#switching from windows to linux

[edgelordhoard]

hey im planning to switch over to linux and need advice from the smart people of tumblr, please and thank you. my messages are open so if you need any info to help me out hmu.

General Questions:

im seeing everyone saying ubuntu, mint, and ziron are "the #1 go to versions for beginners" but like... which is it?

i also hear about security being the best with linux but nothing about it coming with antiviruses. does it come with one like how windows comes with defender or do you install that yourself, or is it something different entirely?

all the sources i look at talk about downloading and installing linux but i want to know what to expect when first getting a prebuilt pc with the OS, like the system 76 pcs. do you have to set it up like when you install it or is it as easy as getting any new computer?

i know nothing about coding and im planning to get a computer from system 76 since it seems like the best, and its by far the only source that only comes with linux, and since my current one was pretty much ruined by someone i thought could fix it after a faulty outlet fried its insides, he didnt and made it worse.

so yeah, which linux version do you suggest for a computer moron, any suggestions for computers would be nice (max price is $1,300), i'll put the specs and my uses under the read more.

Preferences:

It ONLY comes with Linux. I despise what Windows has become and don't want to even bother dual booting cause I feel with the switchovers happening they're gonna get salty and make something that'll turn your computer into a bomb if you use Linux with it.

Kinda beefy but not a supercomputer. I don't use AI stuff, I'm not a programmer, but I do frequently play modded Minecraft with my friends and run smps for my Discord servers. I recently switched to Modrinth cause ATLauncher had been giving me trouble. Curseforge is out of the question.

At the most, I'll be playing VRChat with friends while having Spotify or Youtube in the background for music and Discord open in case someone needs my help in one of my servers, similar goes for running one of my SMPs just minus the VR.

Gaming Questions:

I also play VR games often, especially BeatSaber (modded ofc im not insane), and I have Half Life Alyx that I haven't been able to finish cause my already dead and gutted PC struggles to run it anymore even with the lowest settings. My current headset is a two feet in the grave, barely hanging in there, held by tape Oculus Rift S thats as old as my current PC whos also dead. I plan to get a new headset soon and had the Quest 2 recommended to me by friends. If theres better alternatives that isn't Meta please let me know.

I'm a DBD addict. Does it really run DBD or was that just the one guy from the one video I saw.

My friends also often drag me onto Roblox so I need to know if that'll be an option for Linux too.

I know I could probably look up all this myself but every source is outdated from years ago or they all say different things and it just confuses me.

Art Questions:

My current tablet is a Wacom, I got it before knowing how greedy the company actually is, and I plan to switch to a Huion after this tablet dies on me. If compatibility is an issue with it please let me know what to do about that.

I usually use Medibang but I don't think it runs on Linux from what I've seen, if I'm wrong lemme know. Am I going to have to switch all the files over to something else before getting a Linux or are there programs I can use that'll load them?

I also write and need to know if I need to switch all my files to something else before porting it all over to the Linux PC. I just used the default notepad and document programs on Windows.

But yeah, that's all my questions for now. If I think of any more I'll just edit this post. Sorry if I sound super dumb for all this, I tried finding information sources myself but like I said all of them weren't too moron friendly or had relevant information. Most sources I found were articles or reddit forums from years ago so I thought "Hey, why don't I just go ask the computer nerds directly?" so here I am.

[hungerpunch]

.

[elektroyu]

Omg I got CSP to run under Linux finally!! 😭

It doesn't like large files so far, though, and sometimes pen pressure turns off by itself, but I still have to switch systems around between my drives so this all not final anyway.

Going to test if I can get my licence registered on Linux, though. I basically don't boot Windows on PC anymore anyway, so it doesn't matter if CSP is uninstalled there.

[tamarack-on-track]

linux users are like zealous christians

they will shoehorn in their favorite thing after you complain about anything an try at every turn to convert you even after saying no.

[identityarchitect]

ok everything is extremely difficult and im getting tired so. i will go on my computer instead

[glitchi-art]

In our latest Wildermyth campaign we lost @skykid-nadir 's character Caya. She went out with a bang, saving our party from certain death. May your sacrifice be the subject of many songs, and your memory cherished for generations Also Shenny (@eclipsefoxart) and Levee (@radio-mann) got together yaay

But they were not the only ones to have fallen in love...

(featuring @madam-morbid 's Astara, @skykid-nadir 's Jim, Shenny's daughter - Garbin Fin and my wolfhead hunter, Cammy Stornbin)

[jofiah]

You open Windows Powershell and you tell me that all the bespoke commands and self-contained manuals of Linux don’t create the best command line user experience for modern computing

I don't think people should have to learn how to use a command line to operate their computer and get things working actually

[abbiistabbii]

I think every computer user needs to read this because holy fucking shit this is fucking horrible.

So Windows has a new feature incoming called Recall where your computer will first, monitor everything you do with screenshots every couple of seconds and "process that" with an AI.

Hey, errrr, fuck no? This isn't merely because AI is really energy intensive to the point that it causes environmental damage. This is because it's basically surveilling what you are doing on your fucking desktop.

This AI is not going to be on your desktop, like all AI, it's going to be done on another server, "in the cloud" to be precise, so all those data and screenshot? They're going to go off to Microsoft. Microsoft are going to be monitoring what you do on your own computer.

Now of course Microsoft are going to be all "oooh, it's okay, we'll keep your data safe". They won't. Let me just remind you that evidence given over from Facebook has been used to prosecute a mother and daughter for an "illegal abortion", Microsoft will likely do the same.

And before someone goes "durrr, nuthin' to fear, nuthin to hide", let me remind you that you can be doing completely legal and righteous acts and still have the police on your arse. Are you an activist? Don't even need to be a hackivist, you can just be very vocal about something concerning and have the fucking police on your arse. They did this with environmental protesters in the UK. The culture war against transgender people looks likely to be heading in a direction wherein people looking for information on transgender people or help transitioning will be tracked down too. You have plenty to hide from the government, including your opinions and ideas.

Again, look into backing up your shit and switching to Linux Mint or Ubuntu to get away from Microsoft doing this shit.

[birdwatchy-standaround]

whyyyyy does apple make things so difficult

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

the distant horizons minecraft mod has been working perfectly for me but keeps throwing errors for my gf and my sister and makes the game slow to a crawl for my gf. the only difference between us is that ive definitely allocated 6gb of ram to minecraft and idk if they have, and that im on linux and theyre both on windows*. if i find out the dh dev only uses and tests on linux im gonna be delighted that would be such a stupid reason for it to be a problem

[audacityinblack]

"But what about gaming? I've heard gaming sucks on Linux!"

Not anymore! Valve, the developers of Steam, have developed a special compatibility layer for games that don't run natively on Linux. It's called Proton, and it's used on the Steam Deck.

By going into Steam's Compatibility Settings on Linux and selecting the "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" switch, you can enable Proton to run for all your games, even the ones that aren't officially developed or supported for Linux. Basically, anything will run as long as it's not using anti-cheat software or troublesome DRM. (Credits to @gendernihilistanarchocommunist for showing me this tip and helping me complete my switch to Linux)

"But what if my game isn't on Steam?"

You're still in luck! Proton is a fork of Wine, a Windows compatibility layer (Not an Emulator) for Linux. What that means is that you can run Windows programs on Linux.

Here's me running The Sims 4 on Linux Mint 21.3.

One of the best parts of Linux for me is the total customizability. You can literally change anything about how it looks and runs, and you can make it look pretty awesome. The subreddit r/unixporn is loaded with examples of how you can design your desktop down to the last pixel.

Things that will make your computer meaningfully faster:

Replacing a HDD with an SSD

Adding RAM

Graphics cards if you're nasty

Uninstalling resource hogs like Norton or McAfee (if you're using Windows then the built-in Windows Security is perfectly fine; if you're using a mac consider bitdefender as a free antivirus or eset as a less resource intensive paid option)

Customizing what runs on startup for your computer

Things that are likely to make internet browsing specifically meaningfully faster:

Installing firefox and setting it up with ublock origin

adding the Auto Tab Discard extension to firefox to sleep unused tabs so that they aren't constantly reloading

Closing some fucking tabs bud I'm sorry I know it hurts I'm guilty of this too

Things that will make your computer faster if you are actually having a problem:

Running malwarebytes and shutting down any malicious programs it finds.

Correcting disk utilization errors

Things that will make your computer superficially faster and may slightly improve your user experience temporarily:

Clearing cache and cookies on your browser

Restarting the computer

Changing your screen resolution

Uninstalling unused browser extensions

Things that do not actually make your computer faster:

Deleting files

Registry cleaners

Defragging your drive

Passively wishing that your computer was faster instead of actually just adding more fucking RAM.

This post is brought to you by the lady with the 7-year-old laptop that she refuses to leave overnight for us to run scans on or take apart so that we can put RAM in it and who insists on coming by for 30-minute visits hoping we can make her computer faster.

[actual-corpse]

Trying to nuke Google (on my personal devices) is proving quite difficult.

[syrinq]

i'll be fucking dead in a ditch before i install windows 11. taskbar noticeably ginormous + increased border radius L + no more drag/drop files + designed for ipad babies + default bold font + windows 11 as a whole is utterly repulsive. DIE

[kn96artworks]

accidentally uninstalled my entire office suite

because i noticed windows installing skype (and other unneeded office shit that i ALREADY REMOVED) following it's latest ''''''''''''''''update''''''''''''''''' only to realise that the update/change option DOESN'T WORK AS IT SHOULD

tried googing for a viable file and all the links redirects to microsoft official page with that bloody thing going OH DO YOU MEAN OFFICE 360 :D HERE'S OFFICE 360 SIGN IN AND SUBSCRIBE TO OFFICE 360 :D WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR OFFICE 2016??? HERE'S OFFICE 360

[themostefficientwaywithwater]

maybe i should switch to linux. maybe one fucking hour updating Windows 10 (which forced me to update right bow bc It was laggy as fuck) is not normal. maybe i deserve better-

[chieltbest]

Big Awful Texture Locator

Download the latest version here

Find any texture in The Sims 2 that is too big, or is 'awful' (suboptimal texture format)

Features:

Find textures in any folder you choose

Filter by width, height, memory size, texture format, or number of mipmap levels

Preview and show details of textures the tool found

Remember 'known good' textures, which are optionally excluded from being shown in the list

Look up the path of the package, and the group and instance of the resource

Copy texture/resource details (right click)

Open the package in the default package editor (double click)

Dark mode/light mode and UI scale adjustable

Native on both Windows and Linux

Why?

The Sims 2 has had a long-standing problem known as 'pink flashing' or 'pink soup' when using too much custom content. The Sims 2 is a 32-bit program, which means that it normally has a maximum memory limit of 2GiB (2048MiB) and by using a so-called '4GB patch' you can raise this limit to -you guessed it- 4GiB, this limit might seem pretty large, but due to how the game works you might hit this limit sooner than expected!

Let's say you have 1024x2048 textures (which is the default for Sims 4 textures, and thus also often for 4to2 cc) in RGBA format, these textures will EACH take up 8MiB of texture memory! This means you could possibly only have only a MAXIMUM of 512 textures loaded in memory before you run out of memory completely. In practice, this limit will probably be lower due to other factors.

This tool will help you find textures that take up too much texture memory, and thus (hopefully) help alleviate some amount of pink flashing.

Tutorial

First, download the program from the link above and follow the instructions to open the program.

Now let's get the program looking the way you want: click on the sun/moon button on the top left of the program to switch light/dark mode and click the "UI Scale" number next to it and enter a new number to change the size of the interface.

Set the folder we want to search: at the top bar, search for the 'Downloads:' bar, then at the end click the button with the folder icon and select your folder. Once you've selected a folder the program will instantly start scanning, if you want to restart this scan then at any time you can click the text in the Downloads bar and press enter.

Currently this list will show all textures in the scan folder, which is probably not very interesting. To find some more interesting textures we can add some filters to the texture list. On the top bar, click on the 'Filter' button: this will open the filter list and it will be empty if you haven't added any filters previously.

These filters filter the texture list one by one, each filter removing more textures from the displayed list of textures. To add a filter, click the plus button, and to remove it click on the trashcan button at the start of the line.

To edit a filter, click on the first box to choose the filter type, click on the second box to choose the type of comparison, and select the number in the last box to set the number to compare with.

The comparison type can be < (smaller than), <= (smaller or equal), > (greater than), >= (greater or equal), == (equal), or != (not equal).

The Format filter is different: make a format filter, then click on the 'choose' button and choose the texture formats that you want to show in the texture list.

Let's edit some textures!

In the texture list, find a texture that you think is too big, and either double click on it to open it in the default package editor or right click on it to show a menu to copy the details of the package.

Finally, once you have the package opened in your favorite package manager, edit the texture to be smaller and/or a better texture format, save and ta-da! your game will now use less texture memory.