im currently using windows 11 on msi gf63 laptop. if i used linux i would use ubuntu,bec it seems like the easiest thing.
i game,i use brave browser,i pirate games and software. i also like that my hoarded pirated binaries of games and software will work even years later on windows without too much effort.
i use an hp printer,and need to be able to use it on linux.
i expect to be able to use the laptop and not think about the os too much,meaning i wont distro hop or try to customize it too much. im fine with the terminal,my goal of using linux is being far from malware.
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Ubuntu is a great place to start! You might also look at Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop or Pop_OS. All 3 are great for beginners and have lasted me since the time of Win Vista. I never felt that I out grew them.
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Gaming: use the other links in this post to see if they work. Typically, the older the game, the better chance you can get it to work. Don’t be afraid of following tutorials - tweaking and trying things, just be patient, read it once all the way through before you do it, and google what you don’t understand. It’ll take time but I’ve always felt it’s worth it.
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Brave, yup native linux version. Some might suggest going to firefox or using vivaldi, but you do you Boo - 0 judgement space. (Political reasons - the Brave CEO is a cryptobro, etc)
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Ahoy matey, welcome aboarrrd. Get yourself a good vpn service, stick to the major distros, and you’ll probably be right at home.
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More than likely, your printer will just work. That easy. I’ve had several printers and scanners, hated them all, no end of troubles with mac and windows - not at all with linux in the last 15 years. The man that does most of the work for linux printing is a gawt damn saint.
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You should be right at home in Ubuntu. Gnome does a decent job of getting out of your way once you get used to it. Keep your guard up, I would assume windows malware might still be able to run in wine and it def will in a vm.
Bottom line is you can trust Linux. The learning curve is worth not having an adversarial relationship with your computer.
thanks! what recommenditons do you have for me witj linux?
Make sure to use timeshift or equivalent(system backup and restore), before you mess with any files backup your system, do what you need and if you mess up restore the image and try again, saved me and my non tech gf a few times. Since you are looking at Ubuntu (Gnome DE) you may like Kubuntu a little better (KDE DE). Test the distros before you blow up your current setup to ensure hardware compatibility. Disable or try not to use snaps (some/all of your preinstalled user apps are going to be snaps), setup flatpak and set that as default (I found snaps to be… slightly problematic, where the flatpaks seem to work well. Sandbox is great).
Try to go in steps if possible to iron out issues before a full commitment, nothing worse than being stuck with no other option. Lutris is another wine project that is a great help, especially with their user submitted scripts to install games through a GUI.
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broadly, gain flexibility, lose familiarity. just try it and see.
one thing i’ll spell out, you’ve likely never had to consider the logic by which windows loads dll versions. essentially, if you put a modified dll file in the same folder as an executable, when the executable calls for it that modified dll will be loaded instead of the system’s builtin version. game and software cracks sometimes rely on this principle. but on linux via wine/proton, that isn’t the case. so you’ll need to configure wine/proton to do a “dll override” in some cases (i.e when your game/software crack utilizes a modified dll). the process is pretty straight-forward, the main thing is knowing you need to do it.
If you are invested in Windows software… don’t run Linux. Being able to run Windows software is like a “patch” to get you by until you find a Linux equivalent. Pretending you can have your cake and eat it too will just leave you disappointed.
Linux has amazing software… but in most cases it feels very different from Windows. If you learn why it is different then you may start to appreciate Linux for what it gives you rather than what it takes from you.
im not invested no. all of software i use is generic and can be replaced by linux apps easily. what i really want to work is my browser (brave) and my pirated games.
so what will i gain or lose with linux?
You can get an HP printer without much worry. Games are pretty easy but pirates games are trickier since they might rely on some cracks that are hard to replicate (not my forte). If they are older, you could run them in a virtual machine without much difficulty. I recommend getting a simple Linux mint in a virtual box to see if you like it.
You try it and see if it fits you. This is not a religion. You use what works for you.
Same with religions actually.
Nobody’s ever going to start a war in the middle east to murder a bunch of people because they think that’ll make Tux return.
But you use what works for you.
This is not a religion.
Tell that to arch evangelists
i did try it its nice. i just didnt use it long enough to know if i would lose anything. so can you tell me?
You are the only one who can answer that. Things will change, but if you qualify that as a loss that’s up to you.
In my experience with Linux, where there is a will there is a way. If you want something to run badly enough it will simply work.
Personally I still play Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 a lot, including mods, randomizer etc. I’ve even used cheat engine on those, for example to spawn items at the start of the game to do challenge runs. That’s old software and primarily designed for Windows, it runs just fine on Linux tho.
As someone with MSI gf72 who switched last year with similar use cases and zero prior experience with Linux:
I installed EndeavourOS after reading some recommendations here since its supposed to work good for games and daily use. It’s Arch so I approached it as a challenge but It turned out to be quite effortless from the start. I dual booted it for a few months without issues until Windows update broke my bootloader. After that I did a clean Linux install and never looked back. It’s been rock solid ever since.
I have yet to find a game which doesn’t run either in Bottles or Lutris. Some installers have their quirks but it’s manageable. I only play single player games though.
HP driver for Linux runs my printer without any fiddling from my side.
I don’t get into Command Line much but it’s awesome - installing packages and updating the whole system with a simple command feels like magic. It’s actually much less hassle than Windows.
Ciao, first of all, there are games that use kernel-level anti-cheat software that will not work. The good news is that many companies, seeing the growth of the Linux market, are taking remedial action. For example, EA recently announced that it will adapt its anti-cheat software for Linux. For pirated games, you can install fit-girl with bottles and use bottles to run the games as well. Technically, they should work even after years, because bottles creates a container with all the dependencies it needs to run and is isolated from the rest of the OS. It probably won’t be easy to learn how to use Linux tools right away, but it’s mostly a matter of habit, so first of all, be patient if some things don’t work right away. If you have problems, you can always ask the community. For simpler problems, AI can also be useful.
You would rid yourself of the Windows virus you probably currently have on your computer.
You lose:
- Your corporate shackles
You gain:
- Limitless bragging rights
Your corporate shackles
i came here to say this, but you did it better. lol
other than that. what do i lose or gain?
You gain the loss of the ability to play League of Legends and Fortnite
You loose battery life if on a laptop. Battery life is not as good as on windows. And Apple laptops have insane battery life. I wish ARM laptops where a thing for Linux.
I have to input my experience here.
On what basis are you saying your batter life is less on linux? Do you use power profiles? Which distros you tried? And what kind of laptop is it?(processor is H/U/HS? Have dGPU?)
For me battery life is far better on linux than on windows. On linux(Fedora, with KDE), with balanced or power saving mode, doing the most basic stuff(say opened a pdf document and a browser and looking at it, without much interaction) my laptop, with dGPU and H processor takes like 7watts, giving more than 7hrs batter life for my 51Wh battery.
Windows on the other hand, without any tasks, only settings app open, showed less than 2 hours battery remaining at 80% charge. I didn’t test how long it takes to drain that much battery explivitly, but I belive this number is based on power usage in watts. Which tells me it is using more than 20W power. The reviews for my laptop before buying also said they get around 4 hours in medium usage.
I suspect that previously, the time before power profiles daemon, everything is by default in performance mode because it was aiming PCs, but now it goes so low with power saving modes. The 20W in windows is probably bloatware running in background.
Now, recently I came to know you can “remove” pci devices in linux so that power gets disconnected from the dGPU. Now whenever i use without it plugged in, i use it by removing gpu and it runs in 3.6-4.2W at idle(i.e, open pdf without touching anything, or using vim and compiler in a terminal) which gives me 12 hours of battery life atleast! Theese numbers are unimaginable in windows for my gaming laptop.
This is not just one exception, since my only friend who use linux also reported the same behavior. Windows uses wayyy more battery than linux. And he was even comparing power saving mode in windows vs perdormance mode in linux and linus still wins by 3-4 watts.
I wish more people check theese, since I belived “linux has bad battery life” argument beforehand and only when I compare with windows i found i am gaining a lot of battery life on linux
im currently using windows 11 on msi gf63 laptop. if i used linux i would use ubuntu,bec it seems like the easiest thing.
Ubuntu is popular but I wouldn’t necessarily say easiest. Something like Linux Mint would probably be simpler.
i game,i use brave browser,i pirate games and software. i also like that my hoarded pirated binaries of games and software will work even years later on windows without too much effort.
My child, you’ve come home.
i use an hp printer,and need to be able to use it on linux.
Stop using HP printers. That being said if it was made in the last 5 years it’ll probably work on Linux out of the box.
i expect to be able to use the laptop and not think about the os too much,meaning i wont distro hop or try to customize it too much. im fine with the terminal,my goal of using linux is being far from malware.
I’m a big fan of immutable distros like Bazzite and Bluefin. They’re so stable they’re almost boring. As far as malware goes I would say standard rules apply: scan random binaries before execution, run normal operations as non-root/unprivileged users, patch regularly.
Gaming, cracks and mods would be the biggest issue. Linux gaming happens on Steam, outside of that you’re pretty much never guaranteed to get it running.
So if you have a large library of pirated games, Linux might not be for you.There’s a number of ways to get non-steam games to run through proton or other compatibility tools.
I’m not the expert on that matter because basically everything I play is on steam, but off the top of my head Lutris comes to mind
As far as mods, I’m not a huge modder, so again I’m probably the wrong person, but the handful of mods I do use (mostly some basic quality of life/bug-fix things) I’ve been able to get running on Linux without too much drama. No, there’s not currently a nifty tool like Vortex to automate it for you and you have to manually copy files to the right place and such, but most mods tell you that information, so all you need to do is get used to the folders you’re looking for living in a slightly different place than they did on windows. YMMV if you use more complicated mods than I do of course.
You can literally add most games to Steam as a non-Steam game and it’ll work
There’s some options, but it’s not something I’d rely on to work.
In my experience, there’s about a 10% chance to get something running straight out of the box with Wine, 30% with helpers like Lutris.
With Steam it’s more like 90%, which is about the same as on Windows.yep, this.
basically, games that need some extra dll file to get mods running, it’s generally just adding WINEDLLOVERRIDES=“nameofthedll=n,b” as env var for the game and off to modded adventures it is.
I haven’t tested this, but fairly sure you could just install vortex, mo2 or whatever other modmanager to same prefix as where the game is.
I haven’t tested this, but fairly sure you could just install vortex, mo2 or whatever other modmanager to same prefix as where the game is.
Yeah, you can use protontricks to execute any executable inside the WINE environment. You can take the command used to do that and put it in a .desktop file so you can run the program from a desktop icon or launcher.
Installing mods mostly considered a ‘problem’ by the standard of gaming on Steam where you just press play and let Proton take the wheel. If you were running games through WINE prior to Proton, it is much easier now.
Installing Vortex in the same prefix definitly works. But there is also Steam Tinker Launch that will manage varius mod managers for you if the game is at least launched through steam.
I haven’t tested this, but fairly sure you could just install vortex, mo2 or whatever other modmanager to same prefix as where the game is.
mostly, though mo2 at least has had pretty bad ui issues every time i’ve tried
granted the last time was ~6 months ago and there may be workarounds that i didn’t find for whatever reason but ymmv
i use an hp printer,and need to be able to use it on linux.
Then research if your specific model has compatibility issues (AFAIK HP stuff generally works well, but… it’s up to you to check before buying)
i expect to be able to use the laptop and not think about the os too much
That will happen, if you are lucky or if you buy hardware that specifically supports linux.
Would you expect macos to run on a dell computer? would you expect windows to run on a mac? linux has much broad compatibility but is no different: if it doesn’t work on your PC it’s not linux’s fault.
my goal of using linux is being far from malware
Just follow basic hygiene and you’ll be fine. Most importantly, don’t install malware yourself (chrome is available on linux too and, sadly, it’s also widely used).
what exactly is basic hygiene on linux? on windows it would be to scan your stuff,make sure its the real site etc
on windows it would be to scan your stuff,make sure its the real site etc
It’s the same on Linux (*), with two big differences:
- you’ll install most (all?) of your software from the repos of your distro of choice, so most of the times you don’t have to worry
- linux is inherently more secure than Windows (and AFAIK there are less viruses targeting it, either because they are harder to write or because it’s a smaller target), so you are not as likely to catch viruses.
If you install niche software from app stores (even reputable ones), you’ll have to make sure to check it’s the real deal (I think both the snap store and flathub had fake cryptowallets?), but if you stick to relatively mainstream software you’ll be fine (I mean, it’s not like you’ll find fake versions of steam or blender on flathub).
That said, the risk is there just as with Windows (or your phone, or anything else): a good operative system helps, but ultimately you are the real line of defense.
(*) well, IDK about scanning… generally speaking, if you feel like you have to scan something before opening it, just don’t open it :) (yeah I know it’s not possible if - eg - you receive files from customers)
Depends really on the games and software you require.
For games, check:
- https://www.protondb.com/ - people post their experiences with games if they work or not.
- https://areweanticheatyet.com/ - lists of anticheat enabled games which work or not.
- https://appdb.winehq.org/ - wine’s appdb has games and general applications listed, with some info on how they work or not. Some info is absolutely ancient at this point.
In general, indies and singleplayer games generally work fine. Battlefield/Fortnite/etc hugely popular multiplayer stuff with kernel-level anticheats generally doesn’t.
I’ve only ever set up few printers to work on linux, and they’ve been bigger office printers. And they’ve all worked with minimal effort. Absolutely no idea about home printers.
edit: as for windows software support, generally win-apps run on wine. Some really well, some with issues, and then some just dont. Afaik eg. ancient versions of Photoshop run, more recent ones don’t.
I run a windows version of a music software (renoise) because my effects/instruments have only windows versions. It works, but performance isn’t quite as good as it was on actual windows.
Absolutely no idea about home printers.
I have 2, a samsung and a canon :3 both work OOTB. Can’t speak on HP printers, but chances are OP can find that with a web search of the model
CUPS just works
All the homies love CUPS
Samsung is now HP I reckon. Mine laser one works just fine, too.
I’ve been able to use my brother laser printer with Linux, not quite out of the box, by it’s an older model, I think newer ones are more plug and play
I’ve only ever set up few printers to work on linux, and they’ve been bigger office printers. And they’ve all worked with minimal effort. Absolutely no idea about home printers.
Most (all?) printers and scanners released in past decade and some supports driverless printing and scanning. As long as you have printing related systems installed on your computer, most printers should be just plug and play. Especially those that are connected over network.
how do you run it? with wine? does it run good ?
The daw/music software? Just wine. used wine to install the app & vst plugins, then just using the “start menu” shortcut for the app to run it. I did have to use winetricks to install dxvk on the prefix (without it, some plugin ui’s did not work properly), but after that it works fine.
as for “does it run good” - well enough for me. Some of the guitar/bass amps and instruments I use seem to use noticeably more cpu than on windows
i never play any online games only pirated ones. i do have fitgirl call of duty tho,would that work?
would you recommend i get linux?
I don’t know, I don’t play cod. See the links from previous replies for that.
as for should you get linux, only you can answer that once you’ve done the research
i suppose i can try running it there. i think it should work bec it would be striped of drm
Probably. I run Fitgirl GTA V with wine
Wine works well for me on Manjaro. Once it’s installed and run for the first time, it’s been seamless. I think every now and then you might find a game that requires an additional patch to run.
You’re running games through wine and not Proton?
