Tbh motherboard matters. Updating my msi motherboard actually fixed a major issue for me preventing grub from letting me select what OS to load on boot.
I installed linux mint and did have to do a bit of tinkering to get my audio to work from the front panel too. Found answers in the mint forums.
Other than that my discord streams have no audio and discords screen capture daemon or whatever keeps the computer from shutting down for like a minute after i try to.
Those are the only issues Ive had though.
As for lack of features, no HDR sucks, but other than that I’m good.
Warpinator is nice for syncing files with my phone.
Also enjoying the simpler feel compared to windows, and no ads.
Well since a few days my laptop speakers do not work anymore lmao. I had to install it 4 times to make my gpu drivers work. If you’re not that teck savy it’s fine but you need to atleast be interested in it and ready for it, and also patient. If you have a laptop I strongly advise you check online to see how well supported it is and if you have a nvidia card check if people are having issues.
Good luck on your journey, so far i don’t regret my choice mostly because i know that linux is so maleable no matter the issue i’ll get it fixed.
In the last years I’ve tried Ubuntu, Debian, crunchbang and PopOS. A few months ago I asked IT if I could change the os on my company laptop from Windows 10 to Linux Mint. It means I have to stay outside the AD domain, but since almost everything (email, teams, OneDrive…) is available on the web, the only downside is not being able to use the wifi projectors. I can live with that. Mint is simple to use, easy on the eyes and stable as hell. And windows games run really well with proton, except maybe Starfield but I can wait :)
May I ask what you thought of PopOS? I’ve been considering taking another stab at a Linux dual boot and it’s down to that or Mint. My last attempt was Manjaro several years ago but I didn’t stick with it.
It really depends on what distro you choose because they are different Operating Systems using the same kernel and somewhat similar structure. Some are meant to have lots of user input and tweaking, some come ready to go with no real need to mess under the hood. I.e. Gentoo you will compile stuff, nixOS you will setup a config file or two, arch you might do tweaks after bleeding edge updates need some fiddling, then there is OpenSUSE where you have GUI for all settings and never need to edit files manually.
Part of the linux experience is trying a bunch and finding one that suits your interest.
I don’t think you could go wrong with any of the top user/newb friendly distros. I see Mint mentioned a few times in these responses, and I agree, use Mint. It’s a nice distro.
In general it’s pretty stable. That being said, especially when you’re using bleeding edge hardware, it’s not perfect.
Take my Radeon 7800 XT as an example. I’m using Linux on my desktop as of January 1st pretty much, and decided I’ll go for Fedora as it’s pretty up-to-date in terms of kernel releases but also has a great out-of-the-box experience. Kernel 6.6 has been pretty good for me, but newer kernels (6.7.x and 6.8) have issues with my setup. Engaging VRR (variable refresh rate) after the computer wakes up from standby leads to part of the screen flickering white for a few frames every now and then, and eventually the system crashes. Up to 6.7.4 the GPU only output a black screen after standby or even after a warm restart. The latter has been resolved in 6.7.5 but the former issue has not. I’ve been following a few issues, adding a crash report here and there, trying patch files, but so far to no avail.
This means I’m basically stuck on 6.6 for now, which also means I’m compiling the kernel myself to get the latest patch release, as Fedora doesn’t maintain 6.6 anymore.
I had even more issues with Nvidia combined with Wayland. Ironically, Intel Arc probably works the best in terms of stability in my experience.
I’m going to say that in terms of GPU stability, I had a better experience with Windows. Sure, the odd AMD driver release has issues, but Windows does a way better job in recovering from a GPU driver crash. The monolithic nature of Linux means a GPU driver crash will often kill the whole system. I had a case where the system recovered, but in a new desktop session with my running desktop applications orphaned somewhere (basically forcing me to restart). Windows usually just restarts the GPU driver (because it’s mostly running in user space, which it isn’t in Linux) and you can continue.
I also had an issue with my network adapter (Intel 2.5G onboard) dropping connection after several hours of use. A workaround involved editing boot parameters to prevent PCIe from going into some sort of power saving mode. Searching for the issue revealed that it’s likely because how ASUS (mainboard) configured the onboard network adapter.
You’ll also need to fiddle with Feral GameMode to properly pin games to the 3D cache cores on a 7950X3D. This is more “set and forget” with Windows Game Bar.
To be honest, Windows is a pretty solid OS from a technical perspective. It has its downsides, but so has Linux. Don’t switch for an allegedly technical superior experience. Switch if you don’t agree with what Microsoft is doing from a user experience perspective. That’s why I switched.
All that being said, Linux at its core is super stable. I use Linux on a few servers for many, many years now, and I don’t think I ever had a system crash.
Thanks for the detailed write up. My main motivation or switching is Microsofts way of doing things, im tired of the forced subscription plans they’re moving too.
I’ve never really had issues with Fedora (has more up to date software vs Debian stable) or Debian, they generally just work. Back when I used arch there were a couple of times in about a year and a half where it stopped booting (mobile nvidia graphics forced me to do weird things that lead to issues), but that’s a less stable OS on top of a bad hardware setup for Linux (obligatory fuck Nvidia).
the dark secret of linux is that there are just as many people who dont understand how to solve problems and resort to searching the correct way to shake a dead chicken as with every other platform.
This seems to imply that other operating systems don’t have issues and don’t require editing files.
Compared to Windows, I’ve had fewer frustrating issues on Linux. I think the reason you hear about these issues is because the Linux community naturally encourages sharing these issues. If I have a niche problem, I can share it, then the community will work together to solve it so it isn’t an issue anymore. On Windows, you might run a troubleshooting wizard that might solve the problem, and if it doesn’t you’ll probably take it to MS support who’ll walk you through it. If that doesn’t fix it, you’ll likely just wait for a bug fix in the next update. Point being, they get talked about less because the system doesn’t encourage problem solving on the users end (as much as Linux does).
As for editing files, sure, you do a lot of that on Linux. On Windows, you use a settings menu to fiddle with things, but all that settings menu does is give you a button to press. Pressing that button is just a fancy visual way of editing a file somewhere. Linux just often forgoes the graphical interface and encourages you to get used to editing those files directly.
Just to add one point to the end there, a lot of times in Windows it isn’t even a file it’s editing, or at least not a plain text file you could even edit manually, so it’s much more obfuscated even than that.
Or it’s a setting in the registry that pretty much everyone says “do not touch if you don’t know what you’re doing, you will break your system”… Nowhere in Linux will you be editing something that can break your install while configuring your default keyboard layout (as an example)
Yes thats definitely something worth noting. I was just bringing up the point that in the end, all settings are just little parameters in some file or registry, and that there’s no practical difference between flipping a switch in a GUI to the off position vs adding a ‘#’ in a config file to comment out a line or option. One just looks intimidating if you aren’t used to it, but in reality it gives you much more control and teaches you more about your system.
Im a big zorin fan. Its an out of the box distro that focuses on windows compatiblity. that means it comes with tons of preinstalled apps so that you can do things right away like edit docs or watch videos but it also comes with well configured play on linux so that there is a good chance you can run any needed windows programs that you need to. Maybe people graduate out to more unixy stuff but its funny. Im a tech guy but in my personal life I just want to install and go. https://zorin.com/os/
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