Yup. I've had massive driver issues with lengthy troubleshooting on both Linux and Windows before. Even had to switch to a completely different distribution once, because it wouldn't play nice with my GPU.

If you pretend like everything always works seamlessly with Linux, you're bound to give people false expectations that will very likely be disappointed.

I'm not being cheeky. This is my actual experience as of this morning. I'm still fucking angry.

I found it relatable because just last night same thing happened in my windows boot, but all of a sudden it decided I had no wifi adapter, even though it worked fine in Linux and hadn't broken in Windows before. I see it indicating an error in device manager, found a "guide" that specifically called out that device manager error that suggests rebooting the router, because people writing websites troubleshooting guides are morons. The driver model has some weird behaviors that make device behavior more convoluted.

In Linux, generally it either loads and works or it doesn't and if it doesn't, you absolutely need a fixed driver or the hardware has a problem. In Windows it can absolutely not work and you go through some weird things, end up with exact same driver and version as before but suddenly it actually works..

Windows still complains.

Oh I dunno, it only has to be new to me. I've spent the last few days swapping around some GPUs that came out circa 2010, seeing if I can get them working with folding@home. Fun enough as it is, but I'm sure it would have been way more fun with Windows.

sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia

Seriously though, this is still the same problem on windows. If you switch from AMD to Nvidia, it'll load a generic display driver until you install the Nvidia one either through windows updates (heavily outdated) or GeForce Now (heavy bloat).

At least Linux gives you Nouveau instead of throwing you into a 480p fallback output.

I have obnoxious reboots on my winbox without even changing the hardware.

Yup.

Build PC

Activate Windows

Motherboard develops a fault

Get a refund/replacement

Install it

Windows is no longer activated, because they tied it to the motherboard...

> irm https://get.activated.win/ | iex

Insert meme template here: Wait, you guys license your Windows?

Neat, going to have to give that a go.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/

Got the same for AMD?

Nah, literally just swapped nvidia gpus last week.

Pull one out, pop one in, resume gaming.

If you don't already have the nvidia driver or nouveau, you have to install that and make sure it isn't blacklisted. Reboot and done.

I would say by my experience, in order from easiest to most difficult, it's AMD on Linux, then Nvidia on windows, Nvidia on Linux. I haven't had a recent enough experience with amd on windows, but from what I hear its like you either install drivers then it works or you gotta do some crazy shit like op did to unbork something.

I'd still rather deal with Nvidia on Linux than anything to do with modern windows if I have the choice, especially with the insane amount of anti-features+spyware they seem to be shipping it with these days.

Can confirm, in fact there is a reasonable probability that you won't be able to setup the shitty official NVIDIA drivers and the new card will run slower than the old one :(

Idk, my upgrade to 4060 went pretty smoothly, though I was upgrading from another Nvidia card, so I had the official driver already installed...

Perhaps now that nvidia's new driver excludes gtx-1000 series and older you would have to enter some commands to switch over gracefully.

For my 2070 to 5070 upgrade nothing was needed.

This is, specifically, the workflow for changing graphics cards manufacturers on windows, e.g. nVidia to AMD. If you're just going from one AMD card to another, or vice versa, generally you can just toss it in and reboot a few times, yes.

GPU manufacturers are fucking awful about actually uninstalling their bloatware shit on windows, and it often (potentially intentionally) interferes with other manufacturer's drivers (and sometimes their own, though that's less common these days.)

I agree that the original post is dishonest, but your solution is exactly the same as what they said with the exception that you knew it would be a problem so you downloaded the driver beforehand. Had you not known that would happen the series of misfortunes could have happened to you too.

Same here. It was a matter of swapping one for the other and installing the new drivers. I was up and running rather quickly, even though I was switching form AMD to Nvidia.

Yep, never had a single issue swapping GPU on windows. First time on Linux, I went to the Nvidia website to download drivers. Apparently that's the worst thing you can do (?!) and it took me hours to undo the mess.

Don't get me wrong I still use Linux daily but there's no need to lie. It has some sharp edges and GPU drivers is one of them.

Windows does Drivers way better.

...on Linux you very rarely need to do anything driver wise so I have to strongly disagree. I think I have installed drivers for 3 devices over the past few years. If Nvidia gave a shit about Linux, the only device that gave me issues wouldn't have given me issues.

It‘s literally built into windows update. Installs and updates.

Not when you're changing GPU vendors. It can install the drivers, sure, but not remedy the obnoxious conflict between Nvidia drivers and AMD drivers when installed in the same system.

Main issue is the inconsistent drivers naturally included in Windows update and just how many things demand you install a weird vendor specific driver, with the steward of what should be a generic Winfows driver sometimes breaking things for other vendors, and/or neglecting the Windows update vintage of their driver.

Architecturally, the Windows driver model should be saner, but for most random devices I have better luck with Linux in how drivers are maintained and supported over time.

5700xt -> 9070xt

I recently switched from a 3070ti to a 9070xt on CachyOS. I just followed their guide and it was flawless: https://wiki.cachyos.org/features/chwd/gpu_migration/

Yeah once I learned about DDU I would download new drivers, reboot into safe mode, run DDU, install new drivers, reboot into normal windows.

Similar process for a new card.

I have not had a Linux desktop since 09 or 10, and I never replaced the graphics card so I cannot speak to that process. I am getting ready to try and resurrect my old gaming desktop with Linux, and I think the graphics card on it was dead/dying so I will likely be replying one soon.

I think in either direction, people forget how much becomes intuitive about their OS, and how quickly we can fall into "Works on my machine". I'm sure plenty of people have never had problems with their graphics drivers breaking things. But can you really say with full certainty that some random driver conflict couldn't possibly happen? What if they are swapping from AMD to Nvidia, does your confidence remain?

Everything is easy and intuitive when you know what is expected of you, and everything goes according to plan, but good luck if something gets fucky.

Frankly, this is EXACTLY the problem that I had, that made me switch to linux.

I had a MSI laptop with a 3060. At first, it was wonky on Windows but overall it worked with a few workarounds. So far so good.

After some times, an update to Windows (I believe) made it that I had to run DDU to uninstall the drivers then reinstall everything. It took me more than one afternoon. Then I still had to do the workarounds.

After a while, I had to uninstall the video drivers at every boot, then reinstall a specific version of one driver, then had to run Windows Update, uncheck one specific little tickbox for the video card to function. At. Every. Boot.

And then, not even that worked.

On Nobara, I just had to install the distro and boom ! It worked out of the box. With the only downside that the HDMI was capped at 1080p 30Hz (when Windows wouldn't even display over HDMI). I think the 30Hz part was a Wayland limitation at the time.

So no, it wasn't because I was bad at Windows. Bloody thing just did not work and made me go full linux.

I've been using windows since 3.1, and never had an issue swapping graphics cards. I agree that DDU being sometimes required is silly - vendors should be providing proper uninstallers, or at least officially sponsor/ship DDU.

This is how I am with mac os. I'm pretty knowledgeable about computers, so there are a lot of tasks I view as simple that I will attempt to do, only to have it fight me the whole way. I'm sure it's just that I don't know proper protocol, but it's annoying.

Example would be I had some photos on my phone I wanted to put on my mom's macbook. Okay, I have a cable, just plug it in. Well, it shows up but refuses to show files in usb mode. Okay, the photo editor saw the phone, but it was import all or nothing. It wouldn't let me send just one folder. Okay... So I can't copy/paste files from the phone, import is all or nothing. So... I ended up having to put the folder on a usb stick- but the the photo program wouldn't recognise that as a source to import from, so I had to copy the folder to the desktop and THEN import from that. Something that should have been relatively simple turned into a whole ordeal because it was designed for one type of workflow and I didn't know all the little tricks to get it to do what I wanted. I know that's on me for not knowing the easy way ro do it, but when the obvious option 'import' doesn't give me any real options, I have to figure it out.

you sound like how some people claim linux users are 😄

Honestly, I think some of them have simply been off windows so long that they only know issues they've seen in the news, and not used the relatively smooth experience you get. Like, I swapped to Linux not too long ago. Windows was MOSTLY easier to use, but it was getting to invasive for my tastes.

If you find Linux easier to use day-to-day, you're either A) much better than the average person at getting an intuition for all the options and controls B) doing something fairly uncommon where windows just falls short C) simply so used to Linux over Windows that you have a better intuition on how to handle Linux

And, like, sure there are specific tasks where one OS is just going to grant a smoother experience, but if we're talking most general usage, Windows will be such a smooth use for the average user.

So, Windows is harder to use you say. And "incompetent" users should stick to Linux?

That's a take that would have been absurd many years ago. I personally am willing to do things the hard way for some benefit, so I have a Windows PC for gaming. But all my other systems are Linux systems, laptop, workstation, or embedded. However Windiws is supposed to be the easier choice.

I'll even grant that Windows PITA is mostly not deliberate action by Microsoft. It's mostly letting vendors be their crappy self and messing up the experience, with a bit of windows driver model incompatibilities breaking hardware support abandoned by vendor, but kept alive Linux side.