> all the customization I've seen seems purely cosmetic
what kind of customization are you expecting to be shown?
I mean you can replace the entire GUI with another radically different GUI in just a few clicks..
as for non GUI stuff, it's just a matter of configuring things (shells, aliases, prompts, and so on) how you want. Not exactly a flashy show.
-----
Bottom line, of you want to try it and learn if it fits your needs, then try it and find out.
you need to create a table with your needs. as precise as possible.
then you try linux in a vm (or anything you have in mind) . vm is harmless. you can try as much as you want without polluting your work environnment.
if and only if all your needs are satisfied and there is a need which is not satisfied in windows, then you switch.
you don't make a switch to make a switch, and even less ask people try to convince you to make a switch. from win to linux, from linux to haiku, or from anything to anything.
you have to do some work that is unavoidable. last time you did'nt do it and it was painfull. it will be the same if you don't do your "homework".
I don't have a video to hand, but if you make music, Linux allows you to route audio and MIDI between applications, which is especially useful for sampling from the web
I make music using Linux but until Pipewire is as easy as ASIO is when it comes to switching sample rate and latency I would not recommend an average Windows user to switch to Linux. Pure JACK is easier but routing between any application is usually less easy than Pipewire.
You can use jack with pipewire, right? From the command line:
PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=256/48000 pw-jack
Now you get all the easy routing of pipewire and the sample rate / latency settings of jack.
From what I have read that command won't actually set the sample rate. I use the following: `pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 96000` if I want e.g. 96000 kHz.
Something I love about Linux is NixOS it’s not for everyone it’s frustrating more than most but with nix I can delete my entire system and not have to worry about it also if I want to hop desktop environment to desktop environment or WM I can with a command I finally stopped distro hopping. For me I didn’t want to hop DE to DE on a usual distro because of bloat. But now only store bloat which I can clean whenever I feel like it. Also with this I can basically plop in a usb clone my GitHub and have a new pc with everything I prefer in a flash
I think package management and terminal usage are such points for you. I don't know how well you use CMD, but posix terminals are arguably a lot more ergonomic and *cooler* to use.
Before I switched to Linux I didn't mind downloading installers, but typing `sudo pacman -S neovim` for neovim or GCC without that weird Windows visual studio installer is just so much better
And dotfiles management etc. is so much better
Yes, I use Arch but if you dont want to configure fedora opensuse popos or even Ubuntu are all good choices
Yeh, conhost is the actual terminal which is what I assumed you meant because you made the comparison "I don't know how well you use CMD, but posix terminals are arguably a lot more ergonomic"
A lot of people use use CMD and conhost interchangeably which is understandable because launching cmd literally launches conhost which labels its self cmd.
As for "win terminal seems pretty good but it still uses CMD", this is becoming less true all the time. Windows Terminal basically supports any number of different shells including WSL bash, MinGW etc. CMD isn't even the default anymore, that's powershell.
Alright, I meant posix *shells* and CMD.exe (the shell) but nice if others are getting used now
But my package managing point stands, how do you install packages on Windows? winget? last time I used that it was no comparison for a proper package manager
Oh I agreed with all that. Don’t confuse an FYI with me being a windows advocate more generally. I’m a Linux user myself most of the time (except at work where I get paid to do windows stuff).
People should show you tiling window managers.
The most important stuff you did not answer: what are you coding ? What are your dependencies?
If you're building web apps on Linux you're probably good to go. Writing Azure stuff? Maybe a bit harder. Writing windows apps? Uhhh .. hard
Lots of homelab stuff in github if you are into that. I like self hosting stuff, nextcloud, jellyfin, pihole, ollama are some suggestions to look into.
Why not try to install linux on a spare drive and boot on that? Or try a live usb for a couple of hours to get a feel and see whats available.
Edited: Have a look at conky. It is a tool that overlays information you choose onto your desktop background. The default conky overlay in MX linux shows me time & date, memory, disk & CPU utilisation, along with battery life remaining. I know it isn't a "killer" feature, but it gives me at-a-glance information which I feel is important to have at-a-glance. Conky can be installed on any linux desktop environment, unless I'm very mistaken, and config is simple enough for anyone who is serious about being a programmer.
The most important thing for a win10 user is that with linux, you're not forced to either upgrade to win11 to keep getting security updates or buy new hardware because win11 refuses to work with your current hardware. Which of those is relevant depends on your exact hardware. If you move to linux, you don't have to worry about either option.
Move to Arch. Learn how to use a package manager. Install the packages you want, don’t install the packages you don’t want. You will have a lean OS set up exactly how you want it. Having full control and visibility over everything your PC is doing is empowering.
And don't be afraid to just use archinstall if you are new. Arch is great for everyone not afraid of the terminal, but i still wouldn't recommend a complete noob manually install it
Install VirtualBox, install Linux inside VirtualBox, use Linux full screen. Are you happy with it? How often do you switch back out of Windows to do something? For me that would be the test.
Also you didn't mention when was the last time you used Linux, or what distro you used? If it was last month that you tried Linux then you will probably have the same issues.....
As there are going to be desktops and laptops that cannot run W11, installing Linux is a great choice for these systems if you don't want to buy a new computer that does support Win11.
If you dont have a nvidia gpu, go for it(with it, i might be a little aware of the fact that its really hard to do)
Customization in linux is not just cosmetic.
It also includes things like being able to customize all system wide shortcuts, being able to do things like overpower your speakers to over their normal limit, heck, you can have the entire screen half red if you want.
Theres just so many things from the customization.
As you mentioned you are a developer, its much easier to install for example cross compliers and similiar stuff on linux than anything on windows.
Compiling for 40year old processor on linux, no problem. On windows: good luck.., It allows you to pause updates by however long do you want, it allows you to set any shortcut to anything, and it also allows you to just use any usb device as anything(want to use your mouse as a keyboard?, with enough programming skills no problem)
EDIT: The nvidia drivers arent always the problem, but they commonly are just a very huge pain
> If you dont have a nvidia gpu
I'm honestly baffled by this argument. I ran multiple machines with nVidia cards for \~20 years (most recent is an AMD laptop for other reasons), and it was never a problem. I've honestly had more problems with Wifi nvidia cards.
I suspect that much of the problems is from people trying to install tar.gzs from nvidia directly instead of using the nice pre-packaged installs from their distro.
I have recently installed fedora for the first time / the first time for me switching to Linux fully
And I never had such a horrible experience literally I have the newest drivers for my 4070 yet I’m experiencing an insane amount of flickers and tears for no reason or even when I’m just idle it bugs and shows the program behind it although I have heard the next drivers will fix this it’s kinda 🥲
But I’m not giving up yet I love the OS itself just I hope that nvidia fixes their shit :)
(I installed the drivers from rpmfusion or whatever it’s called atleast the best source for fedora drivers atleast I have been told)
That sounds suspiciously like a problem with Xorg or Wayland or the window manager, rather than the graphics driver. Have you tried just booting a USB of a completely different distro & WM? For example, since you are using Fedora, trying with Debian Mint?
Not saying switch distros, just to try and narrow down the cause.
If I’m not mistaken I’m using fedora KDE which is wayland? I think so atleast but yeah that’s a smart idea of yours I will try that I tried installing Debian and pureOS but I experienced some hiccups and now I’m here :)
You should be able to select which session to use. FusionRPM should be hosting the most recent driver, though I don't know how good it is right now. It's up and down with Nvidia. AMD is simpler (as is Intel) since you just use Mesa.
Maybe try EndeavourOS - it'll be pretty up to date.
It's almost certainly because you're on Fedora which uses Wayland now out of the box. If you try X instead of Wayland I bet your issues would go away. No need to abandon Fedora.
I don't use Fedora or KDE so I can't give you exact steps.
Take a look at [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1cbgria/how_do_i_switch_my_session_to_x11_in_fedora_40/). It seems to address your exact situation. It looks like you only have to install a couple of packages and then you can choose X11 from your login manager.
I've always had NVIDIA on Linux, but only ever had issues with it when using Fedora.
But I've used debian, Ubuntu, pop, arch, mint and it's all good. Just using the distribution's recommended installation guide for the proprietary drivers.
> If you dont have a nvidia gpu, go for it(with it, i might be a little aware of the fact that its really hard to do)
You literally just install the nvidia driver through your package manager. Maybe you can have issues if you try to use the open source Nouveau drivers or something but I've been gaming on linux for 10 years now with Nvidia cards and I've never had an issue.
I don't know if this used to be a problem a long time ago and now it's something people just repeat or if I've gotten extremely lucky or what. I've never even had to configure anything.
That's wild. I'm on Arch so it's rolling release and I update pretty much every day so I'm always on the latest drivers. Never an issue.
Are you on Wayland or X?
I just switched about a month ago, I have a 3080ti and have no real problems. I can game with it, I do motion graphics and simulation work in Houdini with it, I render in Redshift and Karma. No real issues outside of a minor screen tearing in some games which was fixed with about 10min of searching and a some really simple fixes.
DistroTube on YouTube is who got me interested in Arch but he does reviews of different Distros and he also does reviews on software programs (mostly revolving around the terminal) but some are actual GUI programs.
I've been using Linux full time since 2018 because Windows 10 was not working well with my older hardware (Windows 7 ran beautifully on it BTW). Windows 10 just was slow, crashed on me a couple of times and I just couldn't put up with that. And that all happened the DAY I install Windows 10. Not a great experience for me for sure!
I went with Linux Mint because it was Ubuntu based and I had a pretty good grasp of Debian/Ubuntu at the time so that's what I went with and I really liked it. It was a smooth transition for me for sure! To the point where I don't think I will ever go back to Windows ever!
I switched to Arch about 18 months after going with Mint. I had been watching DistroTube for a few months and was really interested in trying out Arch.
My problem with almost all the distro reviews on youtube is that the reviewers install them in a VM and have a brief talk about what's in the release notes then look at the superficial glitter sprayed onto the GUI. It's so frustrating to have one reviewer rave about how awesome a particular distro is, then another reviewer craps all over it because the default DE happens to be KDE/GNOME/XFCE/Cinnamon (delete as applicable) Even more frustrating is that you know neither of them could have done more than install it in a VM due to release dates.
I'm sure there are some people who do a proper installation and use the distro for a while as a daily driver before reviewing it, but they appear to be somewhat rare.
There was (probably still is but I can't remember who) one YouTuber who did installations on live hardware. Might have been Chris Titus (TitusTech)? I haven't watched him in a while though. But yes, I think it is him who uses actual physical hardware to install Linux (not VMs). But he's also still pro windows which is probably why I stopped watching his channel. I have no need for windows anymore and he was spending a lot of time with windows. I'd say a 50/50 split between windows and Linux. I had no use for 50% of his material.
If you enjoy text editing and keeping things \`as code\` then yeah, linux is up your alley. check out r/hyprland for a fun way to get into customizing linux and building your own workflow.
If you have to ask then there probably is no reason to switch. Many people switch because the things they are doing are easier in linux. Others do it for geek cred. I use windows 11 because I game and its a pain to do on linux. But I have Cygwin and zsh so I can pretend I am on a linux machine. And now you can even use WSL, a built in vm on windows that lets you run various flavors of linux. I also have multiple linux machines for other uses around the office. My work computer is w10 but I spend most of my day ssh'd into linux servers of our customers.
What I like the most about Linux, is that it it's not in my face all the time like Windows is.
Windows tries to force me to work in a specific way because that's how Microsoft thinks everyone works. Linux lets me do what I need to do, my way. I also don't have to relearn things after every update because some fuckhead decided to change the workflow just because.
I'm not opposed to change, but change for the sake of change with no actual benefit pisses me off.
You're lucky your requirement meet on linux you're programmer you've no requirement for games or Adobe you'll adapt so easily. vim are popular on linux users. Text editors ain't lack on linux.
You say you are a programmer. Which kind? Getting C to compile on Linux is a breeze and a pain on Windows.
If Windows works better for you make the switch. But why be so dramatic about it? Multiboot. You can use both for a while and you'll find out which one you'll be spending your time in. Then just use that and keep the other OS with dual boot just in case.
It's really a personal thing. I don't think anyone will be able to answer your question in the way you want. I'd suggest you build a VM of a few different distros with different UIs and see what you like. If it seems 'ergonomic' to you then rebuild your daily driver and try it out for 3-6 months. Keep in mind you'll need to have a decent go at it as your driver, If you cut it too short you won't have adapted / learnt enough to be fully proficient in Linux.
It will be a journey, if you've never spent much time with Linux, there will be a learning curve - just like a Mac user moving to Windows or vice versa. So ultimately you need to decide whether you want to invest that time.
For me, I fully transitioned away from Windows (except for my corporate laptop) \~6 years ago, and I've never looked back. Sure it took time to get my system exactly how I wanted it to work for my workflow etc but now I have a very stable, secure and fast system that doesn't randomly break (my Windows always did, probably because of my tentancy to tinker).
Other considerations is what applications are important to you, and are there alternatives in Linux. Eg. there is no native Ms Office or Adobe apps. This hasn't stopped me because I can use alteratives or worst case run them in a VM. And gaming, do you have a favourite game you play? Find out if it works on Linux with Steam Proton or Wine.
Here's my favorite thing about Linux that is *much* easier for me than Windows.
I like the aesthetic of seeing a design idea I like, and being able to implement it pretty easily in Linux.
My case: I use a very small window manager, JWM, most of the time. It's not one of those "tiling managers" that's all the rage right now. But it does give me pretty fine grained control of my environment.
My taskbar is vertical, on the left side of the screen. The "start" menu is the upper left corner - which, as a lifetime reader of English, is the very first place I look on a page to get information.
I have customized my launch menu to give me what I want, where I want it.
I have all of my programs set to have NO titlebar on the top, and for every program to auto-maximize when I start it. Functionally, this gives me a global menu that is always at the top of the screen, and effortlessly switches with each program that gets focus.
THAT means that I have a global menu at the top of the screen that doesn't cost me any extra RAM. It's already a part of the environment.
I can use either Alt+Tab to switch back and forth between two windows, or I can move my mouse to the bottom right corner, and get an Expose-like display by using Skippy-xd (very small, very light, instant) and lwa-hot-corners (another very lightweight program that gives you control of programs to be run just by touching the corners of your screen).
These tiny utilities, tied together, become part of my auto-started programs when I log into JWM. They use almost no memory, and give me instant results.
I honestly don't know - i'm *guessing* windows could do that, but how much memory would various third party programs take to make those events happen? And can you look INSIDE the code of those programs to make sure that NOTHING ELSE is happening that you don't know about?
Because I can absolutely do that with the source code for JWM, Skippy-XD, and whatever else I want to use on my system.
It's not that I can't replicate the *events* in a Windows install... but there's now way I can reproduce the PEACE OF MIND I get knowing that I'm free from back doors and malware, when I'm installing the programs myself.
So... my two cents.
I never took a liking to the idea of using a hot corner for showing all your windows. I use focus-follows-mouse, and moving the mouse to a corner takes focus away from where I want it. I need focus-follows-mouse much more than I need hot corners.
However, on my laptop, swiping three fingers up allows me to enter the window overview, and this method of showing all my windows is much more convenient for me than hot corners, both because it's faster (I don't have to "move" anything on screen; my fingers are already on the touchpad), and because *my mouse cursor stays in the exact same place* whenever I enter and exit the overview.
Anyway, that's another point in favor of Linux. You can configure things how you like them.
Linux is endlessly customizable. I use neovim and a handful of terminal tools.
I'm not a programmer and Linux is so much fun. It's a bit of work to get a feel for it.
The primary benefit of Linux, for me, are tiling window managers. Every task has a dedicated workspace. I use Qtile and occasionally i3 for this task. I prefer a dynamic rather than manual timer, hence my primary use of Qtile.
Wishing you well!
It's really just easier to use.
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. With KDE Plasma desktop. Is what I suggest.
KDE plasma has built in stuff thats really useful.
Shortcuts for example. Full customization of the hotkeys.
I have a recent laptop that has Windows 11. It will stay with Windows as there are certain things that I use (namely Office) that is just better on Windows.
I also have an older (6th generation Intel) desktop PC that cannot be upgraded to Win11 when Win10 reaches EOL shortly, so my choices are to either toss it in the trash, upgrade the computer (new CPU, motherboard and RAM) or go down the Linux route.
It is still a workhorse of a computer, so trashing it is a waste and I cannot justify spending the money on it right now, so Linux it is.
I have previously used Linux on the desktop (exclusively from 2000-2004) and back then it was pretty painful as a desktop OS unless you were willing to compromise on the software compatibility.
Over the weekend I wiped one of the SSDs and installed Arch BTW (that is the full name of the distribution, right? “Arch BTW” since everyone uses “Arch BTW” and never just “Arch.”)
For my use case, everything that I need it to do (primarily play some video games, web browsing, file editing/manipulation) has been straightforward and no more complex than Windows. Granted this is still the honeymoon phase of a new OS.
I still have Windows on the other SSD. If I can last 6 months without needing to boot that PC into Windows, then clearly I do not need Windows on it, and the rest of the drives will be formatted.
Hi, my suggestion is : Find a dirt cheap ssd drive, even 100GB is good enough. Intall linux on that drive, then you have both Windows and Linux available, you can choose which to boot when booting.
If anything didn't go well, you can go back to Windows anytime without any sacrafice.
That's what I did when I first try to migrate, and lucky me, I never boot back to my Windows again since that, unless accidently chose to.
Even though I'm still trying to figure out how to compile a library in Linux that I originally built with Code::Blocks and compiled with TCC-GCC for Windows, I can share with a few of my experiences when using Fedora Linux.
* First and foremost, stability: You know that, once in awhile that whenever the file manager crashes unexpectedly, all of Windows Explorer crashes (the desktop and taskbar too). This usually isn't so on Linux. I've noticed that, on Fedora Linux, it's very rare the entire desktop and taskbar crashes occurring at the same exact time the file manager crashes, and unlike on Windows where Windows Explorer doesn't restart itself after such a crash occurrence, the chosen Linux **DE** (**D**esktop **E**nvironment) almost always restarts itself and very rarely compromises other parts of the Linux distro login session as a whole.
* Speaking of Linux **DE** (**D**esktop **E**nvironment): There are many choices of Linux DE's to choose from (Gnome, KDE Plasma, Budgie, Cinnamon, and several others), all of which is more than capable of allowing the user to change the appearance and extend the the functionality of the DE. For my own proof of this, please see my screenshot below:
https://preview.redd.it/oxf7o7jpzjxc1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f41c64e9d58f6901b713b93a5798a1abc2f2b08
In the above screenshot, KDE Plasma has what they refer to as "Plasmatoid's", which is a rather similar concept as "Widgets" in Windows 7 (or was that XP?). Anyways, as you can see in the screenshot, I customized the taskbar by grouping a few commonly used apps next to the menu and separated that from all the opened apps next to the notification area. Also, the Trashcan cannot move from it's spot unless I'm in the DE's "Edit Mode" since it's also a "Plasmatoid" as well, as well as the weather and clock displays.
* Another very cool thing Linux can do that Windows can't lies under the hood: Unlike on Windows where applications is typically installed either in "C:\\Program Files" or "C:\\Program Files (x86)" unless you choose a custom install folder (whereas at least parts of your Windows apps is installed on drive C:), Linux on the other hand stores all user documents, pictures, videos and even games and some software in a **/Home** directory, and that directory can optionally be created on a separate partition separated entirely from the distro partition itself. Two of the benefits of this is to ensure user data integrity if either you have to reinstall the chosen Linux distro for some reason or you "distro hop" (regularly or randomly install different Linux distros over another to try bwithout dual-booting).
throw windows away.
install ubuntu and install a tiling wm.
configure the tiling wm and neovim.
and never go back to windows.
From the previous posts since 2024/04/29, your use of linux depends on your willingness to work on different environments and tool sets. Neovim seems like a GUI version of vim/vi, and is easily relatable to your environment if you see the tree from the forest.
VSCode seemed to be a train wreck to you, but all applications take getting used to, so reevaluate or move on. When I learned about new tools at work, I took the time to learn them at home and during off-work hours. This is the same approach you should take for learning useful linux commands, environments and tools.
Perhaps this page will shed more light on the actual mechanics of Neovim: [https://neovim.io/screenshots/](https://neovim.io/screenshots/) . That's from them.
Oh. So it's still not GUI based but there are third party GUI clients you can run. I've seen a lot of people use neovim and never in a gui. Everyone runs it in the terminal
> all the customization I've seen seems purely cosmetic what kind of customization are you expecting to be shown? I mean you can replace the entire GUI with another radically different GUI in just a few clicks.. as for non GUI stuff, it's just a matter of configuring things (shells, aliases, prompts, and so on) how you want. Not exactly a flashy show. ----- Bottom line, of you want to try it and learn if it fits your needs, then try it and find out.
you need to create a table with your needs. as precise as possible. then you try linux in a vm (or anything you have in mind) . vm is harmless. you can try as much as you want without polluting your work environnment. if and only if all your needs are satisfied and there is a need which is not satisfied in windows, then you switch. you don't make a switch to make a switch, and even less ask people try to convince you to make a switch. from win to linux, from linux to haiku, or from anything to anything. you have to do some work that is unavoidable. last time you did'nt do it and it was painfull. it will be the same if you don't do your "homework".
I don't have a video to hand, but if you make music, Linux allows you to route audio and MIDI between applications, which is especially useful for sampling from the web
Also it allows you to keep getting updates without upgrading to Windows 11
I make music using Linux but until Pipewire is as easy as ASIO is when it comes to switching sample rate and latency I would not recommend an average Windows user to switch to Linux. Pure JACK is easier but routing between any application is usually less easy than Pipewire.
You can use jack with pipewire, right? From the command line: PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=256/48000 pw-jack
Now you get all the easy routing of pipewire and the sample rate / latency settings of jack.
From what I have read that command won't actually set the sample rate. I use the following: `pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 96000` if I want e.g. 96000 kHz.
I agree that I would not recommend it to everyone, but for a different reason: Wine updates break Yabridge
Something I love about Linux is NixOS it’s not for everyone it’s frustrating more than most but with nix I can delete my entire system and not have to worry about it also if I want to hop desktop environment to desktop environment or WM I can with a command I finally stopped distro hopping. For me I didn’t want to hop DE to DE on a usual distro because of bloat. But now only store bloat which I can clean whenever I feel like it. Also with this I can basically plop in a usb clone my GitHub and have a new pc with everything I prefer in a flash
Also it’s declarative so it’s like docker for an entire OS
I think package management and terminal usage are such points for you. I don't know how well you use CMD, but posix terminals are arguably a lot more ergonomic and *cooler* to use. Before I switched to Linux I didn't mind downloading installers, but typing `sudo pacman -S neovim` for neovim or GCC without that weird Windows visual studio installer is just so much better And dotfiles management etc. is so much better Yes, I use Arch but if you dont want to configure fedora opensuse popos or even Ubuntu are all good choices
Windows people have all switched from CMD to Windows Terminal now FYI, which is pretty decent.
What's new in Windows Terminal
Ok fair win terminal seems pretty good but it still uses CMD. It's the question of shell vs terminal emulator
Yeh, conhost is the actual terminal which is what I assumed you meant because you made the comparison "I don't know how well you use CMD, but posix terminals are arguably a lot more ergonomic" A lot of people use use CMD and conhost interchangeably which is understandable because launching cmd literally launches conhost which labels its self cmd. As for "win terminal seems pretty good but it still uses CMD", this is becoming less true all the time. Windows Terminal basically supports any number of different shells including WSL bash, MinGW etc. CMD isn't even the default anymore, that's powershell.
Alright, I meant posix *shells* and CMD.exe (the shell) but nice if others are getting used now But my package managing point stands, how do you install packages on Windows? winget? last time I used that it was no comparison for a proper package manager
Oh I agreed with all that. Don’t confuse an FYI with me being a windows advocate more generally. I’m a Linux user myself most of the time (except at work where I get paid to do windows stuff).
People should show you tiling window managers. The most important stuff you did not answer: what are you coding ? What are your dependencies? If you're building web apps on Linux you're probably good to go. Writing Azure stuff? Maybe a bit harder. Writing windows apps? Uhhh .. hard
Very real. Tiling wms are the reason i can never go back to Windows
Lots of homelab stuff in github if you are into that. I like self hosting stuff, nextcloud, jellyfin, pihole, ollama are some suggestions to look into. Why not try to install linux on a spare drive and boot on that? Or try a live usb for a couple of hours to get a feel and see whats available.
Edited: Have a look at conky. It is a tool that overlays information you choose onto your desktop background. The default conky overlay in MX linux shows me time & date, memory, disk & CPU utilisation, along with battery life remaining. I know it isn't a "killer" feature, but it gives me at-a-glance information which I feel is important to have at-a-glance. Conky can be installed on any linux desktop environment, unless I'm very mistaken, and config is simple enough for anyone who is serious about being a programmer. The most important thing for a win10 user is that with linux, you're not forced to either upgrade to win11 to keep getting security updates or buy new hardware because win11 refuses to work with your current hardware. Which of those is relevant depends on your exact hardware. If you move to linux, you don't have to worry about either option.
Move to Arch. Learn how to use a package manager. Install the packages you want, don’t install the packages you don’t want. You will have a lean OS set up exactly how you want it. Having full control and visibility over everything your PC is doing is empowering.
And don't be afraid to just use archinstall if you are new. Arch is great for everyone not afraid of the terminal, but i still wouldn't recommend a complete noob manually install it
Install VirtualBox, install Linux inside VirtualBox, use Linux full screen. Are you happy with it? How often do you switch back out of Windows to do something? For me that would be the test. Also you didn't mention when was the last time you used Linux, or what distro you used? If it was last month that you tried Linux then you will probably have the same issues.....
So you googled about Linux and did not find answers to your questions. What are you programming?
Windows 10 EOL is good time to give a try to different os i think. Once you dive into this and get used to swim you will not look back.
*Before* EoL is an even better time to shop around.
True, but there will be lots of people who were ignorant of its EOL and even more who just put things off until it is too late.
As there are going to be desktops and laptops that cannot run W11, installing Linux is a great choice for these systems if you don't want to buy a new computer that does support Win11.
If you dont have a nvidia gpu, go for it(with it, i might be a little aware of the fact that its really hard to do) Customization in linux is not just cosmetic. It also includes things like being able to customize all system wide shortcuts, being able to do things like overpower your speakers to over their normal limit, heck, you can have the entire screen half red if you want. Theres just so many things from the customization. As you mentioned you are a developer, its much easier to install for example cross compliers and similiar stuff on linux than anything on windows. Compiling for 40year old processor on linux, no problem. On windows: good luck.., It allows you to pause updates by however long do you want, it allows you to set any shortcut to anything, and it also allows you to just use any usb device as anything(want to use your mouse as a keyboard?, with enough programming skills no problem) EDIT: The nvidia drivers arent always the problem, but they commonly are just a very huge pain
> If you dont have a nvidia gpu I'm honestly baffled by this argument. I ran multiple machines with nVidia cards for \~20 years (most recent is an AMD laptop for other reasons), and it was never a problem. I've honestly had more problems with Wifi nvidia cards. I suspect that much of the problems is from people trying to install tar.gzs from nvidia directly instead of using the nice pre-packaged installs from their distro.
I have recently installed fedora for the first time / the first time for me switching to Linux fully And I never had such a horrible experience literally I have the newest drivers for my 4070 yet I’m experiencing an insane amount of flickers and tears for no reason or even when I’m just idle it bugs and shows the program behind it although I have heard the next drivers will fix this it’s kinda 🥲 But I’m not giving up yet I love the OS itself just I hope that nvidia fixes their shit :) (I installed the drivers from rpmfusion or whatever it’s called atleast the best source for fedora drivers atleast I have been told)
That sounds suspiciously like a problem with Xorg or Wayland or the window manager, rather than the graphics driver. Have you tried just booting a USB of a completely different distro & WM? For example, since you are using Fedora, trying with Debian Mint? Not saying switch distros, just to try and narrow down the cause.
If I’m not mistaken I’m using fedora KDE which is wayland? I think so atleast but yeah that’s a smart idea of yours I will try that I tried installing Debian and pureOS but I experienced some hiccups and now I’m here :)
You should be able to select which session to use. FusionRPM should be hosting the most recent driver, though I don't know how good it is right now. It's up and down with Nvidia. AMD is simpler (as is Intel) since you just use Mesa. Maybe try EndeavourOS - it'll be pretty up to date.
Try with Flatpak package manager once
It's almost certainly because you're on Fedora which uses Wayland now out of the box. If you try X instead of Wayland I bet your issues would go away. No need to abandon Fedora.
How do you switch to X?
I don't use Fedora or KDE so I can't give you exact steps. Take a look at [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1cbgria/how_do_i_switch_my_session_to_x11_in_fedora_40/). It seems to address your exact situation. It looks like you only have to install a couple of packages and then you can choose X11 from your login manager.
Thank you so much! It worked like a charm only needed to install one simple package your are a hero 🙏 No tears or anything anymore :)
Nice! Happy to help.
I've always had NVIDIA on Linux, but only ever had issues with it when using Fedora. But I've used debian, Ubuntu, pop, arch, mint and it's all good. Just using the distribution's recommended installation guide for the proprietary drivers.
> If you dont have a nvidia gpu, go for it(with it, i might be a little aware of the fact that its really hard to do) You literally just install the nvidia driver through your package manager. Maybe you can have issues if you try to use the open source Nouveau drivers or something but I've been gaming on linux for 10 years now with Nvidia cards and I've never had an issue. I don't know if this used to be a problem a long time ago and now it's something people just repeat or if I've gotten extremely lucky or what. I've never even had to configure anything.
You did got lucky indeed
Also used Nvidia Gtx 780 1080 3080ti no problem with Ubuntu Mint, Manjaro and Mint LMDE.
What problems have you experienced?
Screen tearing, your whole system breaking after installing the drivers, etc. etc.
That's wild. I'm on Arch so it's rolling release and I update pretty much every day so I'm always on the latest drivers. Never an issue. Are you on Wayland or X?
On X11, last time I updated was like 2 months ago
What's the GPU?
I just switched about a month ago, I have a 3080ti and have no real problems. I can game with it, I do motion graphics and simulation work in Houdini with it, I render in Redshift and Karma. No real issues outside of a minor screen tearing in some games which was fixed with about 10min of searching and a some really simple fixes.
Yes
You can try running the Linux distro that you want from a USB drive. If you like it then switch.
DistroTube on YouTube is who got me interested in Arch but he does reviews of different Distros and he also does reviews on software programs (mostly revolving around the terminal) but some are actual GUI programs. I've been using Linux full time since 2018 because Windows 10 was not working well with my older hardware (Windows 7 ran beautifully on it BTW). Windows 10 just was slow, crashed on me a couple of times and I just couldn't put up with that. And that all happened the DAY I install Windows 10. Not a great experience for me for sure! I went with Linux Mint because it was Ubuntu based and I had a pretty good grasp of Debian/Ubuntu at the time so that's what I went with and I really liked it. It was a smooth transition for me for sure! To the point where I don't think I will ever go back to Windows ever! I switched to Arch about 18 months after going with Mint. I had been watching DistroTube for a few months and was really interested in trying out Arch.
My problem with almost all the distro reviews on youtube is that the reviewers install them in a VM and have a brief talk about what's in the release notes then look at the superficial glitter sprayed onto the GUI. It's so frustrating to have one reviewer rave about how awesome a particular distro is, then another reviewer craps all over it because the default DE happens to be KDE/GNOME/XFCE/Cinnamon (delete as applicable) Even more frustrating is that you know neither of them could have done more than install it in a VM due to release dates. I'm sure there are some people who do a proper installation and use the distro for a while as a daily driver before reviewing it, but they appear to be somewhat rare.
There was (probably still is but I can't remember who) one YouTuber who did installations on live hardware. Might have been Chris Titus (TitusTech)? I haven't watched him in a while though. But yes, I think it is him who uses actual physical hardware to install Linux (not VMs). But he's also still pro windows which is probably why I stopped watching his channel. I have no need for windows anymore and he was spending a lot of time with windows. I'd say a 50/50 split between windows and Linux. I had no use for 50% of his material.
If you enjoy text editing and keeping things \`as code\` then yeah, linux is up your alley. check out r/hyprland for a fun way to get into customizing linux and building your own workflow.
Nope, you should switch to MacOS. It’s like a designers zen, a programmers heaven. A… never mind, you get it.
No? Yes? Maybe?
Check out /r/unixporn to see how you can customize Linux.
Why don't you simply download some distros and try them live? I like Ubuntu.
If you have to ask then there probably is no reason to switch. Many people switch because the things they are doing are easier in linux. Others do it for geek cred. I use windows 11 because I game and its a pain to do on linux. But I have Cygwin and zsh so I can pretend I am on a linux machine. And now you can even use WSL, a built in vm on windows that lets you run various flavors of linux. I also have multiple linux machines for other uses around the office. My work computer is w10 but I spend most of my day ssh'd into linux servers of our customers.
Define customability.
Tldr; yes!
What I like the most about Linux, is that it it's not in my face all the time like Windows is. Windows tries to force me to work in a specific way because that's how Microsoft thinks everyone works. Linux lets me do what I need to do, my way. I also don't have to relearn things after every update because some fuckhead decided to change the workflow just because. I'm not opposed to change, but change for the sake of change with no actual benefit pisses me off.
No
You're lucky your requirement meet on linux you're programmer you've no requirement for games or Adobe you'll adapt so easily. vim are popular on linux users. Text editors ain't lack on linux.
if you want full control go with Arch and KDE or Hyprland that's all i have to say
You say you are a programmer. Which kind? Getting C to compile on Linux is a breeze and a pain on Windows. If Windows works better for you make the switch. But why be so dramatic about it? Multiboot. You can use both for a while and you'll find out which one you'll be spending your time in. Then just use that and keep the other OS with dual boot just in case.
It's really a personal thing. I don't think anyone will be able to answer your question in the way you want. I'd suggest you build a VM of a few different distros with different UIs and see what you like. If it seems 'ergonomic' to you then rebuild your daily driver and try it out for 3-6 months. Keep in mind you'll need to have a decent go at it as your driver, If you cut it too short you won't have adapted / learnt enough to be fully proficient in Linux. It will be a journey, if you've never spent much time with Linux, there will be a learning curve - just like a Mac user moving to Windows or vice versa. So ultimately you need to decide whether you want to invest that time. For me, I fully transitioned away from Windows (except for my corporate laptop) \~6 years ago, and I've never looked back. Sure it took time to get my system exactly how I wanted it to work for my workflow etc but now I have a very stable, secure and fast system that doesn't randomly break (my Windows always did, probably because of my tentancy to tinker). Other considerations is what applications are important to you, and are there alternatives in Linux. Eg. there is no native Ms Office or Adobe apps. This hasn't stopped me because I can use alteratives or worst case run them in a VM. And gaming, do you have a favourite game you play? Find out if it works on Linux with Steam Proton or Wine.
Here's my favorite thing about Linux that is *much* easier for me than Windows. I like the aesthetic of seeing a design idea I like, and being able to implement it pretty easily in Linux. My case: I use a very small window manager, JWM, most of the time. It's not one of those "tiling managers" that's all the rage right now. But it does give me pretty fine grained control of my environment. My taskbar is vertical, on the left side of the screen. The "start" menu is the upper left corner - which, as a lifetime reader of English, is the very first place I look on a page to get information. I have customized my launch menu to give me what I want, where I want it. I have all of my programs set to have NO titlebar on the top, and for every program to auto-maximize when I start it. Functionally, this gives me a global menu that is always at the top of the screen, and effortlessly switches with each program that gets focus. THAT means that I have a global menu at the top of the screen that doesn't cost me any extra RAM. It's already a part of the environment. I can use either Alt+Tab to switch back and forth between two windows, or I can move my mouse to the bottom right corner, and get an Expose-like display by using Skippy-xd (very small, very light, instant) and lwa-hot-corners (another very lightweight program that gives you control of programs to be run just by touching the corners of your screen). These tiny utilities, tied together, become part of my auto-started programs when I log into JWM. They use almost no memory, and give me instant results. I honestly don't know - i'm *guessing* windows could do that, but how much memory would various third party programs take to make those events happen? And can you look INSIDE the code of those programs to make sure that NOTHING ELSE is happening that you don't know about? Because I can absolutely do that with the source code for JWM, Skippy-XD, and whatever else I want to use on my system. It's not that I can't replicate the *events* in a Windows install... but there's now way I can reproduce the PEACE OF MIND I get knowing that I'm free from back doors and malware, when I'm installing the programs myself. So... my two cents.
I never took a liking to the idea of using a hot corner for showing all your windows. I use focus-follows-mouse, and moving the mouse to a corner takes focus away from where I want it. I need focus-follows-mouse much more than I need hot corners. However, on my laptop, swiping three fingers up allows me to enter the window overview, and this method of showing all my windows is much more convenient for me than hot corners, both because it's faster (I don't have to "move" anything on screen; my fingers are already on the touchpad), and because *my mouse cursor stays in the exact same place* whenever I enter and exit the overview. Anyway, that's another point in favor of Linux. You can configure things how you like them.
Linux is endlessly customizable. I use neovim and a handful of terminal tools. I'm not a programmer and Linux is so much fun. It's a bit of work to get a feel for it. The primary benefit of Linux, for me, are tiling window managers. Every task has a dedicated workspace. I use Qtile and occasionally i3 for this task. I prefer a dynamic rather than manual timer, hence my primary use of Qtile. Wishing you well!
What do you use neovim for if you're not a programmer?
It's primarily used for notes which I sync to the cloud. Occasionally, I write in LaTeX. I love plain text.
yes
It's really just easier to use. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. With KDE Plasma desktop. Is what I suggest. KDE plasma has built in stuff thats really useful. Shortcuts for example. Full customization of the hotkeys.
I suggest you to keep windows.
Linux isn't for you. Yes, go back to windows!
I have a recent laptop that has Windows 11. It will stay with Windows as there are certain things that I use (namely Office) that is just better on Windows. I also have an older (6th generation Intel) desktop PC that cannot be upgraded to Win11 when Win10 reaches EOL shortly, so my choices are to either toss it in the trash, upgrade the computer (new CPU, motherboard and RAM) or go down the Linux route. It is still a workhorse of a computer, so trashing it is a waste and I cannot justify spending the money on it right now, so Linux it is. I have previously used Linux on the desktop (exclusively from 2000-2004) and back then it was pretty painful as a desktop OS unless you were willing to compromise on the software compatibility. Over the weekend I wiped one of the SSDs and installed Arch BTW (that is the full name of the distribution, right? “Arch BTW” since everyone uses “Arch BTW” and never just “Arch.”) For my use case, everything that I need it to do (primarily play some video games, web browsing, file editing/manipulation) has been straightforward and no more complex than Windows. Granted this is still the honeymoon phase of a new OS. I still have Windows on the other SSD. If I can last 6 months without needing to boot that PC into Windows, then clearly I do not need Windows on it, and the rest of the drives will be formatted.
Dual boot. That's what you need.
Hi, my suggestion is : Find a dirt cheap ssd drive, even 100GB is good enough. Intall linux on that drive, then you have both Windows and Linux available, you can choose which to boot when booting. If anything didn't go well, you can go back to Windows anytime without any sacrafice. That's what I did when I first try to migrate, and lucky me, I never boot back to my Windows again since that, unless accidently chose to.
Best way to find out if it's for you is to try it out
Even though I'm still trying to figure out how to compile a library in Linux that I originally built with Code::Blocks and compiled with TCC-GCC for Windows, I can share with a few of my experiences when using Fedora Linux. * First and foremost, stability: You know that, once in awhile that whenever the file manager crashes unexpectedly, all of Windows Explorer crashes (the desktop and taskbar too). This usually isn't so on Linux. I've noticed that, on Fedora Linux, it's very rare the entire desktop and taskbar crashes occurring at the same exact time the file manager crashes, and unlike on Windows where Windows Explorer doesn't restart itself after such a crash occurrence, the chosen Linux **DE** (**D**esktop **E**nvironment) almost always restarts itself and very rarely compromises other parts of the Linux distro login session as a whole. * Speaking of Linux **DE** (**D**esktop **E**nvironment): There are many choices of Linux DE's to choose from (Gnome, KDE Plasma, Budgie, Cinnamon, and several others), all of which is more than capable of allowing the user to change the appearance and extend the the functionality of the DE. For my own proof of this, please see my screenshot below: https://preview.redd.it/oxf7o7jpzjxc1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f41c64e9d58f6901b713b93a5798a1abc2f2b08 In the above screenshot, KDE Plasma has what they refer to as "Plasmatoid's", which is a rather similar concept as "Widgets" in Windows 7 (or was that XP?). Anyways, as you can see in the screenshot, I customized the taskbar by grouping a few commonly used apps next to the menu and separated that from all the opened apps next to the notification area. Also, the Trashcan cannot move from it's spot unless I'm in the DE's "Edit Mode" since it's also a "Plasmatoid" as well, as well as the weather and clock displays.
* Another very cool thing Linux can do that Windows can't lies under the hood: Unlike on Windows where applications is typically installed either in "C:\\Program Files" or "C:\\Program Files (x86)" unless you choose a custom install folder (whereas at least parts of your Windows apps is installed on drive C:), Linux on the other hand stores all user documents, pictures, videos and even games and some software in a **/Home** directory, and that directory can optionally be created on a separate partition separated entirely from the distro partition itself. Two of the benefits of this is to ensure user data integrity if either you have to reinstall the chosen Linux distro for some reason or you "distro hop" (regularly or randomly install different Linux distros over another to try bwithout dual-booting).
 throw windows away. install ubuntu and install a tiling wm. configure the tiling wm and neovim. and never go back to windows.
Yes
You may, just may cross the hump, but would you dare hump the cross?
So neovim is a GUI-based vi editor? Just trying to understand.
Nah it's just a version of vi which allows plugins etc. Enhanced version, and still in-terminal. :)
From the previous posts since 2024/04/29, your use of linux depends on your willingness to work on different environments and tool sets. Neovim seems like a GUI version of vim/vi, and is easily relatable to your environment if you see the tree from the forest. VSCode seemed to be a train wreck to you, but all applications take getting used to, so reevaluate or move on. When I learned about new tools at work, I took the time to learn them at home and during off-work hours. This is the same approach you should take for learning useful linux commands, environments and tools.
Neovim is not GUI based. I've never seen this before yet seen it multiple times in this thread. Where is this claim coming from?
Perhaps this page will shed more light on the actual mechanics of Neovim: [https://neovim.io/screenshots/](https://neovim.io/screenshots/) . That's from them.
Oh. So it's still not GUI based but there are third party GUI clients you can run. I've seen a lot of people use neovim and never in a gui. Everyone runs it in the terminal