I switched from Windows 10 to Linux. Its great!

I was using Windows for a long time, from 95, XP, 7 and 10. Games just worked out fine, software that I needed I pirated. But I was annoyed from updates, (cannot turn off MY pc, just update and turn off option) bing, fokin bing and oh the best - F1 binded to it.

On parent’s pc is 7 still installed lol, not gonna change soon, anyway, my old laptop(server since 2017) wasn’t working properly with win, so only option to save it was Linux. Ubuntu was my choice in few years back, That was the moment I discovered open source software (head exploding image).

Recently i switched my main computer into PopOs, since I worked on it I was ,scared, to do it, because of some windows specific software. (I’m still able to boot into win, I kept it for some programs that I need once per year).

But I will never go back to windows as a main. First month was little bit stressful, configuring things and getting used to new workflows, but it is just a pleasure to use. No annoying popups, no preinstalled spyware, no stress related to running unknown .exe files, no bing. I just went from small dark closed box to a nice huge green open(source) forest…

Everything just works. If not, I still can fix it (mostly). I’ve got better with security, I understand more how things works generally. I found my peace in getting to know more how things works, not just guessing what it can do and never actually find out.

So if there is some one that is disgusted with how windows pc works, and is still using it, just switch it for Linux. Just do it, it will bring joy into using your machine as you need to and want to.

Just wanted to say this…

…and share the software, you’ll be free… youtu.be/9sJUDx7iEJw

PZK,

I have been enjoying pop os. A lot more plug and play than I was expecting.

Limit,

I get it for personal or even business use on a small scale is great. I use Linux daily, I’m a sysadmin and manage windows and Linux servers. My main desktop is windows. I’m considering switching my home pc over to Linux again since generally (from what I hear) gaming works mostly and that was what used to always bring me back to windows. Now I don’t really game that much anymore anyway so it may not even really matter that much for me.

But for a business that has hundreds or thousands of user devices that they need to secure, configure, meet compliance, etc, how would they do that with a Linux distribution? Microsoft has active directory and group policy to manage this kind of thing (and now moving toward AAD and intune to manage device configuration) but I have yet to see any kind of Linux desktop distribution that has a central configuration management, patch management and security management. Sure you can configure it to auto update and send it out hoping for the best, but what happens when a device stops checking in, or the VPN client breaks, or there is some software we need to push out to all our users immediately? What choice do we have?

lukas, (edited )

Yes, it’s possible to deploy Linux in enterprise. Google even develops ChromeOS for that purpose, deploys Chromebooks in-house, and sells Chromebooks. Heck, you can enroll your Linux boxes into Active Directory with SSSD if you want to. You can use pull-based configuration management tools to configure workstations. Albeit rare, there’re MDM solutions similar to Windows ones with Linux support, such as Kolide and Scalefusion. I agree that the Windows sysadmin experience is seamless if you fit into Microsoft’s model, compared to Linux. Linux sysadmins must know how to write scripts to bridge the gap. Although I suspect the Microsoft experience will get worse as Microsoft deprecates older solutions in favor of Azure.

warmaster,

What software do you need that you keep Windows alive for?

kier,

Probably multimedia production

yanutta,

@warmaster @BigChungus am thinking of ditching windows for Linux based, maybe kubuntu distro..??

warmaster,

Best advice I can give you is don’t take advice. There’s a perfect distro for you, but only you know what you like, and you have preferences that you aren’t even aware of, so… you need to walk that path on your own to find your perfect distro.

Best you can do with the recommendations is put them on a list of distros to try and settle for nothing. Try them all, you’ll fall in love with one of them. If you like two, find out how to add those features you like to the other one, the easiest wins.

lukas,

But should he take your advice to not take advice? Now that’s the real question here.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Switched like 2 almost 3 years ago now, was rough at 1st but once I got used to it, I never looked back

Simplesyrup,
@Simplesyrup@lemmy.ml avatar

Still dule booting win and Ubuntu but ony using Windows for Vr, most of my gaming and time is spent on Ubuntu, best switch I’ve ever done, really makes you love your PC so much more <3 Linux

ndsvw, (edited )

Switched from MacOS to Debian (with KDE Plasma UI) a year ago. Best decision ever.

Edit: Why 16 likes and 17 dislikes? I just told what I have done. Not sure why people can’t just read a comment without clicking something…

Acid,
@Acid@startrek.website avatar

When my m2 air is eventually supported by linuxbproperly the debian installation will happen.

ImpossibleRubiksCube,

I did the same thing years ago, and I can promise you that in five years you’re going to be so mainline-Linux, you’ll wonder why you even bother with the Windows partition. Welcome!

SnowdenHeroOfOurTime,

Welcome! I’m a relative newcomer myself and have had a mostly positive experience. My computer is a joy to use now and I actually feel like I own it. Pop Os is also what I’ve been on for a while and I love it!

Asymptote,

Windows 7 no longer gets security updates.

Yokozuna,

Yea came here to say this. If the machine is connected to the internet, you’re waiting for trouble.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

…unless you are an experienced security person like me. My family occasionally use internet on a Windows 7 home desktop that I set up 6 years ago with perhaps what would sound simple – a combination of group policy edits and an anti-executable. If nothing I want executes, it will not execute. Browser end is taken care of with uBlock Origin on Firefox with malware and other lists enabled.

Funny thing, a virus executable was laying in AppData since ages, unable to do anything, and I did not even know until probably months or years. Deleted it.

DryTomatoes4, (edited )

Viruses don’t need to be .exes by the way. There were spectre/meltdown proofs of concept that only ever used front end JavaScript.

Because the modern style of CPU attack (zenbleed too) usually side chains access to private memory (where your authentication details exist) they can get full system control without executing any .exes.

That computer would need a firewall disabling all incoming traffic, the latest bios firmware patches and js disabled on Firefox to be close to safe. And that’s the base level stuff.

Edit: changed VPN to firewall. That was silly.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

The blocker allows to block any kind of executable code, that includes EXE, DLL, VBS and all kinds of extension formats, and allows to whitelist what directories, processes and programs can run as well. It intercepts all IPC as well. There is also a HIPS firewall that intercepts all network traffic and processes. All bases are covered in my approach, and I discussed this personally with The PC Security Channel on a Discord voice call.

The only kind of vulnerabilities would be a CPU or OS/firmware level attack, but the latter is plugged largely due to combined maxed UAC slider/antiexecutable/HIPS firewall blocking any and all execution, and group policies taking care of any elevations. All this runs under a standard user account.

I do not recommend people this approach, considering how complex it is to setup and fully understand, but once it is setup, it is set and forget since years now. Only advanced users and pentesters who have experience and knowledge should do this. I am doing this because it allows both the machine to support legacy hardware like scanner, printer, DVD writer et al, and allows to run legacy Windows programs, besides allowing to use internet with Firefox/custom uBO.

joel_feila,
@joel_feila@lemmy.world avatar

Well that true for regular windows

Snowcap7567,

I had a very similar experience when I switched to Linux around 2 years ago. Now I dread every second I have to use Windows at work.

MrNorm,

Did the same on my ThinkPad X270 last week. Went for Arch and everything worked out of the box. KDE Plasma + Wayland was a doddle too. Very happy!

It’s dual boot with Windows 10 for now but I think I’m ready to delete the Windows partitions already

pastermil,

If your parents don’t have any Windows specific software, you can quietly switch their PC to Linux.

Use Linux Mint Cinnamon, as it is really close to Win 7 interface, and they got one of the best out-of-box experience as well as hardware support (especially for aging devices).

You can either tell them you installed a new theme, or you can have a theme that mimics Windows 7. In my case, I opted for the latter, fooling a friend who needed to use it in the process.

ruckblack,

I don’t think that’s at all a good idea lmao

zwekihoyy,

please do not just install random shit on other people’s devices wth

Mio,

They will notice 100%, and be angry about it as it looks different and don’t work the same way. It will be annoying and ask you to revert back so they can work. They dont want to learn something new when they dont have time and are stressed and have not learned anything. You need to go through it on your own computer first and ask them what they think and why they have to use it.

In comparison: my mom was pissed that I forget that to install Chrome and had to use MS Edge which was too confusing for her to understand. It showed a weird page with news, weather, ad, Bing search etc as soon as she started it and could not understand why she was not seeing the familiar Google search webpage. Edge bad, she said. Too much popus.

1984,
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

I remember that exakt feeling a long time ago and I also never went back. It’s just too good. :)

circuitfarmer,
@circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Enjoy, friend! Glad you had a good experience and hope this post helps more people make the switch.

mub,

I’m on the yearly trip to linux land. The one thing that bothers me is hardware support, specifically configuration of hardware devices. My external audio device (Focusrite 2i2) works fine but there is no easy to change the bit rate etc without messing with core config files. This is the sort of thing that should be in the GUI already. My PS5 controller works as well but I can’t make it automatically go to sleep after 5 mins. Also HDR support is still missing.

That said, so far I’m finding ways to do what I need, but it is clear Linux still has much to improve if it hopes to attract more windows users.

BURN,

My audio interface (GoXLR Mini) has no Linux support and no chance of getting it. So I have no audio output at all from Linux unless I boot to windows first.

Stuff like that is 100% what’s holding me back from switching full time right now.

RickyRigatoni,
@RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml avatar

Streamer hardware is really linux-unfriendly, yeah. Hopefully we get some popular linux streamers who can change that someday soon.

cooopsspace,

I have that interface and don’t have an issue with using Pulse Audio for this, why don’t you have a GUI?

Dubious_Fart,

Thats been my enduring gripe about linux.

95% of the time, it works flawlessly and to an astonishing degree considering, in my case, most of what i’m doing is running windows games at reasonable high detail. Something that I didnt think was feasible like 5ish years ago, which makes it triply amazing.

but its that last 5% thats just a miserable fucking slog. Tiny little things like that, that should be so easy, and seem so obvious, yet to do them is next to impossible or convoluted to hell. Like not being able make middle mouse buttom autoscroll instead of paste, or having to edit some obscure file directly to do the thing you need, or being obscure as fuck and difficult to, say, install a second program into a proton prefix for when you want to use a save editor or something for a game you’ve played a thousand times.

TanakaAsuka,

This is exactly my experience as well. It doesn’t help that my peripherals are purchased based on if they work with windows so half the functionality is missing on linux, and I’m not about to go buy new ones.

That and fixing any issue can be such a frustrating experience because when you search you end up with fixes for every distro except yours, or the fix for your distro that worked 5 years ago but now doesn’t.

My current forray into linux is going well except for taking all day to configure the dual boot though, so maybe some things have gotten better!

Dubious_Fart,

Finding solutions from ancient times that arent relevant anymore is one of the major reason why I left ubuntu and switched to Nobara. While I take no pleasure in your suffering, reading your comment does give me enormous joy just on the fact that I am not alone in that problem and criticism.

And I echo that on the peripherals as well, shortly before making the switch from windows to Linux, I splurged and bought myself an expensive mouse, almost entirely because it had a clutch that massively lowered the DPI when pressed, so I could aim easier with sniper rifles and on distant targets since I have hand tremors.

Guess what is the ONLY feature on my mouse that doesnt work on linux? if I’d had the foresight, I’d have just bought my typical 20 dollar shit mouse, and saved myself the 50 bucks.

Isthisreddit,

There was a saying years ago that still hold true to today - “Unix is user friendly, it’s just selective who it’s friends are”.

Years ago, I setup an SGI IRIX box for my parents to use, back when Netscape was browser king. I had it so customized for my parents that they still talk about how easy it was to use; problem for me was it took me months to figure out all the config tricks and X customizations to pull it off… Your post made me think of that lol

maxwisecracks,
@maxwisecracks@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Isthisreddit,

    Grammer Nazi’s showing up to the party to, nice

    ImpossibleRubiksCube,

    I need to make a Lemmy bot that’s the opposite of a grammar nazi. Takes proper use, and changes it to be wrong…

    Morcyphr,

    Please do this!

    ImpossibleRubiksCube,

    I’m thinking I could use the API for GPT… two… no, even better, one and a half. No, one half. I want it to be as poorly trained as possible.

    ImpossibleRubiksCube,

    Who am I kidding. It would just be a stupid reliable regex.

    Chickerino,

    i am of the opinion that applications on linux need some work, flatpak would be perfect for this however it doesn’t have a good user friendly permissions system, it’s a pain in the ass to install applications on non-system drives (which is a much bigger pain for native packages btw) and wine needs to be more user friendly in terms of prefix management, yes we have lutris and bottles but those feel like superglue to wine itself, im genuinely on the verge of learning C and doing all of this myself since that’s most of what’s holding me back from linux

    Default_Defect,
    @Default_Defect@midwest.social avatar

    These are the kinds of comments that never seem to come up when I’m looking for info about making the switch myself, they make it seem like everything is perfect now and there’s no issues, but these are the exact kind of small problems that end up making me switch back, because I don;t have the patience to sort it out while trying to get shit done. Like, cool, I can play my games just fine, but all of my peripherals have quirks and issues because the software that sets them up has no linux version.

    Dubious_Fart,

    Yeah. There has been more than one moment in recent history alone, much less across my years of linux history, where I genuinely was about 30 seconds from taking the tower off the desk and throwing it out the window because it was getting so. stupidly. frustrating. to do something that would be so brainlessly easy on another platform.

    but, that was all extra stuff to gaming. Like, installing a mod into cyberpunk 2077. One mod just (a core/foundation mod, of course, that everything else relies on). refused. to work, despite following the linux/proton guide for it, installing all the extra bits via protontricks,etc etc. Or installing a second program into the same prefix so I could fool around and do some cheaty hacky shit (single player games i’ve beaten a half dozen time, folks, before the pitchforks come out.)

    The straight, core gaming? and controllers? Pretty much a non issue, in my personal experience. Only extra step is to check proton DB to see if it works, and what proton version to use… and unless its multiplayer with nasty invasive anticheat, its fairly certain to work.

    Cpo,

    Thank you for sharing your linux journey!

    I’ve been toying around with linux since the old famous slackware distro!

    I have used Windows professionally, later switched to Mac, but my desktop (my main driver) has been linux for a long time.

    I run it the way I am most productive with it (yes, Gnome, don’t hate me, but liked xfce before that).

    I like the way everything is customizable, light weight and… free.

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