…and it went very smoothly. I installed on a spare PC for now, but I could absolutely see this becoming my daily driver. I’m mostly surprised at how snappy and responsive it is, even on 10 year old hardware!

  • shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works
    71·
    6 days ago

    Glad you decided to give it a try. It really shines on older hardware and really shows how much bloat windows actually has. I’ve been using Linux since the 90s, it’s incredible how far it’s come. Show us your socks. Especially in relation to gaming in the last few years, there’s almost no reason to deal with microsoft any longer!

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      62·
      6 days ago

      The bloat is real! I really thought this old PC was just chugging along because of the hardware, but it seems perfectly content to run Linux.

      • ButteryMonkey@piefed.socialEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        I was expecting this on a pos enterprise system that barely managed win 10 (but has 12 usb ports!!!). For context, the replacement drive I got for it from the IT department that “disposed of” the tower had windows 7 installed on it, they said that was the best it could probably do, which is why they were obsoleted years ago.

        There must have been something really wrong with other components because even with antixlinux, which doesn’t even have seem to have sound support out of the box, and is meant to be used off a usb (keeps a persistent state on the USB so you can take your OS and data with you), it was slow as molasses. (I also tried mint and raw Debian and a couple other things and they all sucked hard)

        So I threw Ubuntu back on and use it only for the Plex desktop app in my bedroom where I try not to watch too much tv. Is the only thing that runs on it without issues as long as I never close it. Reboots take 10 min tho. Not even remotely worth troubleshooting (that’s pc#4 in my house… I live alone. I have other options.)

        This all to say, if it doesn’t respond well to Linux, there might be something else going on :)

  • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
    10·
    3 days ago

    Me too! Just replaced my eight year old (and beat to crap) Chromebook with a corporate hand-me-down laptop that I stole got when they ordered new laptops! Just played around with both Mint and Ubuntu for a couple weeks and I’ve seriously loved it.

  • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
    11·
    5 days ago

    Welcome aboard!

    Linux has it’s tradeoffs, you must accept that sometimes, in some cases, you may get somewhat inconvenienced, but in exchange, your computer is truly yours now, with time you learn to deeply appreciate that, also, people who develop desktop, usually want to do it so people who are normal, can use it, I’m not a technical person and have never had a problem I couldn’t fix, you just need to keep trying!.. or find your way around it, contrary to popular beliefs, a big chunk of the Linux community is eager to help new people, for sure there are people who are elitists and gatekeepers, but are a loud, obnoxious minority.

    Enjoy Linux!

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      Thanks! I think I’m willing to make that tradeoff. I also wouldn’t consider myself techy (as in, not a tech professional or anything), but I am pretty confident in my ability to google and figure stuff out.

      I’ve even run into my first issue now: It turns out that Realtek wifi USB devices don’t play well with Linux.

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
        3·
        5 days ago

        To save yourself some headache on the wifi front, I recommend - at least for non-Laptops - getting a repeater and hooking your computer up via Ethernet cable. Yes, WiFi does work, but it can be a major PITA.

        • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          5 days ago

          I might do that in the end, but I’ve already ordered a different one that is supposed to be more Linux friendly. The other one was falling apart anyway - I had to sort of bend it back together.

          • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
            2·
            5 days ago

            I had two different ones for a while and was suffering from occasional network dropouts that would force me to restart networking, and would sometimes take minutes to recover (DHCP discover) - eventually I had enough and bought a repeater + connected via cable. Interestingly enough, the “dropouts” would not allow new connections, but existing connections would remain active mostly. So it was definitely a driver issue.

            • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
              2·
              5 days ago

              Well I might be going down that route if this new one doesn’t work. My PC isn’t in a good spot to connect directly, but a repeater is an alternative I hadn’t considered.

      • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
        3·
        5 days ago

        Googling is all you need (maybe change the search engine for a more privacy respecting one, like brave search or kagi, but still the same)

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    6 days ago

    My biggest hangup (so far) is modding games.

    Nexus is built for Windows. CDPR’s RedMod is too.

    It’s probably not that big a deal. I’m just shit at all this stuff. I’m not a coder. I don’t even know what the fuck sudo means. But I have a very loose grasp on using it. With a moderate amount of help from the internet. Usually.

    • JunglisticFunkateer@lemmy.world
      19·
      6 days ago

      Nexus is building a new version of its app, and the new one has Linux support (native app).

      It’s not yet a full replacement, and at the moment only supports a few select games, but eventually it’ll expand to the full catalogue.

    • Statick@programming.dev
      8·
      6 days ago

      Closest comparison I can give of it is… It’s like clicking “Yes” when the User Account Control (UAC) popup appears on Windows when you’re installing stuff. That’s you, as an admin, confirming you want to perform whatever action is being performed.

      sudo ... is perform an action/command as an admin.

      As for the mods. A lot of the time it’s a matter of taking the files you downloaded, and dropping them in the game directory (or a directory within the game directory).

      Once you do it manually once, you’ll see it’s pretty straight forward and you don’t really need the mod managers.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
        2·
        5 days ago

        “I heard them say we’ve reached Morrowind. I’m sure they’ll let us go.”

        Morrowind will always be wonderful to return to. I miss all the imaginative player house mods. OpenMW has been so AWESOME.

        Also:

        YoU wOuLdN’t StEaL a LiMeWaRe pLatTeR

    • ExhibiCat@lemmynsfw.com
      1·
      4 days ago

      I just game on windows to be honest. For that it’s not bad. I do a ton of VR and the Linux support for that is minimal anyway.

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      40·
      6 days ago

      About 15 years ago, I installed Ubuntu for a few months for fun, but not being able to game on it very easily was a major drawback for me, so I bounced back to windows.

      Now that gaming on Linux seems to have come a long way (and Windows is annoying me way more than it used to), I’m feeling motivated.

      • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
        16·
        6 days ago

        I wish you luck with it. I was turned off Linux until recently just because of base functionality. But hey, wifi is working, and my USB HID stuff is all working too. I’m not a hardcore gamer so that doesn’t affect me. If anything, I’ll trade any 3d functions for faster and more efficient 2d and text.

        • salacious_coaster@infosec.pubEnglish
          8·
          6 days ago

          Same. I’ve been saying for years that basic functionality is keeping people from switching to Linux, and nobody wanted to listen. It’s definitely gotten better, but still not rock solid.

            • salacious_coaster@infosec.pubEnglish
              91·
              6 days ago

              Hardware, mostly. Most times I’ve tried Linux something like Wi-Fi or the touchpad was broken out of the box.

              Basically, a user who only needs a web browser and maybe Libre office should not experience any friction or touch a CLI. That’s what Windows has and what Linux needs to become mainstream.

              • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
                81·
                6 days ago

                Never had touchpad troubles on Linux - as long as the device follows standard HID protocols, it’ll just work. WiFi was dicey in the 2000s; the technology was still new and every chip vendor had their own idea of how shit should work, making it difficult to get support merged for every possible device, but that really hasn’t been an issue for quite a while in my experience.

                Everyone’s forgotten the olden days where you’d have to dig through a box of diskettes for all the drivers.

                • salacious_coaster@infosec.pubEnglish
                  41·
                  6 days ago

                  I was hesitant to engage because I kind of figured you’d prove my point about nobody wanting to hear about basic functionality not working. I tend to get responses like this along the lines of “it works on my machine” and “you spoiled kids, back in my day etc etc”.

                  Hardware issues are well documented. I still have to manually restart the touchpad module after waking from sleep intermittently. As long as Linux people are dismissive about problems like this, it’ll never be mainstream.

              • felsiq@piefed.zipEnglish
                4·
                6 days ago

                Just a note on windows “having” this: a significant amount of hardware (wifi adapters, nvme drives, a lot of the shit in a Surface laptop, etc) don’t have native windows support and require command line usage and/or hunting for third party drivers to even get windows installed. A user installing an OS on a machine with that sort of hardware would have a much easier time on Linux - it’s only manufacturers preinstalling windows and the needed drivers that give the impression it’s easier on windows. When the user has to wipe / reinstall their OS it’s a much more apples to apples comparison.

                I’m not saying this to imply Linux doesn’t need to get better, because of course that’d be great, but I see this comparison a lot and it’s worth keeping in mind that it’s a bit of an unfair one even if it’s a reasonable standard to hold an OS to.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
        4·
        6 days ago

        Do you have an Nvidia graphics card or why did you pick one of the few distributions that doesn’t ship the latest Radeon and Intel drivers?

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
            2·
            6 days ago

            Wishing you luck and that Nvidia and their legacy drivers don’t fuck you over. Should you experience weird problems, not necessarily related to graphics output but maybe broken power management or so, it’s most likely the fault of Nvidia. Just saying, in case something like that happens and you feel the need to shout at Linux.

            • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
              2·
              6 days ago

              Thanks, at least that gives me a place to start if something acts up. I haven’t had any issues yet, but I also haven’t tried any games on it.

      • DarkSirrush@lemmy.ca
        52·
        6 days ago

        Man, I did the same thing 15 years ago, and between gaming and Ubuntu itself being honestly fairly user hostile at that point (regardless of what the cult said) , it turned me off of trying Linux again for a looong while

        • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago

          There’s been a lot of progress in 15 years. This would be a good time to give it another go. Mint is stupid easy to install along side windows.

  • v01dworks@piefed.socialEnglish
    21·
    6 days ago

    I mostly use Linux but I dual-boot windows just for VR and every time I have to use windows it feels sluggish in comparison

    • rapchee@lemmy.world
      8·
      6 days ago

      i do the same thing but i think it’s kind of on us - when you only boot windows once in a while it tries to do a bunch of things (updates, scanning everything for more data on your advertisement profile, virus scan, etc) at the same time
      it was similar when i was running linux less frequently, i was annoyed like
      ugh again bunch of updates, kernel update as well ugh now i have to reboot too

      • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
        8·
        6 days ago

        Just that linux does not force them on you. You decide when and if you even install those updates. Windows does it all in the background without telling you. I hate that behavior so much. This damn machine is under my command and yet on Windows it does whatever Microsoft wants instead of what I want.

      • v01dworks@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        Yeah, it’s a little of both, but at least if I don’t use Linux for a while I don’t feel the same problem happening usually

        In my experience, if I don’t touch my gaming PC for a month or two and then go boot up Linux it means I just have a long update, but I can also opt to ignore it and deal with it later. On Windows, I don’t really have that choice as much, and updating is extra annoying because it reboots itself multiple times so I have to babysit it otherwise it boots back into Linux after a few seconds on the bootloader

      • v01dworks@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        ALVR is so frustratingly close to working for me with the Quest 2 on Linux

        Some games actually work flawlessly with it for me now, but recently I wanted to get back into Into The Radius 2 since they updated it a lot, and because it only supports a specific VR framework that I can’t seem to get my system to use, the game itself doesn’t connect to my headset, so I had to boot back into windows for that