Sword of Linuxcles.
I just swapped to Ubuntu on my straggler/media server Windows 10 desktop. Have been running Gentoo on another PC for years but never had so much trouble as trying to setup bumblebee with a GTX960 - holy crap nvidia suck so hard. The other PC is all AMD so I was living in blissful ignorance.
This is the third time today that I have seen a reference to the sword of Damocles. Almost as if the entire fucking world feels like it’s only a thread away from destruction…
I’ve been seeing it a lot more recently, too. IRL even.
Did it get used by sometime famous recently or something?
There was a king once named Damocles that had a sword suspended over his throne that could come crashing down at any random moment and kill him, to remind himself of the fragility of his power, and human life.
I have no idea how that anecdote might apply to people in power in this day and age, or why people would reference the anecdote.
Glares at the fraying rope
I know the source and the idiom. I just don’t know why it’s picked up in popularity recently.
I also don’t know why its use as an idiom doesn’t quite align with the story. It’s usually used to describe a situation where the threat of destruction isn’t random. For example, in the OP, the danger is the end of support for Win 10, not randomness.
I tried to switch to Linux several days ago, but there were clear issues regarding games that weren’t tied to Steam. Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, Bottles, and so forth all had shortcomings regarding compatibility, handling of DLC, or lack of user-friendliness. Then I tried to use a VM, which was a frustrating rabbit hole. Virt-Manager supports GPU passthru, but you have to jump through hoops to identify PCI addresses and to configure correctly. Boxes initially seemed promising, but had no apparent way of storing the VM on my gaming drive. (Linux terminal commands are beyond my understanding.) Considering how big games are getting, and the size of my collection, that is a bad combo. Virtualbox doesn’t have GPU passthru, so the performance sucked.
As a gamer, I currently find Linux to be insufficient. I was wanting to switch due to security concerns regarding Microsoft, especially in light of the Trump Regime’s willingness to ignore law and norms. My concern is that they could use Windows as a spy, or to seal up my computer to punish those who go against Dogey America. As it is, I will have to use some scripts from Github to break Windows Update if I hear of Richmond being infiltrated by the Xitler Youth.
Here’s hoping that Gabe decides to invest much more heavily in Linux to make it casual friendly - I want my mods, cheats, Japanese locale games, emulators, and so forth to all work seamlessly and without compromise. I would seriously pay $400 smackers to have an OS that is capable, flexible, compatible, friendly, and most importantly, MINE.
The days of just buying Windows 7 Ultimate and not thinking about Microsoft was glorious.
You should definately look at PlayOnLinux for those game. It is an app to help leverage all Wine setup and configuration. Normally with Steam and this would should be able to run almost everything.
tried to use a VM
Yeah, this is where you went wrong. It’s possible, but it really doesn’t solve anything IMO, has the possibility of getting detected (so anticheat bans), and can often run worse. It’s possible to get a sane setup, but what are you really gaining over just dual booting? You’re still running Windows, after all, but now you have drawbacks (and some benefits) of a VM.
Can you be more specific about what didn’t work? As in, games, platforms, etc. If it’s a game with anticheat, you’re probably SOL on Linux, but I have Heroic working just fine on both my Linux desktop (openSUSE) and Steam Deck. I usually launch through Steam to use Steam input and manage Proton versions, and it seems to work fine for GOG and EGS. Some games have issues, so check protondb.com if that’s the case, but most work just fine.
The idea here with the VM is two-fold: First, to keep a potential Windows Big Brother update from spying on my documents and whatnot, while also preventing it from tampering with the security of my PC. Secondly, to maximize compatibility, since I lost trust in Linux to not have technical issues with my gaming. That means mods, Japanese games, emulators, and so forth. Windows is simply more reliable and documented, unlike Linux. If something goes wrong with a game playing on Windows, there is decent odds of me troubleshooting. My hardware should be able to handle a VM, it being a 5950x with a RTX 4090+3060, and 128gb of RAM.
Anyhow, I don’t really remember the specifics regarding how my efforts with Lutris, Heroic Game Launcher, and so forth went: I don’t like remembering unpleasant things. All that I recall is assorted errors or lack of features that rattled my willingness to trust Linux for gaming. I will try again some years for now, if I hear Linux has become more suitable to the task.
If it’s not an anticheat issue, Linux is probably suitable right now. Linux is quite different from Windows, but most problems have simple solutions if you know where to look, which usually means knowing who to ask.
That said, I think you’d be better off with a dual boot. That way you only need one GPU, and you can slowly move your gaming to Linux, falling back to Windows if something doesn’t work right.
That said, I totally understand if you’re burned out from it. Just know that there are a lot of Linux users who are happy to help if you get motivated to try again.
What distro did you try?
I’ve been on bazzite for some time now and haven’t had any of those problems
Sorry it didn’t work out for you like Linux Mint works for me (I switched full time to LM in December 2024).
If you haven’t already, switch to Windows 10 LTSC in the interim. I have a feeling Linux will only improve over time with greater compatibility with Proton. Since Win 10 LTSC is supported until 2029, that’s plenty of time for for more kinks to be worked out and you can potentially try Linux again.
I am already on a Internet of Things edition, which is the debloated version of Windows. However, that still leaves the possibility of Microsoft going fascist and sending out a Big Brother update.
Regarding Linux, it was indeed Mint that I tried to use - it seemed similar to Windows, at least visually. Getting standard software was easy enough, and things seemed promising until I started to migrate my gaming. I mod my games a fair bit of the time, or play niche stuff that hardly has support on Windows. It became very apparent that Linux can’t handle that, not yet. In a couple of years I will revisit Linux.
I switched to Nobara Linux at the end of last year, and for the most part when I consider how often I’d have to fix Windows stuff, it’s not that much more work. Still not the same though, and I keep a Windows partition around for certain stuff even though I groan having to load into it
I enjoy this headline writing style. Imagine if we turned “try these 7 tricks” headlines into “Dionysius I of Syracuse would like you to try these”
Microsoft said Windows 10 would be the last version I’d ever use. They didn’t know how right they were. I’ve been gradually switching to Linux, and will absolutely never use Windows 11 or any other version they put out.
I built a new gaming PC and installed Linux on it. After years of threatening to do it, I finally followed through and made the switch.
I just bought a laptop last year (portability and space constraints, I’d love to build a pc when I have the space for it) and it was supposed to come with windows 10.
I got a windows 11 model shipped to me. I didn’t ask for this. And I have to say… I fucking hate it. Why does the start menu need to change locations…
My next computer will absolutely be Linux, and it’s Microsoft’s own stupid fault. Windows 10 WAS supposed to be my last windows OS…
Windows 11 is shit and you’d be much happier with Fedora. You don’t need a nrćew computer, just install it on this one. That said, you can move the start button to the left and even install https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu if you force yourself to try sticking with Windows
Why does the start menu need to change locations…
The INFINITELY bigger question is why isn’t it my choice? I actually just modified my windows 10 to have the start menu be centered, but like, it should just be completely customizable to your liking… as if it were your own computer or something. If I wanted everything locked down and baby proofed I would have just bought a Mac.
Oh fuck yeah gimme that customization and personalization options
I used to use a program on one of my computers called rainmeter I think, and it allowed me to customize my desktop to look like the Animus menus from Assassin’s creed 2. Then decided to go with hexagons everywhere, with the replacement start menu dead center screen and other buttons areayed out from there.
Haven’t used it in many years, but I’d love that level of customization* on a pc nowadays. It seems like no matter where I go, every UI looks the same. Good for familiarity, not so much for “oh this is neat, they made it their own” factor.
*without learning entire programming languages, I hyperfixate on things but programming has never been something I’ve been able to get into
Switch to Linux. KDE is pretty easy to customize out of the box. There’s other DEs that can have more or less, harder or easier options too, but KDE is probably the best moving from Windows.
It is your choice, and you can customize it to be on the left.
I don’t think you read my comment before you decided to respond to what you thought it said.
There’s no reason to wait. You don’t need to buy the computer with the OS installed. Just install Linux now. They should be punished for forcing Windows 11 on you, not rewarded by you using it for a few more years.
I bought a laptop right after windows 11 was released. I hated it so much, I returned the laptop a few days later and bought a windows 10 one instead.
Completely Linux now except that gaming laptop, but this year is the year of the Linux desktop! For me at least.
Win 11 is the reason I finally decided to switch. My work gave us all Win 11 machines and I hate it.
Fortunately I don’t do too much on my computer besides gaming so Steam can do all the heavy lifting for me
That would be great, but unfortunately for me I have too many programs that depend on windows, don’t have Linux options, and if I’m being honest with myself I really just don’t want to learn an entirely new ecosystem. I will if forced, but the moment this laptop shits itself or they discontinue support for the OS, I’m getting a crash course.
I’d love to turn an old tablet or somethinf into a Linux device in the meantime so I can at least start something. Too bad my parent’s old kindles won’t work, there’s enough of them laying around their house…
I’ve been making the switch on my own new PC, some programs I was concerned about can be run ok through Lutris. It’s been an adjustment but no regrets
Most Windows programs can run through WINE, and the ones that can’t can usually be run in a Windows virtual machine. Try a Bootable USB with the distro you might want (I personally recommend Garuda). You don’t need to commit right away, but I bet you’ll have an easier time than you expect.
Good luck and godspeed
The second creative cloud is on Linux the share of windows users will drop dramatically.
Adobe needs to be abandoned as well. Clip Studio, Krita, Gimp, Affinity are either free OSS or one-time-payment great alternatives without the AI and privacy BS.
I’ve also mentioned this before but for those that need a more photoshop-like GIMP experience, try taking a look at PhotoGimp, it’s essentially a reskin+remap of all of the hotkeys to more closely match those of photoshop, and it works wonderfully.
Once they update it to use Gimp 3 it should be a blast
Copium. Gimp is more akin to MS Paint than Photoshop.
Lol. No. You just don’t know how to use it yet. That’s fine, but don’t blame the software.
Cooooooope. 🤣
Affinity
Unfortunately, I seem to recall that Affinity doesn’t run well under wine. If only they would officially port it to Linux, that would be a major move for them and for Linux. Follow DaVinci Resolve’s and BitWig’s examples.
what about virtual machines?
Sure, that’s definitely an option, I suppose with GPU passthrough (I’m not sure how well this works). My idea when I switch to Linux is to have Windows 11 and macOS VMs.
Are any of these a smooth transition coming from Adobe programs? I really don’t want to re-learn my entire workflow in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.
I’ve heard that Clip Studio is pretty close but I have not tried it yet. My experience with Gimp and Krita is that they are fairly close to Photoshop. That is to say that it would be easy for a Photoshop user to jump into those and start working. I have searched for the occasional “how to do XYZ in Gimp or Krita.”
Thanks! I’ll eventually give them a try…
I will never stop laughing at the absolute fucking joke of a suggestion that Gimp is a suitable replacement for Photoshop. It’s like saying MS Paint is a good enough replacement for Photoshop. No. Not even REMOTELY. I want alternatives, but Gimp is absolutely not it.
PEBKAC
Cooooooope.
under the marketing it’s still 10.x.
Marketing is 11, I think you’re referring to the kernel version, which can’t change due to stupid legacy software.
I upgraded to Windows 11 on my gaming rig two days ago, and at the same time I switched the default boot option to Linux. Let’s see how this pans out.
I’ll still need Windows around for specific games, but the ones I usually play seem to work on Linux.
I’m curious which specific games you still need Windows for? I’m only aware of a handful (Riot games and some Chinese ones).
I can get Start Citizen running on Linux, but I want to use head tracking when I fly, and there is currently no Linux support for the Tobii eye tracker I have.
Then again, maybe Tobii adds Linux support before SC becomes playable enough for me to actually enjoy it, 🙃
The ones using rootkit drm stuff probably :/
i’ll just use virtual machines for win11
Just like a Linux user to tell everyone they use Linux. Classic.
“How do you know [thing you only learn if people tell you]? don’t worry, they’ll tell you”
The whole point of the Sword of Damocles was that the threat was always looming and Damocles didn’t know when it might fall. We know exactly when Microsoft says they are going to drop support. There’s a decent chance that they’ll push that date back due to slow adoption at least once.
This is more about rats not fleeing the sinking ship until the sea has reached the bow.
Well, the real moment it becomes an issue is when a significant vulnerability is found after EOS. So I guess after EOS is when the sword of damocles starts hanging above every win 10 user…
Personally I’m on the edge of the ship just waiting to jump off once i have my new pc (probably next week).
More like rats not joining a leaking ship. I’ve been through enough windows upgrades to know: Don’t be the first! You’ll only end up paying to be a software tester for a product MS had to ship before it’s ready to keep the shareholders happy.
Don’t be the first one in the water after the shark warning …
With the shit they built into 10 I really would not be surprised if they put in a kill switch
“Sword of Damocles” like bitch we used service pack 2 XP for ever. “We won’t support something” means nothing if the original product was built right.
…Ohhh now I see the problem. Nevermind, everybody, carry on.
I know people still running XP sp3 (firewalled off the net) and it still does the job. They claimed to have killed 7 but between FOSS and enshittification pushback I reckon it’s gonna be like the PS2
They are gonna have to pry windows 10 from my cold dead hands. I was sold 10 on the premise that it was going to be “the last windows OS I would need”.
Fuck you Microsoft.
At the moment I’m 50/50 between switching over to Linux full-time, or full booting Windows 10 LTSC.
But having had to use it for work, I am adamant in saying that Windows 11 will never touch my home system drive.
Linux
One of us, one of us, one of us.
I would switch to Linux but I have yet to find a distro that recognizes my 5K monitor
Wow, I didn’t know that was an option, I thought we did 4k, then skipped to 6k and 8k. What’s the actual resolution on that thing?
5120x2880, it’s the same panel as the Apple Studio Display made by LG, just in a much cheaper chassis.
Sword of Damocles? More like the sword of Microsoft can go fuck itself!
Windows 10 LTSC is supported until 2032 or so. I’ll be avoiding upgrading for a long time.
How do you get a copy of that? I tried poking around but MS has the shittiest docs.
Something about a mass grave.
deleted by creator
Something something .dev
Found a copy on archive.org.
After that, you just need a KMS activator. Massgrave’s is typically the recommended one.Ngl that looks sketchy as fuck. Definitely gonna check the hash on that one if I can.
I checked the hash, it matches
You can also get the iso direct from Massgrave’s site, along with the KMS activator. Your choice, but I do expect the people behind the Internet Archive to have checked for malware in some capacity. They do have a legitimate research and archivist reputation to uphold.
Looking through things available in the Internet Archive, I don’t think there’s a lot of active moderation, to be honest.
I’m pretty sure the final version of Windows 10 LTSC 2021 had its window of support shortened to five years to align with the end of support. Only windows 10 LTSC 2019 has 10 years of support. If you’re using LTSC 2019 for gaming please be aware you will be missing any features released for windows 10 that were released after version 1809. This will harm game performance for a lot of newer titles and hardware.
LTSC 2021 - until 2027 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-enterprise-ltsc-2021
But…
IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 - until 2032 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2021
I’m on IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021. As far as I’m aware it’s up to date, and if not I don’t really use my PC for modern games anyway. Still good to know though.
I enjoyed the visual design of Win 11, but the bloatware, spyware, and AI slop it started to install was just too much. The Steam Deck has proven 99% of Steam games run fine on Linux, so I made the switch and killed my Windows partition a few months ago.
Feels so clean and light running Linux - my god I never knew my PC could run so fast! Windows was really truly awful and I had no idea until I removed it from my life completely. Games run flawlessly on it - I’m using Elementary OS because it’s clean and user friendly.
Welcome to the club!
Hmmm never had an issue with bloatware/spyware in Win11. I just turn things off if they ask me after and upgrade and away I go. Everything just works properly and the best part is all my devices work as expected.
Shhh, people don’t want to hear that they can change things they don’t like. They just want to complain about things they’ve never used.
Pry it from my cold dead hands. I have linux on multiple computers, but it still can’t play all the games and give me my 5.1 surround. Despite all the claims, it’s still not ready for primetime to do all the things windows does.
What’s the issue with sound? I thought that was solved since… 15 years or so.
Can’t help with the games though, must anti cheat games won’t work without developer support. Do what you gotta do, but I’m interested in any issues that should be solvable with some config or swapping out a cheap card or something.
Can’t get the surround on my A50s. Yeah, normal stereo is fine out of the box.
Have you tried messing with either pulsesudio or alsamixer? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1304002/how-to-enable-5-1-sound-on-ubuntu-20-04#1304054
I personally just use stereo on my PC, but I’ve seen home theater setups w/ surround sound, so I know it’s possible.
I did try alsamixer. It just didn’t like something about the headset. I use an optical connection and a 3rd party surround card, so I don’t know if that’s the issue. It’s pretty much moot because the game I use surround on the most won’t run because of anti-cheat.
That’s too bad. If Linux becomes an option, please hop on a chat or something and I’m sure someone can get you sorted.
If I did anything other than use my PC as a glorified gaming console, I might care about w10 not being updated anymore. Until games literally can’t work on the OS, I’ll stay on it. And when they do stop working, I’ll probably just install Linux.
Linux
Join us, you know you want to.
