Microsoft is finally going to force me to switch to linux. I'm ready, I just didn't think it would ever actually happen.
I actually got a linux box up and running bc windows has finally forced my hand. I am not thrilled linux looks like a fucking nightmare. Windows is a pain in the ass to work with but at least it warns me before i format the boot sector.
For me, there was just less friction with games and Windows was just not annoying enough to make the full time jump. But those have both moved against Windows in the past few years.
I've been thinking of doing an effort post on how to make a Windows to Linux transition as painlessly as possible. Are there any topics in particular that you (or anyone reading) specifically want a deep dive into?
Caveat: I'm not a PC gamer (for financial reasons, not ideological ones) so I can't help much on the gaming side.
But I think I can help with the rest. I've been using Linux as my main desktop OS for about 25 years now.
Uft. Jesus. I'd have to think about it for a while.
Does Linux have an equivalent of Windows Powertoys Fancyzones?
Equivalent to Eartrumpet?
I mostly use FOSS software anyway, so stuff like Libreoffice, GIMP, OBS, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Idk. I think the biggest issue will be figuring out how to set up my workflow again. I rely heavily on FancyZones to keep my desktop legible. I'm very fond of rainmeter. But I suppose for a lot of it I'll just have to fuss with it until it feels right.
Part of my concern is it seems like most things I'd want are doable, but there's a lot of hoops to jump through. Like I have an Azeron Cyro mouse bc I was concerned about RSI. Works great, most comfortable mouse I've ever used, but it sounds like to get it to run on Linux you need to run a windows VM, a macro program, and a couple of other things. In windows I just plug it in and use the keymapping software that comes iwth the mouse.
Sorry for jumping into another thread but I think I can help with some of these
Does Linux have an equivalent of Windows Powertoys Fancyzones?
Depending on what you use it for a tiling window manager might replace it, or KDE plasma has similar functionality built in I believe
Equivalent to Eartrumpet?
I think Pulse Audio Volume Control does everything Eartrumpet does, it comes default with some distributions or you can install the package pavucontrol
If I understand what fancyzones is, I think people make plugins for gnome and kde that are like Fancyzones. There's also entire window managers that are like scriptable fancyzones. I'm talking about tiling window managers like awesomeWM and i3. They're pretty technical but some people really like them.
One of my concerns is how often "Scripting" comes up in explaining how things work. I've never been good at even basic scripting. : p
Well my mom uses linux without any scripting skills at all. I was just saying that this thing goes as far as you want to take it.
Windows is a pain in the ass to work with but at least it warns me before i format the boot sector.
Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian) also warns you no? But in any case, it's a learning curve just like any other. Stick with it for a couple more months and it'll go away I promise! Linux only gets better over time.
If you use one of the commonly-advised main linux distros I really don't think it is worse than windows overall, it's just different problems. You are accustomed to all kinds of work arounds in windows but linux will require different work arounds.
If you deleted your boot sector without realizing it, than you must have been using a disk formatting tool as super user. Certainly windows lets you completely format a disk if you want to?
When you say it "looks like a nightmare" do you mean it's ugly or is that an overall assessment?
Certainly windows lets you completely format a disk if you want to?
It sorta does, but it has a large number of lockouts to prevent anyone from doing that. Taking direct control of a windows PC is more complicated than sudo password and doing so can actually brick the OS and make it unbootable. : p
it "looks like a nightmare"
I think I'm going to have a very difficult time learning, remembering, and using all the command line stuff. I was trying to pull drivers for a particular cheap wireless NIC I had lying around and gave up after like six hours of trying to understand how to pull something from git. It's just not a skill set I have right now. I haven't really used command line since 1993 on a DOS machine.
My suggestion is to start with the KDE version of Fedora. It supports a pretty huge amount of hardware, so odds are good that your wireless NIC (and other hardware) are likely to work right out of the box. The installation flashdrive doubles as a live working system that boots off the USB stick, so you could test out your hardware to see if it all works without actually removing Windows yet.
The KDE settings GUI is good enough that you likely won't need to worry about commandline stuff for awhile. KDE has a default layout similar to Windows. By default the "start" button is in the bottom left, and like Windows that gives you the shortcuts to settings, programs, folders, etc. Tray in the bottom right. Open programs and pinned programs on the bottom between them.
The non-KDE versions of Fedora are all the same under the hood, but have very different GUIs on top. The GNOME fans may pillory me but I've found it's a lot easier to teach Windows users how to use KDE than GNOME. KDE is also extremely stable and resource-efficient.
Windows is a pain in the ass to work with but at least it warns me before i format the boot sector.
This really isn't possible to do accidently with user focused distros. I have been using Linux Mint for about 14 years without issue. I suggest Linux Mint to everyone. One can install steam if you want to game, many games work seamlessly, also emulators, lutris, wine, etc.
I've never ran into an issue I couldn't solve with google and a few minutes of following a tutorial. Also, Linux Mint has the best back-up tool, called timeshift. You let it create back-ups automatically, or do your own manual back-ups, and no matter what you do, you can easily revert back to that back-up with no consequences--Sometimes, if you really bork up your system, you'd need to boot from the USB drive to run timeshift to fix the computer, but again, very easy to google and execute.
I suggest downloading linux mint to a USB drive, and then running it from the USB drive for a bit to see what it is like. I prefer the cinammon desktop environment.
Windows is a pain in the ass to work with but at least it warns me before i format the boot sector.
I read this and thought "they're issuing a mandatory recall on win11? About damn time!"
They aren't? /s
Another day another YouTuber spreading false info. This behaviour happens if you disable recall before OOBE can run which is where you’re asked to enable Recall e.g if you customise the install ISO.
You can remove Recall just fine by running Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Recall" or by unticking it in the “optional features” dialog after OOBE runs, and you’ll still have the new Explorer UI.
the linux propaganda on c/technology strikes again 
Never stop 
, Never lose faith 
Maintaining the GNU agenda is our topmost priority 
you will never get me to install mint i will die on windows 10 until it reaches EoL and I cry & re-enable TPM and go to 11 where I will die on it until it reaches EoL and I cry 
- Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
I think my comment is close in spirit to that rule. If a mod disagrees then they're free to remove it.
I just dislike false info, no malice in my comment.
I think they're saying the OP is Linux-favoring misinformation rather than anything about your correction.
Good correction, I'm not a Windows user anymore and I defer to this YouTuber since he seems the most knowledgeable. No one is infallible and I don't want to maliciously spread bad info
But yes, I see, good thing to know that in order to disable recall I need to use an arcane cli command or use a Windows feature most people don't know about.
why on earth would I "upgrade" from Windows 10 to this piece of shit? is there any reason whatsoever?
Windows 10 hits end of life next year, so Windows 10 users will become the Windows 7 users of today as software and updates slowly stop coming to them.
Microsoft could also just... forcibly update your machine. It's their operating system after all.
goddammit, Windows 10 is the first Microsoft OS that I forgot I was using because it just hums along in the background mostly without being a fucking nuisance
they finally get something right and now they're scrapping it ugh
goddammit, Windows 10 is the first Microsoft OS that I forgot I was using because it just hums along in the background mostly without being a fucking nuisance
Genuine question, what makes you say this about W10 but not W7? Windows 10 has plenty of annoying shit that wasn't in 7. For one thing, 7 never tried to nag me about signing into a microsoft account.
I finally got Win10 to stop with the "sign in to windows" BS. Don't remember how, though.
I managed to kill Edge two or three times but the OS always seemed to die 2-3 months later so I gave up on it. : p
Genuine question, what makes you say this about W10 but not W7?
Because I don't remember my experience with W7. Come to think of it, maybe that means it was even less annoying and we've been going downhill ever since.
I cannot make my Windows 10 PC not forcibly update, reboot, and close all my shit without saving it. Every fucking month. Sometimes I'll find a way to disable it, then they'll push some weird telemetry thing and re-enables it a month later. One time Windows refused to acknowledge my generic drivers without re-enabling updates, so I had to do it to plug in my fucking mouse.
It's actually the most annoying piece of shit 'feature' I've ever suffered on Windows. Neither 7 nor XP did that shit.
Windows 10 is the first Microsoft OS that I forgot I was using because it just hums along in the background mostly without being a fucking nuisance
Stockholm syndrome.
Would like to remind everyone that Stockholm Syndrome is literally "Women be crazy" because a psychologist who never interviewed the Stockholm bank robbery hostages decided that was the only reason why the hostages were chill with the robbers, who were not trying to kill them, while being pissed off with the government, who literally called one woman and told her it was her duty to die in a police shootout to save the bank or some shit, was that she had fallen in love with her captor due to trauma or something. Like the government almost killed them all a number of times over some money, and they ended up trying to help the robbers with negotiations so the government wouldn't just kill them all and let god sort it out.
This essay brought to you by reading wikipedia at 3am for most of my life.
They can. But I turned off TPM so they won't. Top tip for lazy arses like me that don't want to engage in a protracted battle, just make your laptop not meet requirements.
Same. But hey, the Linux community just got one person bigger.
For those like me who are stuck with win 11 on your work computer be aware that KDE makes windows builds for some of their software like the Dolphin file explorer: https://apps.kde.org/dolphin/
It’s not officially supported yet and has some issues but I’ve been using it for a few days now and it’s been quite nice
Some issues I’ve run into are: not being able to open archives into dolphin; issues with not being able to move files to the trash bin (although deleting it works fine)
Also I’m pretty sure that Recall is deep in the kernel so you might not be able to run the explorer shell at all. Unfortunately there really isn’t a good alternative since litestep has been abandoned :(
Back in the day you could even just replace the Windows shell with Plasma, the early 2000s were interesting
I didn't know what Recall was, I googled and these 1.5 sentences were enough
Recall requires a computer that is compatible with Microsoft's Copilot chatbot:
Only a small portion of the most recent laptops are "Copilot+ PCs".
This means that for everyone else, this information is irrelevant. It will mostly impact business employess and higher-income dupes. Also...
"Total Recall" 
Linux gang here. I have no idea what you're talking about, but you make it sound pretty terrible, so glad I don't have to worry about it.
Real nice of Bill Gates to create Microsoft, Linux’s personal marketing department without charging the Linux community a penny.
Closed source software continues to push more to the left. No owning the things you own is insane to me.
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
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