Like perhaps many others I am debating what to do with my PC at the end of support for windows 10 later this year. I have read a lot of discussions here about switching to Linux, and a lot of commentary that though it has gotten a lot more plug and play it maybe still has some weaknesses. I just want to know what those are, and if it can support what I currently do with my computer.
Basically my computer is just for gaming. I play a plethora of games both major titles and small indy games. I also use mods on my games sometimes. Beyond gaming it's just basic web browsing.
More specific questions:
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I think I need to pick a "distro", right? Based on the above, which distro may work best for me?
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what am I most likely to NOT be able to do, if anything? I have heard modding in particular can be challenging with Linux. Like Skyrim mods that use a script extender or rely on various Windows programs. Is that true? Are there some smaller indy games that don't have Linux support (thinking back to the early mac days)?
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I would rate my computer technical ability at like..... A 4/10. I haven't done anything too crazy but can Google most issues and willing to learn. Is this realistically enough to get me up and running with Linux? I don't have any programming experience or anything of the sort.
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if the final answer here involves running a windows partition, is it possible to safely still use a windows 10 partition, even after the end of support? Or does it need to be a windows 11 partition? Best case is no partition, but curious if it comes to that.
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anything else I might run into that I'm not expecting? Words of encouragement?
Here’s what I did. I got an external USB drive and I installed Linux mint on it. That way the windows drive inside the computer was left alone. Worst case scenario I just reboot the computer go back to windows. I was I was up and running.
Once I had Linux Installed on the external drive, I then installed steam on the external drive.
I play Guild wars 2. I did not buy the game through steam. I bought it directly from the maker of the game. So what I did was, I went Guild wars two website. Downloaded the executable, which is obviously Windows executable to my Linux computer. And told Steam to run it as a non-steam game. I just had to make sure I went into the settings for steam and turn the compatibility for the game on. Once the game was installed into Linux . I then just ran the game under steam in Linux no big deal. Works flawlessly.
I had to copy all of my music MP3 files over to Linux, That’s not hard to do.
Linux meant as others have said is very friendly for new users. It’s basically plug-in play. I have a printer made by brother that worked out ofthe box. The only thing I’ve never been able to get to work on that printer is on the physical printer itself there is a button called scan. It doesn’t work under Linux for me. I even went through the brother company to get tech-support. They said the drivers are installed and everything is set up correctly, but the button still doesn’t work. They say it’s something to do with my firewall, but I’ve pretty much given up on that.
I ran it that way for better part of seven months. Seven months being from when I first install Lennox to the external drive to now. Over the weekend I actually formatted the drive on the inside the computer and just installed Linux there.
You see the problem running on an external drive is it runs slow as hell. I mean to bring up a web browser. Can take you a minute and half. But I did it that way just so I could test Linux without destroying the windows install in case I did something wrong. But everything works fine. I can do what I want so there is no point in running on the slower system.
Linux mint has a package manager, Think of it like add remove programs. Only this package Manager has a ton of programs that you can add to the system. It goes out to the Internet and find these programsand then categorize them under games, music graphics, etc. And all you have to do is just click on the program then click install and it just takes care of it.
Strongly recommend trying mint as your first step into Linux.