Current-era Microsoft continuing to push the boundaries of consent.
Microsoft Edge is a good browser but for some reason Microsoft keeps trying to shove it down everyone’s throat and make it more difficult to use rivals like Chrome or Firefox. Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead.
I stopped using Windows and converted to Linux. I’m not going to be “one of those people” and tell you that you should too, but I’ve been using Linux full-time for 3 years for gaming, work, and personal stuff and never felt the need to go on Windows except to use my VR headset, which I haven’t used in months. I just built a new PC and haven’t even bothered installing my Windows SSD into it in the last 4 weeks since I built it. I may never and just sell my VR headset.
I’ve been wanting to switch to Linux but it just looks like one of those things I’d dive head-first into and have no idea what I’m doing, not to mention I have years of random shit on hard drives formatted for Windows.
I’d love to do it, but it all just looks so overwhelming, maybe i’ll think about it more seriously if/when I ever replace my current laptop. What flavor do you recommend? I mainly use my computer for gaming but sometimes school too, plus id like it to be as windows-like as possible just so I don’t have to worry about a major shift in usability.
Is there a way to convert windows content to linux-compatible files? Can I just save the files I want to a USB drive and move them? Nothing I wanna save is specifically windows, mostly game files and/or photos
Just plug it in. Linux will read it. You don’t need to do anything. Also I highly recommend Fedora with KDE Plasma.
This is the way.
was planning on switching to linux but then payday 2 dropped support for it. too bad I guess
What kind of files are you concerned by? Pretty much all pictures, videos, docs, etc. will all open on Linux without issue. The only real thing you have to think about is the applications you use and whether they can be run on Linux or have acceptable alternatives.
Most of the things I have could run on a Steam Deck, the only exception being a few games owned by Microsoft and only available on the Windows Store. Most of the files I would transfer would be save files from different games, though most of them could probably be uploaded to Steam Cloud
All linux distros can read and write windows formatted drives and files.
Not op, but I’ve been using various flavors of Linux off and on for a couple of years.
First I’ll note that in pretty much any flavor you pick should be able to retrieve data off those Windows drives. You’ll probably need NTFS support if you want to read from the drives directly, but I’m not 100% certain about the details so do a little searching before taking the plunge. Files generally should work fine. Images saved in any common format (.jpg, .png, etc) will be fine. Game files could be trickier. If you mean the actual files for running the game, you’ll either need a dedicated Linux version or run them through a compatibility layer like WINE or Proton (this may take a bit of luck to get working). If you mean things like save files then that all depends on the particular game… you’ll need to research moving data across operating systems for each game. For regular computer files, though, it is usually as simple as throwing them on a USB drive and dragging and dropping them.
Given that you want to do some gaming I would be remiss to not mention that, even in the best cases, Linux gaming can still be a little hit-or-miss. This is greatly exaggerated if you have uncommon hardware. For instance, Linux gaming on Intel ARC video cards is pretty rough right now. Sooner or later you will find a game that doesn’t work right, and you may not be able to fix it. Such is life.
As for picking a flavor (colloquially called a “distro”) that can get a bit complicated. If you just want a jumping-off point without the full breakdown, then Pop!-OS is probably a good starting point. They aim at being a more newbie-friendly distro, and they have a big enough community that you should be able to find help if you get stuck on something.
You should know that when you’re installing Linux, you will usually first boot the computer using a USB drive with the distro of your choice. This is called a live environment, and it gives you a chance to test out a distro without making any permanent changes to your computer. Of course, once you actually do install the new OS it will wipe all data from the computer’s drive so make sure you’re ready.
If you want to get a bit out in the weeds of picking a distro then read on, otherwise you can ignore the rest of the comment. If you choose to take the plunge then good luck, and I hope you enjoy it!
There are two major families of Linux that I think you should consider: Debian-based and Arch-based. There are a lot more than that, but IMO these are the most appropriate for your use case. Of the Debian-based distros, I’d recommend the aforementioned Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, and Mint. Some good Arch-based options are Manjaro, Endeavour, or possibly Garuda.
When in doubt, a Debian-based distro is probably the right choice. Any of the distros above should do the trick, but all are a little different. I already described Pop!, so I won’t rehash it. Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distros ever. Probably the most popular for home computers. As a result, there is a wealth of forums and other users you can ask for help. If you run into a problem in Ubuntu, someone else has had to deal with the exact same thing and probably made a forum post about it. Linux Mint, in particular with their “Cinnamon” desktop was made to feel a bit like old Windows 7. It’s not exactly like Windows (no distro is) but if you’re a long-time Windows user then Mint feels strangely comfortable. Like Pop! its userbase is smaller than Ubuntu, but still more than substantial enough to help out with the most common hangups.
Anyone who knows about Arch Linux would probably raise an eyebrow at recommending any form of it to someone new to Linux, but in my defense, most of the development in Linux Gaming is being pushed by Valve right now, and their new SteamOS 3 (which is what the Steam Deck runs by default) is Arch-based. AFAIK SteamOS 3 is not yet available for non-steam deck systems. Valve has stated they intend on releasing it as a fully-fledged distro, and if that ever happens then it will likely become the de facto standard gaming Linux distro. Until then, I suspect that running another Arch-based distro might result in fewer issues while gaming. That said, while the distros I’ve named are much more user-friendly than vanilla Arch Linux, the Arch family is generally less beginner-friendly than their Debian counterparts. Some quick notes: Manjaro is fairly popular but a bit weird as far as Arch distros go, Endeavour is clean but I’m not super confident in their noob-friendliness, and Garuda has a gorgeous desktop and is probably the most feature complete for gaming but it includes some power-user tools (chaotic-AUR) out of the box that I wouldn’t recommend for new users.
On a final note, if you want to learn a lot about how to use a Linux system, and in particular the command line, you could try installing vanilla Arch. This is almost certainly a terrible idea; you’d have to be more than a little masochistic to try it. If you want your computer to just work then steer well clear of this option. Arch has a reputation for being non-user friendly and borderline hostile to newbies for a reason. If you decide to try this don’t expect anyone to hold your hand. And don’t ask for help on the Arch forums unless you’ve done everything by the book, to the letter, and you’ve actually tried everything else first. But making vanilla Arch your first distro would be a pretty chad move.
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SteamOS being publically available would be the best. Until then, if I ever get around to building a new setup (if I ever round up the $$$) I might look into a Debian distro. As far as learning about Ubuntu goes- does it have a lot of requirements for running? Could I install Arch or something a little more friendly on an old laptop or something so I can train myself on the basics?
I’ve been using Linux since the first Ubuntu release in 2004. I still use occasionally Windows 11 for work, but about 95% of the time I use Linux.
What distro? Mentioning you love Linux but not saying what distro you use is like when someone posts a still frame of a brick wall pulled from their favorite movie, saying “I love this movie, everyone should see it” but doesn’t say the name of the damn movie. :) I’m curious!
I run Pop_OS!
Sweet you came back to answer!!! I hadn’t heard of that distro—about every 10 years I mess with Linux and I’m getting close to the 10 year cycle beginning again. Would pop OS work well on an i7-4770 with a GTX 1060ti with 16 gb of ram or is it built for bleeding edge systems?
That hardware will be suited fine to run any Linux distro in general. None of them have an especially demanding desktop environment. I’m rocking an RX 550 at work on pop OS’s cousin Ubuntu.
Is there a performance hit for windows gaming in Linux? I’ve read it’s come a long way but is it virtualization that will bog down on my CPU or is it something else?
I really should check my notifications more often.
I can’t really say from experience, as the only game I’ve played on Linux that isn’t Linux native is Starcraft, and that’s not exactly a demanding game these days. Linux is on my main workstation, but I still have a Windows PC as my main gaming PC, so I haven’t had a reason to check out how well the virtualization & compatibility stuff works.
My intuition says you’ve still got enough CPU oomph to muscle through any such virtualization overhead though.
I’ve been using both for a good while by now, Linux is good but damn I know that’s a sacrilege but I still like Windows.
Granted, I heavily customized my Windows install, made all the adjustments I wanted and threw out most of the nagging garbage and my locked down work computer is definitely worse.
Windows just… works most of the time, and it’s fluent and does what I want.
At the end of the day, most of the direct user interaction with an OS “directly” is task bar, start menu and file manager. And for all of these things, there’s a lot that annoys me on Linux. In Windows, I’m very happy.
Just to give one example. I like the individual entries in the taskbar to fill the entire width dynamically. If there’s one entry, it fills the entire taskbar, you get what I mean. On Windows, that’s a registry tweak. On KDE, that’s basically impossible. Like, I’m sure somewhere in the source code for the panel there’s a way to rewrite that, but frankly, that’s close enough to “basically impossible” for me.
I’m in this same boat. I enjoy gaming too much to be able to ditch Windows completely, but I have it very, very customized.
I enjoy gaming too and do it on Linux just fine. None of my normal games don’t run on Linux thanks to Valve’s work on Proton. Apex Legends, Mechwarrior Online, Halo MCC/Infinite, and much more all run on Linux without a hiccup.
Unless you firewall it… It is pinging bill gates every time you click start…