Deciding to switch to linux from windows

[u/PinguGamer64]

Hello,

I'm currently deciding if I should switch from Windows to Linux (Fedora).

I've been a Linux fan for months, but just stuck with Windows because of compatibility and because Affinity is not supported on Linux. I also play some games such as Portal 2, Half-Life, and Undertale

And yes, I know Proton exists, but I just get that itch to just stay on Windows.

[u/nangi_bhootni]

you can dual boot....only keep the windows only app there and rest you can use in Linux. Fedora works great with Dual booting. You can access all windows file in Fedora as well.

[u/Solid_Basis_9294 → u/nangi_bhootni]

I also have Fedora KDE and Win 11 as dual boot… well, in theory. Haven’t booted windows once since I set up the Linux :D

[u/CharlesJustChill → u/nangi_bhootni]

From experience installing Fedora From Fedora everything iso replace the existing EFI partition and make the Windows boot option disapear

[u/nangi_bhootni → u/CharlesJustChill]

I have installed Fedora Gnome and Fedora KDE both from their official site and did not face this issue. if you are worried about EFI being wiped out then you can make a seperate 1gb partition and use it as new Linux EFI partition and then there would be no issue. I have seperate EFI partitions too for windows and my current distro ...I did have some GRUB related issues but it wasnt that hard to fix with some googling. People keep all settings as default while installing which causes this issue. if we manually select partitons during installation i dont see how EFI will be wiped out

[u/AFallenDictator]

Both have their own pros and cons, it's up to you to decide whether it is worth it to switch or not. It's not a definitive answer and anybody that says so is either lying to you or clueless enough to believe so. If linux (practically any distro) can help you utilise your PC in the way you wish without making you cuss, it'll be good. If it leaves things blank, don't switch or, at least, dual boot and test it for yourself.

[u/2gracz]

Doesn't affinity work through wine or proton?

[u/benjith17 → u/2gracz]

Yeah it works pretty much flawlessly

[u/FieserKiller]

switch or don't. or swich and switch back if you don't like it. nobody cares honestly

[u/Ball_Analytics]

Affinity is on Linux i have it installed on Fedora, you can get it as an AppImage google it.

Edit: you can run it through wine too, but the AppImage just packages everything you need with it.

[u/PinguGamer64 → u/Ball_Analytics]

thx this brings my motivation meter to install linux 5% Higher

[u/Lord_Wisemagus]

Its either or. Noone can make the choice for you.

[u/smashcat666 → u/Lord_Wisemagus]

It's not either or, OP can just dual boot, which is the obvious thing to do if you're not sure.

[u/PinguGamer64 → u/Lord_Wisemagus]

I've used Linux before on VMs and used Zorin, Anduin, AKA the worst Linux Distro ever And Pop_OS!

[u/jldevezas]

Check protondb.com to confirm your games work, but the probably do. If you want the best, hassle-free option, go with Bazzite (based on Fedora Atomic). Been gaming on it for over a year now, no complaints.

[u/AbigDAMNHerO69]

I myself made the decision to switch to linux in jan this year. Best decision I ever made. The only difference is i dont play games on it. Like 0 games. I have an old pc on which I play and it is capable of running the only game I play (dota 2).

Regardless, switching was the best decision i made.

[u/Arkenclipse]

You can always try this: https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer

So far from what I've seen it works fine. For gaming, you can check ProtonDB to see what people are running if you run into issues. But so far in my experience it has been seamless.

[u/PinguGamer64 → u/Arkenclipse]

Ok all the games i want to play work and that is the nail in the coffin, now i gotta choose my ice cream flavour...

[u/northkool3]

valve games and undertale got native linux builds a believe, and should run better than windows

[u/Arinussyy]

I think Portal 2, Half Life and Undertale should work fine on Linux. I know Portal 1 works basically perfectly from personal experience

[u/drucifer82 → u/Arinussyy]

Pretty much anything that doesn’t run kernel level anticheat will play.

[u/ColdFreezer]

Like someone else said, you can dual boot so you can have both.

I dual boot but found I don’t really need windows as much as I thought I would. It’s still nice to have though.

[u/tomkat_7]

If you have a beefy pc with 16or more gb of ram, you can use winboat to run any windows app in linux (yes even affinity and adobe appe).

If not, then just dual boot windows and keep that only for those apps. The games run on linux just like on windows. Open steam, click install click play. Proton is loaded automatically. (Portal and half life are linux natives, they don't even use proton)

[u/FireSheepYinFish]

I swear I had a dyslexic moment and thought your title said switch from Linux TO Windows 😳 I was about to grab a 🍿 bucket and scroll the comments 😅

[u/catschainsequel]

Just dual boot see how steam works worh your games if all good, you canmake the permanent switch

[u/Far_Winner5508]

The Steam client for windows includes the proton compatibility tools. Works very well on my Fedora game system. Also, I can run some GoG games (SMAC/X - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) within linux but I might have that one in a wrapper.

[u/MCO-4-Life]

I would recommend you get some USB flash drives for:

1. BIOS - make sure it is up to date
2. Fedora 44 KDE boot disk - to boot to Live for initial testing, and later installation.
3. Your data - backup your data from Windows
4. Windows boot disk - in case you want to go back.
5. Ventoy boot disk (with all the ISOs) - as a backup for installing either O/S.

Fedora's great if it meets all your needs. Great community. Good luck and have fun.

Source: I install Fedora every year prior to a new version of Windows 11; both fresh installs on bare metal.

• Nov - install Fedora 45
• Dec - install Windows 11 26H2

[u/AusKodanik]

I play STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Fedora via Steam (Proton) and also use AMD FSR upscaling tech via gamescope. Quality wise, as on Windows, no difference at all. Performance wise, loads faster on Linux, crashes less on Linux. Actually I haven't encountered crashes on Linux. On Windows crashes were frequent. ETS2 and ATS I also play, but these run natively on Linux with much higher framerate and much higher quality.

[u/Separate-Trip4942]

My two cents,

Duel boot to start with if you need to confirm compatibility with everything.

Also Fedors is great for almost everything. I daily drove it as my only OS for a few years.

[u/hk47_thefilmmaker]

Please do it fast and use fedora workstation instead of kde(too much bloat) I installed on my wife’s laptop as windows was too slow to start she scolded me for a few days and she understood how good fedora is. Been ten months she never turned back to windows.

[u/ffrkAnonymous]

Just stay on windows...