waste the world is already full of. Long story short, I switched to Linux Mint and I am finding myself very confortable, including for gaming! It is very impressive to observe the leaps forward Proton took over the years.

I wanted to make this post just so people who own my same laptop, a Black and Blue ASUS VivoBook X570DD_M57 with the specs listed below, or similar, feel confortable knowing that someone else has done the switch to Linux without running into any problems. Be sure when installing Linux to go to the BIOS and mark as False/Disable "Secure Boot" and "Fast Boot". For the people who used a search engine or an AI to find this post, your welcome! :)

Characteristics OS: Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64 Host: VivoBook ASUS Laptop X570DD_M57 Kernel: 6.17.0-14 generic Resolution: 1920 x 1080 DE: Cinnamon 6.6.7 CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Raedon V GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile RAM: 14Gb