2024 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop, at least for my boyfriend. He’s running Windows 7 right now, so I’ll be switching him to Ubuntu in a few days. Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.
It’s ancient, unsupported, and closed source. Nobody can create or distribute security updates. People would have been happy to keep using horses and buggies if there’d been an automatic horse shit shoveller.
How so? 7 is the last good version of Windows. It’s not surprising some people want to keep using it. It does have security issues but at least there are no ads in the Start menu and it doesn’t shill for OneDrive on startup.
That’s true, but their apathy or ignorance is a threat to any networked device. There’s definitely an argument for “my device,y software, my rules”, and technically you can run windows 7 as long as you want, but Valve shouldn’t be perpetually expected to support deprecated software either. In their case specifically, if would be hard to ensure their anti-cheating software isn’t being circumvented at the operating system level, meaning the experience of everyone on any OS would be lowered by continuing to support a 14 year old version of Windows.
If I’m not mistaken it’s not that Steam will just completely cease to function on that date, Just they won’t be fixing any bugs related to Windows7/8 from that point on.
I’m sorry but arch is a terrible choice for a first Linux OS: it breaks often, and has problems updating it if you don’t update regularly, (stuff only Linux Nerds overlook when advising an OS).
It doesn’t break often, it doesn’t have problems updating it you don’t update regularly.
It might be a bad choice for a first-time Linux user due to the heavy setup process/time post-install, but as a gaming platform it works absolutely fine. Steam Deck runs on Arch ffs, come on now. 😄
Curious: when was the last time you used Arch? Seems like you haven’t used it of late, considering those misconceptions you spewed. Or maybe you are running experimental/unsupported stuff?
I’ve used it for over a decade now and had less problems with it than with Ubuntu that I ran for much less time before Arch.
Let me try to reply to your somewhat heated rebuttal, Last I used arch (that was manjaro 4years ago; endeavorOS 3 years ago) so yes quite a while back I confess, I encountered multiple issues updating some of these listed below:
As I updated sporadically around once every 1-4 months with little time to spare for system maintenance and the prime requirement It Just Works™️ running Steam, in both cases eventually it didn’t cut it for me.
I only recently learned that updating without being subscribed to their newsletter is not recommended, none of the YouTubers or Arch enthusiasts I’ve come across warn about this.
wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenanceRead before upgrading the system Before upgrading, users are expected to visit the Arch Linux home page to check the latest news, or alternatively subscribe to the RSS feed or the arch-announce mailing list. When updates require out-of-the-ordinary user intervention (more than what can be handled simply by following the instructions given by pacman), an appropriate news post will be made.
I don’t know what kind of issues Manjaro or Endeavor have had, probably plenty, but I’m running vanilla Arch for over a decade as I said, no issues. I update once a week maybe. I take a look at the packages that will be updated, and I do as the wiki said – check the website for big news/manual intervention. Sometimes there’s manual intervention, but they almost never concern me because it’s due to something I don’t have installed. This is standard routine for Arch, and if you don’t pay attention then you are not using Arch properly. (I don’t pay attention most of the time either, honestly, but it still doesn’t break.)
I also use Nvidia and Steam (Flatpak) and it works great and I’m very satisfied. Works better than my Windows installation actually; better performance.
Arch being an unstable mess is a misconception these days since a long time, I think. It’s been great.
I’ve updated old laptops with Arch that have been sitting for years without updates. I just run -Syu and it basically replaces every single package 😅, then I reboot into a fresh, working system. 👍 All good. Happened plenty of times.
I have the throw my opinion in here, I recommend Debian. Ubuntu is based off of it, as is most of the other distros people are recommending. With AMD processor and GPU, Debian has been my best OS experience to date. No bloat, recent kernel, and stable as hell. Only advantage of Ubuntu is the plethora of tutorials and guides written for it, but most of those will work with bookworm if you use Ubuntu jammy repos and guides.
I beg to differ. The no bloat might simply turn out as an issue when they have an Nvidia Card or try to install drivers for it. Additionally the installer is not very intuitive. (And Ubuntu has other Problems where why not just use Mint which has so many UX und GUI Features from windows, it even prompts you to install drivers using an simple GUI application)
Check out Lime disto. It’s a friendlier interface and all the cool perks of Ubuntu. It’s built on the basic same architecture. I have had my Steam and many other games work. If it wasn’t for Epic I would go full Linux.
I’m sure you’re probably aware, but the Heroic Game Launcher has compatibility built in to install and launch both Gog and Epic games. Makes it almost as easy as steam to set up and get going. I can’t speak to any multiplayer/FPS games with anti-cheat shit though, probably SOL there
I tried it. It does have the launcher. However the Anti Cheat software of the game no one can get around. I’m even in their discord and the explicitly say it doesn’t work or load in. You can get into the game menu and the minute you instance in the game boots you.
I would recommend creating a Ventoy USB drive and download some live ISOs of your choice. Then boot them and let your BF try them. Because then he can choose a distro by his liking to the overall experience.
To be fair, he could simply pay 5 bucks for a key and switch to Windows 10 or 11. Linux should be something people choose to try firsthand for a while before moving on.
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