this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023

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Linux vs Windows, my experience (jlai.lu)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi all, I bought a gaming PC with the intention of installing Linux to play recent games. I chose AMD for the GPU because I know the drivers are more optimized on Linux.

After receiving and assembling my machine, I installed Fedora without any problem. I found a lot of software on Github to replace the proprietary software for my AIO and headphones. Everything worked the first time except.... Steam! Unable to launch it, black window which restarted in a loop.

After searching on the internet, I found that it was enough to modify PrefersNonDefaultGPU on steam to solve my problem (but I understand that ordinary people do not want to bother with this kind of hack and prefer the windows experience that works out of the box).

Then I installed Cyberpunk and.... well the game runs at 120fps in ultra, what more can I say... Oh yes, the keyboard preset is in Qwerty even though I have an azerty keyboard (sorry Baguette) and in the first hour of play, I was able to notice a bug in a rather disturbing shadow/light and in the drops of water on a windshield which appeared and disappeared in a strange way.

So with my €1500 machine I got a little upset... and I wanted to install Windows out of curiosity.

Installation is...complicated! No driver for my network card, a ton of software that I don't need, in short, Windows...

I installed steam, launched Cyberpunk and... my keyboard is recognized, 120 fps too (I am offered raytracing which does not interest me and makes me lose fps but it is available) and in the first hour of play NONE bug.

So here I am, I hate Windows, but it runs my games better than Linux and I'm really lost. I've just discovered Nobara, I would have loved to try it but I'm tired of starting the first 3 hours of cyberpunk again and I'm convinced that I'll have some graphical bugs with it.

(also another problem, there are too many Linux distributions, too much choice kills choice)

TDLD: I bought an expensive computer to play under Linux, but a few bugs made me reluctantly install Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago (8 children)

The Windows experience was worse, but at least your raindrops were rendered correctly.

It feels like you used a detail that you could not resolve to go back to the cozy arms of what you are familiar with.

And that's OK. I also went back to Windows a few times until I felt at home in Linux.

Try it again sometime in the future and see if it fells more comfortable.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Linux isn't for everyone, but jumping in on fedora might not have been the best choice. Give Pop! OS a shot. It's a more balanced experience.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fedora is pretty straight forward as an os for newbies, main benefit that popos has is installing Nvidia drivers

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yup. The only issues I had going from Ubuntu to Fedora was finding drivers, and that was solved with a few minutes of searching online.

I don't use either anymore and getting NVIDIA setup hasn't been an issue. I used Arch for a few years (just install a couple packages and reboot), and I use OpenSUSE now (just install a couple packages and reboot). It's not a difficult problem to solve.

Maybe Pop!_OS would've solved the graphics switching issue and azerty keyboard thing (probably not), but the rendering thing would very likely be the same as on Fedora since it's likely related to GPU drivers and Proton, which the distro has no control over.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Any KDE environment is much easier to get into for Windows users than those Gnome / Apple type of desktop environments.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Yes, do as I say! :P

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Windows also doesn’t work out of the box like you demonstrated in your post, people are just familiar with how to get it working. Like, Linux isn’t more complicated than Windows, it’s just both complicated and unfamiliar to a lot of people.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Yup. Imo, Linux has a better OOTB experience than Windows since most drivers are already part of the kernel (esp if you buy an AMD GPU). If you only need basic software (web browser, office suite, etc), you'll be good with any major Linux distro after a default install.

The complexity of Linux only really comes into play if you run into issues, like some hardware isn't properly recognized/supported (frequent on cheap laptops, esp WiFi and sound), or you need specific Windows software.

That said, if you know both systems well, I think Linux is easier. It's usually just tweaking a config file or setting up a third party repo and installing a propriety driver. And that can be nearly completely avoided by being careful when buying hardware, and knowing what to avoid takes some experience.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Dunno bro everything works for me on mint. I also have higher frame rates and better stability. Getting Stable Diffusion working on my AMD card is probably the hardest thing i have had to do. Even that is three lines in the terminal now. You may need to dick around with proton settings and read the forums to find what Cyberpunk runs on best if you want to deal with the bug.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It works on AMD GPUs now? Or just the latest gen?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm using Stable Diffusion on my 6000 series card and it works fine. Obviously a lot slower than Nvidia cards, but definitely usable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I've been using it the last couple days on a 7800xt. It works but has been fairly unstable. Hopefully that's just new hardware driver problems that will get sorted out eventually.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is it just in Stable Diffusion or in general? I've been happy with my 6800xt so far, but it's always nice to know what's available. I keep meaning to try it with the Arc A750 I have laying on the shelf, according to some benchmarks I've seen it's better than my card at image generation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In general, unfortunately. I've had a couple instances of my machine hard locking up, game crashes causing the entire desktop session to restart, and have had to try many different kernels.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is there an up do date installation instruction for it that doesn't require some higher degrees in terminal magic? The last time I checked, which wasn't too long ago, I just stopped bothering when reading halfway through.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I've been cheating a bit and just using EasyDiffusion. It's just a shell script that runs and configures everything for you. It's basically a portable installation that keeps everything in a nice neat folder. I have actually gone through the whole installation process before, and it can definitely be a slog with my limited experience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Huh, that did actually work. Except that the download doesn't like VPNs. I did get a potential performance warning though.

MIOpen(HIP): Warning [SQLiteBase] Missing system database file: gfx1030_16.kdb Performance may degrade. Please follow instructions to install: https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/MIOpen#installing-miopen-kernels-package

Edit: Is there a way to install extensions like ReActor? The wiki has a plugins section but that seems to be not helpful at all.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There's also Ameliorated which helps debloat hour Windows and 9/10 times get a better experience using it. There's different playbooks which help optimise to the experience you like (eg. gaming). Could give it a try :)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You can always dual boot, Linux for working is amazing. And your can also install a VM but I haven't tried it for gaming

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I don't work with this computer, my company provides us one. But thanks for the idea!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

VMs are slow and not suited for gaming.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can even tunnel your hardware directly to the VM, e.g. graphics card and have like a 2% loss on the virtualization side. Not much of a deal, if you know what you're doing. Bonus: You can restrict the VMs network, do external backups etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You'll need two GPUs, no? Passing a GPU through is relatively easy, but trying to share one isn't going to work for gaming.

But if you have the extra hardware and lots of cores, VM gaming can be a very good experience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (5 children)

You can do it on a single GPU system but you can’t use Linux and Windows at the same time.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

software for my AIO and headphones

wtf kind of headphones require extra software?

Everything worked the first time except… Steam! Unable to launch it, black window which restarted in a loop.

What package exactly did you install and from which source?

the keyboard preset is in Qwerty even though I have an azerty keyboard

If you set the layout correctly during installation of the system / in your system settings then that's not really Linux fault.

I was able to notice a bug in a rather disturbing shadow/light and in the drops of water on a windshield which appeared and disappeared in a strange way.

Very well explained.

So here I am, I hate Windows, but it runs my games better than Linux and I’m really lost. I’ve just discovered Nobara, I would have loved to try it but I’m tired of starting the first 3 hours of cyberpunk again and I’m convinced that I’ll have some graphical bugs with it.

Why restart? Back up your home folder to a different drive, install the OS and copypasta the home folder back into the new system. This is literally easier than under Windows because everything non system related is in the home folder. Games, save & config files, everything.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

it runs my games better than Linux and I’m really lost.

You already answered your own question/experience -- do some "duckduckgoing" (even if it means falling back to the basics once again, "How to run a windows game on linux") and then come back here. Because yes, GNU/Linux is 100% viable for gaming and can even run games better than on Winblows -- if you know how to setup things properly.

A word of advice however, Linux tend to be a bit "sensitive" regarding some system elements/packages -- you've got to provide all possible info to everything -- theres no "ready out of the box" in these lands.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"duckduckgoing"

I prefer "quacking". ;)

can even run games better than on Winblows

Some games, others run worse. It's usually within 10% either way, which isn't something I'd personally pick an OS over. You can probably tune things to eek out an extra percent or two, but imo that's not worth it unless you're really into that kind of thing.

theres no "ready out of the box" in these lands

That's just not true. Most of the time, Linux works great out of the box, but there are some common areas where that's not the case:

laptops with dGPUs - Linux just doesn't handle graphics switching as well as Windows, but the solution is easy as OP found out
crappy WiFi cards - just buy Intel NICs
crappy sound cards - less of a problem these days, but sound can still be a massive pain

And that's pretty much it. If you buy quality hardware, your OOTB experience is probably going to be great! If you buy an AMD GPU, it'll be even better since you don't even need to install graphics drivers! I had zero issues on my desktop switching between distros (everything just works), and my only issue with my laptop was using very recent hardware, which was fixed with kernel updates (there was a known bug with sound over HDMI on my AMD laptop).

Imo, Linux is much more likely to "just work" than Windows, assuming you're installing the OS yourself. Every time I've installed Windows, I've had to track down a bunch of drivers, downloading Wi-Fi drivers on my Linux computer and installing them with a USB stick. That sucks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I prefer "quacking". ;)

I like that, I'll have to remember to use it sometime!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I ran arch for years then Manjaro. I had zero issues running doom eternal except if I switched workspaces then back. I'd have to kill -9 the app and relaunch. Was enough to make me dual boot to beat that game. I've been running Manjaro since, because I don't have the time like I used to to fuck around with settings. I still prefer Linux overall as my daily drive though. It's not a slow, buggy, ad ridden pile of shit. Imo windows is so buggy and slow since like 8 or 10

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I do doubt Windows didn't work out of the box, as with the thousands of installations I've done, I have had ZERO issues since Win7. Very few to none in Vista. The issues were prevalent in XP and before but that was the before times when the similar Linux issues were 10000x worse.

The only gripe I have is moving people to online accounts. Just run the oobe command from the installer to limit network requirements and voila, local accounts created.

All that extra bloat can be removed but who cares. The stuff that sits there barely affects anything, like you saw the frame rate is the same.

If Windows works for you, as it does for 90% of consumers, then use it. If you want to tinker forever with Linux, then do so. Some find that fun. I've moved into the "my OS is an appliance" phase of life.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you need any help in french even through vocal, PM me

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Merci beaucoup !

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Maybe try another distro:

https://lemm.ee/post/16666175

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Won't speak for anyone else but I've been running ChimeraOS for a couple of weeks now and it's WAAAAAY better than using Windows.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Could you explain why?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean how much time do you have? 😂

On Windows I get pop-ups for unknown reasons, I have no control over what software is on my PC or what it is doing, trying to fix that usually breaks other things. I can use a controller for just about everything I need. I can boot it up and load up a game in about 10 seconds. I can change the volume, change the speakers, adjust game settings, adjust the HUD, all without leaving the game. Exiting games is a generally laborious process full of menus and loading screens, where on GamepadUI you just hit "exit game". My internet connection seems more stable for reasons unknown. I could go on...

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