cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/34247715
Curious on the experiences of those recently migrating to Linux from Windows 10, Intel-based MacOS, etc. How is it being on Linux? Anything surprise or frustrate you?
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I switched from Windows to Mint at the tail end of September, and I’ve only had minimal issues. I backed up everything I cared about and just nuked Windows in one go, since it wasn’t compatible with 11 and I don’t want security problems. I expected my Nvidia graphics card to cause huge issues, but it literally just worked.
I did have an issue getting my Steam games to run, but it was fixed by figuring out how to change the compatibility settings on Steam (the incredibly complicated operation of right clicking on the game title).
I’ve been taking classes as well, and using Libre Office has met basically 100% of my needs. I did have some issues with converting to .docx when images were involved (resulting in images going on walkabout), but I consider that 50% a Windows problem.
I switched from windows 10 to pop!_os on my thinkpad p15s almost a year ago. My biggest surprise was thinking I would still need windows for anything when I haven’t needed to think about it since.
The most frustrating part is that I’m requires to use windows 11 for work and it just feels so broken. But in all seriousness the biggest issues I’ve had were a couple driver issues that were easily fixed from the debug.
Honestly my biggest regret was not switching sooner. The learning curve really wasn’t bad. Just read the forums and docs. I run it on everything now. I game with it, I run a small homelab with it, I’m productive with it. I dont think there is anything I would miss. Everything works as well if not even better.
I’m perfectly happy using Mint. I’ll explore more distros eventually but I miss nothing about Windows
I started using Mint a few months ago, and this is basically my experience as well. On the occasion that I have to use a Windows PC, such as for work, I am just reminded of how awful it is.
Switched from Window 10 to Linux Mint about 3 weeks ago so I’d have something familiar to work with.
Honesty, so far Mint works just like Windows should have worked. I’m surprised at how much stuff has been made automatic and easy for a lifelong windows user. Some specific games have a performance issues, Alt+Tab to switch apps doesn’t work if you are in a full screen application.
I would encourage anyone on Windows to buy a small drive (I used a 500 GB SSD I got for like 40 bucks) load a Linux distro on it and give it a shot. You probably won’t be back on Windows.
I started with PopOS in September (?), ultimately replacing Windows on every PC in the house. It’s been going well. I’ve had to troubleshoot a few things, the biggest of which being a boot failure, but that turned out to be hardware related, not Linux’s fault. Feeling like I own my computer again is great.
Since then, I’ve gotten into self-hosting and now have a NAS, a Debian Jellyfin server, and a ton of storage space. Right now I’m just backing up basic stuff for the family, as well as streaming movies/shows/music within the house. I’ve ripped so many old DVDs and CDs in the past few months…
Next steps will probably be: books, audiobooks, and archiving family photos/videos in a way that is easier to browse than just files on a hard drive. I will likely de-google eventually.
In short, I’m having fun and should’ve done this a long time ago.
Im on a similar self hosting journey. What do think you’ll use for de googled phone photos and videos? Im not sure where to even start looking.
I’ve set-up Immich recently, moved 400gb photos from Google Takeout, works flawlessly so far.
So painfully, boringly good.
Day-to-day, it just works, I don’t have to fight it. It doesn’t do anything I don’t want it to do. I don’t miss office, everything is clean and snappy.
I have managed to play almost every game thrown at it (Bazzite) - the only one that didn’t work was an older DX7 title. DOS games just work - they took more effort than this under Win9x.
I have got a couple of minor issues but all fixable.:
- I encountered a issue where it wouldn’t wake from sleep - fixed by selecting a different color profile in the display settings.
- I managed to break something in fstsb trying to setup a persistent network drive. Very easy to roll back, I’m 100% sold on immutable until I need something more customisable
- Recently my Bluetooth kb/mouse would drop off when the PC went idle, wouldn’t reconnect/wake up until power cycling the PC. Fixed by disabling BT hibernation/sleep
Having said that, last week I had to install Win11 on the kids laptop to be ready for school - I hadn’t installed 11 outside of a controlled Corp environment with solid group policy control since the early days. God-damn Win11 is a dumpster fire! The install UI looks nice but the noise is turned up to 11, popup, wizards, setup this, setup that, backup, OneDrive, give us all your information and sign away any privacy.
Regardless of any minor issues I bump into on the way, I am never going back!
I’m Loving Fedora! All hardware works flawlessly. Games play great.I couldn’t be happier.
I think this is a perfect storm for microslop, everyone on earth right now has a friend who literally knows everything about linux, and that access to knowledge is making it easier than ever before for people to switch. Id be really scared right now if I was MS.
great, everything works, after some tinkering
It’s been GREAT! All my torrenting related stuff works better than it did on windows 10. I am slowing loading old 2000’s windows PC games on my Mint installation and so far it’s been working well.
My computers are MUCH faster on linux and updates take 20 seconds instead of 15 minutes.
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I have been on Linux for almost 9 months now and I miss nothing about windows. I tried a bunch of distributions, starting with Fedora, but now I have settled on an Arch based distribution and am happily running Manjaro.
Switched to Bazzite from windows 10 a few months ago since I read that it supports Nvidia cards well and I’m in no position to buy a new GPU. The only applications that I miss are the DAW that I used for music and Titanfall 2 as that’s through the EA launcher and have yet to find a reliable way to make it run without it falling apart. My partner (Who is not tech savvy at all) is even starting to get used to it and dislikes when she occasionally uses the windows 11 laptop (been using it for said DAW)
Its fine if you’re not doing stuff that requires windows. My partner is running Mint, and I’ve got a HomeAssistant box, but I can’t ditch Windows completely because I can’t get Wilcom and DesignSpace to run in Wine, and I need those to make my machines work.
What machines do you have if I may ask?
Wilcom, I suppose embroidery? I have a Janome MC500e and I’ve succesfully created stitchfiles with Inkscape+Inkstitch. MyEditor and 2stitch work via wine as well.
DesignSpace is cricut right? Maybe this site I stumbled on might help If all else fails, you could also try a vm with windows in lib-virt (virtmanager or Boxes), that way windows can be paused and always has a nice red X in the topright corner :-)
We’re running with the Barudan Beky at work. The problem is that we get EMB files from clients, and Inkstitch doesn’t support those.
That’s the only site I’ve found describing DesignSpace on wine, but it just crashes for me. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, or if my ancient i3 laptop is just shitty. The same machine ran DesignSpace okay with windows, but it might just be too old to handle an emulation layer ontop of it.
Made Fedora KDE my only home OS last year. I’m experienced with Linux but did not have to pull out arcane knowledge at all for setting it up. I.e it has been very smooth. The rough edges have been:
- Slightly worse audio
- GIFs on Reddit RES don’t always play well
- Will have to find a web browser based tax software instead of what I’m used to
- Remapping a key (print screen to right click) has not been easy
- I miss some features of notepad++ that are missing from Kate.
- I miss Irfanview image viewer
wrt the tax software: the new wine 11 seems to be a major update, and could be worth a try beforw purchasing something else. I also like to use winegui with. Alternatively Bottles
Buddy of mine decided to switch to Debian like a month ago, I warned him it’s Linux but “raw” and warned him of outdated packages an such, he said no worries. Proceeds to AI his way through literally everything, broke numerous packages by going to Trixie Backports for newer drivers and has now installed windows on a spare 500Gb HDD so he can play Fortnite with a chick he met on tinder.
Want to take bets on how long his Debian install lasts?
Buddy of mine decided to switch to Debian like a month ago, I warned him it’s Linux but “raw” and warned him of outdated packages an such, he said no worries.
Less “outdated” and more “this version of [insert software package] is stable, secure, and works well”, which is the entire ethos of Debian to begin with. It’s reliable specifically because of that, and is part of why it’s so popular as a server OS. If you want new versions of everything, then Debian is not for you.
That said, your buddy is a moron.
which is the entire ethos of Debian to begin with. It’s reliable specifically because of that, and is part of why it’s so popular as a server OS.
Hell it makes great for a desktop OS as well! I suggested Linux Mint or Kubuntu initially then he asked what distro I use.
That said, your buddy is a moron.
No disagreements on that one.
