With the growing number of users jumping from Windows to Linux, I decided to fully take the plunge and dive deep into the Open Source ocean. A few months and several headaches later, it has proved to be the best computer-related decision I've made in over a decade (and perhaps in my entire life).

There. That’s out of the way. I recently installed Linux on my main desktop computer and work laptop, overwriting the Windows partition completely. Essentially, I deleted the primary operating system from the two computers I use the most, day in and day out, instead trusting all of my personal and work computing needs to the Open Source community. This has been a growing trend, and I hopped on the bandwagon, but for good reasons. Some of those reasons might pertain to you and convince you to finally make the jump as well. Here’s my experience.

[…]

It’s no secret that Windows 11 harvests data like a pumpkin farmer in October, and there is no easy way (and sometimes no way at all) to stop it. The operating system itself acts exactly like what was called “spyware” a decade or so ago, pulling every piece of data it can about its current user. This data includes (but is far from limited to) hardware information, specific apps and software used, usage trends, and more. With the advent of AI, Microsoft made headlines with Copilot, an artificial assistant designed to help users by capturing their data with tools like Recall.

[…]

After dealing with these issues and trying to solve them with workarounds, I dual-booted a Linux partition for a few weeks. After a Windows update (that I didn’t choose to do) wiped that partition and, consequently, the Linux installation, I decided to go whole-hog: I deleted Windows 11 and used the entire drive for Linux.

  • balsoft@lemmy.ml
    15·
    1 day ago

    Depends on what you need from your computer. If it’s just web browsing and some light “office-like” tasks, it’s very easy, especially if you’ve interacted with a computer before. If you need some specialized hardware support or rely on some complicated proprietary app (looking at you Adobe), it can get complicated quickly.

    In any case there will be some pain as you get accustomed to the new OS. But overall it’s not as bad as it used to be.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
      3·
      15 hours ago

      By the way, the Affinity suite works particularly good on Linux, through Wine.

      Of course I wish they would release a native version, but this is acceptable in the meantime.

    • JackBinimbul@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      10·
      1 day ago

      I use Photoshop for my side gig, but I stopped at the last version before their criminal subscription bullshit.

      I’ll have to look into it.

      • balsoft@lemmy.ml
        9·
        24 hours ago

        See if you can get by with a combination of Krita and GIMP. The former especially has improved a lot lately and is now a fairly professional tool.

        New-ish versions of Photoshop are very difficult to run in WINE (which allows you to run some Windows apps natively - it’s the thing that powers all recent linux gaming advances). The best you can do is run it in a VM with a window passthru, like so: https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps

        • JackBinimbul@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          8·
          24 hours ago

          I’ve tried Krita and GIMP, but my brain, man . . .

          I’m using PS CS5, which was released in 2010. After a quick look, it looks like it runs in Wine!

          • JayGray91🐉🍕@piefed.socialEnglish
            1·
            14 hours ago

            Disclaimer not an artist and still not jumping on Linux for reasons but going to

            I’ve seen this mentioned only by a career digital artist. He mentioned using Photopea as an alternative to the adobe suite rather than Krita and GIMP.

            I think it’s Michael Tunnell when he was reacting to Pewdiepie moving to linux (Mint and Arch btw) and pewds said he changed the icons and shortcuts for GIMP to be more like photoshop.

          • themoken@startrek.website
            4·
            24 hours ago

            I have a wife stuck in the Adobe-verse and yeah, going back that far should work great. It didn’t become a huge hassle until they started being insane with the licensing.