PC Master Race
A community for PC Master Race.
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- Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘stupid’ questions. The world won’t be made better or worse by snarky comments schooling naive newcomers on Lemmy.
Notes:
- PCMR Community Name - Our Response and the Survey
As 12 comes out I think we will see a lot of gamers moving to Linux thanks to the much anticipated SteamOS release. Windows 12 will still be "successful" among the general public but Linux usage will skyrocket as Microsoft break that straw on the camels back for the more experienced users.
Personally I will move to Linux, likely start with dual boot in the transitional phase and as SteamOS improves and game publishers realise they need to support Linux and take it more seriously.
Not a Linux fan at all but with my steamdeck usage and setting up Mint on a NUC for a server I've been very impressed with Linux progression. It's still not perfect, needs to be more user friendly but it is getting there.
They said that with Windows 8 and Steam OS
Every year is the year of Linux
Linux is just the base OS. There's not much to like or dislike about "Linux" as a whole from an end-user perspective, unless you happen to have hardware that's not well supported, or software you use that isn't available. Single distros or desktop environments, you can definitely dislike, but "Linux" itself is just a kernel and a bunch of hardware drivers. You've seen it yourself with the Steam Deck. Its what the distribution maintainer makes it, and what software you run on top (including the UI/desktop environment/window manager you interact with).
I'm curious what you find less user friendly about Mint (guessing you went with the default Cinnamon environment?) vs the Windows UX. IMHO, the modern Windows experience is a convoluted mess of options hidden in different places, inconsistent UI, and confusing options that like to disappear between releases? Hell, my tray icons refuse to stay all visible on my Win 11 partition, I can't move my taskbar to the top anymore (really useful with a large monitor), etc.
IMHO, the only reason people still find Windows user friendly is familiarity. I think the largest problems with Linux these days are:
- how confusing it can all be to figure out what's a distribution, why there are many, which one to choose, etc
- obviously drivers, especially WiFi stuff and very new/bleeding edge hardware (cough cough and Nvidia being assholes)
- software availability/compatibility: the biggest one, IMHO, and it's getting much better in certain areas, especially gaming, with Proton which you've experienced already.
I am running Win11(pro) because the new Intel CPUs require it.
It's completely fine. I use Firefox without edge annoying me. There are no apps that just pop up out of nowhere (that I know of). It's fine. I locked down all the temeletry shit like I did on Win10.
The only thing annoying me is the change in the preview in folder icons. I wanna see the pictures that are in the folder not the. xmp files Darktable creates.
This. If you're used to working with windows, 11 is the usual song and dance of disabling a bunch of telemetry shit and making sure windows update only runs when prompted.
I don't even bother to do the latter on my windows machine since it's my gaming rig and that doesn't stay on unless I game (my server runs Debian), so there's plenty of chances for it to install updates when rebooting.
Sure, sometimes it adds some half baked garbage "feature" like the weather widget and you gotta kill it, but that's hardly an issue.
W11 works fine for me. I'll update to 12 if there are no major issues with it. Same thing I've done with every Windows update. Like it or not, Windows still wins in software compatibility, and that saves me the most amount of time.
First off, I highly doubt the 'cloud only' rumors are true. By definition, an operating system must help the machine itself operate. The only way I see something like that being feasable is if the extra app bloatware is web based, which I certainly wouldn't complain about.
I currently use Linux quite heavily and have a Windows 11 VM on my desktop for all my unsupported software. I am using the Ghost Spectre version and I'm enjoying it quite a lot, it actually makes Windows a good experience. As for 12, I'll wait and see what it's like and decide then (for my VM, not bare metal).
I'm just afraid Windows 12 will be something like ChromeOS that just starts Microsoft Edge fullscreen and opens a login screen to some computer in the cloud that I have to pay for.
Rest assured, I'm pretty confident that won't be the case. While web apps certainly have gained their fair share of popularity, some things still need to be localized on your machine. Chrome OS is just proof of that since it has really taken off after it had forgone its original goal of being fully web based. Last I checked, it even had Steam working allowing you to play games on YOUR computer. Also, keep in mind if your fears did come true, Microsoft would have to run a cloud instance for every single computer running windows on the planet at the same time. This might just be my optimism and faulty assertion, but I don't think that's something they would want to do. A subscription based OS is likely, though.
I will update my Arch distro to Arch 2
"If Arch is so great, why haven't they made Arch 2?"
Linux is so approachable now, I don't see a reason not to make a full dive.
Wow, I'm not alone. Been trialing linux in preparation of what's to come and it's actually quite OK. Went with Kubuntu because Ubuntu doesn't feel like Windows and Steam has official support for it or something? It was easy as pie to install.
Once Windows 10 doesn't work, it's probably curtains for windows on my PC.
Honestly, ubuntu has been rough a couple times and had I not tried it on a server for a long time before, I‘d probably given up. Most people strongly recommend mint these days. I should check it some day.
But steam is insanely good. Running most games and a lot of them faster than on windows these days. Most normal software has an open source equivalent and if you know scripting, you basically have a spaceship. Linux can do a lot of cool stuff.
I‘ll not go back, pretty sure.
I refuse. Running Linux on every single device that I own
Hot take: Microsoft stops supporting Windows altogether and switches to maintaining its own Linux distro (yes, it does exist, but it's not for consumers)
I saw W11 in action on a different PC and that made me stay on W10. In the meantime, I researched Linux and dipped my toes in it for a while. Just made PoP! _OS my daily driver (installed on my main NVME), with much less pain than I thought, while I moved W10 on a secondary, old and small SSD, only for those games that don't work in Proton/Wine.
It is a bit difficult to learn everything from scratch, but it's a small price to pay, to be honest
As always: I'll do what I have to to be able to play the online games I want to play. Linux for everything else.
I'm getting a second SSD to load Linux on to get used to it. When staying on 10 is no longer an option I guess I will just be full time Linux.
Windows 10 will be my last Ms box. I've been cheating with Mint for a bit and I'll make the switch when the Ms box no longer works.
Microsoft never seems to stop making it harder to use Windows. At this point I have Windows 10 relegated to a USB SSD, and I only boot it in extreme circumstances. I have tried to install Windows 11, and it's just not happening. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows to Go years ago, and the installer simply will not play nice with my disk setup. I sunk more hours into troubleshooting Windows 11 installation than I have with any Linux distro I've used, and I still walked away without a working install.
So at this point it's all Linux, (almost) all the time.
I'm not going to lie and say that using Linux is a perfectly smooth experience. It's not. But neither is using Windows. As Thomas Jefferson once said: "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." The inconveniences of Windows are only getting more severe as time goes on.
I went all in with Linux and dumped windows and android...
You're using a Linux phone? Which one
Switching to Linux. Undecided what distro, but BunsenLabs has been my go-to light distro since #! (CrunchBang) died and Mint Debian Edition is also looking tempting.
Proton is good enough now that my entire argument for sticking with Windows has collapsed. I have no need for Windows anymore.
I've already been test-driving distros on my laptop. Still deciding whether to stick with Win10 on my desktop until I put another PC together, or go ahead and make the jump now.
The further into the tech world I get, the more inviting Linux seems. I manage multiple PCs for my business, and holy shit is it aggravating to have to uninstall added garbage and shut off more background processes every time there's an non optional update. The update that was deemed critical a few weeks ago to protect against whatever new virus is around seemed reasonable, until I opened OOSU and saw outside of the security update, it also happed to turn telemetry back on, gave Microsoft apps permission to use the camera and microphone, reinstalled edge, and added a new update app that's not located with other apps and can't be found by REVO. It's difficult to make it what I want, but at least it's not impossible.
The way w11 is right now, if 10 gets dropped I'm jumping ship.
I just want a familiar, easy to use, lightweight os. My partner and I both have the same laptop. Mine is my modified w10 build, theirs is the best I could do with w11. Mine starts faster, the battery lasts longer, searching and file transfer is faster, and my temps are lower. I start with 28 background processes, theirs has 73. We do roughly the same things on them, and mine is better in virtually every way.
Want to change a setting? W10 already has 2 extra unnecessary menus to go through to find what you want. W11 put two more on top of that. I tried to use teams for business communication, but the machines took such a performance hit I got rid of it, and on 11 it's permanent and "functionally necessary" even though it will never be used.
W10 claimed IE, Cortana, Edge, Xbox, and OneDrive were necessary for the OS to work, but I can rip them out and every thing still works. On 11, the menus and file explorer will disappear if you remove programs you never wanted.
There is nothing better about the newer os' than windows 7. I don't want more 'features'. I don't want more 'ease of use' garbage. I don't want app based programs and menus. I don't want device syncing and cloud backups. I want computer settings, a file explorer, and the ability to install the programs I use and nothing else. How has no company done that yet?
I'm looking at Linux for my next gaming PC with either a Win10 partition or VM for poorly supported games/tools. But I also only update hardware every 5-10 years, so I'm not a bleeding edge kinda fella anymore.
Bet you anything they'll extend the EoL for Windows 10
I'm running Windows 11 now since I do a lot of PC gaming. Once you spend half an hour turning off the privacy-invading crap, it's pretty much still Windows 10.
Change to a Linux-only system. Parity is still not quite there, but hopefully it'll be enough by the time LTS Windows 10 dies.
We will have to see what happens with Win12 as more info releases. Windows seems to follow a pattern of good > bad > good, where 10 is "good" and 11 is "bad", so maybe 12 will end up decent?
If Win12 ends up being garbage, then I guess I'll take another hard look at Linux. Hopefully game support will be better by then. Proton is nice for sure, but not quite where I would need it for some of the games I play.
This is my current stance. Wait and see - if Windows 12 ends up being garbage, I'll consider Linux. It's simply that Linux isn't compatible with enough Windows software right now that trying to transition wouldn't be seamless. Hopefully that'll change in a couple years, but we'll see
Just move onto the latest Windows.
Windows 12 is not a subscription, that was a rumor and was already disproven.
I'm not hopping on the Linux train. .. and neither are most people, though you wouldn't know it from the Lemmy population.
Is there any merit behind that win12 rumor yet? The original article was a big stretch and there was no reason to worry about it unless more evidence came out that they actually are moving to a subscription system.
Continue to use OpenSUSE
I already switched to Linux when I began learning about the horrible privacy you have when using Windows.
May I suggest Linux Mint "Edge" version. It uses the Cinnamon desktop environment which is very familiar to Windows and the Edge version is using the latest kernel to support the most recent hardware and software.
"have to"?
I will continue to use Linux exclusively as I have for the last ten years.
Arch Linux
I might switch to Linux, gonna be hard tho when you got elitists and gatekeepers in the Linux instance
windows, what's that?
Assuming 12 is terrible, that's probably when I'll make the switch to Linux. Hopefully by then, it'll be even smoother for newbies, and work even better for gaming than it already does
I tried out Garuda Linux for a while (had to switch back to Windows because of an automotive ODB II program), and I can confirm that it worked better for Remote Play than Windows. With the runaway success of the Steam Deck, I expect that to only improve.
The ONLY thing keeping me off Linux atm is VR.
My use case is more specific than just a Valve Index though. I have a Windows Mixed Reality headset (Samsung Odyssey HMD+) and requires windows to run well and feature full.
I really like having the option to whip out VR at a moments notice. Maybe ill dual boot linix, but it seems like a pain for whats essentially going to be my home media console/gaming rig.
I did turn my old rig into a Linux computer for my personal desktop. Loving Pop OS! From a casual perspective. I just need my browser, steam, and some FOSS linux alternatives.