Switch From Windows to Linux

Had Linux Mint (Cinnamon) installed on my laptop and ran it for quite a while. While it's OK for basic user needs such as quick access to email and web browsing, doing anything else a typical home user would do (like gaming or light productivity work) pretty much sucks.

Linux has come a very, very long way since the Y2K era of Mandrake. It has a long ways to go, yet.
 
I actually have one that is going from Linux to windows.

I still spend most of my time on Linux boxes. Mostly game on Linux anymore as well.
It's nice having both available depending on my task
 
I've been running both since the Athlon 64 days. Can pretty much run most games on both at this point, granted at a speed difference. Pretty much switch back and forth depending on what applications I'm running.
 
Had Linux Mint (Cinnamon) installed on my laptop and ran it for quite a while. While it's OK for basic user needs such as quick access to email and web browsing, doing anything else a typical home user would do (like gaming or light productivity work) pretty much sucks.

Linux has come a very, very long way since the Y2K era of Mandrake. It has a long ways to go, yet.

Mandrake 6.0 was my first, i still have!

DejaWiz
 
nope. and im a lifelong linux advocate, just not in the home. :D
 
No. I mean I have VMs to spin up when I need them, but outside of that.. meh.

upload_2019-12-27_13-33-3.png
 
Linux never came even remotely close to delivering for photographers so besides just tinkering with it on older hardware I have hanging around I never found any use for it.

A fellow pro photog messed around with it on the side for much longer than I ever did and it's just not there on that front.
 
Why would I switch when I can use them all anytime I want. (Well, except OS X, since I do not personally own a mac.)
 
Count me out. Android is probably the closest I'll ever come to using "Linux" on one of my computers/devices.

Maybe I'm the only one who actually likes Windows?
 
Count me out. Android is probably the closest I'll ever come to using "Linux" on one of my computers/devices.

Maybe I'm the only one who actually likes Windows?

Heck, I would not be using "Linux" on my phone if Microsoft actually had competed properly with their own phone OS.
 
Count me out. Android is probably the closest I'll ever come to using "Linux" on one of my computers/devices.

Maybe I'm the only one who actually likes Windows?
I am with you. Switching to Linux is a big nope for me. Linux doesn't offer me anything over windows and I am giving up too much to switch to Linux.
 
No.

Can't hurt to dual-boot tho. Or just take your old system and load it with linux and have 2 pc's...

Only thing I might need linux for at home would be a server, firewall maybe. But I got those as vm's on ESXi.

Well I do also got it on a raspberry pi too.
 
Nope. There is nothing I can do on Linux that I can't do on Windows, but there are plenty of things (and programs) that I can run on Windows that I can't (or at least not without lots of pain and agony) on Linux. There is no perfect OS, and despite its known problems, I like Windows, and it is a very usable, stable, and (if you use your head) secure OS.

I am working on using FreeBSD more for desktop purposes, but with no video drivers available for my card (RX 590 that I got for a sweetheart deal - I'm not giving it up) I can't fully utilize it on my desktop.
 
I predominately run Linux 100% while working on Windows and MacOS based machines. Windows just isn't for me with it's updater, advertising, spyware, messy UI that's difficult to customize to the same extent as most Linux DE's and infection issues necessitating Anti Virus.

Most of my software runs cross platform, GIMP works perfectly for my needs (There's no way I'd pay for Adobe products even if I wanted to, their pricing is a joke), the system is faster, I'm in control of the updater 100%, I still game (even play a number of Windows titles just fine, they're not difficult to install) and the OS looks and behaves 'exactly' how I want it to look and behave. I also find use of the terminal via package managers a far superior way to install software compared to GUI requester boxes that flash up on the screen and disappear as quickly as they arrived leaving me wondering just what the hell is going on.

I use Libre Office daily with no issues whatsoever and I find Thunderbird with the Lightning calendar plug-in far better than Outlook with it's messy UI that I'm surprised the average user can even navigate, in fact working directly with average users that know little about computers and their operation, I know they struggle with Outlook - Constantly unpinning panes and accidentally clicking one of the mass of ribbon options they don't need and will never use. You could remove most of that crud and no one would even notice the difference.

Just my personal preference, no at all interested in starting a flamewar, if you prefer Windows good for you.
 
Unless they can make gaming headache-free ill stick to windows 10 for now :whistle: Nothing wrong with Linux/UNIX I currently have a 45tb FreeNAS 11.2 server with about 6 iocage jails, 6 dockers via docker-compose VM, 70TB Unraid server, another 10 TB SSD only proxmox server and about half of dozen raspberry pi o_O
 
Unless they can make gaming headache-free ill stick to windows 10 for now :whistle: Nothing wrong with Linux/UNIX I currently have a 45tb FreeNAS 11.2 server with about 6 iocage jails, 6 dockers via docker-compose VM, 70TB Unraid server, another 10 TB SSD only proxmox server and about half of dozen raspberry pi o_O

Installing games via SteamPlay is no harder than under Windows provided you stick to supported titles under ProtonDB, of which there are thousands.
 
Nope. There is nothing I can do on Linux that I can't do on Windows, but there are plenty of things (and programs) that I can run on Windows that I can't (or at least not without lots of pain and agony) on Linux. There is no perfect OS, and despite its known problems, I like Windows, and it is a very usable, stable, and (if you use your head) secure OS.

I am working on using FreeBSD more for desktop purposes, but with no video drivers available for my card (RX 590 that I got for a sweetheart deal - I'm not giving it up) I can't fully utilize it on my desktop.

Ya that's my biggest issue. I never have a "man I could do this if I was just on Linux" moment in Windows, but I have a lot of those on on Linux. Particularly games and audio production. It isn't that Linux CAN'T do it, there are games for Linux, and there are pro audio things for Linux but not as many, not the ones I want, they don't work as easy, etc, etc. It is a big compramise, and one I have no reason to make. For me a computer is a tool to get what I want done, and whatever does that the easiest and best is what I want.
 
what seems fantastic to me is that it's a Free OS ... one would think it would have overtaken Windows years ago

Bill made things so easy under Windows. People will pay for ease of use.

It's a bit of a challenge to get a lot of mainstream games working but outside of games, I'm a big fan of productivity under Linux.
 
Bill made things so easy under Windows. People will pay for ease of use.

It's a bit of a challenge to get a lot of mainstream games working but outside of games, I'm a big fan of productivity under Linux.

Ease of use is actually one of the reasons Windows is less secure than Linux (and it is less secure than Linux as it has to cater to the average pleb. Not implying that everyone here is a pleb). Windows popularity has nothing to do with ease of use as most plebs still cannot install software under Windows and Linux isn't difficult, it's different, it opposes your learnt muscle memory. The popularity of Windows is 100% the fact it's force installed on 90% of the devices out there when the consumer buys a PC or laptop - The average pleb believes Windows is 'the computer'.

Clever marketing that no one's going to topple unless Microsoft piss off their userbase with a cloud based OS they have to pay a subscription for in order to make use of worthwhile features.
 
it has to cater to the average pleb. Not implying that everyone here is a pleb)

I'm a pleb and it's a main reason I come here so often ... to listen quietly to those much wiser (tech-wise) than myself :cool:
 
what seems fantastic to me is that it's a Free OS ... one would think it would have overtaken Windows years ago

With so many distros available, its versatility is also its weakness. Each distro has its own way of doing things, even ones related to each other. On the other hand, Windows is pretty much Windows. There are some epoch-shattering moments (Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95; Windows 7 -> Windows 8) but overall it's Windows. Linux can be whatever a distro wants to be and experience with one does not necessarily transfer over to others.

My primary desktop is running Windows 10 Insider Edition but considering I haven't logged into it for over a year I've probably been removed from the program so if that ends up being the case I will be installing some sort of Linux on it and use the Windows laptop if I need to use something that only works on Windows and doesn't have a Linux equivalent (which will be primarily some games, is my guess).
 
what seems fantastic to me is that it's a Free OS ... one would think it would have overtaken Windows years ago

Linux has only been partly viable for average consumers (with some caveats) for a few years. For most of it's existence, Linux was a power user only OS. You'd need to make extensive use of power shell, prey there were drivers, compile a lot of software on your own, and hope you can find the handful of non-assholes in the community to help when you run into problems. Ubuntu getting popular solved a lot of things over the years, but Linux still isn't quite at a point where it's going to work to most people.
 
Don't do it if you play VR games or have a navi card. Don't ask how I know...
 
Been there and done that many times. Even went so far as installing Arch myself. I never stick with it because Linux still sucks (especially for gamers) and always will
 
Ease of use is actually one of the reasons Windows is less secure than Linux (and it is less secure than Linux as it has to cater to the average pleb. Not implying that everyone here is a pleb). Windows popularity has nothing to do with ease of use as most plebs still cannot install software under Windows and Linux isn't difficult, it's different, it opposes your learnt muscle memory. The popularity of Windows is 100% the fact it's force installed on 90% of the devices out there when the consumer buys a PC or laptop - The average pleb believes Windows is 'the computer'.

Clever marketing that no one's going to topple unless Microsoft piss off their userbase with a cloud based OS they have to pay a subscription for in order to make use of worthwhile features.
A cloud based OS wouldn't even be enough. The people that would be loudest and most pissed off would be the enthusiasts market. Probably the smallest most niche market there is. You think people will stuff at a subscription based model? The common person has been conditioned for the past decade to accept the subscription model. Everything is going towards subscriptions. Hell even financing is the same thing. A service/item for a low monthly cost is easier to swallow to the common person then huge upfront costs. It is why shit like micro transaction and piece meal DLC is so good damn successful. The common person is stupid and impatient that demands instant satisfaction. Those people far exceed the people with a brain and will never change. Honestly people are getting dumber in very generation.
 
With so many distros available, its versatility is also its weakness. Each distro has its own way of doing things, even ones related to each other. On the other hand, Windows is pretty much Windows. There are some epoch-shattering moments (Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95; Windows 7 -> Windows 8) but overall it's Windows. Linux can be whatever a distro wants to be and experience with one does not necessarily transfer over to others.

My primary desktop is running Windows 10 Insider Edition but considering I haven't logged into it for over a year I've probably been removed from the program so if that ends up being the case I will be installing some sort of Linux on it and use the Windows laptop if I need to use something that only works on Windows and doesn't have a Linux equivalent (which will be primarily some games, is my guess).

This is one of my biggest problems with Windows, the open nature of Linux is what I find most appealing

It's really not the problem misinformed Windows users like to claim it is.

Been there and done that many times. Even went so far as installing Arch myself. I never stick with it because Linux still sucks (especially for gamers) and always will

Gaming here under Linux just fine. I'd say ~80% of my library works perfectly. Nothing against Windows users, but this is another misconception.

Put it this way - If I had to run Windows to play 100% of all titles when I don't agree with the pricing/subscription nature of many new AAA game releases, I'd run Linux as the OS is just that much better.
 
Linux has only been partly viable for average consumers (with some caveats) for a few years. For most of it's existence, Linux was a power user only OS. You'd need to make extensive use of power shell, prey there were drivers, compile a lot of software on your own, and hope you can find the handful of non-assholes in the community to help when you run into problems. Ubuntu getting popular solved a lot of things over the years, but Linux still isn't quite at a point where it's going to work to most people.

Not true.

The needs of most are very simple, Linux is perfect for the needs of most people and very simple to install with pretty much everything but Realtek drivers included in the kernel. Realtek is cheap shit that I honestly wouldn't use under Windows.
 
Gaming here under Linux just fine. I'd say ~80% of my library works perfectly. Nothing against Windows users, but this is another misconception.

Put it this way - If I had to run Windows to play 100% of all titles when I don't agree with the pricing/subscription nature of many new AAA game releases, I'd run Linux as the OS is just that much better.

Many games ported to Linux use an old version of OpenGL that's still compatible with Macs. You can't even get AA in Civ V on Linux. Not to mention what a headache installing closed source video card drivers is on linux. I broke things plenty of times trying to do that in my noob days. I'm sorry but it's just nowhere close. Less games and many of the games available perform worse. Vulkan could have changed that but it hasn't. I'm not seeing massive amounts of support for it yet.
 
Linux has only been partly viable for average consumers (with some caveats) for a few years. For most of it's existence, Linux was a power user only OS.

Absolutely. I was experimenting with Ubuntu back in the early 2000's, but it was basically a hobby OS. I'd always run into something that I couldn't do or do easily without Windows back then.

Linux still isn't quite at a point where it's going to work to most people.

I disagree. Something has changed in the last 5 or so years where Linux became far more compatible and usable. It's a fast, stable OS on a huge variety of hardware and there are enough games and software available for it to be a viable platform.

There's still a lot of Windows exclusive stuff you might keep a Windows 7/10 SSD for, but you don't need it everywhere like you used to.
 
Back
Top