Migrated from Windows to Linux. Decided to share list of answers/statements I was looking for before did it (and could not find).
Finally migrated from Windows to Linux. For anyone wondering, what is the state of Linux as your primary OS for home PC\laptop in 2023.
I've finalised my Archlinux installation yesterday, I dropped of Linux more than 10 years ago and experience in 2023 in comparison is awesome and beyond even wildest dreams back then:
For average user looking for more out of the box experience I would suggest something Arch based (people in comments suggest EndeavourOS, please do your research). Archlinux installation took me quite some time
Almost everything works out of the box, by just installing corresponding package
KDE Plasma environment is fast and beautiful
Pipewire audio server (Jack\Pulseaudio replacement) works great
Wayland window server is not there yet, especially if you have Nvidia with proprietary drivers and want to use VR. Waking up, session restoration and other scenarios have issues. Use X11.
Wine is great!
Music making - Bitwig Studio DAW has linux native version, yabridge allow you to use windows VSTs, which are easily installed via wine
Gaming works out of the box with Steam for majority of titles, some games have native linux version. Performance is great. In worst case windows game might loose 5-15% in performance. Was not case for my titles
Gaming outside steam is fine too. Use Wine, Lutris, Proton
VR is a mixed bag. Not everything is there (Desktop view, sound control and mirroring, camera, motions smooth, lighthouses do not wake up os go to sleep. I use my phone to turn them on/off). But if its not the problem for you, quite some titles work. Tried: native HF Alyx, Lab, windows: Beat Saber and Boneworks. For me it's a surprise, I did not count on it. Performance is great.
So overall my experience is great. Eventually I'm going to get rid of WIndows on other computers and laptops at howe. I can finally wave goodbye to Windows, with lots of ads and bloatware. Alway glad to help with answers regarding installation while my memory and history logs are fresh. ^^
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I agree with most of your statements, though not with all of them.
I'd say use X11, only if you're on nvidia and you've got 1 monitor or monitors with the same resolution and refresh rates and are ok with having to disable the X11 compositor and having no animations while playing games... You also have to be ok with tearing while gaming too... It's a lot, and the next version of plasma, plasma 6 is supposed to fix all the jankiness with kde on wayland, as afaik GNOME on wayland is stable on nvidia, I'm on AMD so I can't confirm though...
EndeavorOS is great, though I'd also suggest trying out nobara (or fedora if you're not gaming... or recording).
I'm really surprised that you managed to get VR working at all, didn't know that worked at all on linux.
I'm curious what you mean by "no animations while playing games"?
I like Wayland and use it on my laptop. But I also have Nvidia on my PC and while it's janky at places, I don't get all the problems you describe (at least on i3 for me)
I use multiple monitors with different refresh rates and don't really have any major issue. It syncs with the highest one. I indeed don't use a compositor because it's distracting and also turn off all the composition pipe line stuff. The result of turning off the latter is less latency and a teeny tiny bit of tearing in the lower 3rd when scrolling web pages but that's it.
Games can run utilize gsync when in-game vsync is enabled so long as you disable the second monitor with xrandr.
Hey, whatever works for you, works, it's just... is disabling your 2nd monitor with xrandr every time you wanna play a game really more convenient than using Wayland? That's a genuine question btw, I'd be surprised if KDE on Wayland is THAT bad, where disabling your 2nd monitor on X11 is preferable to using it
Of course whatever works for you works too, we found workarounds for what we need.
Yes it's more convenient because it's a keybinding away. Also, on Wayland I have to use kernel modeset and it is impossible to "overclock/undervoltage" the GPU to save energy. I also get more frames on X. It's not that KDE on Wayland is bad...it's exactly switching to X just to do that to play games is inconvenient.
I believe no animations while playing games would be like, no DE animations while playing games.
I have Nvidia and 1 monitor, so did not run into mentioned issues. Wayland on KDE did not work well for me, also https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Wayland_Showstoppers have some blockers for me. Gnome on Wayland as far as I understood does not work with DRM, so no chance to run VR. Also though I used Gnome before it does not appeal to me today. Plasma on the other hand was exactly what I was looking for, plus it's actively maintained and updated. Looking forward to see Plasma 6.
When it comes to VR - I was very surprised, it was something I did not expect to work at all. My setup for reference: I have Nvidia proprietary drivers, SteamVR Beta and Valve Index. I had problems with sound (cracking, quality and etc), but using sof-firmware helped to choose proper output channel on Nvidia GPU via Pro profile and it just started working.
Gnome before it does not appeal to me today. Plasma on the other hand was exactly what I was looking for, plus it's actively maintained and updated.
Very confused by this statement, are you implying Gnome isn't actively maintained and updated or am I missing something?
No, I just said it's not appealing to me today as it did before, when I used it, years ago. I'm not implying anythings here, personal taste. I chose plasma.
Ok that was what I thought until I read the last part and got very confused lol