Finally migrated from Windows to Linux. For anyone wondering, what is the state of Linux as your primary OS for home PC\laptop in 2023.
I've finalised my Archlinux installation yesterday, I dropped of Linux more than 10 years ago and experience in 2023 in comparison is awesome and beyond even wildest dreams back then:
- For average user looking for more out of the box experience I would suggest something Arch based (people in comments suggest EndeavourOS, please do your research). Archlinux installation took me quite some time
- Almost everything works out of the box, by just installing corresponding package
- KDE Plasma environment is fast and beautiful
- Pipewire audio server (Jack\Pulseaudio replacement) works great
- Wayland window server is not there yet, especially if you have Nvidia with proprietary drivers and want to use VR. Waking up, session restoration and other scenarios have issues. Use X11.
- Wine is great!
- Music making - Bitwig Studio DAW has linux native version, yabridge allow you to use windows VSTs, which are easily installed via wine
- Gaming works out of the box with Steam for majority of titles, some games have native linux version. Performance is great. In worst case windows game might loose 5-15% in performance. Was not case for my titles
- Gaming outside steam is fine too. Use Wine, Lutris, Proton
- VR is a mixed bag. Not everything is there (Desktop view, sound control and mirroring, camera, motions smooth, lighthouses do not wake up os go to sleep. I use my phone to turn them on/off). But if its not the problem for you, quite some titles work. Tried: native HF Alyx, Lab, windows: Beat Saber and Boneworks. For me it's a surprise, I did not count on it. Performance is great.
So overall my experience is great. Eventually I'm going to get rid of WIndows on other computers and laptops at howe. I can finally wave goodbye to Windows, with lots of ads and bloatware. Alway glad to help with answers regarding installation while my memory and history logs are fresh. ^^
In what way?
Compared to gentoo for instance, packages are not compiled depending on the HW they are installed on. So, not enough resource optimisation and customisation for some users
Of course, any distro is customisable if you spend the time to do it voluntarily, but by default it's not the way it works
I suppose, although you are getting very little performance improvements compiling from sources. Like very, very little. Considering that you will be waiting for emerge a lot, there's a good handful of folks that consider it a net positive.
Absolutely, it used to be important, now it's more of a hobby for me…
Yet, for some people who love to have everything under control, Arch is a step below the fully optimisable distros. That's why I think it's maybe not for the ultimate Linux extremists among us :) Although there is definitely some respect to give to people who completely mod Mint or Ubuntu, they're among the bravest
Have you tried Funtoo?
Not yet, thanks for bringing it!
I don't know enough about Gentoo to understand what it is saying but it sounds like it is totally the same but makes dealing with the compiler options a lot easier? Do you think it's a good first pick over Gentoo? For "advanced Linux" I mean not a first timer lol.
I find it a bit weird to try to make gentoo more 'user-friendly'. It kind of defeats the point… I have to try tho before being able to answer
I moved from Gentoo to Arch years ago and was unable to notice any performance difference. There may have been one, but it wasn't perceptible to me.
For very specific uses, it can be useful. Some scientific SW, niche applications, or if you have older HW. Most of the time, it's a flex now (I use gentoo BTW, what about that?)
If you absolutely need to compile everything for your system, you can do that with ABS