I did last year and it has been great so far. Bottles was able to run all my important legacy windows apps, and proton has run almost every game. Heroic integrates with epic/gog and haven't had any issues there either. The biggest failure I've had is civ3, ended up having to put that in a virtual machine to play again.
Buy yourself a new SSD, swap with the windows drive and slap linux Mint on it. Worst case you can't stand it and now you have a new SSD. Best case, you're free of the trainwreck that is modern windows. Mint is one of the most windows-like distributions while still having an active forum and plenty of tech support / search results to cover issues you might run into.
It is hard to overstate how nice it is to have an OS that isn't constantly trying to steer me into ads or AI.
Seconded on Mint. Only actual distro that doesn't look like garbage.
(modern) Gnome UI is actually retarded for a desktop/laptop and KDE still looks chintzy.
I went with the other choice, Windows 10 IoT 2022 edition that has support until 2032 and none of the ads or AI. Massgrave (github.com/massgravel) to permanently activate it. Mostly because remote desktop is dog shit in linux.
My home media server is running linux, and it is set up to use RDP as I would remote into it with mstsc.
After the swap to Mint, I found the Remmina client to do the same job, still using RDP. I know there are other native linux solutions, but RDP was already set up on the server and Remmina has just kind of dropped in to replace mstsc for me.
Not a heavy use, but probably worth investigating next time you need a remote desktop client on a linux box.
Is it using hardware codecs? If not then it's useless.
On Windows I remote into my desktop from a laptop and get 60+ fps full screen even with a 10 year old Intel-graphics laptop that was $200 at the time. Every window open and DPI adjusted for the laptop.
Do it and don't look back. pretty much all windows games work on Linux now with proton, and the ones that don't are all live service slop. if you really want to play those games, get a separate bitch box to run windows.
As for applications:
LibreOffice: basically Microsoft office before it became shit in 2012. it just works.
Blender: 3D modeling software
Krita: digital painting and Photoshop replacement.
Heroic Launcher: GoG and Epic Games integration. also good for running games through proton if you don't want to use steam.
Yeah, that's my thoughts on the matter. I just need incentive to be bothered to change at the moment. Windows 11 works fine for me despite the complaints but subscription based will be the final nail for me.
I wish I understood how to run Qubes and Whonix together because that sounds pretty good but everytime I've tried I've given up before I could figure it out.
I might just go with Ubuntu and call it a day until I get comfortable enough with Linux to branch out.
it'll work fine, but I don't recommend it because it has telemetry just like Windows does. in many ways, this sort of defeats the purpose.
Linux mint will have all the same compatibility as Ubuntu, and you will be able to use the same commands as ubuntu when troubleshooting things.
there's also Pop_OS, which I personally recommend if you have Nvidia as it is supported and maintained by an actual company that sells Linux gaming computers.
I'm running Mint 22.1 with nvidia and haven't had any issues with it. Been using the drivers nvidia provides vs the open source ones, though. 3060ti, nothing incredible.
Here is my formula ----- first, don't use hardware with proprietary drivers like Nvidia and Broadcom. I like AMD.
Then, Debian 13 (Trixie Stable) installs and runs as smooth as silk. The install lets you pick which desktops you want to use. I like Debian because it doesn't try to be like Windows. I prefer it over Ubuntu now. It defaults to NOT using flatpak and snap etc. It uses .deb ---- the package system that God intended.
Do it and don't look back. pretty much all windows games work on Linux now with proton
People say this, but I assume they're pretty much exclusively referring to modern games or stuff on Steam that gets some non-zero level of support via Valve because of Steamdeck. How about ancient abandonware games coded up by some RPG enthusiast in their basement with no company or support to speak of where the only way to actually find the damn thing is to dig out the dust ridden zip disk I saved it to thirty years ago? Is that one going to magically just work because of Proton too?
I'm in the same boat. I've been meaning to try Linux and this will probably be what finally pushes me over the edge. I'm not subscribing to their SaaS slop.
I may finally switch to Linux if that's the case.
I did last year and it has been great so far. Bottles was able to run all my important legacy windows apps, and proton has run almost every game. Heroic integrates with epic/gog and haven't had any issues there either. The biggest failure I've had is civ3, ended up having to put that in a virtual machine to play again.
Buy yourself a new SSD, swap with the windows drive and slap linux Mint on it. Worst case you can't stand it and now you have a new SSD. Best case, you're free of the trainwreck that is modern windows. Mint is one of the most windows-like distributions while still having an active forum and plenty of tech support / search results to cover issues you might run into.
It is hard to overstate how nice it is to have an OS that isn't constantly trying to steer me into ads or AI.
Seconded on Mint. Only actual distro that doesn't look like garbage.
(modern) Gnome UI is actually retarded for a desktop/laptop and KDE still looks chintzy.
I went with the other choice, Windows 10 IoT 2022 edition that has support until 2032 and none of the ads or AI. Massgrave (github.com/massgravel) to permanently activate it. Mostly because remote desktop is dog shit in linux.
My home media server is running linux, and it is set up to use RDP as I would remote into it with mstsc.
After the swap to Mint, I found the Remmina client to do the same job, still using RDP. I know there are other native linux solutions, but RDP was already set up on the server and Remmina has just kind of dropped in to replace mstsc for me.
Not a heavy use, but probably worth investigating next time you need a remote desktop client on a linux box.
Is it using hardware codecs? If not then it's useless.
On Windows I remote into my desktop from a laptop and get 60+ fps full screen even with a 10 year old Intel-graphics laptop that was $200 at the time. Every window open and DPI adjusted for the laptop.
Do it and don't look back. pretty much all windows games work on Linux now with proton, and the ones that don't are all live service slop. if you really want to play those games, get a separate bitch box to run windows.
As for applications:
LibreOffice: basically Microsoft office before it became shit in 2012. it just works.
Blender: 3D modeling software
Krita: digital painting and Photoshop replacement.
Heroic Launcher: GoG and Epic Games integration. also good for running games through proton if you don't want to use steam.
Yeah, that's my thoughts on the matter. I just need incentive to be bothered to change at the moment. Windows 11 works fine for me despite the complaints but subscription based will be the final nail for me.
I wish I understood how to run Qubes and Whonix together because that sounds pretty good but everytime I've tried I've given up before I could figure it out.
I might just go with Ubuntu and call it a day until I get comfortable enough with Linux to branch out.
it'll work fine, but I don't recommend it because it has telemetry just like Windows does. in many ways, this sort of defeats the purpose.
Linux mint will have all the same compatibility as Ubuntu, and you will be able to use the same commands as ubuntu when troubleshooting things.
there's also Pop_OS, which I personally recommend if you have Nvidia as it is supported and maintained by an actual company that sells Linux gaming computers.
I'm running Mint 22.1 with nvidia and haven't had any issues with it. Been using the drivers nvidia provides vs the open source ones, though. 3060ti, nothing incredible.
I'd probably use Fedora workstation if not Ubuntu.
Use no proprietary hardware, like Nvidia and Broadcom ---- install Debian 13.
Problem is ---- you are still left with that sucky Windows desktop.
Linux user for 32 years now.
Here is my formula ----- first, don't use hardware with proprietary drivers like Nvidia and Broadcom. I like AMD.
Then, Debian 13 (Trixie Stable) installs and runs as smooth as silk. The install lets you pick which desktops you want to use. I like Debian because it doesn't try to be like Windows. I prefer it over Ubuntu now. It defaults to NOT using flatpak and snap etc. It uses .deb ---- the package system that God intended.
People say this, but I assume they're pretty much exclusively referring to modern games or stuff on Steam that gets some non-zero level of support via Valve because of Steamdeck. How about ancient abandonware games coded up by some RPG enthusiast in their basement with no company or support to speak of where the only way to actually find the damn thing is to dig out the dust ridden zip disk I saved it to thirty years ago? Is that one going to magically just work because of Proton too?
My distro has better dos support than windows 11. XWing Alliance and Star Wars Pod Racer run without issue.
Also Affinity has big money backing from Canva. Works as a photothop alt and edits PDFs.
I switched after windows 11 announced the recall feature that screenshots your computer every 10 seconds
/plays lemon party on loop
Wouldn't be a Lemon party without old Dick!
I'm in the same boat. I've been meaning to try Linux and this will probably be what finally pushes me over the edge. I'm not subscribing to their SaaS slop.
it's basically been the same as windows since i don't do anything but browse on this laptop