Comment by chii

Comment by chii a day ago

21 replies

> use Linux

except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing. Sure there are replacements (somewhat) for each of those categories, but they are not direct replacements, and require a cost of some kind (retraining, or a substitute quality). This is esp. true for gaming, and it's only recent that gaming has made some inroads via the steam deck (steamOS), which isn't available to a general PC (only handheld PCs with AMD processors iirc).

People who say "just switch" to linux hasn't done it for their family/friends.

0points a day ago

> except that for a majority of users, windows is where their applications are at - such as gaming, word processing, or some other thing.

Until you switch to linux you won't understand how inferior your windows setup always was.

It's hard for us to tell you what you are missing out on, you simply need to experience it.

I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace.

This is not because Linux gaming is horrible broken, but rather it gives me a fully separate leisure desktop, and my main Linux desktop is work only.

It also gives me 100% compatibility, unlike wine.

> People who say "just switch" to linux hasn't done it for their family/friends.

When we say so here, we are telling you to switch.

Nobody should be forcing anything on friends/family.

I always suggest MacOS for friends/family for ease of support. I would never recommend Windows to anyone.

  • herodoturtle a day ago

    > I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace.

    Apologies for hopping on this thread with off topic question, but would you mind describing your setup?

    I haven’t tried this in years, but last time I did I had trouble getting pass-through to some of my hardware, in particular my nvidia card.

    Agree with your approach 100%!

  • tzs a day ago

    > I mostly game in a Windows 10 VM running on my Linux desktop computer. Single keypress to switch to Linux workspace.

    > This is not because Linux gaming is horrible broken, but rather it gives me a fully separate leisure desktop, and my main Linux desktop is work only.

    > It also gives me 100% compatibility, unlike wine.

    You would get a fully separate leisure desktop if you were running Linux in that VM so it sounds like you are running Windows in the VM because Linux gaming is not adequate.

    • zargon 12 hours ago

      I'm not the person you replied to, but I'm in a situation where I want GPU passthrough to Linux guests. The problem is that the Looking Glass guest application for linux is unmaintained. This makes it impossible to have the same setup but with a linux guest instead of Windows.

      If you want to have GPU accelerated video output from a guest vm to a linux host, the only way is with a Windows guest (to the best of my knowledge). If you just need compute then that is different.

  • unfitted2545 a day ago

    Of course it depends on what you're playing, but VM gaming is not 100% compatible, lots of anti cheats will ban VM users and it's a cat and mouse game to not get detected.

  • ozyschmozy a day ago

    Can you comment more on your VM setup? Can it utilize the GPU properly? Any performance or compatibility issues with running windows in a VM? Etc.

  • Xss3 18 hours ago

    Many popular games have anticheats that prevent vm use.

ezst a day ago

That's so much less true nowadays,

Web has become the default platform, where most people run most of their app/spend most of their time. Even Microsoft has had no choice but to embrace it, and Outlook (as in, the one from Microsoft office) is now a web first app (normal outlook is rebranded "classic" and we all know where this is heading, for better or worse). In a way, that makes switching OS much easier.

If you add to that that Windows itself is getting major visual overhauls from version to version (sometimes even within) it's not like sticking with it protects you from having to learn different UX paradigms and habits.

And regarding gaming, well, linux with Proton runs games faster than Windows nowadays, that's how little Microsoft cares about gamers/how good Valve is (depending on how you look at it), but the fact of the matter remains.

  • bboygravity a day ago

    I was going to post a rant on drivers in Linux, but on my newest Lenovo laptop Linux Mint/Ubuntu off the shelve driver support is actually complete and Windows 10 (unsupported by Lenovo) extremely lacking (no wifi driver, no lid driver, no proper standby). And there's no way I'm going to start using Windows 11.

    So yeah, maybe this is the year of Linux. After decades on this planet :p

    • mystifyingpoi a day ago

      Thinkpad E14, same experience. Windows 11 installer doesn't even see the wifi card, under Ubuntu everything works ootb.

debugnik a day ago

> (steamOS), which isn't available to a general PC

Most of its secret sauce is either in Proton or upstreamed into Wine, DXVK, SDL, etc. All available to a general PC.

Unless your focus is competitive online games, which often come with Windows-only anti-cheats, you've got a huge catalogue of great games playable on Linux distros. I did the switch about four months ago and I'm not missing Windows, the only pain point has been Nvidia drivers and I'll be solving that by switching vendors.

ronjakoi a day ago

Proton is available for desktop Steam as well, just pick your distro and go.

Takennickname a day ago

I disagree that that's the majority of users.

The majority of users either use only web applications, or web applications and Microsoft Office.

The true majority of users are on mobile.

Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers. Which is fine, because Windows is a toy anyway.

  • baobun a day ago

    > Microsoft Office

    Doesn't even exist anymore. She's "365 Copilot" and web-first now.

    https://www.office.com/

    • steine65 a day ago

      Web version sucks compared to desktop version, unless you use the apps minimally. That said, the Winapps repo is a good linux solution, running a windows VM and accessing the office apps via RDP so they feel like a native app. As soon as it gets wayland support, I'm making the full switch. Winapps in Xwayland has some issues.

      • Xss3 18 hours ago

        Protected Sharepoint docs are only openable with the desktop app too.

        What is the business alternative to ms?

  • Ylpertnodi a day ago

    >Windows is only unreplaceable for gamers.

    And quite a few musicians. When they make my software for Linux - and, it works ootb - I/ we'll be willing to change.

zulban a day ago

You can always tell how much someone has tried Linux based on how they talk about it.

begueradj a day ago

The day Linux will be used more than Windows, it will be in more trouble than Windows will.

Threat actors are attracted by the most used system.

anthk a day ago

Fedora Bazzite it's Steam OS. And with Flatpak and Lutris you can have that setup everywhere, but some distros optimize the setings and compilations for the desktop better than Others:

- Solus OS

- Fedora Bazzite

- Catchy OS

atoav a day ago

Fallout 4 is running better on Linux than on Windows these days.