This raises an interesting point actually… I have a new Win11 machine but my old Win10 one is just being kept around for low level, non essential tasks. I don’t have any essential apps left on there really now. I signed up for that extra year of Microsoft support that was offered but when that runs out I guess what a perfect time to have a play with Linux and see what all the fuss is about.
You’re describing the oldest Linux gateway in the book—experimenting with a secondary device. Make sure you copy any data you care about off your PC, pick a distro that looks neat, and try it out!
Don’t worry too much about picking the “right” or “wrong” distro. It’s very easy to switch once you get the hang of Linux in general.
If you have an open drive, dual-boot is a easy risk-free way to try it out without losing anything. Of course, after trying the linux install for the first time a few months back, the only reason I opened Windows was to pull files off of before I wiped it.
Pro tip: If you dual boot, don’t just wipe the windows drive when you’re done with it without a plan. I erased my boot loader and my PC didn’t know where linux was any more and it was a whole thing.
This is what I did. There is still 1 thing I need windows for that has yet to support Linux and I haven’t gotten the work-around method to yield good performance yet. So I gave Windows its own drive. Linux is now my daily driver and I just boot into Win 11 when I need it. Everything works great save for Windows forgetting what time it is because I was booted into Linux previously.
I tried playing a game outside steam for the first time yesterday. Two hours of trying to fix the stuttery low frame rate, missing textures, and crashes using Wine.
Then I found out there are really simple apps that use Proton just like Steam does, and you “open with” and it just works.
Maybe my experience is outdated. I had about a 20% success rate in getting Windows executables running in Wine without fiddling.
So for a while now I only game via the Steam client, since I don’t pirate or mod games anymore.
Maybe things have improved in recent years, I wouldn’t know.
If you actually mean wine, there’s your problem. You should run games with proton. I use lutris for cracked games with proton, and rarely have issues with games not working.
So far the only crack that hasn’t worked for me was Far Cry New Dawn. I’ve read on that one Russian forum that cracks for their newer Denuvo games don’t work on Linux… but I have serious doubts I’d even want to play their games based on their track record.
This raises an interesting point actually… I have a new Win11 machine but my old Win10 one is just being kept around for low level, non essential tasks. I don’t have any essential apps left on there really now. I signed up for that extra year of Microsoft support that was offered but when that runs out I guess what a perfect time to have a play with Linux and see what all the fuss is about.
You’re describing the oldest Linux gateway in the book—experimenting with a secondary device. Make sure you copy any data you care about off your PC, pick a distro that looks neat, and try it out!
Don’t worry too much about picking the “right” or “wrong” distro. It’s very easy to switch once you get the hang of Linux in general.
Just do it
If you have an open drive, dual-boot is a easy risk-free way to try it out without losing anything. Of course, after trying the linux install for the first time a few months back, the only reason I opened Windows was to pull files off of before I wiped it.
Pro tip: If you dual boot, don’t just wipe the windows drive when you’re done with it without a plan. I erased my boot loader and my PC didn’t know where linux was any more and it was a whole thing.
This is what I did. There is still 1 thing I need windows for that has yet to support Linux and I haven’t gotten the work-around method to yield good performance yet. So I gave Windows its own drive. Linux is now my daily driver and I just boot into Win 11 when I need it. Everything works great save for Windows forgetting what time it is because I was booted into Linux previously.
Unless you rely on pirated/cracked games, CAD or Adobe software, Linux will be a massive improvement to your computing experience.
I tried playing a game outside steam for the first time yesterday. Two hours of trying to fix the stuttery low frame rate, missing textures, and crashes using Wine.
Then I found out there are really simple apps that use Proton just like Steam does, and you “open with” and it just works.
What kind of issues do you expect with cracked games? Maybe I’m lucky, but the 20+ cracked games I tried worked perfectly fine in WINE.
Maybe my experience is outdated. I had about a 20% success rate in getting Windows executables running in Wine without fiddling.
So for a while now I only game via the Steam client, since I don’t pirate or mod games anymore.
Maybe things have improved in recent years, I wouldn’t know.
Could also be a difference in the games. But I just dump the folder into the default wine prefix and run them from there.
If you actually mean wine, there’s your problem. You should run games with proton. I use lutris for cracked games with proton, and rarely have issues with games not working.
So far the only crack that hasn’t worked for me was Far Cry New Dawn. I’ve read on that one Russian forum that cracks for their newer Denuvo games don’t work on Linux… but I have serious doubts I’d even want to play their games based on their track record.