I was using Windows for a long time, from 95, XP, 7 and 10. Games just worked out fine, software that I needed I pirated. But I was annoyed from updates, (cannot turn off MY pc, just update and turn off option) bing, fokin bing and oh the best - F1 binded to it.
On parent’s pc is 7 still installed lol, not gonna change soon, anyway, my old laptop(server since 2017) wasn’t working properly with win, so only option to save it was Linux. Ubuntu was my choice in few years back, That was the moment I discovered open source software (head exploding image).
Recently i switched my main computer into PopOs, since I worked on it I was ,,scared,, to do it, because of some windows specific software. (I’m still able to boot into win, I kept it for some programs that I need once per year).
But I will never go back to windows as a main. First month was little bit stressful, configuring things and getting used to new workflows, but it is just a pleasure to use. No annoying popups, no preinstalled spyware, no stress related to running unknown .exe files, no bing. I just went from small dark closed box to a nice huge green open(source) forest..
Everything just works. If not, I still can fix it (mostly). I’ve got better with security, I understand more how things works generally. I found my peace in getting to know more how things works, not just guessing what it can do and never actually find out.
So if there is some one that is disgusted with how windows pc works, and is still using it, just switch it for Linux. Just do it, it will bring joy into using your machine as you need to and want to.
Just wanted to say this…
…and share the software, you’ll be free… https://youtu.be/9sJUDx7iEJw
I made the switch recently as well. I was really unsure of how the whole thing would turn out with me having used Windows for the last 20 years +, but man, it was way easier than I thought.
I went with EndeavourOS on my desktop and Pop!OS on my laptop (for easy igpu/dedicated gpu switching) and I haven't missed Windows since. What's the most difficult is learning the new keyboard shortcuts, but even those you could rebind in Linux. Because you can customize the OS to however YOU work best, instead of having to conform to whatever the OS thinks is best for you.
And man, package managers, am I right? How cool are they...I tried to use chocolatey and winget on Win11 but they never felt quite right, but pacman and yay? Absolutely glorious. I love typing yay into the terminal every couple of days and watching it go, keeping my system up to date.
Hey, you know the keyboard shortcut for endeavor that does the same thing as the Win+X for Windows? That's always how I shut down our restart my windows PC. I installed endeavor on my Lenovo duet 3 that came preinstalled with win 11 and that is one of the few things I'm missing. Snip with shift+win+s, and the clipboard history would be the others.
I'm debating if I want to dual boot endeavor on my main PC, but I'm not sure about it because my nvme is pretty small. I also networked my kids computer and my garage computer for file shares and I'm not quite sure how well using those windows PCs to get files off a Linux system would work. Thoughts?
That depends on your desktop manager. I am using GNOME and I'm using its custom shortcut feature as well. If you're also using GNOME you can just go into Settings -> Keyboard -> View and Customise Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts to add keyboard shortcuts. I added Shift+Win+S to take screenshots with Flameshot for example. But you can add pretty much anything there.
File sharing from Linux to Windows is extremely easy. Samba (Linux implementation of smb) is very easy to implement. From what I remember you just have to install samba and then add new network shares in /etc/samba/smb.conf.
In terms of disk space you'll have to put some thought into if you really want to dual boot. If disk space is sparse it's going to be tough. EndeavourOS is pretty lightweight but if you want to daily drive it it's still going to take up a considerable amount of space. The biggest problem with one disk drive is usually creating partitions. With Windows already installed your UEFI partition is likely too small to contain both Win and Linux boot data. And when you install Linux as a new partition on your existing drive you will simultaneously hamper your ability to change the existing partition sizes. I would advise to get a new (even if small) SSD for Linux to get around any partition related problems.
Hmm... That's a good answer, thanks for taking the time! I currently have about 130gb free on my boot drive, and I keep all my data on a separate 4tb drive. Dual booting on the same nvme could possibly be an issue though.
Thanks much!
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to write me a PM or otherwise reach out. I might be able to help. As for your free disk space I think you'll have a hard time making it all work with just 130GB of free disk space. Not because EndeavourOS can't work with 130GB but because as soon as you set the partitions it's extremely hard to change your partition size for Windows and Linux because of the way these partitions sit on your physicial drive.
Your 4tb drive should be less of an issue. I don't have a lot of knowledge as to how Linux works with NTFS but as far as I know Linux is way better at working with Windows file systems as Windows is with working with Linux file systems.