Basically the forced shift to the enshittified Windows 11 in october has me eyeing the fence a lot. But all I know about Linux is 1: it’s a cantankerous beast that can smell your fear and lack of computer skills and 2: that’s apparently not true any more? Making the change has slowly become a more real possibility for me, though I’m pretty much a fairly casual PC-user, I don’t do much more than play games. So I wrote down some questions I had about Linux.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
And also, what distro might be best for me?
Your questions will have different answers depending on which flavour of Linux you choose.
A good chunk of windows programs can be run using a program called “WINE”. WINE is just a command line program but you can get a GUI version easily.
Updates depend on your flavour but Debian based Linux (like Ubuntu) you just type “sudo apt get update” and then “sudo apt get upgrade” and bam everything is updated. No restart required.
If a program doesn’t work in Linux there can be workarounds or alternatives but that really depends on what program you are talking about.
You can play almost every game that exists on steam on Linux with the exception of games that have kernel level anti cheat like some competitive multiplayer games.
You’re arguably safer security-wise on Linux. Most people are on windows so that’s the majority of all viruses. Your security updates are included in system updates. No antivirus required.
I have never heard of Linux damaging hardware. I don’t think you need to worry about this.
Recommendation: get Bazzite. It’s a special type of Linux that is closest to a windows experience than anything else. It won’t let you do dumb things and mess up your install. It has all NVIDIA drivers preinstalled as well as gamepad drivers and everything you’d need for gaming (including dock support). It’s a no configuration needed OS. Linux on easy mode. You don’t even need to use the command line ever. Updates and apps are installed through the Linux equivalent of the Microsoft App Store (except this time it is great and doesn’t suck). And I say this as someone who only used windows until 15 years ago I messed around with Ubuntu and other Debian based Linux distributions.