Switching to Linux

[queer_scribbling]

Update to the plan to try Linux Mint Cinnamon: I'm going to try Linux Mint XFCE.

Originally posted on Pillowfort on 21 January 2026 and cross-posted here on Dreamwidth on the same date.

Comments

[queer_scribbling]

Step One-Half: What did I do to my USB?

- I thought I'd try to add something to the USB holding my images and stuff, but that USB is unhappy? It didn't show up at all, so I ejected it and tried again; and now Windows says that it can't be read and needs reformatted. I dunno. (The images and stuff are also taking up some space on my Google Drive, so I'm not outright losing them if it turns out I need to do something to this USB.)

- The USB I wanted to flash the XFCE ISO on is unhappy. I tried to delete the files from the Cinnamon flash, so I didn't have to hunt up a third USB, but now, I have that one showing up as two USB devices with seemingly zero files.

I'm going to come back to this in the morning, but I just haven't had this much trouble with either USB before.

[queer_scribbling]

Speed Running Steps One and Two.

Step One: Download.

It's not like I need to re-download sha256sum.txt file, sha256sum.txt.gpg file, Balena Etcher, or GnuPG. The only thing I needed to download was linuxmint-22.3-xfce-64bit.iso from the World 'Linux Mint' mirror. Swap that out in the ISO folder, and we're good to go.

Step Two: Verify ISO.

It went a lot faster this time. I just needed to compare the correct string of numbers and letters in the text file (XFCE instead of Cinnamon).

[queer_scribbling]

Step Three: Flash the ISO on the USB

As outlined in Step One-Half above, this is the current rough patch. I need a USB to be happy before I can complete this step, so we'll see what happens in the morning.