I switched fully to Linux from Windows (on my desktop) about 4 months ago. I’m a very old Linux user, I did my first install in '98 using Slackware, built an in-house web server for a company that hired me. But I’ve always been a “host my Linux servers on Digital Ocean” type of Linux user versus “desktop Linux user” and if I’m being honest, I switched to all FOSS everything years ago, so the only real reason I stayed on Windows was:
Gaming.
It was about five months ago my wife bought me a Steam Deck for my birthday. I was kinda mad about it, I thought it was too grandiose of a gift, but you know yeah, it was fucking rad. And I love it. It didn’t take but a couple of weeks of use before I realized that Steam’s coup was nearly complete. I knew it meant that Linux was now ready for prime time among gamers like me (who don’t give a damn about multiplayer, nor kernel-level anti-cheat). I knew I could get Windows out of my life.
I didn’t know what pitfalls awaited. My Windows machine was aging (Ryzen 3 3300X, RTX 3060) but still serviceable. I had another machine sitting in the living room that I used when really desperate (the wife was playing BG3 on the 3060), but it was getting waaaay too old to be practical (FX 6300, GTX 1050Ti). So I decided to modestly upgrade the living room machine, install Linux on it and use it instead of Windows and see how it went. If all went well, I’d wipe Windows.
I upgraded the living room machine (Ryzen 5 3600, RTX 5070, which required new mobo and RAM so I upgraded to 32G DDR4 3600 from my previous 16G and installed a 1TB NVMe in lieu of the HDD) - my timing could not have been more fortuitous, even though this was older, cheaper stuff, it was all nearly half the cost that it is now). On this machine, I installed Linux.
It didn’t just go great. It went flawlessly. Everything works, with minimal intervention. I chose Mint because I didn’t want an atomic distro, but I wanted something as friendly as possible for my wife’s sake. All games are playing, from all sources. Steam, Epic, Gog, standalone. I play Elite Dangerous with a VKB/STECS setup and I was certain it was going to be a nightmare to setup. It wasn’t. I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.
There was only one thing left that I hadn’t tackled that I was certain was going to be the real nightmare. Honestly, it didn’t actually matter that much, which is why I left it for last. But I have an OG Vive, and I had heard it could be challenging. It wasn’t. Installed Steam VR, launched it and it worked out of the gate as beautifully as it did on Windows, except better, because with a 5070 behind it, I could run everything on “VR Ultra” settings and it didn’t even break a sweat. Holy shit, this is awesome!
I will be wiping the Windows machine tomorrow. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck ads. Fuck subscriptions. Fuck closed source gated off bullshit in general.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Also switched recently.
A big surprise for me was my printer. On Windows, I had to install the printer by downloading some POS software that needed to run on startup and would nag me with ads about ink and shit.
On Linux, it was just…there. Already ready to print, nothing to set up or install or do.
Yes! And I would like to add, I’ve never been able to get the scanner to work on my printer from Windows. I always had to scan to a usb stick on the printer itself and then carry it to wherever I wanted.
Linux: just worked. Got done setting up the printer and it asked me if I wanted to set up the scanner too, it hadn’t even occurred to me.
When my printer showed up on Linux my first thought was, “hmmm I guess when I reformatted the hard drive and installed the new OS it saved my printer settings…neat”. Eventually, I figured it out.
I never get tired of reading posts like this one.
Hell yeah dude. I switched full time over a year ago and it’s been great. I still have a Windows partition for VR and modding but it literally went 6 months without getting booted last year. I’m encouraged by your success with VR, as I was under the impression HTCs stuff just didn’t work in Linux due to their middleware.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I’m floored myself. To be fair, I haven’t strayed from using it with Steam VR, so I can’t speak to anything else, but it was literally plug and play. Elite’s graphics were jumpy but all I did to “fix” it was change the quality in the game settings to “VR Ultra” and it was better than it ever was on Windows immediately. I’m gonna do Alyx sometime this week.
Notepadqq is the Linux equivalent of notepad++
I did try it (and Geany, and etc), but it didn’t have the ability to “save as to ftp” which is a stupid thing to get hung up on, but I’m stuck in a groove with how I do certain tasks in web dev. This was before I realized you could mount a server like a drive in the File Manager (another awesome Linux thing I didn’t know I needed in my life), so I may go back and try it again, but since I got Notepad++ working fine and I’d have to port over all my syntax highlighting I’m not really motivated.
on geany you can create custom commands, so ftp upload should be trivial to integrate.
pm me if you need some bash magic.
Emacs has functionality called tramp which can handle saving to ftp (amongst other things)
I did try it (and Geany, and etc), but it didn’t have the ability to “save as to ftp” which is a stupid thing to get hung up on,
You won’t miss it, I guarantee that haha. You’ll figure it out.
I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.
Geany has the same underlying editor component as Notepad++. You might want to try it.
cam confirm is a great replacement.
I was a np++ fan and I use geany on Linux.
Now if only big companies got the memo and started porting professional software to Linux …
this. im still waiting for ableton on linux
Isn’t Bitwig close enough? (Also, Ardour has the “grid” now, like Live)
been trying to get into bitwig, i still gotta figure out yabridge and stuff cuz apparently i suck at music now that im outside my comfort zone. my first serious attempt at doing smth with renoise genuinely went better
Oh yeah, I’m lucky in this regard. I became a (partial) Mac user back in 2002 when my company gave me a MacBook and told me all the stuff we were building had to work on Mac (educational software). I was always a Sonar guy - going way back. Sonar basically died so I was forced to start over and I was looking at Ableton and others but I decided to go with Logic because I had a spare Mac that could handle it just laying around. So I’ve been a Logic on Mac user since 2018.
But yeah, I can see how if you use tools like Ableton it would be a real impediment to switching.
Reason would be nice. I miss it
I’ve been a Linux guy since 1996 but almost exclusively on the server side. I tried desktop Linux numerous times through the years but the experience wasn’t great. In 2012 I left Windows behind for Mac as my daily driver. In 2016 I built a Windows gaming system, and in 2019 I got sick of how shitty Intel Apple MBPs were so I got a Lenovo X1 Extreme, slapped PopOS on it, and it has been my daily driver ever since. Same machine. Solid as a rock. I do have an M1 MBP now, but itnis only for music production.
Linux on the Desktop is lightyears away from where it was just ten years ago. It’s crazy how painless it all is now.
Linux has come a long way. Gaming support has really improved over the last few years and all the games I tried so far have worked. But the bad thing is windows comes default on most computers and most people don’t stray from the default.
I could totally be wrong cause it’s been a few years since I’ve looked but my issue is some of the games I play with friends, I can only play them from the Xbox launcher if I want to play with friends who are on their Xbox. It’s one of the only things holding me back on Linux being a full time thing for me.
Congrats! Gaming was the only thing keeping me before I switched over completely as well, though I had been using Linux for years like you. It’s like becoming cancer free or something when you finally get there.
Welcome! :D It’s like a breath of fresh air, huh?
Yeah I decided to buy Fallout 76 and I for lolz decided to use my Linux partition, thinking I would have to re download it anyway. Worked flawlessly. Ever since I just run my games on Linux and it works fine. Its amazing how much has changed
I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.
Kate is much nicer than Notepad++, though I dunno how pretty it’s going to be on Cinnamon since it seems you made a newbie mintstake with your distro choice.
So, the OP shared a success story about switching to Linux and your response is to grouse about their choice of DE and text editor? No wonder people think the Linux community is difficult.
Anyway, welcome aboard, OP. Hope your Linux journey is a happy and rewarding one.!
You should absolutely not run something as basic as a text editor under Wine. Just the way Wine interacts with the filesystem is already full of inconveniences and pitfalls. There are several Linux-native editors that are better options here.
Why not? It’s possible, the user likes it, so that’s a win. I use MP3Tag under Wine. It’s pretty basic and even though there are native Linux alternatives I still use it like this. Nobody’s gonna tell me how I have to use my system.
I believe I explained why not in the comment you are replying to.
That’s your opinion, and you’re free to do as you see fit on your own machines. That’s the beauty of Linux.
Your opinion is not objective fact. Learn to deal with it.
since it seems you made a newbie mintstake with your distro choice.
Dude, shut the fuck up. People like you are the reason Linux is seen as “difficult”.
No, you shut the fuck up. Mint is a gigantic noob trap that objectively sucks (Budgie got Wayland support before Cinnamon lmao) and it is a disservice to new users to trick them into installing it.
“no u”
Why do you care so much about what others use? I’ve been a Linux user for most of my life and I still decided to use Cinnamon on my laptop for a few years. It works, it does the basic OS things, and that’s all most people really want.
If you like Budgie on Wayland, more power to you. Nowadays I use KDE Plasma on Wayland, on both my gaming PC and laptop; I’m just not an elitist gatekeeping dumbass about it.
But seriously, there are loads of really good editors in Linux, and I really don’t see justification in hanging onto notepad++ when you are specifically trying to de-MS (Wine is a layer of software you will do well without). Good thing is, you are free to explore the territory and choose whatever you like.
Why is there always someone like you in the comments. Why would you use qt apps in a gtk environment anyway?
Bah.
Mint’s fine and Kate runs all right on it and Cinnamon. All it takes is configuring your normal Qt theming to be pretty.
Yeah I use Kate on linux and windows (at work) and it’s good. If OP wants a suggestion for a new text editor, it’s a good one after you mess around in settings to get it how you want.
