Yesterday I posted about my new pc, one of the things I mentioned is that I use Arch Linux. If you are not familiar with it, there is a meme where arch linux users are stuck up and they like to show off saying "I use arch btw", hence the title.
I've always use Linux on servers, but for desktops I was stuck with Windows for the longest time. I've tried many times in the past to switch to Linux, but it was a really bad experience as a gamer. As a developer, it's always been a pretty good experience, but gaming and developing was only viable a few years ago.
As an nvidia GPU user, the experience was an even rougher ride than if I used AMD. NVIDIA has always used proprietary drivers wouldn't embrace open source drivers. This caused a lot of problems in Linux as they never really gave it their full attention.
Up until about 3 months ago, I still had problems with NVIDIA drivers. 90% of the problems were fixed, and gaming was near perfect, it was just while I was using the desktop I would have issues. For a while I had flickering in games, but this was fixed when NVIDIA supported explicit sync sometime last year. The issue that plagued me the most was one of my monitors would freeze and no longer update, when this happened I could switch TTY terminals and recover if I notice it in time, otherwise my entire system would crash. This would happen anywhere between 5-6 times a week to 3 times a day. It varied update to update. For a while it was really bad, then they fixed it somewhat and it only happened every few days. Then it came back and was happening twice a day. It was the biggest issue I had that wasn't resolved for a long time. I haven't had it in a few months now and I believe it is finally fixed.
HDR was another problem that hit NVIDIA the most, with this being fixed near the end of last year. The problem was in games you had to use gamescope which kind of had it's own issues. A few months ago there were patches into proton that allowed you to use HDR without gamescope and it is glorious (inside joke). Now I can run HDR in games without any problem. I had HDR on my desktop for a while now.
As of this point, most of my outstanding issues are resolved. My PC upgrade went so well, I pulled my NVME out of my old system, put it in my new build and rebooted. Not a single dialog or notice that I had anything to do. I'm back up and running and gaming no problems.
It was the Steamdeck that really got me serious about getting off Windows. I've wanted off windows since Windows 10 was announced and Microsoft went from evil to pure evil. I was tempted to go to Mac OS (via a hackintosh, I wouldn't buy their desktops) but support for Hackintoshing was dying with the new Apple silicon chips and I wouldn't be able to game. I do like Mac OS for productivity though. I was able to run almost every productivity app I use on Windows under MacOS or there was an equally good or better option available.
After Valve released the steamdeck and made so many improvements to proton it was clear Linux was a viable option for gaming and productivity. Finding a distribution though, was a night mare. I formatted my drive and switched OS so many times in a 3 month period. I tried all these distributions during this time.
- Ubuntu
- kUbuntu
- PopOS
- Cinnamon
- Debian
- Tumbleweed
- EndeavourOS
- Nobara
- Fedora
- PikaOS
- Arch
I really liked PopOS, I am not generally a gnome fan but it worked well. I didn't like that they were so caught up making their new desktop environment their updates were slow. I came back to PopOS later on, but eventually left.
I hate Ubuntu for a desktop and the decisions they have made (namely snaps and so on). So I tried kUbuntu which focuses on KDE desktop but it still had issues I didn't like.
Tumbleweed had snapshots which I really loved how integrated it was to the system and updates. I had issues which really bothered me and I moved on.
Nobara is basically Fedora with gaming focused. This was a pretty good experience, but ultimately I wanted .deb package support.
At this point I switched to PikaOS which has common team members. PikaOS is Nobara but uses Ubuntu as core rather than Fedora. This was great, and I used this for a while. One thing I noticed though a lot of drivers would be pulled from the Arch repositories. So I decided to give Arch a try.
Arch instantly clicked with me. I had complete choice of what networking stack I wanted, what desktop system, everything was my choice. I love how the package manager keeps the last installed version on your system so you can always downgrade to previous versions without Internet connectivity. AUR packages is the main draw of Arch, anything that isn't in Arch's official pacman repositories, the community has in AUR. This made supporting .deb packages a non-issue. I ended making hooks in pacman so I would get the snapshot functionality I loved from tumbleweed in arch. Whenever I add/remove a package, I get a btrfs snapshot before and after so I can easily roll back. I also have a hook to save my list of packages whenever I add/remove packages so I have a text list of everything installed in case I ever have to switch or look through it.
What I really love about arch though is it is a rolling release. When KDE updates, it is only a few days before I get those updates. I don't have to wait 3-6 months for the next major release of Ubuntu or something to get those updates. This is another reason I was drawn to tumbleweed.
Almost every software package I ran in Windows is available on Linux. There was very little sacrifice made. As for gaming, 98% of what I play is as simple as buying it on Steam, clicking install, then playing. The only thing I really lose is highly competitive games like Fortnite and Apex Legends which are filled with cheaters anyway.
For a while I maintained a 2TB NVME drive with just Windows and Steam installed in case I had to switch for any game. I haven't done so in around a year now. On my new system, I didn't even move over the drive.
Linux has allowed me to implement a lot more automation easier than I could with Windows. It is just so much easier to do what I want on a regular basis and I am so happy to be out of Microsoft clutches, especially as they start forcing shit like Windows Recall on their user base.
That's my TED Talk.
Posted Using INLEO
I know it's not an AMA but who is the worst, Google or Microsoft?
Using Linux, why do you have more confidence that there is no malicious code hidden away by the smaller outfits?
Thank-you
Microsoft by far, Google has gone to great lengths to protect consumers, although they do their own shit too but they supported the SSL movement to protect customers from government spying. They want all your data for themselves though.
It's open sourced, it is very quickly discovered and taken out of the pipeline if something is discovered.
Really interesting, thank you very much.
I still love your build posts the most!
Best wishes.
Ohh Marky we are from the same sudo pacman team!!
I used Unix when I was in college, but my first real introduction to Linux was Suse when Netware bought heavily into them. I use Ubuntu on a fair number of machines, but I don't have the coding skills to do much beyond the basic stuff. I wish I was more skilled at Linux. It always amazes me when someone has a piece of hardware they can't get to work, so they just write their own code to make it compatible.
I have the same problem with Linux that I do with the Hive blockchain. They're both superior to the crap that the sheeple use like Fakebook or Microsuck, but people just don't seem to understand or appreciate why they're better and go back to the same old crap. I've shown thousands of my students Hive, but they always go back to TikTok. The only people who have appreciated Linux are people whose computers were completely shot when it runs Windows. I told them there's nothing wrong with your old computer you just need to run Linux Mint, but they always end back in the Windows trap when they get a new PC.
Paging @ryivhnn as this is relevant to their interests. :)
I mostly use Xubuntu, Debian, and Mint. I've never tried Arch though.
You seem to have pretty solid knowledge of hardware, I could never build a system on my own.
Fucking Hell, you lost me in the first paragraph, my skills are switching off and switching on again. Give me a spanner and a hammer and if that don't fix it call an electrician.
Just out of curiosity.. Have you tried Garuda Linux?
https://garudalinux.org/editions
No
A crosfitter, a vegan, and an Arch user walk into a bar...
I hate the looming mandatory Windows 11 "upgrade" for my Windows 10 system. Remember when 10 was supposedly the final version with rolling updates in perpetuity?
I'm very much a novice Linux user still, and I am barely comfortable with Debian-based systems and their terminal commands. My Windows games not on Steam would probably run fine in WINE. I should buy a spare M.2 SSD and just try a full Linux install to see what works for me.
Please sir I'm receiving downvote from you and buildawhale please is there anything I did wrong that I can correct please I have just finished my appeal post but I'm still downvoted in my post, please I'm very sorry in my old mistakes and I promise not to do it again, I will never repeat it again in my life, please listen to my plea Sir
I keep meaning to make time to try Linux again one of these days. During college, I switched from Windows to Linux. At the time I tried Red Hat and didn't like it, so I ended up with Gentoo. After college, and especially when I left my programming job behind and moved to Japan, I switched to Mac. I just didn't have as much time to fiddle with the OS so I wanted something simpler. Mac is still mostly working fine for me, but I am really curious about stepping back into the Linux world.
I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on Zorin OS or Linux Mint. WIndows has started to feel more intrusive, and I could stand to minimize some digital clutter.
I would highly recommend checking out Arch linux, it has come a long way to be more approachable to more people. Just make sure you select pipe wire audio and network manager in the install, that catches people up.
Just watched this, it appears installing Arch has gotten substantially easier since the last time I read about it.
It’s very easy now. ArchInstall changed it all.
A Linux user with driver issues? Never heard of that. Lol
I use Ubuntu mostly. But I keep a windows 11 laptop laying around whenever I need to scan or print. Never got the driver's working. So I have a laptop that only prints and scans.. lol
Ok