Alright you nerds, I made the jump to Linux.
Alright you nerds, I made the jump to Linux.
I've been a Windows user all my life and had dabbled in the Apple ecosystem for a bit. With the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 in Oct 2025, I figured I'd put myself through a huge challenge of cutting over completely to LInux without a secondary backup drive with Win 10 on it. If I could survive the struggles for a few months, I'd be golden, and if I couldn't, then I could switch to Windows 10 LTSC and be good until 2029. The intention was to completely force myself in without a backup plan - the only way out would be to install a new Windows OS. I chose Linux Mint after careful consideration, especially considering that there's tons of resources and help with this distro, and it's a great onboarding ramp for Windows users. I need the familiarity since I'm in tech full time and just don't have the energy to hassle with my PC after a long stressful day at work.
I also used this as a good excuse to upgrade my PC a bit, too. 😀
After switching in mid December, I'm happy to report that I'm still alive after 30 days. My computer hasn't killed me. And I've been able to do work and game on my PC without too many hiccups. Marvel Rivals still crashes ever since the Season 1 update. Overwatch works perfect. My other games, on both Steam and GOG, work perfectly fine. But I haven't been able to test every game out there, but I know I can use Proton DB if needed.
I even edited this screenshot in GIMP after being forged in the fires of Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop all my life! I even stripped exif data using command line tools! I even installed this cool neofetch thing that I always saw in people screenshots of their PC or whatever, every time I saw someone's Linux build with their thigh high socks and neofetch on the terminal!
But so far, switching to Linux Mint has been great! I'm excited to deep dive more!
Note:
- I backed up all my data from Windows into a USB drive. I'm slowly bringing all that stuff over to my Linux Mint computer and rebuilding my music, video, photos, etc. Lot of work, but it's so cool feeling so liberated!
- I may also want help from you Linux nerds from time to time. I'll make posts/memes begging for help when I get desperate. But so far, almost every issue I've had has been resolved via an internet search!
- I pray that I won't come crawling back to Windows. I don't expect that to happen with how great my experience has been thus far.
Specs:
- Linux Mint 22
- Ryzen 7 9800x3d
- Thermalright Phantom Spirit
- MSI X670e Carbon WiFi
- Sapphire Nitro+ RX7900 XTX
- Corsair Vegeance 64 GB DDR5-7200
- Gen 5 Crucial T700 (?) M.2 x 2
- Corsair 5000d
- Noctua case fans (Lian Li too problematic on Linux based on all the research I did in advance)
- Seasonic Focus Gold 1000W
Old Specs Everything the same as above apart from:
- Windows 10 Pro
- Intel i7-12700k
- Noctua NH-U12A
- MSI Pro Z690-A
- MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio
- Samsung Gen 3/4 M.2
- Corsair Vengeance Pro 32 GB DDR4-3600
- Lian Li AL120 case fans
Bro thank you from the bottom of my heart for the type up. I've been contemplating this for months and this very may well be the final tipping point for me to make the plunge. I'm in pretty much the same boat, tech savvy but don't want to deal with shit I dont have to which has been my main reason for not diving in yet. I've thought of doing exactly what you described as I do love a little challenge, which I get contradicts what I just typed. Anyway, yeah, thanks again for the post! Will be doing my own switch here in the near future.
Have fun with it! This is how it starts. :)
But seriously, whether you stick with it in the long run or not, toying with Linux from time to time is a great experience for any computer nerd and now is really a great time to do it.
Feel free to ask questions!
Also save yourself some hassle by using the right terms when you search for things, for example, searching for "How to X in Linux Mint" or "How to Y in Cinnamon Desktop". A lot of people do searches for "Linux" and end up frustrated when the bulk of the results are terminal commands, but familiarizing yourself with the different pieces that make up your system is I think a big part of learning "Linux".
One of us
It might not be a feature you're interested in re: your music (or photo) collection, but one thing I missed when switching from Windows was the folder previews showing album cover art. I've been using Cover Thumbnailer (on Linux Mint 21.3) and it's been working great.
Hey I just wanted to share how I was able to get Marvel Rivals running, although I'm on a different distro it should work for you:
In the Launch options (right click game > properties > general tab) enter this:
SteamDeck=1 %command%
Then, it tricks the game into believing you are on steam deck, and it should run. If you want to disable the performance metrics, just press right shift+f12.
I'm a recent lifetime windows user to Linux but loving it! I've dual booted so I can still play stuff like fortnite/call of duty but surely those will come around as the user count climbs :)
Edit to add: I found this fix on protondb.com - you can usually find others posting helpful stuff there relating to any Linux game!
I've been running Mint about a week now, same story and similar hardware. I came from substantially older hardware than you did.
As I understand it, Mint started using a much better kernel with version 22, so hardware support so far has been perfect.
Also having a great experience so far. Biggest challenge has been finding replacements for done utilities but I've had good luck there too so far.
Great to hear you switched. I just switched from Windows 10 to Linux Mint. I had actually used Ubuntu circa 2007-2009, but switched to Windows because it was just easier. I never really loved Ubuntu. Linux Mint seems amazing so far. Very intuitive and user friendly. I can see non techies in my family using it on their Windows 10 machines later this year.
Welcome to the penguin side! I made the switch over a year ago and it's honestly been fantastic.
Welcome aboard! I did same like a year before, and it's been a blast!
If you were me from the past, I would've definitely recommended you to try out tiling WMs (Guess AwesomeWM is a good start) ASAP! I can't stress enough how good they're, especially if you prefer using keyboard shorcuts over mouse navigation.
Also, if you'll find linux mint problematic, I want to suggest you to try out EndeavourOS (i wish i would've done it sooner myself). It's installation is as simple, but it's based on arch, and arch has one of the most comprehensive wikis, which allows you to troubleshoot basically any problem. Also. newer software versions get there faster, and finally AURs, that will allow you to forget about manual software installation at all.
Welcome and good luck. The community is large and we generally like to help each other.
Old Specs Everything the same as above apart from:
- Windows 10 Pro
- Intel i7-12700k
- Noctua NH-U12A
- MSI Pro Z690-A
- MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio
- Samsung Gen 3/4 M.2
- Corsair Vengeance Pro 32 GB >DDR4-3600
- Lian Li AL120 case fans
Brother, that's a whole new computer. Anyway, have fun and, if you haven't already, you should install KDE Connect and Syncthing. I don't know what you use your computer for but I have yet to meet someone who wouldn't benefit from it.
Congrats. I made the switch to Ubuntu in 2016, you are spoiled these days with Proton. I want to concur with the advice to learn the terminal. You dont need it yet, but you will eventually. It'd be wise to do some research on your package manager too. You're on Mint, so it should be apt.
Also, word of advice for future OS swapping if you- say- wanna try a new distro someday. Find yourself an external drive for your files like music and documents. Its better to not need to rebuild your library in the first place if you can, and its safelyoff the OS drive if something goes wrong. I got a cheap Mybook backup drive, 4TB for 90 bucks, and formatted it.
My condolences, and welcome!
Now you're a nerd too 😀 Welcome!
Welcome nerd!
Yay, welcome to freedom! Glad it's working for you and feel free to ask for help here. Of course Linux Mint has its own forums where I've almost always found an answer already there whenever anything has come up for me, and it feels pretty friendly.
Enjoy!
I'm addicted to .net, I need it to breathe
Welcome to the cool side my friend
Hey Congratulations! I just started my linux journey a couple years ago too, just the same way you did without any duelbooting! I'll share one thing I found out recently: apparently neofetch was abandoned by it's developer, and now is no longer maintained. instead, a lot of people suggest using fastfetch! it works the same except its faster and still maintained! otherwise I hope you continue to enjoy your linux journey, welcome to team penguin!
You love to see it. I also switched my home machines cold turkey from win10 to Linux Mint last month!
I have been using it at work for a long time, but just didn’t do enough on my home desktop PCs for it to be worth fiddling with them and setting servers and stuff back up. But now that I made the switch, I am actually using my PC more at home because it’s smoother and more fun to use now!
The main one is an i7-9700k (8c/8t) with 32 gigs of ram and a GTX 1080. It has such a long life left ahead of it. Heck the other machine is a 2500k (4c/4t) with 16GB from like 2011 and it’s excellent for desktop use or non-demanding games.
I see myself sticking with Mint with Debian & Ubuntu upstream for the foreseeable future. But I do wonder several years from now SteamOS will push many of us to use something with Arch upstream if not just SteamOS itself.
Congrats. I think Mint will treat you well.
Yeah I changed a bit back but I went to new hardware. Ill be accessing the windows likely for months until I get my lazy ass in gear.
For those making the switch to Linux for the first time, especially Mint, one of my favorite YouTube hosts is currently filming/releasing a series where he does the same.
Check it out: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXHMZDvOn5sU4nw1wdWGXQf5-Fj0k2N7n
Have you customized that Cinnamon of yours, or is that how it looks nowadays?
I do dig the specs. Looking to build something similar myself soon, except with more cores and RAM, but probably cheaper GPU, maybe even keeping my current 3060 ti, because lately I run more docker containers, VMs and compilers, than games.
You can pay $30/year to continue using Windows 10, you know.
But honestly, give 11 a chance. It has really good HDR support (so much better than 10's, and Linux's HDR support can't even compare, it's so bad). Furthermore, the taskbar issues can be fixed by installing StartAllBack. Lastly, Microsoft is considering recalling Recall after all the backlash it got. So you still don't have to worry about that anytime soon.
Point I'm making is that if you have an HDR display, there's still plenty of good reasons to dual boot.
My display support HDR400, But I don't see much difference between Windows 10 and Arch Linux.