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Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

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Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#201

Post by BoxOfRain »

Levitating wrote: post #157
giancarlostoro wrote: post #68

This was me in 2022 or 2023. I have posted on HN about my shift a few times. I gave up with Windows 10 because you needed Windows Pro in order to make an "offline" account, I spent $2000+ for a gaming rig, and I couldn't add new users, one program told me to use the other program which brought me back to the original program... I had to go out of my way, buy a license just to make it work. I just went and installed L…

> idk why Arch doesn't invest in whats standard in every other major distro Simplicity, among other reasons. Installers force the users hand and need maintenance. Having no installer but rather a detailed installation guide offers unlimited freedom to users. Installation isn't difficult either, you just pacstrap a root filesystem and configure the bootloader, mounts and locale. ArchLinux does now have an installer ca…

Also if you want 'Arch with sensible defaults' CachyOS is basically that, people think of it as a 'gaming distro' but that's not an accurate characterisation. I use it as a daily driver on my personal machine mostly for non-gaming work and it's an excellent distro.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#202

Post by vladvasiliu »

thewebguyd wrote: post #155
Zambyte wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't sell your games on Steam or in a way I can run them on Linux I am not buying or playing them. So much this. People like to moan about "oh game XYZ doesn't run so it's not reasonable for gaming". More games run on GNU / Linux than any gaming console. There are simply too many games that do run to give a second thought about the ones that don't, and it's been that way for years.

> oh game XYZ doesn't run so it's not reasonable for gaming People tend to generalize, but what they probably mean is "it's not reasonable for gaming for the games I play. I haven't fully switched over yet because the games the combo of the hardware I have + the games I play regularly, still give me issues vs. Windows. Getting them to run isn't the problem, but I haven't been able to solve miscellaneous crashes, lag,…

> People tend to generalize, but what they probably mean is "it's not reasonable for gaming for the games I play.

This. The corollary is also that people take the such quips way too literally.

I, personally, don't play that many games, and those that I do play tend to run faster on Linux (with an AMD GPU, which I bought specifically to avoid nvidia headaches).

But I still game on Windows. Why? Because I still have a Windows box, "because Linux is not reasonable for photo editing". I actually daily drive Linux, but I can't be assed to move from Lightroom and photoshop, so I still keep a windows pc under my desk. I just play games on it because it's much beefier than my 5 yo ryzen U laptop, and since I don't interact with that box all that much, I didn't feel like partitioning my smallish drive for no tangible benefit. My laptop is more than enough for all my other needs.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#203

Post by mitkebes »

ukuina wrote: post #182
Zambyte wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't sell your games on Steam or in a way I can run them on Linux I am not buying or playing them. So much this. People like to moan about "oh game XYZ doesn't run so it's not reasonable for gaming". More games run on GNU / Linux than any gaming console. There are simply too many games that do run to give a second thought about the ones that don't, and it's been that way for years.

Do the top sellers from the past year work on Linux? I've been meaning to set up Bazzite on an older desktop.

Basically all games work, except some multiplayer games with kernel anticheat. You can look up the status of games here:

https://www.protondb.com/

And specifically the state of multiplayer games with anticheat here (which is a much less favorable % of working games):

https://areweanticheatyet.com/

I personally wouldn't install any kernel anticheat on a computer that I intend to use for anything important, so I would personally refuse to install the incompatible games even if I was using windows.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#204

Post by Levitating »

bee_rider wrote: post #110
W3zzy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

''By the way, I use Arch''

The meme was “I use Arch, BTW,” but I think it has mostly died as enough people have pointed out that Arch isn’t really hard-mode Linux or something. It is a barebones start but 1) very stable due to rolling-release producing small changes 2) the skill barrier to getting a full system is “basic literacy, to read the wiki” Eventually I switched to Ubuntu for some reason, it has given me more headaches than Arch.

> 1) very stable due to rolling-release producing small changes

Having very frequent updates to bleeding edge software versions, often requiring manual intervention is not "stable". An arch upgrade may, without warning, replace your config files and update software to versions incompatible with the previous.

That's fine if you're continuously maintaining the system, maybe even fun. But it's not stable. Other distributions are perfectly capable of updating themselves without ever requiring human intervention.

> 2) the skill barrier to getting a full system is “basic literacy, to read the wiki”

As well as requiring you to be comfortable with the the linux command line as well as have plenty of time. My mom has basic literacy, she can't install ArchLinux.

ArchLinux is great but it's not a beginner-friendly operating system in the same way that Fedora/LinuxMint/OpenSUSE/Pop!_OS/Ubuntu/ElementOS are.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#205

Post by QuadrupleA »

I always like to chime in on these things that I've been a delighted Arch user for about a year now, for similar reasons. Took a lot of setup, but it's dialed now and just works. My computer belongs to me again for the first time in years.

I should really do more to evangelize. It's not ok to use an OS monopoly to degrade and squeeze your users' often primary career and creative tool to your own short term ends, making their lives worse and worse. And it's such a delight to get out from under.

Not sure the situation for normies currently, but for power users, definitely dual boot and give it a try.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#206

Post by jp191919 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #155
Zambyte wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't sell your games on Steam or in a way I can run them on Linux I am not buying or playing them. So much this. People like to moan about "oh game XYZ doesn't run so it's not reasonable for gaming". More games run on GNU / Linux than any gaming console. There are simply too many games that do run to give a second thought about the ones that don't, and it's been that way for years.

> oh game XYZ doesn't run so it's not reasonable for gaming People tend to generalize, but what they probably mean is "it's not reasonable for gaming for the games I play. I haven't fully switched over yet because the games the combo of the hardware I have + the games I play regularly, still give me issues vs. Windows. Getting them to run isn't the problem, but I haven't been able to solve miscellaneous crashes, lag,…

FWIW, I've been gaming with a 1660 on Nobara OS for the past 3 months w/o issue.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#207

Post by timbit42 »

_fat_santa wrote: post #60

I've been running Ubuntu Linux for a long time now (over a decade, started with 8.04). Linux still has it's fair share of bugs but I'll take having to deal with those over running Windows or MacOS any day. For me the biggest thing is control, with Windows there are some things like updates that you have zero control over. It's the same issue with MacOS, you have more control than Windows but you're still at the whims…

> I've been running Ubuntu Linux for a long time now...Linux still has it's fair share of bugs...

> I don't see regular users adopting Linux anytime soon...

I can see why you think the second statement is true based on the first statements. When Ubuntu switched their desktop to Gnome, they gave up on being the best Linux desktop distro. I'd recommend you to try Linux Mint.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#208

Post by dvergeylen »

Muromec wrote: post #99
giancarlostoro wrote: post #68

This was me in 2022 or 2023. I have posted on HN about my shift a few times. I gave up with Windows 10 because you needed Windows Pro in order to make an "offline" account, I spent $2000+ for a gaming rig, and I couldn't add new users, one program told me to use the other program which brought me back to the original program... I had to go out of my way, buy a license just to make it work. I just went and installed L…

This was me in 2005. I cant believe people say that M$ started to suck in 2025. It always did.

This was me in 2006 as well. Long live Edgy Eft!

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#209

Post by muthuh »

Levitating wrote: post #157
giancarlostoro wrote: post #68

This was me in 2022 or 2023. I have posted on HN about my shift a few times. I gave up with Windows 10 because you needed Windows Pro in order to make an "offline" account, I spent $2000+ for a gaming rig, and I couldn't add new users, one program told me to use the other program which brought me back to the original program... I had to go out of my way, buy a license just to make it work. I just went and installed L…

> idk why Arch doesn't invest in whats standard in every other major distro Simplicity, among other reasons. Installers force the users hand and need maintenance. Having no installer but rather a detailed installation guide offers unlimited freedom to users. Installation isn't difficult either, you just pacstrap a root filesystem and configure the bootloader, mounts and locale. ArchLinux does now have an installer ca…

There is though the TUI installer, not like it used to be where the commands were typed in following the wiki. Not that there was anything wrong with the 'manual' mode, it gave you insight into the basic building blocks/configurations right from the start.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#210

Post by spikej »

publicdebates wrote: post #193

How likely is a future where Microsoft (a) gives us back 2000/XP/7/11 options for UI, (b) gives us a desktop-first experience when we have keyboard/mouse plugged in, (c) stops turning every OS feature into an ad, and makes it utilitarian again, (d) and focuses 100% on making a stable OS and high quality dev/office apps? It would be so nice if they just forked a commit from ~2005 and started from there. (Maybe Copilot…

I'd be super happy if they left Windows alone and did just this for years to come. Use the other products to make money, and just maintain this Win 2000/7/10 type OS without new features, and stop trying to hide everything behind fancy UI. I still revert back to old control panels to do the necessary tweaks.
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