#dual boot Linux and Windows

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

Censorship

[theydjarin]

I am seriously considering switching over to linux for my everyday PC if ONLY because the file explorer has tabs

[eulaliasims]

me, turning the lot view up all the way for one (1) pic: 🤞 no crashie 🤞

[emacs-unofficial]

If you are currently dual booting Windows and Linux, do not install Windows update until this is fixed:

https://youtube.com/shorts/hw2ClA8Ew50?si=PDUGuGqQVzNKE0Ay

[punk-in-metal-detector]

free professional IT advice: when a shared disk is not working properly with dual boot just buy a new one!

[windcarvedlyre]

It begins!

I would've played this earlier but I wasn't aware until now that it's available for free! Might buy the steam version once I can anyway for any bonus content.

I'm spoiled a bit about Sou but it's made me more excited about the character; I can tell he's going to make me ill.

Any posts will be tagged '#lyre plays yttd' for blacklisting purposes.

[ailelie]

So Why Linux?

If you've followed my "Adventures in Linux" tag at all then you know I am a technical layperson. I use my personal computer primarily to write and browse the Internet.

So why am I switching to Linux? A taskbar.

Let me explain.

In Windows 11 right now, you cannot move your taskbar from the bottom of the screen to the left side. You can move the icons in the taskbar, but if you want to go vertical, you're out of luck.

This has irritated more than just me, especially because you could in Windows 10, 7, and etc. Microsoft chose to remove functionality.

If you search online, you'll see plenty of posts in forums and on reddit asking about this missing feature. If you want a vertical taskbar, you have to download an additional program. (StartAllBack is what I got; it isn't free).

Microsoft seems uninterested in adding this functionality back.

To me, this suggests that they have an idea or vision for how users interact with their computers, as if a right and wrong way exist. Individuals don't matter; only the vision (and sometimes the majority) do.

It isn't just a taskbar.

When you open Windows 11 (Home) for the very first time and try to install Firefox, you may find that you can't (at least you couldn't when I reluctantly upgraded). The application simply isn't trusted enough to be in their app/software store, which is the only place from which you can install new programs.

If this happens to you, you're likely in S mode. Getting out of S mode is a very non-intuitive process. I'm sure plenty of people don't bother.

Microsoft uses S mode, which they claim is for security, to limit options and further define how people interact with their computer and the Internet.

It isn't just S mode.

I used to use Microsoft 365. When my computer bricked last year, 365 was a godsend because I, foolishly, did not have my documents backed up anywhere else. I did not mind paying each year for cloud storage and the Office Suite.

Then I learned that the price was jumping and all because of Copilot, a feature I wish did not exist. A "classic" version with limited AI was available, but likely only for a year.

The offer of a limited time "classic" subscription felt like a sop to irritated users who did not want to pay more for an unnecessary (unethical, environmentally unsound) "feature." A temporary placation until the noise died down and Microsoft could kill Classic quietly.

All in all, I felt like Microsoft had decided that Windows was their program that I, as a user, was simply lucky and blessed to be able to use and therefore should be grateful to use it as they dictated rather than as I wanted.

I'm not a power user. I'm not in the tech industry. My coding experience is limited to when I played with Python a decade ago and Choicescript, which I use to write my interactive fiction.

But, I have preferences. I like my taskbar to be vertical and aligned to the left of my screen.

I do not think it is that large an ask to want a computer that works how I want it to work, that lets me interact with my files and the Internet the way I want to rather than the way some far-off company decides I have to.

So that's why Linux. Yeah, it is harder to set up at times, but not as hard as some posts and articles make it seem.

I'm sharing my experiences with it to hopefully make someone else's switch easier.

Ultimately, it is just an operating system. I'm sure there's a lot I don't understand or am not appreciating, but, aside from some very minor hiccups, it works.

It works and lets me do what I want; what more could I want?

[metaforth]

Fuck Linux.

Everytime I complain about a minor issue with Windows I get like 6000 tech bros falling over themselves to screech "JUST USE LINUX" at me. No. I won't use Linux. I have a full time job, medical issues I'm dealing with, friends I wanna hang out with, a game I'm starting work on slowly but surely, and hobbies that have nothing to do with software, and responsibilities as an adult who lives with other people on top of all of those things. And when you consider that combination of obligations and things I enjoy doing and want to do there's not much time for me spending 8 hours fighting with an operating system to make it run the EXEs for the emulators I like.

I don't have the time, will, nor desire to spend days upon days or possibly even weeks struggling through IT bullshit to make my computer do all the things I want to do. The windows computer I already have already works with at least 85% of those things right out of the box.

Sure, fuck Microsoft (though Valve is an awful company to buy LinuxBros get mad when you acknowledge that), and Windows has tons of issues of its own not including the outdated ones MACbros like Dankpods who's barely touched the operating system since Windows 7 think are still relevant (Yes I said something negative about Australian retro funnyman, cry about it.)

I am perfectly happy dealing with the annoying administrative permission issues, inexplicable performance drops doing something it handled perfectly fine yesterday, or apps not closing sometimes even when I go through task manager. Those and many other issues are all annoying but I'm accustomed to them.

My only direct experience with Linux in the last few years has been on my steam deck, and every problem I've had with the steam deck has come entirely from trying to download things through Desktop mode and having to deal with Linux. If there isn't a native Linux version of the program I want to run I have to jump through hoops after hoops doing research for hours as I try multiple methods, most of which fail and the rest seem promising then just won't successfully install for some inexplicable reason. Eventually like the 58th thing I try finally works and then I try and get something else working and that somehow BREAKS THE PREVIOUS THING!

All of which is compounded by this software having no native support for any of this so there's no official Linux support line I can reach out to for further assistance. I have to look up guides or forum posts and pray to the god I don't believe in that they're up to date which 9/10 times they aren't.

I'm glad you techbros enjoy spending 40 hours a week getting Linux to work for you, but I don't want every little thing I do on my computer to be a full time job. I have a lot of other shit going on in my life, including things I actually enjoy doing, and I don't have time. I'll stick with the operating system that works out the box.

[ne0nwithazero]

currently busy making the switch from Windows to Linux :) got a lot of files to sort while I optimize a dual boot setup with Windows

[bdttras]

CSP is the only gal holding me back (but legit I can't get rid of her).

[wisteriaclaw]

grandmas house haul

[stabknives]

AND YOU'RE A LINUX USER TOO??? Bro I thought I couldn't like you any more than I already do. We're best friends now no take backs

i try not to let my elitist show but it tears free sometimes

[dirt-mann]

why is it so fucking hard to set up zoo tycoon on wine why is nothing WORKING GGGG (cursed eye begins to glow)

[natural-blogarithm]

i think maybe i should use my summer teaching money to buy a laptop specifically for music production

[minglana]

just this emoji panel is making me wanna uninstall windows completely tbh

[mint-official]

Here is where my PCs are at the moment:

Little Dave is an Inspiron 20 that's been taken apart.

Big Dave is an intel NUC (the names are based on the screens I used for them.)

And Fruit, my custom budget build, I'm going to buy a new motherboard for.

So, on Fruit I have a fresh instal of windows on it but boot off the windows I've gotten from the corps (hard drive) of Little Dave that now lives again in Big Dave.

I swapped my Linux I was using into Fruit before I realised every free windows mover wipes the drive. So for now I'm combining my windows when I have free time, I'll move it onto the internal drive and partition it to get Linux working again. I'll find the matching wallpaper I use at some point to share cos it's super cute.