Approaching the end of window 10 and have no plans on upgrading to 11.

I am trying to find alternatives to applications I regularly use before jumping ship (it is mostly a gaming focused pc) any suggestions?

There’s oculus software for my vr but don’t know what I’m going to do with that

Small update: probably going to do Linux mint as that appears to be the most beginner friendly

Update two: that’s a lot of comments, and Thanks for all the info

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
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    11 days ago

    Lol that table is pretty strange

    What does “Windows 10” mean? XD

    Also btw dont expect all games to work in Wine. You should use Steam if you want a pain free experience.

  • InvisibleOcelot@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Regarding oculus software: If you need the actual oculus software for some reason (say, if you’re using a rift S) your only option is a windows VM with full access to your GPU (and possibly your USB controller), either via looking glass or single GPU passthrough. Both options are a little hard to wrap your head around and annoying to set up but I’m sure your favorite search engine can help.

    As other comments have mentioned, ALVR and SteamVR are solid options of all you need is the “screen sharing” part.

  • sbird@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    gmail -> proton or tuta if you don’t care about IMAP, or any other decent email provider (I use disroot, I set my brother up with mailfence, they both seem quite good. I use them with thunderbird) pycharm -> not an IDE, but I like VSCodium (vscode without MS)

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        11 days ago

        I saw it as pandering to trump, so his administration doesn’t make proton illegal in USA

    • sbird@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      also, check out some of the firefox forks. I personally really like Floorp since it lets me put the tab bar at the bottom and customise the UI! Librewolf is also decent but some of its privacy anti-fingerprinting stuff makes it a bit annoying to use

  • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Just how will you manage to open gmail on linux?

    People have been trying for decades, there is just no way

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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      11 days ago

      I haven’t checked lately but on GNOME you add Google account to your Online accounts and gmail is automatically added to your email client (Evolution in some diatros).

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      11 days ago

      I hope someday they are finally able to create a web browser that can run on Linux

  • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Gmail as in email client? Thunderbird

    Anti virus? Just need common sense. Dont visit shady site and download random executable

    Windows? Try linux mint if this your first time. I heard PopOS is good if you play games.

      • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        My bad. I run linux mint myself but i dont play games on it. I heard popos was great for gaming but glad to hear linux mint is great too.

  • jrgn@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Just to chime in, since a lot of people are recommending Thunderbird as an email client. I would rather check out Betterbird. It’s just smoother with more bug fixes which has not been prioritized in Thunderbird.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      Or Evolution, it’s pretty neat. But they didn’t look for a groupware client or Outlook alternative.

  • Synapse@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago
    Software Linux support
    AMD driver ✅ open-source drivers for CPU and GPU are included in the Linux Kernel and work very well. If you have bleeding edge news hardware, check online in which Kernel version they are supposed and choose Linux distro accordingly
    Web Browser ✅ Chrome/chromium, ✅ Firefox. All are commonly available in your distro software repository by default, or otherwise with Flatpak
    Web-based email ✅ not dependent on OS. Local Email client software are available, one exemple is Thunderbird.
    Office suite ✅ LibreOffice, or anything web-based such as Google Docs will work independently of the OS
    Itunes Many music players/library managers are available on Linux, I don’t have any specific recommendations here, I am self-hosting Jellyfin for my music needs
    JBL not sure what you mean here ? Your headset/speakers ? Don’t see why it wouldn’t work
    Music score reader/editor ✅ MuseScore, I also use Guitar Pro (7, 8) inside Bottle (wine) and it works with some tweaks needed for fixing font bug
    Antivirus ✅ ClamAV, arguable if you need an antivirus at all
    Python ✅ many IDEs are available, a scary amount of Linux distribution rely on Python under the hood 😅
    • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      @op, they may suggest you to change your kernel version to support newer hardware, don’t do this unless you know what you are doing and can undo it from cli. its fine 90% of the time but can cause weirdness or no boot.

      • Synapse@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        This isn’t exactly what I recommend. Only in the case the hardware is bleeding edge, as in, it was released less than 6 month ago, then check in which Kernel version it starts to be supported, as well as check the Kernel version shipping with the distribution you are interested in installing. Distro Kernel version >= Kernel version where the driver starts to be included, no problems. Otherwise, check a distro that has more frequent upgrades.

        Things to check: GPU, CPU, WiFi chip, Ethernet chip. In windows you can find the information in the device manager. On Linux (e.g: test with a live USB) the command lspci with display the information.

        A common case would be: I am interested in Debian because I heard it’s the most stable, will my AMD 5070XT work with that ? Probably not very well, better Check Ubuntu non-LTS or Fedora.

        I am not recommending op to modify the Kernel from the Linux distro, just consider this point in choosing the distro.

        • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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          10 days ago

          oh my observation comes from the blogs recommending it.

          but i couldnt have put it better myself, except i think you mean 9070 XT

    • DFX4509B@lemmy.org
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      9 days ago

      There might be some cases even for single-player games where DRM platform-locks you into Windows but that’s rare from my understanding.

  • 1984@lemmy.today
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    11 days ago

    I would check out Pop OS instead of mint. But you can easily boot both of them from usb stick and look around and get a feeling before you choose.

  • www-gem@lemmy.ml
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    11 days ago

    There are a lot of software alternatives depending on your needs and preferences. You may want to take a look here or there.

    Linux is full of options to let you build the best system for you. That means you’ll have to invest some time to decide what you want (starting with the distro). Moving to Linux is discovering a brand new world where it’s easy to get discouraged and flooded by the freedom you’re given.

  • deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de
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    11 days ago
    • AMD Drivers: Good news! They work even better on Linux. Bad news, you’re probably referring to the AMD “control panel” type application instead of the drivers themselves, which doesn’t have a direct equivalent. The drivers should come pre-installed, though depening on distro you may need to select/install “radv” or “vulkan-radeon” manually. Most of the control panel functionality can be found in other applications, like OBS for recording or CoreCtrl for clock speeds.
    • Chrome: Although Firefox is pre-installed in most cases, you have full freedom of choice here. Most people find that Firefox works basically the same after using it for a bit, but if it doesn’t fit you, there’s other options. Google Chrome is most likely available in your distros app store, but there’s also less “spying” options like ungoogled-chromium.
    • Gmail: You can access this on the website, or through a mail client like thunderbird. You can switch if you want to, you’re not limited by any means here.
    • Office 360: Though LibreOffice is a great alternative, some find themselves forced to use MS office for compatibility reasons. This is still possible, buy only in a webbrowser.
    • ITunes: This is a hard one to find alternatives for, depending on what you use it for. For managing iPhones from a PC, you essentially need Windows or macOS. For playing music, there’s plenty of options.
    • JBL: I’m unsure as I don’t use any of their products, but assuming you mean audio related “control panels”, there’s many options available. Though they may need a bit of tweaking and searching around to get things to sound the way you want.
    • Musescore: I also don’t use this, but it’s available on Flathub, meaning you can (and probably should) use your distros “App Store” to install this.
    • Norton AV: Not many AVs targeting Linux exist, and they’re not the greatest quality. Though it’s doable to go without one, as long as you don’t download and run random files off the internet. Stick to the app store, and you should be totally fine.
    • PyCharm: This is available on Linux, also in the “app store”. There’s other IDEs available too, like vscode.
    • Remote Desktop to iOS: I haven’t owned an iOS device since 2019, so I don’t know which protocol they use. It’s possible this isn’t supported at all.
    • Star Citizen: It looks like this is playable through Proton. You can use Steam (add non-steam game), Lutris, or Bottles to launch non-steam Windows apps/games.
    • Steam: Works great
    • VPN: As you didn’t put a previous VPN provider here, I’m not able to tell you if it works on Linux. Personally I have a hard time recommending any VPN service, but Mullvad stands out as being the least untrustworthy. Almost all others like Nord, Express, etc. share some common traits that make them very untrustworthy to me.
    • Windows Games: This is a bit more complicated. Games from the Microsoft Store are very unlikely to run, and require messing about to even try in the first place. Other games made for Windows likely work (even outside Steam), using management tools like Lutris or Bottles is often easier than manually using Wine.

    If a tool (or distro) works well for you, it’s a good option. Everyone has different opinions on the “best” distro, but since it’s very subjective, there is no single “best” distro. There’s only 2 distros I recommend against, that’s Ubuntu (and close spin-offs) and Manjaro, because they have major objective downsides compared to equivalents like Mint or Endeavour. The distros I generally recommend to new users are Mint and Fedora, but feel free to look around, you’re not forced to pick a specific one.

    You noted you were likely going to choose Linux Mint, great! It’s a “stable” distro, as in, it doesn’t change much with small updates. Instead, new release versions (23, 24, 25, etc) come with new changes. Linux Mint comes with an App Store that can install from Flathub, which should be the first place to check for installing new applications.

    As for VR, it depends heavily on which exact headset you have, and is not always a great experience on Linux right now (speaking from experience with an Index). The LVRA wiki is a great starting place: https://lvra.gitlab.io/. If you’re on a Quest, WiVRN and ALVR exist, though they both have their own downsides. If you’re on a PCVR headset from Oculus, your options are more limited. You might also want to consider a different distro, as VR development is moving very fast. Many VR users choose to go with a “harder” rolling release distribution, like EndeavourOS, to receive feature updates quicker.

    Also of note, if you have the storage space, you can choose to “dual boot” (even with just one drive). This will give you a menu to choose between Windows and Linux when starting your computer, and will give you time to move stuff over. I generally recommend this, as it provides an option to immediately do a task you know how to do on Windows, when it’s absolutely required to do the task asap.

    • Emtity_13@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      11 days ago

      Ye use amd adrenaline to control overclocking and settings for my GPU and games. I’ve seen recommendations for LACT or CoreCtrl

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      Btw, ungoogled-chromium needs a extension for extension market access. There’s also just Chromium or Brave, Edge or whatever floats your boat.

      • ScoreDivision@programming.dev
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        11 days ago

        1 gotcha for gaming on steam is anticheat enabled games. If you play competitive games where third party anti cheat is required often you will not be able to play them even if they say they support Linux on steam.

        • virku@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          So I should do this with at least ny favorite games before wiping my drive and installing a Linux distro?

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            10 days ago

            Bazzite, a gaming-focused Linux distribution, is designed to work really well with Steam. One drawback is that if you have a game installed in Windows on a Windows drive, you can’t use it from Linux steam. But, there is a way to have games accessible to both operating systems. I haven’t done this, yet, but I’m probably going to try it this week.

            It involves installing a Windows driver that supports BTRFS partitions.

            Here’s the video guide I found.

            • privatizetwiddle@lemmy.sdf.org
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              9 days ago

              An alternative is to bind mount the appcompat folder from your linux steam into the steam library on your windows drive.

              I really hope Bazzite manages to smooth out the last few snags and use cases for dual-boot so that I can recommend it to more non-techy people without needing to explain stuff like this or the unintuitive process of importing installed windows games into Lutris.

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                9 days ago

                Maybe we’re now at a point where it’s a good choice for more techy people to use, and that adoption will mean more work gets done on it.

                I installed it because I wanted to see how well it would run games. But, I haven’t actually played many games on it, not because they don’t work (they work great), but because I’ve found it’s so good at everything else too. It made it easy to get around to some projects I’d been putting off.

                My machine plays all kinds of fairly recent games extremely well, but Microsoft is ditching Windows 10 support in less than a year, and has decided this machine doesn’t qualify for Windows 11. I bet there are lots of other people in the same boat. Bazzite doesn’t have to be perfect, but if it can be better than throwing away your old machine, there could be a lot of people switching soon.

      • deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de
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        11 days ago

        Not every game works, but as another user pointed out, ProtonDB is a good resource. If you buy a new game on Steam, and it doesn’t work, you can refund it within the first 2 weeks (and below 2 hours playtime) for any reason. That includes “Ths game does not work on my operating system”.