Advice for migrating from Windows 11 to Linux

[jak_2456]

Hey everyone! I've been considering migrating my Dell XPS 15 7590 from Windows 11 to Linux (probably Mint but I'll look around to see if anything else looks appealing to me). What are some things I should consider while doing this? I have some decent experience with Linux in general since I've installed it on numerous devices in the past and I have two devices running it already. However, I have never migrated one of my main use devices to Linux before, so I was wondering what to expect.

What I use the laptop for:

• Web browsing
• 3D modeling and slicing (using FreeCAD and Creality Print)
• Gaming (although the games I want to play are verified to work under Linux

Some things I'm unsure about:

• NVIDIA drivers (my laptop has a GTX 1650)
• Docking station compatibility (I have a Dell WD15)
• Battery usage vs. Windows
• USB monitor support (I have a ViewSonic VA1655 portable monitor)

 

[yfn_ratchet]

I can at least speak for Mint, as I daily the Cinnamon edition for my rig and haven't really looked back (though I do have a spare install of Win10 for anything that just doesn't work).

• Mint's Driver Manager offers multiple versions of Nvidia drivers, the latest being version 550.120. Old drivers, but they work just fine. There's also the Nouveau drivers from Xorg, which are experimental but should work for anything you do on the desktop.
• Docking compatibility is not something I've looked into specifically, but it looks to be a standard USB/Thunderbolt implementation. Should work OOTB, but specific fancy features might not be available (if applicable).
• Battery usage is WAY better. Mostly because the CPU stays in lower power states most of the time. There's also power management tools for laptops, I use one with a Cinnamon applet so I can switch between Power Saving, Optimus, and Max Performance presets.
• Your USB monitor uses DP Alt-Mode for its connection, so no worries! Should work fine.

There's also forums for various popular distros that would have all the answers for specific problems that may crop up. Linux usually needs a fair good deal of tweaking to get it to behave exactly the way you want, but it's not as hard as it seems! You'll need to get used to typing 'man [command]' or '[command] --help' a lot, though.

 

[Timbaloo]

As for the docking station: As @yfn_ratchet said, it's a USB-C dock. I technically have such a "dock" as part of my monitor KVM (a Dell, what a coincidence ), and it does work OOTB. (edit: Arch btw)

You might want to try out a live system, just to test such topics (use something recent, just to be sure a distro with not so recent packages is not causing an issue that would be fixed in newer versions/packages).

Also, should I pull the trigger on a 2023 BRZ?

 

[qxp]

Highly recommend Kubuntu https://kubuntu.org/
You can make a bootable USB stick and check that everything works before installation.
If you want to optimize battery usage use "powertop".
NVidia should be no problem. I have never used laptop docks so don't know how well that would work.

 

[jak_2456]

What about fingerprint readers? My XPS has one and I'd like to make use of it.

 

[_roman_]

Highly recommend Kubuntu https://kubuntu.org/

probably Mint

a few years ago they were basically the same. Debian -> Ubuntu -> mint.

• USB monitor support (I have a ViewSonic VA1655 portable monitor)

• NVIDIA drivers (my laptop has a GTX 1650)

Dell XPS 15 7590

• • Docking station compatibility (I have a Dell WD15)

Two points are about the binary nvidia drivers. I'm sure you can find a result when you search for that question. I'm sure you may find results for your laptop + dockingstation and gnu linux.

--

Please note.

Linux is the kernel. That stuff is basically the same, just configured by a config file before building.

The other stuff is the userspace - can be similar or different.

I do not understand why people recommend kubuntu when linux mint is already mentioned. You can change the desktop environment via the linux mint package manager. (my mint notebook died a few months ago - i can not test it anymore)

Most stuff can be changed by the package manager. There is no need for distro hopping. Or installing the same debian based distro because you want gnome instead of kde or instead of cinnamon desktop envrionment. The only excuse for distro hopping would be, a different package manager or you want a source code based distribution.

--- energy usage.

-- My gentoo box always needs less dram and less energy as my windows 11 pro. It depends on how you configure your box.

--

What are some things I should consider while doing this?

Patience. Reading skills especially the gentoo wiki and the arch linux wiki. the gentoo amd64 handbook explain the basics about disk layout and other important aspects.

Backups of your data.
WIFI Password
Email password
live linux bootable medium
working internet access

I personally boot up the sysrescue cd. Than I do some forensics to read out the config of sysrescue cd. I check how my hardware is initialised, check the log files, check the desktop environment. This makes it easier to build a kernel, setup the userspace. This is common knowledge in most linux book i read between 1996 and 2010.

I usually chroot from sysrescue cd, in the past from a linux mint livecd and than start my gentoo installation. I do make my backups regularly with the sysrescue cd.

For advanced users: uefi bootloader from the mainboard. efi stub kernel. Lvm disk setup with ext4 file system. I do not get the point using a bootloader with uefi mainboards. Having swap when the box has 16giB or more DRAM. I do not have swap setup for several years. having a backup strategy already in place before you start setting up your system.

 

[qxp]

I do not understand why people recommend kubuntu when linux mint is already mentioned. You can change the desktop environment via the linux mint package manager. (my mint notebook died a few months ago - i can not test it anymore)

In my case, I recommended Kubuntu because this is what I use, it worked well for me over the years, and when I help others set it up it is painless - insert USB stick, backup any old data to external drive with dd just in case, hit default setup process. And it is easy to convince people at work to use Kubuntu because there is a company behind it.

I also used Debian - also recommend, but after you get comfortable with Linux. And Slackware - but that was a long time ago.
I have not tried Mint yet because it is "too new" - it was not around when I was last playing around with distributions. I never had to reinstall a working server and you can easily get a year worth of uptime if you leave it be on a UPS.

Patience. Reading skills especially the gentoo wiki and the arch linux wiki. the gentoo amd64 handbook explain the basics about disk layout and other important aspects.

These are good sources, but a for a new user I would simply recommend to install defaults and try the distribution you picked as is. Install some apps - FreeCAD that was mentioned before, Gimp, Inkscape, so on. Customize UI.

Then get comfortable with command line tools - they are very powerful.

 

[AusWolf]

For gaming, I'd look at Bazzite. It's a spin-off of Fedora with a high focus on gaming. It's got Steam and all your drivers pre-installed, and can do VRR and HDR straight after installation. It also auto-downloads your web browser, video player, emulation and video recording software that you select from a list that pops up on first use.

When you select your install media download, you can choose between AMD and Nvidia versions, and a KDE (more Windows-like) or Gnome (more iOS-like) interface.

It's pretty great.

 

[AleXXX666]

For gaming, I'd look at Bazzite. It's a spin-off of Fedora with a high focus on gaming. It's got Steam and all your drivers pre-installed, and can do VRR and HDR straight after installation. It also auto-downloads your web browser, video player, emulation and video recording software that you select from a list that pops up on first use.

When you select your install media download, you can choose between AMD and Nvidia versions, and a KDE (more Windows-like) or Gnome (more iOS-like) interface.

It's pretty great.

and the performance part is absolutely SAME OR BETTER than in Windows?

Highly recommend Kubuntu https://kubuntu.org/
You can make a bootable USB stick and check that everything works before installation.
If you want to optimize battery usage use "powertop".
NVidia should be no problem. I have never used laptop docks so don't know how well that would work.

Well, that's about nearly ANY "respected" distro of Linux...

I can at least speak for Mint, as I daily the Cinnamon edition for my rig and haven't really looked back (though I do have a spare install of Win10 for anything that just doesn't work).

• Mint's Driver Manager offers multiple versions of Nvidia drivers, the latest being version 550.120. Old drivers, but they work just fine. There's also the Nouveau drivers from Xorg, which are experimental but should work for anything you do on the desktop.
• Docking compatibility is not something I've looked into specifically, but it looks to be a standard USB/Thunderbolt implementation. Should work OOTB, but specific fancy features might not be available (if applicable).
• Battery usage is WAY better. Mostly because the CPU stays in lower power states most of the time. There's also power management tools for laptops, I use one with a Cinnamon applet so I can switch between Power Saving, Optimus, and Max Performance presets.
• Your USB monitor uses DP Alt-Mode for its connection, so no worries! Should work fine.

There's also forums for various popular distros that would have all the answers for specific problems that may crop up. Linux usually needs a fair good deal of tweaking to get it to behave exactly the way you want, but it's not as hard as it seems! You'll need to get used to typing 'man [command]' or '[command] --help' a lot, though.

Cinnamon? You mean Mint Cinnamon or Ubuntu Cinnamon or..?

 

[AusWolf]

and the performance part is absolutely SAME OR BETTER than in Windows?

I haven't tested that, to be honest. I kind of rage deleted my Windows 10 installation when it installed Copilot without asking me first.

All I know is that ray tracing on AMD is pretty crap, but it isn't great on Windows, either. Other than that, the games I've tried so far that don't have any RT run fine.

 

[Onasi]

and the performance part is absolutely SAME OR BETTER than in Windows?

It depends™. Some games will run more or less the same, some better, some worse (significantly sometimes), some won’t boot at all. Anything with a native client is obviously fine, but everything else relies on the mercies of Proton. Which is getting better by the minute, granted, but it’s still not native, so still isn’t perfect.

 

[AusWolf]

It depends™. Some games will run more or less the same, some better, some worse (significantly sometimes), some won’t boot at all. Anything with a native client is obviously fine, but everything else relies on the mercies of Proton. Which is getting better by the minute, granted, but it’s still not native, so still isn’t perfect.

Other than RT being unusable on AMD, the bigger problem is usually with old games. Valve puts a lot of effort into Proton with new games (to make sure they run on the Steam Deck, I guess), which gets installed and updated with your Steam games automatically, so I'd expect minimal issues there. Old games don't get so much love, unfortunately.

My other problem is with Space Marine 2, which broke its server connection on Linux (it just won't connect) with the latest patch. I hope they'll fix it soon.

I've heard some other games can also block you from accessing the server because Linux can flag up on some anti-cheat modules, but I don't really play online, so I can't comment on that.

Edit: All the above is true of all Linux. If one is inclined to game on Linux, I'd still wholeheartedly recommend Bazzite.

 

[Onasi]

@AusWolf
Yeah, anything always online and with an anti-cheat is a crapshoot. Valve is trying to wrangle AC companies to make their shit compatible, but it goes so-so for now.

Old games… well, I’d say it’s more of old-ish games issue. Like, late 90s to early 10s can be a no-mans land. Anything really old can just run under DOSbox no issue. But I remember swearing profusely trying to launch Jade Empire a while ago.

 

[Kadath]

What about fingerprint readers? My XPS has one and I'd like to make use of it.

Check FPrint. Usually you would just search for your laptop model+fingerprint+distro. In Arch based distros it's quite simple, I also remember helping a friend of mine with Ubuntu and it was also extremely easy.

 

[AusWolf]

What about fingerprint readers? My XPS has one and I'd like to make use of it.

There's a high chance that the kernel supports it, just like with printers and other peripherals. Installing or updating drivers is a Windows thing, it doesn't exactly work like that on Linux.

If the kernel doesn't support it, though... well... getting it work might be a rough ride.

I know setting up my Canon MX475 printer for the first time was a pain on Windows 10 as the drivers are hidden somewhere in the legacy section of their website, and there's multiple versions and not all of them work as they should. Linux, on the other hand, had it working out-of-the-box without downloading or installing anything.

 

[jak_2456]

Well, that's a downer. I did a bit of research along with trying a live Ubuntu USB, and the general consensus on the web is that the fingerprint reader on my laptop does not work with fprintd. Ubuntu didn't want anything to do with it. If I switch, then I'll see how much it bothers me on a daily basis.

 

[Hardcore Games]

I use Linux in a VM fine

 

[unwind-protect]

Do yourself a favor and stick to the original plan, use Mint.

Does your laptop have the ability to switch between integrated graphics and GPU? (Optimus) That can mean trouble.

 

[jak_2456]

Does your laptop have the ability to switch between integrated graphics and GPU? (Optimus) That can mean trouble

It does, so I'll have to see how that plays out. A lot of distros have support for it, though.

 

[unwind-protect]

It does, so I'll have to see how that plays out. A lot of distros have support for it, though.

For some varying meaning of "support". You might have difficulty with external displays depending on which graphics chip they are connected to.

 

[jak_2456]

For some varying meaning of "support". You might have difficulty with external displays depending on which graphics chip they are connected to.

I just tried it out with a live USB. It recognized my external display just fine. Even the power button on the dock worked.

 

[unwind-protect]

I just tried it out with a live USB. It recognized my external display just fine. Even the power button on the dock worked.

Very good. Glad to hear. Which GPU are you using? Did you turn off the other one in the BIOS?

 

[jak_2456]

Very good. Glad to hear. Which GPU are you using? Did you turn off the other one in the BIOS?

I have Intel UHD 630 integrated graphics and a laptop GTX 1650. I didn't turn anything off in the BIOS; I'm not even sure if my BIOS will let me (not that it matters since I got it working).

 

[MCJAxolotl7]

I can at least speak for Mint, as I daily the Cinnamon edition for my rig and haven't really looked back (though I do have a spare install of Win10 for anything that just doesn't work).

• Mint's Driver Manager offers multiple versions of Nvidia drivers, the latest being version 550.120. Old drivers, but they work just fine. There's also the Nouveau drivers from Xorg, which are experimental but should work for anything you do on the desktop.
• Docking compatibility is not something I've looked into specifically, but it looks to be a standard USB/Thunderbolt implementation. Should work OOTB, but specific fancy features might not be available (if applicable).
• Battery usage is WAY better. Mostly because the CPU stays in lower power states most of the time. There's also power management tools for laptops, I use one with a Cinnamon applet so I can switch between Power Saving, Optimus, and Max Performance presets.
• Your USB monitor uses DP Alt-Mode for its connection, so no worries! Should work fine.

There's also forums for various popular distros that would have all the answers for specific problems that may crop up. Linux usually needs a fair good deal of tweaking to get it to behave exactly the way you want, but it's not as hard as it seems! You'll need to get used to typing 'man [command]' or '[command] --help' a lot, though.

I second this. Mint Cinnamon user for over a year, less temperamental than Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu now because I'm one of those people who runs devbranch stuff on their main pc. Still, mint all the way if you're switching.

I have Intel UHD 630 integrated graphics and a laptop GTX 1650. I didn't turn anything off in the BIOS; I'm not even sure if my BIOS will let me (not that it matters since I got it working). Mine also has an option In the BIOS to turn off Optimus, but the only option is on. Darn you acer.

On my machine, (laptop 3050ti) you can use nvidia xserver settings to swap between always integrated gpu, automatic switching, and always dedicated gpu.

 

[qxp]

Last time I looked NVidia proprietary drivers allowed to switch in the control panel.