So im a noob as some say, theirs certain games and software i use on windows that wont work on linux. ive tried linux but i found myself switching back to windows. I really do want to stay with linux but im not sure how or if i should duel boot or something? also what flavor of line do you enjoy or would suggest?
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if you don’t need those windows only programs to earn a living, just install linux, don’t fuck around with dual booting. accept that you’re gonna have to learn new things. you’ll adapt.
if you do need windows for something, i guess dual boot, but make a pact with yourself to only use it for that one program, and switch back when you’re done, and keep looking for replacements so you can cut that last chain lashing you to m$. i highly recommend alternativeto for that.
This is the move. When I installed CachyOS (a year ago today actually), I set up a dual boot - figured it’d be good to have the “backup plan” instead of jumping right into it. I found myself going back a few times for various odds and ends. Over time I found I’d been flipping back to it less and less, I think the last time I actually used it was for a stupid gacha game that I finally put down for good.
Finally got to the point where I just nuked the windows partition to free up some space. and looking back I really only kept it around in the early days because I didn’t feel confident yet. (Though I do wish I had the forethought to arrange the partitions in a logical way because I couldn’t actually extend my cachyos partition to the left, so I just opted to add it to the btrfs pool instead, it works I guess).
I like having a Windows 11 VM for stuff I need Windows for (Visual Studio, pretty much, for one project), though I realise having enough system resources to do this is a bit of a privilege (especcially now…)
I keep a win10 VM around that I fire up on the rare instance I need to do something in windows. I agree with forgetting about dual boot.
I think you need a good baseline amount of spite and resentment for windows and/or mac.
I’ve been running only Linux for 25 years. Any software you think you need that you only can get on Windows you don’t. Drop windows, say goodbye to your apps, and explore the alternatives. Try to have fun. A growth mindset helps
If you have the luxury of access to multiple computers, or the expertise to dual boot, those are what worked for me.
I ran Linux and Windows side by side for years.
Over time, returning to the Windows shifted from “Ah, nice and familiar” to “oh, not this bullshit, again”.
Once I was comfortable with both, all the corporate bullshit became very noticable on Windows.
It doesn’t even need to be that luxury. Look at online mp. EBay even, for old business systems. You can often get a complete 2010s ewaste business tower for around 100 USD. Though spend a bit more for a solid i7 and avoid SFF. Spend a bit more and pick up a cheap RX 580. Can all be done for under 200.
Then just use and learn the system. The other will still be there stable for games etc if you need it. Chances are, barring odd/exotic hardware. Most things will just work. And between that, new features, customizability, and less nagging. You might find it a more pleasant experience to gravitate to.
No more nagging about installing or updating shit you don’t want, but are tricky to uninstall. (One Drive, Copilot, Teams) You can remove anything and everything you want (till enough vital bits are gone). Because the system is yours and yours alone. It will do what you want and only that.
Though spend a bit more for a solid i7 and avoid SFF.
The SFF’s can be great for just browsing, office use, light photo editing, etc. Obviously nothing too demanding, but they save a lot of power for their intended purpose. I picked up a USFF Lenovo ThinkCentre about the size of a Mac Mini for $100 a couple years back.
Definitely. Though the original post war with regards to some gaming. It’s much much header with SFF. But their still absolutely solid for many uses.
Oh, yes, I only noticed after replying to you that the OP mentioned gaming. I generally wouldn’t recommend most SFF PCs for gaming either.
a few tips for you:
- try open source software in windows too, like libreoffice, inkscape, etc, depending on your needs. It will help the transition to be easier
- if you have a spare machine, try linux on that instead of dual booting, because windows tend to mess with the bootloader in dual boot
- don’t be harsh on yourself. It’s normal to have difficulty to adapt to things. You can do that in steps as small as you feel comfortable with
- try distros like linux mint, because they tend to be easier for new users
- experiment wine or winboat for software you need from windows, if there aren’t alternatives
I think I’m pretty knowledgeable with Linux and I still have to dual boot win10 for Cyberpunk 2077, not because it’s can’t run on Linux but I lose more than half of my fps on Linux because I have nvdia GPU… There’s nothing I can do about it until either nvdia fix their driver or nvk driver become as good or better than the proprietary driver.
I’ve always had dgpu issues on Linux. Every single one. Red. Green. Don’t matter. You’ve just made me realise that since I installed my 6600xt about a year ago, I’ve not had to touch or think about it since.
It’s very simple.
You simply switch your apps too, not just the OS. Everyone thinks that they can switch the OS 1:1, but it’s not like that. You will never be happy if you expect the same apps on all the OSes. Instead of photoshop, you use Gimp. Instead of Illustrator, you use Inkscape. Instead of resolve/premiere, you use kdenlive. And so on. You will have to invest some time to relearn not just the OS, but the apps too.
In the 90s, QBasic (IDE) and Edit didn’t work on Slackware. So, I tried Pico, Vim, and Emacs. Now, I still use Emacs.
If the software you need to use isn’t very demanding, you can run windows in a virtual machine (VM) inside of Linux – the exception is games that have kernel-level anti-cheat, those will probably never work on Linux in any way, and you’ll have to dual boot to run them. Most other games will run easily if you just install them with Steam, but I’ve come across a few that I use a VM for.
What software and games do you need to run? I might be able to help.
Also, the distro you should go for is called Linux Mint.
Mint has the perfect balance of stability, support and up-to-date-ness for beginners - and honestly for a lot of experienced users as well.
I’d say dual booting would be best, as much as Windows will try to break it. Then you can stay in Linux as much as you can, only switching to Windows when you need to. And then, if you’re like me, you get annoyed at Windows lacking features and find alternatives that work under Linux.
For distro selection, I’d recommend Linux Mint. It just works well out of the box and most instructions online that apply to Ubuntu should work with it.
So I started by dual booting; it’s not a bad way of doing things although Windows likes to mess with bootloaders.
Optimal way is have physically separate hard drives/NVME cards, Windows on one, Linux on the other. The Linux bootloader should detect windows and point to it’s bootloader as a menu option without issue.
Make Linux the default OS and only switch to Windows when you really have to. I haven’t used my Windows install in like 1 year? I kept it for gaming but everything I want works in Linux. I even have a Windows VM in Linux for using Office if I need to for work (used it a few times in a year and beat having to restart into windows)
I’d wipe the windows drive but I just can’t be bothered right now.
I recommend a KDE distro to start as it’s very flexible - it can mimic windows and also be wildly different if you want. I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed but I’d recommend OpenSUSE Leap as a stabler point release distro when starting out. I know longer recommend Mint as I find Cinnamon tired and there is so much old and bad advice on tweaking or fixing issues on Mint that it is actually potentially detrimental to being secure and safe.
If you can stand Windows a bit longer maybe learn FOSS alternatives tp the programs you use on Windows that are also available on Linux before switching. I did that, replaced almost everything I used with open source variants and then switching to Linux wasn’t hard anymore. I distrohopped a little but have settled on Bazzite. I’m not that much of a gamer but having NVDIA drivers and lots of other nice stuff included paired with an immutable distro is perfect for me. No fear of borked updates anymore (haven’t had one for years on other distros as well but updating was still always a bit scary. With Bazzite that happens in the background anyway, most of the time I don’t notice it)
I just put my friends 80+ year old parents on Linux Mint with no issues so far. you can do it!! … why are you switching back ?
Download, install, use
I started with Ubuntu (dual-booted with Windows) and it was the same, for some months I did exactly that: “First I use Ubuntu but if for some reason something not work as I want, I switch back to Window”.
I don’t really remember how I “stay” on Linux and when I stopped dual-booting, but I believe it was because there was so good open source programs and I really liked that, that I stay. One of this programs was Freetube for example.
