$30 covers up to 10 machines for one year
    • LOGIC💣@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve occasionally tried using Linux in the past as my main desktop, because I think Windows as an OS is inferior, and lately because Linux’s UI actually seems superior, but I always got suckered back into Windows because I wanted to play certain games.

      I tried again last month, and this time, it’s different. The games that I want to play work well enough in Linux. Some of them have native Linux builds. Others work well enough in Proton, which is Valve’s version of Wine, a Windows emulation layer that can run Windows games in Linux.

      I don’t see any reason that I’d ever go back to Windows again.

      • nfh@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        What’s really wild is that not only are games good enough on Windows, but tests lately are showing a consistent trend where the two are often indistinguishable in performance, and where they’re not, Windows isn’t consistently winning.

        If you’re not into the genre of competitive multiplayer games that have kernel anticheat, Windows isn’t really better for gaming anymore, outside of being more familiar for many people. Today we’ve reached the point where it’s a few fps either way, and people should use whatever they want, but if Microsoft keeps bloating Windows, it might soon be that the “Windows tax” also refers to the performance penalty you pay for using the familiar OS instead of learning something new.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        People who haven’t tried Linux in a couple of years need to read this.

        The amount of progress that has been made with respect to Linux gaming over the past few years has been astonishing.

        • LOGIC💣@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          My understanding is that a lot of it has to do with the Steam Deck, which is Valve’s handheld gaming platform. Valve wanted it to run most of their catalog, but they also decided to use Windows emulation rather than Windows, so they forked Wine and put some money and effort into improving it.

          But some games are harder to run than others.

          If you use Steam, it might be as easy as installing it from Steam, because sometimes the games are multi-platform. FTL is an example of this that I currently have installed. But it seems like more and more game developers want their games to run on the Steam Deck, so they release native Linux versions. (Ironically, I think FTL doesn’t run well on the Steam Deck.)

          Some games run simply by telling the Steam launcher to use Proton as a compatibility tool. So, the only hard part is choosing which version of Proton to run, which involves picking it from a list inside of Steam, which then downloads that version of Proton, and then trying the game. And if it doesn’t run well, then try a different version of Proton and iterate. IIRC Rocket League is a game like this. On my computer, it seems to run best with the latest Proton beta. For me and my 5 year old computer, it doesn’t run as perfectly as well as it did in Windows, as it can stutter a bit when there are explosions on screen, but for me, it doesn’t seem to impact my play. And it takes longer to load, but I don’t think it’s possible for an emulated game to load faster on the same hardware.

          And some games require you to look up how to install them, and you end up having to install some Windows things into your Proton runtime using something called Protontricks. Skyrim is an example. It took a lot of fiddling to get it set up and the audio working correctly. But now I can’t really tell the difference between how it runs in Windows vs. Linux, except that it takes longer to load in Linux.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Yeah I’m familiar with all that… Though one correction, Proton is a “translation layer,” not an emulator. Same with wine (it’s right in the name).

            My experience has been that, often, the Windows version with Proton works better than the native Linux version. And most of the time, it just works with “Proton Experimental” or the most recent GE-Proton release.

            ProtonDB is a better resource than Steam’s own compatibility rating. I’ve been able to install and play several “unsupported” games on my Linux laptop (like Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition with DSFix).

            The majority of games will play. It’s kind of crazy how well it works.

    • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m a Linux user since it was distributed in diskette images.

      I use both Windows and Linux, mainly Linux, but I dual boot or use a VM sometimes because I need to use some programs which are not practical or just don’t work with wine.

      I don’t see Linux as an alternative, I see Linux as different tool.

      I mainly use cruciform (pozidrive if possible) screws and screwdrivers, but sometimes I have use flat.

      No drama, no religious zealotery.

      • 0xDREADBEEF@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Linux was 100% an alternative to me, not sure why it isn’t? Why isn’t linux an alternative to any operating system?

        • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I’m not saying it can’t be an alternative for a lot of people.

          I’m just stating my personal position, for my use case.

          • witness_me@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            Just curious, which software do you have to run on windows? I used to think alternatives for photography weren’t good enough but I changed my mind recently. Alternatives exist, but just like switching from windows, it requires the willingness to relearn how to do things I was used to in adobe lightroom and photoshop.

            • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              The Affinity suite, Designer, Photo, and Publisher. I have used Inkscape, Gimp, and Scribus, but Affinity is very intuitive, easy to work with, professional, inexpensive one-time payment (per major version), very well integrated between apps, and follows the same paradigms. I’ve never been a fan of Adobe.

              Running Affinity in Wine is a hack, and a lot less responsive in a VM.

              • witness_me@lemmy.mlEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Makes sense.

                I wanted to try the Affinity suite but found it doesn’t work on Linux. I also tried running it via wine but had massive issues. I’d gladly pay if they release it for Linux. Until then, I’ll use free alternatives.

                • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  I looked into the wine installation in Linux, and it seems that there is a custom wine setup that generally works, but I do professional graphic design, and page setting/layout as a side gig. I don’t need the hassle, or risking losing work, even with auto saves.

                  I started a thread about Affinity in Linux in 2022. It’s still quite lively.

                  The main idea was that considering the growth of Linux, they could get ahead of Adobe in that space and tap into a market space that is pretty in crowded.

                  It’s still a fairly active thread.

                  Affinity still says that they have no intention of doing a Linux port.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Ages ago I suggested installing Linux on my partner’s parents old desktop. It’s still running win10 but it’s pretty slow, likely from a decade of bloat. Probably a HDD too which isn’t going to help. Saying Linux scared them.

    Recently they were told it is no longer supported and can’t update to win11. Or some kind of popup like that anyway. They asked if it’s time to replace the machine. This time I said I could put a lightweight OS similar to what a Chromebook has and they are much more interested. Probably also look at sticking a small SSD in there, it’s only used for web browsing.

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Luckily Linux Mint still allows local accounts. In fact there is not other option besides just a local account.

    • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      A lot of software still requires Windows.

      Games are a big one for sure, but there is a lot of productivity and creative software that does not run on Linux.

      • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        This is a myth and has been for several years. The only games that do not work with linux are ones that have intentionally artificially disallowed the use of linux using kernel level anticheat (rootkit). Many of these games worked on linux until adding no-linux policies to their anticheat.

        There is no technical incompatibility, only artificial policy choices that game companies have made

        EDIT: you can downvote me, but I am still correct.

        • nocturne@slrpnk.netEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I have been trying to get the sims to work on my wife’s Linux laptop. I can either get it to run at 3-4fps, or I can get it to run without the ability to save anything.

          I have Steam deck and with every game I have tried on it so far working, I thought it would be the same with a laptop. Boy was I wrong.

          • chickenf622@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            What distro of Linux did you install on the laptop? I’ve had no luck getting wine to work on Fedora, but my desktop is running Bazzite which is based on the steam deck OS and I’m games run great (sometimes with tweaking required).

              • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                1 year ago

                Oh, Sims 4 fit girl pack Ive gotten to run consistently on Cinnamon. Feel free to ping me sometime if you try it and run into an issue, I may be able to get lucky with a pointer.

                It’s got a shit ton of expansions in it.

                Edit: (Believe the last couple of times I did the installs through Lutris. I just picked the .exe and used the standard wine defaults for the install, then once it’s done I believe it worked fine by adding a game and pointing it to the .exe for the play file. Then if you feel like it you can switch to proton to see if you get better performance, but a Mint install with a Pentium Processor with 4gb of ram (HP touchsmart) was able to run it, so most anything should be able to use the standard wine setup just fine.)

                • nocturne@slrpnk.netEnglish
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  I receive this error while running the setup.exe through lutris.

                  I also tried installing the version you can download through lutris which seems to only be a simsync app that never connects to anything.

                  Edit to add:

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            Not sure which Sims you’re referring to, but it looks like it should work: https://www.protondb.com/search?q=the+Sims+

            It looks like The Sims 4 is the only one that might need some tinkering. Stupid EA installers…

            Though the only entry for the first Sims game that appears in the results is the “Legacy Collection,” so if you’re referring to like the original CD-ROM or something, it might be different.

            Edit: just noticed that Sims 3 doesn’t appear to have any entries on ProtonDB so I don’t know… If any of them don’t work is most likely because of EA bullshit

            • nocturne@slrpnk.netEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              Sims 4, and I have tried every version of Proton, I have tried proton ge or whatever it is, I have tried every suggestion in the sims 4 protondb entry.

              I have tried the suggestions in my thread about it. (I think there was one I still need to try, actually)

              I have the fitgirl repack, I have tried via steam, I have tried the .exe from EA.

              • IcyToes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Weird. I’m pretty sure I have played via steam and it worked. I’ll maybe try later if I remember.

                • nocturne@slrpnk.netEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  I have heard that from other people, but have seen on protondb there are as many that can play it as the cannot. I think I have it working finally is lutris, after almost a month of trying different things.

        • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I never gave a reason why a game would/wouldn’t run on Linux. I just said that games are a reason some people continue to use Windows.

        • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          01·
          1 year ago

          I just wanted to chime in that there’s far more reasons that your software doesn’t work on Linux than just the developer saying no.

          Basically, if your game or software has to interface with anything at the driver level, such as a keyboard or a headset configuration software, or anything that needs to access complete system access such as kernel level access or being able to see processes outside of the wine environment. It’s going to be incompatible. This is by design for system security and is unlikely to change on official releases any time soon.

          Additionally, if the game requires any type of integration into basically anything Microsoft, so be it the Microsoft account services, the authentication token services, multiplayer services, applications on the MS store etc, it’s going to be a no go as they have yet to make a decent translation layer for those systems. Being said with the push for demand of Game Pass on PC, there are people working on those projects, but I haven’t personally seen anything that had decent progress.

          I have to hard disagree with the statement that it’s a myth. Yes, many games will work with minor tinkering. However, We are still a long way from having something that is just a click play and it works style system and it’s not usually from developer choices (outside of choosing not to make a Linux distributable)

          Being said, it has gone a long way since I started using Linux back with Mint Maya. ProtonDB is an excellent resource to find known workarounds when it breaks, But you definitely should not go into any Linux system expecting it to “just work™”

          • andyburke@fedia.io
            1·
            1 year ago

            Tell me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux without telling me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux.

            • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              I have multiple versions of proton installed currently. However, I’ve mostly given up on the glorious egg rolls because they seem to have caused more issues than they are worth. But if you have a specific version that you’ve found is easier to use and not as annoying, I’m up for suggestions.

              Once my system loads, I’ll tell you what versions I’ve tried and which ones I’ve had issues with.

                • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  Currently I have proton GE 9-7 as my default for steam(with the hope that it works), and when that fails I swap to proton 9-0-4 or experimental, but I have GE 10-10 and 10-4 installed but they currently aren’t on any games as I haven’t got any games to seem to want to run with them.

                  Then on lutris main I’m using a custom runner for one of my games because it needs to get around EAC since standard support is iffy, but I default to Wine 10 for it as they state proton shouldn’t be used on non-steam. However I do have Lutris-GE-8-26 installed but it only ever worked right on one of the games.

                  Then for lutris on my distrobox Arch container(because FF XIV and Genshin launchers & controller support break for some reason otherwise) I use Wine-ge-8-26 which is a coinflip of if it lets me launch or crashes which makes me suspect that theres a race condition somewhere.

                  I haven’t had good experiences with GE which is why I was hoping you might have some recommendations on a /stable/ version if you can call GE stable lol

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Games are a big one for sure

        Unless we’re talking about the handful of kernel-level anti-cheat games where the devs have refused to allow Linux support through Proton, nearly every game you own will work. Most of them without any tinkering whatsoever.

    • Psaldorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      For me, Minecraft bedrock (for kids) but looks like anything MS tainted will start (or maybe already does) require windows.

      Looks like I have to decide what to do soon because they’re still on W10.

  • flux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I hate Windows. But I have to use Adobe suite. Wine doesn’t play nice. More than an hour of troubleshooting I feel is not worth it. I need to be working more than solving issues. Someone point me to how to make Adobe suite work (without hours of troubleshooting) and I’ll join the Linux team. Do not suggest other software options I get the files for Adobe they have to be Adobe specific.

    • IcyToes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Tried dual booting?

      Linux for personal, Windows for work? I’d personally not mix work and personal on same device. Failing that, same OS.

  • Zacryon@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    That’s a complicated way of saying that Microsoft recommends switching to Linux. /j