Thankfully I've moved away from Windows completely. Unfortunately I still need to use it at work and using it for development is a pain compared to Linux.
Today's Linux is not the same clunky mess it was 15 or even 10 years ago. If you don't run any strange hardware or don't require Windows-only applications (that Wine/Proton don't handle) then the experience is great.
I moved to PopOS about a year ago; I've tried a few times to move to Linux and until this most recent jump I've had to move back. It's gotten a lot better than it used to be, although I have to acknowledge that it's still got some rough edges. In a vacuum I'd probably go back to Windows, but Microsoft has been actively making the Windows experience worse as well to the point that I'll deal with the occasional Linux hiccups.
(Well, that, and I'm actually having FUN with my computer again...)
The main blocker for me is still the Nvidia drivers, with Xorg itself having deal-breaker limitations that are never going to get fixed and Wayland on NV still not being quite there yet. Yeah it would be smoother sailing with an AMD card but that's a pretty big caveat when Nvidia has 78% of the market per the Steam survey.
Agreed. I've always found the nvidia drivers to be a pain in the neck and a source of system instability in Linux systems and have actively avoided nvidia hardware.
I've been running a RTX 3060 on Debian 12 under Gnome+Wayland for quite some time now (Nearly a year I think!). It's stable enough that I rarely notice anything to complain about. Sleep and resume works, though resume is quite slow. I can play just about any game on Steam including most Windows-only titles, not to mention GPU Compute workloads. It hasn't always been smooth sailing on Linux but I haven't experienced any significant problems with this platform:
Same here, I migrated to Linux a few years ago and have backhandedly enjoyed reading the continuous flow of headlines such as this one.
The only thing I've needed to bit into Windows for is Android rooting programs that are Windows only. I'm a long-reformed hardcore gamer, so I can't speak to Nvidia drivers, but did recently today through Deus Ex via Steam on Linux, the setup for which was a relatively pain free experience.
Edited to add: PopOS, Debian, and Ubuntu have been the flavours, with my daily driver being Pop.
I use WSL for work as well and in my opnion it fits Microsoft's classic "embrace, extend, extinguish" paradigm.
WSL basically prevents most from requesting from the IT dept, A full blown Linux desktop/Laptop because they will simply say "you want Linux? here have WSL, it is 100% Linux", Which it is really not, WSL's idiosyncrasies from a true Linux Desktop drives me nuts at times.
I use Windows for one thing now. To play a single game that is not available on Linux or the Mac. I don't know how much longer I will be playing that game.
Wow, they finally did it. I remember “third party ads in the Start menu” was brought up inside MSFT back in the early 2000s, in a mostly joking fashion. I guess it was inevitable.
Pretty good. There is only one exception, RDR2, there is a mission where it was crashing for me. Switching to proton experimental solved the issue and I am about to finish it (again, love this game)
I've been playing Baldurs Gate, and Guidwars 2 without issue. I originally started out on endeavorOS which lasted a while, but eventually needed the stability of PopOS since I have dev work on the same machine.
Pop has a version that ships with Nvidia proprietary drivers which made things easier (RTX 4080). Only thing missing for me is HDR support. I'm very happy to give that up to avoid Windows.
Gaming on Linux is actually pretty great these days - thanks in no small part to Valve and their momentous efforts in the space, proton included.
If you run into an issue, it's almost always the Anti-Cheat software to blame. There are many games that run very well in single player modes, but then force-quit if you try to join multiplayer (as-in the anti-cheat kicks you or deliberately crashes the game). I'm not aware of any work-arounds that are reliable for this - and you risk a ban in trying so. They detect you're not on Windows and refuse to work.
Games that don't use aggressive Anti-Cheat work fine, even in multiplayer. There's a huge catalog of games that work natively these days, and proton takes care of just about everything else.
Steam mostly "just works" with all games. There's Lutris, Bottles and more for everything else.
I've replaced my start menu with Open-Shell which is quite customisable... and doesn't need settings changed on a regular basis to opt-out of advertising!
Readit News
Today's Linux is not the same clunky mess it was 15 or even 10 years ago. If you don't run any strange hardware or don't require Windows-only applications (that Wine/Proton don't handle) then the experience is great.
(Well, that, and I'm actually having FUN with my computer again...)
- Asus Motherboard - Intel 13700k (not significantly overclocked) - 128GB DDR4 - nVidia 3060 12GB
The only thing I've needed to bit into Windows for is Android rooting programs that are Windows only. I'm a long-reformed hardcore gamer, so I can't speak to Nvidia drivers, but did recently today through Deus Ex via Steam on Linux, the setup for which was a relatively pain free experience.
Edited to add: PopOS, Debian, and Ubuntu have been the flavours, with my daily driver being Pop.
It was literally an ad in the start menu search that got me to start using Linux full time. (Insiders a couple years ago).
WSL basically prevents most from requesting from the IT dept, A full blown Linux desktop/Laptop because they will simply say "you want Linux? here have WSL, it is 100% Linux", Which it is really not, WSL's idiosyncrasies from a true Linux Desktop drives me nuts at times.
I seem to remember articles about that.
Pop has a version that ships with Nvidia proprietary drivers which made things easier (RTX 4080). Only thing missing for me is HDR support. I'm very happy to give that up to avoid Windows.
If you run into an issue, it's almost always the Anti-Cheat software to blame. There are many games that run very well in single player modes, but then force-quit if you try to join multiplayer (as-in the anti-cheat kicks you or deliberately crashes the game). I'm not aware of any work-arounds that are reliable for this - and you risk a ban in trying so. They detect you're not on Windows and refuse to work.
Games that don't use aggressive Anti-Cheat work fine, even in multiplayer. There's a huge catalog of games that work natively these days, and proton takes care of just about everything else.
Steam mostly "just works" with all games. There's Lutris, Bottles and more for everything else.
Microsoft are just attempting a classic double-dip; pay for Windows and also get the ads endemic to digital life! What's not to love...
More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40142667