Flying out of Windows and into Linux

General
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Flying out of Windows 11 and into Linux
Anybody want to follow along?

I came to this site yesterday and read voraciously. Getting out of Windows is a good idea. I use it only for flying simulation. I explored Linux over a decade ago for fun, experimenting on an Intel Laptop. My daily computing is on a Mac.

Bazzite distro gets good words for flying sim use. A good starting point unless I’m enlightened otherwise.

Besides normal prep I wonder if there may be someone with a “Geez I wish I knew that before” moment to pass along.

Here’s my rig,

2 Year Old Hardware
MSI MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX
Ryzen 7 5800X3D
RADEON RX 7900 XTX
(4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB (System)
Samsung 990 Pro 4TB PCIe Gen 4 (Game Data)

It’s like that first cliff dive. You just have to step off and fly. Total commitment.

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Will you be flying out of macOS too?

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No I won’t be flying with the Mac only the AMD Rig.

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Of course the most important use of Linux is the TAILS OS. Hopefully everyone here has it on a USB stick.

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I have it but haven’t ever touched it. Kinda useless since I don’t need it.

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Firstly backup you file manually and then format drives.

You don’t want to have bootkit on MBR or something like that. Even if there is no bootkit, microslop is extremely vulnerable, so i think you better safe than sorry.

AMD have perfect compatibility with Linux without config.

For you (as you come from windows) you should go with Mint or Zorin (it will be more familiar.

Also if you need soft only for microslop, use Bottles and Lutris

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It gets updated monthly. I recommend you update TAILS. You may not have a daily use for it but it’s a “when the shit hits the fan” type thing you want to have ready to go in an emergency.

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Using it just for the sake of it makes no sense. Your threat model and use case should also warrant it. It’s not for everyone and everyday use.

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I never suggested everyday use. It’s like having good batteries available for a flashlight you rarely use but might need in future power outage.

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while it is a good point, for their threat model you dont need tails, the only use for tails is in cases where governments censor things or for untrusted computers assuming you close every single thing before rebooting so that the gpu vram just sees the DE as the last image.

if its for troubleshooting purposes, for all its flaws (im open to alternatives but ive yet to see anything viable), ventoy with tools like say Windows PE toolbox environments like hiren’s bootcd or equivalent of sorts, live iso linux distributions you can use like say debian for 32-bit (all though very likely your computer is 64-bit) and some other isos for 64-bit like say ubuntu and some others like memtest86+ for self explanatory and clonezilla for partitioning, backup and restoring drive (images)

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for flying sims I do recommended gaming oriented distros for starters if especially CachyOS for their optimizations as CachyOS could have a net benefit on flying sims for the difference in improvement you get due to optimization under the hood
CachyOS has been blowing up as an arch based distro btw, though the installation setup can surely be more user friendly but still, I guess the distrowatch numbers dont lie (left corner on page hit ranking)
seems to also be corraborated by a reddit user who has a Radeon 9070 on their system with a 5950X (old reddit link, feel free to change to redlib if need be)

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Tails is good, but too radical for newcomer. OP should start from basic privacy and then escalate if he need.

You cannot just do everything simultaneously, this will cause frustration and malfunction. I think the best approach for now is comfy GUI and basic terminal commands learning.

After that, OP can go with WHONIX or Tails if needed.

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My plan is to format both SSD’s & load Linux as a new world. I’ll lose incomplete Virpil .config files and Honeycomb Bravo never has stayed lit up, no great loss. I have always been confused by Win file hierarchy so I’ll burn that ship.

I’m not wanting to find a Linux Mac either. If I have virgin eyes for a moment and don’t know what a desktop is, what would I want to find? Low effort responsibility to maintain Sim Flying platform. This is my only requirement of this computer. I use a web browser in pursuit of updating the sim, everything else is on a Mac.

I briefly looked at Bottles, thank you for that and your other comments.

My stress about privacy is partly why Windows is finished. I have wanted to be on Linux for a long time. It’s cleaner in so many ways also thanks to many others who have already taught me here.

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Generally, if this is your requirements, then you will be indeed more comfortable maintaining only one system. So go with your favorite distro.

I am on Zorin, but i have VM with Mint. Both native even for newcomers.

About Bottles, if it is not running something, try switching running engine. I use portproton (not native Wine) as it have less headache. But you should try yourself. What helpful for me may not be for you

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+1 for Mint. Solid and dependable.

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