This raises an interesting point actually... I have a new Win11 machine but my old Win10 one is just being kept around for low level, non essential tasks. I don't have any essential apps left on there really now. I signed up for that extra year of Microsoft support that was offered but when that runs out I guess what a perfect time to have a play with Linux and see what all the fuss is about.
You’re describing the oldest Linux gateway in the book—experimenting with a secondary device. Make sure you copy any data you care about off your PC, pick a distro that looks neat, and try it out!
Don’t worry too much about picking the “right” or “wrong” distro. It’s very easy to switch once you get the hang of Linux in general.
If you have an open drive, dual-boot is a easy risk-free way to try it out without losing anything. Of course, after trying the linux install for the first time a few months back, the only reason I opened Windows was to pull files off of before I wiped it.
Pro tip: If you dual boot, don’t just wipe the windows drive when you’re done with it without a plan. I erased my boot loader and my PC didn’t know where linux was any more and it was a whole thing.
Maybe my experience is outdated. I had about a 20% success rate in getting Windows executables running in Wine without fiddling.
So for a while now I only game via the Steam client, since I don't pirate or mod games anymore.
Maybe things have improved in recent years, I wouldn't know.
If you actually mean wine, there's your problem. You should run games with proton. I use lutris for cracked games with proton, and rarely have issues with games not working.
I tried playing a game outside steam for the first time yesterday. Two hours of trying to fix the stuttery low frame rate, missing textures, and crashes using Wine.
Then I found out there are really simple apps that use Proton just like Steam does, and you “open with” and it just works.
So far the only crack that hasn't worked for me was Far Cry New Dawn. I've read on that one Russian forum that cracks for their newer Denuvo games don't work on Linux... but I have serious doubts I'd even want to play their games based on their track record.
You can always run windows on a VM within linux. You can passthrough any required hardware. And windows actually runs better in a VM than on baremetal.
Personally, I've not needed windows for anything in a while.
You can get them to work by enabling hyper-v inside the windows vm, but this kneecaps your cpu performance unfortunately. Might not always be an issue though depending on how powerful your cpu is and how demanding the actual game is.
This raises an interesting point actually... I have a new Win11 machine but my old Win10 one is just being kept around for low level, non essential tasks. I don't have any essential apps left on there really now. I signed up for that extra year of Microsoft support that was offered but when that runs out I guess what a perfect time to have a play with Linux and see what all the fuss is about.
Just do it
You’re describing the oldest Linux gateway in the book—experimenting with a secondary device. Make sure you copy any data you care about off your PC, pick a distro that looks neat, and try it out!
Don’t worry too much about picking the “right” or “wrong” distro. It’s very easy to switch once you get the hang of Linux in general.
If you have an open drive, dual-boot is a easy risk-free way to try it out without losing anything. Of course, after trying the linux install for the first time a few months back, the only reason I opened Windows was to pull files off of before I wiped it.
Pro tip: If you dual boot, don’t just wipe the windows drive when you’re done with it without a plan. I erased my boot loader and my PC didn’t know where linux was any more and it was a whole thing.
Unless you rely on pirated/cracked games, CAD or Adobe software, Linux will be a massive improvement to your computing experience.
What kind of issues do you expect with cracked games? Maybe I'm lucky, but the 20+ cracked games I tried worked perfectly fine in WINE.
Maybe my experience is outdated. I had about a 20% success rate in getting Windows executables running in Wine without fiddling.
So for a while now I only game via the Steam client, since I don't pirate or mod games anymore.
Maybe things have improved in recent years, I wouldn't know.
If you actually mean wine, there's your problem. You should run games with proton. I use lutris for cracked games with proton, and rarely have issues with games not working.
Could also be a difference in the games. But I just dump the folder into the default wine prefix and run them from there.
I tried playing a game outside steam for the first time yesterday. Two hours of trying to fix the stuttery low frame rate, missing textures, and crashes using Wine.
Then I found out there are really simple apps that use Proton just like Steam does, and you “open with” and it just works.
So far the only crack that hasn't worked for me was Far Cry New Dawn. I've read on that one Russian forum that cracks for their newer Denuvo games don't work on Linux... but I have serious doubts I'd even want to play their games based on their track record.
When Linux can give me apps that I need and can use then I switch 100%. Until then will have to keep using 10 for now.
What apps do you still need?
You can always run windows on a VM within linux. You can passthrough any required hardware. And windows actually runs better in a VM than on baremetal.
Personally, I've not needed windows for anything in a while.
Please elaborate how you arrived at this conclusion.
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Official Audio)
I tested it.
Ok. Case closed then.
And you're saying all those kernel-level anti-cheat games will happily run in a vm?
Some of them will. It depends on which rootkit is used. There are some VM optimizations that applications can detect, but those can be disabled.
Most of them run in proton natively on Linux, but it does depend on the specific anticheat.
You can check protondb to verify how well a game might work on Linux
Personally, I boycott any game that comes with kernel level rootkits.
You can get them to work by enabling hyper-v inside the windows vm, but this kneecaps your cpu performance unfortunately. Might not always be an issue though depending on how powerful your cpu is and how demanding the actual game is.
I've got a checklist of what needs to run well in order to switch, but Lutris just gave a big AI fuck you to users so I'm not hopping yet.
You don't need lutris at all tho?
What's the checklist?
I was hesistant switching at first until I did the full dive and realize most of the things on my checklist wasn't really an absolute must.
The surface pro 3 still runs the same shit it came with in 2016? and my girlfriend mocked me for spending so much money. I guess I gotta move on.