Cool, I’ve been looking for an excuse to move to Linux again. I tried ubuntu years ago but it was too limited in features and capabilities to fully replace windows for my productivity needs. Time for me to dual-boot so I can start getting more practice with Linux (Probably going to go for Linux Mint this time around)
You could try distrosea before committing to an install.
It gives you a VM online to play around in for almost any distro you can think of.
Don’t forget that desktop environment (DE) and distro are decoupled in Linux, so if you didn’t like the feel of Ubuntu (GNOME DE) you can go with Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE). Both are on DistroSea.
Yeah? I tried Linux Mint Cinnamon edition on a friend’s computer and the Gnome they’re running seemed sufficient for my needs. Is KDE really that much better “out of the box” without the need to customize?
Ask 3 Linux users and you’ll get 5 dissenting opinions. Mine is that KDE Plasma is very simple out of the box and more familiar to Windows users. A previous Windows user can use it without any kind of deep learning. Gnome is a bit more alien, borrows a bit more from OSX, and does force its workflow on the user more.
KDE also offers an insane amount of easy customization for those of us with a desire to tweak or enjoy a different aesthetic or workflow. The built-in shop for widgets, wallpapers, themes, cursors, etc makes that very accessible to anyone. Gnome customization requires a lot more command line and editing of configs.
I’ve dabbled in Linux for decades, but fully switched to Linux as my daily driver about 5 years ago. I still have a Windows partition set up for dual boot, but only boot into it once every couple months now to run very specific software. I can honestly say I miss nothing about Windows. Linux has matured leaps and bounds even in the past 5 years. Gaming, productivity, programming, hobby. It can do it all. I will admit there is still a technical barrier to entry. You will need to get used to the command line and searching the web frequently for how to do something. But if you have those skills I don’t think it’s a contest anymore. Linux is the better OS.
I’ve been on Fedora for about a year and I’m very particularly making a point of never opening the terminal to prove it’s no longer necessary.
So far, haven’t needed it.
I don’t have a problem doing things by the command line… it’s certainly sometimes easier that way. This is just a response to the people that complain about having to use it. Turns out, they really don’t.
Yeah I’ve used Linux before, I started with command line back with Microsoft DOS and Windows 3.1 back in the day. Just stopped using it because it lacked compatibility and WINE was still not quite evolved enough to be usable for much. I’m not a gamer so that’s not a big hassle.
But I’ve started playing with linux mint again on a friend’s older laptop and impressed at how far it’s come (little things like automatically detecting the touch-screen on his laptop, or the wireless printer in the other room without having to tell it anything) make it far easier to use.
I honestly think I’m ready to make the switch for good on my nice 32" HP All-in-one Envy PC - windows just keeps getting more buggy on this computer with every new windows update lol.
mint user here. rocksolid distro, maybe not bleeding edge but very good as a daily driver; also for music production. reasonably customizable desktop with cinnamon.
only caveat: some vst plugins do not work well with wine when it comes to their copy protection (#izotope and #ssl among them), others do (such as #kilohearts)
Linux distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint and Pop! have been fully capable of replacing Windows for typical work and home uses for several years.
Even gaming is very close to being on-par now.
There are still niches dependent on Windows, like specialized engineering software or anyone that simply refuses to use anything other than Adobe products.
Yup, I totally have been making the switch to Open-Source software or browser-based software (like Photopea) for the past few years to ensure I’d be able to easily make the switch when windows finally pisses me off enough. But I think I’m already at that stage - every major windows-10 update seems to break more and more features on my computer lol
I’m pretty sure you meant to actually select Edge, so I’ll go ahead and switch that to your default so we don’t need to bother you again next time. You’re welcome!
Agreed. I’ve been lazy because I’m a gamer, but at this point it’s time. I hope the other game companies can figure out something like Proton to play on Mint.
Yeah - fortunately I gave up gaming long ago (got too addicted and had to step away to maintain a productive healthy lifestyle). I need it for Office productivity apps, CAD and 3D slicing software, and photoshop. All of my needs are available as open-source programs, or Photopea does almost everything I need from photoshop these days lol.
So my only excuse lately has just been that I’m too lazy to make the switch since I have everything mostly setup in windows how I like it. But it wouldn’t be hard to export some profiles and import them into the Linux versions of the same applications.
But windows actions lately have really pushed me towards linux - I hear they’re trying to put ads into the windows 11 start menu. Its ridiculous that I now need to install third party menus and file explorers if I want to still use my operating system ad-free.
You get a distro (arch) wrapped up into an excellent gaming device, and can drop into desktop mode for productivity needs. For 400 bucks, it’s a pretty sweet setup, imo.
Or, if you have the machine already, certainly take advantage of the enhancements Steam has contributed to proton, and game on.
I bought one for this reason but have been meaning to dual boot it. Partially because Im not wild about its desktop but also I want to seperate my gaming and nongaming more.
Yeah I had a catastrophic lighting strike and ended up having to buy a nice gaming pc during the pandemic. I love everything I’ve heard about steam deck but will be pc bound until I get my money’s worth xD
You can play nearly anything through proton by adding the game’s .exe as a non steam game. ProtonDB is a valuable resource.. You can install Mint alongside windows anyway and just boot winders for the games that don’t run on Linux.
Can you dualboot with bitlocker? Are there any halfway decent full drive encryption methods with recovery keys that won’t regularily corrupt the system? I’m mainly hesitant to make the switch based on those requirements. Plus, I have been in the MS ecosystem for such a long time. All I know and I worked on it as a sysadmin as well for many, many years. Big comfort zone.
I agree, I think if this is how windows goes forward a lot of tech people will leave their ecosystem entirely. The one thing stopping them is the convenience of windows (mostly free if you know what you are doing and most processes don’t need to be thought about). A subscription based OS throws everything out the door. This gives them an unbelievable amount of control over what you see/do/store. Want to view a website for linux installation? “Nope that goes against our T&Cs, you’ve been banned from your OS with all your information on it”.
The upside I see will be linux will start becoming easier on everyday users because the tech people switched and want the convenience
Depends on who you define as “tech people” - lots of IT professionals absolutely switched long ago.
I am technical to a point (Building and running a farm of 3D printers, developing and running an e-commerce site, etc). But my time is valuable so while I tried to make a switch to Linux 15 years ago, it just wasn’t “convenient” enough for my office/work productivity needs. Now that I’ve circled back around, I’m pretty pleased with the evolution I’ve seen.
Plus most of the open-source software I already use is obviously also available on Linux so the transition will be easier this time around.
Cool, I’ve been looking for an excuse to move to Linux again. I tried ubuntu years ago but it was too limited in features and capabilities to fully replace windows for my productivity needs. Time for me to dual-boot so I can start getting more practice with Linux (Probably going to go for Linux Mint this time around)
You could try distrosea before committing to an install.
It gives you a VM online to play around in for almost any distro you can think of.
Don’t forget that desktop environment (DE) and distro are decoupled in Linux, so if you didn’t like the feel of Ubuntu (GNOME DE) you can go with Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE). Both are on DistroSea.
I highly recommend KDE these days, on Ubuntu or other. It’s just so damn usable and flexible.
Yeah? I tried Linux Mint Cinnamon edition on a friend’s computer and the Gnome they’re running seemed sufficient for my needs. Is KDE really that much better “out of the box” without the need to customize?
Ask 3 Linux users and you’ll get 5 dissenting opinions. Mine is that KDE Plasma is very simple out of the box and more familiar to Windows users. A previous Windows user can use it without any kind of deep learning. Gnome is a bit more alien, borrows a bit more from OSX, and does force its workflow on the user more.
KDE also offers an insane amount of easy customization for those of us with a desire to tweak or enjoy a different aesthetic or workflow. The built-in shop for widgets, wallpapers, themes, cursors, etc makes that very accessible to anyone. Gnome customization requires a lot more command line and editing of configs.
I’ve dabbled in Linux for decades, but fully switched to Linux as my daily driver about 5 years ago. I still have a Windows partition set up for dual boot, but only boot into it once every couple months now to run very specific software. I can honestly say I miss nothing about Windows. Linux has matured leaps and bounds even in the past 5 years. Gaming, productivity, programming, hobby. It can do it all. I will admit there is still a technical barrier to entry. You will need to get used to the command line and searching the web frequently for how to do something. But if you have those skills I don’t think it’s a contest anymore. Linux is the better OS.
I’ve been on Fedora for about a year and I’m very particularly making a point of never opening the terminal to prove it’s no longer necessary.
So far, haven’t needed it.
I don’t have a problem doing things by the command line… it’s certainly sometimes easier that way. This is just a response to the people that complain about having to use it. Turns out, they really don’t.
Yeah I’ve used Linux before, I started with command line back with Microsoft DOS and Windows 3.1 back in the day. Just stopped using it because it lacked compatibility and WINE was still not quite evolved enough to be usable for much. I’m not a gamer so that’s not a big hassle.
But I’ve started playing with linux mint again on a friend’s older laptop and impressed at how far it’s come (little things like automatically detecting the touch-screen on his laptop, or the wireless printer in the other room without having to tell it anything) make it far easier to use.
I honestly think I’m ready to make the switch for good on my nice 32" HP All-in-one Envy PC - windows just keeps getting more buggy on this computer with every new windows update lol.
What flavor/distro are you currently rocking?
mint user here. rocksolid distro, maybe not bleeding edge but very good as a daily driver; also for music production. reasonably customizable desktop with cinnamon.
only caveat: some vst plugins do not work well with wine when it comes to their copy protection (#izotope and #ssl among them), others do (such as #kilohearts)
Linux distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint and Pop! have been fully capable of replacing Windows for typical work and home uses for several years.
Even gaming is very close to being on-par now.
There are still niches dependent on Windows, like specialized engineering software or anyone that simply refuses to use anything other than Adobe products.
Yup, I totally have been making the switch to Open-Source software or browser-based software (like Photopea) for the past few years to ensure I’d be able to easily make the switch when windows finally pisses me off enough. But I think I’m already at that stage - every major windows-10 update seems to break more and more features on my computer lol
Okay, but like, are you SURE you wouldn’t prefer to open PDFs with Microsoft Edge? I’ll ask you again next time, just in case you change your mind!
I’m pretty sure you meant to actually select Edge, so I’ll go ahead and switch that to your default so we don’t need to bother you again next time. You’re welcome!
Agreed. I’ve been lazy because I’m a gamer, but at this point it’s time. I hope the other game companies can figure out something like Proton to play on Mint.
Yeah - fortunately I gave up gaming long ago (got too addicted and had to step away to maintain a productive healthy lifestyle). I need it for Office productivity apps, CAD and 3D slicing software, and photoshop. All of my needs are available as open-source programs, or Photopea does almost everything I need from photoshop these days lol.
So my only excuse lately has just been that I’m too lazy to make the switch since I have everything mostly setup in windows how I like it. But it wouldn’t be hard to export some profiles and import them into the Linux versions of the same applications.
But windows actions lately have really pushed me towards linux - I hear they’re trying to put ads into the windows 11 start menu. Its ridiculous that I now need to install third party menus and file explorers if I want to still use my operating system ad-free.
Kill two birds with one stone, get a Steam Deck?
You get a distro (arch) wrapped up into an excellent gaming device, and can drop into desktop mode for productivity needs. For 400 bucks, it’s a pretty sweet setup, imo.
Or, if you have the machine already, certainly take advantage of the enhancements Steam has contributed to proton, and game on.
I bought one for this reason but have been meaning to dual boot it. Partially because Im not wild about its desktop but also I want to seperate my gaming and nongaming more.
Yeah I had a catastrophic lighting strike and ended up having to buy a nice gaming pc during the pandemic. I love everything I’ve heard about steam deck but will be pc bound until I get my money’s worth xD
Also check out lutris, which is a game launcher and a website full of working install scripts.
I like that name, I gotta say.
You can play nearly anything through proton by adding the game’s .exe as a non steam game. ProtonDB is a valuable resource.. You can install Mint alongside windows anyway and just boot winders for the games that don’t run on Linux.
Can you dualboot with bitlocker? Are there any halfway decent full drive encryption methods with recovery keys that won’t regularily corrupt the system? I’m mainly hesitant to make the switch based on those requirements. Plus, I have been in the MS ecosystem for such a long time. All I know and I worked on it as a sysadmin as well for many, many years. Big comfort zone.
Since you can wipe a computer without a bitlocker key, I would assume you could encrypt the windows half with it, but I can’t say I’ve tried.
I agree, I think if this is how windows goes forward a lot of tech people will leave their ecosystem entirely. The one thing stopping them is the convenience of windows (mostly free if you know what you are doing and most processes don’t need to be thought about). A subscription based OS throws everything out the door. This gives them an unbelievable amount of control over what you see/do/store. Want to view a website for linux installation? “Nope that goes against our T&Cs, you’ve been banned from your OS with all your information on it”.
The upside I see will be linux will start becoming easier on everyday users because the tech people switched and want the convenience
The tech people switched long ago.
Depends on who you define as “tech people” - lots of IT professionals absolutely switched long ago.
I am technical to a point (Building and running a farm of 3D printers, developing and running an e-commerce site, etc). But my time is valuable so while I tried to make a switch to Linux 15 years ago, it just wasn’t “convenient” enough for my office/work productivity needs. Now that I’ve circled back around, I’m pretty pleased with the evolution I’ve seen.
Plus most of the open-source software I already use is obviously also available on Linux so the transition will be easier this time around.
What part of the article is making you want to change to Linux?
The part where windows is moving to the cloud - don’t want that or need it.