NutWrench

This. It feels to me like driving a stick shift when you’ve been using an automatic transmission for years. You have to do a little more fiddling but I honestly don’t mind learning a new OS that isn’t actively working against me.

With Windows . . . on the other hand . . . every time I’ve had to go “under the hood” (tweak Registry settings, Config files, etc) it’s been to prevent Microsoft from doing something crappy to me.

You might want to check out Libre Office. It’s document compatible with MS-Office and I think it comes pre-installed on Linux Mint.

I checked out Mod Organizer 2 recently, but it didn’t support Subnautica the last time I tried it. I only use mods for a few games, line Stardew Valley and the Fallout games.

Same here. If I could get Vortex Mod Manager to work under Wine/Proton, I wouldn’t use Windows at all.

You’re probably going to be installing and changing a lot of stuff over the next few weeks. Make sure you use TimeShift to make system snapshots. (It works like System Restore in Windows).

You can even restore a system that won’t boot anymore, by booting from a Live usb stick, running TimeShift and choosing a snapshot off your hard drive.

Also, make sure your password contains L’s, 1’s, 0’s and O’s in a font deliberately chosen to make them hard to tell apart.

I was able to move my Witcher 3 mods from Windows to Linux and the witcher 3 game recompiled the mod scripts for me just fine.

I don’t know if Nexus mod manager will work on Linux (haven’t tried it yet). I’m hoping Proton is already configured for Fallout 4 mods (mod directory locations, environment variables, etc)

I think the widespread adoption of Linux is only going to happen from the bottom up. Corporations aren’t going to widely adopt Linux until Microsoft becomes a costly liability to them.

It will probably be the result of CoPilot. Will it be a huge data breach of bank or healthcare records? Will other governments flat-out refuse to run an OS with built-in spyware? Who knows? But it will be something awful that might even get our “mainstream media” to sit up and take notice.

Button #3: Restore TimeShift snapshot.

If you’ve recently installed Linux, you’re probably going to be making a lot of changes and installing a lot of stuff over the next couple of weeks. I recommend using TimeShift (comes pre-installed on Linux Mint) to make a snapshot of your system. (It works like System Restore on Windows). The first snapshot takes up the most space but later snapshots only contain the changes you make to your system.

It’s a good idea to take a snapshot before you update things like graphics card drivers or additional desktops. Then, you can always go back to where you were if something gets messed up. You can even rescue a system that won’t boot by booting from your Live Linux USB and running Time shift. It will find your hard drive backups and restore them for you.

(re: learning curve) I’m actually enjoying the process of learning a whole new OS that isn’t constantly getting in my way. I like having software that’s logically designed, like a Word Processor (Libre Writer) that actually has the “Print” button right on the main screen and hasn’t buried it at the bottom of a sub-menu that’s not even on the menu bar.

I recommend downloading the latest Linux Mint .iso file and using Rufus to create a bootable, live USB drive. Also, if your computer has an internal d: drive, I would recommend using that entire drive, instead of dual-booting from c: (I had a bad experience removing Linux from a dual boot system and getting the partitions back to normal). This way, you’re not touching anything on your windows (c:) drive.

If you’re really worried about messing up your c: drive, you can physically disconnect it while you’re installing Linux, so the Live installer only has one choice for installation. After you’ve installed Linux, change your boot order in BIOS to boot from your d: drive first. Once you’re sure Linux is working correctly, you can run “sudo update-grub” which will add your c: drive to the boot menu on the d: drive. This allows you to dual boot into either OS without touching anything on your c: drive (so the boot menu will be on d:, your linux drive). Grub will let you choose between continuing to boot from d: or to boot windows on c: without you having to change the boot order every time in BIOS.

If you use Steam to manage your games library, you’re really going to like that Steam has been developing a proprietary Wine wrapper, called Proton, which lets you run all your Steam games from Linux. Steam also has a native linux client. So all the Steam games you backed up on windows, you can restore on Linux. I’ve run everything from Unreal Gold, to Witcher 3 to Techtonica to Fallout 4 without any problems.

Steam has a native linux client and they’ve also spent years, developing a proprietary wine-wrapper, called Proton. I’ve been able to run all my Steam games on Linux with no problems. :)

Same here. I installed Linux Mint on my internal D: drive and left my Windows C: drive completely untouched. Then, I changed my boot order in bios to boot from drive D: This lets you play with Linux without messing with the bootloader on your Windows drive, or fiddling with partitions.

Once I decided to keep Linux, I modified the D: drive bootloader (“sudo update-grub”) so it would show both drives when I booted from D: Now I can boot into either OS without having to change the boot order in BIOS.

Every once in a while, a squirrel finds a nut. This doesn’t make Musk some kind of Urskek philosopher -sage.

There’s a native Linux version of Steam (at least for Ubuntu / Mint) that works great. It also uses a proprietary Wine wrapper called Proton, that’s pre-configured for all your Steam Library games.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has pushed telemetry and malware in its OS. But I think they have finally crossed the line with CoPilot. What they want to do with it is so incredibly obvious and intrusive that most people just won’t stand for it.

If that picture was of a Windows installation, Windows would be a Sumo Wrestler instead of a kitten.