The writing is on the wall–I suspect the next Windows OS will be a subscription service. Gather your ISOs while ye may.
I regret upgrading to 11 on my home machine. I want to either go back to 10, or just migrate to Linux Mint. Only two things stopping me from jumping is a) My graphics are Nvidia, and b) making time for it.
The Linux and nvidia situation is getting better, I haven’t had problems in a while.
I switched to mint this year with a Nvidia 4080. so far I have been able to get everything I need running with minimal or no involvement. Counterstrike 2 is the most obnoxious which requires me to disable my secondary monitors. That doesn’t happen with anything else and most new games have been good.
If you don’t play something with an ajticheat you know is incompatible with Linux I’d definitely reccomend jumping.
Mint’s Nvidia support has gotten A LOT better over the last few years. You can try it out and see how it goes. Message me if you want help with that.
Thanks very much!
Get in touch if you want and I’ll do what I can to help.
Is it better than PopOS’s NVIDIA-specific ISO?
Personally I’ve never used PopOS so I can’t speak to it.
Fair enough. :)
this is just proof that the internet will complain about the most meaningless things.
I urge everyone to install linux on an old notebook and see if it works for you with firefox as a browser and thunderbird for emails
I love Linux but Programs like CAD and professional graphics software don’t run. Still Linux is only an option for programming and gaming.
Whatever linux version is on the Steam Deck wasn’t bad to use when I needed Desktop mode. It was pretty similar experience-wise to windows (no mac experience).
That’s probably KDE - the K Desktop Environment. Linux variants are called “distributions” and they are basically software bundles maintained by groups.
Desktop environments are basically bundled themes and software to present a desktop, bars, effects, and so on. Windows basically has one desktop environment, but linux has many: Most popular are KDE (windows like) and Gnome (Mac like), but there are more like Cinnamon, XFCE, LXQt, LXDE, which look more like windows.
Desktop environments also have window managers - they do what they say, manage your windows: maximize and minimize them, stack them (stacking window managers), tile them (tiling window managers), or even allow only one window at a time (like kiosks).
If you want to start your linux journey, grab bazzite if you want to game or linux mint debian edition (comes standard with cinnamon desktop environment, but you have the choice during installation to use KDE too) and give it a go!
You can also test distros (linux mint for example) online!
That linux distro tester is really cool. Bazzite is also pretty neat. Thanks for sharing!
If you want to game, my advice would be not to bother with Nvidia GPUs. Even the ones that advertise support for it often have lots of weird issues. In my case, this includes Bazzite.
This is good to know. I want to put Mint on my laptop but I do like the look of steamdeck desktop too.
SteamOS is based on Arch, which you do not want to use and maintain as a beginner. what matter is the desktop environment, which in SteamOS’ case is KDE Plasma, a great choice in my completely unbiased opinion.
Good points. Its worth mentioning that while SteamOS is based on arch (a famously unstable distro), it is immutable, so the user will have a much harder time bricking their system. KDE plasma was the right choice I agree, considering the number of windows users Valve is marketing towards.
Or better yet try it on your main notebook/desktop. Try to get the same things done you did before with Windows and if it works for you, stick with it.
yeah, Id recommend switching on your secondary machine, so you can try it out and use it properly, but not get frustrated if it does something you don’t expect.
I tried the odd distro here and there over the years on my old laptop/“secondary” device or whatever you want to call it, and while you get some experience with the different desktop environments and whatnot, I can’t fully replicate what I’m doing with my main computer on my older laptop. Gaming is a big thing for me for example, and my laptop has an old GeForce MX250 which doesn’t cut it for today’s games.
What I ended up doing to really give desktop Linux a try was installing it onto a separate SSD on my main machine. You don’t need a separate SSD of course, you could just repartition your existing one and install a Linux distro side by side with your existing Windows installation.
And then I just used my computer (or attempted to) for whatever I would’ve done on Windows at that time. So if I wanted to play a game, I tried installing it (via Steam or Bottles for example) and checked whether it worked. Same with voice chat, screen sharing, development stuff, photo editing, media consumption etc. The few times I booted up Windows again was to update the firmware of a game controller and to transfer save games I hadn’t backed up elsewhere (my Windows partition is BitLocker encrypted and while you can certainly mount it under Linux, I didn’t feel like it, rebooting was much quicker).
Sure, using an old device can work for checking out some things, but at least for me I wasn’t sure at all until I tried doing stuff on Linux that I also did on Windows. YMMV.
If you have actual work to do then I would HIGHLY suggest not doing it on your main machine. Give it a month on a secondary machine before giving up. If you install it on a Friday night and come Sunday night it’s still not working fully you’re gonna go back to Windows and never go back.
Why Thunderbird
It is cross platform. Users can try it, regardless of the OS and do not have to switch behavior when switching the OS.
I’ve been using Thunderbird for years and it’s great as an Outlook substitute.
Because it works well
What about round cube?
Can’t really see any reason to use Thunderbird when every mail service has a web client that looks and works better…
Well but Thunderbird can get mails from dozens of email addresses at the same time.
I have hundreds of email addresses and they all come to the same inbox. 🤷
Probably something that could be dns blocked. Hopefully anyway.
I hope so, sincerely hope so.
cue the "one of our devs slipped and fell on a keyboard, completely coincidentally hitting all the right keys in the right order to code this. Completely coincidentally! "
Sheesh, talk about overreaction.
Almost all commercial software are advertising their manufacturers other stuff. Ever installed a graphics card driver? How many ads does that show for games and software that can run on the card? Steam also pushes sales by pop-up advertisements.
Google has been fined multiple times because they went much further than just advertising their own stuff.
Can you disable ads on an ad platform with a single setting? Didn’t think so.
So no, Windows 11 is not an ad platform, not even close.
Are we really comparing a store showing ads to an operating system showing ads?
Google is shit tho, we all know that. But windows 11 is an ad platform.
I don’t see an ad in my graphics driver. Even update notifications are optional.
When I open steam, it is because I’m thinking of gaming and most often, I’m hoping for a game deal popup.Though, I’d love to not require opening Steam when I just want to play a game.
And that’s why I’m willing to forego regional pricing and pay almost 4x for GoG games, at least for games I feel like I will be playing for a long time.
I am someone that is a Microsoft professional by trade and have been for about 20 years. I have absorbed everything that Microsoft has ever done in the Windows, Server and Cloud ecosystems, but Windows 11 was what really broke this lovely glass dream.
Under Windows 10, I was ale to create a custom image and use advanced policies to block the crap, Windows 11 on the other hand you can still do the same but with every update, it reverts settings back to their “default” without notification or even recorded information.
I would say to anyone that has the “but Windows is better for gaming…” you are living in the 00s to early 10s! With the Wine program and Valves Proton program, I am able to run all games that I own (1000+ games… I am a Valve sales bundle addict alright?!?). I am able to play games such as Star Citizen, Planetside 2, PalWorld, Helldivers 2 with a few clicks of a button, and only a couple of clicks if the game is Proton gold or above.
From my testing on several distros I would say start with something friendly such as Mint Cinnamon or PopOS (linux die hards, remember not everyone wants to spend time figuring things out on a daily basis and these OS from my experience are the most Windows-esque - i mean I started with Garuda and I am stubborn to learn it instead of jumping to another distro). Then spend a bit of time just getting the basics of a Linux system of your choice, such as the file system and how to install packages (apps). Don’t forget you also have platforms such as YouTube that people will show you click for click on what to do!
But… yes there is a but… if you have an nVidia GPU your experience might not be as smooth. If you want to take a leap and have the best experience, have at least an AMD GPU and even better an AMD system. Unfortunately this is purely on nVidia still having their finger up their ass on open source drivers.
Granted I’m not a gamer but my Linux multi-OS desktop machine has zero problems with its nVidia GPU. YMMV, as we used to say.
It definitely has gotten a lot better in the nVidia driver side but it’s not on AMD levels yet. But this is my experience with a 960 and 3080Ti. My 6800XT and 5700XT have been smooth sailing.
Small businesses that can’t afford a dedicated IT department and pro licenses are gonna love this. I’m sure Linux will pick up more users but the real winner will likely be Apple and Macs.
the real winner will likely be Apple and Macs
I’m sure they will find a way to enshittify in a equally intrusive manner.
Small business that can’t afford dedicated IT usually outsource to a consultant or MSP, who damn well better sell them on Pro.
If you can’t afford proper licensing as a business, I doubt you’re gonna make it
I have friends in the SMB consulting space - ALL of their clients run Pro, with at least one DC. Their smallest clients are 2-3 person environments.
A business needs a lot more than a workstation or two - backup, security (IDS/IPS/firewall/spam filtering), email (pretty much all hosted these days). You’re not doing this without pro licensing. You can’t even use Group Policy on home.
These issues truly only affect home users - specifically the non-technical. And that’s such a small set of people it’s almost doesn’t matter to MS, which is why they’re pushing this crap there.
That kind of depends on the business, doesn’t it? I’m sure there are plenty of small businesses that don’t even know what a SMB consulting space is. I suspect there a lot of people running businesses off their laptop. You might have a narrow view of what constitutes a small business.
Carls JrMicrosoft Windows. Fuck you, I’m eating!It’s called “upselling” isn’t it?
first boot: no i don’t want a 365 trial.
still first boot: no i don’t want 365 ‘basic’, either.
(you should know this msa already has a one-off office license on it, you fuckwits)
and yea, still in first boot: no i don’t want game pass trial.
then game pass notifications shortly after from the ‘store’.
this was this past weekend setting up a new desktop with 11 pro.
Was that on the Insider Dev channel, a Preview channel, or did it stop asking after the first time?
I haven’t seen a single “ad” of those since I booted Windows 11 Pro for the first time.
…no, I don’t want to put all my stuff in OneDrive. No, my settings shouldn’t sync across everything. No, I don’t want to log in with the same account on all devices. I already have email and do not want to use outlook.com thanks. Stop warning me that I did not agree to put all my stuff in OneDrive, it’s really not necessary. What do you mean I can’t change my wallpaper unless I activate? Are you telling me that your antimalware solution that comes bundled in the OS isn’t able to block malicious ads in the browser that also comes with the OS? Why do these applications that I never installed keep showing up in the Start menu? What’s up with all these calls to Azure-based websites in my Pi-Hole logs when I’m away from my desk? Why are my CPUs going at full blast when I’m just staring at the desktop?
And it’s only gonna get worse from here.
I love ads. I love what Microsoft and the likes are doing.
Said no one ever
I gotta admit you had me in the first half . . .
Haha. Are you telling me that we all don’t mutually love these attempts to personalize advertisements? There’s nothing better than knowing our personal information is being used for our benefit this way. Look at films like Blade Runner. I can’t wait to have bright fluorescent ads on every corner and open space.
Without these things, how else am I going to know which medication I should be insisting my doctor prescribe me? And clearly this insurance company with the funny ad is totally going to be there on my side when something happens. That’s why they made the commercial, duh. So I would absolutely be certain I can trust them to quickly and fully process a claim.
There’s nothing cozier than the snug embrace of consumerism, where we find a peculiar warmth, as if cocooned in a comforter spun from the very fibers of advertising’s allure.
The scary thing is, this is legit how the marketing course I had to take taught the concepts. The whole course was from the perspective that people are too dumb or overburdened to make decisions on what products they should buy, so marketing and ads are our savior to take that oh so hard critical thinking away. I wish I was kidding, but everything about that class felt like “how can we abuse psychology to force people to consume.”
😭😭😭
This could work. If we had serious serious consequences for false advertising and lying in media lol so never.
Once again we bathe in the light of the Omnissiah!
It gets more confusing when you read their user name
I have friends that dont mind that bs, they say yeah sure its convenient to have ads that are interesting to me, how else am i gonna discover cool new things.
I dont know Frank, if you didnt think of it you probably dont need it.
How i hate capitalism
I don’t disagree, but discoverability is important. On the flipside there are so many times in FOSS world where I’ve actively looked for a tool for months, only to give up and then months later have someone randomly mention it in a thread where I discover it has existed for years.
I honestly find this incredible, but yeah… I know people who enjoy being advertised to… and who like “shopping” even though they start out with nothing in mind. Advertising works on them and probably those spam emails I can’t believe people click, which only perpetuates the problem. And apparently it’s worth billions to keep up the commercialization.
I hate shopping i hate it more than anything. I dont need shit. Just leave me alone, if my shirts get worn out i buy new ones. And only then. I dont throw them out cause i bought new ones and i dont need 200 of them. I buy shirts when i need them.
Guess most people aren’t like me and thats why these companies exist in the first place.
Honestly, kinda glad that my win10 PC “doesn’t have the specs” to run win11. Stupid, because I’m running an 18-core Xeon w/ 128 gigs of ram and a 2070 super, but of course the stupid TPM chip. But oh well, guess I won’t be able to get ads on my own product.
The bummer is I’ll likely need to install it on something because I occasionally need to go back to windows to use certain programs… maybe someday wine will work well enough to actually use reliably…
Oh don’t worry, if this isn’t already in 10 I’m sure they’ll be bringing it over shortly.
Ah-hem: https://reactos.org/
I’m still learning how to use this but let me know what you think.
Is it 64 bit yet?
Are you absolutely sure the programs you need don’t work in wine/proton? The last few years have been a renaissance in terms of increased compatibility.
One game I used to play recently started working suddenly in the latest proton major release (I think 9), it wasn’t mentioned in the release notes and it has no community around the game since it was released around windows vista, as well as being pulled from stores for many years (I still have it on steam) so I don’t think anyone intentionally fixed it but probably just a result of some system call being implemented or tweaked to behave closer to correct.
So yeah, it’s very good to test your broken wine apps every 6 months to a year because slowly anything I ever had issues with in wine is starting to work.
I tried fusion360 last week and it was broken; some big update they released broke it and now I just gagged to wait for it to get fixed, I guess. Will try it again in a month or so asked are if it’s fixed… but I’ve always had awful luck getting wine working. Same w/ photoshop
Yeah, I’ve heard Photoshop can be rough. Here’s hoping someone figures those out for you so you can find your way to the promised land. These days everything important to me works in Linux and I’m never going back.
Get LTSC and run the MS scripts to permanently license it.
I’ll drop links in a bit - on phone atm.
I have LTSC 2021 officially (MSDN) and I have to say I’m not very impressed. You still can’t turn off the telemetry crap. There is still a windows store. There’s a bit less bundled scamware but beside that it’s a bit overrated IMO.
Group Policy.
Enterprises can’t allow such external accesses/data for security and compliance issues (depending on the industry).
Via GP, all that can be disabled.
Even all the telemetry?
I really hate dealing with group policies (and I work in enterprise endpoint management, I prefer more modern management). AD/Group policies can only be updated on site or VPN, and they’re only really instructions for registry settings anyway.
But I’ll try that out. I don’t have a windows server though, nor do I want one. But I guess I could use gpedit.
Is it possible to run what you need in a VM? That’s how I’ve been running things that need Windows to function correctly and it hasn’t broken yet. Can even get 11 working with an emulated TPM, including Windows Subsystem for Linux inside the VM if you’re feeling particularly bored.
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How long before the majority of game development is defaulting to Linux/Unix instead of windows? Getting native Linux games to run on windows is only becoming easier and easier with WSL? To me it seems like less of a hastle than trying to go the other way like we do today with proton and wine. Can someone enlighten me?
I’m naive enough to think it would happen faster if there were more market demand, but that’s likely my 1990s programming failing to adjust to the 21st century.
In my naive mind the steam deck is a huge motivating factor for developers to go directly to native Linux games. In reality it’s probably given only little a consideration.
According to Steam’s own survey, Linux is still less than 2% of the user base and it doesn’t look like it’s changing much. I don’t know how it has looked historically though but probably not too much different.
Realistically speaking, it’s only a small percentage of people who bought the Steam Deck, and they probably already had a gaming PC, which means they probably had a Windows PC.
So unfortunately, I don’t think Linux gaming is anywhere close.
