Its time to switch to Linux!

  • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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    26 days ago

    Windows 10? I’m on Linux Mint 22, which is more than double the number.

    Checkmate Microsuck.

        • spookex@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          I guess the Manjaro partition on my dual-boot laptop will finally be woken up for the first time in months

          Side note: Anyone got advice on how to make my Synaptics touchpad work the same as it does on windows? That’s like my number 1 pet peve whenever I try Linux on my laptop

          • object [Object]
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            25 days ago

            If it’s weird and or has latency, then make sure you have manually installed the synaptics drivers. That was at least the fix for my ThinkPad.

            • spookex@lemmy.world
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              25 days ago

              Yeah, it’s the floaty feeling, I think that I had installed them, but IIRC you had to configure them by editing a config file and I couldn’t get it to work just right

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        26 days ago

        They often extend these, FYI. But it’s not a big deal, windows 11 is the same as 10, although they removed a lot of features like the metro tiles. It’s like 10, but noticeably worse… Free, though (if you have 10).

  • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    I have a crazy idea.

    What if y’all get together, and make a guide on an easy way to switch to idk Arch, since Valve is working with it.

    You know, so that they don’t have to spend a lot of money, and don’t have to worry about losing all their data, and hopefully so they don’t have to learn everything about Linux so they can enjoy using it right away.

    Ha, I almost believed that was realistic rereading it.

    • foo@feddit.uk
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      26 days ago

      Exactly. Us Linux users, as a collective, tend to shoot ourselves in the foot here because we can’t decide on the “best” distro for beginners. If we all just said one thing, with confidence and without arguments, and without saying “it depends…”, more would probably make the switch.

      No major outlets that the average user would frequent are likely to sell laptops with any Linux distro pre installed. Many non-technical users wouldn’t even reinstall Windows by themselves, let alone Linux.

      Any of the usual starter distros would be a good choice because once they are in the ecosystem they can find their own path. When a non technical person asks how to get Linux, there is no worse answer than a barrage of information followed by more questions. Just pick one, say it confidently, and assist them to make it happen.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        People like choice, but people don’t want to have to spend time choosing or learning.

        That’s why I mentioned Arch - because of the tie in with the Steam Deck. Nice and easy for gamers to make a connection to.

        What becomes the difficult sell is that people, in general, don’t understand computers. It’s the bane of my existence. Any Linux distro requires a basic understanding of how computers work. The Windows PC and Apple products were successful because they required no learning and the user was relatively protect from messing anything up.

        The Steam Deck was successful because it took that same approach. It just uses a variant of their Big Picture mode users are already used to.

        Linux, by it’s very nature, is not something that can be widely adopted by consumers. I think that’s why Apple and Windows (hell, even Google with Android and Chrome OS) can get all the invasive technology to the user they want, and force users to adopt even more invasive things. Because people just won’t learn anything else. And that’s not something any of us can do anything about.

        • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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          24 days ago

          I get your point but still wouldn’t recommend arch to new people cause it’s arch. Maybe something simpler like Mint which is what most people recommend imo.

      • Ohbs@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        And which distro would you pick with confidence? (Legitimately asking, I don’t know which one I’d pick)

        • foo@feddit.uk
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          25 days ago

          I intentionally didn’t include it in my post because I didn’t want the wave of differing opinions to distract from my point.

          Personally, on balance, I would suggest Mint (Cinammon) for a new user, especially if it’s an Internet stranger. Of course, I expect many, many replies disagreeing or explaining why I’m wrong and should pick … something else.

          There are loads of distros that are, or claim to be, friendly to new users. As with everything, all have advantages and disadvantages. My kids use Bazzite on their laptops because I can support them and deal with anything unexpected. I wouldn’t recommend it to a random person because the installation isn’t as friendly as others, and it’s not as prevalent, so there is less support via search engines. The forums are quite active, and the community is friendly, but many folk would rather look for an existing answer than ask anything new. Then of course there’s Ubuntu (with Snap et al), Pop!_OS, Elementary, Deepin etc etc. We could probably discuss the merits and detractors of each forever, just like currently happens in so many threads on Lemmy, Reddit and others.

          So, why would I suggest Mint? Simply because it’s not a wrong answer. It’s easy to get, easy to install, has a great and welcoming community, and serves as a great place to introduce users to the ecosystem. After using it for a while, they can make their own, more informed choice of their next distro. There are plenty of other not wrong distros to choose from, but Mint is the one I would suggest.

    • twig@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      26 days ago

      It’s actually pretty easy with the guided installer currently shipping with arch, and there are actually numerous guides on how to install Arch.

      Choosing not to is perfectly reasonable, but it’s not for lack of effort from the Linux community trying to make things easier and more accessible.

    • kittenzrulz123
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      26 days ago

      Absolutely not, even if we could all work together that would be a horrible idea. Linux is not a Windows replacement and the Linux community doesn’t need to be overwhelmed with Windows users asking why a specific feature doesnt work exactly the same.

      • Red_October@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        Then maybe “just use Linux” shouldn’t be the top advice for literally every computer issue presented here.

        • foo@feddit.uk
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          25 days ago

          I agree. If people are drawn to Linux because they like the idea of it and accept they have a learning curve, that’s great! But, moving to Linux through hatred or frustration with Windows will likely lead to even more frustration when Linux doesn’t work the way they expected.

          • Katana314@lemmy.world
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            25 days ago

            It’s not just learning curve. It’s feature set, compatibility, and user experience.

            Certain distros’ window managers may work just the way you like, or they might not and it may not be so simple to change it. The preferences menu on some of them is tiny.

            That’s before getting into just how perfectly it will work on your hardware. I tried Mint 21 first on my machine, and even though my hardware is ancient, it didn’t support the wi-fi card at all. That stuff is kernel level. I even looked up version numbers and it was supposed to work.

            (Mint 22 worked but that’s ridiculously late to finally start supporting this hardware. And, it could not run games as well as Steam Deck)

        • kittenzrulz123
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          26 days ago

          Agreed, unironically Linux should never be recommended to anyone who wants their computer to work the same. If someone says '“I want Windows without Microsoft” I usually respond with tough luck that doesn’t exist.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      26 days ago

      If these businesses wouldn’t switch to a newer version of windows, what makes you think they’ll switch to arch or any linux distro?

    • thinkyfish@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      If you want Arch just use EndeavourOS. Its got an easy installer and a slightly less break-neck update schedule and you get the Arch User Repository for all the cool stuff.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    They just fired two workers for organizing a protest against supporting Israel. You don’t have to make up conspiracy theories to convince people that Microsoft: Bad.

    Step 1: damage your customers

    Step 2: ?

    Step 3: profit

    • KryptonBlur@slrpnk.net
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      25 days ago

      IIRC it wasn’t even a protest, it was a vigil for Gaza, so it was an act of remembrance for those who are suffering. Which makes it an even stranger thing to get fired for.

      • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
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        25 days ago

        The article is light on details, but one of the fired individuals, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the vigil was both “to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.

        Not that I think they shouldn’t have the right to protest, but it was clearly more than “just” a vigil.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    bully everyone into upgrading to Windows 11 so you can force data scraping in the guise of AI down their throats. nice game

      • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        well previously it was just to force sell a new product. now it is that + stealing your data in the disguise of AI

  • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    Is this post from the future? Windows 10 still has support for another year.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    In the last month, I made a genuine effort to switch to Linux Mint, then Bazzite, as my daily driver. Mint could not run Hitman 3 for unexplained reasons. Bazzite frequently got graphical corruption issues when returning from sleep. Neither could run niche indie games and gave no error codes.

    I knew I’d be doing some tweaking to get Linux working how I wanted, but it was missing configuration as well as being unreliable by default. I like the principle of using a non-MS OS, but I need it to work.

    • dingus@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Yeah I’ve always been a very casual Linux enthusiast (key word is casual) since I was a teen. Setup and things “just working” out of the box have absolutely never been the case, even in 2024, and even though people like to say it does. In an ideal situation on an ideal computer with ideal hardware, you don’t have to tweak anything. But for most people, there are going to be some annoying issues and tweaks you have to work through.

      If a Linux system has already been set up and tested for the end user, then it is a great alternative. But in my experience, these systems absolutely never work perfectly out of the box and it takes some technical know how to get to that point. Ever since Windows 7, Windows has “just worked” out of the box… especially because it comes pre-loaded on your device.

      I have been dealing with some issues with my Bluetooth module in Windows. I had eventually solved the problem, but the fix seemed to have reverted itself somewhat recently. Annoyed, I thought I’d finally commit to a switch to Linux on my daily driver since my laptop doesn’t support Win 11. Well, I chose Linux Mint since it doesn’t use Wayland which for some reason has poor compatibility with my common Logitech mouse. Everything had been fine but then I found instead of the Bluetooth module crashing like in Windows, which just makes me have to reset the module, the entire system crashes in Linux instead and requires me to reboot it. Frustrating to say the least.

      And then, as you’ve brought up, gaming on Linux is just generally not a good experience unless you have all of your games on Steam.

      Linux can be awesome but it’s absolutely not for everyone…especially people with less technical knowledge (unless it is set up for them), people who want something to “just work” without any fiddling, or people who do a lot of gaming outside of Steam.

    • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      I was lazy and went with pop!_os. Required minimal tweaking, and so far there are very few games I couldn’t run

      • vulture_god@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        25 days ago

        Same for me, running for a few months and all my steam games work great. I had to install some extra software to run my Logitech mouse and get the scroll wheel to be more sensitive. Otherwise though it’s been a great experience so far.

        Although I’m an IT professional, I really don’t want extra work when I’m sitting down to game. So POP! has been great overall for my use case, with the bonus of Linux for any coding projects I tackle otherwise.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      I was lucky that when I moved to Linux some months ago I got used to install my games from Lutris and Steam, which seems to solve most problems and only maybe 1 game of the 15 or so I tried so far wouldn’twork no matter what.

      That said, I and to figure out how to do diagnostics and use Winetricks and my little doc of Tips & Trick cover 5 games (out of about 15) so those are the ones that would work only after tweaking.

      I still have weird situations like The Sims 3 from Steam not working but the pirate version I tried working flawlessly on first try (so now I know how to install pirated games with Lutris) which is maybe not the kind of thing the publishers would want people to know, but more often than not things just work.

      All this to say that it’s way better now than before if you use the kind of tools that wrap Wine (or in the case of Steam, Proton which is a derivative of Wine) with install scripts that will do the necessary game-speciric tweaks for you, but even then you’ll need to learn how to diagnose problems and do the tweaks yourself if you want a higher that 60% or so rate of success or if you want to hoist the Skull & Bones and sail the high seas from your Linux Galleon.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Bullshit!

    I’ve been using Windows 7 for years well after end of support and my computer never got hacked!

    Oh yes it did

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    26 days ago

    Its time to switch to Linux!

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      • Nougat@fedia.io
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        26 days ago

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  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    26 days ago

    I mean, we have no laws about os support.

    Imo a very common sense one is to make any software too old to maintain just open source.

    Ownership in software should be based on who is willing and capable of maintaining it.

  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    Yeah. Gotta find a distro soonish. My 3-4 year old laptop tried to update to W11 and has failed twice. Guess it doesn’t meet the hardware reqs. (Thank you RNGesus)

    • thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Currently writing from a Mint laptop, works perfectly with minimal setup and no command line whatsoever, the only annoying thing is that the caps lock key behaves differently. Though Linux’s reputation is that it can probably be modded out.

      I also installed Diodon to recover the cool clipboard function that Windows has.

      I could probably get the customizeable start menu, but i actually don’t miss it that much

        • ordellrb@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          absolutly, for win 95 there is a xfce (like xubuntu or mint xfce) Theme called “chicago 95”, not sure about 98 tho

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          24 days ago

          A default install of Linux Mint Cinnamon has a classic windows layout of a taskbar and start button.

          But things like searching and updates actually work smoothly and quickly.

    • agnomeunknown@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      I can vouch for mint, I picked it up recently after not touching Linux for almost 20 years and it was very intuitive and Windows-like. Haven’t dug very deep into it yet but it was at least easy to setup and get the necessities working

      • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Dude. I have a 2002 Dell laptop with Mint 16 on it.

        It’s completely unusable. Takes like 10 mins to open a browser. But it fuckin’ works. Its incredible.

        • AdmiralRob@lemmy.zip
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          24 days ago

          For something that old, you should try Q4OS. It’s a Debian-based distro like Mint, but it’s designed for stability while using the absolute minimum resources.

          I recently installed it on a gateway laptop that’s at least 20 years old. I didn’t try streaming video or anything, but just opening the browser and looking at wikis was a perfectly normal experience. I dare say that laptop is working better now than when it had Windows XP.

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
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      25 days ago

      Any distro will do. I suggest using one that has a complete installer like Mint or OpenSuse and then use KDE Plasma as desktop, which closely resembles Windows.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      24 days ago

      Another recommendation for Linux Mint here. Just live boot off a USB drive and try it out. Maybe dual boot for a while if you’re unsure about just getting rid of windows cold turkey.

      I use it daily on my work machine (2 year old Dell laptop) and it feels pretty flawless and polished. Even for basic desktop stuff I like it better than windows, but then all the techy Linux shit it’s still there if you care to use it. I use this “user friendly” distro to stare at plain text in monospaced fonts all day, usually between source code files and command-line stuff.