There are lots of posts about switching to Linux, so I thought I would share my experience since I just made the switch yesterday.
I finally figured out how to transfer all the programs I used on Windows to Linux and started daily driving Bazzite (a KDE Plasma variant) as of yesterday. I’m a casual user, and the main thing I use my home PC for at this point is gaming.
I am not fully divested from Windows; I still have a secondary PC running Windows that manages my Linux ISOs and Plex Media Server. I believe I could probably accomplish everything on Linux, but right now, dealing with re-setting everything up via Docker just doesn’t feel worth it to me.
In terms of gaming on Linux, I haven’t encountered many problems (although it’s only been 24 hours). I was able to use Lutris to install a Windows game, which went surprisingly well, and now I’m considering postponing dual booting.
My only issues and concerns have been:
I can’t seem to get Lossless Scaling to work. It doesn’t appear to integrate well with MangoHud, which doesn’t recognize the generated frames.
I’m having trouble installing the dnf-tools that Homebrew recommends.
I’m not sure how much I should avoid rpm-ostree; I don’t fully understand the difference.
I’m a bit confused about how to organize applications into different installation locations, especially as I start adding additional drives. In Windows, every time you install something, you have the option to choose where to put it; that doesn’t seem as obvious to me on Bazzite.
I’d love to hear people’s advice.
If there are any privacy-related steps a newbie like me should take now that I’ve switched over, I would appreciate the guidance, especially if it comes with an easy-to-read guide.
Can you share the technical specifications of your computer? That way, we can help you with your problems. I can still give a vague answer to some of your questions though.
I can’t get Loseless Scaling to work or maybe I can. It doesn’t like MangoHud recognizes the generated frames
Instead of MangoHud, try using the built-in Steam overlay to see if your generated frames are working.
I am a bit confused on how to organize applications into different install locations (especially once I start adding additional drives). With Windows every time you install something you have a chance to decide where to put it, that doesn’t seem as obvious to me on Bazzite.
Apps that are managed with package managers are usually installed to directories such as /usr/bin, /usr/lib, or /opt. These locations are not customizable during installation unless you’re building from source or using a custom package. The best thing about flatpaks is that they are completely portable, meaning you can open them anywhere! I wouldn’t recommend changing the default installation destination of rpm-ostree packages because you are a newer user.
Can you talk a bit more about what you’re trying to install via Homebrew and what error message you’re getting/what dnf tool you need?
Also, I’m sure people here will help as they can, but the best place to ask these types of questions is probably on the Bazzite Discourse
Personally there’s not much I would recommend that is specific to linux/Bazzite that’s not already on the Privacy Guides website. Congrats on vastly improving your OS level privacy.
Non-issue anymore. I realized most of these FPS counters do not currently record the generated frames. You can see test if its working by increasing the generation to something ridiculous as it will cause actual frames to drop dramatically.
Maybe I am misunderstanding or miscommunicating. All I really mean is being able to choose a separate drive or specific folder before install begins.
Originally I wanted to try and install lsfg as the Bazzite guide said to use that instead of rpm-ostree if possible.
The other issues I had with homebrew
is I could not install the dnf-tools package it recommends. I am not to worried about this and it seems like that is a development package, so its probably out of my use case.
I originally uninstalled homebrew wanted try and see if I could re-install to get that package to work but it never seems to fully uninstall. I did run the uninstall script as it reccomends but I could never fully get rid of the missing directory batch notices in terminal after uninstalling. Currently i have it installed and will probably leave it that way, as it seems like something that may be useful and is reccomended.
Thanks @Anvil and @KevPham for taking the time to read my post and respond!
Could you clarify why you would like to do this? I’ve never had a need to install applications to separate drives or folders, with the exception of large steam games. Apart from that, I’ve only done separate user installs.
I see. Are you installing games from Steam primarily? The Steam UI makes this pretty easy.
OK. I would not try to install this via Homebrew because Bazzite does not recommend installing GUI apps over Homebrew and I don’t believe lsfg-vk is even available over Homebrew. I would probably just use rpm-ostree because I don’t believe there are any other install methods that would work.
Currently no. I have only installed the two games I was playing most recently (less then 24 hours into this whole Linux-as-my-daily-driver adventure). Baldurs Gate 3 via Heroic Launcher, and Metaphor ReFantazio via Lutris. I do plan to install more games through Steam in the future.
Part of this was just seeing how hard it was for me to install native Windows games and it went way smoother then I thought it would.
Yeah I considered it but honestly found the whole thing confusing and couldn’t tell if it was only meant for people on handhelds or not..
I don’t use these personally, but I would be surprised if there is no way to set a location for your games library in these apps. I would look into the docs or poke around in the UI to see if you can find a setting for this.
Decky plugins are not only for handhelds, but you can only use them in Bazzite’s “gaming mode” and not in desktop mode, which can be a major drawback depending on how you play your games.
Good to see more people taking the plunge. One general piece of advice is to automate your backups to take place weekly/daily. Being a new user, issues are harder to troubleshoot with a brand new mental model of how things work. Having a “break in case of emergency” snapshot backed up as a failsafe provides great peace of mind if all else fails. Speaking from experience, I inadvertently partitioned the wrong disk and lost my entire Windows partition. It became an unintentional ‘burn the ships’ moment but if there was important documents, it would’ve sucked.
It’s good to hear that it’s been smooth sailing so far. If something does go wrong over time, lean on the Bazzite forums, the man command or at the least an LLM to help out. Most issues are easily solvable and just require experience.
I’m lucky in that i dont require a lot from my home pc which has made this switch relatively smooth so far.
It was interesting to have this video pop up. I think for a lot of users, these type of complaints kind of sum up why the switching cost can be to high for people even if they want to change OS.
Also made me want to see what telemetry bazzite might have on that i need to turn off.
