The Best way to switch to Linux is to NOT
Okay I know this sounds like click bait but trust me switching over to linux requires you to first master the open source software that you will be replacing your windows/mac counterparts with. Doing it in an unfamiliar OS with no fallback to rely on is tough, frustrating and will turn you off of trying linux. DISCLAIMER: I know that some people cannot switch to linux because open source / Linux software is not good enough yet. But I urge you to keep track of them and when so you can know when they are good enough.
The Solution
So I suggest you keep using windows, switch all your apps to open or closed source software that is available on linux. Learn them, use them and if you are in a pinch and need to use your windows only software it will still be there. Once you are at a point where you never use the windows only software you can then think of switching over to linux.
The Alternatives
So to help you out I'll list my favorites for each use case.
MS Office -> Only Office
- Not for folks who use obscure macros and are deep into MS Office
- Has Collaboration and integration with almost all popular cloud services..
- Has a MS Office like UI and the best compatibility with MS Office.
Adobe Premiere -> Da Vinci Resolve
- It is closed source but available on linux
- Great UI, competitive features and a free version
Outlook -> Thunderbird
- Recently went through massive updates and now has a modern design.
- Templates, multi account management, content based filters, html signatures, it is all there.
Epic Games, GOG, PRIME -> Heroic
- Easy to use, 1 click install, no hassel
- Beautiful UI
- Automatically imports all the games you have bought
PDF Editor -> LibreOffice Draw
- Suprisingly good for text manipulation, moving around images and alot more.
- There might be slight incompatibilities (I haven't noticed anything huge)
- But hey, it's free
How do I pick a distro there are so many! NO
So finally after switching all the apps you think you are ready? Do not fall into the rabbit hole of changing your entire OS every two days, you will be in a toxic relationship with it.
I hate updates and my hardware is not that new
- Mint - UI looks a bit dated but it is rock solid
- Ubuntu - Yes, I know snaps are bad, but you can just ignore them
I have new hardware but I want sane updates
- Fedora
- Open Suse Tumbleweed
I live on the bleeding edge baby, both hardware and software
- Arch ... btw
Anyways what is more important is the DE than the distro for a beginner, trust me. Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, etc. you can try them all in a VM and see which one you like.
SO TLDR: Don't switch to linux! Switch to linux apps.
Was ready to downvote but this is actually a really good guide, well done OP! The one issue I will raise, though, because I faced it myself, is that as long as you're still using Windows, it is way too easy to just go back to using the Windows programs not the open source ones. Only through switching to Linux can you really "throw yourself into the deep end" and force yourself to learn these new things. Microsoft has made themselves the "path of least resistance" (or at least that of "most momentum" for a reason) and if you've been using a computer for a while, it's a lot easier to break the habits and realise the benefits by giving yourself no other option than it is by trying to discipline yourself into using the new options.
Agreed, this has been my experience as well. I tried switching to full time Linux multiple times. I had already used it on my laptop for years but on my desktop I kept going back to Windows because things on Windows just worked the way I wanted and thought that for some things there weren't any Linux alternatives.
That was until two years ago I challenged myself to only use Linux for a month. I've been using Linux on my desktop ever since and only use Windows now and then to play a single game that doesn't work on Linux due to anti cheat.
And Debian could be used instead of Mint. Almost all the Ubuntu support online applies, except no snap requirement.
Also, start using WSL for random things you do in GUI today to learn CLI/bash.
But yea, great guide.
Use libreoffice over open office.
Seconded, why not OnlyOffice? (maybe parent commenter got names confused š¤·āāļø no judgement)
as for OpenOffice vs Libre Officeā IIRC Libre has more recent development on it, which IMHO feels like a good sign for open source software; itās kept more up to date
I'm stupid. I didn't realize it said onlyoffice, not open office. Oop
Is open office even still in active development?
No, sporadic bugfixes if the "maintainers" feel like it. It's dead. See https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2020/10/12/open-letter-to-apache-openoffice/
Thought as much. Thanks. And, to be fair, LibreOffice took that spot very well.
But what about Only Office?
I don't understand the difficulty. My kid who used Windows for at least 7 years installed Ubuntu and just started using it. Why is this difficult for people? I helped him boot the computer from a USB stick and that's it.
Here is the app store, install programs from here.
Ok.
I think some folk want to pretend using Linux is hard so that they can feel more... Uh... Technical for using it.
It's actually hilarious how disconnected some Linux folks are lmao
The average person
I know these things are changing, but anyone saying people are able to switch to Linux by themselves and its easy and doable for the average person is fucking delusional, this post is one of the most reasonable takes I've seen on the sub
If all you do is browse the web, as is the case for a a lot of people, the OS does not matter. Heck, my neighbor does not even have a computer, does everything on his phone.
Exactly, in reality people will use what's given to them. Just like windows, introduce it now and people would lose their fucking minds about how convoluted it is.
Transition costs are what we should be looking at, right now to install or use Linux you need someone with experience explaining it to you. Just like it was when PC's were becoming a thing. Don't have that person? Only alternative is MacOS or ChromeOS for them.
@uranibaba @kernelle , well, yes and no. Yes, visiting most websites will absolutely not matter. Streaming however, does matter. Streaming from services is either not supported for some services and only supports lower resolutions. I am not sure which are supported or not currently, I remember Max not working on Linux, it might have worked with OS spoofing.
Edit: I dropped Max a while ago and haven't tried to use it for a long time after it initially didn't work while I had the service.
SkyShowTime also seem to not work on Linux.
On streaming, a partial (but admittedly not full) replacement is a sufficiently well-stocked local library. Just get the Bluray libraries (libaacs, libbdplus, etc) set up, throw in a keydb.cfg, and youāve at least got some stuff. For me, thereās a local that keeps a good collection of Trek stuff (all the way to Lower Decks season 4 and Prodigy Season 1 from 2023), which is almost all I care about.
The average old person perhaps. Young people are not afraid of change in most cases. They don't have that barrier of thinking learning something new is difficult. It just happens as they click around. And they have friends, and they ask their friends. Just like we did when we were young. I don't think you asked your dad how to use windows.. :)
I honestly think that if you would have Linux on laptops and you gave it to young people, they would have no problems finding out how to install programs and use the web browser. And that's the start of the learning experience.
Sure, give a somewhat intelligent person between 20 and 40 a PC with Linux on it and theyāll figure it out. However, that doesnāt mean they have the patience of finding out how to install Linux in the first place. And also, theyāll figure out how to install apps, sure. Until they try to download the installer.exe for Microsoft Office because why would they know that it wonāt work.
The problem isnāt, that they couldnāt figure it out, the problem is most people just want a working computer and not relearn what they already know or learn what an operating system is at all.
(And also, I remember reading some study, that a lot of late Gen Z and younger (the ones that didnāt grow up with Windows XP or earlier anymore) are actually less tech savvy than older generations because theyāre used to not really having to troubleshoot tech)
Couldn't have said it better, and I've seen the same article as well!
Funny story a coworker told me is his father kept breaking his windows install in the weirdest ways, so he asked him if he'd try Linux and was very reluctant. He showed him his laptop and he said "Oh yeah I used this at work for 30 years!"
Dunnily enough, I got into Linux through my grandfather (now in his 70s), who had been on and off using Linux since redhat. Although, by now, my tech and Linux knowledge surpassed his (at least in applications relevant in this century) because heās scared of the internet
Truth be told, being gen Z myself, I think itās less about what Windows version they used and more about the fact that most primarily use mobile phones these days. Funny enough, the two other gen Z Linux users Iāve met were Arch users, while Iām a Debian guy.
Your point is proven by the adaptation of chromebooks, kids have no issue using them and neither should anyone else. It's not a Linux thing, it's a "what did you use the most"-thing. Some distros are ready to be shipped to consumers, bought a laptop with Linux pre-installed in 2018 (XPS 13).
You'll see mainstream use if stores are selling them in-store to consumers. You're up against the likes of Google, Microsoft or Apple when you try to pull that off.
PS: I believe in mainstream Linux use because money has a tendency to ruin everything, just think it will be much slower than us enthusiasts would want.
We can all get smart and snarky about "average persons" but then again, who says the OP was for average person.
Your "average" person is not even on Reddit, let alone Lemmy, and if by chance they stumble along they are probably not clicking posts like this.
So when you stop laughing from "hilarious disconnected Linux folks", maybe sleep on it, then try thinking about this.
In context of this community and this thread, no, Linux is not all that horrible compared to Windows.
Nobody, the post is to aid us who are assisting other people to switch. I'm saying people here vastly overestimate the average persons ability AND willingness to actually switch, by themselves or assisted.
It is, in part because Linux is not beginner friendly but mostly because everyone is used to windows. Almost every program they've used is exclusive to it, which is why this post provides a path to eventually introduce them to Linux. Using Linux isn't hard, using it the same way people are used to is. As is troubleshooting and installing 3rd party applications.
So when you're done building strawmans, go touch some grass
Yup, I think a lot of people just use their web browser for everything, and they can definitely just switch. Outside of work, how many non-techies have set up their email to use a native program? Very few, in my experience.
I think documents are sometimes the exception, since there's a sizable (perhaps older) group that like to use Word for everything.
All the tech literacy programs for parents also basically ended up only teaching office software, for some reason.
My mom is 80 years old and I got her on Mint years ago - mostly because I was tired of fixing the mistakes Windows let her make.
My mom is a walking disaster with computers but she got used to it and now she can't mess up anything, and she doesn't worry about messing up anything anymore too. If she can do it, anyone can do it.
I also wonder the future of immutable Linux. Right now it has pain points but maybe someday it will work reliability
I switched as a kid too, but that makes it really easy because I never ended up depending on a bunch of proprietary Windows only apps. I never learned stuff like Photoshop and Illustrator and Premiere, not even on pirated versions like most kids do. Photoshop CS2 technically ran under wine but the experience was so miserable I learned GIMP instead. My last Windows was XP.
The older you get the more "serious" software you have too, like tax stuff, the whole Windows-centered workflow at work. The deeper you are into the ecosystem the worse it is.
The issue I see over and over and over is not that using Linux in itself is that hard, it's dealbreaker software and hardware. Oh your capture card isn't supported. Your audio mixer's not supported. It sucks. So basically what OP said: you have to switch to Linux friendly software first, then it's basically just swapping the OS and not flipping your entire computing experience over.
Luckily, I donāt depend on Adobe stuff, but knowing some professional photographers, you sort of canāt live without Photoshop. I feel like GIMP has severely stagnated - many of the features are there, but buried, while non-destructive editing integral to a modern workflow seems eons away. (I find this weird, especially considering how good and mostly intuitive a project like Inkscape is - I find a lot of things easier than Illustrator.) I kind of want to learn GPU shaders and GPU compute (Iām mostly a Python guy with up to Calculus II experience, some bezier curve know-how, and more math on the way, for reference, for reference) so I could create a fast open graphics editor as backlash for Adobeās AI buffoonery, though my project management skills arenāt great at the moment.
Yes, hardware support for things like video capture, that is the danger zone. :)
The thing is alot of people who work really well in the windows environment and have been doing so for a while will now have to face both a new environment and new tools. Then there is the problem of time ... If you are trying to work while also troubleshooting your OS with none of the tools that you know how to troubleshoot with it could be frustrating.
Let's not pretend that most people know how to troubleshoot. ^only^ ^a^ ^little^ ^/s^
90% of people who say they cant switch really mean they donāt want to. Itās really not about application availability, capability, or otherwise. Itās about it not being the same as what they have always done. NOTE: 97% of statistics are made up anyway.
Being a linux user for 23 years and a linux promoter and installer for newbies, I don't agree with so many of your recommendations and priorities.
Seriously, OP sounds like they taste tested a handful of open software options and wanted to share, but had to implicate the newbie decision of windows vs Linux somewhere.
My concern with this take is that it positions the switch as all downsides. You do not get any of the Linux benefits, just the compromised experience on Windows. You may decide it is not worth it even before switching.
A better title would be "The best way to switch to Linux is slowly."
But muh clickbait
So youāve just posted your personal choices as though they were THE way to go. There are countless alternatives for everything. Just making that clear.
It reads like a good starting point for someone who wants to get away from Microsoft but has no experience with Linux, though. While Linux and OpenSource software are getting more and more beginner friendly, the amount of choices can make it difficult for newbies to even find out that Linux programs (be they FOSS or not) exist that can do what they need.
I keep trying to explain how Linux advocacy gets the challenges of mainstream Linux usage wrong and, while I appreciate the fresh take here, I'm afraid that's still the case.
Effectively this guide is: lightly compromise your Windows experience for a while until you're ready, followed by "here's a bunch of alien concepts you don't know or care about and actively disprove the idea that it's all about the app alternatives."
I understand why this doesn't read that way to the "community", but parse it as an outsider for a moment. What's a snap? Why are they bad? Why would I hate updates? Aren't updates automatic as they are in Windows? Why would I ever pick the hardware-incompatible distros? What's the tradeoff supposed to be, does that imply there is a downside to Mint over Ubuntu? It sure feels like I need to think about this picking a distro thing a lot more than the headline suggested. Also, what's a DE and how is that different to a distro? Did they just say I need a virtual machine to test these DE things before I can find one that works? WTF is that about?
Look, I keep trying to articulate the key misunderstanding and it's genuinely hard. I think the best way to put it is that all these "switch to Linux, it's fun!" guides are all trying to onboard users to a world of fun tinkering as a hobby. And that's great, it IS fun to tinker as a hobby, to some people. But that's not the reason people use Windows.
If you're on Windows and mildly frustrated about whatever MS is doing that week, the thing you want is a one button install that does everything for you, works first time and requires zero tinkering in the first place. App substitutes are whatever, UI changes and different choices in different DEs are trivial to adapt to (honestly, it's all mostly Windows-like or Mac-like, clearly normies don't particularly struggle with that). But if you're out there introducing even a hint of arguments about multiple technical choices, competing standards for app packages or VMs being used to test out different desktop environments you're kinda missing the point of what's keeping the average user from stepping away from their mainstream commercial OS.
In fairness, this isn't the guide's fault, it's all intrinsic to the Linux desktop ecosystem. It IS more cumbersome and convoluted from that perspective. If you ask me, the real advice I would have for a Windows user that wants to consider swapping would be: get a device that comes with a dedicated Linux setup out of the box. Seriously, go get a Steam Deck, go get a System76 laptop, a Raspberry Pi or whatever else you can find out there that has some flavor of Linux built specifically for it and use that for a bit. That bypasses 100% of this crap and just works out of the box, the way Android or ChromeOS work out of the box. You'll get to know whether that's for you much quicker, more organically and with much less of a hassle that way... at the cost of needing new hardware. But hey, on the plus side, new hardware!
This is the reason my 77 year old father in law switched. It seemed like every couple of weeks, he was calling me because Microsoft changed something. And it confused him, and he thought he broke something. I got so frustrated that I asked if he was open to trying Linux. After having him try some distros on Live USB, he went with Pop.
Haven't heard from him other than the occasional question about how to do something new.
I genuinely think Linux misses a beat by not having a widely available distro that is a) very closely tied to specific hardware and b) mostly focused on web browsing and media watching. It's kinda nuts and a knock on Linux devs that Google is running away with that segment through both Android and ChromeOS. My parents aren't on Windows anymore but for convenience purposes the device that does that for them is a Samsung tablet.
Fuck all that.
Install Linux, any flavor. Install virtualbox, and set up a Windows VM. Go ahead and install any of your windows bullshit on that VM. That's your crutch, your failsafe: a windows instance that you don't have to leave Linux to access.
Save snapshots before and after any changes, so if/when it goes to shit, you can roll it back to where it was still working.
Maybe spend a year ficking around with WSL. Learn some bash, get used to the CLI.
Or, conversely, just switch to Linux.
Take an hour or so to have a look around the place.
Go on the internet if you have any questions.
People are smarter than you assume and if you want Linux to grow in popularity we need to stop pretending any if this is difficult.
This does not work for everyone. A lot of people will try to switch, but find one tool they are used to they cannot now use and are not used to the alternatives so feel frustrated when trying to use them for real work. Then get pissed off at Linux and switch back to windows.
This advice is more for people that are thinking about Linux but have some professional or semi professional or hobby workflow on their computers that they need to be productive in. It can be very hard for them to switch os and tooling they are used to with no way to fall back to what they know when they need to.
You will find most people don't rely on these tools and they can doba quick check and decide to switch straight away. But ignoring this advice for the rest can make transitioning to Linux easier.
We need to stop pretending that switching tools that you rely on and have spent decades learning to be proficient in is a trivial task for everyone.
You are giving the average person too much credit. If you ask them what OS they are running, they are as likely to say 'windows' as they are to say 'dell'
I think the most likely answer would be "what?"
I just want to add, obviously I am not an expert in every field in the world and cannot find an alternative for everything but if you do want to do some research sites like alternativeto.net are great resources.
My one amendment would be - forget Ubuntu and variants, just Debian is fine with older hardware. Less headaches and hassles, and some snaps.
I'd even say Mint Debian Edition over Ubuntu.
Avoiding snaps on Ubuntu sadly is not an option anymore. Maybe go for pop!_os Instead of Ubuntu.
Not to mention they have bad flatpak support out of the box
You can download cosmic shop and it works well now.
It came out with comsic DE alpha
Cosmic terminal is also nice
That's not out of the box
I disagree... I have no problems going without it. Could you give some reasons why you think avoiding snaps is not an option anymore?
Because canonical removed packages from apt to prevent users to install their apps from apt instead. Firefox for example.
Firefox from Apt is a link to a snap!
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1399383/how-to-install-firefox-as-a-traditional-deb-package-without-snap-in-ubuntu-22
This is some bullshit level activity that I do not want.
I moved away from Microsoft to not have to deal with such an annoyance. Now canonical is doing it to their users.
Linux Mint is the most Windows-like Linux distro.
Ubuntu is the most Microsoft-like Linux project.
Another option if you have a laptop and desktop is to test the waters slowly with the laptop, and keep your desktop as is. It's what I did for a long while to get used to things on Linux.
If there is a critical problem with my Linux instalation on my laptop, it's OK because all the real stuff I care about is still on the desktop. So I'm free to wipe the laptop at a moments notice. It's the easiest way to learn in my experience.
Strongly recommend a KDE-based distro if coming from Windows.
Gnome is too janky when you're used to the workflow in Windows. It's almost like Windows 8, which nobody uses if they can help it.
KDE is just way more familiar.
Or Cinnamon! IMO it feels less overwhelming than KDE to people coming from Windows.
Good advice for the average Windows user, but I found GNOME a refreshing and streamlined way to work. I hate when I have to do something for work in Windows now, its just a terrible user experience.
I feel a surge of rage every time I have to touch Windows Update.
I feel that. I also like XFCE. I chose between that and KDE on a proverbial coinflip.
This is what I've unknowingly been doing. All my open source apps are in Linux. The transition was pretty smooth.
Pretty much exactly what happened to me. Mostly open source apps on Windows. Set up dual boot with Windows default. One day I noticed I was switching to Linux more often than not, so changed to Linux default.
You already use Draw to replace publisher in your list so why not use the rest of the Libre Office Suite?
Note: this belongs more in a Windows community than a Linux one. The people here would already use Gnu/Linux or Google/Linux
While LibreOffice has improved immensely over the years, its compatibility to Microsoftās file formats is still a bit hit n miss at times, while OnlyOffice is a drop in replacement. It looks like MS Office and handles docx & Co. as well as MS Office, which might be a deciding factor for someone who has been on Windows for a long time and has all their documents in docx.
Also, I personally always get MS Office 2003 flashbacks when using LibreOffice, while file types donāt really matter to me.
I found LO had better compatibility than Microsoft Office when using different versions but I understand out of the box the UI is different/better
Davinci Resolve is not a solution for at least 60% of the people who would move to Linux. The new version has trouble working on Debian-based systems (even with the various scripts and workarounds that exist), and it requires an nvidia card with lots of GBs of VRAM (while it does work on Windows with Intel/AMD without big problems). So I'd never suggest Resolve to someone moving to Linux unless they're going to use Fedora, and have a recent nvidia card. For everyone else, there's KDENLive and Shotcut. Which are way worse in the things they can do compared to Resolve (especially when it comes to professional color grading and audio plugins specifically for human speech), but that's the situation we're in.
Although I have to say, kdenlive surprised me very positively, when I tried it out recently. DaVinci is still king imo but in a pinch, Iād prefer kdenlive over Avid Media Composer any time.
I would say: "Don't switch to Linux. Just start with Linux and never use Windows or Mac in the first place"
Don't have to get used to something if you've never used something else.
Great write-up, but in my opinion this is exactly the wrong way around.
That way, you don't gain anything from your "switch" up front.
Better to switch to Linux and keep the apps you know wherever possible. Office, Teams, Photoshop, Lightroom and many others are available as web apps now. For many others, there are versions ported to Linux or running well in Wine. Finally, Gnome Boxes makes it trivial to integrate a small 50GB Windows VM to run apps where there's no other option.
Then you can slowly migrate to Linux-specific open source tools, in your own time.
It helps if you can get away from an app-centric view of computing to a result-centric view:
You don't need MS Office, you want to create/edit documents, tables or presentations.
You don't need Photoshop, you want to edit images.
You don't need Outlook, you want to connect to Exchange.
Almost all tasks are possible to do on Linux if you change your workflow a bit. Some aren't, especially when you're forced to collaborate with others in a professional setting. In that case, you can still minimize your Windows usage to what's necessary, by using Wine, web apps, dual-booting, using 2 devices, running a Windows VM inside Linux, or running a Linux VM inside Windows, depending on your needs.
I highly disagree with recommending regular users to use virtual machines, it defeats the whole purpose, at the end of the day, you are still using windows, and on top of that, it adds additional complexities that can only create frustration to users.
Enough with your psyop, Bill. Go back to trying to cure malaria to atone for your past sins.
I would still say dual booting is the superior option, but that might be complicated for some people, so this is probably a good recommendation.
... as someone who completely involuntary switches everyones computers I manage for some reason (ie extended family mostly) to Linux ... normies don't care that much.
No asking, no thinking, just Linux.
Because if you just set it up for them, they donāt have to think about the million choices of Linux. Tell them āhere browser, there office and there filesā and most people above 40 probably wonāt care.
Yes.
But in the last 10+ years the
is what popular distros just do out of the box, and they do it well.
Not new to Linux but recently I bought a new PC for dad and installed Tumbleweed ... and besides installing it (there is a fully automated default settings option even for that) I only configured the wallpaper image (bcs he likes it even it changed every hour or whatever). Not to mention how up-to-date it is and how seamlessly the updates are managed. Oh, and I had to manually install Signal & some Firefoxy extensions, but thats like just user stuff on basically any os.
You forget the step of installation though. My mum would be totally able to use Linux but creating an installer usb is probably beyond her capability or at least her comfort zone, let alone opening the bios, setting the usb as boot drive, disabling secure boot, and then installing Linux correctly. Although to be fair, the last step is probably the easiest. Thatās why you still have to set it up for non tech savvy ppl. Sure, not much different with windows, but usually it comes preinstalled.
Dual booting is also an option.
The major problem with dual-booting is if you get lazy and end up never booting the Linux install. Sure you can do most stuff on Linux but Windows does all your stuff, so you end up with "I might play after those YouTube videos" and boot into Windows to save the possible upcoming reboot. And then you're always on Windows.
But it's a very good option if you can manage to get yourself into the opposite situation: avoiding having to reboot into Windows and find workarounds and alternatives.
I have two applications that does not have a replacement for Linux, running Windows as a virtual machine is a great alternative as you don't have to leave Linux (or reboot) to use them.
In order to use dual boot, one must be able to set up dual boot. This guide is addressed towards people who have never used Linux.
If you're lucky enough to have more than one device, then I'd just say use Linux on your secondary device. I used my Steam Deck as my PC for a month before I made the change.
Dual booting is done for you in the installer, at least for mint.
I know it has the ability to, but I don't recommend it. I've recently commented on this so I'll paste it here:
https://lemm.ee/comment/13744698
tl;dw:
Improvise (but not really). Adapt. Overcome.
Then again, I'd rather go for a much "cleaner" approach and suggest new users to "unlearn" the bad habits learnt by using Windows. Which is the "click once and forget" mentality, along many others.
Bro have you ever tried to get rid of a habit? It's fucking hard.
You missed entirely OP's point of sticking to things familiar and gradually adapting. Is faster to learn this way.
It's not hard when you take the first step to admit that a habit is bad and you need to get rid of it. Even if your subconscious tells you not to.
If anything, that is a great way to improve/learn self-control.
I "missed" it because embracing a bad habit and adapting outside things to it is not how you (properly) get things done.
tl;dw: You have a brain for a reason. Use it.
Yeah talked like a kid who haven't give up anything yet. That shit takes time and I got places to be.
To read? Or to achieve conclusions without reading? Please use it before answering. Fucking moron.
Just dual boot
Just be aware that windows has a bad habit of fucking up for Linux when you do. Which sounds like it shouldn't be possible, right?
Windows can claim hardware resources that it doesn't release properly, so your WiFi adapter doesn't work in Linux, but works fine in Windows. Windows also (used to, at least) "correct" a boot partition, because, I presume, it sees something "unknown". Oh, and the system clock might be off every time you switch between one and the other, because windows thinks it makes sense to write the current timezone value and not UTC.
Those kinds of things.
true but i have never had any problem with drivers only nvidia and thats pretty much it the time there is a script that prevents windows from using your bios clock
Iām trying to remember, but I feel like either the regular Debian installer or expert installer recently offered to choose between Windows-style tome and Unix-style time. Also, though, there is a registry hack for Windows to make it use UTC.
OnlyOffice is problematic. They abuse additional clauses in the AGPL license to make code redistribution impossible. Thus, effectively making the software source-available freeware while still profiting from the Free Software image.
Remember, annotating PDF is fine but editing PDF is not fine. .doc or .odt files are supposed to be edited. PDF files are supposed to be printed or filled (fill the blanks). If you require editing a pdf, someone in the process is making a mistake.
I want to use Thunderbird but my university won't let me log into my email outside of Outlook... So dumb.
Yeah, always it must be security concerns.
Or just install Linux.
I get what you're trying to say but I disagree with this. Software can be a barrier to switching OS but it very much depends on the individual user's needs - it's not as easy as substituting open source for closed, and is only part of the difference anyway. For example, I use Outlook at work; Thunderbird is great but it is in no way a substitute for Outlook. Similarly, I use Microsoft Office 365 at work; OnlyOffice is in no way a substitute for an individual user (it can be for a whole business or for personal use, but not if you're tied in to an organisation or employer using Office). If you're tied into those platforms with work, then for occasional use you can just use the online versions of Microsoft Office in Linux via a web browser. And if you need to work from home or do more, then realistically you need to have Windows and access to the full suite installed locally.
But software does not preclude switching to Linux; for example I dual boot between Windows and Linux on my home PC. I have an M.2 drive for Windows and another M.2 drive for Linux. I rarely use Windows at all now, but when I do it's if for some reason I need to be doing work related stuff from home or rarely if I can't get a game working in Linux. In Linux I can do all my web browsing, social media, video streaming, music listening, even gaming and I know I'm doing so privately and securely.
I'd say the best way to switch to Linux is to switch to Linux. New users do not have to be "all in" - they can dual boot between Linux and Windows (or MacOS and Linux), and then have a low level of risk to try out the OS. It can even be beneficial in itself as they can compartmentalise work and free time by OS. And if they don't want to dual boot, then just try it out by virtualisation.
Stop recommending OnlyOffice.
How come? I've been out of the open source loop recently
Onlyoffice ain't bad yes its built by a company but it's open source and feels like something that's used in a professional environment + libreoffice ui is pretty dated
What's bad about it? It has better compatibility from my experience, and the UI doesn't look ass. I'm a big fan of LibreOffice, but unless you're only editing OpenDocument Format files it doesn't work that well most of the time (and even if you are... I have tried, but god, does the OpenDocument Foundation need some money funneled into it. I never get .ods to work the way I want to)
The solution that solves ODF compatibility issues is to not allow applications that do not adhere to the standard. In other words, to explicitly disallow the use of Microsoft products. It's not by accident that MS Office products are slightly fucking up documents, it's by design.
Since many companies use MS Office, when they do a pilot to see if they can use ODF, it ends up "causing problems". If anyone tries to use it in a mostly Office based workspace, it'll also "causes problems".
MS only has very good reason to always be just subtly off, and everything to lose if they aren't.
@okamiueru @glaber , well it is an issue to fuck up by design. There are third party plugins for ODF for MSO that work better than its own implementation.
I am forced to use MSO for work, but it's LO for everything else of mine.
Edit: One should also see what they can do to make Microsoft improve/fix their ODF implementation since it is an ISO standard. There has to be something to get that ball rolling.
The answer to this should be the same as when some standard S is implemented in software X, Y, Z. If Z doesn't follow the standard, blacklist it until it does. That's the whole point of having a format standard, that it shouldn't matter what software you use.
If people, companies, institutions and governments have this stance and attitude, MS will need to compete on actual user experience, and not degrading the UX of the competition.
They'd get their shit together mighty fast. I'd expect them to lose too. Software to edit documents isn't complicated. If we can have things like blender, which I'd say is about 3-4 orders of magnitude a greater endeavour, for which use case has the inverse potential user base, it's pretty obvious that the only reason that MS Office is a thing (i.e. in raking in billions in license fees... 49 billion USD in 2022), is shady business practices.
It still pisses me off that in my country, when they had a group of experts make the evaluation of which document standard to follow, all experts agreed on ODF. But, because of shady MS money being thrown around, they ignored the recommendation, and went with DOCX.
Write me a function to generate a Pivot Table with all of the features from Excel, from scratch
If you read what I wrote, in context. I'm sure you can get a better idea of what I meant, than what you're implying here.
My point is you are grossly oversimplifying software and how hard it is to actually write something like an office clone
I'm not. You implied that my point was that it was easy to write OpenOffice, or the equivalent. From the context, it should have been obvious that this wasn't my point, and I'm not interested in entertaining such straw man arguments, and my responses tend to be rude. Apologies.
I don't feel like paraphrasing myself either, but in the spirit of good intentions: I made the comparison that document productivity software is orders of magnitude simpler than something like Blender. If you disagree on this, that's fine. Inferring that this means productivity software is easy, that's all on you.
I get that, but even my .ods files get slightly fucked up when I only ever edit them with LibreOffice. That being said, I'm a staunch supporter and I will always send my text files as .odt and my slideshows as .odp, and I keep donating money in hopes it'll improve in the future (and for fuck's sake, the UI shouldn't be that important, but it is. It might as well be one of the biggest barriers of entry for normies, it's not a good thing that FOSS always looks either outdated or overcomplicated)
Never had issue with this. For my work I've always used Blender 3D, Gimp, and Krita. The one thing that used to hold me back from using Linux was my Steam game library, but then Valve introduced Proton and all my reasons to stay on Windows evaporated.
Been a happy Linux user for a few years now.
You know there is almost more stuff advising how to switch to Linux than there is stuff for existing users or people with their feet in both worlds. There are plenty of people who used Linux but only for server, or as a dual boot, or on one machine but not another. I think they would benefit from advice on how to fully switch over or how to use both systems to full effectiveness together. Like I only fully switched to Linux maybe 6 months ago after going back and forth for years.
We also need to be thinking about how to get people from beginner level to intermediate, and then on to advanced levels. There isn't a clear progression path forward. It could be something like: Linux Mint -> Arch -> Nix. I believe projects like Arco Linux are striving to fulfill this gap from beginner to advanced.
This is what I did in the 2000s. At one point I used all open-source software and my Windows was themed like GNOME. One sunny day Wine got fixed for Warcraft TFT. And then I switched to Ubuntu 5.04. With that said, today with the current hardware and software, lots more is palatable to run in a Windows VM. My wife has used MS Office and Adobe software in VMware Player for a decade now. Recently switched her to virt-manager. It's just damn reassuring to know you can run pretty much all non-graphics intensive Windows workloads on demand. Even interfacing with pretty much any USB hardware, which is important for dealing with various arcane hardware.
This is good advice, but I would add having a bootable Linux distro on a usb, and using more and more until you find yourself not needing Windows, then move to Linux with just it or a dual boot configuration with Windows as a fallback
To add to the software point, STOP buying hardware that requires some shitty software to fully work.
I did this back in the Windows 7 days years before I even knew anything about Linux. But Razers rootkit managed to load in before the Win7 login screen then crash it. After that I avoided any peripherals with mandatory software and it made my transition to Linux a lot easier than most people I know.
Is it people that want to switch away from Windows or switch to Linux?
In my case it was the former, having spent a lot of time on FreeBSD so in 2007 I bought a Macbook Pro running OSX 10.3. This gave me most of what I wanted and when I needed something Windows (XP) specific I installed a VM running under Parallels, then Virtual Box. I was able to run most of the open source software at that time such as Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird in preference to the Apple supplied apps.
Honestly, I just kept some distros on a USB disk with Ventoy (amazing software for booting ISOs from USB) on it and booted them up repeatedly until I felt comfortable and found my favourite.
I really don't think waffling around on Windows trying open source alternatives is the answer. Look up what the alternatives are, then boot up a live image and download them. Try them. Then switch if you like it.
This is coming from someone who used Windows from 1999 until 2023 and planned a transition to Linux over time (about a month) using a spreadsheet. It really doesn't have to be complicated or difficult; I'm not a programmer or anything, I'm just a former Windows power user.
Windows is no longer for power users. With each version, it kills the power of users some more, and asks for more powerful hardware like a hungry beast.
Yes, and so I am no longer using it. :b
Great post! Completely agree! I will add that for filling out PDF Forms, Okular is amazing!
I just dive head first and use Arch btw if games or softwares I play/use refused to run Linux I just stop playing/using it and find alternatives, I yet to find any softwares that doesn't have open source alternative
Libreoffice draw is really bad.
Instead, you either need
There is no free tool that does all the needed things. StirlingPDF is really close though and I am working on good desktop integration.
I hate it when someone sends me a PDF form and tells me I can complete it using Acrobat (or whatever it's called this week). Last one I successfully completed with the Firefox PDF ed.
There are already a billion different online form generators and people are still using PDF for this. PDFs are just meant for publishing, I don't know what derangement causes people to ask for gif,video and form support for PDF.
Last time I checked, Davinci Resolve (which is fantastic, btw) is only officially supported on CentOS for some reason. There are guides/scripts that allege to make it work on other distros, but I had zero luck with them on Mint when I tried like a year ago.
It can also be extremely picky about what hardware it will run on. I actively use 3 different editors based on what tasks the project calls for since some things are just easier/faster with different programs. Kdenlive and Olive will get 90% of stuff done easily in my (admittedly limited) experience and installation for either is just using your package manager.
Oh nice-- Maybe those would be better recommendation for this purpose, then. I love Resolve, but I wouldn't want to tell a new Linux user "It doesn't work on your distro, but you can MAKE it work if you are computers enough."
Steam is only Officially supported on Ubuntu. Doesn't seem to have hurt it any.
Good š I'm glad that works for people. I had alot of trouble getting Resolve to run on Mint.
I've installed Linux on dual boot because I've always loved it and used it as a solo operating system or in dual boot configurations years ago. Now I'm using KDE Neon for the sole reason that it has the wobbly windows. Otherwise, any operating system is fine for me. The only thing I need to find is a good alternative to Affinity Designer 2 or a way to make it work on Linux. I know there's Inkscape, but I'm not used to it or its user interface.
Really neat post, I'd not heard of a few of these (never knew libre office draw could edit pdfs!).
Couple of extra ones:
Note taking and pdf annotation: Xournal++ is amazing, it's also great to use on larger whiteboard screens. Plug and play support for scribe tablets on both windows and Linux.
Emulation (up to ps1): Mednafen is lightweight and comes with a gui. It also supports recording, though not netplay.
Ebook management/reading: Calibre - allows easy importing and exporting of ebooks to devices, also has a great built in search letting you find DRM free versions of a book.
So tldr start with a dual boot machine
Dual boot sucks donkey balls.
Install virtualbox and spin up a Windows VM on a Linux host.
I did that for about a year while I was waiting for a game to be supported on linux. I agree, is the best procedure.
Old hardware runs better on Ubuntu than on Fedora or Tumbleweed? Nani?
No I meant it in the sense that for newer hardware mint and Ubuntu LTS usually ends up not having drivers or driver issues. I was setting up my girlfriend's laptop which isn't old but crap so I chose mint ... It didn't have the drivers for the trackpad so I had to switch to the edge iso. So what I was saying was if you have newer hardware run fedora or tumbleweed ... Not the other way around
Yeah I originally trying to daily Linux for like the past 10 years but kept falling back to Windows, mainly due to the app compatibility.
A lot of people suggested dual booting but I found that it messed up disrupted my workflow, and Level 2 hypervisors were too slow to be practical
What finally made Linux stick for me was Proxmox.. it let daily Linux and still have the option to quickly spin up a Windows VM with a GPU if I needed something urgently, without the hassle of rebooting.
So now, six months later, Iām dailying Arch and also self-hosting a bunch of stuff on Debian, and I havenāt looked back.
I think it's about convenience.
Tags for federation: @acceptable_humor #infosec
Who wants to start a flame war? NixOS is a better bleeding edge distro than Arch. Nixpkgs has way more packages than Arch.
Maybe, but arch is simpler
Is arch btw simpler than NixOS? I always thought that arch btw was on top of the difficulty food chain.
Arch is pretty simple. Anyone with an intermediate skill level could use it pretty easily, I reckon.
Never used it, only used Debian based versions. I tried my hand at Fedora and OpenSUSE but no apt made me change back. Not because it better (or worse, for all I know), just that I know apt and didn't want to take the time to learn rpm etc.
I wrote this for beginners ... While you shouldn't be installing arch either as a beginner but if your are up for it tools like the arch wiki and archisntall are still easier than learning nix os ...
I have been using linux since years now and I have no idea what a nix is /j
Nix makes my head hurt
Ansible on desktop I could get on board with
For me, inkscape is the easier PDF editor.
Most people are trying to play video games they do not care about the professional software
Yeah...I was dual booting to test mint, then accidentally wiped my windows drive when I tried out bazzite and went 'welp, guess this is my life now' and haven't gone back to windows lol
Most people care about neither. Most people want a browser, a place to store their photos and maybe an office application.
Bazzite has been astoundingly good for me. The only games that have issues are usually those with kernel-level anti-cheat and tbh I wouldn't play those anyways if I was running Windows (although I understand that's a deal breaker for some).
Support for Bazzite is fantastic too. Kyle and the rest of the folks on Discord are amazing!
The only game I am having issues with is fallout london. For some reason, even with a dlss upscaler mod, it runs at half the fps that it does on my windows :(
Aah yeah Nvidia still has some stuff to work out on Linux, but fortunately for me I'm running AMD. Hopefully the Nvidia support gets better soon.
The Steam Deck exists. It runs Linux. It's even an actual computer that you can plug a display, keyboard, and mouse into, and then gawk at the wonderful KDE Plasma desktop environment that this thing ships with. Sure, not all Steam games work on this thing, but you still have access to a lot of stuff.
But I suppose some folks will insist to install Windows on it, or get a Windows based alternative.
Let's not forget that switching to Linux isn't always the right choice. In some industries the software doesnt have high enough quality Linux equivalents.
I keep a win10 virtual box available when I need excel while in Mint. Otherwise Iām good. Have win10 set as dual boot but switched main boot to Mint once I got used to it.
I semi-agree. I did that, switching to Inkscape, Firefox, and LibreOffice in the weeks before I realized I should just make the switch. What actually helped me get the experience though was running various distros in VirtualBox, which Iād done in various forms since 2017 or so starting with Ubuntu 16.04, then going through each subsequent version up to 20.04, trying (and ultimately using as a main VM) Debian Buster, Bullseye and Bookworm (Testing at the time). In the final few weeks of daily-driving Windows, I did some VM distrohopping with Arch and NixOS before ultimately choosing Debian Bookworm Testing for my first bare metal install on my main device (it was originally intended as a test to see how I would do things if I did transition to Linux before it just turned into my main distro. On an unrelated note, I had installed Debian on an old Fujitsu Lifebook before then.). That Testing install has survived to the present day and is currently on Trixie.
This is how switched, though Iād recommend properly platform agnostic software (Windows, Mac, and Linux support) since if you donāt find Linux proper works for your workflow, you could switch to a Mac.
Another thing which helped me was switching my Laptop first before my Desktop since if I had problems (which I did) I could loose my laptop and not worry about data loss.
As of now, I am 2 year with Linux on my laptop and 6 months on my desktop with no noticeable difference between my Windows experience and Linux.