phaZed
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 3,215
- Location
- Richmond, VA
Hey all!
4 weeks ago, I made the switch to 100% Linux. I've been close for years, and really only had my main PC on Windows due to games - 90% of everything else was already Linux (Servers, Laptop, RaspberryPi's). All that to say, I'm not ignorant of Linux and have been using it in some form for some 25 years, but it was never my daily. I say this to preface - I was expecting to have to do "more" to get setup, like I've had to do in the past with Kali/Ubuntu/Mint and Debian.... but It was flawless and just worked... setting me on my way to immediately start installing my software and customizing things the way I wanted. Great!
I'm done with Microsoft's Spying. I'm done with their BS AI implementation and their anti-user stance(s). Further, I kept facing a series of stupid issues with Windows 11. Multimonitor issues, Taskbar Autohide not working - and burning in my OLED, Poor gaming performance on a 5090(!), and serious issues with running local AI under various "Java Environments" at the same time (ugh, forget it). Windows Updates, updates, updates... fail, fail, fail. Then, because I run 5.1 Surround sound over TOSLINK to a home theater receiver - I have to use a Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus because it is one of the few cards that is licensed, and contains, the Dolby Codecs to allow that over TOSLINK... well, the Windows driver sucks. It's relatively old, Creative doesn't seem to care, and it would randomly keep dropping from 5.1 Dolby digital to stereo PCM. Also, their damned system tray tool has a tooltip that will "stick" randomly to a spot where my mouse happens to be (middle of desktop, stays above all other windows!), for no good reason and at a random time (didn't hover over the SB icon!) - and it won't go away until hovering over the icon, so the tooltip can re-show above the tray icon... it's so stupid.
All of this has been fixed. Everything works!
So, I've made the switch to CachyOS - and it's been fantastic! All of my biz software is running (Including Remote Software), games are running, Windows software is running... easy-peasy.
My system isn't a slouch and is top-end. I tried some Debian releases, as I'm more used to Debian(Kali).. but was met with NVIDIA issues and Proton issues. Their repositories were just not up-to-date enough. So off to Arch/CachyOS for a flawless install with minimal post-config.
System:
Asus x670E-E Gaming WIFI
AMD 9950X
NVIDIA 5090FE
64GB DDR5-6000
WIFI 6
Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus
10GB SFP+ NIC
I've got the following software running without issue (Natively or Wine - Not VM):
Grayjay
Brave
Spotify
Webull (Win)
Ledger Live
Monero Wallet
Bitwarden
Affinity Photo/Affinity (Win)
Steam (and all games I've tried run great!)
Epic
Battle.net
ubisoft uplay
Brother P-Touch labels (Win)
Plex
Ableton Live 12 Studio (Win)
Davinci Resolve Studio
Systools OST Converter (Win)
Ollama
Discord
Simple Help (Win)
Syncro Splashtop (Win)
StreamDeck
Torguard VPN
So, come to find out, I didn't need Windows at all, and all my Windows software works great. At first, I kept my "Windows SSD" in for dual-boot... but after 4 weeks... I just reformatted it, since I can just spin up a QEMU VM so fast or/and use Winboat/etc.
I wholeheartedly recommend making the switch, if you are any bit interested in jumping ship. The grass is greener and Linux, IMO, has never been as close to replacing major players in the Desktop space, than they are right now.
Huge strides have been made in the past 3-5 years with Proton/Steam/etc. and it really shows. Ahh. This is refreshing.
Come on in! The water's just fine!
4 weeks ago, I made the switch to 100% Linux. I've been close for years, and really only had my main PC on Windows due to games - 90% of everything else was already Linux (Servers, Laptop, RaspberryPi's). All that to say, I'm not ignorant of Linux and have been using it in some form for some 25 years, but it was never my daily. I say this to preface - I was expecting to have to do "more" to get setup, like I've had to do in the past with Kali/Ubuntu/Mint and Debian.... but It was flawless and just worked... setting me on my way to immediately start installing my software and customizing things the way I wanted. Great!
I'm done with Microsoft's Spying. I'm done with their BS AI implementation and their anti-user stance(s). Further, I kept facing a series of stupid issues with Windows 11. Multimonitor issues, Taskbar Autohide not working - and burning in my OLED, Poor gaming performance on a 5090(!), and serious issues with running local AI under various "Java Environments" at the same time (ugh, forget it). Windows Updates, updates, updates... fail, fail, fail. Then, because I run 5.1 Surround sound over TOSLINK to a home theater receiver - I have to use a Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus because it is one of the few cards that is licensed, and contains, the Dolby Codecs to allow that over TOSLINK... well, the Windows driver sucks. It's relatively old, Creative doesn't seem to care, and it would randomly keep dropping from 5.1 Dolby digital to stereo PCM. Also, their damned system tray tool has a tooltip that will "stick" randomly to a spot where my mouse happens to be (middle of desktop, stays above all other windows!), for no good reason and at a random time (didn't hover over the SB icon!) - and it won't go away until hovering over the icon, so the tooltip can re-show above the tray icon... it's so stupid.
All of this has been fixed. Everything works!
So, I've made the switch to CachyOS - and it's been fantastic! All of my biz software is running (Including Remote Software), games are running, Windows software is running... easy-peasy.
My system isn't a slouch and is top-end. I tried some Debian releases, as I'm more used to Debian(Kali).. but was met with NVIDIA issues and Proton issues. Their repositories were just not up-to-date enough. So off to Arch/CachyOS for a flawless install with minimal post-config.
System:
Asus x670E-E Gaming WIFI
AMD 9950X
NVIDIA 5090FE
64GB DDR5-6000
WIFI 6
Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus
10GB SFP+ NIC
I've got the following software running without issue (Natively or Wine - Not VM):
Grayjay
Brave
Spotify
Webull (Win)
Ledger Live
Monero Wallet
Bitwarden
Affinity Photo/Affinity (Win)
Steam (and all games I've tried run great!)
Epic
Battle.net
ubisoft uplay
Brother P-Touch labels (Win)
Plex
Ableton Live 12 Studio (Win)
Davinci Resolve Studio
Systools OST Converter (Win)
Ollama
Discord
Simple Help (Win)
Syncro Splashtop (Win)
StreamDeck
Torguard VPN
So, come to find out, I didn't need Windows at all, and all my Windows software works great. At first, I kept my "Windows SSD" in for dual-boot... but after 4 weeks... I just reformatted it, since I can just spin up a QEMU VM so fast or/and use Winboat/etc.
I wholeheartedly recommend making the switch, if you are any bit interested in jumping ship. The grass is greener and Linux, IMO, has never been as close to replacing major players in the Desktop space, than they are right now.
Huge strides have been made in the past 3-5 years with Proton/Steam/etc. and it really shows. Ahh. This is refreshing.
Come on in! The water's just fine!
