Wanna give Linux a try? Linux Mint is the best distro for nubes who are trying Linux for the first time. It has user friendly experience and looks similar to Windows 10. It has a menu similar to the start button in windows operating systems. Linux Mint is also very light on resource consumption, it is highly suitable for home desktops and older laptops as it needs very little space and works fine with a low RAM. The whole operating system can be installed in an 8 GB pen drive! The installation file is around 2GB. Enough of the jibber-jabber let’s get started with installation of Linux Mint alongside Windows 10.
Pre-requisites for Linux Mint installation:
- Linux Mint installation file (ISO can be downloaded here – 2GB)
- Rufus Tool – To create a bootable USB drive
- A pen drive (at-least 8 GB in size)
- At least 20GB free space on your computers HDD/SSD
- At least 512MB RAM
Time needed: 1 hour.
How to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 10?
- Download a Linux Mint ISO file.
The first thing you’ll need to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 10 is to get a latest copy of Linux Mint installation ISO file. You can easily download the ISO file from the official website of Linux Mint. It is around 2GB in size. Here’s a link for your convince. Download speeds may vary depending upon your connection speed and location. It’s always advised to download the ISO from a trusted source, in this case the official website of Linux Mint.
Also, you may need to check if your PC or laptop has 64bit support or 32bit the ISO shall be downloaded accordingly.
Download Linux Mint 20.2 Uma (64bit)
Download Linux Mint 19.2 Tina (32bit)
- Download and install Rufus tool
Download a latest version of the Rufus tool here. Install Rufus to your pc. It is just around 5MB in size. Once finished, open the Rufus app. Note: There’s also a portable version of Rufus which doesn’t require any installation and it just works fine! Download it here.
- Burn the ISO file to Pen Drive
Once you have downloaded the ISO file and rufus tool, you need to burn the ISO image to your pen drive. Open the rufus tool select image and click start. Note: Make sure you have backed up everything you have on the pen drive. The rufus tools wipes everything from the device and copies extracted files from the ISO file to the pen drive.
- Make some space for installation of Linux Mint
Once you have the bootable ISO file ready for installation, You’ll need to create some empty space on your computers HDD or SSD. To make some space on the disk right click on the start menu and tap ‘Disk Management’. Once the disk management opens choose a HDD or SSD and shrink one of the drive partitions to make empty space for installation of Linux Mint as shown in the image below.
It is advised to use 20 GB space for installing Linux Mint
Also, I’d suggest using 4GB space for swap partition
So in total I made 25GB space empty for installation i.e. 25000MB - Reboot your laptop or desktop to BIOS and change boot priority to USB device.
Depending upon your device manufacturer the keys to enter BIOS mode may vary. For dell laptops and PC’s it is F2.
Once you enter into the BIOS mode be vary cautious not to change anything you don’t understand.
You’ll have to look for something like ‘boot priority’. Change the boot priority in an order where the first option is set to USB device and second option is set to your SSD or HDD.
Also, make sure you have turned off the secure boot on your PC.
Exit BIOS and turn off your PC. - Start PC and continue with installation as shown in video.
Once the PC boots up it shows GNU grub installer showing three options. Choose the first one that says “Start Linux Mint 20”. Now the PC will start as usual. You might choose to browse a little and explore the Linux Mint OS without installation.
