Another big reason to switch to GNU/Linux.
Even at my workplace I asked HR for permission to switch the office desktop to GNU+Linux. They required the installation of a few
malwarespyware but otherwise didn’t mind.I have been using GNU+Linux on and off since 2007 only using Windows when needed to. Now I’m fully Windows-free and intend to keep it this way.
Oh nooooo whatever will I do now
Run LTSC /w MAS to activate it while that’s still an option as that and the rest of the Enterprise/IoT SKUs of both Win10 and Win11 still let you make local accounts, or move to Linux if you can and you’re not locked into Windows by anything.
I think Enterprise versions don’t require it either.
IoT and LTSC are Enterprise versions.
Sure but they are both special versions, I’m just taking about regular Windows
I am waiting for an official SteamOS Desktop release. If I am switching to Linux, I would prefer a gaming-focused PC distro that has the support of an 800lb gorilla.
If I have to migrate early, say, at the start of a 2nd American Civil War, I will probably use CachyOS. I don’t expect Microsoft to be neutral or to work for the good guys.
The meat of the work Valve did was with the compatibility layer, not SteamOS itself. This means you can choose any distro you’re comfortable with and games will work as well as they do in SteamOS. I recommend Bazzite.
I ran steamos for a few months on my gaming PC… You can download the iso and run it on just about any hardware (so long as it’s team red).
Cachyos is better
The immutable nature of steamos made sure i wouldn’t ever be able to fuck it up, but it also means you cant really sudo anything, plus it’s missing basic PC functionality like printer drivers etc.
For anyone else on the fence, you don’t need to wait. Lots of distros support gaming right out the box. I switched my gaming desktop (nvidia card) to Pop_OS!, installed Steam, and it just works.
What factors lead you to select Cachy?
Bazzite is another one. Super easy install, you could dual boot it but you need a bit of tech affinity to follow those instructions. Just installing it by itself and deleting windows is easy as though.
More performance, which would be appreciated. I use local AI for roleplay, shaving off a couple minutes from a response would be nice.
Aside from that, KDE Plasma might let me tweak my experience better than what Mint allowed. Being nearly a complete newcomer to Linux, I don’t really know what distro actually suits me. That is why I would prefer an official SteamOS Desktop, since that would probably have enough casual and power to be useful for me. I am pretty much just going to try Cachy and see how I feel.
🤷♂️
The great windows 10 shutdown is coming in a couple of weeks and I still haven’t upgraded my wife’s laptop! The main holdup is backing up, it turns out that hibernation need to be disabled in Windows 10 to do a proper backup, otherwise there is some sort of encryption on the backup. I wasted 2 days on this already copying 500GB just in case upgrade fails.
Upgrading to mint of course!
There is no “Windows 10 shutdown”. The only thing that was supposed to happen is end of free security updates, but Microsoft already decided to give them for free to everyone.
Microsoft already decided to give them for free to everyone.
Source?
It’s free in the EU for an extra year, but afaik they’re requiring that you have an account signed in on Windows.
Otherwise apparently you will be able to a year’s support via 1000 points on the Microsoft rewards website.
If you do end up needing some time, check out 0patch. They’re continuing security updates for Windows 10 and you can do a one month trial for free.
I only use windows for gaming. If Windows somehow fucks it up so much that I can play the majority of games in Linux on Steam, then I no longer have a use for them. I don’t use windows for work, and all of my normal computer use cases Linux is fully capable of, I’ll basically be forced over to Ubunutu or something, with a cracked Win11 VM for new games that don’t have linux releases.
I suppose linux graphic drivers and performance are still an issue, but that will surely only get better, especially as the windows desktop segment of GPU sales dries up.
I switched 5 weeks ago and it’s honestly in a much better state than I thought. I haven’t felt the need to use Windows in those 5 weeks. It feels like I’m back in 90s with full control of my computer again.
If you stay with AMD graphics and avoid highly competitive games that require kernel level anti cheat Linux for gaming works just fine. Especially with steam. But also epic games etc run pretty well.
If Windows somehow fucks it up so much that I can play the majority of games in Linux on Steam
you pretty much can outside of certain multiplayer-only games with kernel level anti-cheat
I suppose linux graphic drivers and performance are still an issue
graphics drivers yes, but only really on nvidia and only really on newer cards
in my experience performance has been mostly on-par or better under linux than windows, including many “windows only” games through wine/protonI’m thinking very new AAA releases like GTA6, Buldurs Gate 3, Hollow Knight, as well as minor developers that may not have linux releases. Though I acknowledge the difficulty of creating a linux version is getting smaller.
I played all those games at launch on Linux
I played all those games at launch on Linux
they don’t need a dedicated linux release, they work fine through proton, which is built into steam
i can personally vouch that baldurs gate 3 runs very well on my linux machinethis is a good website to check if the games you care about will work well
Joke’s on them. I’m not about to use Windows 11 anyway
Had Win 11 on my laptop (came with it) swapped to Mint 2 days ago. First Linux device. I cannot express how much faster it loads shit now.
Yeahhh, I’m going with Linux when I get my warrantied laptop back after some research on drivers.
There needs to be some sort of EU directive that once a hardware device sells enough units they MUST provide the equivalent software features and functions available on windows for Linux, and not just a plain driver with no config options.
Imagine being able to buy hardware knowing you can configure it in Linux without relying on some unsupported thing made by the community.
Why would a OS need an online account?
We truly live in the stupidest timeline.
How will it know which ads to show you without knowing who you are?
Linux has been a superior OS for a while, especially since Steam’s efforts to port games over to it.
Only reason many people hang on, including some in my household, is platform exclusive tools like Adobe.
Kind of what I was thinking too.
AutoCAD
It’s the reason I feel stuck too.
Freecad?
Not at all comparable.
source: I use it.
Well, Adobe is not “household” software. :-)
But there are a lot of other software, that people have a hard time letting go of. Like Affinity, Scrivener, certain games, a lot of small programs/apps, like FastStone apps (Image viewer and more), AllMyNotes, ActionOutline, Duplicate cleaner 5, EZ CD Audio Converter and more…
Well, Adobe is not “household” software. :-)
it is when everyone pirates it
Which everyone doesn’t do. By your definition, every software is household. Come on, please relate to this with common sense.
It may be me being a millenial, but I’m used to Photoshop being widely pirated. It used to be Adobe’s strategy to let people do that because that meant more people who knew how to use it and therefore more business sales.
I always recommend Loreforge as a replacement for Scrivener. I had no problem swapping once I spent a little time in Loreforge. It’s even available on Windows so they can try it ahead of time.
Loreforge
It’s a good alternative, but it’s subscription based, and that’s a no go. Thanks for telling me about it though.
i just use obsidian tbh, more fully featured and customizable
LOL. Never heard of any of them.
My guess is, that you haven’t heard of a lot of apps or games, that a lot of people enjoy using… But it’s really of little consequence to the debate here, what you have heard of. :-)
Yeah, there’s a lot of niche software for specific needs that’s doesn’t have alternative or have subpar alternatives on Linux. Even as a full-time Linux users and supporter, I still have to acknowledge that the amount of investments gone into enterprise stuff over the year have basically made switching from Windows for a lot of professions almost impossible. Unless we start having more funding and development from state actors, the market share of OS won’t change significantly anytime soon.
Adobe has had some pressure for some time to offer Linux versions of their software. I think they are being paid by Microsoft not to offer it. Similar to how Google pays Microsoft to keep Bing shit.
Once I retire and no longer need Windows for work I am switching full time to Linux.
More people will switch to Linux
Nah most people will just create an account. They literally have no idea what they are doing.
Your statement doesn’t contradict OP’s
No. More people will just keep using Windows 10.
i used to think this too; but seeing tech literacy rate drop since the widespread adoption of smartphones makes me wonder if people will go with whatever works well enough and for the least about of effort.
and linux still takes effort.
I’ve been very happy with no windows on my computers for over 15 years now.
About the same for me. Genuinely happy and cant understand why more people dont just install it. Its soo easy these days.
I use Lemmy and Steam games, someone please recommend a Linux OS and a browser to end this stupid shit for me.
You could literally go into any “technology” post and there will be dozens
Bazzite and Librewolf
If you have a Nvidia card, I’ve found mint and neon to be really poor performing. Kubuntu and Q4 have been amathiugh, I wouldn’t use Q4os unless you have low end hardware though.
That being said mint is just the best os in the sphere for performance and usability, if it runs well for you that would be awesome.
Libre wolf is an amazing Firefox branch, runs well, super private, good overall, though in my opinion it fails to perform well on beefy websites with alot of visual goodies (like sketch sketchfab and other 3d model websites.) Best to have both Firefox and Libre Wolf.
On a side note some fun apps to use on Linux I found: qdirstat (winderstat replacement.) Portmaster (take control of what can access your pc via the internet, also has built in dns, a wonderful user interface, its just amazing.) Vencord (yeah I know discord sucks, but its almost impossible to get away from. Seriously I’ve tried to get my friends to use matrix, no Bueno.)
Also, Plasma is the greatest thing ever. My god is it good.
Linux Mint and Firefox should be good starting points.
Went this route a few months ago. The switch was incredibly easy.
I’d like to add that librewolf is a great privacy focused browser based on Firefox.
bazzite and librewolf
I just came here to upvote LibreWolf.
Pop!_OS, PikaOS, CachyOS, and Bazzite are the top gaming distros right now.
I recommend Pop! if you have Nvidia cards. If you have AMD, any of them will work.
PikaOS or Bazzite with the KDE Plasma desktop are going to be closest to Windows 10 in terms of how you use them.
Pop! has a super different UI, almost Mac-like. But it’s based on Ubuntu, the most-used distro. Which means that if anything goes wrong you can search “[problem] Ubuntu” and get hundreds of solution pages.
CachyOS is based on Arch, which is the big, scawy Linux that all the nerds say they use. It’s easier to break than the other ones, and won’t officially offer some of the apps that something Debian/Ubuntu based might have. I would recommend it when you’re looking to get a bit more technical.
That said, I haven’t broken my install yet and CachyOS is like the fastest OS available right now. Serious FPS gains for a LOT of games compared to Windows, and even other Linux distros. I also have not had to sit and troubleshoot it over anything. I was shocked at how smooth it was for an Arch system.
So, there’s not really a bad choice in those 4. I’d recommend Pop! if you never want to have to tinker, Pika or Bazzite if you want to feel like you’re still using Windows, and Cachy when you feel comfortable taking some training wheels off (and that could be right now!).
For browsers, try LibreWolf. It’s a locked-down version of Firefox. Or just use Firefox. It ain’t perfect, but then again it ain’t Chrome.
oh hey nice I haven been on Mint for awhile and my Nvidia card gives me no end of trouble
PopOS vote from me. Very easy to get set up, especially if you have an Nvidia card. Flatpak is integrated to their store, it just works out of the box.
I’ve been on PopOs for over 7 years and its been steady as a rock! I could never go back to windows.
Linux Mint. If my 85-year-old dad can get used to it after over 30 years of Windows, you’ll be fine.
/edit Also Firefox comes with pretty much every Linux distribution, but if you need something Chromium-based, I’m partial to Vivaldi.
https://yearofthelinuxdesktop.net/
According to the flowchart there, cachyOS or bazzite, also some other tools and recommendations, good luck!
Lol, CAD on Linux at 90% of what is available on Windows? That’s straight out dishonest.
Source: CAD user on Linux
Nobara and pikaOS also both good options. I use CachyOs on my main PC and nobara on my htpc and have had a very pleasant time with the distros and their communities. Just gotta leave windows at the door and be open to learning a new way of doing things. Best of luck OP
and browser I love zen browser and have Vivaldi as my chromium browser of choice when some niche task needs it
I went from Nobara to Bazzite, Nobara worked but felt super janky, Bazzite is on another planet in terms of polish.
CachyOS has recently stopped playing H264 videos on some websites after a system update.(on Librewolf and other browsers too). Installing ffmpeg4.4 will fix this.
Mint is very similar to a Windows feel
KDE is also similar enough but actually looks good, and is a more complete and coherent experience.
I also don’t think “looks similar” is actually good if you’re switching. Because it will be similar enough to be confusing when it then behaves differently, and it’s IMO easier to learn something that’s obviously (slightly) different than trying to just learn different behavior.
Just wish Cinnamon looked a bit better.
Sure, but the cool thing about Linux is that you can pick the gui. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_window_managers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_Window_System_desktop_environments
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_display_servers#Wayland
TBH I’m fine with XFCE. It looks reasonably modern but is lightweight and uncomplicated. Takes recolors well, too. Never had any problems with it.
Yeah, but system tray icons don’t really behave consistently on Xfce.
Huh. I’ve not had that experience. Then again, I don’t have a ton of tray icons on my Mint install, mostly just Steam, Telegram, and occasionally Discord.
I did have my panel set up vertical, with the system tray icons in two columns. Typically there were two groups (for some reason) stacked on top of eachother and if the top one had an odd number of icons then there was a conspicuous gap.
Now I use Kubuntu, though I miss the GNOME text editor (I installed it, but with GNOME being GNOME it wasn’t themeable, and I can’t find the Cinnamon or Xfce fork in the repositories).
CachyOS could be great! If not, Zorin and Mint are great.
Stop giving new people choices! (Quasi facetious)
Yeah you gotta stay stuck in a duopoly of shitty multibilion companies, like God intended! Lol
God intended for a monopoly, hence there must be an armageddon between Apple and Google
LInux mint or bazzite, I’d take a look at both, and firefox with ublock origin
I’ve had a good experience with Bazzite. It worked out of the box for steam, and the “bazaar” app store built into it had everything I needed. Heroic is in there and good for handling PC games from other stores. Use Proton+ to get the latest Proton GE if you run into any windows game compatibility issues and it may solve them.
Great strategy to force users have a bad experience while your platform is in decline to a free and user friendly alternative. Very smart of MS, as per usual.
Ok! Moved to linux for gaming 2 years ago and havent looked back. Eat shit, MS.
How is it for gaming? Im hesitant to switch just for that one use case, but its a big one.
It is amazing for gaming (particularly if you go with AMD over Nvidia). I’ve run into very few (if any) games that have outright not worked. Almost all games work with not tinkering whatsoever.
Checkout protondb.com and look up the games you’re wondering about.
Great. Proton changed everything. My friend uses arch, i use fedora, another friend uses bazzite. I can play everything i want, no issues. Great framerates
The great framerates was something i doesn’t expect to this extent when switching. I thought that games would probably work similar but i went from 40-50 fps on medium high settings in elden ring to smooth 60 on highest settings just by switching from windows to bazzite
