One of us! One of us!

NOOOOOs very darth vader-y

And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for your meddling logic.

Happy to post this! I wish you good luck with your switch!

My approach was of course to backup all my personal files to a large backup drive. I exported as many as configurations for my programs as I could - like for Handbrake and FreeTube as an example. I backed up those configs so that on my Linux OS I could just import them and have all my programs configured the way I wanted. Before I pulled the plug on my windows, I also wrote down every program I used and saved it into a simple list, so that I can hunt for alternatives.

That approach I think was great for me since I spent a lot of time planning and carefully backing everything up.

It’s been very smooth for me with minor hiccups when I first cutover to Linux Mint, but I’m damn happy with how well things have gone.

Take your time to methodically prepare and I’m sure you’ll do well when you’re ready to commit.

You have the option of trying without installing. Lots of Linux distros can run straight from DVD or USB without having to be installed. This way you can rest assure that it will either work for you once installed or you can just eject the media without altering or touching anything on your drive.

Just installed this and tried it out. THANK YOU. It immediately cured most of the things that drive me nuts about GIMP!

Oh that’s so awesome, I had no idea about this! I jotted this down and will definitely try it out tomorrow. Things I take for granted and know so well in Photoshop, I can’t even figure out for the life of me how to do in GIMP. It’s practice what I need, and this package sounds great to help me ease into it again. Thank you!

You may be my savior because I plan on playing some comp this weekend and don't want crashes.

Do you just set the game compatibility to force Steam compatibility and then Proton Experimental? Did you get rid of any of the launch options that I saw all over the Steam forums and Proton DB (e.g., steamdeck=1 ) ?

This hit me in the gender

Another nail in the Windows coffin.

Another lost potential customer for Linux hostile gaming publishers.

A direct hop is usually not the best way to move into the Linux world. The best way I've heard (and wished I did myself) is slowly start migrating to programs that will be available and you'll be using, while still on Windows. Get used to how new things work and if an emergency comes up, you can fall back to your tried and true tools. Then, just keep migrating apps until most of what you use is open source stuff, or stuff widely available. (Spotify, Discord, Zoom, etc.) Once you have your workflow worked out, you've found substitutes for things you can't get on Linux, then is a good time to take the plunge.

Going cold turkey is going to be really rough. I had Fedora on a side piece laptop for years before my first try on my workstation and it was a disaster. Less than a week later I had to go back to Windows. But, now I'm familiar with the tools I use and I've been a full convert for a few months now and it's been great.

You can do it! Just...take it slow.

It depends on what kind of software you usually use. You should look up the programs you use regularly/can't live without to see if they have Linux versions or if they have decent replacements. If everything there checks out, find an LTS distro. Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives (PopOS or Mint) or fedora and derivatives (I don't know any fedora derivatives) would be good.

I started using PopOS last year for a gaming machine and all the tinkering I did, I did because I'm a nerd and I wanted to. If I wanted an easy experience without even looking at a command line I think I could've.

One more thing. Most (maybe all?) Linux distros can be booted and viewed in a live environment from a USB without having to erase your whole drive (just make sure you don't go through the setup and actually erase your drive (unless you want to))

I mean, it's not like I haven't spent hours debugging windows. Why is the sound crackling? WHY?

Never solved it and Linux just worked

Linux Mint has been set and go for me personally. You will thank us later.

ONE OF US!

Seriously glad to hear that. It just sounded like the best way to go into this. It was very scary at first because I encountered a few hiccups that I had to do a lot of research to figure it out, but so far I've been great.

Don't make me blush bro

I felt like such an old dude when I made a list of all the programs I used on Windows so that I could begin looking for replacements on Linux lol. Some of the ones that I still have to get setup are things like MakeMKV, as I love backing up all my purchased physical movies.

Candidly there was no need for me to change my hardware out. But if I was going all in, I figured I'd go all in. My 12700k and RTX 3080 were working flawlessly on Windows, but I always heard AMD generally works much better. New OS, new hardware, new me.

That's how they getcha. First you install Linux because it looked fun, then you buy a small NAS to protect your most important data, next thing you know you have a server rack in your basement and a half petabyte of storage. Don't listen to him, OP! This is the path to many financial woes. Run while you still can!