I used to have my living room gaming pc on windows and switched to linux this year and its awesome. Sunshine/moonlight are two programs that allow you to stream games from your pc to any device and it’s such a game changer!
Heroic is freaking awesome. I never had much luck with lutris though it’s been a long time since I ever tried it. With heroic. I use it to manage all the free games I get through the Epic store and Amazon over 700 now. And it works on both windows and Linux flawlessly for the most part. With the check of a setting it will even add games to steam for you so if you just leave it running in the background you can start and play games through Steam just like they were installed there.
I’ve switched a few months ago. Plenty of issues, but none of them major enough anymore to go back again. All games I play regularly apart from Assetto Corsa work, and AC should also be fixable as far as I read.
Just a few days ago I got the first racing sim working properly with my wheel. AC doesn’t start yet and Automobilista 2 does not match the irl steering wheel movements (this also happened on Windows sometimes), but ACC worked without much of an issue.
For music production I also got most of my setup working. I’m having a lot of issues with opening my old projects, but I wasn’t actively working on them anyways and with some effort I can get them back. Still some issues like the Vital synth CLAP version crashing when the window is opened and the Splice sample thingy not allowing drag and drop, but we’ll get there. For new projects it’s mostly workable.
Basically everything else I need just works. Games, photography stuff, everyday programs, and obviously my programming stuff because it was already on Linux.
I also installed Bazzite and am missing several things (or at least have to do more research than I’d like to figure them out). Getting my peripherals working, CAD, system backups, pdfs that won’t open from my file server, etc. The more I get into it the more problems I uncover. It has not been the seamless transition that so many make it out to be. It has worked for the games I’ve tried though.
I’ve been… Struggling with FreeCAD for a while. I really want to support it, you know, open source and all, but it’s really rough. Something that takes 10 minutes in SOLIDWORKS takes at least one hour in FreeCAD, not accounting for crashes, and complexity increases time exponentially.
Importing and placing .step files is rather difficult, big assemblies tend to degenerate despite careful binding; I try to bind to the origin as much as possible, often sacrificing adaptability, but it still gets messed up after a while.
I’ve tried FreeCad on several systems and have yet to get it to run well enough to even attempt to use it. It either crashes constantly or just runs like ass.
On mine it was slow from the start. I’d click on a button and it would take 30-45 seconds to do anything. Every time. It took me like 4-5 minutes just to sketch a single rectangle.
I see. Well, at least you’ve tried. In this case, you either need a VM or dual boot at worst. It’s getting loosing up but professional programs will continue to be a pain for a while. Usually we get paid software alternatives rather than their Linux versions though. I hope EU can break this and these corporations get big customers who use Linux, so they end up making a Linux version as well. Otherwise we’ll need another good alternative to pop up or FOSS projects getting big donations like Godot had.
I do keep trying, but I miss what I’m used to. I’ve tried a VM but it’s too slow, and I fought with GPU Passthrough but gave up. I do hope the whole Trump situation pushes the EU to support Linux more, but I’m not holding my breath.
They’re late to the party but better late than never. Unless something happens radically, I don’t see these issues will be fixed until the next Windows version at least. Dual boot it is until then. I wish people noticed this before Trump.
Maybe my info on sound drivers is outdated… I play guitar and rely on low latency for my interface. I use neuralDSP plugins (not just for recording, also for jamming). Is it possible to get this running somehow? Any good DAWs you know of?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the sound driver thing has been sorted since pipewire came out, it acts as a sort of bridge between the different sound servers. As far as your plugins, I found two posts from the old place about it: here and here, I wouldn’t know specifically on those since I mostly use the open-source ones in the Arch repos. If neither of those help, you could try yabridge, which would be available from your distro’s package manager.
As far as DAWs, I’m using Ardour, which is completely free, but there’s also a couple of paid ones, REAPER, at $60 for individuals or $225 for a commercial license, and Bitwig, which costs between $100 and $400 depending on which license you buy. Personally, Ardour’s been fine for me.
Low-latency can be achieved a few different ways, Ubuntu has a distro called Ubuntu Studio that uses their own tricks to make it happen, it also comes with a bunch of extra stuff for graphic design and video editing. Personally, I went with Arch, and followed the instructions on the Arch wiki, and I see latencies in the low single digits of milliseconds. There’s also AV Linux and KX Studio , but I haven’t used those, so I couldn’t tell you much about them, other than that I hear good things about them.
That was a longer reply than I had intended, but if you make the switch, good luck and rock on!
Depends on your personal needs, especially as it pertains to software and peripherals. Like I have a commercial printer at my workplace that has no Linux drivers, but yeah, absolutely, try a LiveUSB, and make sure it works with yours.
The mistake people make is thinking there will be a year. It could be “the decade of the Linux desktop”, and by that I mean that Apple and Microsoft have to consider them a legitimate competitor in the space because they have gained sufficient “marketshare” (if you can call it that) and OEMs have begun offering it as a discounted option across the board.
And tech papers like Heise now include a test how Linux runs for new gaming devices. Is 2025 the year of the Linux desktop?
I used to have my living room gaming pc on windows and switched to linux this year and its awesome. Sunshine/moonlight are two programs that allow you to stream games from your pc to any device and it’s such a game changer!
Same, my gaming htpc got switched over to bazzite deck this year
If you’ve made the switch, that year was the year of the Linux desktop! ✨
Deck, actually 🤓
Also works! 😁
2009 was the year of the Linux…laptop
Also good!
Lutris, my beloved.
Regular Steam and Heroic over here 👌✨
I ought to try heroic launcher. I had mitigated results with Lutris and I don’t know if it’s caused by i3wm or not.
Yeah bud, give it a shot!
Heroic is freaking awesome. I never had much luck with lutris though it’s been a long time since I ever tried it. With heroic. I use it to manage all the free games I get through the Epic store and Amazon over 700 now. And it works on both windows and Linux flawlessly for the most part. With the check of a setting it will even add games to steam for you so if you just leave it running in the background you can start and play games through Steam just like they were installed there.
Maybe the year of the Linux desktop was the journey we met along the way.
Definitely not the friends 🫥
Nonsense! We’ve got plenty of friends here:
I made many silly transfem fens :3
I’ve switched a few months ago. Plenty of issues, but none of them major enough anymore to go back again. All games I play regularly apart from Assetto Corsa work, and AC should also be fixable as far as I read.
Just a few days ago I got the first racing sim working properly with my wheel. AC doesn’t start yet and Automobilista 2 does not match the irl steering wheel movements (this also happened on Windows sometimes), but ACC worked without much of an issue.
For music production I also got most of my setup working. I’m having a lot of issues with opening my old projects, but I wasn’t actively working on them anyways and with some effort I can get them back. Still some issues like the Vital synth CLAP version crashing when the window is opened and the Splice sample thingy not allowing drag and drop, but we’ll get there. For new projects it’s mostly workable.
Basically everything else I need just works. Games, photography stuff, everyday programs, and obviously my programming stuff because it was already on Linux.
I use Arch by the way :3
Installed Bazzite yesterday. Not missing a single thing from windows at the moment.
Go ahead. It’s time.
I also installed Bazzite and am missing several things (or at least have to do more research than I’d like to figure them out). Getting my peripherals working, CAD, system backups, pdfs that won’t open from my file server, etc. The more I get into it the more problems I uncover. It has not been the seamless transition that so many make it out to be. It has worked for the games I’ve tried though.
I’m missing SOLIDWORKS after converting my last Windows PC to Linux
Don’t know about your workflow but have you tried FreeCAD? It surely won’t be like Solidworks, but might work for you.
I’ve been… Struggling with FreeCAD for a while. I really want to support it, you know, open source and all, but it’s really rough. Something that takes 10 minutes in SOLIDWORKS takes at least one hour in FreeCAD, not accounting for crashes, and complexity increases time exponentially.
Importing and placing .step files is rather difficult, big assemblies tend to degenerate despite careful binding; I try to bind to the origin as much as possible, often sacrificing adaptability, but it still gets messed up after a while.
I’ve tried FreeCad on several systems and have yet to get it to run well enough to even attempt to use it. It either crashes constantly or just runs like ass.
It slows down A LOT over time, the bigger the file, the faster, it seems… I close and reopen it often, luckily it launches in an instant
On mine it was slow from the start. I’d click on a button and it would take 30-45 seconds to do anything. Every time. It took me like 4-5 minutes just to sketch a single rectangle.
Weird. That’s one issue I didn’t have, luckily.
I see. Well, at least you’ve tried. In this case, you either need a VM or dual boot at worst. It’s getting loosing up but professional programs will continue to be a pain for a while. Usually we get paid software alternatives rather than their Linux versions though. I hope EU can break this and these corporations get big customers who use Linux, so they end up making a Linux version as well. Otherwise we’ll need another good alternative to pop up or FOSS projects getting big donations like Godot had.
I do keep trying, but I miss what I’m used to. I’ve tried a VM but it’s too slow, and I fought with GPU Passthrough but gave up. I do hope the whole Trump situation pushes the EU to support Linux more, but I’m not holding my breath.
They’re late to the party but better late than never. Unless something happens radically, I don’t see these issues will be fixed until the next Windows version at least. Dual boot it is until then. I wish people noticed this before Trump.
Have you tried it since 1.0? It’s pretty ok.
What keeps me from making the switch is music-making. None of my plugins run on Linux and sound drivers supposedly are a huge mess.
I’ve been making an album on Linux, anything I can help with?
Maybe my info on sound drivers is outdated… I play guitar and rely on low latency for my interface. I use neuralDSP plugins (not just for recording, also for jamming). Is it possible to get this running somehow? Any good DAWs you know of?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the sound driver thing has been sorted since pipewire came out, it acts as a sort of bridge between the different sound servers. As far as your plugins, I found two posts from the old place about it: here and here, I wouldn’t know specifically on those since I mostly use the open-source ones in the Arch repos. If neither of those help, you could try yabridge, which would be available from your distro’s package manager.
As far as DAWs, I’m using Ardour, which is completely free, but there’s also a couple of paid ones, REAPER, at $60 for individuals or $225 for a commercial license, and Bitwig, which costs between $100 and $400 depending on which license you buy. Personally, Ardour’s been fine for me.
Low-latency can be achieved a few different ways, Ubuntu has a distro called Ubuntu Studio that uses their own tricks to make it happen, it also comes with a bunch of extra stuff for graphic design and video editing. Personally, I went with Arch, and followed the instructions on the Arch wiki, and I see latencies in the low single digits of milliseconds. There’s also AV Linux and KX Studio , but I haven’t used those, so I couldn’t tell you much about them, other than that I hear good things about them.
That was a longer reply than I had intended, but if you make the switch, good luck and rock on!
Yeah, unfortunately 1.0 is the version I’m talking about
I too did an install on an old laptop just to check it out. It does throw an overwhelming number of options at you on first start.
Depends on your personal needs, especially as it pertains to software and peripherals. Like I have a commercial printer at my workplace that has no Linux drivers, but yeah, absolutely, try a LiveUSB, and make sure it works with yours.
The mistake people make is thinking there will be a year. It could be “the decade of the Linux desktop”, and by that I mean that Apple and Microsoft have to consider them a legitimate competitor in the space because they have gained sufficient “marketshare” (if you can call it that) and OEMs have begun offering it as a discounted option across the board.