Yes, many internet nerds will finally switch to linux. Most normies will just throw millions of computers into the trash and buy win11 approved machines.
Hi, it’s me. I’m one of those people. Currently test driving OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in KDE Plasma on an old Chromebook. Liking Linux well enough so far, and i have no special fondness for windows. Just need to find/learn Linux alternatives or work arounds for a few key things, like Cricut and SketchUp. Then I feel like I could easily switch over my main machine and never look back.
I can speak from experience on the Cricut: you’ll still need Design Space to actually do the cutting, but you can use Inkscape to make your designs, just export them to .svg files and load those into Design Space on an old tablet or something. There’s currently no alternative to Design Space for the actual cutting, due to Cricut’s proprietary nature.
Didn’t try a VM, but it definitely does not work on WINE.
Edit: just did a quick search, it does work with a VM. I also thought about something like Waydroid to run the Android app, or maybe a port kind of like Sober does for Roblox, but I have tried neither and I’m going to sleep soon, so hopefully I’ll remember about it later lol
Alternativeto.net is a good resource for finding alternatives by filterable tags including platform! Also wine and proton have come a long ways, many windows apps work just fine in a small wine or proton container.
I miss my resolution not randomly locking itself onto 480p and requiring restart to fix (probably because I have Nvidia GPU).
I miss having 150% scaling option since 100% makes text too small on my 4K monitor and 200% is way too large. I miss the scaling actually applying to all apps, rather then bunch of them ignoring it.
I miss being able to play a new game without messing around with Wine settings and other crap for half an hour beforehand.
I miss Jellyfin player not locking-up randomly at an end of video.
I miss not having to reinstall steam because the package manager offered me the native package while flatpak apparently works better.
I miss shit just working most of the time.
That being said, it was much less painful then any of my previous attempts to use Linux. Almost everything could at least be made to work with a bit of tinkering. There certainly was a lot of improvements to ease of use since last time, but it is still not at the level of windows.
I guess the issue is, that mint is not on wayland yet
I have distro on wayland and proprietary nvidia drivers running (endeavourOS!
Never had an issue with resolution on my 4k screen
I can set my scaling in 5% steps
apps are as bad on adapting to zoom settings as they are on windows (it is bad there as well)
proto.db is your friend, but yea that is valid, some games only work using a proper window VM, at least
naver had an issue with jelly yet, but not often stream to my linux but to my iOS(and tvOS) devices.
i do not like flatpak, because it does not see mounted ISOs per default (and you only have this issue because you decide to use flatpak for which there is no such thing on windows)
I guess the issue is, that mint is not on wayland yet
Yeah, I figured as much. I tried to install Pop! Os before falling back onto mint when installation failed for some reason and I couldn’t be bothered to troubleshoot it.
apps are as bad on adapting to zoom settings as they are on windows (it is bad there as well)
I never had an issue with this on Windows outside a few Games.
proto.db is your friend, but yea that is valid, some games only work using a proper window VM, at least
I was so far able to get all of them working in Wine but it’s just a waste of my free time to do that for every game.
i do not like flatpak, because it does not see mounted ISOs per default (and you only have this issue because you decide to use flatpak for which there is no such thing on windows)
Everyone so far recommended flatpaks. Idk. Why is there more than one way to install them in the first place?
shit just works until it doesn’t (any OS)
Yes, except on windows it takes on average about a year for an issue to pop up. On Linux, I had issue before I finished installing the OS.
PopOS would require some “hacking” as well to enable wayland, iirc
I think, for a person like you, a fedora spin (pretty up to date, but stable and not rolling) would be best fit for you, but please correct me if I am wrong.
Idk, last time I tried to switch to Linux, I chose OpenSUSE and managed to brick my install by enabling encrypted grub. Now sure, on one hand it’s skill issue to click a setting I did not fully understand. On the other hand, why is there a UI toggle that can brick my install without warning? I expected UI to be mostly safe and command line to be dangerous.
Most of your problems are probably down to NVIDIA 🙁
Possibly, but it doesn’t really change that things that just work on Windows (e.g. your preferred choice of GPU and games) doesn’t on Linux.
As for wine settings, why are you messing with wine when you have steam? Are your games supported?
Admittedly, I only tried 2 games on steam. One worked flawlessly. The other one was Red Alert 2 that does not work flawlessly even on modern Windows.
Most of my games are either on GOG or even more often, just random exe downloads from patreon and such since they are small games still in development.
The last category is what required a lot of messing with wine. Those also tend to not be listed on ProtonDB. I am still testing, installed Bottles yesterday to see if that helps.
Possibly, but it doesn’t really change that things that just work on Windows (e.g. your preferred choice of GPU and games) doesn’t on Linux.
Sure, but that’s like saying that windows doesn’t work well on a raspberrypi. You put an operating system on badly supported hardware and you’re going to have problems. Not much windows or linux can do about that. The major difference in this case is that the issue is with the hardware vendor NVIDIA, the trillion dollar company that ignored and refused to support Linux for more than a decade.
Admittedly, I only tried 2 games on steam. One worked flawlessly. The other one was Red Alert 2 that does not work flawlessly even on modern Windows.
It needs a tweak to run on ProtonDB for Red Alert 2. As for the other things, yeah, it’s understandable that it doesn’t work well on linux. Unfortunately, they are made specifically for windows and in development. Some of them could work if they’re written in (I think) Unity or Unreal Engine which have a simple toggle to compile for linux. Maybe sending a quick message to the developer to tick that box could help.
Sure, but that’s like saying that windows doesn’t work well on a raspberrypi. You put an operating system on badly supported hardware and you’re going to have problems. Not much windows or linux can do about that. The major difference in this case is that the issue is with the hardware vendor NVIDIA, the trillion dollar company that ignored and refused to support Linux for more than a decade.
Again, I have hardware that I am selecting an OS for. What do I care how it runs on HW I don’t have or whose fault it is?
You can use Heroic Launcher to manage all your other games (including loose ones) and libraries (Epic, GOG, and Prime), all in one place. You shouldn’t ever really need to mess with Wine settings, unless you’re running something strange (like Red Alert 2, like you said. Old games don’t run well on modern Windows, so you’ll need to mess with things to get it working possibly.)
You can add any exe to steam library and set there to hae proton to run it. The hard ones are those that have a setup.exe, there you have to change the path to exe that is to be executed after you have run the setup exe using steam. The correct exe can be found in the corresponding c drive hidden deep in your home dotfiles.
I agree that games for windows are more easy to run on windows. Only fair comparison is, comparing it how windows handle running Linux games/software. One can say, yea, there is WSL. But you can do exactly the same on Linux using a windows VM and RDP to draw the program window directly into a window in your display manager.
You can add any exe to steam library and set there to hae proton to run it. The hard ones are those that have a setup.exe, there you have to change the path to exe that is to be executed after you have run the setup exe using steam. The correct exe can be found in the corresponding c drive hidden deep in your home dotfiles.
Thanks for the tip.
I agree that games for windows are more easy to run on windows. Only fair comparison is, comparing it how windows handle running Linux games/software. One can say, yea, there is WSL. But you can do exactly the same on Linux using a windows VM and RDP to draw the program window directly into a window in your display manager
I don’t really care about what is fair. I care how well the OS can do what I want it to do. I have never seen a Game that run on Linux but not on Windows, so this is irrelevant to me. Playing Windows games is one of my use-cases. If windows is better at it, I don’t really care why.
Personally never realized what October 14, 2025 was about until just now but your explanation makes more sense … and it also make me realize that I should be looking for another thinkpad in the near future.
What’s happening on Oct 14?
Windows 10 support ends and many are suggesting that instead of people moving to Windows 11, many will just move over to Linux
deleted by creator
Doubt.
Yes, many internet nerds will finally switch to linux. Most normies will just throw millions of computers into the trash and buy win11 approved machines.
Source: my tech illiterate normie family
As if anyone would care that support ended. People are annoyed by updates anyway
Hi, it’s me. I’m one of those people. Currently test driving OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in KDE Plasma on an old Chromebook. Liking Linux well enough so far, and i have no special fondness for windows. Just need to find/learn Linux alternatives or work arounds for a few key things, like Cricut and SketchUp. Then I feel like I could easily switch over my main machine and never look back.
I can speak from experience on the Cricut: you’ll still need Design Space to actually do the cutting, but you can use Inkscape to make your designs, just export them to .svg files and load those into Design Space on an old tablet or something. There’s currently no alternative to Design Space for the actual cutting, due to Cricut’s proprietary nature.
Could you run it in a VM or Wine?
Didn’t try a VM, but it definitely does not work on WINE.
Edit: just did a quick search, it does work with a VM. I also thought about something like Waydroid to run the Android app, or maybe a port kind of like Sober does for Roblox, but I have tried neither and I’m going to sleep soon, so hopefully I’ll remember about it later lol
https://alternativeto.net/ is a good place to start looking for the software that meets your requirements
Alternativeto.net is a good resource for finding alternatives by filterable tags including platform! Also wine and proton have come a long ways, many windows apps work just fine in a small wine or proton container.
I did move to Mint to try it before October, but I am underwhelmed :(
Underwhelmed? Do you miss random update restarts? We can help you out to have that if you like 😉
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I miss my resolution not randomly locking itself onto 480p and requiring restart to fix (probably because I have Nvidia GPU).
I miss having 150% scaling option since 100% makes text too small on my 4K monitor and 200% is way too large. I miss the scaling actually applying to all apps, rather then bunch of them ignoring it.
I miss being able to play a new game without messing around with Wine settings and other crap for half an hour beforehand.
I miss Jellyfin player not locking-up randomly at an end of video.
I miss not having to reinstall steam because the package manager offered me the native package while flatpak apparently works better.
I miss shit just working most of the time.
That being said, it was much less painful then any of my previous attempts to use Linux. Almost everything could at least be made to work with a bit of tinkering. There certainly was a lot of improvements to ease of use since last time, but it is still not at the level of windows.
I guess the issue is, that mint is not on wayland yet
I have distro on wayland and proprietary nvidia drivers running (endeavourOS!
Yeah, I figured as much. I tried to install Pop! Os before falling back onto mint when installation failed for some reason and I couldn’t be bothered to troubleshoot it.
I never had an issue with this on Windows outside a few Games.
I was so far able to get all of them working in Wine but it’s just a waste of my free time to do that for every game.
Everyone so far recommended flatpaks. Idk. Why is there more than one way to install them in the first place?
Yes, except on windows it takes on average about a year for an issue to pop up. On Linux, I had issue before I finished installing the OS.
PopOS would require some “hacking” as well to enable wayland, iirc
I think, for a person like you, a fedora spin (pretty up to date, but stable and not rolling) would be best fit for you, but please correct me if I am wrong.
Idk, last time I tried to switch to Linux, I chose OpenSUSE and managed to brick my install by enabling encrypted grub. Now sure, on one hand it’s skill issue to click a setting I did not fully understand. On the other hand, why is there a UI toggle that can brick my install without warning? I expected UI to be mostly safe and command line to be dangerous.
After that, I wanted a n00b friendly distro.
Ah yeah, Pop! OS is going through a bit of a transitional period, while they work out the bugs on Cosmic DE.
Yeah, I loved what I saw of Cosmic, so I figured picking Pop! OS would mean I would eventually get it when it was stable without much work.
Most of your problems are probably down to NVIDIA 🙁
As for wine settings, why are you messing with wine when you have steam? Are your games supported?
Anti Commercial-AI license
Possibly, but it doesn’t really change that things that just work on Windows (e.g. your preferred choice of GPU and games) doesn’t on Linux.
Admittedly, I only tried 2 games on steam. One worked flawlessly. The other one was Red Alert 2 that does not work flawlessly even on modern Windows.
Most of my games are either on GOG or even more often, just random exe downloads from patreon and such since they are small games still in development.
The last category is what required a lot of messing with wine. Those also tend to not be listed on ProtonDB. I am still testing, installed Bottles yesterday to see if that helps.
Sure, but that’s like saying that windows doesn’t work well on a raspberrypi. You put an operating system on badly supported hardware and you’re going to have problems. Not much windows or linux can do about that. The major difference in this case is that the issue is with the hardware vendor NVIDIA, the trillion dollar company that ignored and refused to support Linux for more than a decade.
It needs a tweak to run on ProtonDB for Red Alert 2. As for the other things, yeah, it’s understandable that it doesn’t work well on linux. Unfortunately, they are made specifically for windows and in development. Some of them could work if they’re written in (I think) Unity or Unreal Engine which have a simple toggle to compile for linux. Maybe sending a quick message to the developer to tick that box could help.
Anti Commercial-AI license
Again, I have hardware that I am selecting an OS for. What do I care how it runs on HW I don’t have or whose fault it is?
You can use Heroic Launcher to manage all your other games (including loose ones) and libraries (Epic, GOG, and Prime), all in one place. You shouldn’t ever really need to mess with Wine settings, unless you’re running something strange (like Red Alert 2, like you said. Old games don’t run well on modern Windows, so you’ll need to mess with things to get it working possibly.)
I will give it a try when I have time.
Honestly, RA2 feels like the exception that proves the rule since I probably spent more time tinkering with it on Windows and it run better on Linux.
You can add any exe to steam library and set there to hae proton to run it. The hard ones are those that have a setup.exe, there you have to change the path to exe that is to be executed after you have run the setup exe using steam. The correct exe can be found in the corresponding c drive hidden deep in your home dotfiles.
I agree that games for windows are more easy to run on windows. Only fair comparison is, comparing it how windows handle running Linux games/software. One can say, yea, there is WSL. But you can do exactly the same on Linux using a windows VM and RDP to draw the program window directly into a window in your display manager.
Thanks for the tip.
I don’t really care about what is fair. I care how well the OS can do what I want it to do. I have never seen a Game that run on Linux but not on Windows, so this is irrelevant to me. Playing Windows games is one of my use-cases. If windows is better at it, I don’t really care why.
Bottles does often work, but my go to if often just to add them to Steam as a non-steam game, and let proton figure it out
Hmm, I didn’t realize that is an option. I will try when I have time.
It’s not about people trashing/selling old ThinkPads because Win10 support ended?
Personally never realized what October 14, 2025 was about until just now but your explanation makes more sense … and it also make me realize that I should be looking for another thinkpad in the near future.
Large corps likely have extended windows support so you might not see a large computer dump into the market. But it’s worth keeping an eye out.
Have your Craigslist’s bookmark ready ;)
Crusty, cynical folks, entirely unlike and unrelated to myself, could be tempted to name it the Beginning of Eternal October for Linux.
I would also like to know please