My Windows 10 install broke, but I'm hesitant to switch to Linux.

As the title say’s, my Windows 10 install broke, but I’m still unsure whether or not to reinstall Windows 10 or install Linux.

Context:

A few months back, Windows 10 updates started to fail on my desktop. I had considered just reinstalling the OS but as my machine was working just fine I simply tolerated it.

Today, when my machine auto-updated it broke something. At first I thought the update worked. But soon I realized that the taskbar was acting odd. All the shortcuts I had placed on my taskbar were working as usual, but when I right clicked them nothing would happen. I clicked on the start menu and the search bar but nothing happened. Most of the widgets on the right side of the taskbar weren’t working such as Volume, Wi-Fi, Date & Time, and Notifications. I assumed it was just the taskbar that was broken but when I tried to use the windows key to open the settings menu, it didn’t work either, nor did it’s keyboard shortcut.

It seems the update had broken some apps that, though didn’t prevent Windows from starting, made navigating it a lot more difficult.

I’ve used Linux before. I had a Linux Mint, and EndeavourOS virtual machine installed on my computer. More recently, I installed EndeavourOS on an old laptop I had lying around, and have been using it daily for about a month now. Although I’ve had my difficulties, I’ve been loving my experience.

Though I’m still a Linux newbie I’ve been meaning to give Linux a real shot on my desktop for a couple weeks now, but as my machine was working just fine I didn’t really feel any necessity to make the switch.

But with my Windows install breaking, I feel like its time to give Linux a real shot.

My Questions:

I want to install Fedora on my desktop but I still have a few questions pertaining to Linux and my desktop specs.

I’m running a GTX 1660. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about running Linux with an NVIDIA GPU so I’d like a few things clarified.

  • How would I install NVIDIA drivers?
  • Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?
  • A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?
  • I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?
  • I’ve had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does proton work with Fedora?
  • With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?
  • Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

If you believe Fedora wouldn’t be the best distro for me I’m welcome to hear any suggestions, though I’m not enthusiastic about running anything Debian based nor installing vanilla Arch.

I’m sorry if I’m coming off as lazy for not doing my research. I’ve tried to research many of these questions before but found no concrete answers.

To all those who took the time to respond to my post.

Thank You!

Edit: I’ve made a new post

Communist, (edited )
@Communist@lemmy.ml avatar

I highly recommend, as a beginner and a windows user, using fedora kinoite

It’s immutable, which means you can’t break the system unless you try very hard, and even then, it’ll give you a list of previous setups to boot from, and updates can’t break it.

It also keeps the system separate from your apps by using flatpak, the intricacies aren’t really important as a beginner but basically this means you’ll have an absolutely stable rock solid system that you never have to do weird maintenance for

I would highly recommend trying it out, and i’m absolutely willing to help with any issues you run into, feel free to message me on matrix @communist:mozilla.org or here.

as for your questions:

^ guide is here, a few terminal commands, then you’re done

  • Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?

community.kde.org/Plasma/Wayland/Nvidia^Yes, here’s the known issues page for kde

  • A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?

You choose X11 or wayland on the login screen.

  • I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?

github.com/Nexus-Mods/NexusMods.App

^this is actually the successor, and it works natively on linux.

I used to use mod organizer and it also works although is a bit more annoying to setup.

  • I’ve had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does promton work with Fedora?

Yes, but I recommend installing proton ge through flatpak and setting it as the default with this command:


<span style="color:#323232;"> flatpak install com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-GE
</span>

Then go to steams settings > compatibility > enable steam play for all other titles, and run other titles with proton-ge

  • With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?

That’s the only way to do it on kinoite, and will not cause issues.

  • Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

Right now as far as i’m aware only easy-anticheat works. With others you’re SOL.

edit: use this apparently areweanticheatyet.com

MentalEdge,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

There are some games with BattleEye that work, same as EAC, the Devs have to enable it.

One game like this is The Cycle: Frontier.

Helldivers 2 which comes with nProtect apparently also works, at least for some people.

areweanticheatyet.com is a great resource similar to ProtonDB, but for AC compatibility on Linux.

tkk13909,

I second the Kinoite recommendation. As long as you’re not trying to fiddle with the core os too much, the atomic distros pretty much just work.

mvirts,

try it, you can always install windows again

TeddE, (edited )
@TeddE@lemmy.world avatar

Disclaimer: I don’t use Fedora, but have friends who do. So I tried to include sources, below. 😅

How would I install NVIDIA drivers?

rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA

_Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?*

(I don’t know)

A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?

GNOME now defaults to Wayland. Instructions to use xOrg instead: docs.fedoraproject.org/…/configuring-xorg-as-defa…

I expect other desktop environments will similarly have mechanisms switch, at least during a transition period.

I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?

Your mileage may vary, but it looks likely: github.com/…/modorganizer2-linux-installer

I’ve had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does proton work with Fedora?

I suspect it will. Steam has been pouring money into making it’s catalog Linux ready, docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/gaming/proton/

With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?

In principle it ought to, but there appears to be an issue with it currently. docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/gaming/proton/

Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

Anti cheat software generally works by looking for irregularities that detect if there’s any program besides Windows that’s intercepting system calls. It is unfortunately by exactly this mechanism that allows Proton to work (as Windows isn’t present).

Doctor_Rex,

This is extremely helpful. Thank you for the links!

Sentau,

The flatpak version of steam works on fedora. That is an old issue.

Sentau,

The flatpak steam issue you pointed to has been long since resolved. I use universal blue’s rebase of silverblue and the flatpak install of steam has been working fine. Also since proton is packaged with steam, it does matter which distro you are one. It works when steam does.

Jumuta,

you should try out live usbs and see how it goes

Rosco,

MO2 does work on Linux, I’ve played modded Skyrim extensively on my Steam Deck. Works like a charm! github.com/…/modorganizer2-linux-installer

Doctor_Rex,

Thank you. I read a while ago that MO2 didn’t work on Linux, which is why I asked here.

Again thank you.

Rozauhtuno,
@Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

How would I install NVIDIA drivers?

Depends on the distro, but you usually just need to look around in the settings, it’s pretty easy.

tkk13909,

I don’t know anything about Mod Organizer but I’ll take a crack at the ones I actually know something about.

  1. My main computer is a laptop with an Nvidia GPU and the only big issue I have with Wayland is that the HDMI interface doesn’t work. However, this is probably just an issue with my individual card because I’ve heard that newer cards tend to be better and mine is over 11 years old. For drivers, most distros have an automatic driver install process in the software manager. If your card is fairly new, it should work just fine.
  2. For the foreseeable future, the Plasma spin of Fedora (I don’t read up on the GNOME see much) will allow you to use the Xorg or Wayland sessions as you see fit. All it takes is for you to log out, switch the session, and log back in.
  3. Proton works just fine on Fedora. In fact, Nobara (a prominent gaming-focused distro) is built on Fedora.
  4. As long as Steam has the necessary permissions in your permission manager it should work fine. I run Steam as a Flatpak and I haven’t run into any issues because of it (yet).
  5. The anti-cheat question is a bit tougher. Some games work just fine but others just don’t. I would recommend that you check each of your games for anti-cheat compatibility before fully committing. If you have your heart set on playing League of Legends or Valorant, for example, you’re unfortunately going to need Windows.

I hope this info helps. Please feel free to ask for more clarification!

Doctor_Rex,

Wow this is extremely helpful. If you don’t mind me asking, what are your thoughts on Nobara Linux. A few comments have recommended it to me

I also have an extra question. In your opinion, what difficulties are there in switching desktop environments/ window managers. I’d like to experiment a bit and would like your opinion.

SteelCorrelation,

Not the original commenter, but Nobara is a great distro if gaming is your focus. It’s tweaked specifically for that purpose and has built up a strong community. I just hate that they use Discord for support.

Switching DEs can get messy in my experience with leftover packages and such. It’s best, in my opinion, to experiment in VMs and go from there, then go with a clean install when you make your choice. That’s what I did with KDE.

tkk13909,

This 100%! I had some trouble installing Nobara so I’ve never technically tried it but I think they’ve sorted the issue out.

Sentau,

Also if OP is hell bent on testing DEs on hardware, I recommend installing fedora silverblue and rebasing betweens the spins to try out KDE, Gnome, budgie, sway(and a few more provided the universal blue developers). This way you can can safely try out the DEs without the mess of leftover packages and without losing your data.

Also @Doctor_Rex remember to install the nvidia specific images from ublue. They will come the nvidia drivers preinstalled.

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

I can personally vouch for Nobara, is pretty good

amminadabz,

Can confirm Gnome has Wayland/xorg switching in the same manner.

tkk13909,

Yes but I’ve heard they might be planning on going Wayland only for Fedora 40. I could be completely wrong though which is why I only mentioned Plasma.

BCsven,

Fedora and OpenSUSE are supported directly by nVidia. You can add specific nVidia hosted repos to install the drivers.

Bazzite is a steam like OS based on Fedora that is tailored to gaming.

I’m not sure about other distros but many will have an option to use wayland or X11 at the login prompt.

kabe,
@kabe@lemmy.world avatar

Go for it. Switching to Linux has never been easier than it is today. I still keep a Windows virtual machine for when I need to use specific Windows applications, but aside from that I have been running Linux on my work and gaming machines for two years now with zero issues.

I’m surprised to hear you had problems with Proton - in my experience it has been seamless, although there are still some titles that don’t work so well with it. I don’t play any games that require anti-cheat, though, so there is that.

It’s never easy to say which distro is best, because every user and every machine is different. I personally recommend Nobara instead of Fedora, as a lot of the post-install tweaking is already done for you and it should even install the latest Nvidia drivers for you as well.

Doctor_Rex,

Just to clarify on the proton thing, its an issue I faced on my old 80TJ Lenovo ideapad. I assume it’s a hardware issue as Vulkan doesn’t seem to work, and it has 4 gigs of ram. There’s also the fact its over 9 years old.

I’m not really searching for a solution to my laptops problems, but thanks for the insight.

If you don’t mind me asking what difficulties would I face switching desktop environments/ window managers as I’d like to experiment a bit(on my desktop).

kabe,
@kabe@lemmy.world avatar

Ah, ok.

As far as DE-hopping, it does come with some problems. At the very least, you will have a ton of different apps installed, as each DE will want its own file manager, terminal, etc. At worst, you will get conflicts and it can end up a right mess.

I would personally keep a separate virtual machine or Ventoy USB separate from your main machine, as it will give you the freedom to mess around with different desktops to your heart’s content. If that isn’t an option for whatever reason, then at the very least make sure you create a separate user account for each separate WM/DE you install so that shit doesn’t break.

Neckrow,

I’m sorry, I don’t have time to address your questions individually but you should check out Nobara Linux, it is Fedora modded heavily for gamers and they have a version with Nvidia drivers pre installed. It works near perfectly out of the box, I haven’t tried mod organizers but Lutris works great for any game that doesn’t run thru Steam Proton.

pewpew,
@pewpew@feddit.it avatar

There are games with anticheat which are compatible with Linux. Usually Easy Anti Cheat games will work fine. Go to protondb.com if you want to check the compatibility with a game. Sorry, I can’t answer the other quesrions for you, I don’t use Fedora

MentalEdge,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

For AC compatibility specifically, there is also areweanticheatyet.com

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