New to Purism but I was wondering if I could install Pure OS without having an OS installed its a new built computer so I need to know if I could just install it and that’s it or do I have to buy Windows or something on that nature.
Generally, to install any distro of Linux, you need an existing working computer. Do you already have a computer (any computer)?
If yes then the answer to “can I install PureOS on a brand new computer without already having an OS installed on that computer?” is generally “yes”.
Mind you, if you buy a computer from a mainstream store that sells computers, most likely you have to buy Windows even if you don’t want to.
Now another question would be: I am building a new computer, will PureOS boot on it and will PureOS work?
The answer would be “it depends”. It depends on the hardware spec. WiFi can be a troublesome area, particularly for those laptops that don’t have ethernet as well. BIOS/UEFI can also be a troublesome area.
So, if you had free choice of any hardware spec and you knew in advance that your primary goal would be to run PureOS then it would be wise to check your hardware spec for possible challenges before locking in the hardware spec.
Because PureOS aims to avoid hardware that requires black box (closed source) software, PureOS can only support a more limited range of hardware as compared with, for example, Ubuntu or Debian.
1 Like
Well, actually, not really. Like with any other operating system you only need a bootable medium that contains the installation files, which e.g. can be a USB stick. You can either create such a bootable medium yourself, then you need a running computer which can write to that medium, or you can buy these ready made from other sources. Also Purism offers ready made USB sticks with either PureOS or Qubes pre-installed and ready to install to a computer - new or old.
(the picture in the shop is actually outdated, our current USB sticks are much nice, metal and with all three(!) USB interface - type-A, type-C and micro-USB and they are 32GB USB3, so pretty fast).
Cheers
nicole
3 Likes
Sounds like you’re new to Linux. Avoid Pure OS for now, unless their ethos really grabs you. My advise is for something that goes pretty well out the box. Ubuntu, Zorin. Mint. You’ll be much less likely to wrestle with it. Live usb of all these will also be a good start.
Yes, this is what I meant. If you are doing it yourself, you need some way of downloading the distro and you need some way of writing that (in an appropriate way) to a medium, be it USB stick or CD/DVD - and for that you need an existing working computer.
-
Buying it is one way - a good way if you are a noob or you have no other computer.
-
Getting a friend to do it for you is another.
-
There was a time when you could buy a computer magazine and it would come with a CD/DVD with distros already on there.
by “built” do you mean that you’ve built it yourself or did somebody else do it for you ?
do you know what components were used ? could you list them here ?
Linux Format and Linux Admin both still going strong with cds each month with all sorts of things on them.
1 Like
I tried to put Pure OS on to an older laptop. That laptop wasn’t too old. It came with Windows 8 and ran Windows 10 well enough. I booted that laptop from Pure OS from a USB stick and it worked well as a live bootable OS. But when I transferred the system to the laptop, the video drivers weren’t supported. It worked well enough from the usUSB stick. I don’t know why the fully functioning drivers from the USB stick wouldn’t install. So I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on that laptop and that worked just fine.
Based on this one experience, I decided that I will probably only use Pure OS on Purism hardware, where it has been vetted and is supported. Ubuntu seems to run well on any PC that will run Windows. You can generally run a later and more advanced OS on older hardware using Ubuntu than you could with a Microsoft OS.
When you get Pure OS on your Librem 5, you get a phone that puts you in control compared to Android or Apple. When you get a Purism laptop, you get some level of limitations in what you can do or what is easy to do, in exchange for Security. Everything is a trade-off, depending on your goals and linux experience level. I don’t mind hacking Windows programs to make them work in linux, or upgrading or repairing issues that come up in Linux. But when you can’t get the needed drivers, you’re probably. done. I probably could have found those video drivers and gotten them installed eventually if they did exist. But it was just easier to download the Ubuntu image and to install from it.