End of 10 - Windows ten is ending. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?
End of 10
Please god not the distrochooser site, when someone asks you where to install Linux you send them anything but that.
Exactly. Too much choice can lead to analysis paralysis. I've been telling everyone who brings up Windows 10's expiration date that now is a good to install Linux Mint as a good beginner place to start.
At our repair cafe we only suggest Linux Mint. Sure if the person knows something about linux and want/needs a other distro we will help. But it helps us with support/writing manuals and for most people Linux Mint is fine.
I'm know my why around linux a bit, but for alot of other volunteers it also there first time touching Linux in anyway.
We don't want to scare people away with 100+ options. Just simple, windows like and sane defaults.
Yes, Mint is good advice. Beginners will need something mainstream with a solid base and good community support, that works out of the box and doesn't require manual configuration, and that doesn't look too different from Windows.
A number of the questions are impossible for "regular users" to answer. 32 bit or 64 bit system? Isolated spaces?
Just recommend Ubuntu or Mint. That's it. We can figure out other distros later if necessary.
My dad had problems with Ubuntu since the snaps didn’t communicate well. For example opening links in Thunderbird using Firefox.
I would recommend mint just to avoid the snaps.
I'd never heard of it so I tried it out, it seemed fine until the end where it listed about ten different distros with no real way to differentiate them.
Like, yeah, mint and Ubuntu and elementary and zorin and xubuntu all work for my use cases. I wanted it to give me a reason why one is better than another.
So, yeah, can't recommend that website. It's trying to help, but it won't, really.
Usage requires less computer knowledge than answered
Oh no!!
I finally switched to Linux for my daily driver and gaming PC. It was easy.
So honestly, which percentage of your game collection runs on Linux? Because I've looked into doing this just a few months ago, and unless the industry had some kind of mass exodus, less than 10% of my games run on Linux, and that's a generous estimate.
Not defending Windows or anything, this is just my experience.
At this point it's pretty much only the competitive games with kernel level anti-cheat that don't work on Linux because of their kernel level anti-cheat.
But then again, if 90% of the games you play are competitive games that require kernel level anti-cheat, you should probably consider expanding your gaming experience lol
idk where you looked, protondb.com is a good database for this stuff, from your later reply insurgency sandstorm and hund showdown are both "gold" rated, they should be okay
but the thing is ... you could just try for yourself, for free
I'm on Garuda, every game I have tried has worked great, sometimes I just have to choose a different proton version with an easy pull down menu. The only game I have given up is Destiny 2, because they say they will ban anyone on Linux because of their anti cheat.
Would "Steam Deck compatibility" be a good proxy, at least for Steam games?
Multiplayer games and ones that require Uplay or Origin (can't remember their new names) have issues, but most single player stuff will run fine. You'll typically have to run them via Wine or Proton, but Steam will handle that for you.
Most games that don't have kernel level anti-cheat tend to work.
Have you tried to play the games or did you look them up on a site? I've found that unless you are looking at a popular new game, a lot of the games listed are saying that they don't play, but we're last checked in 2023, and they do work now but no body has updated the new results.
What kind of games do you play? Unless a game has anticheat, it is pretty much guaranteed to run on Linux.
Honestly I have a ridiculous pile o' games like a lot of us do, and I've yet to find something (that's not VR) that I cannot play .
For reference I'm running OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with a 30 series Nvidia card. Wayland, two monitors, main is 144hz ultrawide 3440 x 1440, another is 1080p 60hz.
First off there's a few programs out there to get you "Glorious Eggroll" versions of Proton which add even more stuff Valve can't distribute in their versions.
This beautiful software right here looks about right: https://davidotek.github.io/protonup-qt/
Steam works fantastically. Heck, Proton works better than native Linux builds sometimes! Deck playability is an even bigger mark of quality.
Even EA's silly launcher works. I got Titanfall 2 and that Sims 2 Ultimate they gave away ages ago working like butter.
I also love actually owning my games, so I use Heroic Launcher for GoG titles.
Oh! I even have CD games or old .EXEs windows would refuse to even install anymore! Don't worry, Linux has got this. I use Bottles to have separate environments for those games to install to and run. Majority of the time it works great but this is where things can get iffy. But hey, Windows wouldn't run them at all!
Wanna know what made me switch? Vermintide 2 kept giving me BSODs in Windows 10 with some super vague error code that made me think "Oh crap, please don't tell me my GPU is dying."
Nope! Linux ran it with zero probs once I fixed some small quirk to make their dumb little launcher work.
Cherry on top? All my RGB stuff works with Open RGB or my recently retired Corsair keyboard works with "CKB Next".
The community has made incredible strides. My Win10 partition only exists because it has Windows Mixed Reality, which they're abandoning. But not to fear, the Monado project is making HUGE improvements.
Give it a shot. I think you'll be surprised. :)
I know you're getting a ton of replies already, but I switched to Arch Linux two months back or so and I just want to say nearly every game I've tried works great out of the box, a handful of games required me to go to my steam settings a flip a switch or copy and paste something from protondb, and no games have failed to work.
Gaming on Linux is so good that you end up flipping one switch in steam and get nearly perfect performance (with most games running identically or better than they did on Windows for me). It's been such a surprise, I just played the Arc Raiders technical Alpha and I thought for sure Linux would fail me then. And it did. For the first day, then on the second day they patched proton and the game and I played all week and weekend with zero issues. It was fantastic!
I would highly encourage any gamer who's thinking about switching to Linux but worried their games won't work to not worry as much. Check protondb for your favorites, but you can safely assume most game work out of the box.
I just made the switch this weekend. I have not had a single incompatibility yet. I have seen an oddity here and there in Helldivers 2, but nothing crazy.
Oddity 1: In normal windows play async issues sometimes happen where a player steps on a mine in the other person's client but not their own. They continue to play because their client doesn't mark them dead. To the other person, they appear as a person missing some number of body parts (sometimes just a floating torso). We call this torso mode.
Since switching to linux I have not seen my friend go torso mode a single time. He still sees me go torso mode.
Oddity 2: The artillery rounds are color coded for what each of them does. Since switching to linux they only appear silver for whatever reason. It's a nonissue, I just read them when I walk next to them. If anyone asks my character is colorblind.
One additional note:
If you install steam with a flatpak, you're going to have to tangle with the permissions related to a flatpak. Once you add directory permissions for an additional directory via flatseal (for example, if you want a library on each of your harddrives), you won't have to touch it again and it's great.
Maybe these issues are significant to you, maybe they aren't. Ultimately, god I love my system starting up in just a few seconds. And having true control over it.
Its a fairly safe bet that your offline games won't have much trouble, from my experience.
Sorry but how did you only have 10% running on linux a few months back? I run every game except apex legends, warzone and fornite... This is ridiculous misinformation of you
less than 10% of my games run on Linux
I'm kinda curious to see your games list
There it is, the Linux bros always jumping in
Well yeah. The Mac bros are too busy polishing their yachts to spend time on Lemmy.
MS is for a rude awakening when general populace will not update their hardware with record inflation.
Those people will do what they always do, just keep using it without security updates.
Be clear about it - you'll still get Windows Defender updates, but not patches to the OS or MS applications/Utilities.
I just want to continue using my HP Reverb G2, which will be bricked for absolutely no reason due to the deprecation of the Windows Mixed Reality Portal with the end of Windows 10. :-(
There are ways to disable Windows updates. This is what I have done to allow me to keep using my reverb G2. Of course I don't use my windows PC as my daily so I keep it air gapped for security
Well its not for no reason. Its so they can sell DRM.
I think you would enjoy the adventure of learning the Linux.
Its boring. You open a web browser or Steam, you do a thing, you go to sleep.
you do a thing
Is that the thing when you switch from light mode to dark mode?
Again… So much proprietary software is the industry standard, particularly Adobe, and much of it is Linux-compatible, making it not so easy to make the switch as a freelancer
You’re right but not correct due to that’s not all the time. With my partners/clients I was able to use affinity and/or Davinci Resolve. Also Avid has Linux VM support which is nice. Also you can import a lot of modern adobe formats these days and also universal formats between the two. If you say “that’s a lot of work”, know your software more= write scripts and/or actions. It’s all automated now, just have to set it up once.
Why would a freelancer need to follow an industry standard? Do you have to share project sources with clients in proprietary formats rather than just the final output formats?
There are more hoops involved—stuff Windows 10 with your Adobe software in a VM with no Internet connection and you should be okay even after Win10 stops getting security updates—but it isn't quite impossible for you to migrate everything else and have one or two specific Windows programs too. Granted, you may not have the time and energy to go that route.
If you absolutely must use windows
Download the Pro ISO from windows.
Use MicroWin to create an iso without tpm requirements and with offline installation
Use MAS and use only the Enterprise edition. You might need to upgrade to Professional first.
Then use WindowsDebloater to tailor it to your liking.
Unfortunately that requires a full reinstall, I wish there was a way to upgrade from 10 pro to 10 enterprise.
Yeah there's no foolproof way to do a general upgrade. Wiping is the easiest way to bypass the tpm requirement.
My wife’s HP Spectre something laptop became twice as fast when I reinstalled it and removed all the cruft.
well, i did buy a new computer. But for linux
I ran Microsoft Activation Scripts (MAS) on my PC, making it W10 IoT Enterprise and then ran Sophia script from GitHub to debloat my Windows. It's pretty sweet, works for me so far.
::laughs in kde::
Imagine all the people, using their PC's.
No Dell below us, above us only Pi
Using their PC's what?
What's MS's plan after this? Everyone I know that uses Windows/M365 hate it more with every passing day and is looking to leave.
I really don't want to be in tech support in 2029 when they kill off old outlook. There will be blood on that day.
Sounds like you live in an echo chamber. Windows is still by far the most popular computer operating system, and it’s not even close. There’s no sign of people moving away from Windows en-masse. Windows 11 adoption has been massive.
I work at a national IT support company talking to hundreds of windows users every week, and the general sentiment is that Windows 11 is unnecessary, new outlook is literally the Antichrist and people are sick of being charged more and more every year for crap they don't want or need.
Just l8ke I still see 2012R2 servers in the wild, Windows 10 isn't going away anytime soon.
If Win11 adoption is really massive, it's because MS forced it down people's throats.
Sounds like you live in a contrarian chamber. People really do hate the "new Outlook" (basically it's just Hotmail) and Windows 11 adoption has been slower than for most other versions of Windows. The requirements often mean needing to buy a new computer which a lot of people can't afford, especially if prices go up because of tariff nonsense.
There will be a lot of people still running on out of support Windows 10 systems at the end of the year.
I switched to outlook in browser only because their native windows software is so terrible. Wish I could leave that shit OS entirely.
No one (meaning less than 1% of people) will leave windows (sadly).
People are lazy as shit and rather swipe their credit cards and buy something new with windows than to even give Linux a chance.
99% of people really don't give a shit about privacy or freedom when it comes to computers. Microsoft could slap handcuffs on them and point a camera at their screen (yes MS is already spying with telemetry, but try expaining that to a regular person) and they'd still use windows.
If my computer could run faster it would catch up with my refrigerator.
I love Linux, but my older system has an older Nvidia graphics card in it and I lost 15-20 FPS when I switch to Linux.
20% downgrade on nVidia GPU’s when using some Linux OS.
The new cards seem to perform better, but the old stuff is really hit and miss..
Nvidia isn't really the best, no
It is only not the best on Linux.
Runs amazing on Windows, even better than AMD.
Unfortunate for Linux then because nvidia gpus are the best gpus.
Yeah yeah, I will get round to it, stop bloody nagging me.
Im not upgrading my OS, and im not building or buying a new computer.
Im just going to ride it out until it explodes. the tech market is so messed up right now that I'll end up paying more than what I did for my Machine in 2019, and it will be comparatvely, nowhere near as much as a performance jump as when I made the last switch from my 2012 build.
i have an older desktop with 10, it doesn't have tpm, but there is a slot, i could get one and upgrade but also i mostly use linux on it
but i still feel like i'm going to lose something and it stresses me out a bit
If anyone want to use Mint be prepared for bronen one after a while . Try Fedora instead. Maybe it looks harder on the beginning but it will be better instead of formatting Mint after few months to install it again. This was my own opinion about Mint as main Desktop. Now Fedora is my favorite and no format till now.
Mint still going strong and painless for me after 6 months
+1 for Linux Mint. I’ve been on it full time since December 2024 and have been incredibly pleased with its performance, stability, and customisation. I found alternatives for all my old Windows workflows, so there’s no way in hell I’ll go back to Windows.
Happy to hear that. Mine was broken after few months.
pathetic title. clickbaity. in the end this shit wont help.
I’ve had a Mac for over 10 years, still runs like the day I got it. Sure I can’t play games on it, but does absolutely everything else perfect for me.
Support for 2015 macs ended 7 months ago. Forget 10 years ago, my 2015 mac doesn't run like it used to in Big Sur.
That’s unfortunate for you I guess.
I thought Apple started the stopping support of Intel Mac's a couple of years ago? If you had the newest Intel from 5 years ago, support is supposed to end this year.
I have a ten year old one which works fine with OpenCore Legacy Patcher.
That’s great, but what does it have to do with the topic?
I still have a running Windows 95 machine. Your Mac means nothing to me.
10 years is the minimum age of my computers.
I DID buy a new computer; MacBook!
Congratulations on the downgrade. You've gone from an OS that will support your hardware from at least 10 years, to maybe 7 years of support.
Linux comes in a million flavors but most people should start with Mint. That sounds like a pun, but it's also true.
Mint is a nice, safe, up-to-date, simple, Windows-like choice that won't unnecessarily complicate the transition to an entirely different operating system. It has good hardware support and good defaults. Most things will feel very familiar and be very accessible. It is popular enough to find plenty of help on the internet and answers to almost every question you could have. It mostly just works and when it doesn't it's usually not a deal-breaker.
It's not my favourite distro, but you aren't ready for my favourite distro. Honestly I'm barely ready for my favourite distro. It's not elitism, it's just practicality. You'll learn as you go, and you'll eventually want to try other distros, but start with Mint, and keep a Mint system around for when you break everything else. Which you will if you start playing with other distros.
I use Mint and I support this message.
I have "enough" years under my belt with Linux and I still prefer Mint on majority of my "daily driver" type machines. I already spend my working hours messing around with all kinds of different systems, figuring out problems, installing new ones and so on and I'm old enough that tweaking system just for the sake of it isn't really what I'm after anymore. I just want something which doesn't crap the bed, stays out of the way and lets me run whatever software I happen to need. At least for me Mint checks most of the boxes and the ones it lacks it's pretty trivial to beat it back into submission.
Absolutely this. I like mint because I no longer like fiddle farting around with my PC. It just works out of the box. An overlooked bonus is when I need to learn how to do something the Mint forums usually have the answer, and its catered to Mint defaults. It's not the end of the world, but when answers match your file explorer, text editor, system editor etc..it just makes it easier. Compared to finding answers elsewhere that are for Debian and then having to wonder if it'll work or not based on the family lineage of the OS is just unnecessary for most people.
As I said over and over again: my biggest pet peeve with Linux is that there are often several ways to accomplish something but many are somewhat distribution specific and not really standardized.
Who doesn't love to find a tool that has install instructions like:
Just to realize that a) you're not running anything Debian based and b) you first step is now to find out how these packages are named in your package manager.
Or tutorials that tell you to do X and you only find out, that they're assuming (but not telling you) you're using Debian and some old package versions that now have a completely new syntax in their configuration, so that either the tutorial doesn't work or you maybe even f up something by changing values that you shouldn't touch.
Best is, of you find help in a distribution specific forum/wiki/... But not all problems can be found there
Specifically Mint Cinnamon. It has a UI that is very similar to what people are used to in the Windows world.
I honestly couldn't agree more. From 2011 to about 2017, I was always distro hopping, trying out different things. And then for the longest time, I just stayed with Ubuntu. And now I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna fucking use Linux Mint, because it just fucking works.
That is your opinion
Ask 100 Linux users and you will get 100 different distro recommendations for newbies.
It is one of the main reasons Linux wont be going mainstream. Not until the Linux community get their shit together and finally agree on one "good" distro.
More than 100 presumably-Linux-users seem to have upvoted my comment, so, that seems more like 100 people all actually recommending the same thing. Your assertion doesn't seem to hold water.
Yeah there are (and always will be) a lot of people who will shout noisily about their (current) favourite distro and how great it is and assert that everyone should use it, but the world is full of people like that. If you don't learn to ignore them you'll never be able to get a useful recommendation for anything.
Tried to install Mint on my laptop, wouldn't work. Googled the issue, had to rename a file in the boot directory for some reason.
Tried again, wouldn't work. Googled issue, had to turn off secure boot in bios.
Tried again, installed, okay now we're cooking. Connected to WiFi, updated packages and drivers. All good, reboot. Install Steam. Login via QR code, it begins loading user data.
Loading... Loading.. Loading.. Okay it's clearly stuck. How do I kill a process on Linux? Google it, okay that's not too hard. Try launching Steam again, same thing. Google this issue, get a lot of different potential causes, involving delving into some obscure directories.
I consider myself technologically competent, more so than the average person/consumer. I am a lot of people in my social sphere's "computer guy". Way more than most people are not going to figure this stuff out for themselves.
I'm really sorry to say but Linux is still not ready for mainstream consumers and users if this is the experience of the most recommended stable distro for the average person.
Jorge Castro of Universal Blue likes to say that the average person doesn't install operating systems, and I fully agree with him.
People rock what comes installed on their computer. Anyone who installs an OS them self is not an average user.
I think we'll see the average user start to choose Linux as more and more manufacturers ditch the Windows tax and ship computers with Linux.
I had the same issue with the secure boot in bios when I switched a computer to Linux Mint a few weeks ago, but it's been smooth other than that.
I agree with you, I'm in similar situation and yet people here will screech at you for saying stuff like that. Don't mind them.
UEFI problems, sorry. Would have them with Windows too probably.
Unfortunately Microsoft pushed Secure Boot everywhere, so yes, for most distributions you have to turn it off (some have signed kernels or whatever).
So removing the
~/.steamdirectory after doingpkill steamdidn't help? That seems simpler than most Windows tasks. Anyway, I have Steam working even under FreeBSD.Nobody will believe that you don't have some Windows experience exceeding what you seem to consider the maximum acceptable requirement for Linux. Don't even try.
Was a while since i used mint so might have improved since then, but my recommendation is peppermint , runs on lower specs , just works and comes with the all the basic stuff. Debian based , click to add extra stuff, UEFI supported
It was my go to for computers that i didn't need windows on at the time.
Now i have bazzite on my gaming pc and currently experimenting with arch hyprland on my surface go 2 that could no longer get windows updates.
The very first question you need to answer is “am I going to want to play any of the games that literally do not work on Linux?”. That alone would be a dealbreaker for most, as the most popular games in the world don’t work on Linux (COD MP, Warzone, Fortnite, GTA online, PUBG, etc).
Mint would still be my initial choice, unless you're really intending to dive right into playing the latest AAA games in which case Bazzite might be a better starting point.
But it's really easy to install both. You might even prefer to have both. You can install Mint on a disk partition with only 50-100GB or less. Most Linux installations will work fine with about the same. It's only once you start installing games that it's going to consume tons of disk space.
Its absolutely ugly and has a very non modern interface, anyone who tries it as their first OS will probrally be convinced Linux is stuck in 2005. Tbh Fedora should be considered the default these days.
What even is this comment lol
Fedora is a distro, not a desktop environment. Your desktop environment is going to dramatically change your look and feel of your OS.
I don't know how anyone can say windows 11 with all its ads and basically the same UI as windows XP from 2000 "looks better" than something like hyprland, i3, KDE, or gnome.
Windows interface is also stuck in 2005, and the evidence suggests most people prefer that. Many people claim they want modern interfaces, but then people get literally angry whenever Microsoft tries to update it and almost nobody ever uses any of the "modern" features they add. Mint is a perfectly fine choice for most people, who are perfectly happy to be stuck in 2005.
As far as I know Mint and Fedora have the same choice of Desktop Environment more or less, I'm really curious to know what you refer to when you say "modeen interface"