I’ve been a Windows user all my life and had dabbled in the Apple ecosystem for a bit. With the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 in Oct 2025, I figured I’d put myself through a huge challenge of cutting over completely to LInux without a secondary backup drive with Win 10 on it. If I could survive the struggles for a few months, I’d be golden, and if I couldn’t, then I could switch to Windows 10 LTSC and be good until 2029. The intention was to completely force myself in without a backup plan - the only way out would be to install a new Windows OS. I chose Linux Mint after careful consideration, especially considering that there’s tons of resources and help with this distro, and it’s a great onboarding ramp for Windows users. I need the familiarity since I’m in tech full time and just don’t have the energy to hassle with my PC after a long stressful day at work.

I also used this as a good excuse to upgrade my PC a bit, too. 😀

After switching in mid December, I’m happy to report that I’m still alive after 30 days. My computer hasn’t killed me. And I’ve been able to do work and game on my PC without too many hiccups. Marvel Rivals still crashes ever since the Season 1 update. Overwatch works perfect. My other games, on both Steam and GOG, work perfectly fine. But I haven’t been able to test every game out there, but I know I can use Proton DB if needed.

I even edited this screenshot in GIMP after being forged in the fires of Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop all my life! I even stripped exif data using command line tools! I even installed this cool neofetch thing that I always saw in people screenshots of their PC or whatever, every time I saw someone’s Linux build with their thigh high socks and neofetch on the terminal!

But so far, switching to Linux Mint has been great! I’m excited to deep dive more!

Note:

  • I backed up all my data from Windows into a USB drive. I’m slowly bringing all that stuff over to my Linux Mint computer and rebuilding my music, video, photos, etc. Lot of work, but it’s so cool feeling so liberated!
  • I may also want help from you Linux nerds from time to time. I’ll make posts/memes begging for help when I get desperate. But so far, almost every issue I’ve had has been resolved via an internet search!
  • I pray that I won’t come crawling back to Windows. I don’t expect that to happen with how great my experience has been thus far.

Specs:

  • Linux Mint 22
  • Ryzen 7 9800x3d
  • Thermalright Phantom Spirit
  • MSI X670e Carbon WiFi
  • Sapphire Nitro+ RX7900 XTX
  • Corsair Vegeance 64 GB DDR5-7200
  • Gen 5 Crucial T700 (?) M.2 x 2
  • Corsair 5000d
  • Noctua case fans (Lian Li too problematic on Linux based on all the research I did in advance)
  • Seasonic Focus Gold 1000W

Old Specs Everything the same as above apart from:

  • Windows 10 Pro
  • Intel i7-12700k
  • Noctua NH-U12A
  • MSI Pro Z690-A
  • MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio
  • Samsung Gen 3/4 M.2
  • Corsair Vengeance Pro 32 GB DDR4-3600
  • Lian Li AL120 case fans
  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    5·
    5 hours ago

    Gabba gabba we accept you, one of us! One of us!

    Welcome to the club! One bit of advice: Be not afraid of the terminal. Learn to use it, it’s a powerful tool and very useful. I recommend going to youtube and following along with a “bash basics” or “linux terminal basics” type video or two as if it were a class, it’ll help familiarize you with some of the more commonly used tools to navigate your system and stuff.

    • Demdaru@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 minutes ago

      When I studied I had classes in bash lol. So when I tried out distro of linux, I found myself relying more on terminal than desktop x_x (then proceeded to terminally kill my desktop enviroment, damage some wifi apps, change shit up and had to reinstall :| )

    • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      Woah now there buddy. This fellar just starting down the long trail of Linux and you are already trying to shanghai them to terminal land?

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    I like your background looks good. I’ve been using Linux on my laptop for a long time, newer distros and softwares have come a long way since when I started, but I’m unfortunately still rocking Windows on my main art station until Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC runs out of security updates.

    Maybe longer if I just unplug it from the internet.

  • Power_Dive@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 hours ago

    My display support HDR400, But I don’t see much difference between Windows 10 and Arch Linux.

  • vatlark@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    24 hours ago

    Y’all really choose hard mode for switching over. Having Windows on a partition sure is nice when a software requires it and wine doesn’t support it.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      7·
      23 hours ago

      Yep, I definitely chose hard mode. I wanted to minimise the chance of me giving up and reverting to Windows. By eliminating it entirely, I’ve made it much more difficult for myself as I’m forcing myself to manage, learn, and try to get things working in Linux.

      At some point, perhaps months down the road, where I find that I’m fully comfortable, then I’ll most likely add a secondary drive with Windows on it for those edge-cases that I can’t get working on Linux.

      • mortimer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux. Yes, it is liberating, isn’t it?

        I found keeping Windows on a dual boot system when I first migrated to Mint was enough to make me never want to use Windows again. It kept fucking things up and I wiped it off my system shortly thereafter.

        Rather than add a secondary drive, why not run a Windows virtual machine? I created a Win7 VM just for those two pieces of software that Linux doesn’t have. I have blocked it from internet access and so it does everything I need on the rare occasions that I require it.

      • vatlark@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        23 hours ago

        That’s fair. I have my work always pulling me back to Linux so my motivation was different.

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
    2·
    19 hours ago

    Yeah I changed a bit back but I went to new hardware. Ill be accessing the windows likely for months until I get my lazy ass in gear.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    Welcome and good luck. The community is large and we generally like to help each other.

  • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    162·
    1 day ago

    omg you chose the wrong distro aaahahhhh~~~

    Seriously, though, I’m glad you’re enjoying the switch, hope you also enjoy the mandatory thigh-highs!

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      It’s the one I recommend, but honestly have never actually used. I’ve gotten a few people to successfully switch with it and got a few others away from Ubuntu (my first distro), hence why I keep recommending it.

      • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        24 hours ago

        I’ve used it for a short time, to get a feel for it. It’s really intuitive, so it’s a good springboard into the wilderness of Linux distros.

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          Honestly this is the big thing I’ve found handy about using Mint. If there’s something wrong and I can’t find it a Mint answer, nine times out of ten I can fix it by searching for the Ubuntu solution. There’s so much Ubuntu troubleshooting going on.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            24 hours ago

            This is why EndeavourOS was a great starting distro for me. Arch has SO MUCH FUCKING DOCUMENTATION

  • polle@feddit.orgEnglish
    4·
    23 hours ago

    Linux gaming and selecting a non wayland distro seems an unusual choice. If gaming is your main usage, something with wayland and especially gamescope would be better. Beside that, welcome to the other side!

    • gens@programming.devEnglish
      4·
      18 hours ago

      Fullscreen Xorg windows that use the gpu bypass everything, so it should be the same. Wayland could even be “worse”. Both also support direct input.

      I use wayland only because moving windows around is smoother. It’s still a bigger pain overall. “Not quite there yet” is how I would describe it.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      16 hours ago

      I have no idea what Wayland is but I will do some research on that tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback as that will help me do further investigation and exploration in the Linux world. Eager to learn!

  • pureness@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 day ago

    Hey I just wanted to share how I was able to get Marvel Rivals running, although I’m on a different distro it should work for you:

    In the Launch options (right click game > properties > general tab) enter this:

    SteamDeck=1 %command%

    Then, it tricks the game into believing you are on steam deck, and it should run. If you want to disable the performance metrics, just press right shift+f12.

    I’m a recent lifetime windows user to Linux but loving it! I’ve dual booted so I can still play stuff like fortnite/call of duty but surely those will come around as the user count climbs :)

    Edit to add: I found this fix on protondb.com - you can usually find others posting helpful stuff there relating to any Linux game!

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      Thank you for this! I jotted down your launch options along with what some of the other persons here were posting. Hoping of course NetEase can get this addressed in a coming update so we don’t have to use this workaround.

      Congrats on the cutover! I don’t play Fortnite any more but my spouse wants to give it a go some time. If I play with them, I may have to install a Windows drive as a secondary device after all. Totally forgot about this game because I don’t think I currently play any games that can’t work on Linux.

      • hangonasecond@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        23 hours ago

        If you have a dusty old console lying around, Fortnite is cross play. That was my solution for the odd match with friends.

        • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Not at all.

          Bazzite is good for a console experience or for something like a kid gamer PC.

          Everything Bazzite does is perfectly possible on other Linux distros.

        • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          23 hours ago

          Heard about Bazzite basically being like Steam Deck. I think it’s great for a handheld, or for some one who wants a specific use case such as a PC hooked up to a TV that primarily is only for gaming.

          With the way I use a computer, first and foremost as a computer, Bazzite does not work for me. I want to boot directly into desktop and do desktop things. If that ever changes for me, I will definitely consider Bazzite and Steam OS as options.

  • Hiro8811@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 day ago

    If you want to game on Linux check out protondb.com/ you can find what games work and even fixes. Also proton-ge works well, MangoHud for stats but it requires some config but you can use Goverlay to configure it a lot easier. Also of course read documentationarch wiki is the best but keep in mind it’s for a different distro so paths might be different

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Thanks bud, saving some links for reference. I’ve heard about proton-ge, and from some quick high-level reading, it appears to be some kind of fork of steam’s proton, but has some other fixes that I believe are community oriented or address things that Steam cannot. I’m gonna doing some reading into that to understand more about it and see how it can help me in other games.

      The others are helpful! I remember MangoHud from Steam Deck, but only at a surface level. Didn’t even think about putting that onto my new system as I’ve just been using System Profiler to see some metrics when I play! I come from the MSI Afterburner crowd, so I’m hoping MangoHud will meet my performance monitoring needs!

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      The proton db site is very confusing to me. I tried submitting a report but the UI is just so wonky. It needs a little love, but it seems like a really good resource still.