Personal note: I am not very knowledgeable on computers.
I have a new solid state drive after my old hard drive's Windows key apparently 'expired.'
The ssd is preloaded with Windows 10 because of familiarity and 'muh gaymes', but I do want to start getting away from Microsoft stuff (including the OS) on principle.
I know internet browser options are currently a bit "pick your poison." I've been satisfied with Brave and Waterfox, and previously Pale Moon (dropped for some website or add-in functionality I can't remember from years ago).
Besides that, I was thinking this might be a good opportunity to learn about current software/projects doing things properly.
So, I'll just share what programs I see among my hard drive files... 7zip, SumatraPDF, VLC, Audacity (which I recall seeing got bought), Steam, Dropbox, MusicBee (music player and manager), OpenOffice, and some game emulators for a Nintendo fanboomer.
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. Windows 11 ( I know guys, but muh video games and user friendliness, otherwise I'd switch to Linux in a hearbeat, I've ranted about this all before )
. LibreOffice ( If you need it for work )
. Brave Browser
. 7Zip
. Foobar2000
. Protonmail ( I use web clients only for email for the most part, keeps life simple )
Honestly people may hate me pointing this out and rightly so but by default and by today's standards Windows 11 offers almost everything you need and there's a reason why a lot of people won't make the switch to Linux.
Going to the absolute basic of computer desktop features, running programs is a simply one or double click affair, everything works and it's usually the software developers' fault if something goes wrong with a third party app. It's never been easier to get into PCs which is all the more depressing to find out how many young zoomers are as tech illiterate as boomers thanks to mobile phones.
As much shit as Windows/MS gets for a lot of things (and rightly so), it did lay down a fantastic groundwork for software developers and users.
Like just imagining an alternate timeline without Windows existing fills me with a certain level of dread and horror, simply because of how stagnant the alternatives are when it comes to growth and innovation.
It makes me so angry how lazy Valve is -- anyone who has used SteamOS on a Steam Deck will know how easy it is to navigate and how much better it is than Windows on almost every front. Updating drivers and services is so much more intuitive and user-friendly than anything Windows has done. And being able to just click on the search bar and type in the program/driver you need and it can download straight from the search bar is awesome.
However... SteamOS isn't compatible with a lot of other device drivers for desktop PCs (especially Nvidia) and Valve still hasn't done anything to remedy that problem, so it's just non-viable as a desktop OS for now.
It's a real shame, because from a UX perspective, it's a lot faster, smoother, easier to use, and more flexible than Windows. But if or when Valve will ever get around to making SteamOS a viable OS for desktop PCs is anyone's guess.
Steam's emulator for Windows on Linux called Proton makes basically every game you would have played on Windows work perfectly with absolutely no fiddling under the hood or trying to use search engines for tech support (which we all know is 100% impossible now).
I'll be curious to give it a try because a steam deck is on my purchase list, however I do actually test things and if I find it's too much of a pain in the arse to get things working on steam then I'll probably just wipe it and install Windows 11 on it and use that as a second mini-gaming desktop in the living room. It would be nice to have a second PC while I do any chuggy rendering in Blender for my short films etc.
If steam deck was closed source bullshit and they forced you to keep SteamOS installed I wouldn't even be interested but that's my upgrade plan at the moment. That and I want to switch to pure SSD finally for my main desktop. The problem is I like playing old games mainly and very often the support on Linux for them is garbage.
You can check the compatibility of any game on Steam with www.protondb.com, you can use it to run non-Steam games too and that + DOSBox means you're pretty much covered on any old games.
Win10 still works for all gaming afaik including VR. It may be nearing end of support, but still works.
Agreed, however I put myself through the pain of learning it early on so that way when they inevitably force the upgrade on everyone I won't even notice. Very often when I do this, I'm pretty glad I did because you can hear the screeching on the internet through the monitor when that sort of thing happens.