Ages ago I suggested installing Linux on my partner’s parents old desktop. It’s still running win10 but it’s pretty slow, likely from a decade of bloat. Probably a HDD too which isn’t going to help. Saying Linux scared them.
Recently they were told it is no longer supported and can’t update to win11. Or some kind of popup like that anyway. They asked if it’s time to replace the machine. This time I said I could put a lightweight OS similar to what a Chromebook has and they are much more interested. Probably also look at sticking a small SSD in there, it’s only used for web browsing.
🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
Luckily Linux Mint still allows local accounts. In fact there is not other option besides just a local account.
Thankfully cachy and bazzite exist as well. Us gamers enjoy our convenience and performance along with privacy!
Installed Bazzite on my main gaming rig two weeks ago. Haven’t booted win10 since, fantastic distro.
Totally agree. Which variant? KDE or GNOME?
Microsoft is no longer permitted on my PC
The fact that the extended coverage is locked behind the windows account paywall is known for a pretty good time already…
They initially said you could get the account, and like 300 good boy points
OR Pay $30.
Fuck Windows. Most overrated OS.
OSChromeOS wannabe.
So use anything but Windows? Got it.
That’s a complicated way of saying that Microsoft recommends switching to Linux. /j
You joke but As of this last weekend I just did and it was pretty damned free…
What distro?
Fedora for the beast. Family media station is on Ubuntu
i wanted to try out Nobara when switching having only experienced Debian before (not such a great desktop experience then). Now, since i’m already hooked on a Fedora-Spinoff, if the installation ever dies, i will go pure Fedora too, it’s just a great experience :-)
Yup so far so good. Though there are one or two games I realized I have to say goodbye to but overall they weren’t going to be a big miss from my life.
Just a good excuse to start digging into some of the new games from steam sales that I never got around to.
Hmmm I’ve had more luck and haven’t encountered any game that wouldn’t run except for the anti heat titles. I have quite the collection over a wide field of platforms and decades, if you wouldn’t mind to tell me what didn’t work?
Now is the time to spread your wings and try linux as a replacement for windows!
I’m a Linux user since it was distributed in diskette images.
I use both Windows and Linux, mainly Linux, but I dual boot or use a VM sometimes because I need to use some programs which are not practical or just don’t work with wine.
I don’t see Linux as an alternative, I see Linux as different tool.
I mainly use cruciform (pozidrive if possible) screws and screwdrivers, but sometimes I have use flat.
No drama, no religious zealotery.
Linux was 100% an alternative to me, not sure why it isn’t? Why isn’t linux an alternative to any operating system?
I’ve occasionally tried using Linux in the past as my main desktop, because I think Windows as an OS is inferior, and lately because Linux’s UI actually seems superior, but I always got suckered back into Windows because I wanted to play certain games.
I tried again last month, and this time, it’s different. The games that I want to play work well enough in Linux. Some of them have native Linux builds. Others work well enough in Proton, which is Valve’s version of Wine, a Windows emulation layer that can run Windows games in Linux.
I don’t see any reason that I’d ever go back to Windows again.
People who haven’t tried Linux in a couple of years need to read this.
The amount of progress that has been made with respect to Linux gaming over the past few years has been astonishing.
Now if only big software developers understood this and released business software for Linux…
Depends on what you’re looking for, for some fields there are fantastic options already.
The others… Well considering the trajectory I’m seeing now (as a multiple decade Linux user), I think a lot more will start building for it. Maybe one flavor to start, but I do think it will be much more common.
I’m seeing it with some of my clients already.
CAD/CAM, PLC IDEs
For me: Solidworks, TwinCAT (lol @ plc software built on top of windows…and it’s one of the more open ones)
Yeah the TwinCAT situation is absurd, pretty much like with SCADAs, wtf why would you use Windows when you need a reliable OS? Luckily Beckhoff is working on a BSD based TwinCAT IIRC, and on the SCADA side Ignition works on Linux
Much of the businesses in media already do. EG: Maya was released for Linux. Its predecessor ‘ALIAS power animator’ was a Unix based program and ran on SGI.
You’d be hard pressed to find a studio involved in fx or 3D or any function of post production not running on Linux.
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My understanding is that a lot of it has to do with the Steam Deck, which is Valve’s handheld gaming platform. Valve wanted it to run most of their catalog, but they also decided to use Windows emulation rather than Windows, so they forked Wine and put some money and effort into improving it.
But some games are harder to run than others.
If you use Steam, it might be as easy as installing it from Steam, because sometimes the games are multi-platform. FTL is an example of this that I currently have installed. But it seems like more and more game developers want their games to run on the Steam Deck, so they release native Linux versions. (Ironically, I think FTL doesn’t run well on the Steam Deck.)
Some games run simply by telling the Steam launcher to use Proton as a compatibility tool. So, the only hard part is choosing which version of Proton to run, which involves picking it from a list inside of Steam, which then downloads that version of Proton, and then trying the game. And if it doesn’t run well, then try a different version of Proton and iterate. IIRC Rocket League is a game like this. On my computer, it seems to run best with the latest Proton beta. For me and my 5 year old computer, it doesn’t run as perfectly as well as it did in Windows, as it can stutter a bit when there are explosions on screen, but for me, it doesn’t seem to impact my play. And it takes longer to load, but I don’t think it’s possible for an emulated game to load faster on the same hardware.
And some games require you to look up how to install them, and you end up having to install some Windows things into your Proton runtime using something called Protontricks. Skyrim is an example. It took a lot of fiddling to get it set up and the audio working correctly. But now I can’t really tell the difference between how it runs in Windows vs. Linux, except that it takes longer to load in Linux.
Yeah I’m familiar with all that… Though one correction, Proton is a “translation layer,” not an emulator. Same with wine (it’s right in the name).
My experience has been that, often, the Windows version with Proton works better than the native Linux version. And most of the time, it just works with “Proton Experimental” or the most recent GE-Proton release.
ProtonDB is a better resource than Steam’s own compatibility rating. I’ve been able to install and play several “unsupported” games on my Linux laptop (like Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition with DSFix).
The majority of games will play. It’s kind of crazy how well it works.
They also give a lot of money to Codeweavers, the developers of WINE, so that WINE can have enough developers to support it.
What’s really wild is that not only are games good enough on Windows, but tests lately are showing a consistent trend where the two are often indistinguishable in performance, and where they’re not, Windows isn’t consistently winning.
If you’re not into the genre of competitive multiplayer games that have kernel anticheat, Windows isn’t really better for gaming anymore, outside of being more familiar for many people. Today we’ve reached the point where it’s a few fps either way, and people should use whatever they want, but if Microsoft keeps bloating Windows, it might soon be that the “Windows tax” also refers to the performance penalty you pay for using the familiar OS instead of learning something new.
Yup same. Was all worried I can’t play my games but then discovered the fedora everything install and the online tutorials were well written to get wine and proton going and the drivers and was like holy shit this has come a long way.
I can live with this.
I think what you posted is great and should be read by people on the fence.
But conversly, I quit windows when XP came out becausei wanted to stop playing Microsoft’s games. There were enshittifying back then and it only has got worse.
I even admin Microsoft systems for a living, have access to nearly every product that make for free, and I still will never use windows at home. Even managing azure or SQL databases or having to use products that are windows only I do it through a Linux machine. Sometimes by pushing commands, sometimes with remote desktop. But I do it because Linux just works, I can count on it. Not so much windows or Microsoft.
No shade against you, but WINE stands for “WINE is not an emulator”
But what does the WINE that is represented by the W in WINE stand for? 🤔
WINE is not an emulator
For the new guys, you’ll notice a lot of this kind of thing because developers think recursion is clever.
For example, GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”
Exactly. I tired SuSE back around 2001 and Ubuntu around 2006. It was not a better experience so I never stuck with them. I started using Mint last year and it just stuck. There are some quirks and learning curves, but it’s a good experience. Linux has changed a crap ton.
“Linux can’t run my cock and ball squeezing app!”
Actually, I been much happier not being able to play League anymore.
Yeah I realised the only games I cant play on linux are the ones that really don’t respect my privacy/time/wallet so it ended up a net benefit
I had my first issue since switching just yesterday (I’ve been switched for a couple of months).
I wanted to run some mod installers for the old Kotor games but they’re .exe files.
Only stuff I could get working was manual file-replacements and steam workshop mods.
You should be able to use those mod installers by running them with wine within the wine prefix Kotor is installed in surely?
Not sure about wine. Haven’t used it since like 2016.
I’m running all my games in steam with proton. Not sure if that’s connected at all.
Proton is just wine with some extra stuff added, if you install protontricks this explains what to do.
protontricks-launch --appid <APPID> <EXE>Should get you what you want, you can find app id by looking at the url of the game in the steam store or using
protontricks -s <GAME NAME>
all “AAA” games, you say
Never been a better time to try dota 😈
No. I’m clean man. I can’t. Not again.
Stay strong! MOBAs are like rage-inducing crack!
Just a little match. For old time’s sake
I went though this with Mike, I must not repeat the sins of the past.
Good thing that Linux can run pretty much everything I want to play. Ckb-new and and Streamdeck-gui still need some finishing touches so that E:D and DCS are identical to old Windows setup, but everything else seems to run without a hitch.
No it doesn’t.
Hmm, neat!
From these mass graves we learn to sing.
Huh, and I thought that was only for the os activation, but no. ESU support is right there, under the TSForge activation method.
The LSTC IoT editions also have it built right in, and come without the ancillary Windows bloatware (except Edge, which you’re stuck with) for niche applications that require running Windows-only software that can’t be avoided. Even on lower end hardware.
Its even more support than what MS is offering LMAO
Came here to make sure someone dropped this link.
Also: Linux btw
This just in, convicted monopoly Microsoft will fuck you over at every conceivable opportunity. Film at 11.
convicted monopoly
Well that’s a blast from the past. That was neat-o how Mr Boies nailed a conviction and the remedy was … An apology? Was it even that much?
Glad to see Microsoft is successfully building on that crushing no-remedy defeat by doing the same and more. #winning
It was actually significant, and changed them quite a lot for 2 decades. Now they don’t give a shit anymore. But there was an impact.
Woukd have been more significant if Bush admin hadn’t overridden the original judgment to break MS into 3 companies.
“Install Linux, Problem Solved.”
Seriously, I’d like to see Linux made better so much non-technical people can use it without any further technical assistance, most notably, computer games that are normally functional and easy to install under Windows.
I’ve used nothing but vanilla steam for windows games in Linux for a few years.
I think there’s the misconception that, because you can use other things, you HAVE to use other things.
Steam and lutris for non steam games. You literally need to learn one program and navigate one singular menu is another and voila every computer game just kinda works, at least in my experience.
Bazzite is pretty close.
Sad that you get downvoted for such a basic request.
The Linux techbros can suck a fat one.
Easy for them, but not everyone else. I’m saying this as someone who’s into PCs, used both OS, fixing them for a very long time, and seen a lot different kinds of userbases – some who don’t have formal PC use training. That in my part of the world, while Android is pretty prevalent for smartphones and gaming on them, pirated Windows is still being used for PCs because it’s so familiar for a lot of people, it’s almost the default, but for how long that’s gonna last as Windows is being made more like locked with DRMs and shit like that.
It is now. If someone just uses the browser, they wouldn’t really notice if it was Linux. Well, they’ll notice because it would be faster. I have my entire Steam and GOG library setup on Linux and every game I want to play regularly works just fine. Yes there are instances where I’d need to get on the terminal but that’s quite rare.
Coincidentally I no longer support windows machines in my home.
Just finished building a new PC last night, 64GB RAM, 8GB vRAM, 2TB m.2, 8x8TB HDD, and windows will never goddamn touch it. It feels weird, but so far so good.
8x8TB HDD
64 terabytes of HDD storage?! What in the RAID will you do with all of that? And more importantly, how much did it cost?
Jellyfin. The HDDs were only ~$110 each. Seagate 5400s but w/e it’s mass storage. No raid, drives will just be filled, cloned, and the clone dropped into a second system, also with no windows 🤬
Look at ZFS, it’s a bit more intelligent about using the space. They’ll be part of a pool of drives that you create ‘datasets’(basically virtual drives) from and you can choose your level of redundancy (including none at all if you want to roll the dice there).
I have a 20TB array, 16TB available. It’s already saved me from a lost disk. Using Seagate 5x 4TB 5400s also, with a NVME drive for the ZIL (speeds up writes). I have a 32GB ARC (a ZFS cache in RAM) so, even though the drives are slow the RAM and NVME drives ensure that it always feels snappy.
You can use zfs-send to clone the data to a new system without them having to have an exact copy of your original setup (like they would if you’re using drive images). It is also a copy on write filesystem so it supports snapshotting (creating backups of the block level diffs, so it is very space efficient as it only stores the block-level changes to the file).
I don’t believe you! (that it is coincidential)
:)
