ESCAPE WINDOWS

Looking for a practical alternative to Windows? Nick Peers reveals how to set up and use the extremely user-friendly Elementary OS.

- Nick Peers

Have you finally had enough of Windows? Perhaps your computer didn’t make the cut when Microsoft arbitrarily prevented certain PCs from working with Windows 11? Maybe you’re just looking to broaden your horizons and recapture that love of computing you’ve lost after years or decades trying to fit into Microsoft’s vision for how you should operate a PC instead?

There are many good reasons to switch. First, Linux runs beautifully even on older hardware, so you can avoid the need for an expensive and unnecessary upgrade. Second, many Linux distributions – and in particular the Ubuntu LTS distro and its many derivatives (or flavours, as they’re better known) – enjoy established long periods of support with more predictable upgrades than Windows. LTS versions, which come out every two years, enjoy up to 10 years of extended support. Last, but not least, Linux is increasingly easy to install and use with every release.

Don’t believe us? Then this feature will let you see for yourself. We’ll open by revealing how to try a particularly user-friendly flavour of Linux – Elementary OS, recently updated to version 7.0 – without touching your main PC. You can run it directly from a Live disk (a Linux install media that provides a full desktop for both testing and as a rescue environment) or install it in a virtual machine, our recommended method for giving Linux a proper go.