Why would a OS need an online account?
We truly live in the stupidest timeline.
How will it know which ads to show you without knowing who you are?
I use Lemmy and Steam games, someone please recommend a Linux OS and a browser to end this stupid shit for me.
Linux Mint and Firefox should be good starting points.
Went this route a few months ago. The switch was incredibly easy.
I’d like to add that librewolf is a great privacy focused browser based on Firefox.
Pop!_OS, PikaOS, CachyOS, and Bazzite are the top gaming distros right now.
I recommend Pop! if you have Nvidia cards. If you have AMD, any of them will work.
PikaOS or Bazzite with the KDE Plasma desktop are going to be closest to Windows 10 in terms of how you use them.
Pop! has a super different UI, almost Mac-like. But it’s based on Ubuntu, the most-used distro. Which means that if anything goes wrong you can search “[problem] Ubuntu” and get hundreds of solution pages.
CachyOS is based on Arch, which is the big, scawy Linux that all the nerds say they use. It’s easier to break than the other ones, and won’t officially offer some of the apps that something Debian/Ubuntu based might have. I would recommend it when you’re looking to get a bit more technical.
That said, I haven’t broken my install yet and CachyOS is like the fastest OS available right now. Serious FPS gains for a LOT of games compared to Windows, and even other Linux distros. I also have not had to sit and troubleshoot it over anything. I was shocked at how smooth it was for an Arch system.
So, there’s not really a bad choice in those 4. I’d recommend Pop! if you never want to have to tinker, Pika or Bazzite if you want to feel like you’re still using Windows, and Cachy when you feel comfortable taking some training wheels off (and that could be right now!).
For browsers, try LibreWolf. It’s a locked-down version of Firefox. Or just use Firefox. It ain’t perfect, but then again it ain’t Chrome.
PopOS vote from me. Very easy to get set up, especially if you have an Nvidia card. Flatpak is integrated to their store, it just works out of the box.
I’ve been on PopOs for over 7 years and its been steady as a rock! I could never go back to windows.
oh hey nice I haven been on Mint for awhile and my Nvidia card gives me no end of trouble
https://yearofthelinuxdesktop.net/
According to the flowchart there, cachyOS or bazzite, also some other tools and recommendations, good luck!
Nobara and pikaOS also both good options. I use CachyOs on my main PC and nobara on my htpc and have had a very pleasant time with the distros and their communities. Just gotta leave windows at the door and be open to learning a new way of doing things. Best of luck OP
and browser I love zen browser and have Vivaldi as my chromium browser of choice when some niche task needs it
I went from Nobara to Bazzite, Nobara worked but felt super janky, Bazzite is on another planet in terms of polish.
Bazzite is awesome I just don’t like immutable distros personally. I like to tinker more than they allow. Nobara works great for my htpc but I think if I had to switch from CachyOs on my gaming PC I’d go pikaOS
I like to tinker more than they allow.
I keep reading this, but it’s never clear what people mean. I still haven’t found anything I’m not allowed to tinker with, it’s just done differently.
CachyOS has recently stopped playing H264 videos on some websites after a system update.(on Librewolf and other browsers too). Installing ffmpeg4.4 will fix this.
Linux Mint. If my 85-year-old dad can get used to it after over 30 years of Windows, you’ll be fine.
/edit Also Firefox comes with pretty much every Linux distribution, but if you need something Chromium-based, I’m partial to Vivaldi.
bazzite and librewolf
I just came here to upvote LibreWolf.
LInux mint or bazzite, I’d take a look at both, and firefox with ublock origin
Mint is very similar to a Windows feel
Just wish Cinnamon looked a bit better.
Sure, but the cool thing about Linux is that you can pick the gui. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_window_managers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_Window_System_desktop_environments
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_display_servers#Wayland
TBH I’m fine with XFCE. It looks reasonably modern but is lightweight and uncomplicated. Takes recolors well, too. Never had any problems with it.
KDE is also similar enough but actually looks good, and is a more complete and coherent experience.
I also don’t think “looks similar” is actually good if you’re switching. Because it will be similar enough to be confusing when it then behaves differently, and it’s IMO easier to learn something that’s obviously (slightly) different than trying to just learn different behavior.
CachyOS could be great! If not, Zorin and Mint are great.
Stop giving new people choices! (Quasi facetious)
Yeah you gotta stay stuck in a duopoly of shitty multibilion companies, like God intended! Lol
God intended for a monopoly, hence there must be an armageddon between Apple and Google
I’ve had a good experience with Bazzite. It worked out of the box for steam, and the “bazaar” app store built into it had everything I needed. Heroic is in there and good for handling PC games from other stores. Use Proton+ to get the latest Proton GE if you run into any windows game compatibility issues and it may solve them.
Bazzite and Librewolf
You could literally go into any “technology” post and there will be dozens
If you have a Nvidia card, I’ve found mint and neon to be really poor performing. Kubuntu and Q4 have been amathiugh, I wouldn’t use Q4os unless you have low end hardware though.
That being said mint is just the best os in the sphere for performance and usability, if it runs well for you that would be awesome.
Libre wolf is an amazing Firefox branch, runs well, super private, good overall, though in my opinion it fails to perform well on beefy websites with alot of visual goodies (like sketch sketchfab and other 3d model websites.) Best to have both Firefox and Libre Wolf.
On a side note some fun apps to use on Linux I found: qdirstat (winderstat replacement.) Portmaster (take control of what can access your pc via the internet, also has built in dns, a wonderful user interface, its just amazing.) Vencord (yeah I know discord sucks, but its almost impossible to get away from. Seriously I’ve tried to get my friends to use matrix, no Bueno.)
Also, Plasma is the greatest thing ever. My god is it good.
Lol too late. I already moved to Linux and love it.
I’ve been very happy with no windows on my computers for over 15 years now.
About the same for me. Genuinely happy and cant understand why more people dont just install it. Its soo easy these days.
Ok! Moved to linux for gaming 2 years ago and havent looked back. Eat shit, MS.
How is it for gaming? Im hesitant to switch just for that one use case, but its a big one.
Great. Proton changed everything. My friend uses arch, i use fedora, another friend uses bazzite. I can play everything i want, no issues. Great framerates
The great framerates was something i doesn’t expect to this extent when switching. I thought that games would probably work similar but i went from 40-50 fps on medium high settings in elden ring to smooth 60 on highest settings just by switching from windows to bazzite
Same! Windows is so heavy now they are even considering making a leaner gaming edition. Its so silly.
It is amazing for gaming (particularly if you go with AMD over Nvidia). I’ve run into very few (if any) games that have outright not worked. Almost all games work with not tinkering whatsoever.
Checkout protondb.com and look up the games you’re wondering about.
Lol.
If I ever use windows again. It’ll be a cracked version.
You don’t need to “crack” anything. Massgrave can activate any version of windows through the official process.
It technically probably breaks the EULA but no one gives a shit (including MS).
"As far as Redmond is concerned, this is all for the user’s own good. " What a joke!
sudo apt purge windows
Joke’s on them. I’m not about to use Windows 11 anyway
Had Win 11 on my laptop (came with it) swapped to Mint 2 days ago. First Linux device. I cannot express how much faster it loads shit now.
Yeahhh, I’m going with Linux when I get my warrantied laptop back after some research on drivers.
Ok fine Linux it is. As a person who mostly uses a computer for 3D modeling, drafting and invoicing… what are my options?
What software do you use?
I worked with 3D for decades and Blender replaced almost everything. The performance is actually better on Linux. I personally use Linux mint, but regarding software it barely matters what distro you use nowadays.
But support, compatibility, ease of use can vary a lot. I haven’t used another distro for many years so I can’t say much.
If you rely on autodesk and adobe stuff you will probably suffer. But personally I would say it’s deserved because there are not a lot of companies more evil than them. The sooner you start trying alternatives the better.
Invoicing I just used inkscape but it’s not great. Be prepared to make some sacrifices, but it’s all worthy to get rid of microsoft.
Invoicing I just used inkscape but it’s not great. Be prepared to make some sacrifices, but it’s all worthy to get rid of microsoft.
How is Inkscape used for invoicing? You cretate the invoice as vector graphic template and just replace the text?
I don’t ever do any invoicing myself, so I am not clear on the requirements here. But a template in LibreOffice Draw could perhaps work for this purpose? There might be some way to programtically replace the fields, and if you store client and project details in a database it should eventually be a matter of choosing which client to bill for which project and click “Go!”. I would aim for such a self-made setup to be independent on any license-ridden software. But again, I don’t do this, so I might have missed some important part of the puzzle.
Yeah, I don’t know. I know that there are softwares specific for invoicing but I’ve never used one, nor did I use to send too many invoices. Most of the time I was an employee, doing some other freelances, so it wasn’t too much to keep track.
I used Inkscape because I was more used to it, working with graphics most of my life. LibreOffice is probably easier. But I don’t know how that’s supposed to be done with proprietary softwares either.
Hopefully someone with more experience on this can help him.
Linux has been a superior OS for a while, especially since Steam’s efforts to port games over to it.
Only reason many people hang on, including some in my household, is platform exclusive tools like Adobe.
Well, Adobe is not “household” software. :-)
But there are a lot of other software, that people have a hard time letting go of. Like Affinity, Scrivener, certain games, a lot of small programs/apps, like FastStone apps (Image viewer and more), AllMyNotes, ActionOutline, Duplicate cleaner 5, EZ CD Audio Converter and more…
LOL. Never heard of any of them.
Yeah, there’s a lot of niche software for specific needs that’s doesn’t have alternative or have subpar alternatives on Linux. Even as a full-time Linux users and supporter, I still have to acknowledge that the amount of investments gone into enterprise stuff over the year have basically made switching from Windows for a lot of professions almost impossible. Unless we start having more funding and development from state actors, the market share of OS won’t change significantly anytime soon.
I always recommend Loreforge as a replacement for Scrivener. I had no problem swapping once I spent a little time in Loreforge. It’s even available on Windows so they can try it ahead of time.
Loreforge
It’s a good alternative, but it’s subscription based, and that’s a no go. Thanks for telling me about it though.
Huh? I’ve never paid anything for it.
Edit: Ohhh, I see. They’ve added a subscription for some extra stuff. The full features of the program are entirely available in the free version. I’ve never pushed up against a paywall as far as I can tell.
Well, Adobe is not “household” software. :-)
it is when everyone pirates it
Which everyone doesn’t do. By your definition, every software is household. Come on, please relate to this with common sense.
It may be me being a millenial, but I’m used to Photoshop being widely pirated. It used to be Adobe’s strategy to let people do that because that meant more people who knew how to use it and therefore more business sales.
No offense but with the number of random processes running on any given machine, I am in no way gonna trust a mission critical app to work right from a pirate site and not load something extra like a keylogger. Hell it barely works right in a fully legal install…
Also, I used to strongly advocate switching off Creative Cloud to Affinity to own the software but I have this horrible feeling that they may be going either subscription or AI slop or both on the 30th and you can no longer buy version 2.
(And I say that as a long-time Adobe stockholder from back before they went pure evil with Creative Cloud.)
No need to convince me, I quit using Adobe before they even introduced Creative Cloud.
I’m just explaining what I see.
I used a pirated version of PS too - many years ago. I worked with multimedia, so there was a reason. Most regular people don’t even know how to use PS… They are better of with just a simple tool to do what they need, like cropping adjusting size, levels, colors and and the most basic things.
Yeah, again, my opinion may be influenced by my age, once upon a time computer users were, on average, skilled enough to do simple stuff in PS.
That was when most users were drawn to computers out of a desire to learn, play and use it. Now, a lot of users are forced to use computers. That doesn’t make them great at it.
And skilled enough to pirate. I think most users now don’t have any idea how to access pirated material.
AutoCAD
Freecad?
Not at all comparable.
source: I use it.
It’s the reason I feel stuck too.
Once I retire and no longer need Windows for work I am switching full time to Linux.
Deal! (i’m swithing to Linux)
Have fun! It’s a learning curve, but a very accomplishable learning curve, and at the end you get to say that you don’t use microsoft
It’s just so much better than Windows in every way.
More people will switch to Linux
i used to think this too; but seeing tech literacy rate drop since the widespread adoption of smartphones makes me wonder if people will go with whatever works well enough and for the least about of effort.
and linux still takes effort.
makes me wonder if people will go with whatever works well enough and for the least amount of effort.
This has always been the case. People want something that just works right out of the box, and familiarity will keep a lot of people from considering anything else.
I’ve been talking for a long time now with a friend of mine about how sick we are of Windows, and more recently about how I’m planning on installing Linux on a spare HDD I have before making the commitment to getting rid of Windows entirely, and he’s decided to go to 11 despite hating it because he’s afraid of trying something new and having to learn a new system.
And it’s not just a computer thing. People can and will hurt themselves by repeating the same mistakes because it’s the familiar habit and doing something new - even if it’s for your own good - is scarier. Been there, done that, plenty of times.
People can and will hurt themselves by repeating the same mistakes because it’s the familiar habit and doing something new - even if it’s for your own good - is scarier. Been there, done that, plenty of times.
i know too many people who are hurting themselves because they genuinely can’t afford iphones or macbooks; but they keep borrowing money to buy another one each time something happens to their current one and only because “it just works”
No. More people will just keep using Windows 10.
Nah most people will just create an account. They literally have no idea what they are doing.
Your statement doesn’t contradict OP’s
Oh nooooo whatever will I do now
Run LTSC /w MAS to activate it while that’s still an option as that and the rest of the Enterprise/IoT SKUs of both Win10 and Win11 still let you make local accounts, or move to Linux if you can and you’re not locked into Windows by anything.
I think Enterprise versions don’t require it either.
IoT and LTSC are Enterprise versions.
Sure but they are both special versions, I’m just taking about regular Windows
Great strategy to force users have a bad experience while your platform is in decline to a free and user friendly alternative. Very smart of MS, as per usual.
