Windows: we noticed that you kept the useless search bar disabled since 2015, so we sent an update that re-enabled it without your permission
For my "convenience" and because in this way they can show ads and clickbait
Also: I SET A FUCKING GROUP POLICY THAT DISABLES THE SEARCH BAR; WHY THEY FUCKING IGNORE IT???
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More and more I am considering taking a vacation with the specific goal of migrating to Linux. I've got decades old workflows linked to certain programs and tools that I know for sure only exist in Windows, so I'll likely have to still run it in a VM for those, but my system setup is just kinda the place I call home the most, yet my patience for all this nonsense is rapidly declining.
Do it, my friend. I took the leap ~5 years ago and have not once regretted it. You're right, you have Wine and Windows VMs available, if need be. But, honestly, I bet you end up replacing those work flows with better ones within Linux before long.
I mean, I'd like to. But some of my work requires me to use stuff like Adobe products and I find it massively easier to keep up to date with what these tools can do, if I can just muck around in my private projects (I actually care about) and then transfer the knowledge to my work stuff. I'll mull the idea some more time. Not really interested in dual booting at all, though that might be a solid solution, but windows simply deciding to kill everything else, even if its on a different disk entirely is not a prospect I relish.
If its for work I would suggest picking a "stable" distribution like Debian, Kubuntu or OpenSuse.
A lot of people recommend Arch or Fedora but the focus of those is getting the very latest releases, which increases your chance of stuff breaking.
A lot of people will suggest niche distributions, those can be great for specific needs but generally you will always find Debian/Ubuntu/RHEL support for commercial apps.
I would also suggest looking at the KDE Desktop, many distributions default to Gnome but it is unique in how it works, KDE (or XFCE) will provide a desktop similar to Windows 11.
Lastly I would suggest looking at Crossover Linux by Codeweavers.
Linux has something called WINE, its an attempt to implement the Windows 95 - 11 API's so windows applications can run on linux.
WINE is how the Steam Deck/Linux is able to play Windows games. Valve embedded it into Steam and called it "Proton".
WINE is primarily developed by Codeweavers and they provide the Crossover application that makes setting up and running a Windows application really easy.
People will mention Lutris but that has a far higher learning curve.
There is an application database so you can see in advance if your applications would work: https://appdb.winehq.org/
Thanks for the long response. I was thinking Mint maybe, had some experience with it a few years ago. But it'd replace both my private and work stuff over, so some gaming, too (mainly through steam). Stability is key to me. My current Windows install hasn't needed anything for 4 years or so, so I'm absolutely not going for Arch. I need this stuff daily, I cannot waste time trying to troubleshoot for hours or relying on backups, etc.
Yeah I honestly wouldn't use Arch or indeed any rolling release distro for any machine that's used for revenue. Go with a stable release distro. Mint is one of the very few I even bother considering, there's a reason it's been as popular as it has for so long.
Mint was a reaction to Gnome 3, the unique workflow upset a lot of people and the people behind Mint decided to build Cinnamon desktop (its Gnome 3 made to look/work like Gnome 2). They needed a distribution to build/test their work and so based a distribution off of Ubuntu and called it Mint.
As a bit of explanation, there are only a few projects which attempt to build an entire linux distribution from scratch. This involves finding code from thousands of sources, work out packaging, etc.. We call these 'base' distributions, Debian is the base distribution for Ubuntu, Ubuntu is the base distribution for Mint.
Ubuntu tends to be slightly ahead of Debian in the software versions it uses and automatically enables the 'non-free' repositories. Ubuntu tends to push some Canonical specific things like Snaps (which everyone hates)
I believe Mint rolls the Canonical specific things out of Ubuntu and you get the latest version of Cinnamon.
Its all a bit...
I know it has a shitty "95-ish" look to it, but https://distrowatch.com/ is quite possibly your best resource in finding out at a glance which of the distros you're interested in are stable or rolling, and how popular they are. Go down the page hit ranking on the right, and start clicking: you will see the root build of every distro, whether it's stable or rolling, the last release date, links to reviews, etc.
It won't get you to your final decision, but it will get you to a shortlist. And then you can start making LiveUSB sticks to test drive your distros of choice in RAM without having to install anything. There are very few distros that require a full install to try out; if you run into one you can always use old hardware or a spare disk, etc. Mint has a LiveUSB of all its DE choices, Pop!OS has a LiveUSB, you just need the USB sticks and something like Rufus to make them with, and you're ready to test drive.
Well worth the trouble, IMO. Good luck.
Just a heads up OpenSUSE is phasing out leap so it won't have a stable release "soon" unless the things with ALP shake out well.
Apart from Wine, Proton also includes some other stuff that helps gaming.
Also here is the Proton comparability site: https://www.protondb.com/
As someone who is currently in the process of moving everything to Linux, this is a genuinely helpful comment. I have it saved now, lol. Thank you for taking the time to write this out, much appreciated.
There might not be a Linux native version of the adobe products available but theres a fun script that lets it run from what I experienced flawlessly on several distributions
Could you give more info on that?
https://github.com/LinSoftWin/Photoshop-CC2022-Linux A good friend of mine as recommended this to me and for what I care it works pretty well For the others I just used wine and the normal installer and they worked but without GPU acceleration
Thanks! I'll give it a try next time I have time to spend in front of my own computer (not anytime soon..)
Sure if I can find it On it as soon as I am able to
windows simply deciding to kill everything else, even if its on a different disk entirely is not a prospect I relish.
I've been dual booting for almost ten years and distro hopped a fair bit and never had that happen. Not once ever. I've screwed up my fair share of installs too. I think it's one of those things that used to be a problem 20+ years ago, but is now basically a meme.
I'm a fan of Linux, but my personal experience was filled with headaches on how to solve compability issues. It's just a pain that some things don't work as well as they used to with a clean windows install. So I traveled from Windows to Debian to Dualboot (win/debian) to Windows. And tbh I never looked back since then. Took too much time just to keep things running properly.
If you depend on Adobe products I would at least opt for Dualboot if I were you. Otherwise you have no safe option to return to if things don't seem to work out as you wished.
I'm doing it. I build a new pc every 5 to 10 years. The new monster has posted. Need a few small cables before I really get started. I was going to put an older copy of win10 pro on it. But I'm going to take the Linux leap. The tower will be free of windows from day 1.
Nobara simply because the author also wrote Proton, the Steam linux gateway. (Open to suggestions).
All AMD.
Gaming. Streaming. Internet. Video files. Voice recording. Occasional simple documents. That's 99.99 percent of my usage.
Right on, dude. I hope the transition is a pleasant one for you!
I would suggest OpenSUSE Thumbleweed, but I did not use it for many years. And my current distro(Gentoo) isn't well known as entry-level. Though for me personally it was.
Also for gaming never use PulseAudio, lag is unbearable.
Best of luck. I can't go back to windows any more. Well, I still dual boot for one game and the digital features of my national ID cause OF COURSE that software is windows only. 😒
In case you didn't know or haven't tried yet: AusweisApp2 does exist for Linux. But I assume, like me, you tried unsuccessfully already. For me, the Linux drivers of my card reader don't work...
I think if you have a new Perso it should be possible to utilize the NFC module in your phone
I think we're both German. My ID doesn't have that yet, I dread the day where I can't renew it without all that nonsense.
I'm not German, so I need explaination.
Germany introduced some digital ID functionality so you can do certain things online rather than having to go talk to someone in person, but that means that your ID isn't just a card anymore but has some digital elements to it as well. And apparently the apps to use that stuff are Windows based.
Come on. Join the dark side. We have cookies.
[Reject all]
But once you have tweaked things a bit, a new home is surprisingly quickly found. I mean, i know what you mean. But in the end, like or dislike boils down to a few basics and the rest accumulates over time.
I did the switch twenty years ago, starting with dual-boot and Wine. Nowadays dual-boot is gone and I never use Wine outside of gaming.
You'll be surprised how much you can do with wine and mono. But even so, switching and getting a vm is a viable option
It would be nice if lemmy made it easy to create a community or such for every program and let people join to collect the necessary knowledge together.
huh, is it not easy to create a community? I created one a few months ago and all I needed was a name for it.
The problem lies in reaching the people who could be interested in joining.
well, that's just the way it is. not sure what you want the lemmy devs to do about it