How To Linux Mint like the Blog Admin (Post No. 39)

      Uh-oh. You've decided that Windows 11 proved to be just that tiny bit far too aggravating to you to prove to be genuinely useful in the real world, and you literally feel that "vanilla" Windows 11 is doing nothing useful for you except eating up hard drive space on your PC. Well, you'd be stuck with the consequences of a horrible operating system, if not for the fact that there is a better way. And before you say download all the useful non-Steam games off the Internet, and have them run on a Windows XP or 7 actual hardware while resorting to just using snail mail for communication, that's not what I suggest at all (if you believe that, you sir/madam/white mentally ill person who calls themselves "woke", then perhaps civilization shouldn't be all around you outside on your doorstep.) 

   So, today's blog entry is "How to Linux Mint" like the blog's admin. 

  We'll start today's lesson by saying: You're obviously not going to be on the most popular opinion, if you choose to use "Any or All" of these Linux Distros. 

   (Also, you relinquish any warranty rights, but then again --- if you're going to be doing this, you literally believe the word "Warranty" is just Idiot Insurance.) 

Step 1. Actually Getting The Darn Installation Image

    Before you can actually install Linux Mint, you must first "get" Linux Mint. Doing this is particularly simple, since you can go to the website to download it, which is, https://linuxmint.com/. When there, download the image of either Linux Mint 21.1, or the latest LMDE. (Linux Mint Debian Edition.) 

   When you do download your distro of choice, and if it's Linux Mint, the desktop environment of your choice (I'm going to select "MATE") then I will just simply click the link to the desired mirror, and let it download. 

Step 2. Installation of the Image To Hardware.

    Regardless of what Linux Mint installation image you download, you must remember... it will ultimately be just a useless file if you do not install it to hardware. True, you can still burn it to a DVD if your system still has a DVD drive (probably not likely) in 2023, or simply put it on a memory stick which has at least 4GB (bare minimum) and have it overwrite any and all files that were on the drive instead. 

    For the purposes of this informational blog series, we will be using VirtualBox to work on getting the OS and everything related installed. 

   When the computer boots from the installation media, we will have four choices, particularly if the storage drive is either new, or it has been erased. These four choices are (1.) Start Linux Mint 21.1 MATE 64-bit, (2.) Start Linux Mint 21.1 Mate 64-bit (compatibility mode), (3.) OEM Install (for manufacturers), and (4.) Memory Test.

   We'll ignore the options to start the system in Compatibility Mode, or the OEM install for now (if your specific application requires either of those choices, feel free to select them.) And if there are memory issues with your hardware, we will pick Memory Test - but all we want is to just install the Linux Mint operating system for now. 

    Once we get to the Linux Mint desktop, we can see that the option to install Linux Mint is present right away. To make things easier on yourself, considering that your storage drive is new in this scenario in VirtualBox, we will start by installing Linux Mint. 

    If you have installed an OS by means of Windows setups before the next few steps should be relatively simple. Simply select your localization language, your keyboard layout, and how to partition the disks correctly. If installing on a laptop, make sure the Ethernet cable is connected if that's a default option, and it is connected to the power brick while installing. 

   Now this is the important step. If the installer had detected another OS installed on your system, it would have offered to dual-boot or even replace the OS for you. We are not going to do this as there's literally nothing else on this computer. We will just tell Setup to "Erase the disk and install Linux Mint." 

  Just press continue on the confirmation box, and pick the appropriate timezone for where you are in the world, and then let the installation wizard do all of the work. You won't need to interact with the system much further for now. So, you can just go away, and come back to check on it later. Oh, and one more thing. Before you walk from it, be sure to type your user details to the system.

  After the OS initial installation has completed, remove the installation media, then press ENTER to reboot the system. This can be the DVD or USB stick or external hard drive that you loaded an entire library of Linux Installation ISOs with the use of Easy2Boot or Ventoy.

   If you have installed the distro in VirtualBox, you may need to install Guest Additions. 

  After this, pick out your drivers, and have fun. And that's pretty much it. But my story is not over just yet. Why? Because Linux is an entirely new Operating System from Microsoft Windows to have the life without (that is, Microsoft Windows), and it will prove to be more infinitely useful to you as opposed to Microsoft Windows. That is, at least, until your computer's hardware breaks beyond repair or the software itself breaks something on itself. That is, whatever occurs first.