Epic will continue to suck ass and chances are that they will get even worse some day. Don’t let yourself be chained to Microsoft because of Epic. I know it’s hard to let beloved games go, but there are so many other titles of better companies than epic that deserve your attention.
I’ll upgrade once Win11 is out of open beta. Almost once a week they patch in a bug that’s inconvincing users, I don’t have that issue with win10. I wish MS would spend that energy on bug fixing and QoL UI elements. Win11 has less taskbar options, you’d think they added them by now…
Used W11 for the first time recently, the lack of small task bar buttons blew my mind. Decluttering the task bar is the first thing I do on a new computer.
Yeah, it definitely has the Star Trek movie curse.
Each only in comparison to its predecessor, though. I still think Windows 7 was the last version to get out of its users’ way and just let them use their computer; everything since then has been worse than 7 in some subtle way.
I don’t remember anyone being excited for a version of Windows since 7. 8 and 8.1 were universally hated, a lot of people clung to 7 until they absolutely had to upgrade to 10, and now they’re clinging to 10 as long as they can. I seriously doubt there’s an upcoming release of Windows people will genuinely like and want, because there’s no money in doing that.
Yeah, but even before that…people were only excited about 7 because of how much of a dumpster fire Vista was. And prior to XP (which Vista replaced), most people didn’t care about OS versions at all.
I wonder if no one in the head of such a big company wonders if the fact that an increasing amount of people not wanting to move to their newer versions means that they’re maybe, you know, just maybe, doing something that people don’t want?
Win10 with Classic Shell is good enough for me… Until I have to dig into the control panel and dick around with any network settings harder than “hurrr durrr SSID and password goes here”. Luckily Simple IP Config does all the heavy lifting for me on that front.
But hey, having to use third party utilities to make my OS usable is just The Microsoft Way at this point.
I have way less patience for it than you do; I bailed out a few weeks into owning a Windows 8.1 laptop. I’ve been a full time Linux user for 10 years now.
There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with it, though I seem to remember that BitLocker isn’t all that difficult to break if your passphrase isn’t long enough. I just found it a bit weird because unlocking via TPM very much feels like the standard solution under Windows.
It’s cool while it works. But these options are not going to be provided forever in newer hardware. Recent example I saw is the absense of AHCI option in new laptops (you now need additional drivers just to reinstall Windows manually). We need to keep developing software solutions to software problems.
Is it not disgraceful that you have to use a trick so some third party company doesn’t install software you don’t want on your hardware? I think that’s appalling!
Windows 12 is scheduled to release before Windows 10 goes EOL. At this point, those who haven’t switched are better off just waiting to see if 12 is decent or it’s shittier than 11. If it’s the latter, it might be time to finally ditch Windows on my gaming PC.
Windows 10 was the last Windows version for me. I’m done. I’m done with the spying, and the ads, and the hidden admin options spread across 5 different locations, and the registry, and the bugs, and the viruses, and just their whole shit show. Linux 4 lyfe.
It’s just the spying for me. If it wasn’t for the spying and ads then I’d still be a Windows die-hard. If my OS was just an OS then I wouldn’t feel the need to switch to Linux
Yeah, the other things are just annoyances. But the ads and the spying are deal breakers for me. They’re our fucking computers, not Microsoft’s! They’ve got a lot of fucking nerve thinking they can just shove ads into our native OS. That’s literally how adware, which is classified as malware, has been classified for all of Windows history. But now they’re doing it themselves? Get fucked, Satya!
I don’t know anything about Minecraft but if Minetest is an appropriate replacement without that minor annoyance I would suggest that’s solicited advice.
I think it’s mostly that it comes across more like religious proselytizing than “good advice”.
Also, that “advice” is mixed in with just as much messaging about how fussy it can be and implications that you’ve got to basically be an enthusiast level user to make it work for you. Not that it necessarily is that way, but overall that’s the messaging I see from this community.
As someone who tried Linux many years ago, disliked it, and went back to Windows, generally my take is that Windows is far from perfect, but it’s the best option for me, and I’m happy to try and ignore the Lemmy buzz around it…but that buzz just gets more and more annoying over time.
Take it on good faith that I won’t bible beat you. I’m genuinely curious. What are things about windows that are ‘far from perfect’ as you put it? What would you do to change them, and if you could wave a magic wand and change whatever you want, what would you change?
On self-reflection I’ll admit that there’s a bias experienced by people, like me, who live in the Linux bubble, surrounded by people who are happy Linux users, to overestimate the eagerness of other people to be on board. It’s also easy to forget when you’re on a general Technology community like this one, where a lot of people are talking about Linux, that it’s not everyone is a Linux person.
In fact I don’t even really detect much of a “Lemmy buzz” around it mainly because I participated in Linux-y parts of Reddit, and other places, before now. If anything from my point of view there seems to be more resistance to it on Lemmy.
It could be that having used it for nearly 20 years I’ve lost my ability to fathom why it would be difficult. But that said, both my parents use Linux and are non-technical users - they were fed up with windows crap like in OP so they asked me to set it up for them and it’s been 5 years now trouble free. So even if you do need to be an enthusiast-level user to make it work, you only have to know one. What I still stand by is that it’s good advice for most users.
You could probably install linux bare metal on your computer, and daily drive windows 7 in a vm. Good luck getting compatible software anymore, but if you can, create an image and you are set for the foreseeable future
They have been doing this for at least a year now. They have one that tries to trick you into thinking that it was already updated and you have to finish setting it up. It takes several clicks on tiny hidden buttons to escape it. There’s no option to tell it to fuck off forever. They’ll pester you again a couple weeks later.
Dark patterns were outlawed years ago, but the FTC has to enforce it. My guess is that Microsoft either designed it in such a way that it barely meets the requirements, or they figured it won’t matter because even if they get caught, the fine will be less than their savings/profit.
Not me. I kill any process that pops up in task manager whenever i have to connect to the net. Some of them are annoyingly persistent but so far no full screen popups
I took the free upgrade. Then after a bit I updated my bios and it killed my license. Microsoft wouldn’t fix it and said I changed my hardware so there was nothing they could do. Still pissed off about that.
There’s a mass grave way to get a new digital license from Microsoft 😉
Btw when I changed my motherboard and Windows deactivated, I called them and told them “it broke, then I replaced only the motherboard” (actually was an hardware upgrade) and they give the the phone activation codes. But that was during the Win7 era
That’s crazy. Not a Microsoft fanboy, but I’ve had issues like that after an actual board swap and they still have made it right (and technically they were in the right to disallow it), and they’ve fixed issues with transferring around my retail license that I’ve had since like Windows 7 because by now it’s been activated a bunch of times. Enshittification.
I ownder if its a tactic to get people, or mainly businesses to upgrade no so they are still in the windows ecosystem. They won’t want to pay for windows, so making it seem like their computer is outdated and should be upgraded is not a bad strategy. If a movement of converting to Linux starts, many users might leave. For good.
You think the average Windows user cares about security or updates? I’ve worked in IT for over a decade and I can tell you that the average person doesn’t give a damn.
Doing nothing is a very real probability. PCs have very real competition as well. Buying a cheap Apple air is now a great alternative to Microsoft Windows for people scared of linux. M3 processor is great and the devices cheap.
It’s good except for the fact that Windows 11 is tied to a piece of hardware level security of supposedly nebulous benefit to your average home user. So tons of computers that would otherwise be fine are going to end up being entirely replaced and turned into e-waste instead because their motherboard doesn’t have a TMP chip on it.
But that’s an issue with Microsoft requiring TMP for Windows 11, not them telling people that they’re gonna stop getting stuff like security updates.
I wonder if there’s a debloated version of Windows 11 that removes the TPM requirement…
Regardless, I’m this | | close to switching to Linux; I just need to make sure I can get OneDrive and full MS Office running in Linux reliably, since I need both for work. The Steam Deck has convinced me that I don’t need Windows anymore for gaming, so it’s only work holding me back. (Work pays me a stipend to maintain my own work computer hardware, so I do work on “my” machine.)
If you are fine with the older office suite (2019 I believe), there is a codeweaver program called crossover. They are the teams that make WINE a reality and they have a one version license so you can own it forever. Or yeah, you can also use VM.
Yeah, that is if I remember it correctly. But I do remember installing a modern office suite back then using crossover. They also have trials so you can test your target program is indeed running as it should before buying.
I see Linux in my future, as I just don’t have the cash for a new rig.
I have to be careful though, as it’s my family PC, and the rest of my family aren’t going to tolerate much of a learning curve. It really needs to just work out of the box.
Considering Zorin OS. Hopefully I can get it on my SSD next to Windows so I can dual-boot for a while to test the water…
Go with Pop! Pop! Is a great OS and has pretty much everything working right out of the box. Go with Gnome so that people understand they need to do things slightly different rather than trying to use a Linux machine like a Windows machine. Plus Gnome is just awesome. Hit the windows key, type the first couple letters of the program you want to open, hit enter, done! The Pop shop has almost everything an average user would need, so you can install things with the click of a button without having to search the Internet, and updates are a hands off affair.
Edit: since you’re not a Linux user I’ll clarify Gnome. Gnome is a desktop environment, and Pop is the actual operating system. In Linux you can change how your computer interface looks and works by choosing different desktop environments(DE). A variation of Gnome is the default DE for Pop, and it works great. KDE would be the DE most similar to Windows, but it has enough differences that it can frustrate Windows users. Gnome is completely different, so they’ll take the time to figure something out rather than just getting frustrated that it’s different. Besides, the learning curve on Gnome is basically zero. Just use the Windows key and start typing. It’s literally that simple.
I’ll counter that when I tried gnome it was so far it was frustrating while KDE took some adjustment but it worked like a de was supposed to work in my brain. And gnome wasn’t as easily customizable as kde
Yeah, no recommendation will work for everyone. My advice was just based on observation of new Linux users and the challenges I see them complaining about. I’m glad you found something that works for you.
Oh absolutely, I just wanted to share because some people will see that and think “if gnome is easier and I hated it then I shouldn’t bother with KDE”. Nah if you don’t like gnome try KDE or cinnamon. Everyone is different, that’s why there are multiple major des.
You’d be better off installing Linux on another drive if you’re going to dual boot. Windows loves to mess with the EFI boot partition which ends up borking the Linux bootloader.
If your family does more than just browse the web, there’s definitely going to be a bit of a learning curve, it’s possible though. I converted my 73 year old father to Linux after he used Windows for 25 years.
Ah really? I could put it on the hard drive, but the whole point of the SSD was for it to take the OS… Will have to think on that.
They generally don’t do more than browse the web so I’m not anticipating any major issues. I used to game on it, but it’s so old now I’ve stopped using it for games.
Maybe I’ll put it on a usb for a while instead of dual booting.
I have been wanting to make the switch to Linux myself, and have done a bit of research on which to try for a beginner coming from windows. However the dual boot dangers are worrying me a bit, I dont want to nuke my windows installation just yet and only test the waters.
I have an SSD with windows on it and another with most of my programs and files. Could I partition the latter for a Linux installation or would I risk windows messing with it anyway?
Yep, in fact, installing it on a different drive completely would probably be your safest bet 😉 Windows may still mess with it, but if it has its own EFI System Partition, it should hopefully leave the one for Linux alone.
Installing Linux on a separate drive is probably a better bet. I’ll admit I didn’t have much trouble with it, but I dual booted Windows 8.1 with Linux, not 10, and my understanding is it has only gotten fuckier.
In either case you may wish to “test the waters” by installing and running Linux in a virtual machine or on a thumb drive at first, to take it for a test drive and see if you can live with it.
If you install the Linux bootloader on a separate partition from the Windows bootloader, then it’s trivial to repair it, but that might be a bit advanced for a basic user.
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The cycle continues
At the Office it’s my employers problem and at home Mint doesn’t give AF about Windows 11.
If epic didn’t suck ass and actually wanted to support EAC on Linux I already would have switched.
Epic will continue to suck ass and chances are that they will get even worse some day. Don’t let yourself be chained to Microsoft because of Epic. I know it’s hard to let beloved games go, but there are so many other titles of better companies than epic that deserve your attention.
It ain’t me. Its my wife lol. But you right.
I’ll upgrade once Win11 is out of open beta. Almost once a week they patch in a bug that’s inconvincing users, I don’t have that issue with win10. I wish MS would spend that energy on bug fixing and QoL UI elements. Win11 has less taskbar options, you’d think they added them by now…
No small taskbar icons option was bothersome for me. Have to deal with it on my work PC. So much lost screen space 😭
Used W11 for the first time recently, the lack of small task bar buttons blew my mind. Decluttering the task bar is the first thing I do on a new computer.
This is in my top 10 reasons not to switch. You can make them small still via a registry edit, but then it messes up the date/time display.
Yeah I’d rather not be making regedits and of course can’t even do that on a work device.
I’ve blocked the Win11 upgrade on my work laptop via GPO, but I’m a sys eng, so have full control.
If Microsoft gifts me a mobo that supports their new tmp2 or whatever then I’ll switch, until then I’m sadly stuck on w10, oh the misery 🙃
I’m not a marketing person but maybe they should try making an OS people actually want.
They do this every 4-5 years. Nobody is ever bothered enough to cause a problem for Microsoft’s bottom line.
We need to wait for the next version, 12 or wherever. Every other Windows version is “good”
Yeah, it definitely has the Star Trek movie curse.
Each only in comparison to its predecessor, though. I still think Windows 7 was the last version to get out of its users’ way and just let them use their computer; everything since then has been worse than 7 in some subtle way.
I don’t remember anyone being excited for a version of Windows since 7. 8 and 8.1 were universally hated, a lot of people clung to 7 until they absolutely had to upgrade to 10, and now they’re clinging to 10 as long as they can. I seriously doubt there’s an upcoming release of Windows people will genuinely like and want, because there’s no money in doing that.
Yeah, but even before that…people were only excited about 7 because of how much of a dumpster fire Vista was. And prior to XP (which Vista replaced), most people didn’t care about OS versions at all.
I wonder if no one in the head of such a big company wonders if the fact that an increasing amount of people not wanting to move to their newer versions means that they’re maybe, you know, just maybe, doing something that people don’t want?
They don’t care as long as their software is quasi-mandatory.
I was excited for 10. I had 8 on my college laptop
Win10 with Classic Shell is good enough for me… Until I have to dig into the control panel and dick around with any network settings harder than “hurrr durrr SSID and password goes here”. Luckily Simple IP Config does all the heavy lifting for me on that front.
But hey, having to use third party utilities to make my OS usable is just The Microsoft Way at this point.
I have way less patience for it than you do; I bailed out a few weeks into owning a Windows 8.1 laptop. I’ve been a full time Linux user for 10 years now.
8.1 was fine imo, but not really worth an upgrade from 7 unless it was free.
They do. It’s called Windows 10 LTSC.
Why would they do that when people use this one all the same?
I have never received one of these screens with this One Neat Trick:
I disabled the TPM in UEFI settings.
Beautiful.
Aww your poor wittle pc is unhealthy! It just needs some rest and some fluids.
Aren’t you using the TPM for full disk encryption, though? Or are you entering your BitLocker Password at every boot?
also windows 10 requires tpm for passkeys
I use full-disk encryption on my Debian, and I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with entering your passphrase on boot.
There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with it, though I seem to remember that BitLocker isn’t all that difficult to break if your passphrase isn’t long enough. I just found it a bit weird because unlocking via TPM very much feels like the standard solution under Windows.
It’s cool while it works. But these options are not going to be provided forever in newer hardware. Recent example I saw is the absense of AHCI option in new laptops (you now need additional drivers just to reinstall Windows manually). We need to keep developing software solutions to software problems.
Sounds like a good idea to disable a security feature to not be reminded of the EOL of the software you’re using /s
This is the fucking way
Oh it looks like your PC is not supported because you turned off single option in UEFI. Go to this link and buy your new Windows 11 PC today!
In the 90s this was hacker shit. You’d do this shit to, like, break into the pentagon or something.
Fucking cringe cyberpunk; everybody’s a hacker, because theres no other way to see your fucking calendar.
Is it not disgraceful that you have to use a trick so some third party company doesn’t install software you don’t want on your hardware? I think that’s appalling!
Aren’t these screens from the article specifically for unsupported devices, like those without TPM?
Win 11 will eventually replace win 10, just as win10 replaced win7, they are just desperate to reach their target before releasing windows 12.
You missed Windows 8, which never replaced Windows 7
Windows 12 is scheduled to release before Windows 10 goes EOL. At this point, those who haven’t switched are better off just waiting to see if 12 is decent or it’s shittier than 11. If it’s the latter, it might be time to finally ditch Windows on my gaming PC.
Windows 10 was the last Windows version for me. I’m done. I’m done with the spying, and the ads, and the hidden admin options spread across 5 different locations, and the registry, and the bugs, and the viruses, and just their whole shit show. Linux 4 lyfe.
It’s just the spying for me. If it wasn’t for the spying and ads then I’d still be a Windows die-hard. If my OS was just an OS then I wouldn’t feel the need to switch to Linux
Yeah, the other things are just annoyances. But the ads and the spying are deal breakers for me. They’re our fucking computers, not Microsoft’s! They’ve got a lot of fucking nerve thinking they can just shove ads into our native OS. That’s literally how adware, which is classified as malware, has been classified for all of Windows history. But now they’re doing it themselves? Get fucked, Satya!
I’m used to hearing about how a lot of people are put off of Lemmy because of all the “Linux” people on it, “people pushing Linux”, “elitists”, etc.
And yet I see something like this and think “are we not supposed to give good advice?”.
If is the kind of thing you want for your computing then go for it.
It’s unsolicited advice.
It would be like you posting about a minor annoyance with Minecraft, and then having multiple people tell you to ditch it and play Minetest instead.
That’s not an apt comparison
I don’t know anything about Minecraft but if Minetest is an appropriate replacement without that minor annoyance I would suggest that’s solicited advice.
I think it’s mostly that it comes across more like religious proselytizing than “good advice”.
Also, that “advice” is mixed in with just as much messaging about how fussy it can be and implications that you’ve got to basically be an enthusiast level user to make it work for you. Not that it necessarily is that way, but overall that’s the messaging I see from this community.
As someone who tried Linux many years ago, disliked it, and went back to Windows, generally my take is that Windows is far from perfect, but it’s the best option for me, and I’m happy to try and ignore the Lemmy buzz around it…but that buzz just gets more and more annoying over time.
Take it on good faith that I won’t bible beat you. I’m genuinely curious. What are things about windows that are ‘far from perfect’ as you put it? What would you do to change them, and if you could wave a magic wand and change whatever you want, what would you change?
On self-reflection I’ll admit that there’s a bias experienced by people, like me, who live in the Linux bubble, surrounded by people who are happy Linux users, to overestimate the eagerness of other people to be on board. It’s also easy to forget when you’re on a general Technology community like this one, where a lot of people are talking about Linux, that it’s not everyone is a Linux person.
In fact I don’t even really detect much of a “Lemmy buzz” around it mainly because I participated in Linux-y parts of Reddit, and other places, before now. If anything from my point of view there seems to be more resistance to it on Lemmy.
It could be that having used it for nearly 20 years I’ve lost my ability to fathom why it would be difficult. But that said, both my parents use Linux and are non-technical users - they were fed up with windows crap like in OP so they asked me to set it up for them and it’s been 5 years now trouble free. So even if you do need to be an enthusiast-level user to make it work, you only have to know one. What I still stand by is that it’s good advice for most users.
They could convince me to update by making windows 11 not suck.
Every pop up just convinced me to switch to Linux lol
Same. My next build will be Linux. Just distro shopping right now.
Haha felt that. I jumped from distro to distro constantly then finally settled in fedora after trying it a 2nd time
By reworking windows 7 to work with new hardware
God I’d cry if I could get windows 7 supported again
You could probably install linux bare metal on your computer, and daily drive windows 7 in a vm. Good luck getting compatible software anymore, but if you can, create an image and you are set for the foreseeable future
Actually not a bad idea. A lot of games I play actually run better on 7 than on 10.
Or I could reskin mint to be Windows Aero
They have been doing this for at least a year now. They have one that tries to trick you into thinking that it was already updated and you have to finish setting it up. It takes several clicks on tiny hidden buttons to escape it. There’s no option to tell it to fuck off forever. They’ll pester you again a couple weeks later.
dark design or fraud design should be fineable.
Dark patterns were outlawed years ago, but the FTC has to enforce it. My guess is that Microsoft either designed it in such a way that it barely meets the requirements, or they figured it won’t matter because even if they get caught, the fine will be less than their savings/profit.
Not me. I kill any process that pops up in task manager whenever i have to connect to the net. Some of them are annoyingly persistent but so far no full screen popups
That sounds exhausting
Also completely irrelevant and doesn’t do what he thinks he’s doing
I think it speeds up my boot process and even if it doesnt i do like killing bloaty apps
Lots of fun things are tiring
I took the free upgrade. Then after a bit I updated my bios and it killed my license. Microsoft wouldn’t fix it and said I changed my hardware so there was nothing they could do. Still pissed off about that.
There’s a mass grave way to get a new digital license from Microsoft 😉
Btw when I changed my motherboard and Windows deactivated, I called them and told them “it broke, then I replaced only the motherboard” (actually was an hardware upgrade) and they give the the phone activation codes. But that was during the Win7 era
Wow that’s fucking annoying Jesus
That’s crazy. Not a Microsoft fanboy, but I’ve had issues like that after an actual board swap and they still have made it right (and technically they were in the right to disallow it), and they’ve fixed issues with transferring around my retail license that I’ve had since like Windows 7 because by now it’s been activated a bunch of times. Enshittification.
https://massgrave.dev
deleted by creator
I ownder if its a tactic to get people, or mainly businesses to upgrade no so they are still in the windows ecosystem. They won’t want to pay for windows, so making it seem like their computer is outdated and should be upgraded is not a bad strategy. If a movement of converting to Linux starts, many users might leave. For good.
You think the average Windows user cares about security or updates? I’ve worked in IT for over a decade and I can tell you that the average person doesn’t give a damn.
Yup.
they do care about money.
Doing nothing is a very real probability. PCs have very real competition as well. Buying a cheap Apple air is now a great alternative to Microsoft Windows for people scared of linux. M3 processor is great and the devices cheap.
1300-2000 €. They wouldn’t be cheap if you cut off a digit from the price.
It’s good except for the fact that Windows 11 is tied to a piece of hardware level security of supposedly nebulous benefit to your average home user. So tons of computers that would otherwise be fine are going to end up being entirely replaced and turned into e-waste instead because their motherboard doesn’t have a TMP chip on it.
But that’s an issue with Microsoft requiring TMP for Windows 11, not them telling people that they’re gonna stop getting stuff like security updates.
I wonder if there’s a debloated version of Windows 11 that removes the TPM requirement…
Regardless, I’m this | | close to switching to Linux; I just need to make sure I can get OneDrive and full MS Office running in Linux reliably, since I need both for work. The Steam Deck has convinced me that I don’t need Windows anymore for gaming, so it’s only work holding me back. (Work pays me a stipend to maintain my own work computer hardware, so I do work on “my” machine.)
Edit: Looks like it’s actually pretty easy to do.
If you are fine with the older office suite (2019 I believe), there is a codeweaver program called crossover. They are the teams that make WINE a reality and they have a one version license so you can own it forever. Or yeah, you can also use VM.
Nice, thanks! 2019 should be good enough; the guides I was looking at were suggesting much older versions for WINE compatibility.
I just need to look into OneDrive, now.
Yeah, that is if I remember it correctly. But I do remember installing a modern office suite back then using crossover. They also have trials so you can test your target program is indeed running as it should before buying.
I see Linux in my future, as I just don’t have the cash for a new rig.
I have to be careful though, as it’s my family PC, and the rest of my family aren’t going to tolerate much of a learning curve. It really needs to just work out of the box.
Considering Zorin OS. Hopefully I can get it on my SSD next to Windows so I can dual-boot for a while to test the water…
Go with Mint rather than Zorin.
Go with Pop! Pop! Is a great OS and has pretty much everything working right out of the box. Go with Gnome so that people understand they need to do things slightly different rather than trying to use a Linux machine like a Windows machine. Plus Gnome is just awesome. Hit the windows key, type the first couple letters of the program you want to open, hit enter, done! The Pop shop has almost everything an average user would need, so you can install things with the click of a button without having to search the Internet, and updates are a hands off affair.
Edit: since you’re not a Linux user I’ll clarify Gnome. Gnome is a desktop environment, and Pop is the actual operating system. In Linux you can change how your computer interface looks and works by choosing different desktop environments(DE). A variation of Gnome is the default DE for Pop, and it works great. KDE would be the DE most similar to Windows, but it has enough differences that it can frustrate Windows users. Gnome is completely different, so they’ll take the time to figure something out rather than just getting frustrated that it’s different. Besides, the learning curve on Gnome is basically zero. Just use the Windows key and start typing. It’s literally that simple.
I’ll counter that when I tried gnome it was so far it was frustrating while KDE took some adjustment but it worked like a de was supposed to work in my brain. And gnome wasn’t as easily customizable as kde
Yeah, no recommendation will work for everyone. My advice was just based on observation of new Linux users and the challenges I see them complaining about. I’m glad you found something that works for you.
Oh absolutely, I just wanted to share because some people will see that and think “if gnome is easier and I hated it then I shouldn’t bother with KDE”. Nah if you don’t like gnome try KDE or cinnamon. Everyone is different, that’s why there are multiple major des.
You’d be better off installing Linux on another drive if you’re going to dual boot. Windows loves to mess with the EFI boot partition which ends up borking the Linux bootloader.
If your family does more than just browse the web, there’s definitely going to be a bit of a learning curve, it’s possible though. I converted my 73 year old father to Linux after he used Windows for 25 years.
Ah really? I could put it on the hard drive, but the whole point of the SSD was for it to take the OS… Will have to think on that.
They generally don’t do more than browse the web so I’m not anticipating any major issues. I used to game on it, but it’s so old now I’ve stopped using it for games.
Maybe I’ll put it on a usb for a while instead of dual booting.
I meant installing Linux itself on another drive, but having the EFI System Partition on another drive could work theoretically.
I have been wanting to make the switch to Linux myself, and have done a bit of research on which to try for a beginner coming from windows. However the dual boot dangers are worrying me a bit, I dont want to nuke my windows installation just yet and only test the waters.
I have an SSD with windows on it and another with most of my programs and files. Could I partition the latter for a Linux installation or would I risk windows messing with it anyway?
Yep, in fact, installing it on a different drive completely would probably be your safest bet 😉 Windows may still mess with it, but if it has its own EFI System Partition, it should hopefully leave the one for Linux alone.
Installing Linux on a separate drive is probably a better bet. I’ll admit I didn’t have much trouble with it, but I dual booted Windows 8.1 with Linux, not 10, and my understanding is it has only gotten fuckier.
In either case you may wish to “test the waters” by installing and running Linux in a virtual machine or on a thumb drive at first, to take it for a test drive and see if you can live with it.
If you install the Linux bootloader on a separate partition from the Windows bootloader, then it’s trivial to repair it, but that might be a bit advanced for a basic user.
I use Linux Mint on a bunch of my machines
In general it’s pretty painless
I still have a Windows machine but I’m hoping to fix that soon