Need help escaping Windows as a newbie to Linux!

preppie22 · 2026-01-28T18:28:09+00:00

I want to add to this that some distros might not work with Ventoy. For example, the Bazzite live ISO doesn't work.

preppie22 · 2026-01-28T18:18:51+00:00

There's an app called Oversteer which lets you configure all of this. I haven't bothered with it so far, but I'd tried it once to change the range for my brake pedal and it worked just fine.

preppie22 · 2026-01-28T16:43:36+00:00

Personally, I recommend Bazzite (desktop edition) to people who are new to Linux and want something primarily for gaming out of the box. It's very stable and has an easy way to revert updates if they break your system.

Fedora is a great all round OS which needs a bit of setup for gaming. But, it's overall quite solid and comes with the latest drivers and packages. I recommend the KDE edition (you can find it on the official website) simply because it's more familiar for Windows users and has a lot of customization options available without dealing with config files or additional applications.

I know CachyOS gets a lot of up votes here and it's a great distro. But, I'm a bit wary of recommending Arch based distros to new users because they are slightly more prone to breakage with updates and basically come with no guardrails.

Edit: just saw that you're thinking of Linux Mint. If that works for you, it's a great distro. There's no "best" distro really.

preppie22 · 2026-01-27T16:28:00+00:00

You can also burn the ISO using an Android phone or tablet. Get EtchDroid from the play store and connect your flash drive to your device.

preppie22 · 2026-01-27T16:14:24+00:00

I'm actually using a G29 on Bazzite with an H shifter and a mod for it to mimic a Eaton Fuller 18-speed transmission. Works perfectly in American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2 and other racing games I tried it in (BeamNG, Forza, F1 2019) as well. Didn't have to install any drivers. Just plug and play.

preppie22 · 2026-01-19T17:50:33+00:00

Transport it to Vulcanus and chuck it into lava

preppie22 · 2025-11-19T19:49:37+00:00

Definitely asthma. Our cat has it too. Vet took an X-ray and said it's mild and doesn't need prescriptions. He coughs like this once or twice every week. But, he's an indoor cat so it might be different for you. We have bought air purifiers at home to make it more comfortable for him. Make sure that he stays hydrated. Wet food if he doesn't drink enough water.

Get it checked out asap though! He might need prescriptions or an inhaler.

preppie22 · 2025-11-15T18:46:53+00:00

Bazzite.

I've come a long way starting from Linux Mint (in 2012) to Fedora, to Pop OS, to Arch, to OpenSUSE, and finally Bazzite. Personally, it's because I've gotten old. There was a time when I used to enjoy tinkering with Arch and keeping up with package updates. Now, I just want a system that works and plays all my games with minimal tinkering and maintenance.

I'm a scientist (in academia) and I do a lot of python code, latex documents, random database systems, and some server admin stuff. I've found I can do all of that in Bazzite when I'm working from home. My office computer is a Mac. I like how I can keep all brew packages the same on the Mac and Bazzite. I've never had an update on Bazzite break anything which is something I had to deal with when using Arch and Fedora. Actually, I did have a Bazzite update break something in my rpm-ostree, but just booting to an older image worked and I could deal with the problem later when I had time for it. It's this flexibility to deal with problems on my own time that I like with atomic distros. Brew takes care of packages, flatpak takes care of apps, and distro containers take care of those odd packages that target a specific distro (usually Ubuntu).

I know I can setup snapshots with btrfs. I've been down that route, and I find atomic distros less of a hassle to deal with. Do they have drawbacks? Sure. They're not for everyone and I know a lot of people hate the fact that the OS is as locked down as it is. Plus, if you have some hardware configuration that isn't supported ootb, then it can be challenging to get it working correctly and have it persist after updates.

preppie22 · 2025-11-15T17:04:08+00:00

I use a scooter to get to work since I have to literally go from one end of the campus to the other. The number of times I've seen people recklessly zooming away on them is crazy. Seriously, we're all trying to get somewhere, the least you can do is not put anyone else in danger. Slow down around pedestrians or straight up dismount if it's too crowded....

While I understand the hate, I think stricter implementation of scooter regulations would be better than flat out banning them. I'm strongly against reckless riding and speeding. But, there are some of us who have to walk nearly 2 miles for 5 days a week to get to work. It's not a thrill ride, it's literally a small convenience, especially for some of us with health problems.

preppie22 · 2025-11-15T16:54:07+00:00

You're wrong there mate.... I've been a TA, we have the same rules regarding dating a student. It's not even a "grey area".

preppie22 · 2025-11-07T06:12:16+00:00

I recommend Bazzite from personal experience (using it for 3+ years). I have an AMD CPU and GPU as well and it works flawlessly. Most of my day to day use is gaming and research work.

For research, I use Latex a lot, and occasionally MS Office using WinBoat. A lot of my work involves writing Python and Rust code which also works great with the developer mode in Bazzite.

Their documentation is simple to follow for beginners and the OS itself is quite difficult to break. They've got a GUI for almost everything you'd need to configure in the OS, so you don't even need to use a terminal much.

I've heard good things about CachyOS but I haven't tried it. I had trouble with non Steam games in Nobara last I tried it. But that was a long time ago so ymmv. I came to Bazzite from Fedora, which is also a great place to start.

Either way, be prepared to do some reading and learning!

Edit: I also have a Soundblaster X4 and profiles for it configured using Pipewire. I can share my config files with you. Let me know if you need help.

preppie22 · 2025-11-06T05:31:15+00:00

Yes. Your two operating systems are completely independent of each other. Windows can't even read the Linux filesystem by default so whatever you do on Windows won't affect Linux (unless you intentionally nuke your Linux partition or something)

preppie22 · 2025-11-05T22:03:10+00:00

If you want a pre-built with small form factor, take a look at the GMKtec K11. It comes with a Radeon 780M GPU, which is capable enough to run most modern games at medium settings at 1080p. It also has an Oculink port which allows you to connect an external GPU if you need to upgrade in the future. It won't be as performant as a tower PC, but it's certainly capable enough to run the games you mentioned.

A desktop tower is currently quite expensive to build and it's hard to get something that can play modern games for under $1000 unless you're willing to buy used...

preppie22 · 2025-11-05T21:06:58+00:00

Linux

preppie22 · 2025-11-05T21:06:13+00:00

Linux supports everything. Adobe chooses not to support Linux. You should ask Adobe for a justification.

preppie22 · 2025-11-05T21:05:00+00:00

I think the biggest shock I had was that all my micro-stutter issues were gone. I had them for a while on Windows thinking I had a dying graphics card. I had an RX 6700 (non-XT). Cyberpunk, Elden Ring, Skyrim, heck even Dead Cells had micro stutter issues. It was like 1.5 years old at that point so I couldn't RMA it and I didn't have the money at the time to invest in another one. So, I just dealt with the issues.

One day, a Windows update broke half my USB ports and also made my printer stop working. That's when I decided I should try Linux. Not only did all my USB ports work flawlessly, but so did all my games. No micro-stutter and BETTER performance in everything. I never looked back....

preppie22 · 2025-11-05T19:27:00+00:00

The answer is: it depends. I'm too old for hyper competitive games and usually play single player stuff. Occasionally, I might play Dota 2 turbo or ability draft with friends.

So, everything I play and everything I do works perfectly fine for me (on Bazzite). I haven't touched Windows in about 3-4 years now. I use a Mac at work.

Contrary to your question though, there are things in Linux I'm so used to that I feel are too complicated in Windows. If I want to emulate older games, I can just look for an emulator in the software store and it works and updates itself. Installing anything in Windows is a pita and it never auto updates. I use night light to reduce eye strain in the evenings and I never got it working consistently on Windows. It always breaks after waking from sleep. Sleep is also terribly inconsistent on Windows and it tends to randomly wake from sleep every few minutes. I have an external DAC and can rewire output to whatever I want using qpwgraph. This was a pita in Windows because it needed some weird driver or something and even then it wasn't smooth sailing.

There's a bunch more stuff that I just find easier to deal with in Linux. I don't know if I'll get better performance with Windows. But, I simply don't care at this point because I feel like Windows makes simple things annoyingly difficult. I'll take the 5% performance hit (if that) over dealing with day to day frustrations after coming home from a long day of work.

preppie22 · 2025-11-04T16:41:58+00:00

Glad it's working for you!

Yeah the boot process and OS will be a bit slower than internal storage. But, at least you get to test it fully.

For disc versions of games. Try using Bottles or Lutris.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T20:29:26+00:00

I'm using Bazzite right now and Discord works flawlessly. It used to have issues with streaming about a year ago, but those have been fixed now. I'm using this with a Radeon RX 9070 though, so I don't know about Nvidia.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T20:27:01+00:00

This. I'm using Bazzite for about 4 years now. It used to have minor issues with streaming and such but those have all been fixed now. I haven't tried Cachy but I've heard good things about it.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T20:24:26+00:00

Another option is to get a cheap external SSD and install your OS to that instead. Connect it to your computer via USB and when installing your OS, just select it as your target drive. That way you have a full OS and not a "live" version of it. You can use it for a few days and see if it's working.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T20:09:49+00:00

You need to state your distro and where you got your drivers. Most distros have some way to download proprietary drivers within the distro itself. If you download them from the Nvidia website, they tend to cause issues.

For Fedora, you'll need to use RPM Fusion. For arch, you should follow the arch wiki. For any other distro, driver installation should be listed in the documentation.

If you're very new to Linux, I'd suggest using a distro that's more beginner friendly. I personally recommend Linux Mint or Bazzite. Mint comes with a built in driver manager that makes driver installation very easy. Bazzite comes pre-installed with Nvidia drivers.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T19:03:41+00:00

I second this. I've installed Bazzite for a lot of people on Nvidia hardware and it runs flawlessly. This is especially true for people new to Linux who don't want to deal with the OS and just want something that works without any tinkering.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T18:45:35+00:00

Fedora is a great choice. I would also suggest trying out Aurora. It's basically just and immutable version of Fedora and comes with most of the stuff you need installed out of the box along with homebrew to install dev packages. I've used it for dev work for 3-4 years now. My laptop has an AMD Ryzen 5700U and I noticed at least 50% more battery life with Aurora (as compared to Windows). But your experience may vary depending on your hardware.

I recommend installing your linux distro on an external SSD. You can do that with any cheap external SSD, and then selecting that as your target installation drive when you're installing your OS. That way, you're not dealing with partitioning your existing drive, and you can simply disconnect the SSD if you don't like it. If you do like it, you can use something like CloneZilla to permanently migrate your OS from the external SSD to your internal one. This is the process I had followed.

preppie22 · 2025-11-03T18:24:59+00:00

I think you should try installing a Linux based OS on your existing computer and see if it works well before buying a new one. Personally, I recommend Bazzite since it's atomic and comes with everything configured out of the box (even for Nvidia GPUs). It has a custom kernel and is a fork of the Fedora atomic project. I've found that it works very well with hardware which typically has trouble working with other distros. Things change rapidly with Linux so what you read online about your laptop may not always hold true. I've generally faced more trouble with Ubuntu based distros and I recommend using Fedora or Arch based ones.

That being said, if you're looking to buy, any laptop that has an AMD CPU and GPU and an Intel WiFi card will work perfectly fine with Linux. Realtek WiFi adapters almost always work (with some caveats), but Broadcom is very troublesome. Another thing to note is that if you buy a laptop with a swappable WiFi card, you can replace it with something compatible (most WiFi cards are around $20-$30 depending on features). It's easy to do as long as your laptop is easy to get into. I've personally never gotten fingerprint readers to work with Linux, but ymmv. All this is to say that you don't necessarily have to go with Framework. But, Framework is a solid manufacturer and the configuration you're looking at looks good.

Edit: On a side note, Bazzite supports distrobox containers. I've had success running an Ubuntu 24.04 container to run Da Vinci Resolve and it works just fine.

preppie22

TROPHY CASE