Hot Take Escaping Windows: The Ultimate Guide to Migrate to Linux

[Miravi]

If any of these distros were as easy as installing GrapheneOS on Android I might have a go at it. I was ready, set, go in less than an hour after my GOS install. Can't even say that about Windows and probably not about Linux distros either. But let me know if I'm wrong.

You'd be surprised. I downloaded a 2.5 GB live ISO of Fedora Workstation and used the media creation tool to get a bootable USB drive. Not only is this a fully operational OS for testing against your hardware, but a quick and painless installer. It didn't take long at all for me to realize I wanted to take the plunge.

I almost forgot how comfortable I am with the Linux way. My desktop is beautiful and just works. It's stable, and I'm not even slightly worried about an antivirus.

As I've said before, the level of polish has reached new levels. Open drivers work great, desktop environments have improved, and the mindfulness of usability is evident.

You'll be up and running in no time. It's easy to use your computer for day-to-day things while you get comfortable and learn more about customizing your desktop experience, the Linux way of downloading/installing/updating software with a package manager, and a fundamentally different philosophy of computing from Windows.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

openSUSE wow that's a blast from the past. I guess I'm old enough to remember when it was all the rage?

If any of these distros were as easy as installing GrapheneOS on Android I might have a go at it. I was ready, set, go in less than an hour after my GOS install. Can't even say that about Windows and probably not about Linux distros either. But let me know if I'm wrong.

Ubuntu/Mint is very easy to install. Stock Debian less so, it's still old school and has a retro feel. The Debian LIVE images are great though, especially Cinnamon.

 

[acyclovir]

I’ve spent the last few months testing several distros: Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Zorin OS, NixOS, Debian, Cachy OS, and Bazzite. Unfortunately, I ran into issues with all of them on my two machines (laptop and/or desktop) either hardware incompatibilities or bugs with my daily-driver apps that eventually made me give up.

The only two that exceeded my expectations and provided a fantastic experience were Pop!_OS and EndeavourOS. EndeavourOS definitely takes the lead, though; running EndeavourOS with Plasma has been an absolute dream for me.

 

[Sorrento]

I’ve spent the last few months testing several distros: Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Zorin OS, NixOS, Debian, Cachy OS, and Bazzite. Unfortunately, I ran into issues with all of them on my two machines (laptop and/or desktop) either hardware incompatibilities or bugs with my daily-driver apps that eventually made me give up.

The only two that exceeded my expectations and provided a fantastic experience were Pop!_OS and EndeavourOS. EndeavourOS definitely takes the lead, though; running EndeavourOS with Plasma has been an absolute dream for me.

Have you returned to Windows plz?

 

[acyclovir]

Not at all, I haven't felt the need to. For work, I have to use a legacy program that only runs on 32bit XP, so to keep things simple, I just installed VMware Pro (it’s right there in the AUR repo, awesome!). I simply migrated the VM I was already using on Win11 and that’s it. I don’t need Windows for anything else.

Even when I was on Pop!_OS, I opted for VMware since it clearly outperforms VirtualBox, (QEMU lacks on VirtIO support for XP). The biggest headache was having to wait an entire week for Broadcom to approve my profile; WTF? It would’ve been so much easier on EndeavourOS from the start, as VMware Pro is available directly through the AUR, no Broadcom account or registration required. It just works.

The only Windows apps I truly miss are eM Client and MobaXterm. However, I’m avoiding Wine, so I opted for Thunderbird, (with the right configuration, it’s just as powerful if not more, than eM Client). As for MobaXterm, Tabby has been an excellent replacement so far.

 

[lokamoka820]

The only two that exceeded my expectations and provided a fantastic experience were Pop!_OS and EndeavourOS. EndeavourOS definitely takes the lead, though; running EndeavourOS with Plasma has been an absolute dream for me.

Not surprisingly, Pop!_OS functions right out of the box because it was created by a hardware company, which gives it a significant edge in testing and quickly resolving problems.

 

[simmerskool]

I almost forgot how comfortable I am with the Linux way. My desktop is beautiful and just works. It's stable, and I'm not even slightly worried about an antivirus.

totally agree! even my sound which always somewhat snafu'd in linux is now perfect in fedora 43 / Gnome.

 

[lokamoka820]

Just out of curiosity, @acyclovir, I would like to know if you have tried COSMIC desktop on Pop!_OS and, if so, how you found it.

 

[oldschool]

You'll be up and running in no time. It's easy to use your computer for day-to-day things while you get comfortable and learn more about customizing your desktop experience, the Linux way of downloading/installing/updating software with a package manager, and a fundamentally different philosophy of computing from Windows.

Maybe, but how long will it take to learn the Linux way? You had prior experience with it before you returned. I have none.

 

[simmerskool]

Maybe, but how long will it take to learn the Linux way? You had prior experience with it before you returned. I have none.

+2 days. and ChatGPT can help, if you terminal ChatGPT can help with commands, but most linux, including fedora has GUI, software GUI for updates etc.

 

[Victor M]

& you can run Microsoft Office on host Linux

MS will make it so that it never will run on Linux. Don't be silly, Linux is their competitor.

 

[lokamoka820]

Maybe, but how long will it take to learn the Linux way? You had prior experience with it before you returned. I have none.

It depends on the distribution you decide to start with. If you start with Linux Mint Cinnamon, for example, there won't be much of a learning curve because basically everything will be familiar, allowing you to use the OS right away.

The following is the outcome of my search for beginner-friendly distributions sorted by popularity in the DistroWatch search:



Here is a quick overview of how it looks and feel:

 

[oldschool]

This is very encouraging!

 

[Victor M]

This is very encouraging

The video is correct. Dealing with Nvidia is tedious, thank god I don't have to do it.
Secondly, pick your battle. Go with the beginner friendly, Windows user friendly distros like Mint.
Ubuntu is also great, you can do most things with the GUI.
The more you look around, pondering what if this and what if that, you'll never get started. You are a member of MT, already more technically astute than thousands of people. For me, if push comes to shove I will open up Powershell and type in a long winded command. But I can understand it, and thats what makes us different.
Just go download VMWare or VirrtualBox and install Mint inside. You'll do fine.

 

[Miravi]

@Victor M makes good points. If you're willing, you'll gain knowledge and confidence from diving in.

I was doing my early experimentation with Linux about 17, 18 years ago or so, IIRC. I downloaded and played with Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, and Fedora... as well as a less promising stint with Arch Linux, lol. What was that like? Just playing in a sandbox and following trustworthy guides, entering Bash commands into the terminal that I was only following to a small degree.

I ran and played with Linux at different times. I seem to recall always having done it with NVIDIA GPUs, no less. FWIW, the Nouveau open-source NVIDIA drivers are quite functional and work out of the box. Installing NVIDIA's proprietary drivers for the first time is a bit of an anxious experience.

Given enough contextual information and quality prompts, a sufficiently powerful chatbot today can also offer guidance and insights with exceptional depth of knowledge. Realizing that I'm still no Linux professional, I'm humbled by the understanding of real gurus out there.

 

[simmerskool]

This is very encouraging!

ahhh don't be paranoid

 

[lokamoka820]

Meanwhile, I'm using Btrfs on Fedora Linux—a fast, modern, and full-featured file system developed with SSDs in mind.

What makes Btrfs superior for SSDs? Moreover, how did ext4 compare to NTFS in terms of SSD longevity?

 

[SeriousHoax]

What makes Btrfs superior for SSDs? Moreover, how did ext4 compare to NTFS in terms of SSD longevity?

I'm aware of two things where BTRFS is better than ext4 and NTFS for SSDs.

One of them is journaling. Both NTFS and EXT4 use journaling for data integrity in case of a system crash or power failure. This journaling can lead to extra disk writes.
Didn't you talk about a certain program that caused more disk writes than its competitor apps? The dev told you those writes are not caused by his program but Windows itself or something like that. The writes were by $LogFile, not his program. This $LogFile disk writes are part of this journaling process AFAIK. You can see write activities to C:\$LogFile any time you open the Disk tab in System Informer.
BTRFS doesn't use journaling. It uses CoW (Copy-on-Write), which is a different method.

Another one is BTRFS compression. If enabled, it can reduce disk writes and file size at the cost of slightly higher CPU usage and slightly lower disk I/O. BTRFS compression level 1 felt as fast as EXT4/NTFS on my system, though I didn't do any benchmark.

I haven't looked if there are any other SSD-specific optimizations. I'm pretty sure there are, as it is more modern compared to ext4 and NTFS.

 

[lokamoka820]

I'm aware of two things where BTRFS is better than ext4 and NTFS for SSDs.

One of them is journaling. Both NTFS and EXT4 use journaling for data integrity in case of a system crash or power failure. This journaling can lead to extra disk writes.
Didn't you talk about a certain program that caused more disk writes than its competitor apps? The dev told you those writes are not caused by his program but Windows itself or something like that. The writes were by $LogFile, not his program. This $LogFile disk writes are part of this journaling process AFAIK. You can see write activities to C:\$LogFile any time you open the Disk tab in System Informer.
BTRFS doesn't use journaling. It uses CoW (Copy-on-Write), which is a different method.

Another one is BTRFS compression. If enabled, it can reduce disk writes and file size at the cost of slightly higher CPU usage and slightly lower disk I/O. BTRFS compression level 1 felt as fast as EXT4/NTFS on my system, though I didn't do any benchmark.

I haven't looked if there are any other SSD-specific optimizations. I'm pretty sure there are, as it is more modern compared to ext4 and NTFS.

Yes, UltraSearch was that program.

What about the BTRFS filesystem snapshot feature? Doesn't it lead to additional disk writes, or is it an openSUSE-specific feature that is not enabled by default in BTRFS systems?

And between the EXT4 and NTFS file systems, which is more suitable for SSD?

 

[Miravi]

What makes Btrfs superior for SSDs? Moreover, how did ext4 compare to NTFS in terms of SSD longevity?

Btrfs shaped up while flash storage was becoming standard. Companies that contributed to development include: Oracle, Meta, SUSE, Fujitsu, Western Digital, Intel, Red Hat, Synology, and NETGEAR. Not only is the Copy-on-Write design of Btrfs superior for SSDs, but these optimizations are enabled when SSDs are mounted:

• Clustered Allocation: It attempts to find larger contiguous chunks of free space (typically 2MB clusters for metadata) rather than scattering small writes. This aligns better with the way SSD controllers manage "erase blocks," reducing internal wear and write amplification.
• Minimized Seek Optimization: Traditional filesystems try to keep related data close together to minimize physical head movement on a spinning platter. Btrfs disables these "head-seek" heuristics for SSDs, as they are irrelevant and can actually hinder performance on flash.
• Discard/TRIM Support: Btrfs supports both discard (synchronous) and discard=async (asynchronous). The latter is highly efficient on modern NVMe drives, as it batches "delete" commands to the SSD controller without stalling the system during file deletions.
• Transparent Compression: Using compress=zstd or lzo significantly reduces the amount of physical data written to the cells. Since the CPU can compress data much faster than an SSD can write it, this simultaneously increases drive lifespan and effective write speeds.
• Space Cache (v2): Btrfs stores a map of free space on the disk. Version 2 is optimized for large drives and fast access, ensuring the filesystem doesn't have to scan the entire tree to find a place to write new data.

Meta believes in Btrfs so much that they use it on millions of their own servers.

Ext4 is a rock-solid and extremely mature filesystem. Fedora uses a small Ext4 partition for critical system files even while formatting the rest of the drive with Btrfs.

Its implementation is lightweight, resistant to fragmentation, faster than NTFS in most benchmarks, and uses simple journaling that minimizes unnecessary disk writes.