NatalSep 29, 2023

Finally had enough of Windows. I'm packing up. I'm nervous!

https://lemmy.world/post/5961010

Finally had enough of Windows. I'm packing up. I'm nervous! - Lemmy.world

Hey! Today is the day. I finally got fed up with Windows booting up with an advert that I already had yesterday and had clicked on “remind me in three days” reluctantly. I’m finally tired of killing Telemetry. Now that gaming is less important for me, I feel like now is a good time to switch mainly to Linux. I might keep a small spare drive with a Windows/Steam partition for the occasional incompatible game. I’ve just started transferring my precious files to an external drive and I’m preparing for my Exodus. Still unsure about the distro I’ll choose, I would like to avoid distro hoping. But now I made up my mind, I’m leaving windows for the foreseable future. I started self-hosting three months ago as a way to trialing Linux with the added bonus of being useful and my server is still up and alive so I’m confident I can use Linux without breaking it. Any welcoming tips? I’m a bit anxious about the big change, but also relieved I won’t have to put up with the bloat/adverts.

Show threadowenfromcanadaSep 29, 2023

Welcome! I made the leap not long ago as well. I’m using Linux Mint, and I’ve had a great experience with it (including gaming).

My recommendation: when you get to installing games, use something like Lutris or PlayOnLinux. These are frontends (like Steam) that will help manage any special configurations you might need. They can even connect to online sources and apply settings that have worked for other people. I’ve been using Lutris and it’s been pretty good (I’ve been playing a lot of BG3 lately, runs like a dream).

Welcome and have fun!

Show threadNatal
Thanks for dropping those names, I’ll get Lutris and PoL :)
Sep 29, 2023 at 3:13pmWeb
Show threadBOMBSSep 29, 2023

Welcome to the family!

I’ve been using Linux for ~14 years and am not a computer person at all. Of all the distros, Linux Mint is by far the easiest, most intuitive, and works without problems. I think that the installation is even easier than Windows. There’s also a large supportive community in case you should into any problems, abd because it’s tailored for newer users, whatever problem you run into has likely already been resolved by someone else.

My personal favorite at the moment is KDE Neon tho.

Show threadNatalSep 29, 2023
So far I’ve tried Debian12 on my old laptop and Mint on my self hosting rig. I think I’ll sping so VMs and test new distros before commiting to a full install. I wasn’t too happy with Mint because its boot time is much slower than Debian on a comparatively better machine so I’m not too tempted to go for it again. But maybe I messed up something and caused slow boot times.
Show threadBOMBSSep 29, 2023

Yeah, Mint will tend to be a little slower than Debian since Mint is Debian plus Ubuntu plus Mint. If you’re looking for speed, LMDE or XFCE desktop environments would be the quickest. Of those 2, LMDE might be faster, but it’s almost a bare bones GUI. XFCE might be just a little slower, but the GUI will be more adjustable.

Good luck!! 😀

Show threadvinSep 30, 2023
You could try MX Linux if you want something performant and stable. It’s built on top of Debian and is easier to use.
Show threadWilldrickSep 29, 2023
PlayOnLinux has been abandoned for years, stick to lutris, it also does fsr more for you thsn PoL
Show threaddustyDataSep 29, 2023
I’ve been crucified for mentioning this before. But bottles is another alternative that allows easy configuration of Wine prefixes for gaming. It is another alternative worth considering.
Show threadbigdog_00Sep 29, 2023
I used it for Overwatch before it was available on Steam, worked just fine for me!