Yeah, that was an unexpected nice thing about switching to Linux, though also the whole point. Like I knew that I wanted to take control back over my computer and OS, but I was surprised at just how much nicer it is when defaults are set without any profit incentive. There just wasn’t “spend time disabling MS attempts to get me to use their other software” or “dig deep for how to change a setting MS would really rather you don’t change” periods and it made me realize that that was where I’d spend a majority of the “computer maintenance” time on windows.
I’ve hated and avoided 11 since I first experienced it. After Xmas I had to help setup my parents new PC. It of course is win 11. I spent so much fucking time getting that shit just to a usable state. I’m more convinced than ever to fuck off from MS for good.
Older stuff, nearly 100%. New stuff, still really high to nearly 100%. The only place you’ll run into trouble is with devices made with only windows drivers etc. So things like a USB label printer or glucose monitor or something like that.
Computer hardware though, very unlikely to see an issue. Servers use both the CPU and GPU. And most servers run some flavor of Linux.
odds are pretty good these days, and if you’re worried dont switch now, but next time you buy hardware buy it with the intention that you may switch and opt for some Linux friendly hardware, which is pretty simple - avoid nvidia and realtek (avoid realtek on windows too if I’m being honest), make sure things are compatible with standards.
If you have something unusual that causes problems, that’s too bad, but it doesn’t stop the rest of us from having a good time. And now that I’m on linux, I can make sure something will work before I buy it, and if it doesn’t, I can return it.
It’s only at the time of when you switch you need to think about whether your existing hardware will work.
I just installed plain old boring Debian on three (3) random decommissioned office PCs the other day and every single piece of hardware in them worked out of the box including the Wi-Fi cards.
Linux does. Not all, but a lot, and more every day.
It’s been years now, and it still hits me sometimes how insanely nice it is that my computers now work the way I want them to.
Yeah, that was an unexpected nice thing about switching to Linux, though also the whole point. Like I knew that I wanted to take control back over my computer and OS, but I was surprised at just how much nicer it is when defaults are set without any profit incentive. There just wasn’t “spend time disabling MS attempts to get me to use their other software” or “dig deep for how to change a setting MS would really rather you don’t change” periods and it made me realize that that was where I’d spend a majority of the “computer maintenance” time on windows.
I’ve hated and avoided 11 since I first experienced it. After Xmas I had to help setup my parents new PC. It of course is win 11. I spent so much fucking time getting that shit just to a usable state. I’m more convinced than ever to fuck off from MS for good.
remind me about the odds on whether a specific distro will work with my gpu or cpu
Older stuff, nearly 100%. New stuff, still really high to nearly 100%. The only place you’ll run into trouble is with devices made with only windows drivers etc. So things like a USB label printer or glucose monitor or something like that.
Computer hardware though, very unlikely to see an issue. Servers use both the CPU and GPU. And most servers run some flavor of Linux.
Gamer’s nexus did a great testing breakdown with Bazzite in a lot of different hardware configs.
Nvidia GPUs are all over the place in expected performance, AMD and Intel just worked from what I remember.
odds are pretty good these days, and if you’re worried dont switch now, but next time you buy hardware buy it with the intention that you may switch and opt for some Linux friendly hardware, which is pretty simple - avoid nvidia and realtek (avoid realtek on windows too if I’m being honest), make sure things are compatible with standards.
What’s Realtek done? I haven’t kept up on them.
Odds?
Just look it up, or tell me what you have.
Regardless of what you have, the “odds” are good.
If you have something unusual that causes problems, that’s too bad, but it doesn’t stop the rest of us from having a good time. And now that I’m on linux, I can make sure something will work before I buy it, and if it doesn’t, I can return it.
It’s only at the time of when you switch you need to think about whether your existing hardware will work.
it says created for windows vista on the front if that helps
It’ll work.
I just installed plain old boring Debian on three (3) random decommissioned office PCs the other day and every single piece of hardware in them worked out of the box including the Wi-Fi cards.