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Sick of Microsoft and Windows 10? Wondering about Linux?

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Well, hopefully soon you will have a useful idea of whether it's viable - and if it is, a good guide on how best to achieve it.

Koroush Ghazi runs the TweakGuides site - one I've been using for info and whose guides I have purchased in the past 14 years or more(though he does free versions, too) and is a guy I trust about what's what in the realm of operating systems and gaming optimisation.

At the top here, is his latest post....

http://www.tweakguides.com/

Hopefully, all will go well and we will have as good a guide as his past ones, on how best to make the switch.
I've made Linux O/S DVDs in the past, but never had all the info I need, or not been able to collate everything, to make an informed decision about whether it's a good idea to change, and then how to go about it in the best way. So I'm really pleased about this - and hope it goes well for Koroush, so he can help the rest of us.

If a decent competitor to Windows were to suddenly appear on the Market, I am convinced that MS would be in serious trouble - but that is highly unlikely, so the only remaining choice is to try and make the best of what is already available.

Here's hoping.



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14 REPLIES 14

RattyUK
Trustee
@Brixmis  - In truth the many flavours of Linux have been a very good desktop replacement to Windows for a few years, providing the user doesn't require some Windows specific functionality.
That's where the downside comes in - many games and some hardware are only supported in Windows as the Linux userbase is way to small to consider.
Oculus is not (and likely will never be) a supporter of 'other' OS's, games writers don't develop outside of the massive markets (excluding a minority) as there is no profit to be made there...

Wine is making massive advances in the software it will support, VR is getting some love by the community but is still far from the experience Windows gives, even Steam has nodded in the right direction with SteamOS but as an OS that leaves a LOT to be desired.

You could switch to a Linux distribution tomorrow and be doing everything equally as easily (and with better secutity) as you are doing today - except for playing games and rifting...

I've had OpenSuse/Suse as default OS on my machines for years but still need Windows to play some of my favourite games, and nowadays to use the rift...
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Digikid1
Consultant
I use Mint with the GNOME interface. Excellent experience. Linux is superior to windows in every way....except gaming. 

Windows 10 is my secondary OS. 

In ALL of the computers that I build and sell there is ALWAYS a secondary Linux OS on them.

edmg
Trustee
I basically use Linux for anything other than games. Even some Windows games play pretty well on Linux through Wine: I played a lot of Fallout 3 on my old Linux laptop that had a dedicated GPU, for example.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Yes, I agree, games and especially VR will have to stay on Windows for now. All my other PCs or laptops that aren't running a version of 7 will be changed, though - if Koroush recommends it.

Just a sidenote on that - I changed my admin PC, which used to be my VR PC, onto Windows 10 and it has never run so badly. This PC I'm on now is my gaming rig, on Win 10, and it runs very well. The admin PC used to - but it seems with each update it gets worse and worse. I admittedly don't keep it in fine fettle, set-up wise, as I do this one, but nevertheless, it runs worse than anything I've had for over a decade.

I only use it for finances and to run Windows Media Centre (for TV), so it's not as if I've bogged it down with bloatware, either.
I'm about to switch it back to Windows 7 until Koroush does his thing. I think Microsoft have sabotaged 7 in any case, to try and get users to swap to 10 - so I'll be using an older version and using extra security measures to be safe.

Either way, it's not staying on 10. Actually, I have a decently running rig in that room, too - it's Windows 98 and it runs the progs I need very well 😉 just doesn't like the HD monitor.

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JaimieVandenber
Heroic Explorer

Brixmis said:
Just a sidenote on that - I changed my admin PC, which used to be my VR PC, onto Windows 10 and it has never run so badly. This PC I'm on now is my gaming rig, on Win 10, and it runs very well. The admin PC used to - but it seems with each update it gets worse and worse. I admittedly don't keep it in fine fettle, set-up wise, as I do this one, but nevertheless, it runs worse than anything I've had for over a decade.


Windows doesn't update well, never has. Trash and reinstall from scratch and put your stuff back on, is my general recommendation after being in corporate tech support for near 30 years now. There's no point trying to fix a Windows that's gone slow, it takes way more time to try things than just redo. 
It gets you to have your reinstall routine smooth as well... the few apps that don't need installers, your installers and licenses, and a few config tweaks to get the UI back as you want. Well, I mean it's Win10 and doesn't accept much modification any more, but still.

cybereality
Grand Champion
I'm running Linux on one of my machines. It's definitely improved in recent years, especially in terms of hardware driver support, but it's still not as good as Windows in that respect. There are also lots of apps that don't work like Photoshop, Maya LT, etc. and the open-source alternatives like GIMP or Blender are nowhere near as good. And, of course, the gaming selection is much less. So you can make it work, and it's nice to have lots of free open-source software, but I think it would be hard to overtake Windows in the features I mentioned any time soon.
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Last time I used Unix was the early 90s when I was at University. That was back in the days when it was a command line interface and the GUI was X Windows which wasn't widely used.

Yes. I'm that old. lol  😄

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP

snowdog said:

Last time I used Unix was the early 90s when I was at University. That was back in the days when it was a command line interface and the GUI was X Windows which wasn't widely used.

Yes. I'm that old. lol  😄


Ha, I remember going through Engineering at University in the mid 70's, waiting in line to feed a Fortran card reader (and after having to redo this because one card was either damaged or misplaced).  Also, HP-45 programable calculators that we all thought of as laptops back then.  They cost ~$400 back then, so ~$2,200 now, lol!  Most of us could not afford those HP's so we had to make do with cheap (~$50) Sears calculators and/or Slide Rules.  Oh ya, and our mom's never drove us to school either...…..
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JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Laptops? That's new tech isn't it?

The army taught me basic programming of some description - think it was on an Acorn - in 1982. I remember I had to have a cover over the keyboard, so that I couldn't see any of the keys. Today I struggle to remember what I did yesterday....! 😞

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2