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LordWiggle ,
@LordWiggle@lemmy.world avatar

My win10 upgraded without asking. Win11 is horrible, I'm going to wipe and reinstall win10 again. As soon as update support stops, it's Linux for me. Screw Microsoft. They even added ads as notifications and they are going to put ads in the start menu. Wtf! This is the end of windows, I'm sure.

realitista ,

I'm using StartAllBack and have found it to be a rather nice experience.

LordWiggle ,
@LordWiggle@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah but that's only UI issues. It also runs much slower then win10. There are massive performance issues. Next to that I have less rights to do stuff. Few days ago I wasn't allowed to forget Bluetooth devices for example. Even in control panel bt settings. After XP it all went downhill with accessibility of settings. Fancy setting pages with restricted options. Why, what's wrong with control panel? I know it's still there, and we still have WIN+X but it's getting placed behind more sub menus and restrictions and more and more is being removed to make it idiot proof. But it's also locking me out. I want full control over my machine. No one tells me what I can and cannot access on my device. Fuck Microsoft.

realitista ,

I made all my accounts local only and I haven't noticed these issues. I do still use control panel and the old user manager by default, so maybe that's why?

I also used a special installer which allows for local only accounts out of the box and does some other changes. Maybe that's why I'm having a better experience. This is the guide I followed. Follow the guide for Rufus.

LordWiggle , (edited )
@LordWiggle@lemmy.world avatar

I used something similar for win10. A stripped down version without all the booking dot com and Xbox bs pre-installed. Only local account. But it auto upgraded to 11. Time for format C.

realitista ,

For me I'm happier with my computer since the XP days with these mods. It's fast and responsive and doesn't give me shit. It's been only a couple months since I reinstalled it, so time will tell, but so far so good.

noodlejetski ,

during the great Mastodon migration in 2022 I saw someone post how they head to unlearn scrolling past every 6th post or so on their timeline, because that's how the Twitter app was displaying the ads. I wish Microsoft the Very Bad and daydream about year of the Linux desktop, but something's telling me people will get used to ads on Windows the same way.

LordWiggle ,
@LordWiggle@lemmy.world avatar

I had the same experience when switching from the reddit app to Boost. When Boost stopped working for reddit, I couldn't stand it so it was bye bye reddit my entire pc connection is ad free. There's a filter in my router, strong filter in my vpn and I have blockers. I do not watch streaming services, I download everything through usenet with an automated system on my NAS. I have no TV. I order groceries online, I never enter a store. My phone has filters too. I live completely ad free. But then Microsoft comes, and says "fuck you, here's an ad!" on MY machine. Without consent. I was boiling.

MrVilliam ,

You're definitely right. Facebook got super shitty and most people didn't leave. Netflix got super shitty and most people didn't leave. YouTube got super shitty and most people didn't leave. Amazon's shitty video service got even more shitty, but Fallout was about to come out, so most people didn't leave and I bet they actually got more subscribers (but idc enough to look it up). It seems like most people have accepted that things just get shitty over time. Or maybe they're just not noticing the shitty changes? Idk. It's hard to look at our projected trajectory as a species and be left with much hope. There's good in this world, but it seems like none of it is coming from companies.

themoonisacheese ,
@themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works avatar

On one hand I agree that most people probably won't change. On the other, the difference between an OS and websites is that windows has very little exclusivity left. If you want to read Facebook content, you go on Facebook. If you want to watch fallout, you go on prime. If you want to watch long-form content (relative to TikTok), you go to youtube.

If you want a good OS, you're not forced by Microsoft to exclusively use windows. There are some pockets (like Xbox game pass games) but overall the average user could realistically switch to debian, Ubuntu or mint and not actually materially change what they do and watch on their computer, whereas if you decided to stop using Netflix, yes the experience of watching would be better but you wouldn't actually be experiencing the same content.

MrVilliam ,

I don't disagree with your point, but I think that the most important variable is how receptive the average person is to change. It takes a lot of discomfort for most people to want to make a significant change. Most people probably won't even recognize that Windows sucks because it's what they're familiar with and they probably attribute general tech improvements and new software with the OS because they don't know any better. So they see it as better in a lot of ways and only worse in a couple of ways. They probably also generally think that the only alternative is an overpriced Apple product. It wasn't until YouTube started cracking down on ad blockers that most people were even aware of the existence of ad blockers lmao. So I'm sure your average Windows user thinks that Linux means programming gobbledygook in cmd.exe and they would rather scroll Facebook. People are dumb and uninterested in the discomfort of learning things. Even if what they're learning is that there's not much discomfort because there's not much new to learn. You have to trick them by sneaking vegetables into their food. "You have a Samsung phone. That runs Android. Android is Linux. See, you're already using it." It's a fucking shock to me that Windows phones never took off.

But maybe the most important factor to Microsoft is the business world. It's obviously not unanimous, but a shitload of companies rely on the Office suite. Switching to something different overnight might be easy for some workers, but I'd assume a massive disruption in productivity until everybody got acclimated. There would probably need to be some kind of canned training thing to help workers with the transition, which would cost more money. In general, companies would run a cost-benefit analysis and ultimately decide that it really doesn't make much business sense to make that change when things are fine as is. Because in reality, Windows is fine. It's not bad enough for a business to burden a rocky quarter just because of some ads and a little jank.

The bad news for Microsoft however is that privacy and security could be getting called into question. Some businesses here and there might get worried about that, but it's the big Department of Defense fish that will drop them overnight because it's a matter of national security. In the same way that government devices banned tiktok years before considering a nationwide ban, government devices would not hesitate to dump Microsoft. Their greed could be their downfall. They're okay so long as the government and their big contractors keep running Windows.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

You've hit the nail on the head.

Who's opinion matters more to Microsoft? Businesses, Governments and Enterprises. If they lose that audience, they're up shit's creek.

They don't care if even 100,000 disgruntled Windows users collectively gripe about where Windows has gone in direction. Because Microsoft's main concern is no longer appeasing the casual and power users. If you're a business partner or a corporate body, you have their attention more.

Microsoft just knows that a large majority of users will still be there, using their OSes regardless of how much of a dumping they all take. Whether it's 11, 10, 7 or even WinXP, they've got a majority in their ecosystem. And those users are terrified of change.

Hell, I used to have been that Windows user who was scared of change and intimidated by Linux. The issue is that, you just need to dip first, not dive head first all the way. Mac is just simply an extension of Linux. Android as mentioned is an extension of Linux. Windows is it's own entity surrounded by different Linux versions and forms.

iopq ,

I didn't leave Facebook, I just stopped using it. You can see their monthly active users are not going up, and sometimes going down. Only Instagram is growing

I_Miss_Daniel ,

Monthly active robots...

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Reddit got more shitty, but as expected from Reddit users, they all made a big deal about it for a month but still continued to be users. With how stupid easy it is to make an account on there, I'm sure most just pretended to delete their accounts and just made more as an excuse to 'start anew'.

Like wow, bravo, what revolution, guys. You sure showed Spez. /s

I guess on one hand, I kind of get it. We're all going to get to a point in our lives where we're so old that we can't care about every little thing before we get there. Then before we're going to die from age or whatever, some would realize how wasted of a time their lives have been when they've spent getting angry about every little thing to do something about it.

So it's probably why so many people just come to accept things as is. They're going to die anyways so mind as well enjoy what's here if possible before we get there.

However, on the other hand, you know it isn't as bad to try to be some change to the world for a better future so that nobody would have to deal with the same shit one has dealt with. And maybe if people were a little more resourceful and took cues from people who have thought better with wisdom, they'd realize that being overly angry isn't the solution. Don't be angry, get crafty.

I'd like to think that this is the kind of mindset most may have.

MrVilliam ,

I mostly agree, except that I'm here because I left reddit. I can't speak for anybody else, but you can see my history here and compare it to my history there. It's been almost a year now and I'm not going back.

I'd like to think that enough people will get pissed off enough to make real change happen, but people think they have too much to lose and don't see how much they have to gain. In general, I mean. Windows doesn't really fucking matter lol. Netflix doesn't really fucking matter. The realistic course of action is to just vote with our wallets and hope that discourages overly shitty practices from these companies.

Speculater ,

I'm kind of salty how fucking easy it was for Reddit to just ignore the problem. I left them for here and haven't gone back unless it was a Google result.

The majority of people "stayed just for the niche community" then just assimilated and stopped coming back to Lemmy.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Because the whole third-party fiasco was treated as just the 'cool thing' to do. This is Reddit we're talking about here, the kind of site that sits, thousands to a few million users who all think they're one and two steps ahead of everyone else. The kind who think they know everything inside and out, 4-D chess .etc

So of course they'd be the kind to take something of a situation as to what happened when third-party development got gutted out and treat that as just a trend.

If that incident and the fact that Reddit now is an IPO hadn't changed enough minds, nothing will. They love the attention and any attention they get as well as the karma-farming validation whenever they complain about how "reddit sucks".

No, it's all for show. They're whores.

Viking_Hippie , (edited )

I'm testing out Tiny11, which is basically Windows 11 without the bloat, and so far the experience is great!

My secondhand laptop from 2019 went from taking two minutes or more each to boot and to shut down in the full Microsoft monstrosity to less than 10 seconds for either in Tiny11 and the general performance is also dramatically improved!

LordWiggle ,
@LordWiggle@lemmy.world avatar

Sounds good, I'll go check it out :)

grue ,

(I'm speaking generally, not criticizing you personally.)

It's amazing the great effort to which people will go to try to compensate for Microsoft's abusive behavior, often while simultaneously claiming that switching OSs is too much effort.

Projects like Tiny11 are the computer equivalent of "oh, this black eye? I got it falling down the stairs and definitely not because my partner hit me."

Folks get mad about Linux evangelism, but it's really no different than friends saying "leave his ass; you're too good for him!"

Viking_Hippie ,

To be fair, alternatives like Tiny11 are much more user friendly for someone used to Windows than going all the way to Linux.

Especially if gaming is a big part of what you use your computer for and you prefer to do as much as possible with just the mouse rather than typing in various complex commands, both of which is the case with me.

Windows 11 is too bloated and otherwise enshittified and making Linux do what I want it to is too much of a hassle.

Tiny11 is better for my personal use case on both accounts and, like with Linux, I'm not rewarding Microsoft's sleazy behavior by using it.

kaputter_Aimbot ,

Have you ever tried any modern Linux desktop distribution?

I had a bad experience with Ubuntu and the likes about 10-15 years ago (as a daily driver for my desktop, that is). But a lot has changed since then.

Maybe take a look at Pop_OS or Linux Mint. I'm using the latter, it took less than 10 minutes to install and works out of the box! Everything else comes via it's "app store".

There is no need for the console, so you don't need to type any commands!

Even my parents are using it. And gaming works great.

Viking_Hippie ,

Have you ever tried any modern Linux desktop distribution?

Yeah, the last one I tried was Lubuntu Jammy Jellyfish a few months ago.

Pop was the one I tried first, but the ancient laptop I was using at the time couldn't hack it, so I went with the ultra light weight version of Ubuntu in stead.

Very little worked out of the box and almost everything took a lot more fiddling and searching and asking for advice to get to work. For example, I never did manage to make bottles work after over a week of trying on and off, doing exactly what the documentation and advice told me to.

I haven't gotten to the gaming part of my Tiny11 test, so if it fails that, I might give Pop another chance now that I have a much newer one, but Lubuntu is definitely not as hassle free as Linux enthusiasts keep promising that all their favorite distros are..

Emerald ,

Oh man Lubuntu takes me back. I used it back when it still used LXDE, which was actually relevant back then.

clay_pidgin ,

That's not been my experience with Debian as my daily driver for the last few months. I'm in the console, sorry "Konsole" every few days having to adjust something or install a program that isn't in the store or available as an app image. It's working, but I get KDE crashes once or twice a week and the microphone just doesn't work sometimes.

It's still much faster than my win10, though.

Grandwolf319 ,

My win10 upgraded without asking

Oh snap, so the only thing that stopped mine was because it was not compatible?

Wtf Microsoft!!!

tobogganablaze ,

I'm so glad I'm stuck with a "your hardware doesn't support windows 11" message.

SirEDCaLot ,

Just disable TPM in your BIOS if you have that option. Win 11 needs modern TPM so it won't upgrade you if you don't have one.

Passerby6497 ,

"Needs" lol

It's just in there to sell more hardware. Afaik, 11 does nothing that actually requires the newer tpm.

SirEDCaLot ,

Yeah people who really wanted 11 back in the beginning found an easy process to bypass the check during the install. 11 works fine without it.

Codilingus ,

If you make the bootable USB drive with Rufus, a little window pops up asking if you wanna remove some of the bullshit, such as TPM and secure boot requirements.

Imgonnatrythis ,

I think this is a pretty big deal and they are shooting themselves in the foot with these unnecessary restrictions.

sexual_tomato ,

I disabled my TPM in BIOS so Windows would never upgrade

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Same, out of curiosity, I checked my system for that and got the message.

Even if I didn't, I'm not going to sit around all day as 64GB of "required" stora- oh I mean bloatware to install on my system.

Windows used to function fine with 2GB of storage. It does NOT need 64GB and Microsoft can get fucked.

Fisk400 ,

I literally can't install it even if I wanted to. If they removed that requirement the rollout would be the same as any other update.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I wasn't able to when it launched, because my CPU was too old (Ryzen 1700). I have since upgraded to a Ryzen 5600X, which I think works, but I honestly don't think I'll bother checking. I'm on Linux 100% except for the one or two times a year that I boot Windows to check on something. Linux doesn't have silly requirements, I just get more features if the hardware exists.

cRazi_man ,
@cRazi_man@lemm.ee avatar

I keep checking videos on YouTube from time to time about whether it is worth upgrading to Win 11 now (which people keep releasing regularly). Keep deciding it's not worth changing.

Then I sold my laptop and had to use my Steam Deck for a couple of months. At that point I thought if I'm going to learn a different OS, then I might as well go all the way and jump over to Linux. Been very happy with OpenSUSE ever since.

ichbinjasokreativ ,

Tumbleweed, leap or slowroll?

RiQuY ,

I'm pretty sure he is using Tumbleweed.

cRazi_man ,
@cRazi_man@lemm.ee avatar

Tumbleweed....and Kubuntu before that....and EndeavourOS before that....and ZorinOS before that.....and Linux Mint before that.....and Ubuntu before that.

But I've finally found Tumbleweed to be the OS to stick with. Although I do sometimes feel tempted to go back and try EndeavourOS now that I know more about Linux.

MrVilliam ,

This was my general takeaway. My laptop is showing it's 9ish year old age considerably. I picked up a used Steam Deck and I actually love everything about it except that it's really not powerful enough to replace my laptop. I'm interested in building a desktop, and SteamOS taught me that modern Linux is not super complicated, and now I know that it's not a huge pain in the ass to troubleshoot because the community isn't nearly as toxic as I was expecting. So unless I learn of an even better distro for general use, gaming, streaming, audio recording, and video editing, all for somebody who is experienced with Windows and not much else, I'm leaning towards Nobara.

The only real hurdle I have is that it's hard to justify dumping like $1200-1500 on a computer when I already have a PS5, Steam Deck, and gaming laptop. I really don't need it.

cRazi_man ,
@cRazi_man@lemm.ee avatar

Depends on what you want to do. I sold my 2 year old gaming laptop and managed to spend 2 months getting amazing bargains on secondhand parts to make an amazing gaming PC. The Steam Deck and that does a great job of streaming the more demanding games from the PC.

The 9 year old laptop might be surprisingly functional if you use something like ZorinOS on it.

I'll be honest, troubleshooting is still a gigantic pain in the ass sometimes. But if you can get over the hill of setting up the OS, then you're good to go. The thing that's made Linux bearable for me is AI. If I have a problem then I write it out in Copilot or ChatGPT, and it usually gives me the solution on the first try with a command o can just paste into terminal.

BlackEco ,
@BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com avatar

I waited until the last day of support to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10, I plan on doing the same with Windows 10.

With Windows 10 and 11 Microsoft has been gradually removing control from the user's hands and I'm still miffed about that.

iopq ,

I upgraded to 10 and my old laptop with a hard drive became unusable. I got multiple years of Linux from it instead of trashing it.

BlackEco ,
@BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com avatar

Yeah, modern Windows and HDDs don't mix well. I refurbished multiple laptops and each time just throwing in a cheap SSD (and cleaning the cooler + sometimes reapplying thermal paste) would breathe new life into them.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

That's why I scope out for old laptops from time to time. It's pointless to hope for it to run today's Windows OSes. But to write it off as completely useless is stupid when you can throw any desired Linux distro on it.

Though I have noticed that Ubuntu does get harder to run on old laptops.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

It's been a gradual process and I do say that it started with Windows XP. People look at Windows XP with loads of nostalgia, but they conveniently forget how aggravatingly annoying it was with how often it kept prompting you about what you're about to run. Like with the greyed out screens, asking whether you're administrator and all that. It started with Windows XP.

And it has gotten worse since to where now this system you've paid $900 for that happen to have Windows pre-installed or maybe you bought that separately for another $200, so this $1,100 system you have. You can't control it all.

NeoNachtwaechter ,

What a joke 🤣

geography082 ,

The problem would be the push they are doing on corporations to move to 11. I know multiple cases they are struggling to do so because the mess windows 11 does with other custom applications.

KrapKake , (edited )

Y'all need to get yourselves that Windows 10 2021 LTSC IoT badboy (IoT part is important). It's supported until 2032 and it's only bloat is edge. If I had to use windows again it would be that.

xdr ,

Haaa

Just get ltsc image from Microsoft and crack it. Its much less of a hassle

mariusafa ,

You can switch from Windows 10 pro into that?

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

At a cost. But mind as well pirate since Microsoft is so eager to shove people to Windows 11.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Oh no, that's not all actually.

That version doesn't even have the Windows Store, which is a huge bloat of it's own. Oh and it doesn't even stop there, apparently Microsoft treats even their Pro-users like trash nowadays, that you have full control of what you do on the Win10 2021 LTSC/LoT as opposed to the Pro version and it costs more.

frezik ,

I was going to ask how WSL gets installed without the Windows Store, but looks like the install path doesn't use the store anymore. That was one of the few things I ever used the store for.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

I couldn't find a version of this that would work in a VM. The few I tried were "preactivated" and then complained about hardware changes when I tried to install in a VM.

No I'm not asking people to find me a working release. I'm just complaining that I just can't be assed mucking around with unlicensed installations.

TrickDacy ,

Linux doesn't require AcTiVaTiOn

bort ,

the last time I had to set up a windows-system, I just said fuck-it and bought a key for 2€ from on of these shady key-sides.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

Yeah I bought some keys a while back.

It never seems to be as easy as "type in this key". They get linked to my Microsoft account or some nonsense.

aniki ,

Yall need to just install linux.

revelrous ,
@revelrous@sopuli.xyz avatar

Working on it, but only on page 5 of Linux for dummies

aniki ,

You most certainly don't need a book and I can almost guarantee you that the book is already out of date and irrelevant.

Just dig in and get dirty and figure it out.

revelrous ,
@revelrous@sopuli.xyz avatar

If I had an extra machine I totally would fafo, but alas I must approach with caution.

aniki ,

You don't need a whole machine, just a VM.

revelrous ,
@revelrous@sopuli.xyz avatar

Haven't got to that chapter yet. 🙂

Longpork3 ,

People are still using windows?

aniki ,

At this point just the chuds.

BuT ThAtS LiKe 90% oF alL UsErs, PohtoShOp, VidYaGamEs, HeRp DeRp

I didn't fucking stutter.

fluckx ,

It enticed me to start gaming on Linux.
So its definitely doing some enticing

delirium ,
@delirium@lemmy.world avatar

I thought I was alone in this lol

Win11 literally made me rage uninstall it after I got mad trying to remove all bloatware and then it showed me onedrive ad

isthingoneventhis ,

What was your experience switching over to Linux and getting it set up for gaming?

Toribor ,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

If you primarily game using Steam then it's easier than ever on most popular distros. Biggest hassle is likely still GPU drivers. I've never had any issues there but depending on what card you have you may be better off with either proprietary or FOSS drivers depending on what your distro of choice likes to provide by default. After that most games tend to just work, a handful may require you to pick a beta version of proton or something.

If you want to try it and don't want to do a lot of tinkering check out PopOS. It's probably the friendliest distro for gaming out of the box.

CallMeButtLove ,

I've heard a lot of people reference PopOS and Garuda as of the last few months but I've never heard of them. When you say popular distros I immediately think Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Suse, etc. Does your comment include those as well or when you say popular do you mean "popular for gaming"? Also how is the Linux support for external controllers?

To be fair outside of Proxmox and some Debian containers with Docker I haven't spent much time in the Linux space for the last 7 or 8 years. I'm thinking about finally making the switch.

Toribor , (edited )
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

Pop_OS is based on Ubuntu. It's developed by System76 which sells linux laptops that run their distro by default so it's very well maintained and polished.

It's a popular recommendation specifically for people looking out to try gaming on Linux because there are specific features built in like performance improvements for gaming and some gaming-specific packages whereas Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora and OpenSuse are generally designed to be a general purpose distro. Pop_OS delivers packages as flatpacks by default as opposed to Ubuntu's snaps which are a bit controversial and also uses their Cosmic desktop environment by default (though as far as I know gnome, kde, xfce, etc all still work fine if you have a preference).

Mostly I recommend Pop_OS for people that are new to Linux, don't know about why they might prefer one distro over another, and want to try it out with the minimal amount of hassle. If you aren't gaming Pop_OS is still great but that's one of it's selling points.

erwan ,

Popular distributions are the one you're thinking about.

Some distributions advertise themselves as "gaming oriented" but you don't need those, generalist distributions work just as well for gaming.

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

Driver installation is really only a hassle for NVIDIA users. AMD and Intel GPUs simply work out of the box on most Linux distros these days (with the main issues being related to using slow moving distros that lack support for the newest hardware). Use a fast moving distro such as Arch and you likely won't have any issues even with recent GPUs. Hopefully NVK will make the situation for NVIDIA cards better too, been testing it on my laptop and it's starting to be viable for gaming.

Sanctus ,
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

It sucks ass. I actually returned my gaming desktop to W11 recently because I suck and my games just stopped launching. Never buying nvidia again, building a new desktop right now to get away from windows again.

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

Yeah, building a new PC without NVIDIA or at least swapping your GPU really is the best solution. The past two years I've run an Intel Arc A770 which was rough at first because the drivers were brand new but has been solid for over a year now and then in February or so I upgraded to an AMD Radeon RX 7800XT which has been absolutely amazing with my 4K 144Hz display. My setup before that was a 1080Ti and it was never an enjoyable experience on Linux and I usually gamed on Win10 on it. I haven't really touched Windows other than a small handful of times on the A770 or 7800XT as Linux runs great on them.

Sanctus ,
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

How is the Intel card? I'm eyeing it heavily and debating on a hold out for the battlemage.

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

Pretty good for the price! I was using it woth a 144Hz 1440p monitor for at least a year and played mostly Overwatch and CSGO/CS2. It does pretty well and Mesa support/performance for it has gotten pretty good. I still use that build (the A770 paired with a Ryzen 9 3950X) for LAN parties and with my TV and it is a fine GPU. It wasn't handling 4K 144Hz too well especially on more demanding titles which is why I ended up getting the 7800XT. I'm definitely excited for Battlemage cards.

megabyteX ,

Arch?!? lol. Terrible advice for a newbie. You are one update away from fscking your system. Better go Fedora/Nobara way. The kernel and drivers will be updated frequently enough. Also, no, propiertary NVIDIA driver installation is not a hassle, Ubuntu/Manjaro and some other friends literally have "wizards" that let you click->click->next the driver.

femtech ,

Base Ubuntu with the non snap version of steam has been great. I only play a few games, helldivers, some rouglites, and apex. The thing I miss with windows is HDR and auto HDR. HDR will be added in plasma 6 but I had issues with it on KDE Neon but once it's on a stable build it will be good.

ArachnidMania , (edited )

Not the original poster, but my experience was fairly smooth. I had minor issues with wifi drivers, and I got a new GPU that had some driver issues because it was pretty recently released (I guess the open source drivers didn’t have time to be updated?).
In terms of actual gaming, basically no issues. I mainly use steam and proton has been bliss, I’ve bought multiple games without even checking compatibility, and it just works. To my knowledge there is only one old game where the multiplayer doesn’t work, but everything else has been seamless.
Mint cinnamon is what I’m currently running.

Statlerwaldorf ,

I switched over from Win10 to PopOS! about a month ago. It hasn't been 100% painless but it's leaps and bounds better than the last time I tried to switch 5-10 years ago. For reference I'm in an AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU, NVME drives for both the system and game drives, SATA for a data drive, NAS for media. I've only reinstalled once because I broke everything tinkering with different desktop environments, but it was an easy recovery with the install media.

All the correct drivers were installed from the get go. I managed to overwrite my cloud save for Horizon Forbidden West because of an issue mounting my game drive and mapping the correct install location in Steam, but that was 90% on me because I rejected the idea of making a backup copy of the files because "I know what I'm doing". I ended up wiping my game drive entirely and reformatting it as EXT4 and haven't had any problems since - the drive was NTFS before and had a handful of games already installed from Windows.

A couple games require finding the right Proton version to run it, but GE works flawlessly for most things I've tried. Everything has run as fast or faster than in Windows with the exception of WH4K: Darktide. There's some microsecond delay in there somewhere that I couldn't pin down. Didn't seem to be video or network related. It's the kind of thing that I bet I wouldn't notice if it were my first time playing the game, but since I've got a couple hundred hours in it, it is just enough to throw me off and make me feel slightly drunk.

fluckx ,

The main setup went smooth. I can recommend nobara which is what I used. I tried garuda as well, but it wasn't my style. Personal preference, no hate :).

Most steam games work pretty good ( see protondb ).
( make sure to set your steam settings > compatibility to all games ).

Any game with invasive anti-cheat will likely not work. LoL and valorant come to mind. I think some of the cs2 ones like faceit won't work on Linux. But standard cs2 and competitive work fine.

Battle.net gave me some issues on lutris until I forced it to proton.

Overall I've had a good experience. Sometimes a weird issue if I alt tab ( hots ) that it comes back super tiny. I worked around it by running it windowed fullscreen.

Overall I've no regrets so far. I installed nobara and it's quite user friendly. I've never used a fedora distro before ( more extensive experience with xubuntu/Ubuntu/pop ).

Helldivers 2, heroes of the storm and ff crisis core worked flawlessly.

Hots needs to run full screen ( windowed ) or alt-tab will make the screen tiny for some reason.

So far: no regrets.

When you first play a game it needs to compile the shaders first. So on your initial game there's a few minutes ramp up time. But any next times you start the game should be fine.

BReel ,

Thank you for mentioning hots, because that’s like the ONE steam game I couldn’t live without. Good to know it’s possible, even if I have to play true full screen vs windowed.

fluckx ,

For hots: install lutris through the nobara app store.
Start it and leave it for a few minutes while you run other updates or something ( only the very first time ).

Go to the settings/preferences, ( three dots top right ), click runners, scroll all the way down to wine.

Click the cog and change the runtime from wine-.... to proton-GE. Thrn you can just install the battle.net app through lutris. From the battle.net app you can install hots.

Using the built in wine-.... Runtime I got errors like missing Microsoft arial or unable to validate certificate.

with proton it just instantly worked.

You can also add the battle.net installer as an external steam app and run/install it that way. The only downside would be that you can't play a steam game AND have bnet running ( which you can through lutris ).

Exiting battle.net doesn't seem to be enough to stop lutris running it. So you might have to click the stop button in lutris if you want to restart it.

Battle.net is a bit wonky. But once you've got it IP and running it's okay.

BReel ,

Damn appreciate the details. I’ll def give it a go!

isthingoneventhis ,

I have an older GPU (rx 470) and I play games that probably aren't super new so my main concerns were mainly my tech literacy and fear of fucking something up xD

fluckx ,

I didn't really do any CLI commands on nobara. So it's pretty straightforward. I guess the best experience might be with AMD.

I'm running a ryzen 7 and gtx 2080ti( I think ).

It's about 4 years old, but it still gets the job done. I've had no gfx issues. Nobara installed the nvidia drivers on its own.

If you have a spare HD. I'd recommend giving it a try. I ran popos parallel for a short while to try out gaming.

I was angry and leaped off the deep end. New OS and everything. I have a technical background so with google I probably could save my own ass :D

joe_cool ,

RX470 is fully supported with the latest drivers. Anything from Radeon HD 7000 (GCN2) series from ~10 years ago and newer uses AMDGPU with (almost) all features available. GCN1 is experimental but also works.

Older cards use the Radeon driver and miss out on Vulkan.

kennebel ,

I tried Garuda as well, and was not happy with the hoops I had to go through. I switched to Pop OS, and have had very smooth sailing so far.

figjam ,

I've started doing non-gaming on my steam deck. Not a lot but its let me use Linux in a very basic way.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

We see this everytime a new Windows comes around.

You'll have your hopeless Windows users who're equally as bad as Apple cultists. Screaming at you to upgrade because "THE SECURITY! THINK OF THE SECURITY! YOUR SYSTEM WILL FUCKING DIE IF YOU DON'T GET YOURSELF SECURED!1!1" when all you fucking do is just check e-mail, oh my god. /s

But the fight to resist upgrading has gotten longer and will get longer. Going by the Windows OS global stats of it's marketshare, 3% are still clinging to Win7. 23% hopped to Win11. 70% is still Windows 10.

By the time Windows 10 loses it's extended support (that isn't the Enterprise edition), we're going to see the changes then.

Stovetop ,

My company is planning to upgrade to Win11 soon, and we are one of the larger employers in the region. I imagine there may be many other companies following suit as Windows 10 ages more.

frezik ,

That sort of thing probably has an outsized effect on people. They get hate it at first because everything is different, then they have to use it at work, and then they get used to it and want to use it at home.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

It's not just Windows. I have an iMac (I used to be a video editor and it's standard) and it's 7 years old, so still Intel, and I'm still running Big Sur, which is 3 versions behind, on it because why bother upgrading when I get no advantages out of it?

TrickDacy ,

YOUR SYSTEM WILL FUCKING DIE IF YOU DON'T GET YOURSELF SECURED!1!1" when all you fucking do is just check e-mail,

Yeah because not only is security for idiots, checking email is an inherently riskless process, immune to security issues.

andrew_bidlaw ,
@andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works avatar

I'd probably say a blasphemy, but ordinary workers only experience problems for their old HDDs\systems are overstuffed and are far from their prime, so they ask for entire new PC to start fresh. New Seven x64 on SSD is what most people would'be okay with*, since it's compatible with new Office document formats, doesn't need much resources or space, and can still do everything except for niche tasks. It's not as morbid as Vista\8, not yet filled with bloat like 10 or 11, not as limited today as XPx32 with older driver delivery model. I don't know much about security stuff, but I feel like older systems falling from popularity are not the usual targets of people who write them, and encountering one using an outdated OS would probably mean nothing since exploits they want to abuse aren't there yet.

* Linux would probably be better, but that's still a hard sell for businesses that don't use it intentionally.

Evilcoleslaw ,

I don't know much about security stuff, but I feel like older systems falling from popularity are not the usual targets of people who write them, and encountering one using an outdated OS would probably mean nothing since exploits they want to abuse aren't there yet.

The issues that are going to be the problem eventually are vulnerabilities that affect both new and old versions of Windows. The new versions will get the patch, but 7 won't. And it still might be worth exploiting to hit the machines with the newer version that don't update quickly or at all.

andrew_bidlaw ,
@andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works avatar

Probably, if they aren't that obscure. I don't know if a distance is that long between Windows 11 and Seven, but I suppose it's that big for older systems.

Windex007 ,

I don't think it's been the case that there has been a backslide, though. Win 11 marketshare peaked, then declined, and then 10 increased.

johannesvanderwhales ,

I just turned off tpm and my laptop has mostly stopped nagging me about upgrading. I did get a notice that win10 support is ending soon.

exanime ,

Maybe I'd they added more ads I'd be tempted to use it....

/S

dan1101 ,
@dan1101@lemm.ee avatar

No it needs more AI. Maybe AI-generated ads. The killer tech of 2024. The shareholders will be so pleased.

T00l_shed ,

All the reviews (written by Ai) say that windows 11 is the bees knees!

fine_sandy_bottom ,

What's the big deal with Windows 11?

I don't use either win 10 nor win 11 much but I do know that I barely notice the difference.

I thought it was just a start menu rearrangement or something.

4am ,

There’s a lot more telemetry. They’re stuffing ads into it (start menu, explorer panels, etc). They’re creeping generative cloud AI into it. The control panel/setting situation is unbelievably unfinished (for myself, all my audio devices take the name of other audio devices so they’re all working but mislabeled). A recent update broke all VPNs. High system requirements. Locking down features. Removal of customization. Buggy updates. Slow.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Not trying to defend Win11 too much here. But the system requirements aren't bad until you see how much storage it needs and how much it needs for all of the unnecessary fancy junk they put in to have the "best Windows experience" like Windows Hello.

Microsoft initially wanted to get rid of Control Panel entirely, which would stick us to the bare set of options we've been seeing degrade since Windows 8.

TrickDacy ,

How would you notice a difference in something you have no experience with?

fine_sandy_bottom ,

I didn't say I have no experience.

TheGrandNagus ,

You don't need to actively use something to have a general idea of it. Maybe it's not on his machine but he sees friends/family use it. Maybe he's seen ads, reviews, YouTube videos, articles.

I've never watched NASCAR in my life but I'm fairly certain I could point out differences between one of those cars and an F1 car.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

This is the kind of thing people don't get with others when they say that they haven't watched a particular movie or played a particular game. Why bother when there's quite a hefty amount of information out there to learn of them and judge based on that?

People love to trick others into these things by saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover!".

Yes, yes you can actually. You just want people to waste time and money to validate their suspicions that whatever it is, will not be to their liking.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yup, that's why we have reviewers and whatnot, so I don't need to spend my time and money on something that I most likely won't like. Yeah, I probably miss some gems from time to time, but I'm not hurting for choice.

Emerald ,

Anyone else think "Don't judge a book by it's cover" is so weird in a literal sense? Lots of people judge books, music, movies, etc off the visual art associated with it. Otherwise graphic design wouldn't exist.

Wizard_Pope , (edited )
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

I am so glad I switched to linux for 95% of my tasks and only need to boot windows once per month

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Same, but now once/month is more like once/year. I don't even remember why I needed to boot into Windows last time...

Wizard_Pope ,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I had to do it today to vectorise some images for my gf in adobe ilustrator. But yeah I cannot really recall the last time I booted windows or what I did it for. I jave also been having issues for the past 2 years with windows just constantly adding in the fucking english keyboard layout for me and I cannot remove it so it happened often that I would accidentaly switch to it (because for some reason there are a million shortcuts to do that) and then I would type stuff incorrectly.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

My daughter has a Windows 10 notebook for school. We haven't seen a reason to upgrade yet. If Windows made a "never bother you again about anything you don't want to be bothered about" version of Windows 11, we'd upgrade because that's so fucking annoying. I hate Windows.

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