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this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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How was your experience? What information did you miss, to make this a smooth transition?
Right so I haven't switched just yet, I'm waiting on Win10 EOL because there is still stuff I use that is windows only (Adobe suite [ I fucking hate gimp ] and some games)
However, I did look into distro stability, and what apps are avalabile. Everything else I use IS either Linux native or runs great on Linux.
Inevitably, when I switch, I will miss Photoshop and not having to tinker with making games work
You should look into Krita. Not a replacement for Photoshop but I find it more intuitive than GIMP, at least.
Oh yeah 100%, I've used Krita before on windows and it's enough to cover most of my use cases, also it's by the KDE community, which I adore <3
There's this: https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP
Far from the first attempt at making GIMP behave like Photoshop and most likely not the last either.
This is very interesting, I think I'll try that out. I wanted to give GIMP a real try at some point anyway.
Affinity Photo is also really really good. I’d imagine it’s high profile and will have good support in wine.
Affinity absolutely does not work on linux easily, or well. Some people have gotten a barely-functioning app working in bottles, and reportedly some have gotten it "mostly" working through wine, but it is through a convoluted process that will be beyond many newer linux users and prone to errors. (And you have to dig through 100 pages of the affinity forum to try to figure it out.)
It doesn't support hardware acceleration and seems to tend to be glitchy and crash often.
Which... is still a vastly better state than the last time I checked, at least, ha. But that's been progress over the course of 4 years.
I think this page is the best bet for even trying: https://codeberg.org/Wanesty/affinity-wine-docs
It's legitimately the only thing I miss from windows. I might try again with this installer when I have the energy... sigh hahah
People often forget that they also often have to tinker with making games work in Windows, because they are more familiar with the OS and get it done faster. Also I think you'd be surprised how many games just run without any tinkering at all nowadays. But then there are some that don't run at all, mostly due to invasive rootkit 'anti-cheats'. That's no real loss for me, I wouldn't install something like that on a Windows machine either.
I think the largest extent I went with messing around was using a Locale Emulator for a Japanese game, never had to do more than run the exe.
On Linux it's a bit of a "will it run under proton?" type game, but I'm not really thaaaaaaat bothered by it. Also fuck invasive anticheats, only shit games use it anyway.
Also the steam deck helped massively with game compatibility. The only game I had to tinker with (and didn't get to work) so far is a closed alpha. I still run a dual boot setup, but only use the Windows partition for work (office suite needed). Fmstrat/Winapps (found on GitHub) is a good enough way to use Office for smaller tasks so I don't always have to boot up the Windows partition.
Most games so far I haven't had to tinker with. I just switched a few months ago and it's been smooth sailing. That said, I can't speak to using any photo editing software.
I'm keeping windows on my computer now for a piece of software for programming my non-custom keyboard and other miscellaneous windows only things like updating Xbox controller firmware. But it has been a blast and being able to make the PC work for me instead of the other way around has been an extremely positive experience.
I'm a game dev, so I'll have to at least keep around either a Windows VM or a dual boot system, since Windows is still very popular.
I just switched from 10 myself.
I started on NixOS for some reason… that was a pain in the ass. Every time the machine locked for inactivity it killed my session and I had to relaunch all my apps.
I now have ZorrinOS installed and I’m much more at home on a Ubuntu/Debian base. I’m not seeing the same session issue anymore - it resumes as you would expect.
The install for Zorrin has an “install with Nvidia drivers” option (others may too - idk) which made it easy.
I haven’t had to use it yet but I guess wine is there if I have a Windows only app I have to run.
I would install Manjaro. It runs KDE, which is super familiar, and maybe more polished than Windows. And it is Arch-based, which means you have access to AUR apps, which makes finding programs super easy. It's like if the MS app store actually had every program on it.
Keeping the explanations simple.
Don't start with Ubuntu/Gnome. The desktop is way too weird, and app repository is limited.
Don't start with Mint or Cinnamon or LxDE. Linux nerds will recommend these, but they feel "old" and are not really lighter on resources than KDE.
Highly recommend Arch-based distros. AUR feels like a miracle coming from the Windows paradigm of tracking down installer EXEs and MSIs.