There's a chance I'd still have a windows install alongside Linux, if windows would just mind its own business.

Windows modified my partition layout after a forced update. I felt violated...

I believe it’s due to kernel philosophy.

Linux and Mac are a monolithic kernel, which I understand to mean that the entire OS runs in kernel space to operate the compatible hardware. This has the advantage of making sure the OS is in the drivers seat for resource management, and no individual program is easily able to overload the system and create instability, but it may limit the power of some programs and delay compatability of new hardware and software.

Windows, on the other hand, is a hybrid kernel, which means some functions are managed in user space so that a program has more control over the hardware. This can be useful for pushing gaming to the limit or running experimental/custom programs, but it can lead to instability from resource hungry programs or security vulnerabilities from Trojan horses.

As for why their ISO is huge, I s’pose it’s due to all the extra crap they throw in there like AI, pinball, and data collection stuff.

Apologies if I got something fundamentally wrong—there are plenty of bigger nerds than me on here—but that’s my best attempt at explaining the difference as well as I know it.

Well you see, if there are fewer drivers included there is more room for user friendly features, such as persistent ai intrusion. You probably also gonna update them anyway, might as well download fresh 😇

Just got my printer working so even my virtual Windows can go away now 🥳

Sadly, I'll be doing the same because the software I need to configure my mouse, keyboard, and controllers don't support linux. They run in wine, but they can't see the peripherals.

Namely: running software.

(JK JK I swear I'll switch as soon as I'm not fighting abject poverty and can afford a hard drive, internet, etc.)

I have done it a few times over the years but never on my main driver. Until last month... I bought a new laptop for my business and immediately installed Linux on the entire drive. I never initialized the win 11 that came with it.

So far I have had a few hiccups with getting some things working. I have also yet to find a basic WYSIWYG editor for my very basic HTML business webpage on Linux. So I am keeping my 6 year old laptop with win10 up and going on my desk for now.

I expected I'd have to go back at least once to transfer all my old files over.

Nope. Linux could read the windows partition and so i just moved them over with a drag and drop.

Just so ppl aren't dissapointed Daws like ableton and fl studio don't have support (Reaper and Bitwig do tho, some others too)

Visual programs like touch designer and resolume don't work (seen workarounds but they have issues)

Davinci resolve may crash, it worked fine on arch but on bazzite it freezes my pc when loading projects

On the gaming side obv there are the games that won't function without anticheat like wrc, iracing, f1, etc. No game pass ofc.

I still wouldn't swap back to windows and I barely use it, maybe once a month if I really want to use something not on Linux.

Main downside is lack of piracy. Houdinifx should work fine on linux natively, but lacks a crack. So even if the paid software does work, if you pirate to use this stuff as a hobby than you'll have to swap to something like Blender/Inkscape that is free and works on linux. Only crack I've found was for Davinci Resolve.

Linux has plenty of free and capable alternatives for paid software, I like that it has me using Foss more. Went from learning Houdini + Davinci to just sticking with Blender for my hobby visuals, not mad about it, prefer that I was forced to focus on one.

I did it for almost a year. Went back over once just to get files I missed moving the first time.

My VR set up simply will not work in Linux yet, or at least not correctly. Once that's fixed I'll nuke my windows part

literally the only reason I ever boot into WIndows now is for doing online exams for college that use spyware shit and throws a hissy fit if you'reon linux (both browser and app... well, if you can even get the testing app on Linux...)

I don't want to tinker around with something that determines my entire grade nor do I want to take my test on a school device because there might be files and programs I need, so I just switch to my Windows partition for that awful 5 hrs or so. But once I graduate that shit is getting nuked.

Yeah I’d done the same a while back just to play D2 (fucking Battle Eye), but found I just never booted into it and said fuck it I’ll live w/o games that have incompatible anti cheat.

You would buy a smart watch or something and it would require running some weird Windows only app to set it up.

Unfortunately still the case for most BIOS updaters, RGB/cooling setups, and proprietary HID stuff. You need Windows for anything beyond the basics.

I haven’t really messed with it since installing it on a PS3 so the growth combined with MS bullshit is compelling to bring me back

Ew…

I got curious last week with how windows is now and decided to just spin up a copy on an extra 250gb ssd I had. I had a windows 11 usb stick so I just installed it. big mistake. during the MANY updates post install it decided to "upgrade" the bios on my thinkpad and now the volume controls (up, down, mute) are "backwards". I had to go into the bios to set the F1 thru 12 keys to enable without the use of the FN key to be able to use the FN key with them. it's so stupid.

Also thank god when I installed windows I used a throw away email to setup the account because it immediately got spammed with microsoft emails.

Never again.

Dual boot is fine, you just need to choose some good options.

Method 1: Most recommended. use Refined as your boot loader and two drives, not partitions. This is the easiest, safest, and frankly nicest way to deal with this. At boot, before either system starts you get a nice graphical interface to choose which OS to go into.

Method 2: Partition style. Disable window fast startup. Disable windows hibernation (never hibernate windows before going into linux). Use UEFI and GPT no legacy methods. Don't encrpyt windows with bitlocker.

That said, my desktop and traveling laptop have been windows free for years, I have no need for it, and your advice is the safest way overall. A vm in linux with virtualmanager works very well.

It would wipe the boot loader, might still do that it's been a long time size I dual booted, and from what I remember would get massively confused if it couldn't boot in to windows during one of its update/reboot x3 cycles.

Also would eat kittens given half a chance

Have you tried stuff like WINE? I thought I'd heard of people using FL Studio without much issue, but I may be confusing it with another program.

I don't have a Steamdeck, but to be the linux guy of music software: you tried Reaper, yet?

I back up /etc as well.