What is the big difference always thought about it switching but I am a Windows user since 95. I don’t want to have something where it requires effort. I play on the computer and relax and thats it. How many programs feature the linux option? Is there like a video I can learn about the difference? I just like my point and double click.
Alright, I have a ton of Windows 10 machines, a couple OSX machines, and a few Linux machines for various purposes. Don’t let anyone here fool you—Linux is great, I’ve really enjoyed it, but NO distributions of Linux are easy, effortless, and just /work/. They ALL require some heady maintenance, they all WILL run into issues more than Windows or OSX, they WILL require a lot more learning than Windows or OSX, and there are programs that won’t run on Linux (or are prohibitively difficult to get working on Linux.)
Still, I have been loving Linux. I refuse to get Windows 11 EVER, so I’m now using Windows 10 LTSC IoT on all of my video game computers. If you want a computer that you turn on and click buttons and games appear on screen and work great, Windows is for sure the only way to go. That’s why all of my video game machines are Windows.
I don’t have a video for ya unfortunately, all of my Linux learning is through forums, documentation, and bouncing ideas off friends who know a lot more than me. There are some distros that are very user-friendly and “just work” great out of the box, but no matter what you do, they WILL require special maintenance. You will find programs or games you want to run that just don’t. There’s often alternatives, and in my experience, the alternatives are always free which is cool.
I think for your use case (and my use case for playing games), Windows is still the way to go. If you can get Windows 10 LTSC IoT and crack it (and run something like OOSU10 to turn off all the spyware you can,) you’re good for almost a decade!
(honorary shoutout to OSX—Lemmy overall hates Apple, but fuck em. There’s a reason every dev and programmer I know have an OSX machine, most of them using it for their main work machie. OSX is rock solid and works incredibly, and Apple’s hardware is acutally good for the price now unlike the mid 2000s when they were insanely overpriced for what you get. You can get an M4 mac for 500-600USD and they’re insanely efficient and powerful… Just NOT for games, my Steam library on my OSX computer is extremely limited compared to Linux or Windows.)
They ALL require some heady maintenance, they all WILL run into issues more than Windows or OSX, they WILL require a lot more learning than Windows or OSX,
You will run into issues with any computer. OSX is the worst of them all, it drives me crazy.
It is somewhat hardware dependent that is for sure. My cheap $400 new laptop is perfect. There is nothing to do, for over two years now. Everything just works. The gaming laptop on the other hand has a slight lag on audio that I had to do some work with due to a hardware device that wants to sleep when there is no input.
In general though: for all the time wasted waiting for windows to actually do things, and for all the stupid shit windows pulls that I have to fix, I use Linux because it is the most reliable and stable. By far. I need it to be able to get to work, where I remote in and manage windows machines that are a pain in the ass.
Even Windows has its moments, bad updates fuck you over a bit.
Most distros just install and work. If you take a 1-2+ year-old system and let Linux wipe it, most of them will just kinda work. Brand new hardware is always dicey, it’s better to buy last years model. Steam and web browsers do what you’ll expect. Updates just work. Steam games are generally doable; you just have to flip a switch in Steam to use emulation. The big exception on games is stuff with kernel-level anti-cheat. Valorant, Fortnite, PUBG, Genshin Impact.
Now, if you start using hardware that needs custom apps, RBG controllers, custom webcam controls, If you used nvidia broadcasting suite, outlook, photoshop, Then, you’ll find the effort. You need to find alternatives or try to run stuff in wine, and learning new apps is work and feels bad everything will feel like a downgrade.
Replacing hardware can also be dicey. Solutions are generally not all that bad, but definintely can turn into work.
If you just need some steam and a web browser, you almost can’t go wrong, if you want to emulate every inch of what you were doing in windows outside of that, you’re likely to have to work for it.
Most Linux distributions nowadays are all “point and click” (as in you don’t have to use the command line if you don’t want.) and they do pretty much everything Windows does. With some minor exceptions like some games that don’t run on Linux.
If you’re interested in Linux, you can boot from it without installing to try it out. Nearly every distribution has a live boot option.
As for differences, the entire OS is different, but with something like KDE, it’s still very much “point and click”. You don’t need to be a programmer to use it. This is especially true if you run most things through a browser.
The biggest disadvantage is program compatibility. Windows applications need translation layers for Windows apps to run on Linux and they don’t always work. Many application makers, including people like Steam for gaming, have full Linux support (all of Valve’s hardware like the Steam deck runs Linux).
If you want to try it out in a non-live way with a “safety net”, you can run a dual boot with both Windows and Linux and choose between them at boot. Or you can install Windows in a VM and run your Windows-specific programs until you find Linux alternatives.
It’s a bit of work, but it truly frees your PC. I made the switch from Windows to Linux first with a dual boot…then only Windows for VR, and now I’ve got everything on Linux. I haven’t booted into Windows on any of my PCs in 4+ years at this point and I couldn’t be happier.
That said, use what works for you. If that’s Windows or MacOS, that’s fine. Just know the advantages and disadvantages.
You’ll find a lot of differing opinions, so I will give you mine.
I’m currently running openSUSE Tumbleweed for over a year now, and I can say I am somewhat happier than on Windows. There were (and on my install still are) issues that I have to sort out sometimes. These issues can vary, but the most important thing to me (and I assume you) is gaming.
Gaming was excellent at the start of my journey. Games ran just as well, if not better, on my Linux machine than on Windows. I was amazed, truly! Then, I finally upgraded my 10xx series NVIDIA GPU to a 50xx series GPU, and it was quite a bad experience.
Drivers for NVIDIA GPUs on Linux can be iffy and problematic at times. I’d be fully prepared to read up on or risk asking the community (I’ve never had a good experience talking with the Linux crowd, personally) about any suggestions. The problem with those suggestions is you will get plenty of “Works great on my distro!” (Distro here means the Linux “flavor” you choose to go with i.e. openSUSE for me, Mint for others, and Bazzite for others).
Recently, I did an upgrade for my distro, and it made my RustDesk stop booting on computer start, and I can’t use GE-Proton versions that I downloaded through ProtonUp-Qt and that is pretty problematic for someone like me who is trying to get as much oomph as possible from their machines for gaming. Steam’s Proton works just fine though, so sometimes you might need to fiddle with the Steam Compatibility settings and try different Proton versions.
I won’t try to drown you in any longer of a text wall, but here is what I will end off on.
Linux feels like home, while Windows feels like someone else’s home. As for a distro recommendation for someone wanting to dip their toes into Linux and have a much better time than I did, I’d recommend either SteamOS (Valve’s distro they use on the Steam Deck, which is what got me interested in Linux gaming capabilities in the first place!) or Bazzite (a community distro I believe is based on SteamOS?) for gaming, and Fedora for a more general purpose computer usage. Just make sure you really gear yourself up for what may turn out to be an adventure you weren’t expecting to go down!
Linux - where life is good. Until it’s not.
I have been happy as a Linux user for more than ten years now. Never looked back. I use Trisquel.
What is the big difference always thought about it switching but I am a Windows user since 95. I don’t want to have something where it requires effort. I play on the computer and relax and thats it. How many programs feature the linux option? Is there like a video I can learn about the difference? I just like my point and double click.
Alright, I have a ton of Windows 10 machines, a couple OSX machines, and a few Linux machines for various purposes. Don’t let anyone here fool you—Linux is great, I’ve really enjoyed it, but NO distributions of Linux are easy, effortless, and just /work/. They ALL require some heady maintenance, they all WILL run into issues more than Windows or OSX, they WILL require a lot more learning than Windows or OSX, and there are programs that won’t run on Linux (or are prohibitively difficult to get working on Linux.)
Still, I have been loving Linux. I refuse to get Windows 11 EVER, so I’m now using Windows 10 LTSC IoT on all of my video game computers. If you want a computer that you turn on and click buttons and games appear on screen and work great, Windows is for sure the only way to go. That’s why all of my video game machines are Windows.
I don’t have a video for ya unfortunately, all of my Linux learning is through forums, documentation, and bouncing ideas off friends who know a lot more than me. There are some distros that are very user-friendly and “just work” great out of the box, but no matter what you do, they WILL require special maintenance. You will find programs or games you want to run that just don’t. There’s often alternatives, and in my experience, the alternatives are always free which is cool.
I think for your use case (and my use case for playing games), Windows is still the way to go. If you can get Windows 10 LTSC IoT and crack it (and run something like OOSU10 to turn off all the spyware you can,) you’re good for almost a decade!
(honorary shoutout to OSX—Lemmy overall hates Apple, but fuck em. There’s a reason every dev and programmer I know have an OSX machine, most of them using it for their main work machie. OSX is rock solid and works incredibly, and Apple’s hardware is acutally good for the price now unlike the mid 2000s when they were insanely overpriced for what you get. You can get an M4 mac for 500-600USD and they’re insanely efficient and powerful… Just NOT for games, my Steam library on my OSX computer is extremely limited compared to Linux or Windows.)
You will run into issues with any computer. OSX is the worst of them all, it drives me crazy.
It is somewhat hardware dependent that is for sure. My cheap $400 new laptop is perfect. There is nothing to do, for over two years now. Everything just works. The gaming laptop on the other hand has a slight lag on audio that I had to do some work with due to a hardware device that wants to sleep when there is no input.
In general though: for all the time wasted waiting for windows to actually do things, and for all the stupid shit windows pulls that I have to fix, I use Linux because it is the most reliable and stable. By far. I need it to be able to get to work, where I remote in and manage windows machines that are a pain in the ass.
deleted by creator
Even Windows has its moments, bad updates fuck you over a bit.
Most distros just install and work. If you take a 1-2+ year-old system and let Linux wipe it, most of them will just kinda work. Brand new hardware is always dicey, it’s better to buy last years model. Steam and web browsers do what you’ll expect. Updates just work. Steam games are generally doable; you just have to flip a switch in Steam to use emulation. The big exception on games is stuff with kernel-level anti-cheat. Valorant, Fortnite, PUBG, Genshin Impact.
Now, if you start using hardware that needs custom apps, RBG controllers, custom webcam controls, If you used nvidia broadcasting suite, outlook, photoshop, Then, you’ll find the effort. You need to find alternatives or try to run stuff in wine, and learning new apps is work and feels bad everything will feel like a downgrade.
Replacing hardware can also be dicey. Solutions are generally not all that bad, but definintely can turn into work.
If you just need some steam and a web browser, you almost can’t go wrong, if you want to emulate every inch of what you were doing in windows outside of that, you’re likely to have to work for it.
Most Linux distributions nowadays are all “point and click” (as in you don’t have to use the command line if you don’t want.) and they do pretty much everything Windows does. With some minor exceptions like some games that don’t run on Linux.
If you’re interested in Linux, you can boot from it without installing to try it out. Nearly every distribution has a live boot option.
As for differences, the entire OS is different, but with something like KDE, it’s still very much “point and click”. You don’t need to be a programmer to use it. This is especially true if you run most things through a browser.
The biggest disadvantage is program compatibility. Windows applications need translation layers for Windows apps to run on Linux and they don’t always work. Many application makers, including people like Steam for gaming, have full Linux support (all of Valve’s hardware like the Steam deck runs Linux).
If you want to try it out in a non-live way with a “safety net”, you can run a dual boot with both Windows and Linux and choose between them at boot. Or you can install Windows in a VM and run your Windows-specific programs until you find Linux alternatives.
It’s a bit of work, but it truly frees your PC. I made the switch from Windows to Linux first with a dual boot…then only Windows for VR, and now I’ve got everything on Linux. I haven’t booted into Windows on any of my PCs in 4+ years at this point and I couldn’t be happier.
That said, use what works for you. If that’s Windows or MacOS, that’s fine. Just know the advantages and disadvantages.
You’ll find a lot of differing opinions, so I will give you mine.
I’m currently running openSUSE Tumbleweed for over a year now, and I can say I am somewhat happier than on Windows. There were (and on my install still are) issues that I have to sort out sometimes. These issues can vary, but the most important thing to me (and I assume you) is gaming.
Gaming was excellent at the start of my journey. Games ran just as well, if not better, on my Linux machine than on Windows. I was amazed, truly! Then, I finally upgraded my 10xx series NVIDIA GPU to a 50xx series GPU, and it was quite a bad experience.
Drivers for NVIDIA GPUs on Linux can be iffy and problematic at times. I’d be fully prepared to read up on or risk asking the community (I’ve never had a good experience talking with the Linux crowd, personally) about any suggestions. The problem with those suggestions is you will get plenty of “Works great on my distro!” (Distro here means the Linux “flavor” you choose to go with i.e. openSUSE for me, Mint for others, and Bazzite for others).
Recently, I did an upgrade for my distro, and it made my RustDesk stop booting on computer start, and I can’t use GE-Proton versions that I downloaded through ProtonUp-Qt and that is pretty problematic for someone like me who is trying to get as much oomph as possible from their machines for gaming. Steam’s Proton works just fine though, so sometimes you might need to fiddle with the Steam Compatibility settings and try different Proton versions.
I won’t try to drown you in any longer of a text wall, but here is what I will end off on.
Linux feels like home, while Windows feels like someone else’s home. As for a distro recommendation for someone wanting to dip their toes into Linux and have a much better time than I did, I’d recommend either SteamOS (Valve’s distro they use on the Steam Deck, which is what got me interested in Linux gaming capabilities in the first place!) or Bazzite (a community distro I believe is based on SteamOS?) for gaming, and Fedora for a more general purpose computer usage. Just make sure you really gear yourself up for what may turn out to be an adventure you weren’t expecting to go down!
Until it is not should be the motto