What has kept me from trying Linux is my fear of not understanding what I'm doing all over again, and difficulty running all of my games. I've used Windows since the mid-90s and I'm very good/familiar with it. Diving headfirst into a new OS and feeling like an idiot again is not something I want, so I've been too afraid to make that jump. I also don't know whether or not the difficulty running games thing is overblown.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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There are some that will have a familiar interface to you. I don't have experience myself but since the Steam Deck came out gaming on Linux has been rapidly improving.
like others are saying: I installed a second NVMe SSD and put Linux Mint on it. This was a very simple task, and it automatically setup a boot window so when I start the computer it gives me the option to pick Windows or Linux. Linux Mint has a software center where I selected and installed Steam w/ Proton (again, super easy to setup, lots of online instructions) and my games work just fine. I keep Windows just because I dont want to lose my access to the OS, but Linux is now my main.
I have close to no problems with games that are compiled for Windows.
The only real problem is anti-cheats actively combating Linux/Wine/Proton: https://areweanticheatyet.com/
Anything else either works or does so after a few Wine/Proton updates.
Dual boot. then if you can't deal with linux anymore, you've lost nothing.
edit: or play around with a live cd. Both work equally well.
I can't speak to games, but I've found that when I used Ubuntu, it was pretty easy to figure out. I'm thinking other distros should be comparably simple.
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Ubuntu? Yuck! Give me Mint.
These days I would pair that with Debian and IceWM
you are a good person <3
2gb of ram really isn't enough
At least give them something usable. I see a lot of 6th gen machines on the market and they can be loaded with 8/16gb of ram.
This would be the only way to convince me to try Linux.