I use Linux because I got frustrated with Windows and decided that in my opinion, something as fundamental as an operating system should never be closed source.
I don’t mind some software, (e.g., a game store), being closed source.
I support Valve in particular because A) they have the games I want and B) because they’ve done more than any other company to improve the drivers on Linux (which is the operating system I bailed to following my distaste for Windows).
It’s worth noting, I do use Windows to play some games, but I actually use two computers to do it. I use Moonlight and Sunshine. My Linux computer continues to be “my computer” and the Windows machine is effectively a LAN console/gaming computer that I interact with via my computer.
Basically you don’t have to be an absolutionist to support free software … and free software desktops are worth using not just because they’re free, but because they’re genuinely better at getting the job done.
I was already a full time Linux user when steam came to Linux. Most games are closed source anyways, so I don’t see a problem in using a closed source game launcher. In fact as a general point I’m not against closed source, I use NVIDIA proprietary drivers since the performance is simply better, but I prefer open source software which is why my next GPU will be AMD. However the games are still closed source, so getting them from GoG, itch or Steam is very similar, but buying them on Steam gives money to Devs working on open source projects that improve game performance on Linux, so I’ll keep buying from them.
Resize Rebar was something that was previously switched off I discovered. Turning this on via the Asus EZ Tuner made a great difference. Found im still on a Mesa 22.x driver for some reason, despite running latest driver update, and my kernal is showing 5.15.x, despite having all OS updates installed… will need to investigate, perhaps a Mint issue. Thanks!
5.15.X is the previous LTS kernel. Probably the default when you installed it. I don’t use Mint but you should be able to use 6.1.X at the least (the current LTS kernel).
Posting to say thank you to all the helpful replies here. Just skimming I see so many good resource links and tips. I am about to do the same thing OP is doing since I decided Windows 10 is the last release I’ll be using as my main PC, for many of the same reasons as OP. I have some linux server experience but have never used it as my primary desktop PC. But I am too tired of the telemetry blocking game to keep putting up with Microsoft’s bullshit. I’ll have a Windows 11 partition for gaming with things that don’t work on linux, but Microsoft can kiss access to any of my non-videogame data goodbye.
It’s a sign of the times that so many helpful replies are here instead of 10-15 years ago where mostly you’d get “RTFM” responses. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
DistroChooser can help you decide which distro to try.
Personally, the most important thing to decide is the desktop environment choice (do you prefer Gnome, KDE, or something else like XFCE, Sway, etc). The other is whether you prefer more stable system or more bleeding edge system.
~2010 is when I gave up on dual booting and went 100% Linux. TBF I had mostly been on Linux many years before but just kept Windows “in case I needed it”
It’s a great time to take that leap, it’s getting better everyday too. The ONLY thing I wish I had was Office, but webapps and things like OnlyOffice work just as well if not better.
Its reliance on PCGW is problematic. Anyone can edit it and there are cases of the wiki paths being wildly incorrect. Good luck finding the config of the Game Pass version of Starfield at this location.
A lot of people came to lemmy because it is open source and will NEVER have the monetization issues reddit has (because hosting and development becomes free if you are open source, I guess?).
So we basically have a LOT of people who are the equivalent of a comp sci 101 kid learning that linux exists and insisting that is the answer to all problems and wanting to show off how much cooler they are.
Personally? I prefer FOSS when it is viable. But I am also not going to go too crazy over using a closed source app or driver to… better play my closed source games that I installed via my closed source Steam client.
But also: Honestly, a few rsync scripts running as part of a cron job handles most of this. Because most games I play are through Steam so they already have save file sync. Which mostly leaves my emulator saves and what not.
@Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@V0lD personally, I use systemd timers, in combination with the btrfs tooling to backup certain snapshots of my filesystem, which include game saves. I can't use steam because it's entirely screenreader inaccessible, so I play stuff with retroarch and other emulators, plus the occasional audiogame in wine, and very rarely, native ones, those are so rare.
Yeah, a lot of lemmy users were already into free software as a whole and liked lemmy because it’s libre and federated. So it’s only natural you see the focus on software freedom everywhere.
I just think that we should strive to use libre alternatives, especially when they are as useful/better than closed source ones.
The philosophical side of free software is much more important to me than anything else. For me, it’s not just about using open source software for the sake of it. It’s about software freedom.
But I don’t go around telling everyone to use open source or die. If you just don’t like the libre alternative and prefer using closed source software, whatever. If there isn’t a general reason to use a closed source software, I’ll just point out the libre alternative (or try to convince that a somewhat inferior libre alternative may not be that bad) :)
Nobara Linux. It’s a fedora derivative that’s focused for gaming, with regular updates. It even comes with all the important things like Steam and Feral Gamemode installed. Make sure to download the Nvidia version if you have an Nvidia GPU.
This PC uses a last-gen CPU which was a value buy before AMD moved to a new platform. It’s basically a budget build at a non-budget price with an overpriced GPU in it. For AMD CPUs, you should look for the 7000 series, and for Intel you’d want the 13000 series.
If you’re up for it, I strongly recommend building your own PC, perhaps getting help from someone if you need it. If not, look for something current-gen so that at the very least there’s an easy upgrade path.
If you’re going Linux, try to find a computer that doesn’t include Windows, since you’re paying extra for the license. For the GPU, AMD is usually the preferred choice for Linux builds since the drivers are open source and built into the kernel. I’d also recommend more RAM, but that’s something that can be upgraded later if it doesn’t fit into your current budget.
I have built my own PC in the past. That may be the best option again, though I was hoping to avoid it. It’s quite a lot of work. Given my priorities though, it may be the best option.
I concur with most of this, with one caveat. If you’re going with a Zen4 platform, make absolutely sure you choose a distro that lets you run kernel 6.5+, or else you’ll be having some issues. The main thing in the newer kernels for AMD and Zen4 is the amd-pstate management driver, and a number efficiency and compatibility drivers for things like caching and memory bus. The machine will run okay-ish without, but you’ll get some performance issues, and needless power ramping that just wastes power.
I would rather use an AMD graphics card over Nvidia on Linux, because of Nvidia’s attitude towards Linux. Other than that there’s not much to say I think, it’s usually the tiny details that are missing from product pages that can make an impact. There’s no mention of which wireless networking chip it uses for example.
That being said. Chances are really low you’ll run into any hardware that doesn’t work immediately without any drivers and if you do manage to run into issues, there are often workarounds. I’ve installed Linux on many devices, mostly laptops, and I’ve never had real problems.
I was seeing 30-40% performance loss in BG3 and the stutters were too frequent to play Apex Legends. After that I gave up on gaming on Linux. If I’m doing any dev work I use my Linux partition, but day to day I drive windows for gaming.
Ironically, I actually got better performance in Fedora than Win11, same machine, playing Monster Hunter World. I think in my case it was because of the background stuff running in Windows. I run Linux pretty bare.
I’m running AMD, not Nvidia, but I didnt notice much of any performance loss in the games I played during the brief time I had both Linux and Windows installed, before migrating fully to linux.
On games that worked well, at least. There was a couple games that didnt play great with proton at the time, that have long since been sorted out and run great.
hell, iirc, a couple games even ran better on linux.
I actually got better performance in BG3 with my Arch system compared to Windows. The game crashes to desktop every 10 minutes in windows and runs relatively stable in Linux.
Were you using the Vulkan renderer after Patch 2? There’s a massive performance regression that got introduced with that Patch. DX11 still works fine tho.
the stutters were too frequent to play Apex Legends
This should be fixed after graphics pipeline library support was added to both Nvidia and AMD. If you tried it before that, it was indeed a stuttery mess. It is dramatically better now.
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