When will they ever learn?
This is literally a “I need to meet an OKR” decision
Linux Mint is so awesome.
I have many linux distros running in the house for servers and self hosted software but the one box i havent swapped yet is my daily driver system. Microsoft is pushing me ever closer but with some titles still not supporting linux and getting to the end of a day i just want to game not debug something.
Its getting close though. Fuck this timeline. I looked at Pop OS and bazzite as out of the box gaming distros but am open to anything.
It’s worth the switch. Bazzite Is a solid choice. I would stay away from PopOS for now. CachyOS is a great high performance choice, especially if you have Linux experience.
So i have ubuntu, mint, and pop os running currently. And unraid if that counts.
Could you toss out 3-5 solid distros that good for gaming compatibility or general use? I will look up cachy OS. Also id i may ask whats up with pop os? Drama in the distro?
Along with bazzite and cachyos, I will throw in Nobara which is fedora but gaming focused and supported by glorious egg roll.
Has been the distro I have had the most success with, even if I have had to go back to windows because of certain sim racing stuff being a bit rubbish on Linux(for now)
Thank you for the recommendation! I will add it to my list.
They’ve moved to cosmic DE, which isn’t quite ready for primetime in my opinion. Best distros for gaming in my opinion would be cachy, fedora, bazzite. I use Arch, which I feel is the best choice, but not for everyone.
After not ever having set up a gaming focused distro, I gotta say, I was shocked at how seamless CachyOS makes it. Outside of creating the install media, installing CachyOS and getting everything set up to game takes like 10 minutes.
Want games are holding you back. Between lutris and steam’s proton compatibility I personally haven’t run across much.
So as i started to list out all software on my windows box to check for linux support i cane across a game. HBS battletech 2018, with the battletech advanced mod. Is a overhaul. They have linux instructions but its not a guarantee.
Ohhh I will jump on this one as well.
EAs WRC is unsupported, this isn’t a deal breaker by itself but is a contributing factor. AC Rally isn’t in a place to challenge it for now, but should get there eventually. I could also play more dirt rally 2.0 as well
Le Mans Ultimate, the performance for me is unacceptable. Jumping from 30 to 140fps and makes me feel motion sick because of that. It is my main racing sim, and dealing with that for long endurance races is impossible. Yes I had the LMU fork of proton, it is the only way to get into races. But the LMU Devs are not exactly Linux friendly and aren’t trying to help out.
And that’s about it for games that don’t work for me. If LMU worked as well or close to on Linux as it does on windows I would switch. But it is such a huge portion of my pc use I am having to use windows for now
All of EA’s new titles use Javelin anti-cheat. It uses a Windows kernel module, so it’s not possible to run with Wine/Proton.
Given that EA forces users to run what is effectively a rootkit just to play their games, I feel like the only good choice is to stop playing those games altogether. Or, at the very least, compartmentalize your gaming machine and the network it’s on.
Yeah this along with their insistent focus of producing AI slop makes me not even want to look at games from EA. I admittedly haven’t even tried any recent EA games but that has more been due to lack of interest in their recent titles.
EA’s games and many anti cheat games arent able to be ran on Linux. Not because its technically not able to, but officially speaking, many anti cheat just ban Linux outright.
Shame.
Who’s computer is it?
Corporates drool over the idea of making it their computer and having you pay monthly for a service (right to use it)
What a coincidence, I want to edge every time I open my computer.
If my school didn’t absolutely require windows I would be fully Linux at this point.
https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/
Winapps might be of help to you.
I do have a few other pet peewees too for Linux, despite having that on my ThinkPad.
- GDB is pretty uncomfortable to use.
- The only usable GDB GUI is a glorified webpage by none other, than Micro$lop.
- Some low-level API (sound, input, etc.) are absolutely dogshit compared to their Windows counterparts (still haven’t found anything on how to specify to ALSA if I want to open a device other that
default, and how exactly, just found a massive issue with Evdev, etc.). - Want something better than those? jUsT USe sDl, except SDL is kind of dogshit under Windows (DirectInput/XInput + DirectAudio instead of newer APIs), could not get its audio system working at all as people were instead suggesting me to use MP3 player DLLs instead of writing my own audio solutions, etc.
Bit specific, but for opening an audio device other than default, you should use the API of a sound server. Pulseaudio’s for instance. The new hotness is Pipewire, and it has its own API, but it also supports the Pulseaudio API and AFAWK most clients (apps and things) are still using that.
The sound server sits on top of ALSA and handles all the routing and mixing and shit. ALSA is lower level than what you need as an app/user program dev.
(Pipewire also supports the JACK API. Music apps and such used to use JACK because it was lower latency than Pulseaudio. Which meant you had to stop Pulse and start JACK and lose all sound from your other apps and it was a right pain. Pipewire just does both.)
– Frost
VS Code is far from the best GDB GUI; in fact I would confidently say that everything about running and debugging in VS Code has been the biggest pain I have ever experienced. even with its recent decade of inattention from the community, Eclipse CDT is miles better than this thing. i’d wager that even Qt Creator is better than it
Anyways, JetBrains recently made CLion free for non-commercial, so that’s what you should use. it is obviously better than VS Code
Honestly (and probably naïvely), what exactly is it that Windows can do that you couldn’t do on another OS? Why would a school need to force such a retarded requirement?
As someone who has been dealing with exactly this issue with my new employer’s enterprise ICT department, I have some insight to share.
When you have thousands and thousands of laptops that you need to manage, it becomes a burden for the in-house IT department, so they often farm it out to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is particularly common for organisations like schools and hospitals that often don’t even have an in-house IT department. The MSP will install policies and management software on the laptops to ensure the OS is up to date, the antivirus is not disabled, the VPN is configured correctly, passwords are changed regularly, etc.
Yes of course there are linux-native solutions for each of these things, but the MSP doesn’t support it, doesn’t offer that service. To keep their service prices affordable for enterprise organisations, MSPs usually hire the lowest cost technicians and support staff. These poor underpaid staff probably have never even heard of Linux. The MSP can increase their marketable value by advertising the certifications they’ve attained. The certifications are provided by Microsoft and are related to Microsoft software and systems.
If you have a small fleet of devices and an in-house IT team that has a bunch of Linux enthusiasts, and a user base who drives demand, then it is possible to support Linux. But it requires a lot of effort and dedication. My old employer did that. They had a fleet of around 5,500 devices (a mix of desktops and laptops), mostly Windows, approx 500 of them were macbooks, and about 50 were Linux. Some of these were users who needed to use software that is available only on Linux, some were like me who are simply more productive and efficient using a linux-based OS. But maintaining, administering and supporting those 50 Linux devices took around 20% of the time of the IT department. That’s massively disproportionate to the number of Linux users.
Not long after I left there, the new CTO put an end to that, they saw and easy cost saving by simply refusing to allow users to have any OS other than Windows.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this is such great detail! You’ve made it crystal clear 😊👌
I have colleagues at MSPs who have never used linux in their lifetime. The linux foundation offers certificates and the LPI linux certificates are another option. Even in enterprise IT, linux is seen as a mythical animal that is unheard of and can only be managed through the terminal. active directory has a gui. yes it causes friction and fear because it’s not reassuring like a gui is.
Yeah true, I’ve got to regularly remind myself that for most professionals working in IT, the only thing they know about Linux is it’s that esoteric free OS that you get preinstalled on a cheap VPS, used for hosting WordPress sites by people who are too cheap to pay for a windows licence. At least, that’s the view that my colleagues at the last two places In worked at had.
This is a fairly naive take. It’s this way because the infrastructure is built this way. If it was easy for an org to entirely switch to Linux, they would.
Ease of management and surveillance (most such tools marketed at schools are Windows only), first class integration into active directory for user and computer account management, hardware agnostic (rules out macos), and it’s already integrated into the IT team’s systems and processes so switching would be a major effort.
That makes sense, thank you! I wasn’t really thinking about managing “internal” computers, only in terms of “you must use this specific software on your (personal) computer”, which clearly ignores huge parts of the issue.
Run kernel level anticheat like EA Javelin.
I assume there’s an implicit /s here 😅
Could someone PLEASE build an idiot proof way to permanently remove Edge from your system!?
Install Linux
Then, install the Linux version of edge for the perverse thrill
Winhance, winscript, edgevanisher
If they were actively trying to push people towards Linux, would their choices look any different? Perplexing.
IMO they’d be wise to take every step they can to make the OS feel like it belongs to the user, but more and more the attitude seems to be “it’s our OS, so we do what we want” which is their right, but it’s shit marketting that makes them feel more like Apple every day.
I have an idea. Linux should start automatically everytime you boot you PC.
IDK that seems pretty invasive
Perhaps just GRUB and waiting for my input one extra time to confirm I actually want to use my PC at that time
I just have one kernel and one Distro with secure boot. So I directly use UEFI.
I honestly might switch to Linux. I know people say that a lot, but gaming has been the only thing keeping me on Windows.
But I’ve also come to realize I just don’t have that much free time to game any more. Most of my computer use is putting YouTube on in the background or web browsing. I still occasionally game, but Linux support keeps improving and even if I only pick Linux supported games… I still won’t have enough time to play them all.
Gaming works great on Linux now and often better. The only scenarios I can think of where things are majorly behind are competitive games with anti cheat that doesn’t work on Linux and anything requiring peripherals with custom software, for example SIM racing. This means that the vast majority of games work great!
Sim racing works great for me. Anything from Moza, Logitech, and even my PXN wheel “just worked” out of the box on cachyOS. Bazzite is now getting wheel support. I did have to add USB descriptors for udev rules on my simmsonn pedals, and also learn to always disable steam input and use glorious eggroll proton. JacKeTus did a fantastic job with the ffb driver and I see him on matrix ALL THE TIME helping newbies and getting stuff working.
I game often, and 100% on Linux. Unless you’re doing competitive multiplayer games with kernel level anti-cheat (read: rootkit malware), games run perfectly fine.
Good news!
Apparently DeNovo’s been hacked!
P.S. I’m shit at games… so I don’t know if this actually really matters 😝
The Denuvo workaround only runs on Windows and creates the mother of all security holes.
Yeah… I finished up the Tom’s article. Nope, I lied… I just gave up on reading it 😌
It just seems like something that could be encapsulated, no? I guess since they call it a hypervisor bypass it sits below the virtualization layer… which is essentially Greek to me. About 1 million years ago, I tried to get solid Works to run in a Windows VM on Lennox and it wouldn’t work. Best I could tell they were using device names that the virtual machine substituted for real hardware… I tried to recompile it and change the names, but I gave up because I didn’t care that much. Since I was using Solidworks pretty much all the time a dedicated machine wasn’t a big deal… as hard as most gamers game, that seems like the route I would go if it were me.
A deadhead gaming box more-or-less isolated… obviously it’s not exactly gaming on Linux, but if you’re playing a game on a windows computer from your Linux desktop… I’d argue that it’s the next best thing.
There are two exceptions to this still, STALKER Gamma doesn’t work on Linux still and SKSEx64 doesn’t work either. Also modding Baldurs gate 3 through Nexus is fucky.
I’ve been gaming on Linux for over ten years now: It has gotten to the point where the only major hurdle is kernel-level anti-cheat. Which does work in Linux, but the developer has to enable it to work in Linux, and most don’t. This is only a factor in competitive multiplayer games. I’m not into those so basically I haven’t noticed, I want to run a game, it runs.
Flash a distro onto a usb and boot from that to test drive it and ensure your hardware is compatible - zero risk.
I switched to Linux a year or two ago. Pretty much every game I’ve played has worked fine. (Elden ring, guild wars 2, nioh2, pillars of eternity…)
Even non-steam stuff was basically click and go with Heroic launcher
I’ll be that guy, use bazzite. Unless your doing advanced shit or VR it’s basically everything you need in a simple package. Shit I didn’t even have to install drivers for my… well everything.
Only annoying thing I’m finding is my Firefox audio goes wonky sometimes while using the built in audio booster (FF extensions that boost audio were even worse) but rebooting Firefox fixes it.
I recommend installing Ventoy on a USB stick, then putting some ISOs on there of various distros to try. Like CachyOS, Bazzite, or perhaps Kubuntu.
You can boot into them straight from the Ventoy USB stick without having to format the USB between new tests.
And if you end up liking one over the others you can install straight from the stick.
You can do it, I believe in you random internet stranger!
As long as you don’t jump on AAA title games on launch day, you’ll be fine gaming on Linux.
That, or if you are a fortnite, LoL addict… Those don’t work for reasons totally up to the devs.
You can test most Linux distros using a “live” image on a thumb drive. If you put Ventoy on a drive, you can try as many ISOs as you can fit on the drive.
Bazzite or Fedora are both really good places to start.
FYI, Bazzite may have issues with Ventoy. It is recommended to use the Fedora Media Writer. I learned this a couple months ago.
Come on in, the water is great!
I don’t consider myself to be an advanced PC user, but even I was able to get Arch Linux to run with some googling and tinkering as my first dive into Linux. I really think you should make the switch if you don’t have any work restrictions. I dualboot still, just in case, but I can’t remember the last time I needed to use Windows.
Like you and the others say, if you have limited time gaming or don’t play AAA on launch day, that’s just one more reason not to use Windows! Good luck!
Doesn’t “consider [themselves] to be an advanced PC user…”
Picks Arch as their first Linux distro.
Found Linus Sebastian.
I only did it to try to impress people online lol.
Everything is like a Hodge Podge of fixes just to make it work, so if anyone asks me about the inner workings of everything, I wouldn’t be able to answer like 75% of it. I’m still learning.
Nah, he would have removed his DE.
Lol that loser can’t even install popos right
Your scenario sounds like mine. Don’t game much anymore and definitely don’t play triple A crap that requires kernel.level anti cheat. Been on bazzite for about 6 mos and everything has been great. So much better than Windows.
Zorin OS is a good one if you want a nice UI transition from Windows or Mac.
Pop_OS has been a piece of cake to use. Switched last year, never looking back.
I just gonna go live in the woods and take up bird watching or something.
If you want to open Edge without actually wanting to open it, just accidentally click on one of the advertisements in the main menu or any info area widget. Those ignore the default browser and always open Edge.
My new work computer on both teams and outlook just open edge with any links too ignoring my default browser preference. My last one obeyed like a good computer.
There’s an edge redirector app you can get which redieects edge:// links to your default browser
You can change this in settings.
There are links that use a specific “edge” link type that you can’t assign to other browsers without admin access. So if it’s a work computer you’re kinda boned
You can definitely change Teams to use the default browser and not edge without admin access.
I’m pretty sure you can do the same with Outlook. Other links such as the start search menu sure you can’t change them.
one of the advertisements in the main menu or any info area widget
Okay, my biggest issue right with that has nothing to do with Edge.
deleted by creator
Microslop promising to improve windows 11 and give users agency back.
5 minutes later…
Have sex with me now?
( ) Yes
( ) Remind me in 3 days
I prefer Firefox, so I was using that as default browser. Windows asked me every fucking time I started my laptop if I wanted to use edge as default. Sometimes it just went ahead and made the change anyway. Windows was consuming loads of my download data, fuck knows what for. Then the copilot stuff. Finally installed mint and feel like I got my laptop back.
Welcome to the Linux family. 🤌🫂
Thanks, feels good 👍
Mint is great! I use Debian personally, but I really like Linux Mint and Cinnamon desktop. I think it’s a great fit for a lot of people who just want normal computer experience. Also there’s a misconception that Linux Mint is only for beginners, and while a lot of people migrate to some other distro eventually, staying with Mint is fine even if you want to learn Linux more deeply at some point.
Once I went Linux I loved computing again. I was getting angry at my PC every time I used it before due to backward ass idiot microslop decisions.
Was there no registry key that you could modify to stop that behaviour?
I’ve been down that road.
- It’s experimental
- It’s opt-in
- Opt out once when prompted
- Turn off once in Settings
- Turn off once in registry <-- we are here
- Turn off three places in registry
- Turn off every boot in registry
- Install 3rd party app to disable
- Install 3rd party OS to disable
Install 3rd party OS to disable
That’s the first step
And repeat all this horseshit for 50 other things that should be a simple toggle or that way by default.
My only regret is waiting so long to switch to linux. It’s like leaving an abusive spouse for that sweet young thing you’d been crushing on.
lol thanks OK. Appreciate the “we are here” touch, I get it now …
Yeah mean, yeah, probably. But I felt like they’d find a way round it in a month or so, or find something new to aggravate me with. It was getting like whack a mole.
There always is
Its sometimes fun to watch this drama from the otherside. Windows is ‘that other OS’ for me now. I was switching between Linux and Windows a while ago, and made a permanant switch around 2021-ish (I think). I only use Windows at work as I don’t have a choice, and in certain instances where I’m forced to use a Windows device e.g. for online exams, etc…
That’s me too. Every time someone tells me that windows pulled off another shit move, all I can do is laugh at how they choose to deal with that and keep getting fucked.
Mint guy here, since 6 months ago, best choice I have done. If you make some research, in few time you realiese you do not need Microsoft to live in the majority of the cases.
