In the last month, I made a genuine effort to switch to Linux Mint, then Bazzite, as my daily driver. Mint could not run Hitman 3 for unexplained reasons. Bazzite frequently got graphical corruption issues when returning from sleep. Neither could run niche indie games and gave no error codes.
I knew I’d be doing some tweaking to get Linux working how I wanted, but it was missing configuration as well as being unreliable by default. I like the principle of using a non-MS OS, but I need it to work.
Yeah I've always been a very casual Linux enthusiast (key word is casual) since I was a teen. Setup and things "just working" out of the box have absolutely never been the case, even in 2024, and even though people like to say it does. In an ideal situation on an ideal computer with ideal hardware, you don't have to tweak anything. But for most people, there are going to be some annoying issues and tweaks you have to work through.
If a Linux system has already been set up and tested for the end user, then it is a great alternative. But in my experience, these systems absolutely never work perfectly out of the box and it takes some technical know how to get to that point. Ever since Windows 7, Windows has "just worked" out of the box... especially because it comes pre-loaded on your device.
I have been dealing with some issues with my Bluetooth module in Windows. I had eventually solved the problem, but the fix seemed to have reverted itself somewhat recently. Annoyed, I thought I'd finally commit to a switch to Linux on my daily driver since my laptop doesn't support Win 11. Well, I chose Linux Mint since it doesn't use Wayland which for some reason has poor compatibility with my common Logitech mouse. Everything had been fine but then I found instead of the Bluetooth module crashing like in Windows, which just makes me have to reset the module, the entire system crashes in Linux instead and requires me to reboot it. Frustrating to say the least.
And then, as you've brought up, gaming on Linux is just generally not a good experience unless you have all of your games on Steam.
Linux can be awesome but it's absolutely not for everyone...especially people with less technical knowledge (unless it is set up for them), people who want something to "just work" without any fiddling, or people who do a lot of gaming outside of Steam.
Same for me, running for a few months and all my steam games work great. I had to install some extra software to run my Logitech mouse and get the scroll wheel to be more sensitive. Otherwise though it's been a great experience so far.
Although I'm an IT professional, I really don't want extra work when I'm sitting down to game. So POP! has been great overall for my use case, with the bonus of Linux for any coding projects I tackle otherwise.
I would disagree on the basis that Linux upgrades don't require hardware upgrades (unless you have a very low end hardware that's hanging by a thread already)
For example, I don't remember seeing all this fuss about upgrading when people were moving from 8.1 to 10 (but it could just be me on my bubble)
The difference is you now need a TPM 2.0 chip. That's pretty much it. Hardware requirements were the same as Win8.
If you are using a desktop computer, all you need to do is buy a $20-30 TPM 2.0 module and install it. It connects to a few pins and your done. It's cheap, simple, and easy to do.
The issue is most people now have laptops and quite a few didn't have that chip or that version (some have TPM 1.2, which isn't as secure anymore.) and you can't install it on a laptop motherboard. TPM 2.0 has been available since mid-2016, but some manufacturers might have cheapened out and not added it to save costs as it wasn't a necessary part. So basically, any laptop that is 9 years or older (or the manufacturer cheapened out) won't be able to upgrade to Win11.
What if y'all get together, and make a guide on an easy way to switch to idk Arch, since Valve is working with it.
You know, so that they don't have to spend a lot of money, and don't have to worry about losing all their data, and hopefully so they don't have to learn everything about Linux so they can enjoy using it right away.
Ha, I almost believed that was realistic rereading it.
Arch would be a bad idea, as if a user finds installing Fedora too hard Arch ain't doing them any favors.
And there are guides. Youtube "how to install (linux distro)," if it's popular there's already 500 guides.
As for data loss this should come as no surprise: back it up. Preferably on an external hdd/ssd, or your choice of cloud service if you're one of those people. Erasing your entire hard drive and installing a new OS will perhaps unsurprisingly wipe all your data without a backup. Frankly you should already have backups, idk why people pretend data loss is impossible on windows but it has happened to me and I can't be the only one.
Exactly. Us Linux users, as a collective, tend to shoot ourselves in the foot here because we can't decide on the "best" distro for beginners. If we all just said one thing, with confidence and without arguments, and without saying "it depends...", more would probably make the switch.
No major outlets that the average user would frequent are likely to sell laptops with any Linux distro pre installed. Many non-technical users wouldn't even reinstall Windows by themselves, let alone Linux.
Any of the usual starter distros would be a good choice because once they are in the ecosystem they can find their own path. When a non technical person asks how to get Linux, there is no worse answer than a barrage of information followed by more questions. Just pick one, say it confidently, and assist them to make it happen.
Problem though is it does depend, if they want to game pop or brazzite may be best, if they just want an lts then an lts is best, if they want all the updates fast maybe Fedora or endeavor, but if they want a more windows-y experience instead of mac-y then maybe FedoraKDE instead of Gnome..
People like choice, but people don't want to have to spend time choosing or learning.
That's why I mentioned Arch - because of the tie in with the Steam Deck. Nice and easy for gamers to make a connection to.
What becomes the difficult sell is that people, in general, don't understand computers. It's the bane of my existence. Any Linux distro requires a basic understanding of how computers work. The Windows PC and Apple products were successful because they required no learning and the user was relatively protect from messing anything up.
The Steam Deck was successful because it took that same approach. It just uses a variant of their Big Picture mode users are already used to.
Linux, by it's very nature, is not something that can be widely adopted by consumers. I think that's why Apple and Windows (hell, even Google with Android and Chrome OS) can get all the invasive technology to the user they want, and force users to adopt even more invasive things. Because people just won't learn anything else. And that's not something any of us can do anything about.
There's a bunch of beginner friendly distros, it's just that when you want to make things work as well as they did on Windows then you hit a wall.
I'm using Mint (which is as beginner friendly as it gets)... Because my display signal dropped whenever there was load on the GPU on Bazzite (Fedora based) which is also supposed to be beginner friendly...
No easy way to disable the audio outputs I don't actually use. On Windows? Couple of clicks, all done through GUI.
Wifi antenna didn't work, had to install unofficial drivers from GitHub.
I've got a multi display setup and sometimes I want to switch where things are displayed. On Windows I downloaded Monitor profile switcher and it does everything for me, just had to save the setup to a profile and assign a keyboard shortcut (which isn't essential as there's a shortcut to switch it on the taskbar), it's all done inside the program. On Mint I had to create a script to choose what to display with what resolution and create a new keyboard shortcut in a separate program because the alternative was to have to open the file explorer to open the folder where the script it saved to execute it.
Playing games is easier than ever! Except that games that have both a Linux and Windows version fuck up when it comes to cloud saving on Steam because the save game folder isn't necessarily the same (and the Deck installs the Windows version by default so fuck compatibility between that Linux running machine and Linux PCs!) so you still have to force install the windows version even though there's a perfectly playable Linux version!
Don't want to use the terminal? "Everything can be done without it but using it makes things easier..." When people say that they mean that you can browse the web and write stuff on LibreOffice but as soon as you deviate from stuff that you can accomplish with a simple Android tablet you're fucked because you'll have issues you couldn't imagine. If you don't want to use the terminal at that point you need to write scripts outside the terminal and then execute them so technically you didn't do what you needed to do in the terminal but the end result is the same!
Absolutely not, even if we could all work together that would be a horrible idea. Linux is not a Windows replacement and the Linux community doesn't need to be overwhelmed with Windows users asking why a specific feature doesnt work exactly the same.
If you want Arch just use EndeavourOS. Its got an easy installer and a slightly less break-neck update schedule and you get the Arch User Repository for all the cool stuff.
I really don't understand people's issue with vegans, even the really vocal ones. I'm not vegan, cheese is life, but I get that they are well meaning and ultimately are wanting to change the world for the better.
They often extend these, FYI. But it's not a big deal, windows 11 is the same as 10, although they removed a lot of features like the metro tiles. It's like 10, but noticeably worse... Free, though (if you have 10).
They just fired two workers for organizing a protest against supporting Israel. You don't have to make up conspiracy theories to convince people that Microsoft: Bad.
IIRC it wasn't even a protest, it was a vigil for Gaza, so it was an act of remembrance for those who are suffering. Which makes it an even stranger thing to get fired for.
The article is light on details, but one of the fired individuals, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the vigil was both “to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.
Not that I think they shouldn’t have the right to protest, but it was clearly more than “just” a vigil.
I recall them saying Windows 10 would be a rolling release and it would be the last one you ever had to buy. Could be wrong though. I don't pay much attention because I haven't used it since Windows 7. I don't have a link to back this up, just my hazy memory.
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