I’m just so sick of Microsoft and Google. But there’s two things holding me back:

  1. I wanna play Steam games on my PC

  2. I am just an amateur hobbyist, not a tech wizard

Is there any hope for me?

  • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    I have 15 years of experience and do free infinite troubleshooting on matrix, feel free to add me. I recommend you go with aurora, because it is immutable, kde based, and well documented.

    immutable means the base system is read only and updates are applied ontop of it, meaning you can easily roll back an update that went bad, and the apps are separate from the core operating system and thus can never break them (unless you try really hard).

    kde is a desktop environment, it is most similar to windows and the rate of development dwarfs almost everything else, please whatever you do for your first system use kde.

    aurora is a slightly modified fedora and fedora is one of the most commonly used options, the reason not to use base fedora is that aurora includes some QoL features, for example because of issues with patents twitch doesn’t work on fedora but does on aurora.

    • Teppichbrand@feddit.org
      0·
      10 days ago

      I’m started on Mint and like it so much I never distro-hopped. Every not and then I think about trying an immutable. But then I remember how much learning I had switching from Windows to Mint and I get scared of losing so much time to learn about Aurora. What would your say to me?

  • daggermoon@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    I’d say try Kubuntu. It’s like Ubuntu but with KDE (Windows-like user interface) instead of GNOME (shitty Mac clone turned tablet like interface). It’s well-supported and is easy to use. Also supports new technologies like HDR which Mint is lacking. Though you can install KDE on pretty much any distro (Mint included) but it’s a good starting place.

    Note to fellow Linux veterans: Yes, I know snaps suck but it is not something new users need concearn themselves with. Kubuntu is a great distro except for snaps which aren’t going to affect OP’s use-case (or most use-cases. Also sorry for shitting on GNOME so much. If you like it that’s cool, I just don’t think we should be recomending it to people coming from Windows.

  • atmorous@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    There is hope lots of YouTube channels, articles by bloggers such as Its Foss, and guides to Linux all over

    Especially for Linux Mint (Similar to Windows), Pop!_OS (Similar to MacOS), and Bazzite (Gaming-Productivity Distro, Similar to SteamOS)

    The latter 2 work out of the box for gaming if that’s your thing

    You got this. Learn little by little each day and engage with community as much as you can. Maybe join some Voyager for Lemmy, Bluesky, Discord, etc communities

  • XXIC3CXSTL3Z@lemmy.ml
    0·
    10 days ago

    If you want real gaming performance then arch all the way with archinstall. Trust, it’s insanely good and you can get double of what you get on windows in terms of performance. Boot times are also insane. I have used so many distros and I can tell you that arch is king for performance.

      • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
        0·
        10 days ago

        I agree. Arch has been my current favorite distribution for several years now, but it’s almost impossible to maintain without having to drop into the shell occasionally. I have EndeavourOS installed on my wife’s laptop and she’s been happily using it for nearly a year; bauh helps with software installs, but I still generally drop into a shell for the full -Syu upgrades, and you have to use the shell at least once just to install bauh as it’s not a core package.

        You might be able to avoid the shell to use bauh if you use the AppImage; I haven’t tried that. bauh can apparently do system upgrades, but I haven’t tried that yet and I need to see how it handles news; Arch is fairly cavalier about pushing out breaking changes that require extra user steps which need to be discovered by reading the news posts.

        I agree that Arch isn’t the best “first linux” distribution.

  • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago
    1. As others have said, it’s possible to play most steam games, but not all. You have to decide if you like those games more than you dislike MS and Goo. I find there’s so many great games out there that I’ll never get to all of them, so I’m ok with dropping some bangers that usually want too much access to my system.
    2. Here’s a useful resource if you need to understand slightly technical linux foundations https://linuxjourney.com/ It might not be necessary but it does help to have a foundational understanding, and honestly, the command line is awesome, powerful, and one of my favorite things about linux. Beyond having a basic understanding (and maybe having one of the books the site recommends on hand), before going to an LLM as others have suggested, have official sources of various components bookmarked and go there first. There’s so much BS out there now, I actually like the fact that I can read technical documentation, test it out, and know if it’s true.

    one other tip: I’d recommend some kind of personal knowledge management (PKM) system to take notes. Linux gives you a lot of freedom-- that’s what’s great about it-- it can be complex and have a learning curve at times. It’s absolutely worth it though. It’s a totally different paradigm than windows. After a while you can really start crafting the whole system to your needs as an individual. I’m 3 years in and was using my first setup that whole time, i didn’t realize how customized I had made it until trying to set it up exactly on a new workstation. Now I’m writing a script so to automate my setup (os settings, program installs, configs) by running a single command. Then I can really start experimenting.

    Everybody’s different and with a little basic knowledge, everyone’s setup can be tweaked to their individual needs a little better than other “user friendly/polished” operating systems. I hope you find as much joy and freedom in it as I do.

      • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        I use Obsidian. Stores everything in markdown and has a nice sql-query-like plugin, dataview, that I’ve built a nice workflow around. Obsidian isn’t FOSS, which has become more important for me, so I’m looking to migrate over to markdown oxide in helix. If I were starting from scratch I might try logseq or similar. Whatever you choose, I think it’s helpful that it’s stored in a portable format like md so you can change programs if you need.

  • JustOneMoreCat@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Not so much help but hope: I got rid of Windows 11 and switched fully to Linux Mint a few weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing but I tested things on USB and also on a very old laptop I had laying around before I made it my daily driver.

    I’m not particularly a tech person. I own a small creative business and have a toddler, but I figured out what I needed to quickly. I don’t game and didnt use Winsows exclusive software so have no opinions about that.

    What I didn’t expect: to actually be genuinely interested in my computer again for the first time since I was a teenager (which was not recent…). I love customizing my desktop. I love discovering new open source software. I’m learning more than I expected and it’s just a totally different relationship with the tech I use every day, in a nice way. And no more BS ads / bloat when I’m just trying to exist on my computer.

  • Jhex@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    I recommend Garuda Linux, it looks awesome and comes with everything you need pre-installed

    • JAdsel@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Garuda is actually my daily driver these days, and I quite enjoy it. It does mostly just work, and I also like their desktop theming. The GUI installer is great for easy hardware detection and setup. But, that’s coming from a more experienced old tinkerer who was initially looking for some lazy troubleshooting with NVIDIA graphics on a new gaming laptop, and liked the distro enough to end up switching over.

      I wouldn’t necessarily recommend any rolling release to someone completely new to Linux. The devs have done a pretty good job at making some things more user friendly, but we are talking about Arch with some extra tools bolted on. You’d better be prepared for things to break occasionally, and to need to do some tinkering around under the hood.

      On the plus side, you ARE dealing with Arch with all the info resources/user community built up around that, plus the Garuda community tends to be pretty helpful from what I’ve seen. You are going to periodically need to figure out how to fix stuff, however–and better to be aware of that going in. Some people are going to be more fine with the idea than others, but it is liable to provide a steeper learning curve for someone just getting started with Linux.

      • Saturnalia@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        9 days ago

        I agree with everything you said. If someone is new and wants to have a rock solid experience, then it might make sense to get a long term support version of the distribution that’s chosen. It’s a trade-off of shiny new upgrades for almost guaranteed stability.

  • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Bazzite. Set it and forget it. 2mo on my new PC build, has only ever had bazzite. Runs like a dream.

    • seralth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      The fact people suggest anything fedora based to new users is even more baffling then suggesting pure arch.

      Fedora loves to just randomly destroy itself every so often. Hell they are currently thinking of doing it right now!

      If your going to do a gamer distro like bazzite as a gamer your objectively better off just going with cachyOS.

      It’s literally the same base as steam OS, has half the problems. And wont just implode because fedora decides to change something stupid yet again.

      • Grass@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        11 days ago

        even my parents and grandparents are on bazzite which massively reduced my family tech support work, but it seems like fedora is indeed being fedora again and discussions are for dropping 32 bit which would be troubling for gamers still.

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        It may be baffling to you but honestly I’ve had no issues and you clearly know more about the subject than I do. I just wasn’t aware of any of what you mentioned, though I certainly am not calling it into question.

        As somebody who is pretty good with computers but is by no means a coder/programmer/engineer of any sort, I’ve just been very happy with bazzite 🤷‍♂️

        I have not seen those problems, but I’ve also only been on it for a couple of months. I will keep an eye out for that and keep cachyOS in mind.

    • MrPistachios@lemmy.todayEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      yeah I started with popOS, used it for about a year, then tried Fedora for a week but figured if Im moving distro to get the latest and dive deeper might as well go with Arch, that lasted like two months with hyprland then decided to try bazzite and its been solid, everything I need is just there already, shortcuts working just like windows so its easy to transition from work laptop to personal, screen shots, lock, mounting network shares etc

      • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        0·
        10 days ago

        I have a relatively easy and nice setup on PopOS currently and I don’t want you switch just because I don’t want to lose my files and setup.

        Is there a process you recommend to transfer UI, etc. to another distro as an experiment? I know how to transfer my video files, for example, just don’t know how or if other programs can transfer easily between distros.

        • MrPistachios@lemmy.todayEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          I think there are ways to just mount your home directly that has your files but I haven’t done that, not sure if it had to be setup separate from the beginning or something, I keep my files on a local nas so its easier for me to just wipe my desktop

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        Yeah I haven’t had to open the terminal or download a single driver yet. Another person says that apparently it has all kinds of problems and breaks all the time because it’s based on fedora?

  • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    A lot of people here have already given good advice. I shall add my experience, recommendation and some tips (may incidentally repeat some of them).

    1. If you play some games with kernel level anti-cheat (like Rainbow Six Siege, Apex, Valorant, LoL, Fortnite, Battlefield games, Destiny 2 among others), you will have to stick to dual-boot. Check on ProtonDB for compatibility of games. I have 500+ games on Steam and pretty much everything I’ve played has worked so far.

    In terms of other software you use, make sure you have alternatives that work on Linux.

    • For Photoshop, there’s Krita/GIMP.
    • For Video editing, there’s Kdenlive, DaVinci Resolve, etc.
    • For browsing and office apps, there’s LibreWolf and LibreOffice.

    If you happen to have any software that you don’t have a good alternative or that only runs on Windows, then you’ll have to stick to dual booting.

    1. If you do end up dual booting, DO NOT use your external HDD in NTFS to run games on linux. It will work for a while, but you’ll constantly have to ‘chkdsk’ or check disk on Windows every time your HDD is found corrupted. Also, NTFS is Windows’ proprietary filesystem. So, I’ve heard that using ntfs-fix (chkdsk equivalent on linux) might cause data loss. Not sure how far it’s true, but be cautious of using that too. But otherwise, I believe that just reading files from NTFS drive usually is not a problem.
    • If you are NOT dual booting however, you won’t have to face this mess. You can backup the data on your HDD somewhere, format it in ‘ext4’ filesystem for Linux-only use (‘Exfat’ if you want to share any data with others on Windows/Mac) and restore all your files back to this HDD in ext4. Hope you have extra HDD with enough free space to move your files while you convert disks to ext4. You can also probably use cloud services for backup.
    1. I’ve used Ubuntu, Mint, Arch and Fedora.
    • Had faced a lot of issues with Ubuntu back in the day, and Snap Steam is a mess. So, avoid it.
    • Mint is easy to use, removes snap from Ubuntu and just uses apt, has a great Desktop Environment called Cinnamon, and I’d usually recommend this to someone new, but I wanted to shift from X-11 to Wayland for security reasons and HDR support among others. If Wayland worked well with Mint, I’d still be using it today, but that was the only reason I moved away from it.
    • While Arch is nice, it’s certainly not for someone new.
    • That leaves us with Fedora KDE, which would be my recommendation. It has good security features like SE-Linux out of the box. The reason I suggest KDE over Gnome is so that you might have an easier transition from Windows to Linux. Once you have a hang of this, you can later use a pen drive to load other distro with other DE like Gnome, XFCE, Cinnamon, Cosmic, etc and test them out by live booting.
    1. Speaking of pendrives, make sure to always have one with Ventoy installed and the distribution you’re using. This will be handy if you want to troubleshoot your system anytime. And I say Ventoy over others because it makes loading distro easier. You can just drag and drop the ISO files instead of having to burn with Balena Etcher or Rufus everytime.
    • Rufus is great, but if you’re moving out of Windows, you don’t need it.
    • And I have seen a lot of people have trouble with using Balena Etcher. So, avoid it.
      • Turn off Secure Boot in BIOS. (And maybe also fast boot).
    • And if your disk is on RAID instead of AHCI, you might have trouble installing. So, you might want to set your SATA configuration to AHCI mode in BIOS if you face issues.
    1. If you end up choosing Fedora, you may want to follow this.

    Fedora only comes with FOSS by default. So, you’ll have to install Nvidia driver and proprietary multimedia Codecs separately by including RPMFusion repo.

    • You can download the free and non-free repo files from the RPM-Fusion site(Graphical Setup) and install them through the Software Center. After adding the repo, you might have to enable them in the Settings of Discover Software Center. Enable all of them except those containing the words ‘testing’, ‘Test’, ‘Source’, ‘Debug’ and ‘google chrome’.

    • After that, it’s just a few lines you type in the terminal (Konsole by default) for installing driver and codecs. Make sure to update the system and restart first before doing these.

    For Nvidia driver, type:

    sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia

    For optional CUDA support, type:

    sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda

    For Video acceleration support, type:

    sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo

    For Codecs, type:

    sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing

    Steam is also included in the non-free repo. You may install it by typing:

    sudo dnf install steam

    1. Other than these, most applications can now be installed directly from the store as a Flatpak. You can select them in the store between Flatpaks, Fedora managed Flatpaks and Fedora Linux app for a particular one.
    • For flatpak apps, you’ll see a tick next to the developer if they are verified. So, you can look out for that if necessary.
    • Make sure ‘Flathub’ repo is enabled in the Settings of Discover Software Center for the Flatpak apps to appear.

    NOTE: Every time the video driver updates, you will have to do a follow-on update for flatpak runtimes. You might see a bunch of ‘Application platform’ and ‘Freedesktop’ stuff which you’ll have to install. If you fail to do this, you might suddenly find flatpak applications not working properly.

    1. Troubleshooting tips:
    • If Steam doesn’t launch the first time, type:

    __GL_CONSTANT_FRAME_RATE_HINT=3 steam

    • If your system is frozen, try switching to TTY by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F3) and going back to GUI by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F2)*. *Could be F1 in some cases.

    • To check what errors you got during the recent boot,

    journalctl -b 0 -p err

    Apart from the driver installation and some troubleshooting, you generally won’t have to use the terminal if you’re averse to it.

    1. In terms of deGoogling, I’d recommend the following:
    • Buy a pixel and install Graphene OS.

    Switch to

    • Tuta/Proton Mail for email,

    • Proton/Tresorit Drive for storage,

    • Mullvad (or i, proton) VPN or (Rethink DNS for firewall) I am not sure if you can use both Rethink and VPN at the same time. I assume there is a way.

    • OsmAnd for maps,

    • Newpipe for youtube frontend(Grayjay on Linux),

    • Bitwarden/KeepassXC for Password management,

    • Aegis for TOTP

    • Fdroid, Accrescent, Aurora for App store.

    • Molly FOSS for Messaging.

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Well, it’s just 4-5 lines that you’re going to have to type and it’s just a one-time thing. Surely, it’s not that intimidating.

        Bazzite seems to be based on Fedora Kinoite, an atomic desktop. Now, I haven’t used atomic desktops. Although I wanted to, I ended up not doing that for the following reason.

        From what I understand, you can’t easily alter the base image of the system and everything else is a flatpak. This seems fine, but if you end up having to install an application for which there is no Flatpak, how would a non-tech savvy user do that? Still have to use the terminal at that point, I’d bet.

        Case in point, even the other day, I came across this application called ‘syncplay’ for which there’s no flatpak alternative and thankfully, Fedora repo had it.

        I also hear that if you end up installing apps this way(Layering as it’s called?), the update times become slower. You may shed some light on this.

        Also, while it may not be as good as a snapshot system of the atomic desktops, the regular Fedora nonetheless shows the last two kernel installations on every boot so you could revert back to one if an update goes wrong.

        I also have to mention that I always have my important files backed up on HDD or cloud that in the worst case scenario of losing my files on any update, (which hasn’t happened so far btw), I can always restore them. In case of Steam games, it shouldn’t be a problem if you have a fast internet connection. You should download them back in no-time. That is another reason I can still live without having to use a stable atomic desktop.

        • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          New users find the terminal very intimidating, I’ve seen that come up time and again. It’s kind of the whole point of Bazzite.

          If you’re already learning terminal to install software though, at that point you can use a distrobox, install whatever you want in it, and then export the application to your usual application menu. It’ll launch the container in the background when you start the application, and shut it down automatically too. It’s a little slower than a usual launch but it’s still just a stripped down container so it’s fine.

          • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            1 day ago

            I tried two distros in the past week after your recommendation - Bazzite and Nobara. Bazzite is just like you say and all’s good most of the time and I’m getting used to an atomic distro too. The only problem I seem to be having is that my GPU Freezes very often even while just browsing and I have to force-restart to recover.

            journalctl shows me this error. [drm:nv_drm_gem_alloc_nvkms_memory_ioctl [nvidia_drm]] ERROR [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID …] Failed to allocate NVKMS memory for GEM object

            I don’t know if this is because Bazzite uses a slightly older Nvidia (open) driver(570.64) and kernel(6.14.6) or because of something else.

            However, I don’t have this issue on Nobara and it uses the latest 6.15.4 and Nvidia (proprietary? akmod) driver (570.153). Correlation is not probably causation, but this might be one thing to consider.

            And I’ve had issues with nvidia-open drivers in the past, but surely a lot of them seem to have gone now.

            • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              0·
              1 day ago

              I believe if you tell the downloader you have a Nvidia 10-series card then it’ll give you proprietary drivers that still work on newer cards. I have a 10-series and haven’t had these issued fwiw.

              • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
                0·
                1 day ago

                Thanks. The downloader gives me an option to rebase, which I find easier to use. It shows me an option to download from ostree-unverified-registry, but I chose to do it from ostree-image-signed:docker instead. Don’t know why the signed image is not shown on the downloader by default. That said, after switching to nvidia from nvidia-open, the driver version still remains the same. Let’s see if I get freezes again in the upcoming days.

                Also, there are two applications that I use outside of flatpak - a firewall(Safing Portmaster) and another password manager, for which I have to install using the rpm installer. The password manager has no problem installing using the rpm-ostree install <name.rpm> command. However, Portmaster installs, but won’t work because of the following error which I found from journalctl.

                
Jul 05 16:28:23 bazzite systemd[1]: Started portmaster.service - Portmaster by Safing.
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite portmaster-start[5786]: Error: failed to exec lock: open /opt/safing/portmaster/core-lock.pid: read-only file system
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite systemd[1]: portmaster.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite portmaster-start[5860]: Error: please set the data directory using --data=/path/to/data/dir
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite systemd[1]: portmaster.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

                Someone has supposedly a work in-progress script to make this work, but I don’t think I’m qualified to scrutinize if doing this brings down the security of the system in any way.

                And I don’t know if many other rpm installers have the same trouble installing in atomic distros because it’s a read-only file system. For now, I’ll have to live without my favorite firewall.

      • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        10 days ago

        Being intimidated by the terminal is fine, but the sooner you learn it, the better. Terminal is your friend, not your enemy. Take baby steps if you need to, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice by staying away from the terminal.

        • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          This isn’t how you get non-tech gamers to* switch to Linux and honestly, this attitude needs to die. Do you want Windows to always dominate? Because this is how you get Windows to always dominate.

          • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            9 days ago

            People are afraid of the terminal because Windows has a shitty, unfriendly terminal. One of the things that brought me back to Linux was the cool-looking terminals. They make me feel like I’m Hackerman.

            Linux isn’t just a different operating system. It’s a paradigm shift. Windows is always going to dominate as long as people are trapped in a Windows mindset.

    • whats_all_this_then@programming.dev
      0·
      10 days ago

      This is graat info. Didn’t know about Ventoy before, it sounds really cool.

      Just wanted to add that if you’re running multiple monitors on an nvidia card, you may find that the second monitor has low fps/stutters on wayland (common on dual graphics laptops). The fix is as follows:

      Add these 3 lines to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf:

      options nvidia-drm modeset=1
options nvidia NVreg_UsePageAttributeTable=1 NVreg_InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations=0 NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0

      Add this line to /etc/environment:

      KWIN_DRM_DEVICES="/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:01\:00.0-card:/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:00\:02.0-card"

      You may have to modify the part that says pci-xxxx\:xx\:xx.x-card with the appropriate values for your graphics card.

      Run lspci | egrep VGA to list installed PCI graphics cards and try to map the values from there

      Disclaimer:
      I don’t know why this works but it does and it isn’t malicious as far as I can tell. If anyone knows what exactly it’s doing, I’d like to know please.

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Thanks for that info.

        I just want to add that the drm modeset is enabled by default ever since the 560 drivers. You only need to do that for the older ones, if I’m right.

        Previously, you also had to disable nouveau yourself and Nvidia driver installation used to be a headache. Things have gotten better over the ages. I’m sure this multi-monitor issue will also be fixed soon as well.

    • atmorous@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 days ago

      Can’t forget Zen Browser for best productivity browser. Also Ungoogled Chromium, and Brave (Especially Brave Leo functionality)

      OP if you want to use AI locally but privately then use Ollama with Open Web UI

      Also HuggingChat is an AI Chatbot that can do all kinds of stuff with the 1-tap community extensions, models, and assistants avilable. Website is free with an account. Use as a web app for it to be even better experience

      When you are more advanced learn distrobox to add apps only available on other distros natively to your laptop

      If you have any questions feel free to ask me whenever

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        While Zen and ungoogled chromium are fine, I’d suggest to stay away from Brave for any serious purposes 'cause you never know what shady things they might be doing. Case in point, they had previously been changing regular URLs to include affiliate links on their own. They also have that crypto bloat.

        • atmorous@lemmy.world
          0·
          10 days ago

          Interesting I was not aware of that thanks for the heads up! I took off Brave from the comment

  • dingus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    If your library is on steam, then there’s nothing to worry about! Works natively on Linux. If your library is on other platforms, I’d honestly think twice about switching full time. Dual booting might be a better option. My library is split amongst multiple platforms and I decided that it wasn’t working well enough for me. Steam games will work great though!

    Many distros are easy enough to install and navigate as a newbie. My go to for years now has been Linux Mint! It’s based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      0·
      11 days ago

      oh that’s cool. nope, whole library is on windows on one PC right now.

      I was thinking about trying out dual booting to get a feel for it. my understanding was that many programs wont work with linux or require complicated fixes to get them running. so id hate to be left downstream without a paddle, so to speak

      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        11 days ago

        They mean other platforms like GOG or Epic, not stuff like consoles.

        Steam games mostly work, with some exceptions. You can check out ProtonDB to see more precisely what games work, which ones straight up don’t, and which ones need a fix. ProtonDB will usually also tell you what that fix is, which is handy.

        But most of the time, you can just hit play and not worry about it.

        • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
          0·
          10 days ago

          thank you for that tip. I currently run all my games and docs from external HDs. (my pc itself only has a small amount of SSD storage used only for booting etc, and i dont know how to install a new hard drive yet…) I would have definitely tried to just plug in my HD and tried to run it through steam lol

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        Very few programs require anything complicated to get them working. A lot of productivity programs don’t support Linux though, like anything from Adobe, but there are usually alternatives, and if not can often be run in a VM. This probably doesn’t matter for you though, since you don’t seem to be particularly technical (not an insult). You probably know what programs you need that may not work. If there’s nothing like that then you’ll be fine.

        • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
          0·
          9 days ago

          yeah adobe isn’t something i use regularly. not sure whether you mean photoshop (never) or pdf viewer (which i use adobe for and also hate)

          Um, on any given day I’m running Steam, VLC, and Firefox. yeah it seems that those are all better than fine

      • INeedMana@lemmy.world
        0·
        11 days ago

        Depends which programs. Also, it’s very possible that there are open source alternatives

        But if you are dead set on using exactly the same program, https://appdb.winehq.org/ is a database of if and how to make them run on Linux. Wine’s core focus is games, but many programs are covered there too

      • SomeLemmyUser@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        11 days ago

        For testing try the live USB sticks Just flash them to an empty stick with programs like etcher, then power dowb and select the stick in your bios (usually reachable by hammering f1, f2 or Del while starting

        (Remember that performance will be much better when installing it for real compared tusing running it from a stick though)

        Dual boot will work and is not that hard to setup, but you should back up all your data before trying it.

        Also when dual booting to avoid duplicates etc I have all my documents and stuff on a USB stick, so I don’t have a version in my win and a version iny linux. Cloud works as well

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      11 days ago

      If your library is on other platform like gog, epic, amazon or off platform .exe you can use heroic launcher and for most stuff it works just as well.

      For some games there is a little more learning curve because you have to translate custom steam configurations found on protondb to do the same thing in heroic but overall you actually have way more control then steam.

      The only reason “id think twice” is if you play lots of games with anticheat which does not work on every distro (like arch btw).

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Yes. Steam is available on Linux, pretty easy to install and it comes with a compatibility layer (Proton) which works quite well.

    Linux is a bit different than Windows. But I’d say just using it is about as complicated as using Windows. You’ll just have to try and see whether you like it. And if it’s hard or easy for you to relearn a few things. I mean if you’re in the Browser and Steam all day, those will be the same applications and also look and work the same way. Other than that you could face some issues with gaming hardware and you have to fiddle with things, or everything works out of the box. You can’t tell beforehand.

  • twinnie@feddit.uk
    0·
    11 days ago

    Linux is way easier than it was even 10 years ago and many games run better on Linux than they do on Windows. There’s gaming distros but I’m kit sure what the benefit is other than the built-in NVIDIA drivers. I just game on Fedora. You need to enable Proton stuff in the settings and you’re off.

      • buttnugget@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 days ago

        Linux folks used to be much worse about gatekeeping, but even 20+ years ago when I was first starting out, there were always decent folks among the techie dumbfucks.

      • folaht@lemmy.ml
        0·
        10 days ago

        Can I tell you off from Arch Linux?

        There are around three Linux families to choose a derivative Linux OS from,
        some are more obscure ones and then some really obscure ones.
        Choose one of the Linux family OSes and choose the most popular derivative of that one.
        So for example Aurora is a derivative of Fedora, which is a derivative of RHEL (derivative-(in)ception).

        The reasons to choose derative OSes and not one of the basic main three is that:

        1. The Linux derative OSes have bells and whistles build on top of the parent OS. This is especially true for the extremely bare bones Arch Linux, that will throw you back into 1985.
        2. And this is most important… community support! You will at some point have issues and a forum where developers and experienced users can help you out are a godsend. Derivatives tend to have better community support than the bare bone ones. I’ve experienced this with the Arch Linux community. I’m not sure if Debian or RHEL communities would haved fared better, but to me this community felt like having a conversation with a real life Sheldon Cooper. I am really thankful for the excellent expert level help I did get there, but I will not go there back again. And I don’t know if I even can, because the last time I was there, I got banned for a third time.
          I’ve had great experiences on the Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Manjaro communities. Other communities from less popular Linux OSes have been too small in my experience to get help on time.

        For Debian, the most popular one right now is Linux Mint, a derivative of Ubuntu (derivative-(in)ception). It used to be Ubuntu, but Ubuntu tends to take big moves and risks that don’t always pay off.
        Linux Mint I consider to be the safe option for beginners.
        Debian is known for stability.

        For Redhat it’s Fedora. I haven’t used it that much.
        Redhat is known for good security.

        For Arch it’s Endeavour OS and recently Cachy OS.
        It used to be Manjaro, but they fumbled a lot on security issues.
        Arch is known for having the best documentation,
        and the largest amount of software available,
        especially made by fellow users,
        and if I may add myself, having the best package manager.

        I still use Manjaro myself, because I don’t feel enough need to switch to a new one,
        and I like the community there.

  • jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev
    0·
    11 days ago

    Consider your library: most games will be able to run fine on Linux. However, if you predominantly play online multiplayer games which require anticheat you should check compatibility on ProtonDB.

    Second, consider your hardware: if your GPU is AMD you’re good to go. Nvidia might have issues (not sure if this has been resolved since I last had to look into it).

    Finally, choose a distro: I’d recommend Ubuntu or anything Ubuntu-based. There’s a lot of mixed answers in the Linux community and definitely a ton of hate for Ubuntu. However, as someone who has been running Linux for nearly a decade at this point, there are a few key points:

    1. Ubuntu is debian based, so it’s extremely stable(but not as slow to update)

    2. Ubuntu is very beginner friendly, and you won’t need to touch the terminal if you don’t want to

    3. Everyone hates on snaps, but for you I don’t think you’ll run into an issue with it.

    Personally, I steer towards debian based distros for my devices as well because I’d rather spend time messing with the software I’m running or other things NOT debugging why my config is suddenly shitting the bed

      • Vittelius@feddit.orgEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        Distro: short for distribution. Linux is not an operating system. It’s a piece of technology (specifically something called a kernel) you can use to create an OS. Those Linux based OSs are referred to as distros. We are usually not calling them “Versions” because the Linux Kernel is also frequently seeing updates and that would just cause confusion.

        Debian and Ubuntu: Popular distros. Ubuntu tends to be a bit more user friendly than Debian and was the default recommendation for new user for a long time. In recent years its popularity among enthusiasts declined because of a series of unpopular decisions, mainly the adaptation of something called snaps which is not completely open source and takes a bit more time to launch apps than alternatives. Debian on the other hand really values stability. Updates arrive less frequently than on other distros but undergo really rigorose testing.

      • jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev
        0·
        11 days ago

        No worries :) everyone starts somewhere.

        The other commenter covered the terminology so to your point about being on Nvidia:

        I know we don’t like Reddit but here. Seems to be YMMV and you’ll never know if you don’t try. Also possible that the things that are buggy aren’t things you use/care about

    • seralth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Oh boi, for gaming Ubuntu and it’s family is… Iffy at best. You tend to end up with weird problems cause of the older software frequently. Not a problem till it VERY much is.

      Modern gaming basically requires you to be really close to cutting edge if you want remotely reliable performance and timely bug fixes. Which you just do not and will never get on Ubuntu.

      It’s why valve choose arch for steam OS. It’s why cachyOS exists. It’s why the big popular alterative is fedora based.

      Tho suggesting bazzite is iffy with how fedora likes to break things with dumb changes.

      • jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev
        0·
        11 days ago

        ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

        FWIW I run Ubuntu and do some gaming. Haven’t hit any issues, and I’ve run multiple AAA games on release (TLOU, Indiana Jones, Hogwarts Legacy, GoW 2018) as well as other, lighter, titles like Cities Skylines 2, Asetto Corsa, Project Cars, American Truck Simulator

        I’m sure there are bugs that I haven’t experienced, and my system is probably newer/higher performance than the average person + i chose parts with Linux in mind. But based on my experience, I wouldn’t tell someone to jump into a less user friendly distro because of problems I myself haven’t run into. Much better to try one, see if you hit an issue, then jump rather than doing the hard one up front