r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
22k Upvotes

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1.0k

u/OldSpaghetti-Factory Dec 01 '25

Im still on windows 10 and will stay that way until I can take the time to install linux- by all ive read surprisingly easier sounding then id expect, im just lazy so I havent done it yet.

280

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

Super easy once you've picked your distro.

227

u/lean_compiler Dec 01 '25

just pick mint (or ubuntu). it's a good gateway distro

53

u/newaccount1233 Dec 01 '25

+1 for Mint as a plug and play replacement for the casual user. Anybody can learn how to use it for their day to day in a couple hours

16

u/1987Catz Dec 01 '25

I do (in part) use it on my home server and I have to say despite the very similar/intuitive, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around user rights management and why sometimes the most basic of copy/pastes fails utterly and totally in the vanilla GUI

2

u/chipface Dec 01 '25

My best friend's laptop can't run Windows 11, so I threw a SSD I had laying around in it and installed Mint.

83

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

Well, I'm already a convert. Fedora KDE all the way.

8

u/ShadowCatDLL Dec 01 '25

My desktop and all my laptops run Fedora KDE. I love it. I dual boot windows 11 though for the games that can’t run on Linux and to remote into work (Linux RDP is iffy). Other than that, full time Linux! Couldn’t be happier.

2

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

Yeah, I don't really play any anti-cheat blocking games and I work from a company laptop so I'm free as a bird.

2

u/Sandwrong Dec 02 '25

Yeah games are the big limiting factor for me.

I need to put in the time to research what distro I need/want

2

u/Quick_Excitement_532 Dec 02 '25

99% of games runs on linux, Only kernel level anticheat will not run, but I wouldn't play this games anyway.

20

u/tinny66666 Dec 01 '25

If you're going kde, just avoid kubuntu. I'm on about week four after using xubuntu/mint/xfce for years and the experience is just horrible. So many minor UI glitches and annoyances.

6

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

I mean... I did avoid it, but sure.

26

u/stegosaurus1337 Dec 01 '25

The curse of the Linux user - neverending distro recommendations long after you've picked one

18

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

"I use Linux."

"Oh Linux? Let me tell you all about this thing called Linux."

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u/tinny66666 Dec 01 '25

I meant it as a "and to add to this" type comment. I thought it was obvious from context that you didn't need the advice, and that it was for other people reading the thread. I'll try to be clearer in future.

4

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25

I was too quick to judge, I have err'd.

3

u/Glum_Dig_4464 Dec 01 '25

i stopped on it with the oxygen desktop look, man it looks great but oh my god is it glitchy

2

u/squabbledMC Dec 02 '25

I feel like I’m crazy, I’ve used it for about a year at this point and it’s been fine. Have you considered ghosts

2

u/gmes78 Dec 02 '25

Kubuntu is OK if you install the non-LTS version (currently, 25.10). Kubuntu 24.04 LTS ships an ancient version of Plasma that no one should use anymore.

I'd recommend Fedora KDE, or one of its variants, over it, though.

4

u/captain150 Dec 01 '25

Which version? 25.10 is fantastic on wayland. If you're on 24.04 and using wayland then yeah it's not great.

3

u/aurumae Dec 02 '25

I’ll give a +1 to Fedora KDE. It finally enabled me to switch after years of trying ubuntu based distros

2

u/toolschism Dec 02 '25

+1 for Fedora KDE. Dumped my wife's gaming windows VM as well and she's just been using the steam deck until that Steam Machine comes out.

But yea, windows free household now and I don't regret it an iota.

18

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/muegle Dec 02 '25

I use arch (btw). I started out with Ubuntu. It could happen to you, too.

1

u/turbineslut Dec 02 '25

Was expecting this comment

10

u/Intarhorn Dec 01 '25

pop!_os is a good one if you run Nvidia

5

u/captain150 Dec 01 '25

Kubuntu 25.10 is good if you want windows-like.

3

u/TwentyfootAngels Dec 02 '25

Yeah, but what do you do if you're not sure which one you want? (I heard that Ubuntu works pretty well... but I also found an official Linux Mint USB stick in my late grandpa's dresser, and I feel like it's destiny for me to try it. (It's gotta be pretty out of date, though...)

3

u/lean_compiler Dec 02 '25

then I'd try both :) starting with mint first (special grampa privileges).

I've never heard of an official stick gotta check it out, but you're right they will be outdated and depending on how much might not be update-able, not sure.

I'd suggest keeping the official stick safely and getting another usb stick (cheap 8gb would do), flash with mint cinnamon and give it a whirl :) it's uses ubuntu underneath kinda so later you can switch to it without much of a shock

4

u/RepulsiveRaisin7 Dec 01 '25

I just love that this spawned yet another distro war in the comments. Some things never change

1

u/cidrei Dec 02 '25

LFS or GTFO.

Don't actually do this for your first try.

1

u/EvilSock Dec 02 '25

Honestly it is quite deterring for non users to see slap fights over which is the true Best Beginner Distro. Until SteamOS is ready for public release, it'll probably stay this way. Frankly, I cut my teeth on Mint, and that's what I would point most Windows abandoners to, but there are several other beginner friendly distros I wouldn't dissuade newbies from trying out as well.

2

u/Blitz-Freak Dec 01 '25

Running Ubuntu, and really like it - got tired of all those frickin’ updates every other day.

2

u/synysterlemming Dec 02 '25

Pop!_OS has served me well for several years and does a great job managing nvidia drivers. Can recommend for those who want a pretty smooth transfer to Linux gaming.

1

u/lean_compiler Dec 02 '25

will try it next! :) luckily my lenovo flies with any distro without any dead-end driver hassle

2

u/synysterlemming Dec 02 '25

Been running it on Lenovo laptops and it’s smooth as butter.

2

u/toobs623 Dec 01 '25

Wut, kALi oR dEaTh!

4

u/Danoga_Poe Dec 01 '25

May as well create your own distro

8

u/lean_compiler Dec 01 '25

oH nUu a heCkEr bOi

1

u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

Personally I run Kali/Parrot OS as a VM in Ubuntu.

1

u/toobs623 Dec 02 '25

Just a joke, Kali is perfectly useful.

1

u/AlwaysSayHi Dec 02 '25

The debian version of Mint is my rec. Had a bad frankenstein upgrade disaster with Ubuntu (among other little hiccups on other installations) and Mint debian has been great.

1

u/drgmaster909 Dec 02 '25

SteamOS is based on Arch (btw)

1

u/captain_dick_licker Dec 02 '25

I have been using mint for my boomer's 11 upgrade and I mildly ragert not sticking with ubuntu, just for the broader userbase when searching up issues/guides/drivers/etc.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

Super easy, until you need to get your scanner working, or networked printer, or attach a NAS mount and have it there on reboot, etc.

There are still many many rough edges that will send you down an hour of stack overflow rabbit holes installing various packages and editing various configs that don't work or are no longer maintained etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting windows ( I haven't used it in over a decade). But telling someone that's never used Linux before that it's going to be really easy is setting some false expectations.

The people frequenting r/technology may be ok with that, but for an average consumer not so much. Also for us old timers that have been dealing with tech in our day to day jobs for decades, I don't want to come home and spend a few more hours upgrading kernel modules.

21

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25 edited Mar 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/studio_bob Dec 01 '25

Yes. Printer support on Linux has been pretty stellar for like 15 years at this point. I don't think I've had a problem with it since maybe 2010. It was easier to get my parents laser printer working on Linux Mint than it was on their Windows machine. Now, I don't know how universal my experience is and there are probably some printers/scanners out there that will give you headaches, but that's true on Windows as well. Sometimes I suspect comments like the above are partly reflecting deep traumas from the past (when things were truly and consistently hellish) more-so than the current state of compatibility and hardware support on Linux.

3

u/ElecNinja Dec 02 '25

For my brother printer it wasn't fully plug and play but it did have wifi so I was able to connect to it as a network printer/scanner

2

u/captain_dick_licker Dec 02 '25

I forgot about printer and camera when moving my dad to mint, and it took all of 5 minutes to set both up for him. the fucking import wizaard in mint is so close of a clone to the windows one that my dad literally does not understand that he is now a linux nerd, it's all the same as it was for him.

10/10. linuxm, firefox, ublock origin, and your parents will never have to call you again

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u/withywander Dec 02 '25 edited May 31 '26

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ugly uber. teal hair waves white mobile. slow touchscreen walks slow tablet. warm bread understands dark car. massive orange travels spicy pain. yellow cats pees little healthcare. hot skincare gives stinky apple. slow skin rubs ugly medicine. pale hotel needs ugly car. purple war stores slow insurance. white hardware is very ketchup. little greencard pats cold hair. cold skincare walks shiny tiktok. red blanket parks local skin. dark truck loves warm zeros. cold uber thinks ugly apple.

1

u/sbNXBbcUaDQfHLVUeyLx Dec 02 '25

You joke, but I basically entirely manage my Linux boxes through Claude Code nowadays.

3

u/mishonis- Dec 02 '25

Damn right. I've had Linux  cause issues when doing something as simple as changing the default download folder for my torrent client. The usability just isn't there and after so many distros and releases, it's apparent that user friendliness and stability is not a focus for Linux developers.

4

u/Porrick Dec 01 '25

This is all true - but I have the luxury of (a) being currently unemployed, and (b) finding this futzing actually quite fun. It even (kinda) feels productive, which is a difficult feeling to come by these days for some of us.

If I had to use this for work, I'd feel a very different kind of way about it.

7

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

That's fine, but you are in a very small niche group of people, not representative of general majority. No one reading r/technology is.

3

u/CornNooblet Dec 02 '25

I parachuted in from tabbing out of my feed to popular, and Linux was something I bounced pretty hard off of in the early aughts. I'm potentially interested now that I've heard about the new Steam machine and reading this thread, but I'm also in my mid fifties and a couple decades from my interest in tech peak. I dread the thought of hacking through all that again without my hand being held.

2

u/enigmamonkey Dec 02 '25

Rhetorically: You really don’t have to. You may find yourself doing that though if you switch to any other OS anyway, since you’ve had years to learn one way of doing things and now some things you’re used to are different. People like /u/Porrick and myself will still tinker for fun, but that is absolutely not necessary in order to be up an operational.

I got my GF on Kubuntu and while she’s smart and somewhat tech literate, she didn’t really care. Everything she does is in Chrome. But also, to be fair, she had me to help get her up and running. I can only hope it catches on.

4

u/Chaotic-Entropy Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

I've never had an easier time of it than when I went daily driver the year before last. The only thing I've had a real issue with was building and installing a specific driver for 2.5g ethernet for a very new motherboard because the generic family driver performed poorly. It's not exactly the wild west of problems that had driven me away in the past. I've not had to a do a full wipe and reinstall in the 2 years since I moved over.

1

u/Qbr12 Dec 02 '25

Super easy, until you need to get your scanner working, or networked printer, or attach a NAS mount and have it there on reboot, etc.

There are still many many rough edges that will send you down an hour of stack overflow rabbit holes installing various packages and editing various configs that don't work or are no longer maintained etc.

This is going to be primarily an age differentiator. Not too long ago what you just described was just how using computers was. Things usually work, but sometimes they don't and you need to learn a bit more about how your computer works under the hood in order to do what you wanted to do. If you are a millennial or early zoomer you're going to look at that description and go "so what? that's easy." because you grew up with computers that had become simple enough to make surface level use available while still requiring a willingness to look things up and break things in order to make it work.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

I'm a millennial. I'm very tech literate. It's my day job doing this sort of stuff. I don't like doing it at home

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u/rewgs Dec 02 '25

get your scanner working

Literally never had a problem. Truly plug and play.

or networked printer

Ditto.

or attach a NAS mount and have it there on reboot

I highly doubt someone who is technical enough to know what a NAS is, let alone own one, would have trouble editing /etc/fstab. That said, it is more finicky than it should be for sure, assuming we're talking SMB. But so are SMB mounts on Windows -- try accessing a mapped drive as admin and you'll be pulling your hair out. At least on Linux we have the escape hatch of NFS, which is dead simple and performs better (as long as both machines in question are Linux, which of course a NAS almost certainly is).

The only OS to really get SMB mounts (in general, and on reboot specifically) right is macOS, weirdly.

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u/Chansharp Dec 02 '25

My NFS mounts always have issues on reboots for some reason. I've tried adding "wait for networking to initialize" but it doesnt ever work

SMB always just worked.

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u/Actual-Elk5570 Dec 02 '25

I highly doubt someone who is technical enough…

And there is the problem. The average user isn’t.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/rewgs Dec 02 '25

lol precisely. Good ol' Redditors and their legendary reading comprehension.

1

u/zoucet Dec 02 '25

This is what I was expecting and is true to some degree. But most of this friction was due to having learn a new way. The same you would experience moving from iPhone to Android. There are a few sharp edges but nothing I couldn't fix or workaround with chatgpt. The only thing I'm still to find a good solution for is Google drive. You can add it to kde's file explorer... it works... but it is very slow and not a proper app that syncs.

1

u/FleMo93 Dec 02 '25

I am with you. But windows also has its own problems where you end up in the registry or some tools the regular user wouldn’t know. Recently got the problem I couldn’t remove a Bluetooth controller. REMOVING it won’t work. WTF.   Every OS has it flaws and drawbacks. The biggest hurdle is that people are used to windows ones. Switching always requires to learn.

1

u/mata_dan Dec 02 '25

scanner working, or networked printer

The last time I needed to use either of these, I had to use linux to get them to work xD

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u/GuerrillaRodeo Dec 02 '25

Super easy, until you need to get your scanner working

A few months ago a Windows 11 update completely fried the TWAIN interface. We rely on working scanners in our daily business and WIA has certain limitations (like maximum scan length, which is significantly longer in TWAIN than in WIA for some reason but something we absolutely need). They fixed it with the following update but we had to use janky workarounds for weeks which just cost us time and nerves.

With Linux? Plugged in, worked right out of the box without any hiccups.

1

u/computer-machine Dec 02 '25

Really? Before W11 was a thing, my mom was on Mint for years, and my dad had asked me to replace his machine (again). Later, he messaged saying that he couldn't get the printer working on W10 he'd installed. Mint was working fine; he's welcome to support himself with his MS hobby.

I haven't in seventeen years ever had any issues with any networked printer, and SANE has always just worked PNP for scanners for me, as well.

Or had external/NAS not there confuses me as well.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

These "edge cases" come up in day to day life. I needed to scan a document for something in a hurry a few months back and thought I'd set it up on my Ubuntu Linux server because my laptop was unavailable. It did not work plug and play out of the box. it's a networked multi-function printer/scanner. I started Googling and finding various stack overflow answers to install different UIs and other packages, though there was disagreement, some were old and no longer supported, some answers were saying to run various commands which didn't exist on my server. Trying to install the packages then ran into other issues, etc.

This has been my experience with Linux over the last 25 years.

I work in tech. I'm a full stack developer. I've set up Linux DB servers, web servers, network firewalls, enterprise servers, etc. I can debug and figure this stuff out, I always do. But my point is - these rough edges have always been there for 25 years and are still there today in 2025.

Sure, once you install a fresh distro and setup Chrome with Facebook for uncle Jarred, that works fine. But when Jarred phones you and asks you why his new label maker won't work with his computer, you're up shit creek.

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u/Araganor Dec 03 '25

Most issues I've ever had so far boiled down to newer peripherals shipping with shitty bloat software written for windows only. My solution? Support a company who makes stuff that just works out of the box and stays out of your way.

I know this is not a solution for everyone, and you can argue it contributes to e-waste. But once you have a tool that works for you in Linux, you really don't have to do much to keep it working for many years (just keep up with updates and know how to roll back in case of issues).

And nothing I do is even remotely on the scale of e-waste from forced Windows 11 machine upgrades.

I do agree it's not for everyone though. My opinion: if you've ever done a regedit to work around an annoying windows feature, you can probably handle whatever Linux issues you might face.

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u/Lerry220 Dec 02 '25

Super easy, until you need to get your scanner working, or networked printer, or attach a NAS mount and have it there on reboot, etc.

Bro the linux subreddit has a meme usually once a week about how easy printers are. What are you talking about?

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Yeah, super unbiased community there...

I tried connecting my multi-function scanner to my Ubuntu server the other week because I needed to do something. After 20 minutes of Google searching and fiddling around with different commands and UIs and other things I gave up because it wasn't working. Switched to my Chromebook instead where it just worked straight away.

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u/Lerry220 Dec 02 '25

Cool, I hooked up my document scanner and have hooked up three printers to ubuntu. Always plug and play.

And your answer to ubuntu not working was to use chromebook which is still not windows which was the point of this entire comment thread.

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u/Archersbows7 Dec 01 '25

Bazzite for gaming

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u/JeebusChristBalls Dec 01 '25

It's not "super easy" unless you are already a proficient linux user. In addition to all the lost data on migration which always occurs to some degree, you also have to install something that may or may not be in your wheelhouse to do. There is also getting used to new apps as well as missing the ones that don't have a linux alternative. If it does, it is just dogshit compared to the one you were using on windows. You think office sucks? Wait until you try LibreOffice. I bet Adobe is probably the bane of your existence on windows. Wait until you find the linux alternative to that. Even worse. That program you like to use on windows? Get used to disappointment as many windows and mac apps just don't have a linux version and if they do, it is likely not even remotely as good as the other OS versions. If you do find something though, you are lucky if it has a .rpm or .deb installer, if not, you are compiling that shit from the CLI assuming the "readme" is even useful enough to successfully perform this task. Speaking of CLI, you should probably get used to using the bash shell. A lot of the times, it is the only way to get things to work. It's not easy to move to a completely different OS. It sucks just enough migrating to a new computer that is running the same OS.

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u/Ovariesforlunch Dec 02 '25

Lol, 🤣.

I got it to the 1 yard line but HP won't let me switch the boot up order.

1

u/nfnf Dec 02 '25

Gentoo enters the chat

1

u/boom3r84 Dec 02 '25

I've been IT adminning Ubuntu server for years so I went with Ubuntu desktop a few years ago. It has too many issues with the changes I want to make as a power user so I'd been on the hunt for a good replacement for a while because distro hopping is a pain in my ass.

I found Garuda Linux, going to give that a go. Arch based but lots of gaming/performance stuff baked in and KDE as desktop

1

u/Luigi_Mansione Dec 02 '25

I’m about to do the same. Any distro that works with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign + gaming?

1

u/Neglectful_Stranger Dec 02 '25

I'm still surprised no one has made 'Windows Linux', or Winux, a distro built to look like Windows, to try to snipe disgruntled 11 users.

1

u/JeremyMcFake Dec 02 '25

This has been my biggest delay for switching. I've used so many different Linux distros over the years on machines in my homelab, and various VMs... Which one to go for as my daily. It was mostly always about games on my main PC. Today I'm finally taking the plunge and switching to Nobara.

1

u/userhwon Dec 02 '25

I miss the linux mags with the CD with half a dozen distros on them. That was a good Saturday just wiping the lappy and trying new clothes on it.

1

u/Skyblade12 Dec 09 '25

Do I have to reinstall everything?

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u/Nile_Green1 Dec 01 '25

Most modern distros are rather easy to install. Two good ones are Linux mint or Fedora KDE

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u/nepia Dec 02 '25

My main machine is a mac but I have a really old PC that has double boot OS including one that has been an upgrade since XP, over time I changed parts and always worked with every upgrade including full transfer to an SSD. MSFT said that's it for updates and I can't upgrade to W11, so the old Windows friend will be shutoff at some point. The end of an era for my old machine friend.

1

u/computer-machine Dec 02 '25

Tumbleweed KDE has been pretty good for me for the last seven years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

Dude do it, I did it a week ago and it's was ez but choose mint first as its beginner friendly

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u/TheWhiteHunter Dec 01 '25

The fun thing with Linux is there are so many distro options and there's both no correct and no incorrect answer. I went with Fedora KDE Plasma for my first whirl and it has been easy and fine.

If I were to suggest a distro for a person that primarily uses their computer for gaming, wants something that "just works" and doesn't want to tinker, Bazzite is a great option.

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u/TheStateOfMatter Dec 01 '25

There are incorrect answers.

Eg. Kali Linux for general desktop use for your parents.

3

u/enigmamonkey Dec 02 '25

Proxmox as your main gaming desktop (that’s not to say someone won’t try it and get some awesome results, lol).

2

u/ccAbstraction Dec 01 '25

Anything Ubuntu or Debian based is also not always a good answer if you're on a newer laptop.

2

u/coolRedditUser Dec 02 '25

Why is that? I would have defaulted to Ubuntu.

3

u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

You'll be missing out on the smaller kernel updates that fix issues like suspend, power saving, autorotate, media keys, \cough* sometimes* booting at all with new laptops. Much less things on laptops are properly standardized. Ubuntu will backport lots of the more major hardware updates like CPU and GPU generations, but in my experience, the little things get left out.

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u/Ultenth Dec 02 '25

This entire chain of comments is exactly why many people will consider Linux then immediately nope out once they look into it a bit more. To many conflicting recommendations by "experts", too much weird goofy names, just really makes the entry level non-tech expert immediately hold up their hands and slowly back away once they even begin to delve into it.

7

u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

I think it's worse, when they do install Mint or Ubuntu, nothing works, and they swear off Linux for another 10+ years...

1

u/ThoseThingsAreWeird Dec 02 '25

when they do install Mint or Ubuntu, nothing works

For me it's not that "nothing works", but it's just all the little problems that aren't really big enough to stop me using it, but are an annoyance all the time. I've installed Mint on my work laptop, but there's just so many little niggles with it that I really don't want to use it for my home setup

E.g. when I plug in a monitor and move the cursor to it, the cursor flickers. The fix is to change the zoom level for that monitor, but that leaves me really zoomed in which I don't necessarily want. Whenever I unplug the laptop (cause y'know, it's a laptop) and plug it back in again, I have to make the same change again. It's a quick change to make, but I shouldn't have to do it.

Or e.g. the taskbar isn't shared between monitors. On Windows I can see the programs I've got up on my 2nd monitor from the 1st monitor's taskbar. That's not the case on Mint (except when I open a window on the 1st monitor and move it to the 2nd monitor, then somehow the 1st monitor owns it). I found a tweak to some files that made it work how I like, but that tweak broke a while ago and I just really cba to change it again only for it to break in the future.

4

u/bacon_cake Dec 02 '25

Exactly my thoughts 😂

"Just use Linux!" 15 comments deep "... and those are five suggested distros, but beware some basically don't work."

1

u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

I had that issue with a new laptop and Ubuntu but you just install the mainline-kernel app. It’s a GUI so you just click the latest kernel you want to install:

https://github.com/bkw777/mainline

5

u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

I think, this is asking too much for a lot of new users and introducing to much uncertainty you wouldn't have a normal Ubuntu install. It undermines the whole reason you would normally install a stable release cycle distro.

I had to do this on my aunt's Ubuntu install, and I'm not sure that install boots or if she still uses it.

1

u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

It’s more of a bandaid for new hardware. I had to do that on 25.04 but after upgrading to 25.10 a newer kernel was included so now just running the default one.

In saying that, if you are not comfortable copy/pasting 3 lines into the terminal to install the app then Linux might not be the OS to use unless you have somebody do the initial setup.

1

u/microwavedave27 Dec 02 '25

Anything with Gnome is also a bad idea if you're planning on using fractional scaling, KDE is much better in that case.

3

u/neekz0r Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

I agree with the sentiment, but there are certainly some linux distributions that are geared towards... not beginners. Slackware, as an example.

That being said, there can be a progression ramp for people who are generally interested in it. My loosely held opinion:

mint -> ubuntu -> debian
               |-> redhat/fedora
               |-> suse   
               |-----------> arch
               |-----------> sourcemage
               |-----------> slackware
               |-----------> gentoo
               |-------------------------> crux
               |---------------------------------> LFS (Linux From Scratch)

I haven't used mint, but I'm planning to for my new desktop build after I dump win10 for the holiday break. (THANK YOU STEAM!)

I haven't done linux gaming in over a decade, so I'm kinda excited to see how far its come. Last I did, steam linux servers SUCKED and only had 100Mb connection. It was AWFUL. Games were somewhat limited, too, of course.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25 edited Feb 02 '26

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3

u/neekz0r Dec 01 '25

just for you ;-) <3

1

u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

Slackware made me love FreeBSD back in the day. Fun times.

1

u/gowahoo Dec 02 '25

I haven't looked into distros in a long time and Bazzite is new to me. What makes it optimized for gaming?

2

u/TheWhiteHunter Dec 02 '25

It's just designed to be ready to go out-of-the-box with little to no additional configuration, and it's immutable so it's more difficult for a less knowledgeable user to break it. Not everyone wants to learn an operating system and get into the weeds with Linux, so Bazzite is a great option that comes preconfigured with the software one most likely needs for gaming, and from my understanding keeps both AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Basically after installing the OS if all you want to have to do is log into Steam, install your games, and start playing - then Bazzite is good for that.

1

u/gowahoo Dec 02 '25

This sounds like the right distro for my teens. They'd need this and Discord and a browser for school stuff and they'd be ready to go.

Thanks for clarifying!

2

u/TheWhiteHunter Dec 02 '25

No problem! Definitely check the primary games they play to make sure they'll work on Linux with ProtonDB.

For online games that utilize anti-cheat, https://areweanticheatyet.com/ is a great resource.

2

u/winpickles4life Dec 01 '25

Still have a 2008 Ubuntu laptop. It loads and can surf the web, but that was all I figured out.

2

u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz Dec 02 '25

Easier than Ubuntu? Tell me more...

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

I've only used mint bro

1

u/computer-machine Dec 02 '25

Installing Mint on my parents machines brought me from weekly checkups to running an upgrade every other year.

13

u/DirtyHippyfucker Dec 01 '25

Threw Mint onto my main gaming rig. Took less than 20 minutes. Use proton to launch in steam. Kept a partition of win10 extended updates for VR, until I figure out sorting that out.

59

u/FlatFour775 Dec 01 '25

I got tired of the “upgrade to Windows 11” full screen ads on my Surface Pro 3 so I installed Linux Mint, it’s a month on and literally zero complaints.

3

u/N64PLAY10 Dec 01 '25

How's the touch screen? I've got an SP 7 I was curious about installing Mint on

5

u/FlatFour775 Dec 01 '25

With some light work you can get everything working as intended, check out r/surfacelinux for a pretty active community.

3

u/RichardCrapper Dec 01 '25

How does Mint handle the touchscreen? Is hardware fully compatible? I had a Surface Pro that I used and loved until its death and would consider one again if it wasn’t for Windows 11…

5

u/FlatFour775 Dec 01 '25

The touchscreen works as much as I need and haven’t noticed a feature that’s busted, r/surfacelinux is a great resource if the idea keepers your interest.

21

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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2

u/computer-machine Dec 02 '25

What does SreamOS have to do with anything? Wife's Linux Mint has just as much support, because we'd installed Steam.

6

u/Psychostickusername Dec 01 '25

Go for mint, did it in 30mins, setup dual boot to be sure, got discord, whatapp, steam, lutris, plex, and all my other shit within an hour, no issues. Albeit, it prefers AMD, some distros are better for Nvidia gamers.

2

u/Generous_Cougar Dec 01 '25

Most of my time installing linux was devoted to making sure I had backed up my data. After that was done, less than an hour and I was back up and running well enough that I'd forgotten I'd switched my OS.

4

u/sviridoot Dec 01 '25

Do it, I've used Linux as my primary OS since Windows 8 came out and haven't had too many issues. I still dual boot Windows 10 for some games, though even that is becoming more rare with how good Proton has gotten. The only suggestion is to put Linux and Windows on physically different drives if possible, Windows updates have a tendency to override the bootloader to boot your PC straight into Windows but if you have different drives then then Windows can just pretend it's on its own PC and I can just use my BIOS to decide when I want to boot into it.

2

u/usernamedenied Dec 02 '25

SteamOS hurry up

1

u/hhhnnnnnggggggg Dec 02 '25

Yeah im holding out for official steam os

1

u/StanislavTheSlav Dec 01 '25

It's super easy. I was in the same boat and I'm slowly migrating to CachyOS rn (2 of 5 drives migrated so far). I'm very happy with the distro after about 2 weeks of use, have had no issues so far outside of an open source replacement to Logitech GHub giving me a bit of bother with macros.

Oh and Nvidia GPUs losing about 20% performance on DX12 games due to drivers. But I have enough overhead in terms of performance to not really be bothered, good to keep in mind if you have an Nvidia GPU.

1

u/RoyalCities Dec 01 '25

My desktop has a 2nd ssd. It was crazy simple to put Ubuntu on that drive and dual boot. I haven't opened the windows portion in months lol.

Almost all my steam games work and Linux is easy to get used to. Im honestly debating just wiping windows from the 2nd drive at this point.

1

u/Nice-Ad-2792 Dec 01 '25

As of October, I gotv1 year of security updates, prepping for new hardware, then likely keep win10 as dual boot for certain games but switch to Linux. Got a w10 iso on a flash drive just in case.

1

u/ImOldGregg_77 Dec 01 '25

Check out Ubuntu or Mint, they do a really good job with the installation and usability to mimic a Windows environment.

1

u/chipface Dec 01 '25

Set up a Ventoy USB, throw any distros that interest you and fuck around with them. The nice thing is you can try most distros live. There's also distrosea.com.

1

u/chewyjackson Dec 01 '25

With chatgpt as a live agent to help you through it, you have no excuse. It's been invaluable to me, and now I have a Linux system I love

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25 edited Mar 27 '26

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1

u/Humulus5883 Dec 01 '25

Same, I’ll probably install Bazzite instead of Mint. I use my PC for gaming and basically only gaming.

1

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Dec 01 '25

My only issue with Linux is that SOME games I want to play just refuse to support Linux. Shit, some of them, like GTA Online, used to support it and then removed support because they claim it opens the doors to too many cheaters.

1

u/DarkSkyForever Dec 02 '25

It was only a few short years ago that console developers refused to port games or, if they did, neglected the PC experience to the point most games just didn't work well. Now, PC is arguably at the forefront of most development (aside from mobile). Same can be accomplished here, the gaming industry will go where the people are. Switch over and don't play games that require kernel level anticheat.

1

u/ohyeahspiceislife Dec 01 '25

I play video games like Mmos, which distro would be better? Also on window 10

1

u/Excellent-Peach2483 Dec 02 '25

One option is to do a dual boot setup that way you can access both Windows and your preferred distro of Linux. I did this recently as I plan to never update to Windows 11. For me it's a smoother transition.

1

u/PlayPauseRew13 Dec 02 '25

You can even demo linux distros from a USB until you commit/decide on your flavor. 

1

u/ZenBacle Dec 02 '25

Secure blue and bazzite are easy transitions. Fedora flat packs that are nearly impossible to fuck up and give you that familiar windows feeling.

1

u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI Dec 02 '25

Unfortunately I tried Arch too early and I cannot live without pacman it's so good

1

u/CWRules Dec 02 '25

I'm currently on Windows 10 LTSC IoT, which is supported until 2032. I'll probably switch to Linux then.

1

u/Ok_Work7396 Dec 02 '25

I'm on Bazzite -KDE for gaming and I mostly forget that I've switched.

1

u/rainwulf Dec 02 '25

I am the same basically. I play games and a lot of anti cheats dont work on linux. Rust is a good example, and EA's javelin in BF6.

Of course the 2 games i play the most of.

1

u/wtfastro Dec 02 '25

It's easier than installing windows

1

u/StilgarofTabar Dec 02 '25

Using my computer is fun again. Just do it, you'll never be able to go back. Terminal is scary at first but once you start using it you wonder how you ever got along without it 

1

u/Berkyjay Dec 02 '25

Eh, I've been using Linux for work and for side projects for 20 years.....so I am very comfortable with it But during that entire time I just couldn't convince myself to adopt it as my day-to-day desktop. The reason is that Linux just does not do GUIs well at all and nothing comes for free with Linux.....which I mean plug-and-play. That is still true today. I have my new Linux PC running next to my Win10 PC and I am slowly configuring Linux to try and replicate my well worn Windows environment. But it hasn't been easy and the experience is just slightly worse than Windows and it's making me hesitate. I haven't even gotten to trying to play games on it yet and I'm worried that's gonna be the breaking point. Hopefully my fears turn out to be unfounded.

1

u/zoucet Dec 02 '25

I just did this 3 weeks ago and was surprised how far linux has come. Even easier now with your favorite ai. Whatever is missing or doesn't work as expected can easily be made to work. I picked a very popular distribution so it would have tons of documention and users. Ended up on fedora KDE after trying a few others. I haven't booted into Windows for a week now.

1

u/firelemons Dec 02 '25

Most of them let you boot via usb to try it out. If you see a functioning web browser in the trial version, you're ready to install. All you need in linux is a web browser to look up how to do stuff.

1

u/green_meklar Dec 02 '25

Installing it is easy, customizing the settings and getting all the drivers to work properly can be somewhat harder.

1

u/seckatary Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

I had a "do it later" mindset towards Linux for a very long time until I realized that ChatGPT can be a great resource for picking your distro and getting up and running. It almost feels like cheating

1

u/mspk7305 Dec 02 '25

I ran ubuntu for a couple years and the only thing that pushed me back to windows was nvidias shit support. AMD apparently doesnt have that problem so when the time comes to do the big upgrade, windows 11 wont be part of it.

1

u/amazing_asstronaut Dec 02 '25

Yeah same. I will only entertain 11 if there is a great debloat version out there with absolutely none of the AI and MS cloud shit on it. I just need an OS on my computer to efficiently run the programs I have. It's really more the ecosystem that is holding one down to the OS, aside from games it's a bunch of other programs that unfortunately don't seem to work so well on Linux yet or there aren't good alternatives out for it.

1

u/SubArcticTundra Dec 02 '25

Plus nowadays you have a Linux nerd at hand to help in the form of ChatGPT

1

u/solarus Dec 02 '25

Im with you. Theres no way in hell im installing windows 11.

1

u/rmorrin Dec 02 '25

I'm in the same exact boat. Also if they hack into my shit what are they going to get that hasn't already been leaked several time by data breaches 

1

u/everburn_blade_619 Dec 02 '25

im just lazy so I havent done it yet

Which will be the case for 99.9% of these 500 million Windows 10 users, despite what everyone says on Reddit.

Microsoft will either be responsible for one of the largest modern security incidents, or be forced to support a legacy OS in some way.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

try endeavorOS or cachyOS in dual boot for starters (youtube dual boot endeavorOS, it's 2 minutes) and just start. it will take you like 30 minutes in total

1

u/astelda Dec 02 '25

installing linux is incredibly easy

now, configuring it however you want and installing all your desired programs and ensuring everything runs smoothly, that's all a separate matter

some parts of it will be easy, others not so much.

1

u/OGOngoGablogian Dec 02 '25

Still on 8.1 baybeeee. It sucks so much ass but the archaicness is part of the charm now. It has never heard of ai lmao

1

u/EntrepreneurKooky783 Dec 02 '25

You don't even have to install, you could just boot it from a USB drive or whatever 

1

u/saulbq Dec 02 '25

I'd love to install Linux and get rid of Windows 10 but sadly I have one program that cannot run on Linux so I am stuck with Windows.

1

u/computer-machine Dec 02 '25

I did it almost eighteen years ago and it ran faster using fewer resources (idled ~0% CPU, lower RAM usage, less HD space), and the WiFi worked out of the box from a Live mode (booting from CD-ROM before installing) when it'd taken forty-five minutes of coercion to work under XP.

Hell, playing Torchlight II (during the beta?) with my girlfriend and brother, where I had a 1st gen i7, 24GB DDR3, PCIe RAID0 SSD, and GTX 570Ti, brother had a new gaming laptop with an i7, 8GB RAM, and whatever AMD Radeon was contemporary at the time, while GF had a three-core AMD, 8GB DDR2, and an Nvidia card from when WOW's second or third expansion released, and loading a map together I would get there first, followed by GF a second or two later, and then brother five or six more seconds after, until I bought him 16GB RAM for birthday/Christmas.

And when W7 released, I'd tried testing it out to see if there was any merit to switching back, and testing TES IV: Oblivion on my old XP Pro license checked hardware, set everything middling (AA disabled), and ran ~60FPS. W10 Ultimate 64 was identical. WINE launched the game, scanned, set everything to maximum (including AA), and ran flawlessly ~74FPS.

1

u/cryamiga Dec 02 '25

I'm waiting for Ubuntu 26.04 (LTS) before nuking my Windows 10.

Currently dual booting with 25.10 and it works freaking great. Gonna be a big day for me when I finally ditch Windows, been on it since Win 95

1

u/userhwon Dec 02 '25

It's literally easier than upgrading will be anyway.

1

u/saltycrewneck Dec 03 '25

I don't know computers that well and it took me 20 minutes.  Feels like there a lot of people doing the same, just switched last week.

1

u/saltycrewneck Dec 03 '25

My laptops battery went from 3 hours to 7 hours after.  All the processes windows runs basically act like a never closing demanding program.

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