I’ve felt compelled to post; it just works!
I’ve got a pc which is over a decade old; I’ve only ever used Microsoft with my main OS on that machine being windows 7 and then windows 10. With the new requirements for windows 11 being what they were I was considering installing it anyway with some workarounds. My computer appeared to be getting slower, I was annoyed with all of the bloat which goes along with the Microsoft OS, the constant reminders to “finish setting up my device” and use one drive. All of this was a bit too much for me.
I figured I’d have a go at installing a Linux OS. I’d ran Ubuntu years and years ago as an experiment on an evening older pc and it was very much sub par, it looked nice, it was a pain to do anything and didn’t play any of the games I wanted at the time.
A little bit of research told me that Linux mint may be a good option. I also read that dual booting can be difficult. So I just backed up my data, and installed it on the hard disk.
It was mostly seamless, I had issues with my graphics driver, which meant I couldn’t click the buttons to install mint & crashes, when running off the live disk to see what the os was like. This was part of the reason I just installed it on the hard drive and didn’t go through with a ‘testing’ phase.
Once that was resolved by installing the Nvidia driver I could use mint. This was made quite easy as it was just a few clicks in the gui and made really obvious to see. And the Mint does everything I need it to!
Gaming appears to have come a long, long way, I ran Civ V to test and it worked.
My Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected without issue.
The libre office suite is great to use and I’ve found it similar to the Microsoft equivalents.
My computer appears to be faster. I now realise that it was actually just the additional demands of the Microsoft OS on my machine which slowed it.
I have a multi screen set up, this simply just worked, the only tweek I made was selecting my main monitor.
To top it all, and perhaps the most surprising thing for me (and the reason for the post) is the printer just worked. Like, printers never just work. It’s just plugged in, recognised and I could print. No additional set up needed.
I’m short, Linux has progressed so much over the years. I thank all those who have worked on it to make it such a great option. It will be my main OS going forward and I’ll advocate for it. I’ll also ensure that my kids are running a Linux OS when they have computers of their own.
So, if you’re reading this and unsure about Linux, don’t be. It’s great and easy to set up, works flawlessly.
Nice. And don’t worry if you’re short man, no one really notices online
Haha. Linux has had no effect on my height. So far…
I’ve been using linux as my only OS since 2019 and like you came to the conclusion that it’s come a long way and is totally a viable option instead of windows.
Linux is great at running on old HW. I have a desktop I built in 2009 that runs linux.
I had almost the exact experience! 15 year old pc here. I love linux and it’s made me enjoy computing again! Really the only downside are anti cheat games and vr don’t work, neither of which are really the fault of linux.
I’ve been using AVR for VR fairly successfully recently on Linux. I’m not massive on VR but it’s a much better experience than quest native, other than very slow load times.
Having to use my work laptop with Windows 11 is literally painful these days. Everything is so. goddamn. slow.
Same. 64 gb and an i7 and STILL slower than a 15 year old pc with half the ram
Congratulations! I’m glad it worked well for you. Mint is a great choice as well.
Linux is easier to install than Windows. With the new Win11 requirements, Linux is the only choice for PC hardware more than 5yo. And like you say, hardware drivers just work. This used to be Windows major advantage, but now the chance you run into a compatibility issue is about the same for either OS.
Congrats on the working system.
I wouldn’t say Linux was sub par or has come a long way compared to other operating systems. It’s always been a better OS than windows but it has different goals. There’s never been a time where a sane person would use a Windows server for example. But with a smaller user base and less hand holding for users, Linux has historically not gotten a lot of mainstream software. Gaming improved almost entirely because Valve threw resources at it.
Driver support has gotten really good though. I’ve been using Linux full time since about 2004. I used to buy hardware with Linux support in mind and it was kind of a pain in the ass. Now I don’t even think about it. Even my printer works with no fussing. I’m not a PC gamer so I don’t have any direct experience but I think Nvidia drivers are the only real pain point left.
Maybe you’re correct in what you say about differing goals. Perhaps it would have been better to write that it was a sub par experience at the time as it didn’t meet my needs or expectations. I think if it is adopted in schools as a main desktop OS or within government departments then perhaps that will give other companies more of an incentive to have Linux support by default, just like in your example of Valve and gaming.
I think Nvidia drivers are the only real pain point left.
Nvidia drivers pretty much just work now, even on Wayland. On the rare occasion they don’t, it can be a pita to sort out though.
There’s never been a time where a sane person would use a Windows server for example
I dunno if it was sane, but my employer has been deploying Windows servers in industrial environments where the “operator” are technicians (non-IT) without access to remote support. With a Windows interface at least they are usually able to navigate the system and troubleshoot when needed without Linux experience (which they never have).
