For my “convenience” and because in this way they can show ads and clickbait
Also: I SET A FUCKING GROUP POLICY THAT DISABLES THE SEARCH BAR; WHY THEY FUCKING IGNORE IT???
Classic microsoft move.
Linux has gotten great over the years and keeps improving while windows gets worse and worse every day. This has been going on for many years now.
I switched already and suggest you give it a shot as well. It’s honestly much easier than windows if you know the basics and understand how things are done there.
This is the way
Not every distro of Linux has gotten better, for the most part this comment is innacurate. That said, I have generally had the same experience here, but I use arch btw.
How is it for gaming?
I have been a Linux gamer for the past 10 years. I haven’t booted into Windows to play a video game in 8.
When I started out, it was very much a question of “Here is the list of games that work on Linux.” You had to look for that Steam logo next to the Windows or sometimes Apple logo on the Steam page, and there are some games I would have played years earlier had that logo been there. With Proton, it has switched to “Here is a list of the games that don’t work on Linux.” Because most just do, with the very notable exception of competitive shooters, because something something anticheat.
I often hear that games actually run better on Linux than they do on Windows, except the newer whiz-bang features don’t work. Give a recent example, apparently Cyberpunk 2077 runs at a significantly higher framerate on Linux than Windows, but DLSS, HDR and RTX aren’t available.
Let me tell you the tales of two gamers on Linux:
My tale: I was disgusted with Windows 8.1, I had been learning some Linux because I wanted to use a Raspberry Pi with my ham radio stuff, so I went…why don’t I try switching? This was circa 2014. There was exactly one game in my Steam library that just could not be persuaded to run and that was Sleeping Dogs.
There have been a few games I’ve wanted to try that refused to run in some way or another; Heave Ho! by Devolver Digital…the demo ran fine, had a good time with it. Bought the game, and the UI on the player select screen didn’t work. Grow Up or Grow Home (one is a sequel to the other, I forget which it was) launched, but the character didn’t respond to any controls. Oh and Fallout: New Vegas launched one of those Windows-style autorun screens then asked me to put in the DVD. I bought it from Steam. And refunded it.
I generally avoid AAA games, I don’t play many online multiplayer games, I do play multiplayer games with friends, stuff like Stardew Valley or Unrailed, but I don’t go play with random people online, those just are not fun to me. I tend to prefer more indie stuff, more nerdy stuff, like I’ve got hundreds of hours in Factorio and Satisfactory, both work fine. I think it just so happens that I’m into games that are likely to be well supported on Linux. Antichamber, Firewatch, Hollow Knight, Return of the Obra Dinn, every Zachtronics game I’ve tried, Undertale, Subnautica, these all run great.
My cousin: had an aging Dell upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 on an “optane boosted” hard disk drive, starting to run pretty sluggish. Swapping out the hard disk and optane module for an SSD and attempting to install Win10 on bare metal just wouldn’t work, it kept throwing cryptic errors, so to get the machine to work at all I put Linux Mint on it.
She has more mainstream tastes than I do, lots of Bethesda and EA games. Funnily enough, I found that the third-party launchers were the real problem. The Sims 4 ran pretty well on Linux…Origin barely does. Minecraft support on Linux is actually worsening with time as a result of Microsoft’s involvement, but at least the Java edition does currently run.
In brief, I have observed a very stark inverse relationship between Linux compatibility of games, and the size/corporateness/evilness of the developer.
Have you tried Red Dead Redemption 2? I’m looking at switching over to Linux soonish.
I switched to Linux after this sort of tricks.
They also will fuck with your “privacy and security settitings” on updates.
If you try blocking search and start pinging home. It will make windows endleally spazz which causes stuttering in games.
They forced me to switch to Linux pretty much
Thanks satya microshit…
Imagine treating a paying customer like this
One thing I did was go through hoops to disable the bing searches from the menu.
Instead I should have switched to linux long ago.
You paid for windows?
People like you is why they do this shit in the first place. The entitlement of wanting products for free basically forces companies like Microsoft to become the huge advertisement pushing cunts that they are now.
I switched to Linux when the “We’ve scheduled your free update to Windows 10!”-like popup started appearing again and again on my Win7 machine even though I disabled it. I didn’t like not having a choice and they only got worse from there. Meanwhile, you have full control over every part of a Linux system. You can even uninstall the update manager if you feel like it.
But that would upset Pacman and you don’t want to upset Pacman, do you?
More and more I am considering taking a vacation with the specific goal of migrating to Linux. I’ve got decades old workflows linked to certain programs and tools that I know for sure only exist in Windows, so I’ll likely have to still run it in a VM for those, but my system setup is just kinda the place I call home the most, yet my patience for all this nonsense is rapidly declining.
Do it, my friend. I took the leap ~5 years ago and have not once regretted it. You’re right, you have Wine and Windows VMs available, if need be. But, honestly, I bet you end up replacing those work flows with better ones within Linux before long.
I mean, I’d like to. But some of my work requires me to use stuff like Adobe products and I find it massively easier to keep up to date with what these tools can do, if I can just muck around in my private projects (I actually care about) and then transfer the knowledge to my work stuff. I’ll mull the idea some more time. Not really interested in dual booting at all, though that might be a solid solution, but windows simply deciding to kill everything else, even if its on a different disk entirely is not a prospect I relish.
If its for work I would suggest picking a “stable” distribution like Debian, Kubuntu or OpenSuse.
A lot of people recommend Arch or Fedora but the focus of those is getting the very latest releases, which increases your chance of stuff breaking.
A lot of people will suggest niche distributions, those can be great for specific needs but generally you will always find Debian/Ubuntu/RHEL support for commercial apps.
I would also suggest looking at the KDE Desktop, many distributions default to Gnome but it is unique in how it works, KDE (or XFCE) will provide a desktop similar to Windows 11.
Lastly I would suggest looking at Crossover Linux by Codeweavers.
Linux has something called WINE, its an attempt to implement the Windows 95 - 11 API’s so windows applications can run on linux.
WINE is how the Steam Deck/Linux is able to play Windows games. Valve embedded it into Steam and called it “Proton”.
WINE is primarily developed by Codeweavers and they provide the Crossover application that makes setting up and running a Windows application really easy.
People will mention Lutris but that has a far higher learning curve.
There is an application database so you can see in advance if your applications would work: https://appdb.winehq.org/
Thanks for the long response. I was thinking Mint maybe, had some experience with it a few years ago. But it’d replace both my private and work stuff over, so some gaming, too (mainly through steam). Stability is key to me. My current Windows install hasn’t needed anything for 4 years or so, so I’m absolutely not going for Arch. I need this stuff daily, I cannot waste time trying to troubleshoot for hours or relying on backups, etc.
I know it has a shitty “95-ish” look to it, but https://distrowatch.com/ is quite possibly your best resource in finding out at a glance which of the distros you’re interested in are stable or rolling, and how popular they are. Go down the page hit ranking on the right, and start clicking: you will see the root build of every distro, whether it’s stable or rolling, the last release date, links to reviews, etc.
It won’t get you to your final decision, but it will get you to a shortlist. And then you can start making LiveUSB sticks to test drive your distros of choice in RAM without having to install anything. There are very few distros that require a full install to try out; if you run into one you can always use old hardware or a spare disk, etc. Mint has a LiveUSB of all its DE choices, Pop!OS has a LiveUSB, you just need the USB sticks and something like Rufus to make them with, and you’re ready to test drive.
Well worth the trouble, IMO. Good luck.
As someone who is currently in the process of moving everything to Linux, this is a genuinely helpful comment. I have it saved now, lol. Thank you for taking the time to write this out, much appreciated.
Come on. Join the dark side. We have cookies.
You fucking bastard. I hadn’t noticed, and now I can’t think of anything else.
windows is malware
Hahaha!
“I installed malware on my computer and now the malware does what the author of the malware wants.”
Oh no. Anyway…
More like “My computer came with malware and I’m starting to realise that’s what it is” in most cases.
deleted by creator
Ladies and gentlemen, a prime example of exactly why people don’t switch to Linux.
The loudest portion of the community are insufferable twats, and you know it’s bad because I’m an insufferable twat and I’m calling this one out on it.
Most of the Linux communities are the same.
often the content isn’t even related to Linux it’s just tirades of anger against corporations. Doesn’t even have to be Microsoft, any commercial that dares make any move in the Linux space - Canonical, red hat, oracle get derided too.
Yeah, but, DAE LE WINDASS WINDOWNS BAD??! LOL LE MICRO SHIT USERS LOLOLOL XD XD EGGS DEE MI$RO$OFT IS BIL GAETS DIK JOKE. Seems perfectly welcoming to me, especially the heavy insinuation that absolutely everything is PEBKAC, even if you’re on a fresh install of something allegedly intended for mainstream - following verbatim, explicitly appropriate instructions. If you’re really lucky, someone might deign to link you an LMGTFY.
This stuff truly has helped make Desktop Linux a force to be reckoned with over the years. So much so that Year of Desktop Linux has been… pretty much every year of the past 20, I think.
On Windows, we all know it’s spackled together shit with shoe strings, spit and duct tape - probably still involving some tech out of the 70s-80s or at least tech debt from back then. We tend to not pretend it’s flawless because no software is.
People like OP install obviously shit software and then whine on the Internet about how shit the software is they chose.
People like you cry about that someone points out how it’s obviously their own fault entirely.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the most insufferable twat in this thread. Not even close.
Yup, you are the insufferrable twat. You just keep proving their point. Just move on, life isn’t about “winning” imaginary internet discussions.
i agree with your contention, but sadly many are forced to use windows for work or school.
