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[ThatPolishGuy]

I use Pop OS on my AMD htpc that i use for emulation and light steam games, but still keep my main gaming rig on windows. Pop OS has been great. Havent had to do anything to jump in and play games.

So even if its based on older Ubuntu version it works pretty well I guess. Maybe I jumped the gun. Stability is more important, I guess.

Might be good news for Magister.

Will Pop_OS work on a computer with Nvidia GPU (GTX 1650 Laptop GPU)? I'm planning to turn my old laptop into a Linux one when I buy a new one and since it is a gaming laptop, will I have any disadvantages using Proton and all the other fun stuff if I have Nvidia GPU?

I also tried Virtual machine (VirtualBox) today. What a terrible experience, Youtube is lagging, choppy audio, etc. And I allocated 4GB ram (max recommended amount) for Lubuntu, one of the most lightweight distros ever.

 

[Soodanim]

This thread mirrors my experience in Mint. Put my Linux adventure on pause after that as it was only a taster.

This thread highlights why Valve's involvement in a SteamOS is so critical for Linux gaming. When tech savvy people have some learning to do just to get the OS up and running the simple fact is that it's too much of a barrier for entry.

People want a simplified install from a trusted source that will result in them being able to play games. If Valve plays a part in making that happen alongside the other things that seem to be in the pipeline, there's a chance.

SteamOS wouldn't stop anything for existing Linux users or people that wish to move to other distros. But it would provide some reliability and stability for the many that would need it in order for it to be a viable option.

 

[Wolzard]

So even if its based on older Ubuntu version it works pretty well I guess. Maybe I jumped the gun. Stability is more important, I guess.

Might be good news for Magister.

System 76 updates a lot of the system. Drivers are new, some software has updated versions. Only the base system and Gnome are outdated, although as they were released for Ubuntu LTS, they still receive security updates.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

This thread mirrors my experience in Mint. Put my Linux adventure on pause after that as it was only a taster.

This thread highlights why Valve's involvement in a SteamOS is so critical for Linux gaming. When tech savvy people have some learning to do just to get the OS up and running the simple fact is that it's too much of a barrier for entry.

People want a simplified install from a trusted source that will result in them being able to play games. If Valve plays a part in making that happen alongside the other things that seem to be in the pipeline, there's a chance.

SteamOS wouldn't stop anything for existing Linux users or people that wish to move to other distros. But it would provide some reliability and stability for the many that would need it in order for it to be a viable option.

Check out mattscreative vids links below, he has also tested Mint and had a lot of to say - basically mirrors your experience. I haven't used mint, this distro wasn't appealing to me at all.

First Ubuntu based distro I used was Zorin OS on my old laptop from 2011 with some Nvidia card and it ran old GOG games no problem. I was actually surprised. This distro has Wine deep in OS already, installer for .deb packages, flatpak already installed.

Anyways check the vid below and profile:

Yeah, I had zero issues on my RX 6700XT but I have read about Nvidia problems lately and there was a solution which even was suggested by Nvidia to use other open sourced driver but I can't think what it was from the top of my head.

Check out https://youtube.com/@mattscreative

He has been using Nobara, PikaOS and CachyOS is his main OS, he even did his own Arch implementing stuff from CachyOS so he can compile his own kernel.

Dude has tons of vids on CachyOS gaming and emulation.

He has been playing Stalker 2 on Cachy with no issues and he has RTX 4070 so Nvidia card and he also recently did run a gameplay of God of War Ragnarok without issues....

You might find something there for your problem - just go through comments maybe. He has also tutorials for installing Nexus Mods on Linux for Windows games, I have this guy bookmarked for future reference when I fully switch.

I'm thankful I have found his channel, he did nudge me in the right direction.

I wouldn't have found CachyOS without him. I was all in on Ubuntu based distros before I have found his channel.



His 3 weeeks old video about kernels and why Cachy is his main.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I looked into how to get cheat engine working in Linux and it was a lot of bullshit.

 

[Soodanim]

Check out mattscreative vids links below, he has also tested Mint and had a lot of to say - basically mirrors your experience. I haven't used mint, this distro wasn't appealing to me at all.

First Ubuntu based distro I used was Zorin OS on my old laptop from 2011 with some Nvidia card and it ran old GOG games no problem. I was actually surprised. This distro has Wine deep in OS already, installer for .deb packages, flatpak already installed.

Anyways check the vid below and profile:

Thanks, I've bookmarked it for when I next give Linux a go (I plan to give it its own dedicated NVME in my next build).

It sounds like this distro could be a foundation for the future, so it will be interesting to see its progress.

 

[Diseased Yak]

I managed to fix my issue. Scaling was the issue (which apparently is a familiar refrain with Wayland), one of the updated packages caused fractional scaling, at least on my system, to be wonky. I had had my scaling set to 115% but when I changed it to 120%, no more texture flickering with Steam....

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

I managed to fix my issue. Scaling was the issue (which apparently is a familiar refrain with Wayland), one of the updated packages caused fractional scaling, at least on my system, to be wonky. I had had my scaling set to 115% but when I changed it to 120%, no more texture flickering with Steam....

So it wasn't Nvidia drivers nor was it Kernel... Nice...

I have to remember your specific problem when I switch to Linux gaming full time at the and of the year.

So nice of us to share stuff like this. Might help someone else..

Anyways, good job. I know how it is to tinker with stuff. Not only OS stuff .

Just finished my 2h long battle with faulty counterweight on 1977 turntable...

 

[Diseased Yak]

So it wasn't Nvidia drivers nor was it Kernel... Nice...

I have to remember your specific problem when I switch to Linux gaming full time at the and of the year.

So nice of us to share stuff like this. Might help someone else..

Anyways, good job. I know how it is to tinker with stuff. Not only OS stuff .

Just finished my 2h long battle with faulty counterweight on 1977 turntable...

A tough battle indeed! My turntable is weird, uses a golf ball in a cup floating on some gel to isolate and counterbalance the arm.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

I recommend injecting Ventoy on a big pendrive and you can just drop iso's of multiple distros and live boot them from a single pendrive if someone wishes to test multiple Linux distros. This stuff is amazing .

I wish I new it eariler, just stumbled upon this amazing piece of software just a short while ago. When I already choosen a distro.

I don't know how many times I just used Rufus or Popsicle or balenaEtcher to format a single pendrive over and over again or multiple pendrives to test different distros.

This may help someone avoid my frustration .

 

[Hudo]

I recommend injecting Ventoy on a big pendrive and you can just drop iso's of multiple distros and live boot them from a single pendrive if someone wishes to test multiple Linux distros.

Works also with Windows ISOs thrown in.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

System 76 updates a lot of the system. Drivers are new, some software has updated versions. Only the base system and Gnome are outdated, although as they were released for Ubuntu LTS, they still receive security updates.

I really hope their own COSMIC DE will be something truly special for Linux gaming. I guess we might see it by the end of this year, out of alpha phase at least.

Apparently they were frustrated with getting constant certification processes from GNOME anytime they wanted to change something in the Pop_OS.

So they started to write their own DE from scratch, ditching old code, writing everything on a modern Iced Rust code, with separate code for UI and separate code for programs.

The goal is to make the OS as snappy as possible on a modern language with something similar Carmack did to IDTech Engine - easily maintain it, no spaghetti code, no unnecessary lib calls, everything in separate containers etc.

So you can maintain it without braking stuff and expand on it.

Apparently old test software which wasn't Pop_OS per-se but used Iced Rust as a test ground could run Windows, Linux, MacOS apps through compatibility layers as well as native written apps. It was written by some folks from System 76 as a test and then they decided to embark on a big adventure of doing their own desktop environment. I haven't been on any Linux dev forums so I wouldn't really know but I read that things are pretty heated between GNOME folks and System 76 - a lot of folks were laughing they will fail and it is not needed. I always want to test new things and I am rooting for them.

I wish truly to see if this will be competing with distros like CachyOS in gaming. That's why I have "oh shit is it out" moments for a few months when I remember about Pop_OS and check their blog from time to time .

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I can only say what it feels like on the steam deck as I use the desktop mode for all my non steam game installs / piracy etc and it uses Arch. I literally use it almost in every way as I would a PC, it is so simple to install anything, run the setup.exe, then run game.exe. I have games from 1995 on my SD all the way today and they all work flawlessly. Out of 107 that I currently have installed, maybe 6-7 required me to input some launch option in steam for that specific game, otherwise gaming on it is as simple as can be.

Emulation through PCSX2, Dolphin and Ducstatio runs flawlessly as well.

 

[Zathalus]

Still a number of issues preventing me from switching. DLSS Frame Generation is finally working and HDR support is getting much better but DX12 title performance with Nvidia cards still lag vs Windows and RT/PT performance is still significantly behind. Once those issues are addressed I’ll be very tempted.

 

[PsyEd]

Early 2024 I've switched to linux but still have w11 on dual boot for few apps and online gaming. I settled for CachyOS after a pretty long distro hopping mid June last year I found it to be most tweaked for gaming use case on my intel/nvidia hardware. Like few, I went with Arch and found out the CachyOS BORE kernel's performance was just thing I was looking for. But since I'm a nVidia fan boy/man (since TNT 2 ultra)....the linux drivers for it just sucks....dx12 sucks even more...at the time of writing.

Anyways Arch was a bit too much for me and every now and then stuff would break when I tried or changed stuff...later on I just switched to CachyOS itself as it had all the tweaks in there already and I don't have time to tinker around. Thanks to Steam Deck OLED...I took the leap of faith to linux for my laptops...so far with Cachy and KDE...it's been solid experience.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

Still a number of issues preventing me from switching. DLSS Frame Generation is finally working and HDR support is getting much better but DX12 title performance with Nvidia cards still lag vs Windows and RT/PT performance is still significantly behind. Once those issues are addressed I’ll be very tempted.

Maybe things will improve down the line. I get the feeling that most companies that order their AI stuff actually use Linux and this can force Nvidia to actually open source fully the drivers.

Early 2024 I've switched to linux but still have w11 on dual boot for few apps and online gaming. I settled for CachyOS after a pretty long distro hopping mid June last year I found it to be most tweaked for gaming use case on my intel/nvidia hardware. Like few, I went with Arch and found out the CachyOS BORE kernel's performance was just thing I was looking for. But since I'm a nVidia fan boy/man (since TNT 2 ultra)....the linux drivers for it just sucks....dx12 sucks even more...at the time of writing.

Anyways Arch was a bit too much for me and every now and then stuff would break when I tried or changed stuff...later on I just switched to CachyOS itself as it had all the tweaks in there already and I don't have time to tinker around. Thanks to Steam Deck OLED...I took the leap of faith to linux for my laptops...so far with Cachy and KDE...it's been solid experience.

I have only positive experience with CachyOS! And I also know the pain of distro hopping searching for that distro. And for my CachyOS is that.

Dual booting with Win11 is always an option for a few apps that won't work like Game Pass when Win10 reaches end of life. But honestly dunno.

I saw something like Tiny11 which aims to deblote the thing and remove the telemetry and apparently it can still receive security updates.

But knowing MS and their breakage of stuff lately with updates, Cachy seems like a genuinely more fun experience.

But I will keep that in mind. By the end of this year I will have to settle for something. That is fully commit to CachyOS, or dual boot with something maybe like Tiny11.

My 8bitdo software will for example only work I presume on Windows. So maybe I will settle for mostly CachyOS and dual booting to Tiny11 for a few things I can't do on Linux.

 

[Crayon]

This thread mirrors my experience in Mint. Put my Linux adventure on pause after that as it was only a taster.

This thread highlights why Valve's involvement in a SteamOS is so critical for Linux gaming. When tech savvy people have some learning to do just to get the OS up and running the simple fact is that it's too much of a barrier for entry.

People want a simplified install from a trusted source that will result in them being able to play games. If Valve plays a part in making that happen alongside the other things that seem to be in the pipeline, there's a chance.

SteamOS wouldn't stop anything for existing Linux users or people that wish to move to other distros. But it would provide some reliability and stability for the many that would need it in order for it to be a viable option.

I'd say more of a problem is the lack of OEM devices. You can look at the steam deck- it may appear to be some bulletproof Linux distro, but we can't forget that it's a pre installed on a consumer device that can be thoroughly tested.

This is not 100% it, but you can see this dynamic flip where nobody is installing windows on their deck to make it easier.

 

[Soodanim]

I'd say more of a problem is the lack of OEM devices. You can look at the steam deck- it may appear to be some bulletproof Linux distro, but we can't forget that it's a pre installed on a consumer device that can be thoroughly tested.

This is 100% it, but you can see this dynamic flip where nobody is installing windows on their deck to make it easier.

100%. Valve are in a much better position to lead the charge than they were the first time round, and I hope the Steam branding helps the industry get there with more OEM devices. Linux native Linux adoption and/or even more Proton work should be nothing but an upward trend for everything Linux gaming.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I see what direction Windows is going in and I appreciate people out here fighting the good fight. Steam Deck has been my first time really messing around with a Linux desktop and everything works just fine. Eventually I wouldn’t mind ditching windows.

 

[Crayon]

100%. Valve are in a much better position to lead the charge than they were the first time round, and I hope the Steam branding helps the industry get there with more OEM devices. Linux native Linux adoption and/or even more Proton work should be nothing but an upward trend for everything Linux gaming.

That's why I'm stoked that other devices are coming with steamos soon!!!

It's a good thing that people who rave about their steam decks aren't necessarily raving about the os. Linux on the deck works smoothly, stays out of the way, and lets you forget about it. So if this first round of steamos devices are properly tested, that is going to be a huuuuuge boon for Linux.

If one day steamos can make the jump to gaming laptops, and then possibly non-gaming laptops , that will be great for Linux and imo it's a more realistic path to market share than any diy install distro.

Who knows, though. There might be a path where PC builders (who do need to install the os of their choosing anyway) start installing the general steamos distro and lead the charge.

 

[Duchess]

I've been using Linux as my daily desktop for some 20 years now. Was rough as hell at the start, much better now. I could never go back to Windows; Mac at a push.

re: games - Epic gave away Dredge recently, and that runs just fine on my laptop (AMD 4600U, with 32GB RAM, with Ubuntu 2022.04). I'm using Proton 8, and pretty much every game I try works.

There's a bunch of games I'm saving for playing on a laptop, as I think they're better played on a computer than a console.

 

[Wolzard]

I really hope their own COSMIC DE will be something truly special for Linux gaming. I guess we might see it by the end of this year, out of alpha phase at least.

Apparently they were frustrated with getting constant certification processes from GNOME anytime they wanted to change something in the Pop_OS.

So they started to write their own DE from scratch, ditching old code, writing everything on a modern Iced Rust code, with separate code for UI and separate code for programs.

The goal is to make the OS as snappy as possible on a modern language with something similar Carmack did to IDTech Engine - easily maintain it, no spaghetti code, no unnecessary lib calls, everything in separate containers etc.

So you can maintain it without braking stuff and expand on it.

Apparently old test software which wasn't Pop_OS per-se but used Iced Rust as a test ground could run Windows, Linux, MacOS apps through compatibility layers as well as native written apps. It was written by some folks from System 76 as a test and then they decided to embark on a big adventure of doing their own desktop environment. I haven't been on any Linux dev forums so I wouldn't really know but I read that things are pretty heated between GNOME folks and System 76 - a lot of folks were laughing they will fail and it is not needed. I always want to test new things and I am rooting for them.

I wish truly to see if this will be competing with distros like CachyOS in gaming. That's why I have "oh shit is it out" moments for a few months when I remember about Pop_OS and check their blog from time to time .

Unfortunately, I'm a dumb for following these things and I get caught in the crossfire, I've even argued with System76 and Gnome developers.

The issue with Gnome was a fight between egos. System76 developers are arrogant, they think they know more than everyone else. Gnome developers are religious, in the sense that if they think one way, they don't accept change. System76 wanted to promote some changes in Gnome, but the way they did it was a bit "hacky" and Gnome values a certain quality, to be easy to maintain later.

Then the ridiculous thing happened when both sides started engaging in personal attacks and exchanging accusations, which resulted in System76 deciding to make its own DE. Despite being theoretically made from scratch, to me they just copied the way PopOS with Gnome works and rewrote it in Rust.

System76 accused of not collaborating with GNOME

PC and server slinger 'a case study on how not to collaborate with upstream'

www.theregister.com

I personally think that COSMIC DE will be niched on PopOS, just like Cinnamon is on Mint or Pantheon on ElementaryOS.

Gnome has a lot of strength because it is supported by large companies like Red Hat and KDE Plasma is receiving a lot of support from Valve.

These discontents and divisions are already familiar, they have even become a meme.

 

[Unknown?]

I'd say more of a problem is the lack of OEM devices. You can look at the steam deck- it may appear to be some bulletproof Linux distro, but we can't forget that it's a pre installed on a consumer device that can be thoroughly tested.

This is not 100% it, but you can see this dynamic flip where nobody is installing windows on their deck to make it easier.

They are out there, just niche. System76 and StarLabs come to mind.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

Unfortunately, I'm a dumb for following these things and I get caught in the crossfire, I've even argued with System76 and Gnome developers.

The issue with Gnome was a fight between egos. System76 developers are arrogant, they think they know more than everyone else. Gnome developers are religious, in the sense that if they think one way, they don't accept change. System76 wanted to promote some changes in Gnome, but the way they did it was a bit "hacky" and Gnome values a certain quality, to be easy to maintain later.

Then the ridiculous thing happened when both sides started engaging in personal attacks and exchanging accusations, which resulted in System76 deciding to make its own DE. Despite being theoretically made from scratch, to me they just copied the way PopOS with Gnome works and rewrote it in Rust.

System76 accused of not collaborating with GNOME

PC and server slinger 'a case study on how not to collaborate with upstream'

www.theregister.com

I personally think that COSMIC DE will be niched on PopOS, just like Cinnamon is on Mint or Pantheon on ElementaryOS.

Gnome has a lot of strength because it is supported by large companies like Red Hat and KDE Plasma is receiving a lot of support from Valve.

These discontents and divisions are already familiar, they have even become a meme.

So the reason is more petty than they let others not engaged in dev forums believe, huh.

Whatever the reason - may it will be something worth to jump into, if not CachyOS it is for me, no biggie.

I like GNOME a lot with dash-to-dock look and some nice themes and icons from GNOME look and I'm all set.

 

[Wolzard]

 

[Boglin]

I want to take the plunge into Linux as my daily driver because I'm really not happy with the direction of Windows since Windows 10, and recent updates have caused instability on my machine. Since I already have a Steam Deck I figured that I can try some things out to get a feel for Linux but it's definitely not going smooth and as a newbie figuring this shit out has been a headache.

Spoiler: Here's an example of what I mean.

The flashcard program I use, Anki, is on both Windows and Linux so my first hurdle was downloading and "installing" it, and it turns out the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends like flatpak, so I went to Anki's website to download the program.
I thought this was going to be a piece of cake because that's how I install pretty much everything on Windows anyway.

However, after I downloaded Anki's package from their archive I found out installing the package requires using the terminal. I wasn't too worried at first because I've used DOS and the Windows command line countless times and figured the terminal would be something similar, as in I'd simply copy some instructions from online, input them, have them work and move on with my life, but then I hit a road block because my Steam Deck wasn't recognizing any of the commands that Anki's website lists in the instructions for installation.

After a bit of searching, I found out that the Steam Deck uses something called "pacman" for installing, rather than the "apt" terminal commands which Anki instructs. I didn't see any mention of "pacman" anywhere in Anki's instructions. So I Google what the equivalent commands would be on the Steam Deck and try again but then it runs into a new issue, saying it can't find or recognize the "install.sh" file the package needs to be installed. From here I spent hours trying trying figure out how to install the stupid thing but never succeeded.

Eventually, though, I found a forum post indicating that I can run the executable directly from within the "bin" folder within the package without going through any installation process. Great! So I double clicked Anki's executable and it finally loaded up but to my shock, the window was just a blank screen. So I dove back into the internet searching for a solution, and learned that I need to disable the "webengine sandbox" that Anki uses, and to do that I'll need to run the executable from the terminal with some extra parameters attached.

So I did all that and Anki was finally able to load up and display things correctly, much to my relief, then went on to happily import all the same add-ons I was using on windows and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seemed to be compatible. That was until I actually got to a flashcard that contains audio, at which point I got a notification saying that I can't play audio files unless I first install a media player, such as MPV.

I was at least happy to find it was available for download from the Steam Deck's built-in app store thing so I quickly installed it. At that point I thought I finally had everything I needed to be up and running, and so I opened the terminal, typed out the path to the Anki executable along with the additional stuff to disable the webengine sandbox and... a blank screen once again.

So long story short, I've still been continuing to do my flashcard reviews on windows.

 

[Crayon]

I want to take the plunge into Linux as my daily driver because I'm really not happy with the direction of Windows since Windows 10, and recent updates have caused instability on my machine. Since I already have a Steam Deck I figured that I can try some things out to get a feel for Linux but it's definitely not going smooth and as a newbie figuring this shit out has been a headache.

Spoiler: Here's an example of what I mean.

The flashcard program I use, Anki, is on both Windows and Linux so my first hurdle was downloading and "installing" it, and it turns out the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends like flatpak, so I went to Anki's website to download the program.
I thought this was going to be a piece of cake because that's how I install pretty much everything on Windows anyway.

However, after I downloaded Anki's package from their archive I found out installing the package requires using the terminal. I wasn't too worried at first because I've used DOS and the Windows command line countless times and figured the terminal would be something similar, as in I'd simply copy some instructions from online, input them, have them work and move on with my life, but then I hit a road block because my Steam Deck wasn't recognizing any of the commands that Anki's website lists in the instructions for installation.

After a bit of searching, I found out that the Steam Deck uses something called "pacman" for installing, rather than the "apt" terminal commands which Anki instructs. I didn't see any mention of "pacman" anywhere in Anki's instructions. So I Google what the equivalent commands would be on the Steam Deck and try again but then it runs into a new issue, saying it can't find or recognize the "install.sh" file the package needs to be installed. From here I spent hours trying trying figure out how to install the stupid thing but never succeeded.

Eventually, though, I found a forum post indicating that I can run the executable directly from within the "bin" folder within the package without going through any installation process. Great! So I double clicked Anki's executable and it finally loaded up but to my shock, the window was just a blank screen. So I dove back into the internet searching for a solution, and learned that I need to disable the "webengine sandbox" that Anki uses, and to do that I'll need to run the executable from the terminal with some extra parameters attached.

So I did all that and Anki was finally able to load up and display things correctly, much to my relief, then went on to happily import all the same add-ons I was using on windows and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seemed to be compatible. That was until I actually got to a flashcard that contains audio, at which point I got a notification saying that I can't play audio files unless I first install a media player, such as MPV.

I was at least happy to find it was available for download from the Steam Deck's built-in app store thing so I quickly installed it. At that point I thought I finally had everything I needed to be up and running, and so I opened the terminal, typed out the path to the Anki executable along with the additional stuff to disable the webengine sandbox and... a blank screen once again.

So long story short, I've still been continuing to do my flashcard reviews on windows.

Bro I just installed that with one click and it's running rn.

I'm on mint and I just opened the software manager, searched Anki and clicked it. Maybe there no equivalent on steamos but I remember kde having one. It's the baby way to install stuff and I find it pretty good these days. I can still run into confusion installing stuff so I use those software managers more all the time.

 

[Boglin]

Bro I just installed that with one click and it's running rn.

I'm on mint and I just opened the software manager, searched Anki and clicked it. Maybe there no equivalent on steamos but I remember kde having one. It's the baby way to install stuff and I find it pretty good these days. I can still run into confusion installing stuff so I use those software managers more all the time.

"the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends"

I have to install from an achieved package from Anki's website to use the version I'd like. This is very simple on windows and simply running the installer works. What I wrote up was my experience trying to install the same version on Linux.

I would definitely use a software manager to have it do everything for me if I could but those versions of Anki would break half my add-ons.

 

[The Fartist]

I use fedora XFCE BTW.

 

[Sophist]

Using linux for gaming or anything desktop is a bad idea. You better stay on Microsoft widnows. Trust me.

 

[Crayon]

"the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends"

I have to install from an achieved package from Anki's website to use the version I'd like. This is very simple on windows and simply running the installer works. What I wrote up was my experience trying to install the same version on Linux.

I would definitely use a software manager to have it do everything for me if I could but those versions of Anki would break half my add-ons.

Totally forgot that part by the time I got to the end sorry!

 

[Diseased Yak]

I have Battle.net up and running via Bottles, works fantastically. One odd thing is that whilst within Battle.net if I go to install a game, the choices of where to install are limited.
Currently working on a way to see my other nvme drives. Maybe I could do a symbolic link within one of the directories that Battle.net sees? Not sure, anyway fun stuff!

WoW Classic looks and runs fantastically through Bottles, no lag or anything at all.

 

[Doom_master1122]

I want to take the plunge into Linux as my daily driver because I'm really not happy with the direction of Windows since Windows 10, and recent updates have caused instability on my machine. Since I already have a Steam Deck I figured that I can try some things out to get a feel for Linux but it's definitely not going smooth and as a newbie figuring this shit out has been a headache.

Spoiler: Here's an example of what I mean.

The flashcard program I use, Anki, is on both Windows and Linux so my first hurdle was downloading and "installing" it, and it turns out the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends like flatpak, so I went to Anki's website to download the program.
I thought this was going to be a piece of cake because that's how I install pretty much everything on Windows anyway.

However, after I downloaded Anki's package from their archive I found out installing the package requires using the terminal. I wasn't too worried at first because I've used DOS and the Windows command line countless times and figured the terminal would be something similar, as in I'd simply copy some instructions from online, input them, have them work and move on with my life, but then I hit a road block because my Steam Deck wasn't recognizing any of the commands that Anki's website lists in the instructions for installation.

After a bit of searching, I found out that the Steam Deck uses something called "pacman" for installing, rather than the "apt" terminal commands which Anki instructs. I didn't see any mention of "pacman" anywhere in Anki's instructions. So I Google what the equivalent commands would be on the Steam Deck and try again but then it runs into a new issue, saying it can't find or recognize the "install.sh" file the package needs to be installed. From here I spent hours trying trying figure out how to install the stupid thing but never succeeded.

Eventually, though, I found a forum post indicating that I can run the executable directly from within the "bin" folder within the package without going through any installation process. Great! So I double clicked Anki's executable and it finally loaded up but to my shock, the window was just a blank screen. So I dove back into the internet searching for a solution, and learned that I need to disable the "webengine sandbox" that Anki uses, and to do that I'll need to run the executable from the terminal with some extra parameters attached.

So I did all that and Anki was finally able to load up and display things correctly, much to my relief, then went on to happily import all the same add-ons I was using on windows and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seemed to be compatible. That was until I actually got to a flashcard that contains audio, at which point I got a notification saying that I can't play audio files unless I first install a media player, such as MPV.

I was at least happy to find it was available for download from the Steam Deck's built-in app store thing so I quickly installed it. At that point I thought I finally had everything I needed to be up and running, and so I opened the terminal, typed out the path to the Anki executable along with the additional stuff to disable the webengine sandbox and... a blank screen once again.

So long story short, I've still been continuing to do my flashcard reviews on windows.

SteamOS uses a variant of Arch, so it uses Pacman as your package manager as opposed to Apt. That's an entirely separate thing as there are different managers out there. Plus with the Steamdeck, the OS isn't quite like normal variants of Arch or other distros as Valve made it their own. I personally wouldn't daily drive SteamOS until Valve makes some changes to it and how the OS works out of box, but that too, is a separate topic.
If you want to jump in with less headaches, use one of the many easier distros instead of using something like SteamOS as a test runner. PopOS, Mint, Ubuntu are my usual go tos for first time tries. Much of the experience can be done with GUI without needing to worry about terminal use. Not saying it won't happen, but its much less likely to be a thing in your average use.

 

[Boglin]

Totally forgot that part by the time I got to the end sorry!

It's all good. Thanks for the input!

SteamOS uses a variant of Arch, so it uses Pacman as your package manager as opposed to Apt. That's an entirely separate thing as there are different managers out there. Plus with the Steamdeck, the OS isn't quite like normal variants of Arch or other distros as Valve made it their own. I personally wouldn't daily drive SteamOS until Valve makes some changes to it and how the OS works out of box, but that too, is a separate topic.
If you want to jump in with less headaches, use one of the many easier distros instead of using something like SteamOS as a test runner. PopOS, Mint, Ubuntu are my usual go tos for first time tries. Much of the experience can be done with GUI without needing to worry about terminal use. Not saying it won't happen, but its much less likely to be a thing in your average use.

Would one of the distros you mentioned be less likely to run into the weird graphical issue I ran into? The software version I'm trying to install is only about 3 years old, so I was surprised to immediately hit a few hangups running the software, even outside the software manager stuff.
I might just try to run the windows version of Anki through proton but I imagine that'd have issues itself.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I want to take the plunge into Linux as my daily driver because I'm really not happy with the direction of Windows since Windows 10, and recent updates have caused instability on my machine. Since I already have a Steam Deck I figured that I can try some things out to get a feel for Linux but it's definitely not going smooth and as a newbie figuring this shit out has been a headache.

Spoiler: Here's an example of what I mean.

The flashcard program I use, Anki, is on both Windows and Linux so my first hurdle was downloading and "installing" it, and it turns out the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends like flatpak, so I went to Anki's website to download the program.
I thought this was going to be a piece of cake because that's how I install pretty much everything on Windows anyway.

However, after I downloaded Anki's package from their archive I found out installing the package requires using the terminal. I wasn't too worried at first because I've used DOS and the Windows command line countless times and figured the terminal would be something similar, as in I'd simply copy some instructions from online, input them, have them work and move on with my life, but then I hit a road block because my Steam Deck wasn't recognizing any of the commands that Anki's website lists in the instructions for installation.

After a bit of searching, I found out that the Steam Deck uses something called "pacman" for installing, rather than the "apt" terminal commands which Anki instructs. I didn't see any mention of "pacman" anywhere in Anki's instructions. So I Google what the equivalent commands would be on the Steam Deck and try again but then it runs into a new issue, saying it can't find or recognize the "install.sh" file the package needs to be installed. From here I spent hours trying trying figure out how to install the stupid thing but never succeeded.

Eventually, though, I found a forum post indicating that I can run the executable directly from within the "bin" folder within the package without going through any installation process. Great! So I double clicked Anki's executable and it finally loaded up but to my shock, the window was just a blank screen. So I dove back into the internet searching for a solution, and learned that I need to disable the "webengine sandbox" that Anki uses, and to do that I'll need to run the executable from the terminal with some extra parameters attached.

So I did all that and Anki was finally able to load up and display things correctly, much to my relief, then went on to happily import all the same add-ons I was using on windows and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seemed to be compatible. That was until I actually got to a flashcard that contains audio, at which point I got a notification saying that I can't play audio files unless I first install a media player, such as MPV.

I was at least happy to find it was available for download from the Steam Deck's built-in app store thing so I quickly installed it. At that point I thought I finally had everything I needed to be up and running, and so I opened the terminal, typed out the path to the Anki executable along with the additional stuff to disable the webengine sandbox and... a blank screen once again.

So long story short, I've still been continuing to do my flashcard reviews on windows.

Small tip: Perplexity has replaced Google for me when it comes to researching things. Give it a try, the thing is insane.

 

[Boglin]

Small tip: Perplexity has replaced Google for me when it comes to researching things. Give it a try, the thing is insane.

Thanks for the tip. I actually was using AI for questions and guidance throughout the process, but didn't use Perplexity specifically.

Spoiler: Fun fact

About 20 years ago I received A+ certification for computer network/hardware/software troubleshooting, and recently I've actually trained and fine-tuned AI transformer models on both local and remote hardware, so it's not like I'm a total luddite.

I'm just new to the way Linux does things, and it's not intuitive based on my current knowledge and skill set.

 

[Doom_master1122]

It's all good. Thanks for the input!


Would one of the distros you mentioned be less likely to run into the weird graphical issue I ran into? The software version I'm trying to install is only about 3 years old, so I was surprised to immediately hit a few hangups running the software, even outside the software manager stuff.
I might just try to run the windows version of Anki through proton but I imagine that'd have issues itself.

By the sounds of it, If I had to guess is there's a weird dependency issue or perhaps issues within SteamOS itself, could be from anything honestly.
Trying it on my PopOS VM just now to see how it acts, and the install ran clean from the Pop Shop. Also made a few cards as well as imported both addons and decks. No issues thus far.

Spoiler: Screencap of use

 

[Boglin]

By the sounds of it, If I had to guess is there's a weird dependency issue or perhaps issues within SteamOS itself, could be from anything honestly.
Trying it on my PopOS VM just now to see how it acts, and the install ran clean from the Pop Shop. Also made a few cards as well as imported both addons and decks. No issues thus far.

Spoiler: Screencap of use

I just tried downloading the version available through "Discover" on the Steam Deck and it seems to work fine, just like your experience from the Pop Shop. You're probably right about it being a dependency thing for the version I need.

I'm probably going to have to go down the rabbit hole and figure out how packages hook into dependencies and which one(s) I'm missing.
The optimistic thing is I actually did get the version I'm trying to use to load correctly at one point, but that was only before I installed the recommended audio software to make it so I can listen to audio flashcards which seemed to break it again.
My end goal would be just to be able to double-click the icon and have it load like normal, without having to launch it through the terminal to disable the webengine sandbox.

 

[Wolzard]

I want to take the plunge into Linux as my daily driver because I'm really not happy with the direction of Windows since Windows 10, and recent updates have caused instability on my machine. Since I already have a Steam Deck I figured that I can try some things out to get a feel for Linux but it's definitely not going smooth and as a newbie figuring this shit out has been a headache.

Spoiler: Here's an example of what I mean.

The flashcard program I use, Anki, is on both Windows and Linux so my first hurdle was downloading and "installing" it, and it turns out the version I use that's compatible with all my add-ons isn't available in any of the repository frontends like flatpak, so I went to Anki's website to download the program.
I thought this was going to be a piece of cake because that's how I install pretty much everything on Windows anyway.

However, after I downloaded Anki's package from their archive I found out installing the package requires using the terminal. I wasn't too worried at first because I've used DOS and the Windows command line countless times and figured the terminal would be something similar, as in I'd simply copy some instructions from online, input them, have them work and move on with my life, but then I hit a road block because my Steam Deck wasn't recognizing any of the commands that Anki's website lists in the instructions for installation.

After a bit of searching, I found out that the Steam Deck uses something called "pacman" for installing, rather than the "apt" terminal commands which Anki instructs. I didn't see any mention of "pacman" anywhere in Anki's instructions. So I Google what the equivalent commands would be on the Steam Deck and try again but then it runs into a new issue, saying it can't find or recognize the "install.sh" file the package needs to be installed. From here I spent hours trying trying figure out how to install the stupid thing but never succeeded.

Eventually, though, I found a forum post indicating that I can run the executable directly from within the "bin" folder within the package without going through any installation process. Great! So I double clicked Anki's executable and it finally loaded up but to my shock, the window was just a blank screen. So I dove back into the internet searching for a solution, and learned that I need to disable the "webengine sandbox" that Anki uses, and to do that I'll need to run the executable from the terminal with some extra parameters attached.

So I did all that and Anki was finally able to load up and display things correctly, much to my relief, then went on to happily import all the same add-ons I was using on windows and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seemed to be compatible. That was until I actually got to a flashcard that contains audio, at which point I got a notification saying that I can't play audio files unless I first install a media player, such as MPV.

I was at least happy to find it was available for download from the Steam Deck's built-in app store thing so I quickly installed it. At that point I thought I finally had everything I needed to be up and running, and so I opened the terminal, typed out the path to the Anki executable along with the additional stuff to disable the webengine sandbox and... a blank screen once again.

So long story short, I've still been continuing to do my flashcard reviews on windows.

Linux is always "forward", focused on software evolution.
Therefore, normally dealing with old software requires a little more patience, as the dependencies will probably not be compatible.

Windows handles this better, because it carries 30 years of legacy in its code, which is an advantage and disadvantage at the same time.

 

[Boglin]

Linux is always "forward", focused on software evolution.
Therefore, normally dealing with old software requires a little more patience, as the dependencies will probably not be compatible.

Windows handles this better, because it carries 30 years of legacy in its code, which is an advantage and disadvantage at the same time.

Honestly, the compatibility with older software isn't my main gripe and it would be very hypocritical of me to fault Linux for not handling that well, especially since Windows has grown less stable for me and is constantly breaking shit with updates. It's one of the primary reasons I want to switch away from windows.

My biggest issue has been the seeming lack of standardization for software installs and unintuitive nature of them. On Windows I have .exe, MacOS .dmg, and Android .apk for sideloading and it's all dead simple without me having to be tied and limited to strictly whatever is available in the "App store". I moved away from iOS because of that crap and planned obsolescence.
Although I'm sure my perceptions and assumptions about a lot of things are probably wrong which might compound my trouble with Linux.

I was never able to figure out how to get the package I want(giggity) to install on Linux despite hours of searching a following various step-by-step instructions. I only got it to run at all because I found a dev post saying there's an executable buried in the "bin" folder which can be ran without installation. I have no idea if this is standard practice or not, but it's certainly not user friendly and the experience is not leaving a good impression.

 

[Doom_master1122]

Honestly, the compatibility with older software isn't my main gripe and it would be very hypocritical of me to fault Linux for not handling that well, especially since Windows has grown less stable for me and is constantly breaking shit with updates. It's one of the primary reasons I want to switch away from windows.

My biggest issue has been the seeming lack of standardization for software installs and unintuitive nature of them. On Windows I have .exe, MacOS .dmg, and Android .apk for sideloading and it's all dead simple without me having to be tied and limited to strictly whatever is available in the "App store". I moved away from iOS because of that crap and planned obsolescence.
Although I'm sure my perceptions and assumptions about a lot of things are probably wrong which might compound my trouble with Linux.

I was never able to figure out how to get the package I want(giggity) to install on Linux despite hours of searching a following various step-by-step instructions. I only got it to run at all because I found a dev post saying there's an executable buried in the "bin" folder which can be ran without installation. I have no idea if this is standard practice or not, but it's certainly not user friendly and the experience is not leaving a good impression.

I see where you are coming from with this. There are many times where trying to install stuff has been a bit problematic because of the lack of standard practices. I've used Arch (btw) for quite a few years now and I'm just used to using Pacman, Paru and yay for everything. But a lot of that really relies on hoping something is on the AUR for me.
Otherwise I've had a handful of other applications will need to be run through ./install.sh, or chmod'ing a file to run it. Which I would compare to windows and installing random .exe's.

Plus if you look into grabbing things off Git, your mileage will also vary depending on distro.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Yeah, very quickly so far I've had things I've installed from appimage, flatpak, rpm, and of course dnf (being on Fedora and all). It does vary wildly, but I understand too that different apps/games require different delivery solutions. I'm getting used to having a group of commands I run every other day or so to check for updates.

 

[Boglin]

I see where you are coming from with this. There are many times where trying to install stuff has been a bit problematic because of the lack of standard practices. I've used Arch (btw) for quite a few years now and I'm just used to using Pacman, Paru and yay for everything. But a lot of that really relies on hoping something is on the AUR for me.
Otherwise I've had a handful of other applications will need to be run through ./install.sh, or chmod'ing a file to run it. Which I would compare to windows and installing random .exe's.

Plus if you look into grabbing things off Git, your mileage will also vary depending on distro.

Is there anything preventing Linux packages from being distrubuted in the future under a format which could enable people to simply download programs from the web and double click an icon so it'll automatically do all the /install.sh stuff and find/install the missing dependencies that are required, without using the terminal?


Edit:

Spoiler: Progress

I was finally able to get the version of Anki I need installed.

There's a "makefile" in the package folder that I randomly opened and it had some instructions within it that I could use to find my path forward and I have absolutely no idea why this was in non of the installation guides for Anki. It told me I simply needed to type "sudo make install" in the terminal.

However, I still had to do additional steps first before that command would work. Here's what I needed to input into the terminal(launched from within the anki folder) in order to install it.

1. sudo steamos-readonly disable
2. sudo pacman-key --init
3. sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
4. sudo pacman -S make
5. sudo make install

Now I just need to figure out the (likely) dependency issue that's causing it to be a blank window, but at least I'm running the correct version now

 

[The Fartist]

So is a fully fledged SteamOS coming or not? I'm so ready to drop Windows.

 

[Wolzard]

Honestly, the compatibility with older software isn't my main gripe and it would be very hypocritical of me to fault Linux for not handling that well, especially since Windows has grown less stable for me and is constantly breaking shit with updates. It's one of the primary reasons I want to switch away from windows.

My biggest issue has been the seeming lack of standardization for software installs and unintuitive nature of them. On Windows I have .exe, MacOS .dmg, and Android .apk for sideloading and it's all dead simple without me having to be tied and limited to strictly whatever is available in the "App store". I moved away from iOS because of that crap and planned obsolescence.
Although I'm sure my perceptions and assumptions about a lot of things are probably wrong which might compound my trouble with Linux.

I was never able to figure out how to get the package I want(giggity) to install on Linux despite hours of searching a following various step-by-step instructions. I only got it to run at all because I found a dev post saying there's an executable buried in the "bin" folder which can be ran without installation. I have no idea if this is standard practice or not, but it's certainly not user friendly and the experience is not leaving a good impression.

Software distribution varies depending on the distro. I particularly like Arch for bringing everything together in one place, even the most obscure scripts.

But this is a problem in every operating system, except mobile ones.

In Windows, not everything is a .exe. There are .msi, .appx, dlls, files compressed in rar, zip, some are installed via powershell, there is software that needs to use WSL, there is software in the Microsoft store, there is software that needs other software to be installed. On Mac it's the same thing and I find it even more confusing.

About Anki, from what I've seen, the developer only offers the compressed program. Someone typically does this so that distros can grab the files and put them in their repositories. But it's not usual, as you mentioned, you wanted a specific version and had to go after it. If you were going to use the latest version, there was one in flatpak format that you just had to click on to install in the app store.

 

[Boglin]

Software distribution varies depending on the distro. I particularly like Arch for bringing everything together in one place, even the most obscure scripts.

But this is a problem in every operating system, except mobile ones.

In Windows, not everything is a .exe. There are .msi, .appx, dlls, files compressed in rar, zip, some are installed via powershell, there is software that needs to use WSL, there is software in the Microsoft store, there is software that needs other software to be installed. On Mac it's the same thing and I find it even more confusing.

About Anki, from what I've seen, the developer only offers the compressed program. Someone typically does this so that distros can grab the files and put them in their repositories. But it's not usual, as you mentioned, you wanted a specific version and had to go after it. If you were going to use the latest version, there was one in flatpak format that you just had to click on to install in the app store.

Sorry if it sounded like I was giving an exhausted list of extensions for programs for those operating systems because that wasn't my intention. I just gave them as examples of standards that any novice user can click and run.

It does sound like our anecdotal experiences are vastly different because I've never had confusion with MacOS or Windows regarding installing files because I can't recall anytime ever needing to search up guides to figure out how to install a standalone program through the gui.

Regardless, it looks like Arch is what I'm going to be trying to use for Linux because I'd like to use CachyOS in the near future so it seems I'll be diving in the deep end. I'm currently trying to figure out how to install mplayer using pacman because anki isn't recognizing mpv to get the audio working, but that's not working either because the terminal is telling me the package is invalid or corrupt (PGP signature).

The whole process has been a real joy.

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

Sorry if it sounded like I was giving an exhausted list of extensions for programs for those operating systems because that wasn't my intention. I just gave them as examples of standards that any novice user can click and run.

It does sound like our anecdotal experiences are vastly different because I've never had confusion with MacOS or Windows regarding installing files because I can't recall anytime ever needing to search up guides to figure out how to install a standalone program through the gui.

Regardless, it looks like Arch is what I'm going to be trying to use for Linux because I'd like to use CachyOS in the near future so it seems I'll be diving in the deep end. I'm currently trying to figure out how to install mplayer using pacman because anki isn't recognizing mpv to get the audio working, but that's not working either because the terminal is telling me the package is invalid or corrupt (PGP signature).

The whole process has been a real joy.

I'm happy CachyOS is being picked up more and more. Honestly, after trying a bunch of Ubuntu based distros where there were shops and installers for .deb files. They just feel like unnecessary bloat.

Pacman is just that much faster.

And there is really not that much to remember.

sudo pacman -S let's you install apps
sudo pacman -R removes apps
sudo pacman -Syu updates OS and apps
sudo pacman -U let's you install local downloaded files like .pkg.tar.xz downloaded from github.

And my brother looks at me like I am hacking stuff or compiling my own OS or Kernel .

Or looked at me like that till recently, he just bought Steam Deck, installed Heroic Games Launcher, I showed him he can download different Wine and Proton versions.

We logged on my GOG account and it just works.

He now adds free games on Epic and I think he can ran those games too.

 

[Codeblew]

I have been using Ubuntu for the last 10 or more years but after taking a look at CachyOS that was mentioned earlier in this thread, I might give it a go on my next PC build. I just installed it into a VM and it looks pretty good. It's nice that I can choose which WM I want to use instead of the distro choosing it for me. I have never been in the Arch ecosystem before but it doesn't look that different outside of the package manager. I am also considering PopOS but I think I favor CachyOS at this point.

 

[Crayon]

Never even heard of cachyos. Ranked #5 at distrowatch i see. And mint still at #1. Funny. I have this machine that was on Nobara for years and for some reason recently I wiped that. I can't remember why. But I ended up with mint so clearly my heart wasn't in it lol.

 

[HogIsland]

So is a fully fledged SteamOS coming or not? I'm so ready to drop Windows.

SteamOS is for turning your PC into a console. If you want your PC to be a PC, but you hate Windows, check out any of the most popular Linux distros. Fedora, Ubuntu, Manjaro are good places to start. Try both the major desktops KDE (more classic windows like) and Gnome (more Mac like).