this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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Linux Gaming

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I've been a Windows user all my life and had dabbled in the Apple ecosystem for a bit. With the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 in Oct 2025, I figured I'd put myself through a huge challenge of cutting over completely to LInux without a secondary backup drive with Win 10 on it. If I could survive the struggles for a few months, I'd be golden, and if I couldn't, then I could switch to Windows 10 LTSC and be good until 2029. The intention was to completely force myself in without a backup plan - the only way out would be to install a new Windows OS. I chose Linux Mint after careful consideration, especially considering that there's tons of resources and help with this distro, and it's a great onboarding ramp for Windows users. I need the familiarity since I'm in tech full time and just don't have the energy to hassle with my PC after a long stressful day at work.

I also used this as a good excuse to upgrade my PC a bit, too. 😀

After switching in mid December, I'm happy to report that I'm still alive after 30 days. My computer hasn't killed me. And I've been able to do work and game on my PC without too many hiccups. Marvel Rivals still crashes ever since the Season 1 update. Overwatch works perfect. My other games, on both Steam and GOG, work perfectly fine. But I haven't been able to test every game out there, but I know I can use Proton DB if needed.

I even edited this screenshot in GIMP after being forged in the fires of Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop all my life! I even stripped exif data using command line tools! I even installed this cool neofetch thing that I always saw in people screenshots of their PC or whatever, every time I saw someone's Linux build with their thigh high socks and neofetch on the terminal!

But so far, switching to Linux Mint has been great! I'm excited to deep dive more!

Note:

  • I backed up all my data from Windows into a USB drive. I'm slowly bringing all that stuff over to my Linux Mint computer and rebuilding my music, video, photos, etc. Lot of work, but it's so cool feeling so liberated!
  • I may also want help from you Linux nerds from time to time. I'll make posts/memes begging for help when I get desperate. But so far, almost every issue I've had has been resolved via an internet search!
  • I pray that I won't come crawling back to Windows. I don't expect that to happen with how great my experience has been thus far.

Specs:

  • Linux Mint 22
  • Ryzen 7 9800x3d
  • Thermalright Phantom Spirit
  • MSI X670e Carbon WiFi
  • Sapphire Nitro+ RX7900 XTX
  • Corsair Vegeance 64 GB DDR5-7200
  • Gen 5 Crucial T700 (?) M.2 x 2
  • Corsair 5000d
  • Noctua case fans (Lian Li too problematic on Linux based on all the research I did in advance)
  • Seasonic Focus Gold 1000W

Old Specs Everything the same as above apart from:

  • Windows 10 Pro
  • Intel i7-12700k
  • Noctua NH-U12A
  • MSI Pro Z690-A
  • MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio
  • Samsung Gen 3/4 M.2
  • Corsair Vengeance Pro 32 GB DDR4-3600
  • Lian Li AL120 case fans
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

I'm sorry to tell you that you are also a nerd now that you've installed linux

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

For those making the switch to Linux for the first time, especially Mint, one of my favorite YouTube hosts is currently filming/releasing a series where he does the same.

Check it out: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXHMZDvOn5sU4nw1wdWGXQf5-Fj0k2N7n

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Congrats. I made the switch to Ubuntu in 2016, you are spoiled these days with Proton. I want to concur with the advice to learn the terminal. You dont need it yet, but you will eventually. It'd be wise to do some research on your package manager too. You're on Mint, so it should be apt.

Also, word of advice for future OS swapping if you- say- wanna try a new distro someday. Find yourself an external drive for your files like music and documents. Its better to not need to rebuild your library in the first place if you can, and its safelyoff the OS drive if something goes wrong. I got a cheap Mybook backup drive, 4TB for 90 bucks, and formatted it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Gabba gabba we accept you, one of us! One of us!

Welcome to the club! One bit of advice: Be not afraid of the terminal. Learn to use it, it's a powerful tool and very useful. I recommend going to youtube and following along with a "bash basics" or "linux terminal basics" type video or two as if it were a class, it'll help familiarize you with some of the more commonly used tools to navigate your system and stuff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Woah now there buddy. This fellar just starting down the long trail of Linux and you are already trying to shanghai them to terminal land?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

When I studied I had classes in bash lol. So when I tried out distro of linux, I found myself relying more on terminal than desktop x_x (then proceeded to terminally kill my desktop enviroment, damage some wifi apps, change shit up and had to reinstall :| )

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nice hope to do the same when windows 10 goes end of life.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

If you know something works it's hard to want to fix it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

he needs more challenges in his life

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[–] [email protected] 173 points 4 days ago (5 children)

"You" nerds? It's "we" nerds now, nerd.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 days ago (1 children)

NOOOOOs very darth vader-y

And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for your meddling logic.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Welcome to the fucking Linux Thunderdome

Nerd

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

You love to see it. I also switched my home machines cold turkey from win10 to Linux Mint last month!

I have been using it at work for a long time, but just didn’t do enough on my home desktop PCs for it to be worth fiddling with them and setting servers and stuff back up. But now that I made the switch, I am actually using my PC more at home because it’s smoother and more fun to use now!

The main one is an i7-9700k (8c/8t) with 32 gigs of ram and a GTX 1080. It has such a long life left ahead of it. Heck the other machine is a 2500k (4c/4t) with 16GB from like 2011 and it’s excellent for desktop use or non-demanding games.

I see myself sticking with Mint with Debian & Ubuntu upstream for the foreseeable future. But I do wonder several years from now SteamOS will push many of us to use something with Arch upstream if not just SteamOS itself.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Bro thank you from the bottom of my heart for the type up. I've been contemplating this for months and this very may well be the final tipping point for me to make the plunge. I'm in pretty much the same boat, tech savvy but don't want to deal with shit I dont have to which has been my main reason for not diving in yet. I've thought of doing exactly what you described as I do love a little challenge, which I get contradicts what I just typed. Anyway, yeah, thanks again for the post! Will be doing my own switch here in the near future.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

Happy to post this! I wish you good luck with your switch!

My approach was of course to backup all my personal files to a large backup drive. I exported as many as configurations for my programs as I could - like for Handbrake and FreeTube as an example. I backed up those configs so that on my Linux OS I could just import them and have all my programs configured the way I wanted. Before I pulled the plug on my windows, I also wrote down every program I used and saved it into a simple list, so that I can hunt for alternatives.

That approach I think was great for me since I spent a lot of time planning and carefully backing everything up.

It’s been very smooth for me with minor hiccups when I first cutover to Linux Mint, but I’m damn happy with how well things have gone.

Take your time to methodically prepare and I’m sure you’ll do well when you’re ready to commit.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Your striped thigh-highs will be delivered in the mail within a month.

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

This hit me in the gender

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Pro tip, if you’ve not found it already - there’s a package for gimp called “photogimp” that makes it use the photoshop interface instead of- it makes it so much easier to use! Highly recommend.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

Oh that’s so awesome, I had no idea about this! I jotted this down and will definitely try it out tomorrow. Things I take for granted and know so well in Photoshop, I can’t even figure out for the life of me how to do in GIMP. It’s practice what I need, and this package sounds great to help me ease into it again. Thank you!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Congrats. I think Mint will treat you well.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You are a certified penguin now

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago

Another nail in the Windows coffin.

Another lost potential customer for Linux hostile gaming publishers.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

Hey I just wanted to share how I was able to get Marvel Rivals running, although I'm on a different distro it should work for you:

In the Launch options (right click game > properties > general tab) enter this:

SteamDeck=1 %command%

Then, it tricks the game into believing you are on steam deck, and it should run. If you want to disable the performance metrics, just press right shift+f12.

I'm a recent lifetime windows user to Linux but loving it! I've dual booted so I can still play stuff like fortnite/call of duty but surely those will come around as the user count climbs :)

Edit to add: I found this fix on protondb.com - you can usually find others posting helpful stuff there relating to any Linux game!

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Today Valve published a Proton Experimental update that fixed the Marvel Rivals crash for me. Be sure to set it up in game properties / compatibility.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

omg you chose the wrong distro aaahahhhh~~~

Seriously, though, I'm glad you're enjoying the switch, hope you also enjoy the mandatory thigh-highs!

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (14 children)

I'm thinking of doing the jump this weekend but I'm scurred. I don't want to spend hours debugging an OS like I did over a decade ago. Any reassuring words?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

A direct hop is usually not the best way to move into the Linux world. The best way I've heard (and wished I did myself) is slowly start migrating to programs that will be available and you'll be using, while still on Windows. Get used to how new things work and if an emergency comes up, you can fall back to your tried and true tools. Then, just keep migrating apps until most of what you use is open source stuff, or stuff widely available. (Spotify, Discord, Zoom, etc.) Once you have your workflow worked out, you've found substitutes for things you can't get on Linux, then is a good time to take the plunge.

Going cold turkey is going to be really rough. I had Fedora on a side piece laptop for years before my first try on my workstation and it was a disaster. Less than a week later I had to go back to Windows. But, now I'm familiar with the tools I use and I've been a full convert for a few months now and it's been great.

You can do it! Just...take it slow.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Hell yeah! I'm proud of you nerd! Trust me i know it can be overwhelming but you're doing amazing figuring all these things out! :)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

If you want to game on Linux check out protondb.com/ you can find what games work and even fixes. Also proton-ge works well, MangoHud for stats but it requires some config but you can use Goverlay to configure it a lot easier. Also of course read documentationarch wiki is the best but keep in mind it's for a different distro so paths might be different

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

A bit of unsolicited advice now you're in to tinkering. Set up some kind of NAS.

Having everything available wherever and whenever you need it is so much better than messing about with thumb drives.

[–] Bread 28 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's how they getcha. First you install Linux because it looked fun, then you buy a small NAS to protect your most important data, next thing you know you have a server rack in your basement and a half petabyte of storage. Don't listen to him, OP! This is the path to many financial woes. Run while you still can!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I like your background looks good. I've been using Linux on my laptop for a long time, newer distros and softwares have come a long way since when I started, but I'm unfortunately still rocking Windows on my main art station until Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC runs out of security updates.

Maybe longer if I just unplug it from the internet.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Protip.once you have it setup make a snapshot or backup. You will be trying stupid shit out and breaking the system as you explore.

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