cujo

I got tired of the subscription while I was still Windows-bound, so I trialed CaptureOne Pro. It didn't even have a subscription plan at the time, and I loved it so much I bought a perpetual license. I love the software, it's my favorite photo editing software period. They do offer a subscription now, as well as perpetual licenses, but you can't even begin to get it running under Linux so... Major bummer.

This is, again, an atypical use-case. Despite that, it's not hard to find the answers. Googling for "Linux Japanese keyboard layout" comes up with an easy-to-follow guide in the first 5 search results, literally on the Ubuntu forums. Understand I'm not saying the use case is particularly RARE, but it's not the norm either. And honestly, Snap sucks anyway. 😂

It could certainly be better supported and better documented, but you're looking through the lens of your specific experience, not realizing your experience is not that of the every day, average PC user.

Put up a dart board of the most widely used KDE distributions and throw a dart. You've got a KDE distro that actually meets the needs of a non-technical user. Kubuntu, Linux Mint's KDE edition, Fedora, OpenSUSE, hell throw Manjaro with KDE on. The desktop environment has zero bearing on a distro's ability to act like a computer, it's only the paint on the walls. If a distro "fits the needs of a non-technical user" by your definition with, say, GNOME or Cinnamon or XFCE or Budgie or whatever else, it'll do it with KDE too. Desktop environment != distribution.

The one everyone always drones on and on about is Darktable... Don't get me wrong, it's a powerful piece of software. But... It's lackluster compared to the competition. I used it for a long time, figuring if I just made myself keep using it I'd get used to it... And then I actually stopped and thought about that sentence, lol. I shouldn't have to Stockholm's myself into liking a piece of software.

Lol! I'm fine with GIMP, actually. As a matter of fact, I prefer it to Photoshop. That's likely due to GIMP being my first introduction to photo manipulation though, and so I'm used to its paradigm.

Photo EDITING, though? There's no competition on Linux for the likes of Lightroom or Capture One Pro (my preferred RAW editing software). I gave up photography for a while because I hated editing my photos on Linux so much. I tried EVERY alternative Linux had to offer, and they all suck. Eventually, I started carrying around a USB-C SD card reader and just transferring photos of my camera to my phone to edit them in Snapseed of all things, I hated editing on Linux so much.

Really? MacOS? Why's that? I've never had the pleasure of working with a Mac, but I'd be open to trying it.

Actually, I'm thinking about picking a previous gen MacBook for my wife, I just need some confirmation on how it handles The Sims and Minecraft... 😂

I'd argue that for the vast majority of users, a stable, modern Linux distro will meet their needs perfectly. Web browsing, watching YouTube, checking e-mail, looking at pictures of cats on the internet...

It's special/professional use-cases that are still lackluster. Try doing professional level photo editing on Linux... It's a nightmare. Integrating with corporate cloud solutions? Nah. Are these things doable? Absolutely. By the majority of users in that specific use-case? No.

But day-to-day, general use PC stuff? Yeah, absolutely. Even gaming is more accessible than ever. There's exactly one game in my Steam library that doesn't just work... To be clear, it doesn't work at all, but that's just because of my hardware setup. (Halo Infinite + Intel ARC + Linux = Game can't even launch. Worked fine with an AMD card, but when I upgraded late last year it borked. Known problem with Vulkan, DX12, and ARC)

UPDATE: I picked up the ARC A750. Been driving it around for awhile. Older DirectX games perform on par or often even better on Linux with ARC than they do on Windows. DX12 games had negligible performance boosts being run on Windows vs. Linux with ARC save some big exceptions...

Certain DX12 titles, one of which I own (Halo Infinite) WILL NOT RUN under Linux WITH the ARC card due to a lack of features in Vulkan. There are still some DX12 calls that have no equivalents in Vulkan, and while some games flag this feature set without using it and MAY be able to be tricked into running without it, any games that actually USE those features will not run under Linux with the ARC card, period. So... Research your newer AAA DX12 titles first.

That's a logo, not a mascot. A logo is a mark that denotes a brand, the apple with the bite taken out for Apple, the footprint for GNOME, the stylized and colorized G for Google...

A mascot is a character that acts as a face and a voice for a brand. The gecko for Geico, Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes, Flo for Progressive.

Many brands looking to keep a serious, "sophisticated" brand aesthetic eschew mascots in favor of simple logos. GNOME follows suit with that trend. Nothing wrong with it, in fact I think it works quite well for them. If they were to adopt a mascot now it would be... Strange.

Yeah, that's fair. Linux has been my daily driver for like... 8 years now? And I dabbled with it for some time before that. I've gotten to a point where I'm MUCH more comfortable doing things the Linux way than I am doing things the Windows way. I also have to admit I don't do much modding for my games, and the little bit that I do is often either a.) Supported/managed by the game itself, or b.) Because I still install the majority of my mods by hand rather than through a mod manager.

As someone who dailied Linux for years and years and whose primary use of my PC is to game... I have to disagree with you. The only title in my entire Steam library that doesn't work is Halo: Infinite, and that only because I'm using an Intel ARC card which has a known issue running Infinite on Linux due to an incompatibility between a specific set of DirectX 12 calls and Vulkan. If I had chosen to upgrade to a new AMD card instead, I'd still be running Linux. But I wanted to support Intel, so here we are. When I'm done playing around on Infinite, I'll switch back and never think about Windows again.

Hell, some of my library runs BETTER on Linux than on Windows with the ARC card. The only game that runs better on Windows is Halo: Infinite, and that's only because it literally doesn't run at all on Linux. 😂

My typical recommendation for anyone new to Linux looking to get their feet wet would be Linux Mint. As long as you keep the system updated, it should be a decent choice for gaming.

The following is not to discourage you, but to help keep expectations in check. Gaming on Linux is not perfect. It's not comparable to gaming on Windows. A LOT of games (with the assistance of Steam's Proton) "just work," but things are not to a point where that's ever a guarantee. I would recommend looking up your staple games on to review Linux compatibility, if the games run or need additional run options.

I say all this as someone who runs exclusively Linux, and is a gamer and occasionally streams. It's perfectly doable, but expect to have to get your hands dirty at some point in the venture. And don't be afraid to ask questions!

Glad I'm not the only one with this question. Feels like it's difficult to find up-to-date information on the performance of these Arc cards on Linux; I'd like to support Intel's move into this space but it's hard without knowing how drastically it's going to affect my gaming performance. 😅

I'm glad to hear the situation seems to be rapidly improving. I may pick up an A770 yet.