I switched fully to Linux from Windows (on my desktop) about 4 months ago. I’m a very old Linux user, I did my first install in '98 using Slackware, built an in-house web server for a company that hired me. But I’ve always been a “host my Linux servers on Digital Ocean” type of Linux user versus “desktop Linux user” and if I’m being honest, I switched to all FOSS everything years ago, so the only real reason I stayed on Windows was:
Gaming.
It was about five months ago my wife bought me a Steam Deck for my birthday. I was kinda mad about it, I thought it was too grandiose of a gift, but you know yeah, it was fucking rad. And I love it. It didn’t take but a couple of weeks of use before I realized that Steam’s coup was nearly complete. I knew it meant that Linux was now ready for prime time among gamers like me (who don’t give a damn about multiplayer, nor kernel-level anti-cheat). I knew I could get Windows out of my life.
I didn’t know what pitfalls awaited. My Windows machine was aging (Ryzen 3 3300X, RTX 3060) but still serviceable. I had another machine sitting in the living room that I used when really desperate (the wife was playing BG3 on the 3060), but it was getting waaaay too old to be practical (FX 6300, GTX 1050Ti). So I decided to modestly upgrade the living room machine, install Linux on it and use it instead of Windows and see how it went. If all went well, I’d wipe Windows.
I upgraded the living room machine (Ryzen 5 3600, RTX 5070, which required new mobo and RAM so I upgraded to 32G DDR4 3600 from my previous 16G and installed a 1TB NVMe in lieu of the HDD) - my timing could not have been more fortuitous, even though this was older, cheaper stuff, it was all nearly half the cost that it is now). On this machine, I installed Linux.
It didn’t just go great. It went flawlessly. Everything works, with minimal intervention. I chose Mint because I didn’t want an atomic distro, but I wanted something as friendly as possible for my wife’s sake. All games are playing, from all sources. Steam, Epic, Gog, standalone. I play Elite Dangerous with a VKB/STECS setup and I was certain it was going to be a nightmare to setup. It wasn’t. I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.
There was only one thing left that I hadn’t tackled that I was certain was going to be the real nightmare. Honestly, it didn’t actually matter that much, which is why I left it for last. But I have an OG Vive, and I had heard it could be challenging. It wasn’t. Installed Steam VR, launched it and it worked out of the gate as beautifully as it did on Windows, except better, because with a 5070 behind it, I could run everything on “VR Ultra” settings and it didn’t even break a sweat. Holy shit, this is awesome!
I will be wiping the Windows machine tomorrow. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck ads. Fuck subscriptions. Fuck closed source gated off bullshit in general.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I never get tired of reading posts like this one.
Notepadqq is the Linux equivalent of notepad++
I did try it (and Geany, and etc), but it didn’t have the ability to “save as to ftp” which is a stupid thing to get hung up on, but I’m stuck in a groove with how I do certain tasks in web dev. This was before I realized you could mount a server like a drive in the File Manager (another awesome Linux thing I didn’t know I needed in my life), so I may go back and try it again, but since I got Notepad++ working fine and I’d have to port over all my syntax highlighting I’m not really motivated.
on geany you can create custom commands, so ftp upload should be trivial to integrate.
pm me if you need some bash magic.
Emacs has functionality called tramp which can handle saving to ftp (amongst other things)
I’ve been a Linux guy since 1996 but almost exclusively on the server side. I tried desktop Linux numerous times through the years but the experience wasn’t great. In 2012 I left Windows behind for Mac as my daily driver. In 2016 I built a Windows gaming system, and in 2019 I got sick of how shitty Intel Apple MBPs were so I got a Lenovo X1 Extreme, slapped PopOS on it, and it has been my daily driver ever since. Same machine. Solid as a rock. I do have an M1 MBP now, but itnis only for music production.
Linux on the Desktop is lightyears away from where it was just ten years ago. It’s crazy how painless it all is now.
This is a really late reply but I just read this again and it’s surprising how similar the paths you and I have traveled are. I was a Linux guy since 1998 (server side). In about 2002 my company gave me a Macbook because we had to develop for Macs and it became my daily driver for web and email. Since then I have had a succession of Macbooks as daily drivers, I am currently posting this to you from a 2020 MBA. I never had a problem with Apple hardware except their shit laptop keyboards from 2016-2019, but I’ve always had a Windows desktop around for gaming. I also do music production and atm I have a 2019 MM running Logic (I had a 2016 MBP that since I hated it so much because of the keys, I just was using it for a music machine, but it experienced a mobo failure).
I’ve completely wiped Windows now. I’m all Macs for laptops/daily/music and Linux for everything else. Happy as can be.
Anyway, cheers!
I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.
Geany has the same underlying editor component as Notepad++. You might want to try it.
cam confirm is a great replacement.
I was a np++ fan and I use geany on Linux.
Hell yeah dude. I switched full time over a year ago and it’s been great. I still have a Windows partition for VR and modding but it literally went 6 months without getting booted last year. I’m encouraged by your success with VR, as I was under the impression HTCs stuff just didn’t work in Linux due to their middleware.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I’m floored myself. To be fair, I haven’t strayed from using it with Steam VR, so I can’t speak to anything else, but it was literally plug and play. Elite’s graphics were jumpy but all I did to “fix” it was change the quality in the game settings to “VR Ultra” and it was better than it ever was on Windows immediately. I’m gonna do Alyx sometime this week.
Now if only big companies got the memo and started porting professional software to Linux …
Welcome! :D It’s like a breath of fresh air, huh?
Linux has come a long way. Gaming support has really improved over the last few years and all the games I tried so far have worked. But the bad thing is windows comes default on most computers and most people don’t stray from the default.
