jokes on them i just erased my windows and put mint on it
Hi from a Thinkpad running Debian (Mint), as God intended
Oh sure, why not throw a perfectly functional $1,300 into a shredder so we can make Microsoft happy? Oh yeah, I know, because fuck you Microsoft.
Alright then MS, (this is hypothetical as I haven’t ran Windows as my main OS in years and don’t plan on going back) since you want me to trade in my hardware, how 'bout I trade in your OS instead? :p
Lots of suggestions here. Here is mine peppermint OS. Simple and doesnt brake (debian based)
So, uh… You gonna trade me a better machine for my current one, Microsoft?
M$: best I can do is Intel celery, but it’s new enough to run windows 11
sigh does it at least come with ranch or peanutbutter? Celery is better with one of those.
No, but you can use it for your bloody mary.
Comes with 64gb emmc & 4gb ram, soldered. Everything else is extra
Peanut butter and raisins, gotta get those ants on a log.
Childhood memories
Seriously, use Linux. What is the problem?
The problem is there are a billion versions of linux, idk what one to choosex idk if i can play my steam games on linux, everyone who talks about linux seems to be a programmer /coder, and uses jargon that i don’t even understand, so idk if I’ll even be able to USE linux. And if I ask any questions I feel like it’s all gonna end up sounsing like another language to me.
The whole idea of moving to linux is overwhelming.
But I’m starting to hate windows 11. And fuck Apple all together.
I’m coming from a non programmer perspective who has been on linux just short of a year. I work in finance but use CachyOS on my personal computer and laptop. I started with PopOs because I had heard that it was “out of the box for nvidia gaming” but soon after learned that most gaming distros are just advertised as such because of pre installed ease of use programs. Proton, wine, etc will run on most forks of linux and the distro you choose matters less and less the more familiar you get with using linux. I recommend CachyOS as a first distro because the installer allows you to choose your desktop environment / window manager. Allows for more options for a beginner so you don’t feel limited to what is packaged in other “beginner friendly” distros.
Note that anticheat is still the biggest pain point for linux compatibility layers so I just go on ProtonDB, check to see if the anticheat allows for linux, and if not I have a dual boot of debloated/removed telemetry windows that can run those games. Within my time using it, only rainbow 6 has required me to launch the windows instance. Aside from that all my singleplayer and multiplayer games run, albeit some with a 5% performance decrease (but that’s more of an Nvidia issue than an inherent linux issue).
My advice is to just try it. Doesn’t take much time or effort to back up your necessary files and just switch even if temporarily just to see if it’s for you :)
Linux community doesn’t help the user friendly nature of the OS, that’s true. Steam deck runs Linux so if it works on steam deck it will likely work on Linux mint or Ubuntu.
Lots of terminal help and outdated forum posts make it feel difficult to manage Linux, you’re right it is overwhelming and it’s not going to have full software compatibility, but if you spend lots of time in the browser and rely on web services it works fairly well over all and is generally low maintenance if you stick to the App Store and use graphic user interfaces.
At some point you were foreign to windows also. Everything must have also felt new and weird. The only way to make it feel not new is experience. One way to do that is to stop thinking if you choice the right one the first time. Get your mindset back to learning the whole system, keep and open mind. Go Linux Mint feel it out. Another is stay on Windows 10 and wait it out perhaps Microsoft will budge and allow outdated systems to install Windows 11 with support.
Ubuntu, PopOS, or Linux Mint. All different interface, but largely identical.
Just get Mint, you’ll be fine.
I’m not a programmer or coder and I’ve been using Linux for about a year. It’s been really user friendly after I figured out what distros are and which one to choose. I highly recommend Linux Mint Debian Edition. It’s worked quite well for me and was not a huge jump from windows because the user interface is similar. All you need to install it is a thumb drive.
I like playing games on steam and haven’t had any issues. There’s this really cool website called protondb where you can search steam game compatibility with Linux. For the few that aren’t compatible, oftentimes people share fixes which usually consists of copy pasting stuff on there.
Okay yeah, 2 other comments suggested Mint, I’ll look into it
And thanks for letting me know about protondb, sounds promising!
Adobe and ease of use
I need Adobe, specifically Lightroom, because there’s no alternative. I can’t just stop using it as a semi-professional photographer (I make money from it, just not a ton).
Darktable doesn’t handle large libraries well and also is missing features such as AI remove and integration with photoshop for splitting photos up for social media posts.
Then Apple. Their M-series are fantastic, and their support cycles are great. Also, taking marketshare from Microsoft is generally a good thing because it’ll force them to make a better product.
OK but people who need Adobe are a really small minority.
Sorry but then you will have to continue living on your knees, drinking verification cans at their mercy and pray they don’t alter the deal again (they will).
my main problems are the lack of support for Adobe programs and several online games
Fair, but that’s not a Linux problem. Publishers need to support the platform. Is windows bad for not “running” final cut?
I’m going to go against the grain here a bit and say that people considering a switch to Linux need to have certain expectations going into it. There are zero guarantees that anything Linux will be a “just works” operation. Especially when you get into the laptop scene and proprietary hardware.
Like sometimes an update will break things. Sometimes you will break things and spend time fixing it. Sometimes a piece of software and/or hardware will just not work at all and you’ll try convoluted workarounds that may or may not work. Linux support is often an afterthought considering <5% of desktop users use it. Popular programs and software are often just not available at all and the FOSS alternatives lack features you may need.
I truly feel that Linux is like the “I own an old hotrod in my garage and work on it as a hobby” compared to “I drive a cheap commuter car and just want it to work”. Yes windows breaks sometimes too, and I hate using their current operating system at work with telemetry and ads and knee-crippling limitations or random ass crashes, etc.
But I’ve also been in the position that I woke up one day and updated Garuda Linux and spent the entire day trying to not boot into a plain black screen when I had my KVM connected. I finally got my fstab working to mount my NFS share of my NAS after months of fucking with it when I feel like this is an incredibly easy “problem” that’s solution should have been apparent for the last 30 years or so and in my eyes should be something the OS should just “do on its own” automatically.
All that being said, I still love Linux and will never use anything else on my systems. I enjoy the tweaking of things, experimenting, having all the control I could ever want.
Especially when you get into the laptop scene and proprietary hardware.
Pro-tip for those who go this route: get a Thinkpad T or P series. Both are highly-supported by Linux, come in Intel and AMD flavors, and even have extra power-management features and utilities no other laptops have.
The Linux experience is a spectrum. Just like owning a car, sure there are people who own custom hotrods. But there are also enterprise level work trucks that can carry thousands of tons. There’s all sorts if in between, including small town cars, hatchbacks and buses. Just like they’re all vehicles of all different sorts, there’s also all sorts of Linux.
Buy System76 or Framework laptops and you’ll never have a driver problem. Use a stable user friendly distro like Mint and your experience will be smooth sailing. Use an immutable distro and you cannot wreak your system. Hire a pro data center and they’ll set you up with enterprise level servers. TrueNAS sells hardware and also distributes a high compatibility community Linux distro for NAS.
Now, use a niche experimental distro packaged by a single developer on their free time. Well, don’t act surprised if it breaks.
It is a bit against the grain, but also very true
Linux is like the “I own an old hotrod in my garage and work on it as a hobby” compared to “I drive a cheap commuter car and just want it to work”
Really?
Linux gives you choice, sure, but it doesn’t just randomly break unless you’re doing something exotic.
Garuda Linux
There’s your problem, you’re using a bleeding edge distro, which is like having a hotrod.
If you want a boring commuter, install a boring commuter distro, like Debian. If you want something fresher, there are a lot of options before you get to Arch-based distros, like Fedora. Stick to the most popular distros and you probably won’t have problems.
Don’t get me wrong, Arch can be fantastic, I ran it for several years with minimal problems, but you really do need to be ready to step in and get your hands dirty.
My main advice is to go in expecting to need to replace software. A lot of stuff works (e.g. discord, Steam, etc), but a lot of stuff doesn’t. If you’re flexible, use a mainstream distro, and stick to what’s available in the repo or on flathub, it’ll probably be more stable than Windows. Just don’t expect your random RGB app or whatever to work, and be ready to swap some POS hardware if the manufacturer doesn’t support Linux (e.g. certain WiFi vendors that aren’t Intel).
Also, don’t expect Linux to make things faster, you’re still limited by your hardware. But do expect common tasks to work well.
Linux is like the “I own an old hotrod in my garage and work on it as a hobby” compared to “I drive a cheap commuter car and just want it to work”
Really?
Linux gives you choice, sure, but it doesn’t just randomly break unless you’re doing something exotic.
I see it more as a pre-built kit RC car (like Traxxas or Arrma stuff) that in stock form (like a Debian or Fedora distro) is acceptable for 99% of the things we want to do with it, but also allows you to get under the hood and tweak/upgrade/change the inner workings to your liking with support from the manufacturer. Unlike other prebuilt cars from the toy store that have no real upgrade opportunities and don’t want you under the hood, they are as-delivered with no other options…
Anyway…
Also, don’t expect Linux to make things faster, you’re still limited by your hardware. But do expect common tasks to work well.
Very well put.
The question was why it’s hard for people to switch to Linux. They answered the question. It doesn’t matter if it’s Linux’s “fault” or not.
Not the fault of Linux, but these are still the “problem” OP asked about regarding switching to Linux.
It is, but i wanted to contextualize it for them and others reading. People sometimes have some idea that it would be impossible to port due to some inhernat aspect to linux. Might be true for something that makes heavy windows API use, but for many others its just a business case. And I wanted emphasis that a bit
I have never run into anyone who thinks it would be impossible to port Photoshop to Linux.
pragmatist and whatever you call the other guy talking past each other
Go to https://www.goeuropean.org/#products-list and try to enter the Adobe search word. :) Could it be an alternative for you?
Sadly nothing for Adobe InDesign, which is like 2/3 of my workflow :( (Also I don’t see an option to filter to Linux programs on that site.)
I spent half hour searching on alternativeto.net just now, but for the 3 Adobe programs I use (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) all FLOSS Linux options seem to be lacking essential features. Based on comments, even in more popular alternatives, features like PDF exporting or CMYK colour handling require workarounds or additional external programs.
(Re. searching only for FLOSS: I’m not opposed to paying for software, but when I enabled that option on alternativeto.net, a lot of results were subscription-based, which I do strongly oppose :/ )
Gaming. The only reason I went from Ubuntu to Windows.
steam and heroic launcher makes it very easy
From games with anti cheats exclusively functional on windows I’m assuming. Otherwise gaming is on par
Not sure what made them not work, but this makes sense.
If it’s anticheat, blame the devs, because they’re specifically blocking Linux. If it’s something else, maybe we can help.
Hot take from an IT guy: save your important data, make a plain vanilla W11 boot USB (nothing fancy, no Rufus tricks), wipe your hard drive to zeroes, and install W11 like normal. I’ve reimaged a ton of older PCs and literally never seen it not work. My 10 year old Optiplex, supposedly ineligible for W11, runs W11 just fine.
Microsoft might someday break it, sure. That’s not new. Microsoft products were always, in practice, available to us at Microsoft’s pleasure. This is the same company that allows massgrave to exist on github because they’d rather we pirate MS Office than allow LibreOffice any oxygen. We’ll probably be fine.
Also IT guy. Hot take indeed. I’ve done this but won’t support this. I will almost guarantee some update will break shit at the most inconvenient time humanly possible and the people you’ve done this for will need your help, all at the same time.
I’m using this opportunity to expand Linux market share.
Most people only use a browser these days. People that ask me about Windows 10 eol get pushed towards Linux. There is really no need to spend money to replace a machine mainly used to browse the web.
Only if they need stuff that won’t work on Linux or they really really want Windows to use Chrome or Firefox on for some reason I’ll recommend complying with Microsoft’s hubris.
But not before suggesting Apple sells pretty and user friendly computers as well. Because I really want this to hurt Windows’s market share and by golly I’ll do everything in my power to help.
I’m imagining me doing this to my building of elderly, it dies and then opening my eyes to 40 work orders. Lmao
I will almost guarantee some update will break shit at the most inconvenient time humanly possible and the people you’ve done this for will need your help, all at the same time.
Well, yeah. That’s life as an admin under the best circumstances. There’s a running list of Windows ticking time bombs over on r/sysadmin. There are lots of good reasons to ditch Windows, but I wouldn’t say the risk of MS shutting down technically unsupported hardware is one of them (because I don’t agree it’s a substantial risk).
Well, yeah. That’s life as an admin under the best circumstances.
I don’t disagree, but I don’t see the reason in tempting/inviting work to spawn. Especially in the cases where windows itself is optional.
I also think it’s interesting you’re not convinced it’s a reasonable risk. I’ve had updates break things on clients under my control on several occasions, particularly post Windows 7 with the bigger feature releases.
It’s definitely a “when”, and not an “if” to me.
It’s also worth pointing out Microsoft has already actively been working against allowing you to bypass the requirements. It’s very clear to me they want to go towards some kind of hardware lifecycle management and I would definately not put it past them they deliberately make windows stop working on unsupported platforms at some point.
Trade in their PCs to who? Fucking Aquaman?
The Linux guys obv
I love how memes (in the Dawkinsian sense) work. Lots of people have enjoyed this, but I can imagine this being quoted as the original is lost to the sands of time.
Young people everywhere thinking that Aquaman was someone who just bought failing assets from everyone.
That excellent gag is how I discovered hbomberguy some years ago
What’s especially funny is that he didn’t even script that, he just came up with it on the spot. And now it’s the joke he’s most known for.
When will Commerce Secretary Sputnik shill for Windows 11 on Fox?
Ok, write me a check for a new one.
October is going to be a great month to get a cheap second hand computer.
It’s online corps offload computers but there will be a delay and many will just have the extended windows 10 supports. So I’d give it another year.
Good time to start looking for a good deal on cheap home lab crap though.
It’s one new PC, Michael. How much could it cost? $10?
What’s 10 dollars? The people saying this are too rich to understand poor numbers. They probably think in terms of “a new pc costs less than an hour at my favorite spa, people are complaining too much”.
Arrested Development tv show. Pretty funny. The family fortune started with the dad opening a banana stand in his youth.
ALT: 2 panels. 1st panel- Rich mom from Arrested Development sitcom, holding a cup, opulent home, saying “I mean it’s one banana, Michael. How much could it cost? Ten dollars?”
2nd panel- Michael sitting back, head on hand saying “you’ve never actually stepped foot in a supermarket, have you?”
Oh damn! I watched the show many years ago, but the joke flew straight over my head.
It’s a joke from a tv show. The rich out of touch lady thinks bananas “only cost” ten dollars.
Theres always money in the banana stand!
Ahead of its time, predicting the consequences of tariffs like that.
Translation: “Install Linux.”
I really want to put Linux on my gaming PC, but I’m doubtful I can get my Rift S working on there. :/
Apparently there is an openxr driver for it, though, so I suppose I should at least give it a shot.
There’s absolutely no way I’m going to win11, though.
Yeah, this is why I never got into VR, the Linux support blows even if you get a supported headset because the games aren’t made for Linux. There are some games, sure, but it’s not worth spending $1k+ on an Index.
I’ll use it once the barrier to entry drops or Linux support improves.
Nobara or Pop! OS would be good choices.
Yeah, VR is still catching up, but I feel like (dual) booting to Win 10 just for specific purposes would greatly reduce the risk.
I’d just be scared of windows trying to clobber my nix partition.
Use separate disks.
Personally, I’ve never had trouble even with partitions, but Windows isn’t going to mess with drives that aren’t NTFS.
Bazzite is better imo
I’ve heard people like that one. I didn’t try it, but I love Nobara as my primary OS.
Just installed ZorinOS on my PC (dual boot with Windows 11) and I’m playing Diablo 4 on Linux. How cool is this?
It’s so cool. We’ve been waiting for Linux to cover gaming and it really has with the push from Steam.
Your best shot is with Monado, which supports the Rift S: https://monado.freedesktop.org/
I only have an Index, so I can’t speak for how well it works or how easy it is to setup.
As someone who routinely used to sink thousands of hours into games, and by that I mean 3000 hrs. on R6-3, 2500 hrs. on Squad and so on, the predatory practices of Microsoft, Steam and game developers have just turned me off gaming completely.
There are still good game publishers like CD Projekt Red and Warhorse Studios. Plus lots of open source and indie gems. Gaming is a lot more than AAA and MOBAs.
I got my meta quest 2 working on Linux, so you should definitely just try :)
I did read that there were some input issues with the d-pads not working, but that was also 2 years ago so it could’ve been fixed by now.
So you’re right, I should!
Pretty sure I’ve got an old drive around somewhere that I could toss it on.
DoN’t YOu gUyS hAvE TPM? Hilarious.
TPM part is easy. It’s them arbitrarily cutting out cpu generations that’s the problem.
oh you have an almost brand new cpu, sorry we decided you needed a slightly newer line for win 11. Just trade it in for a new one
Yup. OG Ryzen had TPM but wasn’t supported for Windows. Not sure if that has changed.
Probably a bios update would be enough
Ah, the old Ben Shapiro logic. If you don’t want your house that’s at risk of flooding, don’t worry, simply sell it! Someone’s bound to give you a good price for it!
Sell it to the merpeople, they’ll be happy to have a proper house for once!
