this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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There's basically no reason to keep using windows.
Debian or Linux Mint are both easy to install, work out of the box, and the only thing that might take a smidge of effort is the 3 commands you gotta run to install gpu drivers.
Steam proton works incredibly well. I ran my entire steam library (most of which were "windows only" games) and even single one worked with proton as is without issues.
I've been using steam link from my debian box for months now and it's smooth as butter.
Not everyone that uses Windows is a gamer. Productivity and creative software (and drivers for their respective devices) remains a sore point for Linux compatibility
Don't get me wrong - I think Microsoft and Windows are absolute trash and I hope to one day see them fall, but people really need to remember that folks do more than just play videogames. Computers are work tools for a lot of people.
So what? You can do all that work on GNU/Linux.
Sure, if people willing to change and relearn their entire workflows to switch to alternative software. Something that, in the real world, doesn't happen. When you have a stable, functional tool that is making the income you rely on - the last thing you do is throw it in the trash to replace it with one you don't know how to us or requires extensive (and costly) downtime. Moving system(s) over to Linux can be a business-altering decision depending on what the use is, and they're not going to do it unless they absolutely have to.
This is going to sound harsh, but Linux fans really do need to touch a bit of grass sometimes. As I said in my previous message: computers are work tools for a lot of people. Your computer might be a hobby device that you play games on and tinker with which is great! Good for you! But a lot of people and businesses don't do that.
Then let’s talk iFruit!
Again, there are a lot of (professional) programs which only work in Windows, with no paid/free/open source equivalents for Linux or BSD.
Even if that is so, you can simply run them through the Wine translation layer and still get native speeds.
Not really, some older versions of premiere and after effects have bronze at best for example. Nothing recent works.
VM Ware / Virtualbox ?
I'd love to but on my gaming rig Wine/Proton will absolutely refuse to install the Visual C++ runtime, making me unable to play most games. On another, virtually identical, Linux installation it works without issue; in fact, I have fewer weird issues like a game randomly not connecting to EOS.
I consider it karmic justice for buying Nvidia; that's the major difference between the two systems.
(Update: The latest Wine version seems to have fixed this. I'm certainly not complaining.)
At this point there's just a few pieces of software that keep me on Microshitty's teat. Foobar2000 being the biggest one—there simply ain't no good alternative for Linux, and I've tried them all. Freesurround, actual dB scale volume control via Jscript, waveform seekbar, precision spectrum analyzers, modtracker player are just some of the essential plugins, as is ASIO (in addition of bypassing all OS audio stack shenanigans it has the accidental benefit of not only auto-muting , but also auto-stopping auto-playing videos on websites that might slip through uBlock).
Also, Paint.net is so good for converting .dds files. Never got .dds to work properly with Gimp.
Some say DeaDBeeF is a valid alternative for foobar2000. You could also just run foobar2000 in Wine, which seems to be possible for 5+ years now
As Paint.net alternative I highly recommend Krita instead of Gimp
DeaDBeeF sort of is similar but doesn't seem to have the plugins I need to do a proper full-screen 10ft GUI, Facets-like library browsing, surround upmix, DLNA streaming to other rooms etc.
I have to give Krita another try and see if it can import/export .dds, but my impression from playing with it for a few hours is that it seems to focus more on digital painting instead of photo manipulation (which modding textures essentially boils down to). I also have my GIMP workflow down to muscle memory, it only takes me minutes to do eg a recolor or upscale+fake details via sharpening and noise.