I just got a free win 10 laptop from work. Where do I start the linux?
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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There are several services offering code micropatching, I still have a perfectly safe win7 machine online for retro gaming
They'll never get me to upgrade my VM from XP
I have a 2022 mid-range laptop which does work with Windows 11, but sounds like a jet engine when I try to run it.
I also have Arch installed, which runs silently 80% of the time, with moderate fan usage the other 20%.
As you may expect from this, 11 is typically sluggish, especially under load; whereas Arch is typically quick and responsive, with moments of lag noticeable but infrequent.
Under the circumstances, using 11 would be a terrible choice. There's just no reason to subject my device to it.
I know it's not the sub for it however some people might like to know: the open source tool Rufus, when noticing that you're creating a Win11 USB, will by default offer to patch it to remove the TPM requirement and other restrictions. So now I have W11 happily running on an "unsupported" machine. Yes, I did have Linux on it previously but something has regressed in the kernel in the last year or two and it often freezes on wake, which is well beyond my care factor to help debug.
God all you noobs coming over I’m going to have to switch to OpenBSD to keep my cool nerdy edge /s
Recommend Gentoo and Slackware to your least favourite co-workers!
I worked in a shop where my lead Dev used Gentoo as theit daily and a co-worker used Slackware.
Nobody else I've ever known or met could light a candle to their skill set.
lead Dev used Gentoo
Nightly builds
Expectations: the product
Reality: the system
Big props to the team behind this page, explaining what's up and directly linking places for people to get support is awesome
I only used windows on my desktop for gaming. Having a Steam Deck, I was really eagerly waiting for an official SteamOS distro for my desktop. And then I tried Bazzite. I have been playing games on Bazzite for a couple of months now and I'm super happy. So glad to get rid of Windows' constant nagging and Microsoft's worsening practices. Every time I booted my desktop there was a new shitty surprise either to make my local login profile into a cloud one, forcefully update to win11 or some other unwanted bad UX. Bye bye Microsoft, at long last!
whats bazzite like installed on a desktop system? is there a hotkey that lets you switch between the steamdeck mode and the desktop?
There's a desktop iso available for Bazzite with either Gnome or KDE plasma and both work normally.
I believe bazzite offers that feature if you want it. You either select it during download or installation
Same experience as Steam Deck. It boots to a sort of Big Picture mode, and in the Power Menu you have an option to "switch to desktop". They are separate modes and I believe you get logget out from either in order to switch to the other. It's fast though.
Note that there are a couple of iso download options depending on what experience you want with Bazzite, I chose the one that most closely resembles the Deck's.
Before this I had tried Ubuntu and I had lots of issues out of the box, with VRR, crackling sound and other stuff. Bazzite worked out of the box, and required nrarly zero setup. There are minor issues, but nothing even close to a dealbreaker - for instance the default audio device on boot was always the PS5 controller's speaker, so I disabled it (I'm sure there are better solutions), or Steam always shows there's an update (even though you might be on the latest version).
FWIW I boot Bazzite in desktop mode with two 27" displays and have been very happy. Mixed use, not nearly as much gaming as it's really intended for most of the time, and occasionally patchy experience but (un-)usually great. So many quality of life little doodads.
For instance, the screens brighten and dim effortlessly with my scroll wheel on a widget in the taskbar, just by default. Discovered it by accident lol, what else don't I know?!
It's excellent. Folks should use it.
No, it works just like Steam Deck.
it's back to DOS for me
in many ways, I wish I'd never left
I recently switched to Linux and the latest KDE surprised me with how powerful it is. Scaling works. Fonts are rendered nicely. It's just easy to use. Most of the time I don't even think about the fact that I'm running Linux anymore.
No "what if", you 110% can! I've been running Linux on a netbook for over a decade. It would absolutely choke under the weight of a Windows installation.
I would mainline Linux if I wasn’t a Mac user. I definitely use it all over the place for the homelab.
Linux sucks
Just kidding I'm just trolling
god at first i saw only the first line cuz the second was cut off. the relief i felt upon scrolling XD
You're preaching to the choir with this one.
Its for the choir to preach, in turn, to others.
Seeing a lot of posts like this did help push me to actually make the switch instead of just talking about doing it someday.
I already tried. Linux has some issues with basic things like a working sleep mode and a working thunderbolt port at the same time on my laptop.
What laptop and distro was it?
X1 yoga gen 3. Fedora 40.