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Hallo an dich!

Man I am so impressed with Ubuntu so far, in my journey to ditch Microsoft. I ran it briefly on my miniPC back before I ran my first full node using Umbrel, but have since switched that miniPC to a dedicated Start9 box with a full time node and a Electrs instance for wallet connectivity to the node.

Now that I have a standalone Ubuntu installation on a separate bootable external hard drive connected to my main Windows PC, I am so impressed with how smooth it is and how seamlessly it is working with files on all of my backup drives. I’m also impressed at how easy it has been so far to replicate the functionality, app availability and user experience I’ve grown accustomed to with Windows, going all the way back to the mid 90’s. I’ve got a VPN and Tor access figured out, SSL terminal access to my node that just works using the same certificate, and Sparrow in Ubuntu even recognizes my USB ports for air gapped signing, with no messing around.

I will say a few things for those considering ditching Windows or doing a Linux install alongside your regular Windows OS. Image your whole system prior to starting, set a Windows restore point, and have a couple of external drives to save critical stuff on during the transition.

The install process is easy on a standalone machine, but the current documentation on how to create and manage partitions on a parallel Ubuntu install on an external drive is not necessarily what you’ll see in real life. For some reason I ended up with the bootloader on a separate drive that had a lot of important stuff on it. And it rendered that drive unrecognizable by Windows and Ubuntu for a handful of heart stopping hours till I realized I had the most critical stuff saved elsewhere.

The biggest panic was when I realized that 650GB my image files for my primary system were on that drive. Usually I have two full sets of those images, but the drive I was using for tertiary back has since been deployed as a backup to the Start9. So there was a time when I had to fall back to Windows Restore to rescue my ass. Not a good feeling. I pictured spending the next two weeks reinstalling Windows and everything on that box, including restoring SSL connection to my nodes.

Once I got that drive talking to Windows again and had knocked 25 years and 650GB of stored files I had accumulated down to about 5GB, my last step was to re-image the whole primary system…..chkdsk error while creating image. All of the forced stops to get past stalled Ubuntu installation attempts had corrupted something on my main Windows drive. Three hours to run a chkdsk, biting my nails. Then everything imaged properly.

TLDR:

- Ubuntu is a capable replacement for Microsoft products with better options for privacy and security

- storage is cheap. Back up your stuff before you attempt a parallel dual boot installation alongside Windows. The documentation sucks and skips a few key details.

- if budget permits, just get a dedicated laptop for Linux and start your journey there. Then transition your main machine over time if you feel like it.

#ubuntu #windowssucks #linuxmasterrace #linux