Yeah that’s hard to see when i have to boot windows for work every weekday.

The issues are the little things, like 300ms lag here or there where things are instant on Linux. Or the flashing taskbar icon when an app wants your attention. Or the obfuscated settings. Or the ‘everything is an edge applet’. Or the cpu fans racing to send data back and forth with MS services. (Seriously try simplewall sometime. It’s scary to see the connections, and blocking them makes your computer silent)

Booting into Linux at the end of the day is such a relief every single time.

I just use it if the package/dependencies aren’t available or functional in the default arch repo. I like to be able to turn nuts and bolts but also avoid it when it’s inconvenient.

2 package managers is fine for me.

The desktop environment is just the graphical interface. The OS doesn’t handle the GUI(not directly), some people run Linux without a GUI at all, opting for life in the command line. (Don’t do that) Plasma is just a flavor of it that looks more windows like (but customizable beyond a windows user’s wildest imagination). Gnome looks more Mac like.

You might run across the term Compositor, this sits between the OS and the DE. IT handles graphical input(mouse, game controllers) and display. Wayland is newer with modern features, Xorg is technically more reliable but legacy and missing some modern elements. You don’t have to worry about this unless it comes up in a prompt when you install your distro. If it does, go with the suggested option in the prompt. Otherwise default to Wayland.

I suggest revisiting dual boot, despite your history. You want to have grub/Linux on it’s own hard drive, in a Linux style filesystem (I think i used ext4) and default to it in bios. Then get the windows boot registered in grub.

Windows won’t know about grub that way, no way to mess with it.

Windows 10 EOL doesn’t mean it will stop working. If sims has trouble just use win.

Mint or a gaming focused distro. Not arch/endeavor/manjaro unless you’re comfortable with Linux CLI already

I’ve used this config with win11 for a year now, zero issues. This way your partner can have less of a headache over your antics.

2 requirements for arch:

1. Not fearful of CLI
2. Able to RTFM.
3. Willing to spend a whole day on your first install

that’s it. That’s also not MOST PC users. Just suggest popos or mint or that one “gaming” distro and let them enjoy it.

If they want to nerd out after they’re used to Linux they will learn the CLI. If they want to, they’ll find Arch or whatever DIY/rolling whatever distro.

Nice!

Huh, works well for me, ig updates come a little late sometimes but never unable to use it.

Seems to be program by program. Usually an issue with plasma or wayland or drivers.

Godot had some driver issues. Inkscape had issues with the interface fonts.

Plasma 6/wayland

Be aware that some apps will install fine from the arch repo but some others will be better installed from flatpack (e.g. inkscape) or directly as an executable (e.g. Godot).

On steam you may need to specify your video card if you run an AMD card using the DRI prime command. Some games will require -vulkan to use vulkan rather than game settings.

Note: experience may vary by compositor (xorg/wayland), desktop environment, drivers, system hardware, and your willingness to dive into details.

This is what i do. Just ensure version control is enabled. Works perfectly.

Interesting. I think signal is maintained in the arch repository so it was easy for me.

EasyEffects was the one where flatpack saved me. Bought a cheap headset, needed boost on mic gain.

I’m beginning to see the value in flatpack. It brings that kind of experience.

Win11 feels like a half built facade placed over the Win10 interface. For example, to compress a file from the right click menu you have to click “show more options” which just switches to the Win10 menu. Also, moving away from text in context menus and replacing with an inconsistently formatted icon only menu is an assault on the user IMO.

I don’t feel like saying plasma 6 or gnome is cherry picking. Plasma, at least to me, feels very polished. The theme management is incredible, diverse, and easy too. I feel it’s better aesthetically out of the box, but with negligible effort a theme can be installed to exceed commercial competition.

Windows 10 felt decently fleshed out and very clean, but often you still had to use the old control panel and other menus.

Android is clean and polished but limiting in customizability. Android UI apps seem to break completely every couple updates until the maintainer patches. There’s no consistency between devices/manufacturers either.

I haven’t used an Apple product since 2006 so i can’t speak for those.

Their grammar checking though, insufferable when you use complex sentence structure.

Functionality is a program by program thing, at least Wayland.