get linux if you haven’t already
if you don’t know how, ask, Lemmy is covered in Linux users
I’m building a new gaming PC and it’s going to be a Linux build and if it doesn’t work the way you guys keep insisting it will, I swear to God.
My last experience with Linux was with Ubuntu about 10 years ago and I can’t say it was a particularly great experience I’m hoping that in the last decade it’s improved its user experience.
I’m not a Linux hater (believe it or not), but I’m definitely not an evangelist either, and I think this eternal praise for Linux is just not warranted.
If you want things to “just work” in any capacity, then you’re in for a bad time.
Personally, I don’t want Windows 11 on my next PC, but I don’t have the time or the desire to get into the troubleshooting hell that unfortunately is Linux either.
People say that anything is possible on Linux, but at the same time roast you for even thinking that it’s not gonna take enormous amounts of un-learning and self education when coming from Windows.
Linux fanboys who don’t see it’s faults can be sort of toxic.
I don’t doubt that I’ll get downvoted for this, but I think there need so be more differing opinions on Linux on here.
If you want things to “just work” in any capacity, then you’re in for a bad time.
Most things do. Not everything obviously, but that’s true for Windows and everything else too. Technology is complex.
People say that anything is possible on Linux, but at the same time roast you for even thinking that it’s not gonna take enormous amounts of un-learning and self education when coming from Windows.
You see, this is the issue. Of course it’s going to behave differently. It’s an entirely different system. The issues come when people switch to Linux and expect Windows still. It isn’t Windows. You have to be ready and willing to learn how Linux works, and willing to adapt to what it does differently. For example, on Windows most applications check for updates when they launch and you have to go to a website to get them. On Linux, once a package is installed, your package manager handles all updates for you and you never have to worry about it again, besides just telling the package manager to update occasionally.
Linux fanboys who don’t see it’s faults can be sort of toxic.
Obviously it has faults. I don’t know anyone who says otherwise. Windows users who ignore that they’ve just gotten used to all of Window’s faults are horrible though. I spent a long time learning to avoid or fix the faults of Windows, and I stopped seeing them because that’s just the way things were. Once I switched to Linux and don’t have to deal with them anymore, they become clear. It’s not a user friendly OS. Users just got used to it because they had to. They can also get used to Linux of they want too, for free and without a company harvesting their data or trying to push stuff on them.
Nobara or Bazzite are your best Linux options for gaming. I’ve been on Nobara for over a year with nothing but good things to say about the distro and its community.
AMD or NVidia?
Most games that I play work well on Linux with AMD. Most who have problems seem to have Nvidia. Anti-cheat stuff can be an exception though so best to ensure what you enjoy works.
If you can check hardware compatibility before hand, it helps. An up to date kernel like Fedora, OpenSuse TW or Arch can help. Wine recommends up to date kernel.
Please update this if you fun into the usual brick wall of hand modifying config files or self-compiling some obscure git pull just to make basic things like audio and network work.
If you’re going that far, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. Please ask for help before digging into compiling stuff, unless that’s what you’re into, there’s probably a simpler solution.
It sounds like the version they were using didn’t have the right drivers in the build. Seems a lot of work to go to just to get new drivers.
If the source is available somewhere, but it’s not in your distro’s repos, there’s probably a good reason for that. Ideally just get better hardware. A WiFi chip is usually something like $20-30 and is replaceable on most laptops and desktops. An audio card can be bypassed with USB or a PCIe add-in card. That’s pretty much everything this might apply to.
How many people have these issues with audio and networking? I currently have 8 Linux computers and none of this has been necessary on any of them. It surprises me how many people claim to have endless difficult experiences. Many distros make it all very easy these days.
And editing a config file is hardly a “brick wall”.
Its definitely a brick wall to a majority of people using Windows right now.
If you made it to Lemmy, it probably isn’t. I’d bet most Windows users here have modified their registry files at least once. If you can do that, you can handle Linux without an issue. People just forget how much they’ve had to deal with on Windows, but expect Linux to have zero problems.
editing a config file is hardly a “brick wall”.
No it’s not but it’s also not something I’m prepared to put up with. When I turn my computer on it’s because I have something I want to do and the thing I want to do with it is not mess with the basic configuration.
Personally I’d advise against linux then. even if it means a million downvotes here.
Windows or actually OSX (if you’re ok with mac hardware) or chromeos will work much better for people who don’t ever want to do any basic configuration of their system. All of those have their own issues of course, so it’s a tradeoff for the user to consider. If doing no basic config is the #1 requirement, then I think that rules out linux as the correct choice.
If a user would stay maybe 12-24 months behind the cutting edge then they might be ok with a rolling release. The one time I did get a latest gen Wifi/BT card, I had to migrate from Debian to Arch to get it working.
I belive the only way youll get that experince with linux is with defined hardware - laptops or steamdeck. Linux is never going to cover all possible bleeding edge hardware combinations in a custom PC with no user config effort.
Until or unless linux becmes bigger than MS, and all HW manufactures get theur linux drivers working before the device goes on sale, as a matter of course. Never gonna happpen unless MS actually goes bust or something. I can’t see linux ever competing in B2B market; do all linux distributers combined have the resources to smarm up to a million corpo procurement twats? I don’t think so.
I have a question. Have you modified registries in Windows? If so, you’ve done harder stuff than Linux will ask of you already. You just don’t think about it anymore.
Once Linux is set up (which is trivial now), it’s easier to manage than Windows. How often do you have something to do, launch the app, the app sends you to a website for an update, then you have to navigate there and download it, run it, and restart? On Linux, as long as you tell your package manager to update occasionally, all your applications will be kept up to date. Applications don’t have to manage updates themselves and you just need to hit a few buttons or type one command and you’re updated.
Unfortunately brand new hardware has issues more often than not. I had to get a beta build just to get wifi to work on one system I built.
I have Linux up and running and it’s definitely improved, I’ve fixed almost all the issues I’ve had previously. Unfortunately, discord is missing attenuation on Linux. This is a real problem for me and if I could find a solution, I could ditch windows.
Use Bazzite! Works great now even with Nvidia cards. Been able to run anything the same as I did on windows before. Was able to get VR working too pretty quickly by using ALVR
For gaming, I recommend Garuda. It has a preset for gaming in particular with a lot of packages you’ll need to install, and a tool to install extra things you may want, like software for controllers and things like that. I think it also has the Nvidia drivers built in (I’m AMD though, so I’m not sure) which isn’t always the case. It’s also Arch based, so the Arch wiki, which is one of the best Linux information sources, will all work, and it can access the Arch User Repository (AUR) where users upload packages, which may be important. For example, Runescape doesn’t work on Linux as is, but there is a package on the AUR for a launcher that works.
There are dozens of us.
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All of my devices except my work one are now Linux.
I have an old surface go 2 that good a massive new lease on life from using arch plasma. Double the battery life and everything. It could no longer get updates from MS because there was no longer enough space on the main drive to download and install the next update.
Then I have an old retro gaming pc that used to be for XP gaming but I ended up sticking bazzite on it for a test and it’s stayed that way and because of that when I built my girlfriend’s latest PC we decided to go bazzite desktop for her. And after getting past a few growing pains at the beginning that made it look like we made the wrong decision (due to an old 10xx gtx gpu - now on 3050) she’s been enjoying it and now it’s just standard.
Then I have my proper gaming PC that I use like a console so I put bazzite-deck on it as soon as I got an AMD card. And I’ve never felt better. HTPC console like gaming on windows was a fucking arse-on, even with steam big picture mode, because it doesn’t get all of the cool bells and whistles that let you control basic system settings right from steam like you can on steam os and bazzite deck.
For work I’ve started moving away from visual studio to VS Code (i know it’s still MS but I do C# .NET work and rider is too expensive, I don’t want a subscription for an IDE) to allow me to easily transition to fully working on Linux if the opportunity ever arises. Whether it be with my current employer and me convincing them to let me to install Linux on my laptop or with a future company. We’ll see which comes first ;)
Now it’s time to get and decouple from Google. Currently figuring out with android auto maps app I want (waze won’t run for some reason, my current winner at the moment is tom tom amigo). Then it’s on to getting a password manager, then a new browser (preferably way more lightweight than chrome) and potentially a Google pay replacement(?).
Any suggestions and opinions from anyone here - even though this is tangentially off topic - would be greatly appreciated.
Btw Rider is now free for non commercial use
This is for my job…
You could ask your employer for a license I guess
Then I’m reliant on my current workplace rather than figuring out a consistent way to code at work, outside of work and at any other future workplace.
Don’t want to have to get used to one kind of workflow to then not being able to use it in another setting.
Use the free Rider for home and ask any new employer for a commercial license. It’s a pretty mainstream piece of software. There’s really no reason an employer should force you to use Visual Studio.
For those times I need Microsoft tools, I keep a Windows VM handy on my Linux PC. I feel much better keeping Windows contained and mostly turned off.
I’m not being forced to use visual studio. But because of dev ops licenses we get visual studio licenses alongside it so because of that the company isn’t willing (and rightly so in my opinion) to foot the expensive (for a small company) bill for rider.
Which is why I’ve landed on vs code.
With the efforts I’m doing to try and de-google / de-big US tech this needs to be my next move.
Trying to convince my better half to do it on his laptop is a pain. I’m under if you degoogle my chromebook now or once it loses support.
I’m going to grad school soon for cs and they require windows 11. This is gonna be a fun test in locking down my machine and only doing updates with intention
Never heard of this before. They may recommend it, but not require.
You can dual boot or use a virtual machine. Both are pretty easy to setup.
I had a class that “required” Windows, I did just fine with Linux. YMMV.
It’s a pretty bold move to advertise the inclusion of a key logger in your OS.
Not just keylogger. It’s a screenlogger too.
Ardamax Keylogger takes screenshots too, should they change the name?
Yes.
Youd already be using Linux Mint or Ubuntu if you cared about not being data mined.
I’ve been Linux only since 2016, after a decade of "trying " to move over. I do still have a partition for the increasingly rare event that I need something MS, which so far has been one class in my University that required a lockdown browser for a test.
Mint is easy to use too if you don’t want to fiddle around with various packages.
“But most significantly, Microsoft has made Recall a feature you must opt in to using rather than opt out of using, and it’s possible to remove it completely.”
Important bit
“Whoopsie, we turned it on for everyone by accident after an update! We made a fucky wucky!”
“Whoopsie, turns out we lied and recall was enabled from the start and just pretended to be off” 😄🤷♂️
“we noticed you uninstall Recall. Probably just an accident. We reinstalled it in an unremovable way and enabled it for you. You’re welcome!”
Edit: autocorrect
😎 Me having set only security updates in my windows, after it tried to install the 24H2 update.
They will claim it’s security based
If they want to pay 2-3 Billions to EU for breaking laws, let them. I will also make so money suing them.
Didn’t they require one of these bigger upgrades to still get security updates? I thought I read something about 23H2 (or similar) not getting updates anymore.
Yeah, 23H2 has updates until November. Pretty funny if you think Windows 10 22H2 ends in October.
Most MS controversial features go through “opt in -> opt out -> mandatory” pipeline examples are Telemetry, Windows Live account, Spotlight (ui ads), etc.
This is good. There are probably some edge cases for this. I work in IT for some companies using industrial automation. Being able to roll back and watch what people do when errors or problems occur is a good feature. Similarly on high value servers I would like this as well.
Being able to turn it on is better than having to apply policies to disable. I don’t see this as a big problem anymore.
I’m not sure if you understood the comment you responded to…
There is a big concern of it recording confidential information that could be leaked as well.
opt in for now.
For now, anyway. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Good! In my opinion this entirely changes the feature to acceptable.
Also it’s not available on x86-64 CPUs. You need an ARM CPU with an NPU. Microsoft’s reasoning is so that the AI shit can be processed locally to protect your privacy. Apparently they’ve never heard of GPUs before.
Welp… Linux it is, then
Would be interesting to see how microsoft kills windows in the long term and then be shocked as to how this happened
Kind of like how they fucked up and let zoom become the pandemic program everyone used despite skype being so established it had already become a verb like google? M$ really racking up those wins recently
Zoom was already everywhere in the business world before the pandemic.
Seems like Skype was only for personal users who were not very techy and wanted to make free calls overseas.
Yeah Skype was already dead by then and when normies wanted to start using video calls on the reg, they ended up with zoom either because their work were already using it elsewhere or from being recommended by others that had that as their reason.
Or the windows phone too
Zoom was so bad, too. It was so unreliable, it was missing basic features, the UI was unfriendly.
They’ve improved on each of these things slightly since then.
But it’s a testament to how bad Skype was that Zoom was found to be preferable.
I opt-out.
Me too… well using linux is technically opting out to that right?
It’s the only way to be sure Microsoft won’t sneakily turn it back on.
At least until they sneak it into VS Code’s telemetry. …only sort of joking.
VS Codium to the rescue.
Just like opting out of using a Microsoft account to log into windows, the grips will get tighter and tighter over time until you are forced to use butt hole ID to unlock your screen.
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I haven’t used windows home in decades, I deal with new installs of pro/enterprise all the time. You have to jump hoops now to create a local account.
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Domain or azure ad join is what I’m used to, but for personal machines and friends/family I do local accounts.
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My windows10 install still asks me to complete the setup…lol no
Have to admit, the name “Recall” does have a better ring to it than “Take a Screenshot Every 3 Seconds”.
Overseas devs have had the random screenshot to prove productivity happening for a while now. There’s a hundred ways around it. Most common is a second computer next to you dev machine.
Roll it back in please.
Copilot+ PCs have specific hardware requirements beyond the ones necessary to run Windows 11. The most significant is the requirement for a neural processing unit (NPU) that can process more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).
So in other words, copilot will be a huge enormous waste of electricity as it’s continuously training some shitty AI. Gottit.
Install Linux already, be done with this windows nonsense
I agree. But people also need to be ready for some of the Linux bullshit brings. I’ve switched recently and it’s never 100% smooth sailing. But at least no tracking and proprietary bullshit.
Yeah, this can be an unpopular opinion on Lemmy, because there’s a giant Linux circlejerk. But the unfortunate reality is that changing to Linux does have some major stumbling blocks. The “switching is so easy, just do it” crowd totally glosses over it, but that’s kind of rhetoric doesn’t help long term adoption. Because if some new user has only heard “switching is so easy” and immediately runs into issues, they’ll be more likely to go “well if it’s super easy and I can’t figure it out, I guess it’s just not for me” and abandon things.
There’s also a very vocal (and toxic) part of the Linux community that basically just screams “RTFM” at every newbie question. New users shouldn’t be expected to dig into a 350 page technical document just to learn the basics of their new OS.
Yea… The biggest wtf moment was
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Logitech doesn’t have Linux drivers… I didn’t know this before switching. It’s not really Linux’s fault, but users won’t care. The fact that something as basic as a mouse and keyboard need tinkering sucks
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Nvdia drivers are wonky and buggy it took me 2h to configure my two monitor setup. Again, really not Linux’s fault, but people won’t care
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Same random bugs like suspend not working, or extern drives randomly mounting, it’s little things
So yea… I like Linux way better than Windows now, but “just switch everything works” simply isn’t true and we have to be honest.
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Bullshit like what? That most stuff just does as advertised?
Yeah, there will be technical issues here and there, but are you really going to claim widows doesn’t have technical issues?
I’ve been doing Linux desktop for over 25 years now and every time I look at windows it’s always because of some bullshit technical issue and I always have to wonder why people pay for that shit
every linux user: Oh no…well anyway
Tbh I’d pay money for a foss alternative here. There are smart systems in KDE and Gnome already but if it could recall exact details on free software it would be awesome.
You can install key and screen loggers if you want. Could even setup offsite backup and rclone it all wherever you want.
In 2005 Windows was like 95% of the desktop/laptop market. Today it’s 70-75%. Since then mobile phones usurped a lot of functionality that used to require a desktop/laptop. Windows dependency is going to keep trending down both in just desktop/laptop or including mobile devices
We live in weird age, where using Windows is becoming harder than Linux (even though it has its own issues).
We’ve been there for a long time.
Broadly speaking, outside of some specific niche workflows, Linux has been pretty easy for a long time, and Windows has a lot of unintuitive stuff that we only think is easy because we’re used to it.
Linux and Windows certainly both have their failings, but it feels like Linux’s generally stem from the lack of full time developers on projects, whereas failings in Windows often feel like a deliberate user-hostile choice.
Get recalled
