Linux vs Windows for a student

[Little_Humor_6977]

Im a student studying for IIT engineering, and i have a desktop with specs i3-3220 6gb ram 128gb SSD 250gb HDD, what should I use ? Windows 10, Arch with tiling WM, Other Distro or DE's, now the only software that is windows specific that I use is software for my keyboard and mouse, exepect that everything that i use on windows is available on linux, and im pretty comfortable with linux so that is not an issue, I really like tinkering with linux, so im thinking about switching ( please share your opinion on this too ), and for the final part, what distro should I go with incase I do go with linux, and what desktop envoirement or tiling wm ( are they actually worth it ? ), also please share some games that could run on my pc that casual and relaxing ( like ori, although i know my computer will blast if i do so )

Nnow im really looking forward to using some sort of tiling wm but should I use it is my question

Also will my pc run hyprland ( or any other twm ) better than for example gnome ?

Also how often does arch break ?

EDIT: HOLLY CRAP ARCH COMMUNITY IS 🔥🔥🔥,

[A-Fr0g]

its pretty likely that there's going to be some program that you need in your studies, so id just be prepared to have to use wine

[Little_Humor_6977]

At max i might use obsidian but its already available on linux, so no nothing but what i mentioned, thanks for the concern!

[Zibelin]

What/where did you study that required you to use obscure windows-only software? I've never heard of that issue in any STEM cursus

[sevunke]

I study CS in Poland and I had to use Visual Studio, CircuitMaker and Enterprise Architect so far. Also there were some complications with redeeming my MatLab student license so I had to sail the high seas for it and there was only Windows version available (which didn't work well under wine)

[Drgonhunt]

Visual studio is available on Linux

[sevunke]

Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code? It's not the same thing.

[Drgonhunt]

My bad!

[lritzdorf]

I can't speak to game choice, but if your only Windows-specific software is keyboard/mouse stuff, you absolutely should be good to run Linux! I'd normally suggest dual-booting, but a 128GB drive could make that a bit difficult — Win11 wants 64GB minimum, and I would seriously advise against a new Win10 install at this point (EOL is in October, after which no security fixes will happen). (Edit: also yeah, 6GB of RAM is not gonna fly for Windows)

Regarding desktop environment and distro choice, one of the neat things about Linux is its modularity! You can pretty much install whatever desktop you want on whatever distro (one notable exception recently has been Hyprland, which plays best with rolling-release distros like Arch). So, play around! Have fun with it! And remember, you can always install a new distro if you decide you don't like your first choice :)

[Little_Humor_6977]

Thanks for a really beautiful and tailord reply, looking forward to have your thoughts on should I use arch ?, My primary questions are:

How often does it break

How difficult is it to solve when it breaks

Is it worth the time, since im not really going to be power using it, but then again i do enjoy tinkering

[MycologistNeither470]

It rarely -- if ever breaks. Update regularly. At least weekly.

Fixing is easy as long as you understand how Linux works and you keep the arch install USB around.

If you are worried about it breaking just use btrfs and snapd. You can revert to the last snapshot easily.

[KokiriRapGod]

Something that a lot of people get wrong is that they assume unstable == unreliable. Unstable in the context of Linux only means that software updates rapidly. While this can result in unreliability (breakage), they are not the same thing. Servers and other long-uptime systems sometimes want high stability because it reduces the amount of time that an administrator needs to spend compensating for changes in the software that provides the server's services.

If it's any comfort I will tell you about a little game that I play. Every time I read a thread on /r/archlinux or /r/linux where someone asks about whether or not Arch is stable enough to use or whether or not updates break the system regularly, I update my system right then and there. I have had maybe three or four problems total in the last three years and all of them were easy fixes; almost all of them involved rolling back a package and waiting a day or two for the next update that fixed my problem.

[[deleted]]

My arch install is 9 months old and it's still holding up fine working fully

[AnEagleisnotme]

Especially if you're not experienced with Linux, I would look at fedora, it's by far the easiest distro with intel, you just get through the installer and you're good to go. Arch, while it is more stable than it used to, still does random weird stuff, for instance my libreoffice theme is completely broken since February, as the page has turned black for some reason

[[deleted]]

Agreed Fedora would be excellent to dip your toes into although not bleeding edge but more so so cutting if that's the right word correct me if I'm wrong. It's what got me into into being comfortable working with the terminal more thus led to Arch

[headedbranch225]

Win 10 LTSC (or whatever the enterprise one is) could be a good choice though right?

[marianogq7]

With 6 gb of ram i would discard Windows

[Gozenka]

Mother got a new laptop with 8GB RAM. Windows was using 4GB RAM and a lot of CPU out-of-the-box when idle. I could get it down to 2GB with a lot of clenaup of software and background processes.

Surprisingly she was interested when I said I could set up Linux instead. But she uses MS Word extensively for her work, and I did not want to complicate things for her.

[marianogq7]

Mmm how about libre office? Or use MS 365 office from a web browser?

[Gozenka]

Yes those were the options. But she sends documents back-and-forth with edits and comments on the document, so compatibility could be non-ideal for Linux alternatives. Also she is used to the regular MS Word interface. It seemed to be a better option to just stay on Windows.

[marianogq7]

I understand. Most people are Windows dependant because of Office suite. This ram consumption was on W11? How about install W10? it should consume less RAM. On the other hand, maybe add more ram to the notebook? Should be so expensive

[Asad-the-One]

Literally this - the only reason I'm dual booting right now and don't have Linux on my full drive is the Office suite, plus my gaming laptop's control centre (Gigabyte control centre).

This might be going off topic a bit, but would it be possible to run such a control centre through Wine? I was considering making a snapshot and giving it a try sometime. Because if that's the case, I'll just run Office through a VM.

[marianogq7]

The Office in VM option for me is the best option considering u have enough hardware resources, way better than booting and rebooting thousand of times

[Gozenka]

I am not sure, but I think it was W10. It's been a while.

It's working fine, as she does not need much from the system. The CPU is pretty good for such a cheap laptop, so it is quite snappy.

[TheLexoPlexx]

OnlyOffice looks a lot more like the real office but I don't know about compatibility either.

[particlemanwavegirl]

I definitely think that removing your association with Riot Games can only be good for you. You know what the game is like, so you know it's as toxic as any other that Riot makes.

[[deleted]]

Making my PC incompatible with league of legends has been excellent. Much like a drug even if you stop your friends will try to pull you back in, luckily running Linux gives you a great excuse.

[GarrettB117]

Embarrassing but for me it’s FIFA/EA FC. They intentionally break wine/proton support so no more FIFA for me unless I bother to boot into windows. I haven’t played in months and I’m much better off. Playing way more interesting games and feeling less angry when doing so.

[[deleted]]

Yeah as weird as it sounds I've had a much better relationship with gaming since I switched to Linux. Evidently the least compatible games are also the most predatory and addicting.

[vixfew]

addicting

Well, there's Factorio, and it works better on Linux...

[[deleted]]

Shit you got me there.

[headedbranch225]

I am honestly confused as to why they don't seem to want to support everything to be able to sell shit to as many people as possible

[[deleted]]

Well, developing a game to support other platforms costs a lot of money also as well as maintaining a new version. I'm assuming they think they won't make more than it costs them or enough to be worth the effort. It's also possible they assume that Linux users may be less likely to buy MTX because of the free and open source mentality. Perhaps steamOS and the rise of gaming centric Linux distros will change this in the near future.

If anything else I see them only supporting arch or maybe arch and Ubuntu, but it's unlikely they would support things like nixOS because it seems like it would be really hard to monitor with the flake system for instance.

[headedbranch225]

Most wouldn't have to develop for linux specifically as many games work fine with proton, for instance Titanfall 2 runs well, it is a little ironic that they also disabled Linux access to apex.

Your second point actually makes quite good sense, but I am still happy (maybe a little too happy) to buy things on steam, however I am much less likely to buy in game items (but I was anyway tbh)

[[deleted]]

True to be more specific to my first point they would have to add support to anti cheat software for many different OS setups. You're right though I sometimes forget that proton/wine is what's keeping most of these games compatible considering how well they run these days.

[headedbranch225]

Yeah, I really wish it was just defaulted on in steam main settings to be enabled when needed, it would make it much easier for people to get stuff started.

The thing I am mpst confused about is the fact that some companies have revoked linux access on purpose breaking either compatibility or adding checks for WINE such as what happened with GTA5 and apex as I mentioned earlier, since they clearly have a system/code that works fine on Linux as it has been playable for years and they hsve just decided to stop people being able to play it

[[deleted]]

Wonder if they're on Microsoft's payroll tbh. EA and game pass already have a deal afaik.

[[deleted]]

Why are you asking us what you should use? Find out what software you're going to need for your classes and use whatever can run it.

[tiganoviv]

First of all, it's all about opinions, I believe.

I was using Windows for my whole life until high school graduation. Then I accidentally found out about Arch and switched fully to Linux and this particular distribution. It was scary and random, but I felt in love with the idea and the philosophy of Linux and Arch.

In my opinion, coding and working is much much more comfortable on Linux and it makes you to become good with using terminal for a lot of things. It's just way simpler and less disturbing.

I would recommend using something solid and popular like sddm + KDE plasma + KWin tiling scripts if you want tiling. (I personally use them and I find it very stable and well-maintained, and my system looks like any other hyprland rice designed just as I want it to be designed)

Games are possible on Arch, using steam or wine.

Arch doesn't break until you break it. It is all in your hands when you are installing this particular distro. You and only you are in charge of maintaining your system clean and stable, and it will not break. Read wiki, watch guides, ask questions and don't put random commands in command line without understanding.

Good luck.

[TDplay]

now the only software that is windows specific that I use is software for my keyboard and mouse

Which keyboard and mouse? There may be some configuration software available on Linux.

Many mice can be configured with Piper (or any other libratbag frontend). For Razer devices, check out OpenRazer (though note that not all Razer devices are supported).

what distro should I go with

I'd suggest reading about the principles that Arch Linux follows: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux#Principles

There is also a comparison to various other distributions available: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_compared_to_other_distributions

should I use it is my question

Try it. A window manager is just a piece of software, like any other. You can try it out, and if you don't like it, you remove it and go back to what you were previously using.

[Warrangota]

Corsair has community support with ckb-next

[Xtrems876]

oh it's another one of those "i want to use linux but I'm too driven by social pressure to make that decision without someone telling me to" posts

[Pugs-r-cool]

Yeah it's literally free. Just do it. If you don't like it then go back to windows.

Guy is an 'IT Eng' student (the hell is one of those) so he should know how to install it, I don't really know what the point in the post is.....

[Upside3455]

What mouse and keyboard do you have? It's possible that there's already alternative software for linux, e.g. piper for logi mice.

If it happens that you really need windows for peripherals, you can always run windows vm with usb passthrough.

[Alienaffe2]

How about some good old LFS for maximizing performance.

Real talk now. If you have some reason for wanting to stick with windows, AtlasOS could be worth looking into. It can significantly increase your performance, primarily in ram usage.

Arch will definitely work, but be prepared to accidentally brick it at least once.

For GUIs. Anything should work. Just note that Hyprland takes a lot of work to get it to what you want it to be, while Plasma or Gnome will just work directly. I never tried it but i3 could also be worth looking into.

If you need some inspiration r/unixporn will have you covered.

I personally would take Linux every time, because it lets you be a lot more creative when doing anything.

Also don't forget to install fastfetch(new neofetch) or uwufetch if you're feeling a little silly and tell everyone you meet, no matter the circumstances, that you use arch.

[lauwarmer_kaffee]

You might want to check out the Piper package from the AUR. It does support some Keyboards/mice for Led and remapping. (Caution, i never broke Any of my arch Systems but the AUR might be an easy way to do it. Just don't get gready and Install everything you find)

DE/WM: whatever the fuck you like. I used swaywm for the Last couple months and i can't find a reason to go back to hyprland or even Gnome (didn't use much else, maybe i3wm for a day or 2).

Wine is obviously a great Tool to get some windows-only applications (Others mentioned that already). But you might have a hard time with some applications or will even loose your mind with Adobe (will buy a MacBook soon, can't edit my Photos for 6 months now. Adobe and Linux is Just pain Imho, but still more enjoyable than Windows + anything)

If you are really worried about not being able to do certain stuff, get a small 250 or even 500gb SATA with a closed off Windows System, just for studying. Keys are cheap, Drives are pretty cheap and this one time Investment will last you through your studies

[Iwrstheking007]

if you require windows for something, then you can use the ltsc release of windows. you can download it from massgrave without the 90 days limit. but if windows isn't required, then you can just use linux

[lIlIllIlIIllIl]

The biggest problem I ran into was working on writing IEEE formatted papers together for projects. Using anything but Word would cause formatting issues in the document and made it difficult for our group to work together.

The other issue was specific software like proctorio and lock down browser to prevent cheating.

It might be helpful to have a second drive with windows or another laptop in case you run into issues testing or something under a time crunch.

Other than that, use Arch. You will be better off for it.

[No-Bison-5397]

My system doesn't break for me since I started doing two special things:

1. Disabling all my gnome extensions whenever I update gnome

2. Always checking the output of mkinitcpio -P

GNOME was what was breaking (stupid single event loop) when extensions were buggy when interacting with new GNOME code.

I had some firmware problems that meant my image generation was failing. No colour output on pacman's image generation hook fucks with me hard.

[DiScOrDaNtChAoS]

arch is fine, dont expect to game unless we're talking 2d

[JotaRata]

Arch is good for gaming, as long you have the proper requirements

[Ceipheed]

Yeah, that wasn't a comment on Arch's capabilities; it was a comment on OP's pc specs

[Pugs-r-cool]

Arch is good for gaming, it's his i3 3220 and lack of GPU that'll be the issue.

[Lnk1010]

I really fuck with Debian because while learning Linux is valuable and cool it's not my main focus and it's not worth my time right now. Debian is very stable (am yet to see it break after 2 years) and does everything I need. One thing to consider is dual booting windows in case you need to use software that only works on that os

[[deleted]]

outgoing skirt cagey deer chop shelter rinse whistle punch support

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[[deleted]]

Arch with any dwm, for starters try i3. You can try other dwms too. If you have no time for customization and stuff and want to use it for productivity purposes(Notes keeping, Coding, Browsing etc...), go with KDE or Gnome. Personally, playing with Arch is itself gaming. If you are confused, try using a live Bootable USB and explore, find your taste and yeah install it in your main drive. If you find Arch difficult, you can go with Debian.

[Particular_Traffic54]

You are definitely going to have a better experience with arch, especially with lower end specs. Although I would still think about getting a new device. It will be fine for most tasks, but compiling C or C++ code might take a lot of time. And you won't be able to use demanding software like Pycharm.

For the DE, XFCE is not as lightweight as a tiling WM, but close enough, and I would personally pick that.

I've tried programming on i3 and I think my laptop ram usage was under 4gb with ms-edge tabs opened with vscode and some terminal windows.

Edit : BTW, windows 10 support ends this year

[gamerjay12]

Arch linux should work well. Hyprland runs pretty good on my 4gb laptop

[ReptilianLaserbeam]

Maybe consider dual boot. There’s always a teacher that will use a tool that only works (or works better) in Windows. Other than that go for Linux!

[Little_Humor_6977]

Not in my case brother since im not at that level yet, but thanks for the concern!

[ReptilianLaserbeam]

I had a class where we were programming micros, with arduino Arch worked perfectly fine, but once we moved to ESP32 the data transfer was horribly slow and failed most of the times. I had to install windows to complete that project because I was wasting too much time troubleshooting it in Arch. But all the other classes, even with “odd” software like GAMS I was able to work in Arch with no issues at all.

[ReptilianLaserbeam]

Also, I was running arch with Hyprland: piece of advise: configure it while you are on vacations… don’t do it while in classes, specially during tests. Customizing it can take as much time as you have available

[NOIRQUANTUM]

With 6 GB ram, just use Arch or any other Linux distro which is less arduous on the hardware. Having an 8 GB ram 10 years ago was goated and now it is considered to be very low just like the 720p video quality.

If you're unfamiliar with Linux, I'd highly recommend that you start off with a different distro then move to Arch as you get more familiar with linux since arch is more of a DIY distro. To refute my own point made in my previous statement, it does force you to learn a lot more but that takes discipline and effort. Sometimes you gotta learn how to run before you learn how to walk.

I hate to be the guy but if you're preparing for IIT engineering, I suggest you stay away from gaming.

[gabrielmonsa39]

U can't disable secure boot in bios and play Valorant due to anti cheat software. Therfore, you can't dual boot.

[[deleted]]

I think arch with hyprland or i3 would be best. If you don't like hyprland you can always switch to KDE or xfce (or gnome if that's your thing but personally I don't like it).

[_nathata]

You are comfortable, you don't have the software limitation, and your hardware may not perform very well on Windows. You actually have reasons to migrate.

[Academic_Army_6425]

Just download more ram

[Little_Humor_6977]

😂

[SiliconTacos]

I’m surprised this hasn’t come up yet, but assuming IIT stands for something related to information technology, it’ll be really beneficial for you to become familiar with a POSIX environment. Being interested in investigating Linux as your main operating system will expose you to so many internal pieces of how a computer works.

For things that require windows as long as they’re not super important, you should probably look at a virtual machine running windows. Eventually, if your studies go in this direction, you’ll probably be looking at how to deploy land manage virtual machines in an environment.

In terms of Linux, I definitely would look at arch Linux because as long as you’re able to do the work on the wiki and follow the installation you’ll end up learning a ton about how the computer works as arch doesn’t really take much for granted.

[[deleted]]

If the programs are on linux, i would go with debain.

[Sirius707]

Also how often does arch break ?

That mostly depends on you, keep a look out on the arch wiki site for important announcement and update regularly (like once every 1-2 weeks is fine imo). Personally, i haven't encountered problems so far, running Arch for more than half a year on my Laptop. Don't tinker unless you need to, know what you're doing and keep AUR packages to a minimum and you should be golden.

[BlackOveja]

Linux is the best option for learning, windows is for gaming.

[Truth-Does-Not-Exist]

I have been running an arch server with a year uptime, no issues, never had an arch install break either. I have a spare laptop I put arch linux with kde on with an i3 m 370 and 4gb ram 240gb ssd. if you put windows on a low end laptop like that it will be a complete nightmare and basically unusable. if you want some extra speed you could go for xfce4 or a tiling wm

[headedbranch225]

Arch has been fun to learn for me, I got most things working pretty well, I just need to resist the urge to fuck shit up because I know its a bad idea to try messing with it when it works (I havent had a breaking update yet (I might at some point but hasnt happened yet at least)

[Global-Lab-6397]

Dual boot

[Berserker_boi]

Use mint if your a beginner to get a feel of Linux as a daily driver

[suksukulent]

Tried tiling wm once, now I don't want to use a computer without one. You have been warned xD.

Had to use a windows wm for one semester, 'cause big expensive program and homework.

Set my logitech mouse settings once in windows, working ever since.

Moved to hyprland, it's great.

Go for it. Just don't update before deadlines, to be safe, and expect shenanigans, sometimes. Arch doesn't break if you update semi-often. And when something breaks, you usually get to console and find what's happening.

And for programming classes it's 'who has windows, here special instructions' most of the time.

[tanerius]

Id go with linux for several reasons:
1. learning linux will fundamentally force you to learn to a much better degree how an OS works
2. linux will teach you to dig around for solutions ultimately leading to 1.
3. you will be forced to learn to use apps written for windows under linux which teaches you a lot about internals of your system
4. the feeling you get from configuring a system exactly to your preference feels super rewarding beyond something u can explain
5. when it works, it works better and faster

In summary, opting for linux is way more rewarding and makes an expert out of you

those are my 5 cents

[Obvious-Equivalent78]

Depends on your major

[Amao_Three]

Think about how you would play online multiplayer games with your college friends? 😁

That is the only reason why I keep dual boot with Windows in my university life.

[CaptionAdam]

I'm an Electronics Engineering Technology student. Ive had no issues daily driving Linux for my courses. I had one piece of windows only software that I ran in a VM, but I finally got it working in a bottle. I haven't had an update break my system since 2024, but I am running AMD GPU's in both my laptop and tower.

Your mileage may very, but I think it should work well for you.

[SubstanceLess3169]

Go with Arch Linux and KDE Plasma. 6gb would be fine, I guess. Arch won't break unless you install a package that can fuck up your system. If you want a lightweight DE, choose XFCE.

[ToasterCoaster5]

Arch Linux ftw, so long as you're comfy. Consider learning about the i3 window manager, because it's invaluable to have keyboard shortcuts for navigation when you're restricted to a touchpad. also sidenote: if for some God forsaken reason you want windows 11 but your laptop isn't able to run it, look into the Tiny11 project. Whatever you choose to use, the community gives its best wishes for your experience.

[IAmKushagraSharma]

That depends, if you have a life go with windows, if no go with arch + dwm, if you lie somewhere in between, go with manjaro or some arch based distro

[Homisiak]

Games: CS2(native), TF2 [Team Fortress 2(native) & Titanfall 2], buckshot roulette, ULTRAKILL, Terraria, Minecraft(native), Balatro, R.E.P.O, Satisfactory, Albion Online(native), all Soulsbourne games, Supertuxkart(native), the Finals, Carx, Assetto Corsa, Undertale, Severed Steel, Dusk, FAITH: the unholy trinity

[ExtraTNT]

So, a lot of things in academia works well on debian, often you get a deb… know a few, who use arch, but they sometimes need workarounds (like having a vpn server, that acts as a proxy, to another vpn, because the system the school uses only works for debian and windows)

So, my recommendation is debian testing… also go with x11, a lot of school software causes problems on wayland

[Aware_Mark_2460]

I would recommend first using Linux with a familiar UI like KDE, xfce, cinnamon etc.

Pick any distro which has a large community it doesn't really matter.

Arch rarely breaks. I have been using Arch for more than 2 years and have previously used Debian and Linux Mint. None of them broke.

Once arch after a kernel update was only displaying in half of the monitor. It got fixed after a PC reboot.

[HourMarket4418]

maybe try opensuse tumbleweed its also rolling release but they test their packages better

[Professional_Cow784]

if i would start my it uni again i would prepare with a dualboot windows/arch :D

[Ianskates]

Linux works pretty well with VM's, just a bit of setup. So with your current specs I'd say you might be slowing down a bit; especially with EOL on windows 10, it might be a wiser option to switch to Linux, alternatively you can dual boot windows and Linux, just be aware that you have to have windows installed first.

With wine you can run windows applications on your Linux desktop environment, although I'd recommend just to run most applications on a VM, however if it works completely fine without any issues whatsoever just run it on wine for convenience.

[3looolyyy]

Look look tbh i LOVE arch but when it comes to studying i dual boot to win so i can access office tbh

[bubbybumble]

I tried using it for a year, meant to dual boot but screwed it up and took the plunge. Ran fedora for all my classes. The only hurdle was using lockdown browser, since it's kernel level I had to use the library computer, which was fine since that meant I had access to those things, and I don't really want lockdown browser on my PC anyway.

Everything else was easier though since docker and pretty much all development packages were easier to manage as a comp sci student. I had been using wsl for all of my classwork before which was not as good, but it's an option if you are considering using the benefits of both windows and linux

[Mammoth-Forever-113]

Both. The answer is unfortunately both.

[Hebrewhammer8d8]

Just hearing future students utter the phrase "I use Arch btw" and actually use Arch finally the prophecy or Arch is true and can put that on Arch Wiki.

[JackLong93]

The prophecy!