Well, hopefully soon you will have a useful idea of whether it's viable - and if it is, a good guide on how best to achieve it.Koroush Ghazi runs the TweakGuides site - one I've been using for info and whose guides I have purchased in the past 14 years or more(though he does free versions, too) and is a guy I trust about what's what in the realm of operating systems and gaming optimisation.At the top here, is his latest post....http://www.tweakguides.com/Hopefully, all will go well and we will have as good a guide as his past ones, on how best to make the switch. I've made Linux O/S DVDs in the past, but never had all the info I need, or not been able to collate everything, to make an informed decision about whether it's a good idea to change, and then how to go about it in the best way. So I'm really pleased about this - and hope it goes well for Koroush, so he can help the rest of us.If a decent competitor to Windows were to suddenly appear on the Market, I am convinced that MS would be in serious trouble - but that is highly unlikely, so the only remaining choice is to try and make the best of what is already available.Here's hoping.

I use Mint with the GNOME interface. Excellent experience. Linux is superior to windows in every way....except gaming. Windows 10 is my secondary OS. In ALL of the computers that I build and sell there is ALWAYS a secondary Linux OS on them.

@Brixmis - In truth the many flavours of Linux have been a very good desktop replacement to Windows for a few years, providing the user doesn't require some Windows specific functionality.That's where the downside comes in - many games and some hardware are only supported in Windows as the Linux userbase is way to small to consider.Oculus is not (and likely will never be) a supporter of 'other' OS's, games writers don't develop outside of the massive markets (excluding a minority) as there is no profit to be made there...Wine is making massive advances in the software it will support, VR is getting some love by the community but is still far from the experience Windows gives, even Steam has nodded in the right direction with SteamOS but as an OS that leaves a LOT to be desired.You could switch to a Linux distribution tomorrow and be doing everything equally as easily (and with better secutity) as you are doing today - except for playing games and rifting...I've had OpenSuse/Suse as default OS on my machines for years but still need Windows to play some of my favourite games, and nowadays to use the rift...

I basically use Linux for anything other than games. Even some Windows games play pretty well on Linux through Wine: I played a lot of Fallout 3 on my old Linux laptop that had a dedicated GPU, for example.

Brixmis said:Just a sidenote on that - I changed my admin PC, which used to be my VR PC, onto Windows 10 and it has never run so badly. This PC I'm on now is my gaming rig, on Win 10, and it runs very well. The admin PC used to - but it seems with each update it gets worse and worse. I admittedly don't keep it in fine fettle, set-up wise, as I do this one, but nevertheless, it runs worse than anything I've had for over a decade.Windows doesn't update well, never has. Trash and reinstall from scratch and put your stuff back on, is my general recommendation after being in corporate tech support for near 30 years now. There's no point trying to fix a Windows that's gone slow, it takes way more time to try things than just redo. It gets you to have your reinstall routine smooth as well... the few apps that don't need installers, your installers and licenses, and a few config tweaks to get the UI back as you want. Well, I mean it's Win10 and doesn't accept much modification any more, but still.

I'm running Linux on one of my machines. It's definitely improved in recent years, especially in terms of hardware driver support, but it's still not as good as Windows in that respect. There are also lots of apps that don't work like Photoshop, Maya LT, etc. and the open-source alternatives like GIMP or Blender are nowhere near as good. And, of course, the gaming selection is much less. So you can make it work, and it's nice to have lots of free open-source software, but I think it would be hard to overtake Windows in the features I mentioned any time soon.

Sick of Microsoft and Windows 10? Wondering about Linux?

14 Replies

RattyUK
Trustee
7 years ago
@Brixmis - In truth the many flavours of Linux have been a very good desktop replacement to Windows for a few years, providing the user doesn't require some Windows specific functionality.
That's where the downside comes in - many games and some hardware are only supported in Windows as the Linux userbase is way to small to consider.
Oculus is not (and likely will never be) a supporter of 'other' OS's, games writers don't develop outside of the massive markets (excluding a minority) as there is no profit to be made there...

Wine is making massive advances in the software it will support, VR is getting some love by the community but is still far from the experience Windows gives, even Steam has nodded in the right direction with SteamOS but as an OS that leaves a LOT to be desired.

You could switch to a Linux distribution tomorrow and be doing everything equally as easily (and with better secutity) as you are doing today - except for playing games and rifting...

I've had OpenSuse/Suse as default OS on my machines for years but still need Windows to play some of my favourite games, and nowadays to use the rift...
Digikid1
Consultant
7 years ago
I use Mint with the GNOME interface. Excellent experience. Linux is superior to windows in every way....except gaming.

Windows 10 is my secondary OS.

In ALL of the computers that I build and sell there is ALWAYS a secondary Linux OS on them.
edmg
Trustee
7 years ago
I basically use Linux for anything other than games. Even some Windows games play pretty well on Linux through Wine: I played a lot of Fallout 3 on my old Linux laptop that had a dedicated GPU, for example.
JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
7 years ago
Yes, I agree, games and especially VR will have to stay on Windows for now. All my other PCs or laptops that aren't running a version of 7 will be changed, though - if Koroush recommends it.

Just a sidenote on that - I changed my admin PC, which used to be my VR PC, onto Windows 10 and it has never run so badly. This PC I'm on now is my gaming rig, on Win 10, and it runs very well. The admin PC used to - but it seems with each update it gets worse and worse. I admittedly don't keep it in fine fettle, set-up wise, as I do this one, but nevertheless, it runs worse than anything I've had for over a decade.

I only use it for finances and to run Windows Media Centre (for TV), so it's not as if I've bogged it down with bloatware, either.
I'm about to switch it back to Windows 7 until Koroush does his thing. I think Microsoft have sabotaged 7 in any case, to try and get users to swap to 10 - so I'll be using an older version and using extra security measures to be safe.

Either way, it's not staying on 10. Actually, I have a decently running rig in that room, too - it's Windows 98 and it runs the progs I need very well ;) just doesn't like the HD monitor.
JaimieVandenber
Heroic Explorer
7 years ago

Brixmis said:
Just a sidenote on that - I changed my admin PC, which used to be my VR PC, onto Windows 10 and it has never run so badly. This PC I'm on now is my gaming rig, on Win 10, and it runs very well. The admin PC used to - but it seems with each update it gets worse and worse. I admittedly don't keep it in fine fettle, set-up wise, as I do this one, but nevertheless, it runs worse than anything I've had for over a decade.

Windows doesn't update well, never has. Trash and reinstall from scratch and put your stuff back on, is my general recommendation after being in corporate tech support for near 30 years now. There's no point trying to fix a Windows that's gone slow, it takes way more time to try things than just redo.
It gets you to have your reinstall routine smooth as well... the few apps that don't need installers, your installers and licenses, and a few config tweaks to get the UI back as you want. Well, I mean it's Win10 and doesn't accept much modification any more, but still.
cybereality
Grand Champion
7 years ago
I'm running Linux on one of my machines. It's definitely improved in recent years, especially in terms of hardware driver support, but it's still not as good as Windows in that respect. There are also lots of apps that don't work like Photoshop, Maya LT, etc. and the open-source alternatives like GIMP or Blender are nowhere near as good. And, of course, the gaming selection is much less. So you can make it work, and it's nice to have lots of free open-source software, but I think it would be hard to overtake Windows in the features I mentioned any time soon.
Anonymous
7 years ago
Last time I used Unix was the early 90s when I was at University. That was back in the days when it was a command line interface and the GUI was X Windows which wasn't widely used.

Yes. I'm that old. lol :D
TomCgcmfc
MVP
7 years ago

snowdog said:

Last time I used Unix was the early 90s when I was at University. That was back in the days when it was a command line interface and the GUI was X Windows which wasn't widely used.

Yes. I'm that old. lol :D

Ha, I remember going through Engineering at University in the mid 70's, waiting in line to feed a Fortran card reader (and after having to redo this because one card was either damaged or misplaced). Also, HP-45 programable calculators that we all thought of as laptops back then. They cost ~$400 back then, so ~$2,200 now, lol! Most of us could not afford those HP's so we had to make do with cheap (~$50) Sears calculators and/or Slide Rules. Oh ya, and our mom's never drove us to school either...…..
JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
7 years ago
Laptops? That's new tech isn't it?

The army taught me basic programming of some description - think it was on an Acorn - in 1982. I remember I had to have a cover over the keyboard, so that I couldn't see any of the keys. Today I struggle to remember what I did yesterday....! :(
kojack
MVP
7 years ago

TomCgcmfc said:

Also, HP-45 programable calculators that we all thought of as laptops back then.

I bought a HP-48 back when I was an electronic engineering student. Damn nice calculator.
Not only do I still use it decades later (sitting on the shelf beside me), but I also have an emulator for it on my phone for when I'm not at home. I love RPN mathematics, normal calculators are annoying.

So... how many of you linux fans have one of these?

That's my Open Pandora, a handheld retro gaming device that's running desktop Arch Linux. It's as big as a Nintendo DS, has a touch screen, analog joysticks, stylus, full size usb, wifi, and I run dev tools on it (GCC, Code Blocks, etc).
Great little device. It's powerful enough to emulate a Playstation 1 or Amiga 500 at full speed.
It was made by a tiny group of retro gaming enthusiasts.

I have a deposit on the sequel which is nearing production, the Pyra: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra
It's a dual core Cortex A15 based system running full desktop Debian Linux.
The Pyra uses a replaceable daughterboard for the SOC so it can be upgraded.

Right now (literally) I'm installing the Mycroft.AI personal assistant software on a Debian VM. I'm thinking of buying the Mark2 Mycroft.AI (it's like a google home, but open source), the full software for it is also available to run on a desktop Linux system or a raspberry pi. Hmm, better go check on the installer.