I switched fully to Linux from Windows (on my desktop) about 4 months ago. I’m a very old Linux user, I did my first install in '98 using Slackware, built an in-house web server for a company that hired me. But I’ve always been a “host my Linux servers on Digital Ocean” type of Linux user versus “desktop Linux user” and if I’m being honest, I switched to all FOSS everything years ago, so the only real reason I stayed on Windows was:

Gaming.

It was about five months ago my wife bought me a Steam Deck for my birthday. I was kinda mad about it, I thought it was too grandiose of a gift, but you know yeah, it was fucking rad. And I love it. It didn’t take but a couple of weeks of use before I realized that Steam’s coup was nearly complete. I knew it meant that Linux was now ready for prime time among gamers like me (who don’t give a damn about multiplayer, nor kernel-level anti-cheat). I knew I could get Windows out of my life.

I didn’t know what pitfalls awaited. My Windows machine was aging (Ryzen 3 3300X, RTX 3060) but still serviceable. I had another machine sitting in the living room that I used when really desperate (the wife was playing BG3 on the 3060), but it was getting waaaay too old to be practical (FX 6300, GTX 1050Ti). So I decided to modestly upgrade the living room machine, install Linux on it and use it instead of Windows and see how it went. If all went well, I’d wipe Windows.

I upgraded the living room machine (Ryzen 5 3600, RTX 5070, which required new mobo and RAM so I upgraded to 32G DDR4 3600 from my previous 16G and installed a 1TB NVMe in lieu of the HDD) - my timing could not have been more fortuitous, even though this was older, cheaper stuff, it was all nearly half the cost that it is now). On this machine, I installed Linux.

It didn’t just go great. It went flawlessly. Everything works, with minimal intervention. I chose Mint because I didn’t want an atomic distro, but I wanted something as friendly as possible for my wife’s sake. All games are playing, from all sources. Steam, Epic, Gog, standalone. I play Elite Dangerous with a VKB/STECS setup and I was certain it was going to be a nightmare to setup. It wasn’t. I ultimately had a single Windows program I couldn’t live without (Notepad++) but it runs under Wine with zero issues.

There was only one thing left that I hadn’t tackled that I was certain was going to be the real nightmare. Honestly, it didn’t actually matter that much, which is why I left it for last. But I have an OG Vive, and I had heard it could be challenging. It wasn’t. Installed Steam VR, launched it and it worked out of the gate as beautifully as it did on Windows, except better, because with a 5070 behind it, I could run everything on “VR Ultra” settings and it didn’t even break a sweat. Holy shit, this is awesome!

I will be wiping the Windows machine tomorrow. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck ads. Fuck subscriptions. Fuck closed source gated off bullshit in general.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.