Basically the forced shift to the enshittified Windows 11 in october has me eyeing the fence a lot. But all I know about Linux is 1: it’s a cantankerous beast that can smell your fear and lack of computer skills and 2: that’s apparently not true any more? Making the change has slowly become a more real possibility for me, though I’m pretty much a fairly casual PC-user, I don’t do much more than play games. So I wrote down some questions I had about Linux.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
And also, what distro might be best for me?
People have answered most questions. The gaming thing is a total lie though.
Some specific games will work kinda okay. The vast majority will work worse. And a good chunk of super popular games won’t work at all. Just dual boot and keep gaming on windows.
People in here straight up lie to push for Linux when it’s really not necessary. It’s great at what it does. And it’s improving in what it doesn’t.
What are you talking about? Out of the 248 games in my Steam library, 190 of them are rated as working on Linux (Steam Deck Verified and Steam Deck Playable). 21 of them are untested, which means only 37 of them are rated as unplayable. Of those most are unplayable because they’re either VR games or they have restrictive anticheat. Some of them, like Medium, say they’re unplayable but work fine for me. I’m assuming that’s because the Steam Deck isn’t powerful enough to play Medium at more than 15 fps, but on my PC, it runs around 100 fps. Others, like GTA V, say they’re unplayable, even though I’ve fully played through them with no issue, even on the Steam Deck. I’m guessing that’s because GTA Online has anticheat, but I’ve played the single player and online and both have worked fine for me. (I just looked it up. They added BattleEye to GTA Online late last year, so yeah, GTA V is rated unplayable, even though the Story Mode is fully playable.)
I’ve even gotten games that refuse to work on Windows (like the original American Mcgee’s Alice and the original Journeyman Project) running great in Linux.
After running through a few of the untested games, some of them are untested, even though they have native Linux ports that run just fine. I’m assuming that’s because they haven’t been tested specifically on the Steam Deck.
Other than the ones with restrictive anticheat, everything I’ve tried from my Epic Games library works great too.
Of the games I play, almost none of them have worked worse on Linux than they do on Windows. Most work exactly the same, and a few work better. One (exactly one) has worked worse, for about a month, then a new version of Proton fixed the missing cutscenes.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Depends on what you play. As a general rule I would say that unless you like competitive multiplayer games you’re probably going to be fine. That being said the vast majority of games don’t support Linux natively so you need to use workarounds. Steam has a workaround built-in, so if most of your gaming is through Steam it should be an almost seamless transition (all you need to do is enable a checkbook in the settings). But like I said, it depends on what you play, I recommend you check out https://www.protondb.com/ and look for the games you play to see how they run on Linux.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Same answer as before, if the game runs okay then modding it would also work okay, but if not it might worsen an already bad situation. Also be very careful here, because when you run Windows games on Steam they’re sort of sandboxed, i.e. they’re running isolated from other stuff, so installing mods is not as straightforward as it would be on windows where binaries are installed globally. It’s not a big deal, but just the other day someone was complaining that they installed a launcher needed for a game and the game wasn’t finding it and this was the reason.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
As a general rune there’s a workaround, it’s called WINE (which is an acronym for WINE Is Not an Emulator) which is an “emulator” for Windows (except it’s not really an Emulator as the name implies). Then there are some apps built on top of that like Proton (which is what Steam has embebed) that include other libraries and fixes to help. It’s not perfect, but unless the program is actively trying to detect it or uses very obscure features on Windows it should work.
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
Yes, you can use WINE like mentioned above to run Windows binaries that use .NET, but also .NET core is available for Linux.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
Oh boy, this is the big one, this is the Major difference for m Windows to Linux. Linux has a thing called a package manager, ideally everything you install gets installed via that package manager. This means that everything gets updated together. And here’s the thing, we’re not talking OS only stuff, new version of the kernel (Linux)? New version of the drivers? New version of Firefox? New version of Spotify? All gets updated together when you update your system. This is crucial to the way Linux works, since it allows Linux to have only one copy of each library. For example, if you have 5 different programs that use the same library, in Windows you’ll have 5 copies of that same library, because each program needs their own in the specific version, but in Linux since they will all update together it’s easier to have just one library that gets updated together with the programs. This makes maintaining Linux a piece of pie in comparison, just one command or one click of a button and you’re all up to date with everything you have installed.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
As a general rule open source programs are more secure than their counterparts. Closed source programs always remind me of Burns going through several security measures, that sort of thing is imposible in open source because if everyone can see all of the security measures, so someone would notice the gaping hole in the back, whereas in closed source only attackers might have found it. Like cyber security experts say: Security by obscurity is not security. As for Antivirus you don’t need to worry, Linux is inherently more secure than Windows, and also has a small enough user base (most of whom are security experts) so the number of virus written for Linux is extremely small. Also because you should install stuff through a package manager it’s very difficult to get someone to download a bad binary since there’s lots of security in the package manager to prevent this sort of thing. In short almost every antivirus program for Linux checks your computer for Windows viruses to avoid being used to store or transmit viruses to Windows computers, so it’s completely pointless in your home machine (it’s used for example in email servers).
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Yes… But actually no. It depends, if you have a relatively modern AMD GPU (as in last 10 years) the answer is a resounding YES, AMD currently has wonderful Linux support and their cards work excellently with drivers being fully open source and integrated into the Linux Kernel. For Nvidia the story is unfortunately not as nice. Essentially there are 2 drivers available,
nouveau(open source driver written by the community and purposefully hampered by Nvidia) andnvidia(closed source driver written by Nvidia that has gaping incompatibilities with Linux). Since you game your only option isnvidia, whilenouveauis great for several reasons it can’t match the performance of thenvidiadriver. For 99% of stuff thenvidiadriver should work fine, but I haven’t had good luck with getting Wayland to run on it, which means you’re probably stuck in X11 (I know this doesn’t mean much to you, but in short it means that you’re somewhat limited in your choice for graphical interface and have to use stuff that people are trying to deprecate but can’t because of Nvidia)Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Technically yes, so can Windows by that matter. But realistically no, unless you’re writing your own kernel drivers you won’t be in any position to cause hardware damage.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
I would probably go with Mint, it’s beginner friendly and I’ve been recommending it for decades. One thing to bear in mind is that in your knowledge level the distro you choose won’t make that big of a difference, try to pick something beginner friendly and you should be fine, no need to overthink this.
PS: some extra notes that you didn’t asked but I think are good to know:
- Any Linux can look like any other, it’s just a matter of installing the right packages
- You should keep your
/and/homein separate partitions, this makes it possible for you to reinstall (or even change distros entirely) without losing your files and configuration. This is due to how Linux manages partitions, which in short is not like on Windows where you have a C and D drives but instead any folder can be a different partition or disk. - You can dual boot, i.e. have 2 OS and choose which one to use every time you turn on your computer.
- You should probably install Linux on a virtual machine first to check it out safely. And do a backup before installing it on your computer just in case you make a mistake.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
It will be somewhat affected, but most games can be played via wine/proton.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Depends on the game and mods? Some games like Minecraft can run and be modded natively in Linux.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
Again, there is wine/proton for that.
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
If I remember correctly, you can install .NET, DirectX and so on in wine.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
You are going to love updates coming from Windows. Basically you run your package manager update command and everything is taken care of.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
I’m no security expert, but the consensus is that it’s more secure. I’ll leave it to more competent people to explain.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Depends. NVIDIA used to be annoying to manage.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
About this, I have no idea.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
I have seen Linux Mint often suggested to new users, but picking a distro is a topic that deserves a whole new post.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
No. Thanks to Steam Deck, most popular windows games also work on Linux. See https://www.protondb.com/ for a complete list of 18,000 titles… Someone already mentioned that kernel level anti-cheat is the big, obvious blocker.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Im guessing that most moders target Windows users therefore, don’t think mods would be AS easy. Not saying modding wouldn’t exist or work at all.Edit: see sp3ctr4l’s reply to this comment. They know more than meIf a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
There are workarounds. Linux has some great alternative software to popular paid stuff. See LibreOffice or Krita.
There are also more advanced options to run Windows apps under Linux, see Wine or Virtual Machines
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
Yes. Similar to the above answer/ similar to aforementioned Proton. For .NET specifically, there is a Linux runtime.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
This can depend a lot on what distribution you’re running, but definitely, there are ones with easy buttons for whole-system updates.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
It’s different and probably overall better than windows. Most distros are much better out of the box than windows.
Open source is ususually a security advantage because (long story short) security mistakes can be caught by more people.
I don’t have a good answer for you on anti virus. I am very privacy and security conscious and I dont use one on linux. My personal opinion is that you don’t need one and shouldn’t need one if you’re not downloading sketch stuff.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Totally. GPU drivers are much, much better than they used to be.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Theoretically. You would have to try really hard, but for normal use, no. More likely, you could lose data or access to the system if you misconfigure stuff (just like with Windows)
Distro recommendations. My personal opinions, don’t flame me.
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Bazzite. hard to mess up, gamer focused, super simple updates, and targeted support for gamer hardware. Feels like a cross between steam deck and windows. Less support for tinkering but if you never want to touch the terminal, this is my choice.
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Pop!OS. Simplified Linux with great driver and steam support with easy updates. More tinkering support than Bazzite
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Linux Mint. Easy to start on but more traditional back-end. Much more support (forum posts) than the previous two. A lot of what works on Debian or Ubuntu works the same on Mint, so you’ll be able to do all kinds of fiddling
To add in about game modding on Linux:
https://github.com/limo-app/limo
https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.limo_app.limo
Limo is a universal mod manager that is linux native.
And I do mean universal. It’ll work with literally any game, you just have to take a bit of extra time to configure things for games that do not yet have a supported preset configuration out of the box… but at this point, that includes most games that are generally reliant on some kind of mod manager type program on Windows, to keep track of 10s or 100s of simultaneous mods.
It works very much along the same lines as something like Mod Organizer 2, though there are some differences, read the wiki.
It sets up a virtual file system that allows mods to be set up outside of the main game directory itself, and will override them such that the mods actually load, but they can be ‘undeployed’ to revert back to vanilla, you can set up different profiles of different mod configurations and deploy/undeploy what you like.
It can also manage load orders, supports formats such as fomod and similar for games like Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim, you can set up tags and category groupings, and it also shows you conflicts between mods down to the specific files, showing you a chain of overwrites to the final file from the final loaded mod.
It doesn’t support things like LOOT, which purport to autogenerate correct load orders… but frankly, thats fine, because shit like that doesn’t even work properly in situations you’d use it in on Windows 90% of the time.EDIT: Wow, apparently it does support LOOT now, it did not a few updates ago.
…
I have successfully gotten FONV working using Limo to set up uh… there’s a variant of the Viva New Vegas mod setup guide aimed at Steam Deck users, but it tells you to set up Mod Organizer 2 on the Deck… which you can do, but its rather input laggy and there are other inconveniences…
Here it is, Mirelurked Viva New Vegas:
https://ashtonqlb.github.io/mirelurked-vnv/intro.html
I had to alter a few steps from this to get it working with Limo, but they were basically just… set up Limo instead of MO2, and you have to handle NVSE a bit differently, because it literally replaces/overrides the entire main game exe.
…
I have also used Limo to mod Cyberpunk 2077, works with more in depth frameworks like CET, RedExt, etc, as well as using the Decky Framegen plugin to insert FSR 3.1 Upscaling and Framegen into CP77, which gives better quality and fps than the official FSR 2 and 3 implementations that come with the vanilla game and are vanilla supported on a Deck.
You basically just have to launch the vanilla game via the normal launcher first, check the ‘enable mods’ switch, fully load the game…
Then you can set up the Framegen mod, which adds a custom command in steam to the launch parameters… and then you can also setup the ‘skip intro’ mod, which is reliant on both the mod being present, as well as additional command line parameters…
There are a bunch of reddit posts complaining that the FrameGen mod doesn’t allow other additional launch arguments, but they are wrong.
All you have to do is append those additional launch args … at the end of the FrameGen mod’s launch arg. This just doesn’t seem to be explicitly documented anywhere, by anyone… I may have been the first person to figure this out?
Anyway, after that bit of silliness, setting up other mods for CP 77 using Limo is fairly straightforward.
…
… I am doing all this on Bazzite on a Deck, but you could do it on… presumably any linux distro that supports flatpaks and proton (the translation layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux).
There will always be a few ‘weird’ mods that are just totally reliant on a whole bunch of Windows specific things to work, or just cannot be made to work without actually overwriting some core game files in the main, real directory itself…
And, some of these mods will require a windows component dependency, like vc_2017 or vc_2022, you set those up with something like ProtonTricks or SteamTinkerLaunch to modify the proton config per game, instead of trying to install the exe system wide as 99% of the windows oriented mods will tell you to do…
But so far, I have found either my own solutions for these cases, or someone else already has, or someone has just made basically a linux compatible equivalent for such a windows reliant mod.
… You can also just choose to run MO2 on Linux, it will work, its just… buggy, and overlycomplicated, imo, you’ve got to set up a custom wineprefix for the MO2 UI to not do dumbshit, give it thr dependencies it needs, and then you’ve got to do this for each different game you want to mod with MO2.
I found that Limo is sufficiently capable and much less hassle to use once you take the time to understand its differences from MO2.
EDIT:
Also, for anti virus, ClamAV exists. I… think it is literally the only AV for linux?
Ooh, Limo has a Flatpak? Nice. I’m running Bazzite on my laptop and have been wanting to play FNV for the first time but I’ve got it on Epic through Heroic Launcher. I’m guessing the file paths will be different but it should otherwise mod more or less the same as you said, I’ll have to try it. What kind of weird stuff did you have to do to get NVSE working?
My FNV is through Steam… but… i think Limo does support GOG… I… would think you would, yes, have to set up your own filepaths, point it properly to where the game dir is, and it… should work?
You can launch a game from Limo, like, I do test runs of that in desktop mode on my Deck…
But the way the deployer system works is that you click deploy… and the even if you launch the game from some other way, like via Steam, in game mode on the deck, or… presumably via Heroic… it just now is the modded game. To revert, undeploy in Limo, and then either play vanilla, or swap to another modset profile and deploy that.
For NVSE, I just literally did the old school method of go into the real game dir, rename the main exe to .exe.old, and then rename the NVSE exe to the proper FONV game exe’s name.
That and manually install the dlls and other files that come with NVSE into the real dir.
This isn’t much of a problem with older games, but with newer games, that method would potentially be undone by ongoing update patches.
This is the kind of ‘some mods you just have to manually install’ thing… but in fairness… most of the time those mods are the same way on Windoes as well, unless some kind of mod manager goes far out of their way to specifically support that exact mod.
Down vote cause no arch. (no I didn’t.)
But in all seriousness, don’t use arch as a Linux noob.
There is exactly one type of noob that should be using arch and that’s the kind that has already built an Exocar or at least understands why somebody would.
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Hello there 1- It really depends on your build, distro and drivers being used. Some benchmarks show Ray tracing causes performance drop compared to Windows.
2- There are mod managers here and there but, honestly I don’t mod so I don’t know anything about it.
3- If a program doesn’t have Linux version, there might be Linux alternative. Those alternatives sometimes might not be on par with their counterparts though. Adobe products are one bit example.
4- Applications developed with .NET may be built on Linux through Mono framework, as long as they are developed as portable. For native Windows programs, there is a compatibility layer named WINE, but it won’t guarantee that every program will work. It may support games as well, but for games Proton is more preferred. Proton is Valve’s official tool anyway.
5- Distributions’ package managers will manage updates, either application updates or system updates. Most distros will also notify users about updates, however installing them is up to user’s decision. Universal package managers like Flatpak are responsible their own updates.
6- Linux is way more secure than Windows for being what it is. Being an open source does not inherently mean that it’s secure. But open source softwares are generally peer reviewed by public and they are often recommended fixes thus if there is any vulnerability, it’s fixed more quickly. Antiviruses are not needed, not because there is not Linux viruses though. There is ClamAV anti-virus, also there are proprietary AV applications, if you still need. AV’s are mostly ineffective in today’s technology.
7- AMD drivers, for example way more reliable than their Windows ones. Nvidia also made a lot of progress in recent years, so yes. There might be still some issues, lack of features.
8- No, it cannot.
9- For a beginner, Linux Mint is and always has been best choice for start, in my opinion.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
If you play competitive multiplayer online games, yes. Otherwise, no.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Depends on how you mod games. But probably yes. The NexusMods app is newly available for Linux but with very minimal support at this point.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
It depends. Sometimes you can run them through WINE/Bottles. The main place you may run into problems is in peripherals.
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
Through WINE/Proton, yes.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
Depends on your distro. I use Bazzite and updates take place seamlessly in the background so you don’t need to do anything.
How does digital security work on Linux?
Kind of a vague question. Keep in mind pretty much every server on the planet runs Linux, including incredibly sensitive ones.
Is it more vulnerable due to being open source?
Quite the opposite.
Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Every modern OS has antivirus built in, and third party solutions should be avoided like the plague.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
As long as you’re not using Nvidia.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Not anymore than any other OS can.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
That is an eternal argument in the space. There are 2 recommendations that come up most often for beginners: Linux Mint and Pop!_OS. Although I don’t like either of those visually, so I can heartily recommend Bazzite for beginners. I won’t go into too many details as to why but it comes with lots of goodies and configurations “out of the box” that enhance and simplify the experience, especially for gamers.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
As long as you’re not using Nvidia.
removed please.
I really don’t understand how you can say things like that when Nvidia-specific problems are regularly reported. Just because you don’t personally have problems, doesn’t mean lots of other people don’t. Having dealt with it personally, I can confirm it’s absolutely a problem on some machines. Especially older ones.
I’m using an RTX 5800 with Nobara and although I can game fine I get multiple graphical bugs in the desktop (parts of windows not fully rendering, flashing artifacts when moving windows, and aliasing artifacts around fonts (yes I’m running the correct resolution). So Ulrich is right, it’s absolutely a problem even on newer hardware too.
I have a 3090 in one machine and a 7900XTX it my primary desktop. Pretending AMD “works fine and has no issues” is pure hogwash. When I primarily ran the 3090, I had no issues other than than the same standard ones I had with AMD (tearing in Xorg without picom, hardware playback in Youtube, etc).
Every person who parrots “AMD good Nvidia bad” is the same type that believes “if it ain’t open source, it sucks”, and usually is in the “I run some gaming focused, Windows-like distro so I can play my non-open source games” camp.
All I want is a simple questionnaire when someone signs up. “Would you run Linux on your desktop if it didn’t have Steam/Proton support?” that would just lock all you XBox lobby/Windows refugees into a LinuxGaming community.
You’re just imagining a bunch of shit no one said.
I’m only responding to the lack of computer skills portion of the OP as I’m sure others have already answered points plenty and probably better than I could.
If you’ve used Windows, you have enough basic computer skills to get you started. You’ll learn the Linux by using Linux just like you learned Windows by using Windows. There are plenty of mainstream distros that give you an out of the box working experience that is a great starting ground. It does take research and try things out instead of wanting someone to give you the perfect play book.
This is something I tell people all the time. It’s just as easy to troubleshoot on Linux as it is on Windows the biggest issue is that most people are just kinda innately aware of Windows troubleshooting by virtue of the fact that they’ve been doing it for so long. Linux is probably just as complicated skill wise, but most people just aren’t used to it yet.
And that’s especially true for gamers. If you’ve gone through the dance of tweaking BIOS settings or DDU removing drivers and reinstalling them, then you’re probably gonna do fine on Linux. The only difference is sometimes there won’t be a GUI you have to go hunt down. It will be like 3 commands someone has already written out for you that you copy/paste into the CLI. Which is WAY better in my opinion.
That’s true and not true at the same time. The one advantage Windows has in this regard is that everyone is working on the same “distro” as it were. With Linux the various components can vary enough to be confusing. I think that is why it’s important to choose a distro with a sizeable community.
Something like Ubuntu, or an arch derivative like endeavouros are a good choice for that reason.
I would also warm against the copy paste of commands that you don’t know what you are doing with. The one nice thing is that in 2025 you can drop a command into your choice of LLM assistant and get a pretty good description of what it does without breaking out the man pages.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Really depends on the games. For the vast majority, probably not. If you play competitive multiplayer games, then it’s 50/50.
Check out protondb to see if the games you play the most work well.
Also semi-depends on hardware. Old Nvidia cards may struggle. AMD is def king in the Linux world, but it’s getting better for Nvidia
But as you are probably aware, the steam deck has been pretty successful. That wouldn’t happen if Linux gaming was all bad.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Hit or miss. Sometimes the mod tools have to use wine and don’t work. Sometimes they use wine and work. Sometimes they don’t use wine and work.
I have just done some modding of Monster Hunter Wilds, and it was about 50/50
When it works, it’s just as easy as Windows.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
WINE or a Virtual Machine
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
.NET is cross platform as of several years ago.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
It depends on the distro. Typically you just run a command in the terminal to “update all packages” or click a button in a store front.
It’s way easier than on Windows and is never forced.
Genuinely one of if not the best thing about Linux is how software management works.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Less vulnerable due to being open source. You have all the security experts in the world, including Microsoft’s, able to view and fix any vulnerabilities as soon as they appear. Thousands of people getting their eyes on it.
There’s a reason that Linux is the back bone of the internet and nearly every server runs it.
And FYI, you don’t use antivirus on Linux.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
If it works, it will always work.
Whether it works is dependent on your GPU.
Like I said, AMD is basically perfect, Nvidia can have problems, but these days that’s less and less true (I use a GTX 3080 w/ out issue).
Mostly if you have an old, less-supported nvidia card (like pre-GTX) you may have issues.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
I’ve never heard of something like that happening.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
For beginners the correct option is almost always Linux Mint
Just as a note, NVIDIA on Linux is not bad, BUT IS REALLY ANNOYING because you will get some random bugs that are only exclusive to NVIDIA cards. Like this one: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/non-existent-shared-vram-on-nvidia-linux-drivers/260304
If you have a low VRAM NVIDIA GPU and you want to play a modern game, you will have a bad time. (However, AMD and Intel should work just fine lolol)
And also, what distro might be best for me?
- For gaming and if you just want things to work without being bothered, Nobara. It’s a Fedora base, which is good for gaming because you will have updates more quickly than other distros, but not so quick that you will get bad updates breaking stuff. It’s Fedora but heavily modified for gaming, and has a lot of stuff already set up that you would need to do manually to improve gaming on another distro. It uses KDE as a Desktop Environment which is pretty good and similar-looking to Windows (a task bar on the bottom, a start menu, a system tray, etc) and you can customize it extensively.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself? Antiwhat ? Just kidding.
- You’re not installing softwares by running executables found on random websites, so you at least have less chances of accidentally installing malware that way (not saying that happened to me a lot on Windows… but not saying that it didn’t 😅 ).
- The best known antivirus on linux is clamAV, but it’s command line only. It’s not very complicated to use, but if you want a graphical interface there are several applications that are clamAV frontends (clamAV still does the actual scanning and such, but the application gives you a graphical interface to interact with it)
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
- For Steam games, the Steam app has Proton, which enables you to play Windows games on Linux, and most will work just fine. There will always be a few games that require tinkering, or that won’t work at all, but not many. You can check ProtonDB to see if your games run well with Proton (https://www.protondb.com/ ) and if a game won’t run, you can check it to see if people have posted solutions (sometimes it’s as easy as copy-pasting a command into the game’s launch options, and poof, there goes the DirectX error !
- For GoG games, and also games from other stores (EA, Epic, etc) you can install Lutris which will use Wine to make your non-Linux games work on linux. As will Proton, there will be a few games that won’t cooperate. All in all, I’d say less than 5% of my games don’t work or require tinkering, and I have a lot of them.
- If you play multiplayer online games that use kernel-level anticheats, you might be fucked (though I’d argue that it’s a good thing, because the game not working is much preferable to the security risk posed by kernel-level anticheats…). Some games are still playable without the anti-cheat activated, you just can’t join competitive servers without the anticheat, while other games won’t work at all.
I (unfortunately) have to heavily recommend against using Nobara, especially if you have an Nvidia graphics card. It’s an amateur distribution in the original sense of the word and also lacks a large community, neither does it have a company behind it.
This leads to a lack of proper QA and testing in general. It’s OK but I would not recommend it to anyone
If you want to go with a “traditional” distro, go with Linux Mint, simply the most solid out there. I’d also recommend you check out Bluefin, it’s atomic (meaning that you are basically guaranteed to always have a working system, even after upgrades) and quite modern
It’s true that Nobara is rather new compared to most other distros and doesn’t have as many resources or people, so that’s something to consider. I really like the modifications they make to make gaming a lot easier though. But yeah if you’re not sure what to choose, Mint is perfectly fine.
.NET applications using .NET Core or later are intended to be cross-platform, so technically, Linux can run .NET apps. (The use-case I know is running .NET sites on Linux servers)
First off, welcome to the light side.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
It will be affected, but not significantly. Almost every Windows game works well on Linux. The notable exceptions are games that use anticheat software. They can detect that they are running in Linux and generally disallow it.
Many games perform better in Linux. A few perform worse. The vast majority perform exactly the same.
If you run games through Steam, everything should just work. You might need to enable the option “Enable Steam Play for all titles” in the settings. Honestly, if a game has a Linux version, I usually set the compatibility option in Steam to use Proton instead, because it just works, really well.
If you run other games, I recommend using Heroic Launcher for the game stores it supports, and Lutris for anything else. (Oh, and Prism Launcher if you play Minecraft.)
Something to note is that Windows games run through a compatibility layer called Proton, which is based on Wine. You can kind of use the terms Proton and Wine interchangeably, because Proton is just Wine + some enhancements for games. To the game’s perspective, it’s just running in Windows and making Windows system calls. Proton translates those calls to Linux system calls. It doesn’t emulate anything though, it just provides a Windows compatible API.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Maybe. Probably. If it’s running in Proton, then mods should work fine. You may need to add some launch parameters in Steam to load the mods first. You’ll also need to figure out the “Wine prefix” of the game to install the mod. The prefix is just the directory that Proton presents to the game as the C: drive, so it’s like having a specific drive for each game.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
This depends. Most programs will run through Wine. You can use Lutris to install them. I do this to run WinSCP on Linux. Some programs (notably, Adobe Creative Suite) don’t work with Wine. It’s usually better to find a Linux native alternative instead, but this isn’t always an option, so it’s nice to have some Wine once in a while. ;)
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
Yes. Steam, Heroic, and Lutris will automatically install them for you.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
OS upgrades are a lot easier in Linux. There’s one program that updates all your system software and apps at once. On Gnome, it’s Gnome Software, and on KDE, it’s Discover. This is also where you go to install apps. Don’t ever download anything from a website to install it (with the exception of Windows installers that you will be installing with Wine), just find it in these apps. It’s safer.
System software is installed through the package manager. Apps can be installed through Flatpak to make it easier.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Security is generally better than Windows. Most Linux users don’t bother with antivirus for two reasons, viruses are really uncommon in Linux, and software isn’t installed from random websites, but package managers instead. A lot of things in Linux, like Flatpaks, are run in a sandbox too, so access controls are granular and permission based.
That being said, if you’re installing Windows software with Wine, then you’re at risk of installing a Windows virus on your Linux machine. Just like most Windows programs work well in Linux through Wine, most Windows viruses work well in Linux through Wine.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Very. If you’re using an Nvidia GPU, install the Nvidia driver through your package manager. If you’re using anything else, they’re already installed.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Probably not. Technically, yes, but it’s extremely unlikely and isn’t something you should worry about. Windows can too, btw.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
Fedora, Mint, or Pop OS should be your starting points. Steer clear of Ubuntu. Ubuntu used to be very user friendly, but lately it’s been atrocious. Fedora has always been awesome, and it’s very user friendly. Same with Mint.
More importantly, what desktop environment should you use. Fedora Workstation offers both Gnome and KDE, the two big ones. Either one will work great for you, but KDE is more similar to a Windows layout by default. Mint uses Cinnamon, which is very user friendly and similar to a Windows layout. Pop OS uses Cosmic, which is new, and in development. It’s promising though.
Some final thoughts I want to share with you:
Linux uses a Unix like file structure, so you don’t have drive letters. Instead, you have a root file system, and other file systems are mounted within it. Your root file system is just a slash
/. It’s like your C: drive. Directories are separated by forward slashes, not backslashes. Not something you should worry about, just something to know.Linux is a diverse field of operating systems, and some work very differently than others. They range from super easy and approachable, to wildly difficult to learn. Some are specialized for gaming, like Bazzite, while others are general purpose, like the ones I mentioned above. Technically, “Linux” is just the kernel, like “NT” on Windows, but most people mean a complete operating system when they say Linux.
You should learn about the difference between Wayland and X11. Just some basic overview of them. You don’t really need to know, but it might be worth it. Basically, Wayland is new and more secure, X11 is old and less secure. Wayland can run X11 apps just fine, so it really shouldn’t matter to you. Wayland is also the default nowadays.
You probably won’t need to use the terminal, but if you do, don’t be scared of it. It’s just a way to launch programs that generally don’t have a UI.
Lastly, Linux is free and easy to install, so don’t be afraid to try out a bunch of different distros and desktop environments and see which works best for you. Once you find one you like, you can always switch to something else in the future if it stops working for what you need. Also, backup early and often. I use Pika Backup. It’ll help if you forget to grab something before you reformat your drive.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Most if not all single player games will work without an issue on steam thanks to its integration with proton, if you use something else you can use lutris to fill in the gaps there.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
I see no reason why you can’t. Hopefully someone else can elaborate on that as I haven’t done that in forever.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
It can be unusable. There could be workarounds but that would depend on how dirty you want your hands to get. You can install windows on a docker container and use that to fill in the blanks if needed. There would also be some linux alternatives of some apps which would be worth investigating and learning.
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
I think dot net has been open sourced but you can get dot net apps using Mono.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
You use the package manager, which varies based on linux distro/flavor. It’s your best friend and you’ll get 90% of your apps that way too. Upgrading depends on whether you are using a stable distro which is like say windows 7 and you’ll have to upgrade to windows 8 (omg lol) you’ll have to follow the procedure of your distro, It’s usually well documented and should be fairly easy if your sticking to the flavor of Linux you’re using. If you’re using a rolling distro/flavor then you’ll just keep your packages up to date regularly via the package manager. Be warned sometimes you’ll have 300+ packages to upgrade so if internet is spotty may not be your thing. But it’s a great way to ensure you’re getting the most out of your new exotic hardware.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Use clamav, make it watch the home directory
/homeas that’s where you as the user have the privilege to write data to. Never run as root unless you’re going to be extra careful. Also don’t run scripts you don’t understand or aren’t well maintained in a public repo (at that point you as a newbie would be relying on community to determine if something is good or bad think of it as the upvote and downvote system but with more transparency)Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Yes, even the nvidia drivers are reliable. Just a pain as you’ll have to reinstall the kernel module, the component that integrates the driver into your new kernel, after you upgrade kernel versions. Kernel is the thing that does all the low level handling of your devices.
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Most hardwares/processors now are designed with failsafes to throttle when there’s not enough cooling. Please elaborate a little on this. You can break software but I think hardware should not be. Hopefully someone can elaborate as well.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
Linux mint, it is well documented, doesn’t have the snaps that Ubuntu is pushing, its user friendly. Similarly fedora. You can try one of those immutable distros which may give you a more stable experience as it rolls back to a stable state on an update failure.
If you use a distro with the nvidia drivers preinstalled, or you get the drivers set up with dkms, you don’t need to reinstall the driver with every kernel update.
Pop!_OS has the drivers in their repo and they get applied during system updates like any other package; I’m sure this is the case with Bazzite as well.
I use AlmaLinux at home with the driver from nvidia’s site (yes, I’m aware that rpmfusion exists), and have never had to reinstall the drivers as the installer configures dkms to do it every time the kernel is updated. Same with my Plex server (Debian, Quadro P2200) and my office workstation (Arch, Quadro P600).
Oh yes DKMS is a life saver. I need to get that setup for myself. Maybe push a slackbuild for it too.
I’ve not used nvidia drivers on anything but Slackware so I have no idea how it works and honestly it doesn’t make sense to my simple head.
A fellow selfhoster!! How’s the almaLinux parity with redhat going? (I’m rooting for both alma and rocky)
I’m self hosting a lot of things, but those services are mostly on Debian. I’m daily driving AlmaLinux on my main desktop. I do a decent amount of video editing using DaVinci Resolve Studio, and while I’ve consistently gotten it working on Pop!_OS and EndeavourOS, I couldn’t get the Micro Color Panel working on anything other than the CentOS successors. I tried manipulating udev rules, sniffing USB traffic, etc but it just wouldn’t go on anything else. The product was fairly new to market when I bought it so the body of knowledge may have changed since then.
Blackmagic Design officially supports Resolve and Reaolve Studio on Linux, but only on their lightly preconfigured version of Rocky 8. Everything else is best-effort, so I started with the Blackmagic ISO, converted it to AlmaLinux 8.6, and then upgraded to 9, and the Micro Color Panel still works.
I also love that my external disk array works with every kernel update because the kernel’s so old. I keep all my originals on an 8-disk ZFS array connected to a cross-flashed Dell PERC H810. Endeavour and Pop sometimes go beyond the kernel versions supported by zfsonlinux, and editing the source code of a file system is not something I’m particularly comfortable with.
Also, every game I’ve played on it works, though I mainly play single-player titles.
As for parity: I’ve got several hundred VMs at the office on Rocky, and maybe a dozen on Alma, and both are running flawlessly. They’ve been as solid as the RHEL physical machines. Quite happy with all of them, to be honest.
Linux basically cannot damage hardware in any way that Windows couldn’t. The hardware/firmware decides what interfaces it offers and what you can configure. If any hardware puts these roadblocks only in the driver or some UI, and (for whatever reason) only the Windows version, I guess you could.
Would be a really strange thing to do tho, since most just implement a generic driver that works everywhere and then at most an interface on top of that.
Makes sense. That’s what I thought but unknown unknowns so didn’t wanna speak definitively
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
This is known as a package manager. The package manager (along with some default settings and preinstalled packages) is what makes each Linux distro different. For instance, Debian uses apt, Arch uses pacman, Gentoo uses emerge.
Each package manager uses a different way to upgrade software. For instance
apt updaterefreshes the global list of available software and versions andapt upgradefinds differences between that list and what you have installed, and upgrades as needed.There also snaps and flatpacks, but I don’t support the use of those.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Yes and no. Open source allows attackers to find vulnerability in code, but also means more eyes are on that same code and able to fix those vulnerabilities.
Although permissions can largely be ignored on Windows, its critical to Linux. Its a little much to explain here, but a standard install is fairly secure because of permissions. The important thing to remember is to harden the root account (no remote login) and be very careful what you execute with the sudo command.
Many people [incorrectly] don’t use AV because historically Linux hasn’t been much of a target due to low adoption. The trifecta of software I use are ufw as a system-level firewall, fail2ban to block an attacker who tries to bruteforce entry and repeatedly fails, and ClamAV for AV.
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Yup
And also, what distro might be best for me?
I think Mint is currently the recommended distro for new users. It used to be Ubuntu, but canonical has been doing some very anti-community things lately.
Note here, a lot of people are going to recommend you mint, I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lxqt is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
As someone who switched from Windows to Linux Mint about a year ago and had a pretty easy time adapting, sometimes I see the advice that beginners should use an immutable distro instead of Mint and am inclined to disagree, but then I remember the Linux Mint subreddit has like, at least one person a week who somehow manages to accidentally install the GNOME desktop and makes a post like “Wtf I started up my computer and it looks weird now why does it look like this” lol
I disagree. Obviously the most ideal solution would be the have immutable Mint, but beginners need stability more than they do immutability. I’ve used mint and my only issue with Mint was that I didn’t like how it looked. I’m currently on Bazzite and these are the issues I’ve ran into:
Every time I start Firefox it asks to be made into the default browser. Even if I click yes it will still ask again next time I start Firefox.
When using the default audio sometimes the audio signal to my monitor cuts off which means I no audio comes from the speakers. If I tell the system to send the audio to my other monitor and back to the one I have hooked on the speakers then it instantly works again. It’s almost like the system forgets it has to send out audio. I don’t remember what I did to fix it but it definitely wasn’t beginner friendly.
Sometimes one of the monitors freezes and only one. The second monitor keeps working just fine. So far haven’t found a permanent solution for this issue.
There have also been some minor artifacting that I personally don’t consider an issue but someone else might.
Overall I can put up with the issues because I’ve pretty much conceded that I’m going to have issues. But I don’t think new users should be using a system where they’re going to run into problems they’re most likely not equipped to fix. That why I recommend Mint to newcomers because all the fancy bells and whistles don’t matter if the system doesn’t work. Mint doesn’t have bells and whistles, but it just works.
I agree I honestly don’t like immutable distro’s at all because you can’t install packages the way everyone else does: via package managers. You either have to use the gui software center and if that doesn’t have to app your looking for you have to use distrobox or box buddy which still doesn’t work half the time. That’s just been my experience with bazzite as a person fairly knew to linux.
I agree I honestly don’t like immutable distro’s at all because you can’t install packages the way everyone else does: via package managers.
this is false, rpm-ostree exists and works for this exactly. There’s nothing you can’t do on bazzite that you can do on a non-immutable distro.
Even if that wasn’t true… package management is just done through flatpak, there’s no real fundamental difference, it’s just an abstraction layer, I don’t see why that would be important to you at all, and comes with numerous benefits:
- You cannot break your system with these, ever.
- Significantly less burden on package maintainers
- You can have many versions of software installed
- These applications are sandboxed and thus more secure.
- This enables complete graphical management of software, no longer requiring the terminal.
It not having packages you may need applies to any package management solution, other distros do not package everything either. In fact, the distro with the most packages is an immutable one, nixos.
Maybe should have looked into how immutable distros work before using one. Is ostree just a package manager for immutable distros instead of using dnf or apt?
rpm-ostree is fedora specific, but essentially, yes, it applies a layer ontop of the base immutable system with the package changes you want.
I recently tried switching to mint from the dark side, but the instability made me go back to Windows. I’d say everything doesn’t ‘just work’ on mint at all, unless you have the most basic needs in your usage. Whenever I’ve tried to raise the issues with seasoned Linux user, the answer has been “well, most regular people don’t need to do that specific thing”.
So if it’s true that Mint is the only Linux distro that “just works”, then Linux is definitely not even close to being suitable as a mainstream choice. Which really saddens me, as I felt much better on a moral level using mint, but I couldn’t live with the little annoyances that kept popping up. So now I live with the annoyances that pop up in windows instead .
Here’s the problem: what you just did can be done with literally any distro. There are anecdotal stories of every single distro on earth being broken. Even non-linux distros, windows and macos have such stories.
Do you have any actual statistical evidence that fedora works less often than mint?
I’ve given it to quite a few people and nobody has had any issues. There are anecdotal stories of literally every single distro failing for somebody, them going to another distro and it just working.
here’s a counter example: https://lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz/post/53716147/18213941
“UPDATE 2: Ok, Fedora seems waaaay more stable than Ubuntu (and Mint). No strangeness like before…”
And their problems were MUCH worse than yours.
I have cancelled out your one claim with this, we can’t make progress until there’s proper statistics, no amount of anecdotal stories will make fedora less stable or more stable than mint.
less up to date software is a double edged sword, if you don’t have statistics I don’t think you can really make the claim that mint just works when fedora/bazzite don’t.
Then there’s the things that are objectively broken in mint for everyone until cinnamon properly supports wayland:
- Every single app can read your keyboard input without asking
- Every single app can see what every single other app is doing without asking
- Apps can fullscreen themselves and go over everything else, because they can control their own window placement to any degree they want, again, without asking.
- HDR
- mixed refresh rate and dpi display configurations.
We’ve already established that a lot of people will recommend Mint. What do you think, why do a lot of people recommend Mint?
Simple, it was the best choice for a long time and hasn’t done anything to piss people off.
it’s no longer the best choice but mint people are still happy so they still recommend it even though it is objectively the wrong choice to start with for a beginner.
We’ve was it the best choice?
Dunno, a long time ago at this point.
Stupid autocorrect. Why was it the best choice?
won’t support HDR,
Source?
It runs x11, the wayland port is going insanely slow, x11 has the following problems every time:
- Every single app can read all of your keyboard input without asking
- Every single app can see what every single other app is doing without asking
- Apps can fullscreen themselves and go over everything else, because they can control their own window placement to any degree they want, again, without asking.
- HDR https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/issues/1037#note_521100 (if you need a source)
- mixed refresh rate and dpi display configurations.
It may support these someday, maybe. But progress is absurdly slow. Considering cinnamon has fewer changes as a whole than just the KDE text editor alone, kde is a significantly better choice if you want a well-supported, bug-free and feature rich experience.
x11 has the following problems every time:
And Wayland isn’t very well tested yet. We should only give a very well tested display server to very new users. They must not get a bad impression
That would’ve been true 5 years ago. Wayland is plenty tested these days, give me some data indicating the rate of issues is significantly higher and I’ll agree, elsewise I think the most secure well supported option is the best one. X11 is being deprecated left and right for a reason.
gnome is wayland by default, kde is wayland by default, even XFCE is transitioning to wayland at this point… that’s just not a valid argument in the modern era.
Wayland is plenty tested these days
If it’s still being tested, then it isn’t for very new users
It’s well out of the testing phase and used by default on both major desktops.
It’s well out of the testing phase
Testing phase, not stable phase (yet).
