Seriously consider moving to Linux

[igor_kavinski]

It would probably take me about 4 hours to replicate my Linux setup in a clean install

But you can surely script it to do everything automatically.

 

[mikeymikec]

But you can surely script it to do everything automatically.

If I was in the habit of clean-installing my main PC's installation of Linux on a regular basis and therefore making all the development time in researching/coding/troubleshooting the automation worthwhile, sure (also assuming that I can learn how to script everything that could be scripted; my bash scripting skills are pretty basic), the same argument largely applies to Windows too though.

When I migrated from my Haswell setup to AM5 I simply connected up the Linux SSD, fixed dual-boot management and that was it.

 

[jamesdsimone]

It would probably take me about 4 hours to replicate my Linux setup in a clean install

But it is so much easier to install as you go with Linux.

 

[mikeymikec]

But it is so much easier to install as you go with Linux.

I'm not sure what you mean, but if I had to guess what you meant, it's about how quickly you can have a basically working setup by.

I'm not a Linux expert by any stretch of the imagination (I do regard myself as a Windows expert though), but:

When I build a PC (or buy a new laptop and clean install it), the Win10/11 OS install takes maybe half an hour at the very most (maybe only ten minutes). I would have all the drivers downloaded onto USB and feed those in, though another route would be to give it an Internet connection as quickly as possible and have Windows 10/11 do the driver downloading and hope for the best.

My own setup has been pretty OSS-centric for the last twenty years so I would copy my FF/TB/LibreOffice profiles into my user folder then download/run the installers which is maybe ten minutes work at which point I have my usual 'bare necessities' setup for the most important apps all ready to go. So easily within an hour the basics would be up and running.

I can think of two advantages that Linux often has over Windows in that neither my Haswell or my AM5 build required any driver work, amdgpu kicked in automatically for my AMD graphics card and that was that. Doing AIO printer setups takes a bit of labour under both Linux and Windows, at least it did with my Epson WF-3520 (assuming you don't try the 'jesus take the wheel' automatic route). Additional app installs in Linux is a doddle assuming that they're in the main repository and is also nice from a 'just get it done in one command' perspective, and by default app installs are more hands-on in Windows, but straying from the default repository to install say VeraCrypt becomes just as 'not particularly fiddly' as it is in Windows, and if you had to install say a graphics driver in Linux or you had to upgrade the kernel before getting a functional desktop then any time savings under Linux would be flushed in pretty short order.

One thing that takes a freakishly long time in my experience is restoring Virtualbox VM backups! Rather like Steam backups, a poorly optimised process.

 

[pcgeek11]

It would probably take me about 4 hours to replicate my Linux setup in a clean install

That is why I keep several (weekly) verified Macrium Reflect Backups. In case of a crash or some other major issue.

 

[jamesdsimone]

I'm not sure what you mean, but if I had to guess what you meant, it's about how quickly you can have a basically working setup by.

I don't have a complicated setup but yes. You setup your base install and you are set. With Windows you have to find all the correct drivers for the the specific computer you installing it on, chipset, video, audio, LAN and sometimes others. I have a USB drive with all my standard installation files.

 

[jamesdsimone]

I'm having a lot of frustration with installing software on Mint 21.3 right now. I installed wine and it does not show up in start menu and the launch button in software manager does not start it either. As much as I like Linux, their manual software installation still sucks after all this time. Also, finding where something is installed is a pain.

 

[mikeymikec]

I don't have a complicated setup but yes. You setup your base install and you are set. With Windows you have to find all the correct drivers for the the specific computer you installing it on, chipset, video, audio, LAN and sometimes others. I have a USB drive with all my standard installation files.

"Find", as in for my recent computer build I went to the Asus site and downloaded the latest drivers listed for my board, followed by a visit to amd.com to get the latest graphics card driver... I just think you're stretching the definition to an unreasonable extent, especially if you're going to argue that Linux is easier than Windows.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm having a lot of frustration with installing software on Mint 21.3 right now. I installed wine and it does not show up in start menu and the launch button in software manager does not start it either. As much as I like Linux, their manual software installation still sucks after all this time. Also, finding where something is installed is a pain.

I think I command-line'd my wine stuff in Linux, IIRC just :> wine installer.exe
For Sunbird I ended up with Mint menu shortcuts that all worked.

Also, install winetricks as it allows you to configure the default font settings used by Wine, for example Sunbird on Mint had some unusable fonts for me until I tweaked it with winetricks.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I'm having a lot of frustration with installing software on Mint 21.3 right now. I installed wine and it does not show up in start menu and the launch button in software manager does not start it either. As much as I like Linux, their manual software installation still sucks after all this time. Also, finding where something is installed is a pain.

Try Pop_OS. It's geared towards gamers so stuff like Wine comes pre-installed plus it's easier to use for a newbie.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Try Pop_OS. It's geared towards gamers so stuff like Wine comes pre-installed plus it's easier to use for a newbie.

I've been using Mint for years as my standard day to day version. I had been using Ubuntu but absolutely hated the Unity desktop. I was thinking about trying Pop_OS but then saw this. Anyone have any experience? It say they tweaked the Ubuntu kernel for extra performance.

Drauger OS - Home

Drauger OS is an open-source desktop Linux gaming OS.

draugeros.org

Best Linux distro for gaming of 2024

Enjoy video games with the best Linux distros for gaming

www.techradar.com

 

[igor_kavinski]

Worth a try if it is coming up as No.1 but there's also https://nobaraproject.org/ which aims to help the user in avoiding the terminal.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Worth a try if it is coming up as No.1 but there's also https://nobaraproject.org/ which aims to help the user in avoiding the terminal.

I have a pile of thumb drives and a pile of SSD's coming so I think I'll give it a shot.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Ended up installing this. I haven't tried it yet. Not sure how Arch vs Ubuntu matters.

Garuda Linux Official website

Garuda Linux is an appealing Arch Linux based Distro with BTRFS (modern filesystem), Linux-zen kernel, auto snapshots, gaming edition and a lot more bleeding-edge features.

garudalinux.org

 

[jamesdsimone]

Looked around a little. The are a bunch of gaming options pre configured and ready to install. One thing I don't like which might be a deal killer is there doesn't seem to be the usual update manager like Mint. There are a bunch of desktops and I installed Cinnamon since that is what I use with Mint. As soon as I booted it updated automatically. One thing I can't stand is forced updates. There might be a way to change that but I'll have to look into it.

 

[mv2devnull]

If I was in the habit of clean-installing my main PC's installation of Linux on a regular basis and therefore making all the development time in researching/coding/troubleshooting the automation worthwhile, sure (also assuming that I can learn how to script everything that could be scripted; my bash scripting skills are pretty basic), the same argument largely applies to Windows too though.

That is why I keep several (weekly) verified Macrium Reflect Backups. In case of a crash or some other major issue.

Look at configuration management systems. E.g. Ansible, Chef, Puppet. Some of them work an Windows and OS X too.

You describe desired setup (in their syntax). That is easy to backup. They install listed packages and deploy config too. When things change, you update description and redeploy; they probably change only the modified bits. Thus good for both install and management. If written neatly, the config might suite different distros too. (E.g. you say that you want post 443/tcp open and the tool figures out how to do that in target distro.)

I keep the description in Git, so I can find my old mistakes, and clone to github/gitlab/whatever.

What these do not do is backup/restore of user data. That has to be done separately.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Would have given up on Windows some time ago if not for the fact I still occasionally fire up a game. The way it seems to be moving towards becoming an ad-supported 'service' (with forced upgrades with older software stopping working every time, and increasing amounts of what seems to be built-in advertising) I doubt I'll be using Windows much longer...if I could just fully kick the gaming habit.

Gaming is the ONLY reason I still have Windows. Been 100% linux desktop at my work for over 25 years (even though I am one of the only ones and it is an otherwise 100% windows centric desktop environment for day to day functions outside of the labs). I get away with it because I am one of the Unix/Linux admins and administrating and interfacing with those systems is 1000 times easier from a linux system (but I am still on MS Office 365, and the chat client of the month, and meeting software of the month, and colab software of the week just fine through most web portals/interfaces, or an open source client that can interface with them).

My home server is running XCP-NG where I have several linux and BSD based VM's, but my main desktop and my HTPC are windows due to gaming on both of them....

 

[pcgeek11]

Linux Mint 22 is now out.

"Linux Mint's latest release continues its tradition of excellence. It's easy to learn and use, faster than Windows, and runs on a thrift-store PC. What more can you ask for?"

I've tried a zillion desktop distros - it doesn't get any better than Linux Mint 22

Linux Mint's latest release continues its tradition of excellence. It's easy to learn and use, faster than Windows, and runs on a thrift-store PC. What more can you ask for?

www.zdnet.com

 

[pcgeek11]

Just completed the Upgrade from Mint 21.3 to Mint 22 using the online upgrade tool. Worked great on my Desktop, but I had some issues with my Notebook. I have done a LOT of tweaking on my Notebook so it was sort of expected that the Upgrade process wouldn't like it. Rolled it back with a current backup image and all is well.

My Desktop is working great however running Mint 22.

 

[pcgeek11]

Retract that comment about my desktop running great. After using it the screen kept blacking out intermittently. With no reasoning that I could figure out. Did a clean format and install and found the same issue.

I usually wait for a couple of updates like maybe 22.3 and I'll try again. 21.3 is working great and I've never had any issues, so I'll stick there for a while more.

Restored my backup image and moving along...

 

[mikeymikec]

Retract that comment about my desktop running great. After using it the screen kept blacking out intermittently. With no reasoning that I could figure out. Did a clean format and install and found the same issue.

I usually wait for a couple of updates like maybe 22.3 and I'll try again. 21.3 is working great and I've never had any issues, so I'll stick there for a while more.

Restored my backup image and moving along...

Maybe 'tis the season? Recently I used the workaround to install Win11 on my broadwell-era laptop, which worked fine until I was off for a week with covid, then the screen started intermittently going on and off after being woken from sleep mode.

 

[pcgeek11]

Maybe 'tis the season? Recently I used the workaround to install Win11 on my broadwell-era laptop, which worked fine until I was off for a week with covid, then the screen started intermittently going on and off after being woken from sleep mode.

It is just out of Beta and newly released. I usually do not adopt this early and wait for a minor update or three at least before upgrading. All the past versions I've used have been rock solid.

I'm patient and can wait.

 

[pcgeek11]

Reran the Mint Upgrade on my Desktop from Mint 21.3 to Mint 22.0 yesterday. Been running everything for 48 hours + with no issues at all and no errors etc. Something must have had a fart the first time.

Liking it so far!

 

[Indus]

I tried to upgrade my wife's comp from 21.3 to 22 and holy shit.. more problems than I've ever encountered with freezing and recovery not working. Couldn't even get it to boot.. so whatever happened it wiped the backup and the bootloader.

However I am happy to say rather than get riled up.. I just installed LMDE6 for her (same as what I'm using) and it seems to be running smoothly. Now I just have 1 update to think about every 2 years instead of one every 6 months.

I think there's a saying.. if it isn't broken.. don't fix it.. and I was happy with 21.3.. dunno why I tried to fix it with the 22 upgrade.

 

[pcgeek11]

I tried to upgrade my wife's comp from 21.3 to 22 and holy shit.. more problems than I've ever encountered with freezing and recovery not working. Couldn't even get it to boot.. so whatever happened it wiped the backup and the bootloader.

However I am happy to say rather than get riled up.. I just installed LMDE6 for her (same as what I'm using) and it seems to be running smoothly. Now I just have 1 update to think about every 2 years instead of one every 6 months.

I think there's a saying.. if it isn't broken.. don't fix it.. and I was happy with 21.3.. dunno why I tried to fix it with the 22 upgrade.

You had the backup on the system operational drive?

I always keep several full verified backups on separate unattached hard drives.