I can’t wait to spend weeks trying to get my 10yr old scanner, my 4 yr old stream deck, my specialized proprietary keyboard mapping software, my almost unheard of cad software to work. Don’t get me started on doing it on my laptop.
Don’t get me wrong. Windows is going nowhere, and Im sure I’ll throw in the towel eventually. I know it’s gotten a little better than when I last tried it a few years ago, but I know its going to be painful, involve compromises, and probably some cash on forced hardware changes.
People pretending like the switch is easy for power users with specialized hardware are full of lies.
Hardware rarely seems to be the issue with major distros. I have had zero trouble with hardware for years now with a big distro like Ubuntu. Some of the smaller or lightweight distros? Absolutely, a mixed bag of hammers not knowing what will work. Usually wireless internet, but sometimes it’s something weird like an NVMe not working or some USB driver.
Software, OTOH is a really big problem, and software controlling hardware, for instance gaming gear like a joystick/throttle setup, RGB gear or pwm pumps for cooling, is nowhere near as comprehensive or user friendly, if it exists at all; and of course plenty of games and other windows/mac only software doesn’t exist for Linux or might work in something clunky like Wine.
Linux can’t do it all, but devs have little incentive to make things linux compatible. Why deal with the headache of trying to get their software to work on a bunch of different distros when Windoze and Mac are still working fine.
If it’s any consolation, my printer’s about as old and Linux Mint seemed to just recognise it the moment I turned the printer off and on again. Might be one thing to cross off the list quickly!!
I can’t wait to spend weeks trying to get my 10yr old scanner, my 4 yr old stream deck, my specialized proprietary keyboard mapping software, my almost unheard of cad software to work. Don’t get me started on doing it on my laptop.
Don’t get me wrong. Windows is going nowhere, and Im sure I’ll throw in the towel eventually. I know it’s gotten a little better than when I last tried it a few years ago, but I know its going to be painful, involve compromises, and probably some cash on forced hardware changes. People pretending like the switch is easy for power users with specialized hardware are full of lies.
Hardware rarely seems to be the issue with major distros. I have had zero trouble with hardware for years now with a big distro like Ubuntu. Some of the smaller or lightweight distros? Absolutely, a mixed bag of hammers not knowing what will work. Usually wireless internet, but sometimes it’s something weird like an NVMe not working or some USB driver.
Software, OTOH is a really big problem, and software controlling hardware, for instance gaming gear like a joystick/throttle setup, RGB gear or pwm pumps for cooling, is nowhere near as comprehensive or user friendly, if it exists at all; and of course plenty of games and other windows/mac only software doesn’t exist for Linux or might work in something clunky like Wine.
Linux can’t do it all, but devs have little incentive to make things linux compatible. Why deal with the headache of trying to get their software to work on a bunch of different distros when Windoze and Mac are still working fine.
Test it by booting into a live image, no install required.
The steam deck is already a linux device so I’m not sure why you’re worried about it working with linux
A stream deck is not a steam deck
If it’s any consolation, my printer’s about as old and Linux Mint seemed to just recognise it the moment I turned the printer off and on again. Might be one thing to cross off the list quickly!!