Hello! I have been considering Linux for a while, and have been thinking about switching to openSUSE ahead of Windows 10 EOS’ing in October. I chose this since it was one of the recommendations on Privacy Guides, and it was my top recommendation when going through Distrochooser. That being said, I still have a few questions and inquiries that I hope the people of this forum can help me with:
1. Having Linux on my machine, and Windows on an external drive
From what I understand the license shouldn’t be an issue since it is baked into the motherboard (based on my very limited research). I guess from my view, I am wondering how to even accomplish this. I will have a 1tb SSD and will have it upgraded to windows 11. Windows on an external drive are for a few apps that just will not work on Linux.
2. Tumbleweed vs MicroOS
This is coming from a stability standpoint. From what I read, atomic distros can be more secure in avoiding update corruptions. I guess I need a third party to tell me which one would be best suited for me (and if MicroOS can be used as a desktop at all).
3. Device Compatibility
I want to install openSUSE on my 2021 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Laptop (GA401QM). Is there anything extra I should be doing when installing on this device? I found this guide, but it does not seem to have been updated in two years. I was wondering if I would be missing anything that has happened since that guide was published.
“license is baked into the motherboard”. Not sure what that means. The license is associated with the install, not in the MOBO.
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Since you’re upgrading to Win11, why not simply upgrade to W11, then install openSUSE on a second drive, or in a virtual machine (?)
That decision should be made from the user’s point of view. Do you want to do daily updates, with possible issues now and then? Or the occasional update with less involvement (?).
My opinion would be, only folks with knowledge of that very particular hardware can reliably answer.
You can perfectly do this. But Win11 on an external drive won’t make it run if the machine is not Win11 compatible and a Win10 install will try to move it there. Go openSUSE only and use a Windows VM
I assume that means MicroOS can be used as a desktop? Is there anything I have to do differently compared to tumbleweed?
This is what I briefly read online
My laptop is recent enough to be Win11 compatible, at least that is what I think you are referring to. Can you clarify what you mean by, “a Win10 install will try to move it there”?
It would be more cost saving to use the Windows VM instead of nabbing another external drive. I guess I wonder if the license would still apply? For more context, I still need windows for Adobe products for my profession. Wine seems to run some of them fine last time I checked, but I think there’s more tinkering involved, and in case it doesn’t work I want windows for my backup.
I stopped using Windows 25 years ago and have been able to do everything I’ve wanted to do on a computer using SuSE Linux and then openSUSE Linux for the past 25 years. I’ve also helped more than 50 friends and relatives switch from using Windows to using openSUSE Linux and all of them have been able to do everything they wanted to do on their computers using openSUSE Linux. A few of the younger ones are gamers who play Windows games on their Linux PCs using Steam.
Since openSUSE Leap is approaching the end of its cycle, I switched to using openSUSE Slowroll and it has been working well on a wide range of PCs from a 13 year old HP notebook to new Framework 13 and Framework 16 notebook computers (excellent computers and the ones I recommend over all other notebook computers – Framework computers work very well with openSUSE Slowroll and you don’t have to pay for a Windows license when you buy a Framework notebook if you don’t plan to use Windows).
You can run many Windows programs using Wine or Steam and you can run Windows in a Virtual Machine but there are many good Linux programs which you can use instead of Windows programs. I don’t think Microsoft allows you to run Windows on an external USB drive. You can usually set up a dual boot configuration on an internal drive which allows you to boot either into Windows or Linux but changes that Microsoft makes in the Windows boot loader often goof up dual boot configurations. If your computer allows you to have some combination of two physical NVMe SSDs or a NVMe SSD and a 2.5” SATA SSD drive installed where you can have Linux installed on one SSD and Windows installed on another SSD, that type of dual boot setup is usually easier to set up and more reliable.
If you really have to use Windows programs, you might want to buy or assemble an inexpensive used computer just for Windows to use when you are forced to use a Windows program and use your Linux PC as your primary computer since Linux is more secure and more stable on the Internet.
You can encrypt Linux drives but be sure that you have several regular backups if you have an encrypted drive. If something goes wrong with your encrypted drive and you don’t have a good backup, you will not be happy.
@arvidjaar Hi, it’s transferable to a VM… If you have windows installed, open an admin powershell and run slmgr.vbs /dli it should show what type, on the OptiPlex XE3 I have, it showed OEM and the last 5 digits of the Product Code eg BWRC2. Then ran regedit and searched on that string, it showed the full key as Last BIOS Key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-BWRC2
Created a VM, skipped the product key part, created a local account (shift+F10 then enter in the shell oobe\bypassnro), disconnect network cable and completed install, plugged cable back in, went to activation settings entered the Last BIOS Key and it activated as Windows 11 Pro…
Several months ago I found that hint on the Internet but I could not confirm its correctness as I do not have any system with a MS product key in the BIOS/UEFI.
I’m sorry if I have caused confusion by saying that “Leap is coming to the end of its line.” What I meant by that was that Leap 16.0 will be released in October, 2025. As far as I know, Leap 16.0 will be the last version of Leap.
When Leap 16.0 reaches the end of its support, there will be a number of alternatives for users who will be using Leap 16.0.
One alternative will be the openSUSE Micro Linux.
Another alternative will be either openSUSE Tumbleweed or Slowroll.
Or another of the many Linux distros.
I’ve been using SuSE and openSUSE since 1996. I’ve tried many of the other Linux distros but have always found that openSUSE distros have been the best for me and my friends and relatives that I’ve switched from Windows and Macs to openSUSE. For the past year I’ve been using openSUSE Slowroll on my PCs and have been installing it for my friends and relatives. Slowroll has been working well for the people who have been using it.
@ExesCarnival0891 Hi, just search for BIOS in the registry should show something? If not, boot from a Live USB desktop or Rescue system and run that string command.
No, ethernet or wifi, just select i don’t have an internet connection down the bottom…
Thanks, I managed to find it. I just did a quick search on how to find stuff on the registry. I got confused on what “string” meant until I realized you meant the product code.
Veracrypt only supports full disk encryption for Windows, not for Linux. Veracrypt containers cannot, to my knowledge, be resized, so if you don’t have free space on the drive, you’ll probably need to back up the Windows installation (what’s inside the container) and either restore it to a new Veracrypt container, or restore it to the bare drive.
