I replaced Windows with Linux and everything’s going great

Greetings from the twelvemonth of Linux connected my desktop.

In November, I sewage fed up and said screw it, I’m installing Linux. Since that article was published, I person dealt pinch 1 insignificant catastrophe aft another. None of that has thing to do pinch Linux, mind you. It conscionable meant I didn’t instal it connected my desktop until Sunday evening.

My extremity present is to spot really acold I tin get utilizing Linux arsenic my main OS without spending a ton of clip futzing pinch it — aliases moreover overmuch clip researching beforehand. I americium not looking for much high-maintenance hobbies astatine this stage. I want to spot if Linux is simply a wingable replacement to Microsoft’s increasingly annoying OS.

Honestly? So acold it’s been fine. Many things I expected to beryllium difficult — for illustration getting my Nvidia graphics paper moving decently — were perfectly straightforward. A fewer things I thought would beryllium elemental weren’t. And I’ve tally into 1 very funny rumor pinch a gaming rodent that only useful successful games. But I’ve been capable to usage my Linux setup for activity this week, I played precisely 1 video game, and I moreover printed thing from my accursed printer.

I picked CachyOS alternatively than a better-known distro for illustration Ubuntu because it’s optimized for modern hardware, and I had heard that it’s easy to instal and group up for gaming, which is 1 of the reasons I’d stuck pinch Windows for this long. After backing up my Windows image sometime successful December (close enough), I travel the installation instructions successful the Cachy wiki and download the CachyOS unrecorded image to a Ventoy USB drive, plug it into my PC, reboot into the BIOS to disable Secure Boot, reboot again into the Ventoy bootloader, and motorboat the CachyOS disk image.

First challenge: My rodent buttons don’t work. I tin move the cursor, but can’t click connected anything. I effort plugging successful a rodent (without unplugging the first one), aforesaid deal. Not a awesome issue; I tin get astir good pinch conscionable the keyboard. Maybe this is conscionable an rumor pinch the unrecorded image.

I motorboat the installer and americium thrust into study paralysis. An operating strategy needs tons of small pieces to activity — worldly you don’t moreover deliberation of arsenic individual components if you usage Mac aliases Windows. How do you footwear into the OS? What runs the desktop environment? How are windows drawn? What’s the record system? Where do you get package updates? In Mac and Windows, each those decisions are made for you. But Linux is fundamentally different: The halfway of the OS is the kernel, and everything other is benignant of up to you. A distro is conscionable somebody’s thought of what pieces to use. Some, for illustration Pop_OS! and Mint, purpose for simplicity and make each those choices for you (though you tin still alteration them if you want). But Cachy is based connected Arch, a notoriously DIY distro, and earlier I do thing else, I person to prime 1 of 4 bootloaders. I prime Limine, for reasons I can’t recall.

Next, I request to fig retired wherever to instal it. On the proposal of Will Smith from the Dual Boot Diaries podcast — from whom the “an operating strategy is simply a bunch of pieces” point supra is mostly cribbed — I instal Cachy connected a different beingness thrust from Windows, since Windows updates thin not to attraction if they overwrite different bootloaders.

I person a 4TB retention thrust pinch conscionable complete a terabyte of information connected it, truthful I shrink that partition down to 2TB utilizing the installer’s manual partitioning interface, past (following the guide) make a 2GB footwear partition and a guidelines partition utilizing the btrfs record system. The guideline says it needs astatine slightest 20GB, truthful I spell large and make it 100GB. This will origin a insignificant problem later.

Next, I person to prime one of thirteen different desktop environments. This is excessively galore options. KDE and Gnome look to beryllium the best-supported for gaming, truthful I prime KDE. I could rabbit-hole connected this, but I don’t.

And past I conscionable person to prime a username and password and sanction the computer. After immoderate thought, I spell pinch Maggie, aft my in-laws’ cat, who half the family calls Linux. She doesn’t reply to either name.

Installation takes six minutes. I reboot the computer, and it loads into the Limine bootloader, which has besides recovered my Windows install, truthful I tin take betwixt Cachy and Windows.

Then I’m connected the Cachy desktop, and my rodent buttons still aren’t working. Swapping USB ports doesn’t do anything. Plugging successful my trackball doesn’t hole it either. I yet effort unplugging the mouse, which makes the trackball activity normally. My gaming rodent is an ancient Mad Catz Cyborg RAT 7; it turns retired this is simply a known issue. I defer editing configuration files for now and conscionable support the rodent unplugged.

That weird rodent aside, each of the hardware I’ve tried truthful acold has conscionable worked. Cachy automatically installed the correct GPU drivers; my monitor, speakers, and Logitech webcam activity good pinch nary effort. Even my printer prints, pinch only a tweak to my firewall settings.

There are tons of ways to instal apps connected Linux. Sometimes you tin conscionable download them from a company’s website, aliases you get them from your distro’s charismatic repositories, aliases GitHub, aliases wherever. There’s nary charismatic app shop for Linux, but location are astatine slightest 3 projects aiming to supply cosmopolitan Linux apps: Flatpak, AppImage, and Snap. Neat! Commence hodgepodging.

I drawback Chromium, Discord, Slack, and Audacity utilizing the “Install Apps” fastener connected Cachy’s invited screen. Slack I get from the Arch User Repository. Twenty minutes later, I effort to instal 1Password from the aforesaid location, but the repository is down. I prime up my kid from a playdate and effort again. It works.

I for illustration the Arc browser, which doesn’t person a Linux build, but location are plentifulness of browsers. Firefox and Chromium will do. I can’t find charismatic apps for Airtable (which I usage for work), Spotify, aliases Apple Music, but they each activity good successful the browser successful the short term, and I’ll revisit this later.

Cachy has a one-click gaming package instal that includes the Proton compatibility layer, Steam, and Heroic (a launcher for Epic, GOG, and Amazon). I fig I ought to effort one game. Then I retrieve that my guidelines partition is only 100GB. I reboot backmost into the Cachy unrecorded image and usage the Parted inferior to summation it to 1TB, past make a 2nd btrfs partition successful the remaining space. I reboot, log into Epic and GOG, and commencement downloading The Outer Worlds, a crippled from 2019 I’ve been playing a spot lately. It runs good pinch Proton, and I tin moreover sync my saves from the cloud. I play it for a fewer minutes pinch my trackball, retrieve I dislike gaming connected a trackball, and plug my gaming rodent backmost in. It useful good arsenic agelong arsenic I’m successful the game, but extracurricular the game, rodent clicks extremity moving again. It makes consciousness — the bug is connected the desktop, not successful games — but it’s very funny to person a gaming rodent that only useful for gaming.

The biggest rumor I’ve had truthful acold is Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. For immoderate reason, Microsoft hasn’t prioritized making a Linux type of Bedrock. Java Edition useful good successful Linux, but I play Minecraft pinch my kids, and they’re connected Bedrock Edition connected their iPads. There’s expected to beryllium a measurement to tally the Android app pinch MCPE Launcher, but I couldn’t get it to work. There’s besides a task to get the Windows type moving connected Proton, which will beryllium my adjacent step.

I perceive bully things astir howdy, a Linux balanced to Windows Hello look authentication, but I haven’t installed it yet. I perceive the Zen browser is simply a bully Arc alternative. I besides haven’t gotten my unreality retention synced, configured git truthful I tin compile programs from scratch, figured retired a backup strategy, aliases tried overmuch different hardware beyond what’s presently plugged into my computer. There’s a command-line Spotify subordinate I want to try. I’ve only scratched the surface.

I’m good alert this is the honeymoon phase. And utilizing Linux for little than a week isn’t precisely a flex. Many group usage Linux. And I haven’t moreover tried doing thing peculiarly difficult, aliases playing a crippled that came retired this decade. But truthful acold it’s been a overmuch easier modulation than expected, and a quieter acquisition overall. My OS isn’t trying to alteration my browser aliases hunt motor to make immoderate shareholder happy somewhere. It’s not nudging maine to effort immoderate bullshit AI feature.

Will I spell crawling backmost to macOS aliases Windows the first clip I person to edit a batch of photos? Possibly! I’ll decidedly footwear backmost into Windows — aliases propulsion retired a Chromebook — to play Minecraft pinch my kids, if I can’t get it moving connected Linux. And I don’t deliberation I’ll ever beryllium capable to usage Linux exclusively; my occupation arsenic a reviews editor intends I person to enactment acquainted pinch arsenic galore operating systems arsenic possible. (This is simply a bully measurement to thrust yourself nuts.)

I’m judge I’ll tally into plentifulness of nosy problems soon enough. But the first fewer days person been great.