Linux

Oh my, I hope she knows how to sed the release name in /etc/apt, or else it's very out of date by now...

In 2017 I bought a used laptop released 2011 and put mint cinnamon on it. About a year later my niece threw it off the table and keyboard and touchscreen broke. I shelfed it for a year before I bought a USB mouse and keyboard. Booted it up, used it a bit, updated, everything just worked. I don't use that machine anymore since a year, as last year I bought a "new" used laptop released 2018. I recently booted the older laptop just to see and it works just fine. It hasn't been updated in a long time.

The newer machine runs debian 12 gnome and also doesn't get updated regularly (as I don't have WiFi). Both machines are as fast as on the first day. I never had any stability problem with both machines (except maybe the table stability, where former laptop fell from).

Looked around at a few other distros...nope, still love Mint. 10/10, would do it all over again.

I can relate.

I love to research my next obscure Linux configuration - from the comfort of my trusty reliable Linux Mint PC.

Welcome to the club!

I knew I wanted to switch at one point before Microsoft ended support for Windows 10, so I began experimenting January 2024, but I quickly realized I could make do with what I had in my MX Linux install. Granted, X11 and more than one monitor with 2 different refresh rates wasn't great, but by February of 2025 Nvidia fixed some variable refresh rate bugs that made Wayland primetime ready, and I've been on Nobara ever since. And it's been incredibly stable. And there's so much fun stuff to do.

no, it can.. but they won't allow it because of all their dogshit background spyware crap. zero reason, other then microshits spyware. glad you made the best decision and dumped their stupid ass

While I just land a recent Debian stable on my laptop, install cargo for new Rust apps (for things like jujutsu), and Guix package manager (for stuff like kakoune or vis), and call it a day.

Well, after 25 years the pursuit of agressive distro-overoptimization becomes a bit boring. But who am I to criticize what other people spend their free time with?

It seems to run most games. Kernel level anti cheat games are the exception.

I'm not even on a gaming distro. Using Linux Mint Debian Edition.

Most games will run just fine through Steam and Proton or Heroic Launcher.

I'm going to hop to something else (pikaOS) eventually, but most of my concerns with Linux seem to have been largely fixed.

Finding suitable software for Linux is like moving from a boring suburb which has only a road to Walmart to a lovely small village with lots of woodland and hiking paths. You will need to find and explore new ways, but you will find them, and you will enjoy them.

More concretely spoken, Debian, as an example, has over 30,000 software packages. Some are really pleasant to use, like GNOME's simple-scan. Some are stunning beautiful, like the astronomy app named Orrery, if I remember the name correctly. You can literally spend years exploring them. Or look into the Arch Wiki list of applications for a tasteful choice.

The Steam Deck has been a lightning rod of getting gaming compatibility into the mainstream. The Proton compatibility layer works for most Steam games and the Proton DB will tell you the level of compatibility for a given game on Linux, https://www.protondb.com/ . Additionally, a number of other compatibility layers and ported front ends for GOG, Epic and various others are available and functioning (I can't list them all as I only use Steam, but I'm all in on Fedora and have yet to find a game that won't run). VR is working now on Linux (I have an Oculus Quest 2 I was given a couple years ago and it works flawlessly), as are most game pads. You can go with something like Bazzite which has a number of gaming specific compatibility tools built in, and it's immutable so it's a deliberate effort to break the thing. The only real limitations for software is anything Adobe (but there open source apps to fill that gap, GIMP is among the biggest) and ~~MS Office~~ M365 Copilot, which you can just use the Libre Office suite or if compatibility is a concern due to macros or addins, OnlyOffice is a decent alternative.

I just recently switched from Windows to Linux and for me the gaming experience has been fantastic. Games have been running way smoother. You do lose access to some games that require a kernel level anti cheat, but it's been worth it for me. If you're curious, you can check out the ProtonDB website to check if the games you play are Linux compatible.

I've been using Linux exclusively for the past few years, even VR games work fine since a while.

Tbh I just buy games and assume it works. It's gotten that good. Really only a handful of big games like Call of Duty or Battlefield don't support Linux and so I just ignore them on Steam.

Valve has put a lot of work into it, so unless you want to play hypercompetitive shooters (which ban Linux as a scapegoat for how hacker infested they are), most games will just work. Installing Steam should just set things up automagically for Steam games.

If there's a game you're actively curious about, you can look it up on https://www.protondb.com/ to see what other people say about how well it works.

I just bought a new laptop that presumably had Win 11 on it. I just booted onto a USB stick and installed Linux over it. Next is to use Gparted to wipe any recovery partition and get the wasted space back.