How to replace Windows XP Pro with Linux Mint?

Hello guys and please forgive me for jumping straight in with what must be a pretty straightforward Q. I have checked a few of the FAQs and taken the Linux selector, which pointed me towards Mint.

Ive (re)installed Windows a few times (which is my problem, its getting too frequent!) so while i can follow an install, format the drive and create a partition etc, im by no means very good if i have to do anything manually, without a prompt.

Questions if you dont mind.... :)

1. I have Windows XP Pro at moment, are there any known issues with overwriting this with Linux Mint? as long as Linux works im happy to banish Windows forever, dual boot not needed.

2. As i gather Mint is Linux for dummies (only joking, i include myself!) is the install pretty much prompt led, similar to a Windows install, or will i be expected to do anything that isn't reasonably obvious (bearing in mind my experience)?

3. Its a desktop PC, connected to Virgin broadband in the UK by wireless connection. I want to use Firefox browser if possible. Its mainly internet though i do use Bluetooth to connect things a fair bit. I will want some kind of package that's compatible with Microsoft Word and Excel. Will any of these cause any issues?

Thank you in advance!
Paul

It is pretty straight forward and automatic if you want it to be. The last time I installed Mint (release 12) it gave three options on boot to install alongside other system if you have any, to erase disk and install and a third option called Something Else which is basically a Manual or Advanced installation which gives you more control. If you want to simply replace another operating system and have only Mint, just use the Erase disk option.

You would have to go to the site for Mint, download the appropriate iso image, burn it to a CD/DVD as an image after doing and md5 checksum to verify the download. Instructions should be on the site, otherwise it's easy to find a site explaining it. After burning the image to a CD, you just put it in the CD drive, make sure your computer is set to boot from the CD drive and let it go.

If you want to dual boot with xp for a while, you need to select a different option. There are numerous tutorials on installing Mint if you google that. You should have either Open Office or Libre Office available which are similar to Word. Don't know about your broadband provider but if it is a large company, should be no problem. Firefox comes with Mint.

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Originally Posted by random7100

1. I have Windows XP Pro at moment, are there any known issues with overwriting this with Linux Mint? as long as Linux works im happy to banish Windows forever, dual boot not needed.

2. As i gather Mint is Linux for dummies (only joking, i include myself!) is the install pretty much prompt led, similar to a Windows install, or will i be expected to do anything that isn't reasonably obvious (bearing in mind my experience)?

3. Its a desktop PC, connected to Virgin broadband in the UK by wireless connection. I want to use Firefox browser if possible. Its mainly internet though i do use Bluetooth to connect things a fair bit. I will want some kind of package that's compatible with Microsoft Word and Excel. Will any of these cause any issues?

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Hello and welcome! :)

1) there shouldn't be any problems
2) yes, it's a self-guided installer that should be simple for you
3) you can try LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) as noted above; otherwise there shouldn't be any problems

If you are unfamiliar with burning iso files, be sure to check the following article for the steps to properly download the iso file, burn it to disk as an image, and then boot your computer with your new Linux installation disk:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ins...ll-cd-dvd.html

Thanks for the replies, I will read that link as well oz, thanks. I have been reading up on Linux Mint and apparently there is an inbuilt function where you can use Windows wireless card drivers (Virgin Media, my provider doesnt officially support Linux), so that sounds promising towards internet connection. Might take me a little while to get round to doing this, but il let you guys know how i get on

Well, ive downloaded the correct version using uTorrent and burnt the .iso image to DVD, which has burnt fine. First step done! will try out the boot from DVD 'preview' function and hopefully do the install over next few days.

As it is my first ever Linux install i am now thinking of installing as a dual boot with the existing XP Pro until i can prove to myself i can get everything working ok on Linux. Im a bit dubious about how easy its gonna be to set up my wireless broadband connection, so at least that way i can boot back into XP and do further research on here if things don't work initially :)

Once its all sorted and tested il hopefully not use Windows again and may then do another clean Linux install and get rid of XP totally :) I guess its always better, or theoretically better to just have the one OS rather than a dual boot, esp using something as buggy and crashy (technical terms!) as my XP has become?

I feel all has been explained, but to add more i will say you will have to format windows partitions during the installation. You may give other directories their own space since you don't have a dual boot. You may dedicate space to /home, /swap, /root, /usr, /opt and /temp.

I like to reply to these threads to help fellow newbies transition over but someone always points something out that makes me reconsider what I previously typed. Granted, text is hard to take and without writing a novel, it is assumed it could be taken many ways. However, I will give you an opinion on a couple things...

Being a Windows "supporter" and spending many, many hours with the system, please take this into consideration:

1.) I dual-booted forever and every time I'd encounter an error, I'd revert to Windows because it was my safe haven. I recently got rid of it on every machine and was determined to use Linux on every machine. I would consider making your primary PC Linux only to force yourself to use it and get to know it. If there is something that is crucial for you to do and do quickly, keep a different pc for that purpose... or dual boot if you must. My point is if you want to truly "use" Linux, get rid of Windows. I almost feel like the bad guy and this might not be your goal but I'm trying to get more and more people to leave Windows. :)

2.) Libre Office, if I understand right, is the trend, as many people from Open Office have abandoned it and LO is the new "office system". I will tell you from personal experience, it is buggy. I have a spreadsheet with 68 tabs and some sheets only have a couple lines of entry. However, upon adding new tabs and information, some of that carries over from previous tabs into the new sheets as information would have been added a page or two down but wasn't. It does have bugs. For this instance only, I would suggest using Wine or CrossOver to install your office applications if there is any degree of complexity involved.

3.) To get you accustomed to Linux, transition is hard sometimes. I would suggest you run Linux Mint (preferably Cinnamon theme) to become comfortable with it. It is somewhat similar in "terms of feel", yet gives you the ability to differentiate.

Just an opinion and welcome to Linux! :)