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Oreon 10 - Windows replacement?

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EarthDog

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Location
Cbus!
I can test it out see what its like. Reality is that these days your flavor of Linux is really just a personal preference. It does not make much difference .

TL:DR: These are the distributions I would suggest starting out with if you want to switch off Windows

1. Manjaro https://manjaro.org/
2. Mint - https://www.linuxmint.com/
3. Pop!_OS - https://pop.system76.com/

The biggest differences from one Linux Distribution to another is in its package handler which you can think of like windows Updates.

The largest Distribution used as the base for the largest number of specialized or weird distributions is Debian with the APT or Advanced Package Tool. Their work is the basis of most production, server, enterprise based OS's due to the extensive long term support and a focus on security and stability first.

Ubuntu and its user/gaming focused derivatives, PopOS and Mint, are generally seen as good all around gamer focused distributions that build off of decades of stability and security work, generally use APT, and have large install basis so finding help can be as little as a google search away.

Redhat/Fedora is the second largest distribution base, it uses the RPM or Redhat Package Manager for all its updates and software related installations. Historically it has been more server and client focused and not seen a great base for gaming, although that seems to be changing. I see more and more people who roll with Fedora as their daily driver. Its been years since I played with anything Redhat related because I found RPM to be a poor tool, maybe its better today, i just done know.

The last "major" branch of Linux that I would consider is Arch. Arch uses Pacman as its main package manager but also has a few addons or side systems like AUR which is essentially a GIT front-end for downloading and building from source code right on your machine. The idea behind Arch and its derivatives is that its always running at the bleeding edge. The plus is that chances are good cross compatibility will work better for newer games and programs, the downside is that it requires more management and sometimes things break.

I chose an Arch based distribution, Manjaro, that offered a more traditional GUI based look and feel but keeps me near that bleeding edge.

The interesting thing is that its looking more and more like Valve is going to release their own distribution. Currently SteamOS on the SteamDeck is running a customized version of Arch, and when they started to develop SteamOS their developers were using Manjaro as their desktop OS. I honestly think that waiting for SteamOS to be released for public download may be the best call for people who need to transition off windows.

So my personal preference combined with the expected direction of Valve has me suggesting Manjaro to most people. Its not perfect, its had its lumps in the the past but its why I and my 2 kids use on our gaming PC's and have been now for about 5 years. My kids have never used a Windows computer.

If you want to give it a shot, I always suggest downloading Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/ and making a bootable USB of the distro you want to try. The second thing I always suggest is NOT dual booting! Half of the reasons people give up is because of issues with a dual boot system. Buy a $50 m.2 NVME or $25 SSD and install to that as your primary boot drive. Then install Steam if its not pre-installed and download your #1 game. It should just work running on the Proton translation layer that turns widnows/DX system calls into Vulken/linux calls. If not you can try a specific version of Proton by clicking properties -> compatibility -> force specific version, and start with experimental before trying older versions. This is a rare requirement these days.

1733617177327.png

Good luck, have fun, remember back to that time you moved from Windows 98 to Windows XP and you will realize it feels like that transition because nothing was DOS based so you had to get familiar with NT and NTFS.
Post magically merged:

Can it run Crysis?

Yes, it can.

 
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downloading now, and I happen to have a gaming test bed built next to me and connected to my KVM, so will let you know.

Nothing fancy,
AMD R5 5700G
AMD RX 5700
Gigabyte A520M S2H
32GB DDR4-3200 16
1TB M.2 NVME

But good enough to test on, and good enough to upgrade my kid still running on an i5-4690k and GTX 980.
 
Install took less than 10min, but the user creation and license pages need some work.

Tried to update, failed, dropped to the terminal/command line to update, that worked.

Steam is not in their default repository, so I had to install from flatpack, but that worked easy enough. Logged in, downloaded a game, fired it right up.

6/10, Desktop Environment is KDE which I think is the best for people switching, package manager is YUM which is not easiest but works well enough and is one of the major supported ones.

Its a beta distribution so im willing to overlook the failed update from the GUI but honestly I think if you like the features of this OS you will be just as happy on Manjaro with KDE, or Mint with KDE.

The only thing I do think is neat is it looks like they have virtualization tools installed out of the gate so if you do lots of work with containers and VM's you get a nice clean desktop experience and jump right in.

There are no basic productivity applications included so you will have to add LibreOffice or any other tools you might want and the existing repository is very empty. Adding Flathub did give me access to many more but i generally prefer not to use flatpacks as updates get weird with dependencies.
 
You wrote words, and I recognised LibreOffice 😝 So, this is basically a Linux offshoot scraped together from several different distro's with a knock-off GUI to pretend it works like Windows? And you still had to use command console for troubleshooting instead of the GUI itself?
 
It’s just another Linux distro with some UI. Obviously not ready for prime time. There will be virtually zero MS users with no *nix background that will adopt this. And while it may look nice, if everything you can use today in Windows can be run seamlessly on this, MAYBE it will have traction. Else, what is actually different from this vs any other distro?
 
For "simple" uses I think Linux in general can be good enough - see Chromebooks as an example of that too. One with a Windows-like skin can aid transitioning. As an offline office suite I use Only Office, which appears to be on Linux as well as Windows, as they kinda copied the MS Office style interface and feels far less old than LibreOffice and related. So kinda ideal if you want a visually MS like experience with Linux. All the "free" office suites I've tried still don't really hold a candle to MS Office in terms of features, but still fine for more basic uses.

Having said all that, I've still not found a Linux I could say I would want to use as a main system. I do have a laptop that will never be Win11 ready and am debating what to do with it once Win10 EOLs.
 
After reading the whole thread, I'm gonna stick with (ugh) winders. I'm too old, and in all honesty, have a short fuse. If I have to use command console to get it to work properly, especially with my games, someone is going to catch the rag.
 
For "simple" uses I think Linux in general can be good enough - see Chromebooks as an example of that too. One with a Windows-like skin can aid transitioning. As an offline office suite I use Only Office, which appears to be on Linux as well as Windows, as they kinda copied the MS Office style interface and feels far less old than LibreOffice and related. So kinda ideal if you want a visually MS like experience with Linux. All the "free" office suites I've tried still don't really hold a candle to MS Office in terms of features, but still fine for more basic uses.

Having said all that, I've still not found a Linux I could say I would want to use as a main system. I do have a laptop that will never be Win11 ready and am debating what to do with it once Win10 EOLs.
Yeah, I'm waiting for something that is 'like' windows in that, there isn't any command line. I'd love to, but, the level of effort needed, which granted isn't a ton, just isn't something I have time to put forward these days. I just need my daily driver to work and Windows covers that.

I was hoping this was that, but, seems not really close.
 
I know many will disagree with me but Linux as a desktop OS can't hold a candle to Windows. It's very nature of being open source with anyone being able to create their own version is it's biggest weakness. It is just too cluttered with no uniform direction (and many see this as it's strength).

Despite decades of development and millions of people contributing their time and know-how, there isn't a single distribution that just works, that's polished enough where your average desktop user can install it on your average PC and expect everything to work right out of the box (or with a simple download from a website or a built in software repository) without ever touching the CLI, or hunting down a detailed step by step post in some community forum.

Commercial companies rarely support it because, if they do, they will have to maintain multiple different packages so people can download a compatible version. And even if they do, there is no guarantee it will simply work (looking at you Plex!).

Having said this, I am using a mini PC with Debian running a Pi Hole DNS with no issues. But I purchased a newer mini PC and installed Debian again, followed the same excellent guide, only to give up after three days of troubleshooting because it just wouldn't work. I then tried to install Plex, with my 14TB external HDD for library location, and again it just wouldn't work. Even reformatted the drive, changed permissions, no luck. Gave up after two days. Sorry about the long post.
 
It’s just another Linux distro with some UI. Obviously not ready for prime time. There will be virtually zero MS users with no *nix background that will adopt this. And while it may look nice, if everything you can use today in Windows can be run seamlessly on this, MAYBE it will have traction. Else, what is actually different from this vs any other distro?

I already listed 3 distros that essentially reach that requirement. No windows alternative will ever be flawless when trying to run windows applications, not even windows. I would be shocked if today you could not do the vast majority of things you do in windows on Manjaro, or Mint. LInux is ready now and today for 95% of everything we do, and I would argue its more functional and a better experience than MacOS which is seen as a complete OS by many people.

You wrote words, and I recognised LibreOffice 😝 So, this is basically a Linux offshoot scraped together from several different distro's with a knock-off GUI to pretend it works like Windows? And you still had to use command console for troubleshooting instead of the GUI itself?

Its not exactly like that, but yeah I would not recommend this distro because its not working, but I would not look at it and say Linux is not ready. I think its important to note that its not a knock off GUI, KDE is an amazing and feature rich desktop environment. DE's are one of the most awesome aspects of Linux, because you can pick the one you like, or work best for you and it will run on generally any "flavor" of distribution underneath. You love the Windows XP style, fine you can do that, you grew up with Stardock and modifying everything, great you can do that! The problem with this distro is its package choices, which can be overcome but why when that works on several other more mainstream distributions.

After reading the whole thread, I'm gonna stick with (ugh) winders. I'm too old, and in all honesty, have a short fuse. If I have to use command console to get it to work properly, especially with my games, someone is going to catch the rag.

Your call, I suspect that you will reach that rage level soon enough with the changes MS keeps making and how driven the are to enshitify windows. This distro is not for you, its a small team, with specific goals that IMO make no sense. Mainstream linux wont spy on you, it "just works" as well as windows "just works" if you installed one of the distro's I listed you would probably be fine. Windows is a dying OS, when SteamOS hits you are going to see a mass exodus of OEMs and system builders as they chase the Gamer market. Corporate will still probably stay MS.

Yeah, I'm waiting for something that is 'like' windows in that, there isn't any command line. I'd love to, but, the level of effort needed, which granted isn't a ton, just isn't something I have time to put forward these days. I just need my daily driver to work and Windows covers that.

I was hoping this was that, but, seems not really close.

I have always need to use the CMD line in windows too. I my life and my history no OS has worked without needing some level of command line work, power-shell was an admission that windows needed a more powerful command line because of how **** the UI got. Want to change your IP address, you have 3 different styles and organizations of control panel UIs to dig through before you can just change your IP. open command line and type one command, job done.

That said, im not going to suggest that you CANT do it with the UI in windows, and that is probably the only functional difference. There are still times where a UI exists in linux but for unknown reasons you change something and you wont always get a message as to why something went wrong. These are far and few between in this age but they do still sometimes happen.

Try Manjaro or Mint, they are ready, its just this distro.

I know many will disagree with me but Linux as a desktop OS can't hold a candle to Windows. It's very nature of being open source with anyone being able to create their own version is it's biggest weakness. It is just too cluttered with no uniform direction (and many see this as it's strength).

You are totally right, because anyone can build anything we have everything and its hard to sort through the noise. Manjaro, Mint, Pop!_OS these are great for average middel aged gamer and tech. I know because thats me, and I use linux.

Despite decades of development and millions of people contributing their time and know-how, there isn't a single distribution that just works, that's polished enough where your average desktop user can install it on your average PC and expect everything to work right out of the box (or with a simple download from a website or a built in software repository) without ever touching the CLI, or hunting down a detailed step by step post in some community forum.

There are dozens, and I would argue windows does not meet your requirement.

Commercial companies rarely support it because, if they do, they will have to maintain multiple different packages so people can download a compatible version. And even if they do, there is no guarantee it will simply work (looking at you Plex!).

You are not totally wrong, but it is true that sometimes they may pick supporting a package system that is not supported out of the box on your distro. That is a valid criticism, but also not untrue of windows. These days its less of an issue, but you still need to be aware if you are installing a 32bit or 64bit executable, if you download an APK thinking you can just run it you will find out quickly that you cant in windows. Sure your thinking why would anyone want to do that... well because your comfortable with windows and have been using it for ages you know that wont work. Ask any kid with a chromebook and they will be confused and not understand why they cant just download an APK and run it on a windows laptop. Your expectation is based on experience. The difference is that in linux there is generally a way to do it, its not always easy, but it can be done.

It does need to be better, and I hope that some day we will find an easy way to distribute applications and programs in a common format. I include .EXE and .DMG in that bucket along with .DEB .RPM .ARU .APK and others. Its crazy that I cant run things that are not a windows .exe on windows is crazy.

Having said this, I am using a mini PC with Debian running a Pi Hole DNS with no issues. But I purchased a newer mini PC and installed Debian again, followed the same excellent guide, only to give up after three days of troubleshooting because it just wouldn't work. I then tried to install Plex, with my 14TB external HDD for library location, and again it just wouldn't work. Even reformatted the drive, changed permissions, no luck. Gave up after two days. Sorry about the long post.


Yeah your experience with Debian is a common one, again I would suggest downloading a distribution that is targeted to end users and not enterprise servers and development. Mint, Manjaro, POP...
 
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Your call, I suspect that you will reach that rage level soon enough with the changes MS keeps making and how driven the are to enshitify windows. This distro is not for you, its a small team, with specific goals that IMO make no sense. Mainstream linux wont spy on you, it "just works" as well as windows "just works" if you installed one of the distro's I listed you would probably be fine. Windows is a dying OS, when SteamOS hits you are going to see a mass exodus of OEMs and system builders as they chase the Gamer market. Corporate will still probably stay MS.
I could care less who makes it, I just want it to work. As for fine tuning it, I don't mind doing that. It's part of personalizing it to your specific tastes and needs. I've been down this road before, and constantly running commands to make something work is not my idea of a good time, so no. I had thought this one would be a fresh one, not a re-fresh of a mish-mash of different distros. Screw that. Do I want it to work right out of the box? Sure, who doesn't? :rofl:

 
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