i don’t really have a reason to, as windows mostly just works, I’m wondering what benefits and downsides there are. will definitely dual boot at the beginning, but I’d be willing to fully move over if i like it
thanks guys :)
edit: also if there’s some recourse y’all could point me to so i can get some baseline knowledge on this stuff, that would be fantastic
I dual-booted for about three years, went back to Windows-only for a while because of hardware compatibility issues, dual-booted for another two and am now Linux-only. It just works better. I like the FOSS philosophy and the lack of built-in spyware and bloat, but here’s two practical reasons why I prefer Linux:
More bang for your buck. Linux systems can be made to be just as bloated and sluggish as Windows, but as a general rule they’re lighter and more responsive and you get more out of your hardware. Up until recently I was rocking hardware from 2013 and playing games whose “minimal” hardware requirements were more than what I had, sometimes by a lot, just because Linux uses fewer resources, leaving more available for your applications to use. This effect is negligible when talking about GPUs but pretty significant for the rest.
Package management. The Microsoft App Store is a joke. Yes, there are some great third-party solutions like Chocolatey, but by and large if you want a Windows app or driver you need to get it from the developer, install it manually and updating everything is a mess. Some apps auto-update, others notify you that updates are available and then update themselves, others notify you but you have to download and install the update yourself, and yet others you have to keep track of entirely on your own. There is no library management to speak of, and don’t get me started on Windows Update. With Linux package managers, all the software you want is available in one place and the entire system can be updated with a single command. It dramatically cuts down on the time you waste keeping everything at the newest version, makes rolling back to previous versions easier and is just simpler and more organized. Less time doing busywork, more time doing what you want to do.
Windows has many advantages that can’t be denied. I’m not one of those Windows-hating Linux fanboys. Marketing isn’t the only reason why it has such a dominant market share. But currently, I believe that for many use cases, including my own, Linux is the superior solution.
what distro do u use? i was thinking of pop!_os
I currently use Arch Linux on my laptop and EndeavourOS on my desktop. They’re essentially the same, but Endeavour is a lot easier to install. But I would only recommend them for users who already know their way around a Linux system, as they require some technical knowledge to manage.
For a beginner, I think that the three best options are Pop!_OS, Linux Mint and Feren OS. They all share an Ubuntu base, which means the same package manager and software repos, but add a lot of value with their customizations. I suggest downloading their Live ISOs, trying them out via USB and going with whichever one you think looks the best. Feren’s KDE and Mint’s Cinnamon desktops look and handle very similar to Windows while Pop! uses GNOME, which is a bit different but also very functional. KDE is lighter on resources, looks very good and is what I use on both my machines.
I’ve heard good things about pop
upon further consideration, gnome doesn’t seem like what i would like, and I’ve tried it before, never really liking it. will be going with mint cinnamon
I’ve been using it since Emily recommended it in LTT back in 2020. It’s been my favorite that I always come back to.
That’s a great choice. You can always change your mind later anyway, but Cinnamon is familiar, functional and while not very customizable, has a very clean look by default.
Windows has a few years old native package manager called NuGet.
NuGet is restricted to .Net software packages IIRC, while other options like Chocolatey and Ninite can be used to install and maintain a larger variety of software (while Ninite’s selection is pretty small too, it does cover the essentials).
Chocolatey is as close to Linux package management as you can get in Windows and I used it a lot when I was dual-booting. In fact, it’s part of the reason why I decided to do the full switch: I realized that I was “Linuxifying” my Windows install more and more and Chocolatey was a huge part of that.