Down that hole
Am the the only weirdo who swapped over to Linux without knowing a ton about it, and didn’t really have any issues? I just started with a Windows-user-friendly distro (Mint Cinnamon), and then just looked up how to get through any weird (to me) issues that I encountered over time. Gradually learned more about what’s under the hood as I went.
But I see these memes and stories about “I tried Linux, it lasted a week and I went back to Windows” here and there.
It’s not scary. Am I missing something? XoD
Im about to take the same plunge into Linux. Any tips for a new comer?
If you do dual boot, check 10 times that you are installing to the correct drive/partition.
Since Linux uses a different drive naming scheme than Windows, it’s super easy to accidentally install Linux on the partition where you actually wanted to keep your Windows.
I’ve installed Linux many times and I always go back to Windows 🤷
which is ok. the cool thing about switching to linux is that you don’t have to take risks(e.g. buy an expensive os/hardware) so you can try it out, switch back, wait a bit and try again. I did that and last year was the year of the linux Desktop for me (also thanks to the steam deck)
Why?
Windows runs 10 out of 10 games, Linux does 8 of which 4 only barely run at all.
Don’t get me wrong: Windows really is the worst OS, except all the others.
That stat about games doesn’t track for me
Most Windows games i try run fine on linux
“Most”.
I thought the same thing until a couple weeks ago, then tried out EndeavourOS which is based on Arch and comes with Nvidia drivers. It’s been awesome and I’ve been able to play whatever I want.
Out of curiosity, can you name some games that don’t work?
I can’t recall a specific title and didn’t take notes. I think the Batman Arkhams were problematic as well as one of the Ghost Recons.
Speaking generally, on Linux framerates were worse, stability was worse and there was more hassle to get games even running. Sometimes launching the launcher was its own adventure.
Of course that’s a Windows-born problem as all the software is designed towards it. But what gives? Linux was (and still is) at best on par with Windows but often not even that. And this is what counts for me at the end of a working day: I don’t want to work more and then game worse.
A cheap Windows license is like thirty quid. Nothing in comparison to the cost of even an entry-level gaming PC. And it works. And it has all the other software.
What does Linux offer me as an ignorant gamer so I’d exchange that out-of-the-box experience?
Because it does everything I need it to do and if I run into issues I can’t solve myself I know that just because of the number of people using it the problem will be known and a solution will exist.
I don’t mind playing with Linux on my RPi, but having to use it daily and always having to use command lines to deal with things (thus having to search for the right command line every time) gets tiring.
For the most part Windows just works out of the box and there are things I would much rather do with my time than searching the depth of the internet to find that one person that had the same problem as me and that might or might not have found a solution to their issue…
And as other people mentioned, my computer is mostly used for gaming these days so it’s easier to use the platform that’s the most widely supported for that purpose.
Guess we just have wildly different experiences. For me, whenever I had a problem with Windows I had to look up solutions online and pray that they weren’t outdated yet. Microsoft apparently likes to completely redo the layout of their settings every couple of versions which is super fun…
For Linux I mostly read the manual, if I even have a problem.
It should be VIM
No one comes back from VIM.
Those who say they have are dirty liars… or have it paused in the background.
…or eventually convert to the cult of Emacs.
When I use Emacs, it’s with Evil.
