Linux help and actual pros and cons

Submitted ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨danciestlobster@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Like perhaps many others I am debating what to do with my PC at the end of support for windows 10 later this year. I have read a lot of discussions here about switching to Linux, and a lot of commentary that though it has gotten a lot more plug and play it maybe still has some weaknesses. I just want to know what those are, and if it can support what I currently do with my computer.

Basically my computer is just for gaming. I play a plethora of games both major titles and small indy games. I also use mods on my games sometimes. Beyond gaming it’s just basic web browsing.

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sixty@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Based on my own experience and critisism of Linux(which is rare on here): Nothing is plug and play. You will have to troubleshoot the simplest things. You will have to like it.

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- asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev ⁨44⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Did you read the criticism from about 20 years ago?
  
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  - AyuTsukasa@lemm.ee ⁨13⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    Not who you replied to but I recently put mint mate on my laptop and you can’t even change the color of the cursor or have the trail effect on it. Every program that’s not in the app selector thing I’ve had to go into terminal to install. I thought I was decently good at computer stuff but it’s like everything I try to do on Linux I’m hit with some weird roadblock that takes forever to look up because I don’t know what I don’t know and all the help forums are so full of jargon they may as well be in a foreign language. That said I am going to stick with it and learn because fuck Microsoft.
    
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muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
OK so you want something simple that just works and will give you minimal headaches.

I see from ur comments ur running nvidia which is a pain to get drivers working for on some distros but some have a graphical installer to get then going.

I would defiantly recommend mint as its based on one of the most common disros giving u extremely transferable knowlege and very simmillar to windows.

As people have said check protondb u will only really have issues with anti cheat games. Indie games I find often have better Linux support but check protondb.

If u wanna duel boot so u can still use windows then I reccommend a separate drive. Windows on a separate partition but the same drive is unhappy and its known that windows will sometimes purposely blow up Linux cos Microsoft hates you.

If you are going to duelboot then for security u will want windows 11 but its shit so I recommend tiny11 or cristitis’s debloater to uninstall all the crap.

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BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I personally recommend Mint as the out-of-the-box experience is very familiar to a Windows user and the OS comes with everything one would expect a desktop OS to have pre-installed. That said, don’t stress too hard over the distro. This isn’t like Windows vs MacOS where everything is completely different. No, basically all your knowledge of one distro is transferable to another distro if you decide to change it up in the future.

At this point, I just assume a game works in Linux unless proven otherwise. There are some that won’t, mostly games that use kernel-level anti-cheats and specifically disable the game if running in Linux. There are only a few dozen games total that fit this description.

Linux is less of a resource hog than Windows, so if your computer is strong enough for Windows, it will work fine on Linux.

Dual booting using two different drives is generally the way to go. Doing two different partitions works, but Windows really, really hates other OSes being installed along side it, even other Windows installs. Gaming is my primary pastime and I haven’t booted into my Windows drive in months. From my experience for the average person, a dual boot is only something you will want temporarily as you get used to the unfamiliar OS.

Good luck on your swap. I’m damn happy I did it and hope you will be too!
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moody@lemmings.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If the games you’re looking to play are competitive multiplayer games, those usually actively fight Linux users. Games like Valorant, Apex Legends, and Fortnite are all broken on Linux due to their invasive anti-cheat software. There are exceptions to this, of course. The devs of Marvel Rivals, for example, have said that they don’t have a problem with players on Linux.

For.anything else, odds are it will work fine. You can always check protondb.com to see if, and how well, your games work under Linux.

I’ve been Linux-only for a few years now, and I haven’t had issues playing anything yet, besides maybe some minor tweaks.

Mods can be more complicated, but I don’t have much experience with that. I do believe Nexus Mods are working of a project to simplify game mods under Linux, so hopefully that works out well.

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zxqwas@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
First step is to check protondb if your favorite games are somewhat reasonably easy to get working.

Most work fine. There are some that are outright broken.

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jumle@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If you own a pc to game on it, I cannot recommend Linux compared to Windows 10 LTSC IOT massgrave.dev have a wonderful comparison of the LTSC (Long Term Support Channel) And IOT (I don’t know this one) but IOT gets security updates until 2032 and comes without bloatware (OneDrive, Office, Xbox, Candy Crush, etc.) - You can instead manually install the ones you want (Candy Crush) I’d recommend you check it out if your main usage of your computer is gaming: massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links

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- TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  My main usage of my PC is gaming and I have been happily using Linux Mint for a while now, Proton can do a lot for you. However you do have to write off certain games because of their anti-cheat and be willing to do a bit of fiddling sometimes.
  
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- Lightsong@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  +1 for this. I’m not ready for Linux yet.
  
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sylver_dragon@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I made the jump about a year ago at this point and have been happy with the choice. That said, there is a learning curve and everything isn’t sunshine and roses. I’d still rate it as fully worth it.

I think I need to pick a “distro”, right? Based on the above, which distro may work best for me?

Yes, though this is less of a “gotcha” than it might seem. Different distros will have advantages and disadvantages for different things. However, most distros are going to do most things at a reasonable level. It sounds like you are prioritizing ease of use and gaming; so, you may want to go for one of the more gaming focused distros such as PopOS or SteamOS. But, I would echo what @redlemace said, “take a live-distro, put it on an USB stick and boot from that. Yes, it’s sometimes slow/sluggish but it works and you can get an impression of the distro”. I ran my chosen distro from a USB stick for a bit over a month before committing.

what am I most likely to NOT be able to do, if anything?

Very little. However, you will need to relearn how to do some things. And you’ll probably have to get comfortable with using the terminal for some stuff. This can be a bit jarring for someone who grew up with Windows, as there are some things which just don’t have a GUI to configure. And some applications will need to be replaced. For example, you’re probably not going to be able to use Microsoft Office, but Libre Office is a good replacement. Photoshop will get replaces with Gimp, and so on.

Lastly, there are some games which just don’t work on Linux. A lot of that is around Anti-cheat software. For example, I wasn’t able to join my work team in playing Call of Duty 6. The EA Anti-Cheat is a complete “fuck you” to Linux users. So, check out ProtonDB for games you care about. Most games run just fine; but, there is the odd hole. Anymore, I’m more surprised that a game doesn’t work on Linux than when it does.

I have heard modding in particular can be challenging with Linux.

I’ve not run into this; however, I don’t use any of the mod managers (e.g. Vortex) and so I’m used to moving files around manually. I’ve also not run Skyrim on my Linux setup, and that does seem to require a bit of work to get going. So, this may be an issue, depending on the game. This is yet another reason to give the whole “install on a USB stick” recommendation a go. Spin up Linux, give modding Skyrim a shot. If it’s too heavy a lift, then maybe don’t do it. As much as I think Linux has been a good idea, it may not be right for everyone.

Are there some smaller indy games that don’t have Linux support (thinking back to the early mac days)?

Funny enough, I find the smaller indie stuff usually has better Linux support, but YMMV. For example, my son introduced me to Dome Keeper. It’s a small game, but it just worked and is one of my favorite casual games. Though again, checking ProtonDB is a good thing to do.

I would rate my computer technical ability at like… A 4/10. I haven’t done anything too crazy but can Google most issues and willing to learn. Is this realistically enough to get me up and running with Linux?

I’d think so. There’s lots of good info out there now to help you get up and running. Though this links back to the question about distros. If you don’t want to have to get super technical, pick a distro which is more aimed towards “just working”. And again, the USB “try before you buy” idea is really, really useful.

if the final answer here involves running a windows partition, is it possible to safely still use a windows 10 partition, even after the end of support?

Depending on how you plan to use it, the risk may be reasonable enough. For example, let’s say you have one or two games which just don’t run on Linux and you keep a Windows 10 partition around to run those games. You boot to Windows, play those games and then jump back to Linux for your normal computer use (web browsing, email, etc.). Then ya, that’s probably fine. The real risks start to show up when you use Windows for stuff which exposes it to the internet. If you are downloading and running random applications on it, you’re gonna have a bad time. Over time, even basic web browsing may start to be a risk, as vulnerabilities could be found which allow a malicious web page to run code. You also want to be sure you don’t have the device completely exposed to the internet (this is bad, even with an up to date Windows). Though, most home routers already prevent this; so, this is unlikely to be an issue. Just don’t hook your Windows 10 partition up to public WiFi (e.g. coffee shop, library or conference).

Just having the partition isn’t a risk. So long as Windows isn’t running, it isn’t available for attackers to attack. It’s just data on a disk. It’s only when it’s running and exposed to attackers that it becomes a problem. And you can control that and manage the risk.

anything else I might run into that I’m not expecting? Words of encouragement?

Be patient with it and it can be a worthwhile change. Also, don’t be afraid to come back and ask questions. There’s lot of folks here who can help you along. Getting away from Windows feels good and it’s great to actually own your system, rather than renting it from Microsoft. Best of luck.

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Thoven@lemdro.id ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve done a lot of this research recently. I’m out of town rn, but if you want to DM me sometime next week when I have access to my computer I’d be happy to put together a summary of my findings.

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neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I generally recommend linux mint for beginners, mostly because it’s pretty great at working out of the box, and it pretty general purpose.

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redlemace@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Long time ago I left Windows and went to linux. Yes, there is a learning curve, but once past that (digital)life became so much faster/better. I even changed my wife’s pc to linux. She knows nothing about pc’s and only said 'it looks different now" but she has much less issues on linux (elementary OS) then she had with micro$oft.

So, as I read it, you feel like you have some time left to decide. I suggest to take a live-distro, put it on an USB stick and boot from that. Yes, it’s sometimes slow/sluggish but it works and you can get an impression of the distro. Take an other one, try that too, and one more and… Ah well, just play with a couple and see which one you like best.

Once you have chosen (remember, it’s not a life-time decision (!), switching distro’s is relatively easy) install it by making your PC dual boot. That way you can have windows as a sort of back-up in case you need it.

hint: take a look at distrowatch.com

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- Ekpu@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  If you can install Windows and Linux in separate harddrives / SSD. That makes live easier compared to duelboot from the same harddrive.
  
  For some time I had Linux on a USB-C ssd. I even run starcitizen from that without much problems. After some time i just installed the external SSD as second hardrive.
  
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  - jwiggler@sh.itjust.works ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I think installing linux on another hard drive is best. It can be frustrating to jump straight into linux and realize a particular thing doesnt work, not knowing why, and realizing you can’t play games at all before doing work to fix things. Saying this as a linux sysadmin.
    
    For a long time I had a dual boot setup for this reason. I wasn’t sure why Ubuntu always felt so sluggish gaming (especially Rocket League, which requires a very low amount of input lag)
    
    Eventually I found two things that massively MASSIVELY improved my perception of the performance. First, the kernel I was running. Switching to the liquorix kernel with my NVIDIA card made a huge difference in my perceived input latency (please, if someone could correct my verbiage here. Input latency may not be technically correct.) Secondly but almost as important – my desktop compositor. I switched to KDE Plasma so I could manually turn it off and make sure that it was off. I never was certain with Gnome, even though I am more comfortable in that environment. Smooth sailing since then. But it was important for me to be able to reboot into Windows if I wanted to play with friends without running into technical difficulties.
    
    Now, I’m fully off of Windows for gaming and, well, everything. It’s sick.
    
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andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Here’s what I did. I got an external USB drive and I installed Linux mint on it. That way the windows drive inside the computer was left alone. Worst case scenario I just reboot the computer go back to windows. I was I was up and running.

Once I had Linux Installed on the external drive, I then installed steam on the external drive.

I play Guild wars 2. I did not buy the game through steam. I bought it directly from the maker of the game. So what I did was, I went Guild wars two website. Downloaded the executable, which is obviously Windows executable to my Linux computer. And told Steam to run it as a non-steam game. I just had to make sure I went into the settings for steam and turn the compatibility for the game on. Once the game was installed into Linux . I then just ran the game under steam in Linux no big deal. Works flawlessly.

I had to copy all of my music MP3 files over to Linux, That’s not hard to do.

Linux meant as others have said is very friendly for new users. It’s basically plug-in play. I have a printer made by brother that worked out ofthe box. The only thing I’ve never been able to get to work on that printer is on the physical printer itself there is a button called scan. It doesn’t work under Linux for me. I even went through the brother company to get tech-support. They said the drivers are installed and everything is set up correctly, but the button still doesn’t work. They say it’s something to do with my firewall, but I’ve pretty much given up on that.

I ran it that way for better part of seven months. Seven months being from when I first install Lennox to the external drive to now. Over the weekend I actually formatted the drive on the inside the computer and just installed Linux there.

You see the problem running on an external drive is it runs slow as hell. I mean to bring up a web browser. Can take you a minute and half. But I did it that way just so I could test Linux without destroying the windows install in case I did something wrong. But everything works fine. I can do what I want so there is no point in running on the slower system.

Linux mint has a package manager, Think of it like add remove programs. Only this package Manager has a ton of programs that you can add to the system. It goes out to the Internet and find these programsand then categorize them under games, music graphics, etc. And all you have to do is just click on the program then click install and it just takes care of it.

Strongly recommend trying mint as your first step into Linux.

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BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
There are a few distros that make gaming on Linux a bit simpler to setup. Bazzite is one, but there are others. You should read up on WINE, Vulkan, Lutris and maybe STEAM/Steam-tricks. There is a list somewhere of game titles and peoples success with gaming on Linux. Some of the ones that expect Windows Anticheat hooks aren’t going to work. If you aren’t wanting to fiddle till your system is setup to game nicely, there is a W10 LTSC version that will still be supported for some time.

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- Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  www.protondb.com Here for the compatibility list. Platinum stuff is stuff that is literally plug and play, gold is a should be fine. Get something easy to use, worst case, Mint should do the trick. Just install apps through the graphical store (this should include steam) and you should be fine. NVIDIA or AMD for graphics? Mint im pretty sure has an easy tool to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers at this point
  
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  - danciestlobster@lemm.ee ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I have Nvidia graphics. Is one or the other better with Linux?
    
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asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If you really won’t do much other than gaming, check Bazzite and Nobara out. You can turn your PC into a gaming console with Bazzite btw.

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it_depends_man@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
just pick any of the common recommendations. Mint. Ubuntu, Kubuntu… Just search for “which linux distro is right for me” and look at a few answers and pick one. Most of them work the same way.

you probably can’t use autocad or adobe products. kernel level anticheat is a problem, so games that need that are out.

Yes. …ish.

There are basically three levels, one where you only click everything and it’s basically an app / wizard as you know them.

The next level would be that it’s possible that you have manually edit a few text or config files to make things work the way you want to, or the best solution to your problem can be a command line thing. That’s very mostly “not programming”, the command line and manually editing config files can look scary, but most of the time it’s completely harmless. This happens, but it’s rare and it’s mostly simple stuff. The bigger and more used the distro is that you pick, the less you will run into this.

And then the third level would be “real programming” and basically nobody does that and nobody expects that.

yes, you can dual boot.

Just do it. If you’ve “built” a pc before, it’s the same deal. If you read the manual a tiny bit, it’s like lego. It looks way scarier than it is. And if you look up solutions it is extremely likely that you will find a well researched answer that does solve your problem.
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themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
yes you do. A good distro I recommend newbies is Linux Mint, because it’s visually similar to windows. Another great option for beginners is Pop!OS, because the developers take more care to automate things that you might encounter when first starting to use Linux. Overall, it doesn’t really matter that much what distribution you choose in terms of what software is available, it all comes down to design choices that change how hard things are to do (but reward you with more customization, of course)

you will not be able to play some games that have an anticheat that forbids linux. The main culprit is EasyAntiCheat (while it does support linux, enabling that support is a choice by the game’s developer). The main games I have noticed can’t work are Fortnite (EAC), Hunt: showdown (EAC), league of legends & Valorant (Vanguard), R6 Siege (EAC) and PUBG (EAC). You can use protondb to learn what games in your steam library are known to simply not work.

Don’t expect games that you own on the windows store to work at all (this includes Xbox game pass). Most of them are available on steam, but that requires buying them again.

Most of the other stuff works, generally. Valve’s Proton supports a very large part of most games today, and unless the game you want to launch is very old or specifically doesn’t want you to use Linux, chances are the game will work first try, especially indies. Protondb is a great help to see what parameters one needs to use to make it work if it doesn’t first try. Make sure to “enable proton compatibility for all games” in steam’s main options, otherwise it won’t let you download game.

For tools that aren’t on steam but target steam games (for example mod managers), you should use protontricks (it’s most likely in your distro’s package manager, you don’t need to download it from GitHub) to launch the tool’s exe inside of the proton context of that game (steam maintains a separate pseudo-windows install (a “wine prefix”) for each game that uses proton). From there, the tool will behave as if you launched it on windows.

For tools that stand alone, you can add them to steam as a non-steam game and in it’s properties, force it to use proton, which allows you to launch e.g. cracked games. I also recommend using Bottles to manage your third-party launchers.

most likely you’ll be fine. You’re unlikely to encounter any issues that haven’t been encountered by anyone before, so don’t hesitate to Google and to ask for help on various forums. You don’t need to know how to program to use Linux, though it does unlock some pretty nice things (it also does on windows for that matter)

windows 10 LTSC will continue being available for a few years. If you need a windows partition (imo you only do need it if you want to play games that have restrictive anticheat), I suggest installing it on a separate disk altogether, because windows tends to not play nice with other partitions on the same disk, and will create headaches you could have avoided.

welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy your time away from ads in the start menu.
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- danciestlobster@lemm.ee ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I don’t have any games on windows store so that’s fine, most games are on steam but I do have some on GoG, will those still run as well or really best to stick with steam?
  
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  - BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    GOG games work great as well, I have recently been playing my GOG copy of Cyberpunk 2077 on Mint. You will want to use the Heoric Launcher as GOG doesn’t have their own Linux client. That launcher also works with Epic and Amazon games if you have any of those.
    
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urata@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s really easy to try out most linux distributions by running them live from a USB drive. You’ll need to be able to tell your computer to boot from the drive by entering your BIOS setup.

Once you’ve done that you’ve probably done the most technical thing you’ll have to do to try linux. If you have a separate SSD to install linux on you’ll have a pretty easy time actually installing linux. If not you’ll have to learn to partition your drive which can feel a little scary.

I think if you are playing a lot of different games it’s likely you will find some that won’t run on linux so you’ll likely still need to run some form of windows for some games. I’d hope to see that change in the future but I’m not holding my breath. I personally still do most of my gaming on windows because some of my favorite games don’t run on linux but it really depends on your preferences.

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mrcleanup@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Check out Garuda too, it is specifically designed with gaming in mind.

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raynethackery@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Just go buy a new PC with Windows 11 and give me your old PC.

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Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Distros : as others said, Mint is a solid choice. I personally use ZorinOS because it’s very close to the Windows interface and I really enjoy it, i installed it on every computer in the house x). I saw Pop_OS recommended for gaming too.

Hard incompatibilities : as others said, some big games with kernel level anti cheat might not work (Fortnite, Apex Legends, Valorant, Rust, etc.). Along ProtonDB, a great site to keep track of that is https://areweanticheatyet.com/. Other than that, I ended up being able to run approximately anything, from old indies to modern big games without major problems, though it may involve tinkering.

Tinkering with linux : if you are used in googling issues and browsing a bit through old forums posts, in my experience you’re good to go. I found a solution to every of my problems but one : it’s caused by Nvidia drivers. As you asked in another comments, AMDs and Intel’s drivers are open source, and so it’s easier for linux devs to adapt to them. Nvidia are proprietary, though they are going half-open-source and there is an attempt at building an open source driver from scratch, but their basic drivers options may clash with linux sometimes (in my case, the driver wont let linux turn off the screen when i’m inactive for too long, so not that a big issue).

Windows compatibility : On 2 of the 3 computers i tried, having a windows 10 partition on the side is easy to setup and does not generate much trouble. My main computer is ZorinOS/Windows 11, and this one had more issues : each time i switch, i have to go in BIOS to set a setting that is made for Windows off, otherwise i can’t have multiple screens in linux. I also experienced some troubles which are probably linked to the partitioning process (i had to defrag data to create partitions) : if you can, i’d recommend making a clean multi partition drive, installing windows from scratch first, then installing Linux.

Good luck in your process ! I was a bit reluctant at first, but now i’m really glad i did it. If you have access to another device, maybe try to install linux there first, so you can try it out and go through the installation process a first time.
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Zozano@aussie.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
New to Linux? Try NixOS! It’s great for beginners! (Hee hee)

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