Linux Guru Needed

[An0maly_76]

I have grown weary of Microshaft's relentless "unintended consequences" of their updates (documented here) and think I might be ready to make the jump to Linux or perhaps LTSC.

 

My build...

 

Corsair 4000X case / RM850x PSU (if it matters)

Ryzen 5900X (PBO enabled)

Asus Tuf B550-PLUS

Asus KO RTX3060ti-8GB-OC

32GB DDR4-3200 (considering OC'ing)

1TB WD Blue SN570 M.2

6TB WD Black HDD

 

My software...

 

LibreOffice (can switch to OpenOffice if necessary)

BeamNG.drive

American Truck Simulator

Mozilla Firefox

OBS

iCUE Control software

Audacity

VLC Player

Media Player Classic Home Cinema (pretty sure this is open-source, not Microshaft)

McAfee Anti-Virus

VideoPad

 

I would like a setup as similar to the point-and-click nature of Windows as possible, but without all the "you must do this" and "we want to tell you how to use your hardware" so common to Microsloth these days. I realize there may be no way to guarantee absolute compatibility across the board, that is why I mention all of the above so that someone in the know can recommend my best option.

[RONOTHAN##]

5 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

LibreOffice (can switch to OpenOffice if necessary)

LibreOffice is the default in most distros, no need to change that

7 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

BeamNG.drive

American Truck Simulator

Mozilla Firefox

OBS

7 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Audacity

VLC Player

These all have native linux versions or work through Proton (also, ProtonDB and https://appdb.winehq.org/ are you're best friends when trying to figure out if something works). They are a little hit or miss but still should be fine.

 

9 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

McAfee Anti-Virus

Completely unnecessary in Linux, there are so few consumer-targeted Linux viruses that antivirus is pretty pointless on there. 

 

10 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

iCUE Control software

This is probably gonna break. There are a couple different utilities like OpenRGB and CKB-Next, but they're not perfect. 

 

If you want a distro to start with, Mint is pretty good. It looks and feels like Windows (albeit Windows 7 with the high contrast desktop option on), it's based off Ubuntu so you can use all the documentation and software support associated with that, and it's pretty stable. Kubuntu is another option as well, KDE does look and feel a lot more like Windows (it's my go-to DE when using it on a desktop), though KDE is very love it or hate it amongst the Linux community, so take that for what you will. 

[FUIT1985]

1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

I have grown weary of Microshaft's relentless "unintended consequences" of their updates (documented here) and think I might be ready to make the jump to Linux or perhaps LTSC.

 

My build...

 

Corsair 4000X case / RM850x PSU (if it matters)

Ryzen 5900X (PBO enabled)

Asus Tuf B550-PLUS

Asus KO RTX3060ti-8GB-OC

32GB DDR4-3200 (considering OC'ing)

1TB WD Blue SN570 M.2

6TB WD Black HDD

 

My software...

 

LibreOffice (can switch to OpenOffice if necessary)

BeamNG.drive

American Truck Simulator

Mozilla Firefox

OBS

iCUE Control software

Audacity

VLC Player

Media Player Classic Home Cinema (pretty sure this is open-source, not Microshaft)

McAfee Anti-Virus

VideoPad

 

I would like a setup as similar to the point-and-click nature of Windows as possible, but without all the "you must do this" and "we want to tell you how to use your hardware" so common to Microsloth these days. I realize there may be no way to guarantee absolute compatibility across the board, that is why I mention all of the above so that someone in the know can recommend my best option.

There are no linux gurus or gurus in general. In most cases the gurus are script kiddies. You shouldn't uninstall Windows, but you should use it in dual boot mode with linux.
You can initially try linux with a virtual machine.

After you can use Linux in dual boot mode in most cases, but when you need a Windows-only program, don't deprive yourself of it. Wine has its limits.

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

but without all the "you must do this" and "we want to tell you how to use your hardware" so common to Microsloth these days

Linux indeed won't tell you how to use your hardware (or software)... the downside is you'll have to spend more time figuring it out on your own than you spend pestering about Windows' things. 

 

I like Cinnamon as a Windows-like Linux DE, so Mint or Ubuntu cinnamon remix. 

[cretsiah]

11 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

LibreOffice (can switch to OpenOffice if necessary)

Mozilla Firefox

these come in Linux Mint as part of the install or live disc/usb

 

11 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

OBS

Audacity

VLC Player

 

this is as simple as opening software manager typing the name and clicking install

 

11 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

Media Player Classic Home Cinema (pretty sure this is open-source, not Microshaft)

depending what your using this for ( ie  just a library function ) you could swap this for kodi or plex

 

12 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

BeamNG.drive

American Truck Simulator

dont have BeamNG so cant comment there ...... but if American and Euro Truck simulator work on my AM3+ it should work for you..

 

12 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

McAfee Anti-Virus

if your only looking for protection against email's claws is the substitute

 

12 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

iCUE Control software

VideoPad

these 2 might be your trouble spots

[RollyShed]

As others have said, Linux Mint Cinnamon.

 

Virus checker not needed.

LibreOffice and Firefox loaded by default

VideoPad suggested alternatives - Shotcut, Avidemux, Kdenlive, Openshot and more,
Audacity, VLC - look in the Software Manager for hundreds of apps (free) and I always install those two.

 

iCUE Control software not supported.

 

"I would like a setup as similar to the point-and-click nature of Windows as possible, but without all the "you must do this" and "we want to tell you how to use your hardware" so common to Microsloth these days."

You're joking...., aren't you? Of course there is none of that in Linux, it just works as it should.

 

Burn an iso on to a USB stick and boot the computer from the USB stick and see what you think of it.

[An0maly_76]

2 minutes ago, RollyShed said:

As others have said, Linux Mint Cinnamon.

 

Virus checker not needed.

"I would like a setup as similar to the point-and-click nature of Windows as possible, but without all the "you must do this" and "we want to tell you how to use your hardware" so common to Microsloth these days."

 

You're joking...., aren't you? Of course there is none of that in Linux, it just works as it should.

 

Burn an iso on to a USB stick and boot the computer from the USB stick and see what you think of it.

Not a bad idea, that way I can boot on it and check it out before I make permanent changes. Thanks!

[cmndr]

As others hinted at, most things will just work.

One warning about OBS, custom filters might not work. I ended up using Pipewire/EasyEffects to get background noise cancellation.

RTX Voice only works on Windows right now FYI.

[An0maly_76]

Fortunately, I found a solution to the issue that prompted my desire to do this. Hopefully it won't continue to be a problem in the future.

[LloydLynx]

On 5/27/2022 at 4:10 PM, An0maly_76 said:

BeamNG.drive

I can confirm the game works fine as long as you're not planning to use the map editor.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

Given your software requirements, you should be fine on Linux. Give it a try at least by installing it alongside Windows.

[Kilrah]

I got a new laptop a week ago and installed both (I do need linux for some things regularly anyway), they both run great, and I've been using both to set up all my usual stuff so I can use either as "main"... but as usual on linux there are always some minor but very frustrating quirks, so that hasn't changed lately.

 

For example:

My BT headphones paired but I can't select them as sound output anywhere

Chrome won't take two-finger gestures for forwards-back

The chrome extension for mouse gestures I use doesn't work and breaks right-click in chrome, remember that being a thing with another similar but different extension years ago already

I sometimes have duplicate BT icons in cinnamon's "system tray"

 

As usual there might be solutions to those things but then it's the whole deal of having to search and try things for hours instead of them just working as expected straight away.

[maplepants]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:15 AM, FUIT1985 said:

You can initially try linux with a virtual machine.

I want to advocate for not just running it in a VM initially, but for that being your long term solution OP. To do that though, you'll want to pick a distro that plays nice with VMs, and on that front nothing beats the standard Ubuntu flavours: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Kubuntu. 

 

Download virtualbox, pick one of these flavours and create a VM for yourself where you've given it half your CPU cores, and half your ram. Then mount your home directory in the VM under something like `~/winhome` and you're off to the races. It's much better than dual booting, especially if you have Windows 10 or 11 because then you can full screen the Linux VM on one Desktop and easily move between the Linux and Windows world as needed. 

 

And if you're going to game on your PC at all in the future, you'll be glad you've done it this way. Gaming on Linux is better than it used to be, but that's only because it used to be terrible and is now merely bad.

 

So if you need to have Windows and Linux I, personally, much prefer the VM route to the dual boot route since it's easy to get the best parts of both operating systems this way. It also lets you distro hop extremely easily since you can build out as many Linux VMs as you want, and so long as you only spin them up one a time it'll be smooth sailing.

[An0maly_76]

What's the consensus on CentOS? I have an older machine here that is running it, but never really did much with the machine per se, so never really got to experience it. That and it's a two-core processor, so it was never going to be able to do that much anyway.

[maplepants]

24 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

What's the consensus on CentOS?

Depends on what you want / need. CentOS is really a server OS, and since you're talking about running a workstation here I don't think it's a great fit. But if you've already gone through the trouble of getting good at SELinux, or if it's what you use at work, then CentOS Stream with a GUI is a great distro. 

[An0maly_76]

2 minutes ago, maplepants said:

Depends on what you want / need. CentOS is really a server OS, and since you're talking about running a workstation here I don't think it's a great fit. But if you've already gone through the trouble of getting good at SELinux, or if it's what you use at work, then CentOS Stream with a GUI is a great distro. 

Actually, the CentOS machine is the only Linux machine I've ever used, and I didn't use it much.

[FUIT1985]

1 hour ago, maplepants said:

I want to advocate for not just running it in a VM initially, but for that being your long term solution OP. To do that though, you'll want to pick a distro that plays nice with VMs, and on that front nothing beats the standard Ubuntu flavours: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Kubuntu. 

 

Download virtualbox, pick one of these flavours and create a VM for yourself where you've given it half your CPU cores, and half your ram. Then mount your home directory in the VM under something like `~/winhome` and you're off to the races. It's much better than dual booting, especially if you have Windows 10 or 11 because then you can full screen the Linux VM on one Desktop and easily move between the Linux and Windows world as needed. 

 

And if you're going to game on your PC at all in the future, you'll be glad you've done it this way. Gaming on Linux is better than it used to be, but that's only because it used to be terrible and is now merely bad.

 

So if you need to have Windows and Linux I, personally, much prefer the VM route to the dual boot route since it's easy to get the best parts of both operating systems this way. It also lets you distro hop extremely easily since you can build out as many Linux VMs as you want, and so long as you only spin them up one a time it'll be smooth sailing.

Virtualization of linux only makes sense initially to study the commands. The easiest and most efficient solution is dual boot.

[maplepants]

9 minutes ago, FUIT1985 said:

Virtualization of linux only makes sense initially to study the commands. The easiest and most efficient solution is dual boot.

I agree that you're sacrificing some performance to do my VM based solution. But it's a trade off. If it's really necessary that you get every ounce of performance out of your Linux install, then installing on bare metal is the way to go. But if you just want to run Linux so that you have a nice privacy respecting OS for all your daily computing and then use windows for a few specific apps + games, the VM solution works really well.

[maplepants]

36 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Actually, the CentOS machine is the only Linux machine I've ever used, and I didn't use it much.

Then spin up a VM with Ubuntu and if you don't find yourself missing the SELinux permissions model, you can stick with it or one if it's derivatives.

[An0maly_76]

10 minutes ago, maplepants said:

Then spin up a VM with Ubuntu and if you don't find yourself missing the SELinux permissions model, you can stick with it or one if it's derivatives.

I know very little about Linux, so I have no idea what SELinux is or what it does.

 

Truthfully, the issue that made me start seriously thinking about this has been resolved, but I may want to consider Linux for another project that I may or may not pursue.

[maplepants]

2 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

I know very little about Linux, so I have no idea what SELinux is or what it does

SELinux is "Security Enhanced Linux". It's a reworking of the standard Unix permissions model that provides extra security and if you're used to it, just feels like the right way to do permissions.

 

I only mentioned it because you mentioned you'd used CentOS (which has it), but if you're not even sure what it is or does then I wouldn't worry about it. Don't let it make Linux seem more tricky than it really is. The jump from Windows to Linux is a little larger than the jump from macOS to Linux, but it's still pretty easy.

 

Spin up a VM and poke around some, you can always delete it later if you decide it's not for you.

[FUIT1985]

1 hour ago, maplepants said:

I agree that you're sacrificing some performance to do my VM based solution. But it's a trade off. If it's really necessary that you get every ounce of performance out of your Linux install, then installing on bare metal is the way to go. But if you just want to run Linux so that you have a nice privacy respecting OS for all your daily computing and then use windows for a few specific apps + games, the VM solution works really well.

Usually from a Linux installation a generic user wants a modular system to lower the total cost of ownership through free licenses. Otherwise for specific security reasons there are other solutions such as Xen or LXC. For privacy concerns, a live ISO of Tails is sufficient.

[maplepants]

1 hour ago, FUIT1985 said:

Usually from a Linux installation a generic user wants a modular system to lower the total cost of ownership through free licenses. Otherwise for specific security reasons there are other solutions such as Xen or LXC. For privacy concerns, a live ISO of Tails is sufficient.

Before COVID moved them all online, I used to be pretty active in my local LUG everywhere I lived. In my experience, most people interested in Linux dislike Microsoft's telemetry, and mostly just want to do some light home server tasks with their existing hardware. Doing your normal web browsing via a live Tails ISO is just way beyond the privacy requirements of most users, as well as being way more annoying than most people are willing to put up with.

 

For the average person looking into Linux, I can't think of any mainstream distro that wouldn't offer them enough privacy protection. 

[FUIT1985]

2 hours ago, maplepants said:

Before COVID moved them all online, I used to be pretty active in my local LUG everywhere I lived. In my experience, most people interested in Linux dislike Microsoft's telemetry, and mostly just want to do some light home server tasks with their existing hardware. Doing your normal web browsing via a live Tails ISO is just way beyond the privacy requirements of most users, as well as being way more annoying than most people are willing to put up with.

 

For the average person looking into Linux, I can't think of any mainstream distro that wouldn't offer them enough privacy protection. 

Ok, but Linux virtualization with Windows is not a solution that guarantees privacy or security of any level. It is enough to infect Windows. Speaking of Covid, hp has produced some advertising videos called "The Wolf”.

 

 

[.wncry]

On 5/30/2022 at 12:43 PM, FUIT1985 said:

HP has produced some advertising videos called "The Wolf”

The full collection (afaik):