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.
Edit: These are reasons I use Linux because I read the title too fast… Doh…
Because I dont think its normal to have an American tech company recording what I do at my computer. Its a bit shocking that people have given up and just let them watch everything now.
Its not only that, its also that windows always is annoying. Weather its constant sounds, notifications, ads, user interface changes or bugs, its all so annoying.
Linux is just beautiful, quiet, fast, no ads. Doesnt get slower with time. Updates are actually adding features you may want.
The entire open source idea is beautiful. Sharing solutions, working together, without profit motives.
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
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.
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.
audio production in Linux is awful.
I’ve found a lot of success after biting the bullet and purchasing bitwig as my DAW.
I ended up doing it, but my hesitation prior to the switch was gaming. I did it anyway though, and now with Proton I don’t miss a thing.
Get a couple USB sticks and backup your documents folder. Having backup, aside from being a generally good idea, should make you feel safer to test and experiment.
I do understand the general concern about running your Windows apps, but I’d say just trust yourself and see what you canake work, and what you can find good alternatives for. I’m at a point now where there are Linux apps that I really like but can’t get to work quite right on Windows. It’s not a one-way thing.
Drivers. I’ve got a bunch of music stuff that lets you edit presets on the computer and they just don’t make drivers for Linux
I don’t think I’m good enough with computers not to just fuck it all up.
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
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.
I still need to provide binaries for Windows, so build and compile for multiple operating systems.
I love Linux. Deploying software to customer sites was historically challenging on Linux due to system dependencies. Containers alleviate most of those problems.
I want to be able to rely on all the things I want to do on my PC “just working” I don’t want to come home after a long day of bullshit looking forward to playing a game or working on a project and have to do a bunch of troubleshooting because something is fucked up. I’m not there yet with Linux. To be fair I’m not there yet with Win 11 either so I’m in a tight spot.
I did buy a laptop so I could try it out more aggressively but have ran into a lot of roadblocks and just have a lot of things that I haven’t had time to figure out yet.
What kind of projects are you creating?
I will say, Linux really is not all the way there for people who use Adobe products. I get the hesitation. But, I haven’t had issues with games since like 2022 - and that was because I was trying to mod anyway.
That said, I have to inquire what distribution you’re using on your laptop? Not that they’re perfect, but something a little more preconfigured for your needs like Pop!_OS or CachyOS may be the ticket to a smoother experience.
CAD for 3d printing/woodworking
Drawing
Managing my media server and putting together playlists/reading lists.
Various little coding things to help with workflows on different things.
I’ve been playing around with Bazzite which seems to be pretty good so far but I have a list of things still I need to figure out how to do on it. Also for the record I’ve been running a headless debian server for my media for years without much issue so I’m not clueless about Linux but that isn’t as involved as using it for a desktop.
CAD is the one thing that has no meaningful Linux alternative.
For drawing or painting, Krita or Gimp are your top options, though Gimp gives some of the worst user experience in all Linux. Inkscape if you do vector art.
Yeah, you’re a bit SOL for CAD and drawing. I mean, Krita is great, but if you use Adobe you’re fucked.
I hear so many complaints about FreeCAD… Maybe we’ll be there someday.
Yeah, I use Krita for drawing so I’m not so worried about (assuming my tablet works) I do have FreeCAD installed and have played with it a little but it was a pretty rocky start that left me not super confident that I’ll be able to rely on it.
Theres also the issue that working off just the laptop is annoying so I’m looking to see if theres a KVM switch/Dock that will let me use my periphreals with the laptop without having to unplug all my shit. Haven’t messed with hardware like that in a long time though so I’m not sure what’s what.
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.
- CAD
- Photo editing
Gave FreeCAD and darktable a solid try hoping to switch my main desktop, but they have significant usability problems
CAD was a big problem for me as well. I’ve been happy enough with OnShape (coming from Autodesk Inventor), but the extreme SaaS nature of it makes me worry.
I used to dual boot windows just for when I needed to run LR Classic or Photoshop but now I just use winboat which makes them usable in Linux in your desktop environment while under the hood its running through a VM. It works great except not having GPU acceleration hurts, but it was a compromise worth it to me to not have to reboot into and out of windows.
Have you tried RawTherapee instead of Darktable? They both do pretty much the same thing, but I find RawTherapee much easier to use :)
You’ll find some things are broken and janky in Windows and Linux. Just different jank you’re not used to. I have friends who complain about how they have to do weird workarounds for Linux and then turnaround and fuck with RegEdit. You get used to either given enough time.
then turnaround and fuck with RegEdit.
LOL, forgot about this. And they say they ain’t tech savvy enough
