Been thinking of switching to Linux due to major issues with windows 11, but first i need more info.

[Xyozni]

Before i say anything here are my PC specs: Ryzen 5700x, 32GB 3000MHz DDR4 RAM, AMD RX 6750XT 12GB GPU, B550 motherboard, 2TB gen.4 MVME ssd + 1 TB hdd.
Over a year of using windows 11 i have been majorly disappointed and even my work has somewhat been negatively affected, i will not list all of my complaints because the list will be too long. Microsoft's invasions of privacy are another negative point. So i've been thinking of switching to linux, i use my PC for gaming, video editing (Davinci Resolve) and programming (c++ using visual studio but i don't really care about switching IDE's). Also i don't really care about it's layout/design i'm willing to learn. I have already backed-up my data on an external hdd so i'm ready to flip.
What Linux distro is best for this choice, what is a good choice for virtual machines in case i must use one, what is WINE, will i need to DDU my GPU or do something similar to my CPU/everything else?
If anyone has extra info such as beginner videos/forums it would be greatly appreciated. 
 

[Spakes]

Linux Mint, Pop_OS!, HoloISO are some of the choices for beginners and/or gamers. DDU means Display Driver Uninstall, so no, you don't need to do it. But gaming on Linux is objectively worse than on Windows, so I'd actually suggest dualbooting (aka having Linux and Windows installed simultaneously on one PC or even one drive).

 

Plus you can kill telemetry in Windows using various tools. I have a bunch of them collected in my signature (first link). O&OShutUp is one of those tools that you can run and kill 95+% of telemetry in Windows. ChrisTitusTech's powershell script is another tool for massively improving QoL stuff on Windows.

[BankHealthy]

If you're more technically-inclined, try out ArchLinux (or any derivative). You're a programmer after all, and reading proper documentation will definitely help you a lot.

[LloydLynx]

The programs you listed run natively on Linux and your Radeon will mean you won't be fighting with Nvidia BS.

6 hours ago, Xyozni said:

What Linux distro is best for this choice, what is a good choice for virtual machines in case i must use one

Don't worry about distro and just go with Ubuntu since it's the big name that everyone develops for. Learn it's quirks and issues and dominate it. All distros have their own quirks and issues. Ubuntu is a fine choice for virtual machines. Just about every distro is.

6 hours ago, Xyozni said:

what is WINE

https://www.winehq.org/

Spoiler

"Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop."

Some simple programs just work, other require a lot of setup and tweaking, and some just don't work. Steam had a built-in customized WINE called "Proton". It's just a settings check box away. About as easy as it gets.

6 hours ago, Xyozni said:

will i need to DDU my GPU or do something similar to my CPU/everything else

No. Ubuntu comes will many drivers by default. It's less common that a user has to manually install a driver.

[Xyozni]

6 hours ago, Spakes said:

Linux Mint, Pop_OS!, HoloISO are some of the choices for beginners and/or gamers. DDU means Display Driver Uninstall, so no, you don't need to do it. But gaming on Linux is objectively worse than on Windows, so I'd actually suggest dualbooting (aka having Linux and Windows installed simultaneously on one PC or even one drive).

 

Plus you can kill telemetry in Windows using various tools. I have a bunch of them collected in my signature (first link). O&OShutUp is one of those tools that you can run and kill 95+% of telemetry in Windows. ChrisTitusTech's powershell script is another tool for massively improving QoL stuff on Windows.

To address the two points: 
1. I'm not sure if dual-booting would be a solution for my situation, i just don't have enough storage (editing 4k footage kills your storage). I've checked every single game i've played and thought of playing on ProtonDB, all of them are rated gold (perfectly playable), even if performance is worse my system is MORE than enough for the types of games i play. I care more about the performance for productivity programs i use such as Davinci Resolve.
I know that some apps simply DONT work with linux but as long as 80% of the programs i use work i'm satisfied. I'm ok with using a VM for windows every week or so.
2. As i have stated windows has caused me a lot of headaches due to windows update or their broken registry and bugs /bad new features in general. Another reason i wish to switch is because i want a platform i can simply stay on and never have to switch.
Also as a personal note i'm disappointed at Microsoft for their anti-consumer and monopolistic tendencies, this only furthers my distrust in them to the point i wish to get off their platform.  

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33 minutes ago, LloydLynx said:

6 hours ago, Xyozni said:

will i need to DDU my GPU or do something similar to my CPU/everything else

No. Ubuntu comes will many drivers by default. It's less common that a user has to manually install a driver.

I already have drivers installed on this machine, do i need to remove them manually before switching?

[LloydLynx]

1 hour ago, Xyozni said:

I already have drivers installed on this machine, do i need to remove them manually before switching?

No not at all. Drivers are OS specific. So when you replace your OS, it doesn't matter what state the old OS was in. Replacing your OS totally wipes the drive you install it on.

[Spakes]

1 hour ago, Xyozni said:

1. I'm not sure if dual-booting would be a solution for my situation, i just don't have enough storage (editing 4k footage kills your storage). I've checked every single game i've played and thought of playing on ProtonDB, all of them are rated gold (perfectly playable), even if performance is worse my system is MORE than enough for the types of games i play. I care more about the performance for productivity programs i use such as Davinci Resolve.
I know that some apps simply DONT work with linux but as long as 80% of the programs i use work i'm satisfied. I'm ok with using a VM for windows every week or so.

Man, VMs are a crutch. Depending on how you set it up, it will eat the same amount of memory as the one installed natively.

1 hour ago, Xyozni said:

2. As i have stated windows has caused me a lot of headaches due to windows update or their broken registry and bugs /bad new features in general. Another reason i wish to switch is because i want a platform i can simply stay on and never have to switch.
Also as a personal note i'm disappointed at Microsoft for their anti-consumer and monopolistic tendencies, this only furthers my distrust in them to the point i wish to get off their platform.

You can force Windows Update Center to not update Windows using either WinAeroTweaker, UWT or ChrisTitusTech's script. Registry gets broken if you use shit like CCleaner or update from Windows 10 to 11. I personally stay on 2004 and don't update because what works shouldn't be touched. And Windows can't touch important bits by itself on my PC. If I'll need to update it, I'll do it, but there's no need rn.

 

Also don't try vanilla Ubuntu. Canonical (company that makes vanilla Ubuntu) is also downright bad... You can check "The Linux Experiment" on YT, he explains some reasons why Canonical is bad rn.

Personally, I'd go for Pop_OS! in your place. It provides both decent gaming perfomance and support for all Ubuntu stuff needed. Not to mention that it uses flatpaks instead of slow snaps. Or you can still try Linux Mint, KDE Neon or HoloISO (you're on AMD GPU, so you can do that).

[Aeternalis]

I generally recommend either Pop! or Fedora nowadays. Fedora's KDE spin might be up your alley if you're looking for a similar layout to windows, but you can customize almost anything either way.

[LePetitPrince]

Ubuntu all the way, but LTS option. So, currently 22.04 version, not the newest because it was buggy for me. CodeBlocks for the C++ is awesome, though, you can install Visual Studio Code since it runs natively. When it comes to compilers, MinGW-64w should do the job, but you can try them out in Windows first to check if it works for you.

 

DaVinci Resolve works natively on Linux, so do not worry about that one. When it comes to PC gaming, GOG usually lists Ubuntu for Linux compatible games:

Quote

Before submitting a Linux build to us for release, we strongly recommend that you test your build using a freshly installed Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04 system (the GOG supported distributions). This will not only prevent the occurrence of many of the issues highlighted in this article, but will also ensure that your game is truly distribution platform agnostic.

https://docs.gog.com/linux-guidelines/

 

Steam games are hit-or-miss. For example, Portal 2 works great for me, but Portal 1 won't run at all.

 

Also, keep in mind that most of the third-party non-free software distributors pack binaries for DEB and RPM distributions, but more often only DEB. This is not truly an issue, but if you prefer to download your software directly from the official distributor (for example Opera browser from the Opera web site instead of trying to find repository that holds that package) and just double click it to install, Ubuntu is more "safe" choice.

 

I had a bad experience with POP!_OS and, for me, the newest version with that large panel on the bottom is quite ugly, the software center crashed a lot as well as some other applications, so I would stay away from it at least until the next release.

[igormp]

Should be fine to use ubuntu, popOS or fedora, go with whatever you find to be prettier. Only minor detail about the software mentioned is:

On 9/17/2023 at 6:23 AM, Xyozni said:

Davinci Resolve

It won't work with AMDGPU (AMD's open source driver in the kernel) out of the box, you'll need to install ROCm' OpenCL support to have GPU acceleration.