6 ms·

> use Linux except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing. Sure there

by chii 1y ago

> use Linux except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing. Sure there are replacements (somewhat) for each of those categories, but they are not direct replacements, and require a cost of some kind (retraining, or a substitute quality). This is esp. true for gaming, and it's only recent that gaming has made some inroads via the steam deck (steamOS), which isn't available to a general PC (only handheld PCs with AMD processors iirc). People who say "just switch" to linux hasn't done it for their family/friends.

ronjakoi 1y ago
Proton is available for desktop Steam as well, just pick your distro and go.
debugnik 1y ago
> (steamOS), which isn't available to a general PC Most of its secret sauce is either in Proton or upstreamed into Wine, DXVK, SDL, etc. All available to a general PC. Unless your focus is competitive online games, which often come with Windows-only anti-cheats, you've got a huge catalogue of great games playable on Linux distros. I did the switch about four months ago and I'm not missing Windows, the only pain point has been Nvidia drivers and I'll be solving that by switching vendors.
0points 1y ago
> except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing. Until you switch to linux you won't understand how inferior your windows setup always was. It's hard for us to tell you what you are missing out on, you simply need to experience it. I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace. This is not because Linux gaming is horrible broken, but rather it gives me a fully separate leisure desktop, and my main Linux desktop is work only. It also gives me 100% compatibility, unlike wine. > People who say "just switch" to linux hasn't done it for their family/friends. When we say so here, we are telling you to switch. Nobody should be forcing anything on friends/family. I always suggest MacOS for friends/family for ease of support. I would never recommend Windows to anyone.
- herodoturtle 1y ago
  > I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace. Apologies for hopping on this thread with off topic question, but would you mind describing your setup? I haven’t tried this in years, but last time I did I had trouble getting pass-through to some of my hardware, in particular my nvidia card. Agree with your approach 100%!
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - 0points 1y ago
    Sure, check out this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
    - herodoturtle 1y ago
      Thank you! ^_^
- ozyschmozy 1y ago
  Can you comment more on your VM setup? Can it utilize the GPU properly? Any performance or compatibility issues with running windows in a VM? Etc.
  - 0points 1y ago
    It is maybe 95% of native performance or in that ballpark, according to benchmarks I've seen. I have a dedicated M2 disk that I pass thru fully to the Windows VM in order to have snappy disk, and I reserved 64 GB ram to that VM alone using hugepages (because I multibox a old game that requires lots of RAM for my use case). I also pass thru the bluetooth hardware into the VM as I don't use bluetooth on my host, so that I can use my dualsense controller while gaming in the VM.
- unfitted2545 1y ago
atoav 1y ago
Fallout 4 is running better on Linux than on Windows these days.
ezst 1y ago
That's so much less true nowadays, Web has become the default platform, where most people run most of their app/spend most of their time. Even Microsoft has had no choice but to embrace it, and Outlook (as in, the one from Microsoft office) is now a web first app (normal outlook is rebranded "classic" and we all know where this is heading, for better or worse). In a way, that makes switching OS much easier. If you add to that that Windows itself is getting major visual overhauls from version to version (sometimes even within) it's not like sticking with it protects you from having to learn different UX paradigms and habits. And regarding gaming, well, linux with Proton runs games faster than Windows nowadays, that's how little Microsoft cares about gamers/how good Valve is (depending on how you look at it), but the fact of the matter remains.
- bboygravity 1y ago
  I was going to post a rant on drivers in Linux, but on my newest Lenovo laptop Linux Mint/Ubuntu off the shelve driver support is actually complete and Windows 10 (unsupported by Lenovo) extremely lacking (no wifi driver, no lid driver, no proper standby). And there's no way I'm going to start using Windows 11. So yeah, maybe this is the year of Linux. After decades on this planet :p
  - mystifyingpoi 1y ago
    Thinkpad E14, same experience. Windows 11 installer doesn't even see the wifi card, under Ubuntu everything works ootb.
begueradj 1y ago
The day Linux will be used more than Windows, it will be in more trouble than Windows will. Threat actors are attracted by the most used system.
anthk 1y ago
Fedora Bazzite it's Steam OS. And with Flatpak and Lutris you can have that setup everywhere, but some distros optimize the setings and compilations for the desktop better than Others: - Solus OS - Fedora Bazzite - Catchy OS
Takennickname 1y ago
I disagree that that's the majority of users. The majority of users either use only web applications, or web applications and Microsoft Office. The true majority of users are on mobile. Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers. Which is fine, because Windows is a toy anyway.
- baobun 1y ago
  > Microsoft Office Doesn't even exist anymore. She's "365 Copilot" and web-first now. https://www.office.com/ https://www.office.com/
  - steine65 1y ago
    Web version sucks compared to desktop version, unless you use the apps minimally. That said, the Winapps repo is a good linux solution, running a windows VM and accessing the office apps via RDP so they feel like a native app. As soon as it gets wayland support, I'm making the full switch. Winapps in Xwayland has some issues.
    - Xss3 1y ago
      Protected Sharepoint docs are only openable with the desktop app too. What is the business alternative to ms?
- Ylpertnodi 1y ago
  >Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers. And quite a few musicians. When they make my software for Linux - and, it works ootb - I/ we'll be willing to change.
zulban 1y ago
You can always tell how much someone has tried Linux based on how they talk about it.

by chii 1y ago

ronjakoi 1y ago

Proton is available for desktop Steam as well, just pick your distro and go.

debugnik 1y ago

> (steamOS), which isn't available to a general PC Most of its secret sauce is either in Proton or upstreamed into Wine, DXVK, SDL, etc. All available to a general PC. Unless your focus is competitive online games, which often come with Windows-only anti-cheats, you've got a huge catalogue of great games playable on Linux distros. I did the switch about four months ago and I'm not missing Windows, the only pain point has been Nvidia drivers and I'll be solving that by switching vendors.

0points 1y ago

> except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing. Until you switch to linux you won't understand how inferior your windows setup always was. It's hard for us to tell you what you are missing out on, you simply need to experience it. I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace. This is not because Linux gaming is horrible broken, but rather it gives me a fully separate leisure desktop, and my main Linux desktop is work only. It also gives me 100% compatibility, unlike wine. > People who say "just switch" to linux hasn't done it for their family/friends. When we say so here, we are telling you to switch. Nobody should be forcing anything on friends/family. I always suggest MacOS for friends/family for ease of support. I would never recommend Windows to anyone.

herodoturtle 1y ago
> I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace. Apologies for hopping on this thread with off topic question, but would you mind describing your setup? I haven’t tried this in years, but last time I did I had trouble getting pass-through to some of my hardware, in particular my nvidia card. Agree with your approach 100%!
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- 0points 1y ago
  Sure, check out this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
  - herodoturtle 1y ago
    Thank you! ^_^
ozyschmozy 1y ago
Can you comment more on your VM setup? Can it utilize the GPU properly? Any performance or compatibility issues with running windows in a VM? Etc.
- 0points 1y ago
  It is maybe 95% of native performance or in that ballpark, according to benchmarks I've seen. I have a dedicated M2 disk that I pass thru fully to the Windows VM in order to have snappy disk, and I reserved 64 GB ram to that VM alone using hugepages (because I multibox a old game that requires lots of RAM for my use case). I also pass thru the bluetooth hardware into the VM as I don't use bluetooth on my host, so that I can use my dualsense controller while gaming in the VM.
unfitted2545 1y ago

atoav 1y ago

Fallout 4 is running better on Linux than on Windows these days.

ezst 1y ago

That's so much less true nowadays, Web has become the default platform, where most people run most of their app/spend most of their time. Even Microsoft has had no choice but to embrace it, and Outlook (as in, the one from Microsoft office) is now a web first app (normal outlook is rebranded "classic" and we all know where this is heading, for better or worse). In a way, that makes switching OS much easier. If you add to that that Windows itself is getting major visual overhauls from version to version (sometimes even within) it's not like sticking with it protects you from having to learn different UX paradigms and habits. And regarding gaming, well, linux with Proton runs games faster than Windows nowadays, that's how little Microsoft cares about gamers/how good Valve is (depending on how you look at it), but the fact of the matter remains.

bboygravity 1y ago
I was going to post a rant on drivers in Linux, but on my newest Lenovo laptop Linux Mint/Ubuntu off the shelve driver support is actually complete and Windows 10 (unsupported by Lenovo) extremely lacking (no wifi driver, no lid driver, no proper standby). And there's no way I'm going to start using Windows 11. So yeah, maybe this is the year of Linux. After decades on this planet :p
- mystifyingpoi 1y ago
  Thinkpad E14, same experience. Windows 11 installer doesn't even see the wifi card, under Ubuntu everything works ootb.

begueradj 1y ago

The day Linux will be used more than Windows, it will be in more trouble than Windows will. Threat actors are attracted by the most used system.

anthk 1y ago

Fedora Bazzite it's Steam OS. And with Flatpak and Lutris you can have that setup everywhere, but some distros optimize the setings and compilations for the desktop better than Others: - Solus OS - Fedora Bazzite - Catchy OS

Takennickname 1y ago

I disagree that that's the majority of users. The majority of users either use only web applications, or web applications and Microsoft Office. The true majority of users are on mobile. Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers. Which is fine, because Windows is a toy anyway.

baobun 1y ago
> Microsoft Office Doesn't even exist anymore. She's "365 Copilot" and web-first now. https://www.office.com/ https://www.office.com/
- steine65 1y ago
  Web version sucks compared to desktop version, unless you use the apps minimally. That said, the Winapps repo is a good linux solution, running a windows VM and accessing the office apps via RDP so they feel like a native app. As soon as it gets wayland support, I'm making the full switch. Winapps in Xwayland has some issues.
  - Xss3 1y ago
    Protected Sharepoint docs are only openable with the desktop app too. What is the business alternative to ms?
Ylpertnodi 1y ago
>Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers. And quite a few musicians. When they make my software for Linux - and, it works ootb - I/ we'll be willing to change.

zulban 1y ago

You can always tell how much someone has tried Linux based on how they talk about it.