I made the switch around this time last year and haven’t looked back. A few things have taken a bit of effort to figure out, but largely it has been a breeze. I should’ve done this many years earlier.
As much as I like seeing people making the jump, I’m seriously surprised how many people are still putting up with microsoft. Like yes, I get it, your grandma won’t care, but I know people who are absolutely capable of installing another OS but still stick with windows, even tho there’s not a lot of software that just won’t run on linux. Some games like fortnite or league, yeah, but other than that … it’s just weird. Especially because they keep yapping about something breaking or not working all the time.
I’m seriously surprised how many people are still putting up with microsoft
Last Friday I showed a colleague that the computer he had been using to control a robot arm with a CNC mill that day, is running Linux (Ubuntu). I opened a terminal, listened to the obligatory “wow, are you hacking?!”, and typed
uname.“THAT’S Linux?!”… And he is a clever nerd.
There are entire business models built around customer complacency. Most people don’t want to make a change unless their hand is forced, even with a steady decline in quality.
A lot of nerds would be perfectly capable of installing a different OS. But i atleast often forget that screwing around with the computer itself isnt the focus for a lot of them. They just use the computer to get shit done in their field of special interests. Like for me the whole administrative overhead of switching to Linux was only bound by the resource of time. But i really looked forward to it and had a blast when i finally secured enough time to do it. In the end i just learned a new aspect for my hobby. For others that would just take time away for the things they want to do. Interest in open source, privacy, beeing in control of your digital shit etc also isnt as common as one would hope even for computer nerds.
With that said in the last two years i still saw a big shift. Atleast in the other online spaces i frequent and even in my private life tons of people picked up Linux. Just because the strain of windows became so insuffereable.
I‘m old(er), need my PC for work since my livelyhood depends on it, and unfortunately only have a limited amount of fucks to give per day. That made it quite the daunting task to switch OS since I‘m stuck with Windows for over 20 years now.
Got new hardware recently and will take my time to set up Zorin OS while keeping the old Windows machine running in parallel for a while. It is the softest of switches I could think of all in all, and I‘m looking forward to it. Sometimes things take time, especially when people have essentially been indoctrinated with Windows since their early school days.
I’ve tried to switch to Linux a handful of times on my secondary machine, from Vista era up to Windows 11. My primary use case at the beginning was DVR. Couldn’t beat Windows Media Center for that in the Vista/Win7 era. Then WMC got the axe so my use case shifted to Plex with other content sources. Tried Linux for that changeover. As an unseasoned Linux toe-dipper, that process was just a bunch of blindly running commands from a setup guide to install everything, usually without an explanation of what each command does. Some stuff wasn’t working and I didn’t have an idea of how to fix it where to start looking, so I aborted Linux and ran Windows 10. As a largely headless machine (accessible via KVM, but I usually just used remote desktop to manage), Windows 10 updates were a frequent hassle with the full-screen nags for OneDrive and whatnot that interrupted the boot to desktop (and thus prevented my background services from starting), but I lived with it for years, and remoted in when I had to fix something.
This past year, I finally did a fresh start with TrueNAS running all the same apps I was using on Windows. It took a while to figure out permissions, and the process of getting there was messy, but everything is working.
In anticipation of the Valheim 1.0 release, I wanted to setup a dedicated server. I initially tried setting up a spare laptop to run it in Mint, but I ended up reallocating that laptop to my wife so she could dip her toes in Linux. I then shifted to trying to set up a Docker container for it, but had a misunderstanding of where to paste the Docker compose, so I gave up and installed a Mint VM and setup the server inside that VM. Then a couple months passed, and I’d forgotten what installation type I used and also what commands to update/configure, which motivated me to delete the VM and figure out what I was doing wrong with Docker. Got it set up after a little struggle with file paths to a separate storage pool, but it’s now working perfectly. Now I have an easy update button in the GUI so I don’t have to remember or document any commands. I’d go so far as to say the vanilla dedicated server running as a Docker app inside TrueNAS is a cleaner, easier experience than the default method in Windows. Now I have a friend asking for a server-side mod, so we’ll see how that goes…
As for my wife, her main use case is simple Libre Office and web browsing, so there’s basically no struggle there. There was one hiccup with her touchpad not working, but she resolved that. She did try to run Clone Hero and ran into an issue with button mapping with her Xbox 360 guitar but didn’t have the will to look into it at the time. She’ll get around to it.
As for me, I’m a gamer and an engineer. Until all my games and SolidWorks run on Linux, I won’t be switching my primary PC off of Windows.
This was me until roughly a year ago, because I was still under the assumption that it would be a difficult transition, and I just never heard much news about progress even in techie spaces.
I already had a negative view of Microsoft and was constantly frustrated with Windows. It still didn’t even occur to me to consider jumping ship until the end of security updates was announced for Win 10. Once I looked into it a little and it became obvious that I wouldn’t be making nearly as big of a sacrifice as I had thought, I just did it immediately and haven’t looked back lol
My point I guess is that changing a fundamental part of machines most people interact with every day (and probably already have a mixed relationship with, both b/c computers are complex tools and because windows is windows) is a hurdle that takes a lot of momentum to clear, especially when it’s “common knowledge” that switching to Linux is hard. I’d like to hope that the public perception will change quite a bit over the next few years though
This is why the Linux market is full of ignorant people. Anything with anticheat means no linux. That means every gamer is hog tied to windows.
Only if you’re into lowest common denominator multiplayer slop.
Again the most ignorant people on the planet also use linux. “Why dont you switch”? This is literally over 1 million people. Most new multiplayer games with anti cheat. Anything that doesn’t have a dev team going out of their way for linux and has anticheat means windows only. Maybe because you’re a trash player I would understand skill issues.
Most new multiplayer games
If you’re a Riot fanboy, maybe. Haven’t heard a lot of other new multiplayer games that have issues with Linux.
Maybe because you’re a trash player
Ah yes, really mature and thought out argument
I think the funniest implication here is that he seems to think he is somehow superior to us mere Linux simpletons for playing fucking Fortnite. Or League.
and let’s not forget, he also gets the privilege of having Valorant’s anticheat looking through everything he does on his computer. You know, just in case.
Let’s let that marinate for a moment, because I truly do think that invasive kernel anticheat is something that people will be really kicking themselves over accepting somewhere down the road in this, the modern digital panopticon, the dying days of privacy. This individual seems to wholeheartedly and truly believe, that it is somehow the superior, intelligent choice to use an OS that will allow random software companies (that are not your hardware or OS vendor) to take complete control of your computer with the pinky swear they won’t do anything untoward with that access. For a fucking video game. (Sometimes, one you paid actual money for!) Especially now, in the days of forced arbitration clauses and constant corporate data breaches. “no no, guys, you see, you have to let our
malwareanti-cheat have kernel access because we can’t be fucked to actually employ humans to moderate the game nor hire another anti-cheat vendor that actually knows how to detect cheats without getting all up in your OS’s guts (they do exist, you know), I sweeeeaaaarrrrrr nothing bad will happen!”
Oh yeah, he’s a genius alright. I shudder in the presence of such brilliance. (no one tell him, it’ll be funnier)
Listen anybody that complains about the most popular multiplayer games is usually not good at them usually a projection of their own incompetence. Riot isn’t the only company that exists and they make shitty games. It’s almost like you’re not a gamer if you think and use pop culture games in arguments. Look at protondb anti cheat is a bust and you’re lucky if you can get a game that works with linux.
you’re lucky if you can get a game that works with linux
I guess I’m very lucky because I haven’t found a game I play that doesn’t work yet. Even gacha games, notorious for their anti-cheats and always online requirement, can be run on Linux. I’m afraid the skill issue is on your side.
I just want to point out. Gatcha games is why im going to stop. Keep using the shittiest games as an excuse for your ignorance.
Your social skills have a skill issue
Im talking to autistic people who have no social understanding.
Get away from the mirror.
That’s not strictly true. Most Steam games work just fine on Linux. Even a lot of live service games. Just from the ones I personally play - Overwatch, Elder Scrolls Online, Arknights and Arknights: Endfield have no issues running via Proton even though they all clearly have some degree of anti-cheat.
The real issue is kernel level anti-cheat that some publishers stick to, like Riot.
kernel level anti-cheat isnt even the issue by itself. most of them work on linux just fine but you can configure them in a way to specifically block linux.
One of my mates got himself a steam deck and was so frustrated with Linux, he desecrated it and installed windows. Mental. It was all because he could wrap his head around a slightly different way of using an OS.
For real, I have little to no patience with the myriad of Windows bitching posts these days. I’d say “skill issue”, but Linux is easier to set up and maintain than Windows. The only work I’ve had to put in was when I decide to fuck with perfectly functional defaults just because I can.
You can say “skill issue” anyway, even if the skill is flashing an image to a USB stick
It’s been very entertaining to watch the microslop shitshow unfold watching from the sideline as someone who isn’t using Windows at all. 10/10 can recommend. Back when I switched to Linux it’s because I thought it was cooler, not because it was better. But now Linux is so much better. It’s not even a contest. If it’s a race windows showed up drunk, ran into the wrong direction and then straight into a wall.
Windows? just get some blinds smh
How has nobody developed a distro called Blinds or Curtains yet?
This is the way
I’ve been watching this shitshow for two and a half and oh boy am I glad I bailed when I did. The last Windows I truly loved was 7 (I’d still use it if I could, but Mint can get close enough for me in terms of look and feel without too much ricing, and, like Win7, things just… work), everything Microsoft has done since has just been a slowly degrading dumpster fire.
I’m a mint guy myself. Never disappoints
Same, Windows 7 was the last one I used too, but I was already dual-booting with Linux before then. Once Microslop rolled out the Windows 8/10/11 idiot parade, I jumped to Linux entirely.
10 years in and its hard to believe people even use Windows. Everytime I have to use it I feel dirty
I can’t even remember the last time I logged in to Windows.
If it wasn’t for work, if never log into windows. At home, pure Linux.
I sometimes have to, but it kind of makes me feel I have to wash my hands afterwards.
This! I didn’t even realize how bad things were until I stepped outside. Using a sensible OS took a big load off my shoulders.
That’s the thing. The whole Windows ecosytem is a massive Pluto’s Cave.
Jumped to Bazzite a few weeks ago and already feeling pretty good about it. Not sure that I could have done it earlier (or at least would have kept Windows for dual boot), since I primarily use my PC for games and the improvements to gaming on Linux the last few years had been astonishing.
I really like nixos, which will not even tell you to reboot if the kernel is unchanged. Plus it will restart my services correctly when I update or pull new container images on my server.
It’s very very nice.
I moved from Proxmox on my trio of home servers to NixOS a year ago and loved it so much i switched my 2019 intel MacBook as well a few weeks ago. Headless on the servers and Hyprland/Quickshell on the laptop. It’s just so fucking good
Ohh I have an old i9 intel MacBook I could migrate to do this…
Only had 512gb though, it’s an old dev machine.
How’s the Linux support on it? Since it’s all thunderbolt ports I’m wondering how well it works.
Mine’s a t2 so my choices were t2linux or nothing, not sure about yours. As far as support, the only thing not working is bluetooth but that’s because i put zero effort into fixing it since i don’t use it. The install was a PITA but well worth it in the end
EDIT: forgot to mention that all ports are working too. I switch between using just the laptop and 2 external monitors no prob
nixos is one I hear people talking about positively but don’t know much on. What’s so great about it? And is it a niche distro for certain users (the subset who like to tinker with their machines?) or is it good for general use?
The short version is it makes your whole system deterministic and auditable, and that does some automatic stuff that is very nice.
Basically you write a configuration for your computer, then it generates atomic images from your config and manages your system for you. You update by generating then switching to the new snapshot. If anything goes wrong, you roll back, and your system is exactly as it was.
The whole system lives as code, it’s tied to git, and up to hardware specific things, I can checkout the exact same system across machines.
This is really great for people like me who dislike having to manage long term state like a grub config change or managing firewall rules or fiddling with committing systemd changes and managing them directly.
The packages are very well thought out.
For example if you add a systemd service it has rules for starting and stopping and the system is smart enough to know when to use them. That makes things like updating a server really nice, it’s just one command and everything is done for you, anything not affected by an update doesn’t restart, so services run smoothly (I have one config that manages all my services, their URL, firewall rules and healthcheck, and automatically adds them to a system monitoring dashboard for example).
As another example I can manage accounts on my system very easily, and I can clean them up by just removing that user from the nix files, and the system will do all the Linux user management stuff for me. This is great on a server where you want limited permissions users running specific applications — I just define what they should have and it works.
That has costs. Everything has to be thought of as either a system package or a user package, updating system packages is always a snapshot change with lock file update. You’re also locked into using nix packages which can lag releases (though this is most package managers).
Your average Arch Linux user probably doesn’t care or like this, they like the full control and flexibility Arch provides (which is just different tastes/philosophies).
You can install user local applications too outside of your main nix configuration (with something like homebrew, which works great on nix), or you can use home-manager to add more nix and manage your apps and generate user account dot files files.
You can also use nix-env to create reproducible software builds without containers, but I find it a little heavy to manage and haven’t learned it.
Thanks for the thought out reply!
Also the bitlocker issues: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3163280/junes-windows-10-patch-has-a-bitlocker-lockout-problem-again.html
I feel this as well. I use arch, btw.
Shout-out to that guy who argued with me that onedrive doesn’t randomly reinstall itself for no reason.
