this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Approaching the end of window 10 and have no plans on upgrading to 11.

I am trying to find alternatives to applications I regularly use before jumping ship (it is mostly a gaming focused pc) any suggestions?

There’s oculus software for my vr but don’t know what I’m going to do with that

Small update: probably going to do Linux mint as that appears to be the most beginner friendly

Update two: that's a lot of comments, and Thanks for all the info

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[–] scheep@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

gmail -> proton or tuta if you don't care about IMAP, or any other decent email provider (I use disroot, I set my brother up with mailfence, they both seem quite good. I use them with thunderbird) pycharm -> not an IDE, but I like VSCodium (vscode without MS)

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[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Depending on what VPN software you use, they may already have a linux version. All of the big-name ones do, as well as a good chunk of the smaller ones.

For anti-virus, you don't need one in Linux. Even for Windows I would recommend using the built-in AV, rather than Norton.

Edit: I see you use Norton VPN. That one doesn't have a linux version. Check out Mullvlad or Nord VPN.

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[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Off the top of my head:

Gmail or any email: Thunderbird is pretty sweet and I need to use it more, but mostly just use the web clients anyway.

If you own GoG games, you can use Heroic Launcher instead of GoG Galaxy. It's gotten amazingly good, really fast. :)

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[–] 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Gmail as in email client? Thunderbird

Anti virus? Just need common sense. Dont visit shady site and download random executable

Windows? Try linux mint if this your first time. I heard PopOS is good if you play games.

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[–] semperverus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)
  • AMD drivers: use the built-in MESA drivers that include the official AMD support.

  • Gmail: ProtonMail for the service, Kmail for the desktop client.

  • Chrome: Firefox, or Librewolf if you care about privacy.

  • Office365: LibreOffice for full FOSS or OnlyOfficr for less freedom but more comfort.

  • iTunes: depends entirely on what you use it for, but I buy my music mostly off of BandCamp these days.

  • MuseScore: MuseScore

  • Norton: Why were you using Norton in the first place? It's practically a virus itself. If you need an antivirus on Linux, you might want ClamAV/ClamTK for something that runs locally only, or Microsoft Defender for Linux.

  • Py-Charm: Py-Charm, VSCode, Vim, Kate/KWrite

  • Remote Desktop to iOS: I got nothin'

  • Star Citizen: Star Citizen

  • Steam: Steam

  • VPN: Wireguard

  • Windows Games: install locally using Wine and then add to Steam as a non-Steam game to use Proton for better support.

Windows 10: run it in a VM if you still need it, or keep it on a separate SSD and dual boot into that.

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[–] skitazd@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I just switched to linux mint and the install was a lot easier than i thought. Works fine. I love the customization, the lightweight OS and its quite easy to use. Barely needed to use the terminal. The only problems i've faced is discord screenshare not showing my cursor and time to time lagging my games, gaming has not been without issues, mostly played deadlock and it has in my experience came with some bugs.

[–] Heavybell@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Star Citizen runs just fine under linux. For the most part, anyway. Being under active dev it breaks occasionally, but the Linux User Group has always gotten it working again so far.

https://github.com/starcitizen-lug/lug-helper

I would recommend using Wine directly over using Lutris right now, but that's an option you can pick in this script. Join the discord if you have trouble, people are friendly there if you're polite.

Don't use Proton/Steam for it.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Remote desktop you can use rustdesk

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[–] mactan@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

star citizen LUG has a quick start guide, wiki, and helper tool to conduct install https://github.com/starcitizen-lug/knowledge-base/wiki/Quick-Start-Guide

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Pycharm has a Linux release

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You're still using itunes and not apple music?

[–] LeTak@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Apple Music can be replaced with Cider on Linux. Many use iTunes on windows for device management, the only thing that I know for this on linux is libimobiledevice.

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[–] Tiger_Man_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago

Keep in mind that wine works not only with games, so if you need to run some windows program you can use it too

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

To start, I’d recommend checking out Flathub and seeing what’s available there. Flatpaks are relatively new but anything there can be installed on basically any Linux distro. It’s organized by category so you can see your options.

Chrome is available on Linux if you’re worried about switching. Firefox is usually the default and what I use just because I’ve always used it (plus, it fully supports ad blockers whereas Chrome now cripples them). Also, Chromium is essentially the exact same as Google Chrome. Both are made by Google and Chrome is just Chromium before Google adds all its branding and stuff.

Don’t worry about antivirus. ClamAV is there if you want to run a scan but you don’t need anything like Norton.

VPN: check your provider. Most work with OpenVPN or have a Linux client.

Gmail obviously works in the browser but there’s a ton of desktop email clients. To give three examples I’ve used:

  • Geary is a simple, clean email client that just does email does it well. Not very customizable, though.
  • Thunderbird (made by Mozilla) has more features/options and supports extensions. If Geary is too simple, Thunderbird is a good middle ground.
  • Evolution is like the Microsoft Outlook that comes with the paid Microsoft Office Suite. It has a calendar and all that enterprise-focused stuff. Probably overkill but it’s there if you need it.

Windows 10 is listed and I’m not quite sure what you mean but you can always run it in a virtual machine if you need it. I use Gnome as my Desktop Environment. Gnome Boxes is super simple. VirtualBox is more complex but has every option I’ve ever needed.

Don’t worry too much about the Desktop Environment thing. KDE and Gnome are the biggest two and both are pretty much equally capable. (You can also always install stuff made for the other if you want. It just might not match the theme.) There’s loads of desktop environments but don’t be intimidated by all the choices. Some are stripped down and designed for older or low-spec computers. There’s one focused on Chinese users. You can ignore most while you get your feet wet.

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

VR on linux is scuffed. https://lvra.gitlab.io/ refer to this site for vr on linux. If you play VRchat, its pretty much unplayable in vr on linux, its literally somehow a better experience on quest standalone

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[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 5 points 1 week ago

Linux Mint or Nobara would be great beginner distros and would each be great for gaming. If gaming is more important, I would lean towards Nobara. If general use is more important, Mint.

Keep in mind that you can try most of these out in a Virtual Machine. Some others to consider are PikaOS and CachyOS. I'm also working on my migration, and I install and set up everything with each ISO as if I was doing it for real, to see what hiccups I might run into. It will be slower, but it's just a trial run, so just expect things to be faster when you do it for real!

[–] Little8Lost@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

If wine does not work try adding the game in steam and use proton that way.

For ppx SoftMaker is better, for Documents that have objekts can leave the paperarea (even partial) like circles i suggest using LibreOffice draw

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

JBL sounds like your audio gear, depends on what. Bluetooth, USB audio ot 3.5mm jack connections generally work fine without issue. (Installing PulseAudio Volume Control will help you with finer grained volume control). Some DACs that require custom Windows drivers might not work.

Gaming stuff, Steam will have you covered, Lutris, Heroic, or itch.io for non-Steam stuff. The one unintuitive thing you have to do once you log in is to go to Steam Settings and check the "Use Steam Play for All Titles". Just like that, 75% of your library that only have a Windows version will suddenly be playable and you'll hardly notice a difference: just Download then click Play, that's it (maybe a bit slower launch time).

I would recommend Firefox or Librewolf over Chrome as you have done already, but you should know that Chrome and Chromium do work on Linux FYI.

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