I hope so. More Linux users mean more Linux support
We’ll have to start worrying about malware soon, exciting haha
Hopefully that'll push for more investment in opensource and security. SELinux being the default with either containerised or sandboxed apps would be great.
This means we need to keep being the best community we can be. Welcoming, helpful, and distro agnostic. I might occasionally Stan for the distros I love, or talk a little smack about ones that left a bad taste in my mouth, but when we’re helping new users, we need to meet them where they’re at, and give them the little boost they need to stick with it.
I’ve used Linux professionally and personally for about 12 years. Yesterday was the first time I tried Wine after nuking Windows on my gaming computer. Pretty impressed with it so far, even if it will need a bit of tuning.
Fuck Microsoft.
You can use Steam’s proton even on non Steam games. It might work better than wine.
Thanks for the tip!
further, heroic games launcher isn't just for epic and gog games, you can install any exe. i use it for the ea games launcher because the lutris script was broken at the time. and in the wine manager in hgl settings you can choose either wine-ge latest or proton-ge latest (or whatever number version) as your default layer, which you can also change per game/app if you have trouble.
edit: and also you can set it to add to steam so you can still just use steam as your main launcher, for example on steam deck or using a media center rig in big picture mode.
Also to add, it's not just for games but any application. Games are just the primary focus.
I've switched a few months ago mostly for gaming, and here are few tips and issues I ran into, in case you run into them too.
Not sure what distro you are using, but I've run mostly into issues when trying to get NVIDIA and Proton working on Fedora. Just getting the drivers to work took a few tries, and I never managed to get stuff like cutscenes to work properly.
However, I then switched to Nobara (I suppose PopOS may also work), and the experience was wastly better, with everything working out of the box (I did switch to KDE Plasma on X11, since Wayland kept freezing on me).
I'm not sure what of the many changes Nobara does helped solve my issues, but I guess it may be related to it including Proton GE by default, which I recommend getting, and a slightly streamlined installation of NVIDIA drivers.
I also recommend checking out Lutris, instead of using Wine directly. However, I never really managed to get it working, aside from WoW, so your mileage may wary. But I have most of my games on Steam, where everything is working out of the box, so it wasn't that much of na issue. I only sometimes have to switch Proton version (by right clicking the game - properties - Force a specific version of compatibility tool).
Your issue with Fedora might have been missing the codec for the compression algo the video was using (smth like h.264 or h.265)
Managing Wine directly is pretty tideous job. Use Heroic for Epic/GOG games, Bottles for everything else. Lutris is also worth trying
I just installed gnome on my laptop because they kept spamming the copilot shit.
I use my os to get started on what im doing, not fuck around with all the repeating notifications that can't be disabled.
Copilot being back on the taskbar after removalafter taking my show desktop button (also removed) was it for me as well. Already enjoying it. Some quirks, but I think I'm going to spend way less time configuring than I am trying to unfuck windows once a week.
They are in linux forums spruiking chatgpt/copilot as well. Mods deleted my comment the last time I told them to get lost. The rampant commercialism is so frustrating. The FOSS community has done so much to empower users/developers and give everyone the tools to learn, grow and customise their systems with amazing documentation and access to source code. And it is going to be Disneyfied within a generation with the fruits of our labor locked up behind billionaire controlled subscription services in flagrant disregard of our copyright and licences. Our kids won't know how to tie their shoelaces without paying Nadella, Altman and their shareholders for instructions.
Microsoft GitHub injects Copilot ads in their source views. It’s another Microsoft service worth abandoning.
Ads in Windows Explorer was the final straw to make me switch to Linux a few years back. I would imagine that ads in the Start Menu could convince some others to do the same.
Ads in Windows 10 back in like 2017 were major contributing factors for me to switch back then. But then when I mentioned I got ads in Windows 10, people looked at me like I had two heads. Perhaps there was some kind of A/B testing going on, and I was the unlucky one. This followed a forced update from Windows 8 Professional to Windows 10 Home, so I lost some control over my PC in that transition, as they took Pro features away from me.
I did a brief Google search if it's possible to downgrade Pro to Home and that doesn't look possible without a clean install.
Home users experienced more ads than Pro users.
Again, Windows 8 Pro, forcibly upgraded against my will, with no ability to decline, to Windows 10 Home. It wasn't the same version of Windows downgraded from Pro to Home.
Microsoft is seeking feedback on the changes, so it’s possible the company could decide to ditch these ads […]
are they really looking to see if people want to see more ads? i can’t imagine this is anything more than a meaningless corporate “we value your feedback” message. they already know what people think about ads in their operating system, they’ve tried it many times
They are not seeking feedback between "I like it" and "I hate it", they want feedback between "I tolerate it because I still feel locked in" and "that's it I'm moving to a competitor".
You wouldn’t enshittify an entire operating system
After dithering with dual boot for years I jumped ship to Linux only (LMDE) with their incessant reminders about moving to W11 from W10 popped up. Missing a few apps but fuk' em.
small brain move: install windows on a seperate disk to linux and then let your BIOS decide what it wants to boot, instead of relying on a unified boot loader
VM is even better. It prevents Windows updates from fucking up your real OS.
That's what I do. Linux is primary, and I keep Windows around just in case. Haven't booted Windows in over a year.
Small brain move: install Windows as a guest on a Linux host. Rip out so much of it's guts it can't show any ads and barely works at all. Declare victory over the desecrated husk of Microsoft Windows.
Winbros: But it's opt-out, you can disable it!
Gonna opt-out of Windows 11.
This is like one of the worst takes I've ever seen on this platform. Like yeah dude, the legions of users who sat through Windows 10 ads, Windows 8 ads, Windows Vista, EOL support for every OS, and forced packaged apps everywhere have finally had it with Windows 11 sir. The tidal wave of users embracing the glory of Linux is nigh.
I anticipate switching to a full Linux setup once I build my new PC, hopefully later this year. I can't see myself even unwillingly ~~buying~~ ~~pirating~~ buying Windows.
Any tips for when that day comes?
Go slow, pick an easy distro like pop OS and take it easy.
If its for gaming, even https://nobaraproject.org/ is great as it has a lot of gaming optimisations.
Remember, Linux with a GUI is not more complicated than windows with a GUI, you have just spent your whole life learning the windows one.
Yes.
Back up your files.
When building the computer, go for generic middle of the road normal hardware. Fairly easy to do with off the shelf ATX PC hardware. Inside the case, this usually means look out for weird graphics cards or motherboards. I'll warn you that Asrock RGB lighting doesn't like to play with open source control software. Outside the case, pick a keyboard and mouse that don't require (much) in the way of configuration because Razer and Corsair don't publish their bullshitware for Linux yet.
Back up your files.
I recommend spending some time with whatever current hardware you have trying out a few distros in a virtual machine. Don't just look around and go "ah that's nice. ah that's weird." Actually use it to do your work. Even though you're running Linux IN Windows, try to use Linux to do actual stuff.
Back up your files.
Choosing a distro. Isn't really all that important, at least at first. Most of the meaningful differences are going to be in the Desktop Environment anyway. There's about 18 different GUIs you can use, from weird tiling window managers the hardcore nerds tend to like, to more Windows like experiences in KDE and Cinnamon, to more Apple like experiences with Gnome and Pantheon. Try a few out in virtualbox.
Back up your files.
Learn a little bit about the terminal. A lot of people hate and fear that suggestion, but it can honestly be fun. Wait till you see what the command fortune | cowsay | lolcatdoes. Learn how to edit files, run commands, install software via the terminal, even if you don't plan on doing it that way routinely. Mainly, so that if you ask the community for help, you're not completely in the dark when given a terminal command to run. Which is often the case; because "click here then here then there then tell us what it says" is harder to convey than "copy paste this command into the terminal, and then copy-paste what it says." There's a lot of cool stuff hidden in there.
Back up your files.
Have fun!
I've tried Linux gaming for a good bit but it doesn't seem like it's quite there yet. For the games that worked it was amazing! The only other thing that was annoying was the constant downloading for the shader caches basically every day with steam (yes I know they can be disabled). I was using Bazzite for those wondering.
I have the total opposite experience. Ubuntu, Endeavour, SteamOS. Gaming on Linux has been great in the last 2 years especially. Shader caches are a very small price to pay for having a system that doesn't crash due to Windows driver BS and being able to reinstall and keep my home directory intact.
It depends on what „quite there yet“ means for you.
Performance wise linux gaming can be on par or better than windows. Statistically it should always be better by now because the resource hog that is called windows slows older systems down.
The shader caches are bad, ngl. I have enabled downloading/precaching them in the background so its no big deal as long as you have steam open.
So, for those used to windows and being picky enough to not accept any inconvenience for the tons of upsides: linux isnt for you yet.
For those who are able to accept the tinyest inconveniences for a limited time: linux is a lot better than windows.
The more people switch, more impetus there will be to improve things faster & faster.
They might go in direction of BSDs.
And stumble upon barely useble OSes? BSDs now are as niche as Linux distros were a decade ago
It's more like how Linux was 25+ years ago. BSDs are great for servers and firewalls, but they aren't really ready for desktop use yet.
The year of the BSD desktop is coming
I just bought my first linux laptop last month - prompted proximally by Apple's decision to start putting unblockable ads on the start page of their books app.
I don't like ads.
Hi, it's me, but to be fair, not for this particular reason.
Gaming on the GNU/Linux operating system.
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