Home › Forums › Computers, Games and Technology › Linux Users: To Switch or No?
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Anonymous 2 years, 11 months ago.
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Currently using Windows. Getting really tired of their s~~~ being buggy all the time. I’m considering making the switch, but I wanted to get some insight. Brother’s a Linux user and he loves it, but he says there is a learning curve. Thoughts?
Before making the switch, honestly look at your computer use and what types of programs you need. Then find out if there are sufficient programs available for your needs in Linux, and if none are available, look into WINE and see if it can run programs you use in Windows in Linux with no problems. Then and only then do i recommend a complete switch. Alternatively, you can set up a dual boot machine.
As for the learning curve, minimal as the GUIs are similar and nothing you wont be able to learn in one sitting.
I dual boot window 7 and Linux (Ubuntu) for some time and have the best of both world.
For the average user, there should be no different with Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) bar some learning curve. Ubuntu that I use is user friendly enough and there are many feature that is similar with windows.
If you are big on games or have software that needs comparability then you need window 7.
In my work environment I use VMWare (Virtual Operating System) to run window XP, window 7.
However the real reason for me to avoid Window 10 is PRIVACY and RISK OF POLICE ARREST.
MGTOW will be label under hate speech.
Microsoft is f~~~ing with privacy and cooperate with Big Government for “Hate Speech”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/31/facebook-youtube-twitter-microsoft-eu-hate-speech-codeAnd people in France, Uk, Germany get arrested by the police for hate speech.
Police raid homes over Facebook hate speechUse Linux and if you need software with window compatibility, use a virtual operating system on Linux. If you are big on games, make sure not to visit MGTOW using that PC.
There is no magic in MGTOW, just recognition of the truth and logical decision how to avoid dangers. The red pill is but the truth, it is no magical potion. Do not think in this modern world men have no longer have natural enemies, men are prey to women and government.
Well, I’ve been a linux user since 2001, best choice ever !
In Windows there a lot of things that you can’t customize, the system is bloated and a new version means that it will be slower.Linux keep things going, the same hardware, will run linux for a long time.
Try several window managers (aka environments) when you switch to linux, I would suggest i3 or dwm, they are a little bit harder to get used to, but it will worth, you will be able to do everything with just a few key strokes.
Another plus, windows have just one desktop, linux (and mac too), have several, its easier to organize your environment.
For example, I’ve an old machine (500 mhz, 1gb ram), that runs linux, and for the everyday tasks, it get the job done. With the same machine, even windows 7 is slow.
As stated by @duke togo, see what programs do you need. Basically everything has a Linux alternative. About office stuff, I would suggest an online/cloud linux GDocs, or if you want the best alternative, go to latex, the concept is different but you will never regret ! Basically is what we use to write scientific papers, if you use it with git (a version control software), you would be able to “travel in time” your document, version it, forget about “paper_final.doc” “paper_final2.doc” “paper_final1923.doc”. Any mistake made, any line that you’ve changed, you can see, and go “back and forward” in time, even if the change was 10 years ago.
Another plus, Linux is easy to use to make advanced tasks, for example you can access your disk, copy the whole disk as it is a file, store elsewhere and when you want to restore your backup, just copy that over your current disk. Search for a bash tutorial, it will help you to get started with most common commands and tricks.
Cons ? Well, there are cons, games are the big cons, you can play games with Wine, but there are several bugs. I’ve a windows gaming machine in home, is basically a console, I use it only for games. If you are the retro kind of person, like some oldschool games (DOS and old consoles, PS2 and Xbox or before era), you won’t feel any trouble running it on linux.
Anonymous3If you play a lot of games or have a lot of Windows legacy software, then Linux might not work too well. However more games are getting Linux releases so this is less of a concern.
Also overclocking and temperature monitoring I haven’t found much on Linux.
For Linux you also rely on them having driver support, sometimes you will have trouble getting sound and such.
Seems like Linux is better with a bit older but not too old computers.
If you are just an average user that maybe streams videos, surfs the web etc., Linux is probably better. Steam and GOG have a lot of Linux releases too so if you play some of the smaller games and some older games that might work too. And if Vulkan takes off then the newer games will probably get Linux releases as well.
Installing third party programs can be a major annoyance on Linux, as well as Linux is more suited for a large main system drive. I don’t think it handles multiple drives all too well.
Ubuntu used to have a way of installing it inside your current windows install called WUBI. This lets you test it out without f~~~ing with you current windows setup at all. No partitioning or anything needed. That way, should you find out it’s not for you, you can uninstall it without ever impacting your current windows.
That seems the safest way to try out linux, assuming WUBI is still a thing. It also lets you ease your way into linux as you slowly get used to the linux equivalents of windows applications.
@phoenix, nice point mentioning GOG, they are my favourite source of games !
Well, from old hardware (for example a single core, 32bits processor with 256mb of memory) to large servers, linux have and incredible compatibility, better than windows in this point. But what you said, about legacy software on windows, is another point that I forgot, some legacy software, won’t ever work on linux, even with WINE.
@KingOfSea You can use virtual box, for running those software, imagine it as an SNES emulator, but instead an SNES, it emulate an entire computer inside your computer, so you will be able to install windows (or any other operating system) there (an old version to run that legacy software), so you won’t need a separate windows installation just for one or two pieces of software.
@phoenix about installing software, ubuntu and debian have a software catalog, something similar to the play store on android and app store for apple.
Is something that you can just ask to install a software, and it will install the software and all their dependencies, not like windows that you have to install them manually. Also, everything is downloaded automatically, you don’t have to worry about clicking in the wrong “download” button and getting a malware.
Some softwares, like those for specific scientific tasks, are easier to install on linux, and some didn’t even have a windows version or equivalent, but in the other hand, HR and ERP software, all that I’ve seen was only for windows.
And about the disk, IMHO Linux and all Unix systems handle disks in the best way imaginable, but is so flexible that I can sound confusing sometimes.
You can group several disks, and make then appear in the system as just one disk, on windows you have partitions (C, D, E…). Linux and Unix works in another way, you have the root (aka / dir), and everything goes under that directory, but for example, you can have in your desktop a folder, that this folder is the “fusion” of 8 disks, but your documents are stored in the same disk that your system is installed. When you navigate trough folders, it will be transparent to you, but in your setup you can do some small miracles like raid, encryption, replication.
Anonymous3Oh yeah that was the other thing that would annoy me about Linux.
I generally keep my games and other programs I want downloaded on my hard drive. You can’t really do that easily on Linux, you have to be online to get the programs and install them. And then if your internet connection goes you while installing that can cause you an issue too.
Firewalls also work differently on Linux and are far less user friendly.
Personally I do not think Linux is ready for mainstream yet. I know how to get around a bunch of this stuff, but it’s a pain in the ass and not user-friendly. Win7 Ultimate is still the best OS right now for most users.
Win10 is good in some ways but the spying and various other issues overall make it problematic. It’s too bad too, it’s actually a good OS in terms of performance.
I suspect I will stop gaming on PC in about 5 years anyway, when it’s time for a new build. At that point, I will look at Linux again, because I kind of doubt Windows will be consumer friendly again. I build enthusiast systems right now, but if I’m going to quit gaming I don’t need that, and Linux is perfectly fine for say a laptop or something like that.
I generally keep my games and other programs I want downloaded on my hard drive. You can’t really do that easily on Linux, you have to be online to get the programs and install them.
That could be easily resolved with hard media repositories. Nobody seems willing to make them, though. Online publishing is so much cheaper for the publisher. Which is why windows is going the same way. What are the bottom end users going to do once win7 is end-of-lifed?
Anonymous3You should really read up before you make the switch. I gave Windows 10 the axe because of the spying issues. I wouldn’t mind as much if I was being paid, but since they’ll probably never do that, it was time to part ways.
I went from Debian, to Trisquel, to Ubuntu. I learned a lot over the installations and customizations, but I really should have had a hardcopy book and some intensive research. Nothing broke, but I could of saved a lot of head ache had I studied better from a reliable source.
@walnutknight avoid ubuntu, it not so safe to keep updating it, I’ve several headaches updating it. If you use it for an email/web/database server, no problem, but mix several different scientific software there, and things may be break when updated.
Debian is by it philosophy the most stable, an extensive testing in everything is made before releasing anything.
@phoenix is fun how we have an opposite point of view in this matter. But as things are going, is possible that you next build would be a linux machine. Mac isn’t made for gaming, and I’ve heard that valve/steam were creating the steam console, a linux based game console. I keep a windows machine here for playing games, but I think that I will need an upgrade to keep playing, fallout 4 run at 12 fps here ! Just for curiosity, did you ever tried to run fallout 4 ? What is your build, and does this run smooth ?
Anonymous3The thing with Linux is it really isn’t as customizable as people say, it’s actually very similar to Google’s design philosophy in that they have a certain vision of how they want things and if you don’t care or are on board with that, it’ll be great for you, but if you don’t like that it really isn’t for you.
There’s a good chance I won’t have a next build, the way gaming is going I like less and less of it as years go on. I have enough older games that I’m okay with, and I read more books anyway.
FO4 I tried but didn’t like much. I played it on my previous build, which was an AMD Phenom II 965 and a GTX 670. My current PC build is a Skylake 6700k and GTX 1060.
@phoenix that was the main reason that I bought a mac to work, Linux is too customisable, believe me, if you can code, you can do absolutely what ever you want. My point that I’ve to say “ok, that’s enough, time to do other thing”, was when I was using the dwm (a windows manager), and modifying it’s source code to fit my needs, it’s small, around 2k lines of code the original one, and when I realised, it was doing what I wanted, but was with 6k lines of code.
But as another example, I’ve 4 machines at home, to copy all new files (incremental backup) from all of them to one machine, compress into a single file, encrypt it, and upload to the cloud, was only needed 4 lines of code.
I don’t know how many window managers did you looked at, or what kind of customisations you are talking about, but far as I can imagine, every single line of code, you can change it to whatever you want. Except for a few proprietary ati drivers and ralink (wifi card) firmware.
This is a problem that I’ve, that happened with the mac too, but here the environment is more closed and less customisable, I just get p~~~ed off at itunes, and as it is closed source I decided to wrote a small music player that works as I want it to work. But that’s it, I promised myself that I wont reinvent the wheel again hahaha
Well, I can’t say if I liked it or not, but fallout 1, 2 and 3 are fantastic games. New vegas was disappointing, the plot was so no sense that looks like it were written in 20 minutes.
FO4 I tried but didn’t like much. I played it on my previous build, which was an AMD Phenom II 965 and a GTX 670. My current PC build is a Skylake 6700k and GTX 1060.
That’s a sweet setup !! The best thing in my setup is an ATI 5770 hahaha that’s a shame !
Wow, thanks everyone for all the input. I had some more s~~~ happen on my laptop yesterday, so I think it’s pretty much a “yes” at this point…just need to decide what build I want to go with. Definitely will be doing my homework first, though.
Ubuntu used to have a way of installing it inside your current windows install called WUBI. This lets you test it out without f~~~ing with you current windows setup at all. No partitioning or anything needed. That way, should you find out it’s not for you, you can uninstall it without ever impacting your current windows.
That’d be ideal. Ubuntu is what my brother suggested and what he uses himself. I’ll be looking into WUBI.
I love Linux myself. For a development environment I use Debian. As a recommend for new Linux users I suggest Linux Mint. I dislike Ubuntu because of the Unity desktop.
If you would like to try Linux out, just download one of the live disk images and burn it to CD-Rom, then boot from the CD-rom and you can try it out without it installing to your hard drives. This is a great way to find the best option for your needs. I often use a Linux live disk to do system recovery and repair work.
https://www.linuxmint.com/
https://www.debian.org/If you have windows programs you need to get real work done, or games you can use WINE to run native windows programs or Virtual Box to run windows as a virtual OS inside of your Linux desktop.
Dual boot is also a fine solution. Linux can read NTFS file systems so you can access your files from the Linux desktop. I think the switch is very worthwhile, and for me Windows 10 spyware edition is a “no way in hell” option.
Speak softly, strike accurately and hit with the force of a thermonuclear bomb
I love Linux myself. For a development environment I use Debian. As a recommend for new Linux users I suggest Linux Mint. I dislike Ubuntu because of the Unity desktop.
[…]I think the switch is very worthwhile, and for me Windows 10 spyware edition is a “no way in hell” option.
First off, love Black Bolt.
Never heard of Debian. I’ve just recently tried Ubuntu from a thumb drive…it was so-so. I’ll give Mint a try.
Amen on the spyware.
Black Bolt is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters (I am a huge comic book nerd). I always loved the concept of his amazing willpower and self-control. Most people think his powers are what define him, where as I feel it is how he deals with his powers that defines him. Plus he was created by the legendary Jack “The King” Kirby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bolt
http://snarkfree.blogspot.com/2006/05/black-bolt-king-of-kickass-or-black.htmlDebian is the tree from which both Ubuntu and Mint come from. It is the basis of both. If you look into Debian you will see that they have one of the strongest foundations of any Linux Distro. They are highly dedicated to the GNU/Open Source concept of development and progress, and have resisted all moves to attempt to co-opt and commercialize the movement.
Depending on your needs, Linux Mint will probably have something that fits it.
The different versions of Mint are delineated by the desktop windows manager they use.
Linux Mint Mate version = Current general purpose version, a fork of the gnome windows manager.
Linux Mint Cinnamon version = Experimental Desktop variant
Linux Mint KDE version = KDE plasma desktop, highest level of eye-candy. Most complete desktop replacement for windows. (If you have a relatively powerful computer)
Linux Mint XFCE version = Lightweight desktop, great for old systems or for those who don’t need or want the eye candy.Let me know if you have any questions or need some support in making the move.
Speak softly, strike accurately and hit with the force of a thermonuclear bomb
Linux, linux to switch or not.
Alright, On my set up I have three laptops. One MSI GE72 that I mentioned back then with a nice semi-custom desktop setup with Arch linux running XFCE, Which kinda looks like Windows XP at first, But like the others have mentioned here, you can run more then one environment. And in some cases you can replace parts of your system. I’ll skip the details about that for now.
The second is a Asus M70VN. Basically a 8 year old laptop with a nice 17 inch 1920×1200 screen. With the same Arch linux set up, only this time I used a third party installer called architect to install the system to save time. I couldn’t do that on my MSI since it was new, and the installer had issues with the nvidia card, or something. I forgot why that is.
The third set up is my HP probook laptop running centos with XFCE. Sadly though I had to do a CLI install similar to Arch again to get XFCE. This system gets at least seven years of support last time I checked. This is the machine I use to travel, and it’s the second machine with a SSD. My gaming system has a SSD and a HDD so my boot up time is 5 to 10 seconds. When it had windows 8.1 the boot up time took at least a min.
If you are installing a distro. It is best to try to stay away from the Ubuntu spin offs as Ubuntu is know to screw up with developing software, packages and UI wise.
This video may be six years old, But most of the issues still apply to this day. Here is a somewhat new video.
Actions have consequences and consequences have prices. Cause and effect at work.
And a recent one. This guy even used Ubuntu as a main Os, but had to go elsewhere due to unstable set up of that os.
Linux mint however I don’t know for sure If it’s a good system to recommend. It’s a mixed bag with that one.
Actions have consequences and consequences have prices. Cause and effect at work.
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