or, you know, just switch to linux. several distros are basically just as usable out of box as anything microsoft has released.
I’ve tried and gaming is a lot better than it was, but I still prefer Windows in that department though I do stick with SteamOS for the Steam Deck and haven’t bothered running Windows on it.
yeah I’m mid transition myself - probably switch for good when win10 goes EoL. I tried win11 and hate it.
If only SteamOS was made generally available.
And I honestly prefer the non-terminal solutions that are generally in Windows.
Users here generally seem to forget that
1: Not all users are power users
2: Professional software is generally not developed for Linux but either Windows or Mac. Linux is an afterthought
3: Not all programs run as you’d need it to. Wine and Proton can work for single use but I don’t see daily activity going very well with it.
For downvoters on point 3 saying they do it:
I tried the EA launcher with Proton on the SteamDeck. It’s a hacky solution and in general a not supported environment. Good luck getting help from EA if something goes wrong.
This also applies to general work environments: HPE (server brand of HP) for example denies support if it sees a non-HPE product that may interfere with your support case. They ask you to remove it and then send another support file.
2: Professional software is generally not developed for Linux but either Windows or Mac. Linux is an afterthought
Really depends. E.g. Houdini, Blender and Nuke are Linux-first as Linux took over IRIX’s market share, and generally that of Unix workstations.
All three predate Windows 95, the whole PC and Windows platform back then was considered cheap toys for accounting and management, not serious computing.
i run dual-boot on my PC, these days i’m only switching over to windows for gaming since nvidia GPUs don’t get a lot of support on the linux side nvidia doesn’t go out of there way to support linux as much as AMD does
What kind of support are you missing? I run Linux exclusively with an Nvidia card and see regular driver updates (not as frequently as the kernel, for example, but still).
nvidia GPUs don’t get a lot of support on the linux side.
First time I’m hearing about this. What do you mean? You get regular, automatic driver updates and they work… what is missing?
Older drivers for older cards are also available, although this may depend on the distribution rather than Nvidia.
I’ve done something different. I just have two computers. One for just playing games (windows), and one for everything else (Mac).
yeah. I have a tiny-pc (whatever the ultra sff is called now) that will run w10 forever - supported or not, for a specific use-case, but the desktop i’m trying to transition to will be linux. already moved my laptop to linux (both mint because it’s easy). have a different laptop that was decent 10 years ago that I use as a testbench to try out other, non-mint distros.
long term i’ll move to 3x computers but daily really only use two.
yes, but the Enterprise level license usually lasts longer than the individual license does. Enterprise level you’re basically stuck in that ecosystem, you’ve got tools written for it. I remember when IE6 was the latest hotness and then everyone struggled to get away from it for years and years but integral revenue generating tools relied on it.
I am starting to make the effort in switching but honestly, it’s not going as easily as I hoped… I got my old Surface Go running fully on Mint now and I’ve got some frustrations trying to make it work the way I want. I’m sure I’ll get there, but what seemed like a fun project has become frustrating.
Next I plan on setting up dual booting on my gaming setup, which I suspect should be less frustrating than trying to run Linux on Microsoft hardware. If that goes smoothly I’ll wipe Windows on the machine and switch fully to Mint there.
Only thing I don’t think I can let go of Windows on is my work laptop. I use too much MS office suite stuff for work and have to move documents between people all the time. I already tried using Libre Office at work a few years back already and it just didn’t work out, especially Power Point / Impress.
Overall, yeah, I think we should all start making a move off Windows when I see the state of things, it’s just… not that easy for everyone.
