why you should switch to linux and the amazing universe of linux "ricing"

[oldmurray34]

issues like screen tearing only in the desktop

It's probably a X11 thing, it is infamous for screen tearing. I use Wayland and it is a smooth sailing

So, basically, since the ancient times Linux used to run graphics via Xorg server. It was made mostly because computers in ye olden days had a main processing mainframe in a building of the institution that uses it, and separate terminals to interact with it throughout the local network. So Xorg server were used to send keystrokes, mouse movements and whatnot, and to receive actual graphics. The unfortunate thing about it is that it's not that secure (I won't get into that) and, well, causes some visual problems, like tearing, and hardware stuff, like being unable to work with two screens with different refresh rates.

But in some more recent time the Wayland emerged. It's a compositor that replaces X11 and does some black magic I don't understand to tell software how to render their stuff

It also has zero screen tearing, feels more snappy and cool. Linux Mint is still using X11. They do have plans on switching, but haven't done it yet. Usually distros with KDE Plasma cruise around on Wayland IIRC

I moved back to windows just for ss13

Isn't SS14 a bit more playable, since it doesn't run on ancient esoteric runic tongue of BYOND? And that baby 100% works on Linux

[grubbyfox]

Linux didn't play nice with my hardware and gave me complicated problems already from Day 1 as a complete newbie/never-used-it-before user, so my learning curve was just too off-putting. And when it doesn't get along with the hardware, well, then you're effed. There was also some issues involved since I use a non-enlish keyboard and it would randomly revert to english setup now and then.

When I get a new PC, I'm planning to play games that involve multiplayer with an unsupported anti-cheat, so that leaves Linux out of the question for now as well.

And I found it too tedious to constantly have to go online and search for every little thing. Downloading a random software and then having to sit and search the web for how to actually open the file because it wasn't just an executable to open like an .exe on Windows.

I'd love to switch away from Windows forever once these things would get better.

[oldmurray34]

And I found it too tedious to constantly have to go online and search for every little thing. Downloading a random software and then having to sit and search the web for how to actually open the file because it wasn't just an executable to open like an .exe on Windows.

Well I get what you mean, but at the same time it is a different operating system, it doesn't have to behave like Windows, and it does require some will to figure out how new stuff and concepts work. I don't think there will ever be an operating system, that is exactly like Windows, but without Windows problems, it's kind of unrealistic. There are windows-like distros, but I kind of think it's better to learn software you use, you know. In the end of the day, I am not trying to sound elitist or whatnot, it is a choice and it's up to an individual person whether they want to figure a thing out or not

Saying that I understand people's frustration about Linux, especially hardware limitations and anti-cheat stuff. There is, unfortunately, only one way to make those things better on Linux systems: companies have to embrace it. Like Nvidia refusing to open source their drivers or developers refusing to prepare anti-cheat software for linux (most of it works on every system already, the developers just have to enable that stuff on their end don't quote me on that), and there is practically nothing linux community can do about that, other then some borderline black magic solutions. Hopefully linux community will grow, so companies have more incentive to provide better support for non-windows systems.

But until then it is a trade-off thing: how affected are you by these limitations and can you live with them somehow, are the sacrifices worth it to get the heck away from shitty microsoft practices and so on. It's a conscious decision that every user has to make for themselves, because it involves subjective values calculations. For instance, for me it is very important to understand, tinker with my system, so the open source route is a no-brainer in my case no matter how confusing it is to learn (and the adoption was an uphill battle at times ngl). But if a person wants just the same windows system, but without fuckery and they don't want to get into nitty-gritty of things (which is totally valid), then they might be better off using one of those patching programs for windows to make the system more usable (disable telemetry, change start menu etc etc.).

Either choice is completely fine. There has to be a motivation to learn after all

[myladon]

It's probably a X11 thing, it is infamous for screen tearing. I use Wayland and it is a smooth sailing

Mint does have a Wayland option for it's default DE but it's in beta and seems like it could prooobably introduce more issues than it's worth :p that's not what i want in my already kind of silly OS. Weirdly enough the tearing only happens in the desktop and not games (tested: persona 5, SS14, doom eternal, etc)
I dont want to go through the hazzle of using KDE (i dont like KDE )

Isn't SS14 a bit more playable, since it doesn't run on ancient esoteric runic tongue of BYOND? And that baby 100% works on Linux

SS14 runs on it's own engine made in .net, it works like a dream basically anywhere and cant be compared to BYOND by itself it works REALLY GOOD hell it even has midi support for when people grab instruments, you can just play music and it works!

[oldmurray34]

Damn, didn't know about headways the Mint team made, good for them, I do like their distro (it was my first one actually)

(i dont like KDE  )

I dunno if you are into that kind of stuff, but you could try XFCE. They have experimental Wayland support and also you can theme that puppy like it's win95 or winXP pretty easily
If I wasn't dukin' it out with Hyprland, I would go team XFCE in a heartbeat

it works REALLY GOOD

Yeah I tried it a couple of times, but kind of don't have the interest I used to have. But man is it popular nowadays, holy: so many populated FULL servers! It wasn't the case back in my day, a.k.a. around a decade ago when I used to play it

[grubbyfox]

Well I get what you mean, but at the same time it is a different operating system, it doesn't have to behave like Windows, and it does require some will to figure out how new stuff and concepts work. I don't think there will ever be an operating system, that is exactly like Windows, but without Windows problems, it's kind of unrealistic. There are windows-like distros, but I kind of think it's better to learn software you use, you know. In the end of the day, I am not trying to sound elitist or whatnot, it is a choice and it's up to an individual person whether they want to figure a thing out or not

Oh 100%! Had I known it wasn't as easy as the linux glazers on youtube make it out to be, I would have either just not bothered - or I would have had to set aside a little bit of time everyday for prob a few years to try and learn basics just to get myself started.

There seems to be a lot of Linux users who will gospel about how easy and super it is, when it really isn't.

I really hate what Windows has become, and I've always been opposed the whole email-login thing Windows has pushed since like Win8, but the way things are at this moment, Linux just isn't for me, sadly.

[oldmurray34]

or I would have had to set aside a little bit of time everyday for prob a few years to try and learn basics just to get myself started

Honestly it doesn't really take this long, but tech tubers are 100% making it sound very easy. It also depends on a use case: probably if a person needs to just use browser, edit some documents once in a while, then yeah, it should be pretty easy to switch, you know. But when it comes to something more complex - you gotta learn new concepts and stuff. One thing that was actually very useful to me when I was starting out (hell, even now) is actually learning that a thing exists from aforementioned tech tubers. Like, "Oh, neat, you can tile your windows automatically, gotta look into it" or "Hell yeah, linux filesystem is just a bunch of folders and text documents in a trenchcoat? Lemme research it some more". Overall "slow and steady" approach is the best one, otherwise the amount of new info overwhelms the hell out of you

a lot of Linux users who will gospel about how easy and super it is

Can't say this about everyone of them, but a lot of people are just assholes, who likes to fancy themselves gigabrained just because they learned a thing and you didn't, really harmful thing for newbies in any space. Easiness mostly depends on your use case and how eager you are to kickflip into a rabbit hole head first.

Overall I'd say linux is fantastic, but, as all things in life, it has some drawbacks, severity of which depends on a user's goals, workflows and stuff. It also requires work (as in learning the ropes) and in my point of view it is a great thing, because I am all for widespread tech literacy and independence, which linux usage incentives. But I do think there should be a "it just works" option. Some distros are closer to that then the others, but there is a lot of room to grow, especially when it comes to Nvidia hardware, competitive gaming or Adobe suit. And all of those things would be easy to resolve if companies cooperated at least a bit, but you know.

I really hate what Windows has become

It's so insane to me honestly. Maybe 5 years ago I would say that yeah, macOS is probably the worst of the bunch, because how closed and opinionated it is, you can't really make it your own, you have to bend to the workflows that Apple created for you. But at this point I'd rather use macOS then Windows (the past me would be flabbergasted to hear/read that)

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

It's probably a X11 thing, it is infamous for screen tearing. I use Wayland and it is a smooth sailing

Using X11 for decades, and screen tearing never occurred to me outside of a defunct graphic cards driver; so if you have this issue, I'd check out if there is anything at the bushes there.

Regarding X11/Wayland, it is important to note that both systems have their problems and benefits atm: Wayland might cause trouble with some older (and sometimes obscure) software, while X11 might drop out of support for some newer software somewhat soon. As things are, which of both you use shouldn't matter much for everyday computer use.

I dunno if you are into that kind of stuff, but you could try XFCE. They have experimental Wayland support.

Xfce won't work out well with Wayland (which is my reason to stick to X11 for the time being). If I'd have to go to Wayland now, I'd check out Mate, as it looks like a similar lean DE.

[oldmurray34]

I'd check out if there is anything at the bushes there.

I honestly blame my GPU being manufactured by Nvidia, because I've tried using Mint multiple times over the years and every time, consistently, I got screen tearing on that machine. Dunno what's up with that. All I know is that I am not the only one, but in any case that's using linux based OS with Nvidia GPU: not the most effortless experience.

Overall I am not too invested into this X11 vs Wayland discourse one might witness on the internet: one should use what they enjoy and what works for them. I myself just prefer not to mess around with that GPU business, because during my previous attempt to switch to linux I've spent hours, days even trying to make my graphics actually usable and not teary, buggy clusterfuck (I probably have messed stuff bad not gonna lie). On my subsequent and final attempt to jump windows ship it just worked effortlessly out of the box. I don't know how, I don't know why, at this point I just prefer to think that the machine spirit smiled at me and messing with its generous tidings would be considered blasphemous, so I try not to

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I honestly blame my GPU being manufactured by Nvidia

I used ATI/AMD for years, and was quite happy with it ever since the OSS-Drivers emerged. But I got the used hardware of a friend some time ago, and using NVDIA since then - and it is indeed unnerving. However, even so the only screen tearing I got since the change was when NVDIA dropped the support for Pascal cards a few weeks ago.

Overall I am not too invested into this X11 vs Wayland discourse one might witness on the internet: one should use what they enjoy and what works for them.

Amen ;).

[tarraxahum]

I honestly blame my GPU being manufactured by Nvidia, because I've tried using Mint multiple times over the years and every time, consistently, I got screen tearing on that machine. Dunno what's up with that. All I know is that I am not the only one, but in any case that's using linux based OS with Nvidia GPU: not the most effortless experience

Funnily enough, as someone with Nvidia (not to imply that our experiences have to be in any way similar), I actually have less of screen tearing now than I had on Windows and I have zero idea how that happened. Not gonna complain tho. That said, I have not tried running Mint on this PC - I'm pretty sure I only had it installed on an old laptop which is another case entirely.

Side note, but as much as I am down for the "not anything is gonna be easy and you have to learn" approach - that's one of the reasons I switched, I wanted to go back in time a bit, to the time where a family computer was a whole new thing entirely and any installation was An Event - it does get frustrating sometimes that I can't seem to find the end of the tail, so to speak. I try to install something, it can't find some dependency and refuses to install, I go to get that dependency, it needs another one, it's like a Matryoshka doll. Or instructions say "Just copy this into your console!" and I do and my console is like "I don't recognize that command" even tho I did specifically look for my distro's version. Or I go to look for answers and every thread has like ten opinions and no solution 'cause that's how Linux users communicate apparently

This is not me complaining, mind you, this is me just musing after HP drivers - Linux-specific! - told me to piss off today when I urgently needed my printer. Thankfully figured out a workaround, but oooh this system wants a fight.

The key moment here, however, is that the last months of me using Windows I was living in the cmd line almost just as much for other reasons, so. I definitely cannot say that staying on Windows would be a smooth sailing for me. Nothing is a smooth sailing for me, I'll find a way to make it rocky. It's like modding a game and breaking it or struggling to figure out why something doesn't work, just, y'know, bigger!

(Actually legit advice I saw at some point - "If you're modding Cyberpunk 2077, you're already ready for Linux" and you know what? Yeah)

[oldmurray34]

Funnily enough, as someone with Nvidia (not to imply that our experiences have to be in any way similar), I actually have less of screen tearing now than I had on Windows and I have zero idea how that happened. Not gonna complain tho.

Oh I concur completely: right now my Arch + Hyprland never has any tearing, while my windows system used to have it on the same hardware. I feel like using Nvidia on a linux system can go exactly two ways: either it works flawlessly and the best picture quality you have ever seen your entire life or you have a wagon full of bugs and glitches with nothing in-between. As I said, the whims of the machine spirits

Side note, but as much as I am down for the "not anything is gonna be easy and you have to learn" approach - that's one of the reasons I switched, I wanted to go back in time a bit, to the time where a family computer was a whole new thing entirely and any installation was An Event - it does get frustrating sometimes that I can't seem to find the end of the tail, so to speak

100% understand what you mean! Using linux actually reignited my passion for computing, messing around with my PC and whatnot, because, apparently, me using win10 for years kind of killed it somewhat I guess. Maybe it was microsoft enforced complacency, considering they have threw away a lot of customization options comparatively to previous versions. It doesn't bring out a feeling of wonder, when to manipulate your system you have to install a bunch of third party utilities. You have no idea how they work, what makes the OS tick, so you kind of stuck endlessly installing .exe files, unable to do stuff yourselves.

But with linux basically most of the system is a bunch of text files and it's so damn awesome: no editing registry, digging through bloated settings GUIs, just simple config management. As the time went, I even kind of started to prefer the lack of GUI at this point, considering I can just quickly open my terminal, launch nvim into a directory I want and quickly edit a line of config file. To me it's so cool! 

This is not me complaining, mind you, this is me just musing after HP drivers - Linux-specific! - told me to piss off today when I urgently needed my printer. Thankfully figured out a workaround, but oooh this system wants a fight

I used to love (and still do!) games, where you manage something, making something work, you know. The games that make you overcome that sort of challenge of completing a difficult mental task. And it is very funny to me, that my OS fighting back kind of provides me the same kind of fun, so I over time have kind of stopped playing games, because my itch was being scratched by me messing about with my tech lol

It's like modding a game and breaking it or struggling to figure out why something doesn't work, just, y'know, bigger!

True! The same kind of fun, but at least by messing around with your system you also learning some "real life" side skills, like coding languages, networking and all that cool stuff, I love it to bits. Also the sense of control, you know.

Some time ago I installed Arch on my work laptop (because I have admin password that I got my hands on so no one can stop me he-he-he-he-he) with KDE Plasma on top. It worked fine, but I did something that messed something up, so I couldn't login anymore. It just accepted my password, flashed, and booted me back into a login screen. But then I realized that it happens only tty1, so I have switched to tty2, inputted my credentials into the terminal, manually started Plasma and voila, it worked! The funny thing is, I've just created a pretty sophisticated security measure: if an evildoer got their hands on my laptop, in no way in hell they would be able to figure out how to log into it even knowing my password. Security through obscurity (i.e. being clueless about how things work, breaking them and subsequently employing the jankiest workaround)

[PALEOKNIGHT]

I really want to try Linux. The only thing that is stopping me is that my current computer is also used by my dad for work, and his job requires the use of a specific program that is windows exclusive 

I know that dual booting is a Thing, but there is no way in hell I’m trying that. I won’t lie I am pretty tech illiterate and I am too scared to mess up things.

So I have to wait until a second computer magically manifests into my house  

[xwindows]

I really want to try Linux. The only thing that is stopping me is that my current computer is also used by my dad for work

I know that dual booting is a Thing, but there is no way in hell I'm trying that.

Another choice that doesn't require you to mess with things on-disk at all is USB boot. (1)

While it's not exactly a single-click affair, there are several tools to make USB live-boot GNU/Linux system from a correct ISO image (2) and a blank flash drive (3): such as Unetbootin, Rufus, RMPrepUSB (advanced), and so on. Some of them will even automatically download the installer image for you as a part of the process it'd guide you through.

As an advanced user, I personally don't use these tools though; (4) so I'll leave it for others to answer your questions if you are interested.


(1) And DVD boot also exist, which require less steps, but needs your computer to have writeable DVD drive, and a blank DVD-R lying around. The system created this way will usually reset after reboot with no way to save progress, so I think it's not very suitable for your use.

(2) Note that there are 3 kinds of ISO files that GNU/Linux distributions make available to you:

• Live: the one you will want for using GNU/Linux right on a USB flash drive or DVD.
• Installer: used when you're "graduating" from USB trial to actual on-disk installation.
• Netboot: do not use unless you really know what you're doing.

(3) Technically, the flash drive doesn't have to be blank; but the easiest ways of installing live GNU/Linux system on such drive normally involves reformatting, which erases data.

(4) I either use actual old-school CD/DVD boot (I have USB DVD drive); or making non-blank USB flash drive bootable from existing GNU/Linux system via manual command line tools-- where I could personally make sure that the GNU/Linux setup I made co-exist with already-existing files on the flash drive, so I could continue using the drive for its original storage purpose, with its original data intact.