serpentwalker666
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2017
- Messages
- 1,031
I noticed there's a few articles and guides that have come up about switching to Linux to ditch windows, they all are very good and offer a great solution to people looking to escape billy gates shackles to get to freedom.
Ubuntu and Linux Mint are great for beginners, and intermediate, normal everyday users and have anything and everyone one could want or need in a Linux system right out the gate.
The only issue I'd say is Ubuntu would have a better reputation if they didn't try to shove snap packages and the snap store down the throats of end users, and at least let us remove them without us having to resort to ripping them out manually or with scripts.
Windows is essentially spyware and unfortunately most people have to either use it for work or can't, or don't know of alternatives to programs they are familiar with.
I wanted to lay out some advice for these people, as i know some people are limited in their options for one reason or another.
One option is to have a dedicated Linux machine and a dedicated windows machine. You could keep all your personal files and important documents on your Linux computer and just have a designated windows pc for whatever you need it for.
Ideally you'd want to keep everything separate and minimize your data and what you have on your windows computer that could be a security risk.
This can be done gradually and you can even keep a USB drive with all your essential files in a safe place. Along with having a backup folder on your Linux computer.
Another alternative for people who have the money, time and willing to learn something that can be complicated, is something called Gpu pass-through. Vfio pass-through, something along those lines.
Note. I really mean have the money here. This can be expensive but is a good alternative option for someone who's willing to learn.
Essentially what this is, is you typically run a desktop with two graphics cards. One for the Linux host and one for the windows virtual machine.
You then can set up the config files to pass through this second gpu to the virtual machine along with your specific number of cpu cores and and ram.
You can pass through your peripherals and anything else you need as well.
There's plenty of guides for this online, I don't have any I'd want to recommend personally though as there's a few different approaches to this. The only major recommendation I'd give is DO NOT USE A SINGLE GPU TO PASSTHROUGH UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO FIX YOUR BROKEN SYSTEM.
Single gpu passthough is a junky nightmare in most circumstances and is not worth fiddling with. Better to have two gpus so your life is much easier.
Anyone interested in this I'd say weigh your options.
Dual booting windows and Linux on one machine with two different hard drives is also a good option. As you can have all your data on the Linux drive and it's formatted differently than what would be standard for windows.
Another thing, Wine is a good compatibility layer for Linux for some windows programs.
Linux is not like it was years ago. You have many options now and can do almost anything you can do on a windows machine.
An example here is years ago you couldn't even run a decent game or game engine, or had support for some programming languages. Some hardware was finicky and didn't run right ... etc.
Wine changed alot fo things for the better and so much support has been added for so many things.
For the most part this has changed for the better. There's no time better than now honestly.
For those who are living life on the absolute edge, interested in switching away from Linux to a BSD distro, this is an option as well however I wouldn't recommend this for most people as most BSDs are not in a state where things are supported or stable as they should be.
OpenBSD is very secure. Probably the most secure operating system there is. The issue is that this has sacrificed alot to get to this point, including functionality and at times.. even common sense in cutting support for so many things.
I hope this advice is helpful. Please feel free to comment and let me know if there's anything I could clarify or better explain.
Ubuntu and Linux Mint are great for beginners, and intermediate, normal everyday users and have anything and everyone one could want or need in a Linux system right out the gate.
The only issue I'd say is Ubuntu would have a better reputation if they didn't try to shove snap packages and the snap store down the throats of end users, and at least let us remove them without us having to resort to ripping them out manually or with scripts.
Windows is essentially spyware and unfortunately most people have to either use it for work or can't, or don't know of alternatives to programs they are familiar with.
I wanted to lay out some advice for these people, as i know some people are limited in their options for one reason or another.
One option is to have a dedicated Linux machine and a dedicated windows machine. You could keep all your personal files and important documents on your Linux computer and just have a designated windows pc for whatever you need it for.
Ideally you'd want to keep everything separate and minimize your data and what you have on your windows computer that could be a security risk.
This can be done gradually and you can even keep a USB drive with all your essential files in a safe place. Along with having a backup folder on your Linux computer.
Another alternative for people who have the money, time and willing to learn something that can be complicated, is something called Gpu pass-through. Vfio pass-through, something along those lines.
Note. I really mean have the money here. This can be expensive but is a good alternative option for someone who's willing to learn.
Essentially what this is, is you typically run a desktop with two graphics cards. One for the Linux host and one for the windows virtual machine.
You then can set up the config files to pass through this second gpu to the virtual machine along with your specific number of cpu cores and and ram.
You can pass through your peripherals and anything else you need as well.
There's plenty of guides for this online, I don't have any I'd want to recommend personally though as there's a few different approaches to this. The only major recommendation I'd give is DO NOT USE A SINGLE GPU TO PASSTHROUGH UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO FIX YOUR BROKEN SYSTEM.
Single gpu passthough is a junky nightmare in most circumstances and is not worth fiddling with. Better to have two gpus so your life is much easier.
Anyone interested in this I'd say weigh your options.
Dual booting windows and Linux on one machine with two different hard drives is also a good option. As you can have all your data on the Linux drive and it's formatted differently than what would be standard for windows.
Another thing, Wine is a good compatibility layer for Linux for some windows programs.
Linux is not like it was years ago. You have many options now and can do almost anything you can do on a windows machine.
An example here is years ago you couldn't even run a decent game or game engine, or had support for some programming languages. Some hardware was finicky and didn't run right ... etc.
Wine changed alot fo things for the better and so much support has been added for so many things.
For the most part this has changed for the better. There's no time better than now honestly.
For those who are living life on the absolute edge, interested in switching away from Linux to a BSD distro, this is an option as well however I wouldn't recommend this for most people as most BSDs are not in a state where things are supported or stable as they should be.
OpenBSD is very secure. Probably the most secure operating system there is. The issue is that this has sacrificed alot to get to this point, including functionality and at times.. even common sense in cutting support for so many things.
I hope this advice is helpful. Please feel free to comment and let me know if there's anything I could clarify or better explain.
