Only semi-related: Why do they always show pictures of Gates when he hasn't been involved in MS in a long time? Why never Satya Nadella?
EDIT: Also, yes, related to the actual question already living Linux full time and when October rolls around probably gonna back up everything from the Windows side of my dual-boot and wipe the 1TB NVMe Windows is on to use as storage.
It's weird how MS's putting developers first became a joke. Back in the 80's, companies like HP and IBM had open warehouses with coders at desks lined up like factory workers. MS was the first big company to give a private office to every programmer.
I couldn't name another Microsoft employee if a gun was to my head. but I can still vividly remember myself in 4th grade reading about Bill Gate's mega mansion in Popular Mechanics for Kids
I'm somewhat in the same boat but I remember Mister "Developers Developers Developers" Steve Ballmer who was also immortalized by the "Ballmer Peak" XKCD. https://xkcd.com/323/
Because he set the general, evil directions for MS. Like keeping users uninformed and locked in, smearing the competition, sabotaging open standards, taking your control over your hardware and data away from users, etc. All happened during evil Bill's reign.
Not to mention the many deals with hardware manufacturers in order to avoid competing OSs to have any chance. They managed to kill BeOS and dominate the Japanese market in the 90s
I'm here, so I'm more likely to know who that is or what he looks like. But I don't. I do now because you mentioned him and I looked up how he looks like. Your average Joe is gonna be even less likely to know who that is or what he looks like. So I'm guessing that's why. Some CEOs just avoid the spotlight. Or maybe I've just been avoiding MS news, dunno
Already did and it's glorious! Steam works beautifully and the only final thing that I'm missing is Adobe products.
I recommend, if you want to try Linux, that you try out the 'Debian' distribution, and use the 'KDE Plasma' desktop environment. It makes for a very Windows-like experience and really assisted me with the transition between OSs.
The more people hop onto Linux the faster and better funded support for Linux development becomes. If you're a single player gamer or play Valve multiplayer games primarily, make the jump to Linux. Get on Mint, get on Fedora, Ubuntu, etc and get off Microsoft's shitboat. You already took off from Reddit. Wean off all these other money/data leeches
Most people won't budge. It doesn't matter if Win10 is unsupported or isn't getting a security update, I reckon a solid 40 of 43% will just stay on it until programs they use stop working.
Basically my plan until I can scrounge enough money up for a new computer. My current one literally won't let me upgrade due to some component/driver it lacks.
Yep, I feel like people overestimate how much anyone cares about official support or security patches or whatever. People will assume it's fine until they're either forced out or something goes horribly wrong.
Regular folks will most likely let it be if possible, until it's time for a new PC anyway.
Switch to Linux. As a big-time gamer, I did it last year and it’s been fantastic. Only issue is if you main games with root kit anticheat…but with enough momentum in Linux direction, game studios will be forced to abandon those dubious detection methods anyway.
Same. I just gotta figure out what distro I want to run. Nobara, Bazzite, Mint, Zorin, Kubuntu, idk. I get analysis paralysis. I’ve run Ubuntu, Fedora, and even tried Arch once, but it’s been a long while since I’ve been full Linux. I’m definitely done with Windows tho (at least outside of work, but I can’t control that).
I'm using Garuda and it has a setup specifically for gaming. The gamer look it comes with out of the box is ugly in my opinion, but that's easy to change.I highly recommend it. It's Arch based, so the AUR and Arch wiki work great with it. It's really great and (in my opinion) user friendly.
Garuda is great because it comes with a tool where you can select a bunch of packages you may need (but also most won't, so it's not built in), then it'll install them for you. You don't need to search for what you'll need because they're listed with a description for you right on the first boot. It makes it very quick and easy to get set up, while still being Arch underneath.
I have been thus far entirely unsuccessful in convincing anyone else to make the jump. Normal people do not give a fuck, will not lift a finger to improve their digital lives. I've been telling friends and family about adblockers for YEARS, and not a single one ever bothered to do it of their own volition. If I don't do it for them, then they just sit through ads like complacent sheep. None of them are going to change operating systems if they can't even install a browser extension.
It's going to be purchase a new hard drive and then jump to Linux Mint this August.
It's not an experience I am looking forward to (5080S, I do a lot of modding, and enjoy fangames/indie games which do not always play nice with linux) but needs must - the Linux community in general is very friendly, so we'll get through it, even if the first 6 months are rough. I'll keep the dual boot and push the windows partition to 11 if needed by work, that way I can put off rewriting my elderly access database for another few years.
Honestly, Microsoft are committing suicide when it comes to home users. It won't be sudden, but the wheels are turning, all the IT savvy folks are switching people over (already did my aunt's potato, mum's demi-tato is next week). Eventually, a tipping point will be reached and offices will start switching - I hope that day comes before I die of old age!
Can’t upgrade because my 4 years old mobo is apparently too old (haven’t checked out the workarounds yet). Installed Linux Mint to give it a try and I am positively surprised so far.
IIRC W11 share is barely near W10 and they are already forcing it out and crapton of perfectly usable hardware, if it is not planned obsolescence i don't know what it is!? Fuck microsoft!
Made my jump to Arch (btw) a couple of years ago and haven't really looked back. I have Win10 as a second boot option, but that's reserved specifically for Game Pass and VR, but it's very rare I boot it. Don't care to upgrade even after EOL, and I'd never recommend Arch to anyone but the most comfortable with Linux, but it's been a great option for me.
I spent a couple hours trying to get Baldur's Gate 3 running on Linux. It was rough but I got it to run at 1440 but the latency made it sort of unplayable. It runs great in Windows 10 at 4k with the default settings. I have some other windows-only software so I guess I'm going to "upgrade" all my computers that are able to do so but I don't feel good about it. All my computers dual boot windows/linux, I would love to be linux-only.
Edit: lots of people are saying theirs runs smoothly, I'm going to have to do further testing. Thanks for the input!
All my games run (almost) perfect and (almost) everything has been working perfectly.
Overall it is much nicer than Windows and isn't that hard getting used to.
I just gave up on windows gaming. If the game cant be played on my steamdeck, I just find something else. Otherwise its macos and linux for anything non-professional that requires windows. And even then I fucking hate it. Oh look at that... all my documents say "Auto-recover (version 1)" because it forcibly rebooted on me.
I already switched to Bazzite Desktop and it's been so good. I had some pains configuring somethings to my liking, but that was more due to me not being familiar with Linux. I'm never going back.
I won't be doing pretty much anything about it. I have 10 pro, I don't really give a shit about what Microsoft thinks I should do. My computer is behind a firewall, and bluntly, it'll be a while before the security issues become such a problem that I need to go and upgrade.
However. I already did the legwork. I went out and upgraded the hardware TPM 1.2 in my system to TPM 2.0, and I picked up some (relatively cheap) Windows 11 pro product keys. I can upgrade if I want.
I also have access to W10 LTSC, so I can always pivot to that if I need to.
I get the security and other concerns with Windows 10. I do, but the windows 11 changes, to me seem like they're changes for the sake of things being changed. Windows 10's user experience was already quite good, apart from the fact that every feature release seemed to have the settings moved to a different location (see above about making changes for the sake of making changes). IMO, as a professional sysadmin and IT support, the interface and UX changes have made Windows, as a product, worse; it is by far the worst part of the upgrade process and I don't know why they thought any of it was a good idea.
I also hate what M$ has done with printers, but I won't get started on that right now.
For all the nitpicking I could do, Windows was, for all intents and purposes, exactly what it needed to be, between Windows 7 and 10. There hasn't been any meaningful progress in the OS that's mattered since x86-64 support was added. Windows 10 32 bit was extremely rare, I don't think I ever saw it (where W7 was a mixed bag of 32/64 bit). Having almost everyone standardized on 64 bit, and Windows 10, gave a predictability that is needed in most businesses. The professional products should not follow the same trends as the home products. If they want to put AI shovelware and ads into the home products, fine. Revamp the vast majority of the control panel into the settings menu, sure. But leave the business products as-is. By far the most problems that people have with Windows 11 that I hear about, relate to how everything changes/looks different, and/or having problems navigating the "new look" or whatever the fuck.
Microsoft: you had a good thing with Windows 10, and you pissed it all away when you put out the crap that is Windows 11.
Stop moving shit around, making controls less useful, and stop making it look like the UX was designed by a 10 year old. Fuck off.
Already prepared everything for the jump. Switched MS Office for LibreOffice, and Outlook for Betterbird. Tested install, configuration and access to backups in a VM. Next vacation I take I'll go for it. Mint is my choice of Distro, because of Steam/Gaming reasons. With the US being antagonistic, if not outright hostile, right now, and Microsoft having their disgusting Copilot AI Analysis Fingers in everything, it's the rational choice I think.
I keep recommending BazziteOS but Jorge Castro over at the universal Blue project has a really good point "Most people don't install their operating systems" and that plain fact is what stops people from moving to Linux.
Valve has momentum because they are selling you a system with the OS already on it. Sell more gaming PCs with pre installed Linux on it and the support will follow. Valve's first attempt at getting Linux based gaming hardware out there failed but that didn't stop them and the real push is coming this time.
If you do install your OS (most people here have once or twice), try Bazzite out. I'm running it on the minisforum Bd790i with a radeon 7800xt and it works great!
Been using Linux for years and the only issue with it is the incompetence of big studios. And them going out of their way to make sure stuff doesn't work on Linux.
Nope, will probably avoid 11 as long as I can though. I have an Mvidia card (drivers are notoriously troublesome on Linux). And I need professional design software for work (as in, industry standard: Adobe or Affinity).
But I put 11 on my laptop to try it and I hate it. So many terrible UI changes, UX noticeably worse. Like they changed stuff just to say they changed stuff.
I considered going Linux for personal use and development, and then using another machine or dual boot for Mac for design software. But i learned about the Nvidia issues after I upgraded my card :/ and swapping to Mac's walled garden after avoiding it for decades is.... a sign of how bad W11 feels to use.
I left Windows ~2-3 years ago since I got tired of having to keep up with ways to disable the MS account requirements or disable the ads every time there is a major version upgrade on a platform I use every day.
Unfortunately not. Even as an IT person I can say I just wanna come home and boot up my games without hassle. Sure alot of things have been done with proton etc but still a massive amount of games don't work without Soo much dang tweaking. I don't have time for that especially with a job/being a single parent. I am highly interested in steamos though.
Sadly with Adobe and some of my online games not supporting Linux, I have to stick with Windows :/ I'll just try to disable all the telemetry and AI crap via O&O and group policies.
It's tricky because I have things that just don't translate well to linux, or become considerably more expensive or time consuming to manage / deal with. Linux has a lot to offer and a lot of great. But I'm just going to keep running an out of date OS until I can switch.
I'm a lifelong Windows user and tried Linux many many times but could never wrap my head around it. Recently I installed Nobara and it's exactly the noob-friendly experience I need. All of my games run flawlessly, even the VR game I play. And everything is just FASTER. I never realized how bloated Windows was until now. I can't imagine going back to Windows at this point.
Full Linux, I'm not installing that anti-privacy, ad-ridden Windows 11 OS. It's dangerous to use an unsupported system, so I'm going to be deleting my Windows partition. I know I'll run into some issues on Linux, but I'm forcing myself to learn more and work through them!
My gaming pc has just switched over to bazzite (as I use it like a console/htpc). Been wanting to do it for ages but needed to get an amd card beforehand for the best experience. Windows really started to grind my gears in the last few months too.
I finally committed to Linux at the end of last year. Enough is working to make it preferable to Windows now. I'm still having a lot of bugs, and it's costing quite some time. But at least my computer is mine again. No more telemetry, ads, and UIs that treat me like a toddler. No more updates forced onto me instead of being done whenever I want it.
I'm in Windows 11. I have regret it, but after so many tweaks of the system, removing telemetries, changing menus, and other Windows shit, i had not the energy to move back to Windows 10.
Only OS change i am willing to make is to move to Linux, but gaming is not there yet, and am now trying to move from big proprietary companies to FOSS, so time is needed.
I gave Linux Mint a try last week when I received the news about the obligatory MS account for W11. Not that I'll "upgrade" to W11 but anyway.
Very smooth installation experience. The OS and software like Steam, Brave, Nvidia drivers and some audio & video stuff installed through the package control in no time. I could actually work with it.
Half of my game library is made only for W though. Or the small blocker things like GTA V that works well in Mint in story mode, the Battleye thing won't start of course, so expect no GTA Online in Mint either.
I think I'll keep Linux Mint and Windows under dual boot and use Windows only when necessary. Or run W10 in a virtual box in Mint 😎.
My laptop still works perfectly well so if Microsoft don't want to support it any more then I'll bung Linux on it. I've already got my Mint stick ready, just need to get round to it.
Most problems people have with Linux, I think, come from trying to be Linux power users from the start by performing very advanced techniques beyond their time and patience: dual booting multiple operating systems (so they don't have to buy Linux-dedicated hardware), using any graphics card (the latest and greatest GPUs are all closed source and developers who work on Linux do so because they despise closed source), using the least expensive hardware (which are typically closed source and buggy with anything except Windows), and emulating Windows apps so they don't have to learn new workflows or abandon their favorite games (technically, Proton with Steam allows Windows games like FFXIV to be played, but it's a neverending journey to get it working and keeping it working.
If you switch to Linux, accept that for a smooth experience you'll have to pay more than you would for a Windows machine (e.g. System76, Framework)
And if you want graphics card support for your emulated Windows games on Steam, you're going to have to use the specific flavor of Linux the manufacturer supports.
That said, if you value free/libre open source software, then making the switch from Windows is totally worth it.
Already moved all my PC stuff to Linux. Laptop, desktop, media server. Been wanting to do this for years. Thanks, Valve and Proton, and to all those Linux developers who made this transition possible. Fuck M$
I literally just swapped my key for my win10 pc's to win10 ltsc iot with mass and now dont have to worry for wayy longer. I suggest everyone without the option to switch to do the same.
I run Linux on a small mini pc for some casual browsing.
I run windows on my main pc.
As long as some kernel anticheat (fortnite, cod, etc...) doesn't run on Linux, I won't be swapping.
30+y of windows use also makes me infinitely more comfortable with windows. All the complaints I always read about are totally moot for me (I understand the issue of privacy in windows. It's the price I pay to have an OS that "just works" for me) .
While I enjoy tinkering, Linux is a royal PITA to use if you're not used to it. I spend hours trying to figure out how to fix something that takes me 5m max in windows. I understand it's a more a me than a Linux problem. But I'm certain many people struggle with the same things.
I have personally been using Linux for a few years now and I absolutely love it, however a lot of people will switch to Linux and be extremely disappointed. If you're going into Linux expecting an open source Windows clone you'll be solely mistaken. If you want an operating system that looks and works exactly like W11 youll be better off installing W11 and using something like classic shell. However if you're willing to accept that its a completely different OS (so it naturally will work differently and have different software) then go ahead.
Already done. I dual boot at work (translated: I have a dormant win10 partition just in case, but I’m more likely to use my win10 VM in Linux) and at home I’m Linux only, having wiped my windows partition to reclaim the space within weeks of installing Linux.
I use Mint Cinnamon in both places. It’s a very polished, all in one, install and go OS. But it’s still Linux so I have the terminal available and I can find out how to fiddle with and change whatever I want.
For all manner of 2D desktop use, I find it superior to windows. Even being a very full-featured distro, when the software is made to serve the user and not 50 competing corporate priorities, you can tell. It’s so much more responsive and nice to use. (It is not flawless of course)
For gaming, I don’t play the newest stuff or multiplayer games with crazy anti-cheat, but I have not had any regrets so far. Many games have native Linux versions, probably thanks to valve and the Steam deck, but windows games running in proton have been smooth sailing for me.
I think I’ve just dealt with enough computer crap in my life that I prefer using not just Linux apps but FOSS software for as much as I can. If some game or some photo editing suite will absolutely not work in Linux or work acceptably in a VM, I am fine with it not existing in my world. I used to not find that acceptable, but now I’m over it. In a chill way though, not an angry anti-Microsoft way.
My gaming 'puter is running win 10, and the plan is to replace it with one running Manjaro. Will have to see when that happens, not upgrading to win 11.
I moved back to Linux and it works wonderfully. Except for HDR. That require a bit of tinkering. And there is no good way of getting it to work in any Linux browser, except for some very clunky workarounds. Hopefully that will be fixed.
My gaming PC is on Win 11 because it's recent and I'm lazy and it's convenient. My laptop runs Win 10 so it'll be Linux I guess. Not really looking forward to finding a distro and reinstalling and whatnot but what can you do. It's been a good few years since I last had a Linux box so I'm pretty rusty and not up to date on the recent best distros.
For gaming, people often recommend Pop!_OS, Bazzite, or Zorin, but you can use whatever you want if you are a tinkerer. I use Debian and have a great time gaming.
Outside of gaming and if Windows software compatibility isn't really something you're worried about, you can use any distro you want.
You can try some of them out using a web browser with DistroSea if you feel like it, though they don't have every distro because that would be nuts.
I've been on Kubuntu for a while, but snaps are starting to bug me. When I build a new PC, I'm in the market for a new distro. Do you have a solid recommendation for a KDE-based distro that doesn't have a Windows-esque update step during shutdown and restart?
To choose your distro you must first decide whether you want a a stable distribution (debian) or a bleeding edge one (arch). Then you have to decide whether you want it to be a rolling release (tumbleweed) or a fixed point release distribution (fedora).
There's a lot more that could be said about each of these distros, but they all have KDE sessions.
Snaps are a pest and Ubuntu is more or less a failed experiment. I had way less trouble installing and maintaining a couple of plain vanilla Debian hosts than Ubuntu machines for years. The killer argument for Ubuntu was easiness of installation. Nowadays a standard Debian install is a matter of a few clicks. Sure a custom install like encrypted LVM over several partitions is still a demanding task even for an ecperienced user - but at least it is possible.
Does Debian have the same update woes I ran into with Fedora? Or if there was a way to tweak that in Fedora, I couldn't find the option, and it was several years ago besides.
No. Debian updates tend to be interruption free. Apt/dpkg is a lot more consistent than RPM and deals very nicely with dependencies in both directions.
I'm not familiar enough with KDE to know what you mean by a Windows-esque update step, but if you can explain further I'll see if I can find something for you.
Alternatively, someone else might pop in with some options.
I sampled Fedora a few years back, but, much like Windows, when it installs updates for certain core components, on shutdown and boot-up, it will have a "Please wait while we install updates" screen. Meanwhile, in Kubuntu, it installs everything in the background while I'm using my computer normally, and the change takes place on next restart, when I'm good and ready, with no additional time waiting at that update screen.
Hmm, I suppose the big difference between Fedora and Kubuntu is that Fedora is a fixed point release distro (similar to rolling release but less frequent) that applies updates only on restart, so it's possible that it needs a moment to ensure that everything is compatible.
It's certainly a weird choice to kidnap your desktop, so I don't blame you for being annoyed. If that's causing this, then you might want to try a stable release distro. This is part of why I like Debian, because it doesn't change very quickly and updates are unlikely to need special care to ensure stability. Debian also doesn't have the issue you're talking about, it updates right away in the background.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu-based (duh) so if you like how it behaves, you could try Debian (which Ubuntu is based on) or try another flavour of Ubuntu. Pop!_OS and Zorin are both Ubuntu-based and should definitely be on DistroSea.
I’m using Fedora workstation (Gnome) and the updates are done while turning off the computer.
Next time I start it, it starts without having to apply or download anything.
The only thing which could be improved is that you still have to go to the software center to download updates, but you can apply them whenever you want.
I used to use UbuntuStudio back when I was playing around with music recording and production ages ago because it ran the real-time kernel which was important for JACK I think. Last time though was just Mint.
Well, Mint is still one of the top recommendations for new users. It gets support for the newest hardware at a bit of a delay, so if you wanted to follow suit with your new gaming PC, it might not be as great of a choice for that for now, but for your laptop, that's what I'd recommend, if you're not looking to experiment.
Well, that was kind of a general statement. Mint is boring. That's what it's good at. That's why it's loved and why it's recommended for new users. Specifically, it's similar to Windows in many ways. It's somewhat more customizable, but that's about it.
With you having used Linux twice before, you could consider something less Windows-like, less boring. I'll be talking about the desktop environment (DE) rather than distro, because it has much more influence on this. You can use these DEs on various distros.
My personal favorite DE is KDE Plasma. The default-layout is also Windows-like, but it's got all of the bells and whistles and options you could imagine. It's kind of power-user heaven and almost like a toolbox to build whatever workflow you want.
The other big, popular DE is GNOME. It's more macOS- and Android-like and focuses on a specific workflow. People who can get used to that workflow, then often really like it. The workflow itself is sometimes frustratingly uncustomizable, but it's also fairly customizable when it comes to the details, typically by virtue of also having lots of features, which can then be customized.
Well, and I guess, I'll throw in Xfce, too, since that's likely what you used, back when you used Ubuntu Studio. (Ubuntu Studio uses KDE since the October 2020 release, but used Xfce before then.)
Xfce isn't necessarily what modern beauty standards would get flustered by, but many folks like it for its simplicity and because it is perhaps even more boring than Mint (without being Windows-like). There's a good chance that it still works a lot like back when you used it.
Perhaps also worth mentioning that Mint's DE is called "Cinnamon", although it's developed by the Mint devs, so if you like that a lot, it's typically worth sticking to Mint.
Wow, thank you for the extensive reply! I did used to use xfce back in the day, yes. Never had a problem with it, but those were maybe simpler times. Might look into KDE this time, why not.
I was really thinking less of the DE and more along the lines of if you had any recommendations that weren't Ubuntu- or Debian-based, as that's pretty much all I've used I think. But maybe that's too much experimenting...
Yeah, I always hesitate to recommend distros. 😅
There's tons out there and they all exist, because some smart person decided to put in lots of work, as the existing ones didn't match what they wanted.
If we exclude Ubuntu/Debian-based, that narrows it down somewhat. The other major distros are:
Fedora: Rather much tied to the corporate side (Red Hat / IBM), tends to be rather up-to-date. Kind of has a focus on GNOME, but other "Spins" are available.
Arch: Community-driven, pretty much a DIY distro, so the initial setup is somewhat challenging. It's really up-to-date, so much that it's referred to as "bleeding edge" (rather than cutting edge), meaning you might get faulty updates from time to time. It's also often loved by minimalists, because they can decide for each component, if they want to install it.
Well, and perhaps the most niche of these – which is what I'm on – openSUSE: Has the best integration of KDE (not by a huge margin, but still). I like it in particular, because of its snapshotting system. It automatically starts snapshotting your OS (not the user files) once per hour or whenever you make changes to the installed packages. If something breaks, you can boot into a previous snapshot from the bootloader and roll things back.
It's the most "maximalist" mainstream distro, in that it preinstalls relatively much software. Personally, I think the other distros are a bit silly with their minimalist tendencies, but yeah, I'm biased. And well, downsides of openSUSE are that it is somewhat niche. You'll find a helpful, tight-knit community, but it's less likely that guides mention how to do things on openSUSE. Similarly, you're less likely to find pre-packaged software for openSUSE. May have to compile from source more often, although SoS has a good amount of software, too.
As for whether a different distro is too much experimenting, if you do jump into it, you'll understand why I talked about the desktop environment instead. 🙃
The DE makes a much bigger difference. Some people conflate distro and DE, because certain distros will have certain default DEs.
But if you used the same DE on two distros, honestly the main difference you'd notice is a different package manager. Where Ubuntu Studio and Mint use apt, openSUSE uses zypper, Fedora uses dnf and Arch uses pacman. They handle somewhat differently, but largely do the same things (i.e. install/update/remove packages).
Obviously, there are more differences to the distros, like how quickly they update and some of the default configuration, like the snapshotting I raved about, but ultimately it's still a Linux system with much of the same software running on both...
Made the upgrade last week to Linux mint and I’m loving it. Got my Arr stacks and stuff setup as dockers and it’s never worked so well. All the connection issues I’ve had on windows is now gone.
The interface is nice and not bloated. And I’m not being tracked which feels liberating.
Unpopular opinion but I'm just using 11. I deal with enough problems with Linux at work and as hard as it is to believe, Windows just work and fits my workflow too well. Linux works great on my Steam Deck but the occasional weird quirks it has with certain games/launchers means I can't use it as my main gaming platform, it's only fine on the Deck because it has advantages for the form factor.
How do I even get started? Do I just install Mint and figure it out from there? Linux seems so complicated but it's been a decade since I last tried. Nowadays, I feel old and this seems like it needs too much research
I want to move to Linux, but I need to be able to use the VPN service my work uses and I'm just not sure how to get it working on Linux. I should just dual boot.
Windows is a weapons contractor that is entangled in the domestic markets. Linux is not. Windows is spyware and anti consumer. It is time to at least be familar with Linux. Try it on a old laptop or something. Linux is free.
Went to Linux a couple months ago, its freaking awesome, you'll never look back. And it is way easier to use than people make it out to be. Also my PC has never been faster thanks to having zero bloat.
My friend was unable to update to windows 11 due to the TPM requirements and looking to switch to linux. I upgraded my CPU and said they should buy my old one. They finally said OK and asked if I could help them install it before they switched to Linux. I installed the CPU and they never switched to Linux because now they have a CPU that meets the TPM requirements.
Windows users really hate change. Microsoft will force them to update and the users will whine but 1 week later they will be used to it then they will stick on windows 11 till EoL.
I tried a rest run with Kubuntu on an old laptop I had, and it runs 95% flawlessly. My biggest issue is my new Brother printer that I'm trying to install connected to Wi-Fi. The system sems to know it's there, but then doesn't seem to install the drivers. My Android phone prints there just fine.
Considering I'm unemployed and job hunting, and Windows says I can't upgrade my current (old) PC, and I regularly play Warzone with friends? No, probably not any time soon.
Maybe if I get a job with a six digit salary in a city with a reasonable cost of living (or remote) so I can jump out of debt before 6 months? But I'm not holding my breath.
No way I'm switching to Linux yet, multi monitors support with mixed resolutions and vrr on nvidia still kinda sucks. As soon as someone makes that work I'll try it out on a separate partition. Buy last time I tried my other monitors had all kinds of issues when I had games open with gysnc
Can anyone recommend a distro (and desktop environment?) that's going to be almost the same as desktop mode on the Steam deck? I'm getting more comfortable in that than I expected to be in any Linux, and to my surprise and delight I haven't had to delve into the command line at all yet.
Get a 256GB SSD and install it on your computer alongside the existing drives.
Install a gaming-oriented Linux distro such as Pop!OS, Bazzite, SteamOS or similar, on that drive (don't let it touch any other drive - those things generally have an install mode were you just tell it "install in this drive" which will ignore all other drives)
Unless your machine is 10 years old or older, during boot you can press a key (generally F8) and the BIOS will pop-up a boot menu that lets you choose which OS you want start booting (do it again at a later date if you want to change it back). If your machine is old you might actually have to go into the BIOS and change the boot EFI (or if even older, boot drive) it boots from in the boot section of the BIOS.
Use launchers such as Steam and a Lutris since they come with per-game install scripts that make sure Proton/Wine is properly configured, so that for most game you don't have to do any tweaking at all for them to run - it's just install and launch. In my experience you still have to tweak about 1 game in every 10.
If it all works fine and you're satisfied with it, get a bigger SSD and install it alongside the rest. Make one big partition in it and mount you home directory there (at this point you will have to go down to the CLI to copy over your home directory). You'll need this drive because of all the space you'll be using for games, especially modern ones and launchers like Steam and Lutris will install the games in your home directory so having that in it's own partition is the easiest way to add storage space for games.
As long as you give a dedicated drive to Linux and (if on an old machine before EFI) do not let it install a boot sector anywhere else but that drive, the risk exposure is limited to having spent 20 or 30 bucks on a 256GB SSD and then it turns out Linux is still not good enough for you.
When NOT to do it:
If you don't know what a BIOS is or that you can press a key at the start of boot to get into it.
If you don't know how to install a new drive on your machine (or even what kind of drive format it takes) and don't have somebody who can do it for you.
If you don't actually have the free slot for the new drive (for example, notebooks generally only have 2 slots, sometimes only 1).
Just waiting for daddy gabon to release steamos. If not I swear I'm going to just use the most windowsxp distro available. I thought I was being simple by going with mint and KDE. Dare me.
My (perfectly good) PC isn't Win 11 compatible, so I can't upgrade from 10. I've got Linux running on an old laptop so I'm thinking of installing it on my PC. Buuut a few years back I moved from Google Drive to OneDrive and so now I'm looking at Proton Drive instead. It's all a big time soak, sigh. But worth it? I guess... The timing isn't great either - I've got an exam in October that I need to study hard for and do practical prep as well, plus I have travel plans. It's all a bit much. I'm too old to be this busy!
I have 11, so not directly affected. But with "no more security updates" being the only real reason one needs to change, the obvious question here is if there is 3rd party software that can protect a Windows 10 system?
I remember when anti-virus software was in common use.
I am on Fedora. But i still have Windows dual boot left. But I dont use Windows 10 that often - I don't see the need. I just have it as a backup OS. I have free enough diskspace on my SSD so currently not doing anything.
I tried out going 100% Linux a year ago. Unfortunately I was playing one of the very few games that has Linux issues. 100% CPU all the time was bugging me. It's not the fault of Linux. Anyway, that's how it played out. I may be tempted to try again soon.
Upgrade tool says my hardware isn't supported, seems like I can enable TPM on my motherboard but it doesn't work right for some reason I think I managed to install Windows 10 without secure boot or something, not sure if those two are even related. I was thinking maybe I'd have to reinstall windows 10 with those modules enabled in order to upgrade to windows 11... Has anyone else encountered something similar?
I would love some advice, personally. How big of an issue is this really? Like....do I really have to care if there aren't system updates anymore? How big of a security risk is it actually?
Bought my wife a framework laptop, slapped fedora on it and have been helping her make the switch. So far so good other than Obsidian not working the same as OneNote.
I was running mint, but had to go back to windows because of a hardware bug I'm still trying to fix where my PC will randomly not wake up from sleep and that results in corrupted drives, which windows can fix with it's automated repair at boot, but Linux has done commands that I need to run and if I fuck it up it would fuck my computer up even more, so until I can fix the hardware bug I'm stuck on windows, but by fuck do I hate it. I prefer Linux so much more over windows, so much more convenient, efficient, personalizable and it actually works in many places where windows simply doesn't even with a lot of fiddling around in settings and shit
I technically have a Win10+Linux dual boot setup right now, but I haven't used the Linux install in forever, and I think it's broken. So I'll probably fix this and then use Linux when possible and continue using the unsupported win10 for everything that needs windows.
I remember people mentioning the win10 LTCS version with 10 years support, but I'm not going to buy anything from them. Maybe I'll use it unactived if needed.
Switching to Linux with no intentions of moving back. I'm fed up with MS. I'm not settled on which distro (and I don't want to distro hop on my main machine) but I know for sure that I'm switching.
I might get downvoted or whatever but Windows 11 is fine. I get it if your PC straight up can’t run it, that’s a tough spot. But as an OS it’s fine, even has a few handy features (besides all the AI crap shoehorned in). I actually like the File Explorer changes and the window snap stuff can work in the right setting.
Sunshine is still very much in active development for the server side of things, and the client app is also still active. Both seem to still work flawlessly in Windows and Linux on Nvidia cards for me, and as far as I know there's very solid support for AMD cards as well.
Well I see it I repos and app stores, not real sure of the development, last update on the Google store was Feb 2024. Still seems to work when I've played with it
I can't afford a new computer right now and tariffs meaning higher prices means I can't anticipate affording one in the near future. My plan is to see where everything's at when they stop doing updates. Unfortunately.
I will and have done this thing where I will wait until Microsoft has enough of their head out of their ass to make another decent Windows version again, before I consider hopping to it. They're due to make one sometime soon, don't they? They'll soon realize Windows 11 like 8, Vista and ME before it, was a stupid idea and do something nicer for Windows 12 or whatever they do with Windows next after 11. Windows 11 is already like 4 years old and one of its versions is going to expire next year. What will they do then?
Linux doesn't have my full attention because I don't think it'll run everything I use for Windows. My user activity/behavior is slowing down to where I'm probably a casual user at best who does the bare minimum. Yet, there's things I'd like to run without having to use third party software as a bridge to get to what I want to run as simple as it would if it was on Windows with a simple click or two. Oh and not to mention, hardware driver and support with Linux is one of my major concerns and I don't think there's a Linux driver for every piece of my hardware.
Man, I really tried today to get Linux on my Framework laptop.
I can't believe how goddamn frustrating the experience has been, and I've dabbled in Linux for decades.
I try Mint. Install as a dual boot... Installation done. Reboot. Straight into Windows. Check partitions and nothing has changed.
Try again. All seems fine. Boot. Some error screen that won't let me get into Mint.
Do this like four more times with no luck.
Tried Ubuntu. No easy way to install as a dual boot unless I want to mess around with custom paritions. Also, GNOME sucks ass, but Ubuntu seems way more polished than Mint.
I did get mint on a mini PC I have running through my TV. But audio wasn't working, so that took a while to sort out. And the onscreen keyboard does nothing on the lock screen. So unpolished, and I have no idea why it's recommended "for beginners" when it feels unfinished.
With windows, there's no messing around. Everything just works. And I fucking hate that I feel forced to choose a miserable, hacky, terminal-based experience with countless hours of installing shit through commands... Or a smooth, reliable, easy one with bloatware and spying on the backend. Goddammit!
Is there an easy way to port all my stuff to Linux? I would not have made the switch in the past, but all the good will I attributed to Microsoft is pretty much gone. I’ve heard Mint is petty easy to hop onto?
Linux. I've been putting if off because of hardware reasons that would be annoying to explain beyond the solution is upgrading the motherboard, which is bottlenecking me anyways.
Plan on, if possible, cloning my account to a new account on a new internal drive (preferably a 2TB+ drive) to save all my stuff that I want and don't feel like moving over due to laziness. Then on another partition, I plan on having the rest of the space being used for Linux. All I gotta do is make sure the win10 partition doesn't receive an ounce of Internet connectivity at all and pray I don't end up with a virus or something similar somehow (because even the safest internet practices aren't safe enough anymore).
Hopefully I can turn that partition into a cold partition where I can keep the current games I have that aren't downloaded through Steam installed to ensure I can still play them. Then I can slowly debloat it by uninstalling everything I don't need on there and get rid of a ton of files/unnecessary programs so that way I can still have roughly 500-600GB for win10 just in case I ever need it for anything, like a program I genuinely cannot figure out how to get working on Linux.
Does it really matter? I have xemu (xbox emulator), retroarch for anything else, and PSX2 to be sure on Lubuntu, combine together how many games all those have and you just don't need steam
I got a new PC recently so unfortunately I am now on Windows 11. I’ve been wanting to make the swap to Linux but I can’t really make a clean break because at least some of the games I play a lot won’t work on Linux. I do think I’m gonna try to set up another hard drive with Linux on it to try to slowly start learning it and ideally move over anything that I can over there eventually and just keep the windows drive for those few games.
Does anyone have any recommendations related to that? Distro for gaming/ease of use? What’s the best option for setting up the dual boot? Anything I wouldn’t have thought of that’s relevant?
I’ll be switching fully to Linux this summer, but will also “upgrade” windows 10 to 11 on the last week of support. I’ll only use it then if I have to, on a separate drive.
I can't switch to Linux due to software requirements for work. On my personal computer I'm using Xubuntu for well over a decade, I didn't like the unity window manager of Ubuntu. I heard they changed to something else by now, but I can't be bothered to switch.
Linux has some problems that I just can never find answers for.
#1. Can’t do 4k 340hz on my display port 1.4 cable. Even though I can on windows and Mac. In Linux the option is there with the nvidia driver, but the screen goes black anytime I try to use it. No solution.
#2. Ubiconnect won’t work with Ann 1800 even though it’s good on proton.db and others are reporting it works great, I was never ever able to get it working or find reliable steps to get it working.
It’s a needle in a haystack trying to find fixes for things like this. Linux offers a lot, but still doesn’t offer the most important thing ease of fixing problems quickly so you can just do what you want to do.
I moved from Win 10 to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 2 months ago. Going very well so far, even for music production and gaming. I also got a friend of mine to dual-boot Tumbleweed/Win11, coming from Win11.
I've enjoyed Linux since Windows MEllennium Edition convinced me that I didn't like paying a lot, in money and time, to be an unpaid product testing guinea pig. A work friend put Windows 2000 on that laptop when ME went bad. I used it until a got a blue screen of death one day, and switched to Linux. The 1st was a $230 ePC that could be had with Windows XP or XanderOS (a flavor of Linux). I chose the latter, and had a great time of it. I've since used Mint and Ubuntu.
I'm going to move over to Mint on my laptop, it's older but still working great after I swapped an SSD drive in. Biggest issue is backing up the laptop before installing Linux.
I have another computer I plan on duel boot with Windows 10 so I have access if I need windows for certain programs.
I have no control over my work computer so Windows 11 there.
And unless one of my brothers steps up and buys our Dad a Windows 11 computer (I bought the Windows 10 computer, which is why it was so cheap it can't take 11. 😆 ) since I'm his tech support if my brothers don't step up he is going to Linux. No matter what I'm going to have to listen to him complain about how it is different so it will be a good time to move to Linux. Probably a version that tries to mimic Windows.
I've been on 11 since before it was officially released. Honestly never had any issues with it, but I'm interested in hearing what sort of issues anyone else might have had? Are we talking about privacy concerns, bugs or performance issues?
Got a new laptop about a month ago. Put Fedora Bluefin on it immediately. Couple other computers/server have been running Debian flavors for year or two.
My main desktop is still Windows, but I literally never use it, especially since getting the laptop. I'll switch it over when I get time.
I'm still tied to windows for three apps. I've found a Linux replacement for one, I just haven't done the work to convert the database.
Another one I'm trying to run it's Android version in a waydroid docker, but I'm hitting walls, no time to dig deeper.
And the last one has no replacement, and it's too delicate to try emulating, I don't want to nuke the shared database it's attached to, it's not worth the headache. So I keep a Windows VM around for the once a month I need to use that program for 🤷♂️
I'm purposely being vague about the programs, they are very identifying, but trust me there's no alternatives.
Even with all that, I'm not looking back, win11 sucks.
20 years for me (even thought I used Windows for a year in there). There's no point in using Windows at all, unless you're forced at work, or stuck because you don't want to learn an alternative tool.
Just bought a laptop and put bazzite on it to try it out and figure out if I can do all the things I want to do on it. If that all works out I'll be switching my desktop over.
I've gotten to a point where the quality of a PS2 game is higher to me than most AAA releases. I mostly play retro games, more open multiplayer games that don't block users like TF2(and TF2) and indies... so, no. I don't really need Windows for anything.
My old as hell PC died I'm getting a steam deck as a replacement with a dock and ...so I'll just be dual booting into windows 11 and obviously steam OS when I decide to play hand held.
The only real reason I'm still on Win 10 is because of Escape from Tarkov and Photoshop. I need to get a new m.2 and just start sorting through my crap I guess but I haven't gotten the motivation yet lol
Been a Linux user for ages, I do have Windows 11 installed on another partition but I rarely - if ever - boot into it.
I mention the above spiel because I don't understand what additional points people have against windows 11? It seems very similar to windows 10 for me - what're the reasons for people hating it?
Genuinely not trying to be obtuse, here - I'm just wondering what the primary pain points are of win 11?
Is it the requirement for using a Microsoft account to log in vs. a normal local account? Or the one drive stuff? (upon install it did move most of my personal folders into a weird OneDrive directory, and I had to use the registry to wipe out OneDrive and move them back. Very annoying.)
I don't like the rootkit. I do everything I possibly can on Linux aside from the one game that requires it. That said, since they started using the rootkit, there has been a steep drop-off in bots in the game. As in I don't see any anymore. So, annoying and a huge security risk? Absolutely. Dubious? Maybe? Depends on what you mean.
I have an ad hoc media server on 10. If it's super working, you can bet I will replace it with something other than Microsoft. Unless work requires it, everything I use is Linux, Android, or Apple based. I don't hate Windows, I just like everything else more.
Swapped to Arch Linux! I wouldn't say it's been a bug free swap but it's been extremely doable and everything I needed to work worked like a charm. Gaming was uninterrupted and nothing hasn't worked yet.
I need to figure out how to connect my stupid printer but I couldn't do that on windows either, which is sad cause I thought printers were gonna be easier on Linux but I guess this brother model is a pain in the ass or something. Oh and connecting to network drives while on a VPN. That's my list of pending problems and I've been on Linux for two months. Not bad really.
My system isn't even that old (maybe 4 years) and the first few times I got that very annoying popup that I should try to upgrade it told me in vague terms that I couldn't. So be it, everything runs fine now. I have backups of everything, so if WIn10 doesn't continue to work as simply unsupported one day I'll look for ways to "fix" it like someone mentioned with a 3rd party, or go to Linux and adapt to it. Anyone who has ever had a drive failure knows that the solution is to use a recovery USB which will be a portable Linux, so it will be just another version of that.
I don't care to much about steam at the moment so no real problem. But I will make the switch to linux on the machine used for gaming. No Win 11 there probably, some Arch-related, EndeavourOS is my actual choice.
I've been daily-driving Linux Mint (LMDE 6) on my Thinkpad T14 G1 for almost a year now. At this point, that laptop is easily the most dependable machine I've ever had. My gaming PC is the last remaining Windows machine in my house. Recently I've been making sure everything is backed up (Syncthing is great for this) and finding alternatives for programs that don't have a Linux version.
My plan is to create images of both my SSDs (500GB & 2TB, both NTFS 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️) onto a 4TB hard drive. Then start from scratch, migrating data from the images (Steam games, config files, personal documents I may have missed, etc) when/if I need it.
I'm sticking with Linux due to the bullshit that Microsoft is constantly pulling. Currently, my PC is running Fedora 41, and I love it quite a bit; currently I can't imagine a future where I return to Windows 11. Proton Compatibility Layer makes gaming on any distro fairly easy!
I think I'm going to get the $30 1-year ESU and kick that can down the road. I need to run windows-only software and I can't upgrade because of my processor. Maybe in a year's time I'll be ready for a new build.
I'm running Linux everywhere incuding the machine I am writing on right now. I have one single dual boot machine with Windows 10 as the mainly used OS for the simple reason that I need to run one specific software (and some of the "ecosystem" around it) that is not available for Linux. The only alternative is Apple which is even worse in my opinion. So I think I'll be forced to update. All the rest of my daily computing stuff has been moved to Linux for a long time.
I tried it a few months ago but had issues with various games and lowered performance in almost all of them. I still don't know if I will just cave in and upgrade to win11 or try linux again, i've got a free partition waiting but the issue is lack of time and motivation to dive into troubleshooting the OS on a daily basis
Made the jump already since I built a new computer and there were lots of missing windows 10 drivers for the new hardware and there was no way in hell I was going to main on windows 11.
I have no plans to either update to win11 or change back to chanting magic spells at my computer to get it to work (Ubuntu, many years ago).
My computer works and does everything I want it to. Basic internet security and reasonable precautions are sufficient for a low level user like me to stay safe.
Make the jump to Linux and loose 90% of the games you play as well. If all you play is steam games and don't care about many that can't be played then sure.
I get the appeal. But windows 11 is the same thing as 10.
Why? Nothing requires Windows 11. It doesn't even have a new directx which is why most had to upgrade from 7. Browsers and malware software will work for years. Hell malwarbytes still updates for Window 7.
A couple weeks ago I attempted to switch over to Linux. Tried installing both Cachyos and Nobara. It was kind of a shit show, nothing worked correctly, stuff was erroring out and crashing left and right, and after a couple days I gave up.
Today I went ahead and installed windows 11. There were some issues... It wouldn't recognize my CD key, and I accidentally wiped a partition from the wrong drive. But as for the os itself, I spent a few hours getting things set up, and it's not as horrible as I thought it would be. I was able to simply turn off most of the shit like copilot and recall, and all the advertisements, and I pretty much have it working as I want it to.
So 43% of Steam users are the kind of stickler that refuse to update their Windows to an objectively better version because it's something new and different and breaks their habits. What would make you think these people would possibly just switch to a different OS altogether if a simple update was too much to ask for the past years?
Only semi-related: Why do they always show pictures of Gates when he hasn't been involved in MS in a long time? Why never Satya Nadella?
EDIT: Also, yes, related to the actual question already living Linux full time and when October rolls around probably gonna back up everything from the Windows side of my dual-boot and wipe the 1TB NVMe Windows is on to use as storage.
I was thinking the same thing. He will just forever be known as the guy. Maybe it will change once he dies?
Maybe, he is indeed looking hella rough in this photo.
Seems he's using the same orange tan as the other orange guy haha
Didn't work for Steve Jobs.
I don't think so. Gates' shoes are big ones.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-harassment-inappropriate-conduct-women-microsoft-jeffrey-epstein-2021-5
You're right, it's really hard to fill the shoes of someone who abuses their power and position to try to hook up with women.
Well, I guess that Gates can't fill their own shoes too
Not that hard unfortunately. I'm sure someone up to the task can fill his shoes no problem
Personally, I think this picture of Steve Balmer is so much more iconic and should be used for every single article about Microsoft or Windows:
It's weird how MS's putting developers first became a joke. Back in the 80's, companies like HP and IBM had open warehouses with coders at desks lined up like factory workers. MS was the first big company to give a private office to every programmer.
The approach isn’t what became a joke, it was the absolutely unhinged way in which it was presented in that famous Ballmer stage appearance.
Oh sure, it was crazy. But the sentiment behind it was good. It's like how Howard Dean got dunked on for his scream.
I'd take that any day over the unhinged AI focus from all these companies now or Google's awful documentation from the past few years.
I couldn't name another Microsoft employee if a gun was to my head. but I can still vividly remember myself in 4th grade reading about Bill Gate's mega mansion in Popular Mechanics for Kids
Steve Ballmer! Developers developers developers! That's the other one I know
I'm somewhat in the same boat but I remember Mister "Developers Developers Developers" Steve Ballmer who was also immortalized by the "Ballmer Peak" XKCD. https://xkcd.com/323/
Gabe Newell?
He would be also be a reasonable person to include on an article citing Steam data.
Holy shit I remember that article too!
I could but that’s because a friend of mine works on the legacy rendering code in Excel. He has some traumatic war stories to share.
Because he set the general, evil directions for MS. Like keeping users uninformed and locked in, smearing the competition, sabotaging open standards, taking your control over your hardware and data away from users, etc. All happened during evil Bill's reign.
Not to mention the many deals with hardware manufacturers in order to avoid competing OSs to have any chance. They managed to kill BeOS and dominate the Japanese market in the 90s
I was wondering why Bill Gates would be talking about Steam users.
It's maybe some kind of circular logic, but my brain doesn't recognize a picture of Satya Nadella = "Microsoft's CEO" for some reason.
Maybe your brain would, if it had a chance to connect the two if they posted more pictures of Satya and Microsoft in the same context...
Yeah, its maybe some kind of circular logic that their brain doesn't make that link
It's probably some kind of circular logic, I dunno. 🤷♂️
I'm here, so I'm more likely to know who that is or what he looks like. But I don't. I do now because you mentioned him and I looked up how he looks like. Your average Joe is gonna be even less likely to know who that is or what he looks like. So I'm guessing that's why. Some CEOs just avoid the spotlight. Or maybe I've just been avoiding MS news, dunno
It's a vicious cycle. The media don't use Satya Nadella's name or picture much, so people don't know who he is or how he looks like.
Optics or marketing, it's the same reason LLMs are all called AI.
Under his watch they did form the anti-opensource and EEE mantra
Already did and it's glorious! Steam works beautifully and the only final thing that I'm missing is Adobe products.
I recommend, if you want to try Linux, that you try out the 'Debian' distribution, and use the 'KDE Plasma' desktop environment. It makes for a very Windows-like experience and really assisted me with the transition between OSs.
The more people hop onto Linux the faster and better funded support for Linux development becomes. If you're a single player gamer or play Valve multiplayer games primarily, make the jump to Linux. Get on Mint, get on Fedora, Ubuntu, etc and get off Microsoft's shitboat. You already took off from Reddit. Wean off all these other money/data leeches
Most people won't budge. It doesn't matter if Win10 is unsupported or isn't getting a security update, I reckon a solid 40 of 43% will just stay on it until programs they use stop working.
Windows 10 ltsc massgrave.dev
Basically my plan until I can scrounge enough money up for a new computer. My current one literally won't let me upgrade due to some component/driver it lacks.
Yep, I feel like people overestimate how much anyone cares about official support or security patches or whatever. People will assume it's fine until they're either forced out or something goes horribly wrong.
Regular folks will most likely let it be if possible, until it's time for a new PC anyway.
It's not like Windows 10 will magically stop booting or something..
Switch to Linux. As a big-time gamer, I did it last year and it’s been fantastic. Only issue is if you main games with root kit anticheat…but with enough momentum in Linux direction, game studios will be forced to abandon those dubious detection methods anyway.
Why Gates in the picture tough?
He stepped down as a chairman over 10 years ago and didint he leave the microsoft board like 5 years ago?
Same. I just gotta figure out what distro I want to run. Nobara, Bazzite, Mint, Zorin, Kubuntu, idk. I get analysis paralysis. I’ve run Ubuntu, Fedora, and even tried Arch once, but it’s been a long while since I’ve been full Linux. I’m definitely done with Windows tho (at least outside of work, but I can’t control that).
I'm using Garuda and it has a setup specifically for gaming. The gamer look it comes with out of the box is ugly in my opinion, but that's easy to change.I highly recommend it. It's Arch based, so the AUR and Arch wiki work great with it. It's really great and (in my opinion) user friendly.
Garuda is great because it comes with a tool where you can select a bunch of packages you may need (but also most won't, so it's not built in), then it'll install them for you. You don't need to search for what you'll need because they're listed with a description for you right on the first boot. It makes it very quick and easy to get set up, while still being Arch underneath.
I play only on Linux, and it works great. Come on over!
I am going to attempt to switch to Linux, I'm definitely not going to willingly use windows platforms again.
I switched to linux full time almost a year ago.
I have been thus far entirely unsuccessful in convincing anyone else to make the jump. Normal people do not give a fuck, will not lift a finger to improve their digital lives. I've been telling friends and family about adblockers for YEARS, and not a single one ever bothered to do it of their own volition. If I don't do it for them, then they just sit through ads like complacent sheep. None of them are going to change operating systems if they can't even install a browser extension.
Sticking with 10 for a bit, moving to Linux
Linux is fine. Ive been using it since before ubuntu was invented. But Windows has the most goddamn computer games.
It's going to be purchase a new hard drive and then jump to Linux Mint this August.
It's not an experience I am looking forward to (5080S, I do a lot of modding, and enjoy fangames/indie games which do not always play nice with linux) but needs must - the Linux community in general is very friendly, so we'll get through it, even if the first 6 months are rough. I'll keep the dual boot and push the windows partition to 11 if needed by work, that way I can put off rewriting my elderly access database for another few years.
Honestly, Microsoft are committing suicide when it comes to home users. It won't be sudden, but the wheels are turning, all the IT savvy folks are switching people over (already did my aunt's potato, mum's demi-tato is next week). Eventually, a tipping point will be reached and offices will start switching - I hope that day comes before I die of old age!
Can’t upgrade because my 4 years old mobo is apparently too old (haven’t checked out the workarounds yet). Installed Linux Mint to give it a try and I am positively surprised so far.
IIRC W11 share is barely near W10 and they are already forcing it out and crapton of perfectly usable hardware, if it is not planned obsolescence i don't know what it is!? Fuck microsoft!
Made my jump to Arch (btw) a couple of years ago and haven't really looked back. I have Win10 as a second boot option, but that's reserved specifically for Game Pass and VR, but it's very rare I boot it. Don't care to upgrade even after EOL, and I'd never recommend Arch to anyone but the most comfortable with Linux, but it's been a great option for me.
I spent a couple hours trying to get Baldur's Gate 3 running on Linux. It was rough but I got it to run at 1440 but the latency made it sort of unplayable. It runs great in Windows 10 at 4k with the default settings. I have some other windows-only software so I guess I'm going to "upgrade" all my computers that are able to do so but I don't feel good about it. All my computers dual boot windows/linux, I would love to be linux-only.
Edit: lots of people are saying theirs runs smoothly, I'm going to have to do further testing. Thanks for the input!
It's not like that shits gonna make your computer explode the day they end support lol
I'm using 10+ years old hardware, Microsoft has already told me I can't upgrade, followed by several messages asking me to upgrade...
In other news, Linux Mint works nice and I just need to check Protondb to get Warframe running at frames per second and not seconds per frame
Where's that steam os release
Switched to Linux (mint) recently.
All my games run (almost) perfect and (almost) everything has been working perfectly. Overall it is much nicer than Windows and isn't that hard getting used to.
Would much recommend!
I got ahead of the game a little bit by switching to Linux in 2008.
I just gave up on windows gaming. If the game cant be played on my steamdeck, I just find something else. Otherwise its macos and linux for anything non-professional that requires windows. And even then I fucking hate it. Oh look at that... all my documents say "Auto-recover (version 1)" because it forcibly rebooted on me.
Yep, fuck M$
too late already did switch to linux :3
This year will be the year of the Linux desktop for shure. I believe in it like the years before.
I already switched to Bazzite Desktop and it's been so good. I had some pains configuring somethings to my liking, but that was more due to me not being familiar with Linux. I'm never going back.
I won't be doing pretty much anything about it. I have 10 pro, I don't really give a shit about what Microsoft thinks I should do. My computer is behind a firewall, and bluntly, it'll be a while before the security issues become such a problem that I need to go and upgrade.
However. I already did the legwork. I went out and upgraded the hardware TPM 1.2 in my system to TPM 2.0, and I picked up some (relatively cheap) Windows 11 pro product keys. I can upgrade if I want.
I also have access to W10 LTSC, so I can always pivot to that if I need to.
I get the security and other concerns with Windows 10. I do, but the windows 11 changes, to me seem like they're changes for the sake of things being changed. Windows 10's user experience was already quite good, apart from the fact that every feature release seemed to have the settings moved to a different location (see above about making changes for the sake of making changes). IMO, as a professional sysadmin and IT support, the interface and UX changes have made Windows, as a product, worse; it is by far the worst part of the upgrade process and I don't know why they thought any of it was a good idea. I also hate what M$ has done with printers, but I won't get started on that right now.
For all the nitpicking I could do, Windows was, for all intents and purposes, exactly what it needed to be, between Windows 7 and 10. There hasn't been any meaningful progress in the OS that's mattered since x86-64 support was added. Windows 10 32 bit was extremely rare, I don't think I ever saw it (where W7 was a mixed bag of 32/64 bit). Having almost everyone standardized on 64 bit, and Windows 10, gave a predictability that is needed in most businesses. The professional products should not follow the same trends as the home products. If they want to put AI shovelware and ads into the home products, fine. Revamp the vast majority of the control panel into the settings menu, sure. But leave the business products as-is. By far the most problems that people have with Windows 11 that I hear about, relate to how everything changes/looks different, and/or having problems navigating the "new look" or whatever the fuck.
Microsoft: you had a good thing with Windows 10, and you pissed it all away when you put out the crap that is Windows 11.
Stop moving shit around, making controls less useful, and stop making it look like the UX was designed by a 10 year old. Fuck off.
It has been already 2 years for me, I have no intention of looking back. It even works better than Windows at times.
Already prepared everything for the jump. Switched MS Office for LibreOffice, and Outlook for Betterbird. Tested install, configuration and access to backups in a VM. Next vacation I take I'll go for it. Mint is my choice of Distro, because of Steam/Gaming reasons. With the US being antagonistic, if not outright hostile, right now, and Microsoft having their disgusting Copilot AI Analysis Fingers in everything, it's the rational choice I think.
I keep recommending BazziteOS but Jorge Castro over at the universal Blue project has a really good point "Most people don't install their operating systems" and that plain fact is what stops people from moving to Linux.
Valve has momentum because they are selling you a system with the OS already on it. Sell more gaming PCs with pre installed Linux on it and the support will follow. Valve's first attempt at getting Linux based gaming hardware out there failed but that didn't stop them and the real push is coming this time.
If you do install your OS (most people here have once or twice), try Bazzite out. I'm running it on the minisforum Bd790i with a radeon 7800xt and it works great!
Been using Linux for years and the only issue with it is the incompetence of big studios. And them going out of their way to make sure stuff doesn't work on Linux.
Already switched the laptop over to Mint. Desktop to follow.
I upgraded last year, have lost no functionality
Nope, will probably avoid 11 as long as I can though. I have an Mvidia card (drivers are notoriously troublesome on Linux). And I need professional design software for work (as in, industry standard: Adobe or Affinity).
But I put 11 on my laptop to try it and I hate it. So many terrible UI changes, UX noticeably worse. Like they changed stuff just to say they changed stuff.
I considered going Linux for personal use and development, and then using another machine or dual boot for Mac for design software. But i learned about the Nvidia issues after I upgraded my card :/ and swapping to Mac's walled garden after avoiding it for decades is.... a sign of how bad W11 feels to use.
I'm gonna switch to Linux. My laptop still works fine, no need to upgrade yet.
I switched a year ago and I love it. All my old games run better on linux than windows at this point. Proton is fucking amazing.
I left Windows ~2-3 years ago since I got tired of having to keep up with ways to disable the MS account requirements or disable the ads every time there is a major version upgrade on a platform I use every day.
Linux Baby, Linux 🐧😘
And 25% of users in Asia still use Windows 7. People are going to stay on the OS for as long as possible.
Made the switch over a year ago. No regrets, everything works as I would want it to.
I'll stick with 10 until steam itself stops supporting it I think
The only thing stopping me from really considering Linux is because I'm a Destiny player
Obviously Linux is the correct choice but I fear most will simply continue to suck it up and update to W11.
Unfortunately not. Even as an IT person I can say I just wanna come home and boot up my games without hassle. Sure alot of things have been done with proton etc but still a massive amount of games don't work without Soo much dang tweaking. I don't have time for that especially with a job/being a single parent. I am highly interested in steamos though.
I'll upgrade to 11 Enterprise via massgrave.
Sadly with Adobe and some of my online games not supporting Linux, I have to stick with Windows :/ I'll just try to disable all the telemetry and AI crap via O&O and group policies.
I thought I read some time ago that Windoze 10 would be the last version of Windoze ever...
It's tricky because I have things that just don't translate well to linux, or become considerably more expensive or time consuming to manage / deal with. Linux has a lot to offer and a lot of great. But I'm just going to keep running an out of date OS until I can switch.
I'm a lifelong Windows user and tried Linux many many times but could never wrap my head around it. Recently I installed Nobara and it's exactly the noob-friendly experience I need. All of my games run flawlessly, even the VR game I play. And everything is just FASTER. I never realized how bloated Windows was until now. I can't imagine going back to Windows at this point.
Full Linux, I'm not installing that anti-privacy, ad-ridden Windows 11 OS. It's dangerous to use an unsupported system, so I'm going to be deleting my Windows partition. I know I'll run into some issues on Linux, but I'm forcing myself to learn more and work through them!
Been on linux for years :3
Why need upgrade at all? I've never needed "support" before
My gaming pc has just switched over to bazzite (as I use it like a console/htpc). Been wanting to do it for ages but needed to get an amd card beforehand for the best experience. Windows really started to grind my gears in the last few months too.
So many perfectly working older computers are going to be headed to the landfill as e-waste. That's the horrible part.
What a waste tech dollars just to play some stupid game.
This sounds like October's problem.
Jumped to linux for a test on an old laptop, currently on windows on my main PC but got parts on the way for a new build that's going to be Linux.
I finally committed to Linux at the end of last year. Enough is working to make it preferable to Windows now. I'm still having a lot of bugs, and it's costing quite some time. But at least my computer is mine again. No more telemetry, ads, and UIs that treat me like a toddler. No more updates forced onto me instead of being done whenever I want it.
Windows 10 IoT LTSC has support until 2032. Just saying...
Already switched to Nobara. Only have Windows dual boot because Space Engineers Multiplayer doesn't seem to work on Linux.
I'm in Windows 11. I have regret it, but after so many tweaks of the system, removing telemetries, changing menus, and other Windows shit, i had not the energy to move back to Windows 10.
Only OS change i am willing to make is to move to Linux, but gaming is not there yet, and am now trying to move from big proprietary companies to FOSS, so time is needed.
I gave Linux Mint a try last week when I received the news about the obligatory MS account for W11. Not that I'll "upgrade" to W11 but anyway.
Very smooth installation experience. The OS and software like Steam, Brave, Nvidia drivers and some audio & video stuff installed through the package control in no time. I could actually work with it.
Half of my game library is made only for W though. Or the small blocker things like GTA V that works well in Mint in story mode, the Battleye thing won't start of course, so expect no GTA Online in Mint either.
I think I'll keep Linux Mint and Windows under dual boot and use Windows only when necessary. Or run W10 in a virtual box in Mint 😎.
My laptop still works perfectly well so if Microsoft don't want to support it any more then I'll bung Linux on it. I've already got my Mint stick ready, just need to get round to it.
Most problems people have with Linux, I think, come from trying to be Linux power users from the start by performing very advanced techniques beyond their time and patience: dual booting multiple operating systems (so they don't have to buy Linux-dedicated hardware), using any graphics card (the latest and greatest GPUs are all closed source and developers who work on Linux do so because they despise closed source), using the least expensive hardware (which are typically closed source and buggy with anything except Windows), and emulating Windows apps so they don't have to learn new workflows or abandon their favorite games (technically, Proton with Steam allows Windows games like FFXIV to be played, but it's a neverending journey to get it working and keeping it working.
If you switch to Linux, accept that for a smooth experience you'll have to pay more than you would for a Windows machine (e.g. System76, Framework) And if you want graphics card support for your emulated Windows games on Steam, you're going to have to use the specific flavor of Linux the manufacturer supports.
That said, if you value free/libre open source software, then making the switch from Windows is totally worth it.
I am on Linux and won't change to W11 for sure.
What does Bill Gates have to do with this, he hasn't been directly involved in Microsoft in 17 years? He hasn't even been on the board for 5 years.
Already moved all my PC stuff to Linux. Laptop, desktop, media server. Been wanting to do this for years. Thanks, Valve and Proton, and to all those Linux developers who made this transition possible. Fuck M$
I'd consider switching if somebody spoonfed me into being able to use/know it's basics.
I am currently way too overstimulated with switching to privacy-focused and less (US-)corpo-reigned alternatives (like lemmy instead of reddit)
Going to migrate to Bazzite. Just need a free weekend to do it.
Already switched to linux
I already moved to linux (In my case Linux Mint) two weeks ago ^^
I'm going to Linux because I have an older i5 (I think 5th or 7th gen?) which isn't compatible.
I only really kept Windows for gaming but Valve has put a lot of effort into making Linux gaming more accessible and I'm willing to try it out now
Bought a new PC and switched from dual boot Win10/Linux to Linux only. All of the games I'm playing work well, so no need for Windows 11
Upgrade? How is 11 an upgrade?
I literally just swapped my key for my win10 pc's to win10 ltsc iot with mass and now dont have to worry for wayy longer. I suggest everyone without the option to switch to do the same.
I run Linux on a small mini pc for some casual browsing.
I run windows on my main pc.
As long as some kernel anticheat (fortnite, cod, etc...) doesn't run on Linux, I won't be swapping.
30+y of windows use also makes me infinitely more comfortable with windows. All the complaints I always read about are totally moot for me (I understand the issue of privacy in windows. It's the price I pay to have an OS that "just works" for me) .
While I enjoy tinkering, Linux is a royal PITA to use if you're not used to it. I spend hours trying to figure out how to fix something that takes me 5m max in windows. I understand it's a more a me than a Linux problem. But I'm certain many people struggle with the same things.
Jumping to Linux for sure. The hardest part is going to be finding time to learn it first...
I have personally been using Linux for a few years now and I absolutely love it, however a lot of people will switch to Linux and be extremely disappointed. If you're going into Linux expecting an open source Windows clone you'll be solely mistaken. If you want an operating system that looks and works exactly like W11 youll be better off installing W11 and using something like classic shell. However if you're willing to accept that its a completely different OS (so it naturally will work differently and have different software) then go ahead.
Already on Linux. And proud.
I don't know. I might build a new PC, and make this one a steambox. SteamOS does sound VERY exciting, and I haven't ever been excited for an OS.
Already done. I dual boot at work (translated: I have a dormant win10 partition just in case, but I’m more likely to use my win10 VM in Linux) and at home I’m Linux only, having wiped my windows partition to reclaim the space within weeks of installing Linux.
I use Mint Cinnamon in both places. It’s a very polished, all in one, install and go OS. But it’s still Linux so I have the terminal available and I can find out how to fiddle with and change whatever I want.
For all manner of 2D desktop use, I find it superior to windows. Even being a very full-featured distro, when the software is made to serve the user and not 50 competing corporate priorities, you can tell. It’s so much more responsive and nice to use. (It is not flawless of course)
For gaming, I don’t play the newest stuff or multiplayer games with crazy anti-cheat, but I have not had any regrets so far. Many games have native Linux versions, probably thanks to valve and the Steam deck, but windows games running in proton have been smooth sailing for me.
I think I’ve just dealt with enough computer crap in my life that I prefer using not just Linux apps but FOSS software for as much as I can. If some game or some photo editing suite will absolutely not work in Linux or work acceptably in a VM, I am fine with it not existing in my world. I used to not find that acceptable, but now I’m over it. In a chill way though, not an angry anti-Microsoft way.
Been on Linux for like 15 years now
I'm probably gonna go full Linux, I already run it on my laptop and my closet computer lol
I wonder if Steam OS will be ready for desktops before this
My gaming 'puter is running win 10, and the plan is to replace it with one running Manjaro. Will have to see when that happens, not upgrading to win 11.
I moved back to Linux and it works wonderfully. Except for HDR. That require a bit of tinkering. And there is no good way of getting it to work in any Linux browser, except for some very clunky workarounds. Hopefully that will be fixed.
I'm already on Linux, gaming isn't as good but I only play old games anyway so it doesn't matter.
I think I will switch to Linux, possibly dual boot with Win 11 just in case there are games I can't play on Linux.
Made the jump to Linux. No issues so far, very happy with the switch
I upgraded to Windows 11.
I tried Linux but but so much stuff isn't supported so I got rid of it.
My gaming PC is on Win 11 because it's recent and I'm lazy and it's convenient. My laptop runs Win 10 so it'll be Linux I guess. Not really looking forward to finding a distro and reinstalling and whatnot but what can you do. It's been a good few years since I last had a Linux box so I'm pretty rusty and not up to date on the recent best distros.
For gaming, people often recommend Pop!_OS, Bazzite, or Zorin, but you can use whatever you want if you are a tinkerer. I use Debian and have a great time gaming.
Outside of gaming and if Windows software compatibility isn't really something you're worried about, you can use any distro you want.
You can try some of them out using a web browser with DistroSea if you feel like it, though they don't have every distro because that would be nuts.
I've been on Kubuntu for a while, but snaps are starting to bug me. When I build a new PC, I'm in the market for a new distro. Do you have a solid recommendation for a KDE-based distro that doesn't have a Windows-esque update step during shutdown and restart?
To choose your distro you must first decide whether you want a a stable distribution (debian) or a bleeding edge one (arch). Then you have to decide whether you want it to be a rolling release (tumbleweed) or a fixed point release distribution (fedora).
There's a lot more that could be said about each of these distros, but they all have KDE sessions.
The bleeding edge distro is called "unstable", not "Arch". /s
Snaps are a pest and Ubuntu is more or less a failed experiment. I had way less trouble installing and maintaining a couple of plain vanilla Debian hosts than Ubuntu machines for years. The killer argument for Ubuntu was easiness of installation. Nowadays a standard Debian install is a matter of a few clicks. Sure a custom install like encrypted LVM over several partitions is still a demanding task even for an ecperienced user - but at least it is possible.
Does Debian have the same update woes I ran into with Fedora? Or if there was a way to tweak that in Fedora, I couldn't find the option, and it was several years ago besides.
You can update fedora through the terminal which skips the reboot part.
No. Debian updates tend to be interruption free. Apt/dpkg is a lot more consistent than RPM and deals very nicely with dependencies in both directions.
I'm not familiar enough with KDE to know what you mean by a Windows-esque update step, but if you can explain further I'll see if I can find something for you.
Alternatively, someone else might pop in with some options.
I sampled Fedora a few years back, but, much like Windows, when it installs updates for certain core components, on shutdown and boot-up, it will have a "Please wait while we install updates" screen. Meanwhile, in Kubuntu, it installs everything in the background while I'm using my computer normally, and the change takes place on next restart, when I'm good and ready, with no additional time waiting at that update screen.
Hmm, I suppose the big difference between Fedora and Kubuntu is that Fedora is a fixed point release distro (similar to rolling release but less frequent) that applies updates only on restart, so it's possible that it needs a moment to ensure that everything is compatible.
It's certainly a weird choice to kidnap your desktop, so I don't blame you for being annoyed. If that's causing this, then you might want to try a stable release distro. This is part of why I like Debian, because it doesn't change very quickly and updates are unlikely to need special care to ensure stability. Debian also doesn't have the issue you're talking about, it updates right away in the background.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu-based (duh) so if you like how it behaves, you could try Debian (which Ubuntu is based on) or try another flavour of Ubuntu. Pop!_OS and Zorin are both Ubuntu-based and should definitely be on DistroSea.
Thanks. That seems like a good jumping off point.
I’m using Fedora workstation (Gnome) and the updates are done while turning off the computer.
Next time I start it, it starts without having to apply or download anything.
The only thing which could be improved is that you still have to go to the software center to download updates, but you can apply them whenever you want.
What distro did you use before?
I used to use UbuntuStudio back when I was playing around with music recording and production ages ago because it ran the real-time kernel which was important for JACK I think. Last time though was just Mint.
Well, Mint is still one of the top recommendations for new users. It gets support for the newest hardware at a bit of a delay, so if you wanted to follow suit with your new gaming PC, it might not be as great of a choice for that for now, but for your laptop, that's what I'd recommend, if you're not looking to experiment.
I'm probably not going to be doing much gaming on my laptop, if any. I could be persuaded to experiment if you have any other suggestions.
Well, that was kind of a general statement. Mint is boring. That's what it's good at. That's why it's loved and why it's recommended for new users. Specifically, it's similar to Windows in many ways. It's somewhat more customizable, but that's about it.
With you having used Linux twice before, you could consider something less Windows-like, less boring. I'll be talking about the desktop environment (DE) rather than distro, because it has much more influence on this. You can use these DEs on various distros.
Xfce isn't necessarily what modern beauty standards would get flustered by, but many folks like it for its simplicity and because it is perhaps even more boring than Mint (without being Windows-like). There's a good chance that it still works a lot like back when you used it.
Perhaps also worth mentioning that Mint's DE is called "Cinnamon", although it's developed by the Mint devs, so if you like that a lot, it's typically worth sticking to Mint.
Wow, thank you for the extensive reply! I did used to use xfce back in the day, yes. Never had a problem with it, but those were maybe simpler times. Might look into KDE this time, why not.
I was really thinking less of the DE and more along the lines of if you had any recommendations that weren't Ubuntu- or Debian-based, as that's pretty much all I've used I think. But maybe that's too much experimenting...
Yeah, I always hesitate to recommend distros. 😅
There's tons out there and they all exist, because some smart person decided to put in lots of work, as the existing ones didn't match what they wanted.
If we exclude Ubuntu/Debian-based, that narrows it down somewhat. The other major distros are:
It's the most "maximalist" mainstream distro, in that it preinstalls relatively much software. Personally, I think the other distros are a bit silly with their minimalist tendencies, but yeah, I'm biased. And well, downsides of openSUSE are that it is somewhat niche. You'll find a helpful, tight-knit community, but it's less likely that guides mention how to do things on openSUSE. Similarly, you're less likely to find pre-packaged software for openSUSE. May have to compile from source more often, although SoS has a good amount of software, too.
As for whether a different distro is too much experimenting, if you do jump into it, you'll understand why I talked about the desktop environment instead. 🙃
The DE makes a much bigger difference. Some people conflate distro and DE, because certain distros will have certain default DEs.
But if you used the same DE on two distros, honestly the main difference you'd notice is a different package manager. Where Ubuntu Studio and Mint use
apt, openSUSE useszypper, Fedora usesdnfand Arch usespacman. They handle somewhat differently, but largely do the same things (i.e. install/update/remove packages).Obviously, there are more differences to the distros, like how quickly they update and some of the default configuration, like the snapshotting I raved about, but ultimately it's still a Linux system with much of the same software running on both...
Just moved my Win10 machine to Pop OS. No issues at all. Haven’t tried Steam VR on it yet.
Made the upgrade last week to Linux mint and I’m loving it. Got my Arr stacks and stuff setup as dockers and it’s never worked so well. All the connection issues I’ve had on windows is now gone.
The interface is nice and not bloated. And I’m not being tracked which feels liberating.
Been Linux exclusively for 20 years. Win 11 sure isn't going to change that
I'll keep using linux on my main pcs and I'll still keep using windows 10 on my secondary laptop
Unpopular opinion but I'm just using 11. I deal with enough problems with Linux at work and as hard as it is to believe, Windows just work and fits my workflow too well. Linux works great on my Steam Deck but the occasional weird quirks it has with certain games/launchers means I can't use it as my main gaming platform, it's only fine on the Deck because it has advantages for the form factor.
How do I even get started? Do I just install Mint and figure it out from there? Linux seems so complicated but it's been a decade since I last tried. Nowadays, I feel old and this seems like it needs too much research
I want to move to Linux, but I need to be able to use the VPN service my work uses and I'm just not sure how to get it working on Linux. I should just dual boot.
Windows is a weapons contractor that is entangled in the domestic markets. Linux is not. Windows is spyware and anti consumer. It is time to at least be familar with Linux. Try it on a old laptop or something. Linux is free.
Went to Linux a couple months ago, its freaking awesome, you'll never look back. And it is way easier to use than people make it out to be. Also my PC has never been faster thanks to having zero bloat.
My friend was unable to update to windows 11 due to the TPM requirements and looking to switch to linux. I upgraded my CPU and said they should buy my old one. They finally said OK and asked if I could help them install it before they switched to Linux. I installed the CPU and they never switched to Linux because now they have a CPU that meets the TPM requirements.
Windows users really hate change. Microsoft will force them to update and the users will whine but 1 week later they will be used to it then they will stick on windows 11 till EoL.
I'm planning on it.
I tried a rest run with Kubuntu on an old laptop I had, and it runs 95% flawlessly. My biggest issue is my new Brother printer that I'm trying to install connected to Wi-Fi. The system sems to know it's there, but then doesn't seem to install the drivers. My Android phone prints there just fine.
Considering I'm unemployed and job hunting, and Windows says I can't upgrade my current (old) PC, and I regularly play Warzone with friends? No, probably not any time soon.
Maybe if I get a job with a six digit salary in a city with a reasonable cost of living (or remote) so I can jump out of debt before 6 months? But I'm not holding my breath.
No way I'm switching to Linux yet, multi monitors support with mixed resolutions and vrr on nvidia still kinda sucks. As soon as someone makes that work I'll try it out on a separate partition. Buy last time I tried my other monitors had all kinds of issues when I had games open with gysnc
Can anyone recommend a distro (and desktop environment?) that's going to be almost the same as desktop mode on the Steam deck? I'm getting more comfortable in that than I expected to be in any Linux, and to my surprise and delight I haven't had to delve into the command line at all yet.
Linux is the way
i jumped 🫡
Already transitioning. Been half doing it for ages. This'll just be the last bit.
Linux for gaming and most other use cases, Windows for the one proprietary application I use. Although I suppose I might go IoT LTSC.
How to give it a go:
As long as you give a dedicated drive to Linux and (if on an old machine before EFI) do not let it install a boot sector anywhere else but that drive, the risk exposure is limited to having spent 20 or 30 bucks on a 256GB SSD and then it turns out Linux is still not good enough for you.
When NOT to do it:
Just waiting for daddy gabon to release steamos. If not I swear I'm going to just use the most windowsxp distro available. I thought I was being simple by going with mint and KDE. Dare me.
My (perfectly good) PC isn't Win 11 compatible, so I can't upgrade from 10. I've got Linux running on an old laptop so I'm thinking of installing it on my PC. Buuut a few years back I moved from Google Drive to OneDrive and so now I'm looking at Proton Drive instead. It's all a big time soak, sigh. But worth it? I guess... The timing isn't great either - I've got an exam in October that I need to study hard for and do practical prep as well, plus I have travel plans. It's all a bit much. I'm too old to be this busy!
I have 11, so not directly affected. But with "no more security updates" being the only real reason one needs to change, the obvious question here is if there is 3rd party software that can protect a Windows 10 system?
I remember when anti-virus software was in common use.
I am on Fedora. But i still have Windows dual boot left. But I dont use Windows 10 that often - I don't see the need. I just have it as a backup OS. I have free enough diskspace on my SSD so currently not doing anything.
I jumped ship to Linux Mint almost a year ago. No Microsoft products live here anymore. No regrets.
Steam OS, Batocera, Bazzite, Linux Mint.. so many great distros for gaming alone.
I tried out going 100% Linux a year ago. Unfortunately I was playing one of the very few games that has Linux issues. 100% CPU all the time was bugging me. It's not the fault of Linux. Anyway, that's how it played out. I may be tempted to try again soon.
Upgrade tool says my hardware isn't supported, seems like I can enable TPM on my motherboard but it doesn't work right for some reason I think I managed to install Windows 10 without secure boot or something, not sure if those two are even related. I was thinking maybe I'd have to reinstall windows 10 with those modules enabled in order to upgrade to windows 11... Has anyone else encountered something similar?
I would love some advice, personally. How big of an issue is this really? Like....do I really have to care if there aren't system updates anymore? How big of a security risk is it actually?
Bought my wife a framework laptop, slapped fedora on it and have been helping her make the switch. So far so good other than Obsidian not working the same as OneNote.
I was running mint, but had to go back to windows because of a hardware bug I'm still trying to fix where my PC will randomly not wake up from sleep and that results in corrupted drives, which windows can fix with it's automated repair at boot, but Linux has done commands that I need to run and if I fuck it up it would fuck my computer up even more, so until I can fix the hardware bug I'm stuck on windows, but by fuck do I hate it. I prefer Linux so much more over windows, so much more convenient, efficient, personalizable and it actually works in many places where windows simply doesn't even with a lot of fiddling around in settings and shit
I technically have a Win10+Linux dual boot setup right now, but I haven't used the Linux install in forever, and I think it's broken. So I'll probably fix this and then use Linux when possible and continue using the unsupported win10 for everything that needs windows.
I remember people mentioning the win10 LTCS version with 10 years support, but I'm not going to buy anything from them. Maybe I'll use it unactived if needed.
Switching to Linux with no intentions of moving back. I'm fed up with MS. I'm not settled on which distro (and I don't want to distro hop on my main machine) but I know for sure that I'm switching.
I might get downvoted or whatever but Windows 11 is fine. I get it if your PC straight up can’t run it, that’s a tough spot. But as an OS it’s fine, even has a few handy features (besides all the AI crap shoehorned in). I actually like the File Explorer changes and the window snap stuff can work in the right setting.
Installed bazzite today. Was easier than installing windows.
I've been trying to get a good domain authed nix set up for a while. Alternately, if I could set up a gaming server using sunshine/moonlight.
Moonlight is still alive? I used to use it constantly and was really disappointed when support for it discontinued.
Sunshine is still very much in active development for the server side of things, and the client app is also still active. Both seem to still work flawlessly in Windows and Linux on Nvidia cards for me, and as far as I know there's very solid support for AMD cards as well.
Well I see it I repos and app stores, not real sure of the development, last update on the Google store was Feb 2024. Still seems to work when I've played with it
Moonlight and sunshine are very much alive and active.
https://github.com/moonlight-stream https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine
Running with Linux (Nobara) for a while now, stability and updates come much faster than Steam client updates, IMO.
Upgrade
to Linux
Well my PC can't do windows 11, and upgrading is now impossible thanks to a certain someone. So yeah...
I had read that Steam on WINE is pretty stable. Is it not?
Unfortunately, I use some software that's Windows-only, and can't be bothered to set up a VM or anything
That sure is unfortunate 🙃
It's easier to install it than reconfiguring default Windows.
Yeah I've been Linux only since like 2012 but lately booting into windows 10 for sim racing, that's just not a thing on Linux it seems :(
Plenty of sim racing on Linux. Just not iracing or (I think) rfactor.
But Automobilista 2, AC, ACC, ACEvo, Raceroom, Dirt Rally 2.0, Beam. Ng drive, and others all run fine on my gaurda machine
I basically only use iRacing at the moment for serious stuff, beam ng for fun. Might try that from arch and see how it goes!
I can't afford a new computer right now and tariffs meaning higher prices means I can't anticipate affording one in the near future. My plan is to see where everything's at when they stop doing updates. Unfortunately.
I'm not making the jump to Linux fully.
I will and have done this thing where I will wait until Microsoft has enough of their head out of their ass to make another decent Windows version again, before I consider hopping to it. They're due to make one sometime soon, don't they? They'll soon realize Windows 11 like 8, Vista and ME before it, was a stupid idea and do something nicer for Windows 12 or whatever they do with Windows next after 11. Windows 11 is already like 4 years old and one of its versions is going to expire next year. What will they do then?
Linux doesn't have my full attention because I don't think it'll run everything I use for Windows. My user activity/behavior is slowing down to where I'm probably a casual user at best who does the bare minimum. Yet, there's things I'd like to run without having to use third party software as a bridge to get to what I want to run as simple as it would if it was on Windows with a simple click or two. Oh and not to mention, hardware driver and support with Linux is one of my major concerns and I don't think there's a Linux driver for every piece of my hardware.
Man, I really tried today to get Linux on my Framework laptop.
I can't believe how goddamn frustrating the experience has been, and I've dabbled in Linux for decades.
I try Mint. Install as a dual boot... Installation done. Reboot. Straight into Windows. Check partitions and nothing has changed.
Try again. All seems fine. Boot. Some error screen that won't let me get into Mint.
Do this like four more times with no luck.
Tried Ubuntu. No easy way to install as a dual boot unless I want to mess around with custom paritions. Also, GNOME sucks ass, but Ubuntu seems way more polished than Mint.
I did get mint on a mini PC I have running through my TV. But audio wasn't working, so that took a while to sort out. And the onscreen keyboard does nothing on the lock screen. So unpolished, and I have no idea why it's recommended "for beginners" when it feels unfinished.
With windows, there's no messing around. Everything just works. And I fucking hate that I feel forced to choose a miserable, hacky, terminal-based experience with countless hours of installing shit through commands... Or a smooth, reliable, easy one with bloatware and spying on the backend. Goddammit!
yeah i need star citizen, ableton, fl studio, premier, photoshop and more before i can dedicate a jump to linux
Not gonna upgrade.
Have already had Linux for decades.
Linux still can’t handle anticheats for the games I play, so primarily on Windows I stay.
Swapped to Linux last week. Currently dual booting. Over the coming months, I'm going to slowly transfer all my stuff over as well
My Windows 10 PC's only function at this point is to play FFXIV in my living room, so I'm not super worried about viruses or anything.
But maybe eventually I'll switch to Linux on that box and do that weird set-up to get FFXIV running there.
If you use Windows as mere game launcher, you better have a application firewall set to whitelist Steam only anyway.
linux, either endeavor or nobara
I would like to switch to Linux on my gaming machine but me and my girlfriend play Valorant together so I can't switch just yet.
My server and laptop already run NixOS, I'm just looking forward to the day my gaming/main machine join them too
I dual boot but I'm on Windows 11 for my windows partition because the fucking thing just upgraded itself one day.
Never again, bye Microsoft Windows 😁 Hi GNU/Linux my new friend.
Is there an easy way to port all my stuff to Linux? I would not have made the switch in the past, but all the good will I attributed to Microsoft is pretty much gone. I’ve heard Mint is petty easy to hop onto?
Why is Bill Gates in the picture? lol
Just imagine 43 % market share in the next hardware survey.
Linux. I've been putting if off because of hardware reasons that would be annoying to explain beyond the solution is upgrading the motherboard, which is bottlenecking me anyways.
Plan on, if possible, cloning my account to a new account on a new internal drive (preferably a 2TB+ drive) to save all my stuff that I want and don't feel like moving over due to laziness. Then on another partition, I plan on having the rest of the space being used for Linux. All I gotta do is make sure the win10 partition doesn't receive an ounce of Internet connectivity at all and pray I don't end up with a virus or something similar somehow (because even the safest internet practices aren't safe enough anymore).
Hopefully I can turn that partition into a cold partition where I can keep the current games I have that aren't downloaded through Steam installed to ensure I can still play them. Then I can slowly debloat it by uninstalling everything I don't need on there and get rid of a ton of files/unnecessary programs so that way I can still have roughly 500-600GB for win10 just in case I ever need it for anything, like a program I genuinely cannot figure out how to get working on Linux.
Does it really matter? I have xemu (xbox emulator), retroarch for anything else, and PSX2 to be sure on Lubuntu, combine together how many games all those have and you just don't need steam
Build new computer. Old computer to be a home server running Linux or something fancy.
Linux doesn't support VR.
Didn't they get rid of some 11 requirements? Won't most regular people just do the upgrade to 11?
I will dualboot to keep a windows 10 for software that only runs on it, but I really hope I will be able to be gaming on linux only.
I got a new PC recently so unfortunately I am now on Windows 11. I’ve been wanting to make the swap to Linux but I can’t really make a clean break because at least some of the games I play a lot won’t work on Linux. I do think I’m gonna try to set up another hard drive with Linux on it to try to slowly start learning it and ideally move over anything that I can over there eventually and just keep the windows drive for those few games.
Does anyone have any recommendations related to that? Distro for gaming/ease of use? What’s the best option for setting up the dual boot? Anything I wouldn’t have thought of that’s relevant?
linux primary with dual boot for a windows install just because of the games that won't work.
If ya want to not be plugged into the internet, or use new external media, ya can probably run it safely forever.
I’ll be switching fully to Linux this summer, but will also “upgrade” windows 10 to 11 on the last week of support. I’ll only use it then if I have to, on a separate drive.
Come to Linux, it's all I've used since Windows 7 and it works great.
When that time comes I'll probably either remove networking from, or just wipe win10 entirely.
Been using mint as my daily for a while now and I hate booting into windows 😂
I can't switch to Linux due to software requirements for work. On my personal computer I'm using Xubuntu for well over a decade, I didn't like the unity window manager of Ubuntu. I heard they changed to something else by now, but I can't be bothered to switch.
Ill bet right before the deadline, they will magically make TPM optional, even though they said they wouldn't.
What happens if still use win 10?
Linux has some problems that I just can never find answers for.
#1. Can’t do 4k 340hz on my display port 1.4 cable. Even though I can on windows and Mac. In Linux the option is there with the nvidia driver, but the screen goes black anytime I try to use it. No solution.
#2. Ubiconnect won’t work with Ann 1800 even though it’s good on proton.db and others are reporting it works great, I was never ever able to get it working or find reliable steps to get it working.
It’s a needle in a haystack trying to find fixes for things like this. Linux offers a lot, but still doesn’t offer the most important thing ease of fixing problems quickly so you can just do what you want to do.
Run a game and work at the native resolution.
I moved from Win 10 to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 2 months ago. Going very well so far, even for music production and gaming. I also got a friend of mine to dual-boot Tumbleweed/Win11, coming from Win11.
I’m on 12, and will be upgrading to 13 when Trixie hits stable.
I've enjoyed Linux since Windows MEllennium Edition convinced me that I didn't like paying a lot, in money and time, to be an unpaid product testing guinea pig. A work friend put Windows 2000 on that laptop when ME went bad. I used it until a got a blue screen of death one day, and switched to Linux. The 1st was a $230 ePC that could be had with Windows XP or XanderOS (a flavor of Linux). I chose the latter, and had a great time of it. I've since used Mint and Ubuntu.
Jumped to linux with a new laptop, but not gaming on it. It's fine for what I need. My old machine will be for gaming only.
I use Opensuse MicroOS on half a dozen PCs but I keep one on Windows until I can run Fortnite on Linux.
I'm going to move over to Mint on my laptop, it's older but still working great after I swapped an SSD drive in. Biggest issue is backing up the laptop before installing Linux. I have another computer I plan on duel boot with Windows 10 so I have access if I need windows for certain programs. I have no control over my work computer so Windows 11 there.
And unless one of my brothers steps up and buys our Dad a Windows 11 computer (I bought the Windows 10 computer, which is why it was so cheap it can't take 11. 😆 ) since I'm his tech support if my brothers don't step up he is going to Linux. No matter what I'm going to have to listen to him complain about how it is different so it will be a good time to move to Linux. Probably a version that tries to mimic Windows.
I've been on 11 since before it was officially released. Honestly never had any issues with it, but I'm interested in hearing what sort of issues anyone else might have had? Are we talking about privacy concerns, bugs or performance issues?
I'll have to use some sort of windows for VR, I need to investigate the various debloat options
I have an older pc that I use as a a Plex server so as soon as I get some time I will fully switch to Ubuntu.
Got a new laptop about a month ago. Put Fedora Bluefin on it immediately. Couple other computers/server have been running Debian flavors for year or two.
My main desktop is still Windows, but I literally never use it, especially since getting the laptop. I'll switch it over when I get time.
I'm still tied to windows for three apps. I've found a Linux replacement for one, I just haven't done the work to convert the database.
Another one I'm trying to run it's Android version in a waydroid docker, but I'm hitting walls, no time to dig deeper.
And the last one has no replacement, and it's too delicate to try emulating, I don't want to nuke the shared database it's attached to, it's not worth the headache. So I keep a Windows VM around for the once a month I need to use that program for 🤷♂️
I'm purposely being vague about the programs, they are very identifying, but trust me there's no alternatives.
Even with all that, I'm not looking back, win11 sucks.
I switched to Linux mate and been using heroic games launcher for the windows games I want to play
No, I use windows 11 and it works great.
20 years for me (even thought I used Windows for a year in there). There's no point in using Windows at all, unless you're forced at work, or stuck because you don't want to learn an alternative tool.
Jumping to Linux just picking a distro
Linux
I have Windows only for League, no Steam installed. Ergo I don't count
Just bought a laptop and put bazzite on it to try it out and figure out if I can do all the things I want to do on it. If that all works out I'll be switching my desktop over.
I've gotten to a point where the quality of a PS2 game is higher to me than most AAA releases. I mostly play retro games, more open multiplayer games that don't block users like TF2(and TF2) and indies... so, no. I don't really need Windows for anything.
My old as hell PC died I'm getting a steam deck as a replacement with a dock and ...so I'll just be dual booting into windows 11 and obviously steam OS when I decide to play hand held.
Installed kubuntu on the laptop so I can get used to it. Still trying to find a AV and firewall app I like
I don't plan on doing anything until I have no choice but to buy a new computer.
The only real reason I'm still on Win 10 is because of Escape from Tarkov and Photoshop. I need to get a new m.2 and just start sorting through my crap I guess but I haven't gotten the motivation yet lol
Been a Linux user for ages, I do have Windows 11 installed on another partition but I rarely - if ever - boot into it.
I mention the above spiel because I don't understand what additional points people have against windows 11? It seems very similar to windows 10 for me - what're the reasons for people hating it?
Genuinely not trying to be obtuse, here - I'm just wondering what the primary pain points are of win 11?
Is it the requirement for using a Microsoft account to log in vs. a normal local account? Or the one drive stuff? (upon install it did move most of my personal folders into a weird OneDrive directory, and I had to use the registry to wipe out OneDrive and move them back. Very annoying.)
Been on it for years
Gonna have to.
I don't mind it, just using w10 for simplicity's sake.
Neither.
I don't like the rootkit. I do everything I possibly can on Linux aside from the one game that requires it. That said, since they started using the rootkit, there has been a steep drop-off in bots in the game. As in I don't see any anymore. So, annoying and a huge security risk? Absolutely. Dubious? Maybe? Depends on what you mean.
I have an ad hoc media server on 10. If it's super working, you can bet I will replace it with something other than Microsoft. Unless work requires it, everything I use is Linux, Android, or Apple based. I don't hate Windows, I just like everything else more.
Swapped to Arch Linux! I wouldn't say it's been a bug free swap but it's been extremely doable and everything I needed to work worked like a charm. Gaming was uninterrupted and nothing hasn't worked yet.
I need to figure out how to connect my stupid printer but I couldn't do that on windows either, which is sad cause I thought printers were gonna be easier on Linux but I guess this brother model is a pain in the ass or something. Oh and connecting to network drives while on a VPN. That's my list of pending problems and I've been on Linux for two months. Not bad really.
Being a deck owner not over obsessed in the latest tripe A games.
My system isn't even that old (maybe 4 years) and the first few times I got that very annoying popup that I should try to upgrade it told me in vague terms that I couldn't. So be it, everything runs fine now. I have backups of everything, so if WIn10 doesn't continue to work as simply unsupported one day I'll look for ways to "fix" it like someone mentioned with a 3rd party, or go to Linux and adapt to it. Anyone who has ever had a drive failure knows that the solution is to use a recovery USB which will be a portable Linux, so it will be just another version of that.
I don't care to much about steam at the moment so no real problem. But I will make the switch to linux on the machine used for gaming. No Win 11 there probably, some Arch-related, EndeavourOS is my actual choice.
I've been daily-driving Linux Mint (LMDE 6) on my Thinkpad T14 G1 for almost a year now. At this point, that laptop is easily the most dependable machine I've ever had. My gaming PC is the last remaining Windows machine in my house. Recently I've been making sure everything is backed up (Syncthing is great for this) and finding alternatives for programs that don't have a Linux version.
My plan is to create images of both my SSDs (500GB & 2TB, both NTFS 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️) onto a 4TB hard drive. Then start from scratch, migrating data from the images (Steam games, config files, personal documents I may have missed, etc) when/if I need it.
Neither
I'm sticking with Linux due to the bullshit that Microsoft is constantly pulling. Currently, my PC is running Fedora 41, and I love it quite a bit; currently I can't imagine a future where I return to Windows 11. Proton Compatibility Layer makes gaming on any distro fairly easy!
I think I'm going to get the $30 1-year ESU and kick that can down the road. I need to run windows-only software and I can't upgrade because of my processor. Maybe in a year's time I'll be ready for a new build.
I'm running Linux everywhere incuding the machine I am writing on right now. I have one single dual boot machine with Windows 10 as the mainly used OS for the simple reason that I need to run one specific software (and some of the "ecosystem" around it) that is not available for Linux. The only alternative is Apple which is even worse in my opinion. So I think I'll be forced to update. All the rest of my daily computing stuff has been moved to Linux for a long time.
I tried it a few months ago but had issues with various games and lowered performance in almost all of them. I still don't know if I will just cave in and upgrade to win11 or try linux again, i've got a free partition waiting but the issue is lack of time and motivation to dive into troubleshooting the OS on a daily basis
I just deleted windows and installed Bazzite Linux. Everything just works
I switched to Mint a year ago. Don't miss a thing.
Thought maybe steam is for next desktop. That or run win10
My home (gaming) pc is going back to linux for sure., on the very day they drop support for 10.
Made the jump already since I built a new computer and there were lots of missing windows 10 drivers for the new hardware and there was no way in hell I was going to main on windows 11.
I still use steam on Windows 7. I don't see the problem.
I have no plans to either update to win11 or change back to chanting magic spells at my computer to get it to work (Ubuntu, many years ago).
My computer works and does everything I want it to. Basic internet security and reasonable precautions are sufficient for a low level user like me to stay safe.
I've been on Windows 11 since it was released. The only problem I had were NVIDIA drivers sometimes causing a bluescreen (mainly my fault).
Linux doesn't work for me currently, since I use RDP to connect to systems for work, and RDP clients on Linux are ass.
Anybody tried a steam deck with dock? Gaming and casual desktop should be doable with that.
Steam OS time
Make the jump to Linux and loose 90% of the games you play as well. If all you play is steam games and don't care about many that can't be played then sure. I get the appeal. But windows 11 is the same thing as 10.
I don't know. If more devs start to support Linux, I probably will.
43% of Steam is still on Windows
10 with support...
Seems not so many.
And if they are ending in 7 month why bother.
Just put the lin
e break right, the
n it's understanda
ble.
Why? Nothing requires Windows 11. It doesn't even have a new directx which is why most had to upgrade from 7. Browsers and malware software will work for years. Hell malwarbytes still updates for Window 7.
I have procrastinated the switch this far, I'll be damned if my laziness gives in now! Lol
A couple weeks ago I attempted to switch over to Linux. Tried installing both Cachyos and Nobara. It was kind of a shit show, nothing worked correctly, stuff was erroring out and crashing left and right, and after a couple days I gave up.
Today I went ahead and installed windows 11. There were some issues... It wouldn't recognize my CD key, and I accidentally wiped a partition from the wrong drive. But as for the os itself, I spent a few hours getting things set up, and it's not as horrible as I thought it would be. I was able to simply turn off most of the shit like copilot and recall, and all the advertisements, and I pretty much have it working as I want it to.
No, I do not plan to jump to Linux, which doesn't play many games still without a lot of headaches. Any other questions?
So 43% of Steam users are the kind of stickler that refuse to update their Windows to an objectively better version because it's something new and different and breaks their habits. What would make you think these people would possibly just switch to a different OS altogether if a simple update was too much to ask for the past years?
Just upgrade yall are so dramatic for no reason at all. If 11 is that bad just switch to Linux.