I did. The first couple months were... An experience. But after getting used to all the different ways things work (many of which are, honestly, way better), it's quite, quite nice.
Some of my hardware even works better: the drawing tablet's drivers don't crash and the audio latency is much less!
Similar experience here. The first month was rough as I got everything installed and configured. But it's been pretty solid in the 4 months since then. I am glad I switched.
I switched around 2 years ago after using different distros on and off for a few years on an old laptop, and I’ve never been happier with my computing experience.
One thing I will say is you will have to find replacements for some of your favourite applications, but I’ve found that pretty much every alternative has been better. And if you need suggestions just ask the community or you can DM me.
Also just pick Mint or if you really have to Ubuntu(though I would definitely pick mint) as a first distro as that will give you the best out of the box experience and a beginner friendly community( unlike Arch’s which I daily drive).
Then switch if you want a different distro( and I would suggest trying it out in a VM), just don’t get a distro hopping addiction😆.
I already have a Raspberry Pi and a Linux VM for development reasons, but I also need Windows for that very same reason. Sometimes Windows APIs are much better than what we have on Linux (ALSA is a janky and laggy mess), and some dev tools are nicer there too (at least with VSCode, one can have some GUI for gdb).
Ugh. I really, really don’t want an Apple. And I’ve got stuff that simply will not run in Linux. (Would very much like to switch fully over to Linux again…)
I know about Darktable. And lots of others. The photo editing application is the easy part - lots of options. The lightroom secret sauce is fully integrated workflow with mobile and desktop. I am content to pay money for this as it deserves to cost money. However, Adobe does not play nicely with Linux. For this use case, I could likely dual boot (or virtual box).
Music production is a challenge though. Dual booting isn’t an option as it’s my main use case. Maschine (the HW) doesn’t run on Linux. Yes, I know someone a few years ago wrote a partially functional driver for a previous incarnation of the HW, that works in midi mode, but that’s not how I use it. Paid good money for it - not keen on burning it.
I even considered running it in a box (assuming can pass through the usb), but as I started to tally up the dependencies, I would come close to having to put it all on the vbox, ending up with a setup that could only be appreciated by the most zealous Rube Goldberg afficionado…
On the software side, I can likely get wrappers to run a lot of it, but it’s an ongoing dice roll. The DAW is easy (Reaper). But I have a bunch of stuff I use constantly that I paid for and I don’t want the OS to work against me. (And I want to be able to hold the vendors’ feet to the feet when things don’t work properly - I’ve had support concerns (for legit bugs) that fell on deaf ears when I said I use Reaper, which was not officially supported by a certain vendor. How much luck would I have with Linux?
Then there’s the audio interface. Yes - it’ll probably run. But it’s certainly not supported.
Unless vendors actually start supporting Linux (flatpaks/snappaks/whatever would be just dandy), running Linux remains an obstacle, not a solution. However, they won’t start supporting until user base grows. Chicken. Egg. Ugh.
It’s most unfortunate - I definitely try to kick tires on it to see if it’s feasible every few years, but I continue to hit a wall.
In the meantime, I, and, I hope others will keep pressure up on vendors whenever possible.
Edit - spent a few hours last night trying to get plugins to work on Linux/reaper. Yabridge. Couldn’t get a single one to work. Tried Vital. Linux version crashes - the recommended solution seems to be to run it under the windows version under Yabridge! I haven’t even got to trying my more heavily used stuff! I know most, not all (and some stuff that used to run will no more as wine doesn’t support some of the new features in Windows), of these things have solutions, but
I sincerely take pleasure in getting things to run in Linux. I really do. But sometimes the effort becomes about trying to get what you need to work to work, rather than actually doing the work you needed to do in the first place!
I used to use it as a daily driver about 20 years ago. I use it on an old laptop currently (though thunderbird is… unpleasant).
I use WSL constantly.
I’m quite familiar with Linux.
But until hardware vendors actually support the OS, it’s a matter of scraping some eager coder’s git repo for things that work. Sort of. But not really.
I think something to remember is that a lot of people forget is that you can run an unsupported version of windows as long as the devs of your required software support it.
And sure there is the whole security scare, but I’d say while there are risks, as a Linux user you know a lot more about avoiding dodgy links and whatnot then most people so you’re at a much lower risk.
So if you run a VM and use something like atlasOS to get a nicer windows 10 experience you can use that for years to come.
Microsoft: Not enough people are using our snazzy AI we spent a lot of time and money developing. Whatever should we do?
Also Microsoft: Force the users to use it!
This is FUD. AI integration is a given, but I doubt they would outright axe the start button unless they plan to fundamentally change the Windows UX design language.
If they do, expect it to go the way of Windows 8.0 real fast.
So Linux is just the kernel. You still have to choose a distro and a Desktop Environment (aka DE) with an included Window Manager (aka WM) or a pure WM (like i3, awesome, QTile etc.) if you dare.
KDE is the DE you want that does all that Windows can do and much much more.
You can layout everything how you want it. Beautiful Widgets (e.g. for monitoring hardware, RSS, network activity) are built-in. You can put them on the desktop or into tray-bars (aka panels). You can have multiple panels, order them on any monitor edge you want or have them floating and show only when mouse-hovered. Multiple virtual desktops is a given since ages in most DEs (e.g. Mate, Gnome, Cinnamon).
It has a built-in facility to download new themes, widgets and scripts for kwin (KDEs WM). A lot of themes are gorgeous. Most of the scripts, themes and widgets are user-contributed.
If you own an android device, you’re in for a treat as KDE comes with KDE-Connect. Best thing since sliced bread. Your phone will become part of KDE. Send files from the file-manager (Dolphin) and from the phone. Enter text on your phone from the PC-keyboard. Send the clipboard content. Use your phone as a remote via the acceleration and gyro-sensors. Show notifications from your phone within the desktop tray. Control music and video players on the desktop from your phone and vice-versa.
The file-manager (Dolphin) has Tabs and split panels to show two file-trees at the same time to easily copy files. It can easily integrate things like nextcloud or other remote filesystems like SFTP.
It’s got KRunner which is a unified application-starter, calculator, search engine for your documents or the web and to quickly switch between open apps. It’s a small textbox that shows up if you press alt-F2. It’s fast and you can configure en detail what searches it should do (e.g. only your installed apps). If you dare you can remove all panels and the start menu from KDE via a few clicks and only use KRunner.
It’s got a new built-in tiling manager (Bismuth is cool too) and much more.
So you need to decide which Linux Distribution (distro) you want. You mostly get them by downloading single-file iso’s. Put those (even multiple) on a USB-Stick prepared with Ventoy. Start from the stick. Choose one distro from the start menu and boot into the live-system (which won’t touch your hard-drives). You can start the installation on your hard-drive from a prominently placed button in the live-distro which usually starts Calamares (an easy as pie graphical installer). I can’t stress enough what a good idea it is to buy a second SSD just for your linux system. Don’t do win/linux dual-boot from one disk. Then within Calamares make sure you choose the correct SSD. Use systemd-boot instead of grub if there is an option. Choose not to many DEs while installing. Preferably only one. Applications are often programmed on specific DE-libraries (like gtk for gnome or Qt for KDE) but you don’t need to install the full DE to use applications from another DE you haven’t installed. The package-manager (you’ll love it) takes care to install a small subset of those libraries automatically if you want to use an app from another DE.
The distro basically is an opiniated selection of packages, DEs/WMs and default settings for your desktop. Also they’re mostly based on different base distros. Mint, MX, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Pop! OS are based on Debian. Manjaro, Endeavour, Steam OS are based on Arch. Then there are base distros that don’t seem to have spawned a lot derivatives like Fedora and OpenSUSE (both very good).
A big distinction between Debian based and Arch-based is, that the latter is a rolling release distro. That means that all your software, the OS, the DE gets constantly updated and you’re always on the latest version. That means you can get some gigs of updates daily/weekly. So better don’t be on a metered connection. If you aren’t then rolling is a fantastic for gaming, e.g. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch or Endeavour. With other non-rolling distros you often have to reinstall everything on a major distro-upgrade. It had the misconception that non-rolling distros like Fedora or Mint have the need to be reinstalled on major version releases. But they have facilities like Ubuntu’s do-release-upgrade.
Linux has another big plus: you won’t have to ever surf to a website for bleeding edge software. The package-manager takes care and another big distinction of distros: from where comes the software (repositories), how was it build and how does the end-user install it. Arch based has something very special in its sleeve: The AUR (Arch User Repository) which is an addition to Arch’s official repos and completely managed by users. If a package doesn’t exist for Arch someone will prepare a script, that directly builds it from github (or other sources) and put that in the repos. In my 5 years on an Arch, I never had to reinstall the OS and there were a handful of times I need to download software via a browser. The other big advantage. The package-manager takes care of always keeping the apps up-to-date. You won’t ever have to identify which apps need updates or where to download the installers. One click. Wait 1-5 mins. You’re whole system is updated. No need to restart.
If you go with arch (on which the Steam-Decks OS is based), choose EndeavourOS. If you don’t know something look into the Arch-Wiki which is often praised to be one of the best documentations out there. OpenSUSE has very big repos too and comes from a german Enterprise but they’re very Open-Source, it doesn’t cost a dime and is heavily praised in the community.
It all sounds very complicated and overwhelming. But it actually isn’t. Buy SSD, USB-Stick, download OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, EndeavourOS and maybe Fedora or Mint. Boot. Install. Your Windows is recognized by the installer and will show up together with Linux in a boot menu upon restart.
“The Copilot is like the Start button,” Nadella explains. “It becomes the orchestrator of all your app experiences. So for example, I just go there and express my intent and it either navigates me to an application or it brings the application to the Copilot, so it helps me learn, query and create — and completely changes, I think, the user habits.”
I like to put down M$ when I can, but I don’t think replacing the start button is the exact plan here. I think he’s just using it as a comparison.
This isn’t going to work whatsoever with people who don’t know how to express what they want to do.
Tons of people have just been taught a fixed workflow involving a sequence of buttons with known labels and icons and locations. Lots of people already can’t find programs in the start menu even if they know the name (because they don’t know how search works and often even will think it’s not the same program / will think it won’t have the same data because the icon was found in a different place).
How are they suddenly going to talk to an AI about things that the AI don’t even have information about? The AI won’t know all the nicknames people have, it won’t knew how people describe the icons, can’t handle all misspellings (they don’t even understand phonetics), it won’t under people’s description of the UX parts, and when programs have 20x start options where people usually follow a guide to pick the right one then the AI won’t be able to reliably recognize which one the user intends to open.
Every single company would literally need a team of AI training experts and capture EVERYTHING the employees does with the computers and says about them for a few months to capture all the context it needs.
I only have one machine using Windows because I don’t want to be “left behind” in the corporate desktop world, but it’s on my “left hand monitor” while my center and right of three monitors are Kubuntu. The specs won’t let me use 11 on any of my systems. My company laptop is still Windows 10 as well because some of our security software doesn’t run on 11 yet.
If I didn’t have to work in the corporate space, I’d quit Windows in a fast second. I have been using Kubuntu as my daily driver for almost 10 years now.
They have shown us a new VM system, which has windows 11 clients soni assume its in the works but rhe windows 10 rollout to 6000 employees was a nightmare.
Depends on the business really. For my last employer (~19,000 deployed PCs, lots of fussy mission critical legacy applications), 2 years would be cutting it extremely fine. For my current employer (~30 employees, nothing more complicated than standard office applications in use), you could do the upgrade in a week.
I imagine my current employer won’t be worrying about upgrading before 2025.
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