this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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My Windows 10 install broke, but I'm hesitant to switch to Linux. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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As the title say's, my Windows 10 install broke, but I'm still unsure whether or not to reinstall Windows 10 or install Linux.

Context:

A few months back, Windows 10 updates started to fail on my desktop. I had considered just reinstalling the OS but as my machine was working just fine I simply tolerated it.

Today, when my machine auto-updated it broke something. At first I thought the update worked. But soon I realized that the taskbar was acting odd. All the shortcuts I had placed on my taskbar were working as usual, but when I right clicked them nothing would happen. I clicked on the start menu and the search bar but nothing happened. Most of the widgets on the right side of the taskbar weren't working such as Volume, Wi-Fi, Date & Time, and Notifications. I assumed it was just the taskbar that was broken but when I tried to use the windows key to open the settings menu, it didn't work either, nor did it's keyboard shortcut.

It seems the update had broken some apps that, though didn't prevent Windows from starting, made navigating it a lot more difficult.

I've used Linux before. I had a Linux Mint, and EndeavourOS virtual machine installed on my computer. More recently, I installed EndeavourOS on an old laptop I had lying around, and have been using it daily for about a month now. Although I've had my difficulties, I've been loving my experience.

Though I'm still a Linux newbie I've been meaning to give Linux a real shot on my desktop for a couple weeks now, but as my machine was working just fine I didn't really feel any necessity to make the switch.

But with my Windows install breaking, I feel like its time to give Linux a real shot.

My Questions:

I want to install Fedora on my desktop but I still have a few questions pertaining to Linux and my desktop specs.

I'm running a GTX 1660. I've heard a lot of bad things about running Linux with an NVIDIA GPU so I'd like a few things clarified.

  • How would I install NVIDIA drivers?
  • Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?
  • A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?
  • I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?
  • I've had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does proton work with Fedora?
  • With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?
  • Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

If you believe Fedora wouldn't be the best distro for me I'm welcome to hear any suggestions, though I'm not enthusiastic about running anything Debian based nor installing vanilla Arch.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as lazy for not doing my research. I've tried to research many of these questions before but found no concrete answers.

To all those who took the time to respond to my post.

Thank You!

Edit: I've made a new post

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I think you should check out Bazzite or uBlue.
They're both based on the immutable versions of Fedora, but more or less slightly tweaked.

I would recommend them over Nobara. Nobara is very insecure and a one-man-project, and I don't know if that are criteria for a solid distro.

The atomic Fedora spins on the other hand have many advantages:

  • secure
  • self maintaining and easy to use
  • unbreakable, and you can roll back easily in case something breaks
  • work out of the box
  • you can select the -nvidia images and then your drivers are already baked in, since they are known to break or cause problems.

Bazzite is an attempt to "clone" SteamOS/ Nobara, and provides you with a great out of the box gaming setup.
The other uBlue spins are more vanilla and general purpose.

You could also check out VanillaOS, which is currently under development, but very focused on simplicity and newcomers.

Your questions:

  • Nvidia: see my uBlue answer. They're baked in and the best setup. If you want a traditional mutable distro, like Fedora, Mint, etc., you can install them with one click, but they might cause problems.
  • Game compatibility: look at protondb.com A lot of Anticheat software works, but a lot more don't. Depends. Remember to activate Proton in Steam, or most games don't get shown.
  • Modding software should also work, check out Bottles (Wine), but you might have to allow access to the corresponding directories, since Windows apps should and get sandboxed.
  • X/ Wayland: Just try WL and see if it causes problems. With the proprietary Nvidia drivers, and especially Gnome, it should work fine and is in general way better (smoother, etc.) than X
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Would you mind explaining why Nobara is insecure, other than it being a one man project? I just recently installed it as my daily driver and due to hardware issues, distro hopping is nearly impossible (primary laptop screen is broken and even using the fn key to swap monitors won't let me see BIOS or bootloader), so at least knowing the issues would be fantastic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I assume he just means that one guy will probably miss some stuff and might not patch things as quick. Not that it has known security issues

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I've just made a post where I explained my points I have against it, but want others to give some input and tell me if I'm wrong. Feel free to join the discussion! :) https://feddit.de/post/9042712