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?

  • Drunk & Root@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    11 hours ago

    first quesrion: no unless you play rainbiw six or fortnite all games run with wine or proton tou could take a look at garuda gaming edition 2: Yes you can r2modman has a appimage (universal linux app) and forge has a linux client for minecraft 3: you could use wine or always just spin up a windows vm if you need it and it doesnt work with wine 4: yes it can run .NET using the wine compaitibilty layer 5: updates are distro specific for example on debain ud do sudo apt update && upgrade or on arch its sudo pacman -Syu 6: its actuslly more secure with it being open source because anyonr can check for vulrabiltys and since its so unkown theres little malware affecting desktop users most are targeting servers and theres one av i know called clamtk theres also rkhunter that looks for root kits only 7: linux has a weird reltonship with gpu drivers for nvidia theres nvidia open source that offer worse perfomrance but are open source and nvidia properitary that run better but are prob spyware 8: Linux cant really damage hardware 9: for distros Linux Mint is and like windows Pop os is good for gaming or for a arch linux based exooernce but still easy try garuda gaming it comes with everything you need to game.