There's a campaign being passed around bsky at the moment to encourage the switching to Linux due to the upcoming End Of Life for Windows 10 later this year. So I wanted to talk about my experiences actually running Linux, running games, and streaming. And I want to talk more about what you should be thinking about if you think about switching.
Bottom Line, Up Front
Linux has improved its usability in the last few decades. However, I have trouble recommending it to the feint of heart or low of spoon.
I am not going to try to convince you to switch. My only intent is to give you some data to work with to make an informed decision. And the best part is that at no point is it a final decision.
I have made a prior journal entry about tips for dealing with Windows's issues that won't solve all the problems Microsoft keeps introducing but will definitely help if switching isn't for you.
My advantages and flaws
I have over two decades of experience arguing with computers, a decade of which was in professional settings. But as my interface to the world, it's been mostly Windows, and the Linux experience prior to this year was mostly via remote command line access.
I have also looked for open source and cross platform apps when fulfilling a need, so some apps that for others would be replacements have actually already been my go-to.
So I try to keep that in mind when advising other people about things, because 20 years of practice does build up some reflexes others don't have and, unless they're wired for it, probably need 20 years to build up.
Get to the point: What's it like driving Linux for four months?
Fine.
I'm not arguing with it more than I was arguing with Windows. Probably less as time goes on, actually. (Whereas a driving factor in my decision to switch was the increasing amount of arguing with Windows I've had to do. This had been in the pipe for basically a year already)
I'm playing my games. I did have a bit of odd behavior that I can't explain, but since things are working I can't complain much.
I'm streaming. I never did figure out how to get F13-F24 keys working from my Stream Deck (as in, sent to other applications; I believe the key is being sent?), but since I only used that to drop some timestamp markers if anything interesting happened, the lack isn't a huge loss and I can probably come up with an alternate solution if needed.
Kate fulfills the niche that was occupied by Notepad++ for my needs.
I already used LibreOffice instead of MS; but I don't use such apps often anyways.
Discord's Linux build happened to update to support screen sharing with audio right before I switched over, so that was good since I do share screen in voice chats a lot.
Clip Studio Paint was the only app I really wanted to get working that there was not a feature-parity and file format compatible replacement for, and I managed that. And, of course, Krita and Inkscape run perfectly, but regrettably I have use for my CSP 1.x perpetual license that neither of these yet provide feature or enjoyable workflows for.
My tablet works. But I need to keep an eye on desktop environment updates due to possibly not working when everyone switches to the new backend technology. The DE that supports graphics tablets will be the one I end up using once the old backend is dropped. I wouldn't say I'm worried about this, it's just something I have to keep in mind.
I was already using Shotcut and/or Kdenlive for what little video editing I do.
Firefox is Firefox, no changes there except where the Settings is on the menus.
There hasn't been anything that I desperately wanted to do that I couldn't do thus far.
So, how might this apply to you?
What applications do you use?
Browser
Firefox has been on Linux for decades.
Chrome is there too. Some distros may distribute an "ungoogled" Chromium instead of Google's build. If you actually use those features of Chrome, I guess that's a thing you'll have to figure out.
Most if not all extensions/plugins/etc for either browser should Just Work.
If you use something else, it was probably based on Chromium anyways. But that's on you to figure out.
DRM playback
Historically, you may have issues with DRM'd streaming, and should look into that if it's a thing that concerns you. This 2023 It's FOSS article might be a good starting spot.
Gaming
Figure out what games you must have running.
If you aren't playing Triple-Eh games on release day, you're probably going to be mostly fine. But there are some Triple-Eh games that you won't be running, period. Ever. These include games with aggressive so-called "anti-cheat" rootkits such as Fortnite, Destiny 2, League of Legends. Any of the big names in multiplayer, probably going to be a problem.
- if it's Steam Deck compatible on the Steam store page, then you're probably fine.
- Update: a few hours after writing this, I was pointed at Valve's announcement of SteamOS Compatibility Ratings, an expansion of the Steam Deck verification program. This will apply a bit more broadly than just the Deck hardware.
- ProtonDB -- contains the crowd-sourced information on various games; and depending on the situation, what works for one might not work for another, but if people having working on average then you're off to a good start.
- Gamingonlinux maintains a list of games with anti-cheat and their status, so it might be quicker to scan this list.
Storefronts
I have little experience with storefronts besides Steam, which has a native Linux client (and whatever distro you pick likely has an installer to ensure it sets up properly for their environment). There are several launcher projects, so you're probably fine, but it's not something I can advise in this post.
Office
Look, if you're using Office 365 or Google Docs, you're doing that through a browser probably anyways and it doesn't matter what OS you use.
LibreOffice, which also runs on Windows, can open MS Office documents. However by default it has its own native format, so you will need to explicitly save new documents in the MS Office format. There used to be some formatting issues moving between the two apps, but that isn't something I've done in a long time so if that's been fixed I don't know. But if you need to collaborate with others, you might want to check for that.
Streaming (as a creator)
I've been using the real, upstream OBS Project for my entire time streaming. It is cross platform, they maintain their own "flatpak" (a tech that cuts through many issues with making apps that run on Linux; I'm not deep diving that here, just know that you probably don't need to care too much, but it's a good option for apps like OBS where being full up to date is desirable).
Derivatives of OBS, however, might not have linux builds at all. I can't advise you here, but you'd definitely want to look into it if you can't run your stage on the real OBS for some reason.
If you liked to virtually wire your audio for mixing different sound sources, that's another spot I can't advise you because I didn't ever do much with this. The popular Voicemeter is a Windows app. The Linux audio system is filled with dragons (the current flavor is "pipewire"). I know you can achieve results, I just don't know how much of a power user you need to be or what apps might help you out.
Video Editing
I hear a lot of people use Davinci Resolve. There is a linux build. However, it is a proprietary app, so it was probably built for a specific distribution and running it elsewhere would be officially unsupported. I can't seem to figure out from their webpage what distro they expect you to use; an article elsewhere says CentOS but that was discontinued several years ago.
So I can't provide much advice here. If you have plugins in particular or some feature other options don't have parity for, you're going to have to evaluate your options yourself.
I use Shotcut and sometimes Kdenlive, both of which can be found for most Linux distros. For my exceptionally minor needs, these perform perfectly.
Adobe Alternatives
I'm always going to plug this list of Adobe Alternatives.
If you desperately need an Adobe app to run, then I can't advise you.
Hardware considerations
For basic PC hardware, there's probably not much to worry about.
Peripherals, though, that's where the dragons can be. I can tell you that:
- My Wacom CTH610 tablet works
- My XBox controller works
- My Stream Deck Mini has works via OpenDeck (not to be confused with the MIDI OpenDeck)
- Some stuff might work-but-without-some-bells-and-whistles; i.e. some stuff is generic in the actual hardware and it's the bloatware software packages that provide some of the gimmicks.
- The less common of a device, the more likely no one has made anything for it to work.
- Things that work are not necessarily officially supported by the hardware maker
- AMD desktop GPUs are fully supported by AMD in the Linux kernel without any effort from you
- I don't think there's any equivalent to the "Adrenaline" software, if that's something you used beyond driver updates. I haven't looked.
- NVidia provides support via installing their packages. Most complaints I hear from other linux users I personally know are usually about nvidia.
Other apps
Try AlternativeTo and filter for Linux.
Or search for "Linux <appname>" or "open source <generic idea>" or such.
Or scroll through FlatHub, which is not an exhaustive list but will give you a good idea of what's available.
Trying Linux Without Changing A Thing
Virtual Machines
You can fire up a virtual machine, via something like VirtualBox. Performance might be awful depending on factors, but in exchange you have something you can poke and who cares if it breaks. And some hardware won't like being passed into a VM.
In my mind, this is a good option for looking around without leaving your existing setup. But if you need to test things like if a specific game will work, well, there isn't a good option.
Live Boot Stick
Some flavors are available in a form that you can flash to a USB stick (or DVD, but that will be very slow to load things) and boot off as a live environment without clobbering anything. Accessing files from the Windows disks in anything but read-only mode, I would strongly advise against, for there be dragons with writing stuff and you don't really want to go there if you aren't interested in going into technical weeds.
Downside to this method is that it is temporary -- so trying to run a game for testing, you'd have to download each time, unless you're willing to do a lot of technical stuff.
Trying Alternatives Without Changing A Thing
Throughout this I've mentioned apps that run on Linux that I've used as alternatives. Many apps that run on Linux have a Windows build too.
And you can just download and run them side-by-side with the app you're used to, and test drive them right then and there. No switching, no VMs or booting up a live stick, just trying them out within the comfort of your existing setup.
This is something I would encourage even if you stay on Windows. If Krita and/or Inkscape does the job, and you don't need Adobe or Celsys for some other reason, then you can save a few bucks.
And even if you want to switch, you can get used to different apps on your own terms.
Wait you went through this whole article without mentioning what Linux distro you use
Because it isn't really that important.
Oh, there's strengths and weaknesses to any one of them. But as I can power-use, some of the weaknesses aren't the same to me as they might be to others; likewise, what someone else considers a strength might not be important to me either.
A lot of what you see in a distro isn't necessarily unique to that distro. The desktop environment makes up most of the eye candy and "user-friendly" interface that you actually will interact with.
If you don't like the look of one desktop, you can just switch. You can even have multiple desktops installed. It's only when you need to go down into the weeds that the distro becomes more and more relevant to whatever you'd be doing down there. Some try to mimic the Windows style. Some try to mimic the Mac style. Some do their own thing. Some are as minimal as possible. Overwhelming choice is the real issue.
What's important is you find out how to get help when you need it. Many distros have forums, so checking the vibes of that place might be a good start.
Okay but there's a zillion distros point me at something
The two that come up the most when talking about distros most friendly to non-tech people:
Both of which are based on Ubuntu; which is based on Debian. Is this relevant? Well, when looking for solutions to problems, things that work on one in a distro family may apply to others. Ubuntu is a popular target for proprietary apps when they support a Linux.
Ubuntu-based distros also include a helper app for installing proprietary graphics drivers if you need them. These days that should only apply to nvidia.
So which one of those did you use?
Neither.
To forestall further questions, I decided on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), because:
- I first used Debian back in 2005.
- I've used Debian or a Debian-based distro the most over the years and thus have a lot of experience with its specific flavor of quirks and finding solutions specific to it.
- I am comfortable pulling things out of "backports" if I need them.
- Personal bias against how "snap" was integrated into Ubuntu and therefore derivatives; though Mint modified snap for its distro to disable it by default.
- I'm not going into the details on why, but it created a lot of extra work for me, and left a sour taste forever.
- The apps I care most about being up-to-date are available via flatpaks.