Flatpaks are more about allowing you to limit what an app has access to rather than it being about stopping you from breaking things. It's like how on your phone you can set an app's permissions. As you can see it's still a bit buggy though. It's a fairly recent development, so I expect over the coming years we will see them integrate a lot better into the other features of Linux.
Flatpaks are over 20 years old (it changed names like a decade ago) and it's still jank. There are tons of very basic features like this that are unreliable on Linux. Window management, wireless connectivity, software support, getting the thing to function and do more than display an empty desktop (depends on distro but never totally smooth in any distro in my experience), etc. Linux may never get it together if they don't have a major change in how things are done.
The flatseal app eases the pain to configure extra permissions. Other than that: $something flatpak couldn't access $someotherthing just means flatpak did it's job 👍
Flatpaks aren't even about that, lol... Flatpaks are about being able to easily uninstall when you don't need it, at the cost of reduced interaction capabilities.
I was skeptical about switching over to Linux(Mint) full time. What sealed the deal for me was when I booted into Windows to grab some files, it updated and nuked Grub. This triggered my fight or flight response and penguins are flightless(I don't think this analogy works here) so I'm on Mint for my personal devices. I still use Windows at my job and the "features" they keep adding are dumb and being in a hybrid Azure environment, these improvements have just been making everything harder to use. Love the follow up on the video, glad you're having a good time and not going to look back.
Can you please tell me - exactly what two single places/resources I can go to (TH-cam + a website) , where I add 5 hours of my life & between them I will be able to Dummy's Guide my way through from Point A (having a Windows 10 NUC box in front of me), to Point B - said box is now running Linux Mint (Cinnamon?) on it.
I am literally typing this on linux mint and I am NEVER going back to windows ever again. Hell, I don't care about my games being in Windows. I will play and find other games. I can buy compatibility layers. So, good on you Blind! And I hope others are encouraged to join you and others. :)
You can actually play around with SteamOS. It's really hard to find any windows game wich wouldn work on it after some workarounds. I'm myself can only name a few from 1000+++ titles library. I'm get used to it because of Deck, ofc, but i'm thinking about having it as dual boot on my main system.
I recommend checking out Lutris, it basically handles all the compatibility layer configuration on a game to game basis, based off of community made setups.
In linux mint you can also just search for the windows equivalent program at it usually just pops up with the correct one. You need task manager to kill a program? hit the windows key start typing "task" and system monitor shows up so you can get rid of that frozen app...or that you need to save scum some certain paradox games
i switched to arch a little over 2 months straight from windows & i don't regret it at all i've learned so much and i dont want to go back to windows unless i'm forced
I'm so glad to see someone actually put in an earnest effort to move away from Adobe. So many people hear photoshop doesn't work and refuse to try it, which is airways a shame. Yes, the replacements aren't completely perfect, but they do what 99% of people will ever need.
I really don't care about Adobe myself, but I've paid for Serif Affinity software (Photo, Designer, Publisher) and really don't like GIMP so that's a bit of a dud for me. Haven't tried Krita tho', buit the fact that Affinity's software isn't working is a bummer for me. Currently sticking with a gaming Windows PC, a Macbook and a Chromebook (that I recently got for experimentation purposes). Been loving all three of them for different reasons. For gaming, I know most games work on Linux just fine if you use Steam, but a lot of games are not on Steam and a lot of them require anti-cheat software that runs on the kernel level for example Riot Games' league of legends, valorant etc. And also if you have a bunch of games on GOG, Epic Games, Blizzard Battlenet etc. and not only Steam. And also got some games on the Xbox app and I'm sure that's going to be a hurdle to get up and running on Linux... This is not an "anti-linux" post. Just mentioning some things that are keeping me from switching to Linux even tho' I absolutely detest Windows 11...
GIMP has a lot of problems honestly, and while I haven't used an Adobe product in over a decade (except maybe Flash Player?), I can imagine it's a big step down if you edit images professionally, depending on what kind of editing you do, anyway. Graphite is a very interesting project in that space, and if it keeps its momentum might be far less of a compromise for people moving from AI and PS than what Inkscape and GIMP currently offer. I hope for a bright future where Graphite and Blender do for me what Adobe CS could have in an alternate timeline.
@@realEchoz I'm in the same boat, as I've never even touched any significant Adobe software, but ultimately the vast majority of people aren't going to need whatever Photoshop has over GIMP. It's just the vast majority of where people are getting Linux information from is TH-camrs who often have a legitimate use for Adobe features so it always gets brought up as the big Achilles heel of Linux when for so many people it's a non issue. Really I'm mostly just disappointed that the vast majority of these "Linux challenge" videos don't even try to make it work and just give up and say Linux bad as a result.
@@vidal9747, the way that you phrased it sounds like you dislike GNU. If so, could you please explain your reasons? Either way, could you please also explain what you like about Alpine?
The point you made about it being exciting to use again struck strong with me. Switched a few months ago, started with ubuntu and eventually made my way to arch with hyprland, and every step of the way, including the headaches, were actually so fun. I don't think i've had this much fun using my pc since like 2018. Great video man!
Thumbs up for using Mint! I installed Mint on a laptop to test it out as well and it’s been working great. I’m getting ready to ditch Windows for good soon. Thanks for the update. Glad to hear your experience with it has been great. Time to show Microsoft that we don’t need windows anymore.
My 1st contact with Linux was on the Steam Deck, and I gotta say that it's surprisingly fine for almost everything I do, and then most of the things with which it is not totally fine you'd have to tinker around, fix it, and then it works forever. The only issue I had was some multiplayer games. I don't generally use Steam Deck for those, but that's kind of my only real problem with Linux. That being said, I'm switching when Windows 10 dies.
I’m using mint on an old MacBook Air, I use it to manage my network, I will also be installing it on a 7th gen intel desktop for a bit more grunt. Loving it atm and no bloody cloud account to sign in on just install and go! Which is like detoxing in this “must be signed in” age! So refreshing and enjoyable to learn!
Note: The recommended DE for Mint is Cinnamon, rather than GNOME, as is a project that was forked from an earlier version of GNOME... so getting them mixed up is understandable... the workflow of modern GNOME is _dramatically_ different from Windows, disabling minimising tabs by default, in favour organising apps across multiple workspaces. It's a really nice change from the Windows workflow, if you understand it's design patterns, but I wouldn't recommend modern GNOME to beginners... 😅 Edit: Oh, no, Dwarf Fortress has run natively on Linux for a while. It's even packaged by the Debian maintainers, meaning you can install it via `apt` (and maybe the software manager as well...)
I wouldn't recommend GNOME to anyone, period. It's opinionated in the worst possible way, rejecting any kind of feedback or, god forbid, criticism... I've been around FOSS for decades, and I can legitimately say the singularly worst experiences I've had by a huge margin were when I had technical issues because of their absolute unwillingness to help anyone in trouble due to their choices.
no, he's correct, the _steam_ version of dwarf fortress only got native linux support late last september (the steam version is the one with the not ASCII graphics, and an actual UI.)
@@ThylineTheGay That's a qualified statement. I can't say it'd be stunning to hold against him though, because it's easy to miss the shareware version being packaged if you weren't actively looking for it... 🤷♀️
I personally use GNOME and love the workflow. Only thing I'll correct here is that minimizing, or really "hiding" windows is not disabled, it's the BUTTON on the window that's disabled. You're supposed to press SUPER + H (super = windows key) to hide windows by default. GNOME is quite different, but it fundamentally is quite keyboard heavy which I love because it stops my right had from constantly going between the mouse and the keyboard. I also love how much more natural maximizing is by dragging the window to the top and bringing the cursor onto the black bar, it's like macOS's top bar but more smooth. You can also maximize buy using SUPER + Arrow Up Key or by double clicking on the app's title bar. Again, GNOME always has a keyboard way of doing things to stop you from having to move your right hand off the keyboard if you're in the middle of doing some typing intensive tasks
This video is helping me a lot to gain confidence in switching toward Linux! I am about to switch toward Linux Mint and have a hard time to actually start with this due to my lethargic attitude to adapt to big changes like moving away from Windows 10. Thank you very much. Looking forward to see more videos from you to get used to Linux Mint!
You make a usb drive then reboot your computer (maybe popping into UEFI with F12 to select the boot drive.), that's it you don't even need to install Linux or touch windows, it will run right from the thumbdrive (Usually without saving settings across reboots, though some live distros can do that.).
@@mytech6779 I know that, thanks. My lethargy is more psychologically. I did that and had some nice experience with that for 3 weeks after installing it on my second PC. Unfortunately Linux Mint broke on me after an Update for no apparent reason. Could utilize Timeshift to get back to a point, but after all that it was not working out of the box then I connected an external ssd. So now looking for another Distro. Undecided whether it should be LMDE 6 or Ubuntu Cinnamon.
Yeah, never do arch first. You must feel the pain of building the latest version of your software from source if you want it to be the latest version. Then you go arch on your first install and endeavour os on all the following
I agree. I'm seriously considering moving to Linux too. I strongly despise the direction windows is going. Windows was perfect when Windows 7 was the main version. Then they just had to try to "innovate" on perfection. W10 and W11 SUCKS!
It's never been easier to do so. Some good starting distros would be Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora. With Gnome extensions you can pretty much simulate the windows 7 experience.
@@SonataNumber8 Rather than Ubuntu I prefer Pop!OS. It's a lot like Ubuntu, but without Snap package manager. My first experience with Ubuntu was trying to get the Snap version of Docker running, and that soured me in the entire thing.
windows 10 is still good if they dont put ads on the whole system. like seriously, i dont get my license for free. dont shove bunch of ads to my as*. wheres windows 11, the same as windows 10 but with ai bullsh*t
Enshittification comes to mind. Windows 8 jumped on the "the desktop is dead" bandwagon and kinda flopped. Windows 10 was initially pretty good, but it also is the start of the downhill trend that is still going on.
I remember when windows 7 was around, if someone recommended you switch to linux you just laugh. But it never happened, coz there was nobody recommending anything but windows 7 because it was so freakign awesome
Welcome!! Popey sent me 😊 My desktop is running stock Ubuntu and my laptop is running Aurora (my laptop is also my experimental computer, but I'm *really* loving Aurora right now). I actually really appreciate your walkthrough for the experience of a new user in 2024, so thank you!
I’ve been on nobara since the beginning of the year and it’s been a delight as someone who basically just uses my home pc for gaming, if you want to try out something with a rolling release I’d recommend either checking that or some flavor of fedora out :3
The walkthrough of how you made the OS jump is really helpful in making the process of switching seem less intimidating, so thank you, Blind. I'm thinking increasingly about jumping to linux when I finally run my current laptop into the ground. Every new 'ai' centered headline I see in general takes ten years off my will to exist but the windows news in specific is driving me up the wall faster than working in customer service. The main thing holding me back for the moment is compatibility with my main art software, clip studio. I think as time passes its more and more likely that there will be easier workarounds to get it up on linux. Or maybe csp will pull another stupid business move and it'll be time to jump to a different art program again! Who knows these days!! :D
as a gamer this year I've been looking back and forth between Windows 10 getting an expiry date (September or something next year will no longer automatically receive security updates), and the growing bullshit being added to Windows 11 instead of actually fixing the OS... and been wondering if it may be getting to the time to jump ship off Windows entirely. (not to mention Windows 11 costing about $250-$300 AUD)
Where are you getting these prices, Windows 11 costs 15 - 20$ here (I am here because I'm genuinely interested in switching to Linux, I'm scared of Win starting up in the middle of the night and demanding an update every other week, I tried everything to force it to NOT update, but the fact that my computer can start on its own while I sleep freaks me out)
@@alexandrachernysh7 a license for windows 11 pro is $199 usd if you buy grey market then you can skip that but run the risk of getting keys rejected. Its happened to me a few times in the past with windows 7 and 10 where I had to rebuy windows because it was unverified by a grey market sale.
In in the process of moving over to linux. I jumped in the deep end with a minimal install of debian, and its been both a rewarding and at times irritating experience. I highly recommend mint to anyone who is looking to dip in their toes. But, i hope that going the debian route forces me into becoming literate in the software before fully switching
I am always interested in the newbie experience. I know that I had issues a long time ago, but for many years now, Debian has been smooth for me. (I even ran it on a Mac.)
Keep on going! I did the transition years ago and I've found Linux rewarding. I highly recommend trying out the FreedomBox project if you want pre-canned working templates of FLOSS software stacks like Apache / Mediawiki (documentation) / WordPress (blog) / Element (VOIP) to learn from. Having a clearly useful goal to work towards helps immensely in motivating your daily learning.
I switched to linux because I wanted control of my computer. A ton of ubuntu and its derivatives are taking away that control with snap; e.g, i cant install the deb of firefox without jumping through a ton of hoops. So Debian has been the best option for me, its upstream of ubuntu anyways... Plus its super stable, and just works. I was running Kubuntu (KDE DE + Ubunutu) for its DE customization, but switching to Debian 12 with Gnome was the best choice. KDE just doesnt perform well on my laptop. Plus I've never had a nvidia driver issue with debian. Debian, in my case, was the best choice linux distro and I'm glad to see other folks here using, or planning on using it! Its not so hard, installation was super easy! Just follow the workflow on the installation guide!
when I say minimal, I mean MINIMAL. my USB i used as an install stick was really old, and if the install went on for too long, it would freak out and start reading corrupt data. So I had to run the install with the least possible features. Now that I have all the necessities in place, it runs great. I just had to figure out what they all were first.
I don't have Windows 11, and I'm probably going to uninstall Windows 10 off most of my devices next summer when I finish college. Need dual boot to run certain Windows specific programs.
You should find someone who would help you to setup a VM with Windows for those specific programs. Should do that myself probably, even just for another Linux box in VM that I just can nuke and don't worry about each time after installing some poo-poo software like discord and so on.
@rogo7330 If your program isn't a game with anticheat, and you have a secondary gpu, you could setup a qemu/kvm virtual machine, passing the gpu through the vm, and get the gpu working as natively. Just a reminder that having a 2° gpu is optional, is just for performance.
I stopped using Windows 2 months ago, now only using it for VR compatibility. Pretty much for the same reason you did, resource consumption was so high on my laptop that the fans were going like a jet engine while I sat idling on the desktop. And this was after I’d done a full wipe of my hard drive. Started with Arch btw, then realised I was in way over my head (bluetooth driver straight up died) and went for a Linux Mint install. Honestly I heard that compatibility for games had improved drastically but I was still surprised to see that I could install and run UT99 from CD. Compatibility has really come a long way. And seeing as this is the longest I’ve ever daily driven linux, I think I’m here to stay. Edit: Btw I had to update my Nvidia drivers through the driver manager, the updates never seemed to appear in the update manager which threw me off a bit.
Please tell me you kept your Windows drive. It's not for everyone and it's harder to create a Windows installation drive on Linux than the other way around.
I switched last year to Fedora for my laptop. It's been great for the most part. Firefox, single player games, VLC, running well and I'm happy. Unfortunately I still need a Windows work computer.
I switched to arch last month and it's been great. I have access to the entire computer, any file I want to delete I can, if I wanted to be diabolical I can "sudo rm -rf /" and delete the entire system. There's no forced installed software like edge or one drive. Freedom over my computer is really one of the big reasons I switched and over the years I just got sick of using an operating system that didn't respect that at all. I'm glad I made the switch and I don't see myself going back to windows.
Thank you for doing an update on your time with linux. I'm glad to hear you are having a good time :) Do note that DF worked on linux on day 1 of the steam release, but was not officially supported. I have been using Linux for 7-8 years. First I used Arch, and about a year ago I moved to debian. However, I also used Alpine Linux for a short time, some Fedora and even some OpenBSD. But, debian is fine. Not great, but fine :) I hope you stick with it and more people will see your video :)
Yeah ofc it ran fine in proton. I was talking about running native on Linux. It did have performance issues initially that were made worse by proton. Most of that is gone now. Whole running a large fort in proton fps is slightly lower so it's still there but not as bad.
Welcome to the penguin squad! I use Manjaro currently, for work, gaming, sim racing, streaming and content creation. I have used several distros, most of them Debian based, and I help people who want to try Linux but never push them to make the switch if they don't feel comfortable. I don't miss windows and do not see myself going back anytime soon.
I haven't used windows in a few months and I'm happier because of it. sure linux may be harder but I feel the most equipped I've ever felt and I quite enjoy using linux. linux passed the barrier to entry for me a while ago. once Asahi linux supports USBC displays and thunderbolt, optionally the microphone, I'll be daily driving linux on my Mac too.
That's great, I'm glad you are having fun with linux! I used Mint for 3 months and It was so much more nice than windows. I did switch back to windows though but that's because I was having some major crashing issues that were caused by a bad GPU and since Parsec doesn't yet support hosting on linux it was kind of hard to use reliably. The GPU has been replaced, now I'm just waiting for Parsec to get their asses in gear and add hosting support to linux so I can remote into my computer from anywhere in the world. I can't wait to get back to using Linux again.
Installing stuff in linux: - First try the native package manager. The terminal is super easy. You have 1 command for installing, 1 for uninstalling, 1 for updating and 1 for searching. Dead simple, short and you will have the least problems doing it this way. This is what software center or other generic GUI things use behind the scenes. (Some times they use flatpaks though, more on that later) - If it is not there, try adding alternative repos for it. - Then try alternative distro supported ways of installing (like AUR if under arch). - Then try downloading from the internet. - Then try compiling from source. - Only when all else fails you try containerized shit like flatpak or god forbid snaps. I hope the containerized paradigm just dies. Not going to go into philosophical arguments why complexity in software is bad and why we should not add more and more layers of abstraction on top of everything.
@@davidtoth6568 Right? Everything can be done from the terminal! There's no need to hide things behind multiple clicks, within advanced menus, and janky ad-filled installers. Why would anyone even want to exit the terminal anyway?
@@davidtoth6568 Because typing 1 command is better than launching a slow GUI app, clicking through menus and buttons trying to remember where the right item to click was. And because it's cool.
Started about a year ago fully swapped over, initially Manjaro which is Arch based, then to Endevour OS ,also arch, then tried Nobara for something different, being Fedora based. Having settled with my love of the AUR and Arch in general I've swapped back and forth between just straight Arch itself and Cachy OS which is what I currently run, much like you said if you play single player games or games that don't have overly aggressive anti cheat then everything has been pretty flawless!
I've been watching you for a bit and noticed, that your old videos don't have the standard windows cursor. A part of me was hoping, that you made the switch and I was right! I'm incredibly happy with this video showing the average user experience in detail as it may get some people, who are on edge about switching to finally make the switch. I use Arch btw
Congrats on switching over to Linux! I'm glad it's working out for you. It has been a fun and liberating experience for me and has only improved how I use my computer. I use Debian with the I3 window manager, pretty simple, works fine, just how I like it. There are also graphical task managers out for those who are scared of the terminal ones. Given you are a Dwarf Fortress player, learning some keybinds to use it probably wasn't a big endeavor (Although I've never used glances specifically).
It is so impressive how much Gaming on Linux has grown the last couple of years... So far all of my favorite games run like it would be on Windows. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Ok, as someone that has used Linux for about 24 years, I honestly think you made a good choice. I started computing in 1981 on a Vax II running Unix and had the familiarity. I also predicted desktop Unix back in 1992. Anyway, Windows ME was crash prone so I moved to Solaris on a SunSparc 20 and later BeOs 5 on PC. Both of these eventually met sad fates so I explored Slackware, Red Hat, Debian etc, but I stopped looking after I found Linux Mint. That operating system allowed me to complete 3 masters degrees on a used $100 Toshiba laptop and I never looked back. I am now using KDE Neon, but I also have Mint, OpenIndiana (Solaris), Haiku (BeOs), GhostBSD (FreeBSD) and FydeOs installed on separate drives or machines. I look at Linux like learning to drive a manual car, it has a steeper learning curve, but it gives you freedom and control.
Great job switching over! I use Arch for the granularity you can set up your system with. Fun fact, all Linux distros are just a bunch of open source projects in a trench coat. You and I pretty much have the same experience because we both use Gnome desktop, I just use a different package manager and encrypted my hard drives with luks2 encryption. If you use Mint for a while, switching over to a different distro will be easier and easier because you'll pretty much run into the same problems across most distros.
Arch seems cool. But if I will get into a hard distro, I don't see the point of not getting into either Gentoo or Nix. Nix because I can rebuild my system without any problems and Gentoo because it will perform better. I do a lot of number crushing in all my machines, so compiling everything from source with CPU specific instructions would probably be beneficial.
my starting point was debian and i had basically no idea about anything, i even struggled with the live usb. the reason i switched was because i thought that i could simply reinstall windows since i paid 60 bucks, owned the install cd as well as the codes. didnt work, crapped the bed, and i havent looked back (and dont plan to ever spend money on microsoft again)
I've heard that even graphically intensive VR games work acceptably well on Linux now. Even though I run Linux, I haven't tried yet because my GPU is old. Will give it a shot after upgrading my hardware.
Currently I'm using Arch for everything linux. Tried Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo. For me arch strikes good balance between Gentoo and Debian. You have 100% control without long compile times.
@@dtkedtyjrtyj In all seriousness it is actually not to bad for beginners, I literally downloaded it for the exact same reason, and barring the manual installation (which you dont even need to do anymore) its honestly EASIER due to things like the AUR being so easy to work with. very easy to brick your system though due to the rolling release, but nothing that timeshift cant solve
@@dtkedtyjrtyj Sounds like a flex, sadly it's not. I hate arch elitists giving it the reputation that "arch is hard". It's fucking not if you can read a manual and don't do reckless things for no good reason.
Flatpack: you still can delete random stuff and break it. The idea behind containers is that you bundle every external library in exactly the version that you want. So if Discord wants version X of library Y, and your distribution only has version X-, the container helps you. But it adds other stuff and "security" barriers that will hinder you.
Welcome! For me, it's been 15 years and counting. I'm super happy that Linux distros progressed as much as they did, I surely wouldn't have enough patience for that much tinkering now that I had to do back then. :)
I've duel booted between Linux and Windows for years and after upgrading my windows install to 11 I started using Linux even more. Then, sometime last year I changed the Mint installation I was using to LMDE and have very satisfied with the change. I go into windows when I play games but instead of staying there when I'm done I get back into LMDE right away. I was appalled when I learned about the windows feature, Recall and did go into windows to disable that. Linux has gone from being something I found fascinating to being my main OS!
I've used Mint since 4.0 (2008) after distro-hopping for 2 yrs. I have now used Linux as long as I used windows, started with 1.03 in 1987 until Vista. I now have a Linux laptop and a Chromebook, which uses a Linux kernel and on which I also run Linux apps.
I am using Mint on my laptop for half an year now. I intended to switch my main PC as soon as a few important projects were finished. They are now so I will switch to the newest Mint as soon as I have a spare day or two to do the initial setup.
Hey blind, check if your package manager has a package called "tldr", it is basically the "man" command but it shows only the most important stuff like use flags
Nice to hear you made the jump and its going well. personally I just use Debian since its the root of what ubuntu, mint and popos are built on. I like it cuz its a slow release distro so I only really need to update stuff every month or so and its very stable.
I did the same back around June '24. I swtiched to Mint and then to Garuda because I wanted more cutting edge drivers. I am extremely pleased with my current daily driver running KDE Plasma 6 DE. I do operate and administer Linux servers professionally and while the desktop environment is very different from a server, there's a good bit of crossover with the skillset. I would recommend Mint to anyone who wants to switch from Windows (the community is very supportive) and I'd also recommend Garuda if you want a more gaming-focused distro running more recent drivers especially if you are running cutting edge hardware, install on both was straightforward and my machine runs more reliably with less bloat.
Fun fact: arch is simpler. Yeah the install may be a bit more technical (unless you use a arch based distro like Endeavour or Manjaro)... but other than that... the AUR makes finding apps so much easier and honestly I've been using for 4-5 years (I don't even remember) and I've zero issues with it. Most stable and reliable OS I've had. I had more issues with updates on windows especially 10-11 than I have ever had on arch so far)
I use EndeavourOS (which is a more user friendly I use Arch btw) and have been using some fork of arch since 2015 ish. Not a power user but not a fair bit of experience now. The only major issue I've ever had was Wayland with an Nvidia card, because... Nvidia does not care in the slightest about open sourcing anything. Anticheat is a bit of a pain even, though Valve has done miracles to get the less invasive ones functional out of the box (if the devs enable it) which hopefully will become less and less of an issue as Steam deck adoption increases and people grow wearier of hella invasive software within their computer. Now I must also make the nitpick that "uhm actually" DF classic has always been natively compatible with Linux but the steam release didn't originally.
I've been on EndeavourOS (which is technically Arch, btw...) for my main system for quite a while, with Debian on my NAS and VanillaOS on my living room HTPC, and I've got my parents on Mint. It's just so comfortable being on Linux, not having to worry about what the OS is doing under the hood and if during every update some proprietary black-box garbage might break and force me to re-install, like Windows 10 and 11 became. My parents have been much better off too, it just sits there and gets out of the way. They haven't had a single issue, and neither have I. It really is like using an old version of Windows, in a lot of ways. It takes me back to the XP/Vista/7 days when I actually enjoyed using my computer, and it just did what I asked it to, all locally instead of obsessively trying to funnel me toward Microsoft's servers for Bing searches or OneDrive or *even just authenticating to use the friggin machine*. I'll probably keep Windows around in VMs and on spare computers in case I need it, but I'm never going back to it as a daily driver. Hell no.
In the distro shuffle, I stumbled upon MX. Arch-based distros were a no-go (too busy to worry about making anything work) and Mint wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Being able to choose between a modern-ish kernel and a pure Debian-based kernel, all while offering a great deal of setup tools (in which I’m mostly interested in file sharing), it’s what makes it excellent to get up and running in no time.
Thank you for making this video, seeing youtube content creators fulltiming linux is rare (due to addobe). I hope you can enjoy it however you want and will find amazing new software, i would really recomend just giving a try to a lot of different graphical task managers, image viewers, file browsers, etc. Linux trully made me love installing software because how easy it is to install and delete.
I switched to linux mint on may this year and I'm just glad that Linux Mint works so much better. So after too many updates and to many issues Win 10 did to my system, I was so frustrating about this and I decide to delete Win 10 finally. And I couldn't be much happier than now. As a lil' backup system I got an old lenovo thinkpad X200, which runs with win 10 and it works fine but will switch to linux mint too :)
I am kind of in a moment of being absolute passionate about my job, so it is pretty rare for me to switch to windows. I also sometimes let calculations running overnight and Linux doesn't act up. It doesn't reboot when I don't want it to. It only updates when I tell it to do so. It just works better if you're in Comoutational Chemistry/Physics. Also, it can be kept on indefinitely. I had to reboot Windows sometimes, but linux is so incredible stable. I use Fedora btw, that aims to be an intermediary between rolling release (Arch) and stable (Mint/Ubuntu). I also installed it in my lab's workstation and it works flawless. Also, as I don't have much ram at the moment, I can literally just kill gnome. The system works totally fine without a graphical enviroment. Also, remote access can be setup easily.
Welcome to the club! I’ve been using Linux for ages, and have been using it as my primary desktop for 14 years or so. Just plain Ubuntu, it just works. If I have an itch to try some other distribution I just grab some random hardware and check it out. Steam is a godsend and I have no problems playing the games that I want, most of them run fine or even better than on Windows.
I'm kind of an old Linux beard; installed Red Hat back in 1998 on my old Thinkpad laptop. The ease of use of modern day Linux is honestly astonishing. I ditched Windows the day they stopped supporting Windows 7 (the last good Windows imo) and haven't looked back since! I use arch btw. :-P
Just stumbled across this video, and to be honest it's a lot like my experience with Linux. I run Mint (Cinnamon desktop) on my desktop and Fedora (KDE PLasma) on my laptop, and I have had very few issues so far. I do still have dual-boot on both PC's but not for much longer, I'm getting rid of Windows in the near future. I don't play a lot of games, especially online competitive multi-player games, so I've been OK so far. I do love the Diablo games, I've been running Diablo 3 perfectly fine and I'll probably get Diablo 4 at some point. Great video!!
i'm glad it worked out for you, but this video is exactly the reason i won't switch over to linux. i cannot be asked to do all this stuff, the fact you had to jump through hoops to nuke a whole directory just to uninstall a program really sells my point. i have already "decontaminated" windows from all the telemetry bs and i'll do the same for co pilot when the moment comes, but i really don't feel like re learning a whole OS. i'm happy you managed to get comfortable with linux through all the hardships, props
I use MX Linux as my daily driver "just works" distro. I do a few others for PIs, servers and special use cases... I hard-switched away from Microsoft in 2019 when my Windows version practically became unusable. Never looked back and never will use Windows ever again. Once you realize how confined you are with it you really don't miss it - no shame though... Use whatever OS you like and fits your needs - but experiment and think out of the box sometimes - you don't know what you might discover
I put Linux Mint on my mom's old desktop (which is my old desktop) mostly because it didn't run Win10 comfortably. Like your parents what she uses is the browser, her email client and occasionally some photo editing software. I upgrade the system every other year or so (besides the automatic updates). Never had an issue. It even runs anydesk for the rare times she wants me to look at something for her.
I like the fact I can update when I want and not have the frustration I had when windows wanted all the resources to run "background" tasks. I run Mint and Ubuntu on my machines.
I've been on and off since 2017, starting with Mint too. Mostly run pure Debian, followed by Arch. Never wanted to run it full time, since it is still inferior for gaming and doesn't support a few programs I've paid good money for, but I'm probably going all in with Arch when support drops next year. It's sad Win11 is so awful, I'm going to miss FL Studio.
Early this summer, I finally took the big jump as well. Been on windows since 3.11, but have been using Linux from time to time over the years, starting with Redhat in the late 90's. Never used it more than a few weeks at a time though because of gaming primarily. Saw a video about the distro Garuda and what options were available to make gaming a breeze. Tried to install it, but for some reason my computer wouldn't detect the USB if I make the live-version of it. Looked around a bit and tried out Ubuntu (again...), and found out I could live and work there. Read up a bit more, and didn't like how some things were handled, so switched over to Mint. It's not just close to Ubuntu. It's close enough. Started on Mint 21.3, hopped over to 22 about a month and a half ago. Haven't even thought about windows since. The only problem I'm having from time to time is the rights management. Drive me up the walls, but that's Linux-life I guess, and it's not often enough for it to be a proper downside either. Otherwise, it just works.
I'm using ZorinOS on my Intel/NVidia laptop (with wayland disabled because NVidia) and everything i use is functional, RetroArch with PS1 emulator, Chrome (yeah, I use chrome), libre office, my 2 playstation 4 controllers works flawlessly wired and wirelessly with bluetooth, it even has a cool boot animation with the manufacturer logo on top (mine is a Dell Inspiron), printer and scanner works no problem (depending of the brand). So the transition was smooth, using it for almost a year 😊
On linux here. For years more or less. Not a big gamer, but the few games I played (or I play now) are just native. Minecraft in the past, DF now (and Minecraft for my son). Been through a lot of distros. with the time, they are all the same, so not a big deal. Except very exotic stuff like NixOS, wich I use, btw (Arch is for n00bs). Glad you enjoy your experience. I am sure that a large majority of windows users would feel the same if they take the step. "Age of linux desktop"... I mean, I wish the world feels the same... Future will tell us. Until then... Strike the keyboard ! :)
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
Welcome to the dark side. I regret to inform you that we lied. We don't just have cookies, we also have chocolate pie. Hope you enjoy your stay.
Oh no!
But do you have chocolate mint cookies?
Yes. In the form of flour, eggs, chocolate, butter. Self assembly required. 😁
i also know that you're serving free fedoras!
Windows 3 came out in 1990... I can't believe you were using it until months ago!
Ha!
Mad respect!
Well, it was unaffected by the ClownStrike disaster, and Linux wasn't. So definitely a superior "OS".
Well played
😆
Flatpaks are more about allowing you to limit what an app has access to rather than it being about stopping you from breaking things. It's like how on your phone you can set an app's permissions. As you can see it's still a bit buggy though. It's a fairly recent development, so I expect over the coming years we will see them integrate a lot better into the other features of Linux.
Flatpaks are over 20 years old (it changed names like a decade ago) and it's still jank. There are tons of very basic features like this that are unreliable on Linux. Window management, wireless connectivity, software support, getting the thing to function and do more than display an empty desktop (depends on distro but never totally smooth in any distro in my experience), etc. Linux may never get it together if they don't have a major change in how things are done.
The flatseal app eases the pain to configure extra permissions. Other than that: $something flatpak couldn't access $someotherthing just means flatpak did it's job 👍
Flatpaks aren't even about that, lol... Flatpaks are about being able to easily uninstall when you don't need it, at the cost of reduced interaction capabilities.
Would go a lot quicker if SOMEONE didn't insist on their own inferior way of doing it.... CANONICAL!! 😆
Nah, I kid. snaps aren't that bad.
I was skeptical about switching over to Linux(Mint) full time. What sealed the deal for me was when I booted into Windows to grab some files, it updated and nuked Grub. This triggered my fight or flight response and penguins are flightless(I don't think this analogy works here) so I'm on Mint for my personal devices.
I still use Windows at my job and the "features" they keep adding are dumb and being in a hybrid Azure environment, these improvements have just been making everything harder to use.
Love the follow up on the video, glad you're having a good time and not going to look back.
Yeah /boot being nuked by windows is pretty common.
I use dual boot so I have a live usb at all time and a script to repair /boot.
Can you please tell me - exactly what two single places/resources I can go to (TH-cam + a website) , where I add 5 hours of my life & between them I will be able to Dummy's Guide my way through from Point A (having a Windows 10 NUC box in front of me), to Point B - said box is now running Linux Mint (Cinnamon?) on it.
I am literally typing this on linux mint and I am NEVER going back to windows ever again.
Hell, I don't care about my games being in Windows. I will play and find other games. I can buy compatibility layers.
So, good on you Blind! And I hope others are encouraged to join you and others. :)
Same here, also on Mint
You can actually play around with SteamOS. It's really hard to find any windows game wich wouldn work on it after some workarounds.
I'm myself can only name a few from 1000+++ titles library.
I'm get used to it because of Deck, ofc, but i'm thinking about having it as dual boot on my main system.
I recommend checking out Lutris, it basically handles all the compatibility layer configuration on a game to game basis, based off of community made setups.
as soon as they kill kernel level anti-cheats (I think MS said they'll kill it themselves), this becomes insanely viable
@@dv_interval42 Kernel level anti-cheats are not being killed by microsoft.
In linux mint you can also just search for the windows equivalent program at it usually just pops up with the correct one. You need task manager to kill a program? hit the windows key start typing "task" and system monitor shows up so you can get rid of that frozen app...or that you need to save scum some certain paradox games
maybe under cinnamon, xfce seems a little behind in the integration part, i also missed like essential start menue programs like terminal
favorite command in linux mint with testing xkill
@@ProtoType4588 Now that is useful!
RCCH Total Death Edition flashbacks
i switched to arch a little over 2 months straight from windows & i don't regret it at all
i've learned so much and i dont want to go back to windows unless i'm forced
I'm so glad to see someone actually put in an earnest effort to move away from Adobe. So many people hear photoshop doesn't work and refuse to try it, which is airways a shame. Yes, the replacements aren't completely perfect, but they do what 99% of people will ever need.
Which is baffling to me because gimp is more than satisfactory for the vast majority of users.
I really don't care about Adobe myself, but I've paid for Serif Affinity software (Photo, Designer, Publisher) and really don't like GIMP so that's a bit of a dud for me. Haven't tried Krita tho', buit the fact that Affinity's software isn't working is a bummer for me. Currently sticking with a gaming Windows PC, a Macbook and a Chromebook (that I recently got for experimentation purposes). Been loving all three of them for different reasons. For gaming, I know most games work on Linux just fine if you use Steam, but a lot of games are not on Steam and a lot of them require anti-cheat software that runs on the kernel level for example Riot Games' league of legends, valorant etc. And also if you have a bunch of games on GOG, Epic Games, Blizzard Battlenet etc. and not only Steam. And also got some games on the Xbox app and I'm sure that's going to be a hurdle to get up and running on Linux...
This is not an "anti-linux" post. Just mentioning some things that are keeping me from switching to Linux even tho' I absolutely detest Windows 11...
GIMP has a lot of problems honestly, and while I haven't used an Adobe product in over a decade (except maybe Flash Player?), I can imagine it's a big step down if you edit images professionally, depending on what kind of editing you do, anyway. Graphite is a very interesting project in that space, and if it keeps its momentum might be far less of a compromise for people moving from AI and PS than what Inkscape and GIMP currently offer. I hope for a bright future where Graphite and Blender do for me what Adobe CS could have in an alternate timeline.
@@realEchoz I'm in the same boat, as I've never even touched any significant Adobe software, but ultimately the vast majority of people aren't going to need whatever Photoshop has over GIMP. It's just the vast majority of where people are getting Linux information from is TH-camrs who often have a legitimate use for Adobe features so it always gets brought up as the big Achilles heel of Linux when for so many people it's a non issue. Really I'm mostly just disappointed that the vast majority of these "Linux challenge" videos don't even try to make it work and just give up and say Linux bad as a result.
That's always surprised me too I really didn't think there were that many people out there using photoshop
Welcome to the GNU + Linux community
I don't do GNU. I use Alpine. I prefer to call it Linux as it is the subset of systems that use Linux as the kernel.
@@vidal9747, the way that you phrased it sounds like you dislike GNU. If so, could you please explain your reasons? Either way, could you please also explain what you like about Alpine?
glad to be here.
@@Tim_Sviridov RMS has huge ego, that's it.
You forgot system d/ the DE/ the package manager/distro/ and so much more Lil bro 😂😊
Anticheat is not a will it run question, its a will the devs allow it question
Emulation isn't ideal, native gaming is.
One of us, one of us.
Make videos again!
The point you made about it being exciting to use again struck strong with me. Switched a few months ago, started with ubuntu and eventually made my way to arch with hyprland, and every step of the way, including the headaches, were actually so fun. I don't think i've had this much fun using my pc since like 2018. Great video man!
Thumbs up for using Mint! I installed Mint on a laptop to test it out as well and it’s been working great. I’m getting ready to ditch Windows for good soon.
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear your experience with it has been great. Time to show Microsoft that we don’t need windows anymore.
My 1st contact with Linux was on the Steam Deck, and I gotta say that it's surprisingly fine for almost everything I do, and then most of the things with which it is not totally fine you'd have to tinker around, fix it, and then it works forever. The only issue I had was some multiplayer games. I don't generally use Steam Deck for those, but that's kind of my only real problem with Linux. That being said, I'm switching when Windows 10 dies.
I’m using mint on an old MacBook Air, I use it to manage my network, I will also be installing it on a 7th gen intel desktop for a bit more grunt. Loving it atm and no bloody cloud account to sign in on just install and go! Which is like detoxing in this “must be signed in” age! So refreshing and enjoyable to learn!
Note: The recommended DE for Mint is Cinnamon, rather than GNOME, as is a project that was forked from an earlier version of GNOME... so getting them mixed up is understandable... the workflow of modern GNOME is _dramatically_ different from Windows, disabling minimising tabs by default, in favour organising apps across multiple workspaces. It's a really nice change from the Windows workflow, if you understand it's design patterns, but I wouldn't recommend modern GNOME to beginners... 😅
Edit: Oh, no, Dwarf Fortress has run natively on Linux for a while. It's even packaged by the Debian maintainers, meaning you can install it via `apt` (and maybe the software manager as well...)
He said GNOME but what his shows does not look like GNOME.
Edit: In 12:40 neofetch shows it is Cinnamon 6.0.4
I wouldn't recommend GNOME to anyone, period. It's opinionated in the worst possible way, rejecting any kind of feedback or, god forbid, criticism...
I've been around FOSS for decades, and I can legitimately say the singularly worst experiences I've had by a huge margin were when I had technical issues because of their absolute unwillingness to help anyone in trouble due to their choices.
no, he's correct, the _steam_ version of dwarf fortress only got native linux support late last september
(the steam version is the one with the not ASCII graphics, and an actual UI.)
@@ThylineTheGay That's a qualified statement. I can't say it'd be stunning to hold against him though, because it's easy to miss the shareware version being packaged if you weren't actively looking for it... 🤷♀️
I personally use GNOME and love the workflow. Only thing I'll correct here is that minimizing, or really "hiding" windows is not disabled, it's the BUTTON on the window that's disabled. You're supposed to press SUPER + H (super = windows key) to hide windows by default. GNOME is quite different, but it fundamentally is quite keyboard heavy which I love because it stops my right had from constantly going between the mouse and the keyboard. I also love how much more natural maximizing is by dragging the window to the top and bringing the cursor onto the black bar, it's like macOS's top bar but more smooth. You can also maximize buy using SUPER + Arrow Up Key or by double clicking on the app's title bar. Again, GNOME always has a keyboard way of doing things to stop you from having to move your right hand off the keyboard if you're in the middle of doing some typing intensive tasks
This video is helping me a lot to gain confidence in switching toward Linux!
I am about to switch toward Linux Mint and have a hard time to actually start with this due to my lethargic attitude to adapt to big changes like moving away from Windows 10.
Thank you very much.
Looking forward to see more videos from you to get used to Linux Mint!
You make a usb drive then reboot your computer (maybe popping into UEFI with F12 to select the boot drive.), that's it you don't even need to install Linux or touch windows, it will run right from the thumbdrive (Usually without saving settings across reboots, though some live distros can do that.).
@@mytech6779 I know that, thanks. My lethargy is more psychologically. I did that and had some nice experience with that for 3 weeks after installing it on my second PC. Unfortunately Linux Mint broke on me after an Update for no apparent reason.
Could utilize Timeshift to get back to a point, but after all that it was not working out of the box then I connected an external ssd. So now looking for another Distro.
Undecided whether it should be LMDE 6 or Ubuntu Cinnamon.
Well done 🎉 I’m glad to see more people leaving Windows.
Switched to linux back in spring and its been great. Only wayland weirdness keeps me down. Life's good free from microsoft! Edit: Arch btw
x11 also has weirdness due to being so old.
Hopefully, Valve will help the Arch community sort Wayland out within the year! :)
I got on Nobara Linux about two years ago and have never looked back. Its incredible how good these operating systems have gotten
I think you may have just finally convinced me to move over too after considering it for a year or so. Thanks!
Seriously considering this... thanks for the update on your journey!
For the Algorithm!
It feels so nice to idle at like 600mb and fully boot up in 15 seconds. I use arch btw (but I don't recommend it as your first distro)
My almost bare arch boots slower than windows 11 on my system
My mint install idles at less than a gig and boots in 8-10 seconds.
@@ruadeil_zabelindo you have fast start enabled on your motherboard and Windows? That "feature" actually slows down Linux boot times
@@ultimate9056 No i don't, because it screws with being able to enter the bios easily on mine.
Yeah, never do arch first. You must feel the pain of building the latest version of your software from source if you want it to be the latest version. Then you go arch on your first install and endeavour os on all the following
I agree. I'm seriously considering moving to Linux too. I strongly despise the direction windows is going. Windows was perfect when Windows 7 was the main version. Then they just had to try to "innovate" on perfection. W10 and W11 SUCKS!
It's never been easier to do so. Some good starting distros would be Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora. With Gnome extensions you can pretty much simulate the windows 7 experience.
@@SonataNumber8 Rather than Ubuntu I prefer Pop!OS. It's a lot like Ubuntu, but without Snap package manager. My first experience with Ubuntu was trying to get the Snap version of Docker running, and that soured me in the entire thing.
windows 10 is still good if they dont put ads on the whole system. like seriously, i dont get my license for free. dont shove bunch of ads to my as*. wheres windows 11, the same as windows 10 but with ai bullsh*t
Enshittification comes to mind.
Windows 8 jumped on the "the desktop is dead" bandwagon and kinda flopped.
Windows 10 was initially pretty good, but it also is the start of the downhill trend that is still going on.
I remember when windows 7 was around, if someone recommended you switch to linux you just laugh. But it never happened, coz there was nobody recommending anything but windows 7 because it was so freakign awesome
Thank you for doing this video. It was quite helpful and when I update my old computer I’ll probably switch the os.
Welcome to the light side
Welcome to the penguin brother! Glad to see more people giving the OS a fair shot.
Welcome!! Popey sent me 😊 My desktop is running stock Ubuntu and my laptop is running Aurora (my laptop is also my experimental computer, but I'm *really* loving Aurora right now). I actually really appreciate your walkthrough for the experience of a new user in 2024, so thank you!
Could you link who sent you?
@@BlindiRL It was a newsletter from on of the hosts of the Linux Matters podcast, Popey - I'll dig up the link :)
I’ve been on nobara since the beginning of the year and it’s been a delight as someone who basically just uses my home pc for gaming, if you want to try out something with a rolling release I’d recommend either checking that or some flavor of fedora out :3
The walkthrough of how you made the OS jump is really helpful in making the process of switching seem less intimidating, so thank you, Blind.
I'm thinking increasingly about jumping to linux when I finally run my current laptop into the ground. Every new 'ai' centered headline I see in general takes ten years off my will to exist but the windows news in specific is driving me up the wall faster than working in customer service.
The main thing holding me back for the moment is compatibility with my main art software, clip studio. I think as time passes its more and more likely that there will be easier workarounds to get it up on linux. Or maybe csp will pull another stupid business move and it'll be time to jump to a different art program again! Who knows these days!! :D
I don't know how comparable they are, but Krita might be a good alternative. From a cursory look they seem similar in purpose.
@@wumi2419 I do think kirita is becoming increasingly comparable to CSP, but I still would rather not switch if I don't have to. ^^;
as a gamer this year I've been looking back and forth between Windows 10 getting an expiry date (September or something next year will no longer automatically receive security updates), and the growing bullshit being added to Windows 11 instead of actually fixing the OS... and been wondering if it may be getting to the time to jump ship off Windows entirely. (not to mention Windows 11 costing about $250-$300 AUD)
Presuming your CPU is compatible with windows 11
@@BlindiRL which it isn't. been trying to get that sorted buuuuut life keeps saying FU.
Where are you getting these prices, Windows 11 costs 15 - 20$ here
(I am here because I'm genuinely interested in switching to Linux, I'm scared of Win starting up in the middle of the night and demanding an update every other week, I tried everything to force it to NOT update, but the fact that my computer can start on its own while I sleep freaks me out)
@@alexandrachernysh7 a license for windows 11 pro is $199 usd if you buy grey market then you can skip that but run the risk of getting keys rejected. Its happened to me a few times in the past with windows 7 and 10 where I had to rebuy windows because it was unverified by a grey market sale.
@@alexandrachernysh7 that's off the shelf cost for a new copy and license here in Australia.
In in the process of moving over to linux. I jumped in the deep end with a minimal install of debian, and its been both a rewarding and at times irritating experience. I highly recommend mint to anyone who is looking to dip in their toes. But, i hope that going the debian route forces me into becoming literate in the software before fully switching
I am always interested in the newbie experience. I know that I had issues a long time ago, but for many years now, Debian has been smooth for me. (I even ran it on a Mac.)
Keep on going! I did the transition years ago and I've found Linux rewarding. I highly recommend trying out the FreedomBox project if you want pre-canned working templates of FLOSS software stacks like Apache / Mediawiki (documentation) / WordPress (blog) / Element (VOIP) to learn from. Having a clearly useful goal to work towards helps immensely in motivating your daily learning.
I switched to linux because I wanted control of my computer. A ton of ubuntu and its derivatives are taking away that control with snap; e.g, i cant install the deb of firefox without jumping through a ton of hoops. So Debian has been the best option for me, its upstream of ubuntu anyways... Plus its super stable, and just works. I was running Kubuntu (KDE DE + Ubunutu) for its DE customization, but switching to Debian 12 with Gnome was the best choice. KDE just doesnt perform well on my laptop. Plus I've never had a nvidia driver issue with debian.
Debian, in my case, was the best choice linux distro and I'm glad to see other folks here using, or planning on using it! Its not so hard, installation was super easy! Just follow the workflow on the installation guide!
when I say minimal, I mean MINIMAL. my USB i used as an install stick was really old, and if the install went on for too long, it would freak out and start reading corrupt data. So I had to run the install with the least possible features. Now that I have all the necessities in place, it runs great. I just had to figure out what they all were first.
@@glacialchill, that is both impressive and concerning. Good on you, mate!
Welcome brother! I've been on a Linux desktop since the mid-90s and I have no regrets.
I don't have Windows 11, and I'm probably going to uninstall Windows 10 off most of my devices next summer when I finish college. Need dual boot to run certain Windows specific programs.
You should find someone who would help you to setup a VM with Windows for those specific programs. Should do that myself probably, even just for another Linux box in VM that I just can nuke and don't worry about each time after installing some poo-poo software like discord and so on.
You can run Windows 10 in a VM.
@rogo7330 If your program isn't a game with anticheat, and you have a secondary gpu, you could setup a qemu/kvm virtual machine, passing the gpu through the vm, and get the gpu working as natively.
Just a reminder that having a 2° gpu is optional, is just for performance.
I stopped using Windows 2 months ago, now only using it for VR compatibility. Pretty much for the same reason you did, resource consumption was so high on my laptop that the fans were going like a jet engine while I sat idling on the desktop. And this was after I’d done a full wipe of my hard drive.
Started with Arch btw, then realised I was in way over my head (bluetooth driver straight up died) and went for a Linux Mint install.
Honestly I heard that compatibility for games had improved drastically but I was still surprised to see that I could install and run UT99 from CD. Compatibility has really come a long way. And seeing as this is the longest I’ve ever daily driven linux, I think I’m here to stay.
Edit: Btw I had to update my Nvidia drivers through the driver manager, the updates never seemed to appear in the update manager which threw me off a bit.
Make sure to take precautions to stay on Linux, just to make sure you'll be staying far away from Microsoft.
14:20 protondb is great for checking how well a game runs on linux, particularly for more detailed info/nuance than what steam's rating can give
but you probably don't even need to check, if the game is more on the indie side
Thanks for this video. I've been considering the switch for a little bit now and this has pushed me over the ledge. Down with MS bloatware!
Please tell me you kept your Windows drive. It's not for everyone and it's harder to create a Windows installation drive on Linux than the other way around.
I switched last year to Fedora for my laptop. It's been great for the most part. Firefox, single player games, VLC, running well and I'm happy. Unfortunately I still need a Windows work computer.
I switched to arch last month and it's been great.
I have access to the entire computer, any file I want to delete I can, if I wanted to be diabolical I can "sudo rm -rf /" and delete the entire system. There's no forced installed software like edge or one drive.
Freedom over my computer is really one of the big reasons I switched and over the years I just got sick of using an operating system that didn't respect that at all.
I'm glad I made the switch and I don't see myself going back to windows.
Thank you for doing an update on your time with linux. I'm glad to hear you are having a good time :) Do note that DF worked on linux on day 1 of the steam release, but was not officially supported.
I have been using Linux for 7-8 years. First I used Arch, and about a year ago I moved to debian. However, I also used Alpine Linux for a short time, some Fedora and even some OpenBSD. But, debian is fine. Not great, but fine :)
I hope you stick with it and more people will see your video :)
Yeah ofc it ran fine in proton. I was talking about running native on Linux. It did have performance issues initially that were made worse by proton. Most of that is gone now. Whole running a large fort in proton fps is slightly lower so it's still there but not as bad.
Welcome to the penguin squad!
I use Manjaro currently, for work, gaming, sim racing, streaming and content creation. I have used several distros, most of them Debian based, and I help people who want to try Linux but never push them to make the switch if they don't feel comfortable. I don't miss windows and do not see myself going back anytime soon.
I haven't used windows in a few months and I'm happier because of it. sure linux may be harder but I feel the most equipped I've ever felt and I quite enjoy using linux. linux passed the barrier to entry for me a while ago.
once Asahi linux supports USBC displays and thunderbolt, optionally the microphone, I'll be daily driving linux on my Mac too.
That's great, I'm glad you are having fun with linux! I used Mint for 3 months and It was so much more nice than windows. I did switch back to windows though but that's because I was having some major crashing issues that were caused by a bad GPU and since Parsec doesn't yet support hosting on linux it was kind of hard to use reliably.
The GPU has been replaced, now I'm just waiting for Parsec to get their asses in gear and add hosting support to linux so I can remote into my computer from anywhere in the world. I can't wait to get back to using Linux again.
You could use something other than parsec... If they don't support the most widely used OS in the world (linux), they're only after your wallet!
Installing stuff in linux:
- First try the native package manager. The terminal is super easy. You have 1 command for installing, 1 for uninstalling, 1 for updating and 1 for searching. Dead simple, short and you will have the least problems doing it this way. This is what software center or other generic GUI things use behind the scenes. (Some times they use flatpaks though, more on that later)
- If it is not there, try adding alternative repos for it.
- Then try alternative distro supported ways of installing (like AUR if under arch).
- Then try downloading from the internet.
- Then try compiling from source.
- Only when all else fails you try containerized shit like flatpak or god forbid snaps.
I hope the containerized paradigm just dies. Not going to go into philosophical arguments why complexity in software is bad and why we should not add more and more layers of abstraction on top of everything.
Its 2k24. Why exists the terminal anyway?
@@davidtoth6568 Right? Everything can be done from the terminal! There's no need to hide things behind multiple clicks, within advanced menus, and janky ad-filled installers. Why would anyone even want to exit the terminal anyway?
@@davidtoth6568 Because typing 1 command is better than launching a slow GUI app, clicking through menus and buttons trying to remember where the right item to click was.
And because it's cool.
Started about a year ago fully swapped over, initially Manjaro which is Arch based, then to Endevour OS ,also arch, then tried Nobara for something different, being Fedora based. Having settled with my love of the AUR and Arch in general I've swapped back and forth between just straight Arch itself and Cachy OS which is what I currently run, much like you said if you play single player games or games that don't have overly aggressive anti cheat then everything has been pretty flawless!
I've been watching you for a bit and noticed, that your old videos don't have the standard windows cursor. A part of me was hoping, that you made the switch and I was right! I'm incredibly happy with this video showing the average user experience in detail as it may get some people, who are on edge about switching to finally make the switch. I use Arch btw
and best of all... you are NOT gestapod to update to latest version of software you NEED
Congrats on switching over to Linux! I'm glad it's working out for you. It has been a fun and liberating experience for me and has only improved how I use my computer. I use Debian with the I3 window manager, pretty simple, works fine, just how I like it. There are also graphical task managers out for those who are scared of the terminal ones. Given you are a Dwarf Fortress player, learning some keybinds to use it probably wasn't a big endeavor (Although I've never used glances specifically).
It is so impressive how much Gaming on Linux has grown the last couple of years... So far all of my favorite games run like it would be on Windows. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Ok, as someone that has used Linux for about 24 years, I honestly think you made a good choice. I started computing in 1981 on a Vax II running Unix and had the familiarity. I also predicted desktop Unix back in 1992. Anyway, Windows ME was crash prone so I moved to Solaris on a SunSparc 20 and later BeOs 5 on PC. Both of these eventually met sad fates so I explored Slackware, Red Hat, Debian etc, but I stopped looking after I found Linux Mint. That operating system allowed me to complete 3 masters degrees on a used $100 Toshiba laptop and I never looked back. I am now using KDE Neon, but I also have Mint, OpenIndiana (Solaris), Haiku (BeOs), GhostBSD (FreeBSD) and FydeOs installed on separate drives or machines. I look at Linux like learning to drive a manual car, it has a steeper learning curve, but it gives you freedom and control.
Yes! I did this back in February with EndeavourOS and haven't looked back.
Great job switching over! I use Arch for the granularity you can set up your system with. Fun fact, all Linux distros are just a bunch of open source projects in a trench coat. You and I pretty much have the same experience because we both use Gnome desktop, I just use a different package manager and encrypted my hard drives with luks2 encryption. If you use Mint for a while, switching over to a different distro will be easier and easier because you'll pretty much run into the same problems across most distros.
You forgot the 'btw'
Arch seems cool. But if I will get into a hard distro, I don't see the point of not getting into either Gentoo or Nix. Nix because I can rebuild my system without any problems and Gentoo because it will perform better. I do a lot of number crushing in all my machines, so compiling everything from source with CPU specific instructions would probably be beneficial.
my starting point was debian and i had basically no idea about anything, i even struggled with the live usb. the reason i switched was because i thought that i could simply reinstall windows since i paid 60 bucks, owned the install cd as well as the codes. didnt work, crapped the bed, and i havent looked back (and dont plan to ever spend money on microsoft again)
You have sold me on Linux, I was expecting it to be more difficult and I don't like where windows has gone
its relly not that dificult ask the comunity for help some people are rude tho and call you a noob dosent hapen thaat often
I've heard that even graphically intensive VR games work acceptably well on Linux now. Even though I run Linux, I haven't tried yet because my GPU is old. Will give it a shot after upgrading my hardware.
Currently I'm using Arch for everything linux. Tried Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo. For me arch strikes good balance between Gentoo and Debian. You have 100% control without long compile times.
I started to use arch because it had a reputation for complexity, to force me to learn Linux.
Unfortunately, it is far too easy and userfriendly. 😅
@@dtkedtyjrtyj In all seriousness it is actually not to bad for beginners, I literally downloaded it for the exact same reason, and barring the manual installation (which you dont even need to do anymore) its honestly EASIER due to things like the AUR being so easy to work with. very easy to brick your system though due to the rolling release, but nothing that timeshift cant solve
@@dtkedtyjrtyj Sounds like a flex, sadly it's not. I hate arch elitists giving it the reputation that "arch is hard". It's fucking not if you can read a manual and don't do reckless things for no good reason.
Flatpack: you still can delete random stuff and break it. The idea behind containers is that you bundle every external library in exactly the version that you want. So if Discord wants version X of library Y, and your distribution only has version X-, the container helps you. But it adds other stuff and "security" barriers that will hinder you.
glad you stuck with it!
Thanks for this! Not ready to make the switch quite yet but down the road I assume I will.
Had no idea you were on Linux! Welcome to the community. I've been here for well over a decade, and I'm happy to see the community grow.
Welcome! For me, it's been 15 years and counting. I'm super happy that Linux distros progressed as much as they did, I surely wouldn't have enough patience for that much tinkering now that I had to do back then. :)
Nice to see you on Linux,I gave up on Windows some years ago and have never looked back.
I've duel booted between Linux and Windows for years and after upgrading my windows install to 11 I started using Linux even more. Then, sometime last year I changed the Mint installation I was using to LMDE and have very satisfied with the change. I go into windows when I play games but instead of staying there when I'm done I get back into LMDE right away. I was appalled when I learned about the windows feature, Recall and did go into windows to disable that. Linux has gone from being something I found fascinating to being my main OS!
I've used Mint since 4.0 (2008) after distro-hopping for 2 yrs. I have now used Linux as long as I used windows, started with 1.03 in 1987 until Vista. I now have a Linux laptop and a Chromebook, which uses a Linux kernel and on which I also run Linux apps.
I am using Mint on my laptop for half an year now. I intended to switch my main PC as soon as a few important projects were finished. They are now so I will switch to the newest Mint as soon as I have a spare day or two to do the initial setup.
Hey blind, check if your package manager has a package called "tldr", it is basically the "man" command but it shows only the most important stuff like use flags
Nice to hear you made the jump and its going well. personally I just use Debian since its the root of what ubuntu, mint and popos are built on. I like it cuz its a slow release distro so I only really need to update stuff every month or so and its very stable.
Great video! Glad your Linux journey ran into only a handful of issues.
I did the same back around June '24. I swtiched to Mint and then to Garuda because I wanted more cutting edge drivers. I am extremely pleased with my current daily driver running KDE Plasma 6 DE. I do operate and administer Linux servers professionally and while the desktop environment is very different from a server, there's a good bit of crossover with the skillset. I would recommend Mint to anyone who wants to switch from Windows (the community is very supportive) and I'd also recommend Garuda if you want a more gaming-focused distro running more recent drivers especially if you are running cutting edge hardware, install on both was straightforward and my machine runs more reliably with less bloat.
i would recommend fedora gnome for your laptop, the touchpad gestures are very good. i even bought a magic trackpad for my desktop its so nice.
As a Fedore KDE user I say I have the better version of Fedora :)
Fun fact: arch is simpler. Yeah the install may be a bit more technical (unless you use a arch based distro like Endeavour or Manjaro)... but other than that... the AUR makes finding apps so much easier and honestly I've been using for 4-5 years (I don't even remember) and I've zero issues with it. Most stable and reliable OS I've had. I had more issues with updates on windows especially 10-11 than I have ever had on arch so far)
I use EndeavourOS (which is a more user friendly I use Arch btw) and have been using some fork of arch since 2015 ish. Not a power user but not a fair bit of experience now. The only major issue I've ever had was Wayland with an Nvidia card, because... Nvidia does not care in the slightest about open sourcing anything. Anticheat is a bit of a pain even, though Valve has done miracles to get the less invasive ones functional out of the box (if the devs enable it) which hopefully will become less and less of an issue as Steam deck adoption increases and people grow wearier of hella invasive software within their computer.
Now I must also make the nitpick that "uhm actually" DF classic has always been natively compatible with Linux but the steam release didn't originally.
I've been on EndeavourOS (which is technically Arch, btw...) for my main system for quite a while, with Debian on my NAS and VanillaOS on my living room HTPC, and I've got my parents on Mint. It's just so comfortable being on Linux, not having to worry about what the OS is doing under the hood and if during every update some proprietary black-box garbage might break and force me to re-install, like Windows 10 and 11 became. My parents have been much better off too, it just sits there and gets out of the way. They haven't had a single issue, and neither have I.
It really is like using an old version of Windows, in a lot of ways. It takes me back to the XP/Vista/7 days when I actually enjoyed using my computer, and it just did what I asked it to, all locally instead of obsessively trying to funnel me toward Microsoft's servers for Bing searches or OneDrive or *even just authenticating to use the friggin machine*. I'll probably keep Windows around in VMs and on spare computers in case I need it, but I'm never going back to it as a daily driver. Hell no.
In the distro shuffle, I stumbled upon MX. Arch-based distros were a no-go (too busy to worry about making anything work) and Mint wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Being able to choose between a modern-ish kernel and a pure Debian-based kernel, all while offering a great deal of setup tools (in which I’m mostly interested in file sharing), it’s what makes it excellent to get up and running in no time.
Thank you for making this video, seeing youtube content creators fulltiming linux is rare (due to addobe). I hope you can enjoy it however you want and will find amazing new software, i would really recomend just giving a try to a lot of different graphical task managers, image viewers, file browsers, etc. Linux trully made me love installing software because how easy it is to install and delete.
Seriously not a fan of the direction Win10 took and Win11 is looking even worse. I've got an old laptop I might try this on to test.
Welcome! Been using linux as my primary for years but still have a dual boot available for when I need adobe which is a couple times a week.
I switched to linux mint on may this year and I'm just glad that Linux Mint works so much better. So after too many updates and to many issues Win 10 did to my system, I was so frustrating about this and I decide to delete Win 10 finally. And I couldn't be much happier than now. As a lil' backup system I got an old lenovo thinkpad X200, which runs with win 10 and it works fine but will switch to linux mint too :)
I am kind of in a moment of being absolute passionate about my job, so it is pretty rare for me to switch to windows. I also sometimes let calculations running overnight and Linux doesn't act up. It doesn't reboot when I don't want it to. It only updates when I tell it to do so. It just works better if you're in Comoutational Chemistry/Physics. Also, it can be kept on indefinitely. I had to reboot Windows sometimes, but linux is so incredible stable. I use Fedora btw, that aims to be an intermediary between rolling release (Arch) and stable (Mint/Ubuntu). I also installed it in my lab's workstation and it works flawless. Also, as I don't have much ram at the moment, I can literally just kill gnome. The system works totally fine without a graphical enviroment. Also, remote access can be setup easily.
You know what you said about those 72h of maximum linux confusion, well I've been at that step for over a year!
The next day boss says: okay, we are developing client for Windows
Welcome to the club! I’ve been using Linux for ages, and have been using it as my primary desktop for 14 years or so. Just plain Ubuntu, it just works. If I have an itch to try some other distribution I just grab some random hardware and check it out. Steam is a godsend and I have no problems playing the games that I want, most of them run fine or even better than on Windows.
I'm kind of an old Linux beard; installed Red Hat back in 1998 on my old Thinkpad laptop. The ease of use of modern day Linux is honestly astonishing. I ditched Windows the day they stopped supporting Windows 7 (the last good Windows imo) and haven't looked back since! I use arch btw. :-P
Just stumbled across this video, and to be honest it's a lot like my experience with Linux. I run Mint (Cinnamon desktop) on my desktop and Fedora (KDE PLasma) on my laptop, and I have had very few issues so far. I do still have dual-boot on both PC's but not for much longer, I'm getting rid of Windows in the near future. I don't play a lot of games, especially online competitive multi-player games, so I've been OK so far. I do love the Diablo games, I've been running Diablo 3 perfectly fine and I'll probably get Diablo 4 at some point. Great video!!
i'm glad it worked out for you, but this video is exactly the reason i won't switch over to linux. i cannot be asked to do all this stuff, the fact you had to jump through hoops to nuke a whole directory just to uninstall a program really sells my point. i have already "decontaminated" windows from all the telemetry bs and i'll do the same for co pilot when the moment comes, but i really don't feel like re learning a whole OS. i'm happy you managed to get comfortable with linux through all the hardships, props
I _love_ this consistent comparison I'm seeing made between Linux Mint & Windows 7 - it's basically a dealmaker for me.
I use MX Linux as my daily driver "just works" distro. I do a few others for PIs, servers and special use cases... I hard-switched away from Microsoft in 2019 when my Windows version practically became unusable. Never looked back and never will use Windows ever again. Once you realize how confined you are with it you really don't miss it - no shame though... Use whatever OS you like and fits your needs - but experiment and think out of the box sometimes - you don't know what you might discover
I put Linux Mint on my mom's old desktop (which is my old desktop) mostly because it didn't run Win10 comfortably. Like your parents what she uses is the browser, her email client and occasionally some photo editing software. I upgrade the system every other year or so (besides the automatic updates). Never had an issue. It even runs anydesk for the rare times she wants me to look at something for her.
Dwarf Fortress runs fine I am playing it on PoP! OS :) can't wait for more of your tutorials
man you got me thinking since you cant get earlier versions of win so i am stuck with the garbage they called win11
I like the fact I can update when I want and not have the frustration I had when windows wanted all the resources to run "background" tasks. I run Mint and Ubuntu on my machines.
I've been on and off since 2017, starting with Mint too. Mostly run pure Debian, followed by Arch. Never wanted to run it full time, since it is still inferior for gaming and doesn't support a few programs I've paid good money for, but I'm probably going all in with Arch when support drops next year. It's sad Win11 is so awful, I'm going to miss FL Studio.
Early this summer, I finally took the big jump as well. Been on windows since 3.11, but have been using Linux from time to time over the years, starting with Redhat in the late 90's. Never used it more than a few weeks at a time though because of gaming primarily.
Saw a video about the distro Garuda and what options were available to make gaming a breeze. Tried to install it, but for some reason my computer wouldn't detect the USB if I make the live-version of it. Looked around a bit and tried out Ubuntu (again...), and found out I could live and work there. Read up a bit more, and didn't like how some things were handled, so switched over to Mint. It's not just close to Ubuntu. It's close enough. Started on Mint 21.3, hopped over to 22 about a month and a half ago. Haven't even thought about windows since.
The only problem I'm having from time to time is the rights management. Drive me up the walls, but that's Linux-life I guess, and it's not often enough for it to be a proper downside either. Otherwise, it just works.
Recall got me, I know Zorin I know, never going back bois!
I'm using ZorinOS on my Intel/NVidia laptop (with wayland disabled because NVidia) and everything i use is functional, RetroArch with PS1 emulator, Chrome (yeah, I use chrome), libre office, my 2 playstation 4 controllers works flawlessly wired and wirelessly with bluetooth, it even has a cool boot animation with the manufacturer logo on top (mine is a Dell Inspiron), printer and scanner works no problem (depending of the brand).
So the transition was smooth, using it for almost a year 😊
Thanks Blind!
Proud of you for sticking it through the OBS issue as a first time Linux user! Welcome to the Linux club!
On linux here. For years more or less.
Not a big gamer, but the few games I played (or I play now) are just native. Minecraft in the past, DF now (and Minecraft for my son).
Been through a lot of distros. with the time, they are all the same, so not a big deal. Except very exotic stuff like NixOS, wich I use, btw (Arch is for n00bs).
Glad you enjoy your experience. I am sure that a large majority of windows users would feel the same if they take the step.
"Age of linux desktop"... I mean, I wish the world feels the same... Future will tell us.
Until then... Strike the keyboard ! :)