Rufus used to be reliable. Something went sideways about a year ago and I haven't been able to figure out what. Two other GUI apps to consider are BalenaEtcher and Universal USB Installer. Yet another option (and what I use these days) is Ventoy. Does have the burden of being a bit complicated to set up. On the bright side, once over that hump, it's super easy to use; you simply copy ISO files to the Ventoy drive and boot directly from them; it even boots Windows ISOs. A third option would be to find a friend who runs Linux and ask them to burn the ISO for you. Doesn't matter what distro they use; almost all have a burn-to-USB app.
Last but not least, have you considered virtual machine? That's what I recommend anyway to folks coming to Linux from Windows for the first time. There's a bit of a learning curve for the virtualization software (I recommend VirtualBox, a free app from Oracle), but not bad. Upsides include (i) can boot the installer or live session directly from the ISO; (ii) able to install Linux without disturbing or modifying Windows in any way; (iii) can create as many VMs as you have storage space to accommodate, making it easier to see which version works best for you; and (iv) it's a good way to test things, as you can snapshot the pre-test state of the VM, then restore with the click of a button when the test is finished. As an added bonus, once you have a Linux VM running, you can use that to burn the ISO to USB drive if-and-when you decide to go the next step and install to the computer.
By the way, it's extremely unlikely this is a download problem. If you used a browser or dedicated downloader app, it will have confirmed the checksum as a matter of course. Also, did you download the standard installer or a live ISO? If the former, I strongly suggest you use a live ISO. Much easier for newbies and also useful as a recovery drive. Notice there's a separate ISO for each desktop.
Last but not least, have you considered virtual machine? That's what I recommend anyway to folks coming to Linux from Windows for the first time. There's a bit of a learning curve for the virtualization software (I recommend VirtualBox, a free app from Oracle), but not bad. Upsides include (i) can boot the installer or live session directly from the ISO; (ii) able to install Linux without disturbing or modifying Windows in any way; (iii) can create as many VMs as you have storage space to accommodate, making it easier to see which version works best for you; and (iv) it's a good way to test things, as you can snapshot the pre-test state of the VM, then restore with the click of a button when the test is finished. As an added bonus, once you have a Linux VM running, you can use that to burn the ISO to USB drive if-and-when you decide to go the next step and install to the computer.
By the way, it's extremely unlikely this is a download problem. If you used a browser or dedicated downloader app, it will have confirmed the checksum as a matter of course. Also, did you download the standard installer or a live ISO? If the former, I strongly suggest you use a live ISO. Much easier for newbies and also useful as a recovery drive. Notice there's a separate ISO for each desktop.
Statistics: Posted by pbear — 2025-01-21 22:21 — Replies 3 — Views 46