As the title say's, my Windows 10 install broke, but I'm still unsure whether or not to reinstall Windows 10 or install Linux.
Context:
A few months back, Windows 10 updates started to fail on my desktop. I had considered just reinstalling the OS but as my machine was working just fine I simply tolerated it.
Today, when my machine auto-updated it broke something. At first I thought the update worked. But soon I realized that the taskbar was acting odd. All the shortcuts I had placed on my taskbar were working as usual, but when I right clicked them nothing would happen. I clicked on the start menu and the search bar but nothing happened. Most of the widgets on the right side of the taskbar weren't working such as Volume, Wi-Fi, Date & Time, and Notifications. I assumed it was just the taskbar that was broken but when I tried to use the windows key to open the settings menu, it didn't work either, nor did it's keyboard shortcut.
It seems the update had broken some apps that, though didn't prevent Windows from starting, made navigating it a lot more difficult.
I've used Linux before. I had a Linux Mint, and EndeavourOS virtual machine installed on my computer. More recently, I installed EndeavourOS on an old laptop I had lying around, and have been using it daily for about a month now. Although I've had my difficulties, I've been loving my experience.
Though I'm still a Linux newbie I've been meaning to give Linux a real shot on my desktop for a couple weeks now, but as my machine was working just fine I didn't really feel any necessity to make the switch.
But with my Windows install breaking, I feel like its time to give Linux a real shot.
My Questions:
I want to install Fedora on my desktop but I still have a few questions pertaining to Linux and my desktop specs.
I'm running a GTX 1660. I've heard a lot of bad things about running Linux with an NVIDIA GPU so I'd like a few things clarified.
- How would I install NVIDIA drivers?
- Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?
- A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?
- I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?
- I've had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does proton work with Fedora?
- With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?
- Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?
If you believe Fedora wouldn't be the best distro for me I'm welcome to hear any suggestions, though I'm not enthusiastic about running anything Debian based nor installing vanilla Arch.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off as lazy for not doing my research. I've tried to research many of these questions before but found no concrete answers.
To all those who took the time to respond to my post.
Thank You!
Edit: I've made a new post
Go for it. Switching to Linux has never been easier than it is today. I still keep a Windows virtual machine for when I need to use specific Windows applications, but aside from that I have been running Linux on my work and gaming machines for two years now with zero issues.
I'm surprised to hear you had problems with Proton - in my experience it has been seamless, although there are still some titles that don't work so well with it. I don't play any games that require anti-cheat, though, so there is that.
It's never easy to say which distro is best, because every user and every machine is different. I personally recommend Nobara instead of Fedora, as a lot of the post-install tweaking is already done for you and it should even install the latest Nvidia drivers for you as well.
Just to clarify on the proton thing, its an issue I faced on my old 80TJ Lenovo ideapad. I assume it's a hardware issue as Vulkan doesn't seem to work, and it has 4 gigs of ram. There's also the fact its over 9 years old.
I'm not really searching for a solution to my laptops problems, but thanks for the insight.
If you don't mind me asking what difficulties would I face switching desktop environments/ window managers as I'd like to experiment a bit(on my desktop).
Ah, ok.
As far as DE-hopping, it does come with some problems. At the very least, you will have a ton of different apps installed, as each DE will want its own file manager, terminal, etc. At worst, you will get conflicts and it can end up a right mess.
I would personally keep a separate virtual machine or Ventoy USB separate from your main machine, as it will give you the freedom to mess around with different desktops to your heart's content. If that isn't an option for whatever reason, then at the very least make sure you create a separate user account for each separate WM/DE you install so that shit doesn't break.