Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Not greatly. The games that have anti-cheat won’t work on Linux. Anti-cheat is a security problem anyway (because they circumvent the kernel policies) and so linux will never support these.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

for the ones that work yes. There’s a list of how well games work on linux, there’s a website for that.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

For some “difficult” non-anti-cheat games there are some workarounds. If we’re talking about apps and not games, then it’s best to use the Linux equivalents, and forget the Windows ones.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

While there’s WINE and .NET for Linux, Windows apps don’t really work well. They usually break on new wine versions, or they don’t work at all. For apps, use Linux native apps. Games generally work better than apps because they don’t use too many of the Windows APIs (they’re mostly 3D stuff, and not app apis).

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

It depends on the distro. Some distros have graphical front ends, some you have to use the terminal to update the OS.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

There’s ClamAV, and also you should be turning the firewall On (some distros come with it, others you have to install it manually). Don’t downloads random binary packages, only from the distro itself, or official packages.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Overall, yeah… but it does depend on the version of the driver, distro you’re using, hardware etc. I use Intel graphics cards (dedicated) because I find their drivers to be more mature than nvidia’s, for example.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Very unlikely, near zero.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

Everyone is recommended to start with Linux Mint, because it’s the distro with the most GUI front-end tools to do stuff. Yes, there are some distros that are more game-oriented, but they expect the user to know what they’re doing. Start with Mint.

Here’s the first duckduckgo search result on this question: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04

On Ubuntu based distros I had to install a specific package from the ubuntu-studio distro, where it reconfigures pipewire to play right on 24.04. Without it, for example, I wouldn’t get audio on linux mint (based on 24.04), on some daw apps. Can’t remember how it was called, but search for ubuntu-studio packages, and something about pipewire fix.

The only OS that was solid as a desktop OS back then, with good usability, was BeOS. Both MacOS and Windows had stability problems (although NT/2000 were much better, but lacked app/game compatibility), and Linux was a nightmare to update and run (lots of compiling too). So the OS of choice back then for me, was BeOS. I could do everything I needed with it too.

I use Debian-Testing. It’s very stable, more so than most other distros IMHO (despite being -testing), and it has the latest packages.

That is a waste of time. I emailed the company a few months ago and they replied that they won’t port to Linux. Not that they don’t have plans to currently do it, but that they won’t. Clear as day.

I use Linux sine 1999 and I prefer Mint. It works just fine for everyday users. The thing wiht Mint is that it has setting panels for most things, and it makes sense as a design. It might not have the latest support, but what it does, it does well. The same can not be said about other distros in conjunction to care-free users.

You need to start with Linux mint. The errors you are mentioning are common in ubuntu, crashes happen and popup all the time on my ubuntu installations too. But never on Mint. Mint is based on the stable version of ubuntu, that it has long term support and it’s regularly getting updates to make it even more stable and secure. So please start with Mint, or Debian 12 (although Mint is better for new users).

Any BT adapter I’ve tried has worked with Linux, to be honest. The only problematic ones are some old ones from Broadcomm for the Mac.

Yes, LibreOffice will create good documents. But if you prefer to read older documents in MS format, you might also want to check out OnlyOffice because it is considered more compatible with MS formats. Install both, see which one works best for you.

Elementary is good looking and OK as an OS (especially after the updates to be more stable), but consider also a modified Linux Mint. It’s even more stable with more GUI settings, and it’s the one considered to be the best Linux to start with (although Elementary is ok too). By using the Cinnamenu alternative menu for Cinnamon, you can make it look simpler and nicer: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/391/944/352/704/129/original/7e2ced150dbc8932.png or https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/449/026/620/365/505/original/28489c56e1e24902.png and you can also setup the XFce version of Linux Mint (they have 3 flavors), to look like MacOS too: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/009/681/581/279/504/original/1a7e0d9f6abf8779.png

No, advertising is useful to small businesses and big. What needs to happen, is actual thoughtful regulation, as with everything else.

I got an X280 with 8 GB of RAM a few months ago, works great with Linux. Paid just $175. It even works with Haiku OS! Pic: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/731/895/755/005/386/original/1b09c5a0d636d9a5.jpg

From arch’s site:

Tip: make sure btrfs_x64.efi driver is installed, it can be installed manually by copying from /usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/btrfs_x64.efi to esp/EFI/refind/drivers_x64/btrfs_x64.efi, or you can install all drivers with the refind-install /dev/sdx --alldrivers option.

Warning: btrfs_x64.efi does not support raid1c3/4.

If you prefer non-kde apps, then consider Vala. It’s a young-ish language and it’s well suited for Gtk apps.

You are not alone. There are many laptops that don’t work with sleep on Linux. I used to have one of them, a Dell 3150. I simply disabled sleep in bios, and be done with it. I now buy laptops that I know they work 100% with Linux. It’s impossible for Linux to support every hardware in the world, when these are specifically are made for Windows.

First, update your computer’s BIOS/firmware. If that doesn’t fix it, then try Arch, or Fedora beta. If the problem exists there too, then it’s a kernel issue in general, and it might get fixed in the future. OR, if the computer BIOS is buggy, Linus has been clear that they won’t do workarounds for buggy firmwares. In which case, you’d need a new computer that’s actually compatible with Linux.

Most of the computers out there have buggy firmwares that go around for Windows, but Linus has been adamant that he wouldn’t do workarounds because they bloat the kernel.

Just use Linux Mint, cinnamon edition, and then edit the startup app list to not load some of the stuff that take too much ram, like the reports, nvidia, etc. Also remove fwupd if you updated your laptop’s firmware already via windows. I personally also stop bt (frees overall 30 mb of ram). Make sure during installation that you create a 4 GB swap partition too. At the end, I have a system that starts up at 750 MB of RAM (htop reading, 980 MB with gnome-system-monitor). As long as I use only 2-3 Chrome tabs, I’m ok to not swap. Firefox uses more ram i’m afraid, especially with youtube.

I have 4 laptops here run linux mint with 4 gb of ram. They run fine, my husband even does development in one of these.

The n3060 cpu is slow at 660 PassMark points, just enough for Mint to function. XFce is a tad faster indeed, and uses about 60 MB less RAM, however, it’s missing some desktop options that I find useful (e.g. disabling tap and drag).

As I said, I used it last year. I didn’t like it. I WANT gui tools, like yast, but not ones that were designed in the '90s. Linux Mint has the best user experience.

Yast is a must to configure it without headaches. It’s an eyesore. I also don’t like rpm in general. I tried OpenSuse last year, and I didn’t like the experience of it. Then again, I don’t like Fedora either. And I find Arch unstable. For me, Debian is where it’s at.

Τοο bad I don’t like it as a distro… I find it ugly, e.g. the ancient yast gui it has. I’d prefer Debian myself, or a fork of it (if politically necessary).