Could be small or big.
My answer has always been that, Linux can’t handle everything I’d ask out of it that I normally can with Windows. I know the games issue has been progressing far from the days when that used to have been an archaic flaw with Linux for the longest time. Games might not be the issue except for some concerns I have for some games.
I was taking some time a few moments ago, to check if a program called Firestorm Viewer would work on Linux Mint which could’ve been my distro of choice. And the description written on the linux page described exactly the kind of concerns I’d have for compatibility and usability from going Windows to Linux.
They said that their viewer was tested and designed to function mostly with Ubuntu and while it could work with other distros, it’s not to be expected to be smooth.
That’s the kind of sentiment and concern I have always had with Linux if I were to go from Windows to it. There are programs and tools on Windows that I have that are used for specific purposes and I know they will not function on Linux. Furthermore, incase anything breaks down, any and all solutions would only be applicable to that thing that would be far easier to solve than just being SOL if I was on Linux.
It is something as a user that I just can’t simply afford to deal with on a regular basis if I made the switch.
So while I may not have too much of an issue running games, I won’t have too much of an issue using alternatives, I won’t have to deal with the Windows ecosystem .etc I will just be running into other walls that would simply make me second guess my decision and make me regret switching to the point where I would dip back into Windows in a hurry.
So many folks seem to be the opposite of me…
Linux just works now. Shit with my printer, device drivers, LAN things, stuff like like is like wrestling an animal on Windows for some reason, and… just works with KDE. It’s like they’ve swapped places.
Random Windows apps works better in wine than they do in actual windows, sometimes. With no fuss: I double click and they launch, that’s it.
Don’t even get me started on security.
But Linux is (mostly) not performant for gaming, at least not on Nvidia. It’s… fine, but I’m not going to take a 10%+ hit, sometimes much more severe, and poorer support for HDR, frame limiters, mod tools and such when I can just boot neutered Windows instead.
So I’m not getting away from Windows in the near future, but to frank, I don’t understand why more folks (who get past the admittedly tall hurdle of learning about partitioning and installing an OS) don’t dual boot, or seek to use certain poorly supported Linux native apps when double clicking exes mostly just works.
But my point is you don’t have to pick and choose. And there’s no commitment. You can have your cake and eat it, and send the cake back if you don’t like it.
Dual boot is a pain in the ass. I did this for a time and just ended up going to one OS.
My journey with Linux has always ended with “Oh, it’s easy, just paste this mile long command i to the terminal to do something that is a checkbox on Win or MacOS” type nonsense.
There’s just not any true benefits for me to run Linux. Windows and MacOS have their own bullshit but generally the amount of BS is easier to manage than Linux.
I guess it depends on what that ‘something’ is.
My linux partition used to be like this (mostly Nvidia issues), but its been relatively well behaved. And now my Windows install has become a pain with UWP apps, printers, and LAN drives, specifically, that I’ve just given up trying to resolve TBH. Not to speak of some programming stuff.
Both OSes are tools that make specific things easier.
But Linux is (mostly) not performant for gaming, at least not on Nvidia.
That’s true. If you really want to switch to Linux full-time, going with Nvidia is gonna be painful. Drivers have improved a lot over the last few years (especially on Wayland), but there are still so many small bugs and problems that add up and drive you crazy if you have to deal with them every day.
That’s why I sold my 3060. I had a 12GB model and for a period of a few months, the Nvidia drivers were just completely broken and I couldn’t even launch into a graphical interface (I guess they didn’t test that much VRAM because most models only had 8GB), so I had to go back to earlier (even buggier) builds. Even after they finally fixed that there were still constant graphical glitches and stuttering on Wayland with KDE…it worked, but it wasn’t fun.
Since I switched to an RX7800XT everything just works out of the box and I often get even better performance than on Windows. Just a few FPS here and there, but it’s still nice.
Nvidia doesn’t care. They do the bare minimum to make their cards somewhat work on Linux, but it’s not enough.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure working Nvidia on wayland is a very recent thing.
Honestly I just boot from my (AMD) IGP for linux, which is better for compute anyway.
I flipped in 1997, so any software I might have missed since those days are probably not around anymore.
Windows 95 was pretty shitty in comparison to Linux, and a lot of software broke with NT 4.0
It was an easy choice at the time. Linux was the operating system for this new fancy thing called the internet. Software development turned into a career, and Linux is just a very nice stack for building backends and infrastructure.
I do have an old ThinkPad around running windows 10. I’ve only used it three times in the past five years: To unbrick an Android phone, to set the MMSI on a marine radio, and to update the maps on my car’s satnav.
Small? My biggest issue is tiny and probably fixable but not to my skill set. A big workflow for me is finding images in browser and dragging them to a folder to save. Linux can do it but doesn’t save the file extensions and renames the file to a number.
Bigger would be there it’s no replacement for Irfanview. There are multiple tools that add up to its functionality but not as easy or fast.
Bigger yet would be VR support. Some games in general, really. Most of what I play works on my Steam deck so I know Linux covers 80% of my gaming needs excepting VR.
I went back to windows for a few months on the newer desktop. I installed mint and discovered it had a lot of problems with the hardware. HDMI, Ethernet, WiFi, and various downstream things didn’t work. I fixed some of it with help from forums and such, but eventually I went back to windows.
But a couple months later, I tried Pop!_OS and that has worked perfectly out of the box. No regrets.
I jave about 7 or 8 machines running some version of linux. I trt to switch as a dailyachine every decade or so and works fine for a couple of weeks. Then something needs an update, that update then updates some dependencies which breaks a half dozen other programs. Half of those have new updates for it the other half dont. Of the half tjat dp aboyt half of those also update even more dependencies which then breaks even more programs. This spirals for a month or two sometimes settling out sometimes not. Eventually i get tire of fixing the machin and just want to use it so i go back to my windows box i havent had to fuck with since i put it together. Wait a decade pr so and the cycle repeats. Just waiting on that time when the cycle breaks and im still using a linux box. Maune another 30 some odd years and it will be ready.
Unfortunately I’m addicted to a game that requires kernel level anti cheat. So I dual boot Fedora and Windows, but pretty much the only thing I use the Windows partition for is the game and that rare application that just works ™️ on Windows
Caught and clocked 😅
Same here, fellow Fedora and Windows dual boot. I have a seperate hard drive for kernel level anti-cheat games: Escape From Tarkov - some PVE maps do run under Linux but PVP and parts of the map require anti-cheat.
Battlefield games from 5 onwards
Call of Duty games Coldwar onwards - do not open a call of duty game under Linux, there have been posts where it is an instant ban.
Ghosts of Tabor
I do have hope that one day the anti-cheat situation will work out where it doesn’t matter what operating system you are running but for now if I want to play some of the above games with friends for now I dual boot.
If you care… you would probably drop Tarkov and not touch Battlefield anymore… but assuming you already know and dont care so wont ruff your feathers. CoD is valid dont know anything about Ghosts of Tabor.
Most recently when I used Windows was because of work. I’ve been seeing these posts for a while now and I can make some valid arguments.
- Anti cheat games
- Adobe products (Web is not the same)
- MS Office desktop
- Work has processes linked to Windows specifically (server that only works on IIS Express maybe?)
- Big legacy codebase where they don’t match filename casing.
- Specific Visual Studio scripts or plugins for a DSL.
- Security requirements that need windows APIs (like mandating crowdstrike)
- Music production with a Ableton (it works but it’s not noob friendly).
- You have deep knowledge of Windows and getting up to speed on Linux would take a year without guarantees you have a comparable system.
- Your client is on Windows and you’re making a desktop Windows app that’s not cross platform.
Thankfully none of these apply to me so I’m on Linux but I can see how this is an issue.
I would like to add two more points
- Certain pricey applications aimed students and researchers (non CS background) which are only released for Windows
- Inability to learn a new way of using the PC after learning the “windows way” for 20 years. Even Windows shenanigans are second-nature to mildly-PC literate people.
Adobe products (Web is not the same)
Photoshop and Illustrator do work, but getting them to run is painful.
- you have to build a separate version of wine from source code and apply a patch to it
- it needs to be cracked (the licensing stuff does not work)
- it has to be installed on Windows and the files need to be copied manually (the installer doesn’t work)
I have done it and use it regularly, but it’s not that trivial.
Wow, I thought the reason Adobe wasn’t on Linux was something more difficult than “Needs dependencies, files and an installer”. Since Wine is LGPL they could literally just bundle it with the software in an installer.
It just makes me think about how Adobe just doesn’t want to the bare minimum for Linux support and force people to learn alternative tools.
Mac OS has always worked well enough. It’s much worse now in my opinion than it was since High Sierra but it’s still fine. Also, I fear it’d be quite difficult to get Linux working on an M2 MacBook Pro for dubious benefit to me.
If I was on a PC though, I’d definitely try Linux out, really don’t like Windows 11 and didn’t love Windows 10
I just want Serato DJ Pro to release a Linux version…
I have a professional advantage in being a windows power user. Only way of maintaining that is running windows at home. I do have several Linux systems too.
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Too much annoyances migrating my PC.
And I already got a taste of it with my SteamDeck.
Yeah, not worth my nightly effort after work (and I won’t build my library solely on Steam/Valve, lol)deleted by creator
You can even combine them all and use Heroic Games Launcher.
Having used linux 17 years ago for a year.
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I used computers then too. They were easier to use than Linux, still are, but were then too. I’ve checked in on it a couple times. I got shit to do with my life that isn’t constantly tweaking a computer to get it to do what I want.
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No, windows now is easier and more intuitive than Linux now.
17 years ago this was also true.
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I used it for a year and have checked in periodically since. I just put a Linux distro on an old laptop to run Fluidd for my 3d printers. It has its use but I’m not living day to day like that.
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audio production in Linux is awful.
I’ve found a lot of success after biting the bullet and purchasing bitwig as my DAW.
yes, bitwig is fantastic on linux. I’m really impressed with what they’ve been doing
There’s a lack of linux native VSTs, but other than that my exp has been that Linux is both easier, less demanding and more stable than Windows for audio. Don’t know how it compares to Mac.
the linux builds of bitwig and reaper are great, don’t get me wrong. but running Windows vsts with yabridge is just not going to cut it for me. I need my music tools to work
In my latest setup I’ve chosen to make due with what’s available for Linux. I’m not going to bridge Windows VSTs.
So I don’t mind the software, I’ll use whatever is available, but it was really the hardware issues with Windows that made me switch. I don’t want to spend another night trying to make Windows recognise my old controllers, when they all work without any issues in Linux. I need my tools to work too.
Isn’t reaper the same in Linux?
the linux build of reaper is great, yes
Adobe software doesn’t work
Winboat allows you to run Adobe software as if it was a native app on Linux. Or you can just use a virtual machine. There’s really no excuse not to use Linux anymore. I personally use Lutris for my non-Steam games, and other Windows programs.
I’m going to give that a shot because I thought there was no way
While we are nearly an “All Linux” shop at home, there is one machine that I won’t change.
It is a HP oscilloscope running a heavily modified version of Win98. Back then, it cost as much as a new car, and it still works mostly fine (and where it doesn’t, I know, and can work around). The Windows is basically an afterthought to the hardware, and I don’t think I could get any kind of drivers for the hardware - not even for a newer Windows version. So that remains.
But even my wife wants to switch to Linux now instead of going Win11.
If it works, don’t fix it.
