I stop using Windows as my main OS for like 4+ years

[WarriorK9999]

Its been almost a year I made CachyOS as my main. Before I used to dual boot Linux Mint and Windows 10 from 2018 to 2021.

There is a time I actually use Samsung Note 9 with broken screen for Samsung Dex as a desktop replacement around 2022 for a year and learn that I dont really need Windows. It wasnt perfect and its doable as a daily driver even with 6GB of ram. From 2022 to 2024 I ended up using an Android tablet with 6GB of ram and Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 as my desktop/laptop replacement.

Stuff I do focus on ease of use with some privacy than being more complex and also not relying on ecosystem of Microsoft, Google and Apple. These companies need another competitor so that is my reason. I am not really on full boycott but pushing for more competition. If fact I gave away PCs with Linux Mint to see people would stay on it. My uncle who is 72 years old has no issues. Same with friends of relatives.

What I know Valve made everything easy for gaming

Just get Steam and Protonup QT for Gaming. You have to give up Valorant and Apex Legends though. I used to dual Windows for those games but since I dont play them anymore.

If outside of Steam there is Lutris but slightly familar with it.

Its so good that the new launch titles work right away like Clair Obscur but I am not really serious for latest games. Many of the older games work.

As for video edits I use KDElive if I have a stronger GPU I might try Black Magic's Davinci Resolve. From experience it actually work great on Linux Mint and its free.

Office replacement is a bit tricky. I use two but depends on the situation. I use LibreOffice for desktop only and WPS Office if I need work to be done on my Android tablet

I use Brave/LibreFox a lot for internet. This covers majority of the daily task.

I do keep Windows 10 on another SSD sitting on my desk. lol

 

[Solaris17]

I do keep Windows 10 on another SSD sitting on my desk. lol

I feel this, I have a VM with windows for visual studio. That’s it though.

Congrats on the success!

 

[AusWolf]

If gaming is a concern, I recommend Bazzite which comes with Steam pre-installed, and all the other goodies needed for gaming or office use selectable upon first startup.

Otherwise, welcome to the growing group of Windows-ditchers.

Linux is much more usable these days than people think. I'd say some distros are even better than Windows.

 

[cinemaware]

It's a good thing that people are able to abandon the W, but it's not possible for me (and, I suppose, millions of others). Too many programs I rely on for work are Windows only.

I also don't really have time to learn or troubleshoot Linux. Windows just works. Then there's gaming, and I want to be able to access all the games not just "majority" (although, if I didn't need it for the previous stuff, I would just dual boot for that).

 

[AleXXX666]

If fact I gave away PCs with Linux Mint to see people would stay on it. My uncle who is 72 years old has no issues. Same with friends of relatives.

LOL like you could give it to some pre-school or elementary school kid and see if it would work. No software designed for either macOS or Windows=no trouble.

 

[Shihab]

LOL like you could give it to some pre-school or elementary school kid and see if it would work.

I think that’s a moot point, since most of that generation doesn’t main PCs in the first place, so both Windows and Linux are handicapped here, as far as familiarity goes.
For the minority that does, and aside from games, I would think most of the crap they consume is web-based, so it should be pretty much a similar experience between all desktop platforms.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

For me I was trying linux, but there was problem with games that I use, cause some developers just don't like widescreen 21:9, and on windows there is workaround that works well, and on linux I was not able to do that workaround. But I'm concerned about the lack of antivirus, in My life I've had 2 times when I saw ransomware, and linux is getting more and more coverage with viruses.
(But linux was way more smooth than windows, and I'm sad that it did not work with My games ;( )

 

[WarriorK9999]

PC gotten very simplified at this point. Shihab is right most of the daily task is web based.

What do common person use these days? Majority is social media and youtube. This what I notice with people I work with.

I understand professional and competive gamers but they are minority.

This was suppose to give people another idea outside of Microsoft and Apple. No reason to defend some trillion dollar corporation unless your holding MSFT/AAPL shares. lol

For me I was trying linux, but there was problem with games that I use, cause some developers just don't like widescreen 21:9, and on windows there is workaround that works well, and on linux I was not able to do that workaround. But I'm concerned about the lack of antivirus, in My life I've had 2 times when I saw ransomware, and linux is getting more and more coverage with viruses.
(But linux was way more smooth than windows, and I'm sad that it did not work with My games ;( )

Can you give me the names of games that doesnt work? I am curious. I got nearly all my games to work with Proton 9 or 10 or Proton GE 9.27

I recently got my GTX 1080 ti to work and it wasnt bad though.

21:9 is something that I would not bother much. I sold my 35 inch 200hz Ultrawide because many competitve games doesnt work correctly.
With AMD GPUs it was just plug and play.

As for ransomware I never experience it even with Windows 10.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

Can you give me the names of games that doesnt work? I am curious. I got nearly all my games to work with Proton 9 or 10 or Proton GE 9.27

They work, but don't support ultra widescreen, the two that I was trying was NieR Replicant and ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN.
I like to game with full screen, not with those black bars on both sides of screen.

 

[Chomiq]

They work, but don't support ultra widescreen, the two that I was trying was NieR Replicant and ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN.
I like to game with full screen, not with those black bars on both sides of screen.

I mean, if it requires mods (some of which might get you permabanned if you try online play - AC7) to even work correctly on Windows that's on the game itself.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

I mean, if it requires mods (some of which might get you permabanned if you try online play - AC7) to even work correctly on Windows that's on the game itself.

They work similar on cachy os and windows 10, but problem is that on cachy os I could not make it ultra wide screen cause of mods that are only available on windows.
I know that it is problem that developer did not care about ultra wide screens, but if there is solution from community, why not use it

 

[WarriorK9999]

Oh ok that is outside from what I know. Maybe in the future I might pick up an ultrawide again. I didnt like setting it to 1920x1080p before I playing a specific game. Overwatch was one of the games that zoom in and crop.

 

[Spacemarkl]

Did you try to tinker around with Gamescope? Something like

gamescope -W 3440 -H 1440 -- %command%

(or whatever your resolution is....)

Anyway, I also boot Windows rarely these days. For the view instances I need a specific software I use a virtual machine. Only when I tinker around with ray tracing in games, I use Windows, as I think the performance with RT on AMD cards is still better there. But purely rasterized games, I play on Linux only.

 

[BahnStormer]

You are inspiring me, but I have a few hardware compatibility concerns for my main gaming rig:
1) nVidia RTX3080Ti drivers especially with multi-screen / different refresh rates, etc? (1440P 360Hz, 1440P 170Hz and 1200P 60Hz portrait) - hence likely to go with Mint as I believe the nVidia GPU support is fairly solid?
2) Genric USB-A fingerprint reader? (not a deal breaker)
3) Logitech G-Hub support (G815 keyboard + Lightspeed 2 mouse) - I can manually switch the lights on, etc.... but the G-keys will be a big loss.
4) Audeze Maxwell USB-C dongle / software: no obvious driver support on their site, so I may have to go back to a bluetooth headset with my Antlion ModMic Wireless (which DOES have Linux support)?
5) Asrock motherboard driver support - ZERO mention of Linux on their driver page, but apparently most peopel find that this just works... apparently even bluetooth + Wifi?
6) Anything else that I'm missing?

 

[dir_d]

Only real thing stopping me from changing to Linux on my work PC right now is Visio and my company's RMM which is supposed to have a Linux client viewer in its next update later this year. Right now when i go onsite i use a 2019 Mac Book Pro with t2 Linux Mint on it. If i need to remote into a client computer i have a VM which i have setup guacamole and 2FA on the front end so i can access it anywhere i have internet access though a web browser.

 

[hsew]

Ventoy is your friend.

After that, I personally love Manjaro. It gets some heat for being easy to break (I would argue that at least it works out of the box in the FIRST PLACE *cough* Fedora *cough*) but at the same time Manjaro IMO has the most comprehensive software repositories of any popular distro available; the main and extra repos are already great on their own, but Pamac (Manjaro’s default graphical software “store”) can also access AUR, Flatpak, and Snap (but why anyone would want to use Snap is beyond me).

After that, Manjaro is one of the more accommodating distros to nVidia GPUs, comparable to pop_OS imo (might not be the best but it’s good enough for 95% of users imo), is lightweight compared to Ubuntu, and comes with great desktop environments (xfce is ultra lightweight, GNOME is closer to MacOS, and KDE is an option for those who really like high levels of functionality in the taskbar and system menu. There are other DEs but they’re highly specialized.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

 

[WarriorK9999]

You are inspiring me, but I have a few hardware compatibility concerns for my main gaming rig:
1) nVidia RTX3080Ti drivers especially with multi-screen / different refresh rates, etc? (1440P 360Hz, 1440P 170Hz and 1200P 60Hz portrait) - hence likely to go with Mint as I believe the nVidia GPU support is fairly solid?
2) Genric USB-A fingerprint reader? (not a deal breaker)
3) Logitech G-Hub support (G815 keyboard + Lightspeed 2 mouse) - I can manually switch the lights on, etc.... but the G-keys will be a big loss.
4) Audeze Maxwell USB-C dongle / software: no obvious driver support on their site, so I may have to go back to a bluetooth headset with my Antlion ModMic Wireless (which DOES have Linux support)?
5) Asrock motherboard driver support - ZERO mention of Linux on their driver page, but apparently most peopel find that this just works... apparently even bluetooth + Wifi?
6) Anything else that I'm missing?

Thanks

I wish I could help but I do try to get as many different hardware configs to see what is wrong. Most I have is GTX 1080 ti and RX 640, RX 550. I also have Steam Deck and my brother's Legion Go.
I was able to install CachyOS on i7 2600k with Z68 motherboard and later try it on very slow AMD system with CPU as A4-4000 with 4GBs of ram (found out I do run into low memory issues at 4GBs)

I try to keep things simple as possible but it does limit me on helping out. I do try other hardware to test in the future like the WIFI and bluetooth. Currently using a simple mechanical keyboard and mouse with multiple modes like wireless, wired, and BT.

Good thing about the drivers its like built-in unless if you had to install Nvidia GPU later (I tested this situation is install a RX 550 or iGPU first then swap it to Nvidia card). I had to do some command line for arch linux which is just copy and paste (I need to look for that command line again. lol)

Keep in mind some manufacturers don't really list it but if people got it working then there is a chance it will work.

This is my experience so far that work right away.

AMD + AMD GPU combo
Intel and AMD GPU
Intel iGPU
AMD iGPU

When I install Windows 10 I have USB or network drive with drivers and click each one. While CachyOS has everything built-in they actually install from the internet which makes easy to get everything up to date.

Keep in mind whatever I post on top page is what I do with my PC. I am not really a programmer or professional or very competitive gamer but I do play Marvel Rivals a lot and that game works right away if not then I would use Proton or Proton GE. My monitor setup is 280 hz 1920x1080. Its nothing too crazy. I used to have 1440p but went back to 1080p.

Many games I tested so far on RX 640 and RX 550 its slight slower than the Steam Deck's iGPU and as for Nvidia its GTX 1080 ti

Control with HDR but on the Steam Deck.
Quantum break
Witcher 2
Cyberpunk 2077
I have a lot mid 2010 games that got tested like Tomb Raider.

From what I notice if it does have status of playable on Steam Deck then it should be much easier to work with but there are games that blocks non SteamOS which I haven't encountered yet.
More detailed information is https://www.protondb.com/

People should try this build second machine find something cheaper than $100 CPU.

This to save time instead of just putting everything in one machine and change it. I got lucky getting the i5 4690k and MSI Z97 motherboard for like $70 and later got the 3800x for like $75 and my brother gave me a X570 motherboard.

List of CPUs I have at moment
AMD Phenom X6 II 1055t (no motherboard atm)
AMD A4-4000
AMD Ryzen 7 1700x
AMD Ryzen 7 3800x
AMD Ryzen 9 5900x

Intel i7 2600k
Intel i5 4690k
Intel Xeon Haswell (I need to find that CPU. lol)
Intel i7 4700MQ on laptop with GT 740m - I just remember this. Linux Mint only at the moment. I couldn't get CachyOS/Manjaro/Garuda to work. It would lag after installing but on live CD it would work with no speed issues. Linux Mint does work perfectly.

 

[Chomiq]

While CachyOS has everything built-in they actually install from the internet which makes easy to get everything up to date.

The downside of this being the fact that you can't install it without internet connection.

 

[Factoring]

Dual-boot W, kept it for the games only, but I mostly use Ubuntu since 2019.
However I've played a few games on Linux and they ran well. I should probably try more of them.

 

[Darkholm]

If gaming is a concern, I recommend Bazzite which comes with Steam pre-installed, and all the other goodies needed for gaming or office use selectable upon first startup.

Otherwise, welcome to the growing group of Windows-ditchers.

Linux is much more usable these days than people think. I'd say some distros are even better than Windows.

What about Microsoft Office packs? Using Kubuntu 24.04.2 LTS and Debian 12 but cannot ditch Windows 10 completely because of it. Many documents, especially .docx cannot properly open in LibreOffice or similar Linux-based tools.

 

[londiste]

Its been almost a year I made CachyOS as my main.

Cool, lets try it. Downloaded ISO, booted off it. And there is a username that needs password and it just doesn't work. Doesn't log in without password, does not log in with bunch of proposed passwords off Google. Without it, no live OS, no installer. Quick Google gives me a forum thread from half a year ago where some commenter says that yeah, go change to Wayland and then logging in without password works.

That is about par for course though, so...

 

[WarriorK9999]

What about Microsoft Office packs? Using Kubuntu 24.04.2 LTS and Debian 12 but cannot ditch Windows 10 completely because of it. Many documents, especially .docx cannot properly open in LibreOffice or similar Linux-based tools.

You can test WPS but I am not sure though. WPS uses docx reason why I had combo them together with LibreOffice. It is not perfect but better than nothing.

The downside of this being the fact that you can't install it without internet connection.

Yeah that does worry me a bit.

 

[Darkholm]

You can test WPS but I am not sure though. WPS uses docx reason why I had combo them together with LibreOffice. It is not perfect but better than nothing.

IIRC, been testing it 2021 or 2022 and it was not quite good but was better than Libre for .docx. Hope they are better now than then. Thanks, will try.