After more than a decade in the Windows world, I’m finally taking the step into the Linux world, specifically considering Ubuntu or Fedora. I’m looking for advice on making this transition as seamless as possible, with a focus on improving my coding experience and ensuring a smooth gaming setup.
What are the key things I should take into account for a good transition? Any must-have tools, software, or tweaks? Additionally, I’m keen on maintaining a good gaming experience – any tips for optimizing gaming performance on these distros?
Your insights, recommendations, and personal experiences would be immensely helpful as I embark on this exciting journey. Thanks in advance for your guidance!
The buggest hurdle is usually software. Make a list of all the applications you use on a daily basis. If they all have a linux version that’s great, otherwise I’d suggest finding alternatives that work on linux (or at least work okay through WINE) before you switch your OS. Ideally you would swap out all your software for linux-compatible ones before you even switch away from Windows to get a feel for everything and minimise the amount of things you have to learn all at once.
After that choosing a linux distro is honestly not as life-defining as you’d think. Don’t feel like you have to stick with the first distro you choose, as chances are you won’t pick the right one for you until you know a little more. I’d recommend setting up a USB drive with Ventoy and filling it full of distro images so you can get a feel for how they work without too much fuss.
For reference, my personal journey started with Ubuntu, then Kubuntu (uses the KDE desktop which I much prefer, instead of GNOME), then I hopped over to Arch-based distros with Manjaro (finally got me away from the very clunky and annoying PPA system that Ubuntu and derivatives have), then EndeavourOS when I realised Manjaro is honestly just a hot mess (the devs have screwed up several times. A more vanilla Arch distro like EndeavourOS works way better for the AUR too).