I’m just so sick of Microsoft and Google. But there’s two things holding me back:

  1. I wanna play Steam games on my PC

  2. I am just an amateur hobbyist, not a tech wizard

Is there any hope for me?

  • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
    131·
    17 hours ago

    A lot of people here have already given good advice. I shall add my experience, recommendation and some tips (may incidentally repeat some of them).

    1. If you play some games with kernel level anti-cheat (like Rainbow Six Siege, Apex, Valorant, LoL, Fortnite, Battlefield games, Destiny 2 among others), you will have to stick to dual-boot. Check on ProtonDB for compatibility of games. I have 500+ games on Steam and pretty much everything I’ve played has worked so far.

    In terms of other software you use, make sure you have alternatives that work on Linux.

    • For Photoshop, there’s Krita/GIMP.
    • For Video editing, there’s Kdenlive, DaVinci Resolve, etc.
    • For browsing and office apps, there’s LibreWolf and LibreOffice.

    If you happen to have any software that you don’t have a good alternative or that only runs on Windows, then you’ll have to stick to dual booting.

    1. If you do end up dual booting, DO NOT use your external HDD in NTFS to run games on linux. It will work for a while, but you’ll constantly have to ‘chkdsk’ or check disk on Windows every time your HDD is found corrupted. Also, NTFS is Windows’ proprietary filesystem. So, I’ve heard that using ntfs-fix (chkdsk equivalent on linux) might cause data loss. Not sure how far it’s true, but be cautious of using that too. But otherwise, I believe that just reading files from NTFS drive usually is not a problem.
    • If you are NOT dual booting however, you won’t have to face this mess. You can backup the data on your HDD somewhere, format it in ‘ext4’ filesystem for Linux-only use (‘Exfat’ if you want to share any data with others on Windows/Mac) and restore all your files back to this HDD in ext4. Hope you have extra HDD with enough free space to move your files while you convert disks to ext4. You can also probably use cloud services for backup.
    1. I’ve used Ubuntu, Mint, Arch and Fedora.
    • Had faced a lot of issues with Ubuntu back in the day, and Snap Steam is a mess. So, avoid it.
    • Mint is easy to use, removes snap from Ubuntu and just uses apt, has a great Desktop Environment called Cinnamon, and I’d usually recommend this to someone new, but I wanted to shift from X-11 to Wayland for security reasons and HDR support among others. If Wayland worked well with Mint, I’d still be using it today, but that was the only reason I moved away from it.
    • While Arch is nice, it’s certainly not for someone new.
    • That leaves us with Fedora KDE, which would be my recommendation. It has good security features like SE-Linux out of the box. The reason I suggest KDE over Gnome is so that you might have an easier transition from Windows to Linux. Once you have a hang of this, you can later use a pen drive to load other distro with other DE like Gnome, XFCE, Cinnamon, Cosmic, etc and test them out by live booting.
    1. Speaking of pendrives, make sure to always have one with Ventoy installed and the distribution you’re using. This will be handy if you want to troubleshoot your system anytime. And I say Ventoy over others because it makes loading distro easier. You can just drag and drop the ISO files instead of having to burn with Balena Etcher or Rufus everytime.
    • Rufus is great, but if you’re moving out of Windows, you don’t need it.
    • And I have seen a lot of people have trouble with using Balena Etcher. So, avoid it.
      • Turn off Secure Boot in BIOS. (And maybe also fast boot).
    • And if your disk is on RAID instead of AHCI, you might have trouble installing. So, you might want to set your SATA configuration to AHCI mode in BIOS if you face issues.
    1. If you end up choosing Fedora, you may want to follow this.

    Fedora only comes with FOSS by default. So, you’ll have to install Nvidia driver and proprietary multimedia Codecs separately by including RPMFusion repo.

    • You can download the free and non-free repo files from the RPM-Fusion site(Graphical Setup) and install them through the Software Center. After adding the repo, you might have to enable them in the Settings of Discover Software Center. Enable all of them except those containing the words ‘testing’, ‘Test’, ‘Source’, ‘Debug’ and ‘google chrome’.

    • After that, it’s just a few lines you type in the terminal (Konsole by default) for installing driver and codecs. Make sure to update the system and restart first before doing these.

    For Nvidia driver, type:

    sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia

    For optional CUDA support, type:

    sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda

    For Video acceleration support, type:

    sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo

    For Codecs, type:

    sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing

    Steam is also included in the non-free repo. You may install it by typing:

    sudo dnf install steam

    1. Other than these, most applications can now be installed directly from the store as a Flatpak. You can select them in the store between Flatpaks, Fedora managed Flatpaks and Fedora Linux app for a particular one.
    • For flatpak apps, you’ll see a tick next to the developer if they are verified. So, you can look out for that if necessary.
    • Make sure ‘Flathub’ repo is enabled in the Settings of Discover Software Center for the Flatpak apps to appear.

    NOTE: Every time the video driver updates, you will have to do a follow-on update for flatpak runtimes. You might see a bunch of ‘Application platform’ and ‘Freedesktop’ stuff which you’ll have to install. If you fail to do this, you might suddenly find flatpak applications not working properly.

    1. Troubleshooting tips:
    • If Steam doesn’t launch the first time, type:

    __GL_CONSTANT_FRAME_RATE_HINT=3 steam

    • If your system is frozen, try switching to TTY by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F3) and going back to GUI by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F2)*. *Could be F1 in some cases.

    • To check what errors you got during the recent boot,

    journalctl -b 0 -p err

    Apart from the driver installation and some troubleshooting, you generally won’t have to use the terminal if you’re averse to it.

    1. In terms of deGoogling, I’d recommend the following:
    • Buy a pixel and install Graphene OS.

    Switch to

    • Tuta/Proton Mail for email,

    • Proton/Tresorit Drive for storage,

    • Mullvad (or i, proton) VPN or (Rethink DNS for firewall) I am not sure if you can use both Rethink and VPN at the same time. I assume there is a way.

    • OsmAnd for maps,

    • Newpipe for youtube frontend(Grayjay on Linux),

    • Bitwarden/KeepassXC for Password management,

    • Aegis for TOTP

    • Fdroid, Accrescent, Aurora for App store.

    • Molly FOSS for Messaging.

      • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        4 hours ago

        Being intimidated by the terminal is fine, but the sooner you learn it, the better. Terminal is your friend, not your enemy. Take baby steps if you need to, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice by staying away from the terminal.

        • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          11·
          48 minutes ago

          This isn’t how you get non-tech gamers to* switch to Linux and honestly, this attitude needs to die. Do you want Windows to always dominate? Because this is how you get Windows to always dominate.

          • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            30 minutes ago

            People are afraid of the terminal because Windows has a shitty, unfriendly terminal. One of the things that brought me back to Linux was the cool-looking terminals. They make me feel like I’m Hackerman.

            Linux isn’t just a different operating system. It’s a paradigm shift. Windows is always going to dominate as long as people are trapped in a Windows mindset.

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        Well, it’s just 4-5 lines that you’re going to have to type and it’s just a one-time thing. Surely, it’s not that intimidating.

        Bazzite seems to be based on Fedora Kinoite, an atomic desktop. Now, I haven’t used atomic desktops. Although I wanted to, I ended up not doing that for the following reason.

        From what I understand, you can’t easily alter the base image of the system and everything else is a flatpak. This seems fine, but if you end up having to install an application for which there is no Flatpak, how would a non-tech savvy user do that? Still have to use the terminal at that point, I’d bet.

        Case in point, even the other day, I came across this application called ‘syncplay’ for which there’s no flatpak alternative and thankfully, Fedora repo had it.

        I also hear that if you end up installing apps this way(Layering as it’s called?), the update times become slower. You may shed some light on this.

        Also, while it may not be as good as a snapshot system of the atomic desktops, the regular Fedora nonetheless shows the last two kernel installations on every boot so you could revert back to one if an update goes wrong.

        I also have to mention that I always have my important files backed up on HDD or cloud that in the worst case scenario of losing my files on any update, (which hasn’t happened so far btw), I can always restore them. In case of Steam games, it shouldn’t be a problem if you have a fast internet connection. You should download them back in no-time. That is another reason I can still live without having to use a stable atomic desktop.

        • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          New users find the terminal very intimidating, I’ve seen that come up time and again. It’s kind of the whole point of Bazzite.

          If you’re already learning terminal to install software though, at that point you can use a distrobox, install whatever you want in it, and then export the application to your usual application menu. It’ll launch the container in the background when you start the application, and shut it down automatically too. It’s a little slower than a usual launch but it’s still just a stripped down container so it’s fine.

    • whats_all_this_then@programming.dev
      3·
      11 hours ago

      This is graat info. Didn’t know about Ventoy before, it sounds really cool.

      Just wanted to add that if you’re running multiple monitors on an nvidia card, you may find that the second monitor has low fps/stutters on wayland (common on dual graphics laptops). The fix is as follows:

      Add these 3 lines to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf:

      options nvidia-drm modeset=1
options nvidia NVreg_UsePageAttributeTable=1 NVreg_InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations=0 NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0

      Add this line to /etc/environment:

      KWIN_DRM_DEVICES="/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:01\:00.0-card:/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:00\:02.0-card"

      You may have to modify the part that says pci-xxxx\:xx\:xx.x-card with the appropriate values for your graphics card.

      Run lspci | egrep VGA to list installed PCI graphics cards and try to map the values from there

      Disclaimer:
      I don’t know why this works but it does and it isn’t malicious as far as I can tell. If anyone knows what exactly it’s doing, I’d like to know please.

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        Thanks for that info.

        I just want to add that the drm modeset is enabled by default ever since the 560 drivers. You only need to do that for the older ones, if I’m right.

        Previously, you also had to disable nouveau yourself and Nvidia driver installation used to be a headache. Things have gotten better over the ages. I’m sure this multi-monitor issue will also be fixed soon as well.

        • whats_all_this_then@programming.dev
          1·
          4 hours ago

          Huh, this was definitely a fix I used on an older version that I just moved over to a new install with the new drivers so the drm modset line may not be necessary anymore yeah. I’ll check next time I connect to my monitor.

          And yeah, it’s def gonna get better. I’ve already seen both wayland and nvidia improve significantly over the last 2-3 years so at this rate, things should “just work” pretty soon (insert meme about year of the Linux desktop).

          I vividly remember struggling to get proprietary drivers working on Fedora 37 (or 38, it’s been a minute) only to have them break on the next version on my previous laptop. It was definitely much MUCH easier to install on Fedora 42 on my current one and updates haven’t broken anything for me since 40.

    • atmorous@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 hours ago

      Can’t forget Zen Browser for best productivity browser. Also Ungoogled Chromium

      OP if you want to use AI locally but privately then use Ollama with Open Web UI

      Also HuggingChat is an AI Chatbot that can do all kinds of stuff with the 1-tap community extensions, models, and assistants avilable. Website is free with an account. Use as a web app for it to be even better experience

      When you are more advanced learn distrobox to add apps only available on other distros natively to your laptop

      If you have any questions feel free to ask me whenever

      • Aurora Chrysalis@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        While Zen and ungoogled chromium are fine, I’d suggest to stay away from Brave for any serious purposes 'cause you never know what shady things they might be doing. Case in point, they had previously been changing regular URLs to include affiliate links on their own. They also have that crypto bloat.

        • atmorous@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 hours ago

          Interesting I was not aware of that thanks for the heads up! I took off Brave from the comment