I currently use windows 10 in my daily life. I often play games, use browsers, basic stuff like that. On top of that, I also experiment with different music software, mostly Reaper for now. I edit videos and images at a very basic level as well. Upon switching, what should I expect to change? I’m considering Pop!_OS seeing as its praised for its compatibility and easy switching. What’s the situation with gaming look like? I know gaming on Linux has been a HIGHLY discussed topic for a while, is it easy to play any (non triple-A) steam game? I’m nowhere near involved in computer science, I’d just consider myself more stubborn than most end-users so I can persevere through some basic problems.

  • asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev
    71·
    20 hours ago

    Never assume Linux works like Windows. You’ll be confused.

    You also do not have to use Pop because it is generally praised for its easiness. There are a few other good and easy to use distros out there, like Fedora, Mint or openSUSE.

    There are also a few DEs out there, with the two most popular ones being KDE Plasma and GNOME

    If you want to use KDE, I recommend you try out Fedora’s new KDE version.

    While not all, you also should know a few very commonly used commands to use in the terminal and maybe some basic troubleshooting skills. You don’t need to be using the terminal all the time, if at all. Some common stuff is pretty much doable with a GUI nowadays and you’ll probably be installing your applications through the DEs builtin software center. Pop uses a customized GNOME, so you’ll be using the GNOME Software Center. KDE has Discover.

    Since you do game, I suggest you check out ProtonDB. This is a database of rankings of games that work with Proton (Wine) and some even natively. If you play games from Epic, GOG and/or Amazon Prime, you should check out the Heroic Games Launcher. For any other games, check out Lutris. Do note that you might have a bad or good time depending on your GPU vendor. AMD generally works out of the box while NVIDIA might not work as nice as an AMD GPU out of the box. But I think Pop has the option to install the proprietaty NVIDIA drivers during installation, so make sure to select that if you have one. Nouveau isn’t as good as the proprietary drivers.

    Regarding your other software, I don’t know whether Reaper will work with Wine. If you don’t mind switching to an alternative, we have Kdenlive and GIMP or Krita.