I am and always was a casual gamer, I like playing puzzles, strategy and builder games, sometimes I play with friends some 7 days to die or AoE2. I am on Linux Mint for more than a year now and was surprised how easy gaming was. From time to time I had problems with weird DirectX error messages, but all in all everything just worked.
My setup:
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- GeForce GTX 1660 Super
- 32 GB DDR4 RAM
So last week my girlfriend worked on my computer (we are not living together), she wrote some bills for customers and did some table stuff in calc. When I asked her at the end of the day how it was to work on Linux, she shrugged and said “Oh I didn’t notice” lol (using Cinnamon as DE btw).
Today she bought Until Dawn the remake on Steam while she is here and because she really wanted to play she downloaded it to my PC. She just started to play and everything was great. I wondered again if I should say something like “you see how great you can game in Linux”, but then it came to my mind - she doesn’t care and she didn’t even question it! The Linux Desktop got so mature, that non-tech people just don’t notice!
I think the biggest “problem” with Linux adoption is that it does not come preinstalled on computers, and this kind of proves my point I guess.
Yeah that’s all, I just wanted to share this with you guys.
P.S.: There were some bugs btw. but it turned out they have nothing to do with the OS.
I have friends who says “I still run Windows because I don’t want to do any tinkering,” but don’t realize they’d do less tinkering if they switched haha. It’s not 2015 anymore.
“Windows doesn’t require any tinkering, just run this to make a local account, decline 100 requests to use OneDrive and Office 365, get these debloaters, uninstall all these things, and make sure you always tell Windows to not restart your computer while you’re using it every time it updates. And when it does update, you’ll need to run the debloaters again.”
I mean, you don’t really have to do these stuff. I doubt the comment’s author’s friend cares about debloating and privacy.
Yes, in the same way that you don’t typically need to tinker with Linux
In the end they’re not so different, except Windows intentionally does anti-consumer things that make people want to tinker.
There’s what Die4Ever said, but there’s also Windows 11 incompatibility with games that otherwise just work with Proton. Around when I got my Steam Deck, I also had a Windows PC that was, to my initial surprise, way more of a hassle for games, so I pretty quickly switched to Linux Mint, and later Fedora.
I used Ubuntu way back when on secondary PCs mostly for fun, but Linux has only outpaced Windows imo in the past five years.
And if some obscure error code shows up, the first five points in the knowledge base are powershell commands.
I’ve been using Linux for 3 years, Mint then LMDE and the not tinkering is bullshit
On my laptop the boot drive is forever filling up with Linux Kernel updates and i need to delete them. i have a 1GB partition, there’s no simple way to. do that, there’s a bunch of commands i need to use in Terminal, it’s bullshit that I even need to do it
On my desktop just installing Signal was a drama (no official flatpak) the command line given on the Signal site is not just copy paste and it’s Debian.
then lets not even talk of Davinci Resolve.
i have zero intention of going back to Windows and my needs are quite simple but there is a fair bit of tinkering even then.
Out of three issues, two are just “app isn’t made to be easily installed on Linux”, which isn’t on Linux itself, but the ones making the app. still, valid issues.
There is a setting in the update manager which deletes the kernels for you. Regular Mint is also the better option because of the Ubuntu base.
i have a 1GB partition
Uh, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is probably your main issue.
I didn’t even know you could run Linux on a 1GB partition.
That said, you should be able to increase the size of that partition with something like gparted. I had to do it recently for my Bazzite install as I didn’t make the OS partition big enough at first.
It was a little confusing at first because you have to actually move partitions around and make it so the blank space that you want to add to the partition is right next to the OS partition on the table before it will let you make it bigger.
The boot drive filling up is REALLY annoying because on modern systems there’s no need for it to even BE a dedicated partition.
Even with encryption and BTRFS, boot can live in your root partiotion just fine. Only EFI needs a partition and that never fills up.
Distros need to change this default!
I don’t think Kubuntu makes partitions by default, I just have a single large partition aside from the EFI
It’s wild. “I don’t want to have to tinker,” then go on to talk about the 10 different debloating softwares they need to run every time it updates.
$sudo apt install realtek-firmware-nonfree
“NOOOOOO SO USER UNFRIENDLY!!!”
“On windows all i have to do is go to regedit, then HKEY/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/classes/someObscureSetting, then select DWORD and change the value to 0x0011111, then save and reboot. SO EASY AND USER FRIENDLY!! Thanks microslop!!!”
Lol right? I used Windows for decades, and edited the registry a countless number of times. Never did I have any clue what the fuck any of it was doing. Not once.
With Linux, I gain permanent knowledge any time I need to use a command I found online.
skill issue
Absolutely this. I was spending 2-3 hours a week making my Win11 box stable.
Once a month I had to redo all the sound drivers, as with each reboot sound would get quieter and quieter until I was running a lottery of which program wouldn’t be affected any given day and suddenly have it’s volume loud enough to shake the house.
I upgraded CPU/MB after the MB failed, MS cancelled my Win11 licence. I realized I still was spending stupid amounts of time keeping things working, and I am very against all the AI being shoved into every Windows book and cranny.
The first week of ditching Win11, I was tinkering everything because New Shiny, but now things were working I’m not even sure I’ve spent 3 hours in the last two months tinkering.
How is it that people have unstable Windows installs?? Mine is consistently an unwavering pile of shit.
Even in 2015 I was doing more setup on Windows than Linux… honestly even in 2005 too.
That’s interesting. I was definitely a Linux noob in 2015, so that might have been a me problem. Like I know Lutris was a thing even back then.
I was kinda thinking about it from the other direction, like I’ve never had to deal with printers on Linux like I have on Windows and don’t remember ever needing to install hours worth of Service Packs on Linux with a fresh install. That being said, I’ve been using Linux since the Caldera days (late 90s) so I might be being one of the geologists in the XKCD cartoon right now too.
never have to tinker more in my life than on windows. its even worse with the batshit things Claude will do. On Linux shit just works
Yeah, back then when I made my move from Windows to Linux I mostly did so because I wanted something complicated to tinker with, but I had to go to Gentoo to find a Linux distro that was more complicated then Windows. And that was nearly 20 years ago!
N00b or liar?
claude on Linux? it works.
Too bad Linux users don’t.
they don’t work?
It’s pretty obvious that they’re generally anti-work, and have all day to spend online extolling the virtues of GPL/ Linux. Commies don’t tend to know the reality that it only works at gunpoint. And they’re not intelligent enough to simply make enough money doing just 1-2 hours of work a day. The stereo type of ‘mom’s basement dweller’ is real. Also explains why we don’t run into LiGNUts in public.
what a complete cluster fuck of wildly inaccurate generalisations. this reads like ai-slop from a microsoft-hired bot farm using free tier AI
So you are just a troll. Took a minute to figure that out.
I shouldn’t feed you, but its been so long.
Nice it’s always great to hear the work millions of people put into the Linux ecosystem is paying off.
This is the kind of story we should forward to Linus Torvalds, the Linux mailing sublists and other volunteers so they see how their work gets recognized ^^
I suggested a friend to try out Bazzite (KDE desktop). He told me it felt like he was playing on a console because everything works from the get go. He didn’t have to tweak or install anything.
That was exactly my experience with that same distro + flavor. One of my happiest moments of the past year has been buying a new prebuilt gaming PC with Windows preinstalled and immediately wiping Windows in favor of Bazzite.
(Because I know someone will wonder: I bought prebuilt because, for a brief time, a store near me still had pre-RAMpocalypse prebuilts for their original price. They had already increased the build-to-order and individual part price to account for higher RAM cost, so for that brief time I was able to get a reasonably-priced, decently-spec’d prebuilt gaming PC for cheaper than building my own. It had Windows preinstalled, and having them remove it for me would’ve saved me like $10 on the license, but made the machine into a build-to-order, which would’ve ballooned the RAM price by like $300. Plus, holding Windows’ head under the water until the bubbles stopped was unexpectedly awesome.)
It is indeed quite satisfying to get a new machine and never let the pre-installed Windows boot even once.
I’m usually frantically pressing del, f2, and f10 when I turn it on to make sure I can set the boot priority to the usb stick so the virgin machine is never tainted.
I’ve never run actual Windows 11 before, so I did boot it once out of curiosity. It was actively trying to make me hate it before I ever got to the desktop, so to the bin with it. I still see the OEM Windows license sticker on the back every once in a while and chuckle.
Quite a graphic way to describe wiping windows!
Is it doable in Bazzite for a non-technical person coming from Windows to install software outside of flakpak?
It’s built on an immutable Fedora, right?Edit: for example: can you install rpm files or software from a Fedora repository via GUI?
I’ve also had a great experience with Nobara. I did try Bazzite, but the immutable nature of it stopped me from doing the things I’m used on Linux. However, I’ve got my partner on Nobara as well, and she’s verrry much not techy and still having a great experience.
Excellent. That means it’s working as intended.
The best user interface is one that you don’t even notice. The seamless layer between you and your tool (or game in this instance).
The “doesn’t come preinstalled” part is still huge, combined with the “doesn’t have first-party device manufacturer support”.
If you buy a PC with Windows preinstalled, that doesn’t only mean that you don’t have to install Windows, but also the whole set of hardware in there will work just fine under Windows. They don’t put a fingerprint reader in there that doesn’t have a Windows driver, or a GPU with bad Windows driver support.
And yes, most hardware natively works pretty well under Windows, but the manufacturer taking care that they only select components that work fine under Windows is a big part of why there isn’t a hardware lottery under Windows.
taking care that they only select components that work fine under Windows is a big part of why there isn’t a hardware lottery under Windows.
There isn’t a hardware lottery under Linux, either, unless you buy random hardware instead of choosing known-good components or turning to one of the system vendors who do this for you.
I find it kind of weird that people who would never take mystery medication without it being prescribed to them, and would never buy a paycheck worth of food without considering its contents against their allergies and tastes, would buy a computer without checking whether it will run the software they intend to use.
Perhaps the perceived problem would fade if we taught people that computers and operating systems are not all equal, and that just as MacOS is more likely to run on a machine made for it, Linux is more likely to run on a machine made for it. (Edit: The same is true for Windows, for what it’s worth.)
I get your point, although probably most people install it on whatever hardware they have on their hands. Thus the lottery.
Trying whatever hardware one already has on hand is perfectly reasonable, but it’s not a lottery.
That’s a bit of a weird argument to make.
We were talking about PCs with preinstalled OSes. How often do you come across DIY-built PCs with preinstalled OS?
If you select your own components you never have a preinstalled OS.
Also, most people who switch from Windows to Linux do so on existing hardware. It’s rare for people to buy a completely new PC to try out an OS. Maybe if €1000+ is something you shell out on a whim, but not if you actually work for your money.
For existing hardware you always have the hardware lottery on Linux.
Perhaps the perceived problem would fade if we taught people that computers and operating systems are not all equal, and that just as MacOS is more likely to run on a machine made for it, Linux is more likely to run on a machine made for it. (Edit: The same is true for Windows, for what it’s worth.)
Congratulations, you just happened to get the point that I made. And for some reason you thought that was a gotcha.
My argument was that if Linux came preinstalled on machines (apart from the current selection of tiny boutique manufacturers), these machines would be configured by the manufacturer to include only components that work well with Linux, which is not the case if you use a device that doesn’t have manufacturer support for Linux.
All in all you ended up at the whole point I was making, but somehow you first had to claim that it’s all nonsense.
All in all you ended up at the whole point I was making, but somehow you first had to claim that it’s all nonsense.
No, I pointed out that the problem you described is completely avoidable, which wasn’t apparent in your original comment. This is an important distinction to other readers who are considering a move to Linux, since they otherwise might be put off by your suggestion that doing so is necessarily a hardware lottery.
It was a different perspective, not a personal attack.
Your combative, snarky response is unpleasant, unwarranted, and unnecessary. Goodbye.
Yeah Linux’s biggest problem now is “oups, your application / driver isn’t available”
Not user friendlyness.
Man do I feel that PS, I think the worst part of gaming on Linux (which is massive credit to how well it works) is not knowing whether a bug is just… the game, or is somehow Linux/Proton/Drivers. I hate not knowing if it’s worth stopping to look into a fix or not.
When our 7 days to die server is not working or we get some bug we are always joking in my friends group that it “must be a Linux issue” lol. We have checked so often and it always was a problem that had nothing to do with it. To be honest my Windows friends apps have problems with bugs and glitches in their games because the game studios often release their games in a poor state.
I still have a dual boot Windows for that reason. I only need it every few months or years, but it’s good to rule out compatibility issues. For example games started to hang my PC. Before I start birching in the mesa bug tracker for amd issues, I tried if the same happened on my Windows install. It did. So I could rule out driver issues and could directly focus on the hardware being the culprit.
I almost broached the topic with my mother (60s) the other day about moving to Linux. She’s got a computer that sucks, and my other brother got windows 11 on there so it’s exceptionally slow. I was helping her with some documents and printing and whatnot so I started asking a couple of the questions you would ask, like what she uses the pc for. She uses this tax software and “needs” it installed (as opposed to the browser version) so I didn’t continue down that road but I’m pretty sure it’d blow her mind how much better this thing would run with mint. And other than that tax software, it’d be nearly identical for her, open a browser and go to the thing.
I got my mom (about the same age as your mom) setup on Linux for her new laptop about a year ago. She’s been using it fine, and was even excited to tell me how she figures stuff out without me.
Honestly, I’ve had to do less work on her machines since I switched her over. Package management makes it easy for my mom to add or remove apps.
My mom was running slackware for a couple of years in the early 2000s. She kept downloading viruses on her computer and I was tired of her having her ship it across the country so I could fix it. I installed slackware on her computer and shipped it back, and walked her through setting up a port forward on her router for ssh access. She had no idea she was running Linux the entire time until she went to Walmart to buy Peachtree Accounting software. She couldn’t get it to install, so she called and asked for help. I got in with SSH and installed KMyMoney for her and she used that for a year.
It lasted up until she bought a laptop, one that came with Windows 7 I think. I stopped helping her after that because I didn’t really remember how to use Windows anymore. Windows had a subscription antivirus at that point, before Defender days, and she just paid for that.
if you can, get a 2nd hdd/ssd and install linux in parallel
i actually have mint on two older pcs with hdds and while it takes some time to boot, once it’s up, it’s quick, unlike windows
AMD drivers are so smooth on Linux!
The GPU is actually NVIDIA! But planning an upgrade to an AMD card soon.
I’m dumb, I mixed with CPU…
…but AMD drivers are still smooth !!!
I mean, if you have Windows like DE’s it’s really not THAT hard for a Windows user to use Linux. The issue is when you have Gnome and others installed.
But yes I agree with you. I definitely think we’ve come a long way from having to use the terminal for everything.
Linux Mint Cinnamon has been a blessing to me tbh
How so? If I’m not reading some blanket / feel good /empty statement like this about it, it’s bitching left and right about specific issues and actual experiences. There’s no karma system here, so why make karma farming posts?
I personally wouldn’t go as far as to call it a blessing… But mint was a super easy transition from windows for me. I’ve only had one issue where it locked up on login. Granted that’s fairly major but I was able to roll it back after a cheeky search engine review.
What was your reason for switching, and what do you use your computer for?
I initially switched to see if I could revive my old laptop, it used to take 15-20 minutes before it was even usable on startup, now it’s about 2. I use my computer for everything, some home labbing , simple CAD work
I’m old and thus my relationship is old enough to drink. As we met they were using an utterly virus riddled Windows XP install. I suggested alternative and that Debian install has survived a couple decades. Sure, I’ll do anything major like hardware changes but mostly it has just been easy living. For most people working browser, some sort of office package and an image editor is plenty. Linux has been ready for that for a long time.
My partner is the same way roughly. Biggest issue she’s had was her drawing tablet pen not working. Turned out she was using the wrong pen for that tablet, the correct pen worked flawlessly. An hour of my life troubleshooting I can’t get back haha.
There have been a few games that have had issues, and the updates aren’t the most intuitive on Kubuntu, but she did manage the last update just fine on her own without me even being home, so that’s good.
drawing tablet pen
Soapbox: EMR is amazing. No need for charging, effectively infinite pressure gradient, no lag, open standard (which solves your issue because any stylus works on any tablet). The fact that Apple didn’t use it for the pencil is infuriating, and the fact that some other companies are moving away from EMR too is driving me up a wall.
As anti-competitive as Wacom can be, they cooked with that technology, and I’m so happy with my e-ink EMR tablet.
Try installing opentabletdriver, it made mine work out of the box.
Hers did too without any extra software, she was trying to use the wrong pen from a different tablet.
My mother, who is the stereotypical boomer that doesn’t get technology, got upset with all the privacy invasion of Microsoft, and has been running Linux for over a decade
For what? Recipe keeping?
The different file system was the biggest adaptive hurdle for me. Just the default knowledge of how windows worked from the MS-DOS era took a bit to adapt to. I think knowing Windows actually made it harder to switch compared to someone who wouldn’t know much more than opening the internet browser.
But for gaming: more than anything navigating all the compatability files being used by WINE and Steam can be a nightmare.
Linux does come preinstalled on a number of laptops if you buy them in Europe.
Problem is that the Linux variants used are usually incredibly out of date, with no straightforward way to upgrade, abysmal desktop experience and so on.
There’s also simply too much choice when it comes to Linux for the average people. Your Average Joe wants to sit in front of a computer, turn it on, and have a usable desktop, readily available office and basic utility apps, and easy installation of software.
They don’t want to learn the difference between KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, X11 and Wayland, open or closed sourced drivers, licences, and so on. To most people, a computer is a tool that should be as complicated to use as a screwdriver - you can swap different heads (software for different purposes), but it works the same, no matter how you sit in front of if.
Historically, there’s been a singular distro offering anything even close to this requirement, Ubuntu, and even that has gone to shit.
Hopefully, with gaming being a major pull force, this can change and we will see more generic use distros pop up like Bazzite and SteamOS, but at the moment, there’s simply no alternative to Windows or macOS that can proper take them over.
Ubuntu still pretty much works for that.
And all the stuff people complain about Ubuntu enshittifying, most of that is for more advanced use cases (like switching an app from snap to an apt repo.)
