…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
    44·
    4 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
      42·
      4 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
        3·
        4 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 :)

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    3 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
      13·
      3 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
      5·
      3 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.

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      33·
      4 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
        14·
        4 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
          7·
          4 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
              81·
              4 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
                71·
                4 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
                  31·
                  4 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
                3·
                4 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·
        4 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·
            4 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
              1·
              4 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
        42·
        4 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
          1·
          4 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.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    19·
    4 days ago

    I find this funny because I’ve been aware of, and even using, Linux for a lot longer than I have been using Lemmy (or Lemmy or even ActivityPub has even existed). Are many people really becoming more aware of Linux because they are moving from Reddit to Lemmy and then noticing people talking about Linux here?

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      25·
      4 days ago

      I’ve always been aware of it, but I guess I just needed the extra push. Being on Lemmy has been like having one of those Civ missionaries in my base spamming “spread religion” for 2 years, and I think they’ve successfully converted me.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
      16·
      4 days ago

      I’ve known about Linux since the late ’90s; I haven’t been around any significant concentration of people talking about it and how to use it until I joined Lemmy.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
      11·
      4 days ago

      The open source nature of Lemmy attracts the same people who are also attracted by the open source nature of Linux.

      Lemmy is a bit of an echo chamber because of that.

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      I was generally planning on switching once windows 10 died but being on Lemmy helped convince me to not only switch earlier, but also I just dove right in with arch. I’d say it was like 2/3 Lemmy and 1/3 Proton that made me switch not because I felt I needed to but because I was actually excited to

  • salacious_coaster@infosec.pubEnglish
    18·
    4 days ago

    What distro/DE? I was also surprised with the snappiness! You use Windows/Mac on modern hardware for so long and think it’s the best it can be, but nope!

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      28·
      4 days ago

      After watching videos about different distros until my brain went numb, I went with Pop!_OS. It seemed like a really polished and noob-friendly option, which has felt true so far.

      • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caEnglish
        16·
        4 days ago

        I also switched to Pop!_OS a couple days ago. I’ve only used Windows all my life and this distro made everything so easy. The Pop Store is a lifesaver.

            • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
              11·
              4 days ago

              I love how much you can customize whatever you want. I saw some cool setups while watching videos about distros, and I think I could get unhealthily obsessed with that if I let myself.

          • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            4 days ago

            I’ve only used Apple computer a handful of times, but there is a lot of elements to Pop!_OS that remind of Mac. Particularly the tiny loading circle your mouse creates after opening a window reminds me of the similar that used to come up on my elementary school old Macs.

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

              I just really love the persistent top bar, the floating dock, and the way you mount apps to install. It all feels so natural for some reason.

              Oh, and the search bar for finding apps/files. I’m glad Pop OS uses that too.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
        4·
        4 days ago

        Heck, I’ve been hacking Linux for a quarter century and I’ve installed Pop! OS on my main machines because I just want shit that works.

  • ProfThadBach@lemmy.world
    5·
    3 days ago

    I have mint on two laptops and I want to install it on my desktop but right now I have too much work to do and can not get a couple of days to install it and set it up the way I want. I have a lot of files I need to move first.

    • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Moving all of my files was my holdup too. I had to set up some backup storage before I could consider Linux on any of my machines. Then, there was a lot of back and forth while I was paranoid about forgetting something. That step took a while.