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Microsoft rolls Windows Recall out to the public nearly a year after announcing it
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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get linux if you haven't already
if you don't know how, ask, Lemmy is covered in Linux users
I ran linux mint for a couple months. It was nice. Very few problems.
Unfortunately, when I tried to install it on this newer desktop it was a shit-show. No wifi or ethernet, no hdmi, it crashed when I tried to play elden ring. I should try another distribution, but I was so distressed after two days I just rolled back. The people in the mint discord were helpful, though, and got some of the problems fixed.
Windows sucks though.
With newer hardware you need to run a bleeding edge distro, at least until Debian 13 releases (a lot of distros use Debian as a base)
Since Mint is based on a stable distro, it'll be running older software that won't support your newer hardware well, and you're experiencing that firsthand.
Try Fedora, Bazzite, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, or anything else that's more bleeding edge – they're still very usable and reliable, it's just that stable distros like Mint and Debian are "stable and reliable" overkill.
Edit: and if you're wondering why this wasn't mentioned to you from the start, the answer is likely that these distros tend to be:
I've got this move coming up - my plan is to dual boot and slowly wean over.
Game crashes in Linux, try for a fix and if I get frustrated, boot into windows and enjoy the game.
Might be a rocky year, but the dual boot will likely take the stress off!
I've seen a lot of fedora-based distros pushed for gaming (mint is Debian based), apparently these can work better. Still looking into it, but no definitive answers there yet!
There are dozens of us.
I'm building a new gaming PC and it's going to be a Linux build and if it doesn't work the way you guys keep insisting it will, I swear to God.
My last experience with Linux was with Ubuntu about 10 years ago and I can't say it was a particularly great experience I'm hoping that in the last decade it's improved its user experience.
For gaming, I recommend Garuda. It has a preset for gaming in particular with a lot of packages you'll need to install, and a tool to install extra things you may want, like software for controllers and things like that. I think it also has the Nvidia drivers built in (I'm AMD though, so I'm not sure) which isn't always the case. It's also Arch based, so the Arch wiki, which is one of the best Linux information sources, will all work, and it can access the Arch User Repository (AUR) where users upload packages, which may be important. For example, Runescape doesn't work on Linux as is, but there is a package on the AUR for a launcher that works.
Use Bazzite! Works great now even with Nvidia cards. Been able to run anything the same as I did on windows before. Was able to get VR working too pretty quickly by using ALVR
Unfortunately brand new hardware has issues more often than not. I had to get a beta build just to get wifi to work on one system I built.
I'm not a Linux hater (believe it or not), but I'm definitely not an evangelist either, and I think this eternal praise for Linux is just not warranted.
If you want things to "just work" in any capacity, then you're in for a bad time.
Personally, I don't want Windows 11 on my next PC, but I don't have the time or the desire to get into the troubleshooting hell that unfortunately is Linux either.
People say that anything is possible on Linux, but at the same time roast you for even thinking that it's not gonna take enormous amounts of un-learning and self education when coming from Windows.
Linux fanboys who don't see it's faults can be sort of toxic.
I don't doubt that I'll get downvoted for this, but I think there need so be more differing opinions on Linux on here.
Most things do. Not everything obviously, but that's true for Windows and everything else too. Technology is complex.
You see, this is the issue. Of course it's going to behave differently. It's an entirely different system. The issues come when people switch to Linux and expect Windows still. It isn't Windows. You have to be ready and willing to learn how Linux works, and willing to adapt to what it does differently. For example, on Windows most applications check for updates when they launch and you have to go to a website to get them. On Linux, once a package is installed, your package manager handles all updates for you and you never have to worry about it again, besides just telling the package manager to update occasionally.
Obviously it has faults. I don't know anyone who says otherwise. Windows users who ignore that they've just gotten used to all of Window's faults are horrible though. I spent a long time learning to avoid or fix the faults of Windows, and I stopped seeing them because that's just the way things were. Once I switched to Linux and don't have to deal with them anymore, they become clear. It's not a user friendly OS. Users just got used to it because they had to. They can also get used to Linux of they want too, for free and without a company harvesting their data or trying to push stuff on them.
This is one of the major bugbears - linux for a long time had a lot of fucking about required under the hood.
This has not been the case for a while now, straight outta the box it works as painlessly as windows
(Edit for full disclosure: non partisan here, I actually run mint, 10, 7, slack, ubuntu and 11 professionally and personally)
Linux users to Windows users with a question: "you can solve that by switching to Linux"
Linux users to that same user when they switch to Linux and have a question: "why the fuck do you wanna do that? Go back to Windows."
Almost always, Linux users try to help. However if someone comes over and wants to do things like Windows instead of learning how the new system works, they probably won't help them with that.
It's a new system. It's going to work differently. You have to be willing to learn and adapt to it, just as you had to do when learning Windows. No one is going to spend time helping you contort Linux to work like Windows when the solution is simple but you just have to be willing to learn it.
Yeah that is basically my concern. However I figure I can always just buy a Windows licence if it doesn't work out.
Or use massgrave.dev and get it for free.
I was in a similar boat and have found modern Linux to be somewhere between Windows XP and Windows 10 in terms of convenience and having it "just work". However, I reckon I've spent less time troubleshooting than I would spend raging at the bullshit Microsoft keeps trying to shove down your throat in Windows. On balance I'm counting it as a win, and I suspect you will too.
I'm migrating to Linux Mint, 99% of steam games work as well as on windows. Those who don't are mostly multiplayer games that insist to have some shitty kernel anticheat.
I'll still keep windows on dual boot when I need it, though.
Just keep in mind that there are some very different options within the Linux world and different people here will push you towards different options. The two most common and most different options are Bazzite and Mint.
While both of them can definitely work well, in my experience Mint still leaves a lot of new users unsatisfied with it. I'm yet to see any windows user complain about Bazzite, so that's my recommendation.
Either way if you try one and it doesn't live up to your expectations, there's still a chance the other might.
Please update this if you fun into the usual brick wall of hand modifying config files or self-compiling some obscure git pull just to make basic things like audio and network work.
If you're going that far, you've taken a wrong turn somewhere. Please ask for help before digging into compiling stuff, unless that's what you're into, there's probably a simpler solution.
It sounds like the version they were using didn't have the right drivers in the build. Seems a lot of work to go to just to get new drivers.
If the source is available somewhere, but it's not in your distro's repos, there's probably a good reason for that. Ideally just get better hardware. A WiFi chip is usually something like $20-30 and is replaceable on most laptops and desktops. An audio card can be bypassed with USB or a PCIe add-in card. That's pretty much everything this might apply to.
How many people have these issues with audio and networking? I currently have 8 Linux computers and none of this has been necessary on any of them. It surprises me how many people claim to have endless difficult experiences. Many distros make it all very easy these days.
And editing a config file is hardly a "brick wall".
Its definitely a brick wall to a majority of people using Windows right now.
If you made it to Lemmy, it probably isn't. I'd bet most Windows users here have modified their registry files at least once. If you can do that, you can handle Linux without an issue. People just forget how much they've had to deal with on Windows, but expect Linux to have zero problems.
No it's not but it's also not something I'm prepared to put up with. When I turn my computer on it's because I have something I want to do and the thing I want to do with it is not mess with the basic configuration.
I have a question. Have you modified registries in Windows? If so, you've done harder stuff than Linux will ask of you already. You just don't think about it anymore.
Once Linux is set up (which is trivial now), it's easier to manage than Windows. How often do you have something to do, launch the app, the app sends you to a website for an update, then you have to navigate there and download it, run it, and restart? On Linux, as long as you tell your package manager to update occasionally, all your applications will be kept up to date. Applications don't have to manage updates themselves and you just need to hit a few buttons or type one command and you're updated.
Personally I'd advise against linux then. even if it means a million downvotes here.
Windows or actually OSX (if you're ok with mac hardware) or chromeos will work much better for people who don't ever want to do any basic configuration of their system. All of those have their own issues of course, so it's a tradeoff for the user to consider. If doing no basic config is the #1 requirement, then I think that rules out linux as the correct choice.
If a user would stay maybe 12-24 months behind the cutting edge then they might be ok with a rolling release. The one time I did get a latest gen Wifi/BT card, I had to migrate from Debian to Arch to get it working.
I belive the only way youll get that experince with linux is with defined hardware - laptops or steamdeck. Linux is never going to cover all possible bleeding edge hardware combinations in a custom PC with no user config effort.
Until or unless linux becmes bigger than MS, and all HW manufactures get theur linux drivers working before the device goes on sale, as a matter of course. Never gonna happpen unless MS actually goes bust or something. I can't see linux ever competing in B2B market; do all linux distributers combined have the resources to smarm up to a million corpo procurement twats? I don't think so.
I also tried Ubuntu 10 years ago and threw it away in anger. Have been using mint for over a year now and game on it regularly. All I really needed to know was: use proton and add 'gamemoderun %command%' into the launch option of the game.
Except for mods on Nier. That was a hassle.
Its actually more annoying on the work computer. Ms office windows apps are kind of great compared to libreoffice, especially with the collaboration options. But Linux is nicer to do dev work on so ¯\(ツ)/¯
AMD or NVidia?
Most games that I play work well on Linux with AMD. Most who have problems seem to have Nvidia. Anti-cheat stuff can be an exception though so best to ensure what you enjoy works.
If you can check hardware compatibility before hand, it helps. An up to date kernel like Fedora, OpenSuse TW or Arch can help. Wine recommends up to date kernel.
All of my devices except my work one are now Linux.
I have an old surface go 2 that good a massive new lease on life from using arch plasma. Double the battery life and everything. It could no longer get updates from MS because there was no longer enough space on the main drive to download and install the next update.
Then I have an old retro gaming pc that used to be for XP gaming but I ended up sticking bazzite on it for a test and it's stayed that way and because of that when I built my girlfriend's latest PC we decided to go bazzite desktop for her. And after getting past a few growing pains at the beginning that made it look like we made the wrong decision (due to an old 10xx gtx gpu - now on 3050) she's been enjoying it and now it's just standard.
Then I have my proper gaming PC that I use like a console so I put bazzite-deck on it as soon as I got an AMD card. And I've never felt better. HTPC console like gaming on windows was a fucking arse-on, even with steam big picture mode, because it doesn't get all of the cool bells and whistles that let you control basic system settings right from steam like you can on steam os and bazzite deck.
For work I've started moving away from visual studio to VS Code (i know it's still MS but I do C# .NET work and rider is too expensive, I don't want a subscription for an IDE) to allow me to easily transition to fully working on Linux if the opportunity ever arises. Whether it be with my current employer and me convincing them to let me to install Linux on my laptop or with a future company. We'll see which comes first ;)
Now it's time to get and decouple from Google. Currently figuring out with android auto maps app I want (waze won't run for some reason, my current winner at the moment is tom tom amigo). Then it's on to getting a password manager, then a new browser (preferably way more lightweight than chrome) and potentially a Google pay replacement(?).
Any suggestions and opinions from anyone here - even though this is tangentially off topic - would be greatly appreciated.
VSCodium is a thing too if you want to un-Microsoft even further.
https://vscodium.com/
I use it for C# development on Linux and it works well.
Bitwarden and Keepass are usually the go tos, depending on your use case.
Firefox or if you want to decouple from Mozilla as well, Librewolf works pretty well.
I'm not aware of any open Google Pay replacements other than taking a card with you.
As soon as you get rid of Google on your phone, you get rid of Google Pay.
I used vscodium for a bit but their latest C# Dev kit is locked to VS Code proper :(
I even made a cool bash script that would download and install ms vs store extensions and all of their dependencies before hitting this roadblock (to get the ones not available on open vsx).
Thanks for the password manager suggestions, I'll look into them when I get a chance.
I've been looking into firefox forks too.
I would like to keep contactless via my phone as I don't ever really carry my wallet with me anymore these days so maybe Google pay will have to stay. Bit annoying that it won't be able to be used on whatever browser I end up going with though :(
Is there something missing in OmniSharp that prevents you from using VSCodium?
I do most of my C# development with the OmniSharp plugin in VSCodium on Linux.
Does it have proper .sln support with a solution explorer?