Curious on the experiences of those recently migrating to Linux from Windows 10, Intel-based MacOS, etc. How is it being on Linux? Anything surprise or frustrate you?
I was using Linux when I was in school from 2000-2008. Used Linux for a while during the Windows Vista period then switched to Windows 7 and eventually Windows 10. But I always had a dual-boot scenario on my PC. Now with Win 11, I didn’t want that malware on my system. Plus now Steam and Proton can allow me to play my games like it was nothing so I went full Linux. Never been happier. Kubuntu is working awesome for me. Though I might switch to Endeavour OS at some point. I’m not sure yet. I’m so used to Debian, I don’t know if I want to learn a whole new software management system.
Switched Jan of 2025. Already used 99% open source stuff on Windows, so the conversion was nearly painless.
I tried Debian at first, which didn’t support my bleeding edge new hardware. So I tried LMDE… which also (unsurprisingly) didn’t support new stuff either. It wasn’t until I landed on regular Linux Mint that things hit a good stride.
I still mourn the loss of Winamp though… :(
have you tried audacious?
winamp/wacup(better) runs fine on wine afaik
My only surprise is how easy it was.
Was about 2 years ago, but going great. I chose Mint at the time, occasionally eye other distros but I can’t be arsed to switch my perfectly fine desktop. It’ll just be longer before I get HDR support nbd. I installed openSUSE on my old work Thinkpad to try KDE. It’s fine but so far not really better, just different.
Switched to arch 1 year ago or so. At first I customized my experience a lot and really enjoyed it. Now I have a stable experience, just game and do some dev work on and off. Really like it.
Switched over almost a year ago, aside from a few hiccups, it’s been awesome. Gaming has been smooth, setup jellyfin, and have been developing my media library. I love to tinker around and what not, and it’s been a fun experience (especially when you figure out that one issue thats been vexing you for some time).
I posted this before, but it feels like going back to the best days of PC ownership. It’s fast, I’m in control, everything I want works and I honestly don’t think about my OS very much.
I chose bazzite since I love gaming, but of course it’s just a competent OS overall with which I also do my private office tasks.
Booting up my PC finally feels like a joy again.
Like most people I use Windows 11 at work and the contrast is enormous.
Like most people I use Windows 11 at work and the contrast is enormous.
Same
Open file explorer. Start a search. Open new tab in file explorer. Notice the folder path didn’t change. Observe that you permanently glitched the file explorer path bar until you close file explorer.
I hate using this buggy OS.
I’m rocking Bazzite and the only time I wanted Windows was when I got stuck on a boss in Silksong and wanted to use CheatEngine.
Switched to Bazzite coming up on 4 years ago, and haven’t looked back
I haven’t missed Windows one bit. There were a few things that were tricky to get right int he beginning and also I had to get used to using some other software for some of the things I used on windows but honestly it’s been worth it.
I think it was two years or so for me now, but honestly, it’s going great. I’ve got alternatives for the windows only apps I used to use, and my games run smoothly.
Every time I have to use a windows computer for some reason, I’m reminded of why I stopped using that OS…
I’ve switched systems some 15? years ago. But my mum did it recently, so I asked her this question. (Disclaimer: she isn’t the one managing her machine. Guess who does it.)
She claims it’s basically the same thing. She was surprised her start menu got different some days ago (when I updated her Mint), but it was the good type of surprise, like, “ah, it shows my profile pic now!”. Then she rambled about things that disappear from her email, but that is not an OS issue, it’s PEBKAC (she’s extremely disorganised). And… that’s it.
I switched to Nobara a couple months ago. My computer is a lot snappier. Overall its great. Some minor difficulties but no show stoppers.
Signal desktop gives me an error that it is keeping credentials in plaintext which is fucked, I tried to get it to not do that but havnt been able to figure out how. (there are tutorials for ubuntu/gnome, but I havnt figured out how to translate those to fedora/kde…
I just started using crow-translate which is amazing, but keep getting a screenshot error message. Something with wayland maybe? again when I search there is a lot of shit about ubuntu/gnome but that doesnt really help.
Most of the games I play don’t work on wine (Teknoparrot), and multiple machines I have are either missing or have broken essential drivers for built-in peripherals like wiki/BT, fingerprint readers etc. So… I had to go back.
One of my laptops has a 10+ year old unfixed kernel bug for the bluetooth not working… and the wifi only uploads at 1mbps under Linux, but works fine on Windows.
I’m sure people that don’t happen to have random hardware/software incompatibilities are enjoying linux, but there’s also still lots of people that can’t switch.
Some of those issues are addressable, even though they definitely suck, depending on how badly someone wants to swap to Linux. I have a PC I connect to my TV, and while it’s built in wifi doesn’t work on linux, I was able to buy a PCI wifi card and put it in, which works. You can do similar for Bluetooth. Currently I just use it over Ethernet. For laptops, it’s a pain but there are USB wifi/bluetooth devices you can get. Fingerprint readers are tougher, I believe, but I feel less critical. Either way, use what works best for you!
I switched to Bazzite and I’m really liking it.
I have had a few issues with old SDR software that didn’t work.
All in all, I’m very happy with the change and have absolutely no plan to return.
