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 dual boot, something that helped my transition was intentionally adding friction where I wanted to try something new. For example, set your default boot OS to your Linux distro, that way you have to make the choice to intentionally select Windows every time you need it
I have one machine in Linux and another in Windows. I’ve also made bootable persistent thumb drives to save myself any accidents creating a dual boot. That way I can run Linux for daily stuff, and Windows when I’m too incompetent to figure out a workaround for a game or whatever.
Windows needs to be rebooted all the time anyway, so it’s not really that big of a deal to boot into something else now and then. Plus it gives you a little change of pace.
Just accept shit won’t work and drop it cold turkey. Nuke the fuck out of the windows drive and force your self to move on.
If you don’t need to to make a living then fuck it and move on.
You learned to use a computer once you can do it again. When you didn’t know how to do something in the past you looked it up. When you needed an application you churned though options till one worked.
Shit breaks or is half assed on windows. Your just use to what you know that works. Your use to having your apps your use to.
Learn to get over the fact you gotta relearn things, find new options, and will be frustrated.
After like a month you will be fine Basically git gud. You were gud growing up and got bad. Time to return to your childhood and have fun learning and exploring again.
Also plain ass normal fedora is going to be your best middle ground if you want the widest possiable support of software. Arch if you don’t mind a bit more leg work with the aur.
Can you name the programs to get a better idea of the context?
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.
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…)
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).
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.
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.
As others have mentioned, keeping around a USB SSD with a windows install can be useful, I have a cheapo 10Gbps NVME eclosure, that is more than fast enough to host a snappy windows install. I have so far used it to run the shitty windows-only reddragon software to rebind buttons on my mouse, and to run stellaris (when they had a platform-dependant OOS but that has since been fixed)
First step is to figure out if you have hard requirements i.e. specific software that you rely on your studies or work and cannot be replaced.
If there is no such requirements, or your requirements have Linux versions, best thing to do is do the jump and accept the struggle until you figure out the new way of working. A lot of games run fantastic. Heroic Launcher for GoG and Epic games, Steam for Steam.
You need to edit a video, just search for “Linux video editor”, same for whatever task you want to achieve.
I use and love Linux Mint. I actually just deleted my windows partition. I have used it off and on for years. This is the first permanent switch.
I don’t game and have pretty basic needs, so not for everyone.
I did find that on this most recent migration, i never need windows for anything. So much has moved to in browser or open source alternatives are good enough that i am fine.
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.
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.
What games can’t you play on linux? Some apps can’t be run natively in linux, but use an emulation for them. That will work…
Personally, I dual boot with an external NVMe drive. It works great! I have Linux and only Linux on the internal drive and Windows gets relegated to an external one.
The trick to getting it to work is: you have to temporarily install the NVMe drive internally in order to install Windows onto it. Then you pop it into an external enclosure and it just works. Just make sure your BIOS is set up to boot USB devices before internal drives.
Why not just have both internally?
Well, my laptop only has one spot for a drive. I guess if you have more than one, it should work. The main point is never share a drive with Windows. Windows will mess it up.
I don’t intend to be abrasive, but this post feels like… bait?
I know it’s not.
But still. OP posted few specifics of what they actually do on their computer, nor what their hardware is, nor specific problems, and is not responding to any comments thus far. But “what distro should I use?” is Lemmy catnip. It’s absolutely guaranteed to get a lot of engagement.
It’s also been asked many, many times. If OP is curious, there are literally thousands of comments to sift through on Lemmy alone.
If this was Reddit, I’d say it’s a bot account farming karma for authenticity. But that doesn’t makes any sense, as there’s no engagement incentive like that here on Lemmy.
So yeah. Apologies for impoliteness, I meant nothing personally, but OP, there are many threads like this, and you’d get much more tailored suggestions with a little more specificity.
Interesting points. Piefed, the software on their instance, does have some form of karma, but supposedly it’s not publicly visible. Unfortunately I don’t know/recall the details of what effect that karma has in practice. Still, it makes me wonder if it might encourage karma farming by some users.
On Reddit, Karma isn’t just more visible, but a certain amount is an explicit requirement for posting in many situations. High karma accounts are also less likely to get moderated/banned. You can see why spambots would want to amass it.
I have no idea what the incentive would be here.
I don’t know about spambots, but here is one explanation of the Piefed karma mechanisms I’ve read here:
Oh wow. That’s some weird shit piefed does.
