89

Could be small or big.

My answer has always been that, Linux can't handle everything I'd ask out of it that I normally can with Windows. I know the games issue has been progressing far from the days when that used to have been an archaic flaw with Linux for the longest time. Games might not be the issue except for some concerns I have for some games.

I was taking some time a few moments ago, to check if a program called Firestorm Viewer would work on Linux Mint which could've been my distro of choice. And the description written on the linux page described exactly the kind of concerns I'd have for compatibility and usability from going Windows to Linux.

They said that their viewer was tested and designed to function mostly with Ubuntu and while it could work with other distros, it's not to be expected to be smooth.

That's the kind of sentiment and concern I have always had with Linux if I were to go from Windows to it. There are programs and tools on Windows that I have that are used for specific purposes and I know they will not function on Linux. Furthermore, incase anything breaks down, any and all solutions would only be applicable to that thing that would be far easier to solve than just being SOL if I was on Linux.

It is something as a user that I just can't simply afford to deal with on a regular basis if I made the switch.

So while I may not have too much of an issue running games, I won't have too much of an issue using alternatives, I won't have to deal with the Windows ecosystem .etc I will just be running into other walls that would simply make me second guess my decision and make me regret switching to the point where I would dip back into Windows in a hurry.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Mac OS has always worked well enough. It's much worse now in my opinion than it was since High Sierra but it's still fine. Also, I fear it'd be quite difficult to get Linux working on an M2 MacBook Pro for dubious benefit to me.

If I was on a PC though, I'd definitely try Linux out, really don't like Windows 11 and didn't love Windows 10

[-] 5in1k@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Having used linux 17 years ago for a year.

load more comments (11 replies)
[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

audio production in Linux is awful.

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 1 points 1 day ago

There's a lack of linux native VSTs, but other than that my exp has been that Linux is both easier, less demanding and more stable than Windows for audio. Don't know how it compares to Mac.

[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

the linux builds of bitwig and reaper are great, don't get me wrong. but running Windows vsts with yabridge is just not going to cut it for me. I need my music tools to work

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I've found a lot of success after biting the bullet and purchasing bitwig as my DAW.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Most recently when I used Windows was because of work. I've been seeing these posts for a while now and I can make some valid arguments.

  • Anti cheat games
  • Adobe products (Web is not the same)
  • MS Office desktop
  • Work has processes linked to Windows specifically (server that only works on IIS Express maybe?)
  • Big legacy codebase where they don't match filename casing.
  • Specific Visual Studio scripts or plugins for a DSL.
  • Security requirements that need windows APIs (like mandating crowdstrike)
  • Music production with a Ableton (it works but it's not noob friendly).
  • You have deep knowledge of Windows and getting up to speed on Linux would take a year without guarantees you have a comparable system.
  • Your client is on Windows and you're making a desktop Windows app that's not cross platform.

Thankfully none of these apply to me so I'm on Linux but I can see how this is an issue.

[-] xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day 2 points 1 day ago

I would like to add two more points

  • Certain pricey applications aimed students and researchers (non CS background) which are only released for Windows
  • Inability to learn a new way of using the PC after learning the "windows way" for 20 years. Even Windows shenanigans are second-nature to mildly-PC literate people.
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Kagu@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately I'm addicted to a game that requires kernel level anti cheat. So I dual boot Fedora and Windows, but pretty much the only thing I use the Windows partition for is the game and that rare application that just works ™️ on Windows

[-] _g_be@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago
[-] Kagu@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Caught and clocked 😅

[-] nizvicious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Same here, fellow Fedora and Windows dual boot. I have a seperate hard drive for kernel level anti-cheat games: Escape From Tarkov - some PVE maps do run under Linux but PVP and parts of the map require anti-cheat.

Battlefield games from 5 onwards

Call of Duty games Coldwar onwards - do not open a call of duty game under Linux, there have been posts where it is an instant ban.

Ghosts of Tabor

I do have hope that one day the anti-cheat situation will work out where it doesn’t matter what operating system you are running but for now if I want to play some of the above games with friends for now I dual boot.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Turious@leaf.dance 3 points 1 day ago

Small? My biggest issue is tiny and probably fixable but not to my skill set. A big workflow for me is finding images in browser and dragging them to a folder to save. Linux can do it but doesn't save the file extensions and renames the file to a number.

Bigger would be there it's no replacement for Irfanview. There are multiple tools that add up to its functionality but not as easy or fast.

Bigger yet would be VR support. Some games in general, really. Most of what I play works on my Steam deck so I know Linux covers 80% of my gaming needs excepting VR.

[-] Sc00ter@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

I dont own a pc, nor do i have time and energy to learn a different OS than what i grew up with and use everyday with work

[-] variouslegumes@reddthat.com 39 points 2 days ago

You'll find some things are broken and janky in Windows and Linux. Just different jank you're not used to. I have friends who complain about how they have to do weird workarounds for Linux and then turnaround and fuck with RegEdit. You get used to either given enough time.

[-] 0_0j@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

then turnaround and fuck with RegEdit.

LOL, forgot about this. And they say they ain't tech savvy enough

[-] rockSlayer 40 points 2 days ago

I'm lazy and haven't gotten around to it yet

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 1 day ago

I want to be able to rely on all the things I want to do on my PC "just working" I don't want to come home after a long day of bullshit looking forward to playing a game or working on a project and have to do a bunch of troubleshooting because something is fucked up. I'm not there yet with Linux. To be fair I'm not there yet with Win 11 either so I'm in a tight spot.

I did buy a laptop so I could try it out more aggressively but have ran into a lot of roadblocks and just have a lot of things that I haven't had time to figure out yet.

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

I ended up doing it, but my hesitation prior to the switch was gaming. I did it anyway though, and now with Proton I don't miss a thing.

Get a couple USB sticks and backup your documents folder. Having backup, aside from being a generally good idea, should make you feel safer to test and experiment.

I do understand the general concern about running your Windows apps, but I'd say just trust yourself and see what you canake work, and what you can find good alternatives for. I'm at a point now where there are Linux apps that I really like but can't get to work quite right on Windows. It's not a one-way thing.

[-] for_some_delta@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago

I still need to provide binaries for Windows, so build and compile for multiple operating systems.

I love Linux. Deploying software to customer sites was historically challenging on Linux due to system dependencies. Containers alleviate most of those problems.

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Honestly in my experience linux is dogshit.

Want literally any program that reads or writes files to be able to work? Well good fucking luck spending hours asking on discord and reading websites trying to figure out how to fix the permissions and never figuring it out.

Want the system to fucking boot the OS? Lol. Roll the dice baby! 1/3 of the time it's going to get stuck in command line.

And why struggle in the first place? Two of my favorite games don't even run on it.

And even the games that EXPLICITLY SAY THEY RUN ON LINUX IN STEAM DO NOT WORK

I turned a gaming laptop into a word processor. And ultimately into a dust collector.

I'm done trying. Fuck linux and fuck the first person who tells me different.

[-] VerilyFemme 8 points 1 day ago

I'm curious to know exactly what distribution you tried. Every type of Linux I have tried have never given me issues with programs, booting, or running games.

In fact, the only games that have flat out not worked for me are the ones that require a Windows system for their anticheat.

I don't blame you for hating the system; I would too, given the circumstances. I'm just curious as to how your system got to such a state of unusability.

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

mint manjaro kubuntu

I don't remember the specifics of the first two; all above complaints relate to the third

[-] VerilyFemme 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Mmm yeah, Mint is like the only one of those designed for compatibility and ease of use first. Manjaro as your 2nd distro is an especially wild step. That was my 2nd distro as well, and it was miserable and I broke my machine lol. Then, come to find out, the company that makes it suxx with a capital XX.

You know, now that I think back on my early days, I actually did try Kubuntu for a little bit and I had a few hiccups there. Never failed to boot on me, but it did have times where it felt like it was trying. 😭

If you ever feel like giving it a go again, Pop!_OS is pretooled to have all the drivers you need. I didn't have a single problem with Pop! my whole time using it. If that doesn't suit your visual style, then PikaOS has a great KDE Plasma spin that feels just like Windows!

My point being: I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but also understand that there are options that are drag 'n' drop easy at this point.

I'll go fuck myself now, I guess...

Oh, by the way, what are those two games?

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I had way more problems with kubuntu than manjaro by the way. Trying to remember back, I think I switched away from it because of some security issue that was a meme at that point? I was thinking of switching back but I merged the laptop's ssd and hdd in the disk manager so now I'd have to have a clean start and I got lazy.

I'm no longer in a situation where the laptop is especially useful to me and it was my trial run for deciding if I would switch on my desktop.

Oh, by the way, what are those two games?

Rocket league and this

I could probably run a VM for the latter if I were on a desert island I guess

[-] VerilyFemme 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, Kubuntu has some issues. If you didn't have any trouble with Manjaro, CachyOS is similar, but without the BS, super fast and gaming focused. I'm using it now, and I was fully expecting to break it but it just keeps trucking.

Also, you can run both of those games on Linux. Steam's Proton tool is magic. ProtonDB users have Rocket League working on the Steam Deck. You probably just need the Heroic Games Launcher to get it from Epic. I don't have any personal experience with Rocket League, but Civ IV definitely runs through Steam with Proton, and it's not hard to mod games on there. (Not hard meaning: the same as Windows, just with slightly different file paths and maybe 2 extra steps done with a GUI)

[-] sjkhgsi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Drivers. I've got a bunch of music stuff that lets you edit presets on the computer and they just don't make drivers for Linux

[-] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I flipped in 1997, so any software I might have missed since those days are probably not around anymore.

Windows 95 was pretty shitty in comparison to Linux, and a lot of software broke with NT 4.0

It was an easy choice at the time. Linux was the operating system for this new fancy thing called the internet. Software development turned into a career, and Linux is just a very nice stack for building backends and infrastructure.

I do have an old ThinkPad around running windows 10. I've only used it three times in the past five years: To unbrick an Android phone, to set the MMSI on a marine radio, and to update the maps on my car's satnav.

[-] thenewred@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago
  • CAD
  • Photo editing

Gave FreeCAD and darktable a solid try hoping to switch my main desktop, but they have significant usability problems

[-] Badabinski@kbin.earth 6 points 2 days ago

CAD was a big problem for me as well. I've been happy enough with OnShape (coming from Autodesk Inventor), but the extreme SaaS nature of it makes me worry.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Have you tried RawTherapee instead of Darktable? They both do pretty much the same thing, but I find RawTherapee much easier to use :)

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

I don’t think I’m good enough with computers not to just fuck it all up.

[-] GreenMartian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

I professionally develop software on Linux, and still managed to fuck up an Arch system a few years back. So don't feel so bad.

These days, I rather spend time with my young child than tinkering with a Linux setup. So my trusty 10yr old PC (that has seen a few GPU upgrades) is still running Windows for the occasional gaming when I have the time.

[-] compostgoblin 6 points 2 days ago

I did. But I could easily see how people are put off by the “fan base”. I actually avoid talking about Linux at all irl because I don’t want people to think I’m a fossbro

[-] Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 1 day ago

Jesus yes, the fanbase, more primarily the die-hards.

The kind that feel they have to be the jehovah's witness of operating systems. Can't tell you how many times someone wants a software or even a hardware issue troubleshooted and it never fails, there's that one guy or two going "GO LINUX!". "Have you tried Linux?" they butt in, disrespecting the inquiring user just wanting their problem solved so they can continue using their computer throughout the day. They're not interested in being marketed to or browbeaten, even if that thing is free.

It's happened to me before. Game won't run? Linux. Can't boot? Linux. Your computer is on fire? Linux because I guess it is capable of virtualizing a fire extinguisher to cool your computer down. It is no wonder some users online find Linux users insufferable this way.

The only worst thing a Windows user can do to you is just nag you to upgrade the OS but you can tell them to fuck off. With a Linux user? It could turn into an hours-long debate.

[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 2 points 1 day ago

Jesus, yes. And I'm a lady so I get the extra layer of dudes trying to gatekeep their "manly" hobby. I can go for a hat trick of perceived emasculation while I'm at it and tell them my deadlift form is better than theirs and that I know the best way to clean a trout.

[-] Eiri@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago

Because my PC is an entertainment box. I don't want to turn it into a problem to solve.

Also, Nvidia.

[-] 0_0j@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Also, Nvidia.

Was waiting for this to pop up LOL

If you are on a market for a Linux-first laptop, AMD is the way. I mean, yes, Nvidia is far better now than half a decade ago, but still, the hoops you have to jump? FUCK YOU NVIDIA

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Isn’t mint based on Ubuntu? So that should work without a hitch for you. Worst case just boot into the live usb without installing it directly and just try it there.

As for me, I dual boot on separate drives because I have specific software that requires windows sometimes. Otherwise it’s primarily Linux on all machines in the house.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] frank@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 days ago

Man i wish Mint worked out of the box as well as virtually everyone on here says it does.

I am a former software engineer, and don't want my home PC to be a hobby. I'm like 6 hours into trying to make my (simple) audio setup work on Mint Cinnamon and it's intermittent at best. Never have even thought about it on Windows.

It is plug and play compared to Linux of old, it's clearly come a long way. But it's nowhere near as easy as Windows still, for anyone who isn't trying to make this a hobby

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] fufu@feddit.org 10 points 2 days ago
[-] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I've found real solutions to pretty much everything but this. For Fusion, I still just have to run it in a windows VM under Linux.

[-] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 days ago

My Windows 10 PC is just as, if not more secure than any Linux machine on the planet.

But one of these days I’m going to have to actually power it on again and then I guess I’ll have to do something.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
89 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

50799 readers
676 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS