Microsoft has Copilot Plus PCs loaded with AI, and rumors are that Apple is all in on AI, too, but if you don't want AI in everything you do, there is another option: Linux.
Mint, which uses Cinnamon, or any KDE based distro. Since both desktop environments kinda have the same classic Windows layout & functionality that people would be used to.
As for games, it is mostly competitive pvp titles with their anticheat systems that don’t work, which is purely on the developers of said games. If you’re playing just regular multiplayer or singleplayer games then that’s typically not a concern at all.
I recently moved a light-used laptop to Kubuntu (after Debian bookworm would hang with hardware messages). I remember KDE being a, uh, ugly clunky power-hungry piece of shit, frankly, but today it’s none of those things (well maybe it could use a touch more polish, but it’s far less clunky). I quite like it, even.
I chose it over Mint because Mint’s Debian edition doesn’t let you (via gui) install it with btrfs + fde, which is fucking stupid, and I didn’t want to dive into hours-long tutorials. So Kubu it is.
(I use Debian for servers and I’ve been the most familiar with it, also getting the WWAN fcc unlock setup on Fedora was an exercise in futility so fuck it)
It started to really improve after I think the 3.5 update, before that it was indeed pretty bad regarding performance. The more recent updates also seems to have finally fixed a lot of the more common issues that I was running into.
But honestly, the grass is always greener on the other side. Tried Gnome recently again after many many years (pre Unity) and everything was just crashing or lacking very basic functions that I was using in my daily workflow with KDE. The only thing I liked were the smooth animations, but looking polished is not the only thing I need from a DE, especially when you rip out everything else to achieve it.
Mint, which uses Cinnamon, or any KDE based distro. Since both desktop environments kinda have the same classic Windows layout & functionality that people would be used to.
As for games, it is mostly competitive pvp titles with their anticheat systems that don’t work, which is purely on the developers of said games. If you’re playing just regular multiplayer or singleplayer games then that’s typically not a concern at all.
Yeah, I hated KDE for like a decade but tried it again last year and was blown away. I can’t imagine I’ll switch off of it for a very long time.
And yeah, I always forget about competitive games as they’re so not my thing.
I recently moved a light-used laptop to Kubuntu (after Debian bookworm would hang with hardware messages). I remember KDE being a, uh, ugly clunky power-hungry piece of shit, frankly, but today it’s none of those things (well maybe it could use a touch more polish, but it’s far less clunky). I quite like it, even.
I chose it over Mint because Mint’s Debian edition doesn’t let you (via gui) install it with btrfs + fde, which is fucking stupid, and I didn’t want to dive into hours-long tutorials. So Kubu it is.
(I use Debian for servers and I’ve been the most familiar with it, also getting the WWAN fcc unlock setup on Fedora was an exercise in futility so fuck it)
It started to really improve after I think the 3.5 update, before that it was indeed pretty bad regarding performance. The more recent updates also seems to have finally fixed a lot of the more common issues that I was running into. But honestly, the grass is always greener on the other side. Tried Gnome recently again after many many years (pre Unity) and everything was just crashing or lacking very basic functions that I was using in my daily workflow with KDE. The only thing I liked were the smooth animations, but looking polished is not the only thing I need from a DE, especially when you rip out everything else to achieve it.