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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I have seen distros that offer methods for installing Linux directly from Windows but I wouldn't use them. Live CDs are a good way to test if that distro, or even Linux in general, will work properly on that computer. For example, if you installed Linux on a computer with a WiFi adapter that Linux doesn't currently support, you wouldn't have known this if you just installed Linux directly from Windows without testing it first and there is no simple solution to this problem.
Now, if you could install Linux onto an external hard drive from Windows, then this might be fine because you'd have a dual boot between the two OSs and can easily fallback to Windows if Linux doesn't work properly. However, as far as I'm aware, you'd still need to boot into the bios and change the boot loader so that Linux can actually boot.