every passing day i feel increasingly gratified to have switched my previously win11 laptop to linux mint. aside from the sheer principle of microsoft being ass, i also fucking despise all of windows’ AI bullshit. Fuck copilot for eternity.
Just be sure to check support before buying any newish laptop. I really like my ASUS Duo Pro 2024, but ASUS adamantly refuses to lift a finger for proper Linux support for special features. Even the audio chipset which is standard somehow doesn’t work with default kernels due to something they’ve done. Dual screen can be made to work with some scripting-fu, but the keyboard’s multimedia keys just don’t work at all.
Vote with your wallets and be noisy to those brands who don’t support Linux well. Let them know if lack of Linux support was why you didn’t buy.
This is purely anecdotal but my last pc build was ASUS mobo and its absolute shit tier. I promised myself never to spend another dime on anything ASUS ever again.
I got it cause it had good reviews. Asus ROG strix. I should have stuck with my gut and gone MSI or Gigabyte.
MSI have dropped AMD as a GPU partner as of this generation (funnily enough - also the same generation they had proven to be their highest selling!), and their next generation of PSUs have dropped PCIe 6+2 for whatever the current HPV12 implementation is, so they’re in my shit-list too.
Gigabyte’s warranty support has been ass in the past (at least in my region), and their 3000-series GPUs were prone to overheating due to poor quality thermal pads. Oh, and their PSUs were sub-par and prone to exploding!
I think ASRock is the only ‘Tier 1’ brand (that I’m aware of) without massive controversies in the past few years?
I tried setting up a dual boot Mint next to my Win 11 last night. Just so I can experiment with getting all the (replacement) programs of my Win 11 install to work on there… froze during install and was busy for hours getting my boot files for Win 11 back.
I’m not a technical genius or anything and now I’m scared to try again. I assume it’s way easier if I would just rip the bandaid off and do it in one go. Sadly too much relies on me still being able to use the computer close to the way I could before. Ah well. Another day, another chance to nuke the boot files.
Dual boot with Windows is terrible because of how fastboot messes with the drive partitions. If you want to dual boot you will have to turn off Windows fastboot.
Clone your drive first and then no matter what happens you have a quick click to restore. I’ve run dual boots on multiple distros for years and you learn a whole lot when things go wrong.
Good call. I have 2 hard dives and really thought that if I didn’t touch the win 11 drive it couldn’t possibly cause windows issues. Lol. Not making that mistake again.
I use a lot of adobe programs, like photoshop, illustrator and Lightroom. The standard MS office stuff and a bunch of games both via steam and the EA AppStore, some of which are windows only. Mind you, I know most if not all should work using wine (or similar) or have good alternatives. But I’d rather try first before nuking windows.
That’s all very reasonable. I certainly encourage caution.
I’ve never really voluntarily used Adobe products, nor the EA store, but I can tell you Linux support for gaming has come a long way, even for “Windows only” games. If you’re unsure about a particular one, a great place to start is protondb.com. I don’t know if they work with EA, but I’ve also heard good things about Lutris and Bubbles.
As you said, there are good alternatives, including Open or LibreOffice. You might benefit from reviewing alternativeto.net, which isn’t specifically Linux focused but has a good chance of giving you options. For example:
Windows 11 seemed to kick and scream relentlessly to make coexisting impossible. So I called its bluff and nuked its stupid ass. It refuses to play nice? OK; It never gets to play again. Fuck windows. I have a separate machine for windows if I really need it.
every passing day i feel increasingly gratified to have switched my previously win11 laptop to linux mint. aside from the sheer principle of microsoft being ass, i also fucking despise all of windows’ AI bullshit. Fuck copilot for eternity.
Just be sure to check support before buying any newish laptop. I really like my ASUS Duo Pro 2024, but ASUS adamantly refuses to lift a finger for proper Linux support for special features. Even the audio chipset which is standard somehow doesn’t work with default kernels due to something they’ve done. Dual screen can be made to work with some scripting-fu, but the keyboard’s multimedia keys just don’t work at all.
Vote with your wallets and be noisy to those brands who don’t support Linux well. Let them know if lack of Linux support was why you didn’t buy.
Tbf Asus has been dogshit for at least a decade at this point.
This is purely anecdotal but my last pc build was ASUS mobo and its absolute shit tier. I promised myself never to spend another dime on anything ASUS ever again.
I got it cause it had good reviews. Asus ROG strix. I should have stuck with my gut and gone MSI or Gigabyte.
MSI have dropped AMD as a GPU partner as of this generation (funnily enough - also the same generation they had proven to be their highest selling!), and their next generation of PSUs have dropped PCIe 6+2 for whatever the current HPV12 implementation is, so they’re in my shit-list too.
Gigabyte’s warranty support has been ass in the past (at least in my region), and their 3000-series GPUs were prone to overheating due to poor quality thermal pads. Oh, and their PSUs were sub-par and prone to exploding!
I think ASRock is the only ‘Tier 1’ brand (that I’m aware of) without massive controversies in the past few years?
ASrock is ASUS. I don’t trust their quality. They are on the same level to me as Razer products. The lowest of the low in quality assurance.
I remembered reading somewhere that ASRock started off as ASUS ‘budget’ brand - but had since been spun off into its own entity.
I thought that meant that they were sold off, and were a completely separate company now - but it looks I was wrong, they’re still a subsidiary. 🙁
I think I’ll just go to RadioShack and solder my own board. Every company is shit these days. 😔
ASRock is my go-to now. Funnily enough they split off of ASUS a while ago. One continually got better, and the other worse.
Edit: I was wrong about that last part. I thought they had split off, but apparently they are a subsidiary. Well, either way, they seem better.
I tried setting up a dual boot Mint next to my Win 11 last night. Just so I can experiment with getting all the (replacement) programs of my Win 11 install to work on there… froze during install and was busy for hours getting my boot files for Win 11 back.
I’m not a technical genius or anything and now I’m scared to try again. I assume it’s way easier if I would just rip the bandaid off and do it in one go. Sadly too much relies on me still being able to use the computer close to the way I could before. Ah well. Another day, another chance to nuke the boot files.
Dual boot with Windows is terrible because of how fastboot messes with the drive partitions. If you want to dual boot you will have to turn off Windows fastboot.
Thanks, I’ll look into that!
Clone your drive first and then no matter what happens you have a quick click to restore. I’ve run dual boots on multiple distros for years and you learn a whole lot when things go wrong.
Good call. I have 2 hard dives and really thought that if I didn’t touch the win 11 drive it couldn’t possibly cause windows issues. Lol. Not making that mistake again.
What programs are causing you concern?
I use a lot of adobe programs, like photoshop, illustrator and Lightroom. The standard MS office stuff and a bunch of games both via steam and the EA AppStore, some of which are windows only. Mind you, I know most if not all should work using wine (or similar) or have good alternatives. But I’d rather try first before nuking windows.
That’s all very reasonable. I certainly encourage caution.
I’ve never really voluntarily used Adobe products, nor the EA store, but I can tell you Linux support for gaming has come a long way, even for “Windows only” games. If you’re unsure about a particular one, a great place to start is protondb.com. I don’t know if they work with EA, but I’ve also heard good things about Lutris and Bubbles.
As you said, there are good alternatives, including Open or LibreOffice. You might benefit from reviewing alternativeto.net, which isn’t specifically Linux focused but has a good chance of giving you options. For example:
https://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-lightroom/
Good luck with your experimentation!
Windows 11 seemed to kick and scream relentlessly to make coexisting impossible. So I called its bluff and nuked its stupid ass. It refuses to play nice? OK; It never gets to play again. Fuck windows. I have a separate machine for windows if I really need it.
Good for you! Nuking windows is indeed the end goal. Dual boot for me is a proof of concept as a step on the way.
Yeah, it’s just ridiculous. It doesn’t have to be this way! 🤦🏻♂️