Last year I switched to Linux, so I’m a recent “convert” and have learned a lot. I would highly recommend moving to Linux over paying Microsoft more money!

1a) As far as I understand, Linux is usually installed using ext4 or btrfs, while Windows uses NTFS by default. Moving files between the two will work, I was able to move files from my NTFS Windows drive to my btrfs Fedora drive very easily. No issues there.

One thing I found out while troubleshooting something, since exFAT doesn’t support symlinks, files when directly moving from my btrfs drive to an exFAT external SSD were way bigger, which was annoying when I was distro hopping (where I copied my home folder, the folder where all user data is stored basically, from Fedora to be restored on EndeavourOS. Yes, you can do that do save all your program settings, themes, documents, pictures, etc. all at once when moving between Linux distros, it’s pretty awesome. I was surprised that my theme persisted actually!). I solved the issue by using the “tar” command to create a tar archive file, which preserves symlinks (even when in a file system that doesn’t support it), so I was able to copy the home folder onto the external SSD with lots of room to spare, even without compression! This only applies if you are moving lots of system files, Wine prefixes, that sort from a Linux file system to an exFAT or similarly symlink incompatible external SSD that I couldn’t reformat to a more compatible one due to Windows users using it, but I thought it would be helpful.

1b) Most programs should work fine through Wine, and the ones that don’t usually might have a few visual glithchs or simply crash. Usually there isn’t loss of data, unless you’re running a program where you are editing, say, a document, and it crashes before you are able to save (that would count as lost data. There are a bunch of Linux-native document editors though so that wouldn’t be a problem)

1c) To copy bookmarks, you can export them as an HTML file. Specific settings can be easily synced with Firefox sync or, if you don’t want to make a Mozilla account, I think you can also just copy the profile directory (go to about:support and there’s a button to open the directory) or the stuff in that directory that you want to keep, quite handy!

1d) Aside from .exe (and similar Windows-specific stuff, like .msi for installers), most file types should work fine (PDFs, images, videos, MS Office files, audio, all that should work!). Even some extensions related to proprietary software (like .ai for Adobe Illustrator files) can sometimes work with Linux-native apps (like Inkscape) but there might be compatibility bugs here and there.

1e) Everything stored on the USB isn’t saved in a live boot environment, it’s meant for you to test out the feel of the operating system, see if WiFi/Bluetooth/etc work, that sort. I highly recommend trying Linux distributions in a live environment first as you can test basic compatibility as well as see if you like the desktop experience (e.g. if you are deciding between GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon)

1f) Linux is thought to be more secure not just because it has a lower desktop market share, but also because it’s open-source (meaning anyone can check the code for vulnerabilities and exploits). This is one of the reasons why Linux has a very high server market share. They do exist, so you still have to be mindful as with any operating system!!!

If you accidentally run Windows malware through Wine, unless it’s some really sophisticated stuff, it is unlikely that it will spread to your Windows drive. Even if it was likely, it’s not really a reason to not go with Linux, as Windows malware would be worse on Windows.

1g) Most distributions have the option for including Nvidia graphics drivers, but do your research as there are some cards that don’t have great compatibility. If you have very new hardware, I would recommend you go for a distribution that has a faster release cycle (like Fedora or, if you’re a tinkerer, a rolling release option like Arch-based distros) over ones that have slower ones (like Debian or Ubuntu-based distros).

If you go for Fedora, make sure to enable “third-party repositories” or “proprietary repositories” when installing the distro, as it is needed to install Nvidia drivers, Steam, and a few other things, and the option becomes hidden in a bunch of menus if you don’t click that during the setup screen. I did not select this option when installing Fedora, so it took me ages to find out how to install Steam. Don’t make the same mistake as me!

edit: I have added additional notes on some Linux tips as a comment below:

(Skipping the Windows questions since that’s no longer my area of expertise.)

1a - Is there no file system that works perfectly on both Linux and Windows? I could technically dual-boot using two different drives, but what if I need to access/move files between two drives with different file systems? Which issues would I face if, say, one is NTFS and the other is ext4? I think all of my drives are currently in NTFS, would I have to reformat everything to safely access them from Linux without worrying about data/metadata loss?

NTFS works perfectly on both Linux and Windows.

In a typical dual boot system, you’d have Windows on an NTFS partition and Linux on an ext4 partition. Linux could see, open, and modify the Windows NTFS partition if you want, but Windows does not support ext4 and would not be able to see or open the Linux partition. (If you try, Windows will say ‘there was a problem with this device’ and offer to “fix” it for you. Don’t let Windows do that – it will wipe your Linux partition.)

If you really want Windows to be able to open and use your Linux partition, you could install Linux on an NTFS partition. That’s generally not recommended and not ideal, but it is possible. If you do that, then both Windows and Linux will be able to access and use each other’s partitions. However, running Linux on NTFS is non-standard and weird, which means you might possibly run into non-standard and weird bugs that will require nonstandard and weird help in order to fix.

There’s also another even crazier solution: it’s possible to install Linux and Windows on the same NTFS partition. This is more of a ‘Look at the crazy thing I did!’ stunt, though, and nobody would recommend that for daily use. I definitely wouldn’t recommend that for a beginner!

But, in general, it’s best to go with the default approach of having Windows on NTFS and Linux on ext4. Any data you want to share between the two can be saved on the Windows partition, or on a separate third NTFS partition/thumb drive/online storage. If you really need to move data from Windows to Linux while running Windows, your best bet is to install some cloud storage/sync application in both, so you can easily send things from one to the other over the internet. I would recommend Dropbox or Mega, both of which work very well on Linux with native Linux clients available.

1b - I read that to open an .exe on Linux I would have to do it through WINE, and that there’s a database to check compatibility of individual programs with it,

Yes: https://appdb.winehq.org/

But always take those ratings with a grain of salt. Getting Windows applications to run on Linux is often a tricky business, and what works in one person’s setup might not work in another person’s slightly different setup. The good news is that this has been a very active area of development lately and is improving quickly. And a shocking number of Windows programs already do work quite well. But being able to run a Windows application in Linux still isn’t a sure thing, and it may often require some tweaking and messing around with various settings to get something to work well.

but are the worst compatibility issues just “the program doesn’t open”, or can a compatibility issue result in data loss/corruption too?

Generally, yes, it’s quite safe to try. 90% of the time, if the program isn’t working through Wine, that will express itself as “I try to launch the program and nothing happens.” Another 10% will be “The program launches, but often crashes when I try to do xyz in it.”

It’s very unlikely that attempting to run Windows software through Wine will mess up anything else in your system or damage any of your data. (Though if you’re opening and working with data in a Windows program through wine and then the program suddenly crashes, the data that the program was working with could possibly get corrupted that way.)

Also, when running Windows software through Wine, you do have to be careful of malware. Generally, Linux is extremely resistant to malware, even in this case, but if the Windows program you’re trying to run includes malware, there is a chance that it could end up doing undesirable things to your Linux system, or at least that it could infect or mess up your Wine installation.

1c - I’m currently using Firefox on Windows, is it possible to copy all my settings and data (browsing history included) from the Windows version to the Linux one?

Very possible.

Easy way: In your current Windows system, make a Firefox account (if you don’t have one already), and enable online synchronization of everything that’s important to you. Wait for it to fully synchronize (this could take a while if you have a lot of data in it). Then boot into Linux and sign into your Firefox account in Linux. Everything you synchronized should automatically transfer to the new system. (And as an extra bonus, any new changes in Linux will also transfer back to Windows if you’re dual booting and go back to Windows.) This might not be the best approach if you’re paranoid about your privacy, though, since all your browser’s information will then be stored online, where it could potentially be hacked/leaked.

Hard way: It’s also possible to transfer the data over manually: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles – Doing it that way is likely to be much more involved and difficult, but you keep local control over all your data, so there’s no privacy risk.

1d - Other than specific .exe without WINE compatibility, are there any relatively common file types which can’t be opened with Linux that I should be aware of? (Mostly talking about picture/video/audio/text files, compressed archives or similar).

Generally, no. Way back in the day, maybe. But today, you’re not likely to run into any file compatibility issues at all.

Two things you might actually encounter, though:

• A file type that can only be opened in a specific Windows application, and that application isn’t available on Linux and doesn’t run well in Wine. This is generally quite rare, but if you’re working with some very specific and niche Windows software, it could be a problem you encounter.

• Some files require proprietary, closed-source codecs to open and work with them. (Especially certain kinds of video files.) Most beginner-friendly Linux distros will come with those proprietary codecs already installed and you won’t have any issues opening those files. However, some Linux distros are very purist about it and will not include any closed-source code … so they don’t include the codecs to open those proprietary file formats. Even in that case, though, it’s usually pretty easy to manually install those codecs if you need them, and that will solve the problem … at the cost of your system no longer being purely open source. Some distros present this as an option during installation – if your distro’s installer asks you if you want to install proprietary packages/3rd party packages/closed source packages/etc … as a beginner, you should probably say yes.

1e - What can I mess up by testing an USB live version? Are there any things I should be careful about? I’ve heard “changes aren’t saved”, but that’s referring only to OS configuration, right?

Essentially nothing. When booting a live USB version for testing, it will not make any permanent changes to your system at all.

It’s possible to make permanent changes, but only if you do so on purpose. Most live USB versions will be able to see your NTFS partition, but they will see it in read-only mode and they won’t make any changes to it. You’d have to manually and deliberately re-mount the partition in read-write mode to be able to make any changes to it. Some live USB images also come with an ‘install’ option, often as a desktop icon. Don’t run that if you don’t want to make any changes to your system. (But even in that case, it will probably warn you that you’re about to make permanent changes and give you an option to cancel.)

And, going back to file systems, can I even access the data that’s on my NTFS drive from a live version or would I just be working with the stuff inside the USB?

Data that’s on your NTFS drive would typically be visible, but read-only, so you can’t change it.

Many USB live versions don’t (by default) include any writable storage. Any change you make will be undone and reverted every time you reboot it, and every boot takes you into the default version, exactly how it was the first time. Some live USB versions will give you an option to create writable storage either on your hard drive or on the USB itself, but that’s usually something you have to deliberately set up (because you want changes you make to stay after rebooting).

1f - I read often that “you can’t get viruses on Linux”, but that’s mostly because they’re not developed specifically for it, so you might “get” them but they won’t work, right?

Pretty much, yes. Though with the increasing popularity of Linux, that may begin to change.

But, also, Linux is at its core a more secure operating system with fewer weaknesses for a virus to exploit. But you definitely should still be careful what software you download and run. Get your Linux software from trusted sources, not from third party sources that may have edited the code.

If I dual boot, is there the chance that I get a malware while browsing with Linux and then it infects my pc when I boot Windows?

It’s possible, sure. But extremely unlikely.

The most likely way this could happen is if you download an infected file in Linux, then boot into Windows and open the infected file.

1g - Which Pc components should I pay attention to because they/their drivers might not work on Linux? Is there a site/tool that can check if my current hardware would have any issues?

You could spend hours researching, but the easiest way to find out would be to just boot a live USB version to test it.

1a - NTFS. Some may recommend exFAT but I strongly don’t recommend it, it’s not a journaling FS (so may corrup on power loss etc) and awfully slow. I’m pretty sure there’s no problem with NTFS on Linux now, but I don’t guarantee though… I still use the old ntfs-3g fuse driver because I’m lazy to run the latest kernel. It’s slower than the kernel driver, but works well and stable.

1b - Program’s specific feature may not work, malfunction or crash. It surely can corrupt a file e.g. you run a document editor in WINE and the program crashes while the file is open. But usually it tends to work pretty well for many programs these days.

1c - Yes. Go to about:profiles on your Firefox, click “Open folder” and copy your profile folder to your linux install on ~/.mozilla/firefox/

1d - Not that I’m aware of.

1e - Don’t format your existing drive, should be safe then. If you’re really paranoid about losing data, disconnect the drives physically before testing the live distro. Yes the changes not being saved means changes you make to the linux session wouldn’t persist and get reset the next time you boot that live usb. You can access your NTFS drives like normal even on live, there should be no difference to a full install to internal drive.

1f - Unlike Windows where you get programs from each program dev’s website, on Linux you usually install them from your linux distro’s repo. So unless you run sketchy binaries and scripts from 3rd party, it should be safe. You very likely would never get infected by simply browsing. No need to worry about that part. The Linux drive also wouldn’t be accessible to Windows side, so unless your whole system including the Windows drive gets “infected” you’re safe. If that happens you have bigger issues.

1g - Recent-ish nvidia card shouldn’t be an issue. The easiest way to find out is to just trying to boot a live USB and see if things work.

2a - Win10 has multiple versions, like 1609/1703/1709/1803/…/21H2. LTSC is their “long term service channel” where they maintain a specific version for an extended time. They also have multiple editions, Home/Pro/Enterprise etc. What you’re looking for is “Windows 10 Enterprise IoT LTSC 21H2”. IoT means it’s getting 10 years of support unlike normal LTSC which only has 5 years, 21H2 is the latest version. Enterprise (IoT) LTSC is also cleaner (less bloat) than Enterprise.

2b - You can everything you do on the normal editions. It’s hard to legally obtain an Enterprise IoT LTSC license, but it’s no issue since this is your personal machine. (use massgrave ohook or hwid for activation) Unlike normal versions you won’t get pre-installed Candy Crush or Tiktok.

2c - Their method of keeping files should work fine, but it could go wrong. You should backup your existing Windows install if you decide to do this. Use dd on linux, CloneZilla maybe if you favor GUIs, to backup your whole Windows drive as an image you can restore to later. If you do a clean install with LTSC your system would be a bit more cleaner, since “upgrading” from normal Windows does keep the clutter from the normal version. I’d recommend clean install if you don’t tend to spend a lot of time configuring your system. massgrave MAS works fine, no need to buy sketchy keys.

3 - Yes there are those kinda malwares. Theoretically yes, not connecting to the internet at all is the safest. Realistically, if you keep a firewall(your home router in most caes) and block incoming ports, you should be safe. There are people still running WinXP for fun and they don’t get random malwares out of nowhere. Just don’t download anything weird. But anyway, I don’t recommend regular Win10, just switch to IoT LTSC :)

Hope this helps.

Don’t use an EoL/EoS OS, full stop.

Start up virtualbox or any virtual machine on your windows machine and test drive a few different distributions until you find one you like.

Use windows built in backup services or something like the Veeam free backup agent before blowing up your system.

I would also move my files to a cloud services, even if it’s temporary.

Install the distribution your choice.

Spin up virtual box again and restore your machine into it. You may have license activation issues but you’ll have access your data. Move your data out of the VM and onto your home folder.

Also note that win11 isn’t nearly as bad as people here say.

Linux has malware. It’s just different. Linux supports nvidia, a usb boot would help you determine how well your hardware is supported.

**1b **- boot a Mint live usb and just try running whatever exes you need in wine. (copy them onto another fat32 usb to run them from and no risk). They might be slower but you should get an idea whether they work or not.

If one doesn’t work try asking on linux community to see if anyone can help. Or searching online and protondb of course it might be helpful to say what programmes or types of programs you use , people might have advice or suggested alternatives.

If you get a linux system going you can set up a windows virtual machine (vm) from linux using QEMU+KVM - i find this better than virtualbox. But it’d be odd to do that from a live usb, so use your test system if you want to test that. You could keep a win 10 v.m virtually sandboxed in a qemu and block it’s network accesss - just use it for whatever exes don’t work well enough on windows - might slighly kink the workflow though if you need internet, or to pass files around.

But any hardware not working on linux obviously can’t be made available to vm.

1g - For hardware, again boot a live usb and test out everything. If you can’t get anything working then try posting for specific help. This might be the case where a newer linux kernel (than whatever Mint is up to) is beneficial, if you have some bleeding edge hardware that might only be in the latest kernel versions.

Linux user for close to 30 years, here. Exclusively on linux since 2015 or thereabouts. I’ll give my tidbits on your linux-related questions, but I am no authority on this, as I still consider myself a newbie on the subject:

1a - Is there no file system that works perfectly on both Linux and Windows? I could technically dual-boot using two different drives, but what if I need to access/move files between two drives with different file systems? Which issues would I face if, say, one is NTFS and the other is ext4? I think all of my drives are currently in NTFS, would I have to reformat everything to safely access them from Linux without worrying about data/metadata loss?

In general, Linux have good to great support for windows’ filesystems, NTFS included. The other way around is a bit more iffy - I remember that there was some sort of plugin/program that allowed me to mount an ext4 volume on Windows 7 eons ago, but I’m not sure how well it’s doing today. When I dualbooted, I solved this by using Windows as normal, and mounting the windows volume (NTFS) in linux. exfat is widely supported b6 “everything”, so if you set up a shared volume, that’s what I’d recommend using.

1b - I read that to open an .exe on Linux I would have to do it through WINE, and that there’s a database to check compatibility of individual programs with it, but are the worst compatibility issues just “the program doesn’t open”, or can a compatibility issue result in data loss/corruption too?

Compatibility with windows software is very forgiving. It doesn’t really cause any corruption in the sense that a windows program won’t go amok on your linux installation and start wrecking stuff because it’s not incompatible. It’s more a matter of it failing to start properly, or doesn’t work the way it should.
However, this isn’t as complicated as it might seem. Many games, for example, run fine via Proton in Steam, and this is more or less a transparent process in that you don’t have to do anything special.
And it’s worth noting that most windows software has a native linux alternative. I suggest you do some research into specific programs you need, and see if there’s a linux release for it, or if there’s a viable alternative for you.

1c - I’m currently using Firefox on Windows, is it possible to copy all my settings and data (browsing history included) from the Windows version to the Linux one?

I honestly don’t know. Firefox has been advertising its sync feature to me for ages, but I never bothered with checking it out.

1d - Other than specific .exe without WINE compatibility, are there any relatively common file types which can’t be opened with Linux that I should be aware of? (Mostly talking about picture/video/audio/text files, compressed archives or similar).

No. A file is in itself not a limitation. Only the programs used to read and interpret them are. I have not found a common file type that doesn’t have a linux native program for reading it.

1e - What can I mess up by testing an USB live version? Are there any things I should be careful about? I’ve heard “changes aren’t saved”, but that’s referring only to OS configuration, right? And, going back to file systems, can I even access the data that’s on my NTFS drive from a live version or would I just be working with the stuff inside the USB?

A live USB version doesn’t affect your system (under normal circumstances). It reads everything it needs from the USB, and if you install software, it is only installed in memory and not on your harddrive or USB stick. It is possible to mount your existing filesystems and access your persistent storage that way, but you will only affect it in whatever manner you chose to. So in other words, if you boot from a live USB, you have to actually try to ruin anything on your disk - I’m having a hard time imagining how one would do this by accident.
I recommend trying it to get a feel for the OS and see if it’s something you can get used to. It’s worth noting that it will be somewhat limited, as it probably won’t have GPU drivers, and anything you configure or install will disappear upon reboot.

1f - I read often that “you can’t get viruses on Linux”, but that’s mostly because they’re not developed specifically for it, so you might “get” them but they won’t work, right? If I dual boot, is there the chance that I get a malware while browsing with Linux and then it infects my pc when I boot Windows (even without consciously opening unknown .exe files)?

In theory it’s possible, but in practice it doesn’t happen. A virus targeting linux for people who dualboot is a very narrow target area, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

1g - Which Pc components should I pay attention to because they/their drivers might not work on Linux? Is there a site/tool that can check if my current hardware would have any issues? (For example, I have a Nvidia graphics card and I think I read that might be a problem?)

Hardware compatibility isn’t much of an issue that anymore. I see a lot of people complaining about NVIDIA drivers on linux, but I never had any issues myself. I run a fairly stock Linux Mint 22.1, and everything worked out of the box.
On my previous install, when the laptop was brand new, I had to update the kernel so that I could install an NVIDIA driver new enough to handle my GPU, but it wasn’t much of an issue.
It is worth noting that hardware compatibility often comes down to your choice of distro. While all distros are technically compatible, some distros are more focused on “It should just work out of the box” and that’s why I prefer Mint as a desktop OS. Only hardware I’ve never been able to make work was a PCI TV receiver card I had once upon a time.
If your hardware is reasonably common, you can be sure some annoyed kernel hacker somewhere made a driver for it.

1a. Linux can access NTFS and exFAT without issue so can read and write your disks. 1b. Usually the software you want already exists on Linux or has an equivalent. Wine can run most things fine but I’d suggest just convert your Windows install into a Virtual Machine image and use that instead for any complex proprietary software which chances are you don’t have. 1c. Firefox and it’s forks have portable profiles. You can literally just export your passwords and bookmarks anyway. 1d. Nope. 1e. Just run it from a virtual machine if you are paranoid. Normally you just boot up, try it out and if you feel like it install. 1f. Everything can get viruses, it’s just that most that tend to be aimed at Linux are more after servers than home users currently. 1g. Chances are everything will work out of the box, but things like unusual peripherals like a capture card etc may need software installed.

Linux Mint has good driver support and a tool to install drivers for more obscure hardware in most cases.

Spreading LTSC agenda here:

2b - there are only upsides imo. Group policy editor for example, no preinstalled crap, old built-in utils (no crappy “paint”), can even uninstall edge and keep IE if you wanna be funny. Once you’ve tried enterprise or pro you’ll never want to touch home versions again lol. Games work fine as long as you’re on the 21 iot version, older ones had some trouble with first-party stuff in my experience.

As for 2c, massgrave worked fine for me. I got the image file somewhere else though, might’ve been the-eye, rip.

Try and just answer in order without writing a novel:

1a: exFAT/FAT32 work just fine everywhere. NTFS works fine from Linux, but due to it sucking, may eventually lead to corruption. Ext4 works from Windows with a plugin.

1b: There are very few Windows programs that you can’t find a Linux alt for, and Wine does work on almost everything. Few exceptions would be from the developer of said software intentionally making it difficult. Adobe suite (soon to be fixed) is tricky, some kernel level anti-cheat games won’t work online, and some corpo software with crypt locks may be tough. There are emany simple Wine managers like Bottles to help make this dead simple.

1c: Firefox profiles are fully portable to any other Firefox install.

1d: No. Every media format is covered. This is not an OS thing though, this is an application thing. I can’t think of many apps that use proprietary local data formats anymore. You’d be better served asking about something specific.

1e: Nothing. It doesn’t touch any of your filesystems unless YOU touch them. Don’t delete anything, and you’re fine. It should even automount your existing identified partitions for you to browse through.

1f: “Viruses” and other malware don’t really exist on Linux or MacOS because of the permissions structure. Your regular user doesn’t have permission to alter the global system without a password. Don’t execute random code by giving it that password, and you’re fine. Your regular operates in its own sandbox, which is your user profile. Anything stupid you do as that user is just localized damage to that user.

1g: Very few things won’t work, and it’s likely to be some small production run variety of something. A cheap components by an unknown manufacturer with Windows-specific interactions is about it. Just stick to well known manufacturers, and do your research first. Even then, in time, most things get support if there is a large enough consumer base for that device.

2-3: I wouldn’t even bother trying to figure any of this out, because Microsoft constantly changes their mind about this, and they’ll soon just force you into this abomination of Windows 12 they’ve been talking about recently.

Ok, I have 4 computers in my house and 2 are running Fedora and 2 are running win11.

I try my best to go 100% Linux, but it’s simply not possible for me. I have photography software that is only on Windows. Excire Foto and Insta360 PC app to pull pro res from the camera. Also the Sony camera software to convert the raw photos into a useable file.

I tried for hours to figure it out with bottles with zero success.

So I still have to run windows for some key software.

Give this to the linux instances.