Due to changes in my life and career, the only reason I’m stuck on Windows is gaming. I’m not sure which will happen first, buying a Steam Deck or converting my computer to Linux for gaming, but at least one of those will happen before I upgrade to 11.
I was in your boat a few years ago. I was familiar with a few linux distros because of my job but I was hesitant to switch because the games I was playing didnt have native linux support. Eventually, I started daily driving Ubuntu and after some minor tinkering with steam and lutris, I could play any game I wanted without any issues.
That said, while I think Ubuntu is a great distro over all, there’s a part of me that worries that its only a matter of time before it goes to shit… So within the last year, I made the switch to Debian 12 and I flatpak’d everything. It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in the context of personal computing. Seriously, its fucking seamless. Fuck windows 4 lyfe. All my homies hate windows.
By running your applications in Flatpaks, you’re isolating them from the rest of your system. Essentially, Flatpaks save you from ruining your system because you installed 10 different copies of the wrong graphics drivers, while following random guides on the internet.
Running games in flatpaks ensures you’re using the latest drivers, so you dont really have to worry about it. It makes things SO much easier to manage from a linux gaming perspective.
That said, Flatpaks introduce a different kind of complexity to your system and there might be a bit of a learning curve before you feel confident troubleshooting any issues that come up, especially if you have no experience working in containerized environments.
Personally, I’m coming up on a year of daily gaming in Flatpaks and I’ve never had any issues.
if you don’t play certain multiplayer games that use invasive anti-cheat software, then you really should give it a go! It’s gotten to the point where I first buy games and then worry about compatibility. The vast majorityic just work with minor tweaks at the most (setting some launch arguments usually)
Yeah, I’ve tried a few times before and got stumped with various configuration issues. I actually have a saved post where gaming-specific distros are discussed in the hoped of getting past those issues. Now the big question is time or money. Depending which I have enough of first will determine which one happens first.
You can always dual-boot. Bazzite is a very stable Linux distro, which is optimized for gaming and basically gives you the same experience you would get on a Steam Deck. I highly recommend it.
Yeah, it’s really a question of time or money for me. Whichever I have enough of first will decide which option I go with first. I don’t expect I’ll be buying Windows again.
Time in terms of setting everything up or learning how to use it? Because I can tell you that both are relatively easy. The installation is super easy, no harder than an ordinary Windows setup. The Steam Deck by default uses a desktop environment called KDE, as a Windows user, you should feel right at home. I’d say it’s very intuitive to use and easy to learn. As Bazzite tries to mimic the Steam Deck experience as closely as possible, it uses the exact same stuff. Maybe check out this video.
Microsoft is being pushy and has started to enjoy that far too much.
This started with things that could be argued as things that users shouldn’t control (like refusing to patch update… you can’t really refuse anymore).
It then pushed to things that is a little less defensible (you were asked to update from Windows 7 to Windows 10… but they really don’t want you to say no).
Once you are on the newer Windows 10 or 11, features just arrive that you have no say about because Microsoft determined it is better for you (you have AI, now AI on your taskbar, in fact you have an AI key on your taskbar, you will use Microsoft AI… the AI will just sift through your entire computer so that it can jump in front of your face to emphasize that you should use their AI!).
They points all have the same theme. Microsoft knows best, you will do what Microsoft wants, and Microsoft won’t really take no for answer but may let you say “bother me later”… maybe. Once you are really pissed off, your only option is to leave a Microsoft operating system… which Microsoft is pretty sure you can’t figure out on your own (more reasonably, you won’t care to put in the work to learn another way) so Microsoft OS it is! Microsoft is a tad worried that those people are starting to wander off to get Google Chromebooks or just use their Android smartphones… those take less effort and more people are opting for that…
Still, Microsoft is relatively sure that people will just put up with what they are doing. I’m pretty sure they will… until they won’t. Microsoft will be fine so long as they don’t cross the line into the “until they won’t” territory. Once they won’t put up with that nonsense anymore, it is far harder to woo them back to a Microsoft OS in the future.
I wonder what’s happening?
For me, It’s linux mint on my main PC, goodbye windows.
Due to changes in my life and career, the only reason I’m stuck on Windows is gaming. I’m not sure which will happen first, buying a Steam Deck or converting my computer to Linux for gaming, but at least one of those will happen before I upgrade to 11.
I was in your boat a few years ago. I was familiar with a few linux distros because of my job but I was hesitant to switch because the games I was playing didnt have native linux support. Eventually, I started daily driving Ubuntu and after some minor tinkering with steam and lutris, I could play any game I wanted without any issues.
That said, while I think Ubuntu is a great distro over all, there’s a part of me that worries that its only a matter of time before it goes to shit… So within the last year, I made the switch to Debian 12 and I flatpak’d everything. It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in the context of personal computing. Seriously, its fucking seamless. Fuck windows 4 lyfe. All my homies hate windows.
Those last 2 lines really sum it up don’t they. If Windows was a family member you would disown them.
Why flatpacks?
By running your applications in Flatpaks, you’re isolating them from the rest of your system. Essentially, Flatpaks save you from ruining your system because you installed 10 different copies of the wrong graphics drivers, while following random guides on the internet.
Running games in flatpaks ensures you’re using the latest drivers, so you dont really have to worry about it. It makes things SO much easier to manage from a linux gaming perspective.
That said, Flatpaks introduce a different kind of complexity to your system and there might be a bit of a learning curve before you feel confident troubleshooting any issues that come up, especially if you have no experience working in containerized environments.
Personally, I’m coming up on a year of daily gaming in Flatpaks and I’ve never had any issues.
Thanks!
Many of us would say Ubuntu has already gone to shit. I started on Ubuntu and always did Ubuntu server for running websites. Never again.
Flatpaks are pretty great. I think rpm-ostree is cool in a kinda similar way, so I’ve been looking into those distros.
if you don’t play certain multiplayer games that use invasive anti-cheat software, then you really should give it a go! It’s gotten to the point where I first buy games and then worry about compatibility. The vast majorityic just work with minor tweaks at the most (setting some launch arguments usually)
Yeah, I’ve tried a few times before and got stumped with various configuration issues. I actually have a saved post where gaming-specific distros are discussed in the hoped of getting past those issues. Now the big question is time or money. Depending which I have enough of first will determine which one happens first.
You can always dual-boot. Bazzite is a very stable Linux distro, which is optimized for gaming and basically gives you the same experience you would get on a Steam Deck. I highly recommend it.
Yeah, it’s really a question of time or money for me. Whichever I have enough of first will decide which option I go with first. I don’t expect I’ll be buying Windows again.
Time in terms of setting everything up or learning how to use it? Because I can tell you that both are relatively easy. The installation is super easy, no harder than an ordinary Windows setup. The Steam Deck by default uses a desktop environment called KDE, as a Windows user, you should feel right at home. I’d say it’s very intuitive to use and easy to learn. As Bazzite tries to mimic the Steam Deck experience as closely as possible, it uses the exact same stuff. Maybe check out this video.
I’m installing Linux on my machine this weekend, will probably go Mint, I’ve heard good things. Goodbye Mi¢ro$oft!
In general…
Microsoft is being pushy and has started to enjoy that far too much.
This started with things that could be argued as things that users shouldn’t control (like refusing to patch update… you can’t really refuse anymore).
It then pushed to things that is a little less defensible (you were asked to update from Windows 7 to Windows 10… but they really don’t want you to say no).
Once you are on the newer Windows 10 or 11, features just arrive that you have no say about because Microsoft determined it is better for you (you have AI, now AI on your taskbar, in fact you have an AI key on your taskbar, you will use Microsoft AI… the AI will just sift through your entire computer so that it can jump in front of your face to emphasize that you should use their AI!).
They points all have the same theme. Microsoft knows best, you will do what Microsoft wants, and Microsoft won’t really take no for answer but may let you say “bother me later”… maybe. Once you are really pissed off, your only option is to leave a Microsoft operating system… which Microsoft is pretty sure you can’t figure out on your own (more reasonably, you won’t care to put in the work to learn another way) so Microsoft OS it is! Microsoft is a tad worried that those people are starting to wander off to get Google Chromebooks or just use their Android smartphones… those take less effort and more people are opting for that…
Still, Microsoft is relatively sure that people will just put up with what they are doing. I’m pretty sure they will… until they won’t. Microsoft will be fine so long as they don’t cross the line into the “until they won’t” territory. Once they won’t put up with that nonsense anymore, it is far harder to woo them back to a Microsoft OS in the future.