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I finally tried Linux. Tried three different Distros meant for beginners and it couldn't do the one thing I do most better than Windows. Gaming. Too many programs or overlay tools are Windows only. Compatibility programs rarely worked. Wine laughed in my face. Some Linux tools were also only compatible with other kernals.
I made the switch to have more control and felt like I left one series of cages for another.
For me gaming was the easiest thing to replace on Linux. Bazzite was painless and for me ran games with better performance. Since I use my gaming PC like a console HTPC I also have a way better experience with the more steam os like gaming mode it has over the standard big picture mode on windows, since I can now configure system settings within steam itself with my controller if I ever need to.
I tried to use Proton for steam games, baked right in, shouldn't have many issues right? I'd still encounter games that just didn't work or had catastrophic bugs. Games that use kernals level anticheat are just not possible without emulation, I couldn't find low latency emulation, it was.. A trial in futility for me. The more I tried to make Linux work the more I had to ask myself why I couldn't just rip out the windows bloat and use it instead. I thought I was a Windows power user and it would translate to Linux, I was mistaken. I've taken for granted how universal Windows is and I have a respect for people willing to beat Linux into submission.
Look, if it takes you 2 days to debloat windows, linux is gonna take a real fucking while to learn right.
2 days? He said 2 weeks haha
oh fuck that's even worse.
I walked this path at first, too. For me, it was more like my stubborn battle with Microsoft than not wanting to learn Linux (I had already learned Debian some time ago).
I've flip flopped back and forth, but after the recent bs with screenshot and OS-side ads (for a PAID software, mind you) I haven't even given Windows a second glance anymore.
If you've got the knowledge to truly debloat Windows, you have the knowledge to set up Linux.
Learning Linux is nothing. Most people will never need anything outside of the GUI. There are distros that are very close to Windows in the GUI.
Oh well. Same people think switching to a Mac will take effort.
Thing is the people that never needed Windows, also didn't really need a PC...
Gamers seem to be an exception, and while WINE/Proton are good, they're not infallible. I can't even get WINE running unless it's running as root, which I don't really want to do, and it took a lot of faff to get it to even do that. Wasn't even anything complex, just a basic Win32 app I'd done as a test.
while WINE/Proton are good, theyβre not infallible.
Just finished the latest trendy AAA game (Clair Obscur) thanks to Proton and Steam... 45hrs of (amazing) gaming and I didn't tinker with a single option.
Sunk
Cost
Fallacy
GUYS. Linux is stupid because there's no way to get LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga NPC Spawner mod to work. Maybe it fails because there isn't a way to get DirectX SDK installed in protontricks but some mods work without this anyway. I'm going to go back to Windows Vista as GOD intended. Or maybe Windows Longhorn.
Thanks in advance.
This was physically painful to read
Microsoft's incompetence is the best thing to happen to Linux in recent years.
Debloating windows is not a one-time adventure, it's what you're subscribing to do every now and then.
source: am recovering windoholic.
OneNote re-installing and re-adding itself to my startup after I absolutely turned it into swiss cheese was my final nail in the coffin.
Windows now lives in an image file that I can boot into using Linux as a thin client to start up a Windows VM for the occasional time I need to do some heavy Excel work. Absolute trashware.
I just did a fresh install of windows 11 last week, after my attempt to switch to Plasma on ~~Debian~~ Fedora did not go very well. While it's absolutely true that some de-bloating must be done right after install, it took me like 15 minutes. I spent at least that long just finding the three different goddamn places I had to go to change the wallpaper in Plasma.
*Edit: wrong flavor of linux
The problem is you used Debian which is missing bug fixes for KDE, and is on a frankly ancient 5.27 - I have had nothing but an awesome experience on KDE 6, with both VRR, and HDR, working under Wayland.
Recommend trying a rolling release
Unironically, I find Arch easier to use than Debian
With the CLI guided install the barrier to entry is also super low now. The only thing I'm still battling is GPU video acceleration with Firefox.
Whoops, I was actually using Fedora. I had to go check the kde website, as that is where I got it from and thought it would be weird if they recommended something so out of date.
Fun coincidence, when I was about to write a supporting comment to this thread, my Fedora 42 running on X1 Carbon hard froze without any apparent reason and I had to hard reboot it.
I'd like to try Linux with minimal commitment and no setup. Give it real test drive with some of my most important tools.
If and when I decide to make the switch, I want to have access to my normal windows machine. I'd keep it around if I need it. But prefer if it went away slowly. I want to work with and communicate with windows users with neither of us having to jump through weird hoops.
I want my printer to work.
Problems will come up, but I don't want it to dominate my time.
I'm sure most of you will say not to worry, but until I've logged some real hours, I will.
I recommend downloading a Live Linux distribution and booting it from a USB stick.
This let's you try out linux without making any changes to your Windows setup. It also lets you make sure linux detects all your computer's hardware. If the live session works fine, the it will detect all that same hardware when you install it for real.
I installed Linux on a secondary hard drive in case I needed to get back on Windows for anything. So far it's been a few months and I haven't needed to, so I'm considering having Windows in a virtual machine or just getting rid of Windows instead.
Lost four installations at my house, and I have Microsoft certifications professionally so I'm fairly invested.
Likely to be another few as I move the rest of my immediate family over to Linux slowly also.
Yup, with ya brother. I have Microsoft certifications dating back to NT4. I've never been bothered by anything Microsoft has done, with the possible exception of WinME. I have done thousands of installs for friends and family. When MS started actively preventing me from installing W11 to "older" hardware and requiring a login, I started looking into Linux. I had run Slackware in the 90s so figured Arch couldn't be that bad... It was actually easier than I remembered.
That was 2 years ago. This past weekend my Dad had somehow been force upgraded even though I had group policies in place to prevent upgrades past 22H2, and he wasn't happy with the result. Brought Linux Mint, booted from the USB and asked him to do everything he normally does on Windows. Almost all of his activities are browser based so I installed it and have yet to get any calls asking questions.
Most of my machines are Linux, and I can say the desktop experience still doesnβt match up with Windows. And thereβs still so many third party tools that are Windows exclusive.
I would love to be able to shut down every Windows machine I have for good, and Iβve tried, but there are simply many things that still require Windows. Stop gaslighting people, and acting like theyβre staying by choice.
If all you need is web based stuff, why even go to Linux? Thatβs overkill. Just use a tablet.
I mostly just game and browse the Internet and my daily driver is Linux. I have not come across anything that I needed Windows for so far, in a year and a half of not using Linux. There may be some games I was vaguely interested in that don't run easily on Linux, but day to day tasks, 3d printing/slicing software, basic image editing software, browsers, coding IDEs, all work native on Linux.
Sure, if there is a specific software that you really want to use, maybe that specific software isn't available on Linux. But one individual running into multiple things that only run on Windows sounds like it is a fairly specific use case. At best, someone might need to use an alternative program. At worst, maybe that person needs to keep a windows environment around. But that doesn't seem like the case for the majority of people.
For the vast majority of usecases it is ready, niche applications sure, but most people could use linux these days.
I am considering moving off windows but am extremely not tech-savvy. Is there a good place for me to start?
extremely not tech-savvy
You managed to make an account and post on Lemmy so you're probably underestimated your technical knowledge. That being said IMHO it's best to first list what software you use then find alternatives that work on Linux. Once that's done then yes sure try whatever distribution you want.
Sure, here are instructions for getting Linux Mint running: https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
These instructions are for creating a USB flash drive that functions as both a live environment or an installer. If you don't want to install it yet, this allows you to try it out while booting just from the flash drive, without modifying your hard drive at all.
Plus, once you get done de-bloating Windows, the next Windows update will undo all your hard work and reset everything back to "allow all bloatware and spyware." It's a battle you're never going to win unless you ditch Windows completely.
It takes less 2 hours really. Playbooks exist now and makes it way easier to use Windows XP 11. Cuz that's all anyone really wants.
I am a happy Debian user, but TBH, it doesn't take too much longer than 2 hours with Chris Titus Tech's winutil.
If you know the right tool for the task, very few things take time. IMHO what's more problematic is that with enshitification you're swimming upstream. Sure as long as the maintainer finds the right trick, you can postpone indefinitely bad "surprises" but ultimately, why do so when proper alternatives more aligned with your Worldview exist?
I agree! But I guess it is a good option for those who still just have to stick, for e.g. IT reasons. That script does a little bit more than a lot of debloating.
Could be any reasons, right? Gotta be mindful of those!...
...
Legacy personal projects!
Visual Studio!
Some games!
The sudden need for a Windows-only tool!
And some people still don't want to switch away from... say, their Adobe tools. They don't want to!
They don't want to is what!
Same for say... those who want to play multiplayer games with... unfortunately, kernel-anti cheats...
There's also folk who are stuck for organizational reasons like Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Here in India, Linux "market-share" jumped up to 14%, sure, but many, many people want to stick to Windows. Linux is an alien concept to most.