• Microsoft removes guide on converting Microsoft accounts to Local, pushing for Microsoft sign-ins.
  • Instructions once available, now missing - likely due to company’s preference for Microsoft accounts.
  • People may resist switching to Microsoft accounts for privacy reasons, despite company’s stance.
242 points

I was able to circumvent all of this on my Windows 10 machine, by installing Linux Mint.

I didn’t even have to throw out my PC for not being good enough for Windows 11.

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45 points

Microsoft is unable to track local accounts as thoroughly.

I was finally going to attempt installing Linux Mint only to find out it is not as simple as some say. I know less than nothing about computers and then there are mirrors you have to choose from to download. I have no idea what would be a safe secure mirror.

Then you have to install other software I have no knowledge of to make a bootable drive…I am just not intelligent enough I suppose. I was hoping it was a simple download process.

I am just a tad bit frustrated!

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17 points

Then you have to install other software I have no knowledge of to make a bootable drive

Eh, this is the same for windows as well, you always need some sort of installation medium to boot and install from regardless of OS.

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2 points
*

It’s similar, but not the same. Most Linux distros require you to download a third-party program that people’ve never heard of. Windows gives you an all-in-one program from their official website, thus it’s easy to trust. Arguably Linux’s solution is better because you can use that program for multiple purposes. That and I think the trust factor is overblown as the distro will recommend the software and it’s not hard to find people vouching for it, so if you trust the distro you may as well trust the program.

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5 points

I suppose it is automatic on Windows so it has the illusion of being easy. I can honestly say, I have not had to install anything after I hit the update button. I am also old and don’t use a computer every day.

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23 points

The difference is OP probably got their device with Windows already installed and they only needed to go through the setup steps. Setting up the installation media really is the biggest barrier of entry to linux right now. A lot of distros are so easy to set up with a step-by-step gui installer, but a lot of non technical users don’t have the knowledge, skill, or motivation to download an iso and create a bootable drive.

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8 points

Everyone always says Linux is easy these days. Until you start asking how to actually install it.

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8 points

For mainstream distros it’s pretty easy

  1. Download an ISO
  2. Install Rufus or another media writer
  3. Write the ISO to a flash drive
  4. Boot the flash drive
  5. Click install
  6. Follow the prompts until it’s installed
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10 points

It really seems more complicated than it is. I switched to a dual boot of windows and Linux mint about a year ago and it was super smooth, have basically never used the terminal. if you still want to try and have any questions, feel free to ask. Linux is really a nice feeling of being away from MS bullshit.

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6 points

I want to figure it out if for no other reason than to prove to myself I am not too old to learn new tricks!

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12 points

Welcome to the Linux community. Most of the software is free and open source. Most of the people who utilize this software are good people who want to help you. However, there are a few people who are total dick heads and who want to fuck you over. So because of that we build security into most of the things that we produce. For instance, if you were confused by why it instructs you to run a checksum after you download the software, that is because the actual authors of the software want to make sure that you downloaded their legitimate software and not some hack bullshit posted by somebody else. A checksum is just comparison of what you have installed to what you’re supposed to have installed and your computer will tell you if things don’t match up.

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14 points

The process is actually simple.

It can be a little daunting at first because it’s new, but don’t let that discourage you. You can mostly ignore the whole mirrors thing, just pick one that is geographically close to you to hopefully get a better download speed. Outside of that, all the mirrors lead to the same file just in a different physical location.

Installing another software to make a bootable drive. You can use Rufus, which has a portable version so there’s no need to install it. I put a link below, there’s one in the downloads list that says portable.

https://rufus.ie/en/

There are plenty of step by step tutorials out there, however since Linux is very open, a lot of guides may give different advice and knowing what to/not to do can feel confusing. (For instance, if you have an SSD in your computer, you really shouldn’t use a swap partition unless you absolutely have to due to limited RAM.) In most cases though you can get by with the defaults when installing something like mint.

That being said. You could simply make the boot stick and try out the live version of the OS before committing to wiping any of your drives to install the OS. Just know that running the live version from the boot stick will be slow, it may take a little time for things to boot which is normal since you are running the os off of a USB stick.

If you would like some help I could try to give you some guidance. I would just want to know the specs/model of your computer so I can make sure I lead you in the right direction.

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5 points

Appreciate the link!

Rufus is what the instructions said to download and then a list of prompts to enter in the command line. I understand none of those prompts, literally a completely different language.

I am using an old laptop that has windows 7 on it. Figured it didn’t matter if I screwed that up since it was old and not in use.

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66 points

Dont you worry, mint provides a detailed step by step tutorial on how to do things:

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

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12 points

I think they were following the guide based on what they said was frustrating them. I think Mint could simplify the instructions for non tech people and remove the asides like checking file hashes.

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36 points

To answer your first question, ALL of the mirrors are safe. The idea with mirrors is that you choose one that is geographically close to your location (same country, maybe the same region or state) to help reduce lag in downloading the files. Any selection is valid, all of the mirrors will have the same content, but for your location some mirrors may simply be faster or slower than others.

One other thing you might run in to is different types of installers. Some may be a very minimal install which only give you a command line, while others will provide a fully configured desktop. You might also see an option for a “Live” version – that is something you put on a bootable memory stick and you can test out a working version of the operating system without actually changing anything on your computer, but all of your settings will go away when you reboot.

I haven’t used Mint so I can’t provide specific info, however some things that are common to ANY linux desktop – You probably want to start with printer drivers (install CUPS) and some office software (install LibreOffice). For internet access, Firefox and Thunderbird are good choices. LicreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird can all also be used on Windows if you want to check them out ahead of time. There are many lists online that can point you to equivalent software, so like if you use Lightroom on windows, you might try Darkroom on linux. basically you just need to make a list of what Windows software you use and then install a similar package in linux.

Yes you will need some time to learn the new operating system and all the new software, very little will be 100% exactly the same, but they are “close enough”. You figured out how to use all these things once before, so you can do it again, and it will definitely be worth the effort.

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9 points

The hard part is getting the software on a usb drive to use on the old laptop. I haven’t figured out what the instructions mean in order to implement. I have a lot of learning to do.

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5 points

They really ought to include this info about mirrors on their website. They have an aside about checking file hashes which can give paranoia to people who don’t know what’s going on.

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47 points

All of the mirrors listed on their website are safe. Just pick one close to you. If it downloads too slow, you can try a different mirror. If you know how to use bittorrent, you can use their torrent link. It will typically be the fastest.

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5 points
*

This is good feedback, the Mint team could definitely streamline things, maybe even with a “help pick”.

Because it’s not immediately apparent which to use (Cinnamon/MATE/Xfce).
I’m not sure how the resolve the mirror issue, sadly.
The cost of serving the data directly would be very high, but doing so would avoid scaring people. Unfortunately, it’s hard for them to 100% guarantee every mirror is safe (even though they are!), which means they have to leave instructions on how to verify.

Selling pre-loaded USB sticks would be very cool, but people would have to be interested enough to spend £20.

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2 points

Selling pre-loaded USB sticks would be very cool, but people would have to be interested enough to spend £20

I am one that would happily purchase something like that. I finally made the bootable drive but am not sure if the install is verified. There was no sha txt file to compare. I just haven’t figured it out yet

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6 points
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If you don’t want to do that, then you can buy a bootable drive (for example here: https://www.shoplinuxonline.com/mint21-usb.html)

Using a different tool to create a bootable drive is just a part of installing any operating system, not just Linux. If you ever need to install windows on a pc that doesn’t have it installed you will see the same process.

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5 points
*

Download any mirror. Accept any prompt. Where you are going, chaos is your friend, and the beautiful electric sizzling is your orchestra.

Edit: also just watch a vid theres tons out there.

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7 points

Ubuntu used to send you a CD-ROM ready to use free of charge back in the day.

I’ve done this whole process hundreds of times and it’s straightforward now, but the first times where really confusing, I totally understand you.

you basically want to put the installer file in a USB, but you can’t simply copy and paste it because it needs to be “bootable”, that’s why you use a tool like Etcher or similar.

any link in the official Linux Mint page will point you to reputable sources so just pick the first one. the beauty of open source is that it’s not as centralized as a big corporation’s software, you have choices, confusing at first, I know, but it’s worth it once you get past the learning stage

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3 points

This is what I’m going to have to do as well since my computer isn’t compatible with Win11. The only thing I’m worried about is gaming.

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17 points

Depends on what you are playing, but gaming in Linux has come a long way. Some games won’t work due to companies not enabling their (rootkit) “anti-cheats” for Linux, but other than that, there’s more and more games that simply work by the day. Check out https://www.protondb.com/ to get an idea of what’s working at the moment.

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1 point

Also, ProtonDB might not always be right with their ratings. For example, Dead by Daylight is marked as “Silver” though it’s been working perfectly with no tinkering. I think the ratings take time to improve?

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12 points

There are games for me on Windows 11 that won’t run but will just fine on linux, and vice versa. For games that won’t run or run well enough on linux, I have windows dual booted, but that’s all i will use it for. Also I nice little boot U.I. that pops up every time I power on or restart my pc so i can pick which i want to load up.

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5 points

I bought a SteamDeck as a way to test and see what works and what doesn’t on Linux. So far all my games have run with no issues.

I’m likely going to be posting and searching through a lot of Linux forums as Win10 gets closer to EOL.

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4 points

Steam has built in Linux compatibility that you can turn on for all games and has been working great for me. Lutris and Wine provide other compatibility options.

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6 points

I too install Linux Mint, though Fedora Silverblue and Kinote is another good alternative.

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4 points

Wow! Tell me more!

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7 points
*

Linux Mint (or Linux Mint Debian Edition), is one of the most user friendly Linux distributions out there. This is especially so for people used to Windows.

You can run Mint on a bootable USB drive, fire it up, and get a sense of how it feels running on your home setup. I’d highly recommend trying this with a few different Linux distros, to find one that you like.

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3 points

What a beautiful thing

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1 point

Jokes aside I heard Fedora is good for gaming

Yes, seriously lol

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1 point

Arch is it, u know this :)

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209 points

Anyone who wants to switch to Linux we welcome you with open arms. Ask as many questions as you need. There are no stupid questions just bad answers. (You probably know the type)

If you can’t switch, that’s ok. Alot of us know what it’s like, especially us gamers, Nvidia card owners, and recovering adobe-holics. Life is tougher but a whole lot more rewarding. I moved from windows/Macos and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

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4 points

Both my PCs have nvidia cards, a 3080ti and a 970, and not run just fine with games and Linux. I dont quite understand the hate for nvidia cards. AMD cards must poop glitter or something too.

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19 points

NVIDIA spent many many years doing a very very poor job of providing drivers for Linux.

Many people have not forgiven them for that.

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5 points

That’s understandable but its still inaccurate to say that those with Nvidia cards will have trouble with Linux. I understand people have biases but that’s not a helpful one.

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4 points

I asked a legit Linux question in Rizon - Linux and got banned.

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9 points

I don’t know what rizon - Linux is is but I guess that’s just the internet. I don’t know what to say other than I hope you have better luck next time.

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3 points

It’s a game.

edit: no, that’s Ryzom.

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3 points

It’s IRC

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8 points

This is the first comment about switching to Linux that makes me feel positively about the idea

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1 point

I think a lot of people get caught in non existing platforms wars. I’ve always believed in using the right tools for the job and always encouraged people to try everything. If you don’t keep using this software or that os, your very likely to learn what you like and bring it with you.

And to be honest I’m just tired of companies being shitty towards their customers and it’s honestly fun to see people discover Linux.

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3 points

There are no stupid questions just bad answers.

I prefer saying:
There’s no stupid questions, just stupid answers once in awhile.

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4 points
*

I do like that saying a little better. Most people are just trying to help and yeah, any amount of help is appreciated.

Some people could try a little harder to understand that we all started out knowing nothing and we all need a little help from time to time. It’s awesome to see so many people trying to be understanding here though.

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2 points

The thing is, not all answers are satisfactory, or easy without further information. That said, learning is a journey, and if you don’t get stupid answers once in awhile, you’re not asking enough questions.

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10 points

People will switch once developers do. So far no luck on the music industry

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4 points

It sucks man, I feel you. There are a lot of free options out there you might want to check out!

I’m not experienced in this field but prosonus is working on a Linux version of their studio one app. I think they are trying to make VST extensions work at least on their software.

I’m probably not the best person to answer that question but maybe it helps. Most proprietary stuff is typically designed for Ubuntu or redhat so Ubuntu based or fedora is probably your best bet.

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19 points
*

I need a PC that runs with no monitor and gets interfaced with through remote desktop only. I just installed Linux on that machine. It currently must have a keyboard and monitor because if it gets rebooted, it comes to the login screen. The login screen cannot be brought up via remote desktop (RDP through Remmina). I also have so far been unable to find a way to force it to automatically sign in “passwordless” like it used to do with Windows.

This box runs Plex as well as whatever game server I want to run for friends and I at the moment. (Currently Minecraft, which is having trouble since th switchover with server lag, but that is far less important than being able to reboot the screenless server box and have it work with no further input )

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6 points

What about SSHing into it?

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3 points

I’m just not sure how comfortable I am with no gui yet.

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2 points

I have a pi5 at work (upgraded this year) that I use to administer my work network from home. I use ubutnu mate with xrdp for the desktop. Works great, even the sound works. No monitor and even if you hooked one up it would just show a login prompt.

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Yeah I also haven’t found a good alternative for a windows management host for RDP. I use my last remaining windows box as an “admin host” and the Linux alternative to this would be vnc or xrdp, both of which have their issues (no dynamic resize, clipboard issues, session restore issues)… I’ve also tried x2go recently which is closer but still not as slick/simple as a windows RDP session.

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1 point

I haven’t tried it myself but Ubuntu desktop 24 has remote desktop built in. You could try it out on a VM?

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25 points

Configuring automatic login shouldn’t be difficult. Here are instructions on Ubuntu (should work on any GNOME system), and here’s how to do it with pretty much any KDE system. This is a feature of desktop managers (like gdm or sddm), not desktop environments (like GNOME or KDE), so if neither works for you, you’re probably using a different one. If that’s the case, reply with your distro and as much info as you can provide.

That said, what exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve? It’s usually a lot easier to login remotely using SSH instead of remote desktop, and then use console commands to do whatever you need. To login with SSH:

ssh <user>@<IP address>

So if your username is tux and your IP is 1.2.3.4:

ssh tux@1.2.3.4

And then if you want to reboot:

sudo reboot

And if you want to shutdown:

sudo shutdown -h now

I use an app on my phone to login, so I can get it done while sitting on the toilet in like 10s (I use it to unlock my computer so my kids can use it). If you’re accessing from your computer and just need to run a single command, provide it after the command in quotes (note, sudo commands won’t prompt for a password and will just fail).

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9 points

Adding to this if you rub Plex from Docker, and you tell systemd to start docker on machine start you can also have the Plex container start automatically.

Then you dont even have to worry about logging in.

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1 point

Get a virtual hdmi dummy plug. A very cheap and easy fix. Because the machine now thinks a screen is attached it will create a desktop environment you can remote in to.

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1 point

That is not the issue. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

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9 points

I think the first thing is actually recommend is enabling a daemon that launches Plex at boot without login. sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver For something like a Minecraft server I’d recommend reading up on the setup process. (It’s a fair bit to summarize)

If the application doesn’t come with a systemd service I’d recommend making a cron. They’re scary looking but actually pretty easy to use, I use it for automating maintenance on my server.

It may feel counter intuitive but Linux servers don’t really need a desktop to manage them so most the tools don’t really come with graphical apps. If you want an interface to check on things I’d recommend installing and using cockpit web based graphical interface.

If you want to do it proper on a systemd system make a systemd.service it’s not as easy to learn but you get extra tools to manage it.

I’ve heard there’s a lot of work that has been done in kde and gnome to get rdp (remote desktop protocol) with remote login.

I hope this helps! If not, almost everything can be done through the terminal and ssh(secure shell) makes that process really easy. I installed and setup my Linux laptop and my server that way.

If you just want to transfer files there is sshfs(secure shell file system) and the ability to go to your file browser and type in an sftp(secure file transfer protocol) address. In kde dolphin for example you select network and type in the bar sftp://(IP address or hostname)@(user):(working directory). Make sure you have sshfs installed on both machines and sshd enabled on at least the system you want to access.

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12 points

I have three ideas: First, you could switch the desktop environment to one of the ones that has a GUI settings tool to set passwordless automatic sign in. I think Gnome 3 on Ubuntu, and Mate Desktop on Linux Mint have that feature. There are probably others.

Second, you could switch your display manager to “nodm”. The display manager is the thing that runs the X server or Wayland, and it starts the greeter (the greeter is the program that shows the login screen). nodm is a special display manager that doesn’t use a greeter or ask for a password. It immediately starts the session using the username and desktop environment specified in its configuration file.

I use nodm for my HTPC and it works very well. The only downside is that you have to edit its configuration file, /etc/default/nodm , using a text editor. I’m not aware of any GUI configuration tool for it. However, it’s pretty easy to configure.

Third, you could abandon all display managers, and start the session manually, either from a shell script, or over SSH. This is a little more complex. You will probably want to get comfortable with SSH before trying this (SSH is the command-line analog of remote desktop).

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6 points

Fantastic information. Thank you for all of it.

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26 points

This is the nicest way someone’s put it. I’ve tried to switch to Linux three or four times but until there is a distro that makes it plug and play like Windows or mac its going to be a tough sell. I consider myself tech savvy enough (I can google things, and for goodness sake at the bare minimum I can cut and paste into the terminal) but the barrier for getting Linux to work is too high right now for a very large part of the population.

I have W10 computer running the arrs and my plex server that I’m going to have to figure out as I can’t get W11 on it.

I want to do it so bad!.. but I think I’ll probably just end up getting a new, used computer that can run W11

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4 points

Definitely give Linux Mint a shot!

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8 points

the barrier for getting Linux to work is too high right now for a very large part of the population

My elderly (late 80s) parents have Windows on their laptops and it would be impossible for them to use it without my regular intervention. I might as well take the plunge and set them up with Linux.

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6 points

My mother asked me to switch her over and she loves it. I love it too because she isn’t always asking me for help all the time. I was playing around with windows games on Linux and while I was testing her game because it was fast to download, she was impressed and she wanted to switch right there.

I don’t remember when it started but every other update to windows home popped up an advertisement for the Microsoft account (she had a local account) and an advertisement for office 365. She would literally call me every time it popped up saying it looked important so she didn’t touch it. Libre office is close enough to excel that all the time I spent teaching her Excel didn’t go to waist and I could finally cancel my office 365 subscription.

I’m thinking of recommending it to my aunt because her PC is slow and won’t be supported by windows 11. If she’s interested I’ll let her play with it on an old laptop for a while before verifying she wants to switch over. The same thing I did with my mother.

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5 points

Even if something like proxmox or a Debian install with docker is more customizable. It’s a steep learning curve.

But isn’t something like truenas scale a option? I run Emby(as my media Server) and the arr’s on it. All the apps are already in the “software store” including plex. And setup of the arr’s is just the same as normal. All installs are basically automatic.

I easy passthrough my intel gpu in the config page on the webportaal, but don’t how easy it is for Nvidia or amd. Especially with Nvidia due to drivers. But maybe someone here knows?

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3 points

Also stuck on Windows but for specific software (Adobe & Revit). Zorin has looked like a promising distro for a little while now, at least coming from Windows.

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2 points

Have you tried Linux Mint yet?

I recently installed it on a Dell laptop (work) to dual boot, and it seemed pretty much as simple as installing windows.

I’m a daily Linux user and had been using other distros in VMs, but I still wanted to try it.

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1 point

Isn‘t it very easy to spin up a Debian with Docker installed and just pull those Docker container yml files straight from freedesktop.org using docker compose? (Portainer would be a webGUI for the containers)

Good luck! 😉 I think there is nearly no server task where windows is more easy than Linux 🤔 well, except proprietary ActiveDirectory/EntraID, of course.

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4 points

ArchWiki makes it so much easier these days.

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2 points

It definitely helps you become a lot more independent as a Linux user. The tools you learn when you troubleshoot things are incredibly universal. Tools on Linux are intentionally designed to be intuitive and informative which is quite refreshing to obtuse tools like regedit.

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35 points

I’m actually gaming on nvidia! Didn’t take any tinkering either. I got the Nvidia version of Nobara, which many steam games “just work” on.

That’s not to say I didn’t start tinkering anyway, but new games I install and just run work fine.

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5 points

It’s amazing how fast we got here though isn’t it. There were a ton of talented people, most of them working without pay just to make it happen.

I love the sense of community from something like that even if all I could do is be a beta tester, request potential improvements, and donate to my favorite projects.

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12 points

I literally just went through an entire mental exercise of what do I “need” to run, and got stuck hard with my audio interface and DAW software. Cubase (by Steinberg) and IK Multimedia just do not provide support at all.

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3 points

Reaper is Linux friendly and free for 60 days, I would give it a try. It’s free after the 60 days but will prompt you to pay. The audio interface, I’m not to sure about, I personally do not run Linux.

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12 points

I use ardour as DAW, but only for recording on Linux. It’s also available for macOS and windows. So you can check if it fits your work flow.

I mostly only use Linux, but sometimes you just need a program with out support. In my case it’s sometimes qlab, Linux show player is great(and I have used it for many shows). But it’s not feature compatibel with qlab

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4 points

I’m a recovering Adobe-holic because their software is good at processing my drone photo DNG files

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30 points

Switch to Linux where all accounts are local accounts.

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23 points

Linux supports network accounts of all kinds.

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15 points

I didn’t say it didn’t support network accounts, but you have to have a local account set up to sign into those network accounts. You can set up your computer fully without being connected to the internet and it won’t give you grief about it.

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7 points

you have to have a local account set up to sign into those network accounts.

I’m pretty sure that’s false. You can create an account right from OS install that is backed by something like LDAP (assuming you don’t count the root user as an “Account”)

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7 points

Linux supports network accounts of all kinds.

They even have a guide for that! https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linux/install

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2 points
14 points

Sure you can. You can also spend time disabling intrusive telemetry, you can also spend time reverting half the UI changes (not the other half though), you can also spend time removing integrated services you don’t use but are still running, you can (regularly) change back some settings that gets reverted every once in a while, you can also block some IP to prevent intrusive ads, you can toggle off part of the “user experience” that bloat the lockscreen…

Or you could, I don’t know, not have to do any of that and still have a working system that’s not trying to bend you over.

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58 points

Can’t you just have an OS that doesn’t fight you constantly when you’re trying to use your computer the way you want?

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22 points

NO!

Shareholders first

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4 points

Not sure which shareholders benefit from this. I guess some must.

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5 points

On new install without logging in a Microsoft account?

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23 points

Yes, you can. But a lot of Windows users dont even know what powershell is.

And personally i think you shouldnt have to jump through hoops for what i consider basic functionality. They also make it near impossible to install Windows 11 new without having to resort to all kind of tricks to create a local account. Its a shitshow.

In my humble opinion :)

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1 point

a lot of windows users shit their pants when they have to open cmd prompt lmao

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3 points

Isn’t the point of an OS so that users don’t have to use cmd prompt? That’s why we aren’t using DOS anymore.

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1 point
*

Thats because a lot of users dont really want to use Windows, or the computer in general. They use it, because they have to.

For the same reason, i would never know what to do when my car breaks down. Sure i can look under the hood and do this and that. But its not my area of expertise, and its not something im interested in.

I’m a sysadmin, i know almost everything about powershell and then some. That doesnt mean my users do though. For them, a computer is a magical black box thats supposed to “just work” by clicking here and there. Just like a car is to me :)

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44 points

At this point, the quicker people switch, the easier it will be for them.

You can learn linux today or you going to learn it next year. Choice is yours.

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-7 points

You seem to be implying that most people CAN learn linux. I’ve tried for 10 years now, on 4 different ossasions.

I don’t get it. I WANT TO get it…I don’t get it. But I also don’t want Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11 especially.

…so I just stay on Windows 7.

And before anyone gives me flack about security, I’m not even 100% sure my firewall is on. I tinkered with it about 8 years ago, I don’t remember if I turned it back on, or left it off.

I THINK I might have AVG free anti-virus, from like 10 years ago…I honestly can’t tell you the last time I ran it.

People won’t switch to linux until the Android of PC distros comes out. The one that you can install programs by downloading a file. If thats .apk, fine. If it’s .exe, fine. Just as long as the process goes “go to website, download file, double click file, get gui for installation process…terminal? What’s terminal? Oh no, are you sick?”

Now on android, you CAN still use terminal, but I would guess that less than 1% of its userbase knows what that is.

Since a corporation wrote the first version of Android, and since Linux is something like 40 years old…but has never even attempted this approach on pc, I’m left to believe that the people who write these distros for free are actively against the idea of linux being adopted by the masses.

So no…people won’t “learn it now, or learn it next year”. They’ll just suffer through whatever bullshit microsoft says. And thats going to affect the world. Because now microsoft will have a worldwide network of spying on EVERYONE. (Except those on mac or linux, which is like 15% of the pc market)

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9 points

I’ll just add that nearly all linux distributions have a package manager you can access from the desktop. Simply open it up, find the software you want, and click to install. Not much different than going to the play store and installing an android app. The only time you need to do anything different is if you’re trying to install some obscure software that isn’t directly supported by your linux distribution, then you might have to resort to the command line.

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14 points

When was last time you used Linux? Flatpak?

Many of these issue are resolved it seems.

Also, you are acting like windows never has any issues. If you just need to open browser and surf web, they work about the same.

But yeah, we sometime off before grandmas should be put on it. But any middle aged person can use it now imho

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4 points

I don’t know what flatpack is…so I assume before that? Last time I intensely tried to get into it, was about 4 years ago. I tried not so intensely last year to turn my raspberry pi’s fan on. It is off, I want it on. Instead of a physical switch I could just flick, they decided to get fancy with it, and require terminal to turn it on. It USED TO work, but in order to fix an unrelated problem, I updated the system, and that broke everything. Now when you try to run the command it gives an error.

And the difference between Windows having an error, and Linux having an error, is if I have a problem on windows, I can type “Windows 7, (problem here), reddit”. It will give me a detailed set of instructions that tell me what to do. But with linux, I can find a set of instructions on how to fix the problem, and it always goes “first update everything. Now, do these commands in terminal.” The only problem is, linux is so fractured into so many different layouts and structures, and the help guides always assume your system is the exact same as their system, that you end up getting an error code. Now if you know linux, you know what commands to do to change/fix things. If you’re like me, you see some bullshit like “partician not registried”, and you have no idea what to do with that. So you google it, find 15 different answers. And with each one you try, you just make things worse and worse.

The difference between niave and stupid is that niave people haven’t been taught things. Stupid people can’t learn things. I’m linux stupid, and I would say the vast majority of people are linux stupid. However, despite how fractured Android is, I would say most people are either Android smart, or Android niave. With the difference being if they’ve ever used Android. I’ve never seen someone use Android for a day, and say “I can’t figure out how to set the video driver above 320x240p”. Or figure out why there’s no sound. Or figure out why the whole screen is tinted blue. Or why they can’t turn a fan on.

Linux users have this belief that “oh, everything is easy for me, so it must be easy for everyone”. What they don’t realize is how hard it is to get help running linux. Imagine a blind guy going to a french guys house, and asking where they keep their screwdriver. There’s no standard place. Mine is in my silverware drawer behind the hammer. But if I speak french, and you do not, if you’re blind how would you ever even know where my silverware drawer is, in a house you’ve never been? How would you even ask for help?

That’s the linux experience for me. Nothing works. I can’t fix anything. And the attempts at help I get just make things worse, because they expect my system to be like their system. And it’s not.

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1 point

I’m going to have nightmares about this post.

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4 points

Ubuntu is basically what you are describing.

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2 points
*

I would say it is openSUSE Aeon.

An immutable distro that you install and it “just works”. Applications come in via the onboard Software Manager (using Flatpack). It is almost impossible to break, as the system itself is read-only. If an update should break something, the OS rolls back itself. It can do this, because it’s basically updating what you’ll get after the next reboot, not the running system. If something goes wrong, it reboots to the working version.

Still in development, but super stable.

Edit: spelling

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1 point

I tried it back in 2012. I hated it. Little icons on the side of the screen. No taskbar. Blech.

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1 point
*

https://www.android-x86.org/

ninja edit: Hell, even a Chromebook will see you right with some of your other complaints in this thread about Taskbars etc. Unless of course you’re averse to anything Corp / they spying on you in which case you’re fucked anyhoo.

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15 points

My whole company moved out of windows during the pandemic. It was all forced.

And surprisingly, after a year, it was pretty smooth.

Push your IT folks to do the same everybody. The money saved is significant. And the learning curve is annoying, but not as annoying as managing Windows.

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7 points

It’s not the IT folks who need to be pushed. It’s the users.

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2 points

Try and push “we’re all switching to Linux!” To a help desk team and let me know how that goes

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6 points

Think I’m gonna try to replace my gaming desktop again. Its the last machine of mine still on Windows. I just hurt myself years ago by buying a 2080 TI

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9 points

I am on nvidia hardware. popos worked no problems.

Nvidia open source drivers are around the corner too!

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4 points

Its me, I wanted to take my arch install from my laptop because the rice is sexy. It was a bad idea.

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