Hey guys, it’s long overdue but I’ve held off on jumping to Linux for longer than what I consider necessary, there are only two major reasons why I haven’t 100% kissed windows goodbye quite yet.
Work, long story cut short it was due to security reasons, although this isn’t an issue anymore.
Gaming.
It’s the second topic I really want to address, I know that in recent years, Linux has come on leaps & bounds with gaming, I fail to see why it won’t go all the way & basically allow you to run every game that will run in Windows. I’ve been dual booting for some time, but as some of you know, I’ve been thinking about creating a new desktop build. One consideration I’ve had with this build is to just go all out with Linux rather than dual booting, honestly, I’m running outta reasons as to why I should keep an installation of Windows around, even in the event that I do need an installation of Windows, I guess I could use my current build?
So enough of the background, I know that there are distributions that are really compatible with a tonne of games right outta the box, where they come bundled with a load of the updates that you’d need & whatnot. What would you guys recommend? Should I say screw Windows & finally use Linux only?
Honestly, I’m struggling to think of solid reasons as to why I should install Windows on my next build. Can you guys think of any solid reasons? …
P.S. Due to the nature of my work, I’m quite risk adverse which I believe is a big part of the reason why I’ve not said goodbye to Windows yet.
Just out of curiousity. What was the security issue?
If you can’t then don’t.
I have Windows for well work related things. I kinda need Visual Studio for work. And again games. So, pretty similar story. Guess its just the same reasons for everyone.
Gaming is fine on Linux as long as your games work on Linux. Especially single player games that dont need anti cheat…
Long story short, in order to be able to do any form of work, it had to be Windows, they’d just reject connections from other OS’s, even Mac & the software that was issued by the company in order to connect to anything work related just wouldn’t play ball with Linux. To be fair, I understand why it was locked down to the point where they didn’t let you use Linux, as I’ve mentioned, the nature of the work it needs to be as locked down as possible.
I find it quite funny when you talk to some hardcore Linux enthusiasts when they’re forced to use Windows for work related tasks. Again, they get that the company needs to lock down everything as much as humanly possible, but the complaints they had…
Yeah… Seems like it should be fine for me, I’m primarily a Java dev so thankfully I can pretty much use any OS with that, on top of that I use stuff like Docker which is even easier to get up & running with Linux, lol… Urm…
Gaming wise, that sounds like it would be fine for me, off the top of my head, I don’t think many of the games that I like to play on a regular basis use anti cheat… I’m still iffy about the whole gaming thing though, I think I just need to do more research… I’m only so iffy because of past experience!
I got rid of it for home a year ago (outside of virtual machine(s) for work - I’m a mixed environment network/sysadmin so…)
Games? Switch, Proton, Saturn, Dreamcast, Native Linux. MAME. Retroarch. Way too many games to play already, huge back catalogue.
If you’re willing to give up modern games on day of release (or play on PS4/PS5/Switch), then there is no reason you can’t get Microsoft out of your life except for VMs for work (if required) - where they can be isolated and contained.
That’s music to my ears, to be fair, with modern games, I always wait a little while until I can get a good deal, whether it’s through a sale or whatever, I’m a patient guy in that respect, an example being how I’ve just bought Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, cause I bought it for like 25% the normal price.
Plus in addition to waiting for costs to drop, with Linux more so, it can’t hurt to wait because you’ll also have the benefit of increased stability? Or so I’d imagine.
For work, in my current role, I have a company issued device which does run on Windows, so apart from that, I can’t imagine needing Windows on my personal machine.
Usually for some dumb security auditing reasons. It’s simple to just have a fleet of Win PC’s that are connected to AD. But supporting anything else is just against a made up security policy that translates to - “we’re too lazy to support Linux and half-assing it won’t make auditors too happy”. It does save a lot of time for sysadmins to be fair.
It’s funny when my last place of work pretty much everyone wanted to get MacBook Pros, and suddenly the security regulations accommodated that, but when I wanted Linux, I’m told no .
Back on topic, Linux is mostly fine for gaming. Unless some company pulls a Doom Eternal, it’s possible to get stuff to run. Sometimes there are issues and annoyances, and some stuff just outright does not work. But I’ve had a 90-95% success rate these days I’d say.
For compatibility Pop!_OS seems to steal the spotlight a lot, you could give that a try.
Oh yeah, I totally get that, not to mention that for large companies they often get some degree of support from Microsoft & whatnot… Not to mention that I’d imagine that there’s a number of companies that sell software where they’ve just ignored Linux completely. Plus I guess that there’s also the whole argument that if you’re not sure what you’re doing with Linux, it could be a potential risk, but personally, I just roll my eyes at arguments like that…
I’ve heard a lot about Pop OS & how easy it is to get a Linux gaming rig up & running…
I love how they’ve totally changed the mechanics of the game, the last AC game I played was 3 (I think)… Anyway, I also love how there’s a lot that you can replay, from my experience, it’s not a single play through kinda game, I’ve put over 20 hours into it already & I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface! … But I have been exploring & doing a bunch of the side quests…
I’ve come to look at it not even like an AC game, just merely a game that’s set in the AC universe. It lacks a bit on the assassins part (AC2 is the pinnacle of AC for me). But it amazing nonetheless. Very RPG’ey, and quite deep with stuff to explore. The very special boss fights (not to spoil things, since they start half through only) blew my mind, ordinary boss fights by mechanics, but I felt like I stepped into another world.
If you don’t insist on all AAA games on PC and you don’t need Windows professionally, there is no reason to run that piece of crap these days. Personally I’m running macOS and a few linux distros for desktop use as well as FreeNAS and IPFire for network stuff on X86 machines. Currently (and for a while now, actually) I’m on macOS mojave exclusively because my rack stuff is packed up for transport to my new living space. But gaming on linux has never been better. Tons of indie games are supported natively and lots of windows games will work as well. And because of DXVK, lutris and proton it’s not even hard to set up in many cases.
That’s totally fair, considering how different it is to other AC games, I can totally appreciate that! I mean that’s an incredibly accurate summary of what the game is like though, it’s not a traditional AC game & as you’ve mentioned, it does lack some of the AC side of things, but I’m not by any means complaining!
That’s essentially the conclusion I’ve come to. I just don’t need it & professionally speaking, I’m better off with Linux anyway, so… Yeah…
I’m not even a big gamer really, so that should probably be fine with me, even with some of the AAA title games that I do get into, as I’ve mentioned, I usually buy them quite a bit later down the line, so I’d imagine by the time I do buy them, they’d be supported in some way or another… An example being how after I’ve finished ACO, I was thinking on buying FC5, even that’s supported in Linux now, I just checked the ProtonDB. Sweet…
Your mileage may vary, but for a long while I ran Linux on my work machine and ran Windows in a VM under VMware Workstation. It began as just a test for the corporate policies I was writing, bitlocker, applocker, AAVPN, all that good stuff, but I sort of realised that when I needed to do Windows stuff that test VM just sort of worked.
Now my business machine is an Asus laptop running Windows 10, and I’m a bit sour about that. Seriously considering a Pinebook Pro just for that sweet virtue signalling.
Honestly if it’s for work, dont let Linux get in the way of life, especially in these pandemic times. I’d rather work with Windows than have no job with Linux.
Probably get a laptop for work or a gaming laptop if you really want to put Linux in your main box.
Don’t confuse laziness with budget constraints and business case justification.
More complexity (multiple platforms to support) = more work = more staff hours required = more staff = more budget.
No sane business is going to pay more than is required just because some whiny little bitch wants to run their pet platform just because - when there is already a supported platform that does the job.
Now, as things are starting to be more BYOD friendly this is starting to change, but given a choice between spending the limited Human Resources supporting multiple platforms, or perhaps spending MORE time to be more pro-active with a single platform to support in terms of security, user training/assistance/whatever - it’s a no brainer.
I swtiched to Linux last year. When the Windows 1903 update screwed me over. I tried POP OS and later settled on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. So far so good. I heard that 20.04 has a lot of new features. Gamining wise, quite a bit of my Steam library works nativily or with Proton. Though works and runs pretty are two seperate things. I personally gave up on AAA titles. EA kills every franchise they touch. Ubisoft has crapy DRM, Capcom cant port a game to PC to save its life. I deal with mostly indie titles.
The biggest challenges with Linux is that sometimes you have to go a bit more in depth to get things to work. As long as you dont mind doing a little bit a research to get things works. For example, I had to do a bit to get bluetooth working, as I use a Blue tooth headset due to me killing the wire on ever wired headset I have ever owned. Oh and the other sad thing is none of the software that controls RGB works in Linux from what I have seen. So my Corsair Vengence Pro RGB ram is stuck on Unicorn Vomit.
I used to do the same, but KVM/virt-manager is good enough to replace VMware Workstation on Linux now. And no more screwing around with non-native kernel modules, distribution compatibility issues, etc.
As touched on above, modern PC games are a nightmare of abusive DRM, shitty console ports, and uninteresting derivative garbage for the most part anyway. I can get console port quality on a console. My console already has DRM that isn’t going to result in getting hacked and impacting my personal data, etc.
I’m awaiting the PS5 with interest as I may finally give up PC gaming for good due to the above concerns.
I wouldn’t go that far, there is still things like Ion Fury (fuck you, Iron Maiden!) and Wrath that I just prefer to play with mouse and keyboard. But in general I am right there with you! Installing games on your daily driver has in some cases become actually dangerous.
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… But I have been exploring & doing a bunch of the side quests…