I switched to Linux!
I switched to Linux!
Fedora, it fucking slaps and worked right out of the box. I'm using it for work and play on my main rig! I dual boot for some very specific hardware things that are not normal, but other than that it's been seamless! When I booted into Windows 10 again, they auto installed copilot... Glad to be done with this crap.
Congratulations! In the years I've been using Linux it's only gotten better and Windows worse.
This is the year of Linux on desktop
Of course Tom Bombadil uses Linux in his cute little cottage.
trans
Linux
It was foretold.
Chicken vs egg...
Congrats, and welcome to the linux community!
Someone asked me to help them set up a bluetooth device on windows today and I couldn't even work the start menu. It sucks so bad. Linux causes some problems sometimes, but overall it spoils you.
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speaking as a person who only ever used node on their free time, i've done it it on linux and mac and it's always a pain in the ass. i try to avoid it. can't image how bad it is on windows.
never used WSL
I'm a boring desktop Debian 12 user. I take advantage of a backported kernel and I use the winehq repo from the website, but otherwise, Debian does everything I need it to do. Fedora is good though! I used it for over a year and I don't foresee you having too many problems.
Wine only really gives me trouble on old niche mod tools for certain games and anti cheats. Old games run really well on linux, 9x games and XP games that normally give windows trouble, just work. Modern games usually launch with negligible performance hits. Controller support is awesome. I have random 3rd party ps3 controllers that more or less just work (I have to remap the buttons usually, but that's a 20 sec fix.)
My only recommendation is try to stick to rpm packages instead of over relying on flatpaks/snaps. I don't care what anyone says, flatpaks/snaps tend to fill up your storage devices faster and it's not a good default when many people are still working with <2tb of storage.
Ignoring all my ramblings, welcome to linux!
In an ideal state the more flatpaks you use the more efficient it is per flatpak. If you download one flatpak you also need the runtimes for it. If you download 10 flatpaks and they all share the runtime then the cost of having the runtime isn't so high, comparatively.
But as it turns out, some flatpaks don't update in sync with others and now you have multiple runtime flatpaks. If you use Nvidia drivers now you have the Nvidia driver installed twice on your system: the main install and the flatpak version of it. Ditto for Mesa. Stupid things like that.
I still use Flatpaks, though.
yeah, its not like you need 2TB of ssd for flatpaks but they can eat up a big chunk of storage it you have say, <250 gb, or more if you actually have a lot of files to store too. And they can sometimes have permissions hiccups/headaches too. I tend to like them better than the alternative (snap or appimage) but across several distros I've noticed that native rpm/deb/etc packages usually have more care put into the fit and finish/quality of life aspects by the maintainer
The impression I got from dabbling in fedora is that they highly push the flatpacks/snaps. I don't think the distro is very interested in having a centralized repo in the same way as debian or arch which are the two flavors I'm more framiliar with. They prefer this "immutable" model; it is a different thing. I didn't get it. But their repos are sparse, the GUI package manager is trash. I gave up due in main part to having to constantly install outside the package manager.
However that problem is highly contingent on my own use cases. If someone doesn't happen to need a lot of software which is missing in the system package manager, then it is not a problem for them. If it works, it works.
Ignoring all my ramblings too, welcome to linux!
"immutable" model
It's not called immutable but instead "atomic" where the system is based on OCI image containers where upgrades take you from image A -> B and not updating individual packages.
But their repos are sparse
Compared to Arch or Nix yeah but it can easily be extended with COPRs and RPMFusion.
GUI package manager is trash
Not their fault lol, you gotta take it up with GNOME Software/packagekit. I like KDE Discover though. The system package manager DNF4 is getting an upgrade next release which should make it significantly faster which was always a complaint with Fedora.
I gave up due in main part to having to constantly install outside the package manager.
I solve this problem by installing Nix on top of Fedora, you can also install Nix (and then home-manager) on most Linux distros and it's a great way to get packages you want without polluting your system. It's honestly a better solution than trying to hunt for a native rpm/deb package. You could also install homebrew if you prefer that or distrobox.
I really like Fedora's 6 month release cycle (always stays on the ball with new features and changes) while not enforcing their view of the desktop (Ubuntu's snap model) on its users.
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They prefer this "immutable" model; it is a different thing
This is only true in Fedora Silverblue (Gnome) or Kinoite (KDE). There is no immutability component to a normal installation of Fedora.
Thanks!! I tried Debian, but after a day of trying to troubleshoot why it wouldn't launch... my hardware was too new LMAO!
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ONE OF USMe too. I chose Endeavour OS (arch btw). Basically off the meme...and coz it seemed pretty bare bones and a good way to learn.
The only app Linux dosent have is a local sync for box.com (similar to dropbox). But it's a service I need to move away from anyway.
Truly is the year for Linux as someone said.
looks like rclone supports box.com! I never used it for that but rclone is a real gem; give it a shot. You might need to set some time aside to RTFM but it's time well spent because it has such wide compatibility and works basically the same way for all the services. once you know it, you know it.
might not suit your use case but if you are looking for a free file sync service to get away from box.com, disroot.org has a nextcloud instance among various other services. i have used them on and off for years. nextcloud uses webdav.
Strongly seconding rclone. It's an amazing tool for turning the usual crap-security crap-privacy cloud storage into genuinely useful offsite storage.
If I've done it, it may actually be the year of the Linux desktop. I've tried to do it for about 15 years off and on.
Exact same boat. Normally it's install, mess around, break something/something dosnt work, back to windows.
This time I was able to do what I wanted, install Android APKs, change kernal, change boot order, and even write a short script to keep cotrix awake.
Hell yeah
Just FYI, if you have issues with video playback, you may need to install RPM Fusion and its multimedia codecs
I think I did... How do I check?
You could just follow the installation steps again. It shouldn't hurt anything even if everything is already installed.
I have been doing fedora/windows dual boot for a while too but I got sick of having to switch, so I'm switching to separate boxes once I get space and quarantining the windows off on its own
Well done!
Don't be afraid to ask for advice if anything should ariseIs there a command line bootcamp?
I found linuxjourney helpful for these things and it definitely provides a nice refresher. That site didn't exist when I started, so I can't say if it is helpful for learning these things the first time. I mostly used a thick book and relied on
man-pages, but having more stream-lined resources is definitely more satisfying.
Damn. Sounds cool. I despise windows (naturally) and sometimes want to do this too. I am scared because windows is all I’ve ever known, but on the other hand it’s now almost unrecognizable from what I grew up with and I don’t really know how to do anything on it anymore. If I was ever a computer person, I am certainly not one now. Think switching would be worth the effort for a simpleton like me?
- YT: Linux Mint 22: Excellent Distro for Windows Users by Explaining Computers.
Try watching this video, Linux isn't for "computer people" it's for people who reject being treated like trash and are searching for greener pastures.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Windows 8 almost destroyed my computer-illiterate father-in-law so I suggested he try Linux Mint and after a while he agreed. He was fine for the 3 or so years he used that laptop. There was an issue with it like 2 years after I did the install regarding the official repos being outdated and keeping regular updates from running but that was the only time I really had to mess with it for him.
I did my own distro hopping years ago and eventually settled on Linux Mint personally and I feel like it's probably among the better options for "just works" out of the box for people wanting to take the leap. I do know a lot of people praise Fedora with KDE too but I just never really got around to checking it out personally so can't vouch.
Even if you are computer illiterate, most stuff you need will be the official software center(repositories) of whatever distro you go with and it's all basically a one button click to install these days. But also command line isn't super scary either, but you mostly don't even need to use it for just everyday stuff.
Install it in a virtual machine and just full screen it and use it like that for a day. Ignoring that it's gonna run like ass you can get an idea of how things work, and if it doesn't work then just shut down the VM and go back to what you were doing before.
anything you change it will be a learning curve
sometimes you might not have the bandwidth for this
if you can then FUCK YES you should
start by making a liveboot USB. If you go by @hello_hello@hexbear.net 's reccomendation of Mint, follow he instructions only steps "live boot" and "download". It will not change anything on your computer. Only an experiment.
Well, honestly, yeah! Def get input from more seasoned folks, but most distributions have a "live" trial version thing where you run it off of a thumb drive without installing it. That way you can see how it behaves and poke around before you commit. The other way is to do a dual boot which gets a bit more technical but it's not extremely complicated. Another way to get the full experience is to find an old laptop and install it there to learn. A lot of the manually installed things through the terminal is hardly relevant anymore, it's gotten so much easier to use.
Edit: another plug for Linux Mint btw.
If I may ask, what specific hardware?
For my use case with proprietary hardware I use USB Passthrough with QEMU (Virt-Manager)
Anker webcam, rgb lighting, a handful of stubborn games (pirated) on the software side. I need to learn new photo editing software too, so I may have to pop in for Adobe here and there. Other cases may arise. I've used QEMU on my proxmox server, but I don't really know what I'm doing with it.
For games you can use Lutris and/or heroic with WINE and Proton.
RGB stuff you can use OpenRGB.
The Anker webcam doesn't work with your Linux install? What model?
I hear Gimp is getting a big update here in the near future. Not sure your use case. I don't do much photo editing anymore.
Virt-Manager is straight forward, and is a GUI that can work with QEMU.
Hope this helps :)
Darktable is a rather capable alternative to Lightroom
For photo editing, Gimp is about the same as Photoshop from 10 years ago.
For digital painting, Krita is good. I'm not a digital painter so I can't say how good.
For vector and design stuff, Inkscape is better than Illustrator. It's really good. (Except every non-Linux build of it I've used has been weirdly unstable.)
I've switched over to Krita from CS6, haven't done anything super complicated yet but so far I've loved the UI/UX and haven't found anything missing (unless you need stuff like built-in pantone colors)
Congrats, Fedora is a great choice to start with, it's well known as the "I just want things to work with minimal faffing" choice. You may want to have it installed on a separate drive rather than dual booting off the same drive if that's what you're doing, Windows likes to update and break grub.
Already on a dual drive!
Picked up a third slower and smaller one to migrate windows to so I'll have 4tb on my main drive.
Let me know if you have any specific games that are giving you problems. I also use Fedora (as of about 4 months ago) and dumped Windows entirely during that time.
Learning my way around Bottles was good to learn a bit more about how to troubleshoot my own Windows application compatibility problems so that I could troubleshoot problems that people hadn't already solved with Lutris community scripts.
Don't know what Lutris is... But I am wondering how I'm going to move my pirated games from Fit Girl and DOTI... Bottles I assume?
Lutris is an application where users commit installation/setup scripts for popular non steam games to manage setting up the environment to run them in.
Bottles is a similar program but the user is responsible for the setup process (that said it isn't completely unguided- usually making a new bottle, picking the gaming preset, and then running whatever installer you have is enough). Underneath the hood they use largely the same compatibility layers/technogies to run windows applications, but learning a little bit about bottles will help you work through scenarios where a lutris script doesn't exist or has been abandoned.
Based Fedora decision, never switch off of Fedora you can literally do anything you want on it. Make sure to read up on Linux documentation (either from Fedora themselves or other sources like the Arch wiki), the more you learn now, the less pain you'll get later when you have manually intervene in something. Fedora is legitimately one of the best operating systems in the world and I'm so glad you found it. You can always ask questions in the libre comm if you wish.My best piece of advice to new Linux users is to always discover and learn about more free software rather than trying to fit proprietary programs, you'd be surprised at how unnecessary old habits were (example: using ffmpeg/imagemagick to convert multimedia or yt-dlp to download youtube videos rather than going to websites or using standalone programs).
When I booted into Windows 10 again, they auto installed copilot...
they're rolling it out to an operating system they'll stop supporting next year. Microsoft can't stop grifting it's just in its nature.always discover and learn about more free software rather than trying to fit proprietary programs
you won't regret it
alternativeto.com is a fantastic resource to discover the libre alternative to whatever you have used previously
You can pry Gentoo from my cold dead hands, but Fedora was very pleasant to use for years, pretty robust, and what I set up for friends/family who aren't locked-in to the Microsoft ecosystem.
Thanks for the tip! I can only take in a little at a time on the info though. I'll def save the link. I loved W10, it was great when I first got it but look what they did to my boy!
