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[Brakum]

It probably scared me away forever. I tried three distros in the past 24h. beginner friendly ones. I'd be fine with it taking longer than windows, once it's setup it would be okay i thought, and i'd always keep windows in case i need it. I spent a few hours on each and didnt manage to achieve what i would with windows in the first 5 minutes.

Started with mint which seemed like a good start.
Installed it and no internet, ethernet plugged in and nothing, checked wifi, nothing. Didn't find any connections at all. Did some research and apparently my hardware is too new. My network chip requires the 6.10 kernel and mint only has 6.8.

Someone suggested i try nobara which has the 6.12 kernel. I did
Installed it, was connected to the internet but it said limited connectivity on both ethernet and wifi, which was essentially like not being connected at all, couldn't do anything with it, couldn't open a web page, nothing. I tried to do mobile hotspot which surprisingly worked for some reason. Did some stuff, rebooted my PC and now it cant connect even to the mobile hotspot, just got stuck in authentication forever. I left it at that and went to work.

Came back from work and decided to try manjaro.
At first i was extremely pleased that my internet just worked right away. First thing i did was install discord so i could joing the manjaro or linux discords to get help for whatever i needed. Downloaded it through their tool. Started it and it says it needs an update. It wont open without it. Apparently this has been a problem for years lookiung at reddit threads etcetera. Tried some fixes but they either didnt work for me at all, or we're just outdated like a download link to download it outside the manjaro tool but that link no longer worked.

So i gave up. Could i have found solutions to all those problems? Evntually probably, but who has that kind of time. I still want to be able to move away from windows eventually, please valve make it happen, but three days ago i was a believer in steamOS, now i'm not, but hopefully im wrong.

 

[clintar]

Don't try any from soft games.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

just use steamOS, ggez.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

It probably scared me away forever. I tried three distros in the past 24h. beginner friendly ones. I'd be fine with it taking longer than windows, once it's setup it would be okay i thought, and i'd always keep windows in case i need it. I spent a few hours on each and didnt manage to achieve what i would with windows in the first 5 minutes.

Started with mint which seemed like a good start.
Installed it and no internet, ethernet plugged in and nothing, checked wifi, nothing. Didn't find any connections at all. Did some research and apparently my hardware is too new. My network chip requires the 6.10 kernel and mint only has 6.8.

Someone suggested i try nobara which has the 6.12 kernel. I did
Installed it, was connected to the internet but it said limited connectivity on both ethernet and wifi, which was essentially like not being connected at all, couldn't do anything with it, couldn't open a web page, nothing. I tried to do mobile hotspot which surprisingly worked for some reason. Did some stuff, rebooted my PC and now it cant connect even to the mobile hotspot, just got stuck in authentication forever. I left it at that and went to work.

Came back from work and decided to try manjaro.
At first i was extremely pleased that my internet just worked right away. First thing i did was install discord so i could joing the manjaro or linux discords to get help for whatever i needed. Downloaded it through their tool. Started it and it says it needs an update. It wont open without it. Apparently this has been a problem for years lookiung at reddit threads etcetera. Tried some fixes but they either didnt work for me at all, or we're just outdated like a download link to download it outside the manjaro tool but that link no longer worked.

So i gave up. Could i have found solutions to all those problems? Evntually probably, but who has that kind of time. I still want to be able to move away from windows eventually, please valve make it happen, but three days ago i was a believer in steamOS, now i'm not, but hopefully im wrong.

We aren’t there yet. Hopefully soon either Steam or MS has a better option sooner rather than later for gaming focus on proper PCs. Valve seems closer to this. I was hoping we would see more than what we did at CES.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

just use steamOS, ggez.

If your referring to the recent distro of steam os, that’s still AMD based no?

 

[Gaiff]

Linux is not beginner friendly no matter what its evangelists try to tell you.

 

[Brakum]

just use steamOS, ggez.

SteamOS is fine for what it is. But a proper desktop OS it is not. I dont want my PC to be just like a console.

 

[Spiral1407]

Same. I only lasted 2 days with Linux mint before I came running back to Daddy Gates. Had to get one of my friends to make me another installation media too since I only have one computer. Never again...

 

[Crayon]

Maybe wait to get a device with linux/steamos ootb.

 

[Brakum]

Same. I only lasted 2 days with Linux mint before I came running back to Daddy Gates. Had to get one of my friends to make me another installation media too since I only have one PC. Never again.

I only ha e on PC too but i jist did it in another drive. I even unplugged the windows drive so i wouldnt accidentally mess with it

 

[Emedan]

Ubuntu no good anymore?

 

[Brakum]

Maybe wait to get a device with linux/steamos ootb.

I build my PCs, im never gonna get a device with linux, or windows for that matter.

Well of course i get deviced with linux, i use my phone on a daily basis but thats a different thing.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

SteamOS is fine for what it is. But a proper desktop OS it is not. I dont want my PC to be just like a console.

What are you trying to accomplish

 

[Brakum]

What are you trying to accomplish

The same i already do on windows but with less garbage

 

[Spiral1407]

I only ha e on PC too but i jist did it in another drive. I even unplugged the windows drive so i wouldnt accidentally mess with it

I did it on my main drive unfortunately. I have two SSDs, but one is strictly used for file backups and I needed my flash drive for PS3 homebrew.

 

[ANIMAL1975]

Switch and Linux is the GOAT, for real the best combo OP.
Maybe you should have wait for Switch2...?

 

[Crayon]

I build my PCs, im never gonna get a device with linux, or windows for that matter.

Well of course i get deviced with linux, i use my phone on a daily basis but thats a different thing.

The only option for that RN is handhelds. Then there will be deckard. But is you are not interest in either of those, it's slim pickens.

Too bad, that. You see people have a nice time with their steam decks.

Anyway, good giving it the old college try! Maybe again, some day.

 

[jshackles]

Ubuntu no good anymore?

Was also going to suggest Ubuntu, seems the newest version uses the 6.11 kernel so it would likely work with OPs hardware. Sounds like all of OP's issues are network related, so it's possible their network card not having good Linux support is the lynch pin in their plans to switch.

 

[Brakum]

The only option for that RN is handhelds. Then there will be deckard. But is you are not interest in either of those, it's slim pickens.

Too bad, that. You see people have a nice time with their steam decks.

Anyway, good giving it the old college try! Maybe again, some day.

If i ever get a steam deck i'll be fine with steamOS on it. It does what it's supposed to do. Just not good for desktops

 

[Wolzard]

Linux is not beginner friendly no matter what its evangelists try to tell you.

When you first used Windows, did you already know how to do everything? Did you install the system or use something already installed and configured for you?
To this day, even with experience, I still need to research something to troubleshoot or there are things that have no obvious solution. I was playing Forza Horizon 4 and the game crashed. Until I researched, I discovered that I needed to delete a DLL that caused memory leaks in the system. It took me a while to figure this out.

As a developer, I can say that using Windows is extremely frustrating, Linux and Mac are light years superior. But it is a specific use case.

Saying something is not beginner-friendly depends a lot on your point of view. If you take someone who has never used a computer and teach them how to use Linux, they will learn and find using other systems difficult.

The biggest point of frustration I see is that people usually try to use Linux as if it were Windows. It's the same thing with Mac, you'll be fighting with the maximize button until you understand how it works. Or get frustrated with the lack of tiling.

Every change of platform requires relearning a lot.

 

[Crayon]

If i ever get a steam deck i'll be fine with steamOS on it. It does what it's supposed to do. Just not good for desktops

I never tried it. Idk why it wouldn't be good for desktops. You'll want to set it to boot in the kde sesh an probably get some common programs that don't come on it. Anything else?

 

[NeverYouMind]

What is your hardware?

 

[bender]

Try OS/2 Warp.

 

[Topher]

I've had the urge to try Linux many times over the years but it never lasts. It is one thing or another that just doesn't work right. I'd love for Linux to be a viable option at some point. That's why I'm really interested to try Steam OS and see what Valve has done (if anything) to make things better for the operating system.

 

[flying_sq]

Out of curiosity, you said that you tried user friendly distros, but didn't try Ubuntu. Why not?

 

[64bitmodels]

When you first used Windows, did you already know how to do everything? Did you install the system or use something already installed and configured for you?

dude, the problem the guy is facing here is with internet drivers. This isn't a usability or knowledge problem, it's a software problem and one that should be solved.

Linux can be as user friendly as windows, and it typically is! The problem is that when you need the computer to do what you bought it for (run applications) it's hit-or-miss outside of gaming with non-anticheat games. Having internet drivers not support the fucking hardware you run when Windows works OOTB with them is not exactly very user friendly, at all.

 

[NeverYouMind]

dude, the problem the guy is facing here is with internet drivers. This isn't a usability problem it's a software problem and one that should be solved.

Linux can be as user friendly as windows, and it typically is! The problem is that when you need the computer to do what you bought it for (run applications) it's hit-or-miss outside of gaming with non-anticheat games. Having internet drivers not support the fucking hardware you run when Windows works OOTB with them is not exactly very user friendly, at all.

It is possible to install the packages with drivers offline...

 

[bender]

I've had the urge to try Linux many times over the years but it never lasts. It is one thing or another that just doesn't work right. I'd love for Linux to be a viable option at some point. That's why I'm really interested to try Steam OS and see what Valve has done (if anything) to make things better for the operating system.

Stay away from Linux, Fry. You couldn’t even execute a simple Scott Bakula request properly. I’d recommend a Brother typewriter with built-in word processor.

 

[64bitmodels]

It is possible to install the packages with drivers offline...

I would know, I did it with my Nobara installation 2 years back. The question is- why do you have to? Why does a modern OS not support modern hardware properly out of the box?
Why are the internet drivers, literal internet support, the thing that you need most for a modern computer- why are they not working correctly as soon as the setup is finished???

 

[Jinzo Prime]

It probably scared me away forever. I tried three distros in the past 24h. beginner friendly ones. I'd be fine with it taking longer than windows, once it's setup it would be okay i thought, and i'd always keep windows in case i need it. I spent a few hours on each and didnt manage to achieve what i would with windows in the first 5 minutes.

Started with mint which seemed like a good start.
Installed it and no internet, ethernet plugged in and nothing, checked wifi, nothing. Didn't find any connections at all. Did some research and apparently my hardware is too new. My network chip requires the 6.10 kernel and mint only has 6.8.

Someone suggested i try nobara which has the 6.12 kernel. I did
Installed it, was connected to the internet but it said limited connectivity on both ethernet and wifi, which was essentially like not being connected at all, couldn't do anything with it, couldn't open a web page, nothing. I tried to do mobile hotspot which surprisingly worked for some reason. Did some stuff, rebooted my PC and now it cant connect even to the mobile hotspot, just got stuck in authentication forever. I left it at that and went to work.

Came back from work and decided to try manjaro.
At first i was extremely pleased that my internet just worked right away. First thing i did was install discord so i could joing the manjaro or linux discords to get help for whatever i needed. Downloaded it through their tool. Started it and it says it needs an update. It wont open without it. Apparently this has been a problem for years lookiung at reddit threads etcetera. Tried some fixes but they either didnt work for me at all, or we're just outdated like a download link to download it outside the manjaro tool but that link no longer worked.

So i gave up. Could i have found solutions to all those problems? Evntually probably, but who has that kind of time. I still want to be able to move away from windows eventually, please valve make it happen, but three days ago i was a believer in steamOS, now i'm not, but hopefully im wrong.

I had to try Linux like three times over the years before it stuck, and even then I dual boot Windows.

Linux is a thing you have to learn, and it is not simple at all. Biggest pro tip I can give is making sure you set up a live USB with some distros on it using Ventoy, especially Rescuezilla. Saved my install using fsck.

Note, that I had to look all that shit up, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to make it work.

I sincerely hope SteamOS has rescue tools and the like built in. It cannot be as headache inducing as a regular distro or it will fail.

 

[bender]

It is possible to install the packages with drivers offline...

Sounds hot! Keep talking dirty…

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

It probably scared me away forever. I tried three distros in the past 24h. beginner friendly ones. I'd be fine with it taking longer than windows, once it's setup it would be okay i thought, and i'd always keep windows in case i need it. I spent a few hours on each and didnt manage to achieve what i would with windows in the first 5 minutes.

Started with mint which seemed like a good start.
Installed it and no internet, ethernet plugged in and nothing, checked wifi, nothing. Didn't find any connections at all. Did some research and apparently my hardware is too new. My network chip requires the 6.10 kernel and mint only has 6.8.

Someone suggested i try nobara which has the 6.12 kernel. I did
Installed it, was connected to the internet but it said limited connectivity on both ethernet and wifi, which was essentially like not being connected at all, couldn't do anything with it, couldn't open a web page, nothing. I tried to do mobile hotspot which surprisingly worked for some reason. Did some stuff, rebooted my PC and now it cant connect even to the mobile hotspot, just got stuck in authentication forever. I left it at that and went to work.

Came back from work and decided to try manjaro.
At first i was extremely pleased that my internet just worked right away. First thing i did was install discord so i could joing the manjaro or linux discords to get help for whatever i needed. Downloaded it through their tool. Started it and it says it needs an update. It wont open without it. Apparently this has been a problem for years lookiung at reddit threads etcetera. Tried some fixes but they either didnt work for me at all, or we're just outdated like a download link to download it outside the manjaro tool but that link no longer worked.

So i gave up. Could i have found solutions to all those problems? Evntually probably, but who has that kind of time. I still want to be able to move away from windows eventually, please valve make it happen, but three days ago i was a believer in steamOS, now i'm not, but hopefully im wrong.

Adventures in Linux Gaming

About 2 weeks ago I got the itch to see what the current state of Linux gaming is like firsthand. I've been using *nix for both fun and work since the day I first logged into the "Internet" way back in the late 80s/early 90s, so I know my way around already. (Internet in quotes since it was...

www.neogaf.com

Read through it. I've said all there is to it in this thread.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

Don't try and use Linux unless you are computer literate, using Windows or a Games console doesn't make you computer literate, why would you want to use Linux? it's like taking a speak and spell off a baby and giving it a dictionary, it's going to sit there and ultimately chew on it's hand and the dictionary, now wipe the drool off your mouse and stop chewing on your fingers and re-install windows.

 

[Syphon Filter]

linux mint is great, very simple. i dont see how anyone can have issues with it.

 

[PaintTinJr]

It probably scared me away forever. I tried three distros in the past 24h. beginner friendly ones. I'd be fine with it taking longer than windows, once it's setup it would be okay i thought, and i'd always keep windows in case i need it. I spent a few hours on each and didnt manage to achieve what i would with windows in the first 5 minutes.

Started with mint which seemed like a good start.
Installed it and no internet, ethernet plugged in and nothing, checked wifi, nothing. Didn't find any connections at all. Did some research and apparently my hardware is too new. My network chip requires the 6.10 kernel and mint only has 6.8.

Someone suggested i try nobara which has the 6.12 kernel. I did
Installed it, was connected to the internet but it said limited connectivity on both ethernet and wifi, which was essentially like not being connected at all, couldn't do anything with it, couldn't open a web page, nothing. I tried to do mobile hotspot which surprisingly worked for some reason. Did some stuff, rebooted my PC and now it cant connect even to the mobile hotspot, just got stuck in authentication forever. I left it at that and went to work.

Came back from work and decided to try manjaro.
At first i was extremely pleased that my internet just worked right away. First thing i did was install discord so i could joing the manjaro or linux discords to get help for whatever i needed. Downloaded it through their tool. Started it and it says it needs an update. It wont open without it. Apparently this has been a problem for years lookiung at reddit threads etcetera. Tried some fixes but they either didnt work for me at all, or we're just outdated like a download link to download it outside the manjaro tool but that link no longer worked.

So i gave up. Could i have found solutions to all those problems? Evntually probably, but who has that kind of time. I still want to be able to move away from windows eventually, please valve make it happen, but three days ago i was a believer in steamOS, now i'm not, but hopefully im wrong.

With nobara did you reboot after you got limited connectivity?

I might be misremembering but pretty sure the limited connectivity is caused by dhcp failure to assign a routable IP address, or possibly two correctly served dhcp IP addresses, but with both devices turned on and no bridge across them to provide a default unified route to serve DNS requests they might have had limited layer 2 Data link layer connectivity, only.

I suspect if that was the issue the easy fix was to either turn off the wired adapter - or physically remove the CAT cable - or to turn off the wifi adapter in the menu, or select to disconnect its WiFi connection, or forget its WiFi credentials and just reboot, to let the DHCP setup start again clean.

But yeah, definitely not a fun experience when simple things go wrong.

 

[Brakum]

Don't try and use Linux unless you are computer literate, using Windows or a Games console doesn't make you computer literate, why would you want to use Linux? it's like taking a speak and spell off a baby and giving it a dictionary, it's going to sit there and ultimately chew on it's hand and the dictionary, now wipe the drool off your mouse and stop chewing on your fingers and re-install windows.

I want to use linux to have more control over my PC and customize it. Like last time i checked you couldnt install a language on windows without installing the keyboard layout. You cant remove recommendations in the start menu, only reduce the amount. Little annoyances like that that add up.

And sure you can actually do some of those things with registry edits and whatnot but then again, that's a bit of a linux experience. And if i need to have a linux experience to have windows work how i want, might aswell go linux.

 

[Brakum]

linux mint is great, very simple. i dont see how anyone can have issues with it.

When your hardware simply doesnt work with it because the kernel is too old for your hardware. You cant see why that would be an issue for someone?

Just checked anither linux thread in here. User said he was using mint and was happy with it but that apparently it works bad if you use multiple monitors and are gaming in one while watching youtube or something on the other. I dont know if that's true but thread is recent and if it is true then mint would have never been an option for me anyway.

 

[RoboFu]

Ubuntu no good anymore?

Yeah buts it's become too easy to use for Linux users. lol. It you aren't constantly in the terminal you are nothing! NOTHING!!!

 

[Brakum]

With nobara did you reboot after you got limited connectivity?

I might be misremembering but pretty sure the limited connectivity is caused by dhcp failure to assign a routable IP address, or possibly two correctly served dhcp IP addresses, but with both devices turned on and no bridge across them to provide a default unified route to serve DNS requests they might have had limited layer 2 Data link layer connectivity, only.

I suspect if that was the issue the easy fix was to either turn off the wired adapter - or physically remove the CAT cable - or to turn off the wifi adapter in the menu, or select to disconnect its WiFi connection, or forget its WiFi credentials and just reboot, to let the DHCP setup start again clean.

But yeah, definitely not a fun experience when simple things go wrong.

Yes when i rebooted is when it stopped working completely. At first o had limited connectivity but managed to connect to mobile hotspot. After the reboot the mobile hotspot didnt work anymore because it got stuck in autheticating forever

 

[Syphon Filter]

Yeah buts it's become too easy to use for Linux users. lol. It you aren't constantly in the terminal you are nothing! NOTHING!!!

ubunti isnt as good as before. the interface wont be familiar with windows users who are the usual ones trying to switch over.

 

[Unknown?]

Idk wtf you people do, everything just works for me, can't say the same for Windows although it was just printers that wouldn't on Windows and figured it out.

 

[PaintTinJr]

Yes when i rebooted is when it stopped working completely. At first o had limited connectivity but managed to connect to mobile hotspot. After the reboot the mobile hotspot didnt work anymore because it got stuck in autheticating forever

What, so on reboot the WPA_supplicant, or whatever it is called, now seemed like it was taking the info to connect to a wifi mobile hotspot, but wouldn't actually connect? - I've seen that problem even a decade ago where the service crashes, and needs a manual restart and wifi profile deleted and reconfigured to get an initial setup.

If wired was already working you should have probably left the wifi alone until completing updates.

I'm pretty sure usb to mobile tethering might have worked - even on mint - and then you could have ran the updates and it might have fixed the hardware compatibility issues on that distro too.

 

[Brakum]

What, so on reboot the WPA_supplicant, or whatever it is called, now seemed like it was taking the info to connect to a wifi mobile hotspot, but wouldn't actually connect?

If wired was already working you should have probably left the wifi alone until completing updates.

I pretty sure usb to mobile tethering might have worked - even on mint - and then you could have ran the updates and it might have fixed the hardware compatibility issues on that distro too.

Wired never worked.

At first nothing worked, tried mobile hotspot and it worked, then i rebooted after a bit. Mobile hotspot wasnt even on. Wired still wasnt working, wifi still wasnt working, so i tried mobile hotspot again since it had worked before but that did no longer work.

But i did the updates. Thats why i rebooted, it asked me to after the updates.

 

[PaintTinJr]

Wired never worked.

At first nothing worked, tried mobile hotspot and it worked, then i rebooted after a bit. Mobile hotspot wasnt even on. Wired still wasnt working, wifi still wasnt working, so i tried mobile hotspot again since it had worked before but that did no longer work.

But i did the updates. Thats why i rebooted, it asked me to after the updates.

Sounds like one of those crappy situations where you find yourself having to illogically unconfigure, reboot and then reconfigure again, or you end up in a terminal having to disable network interfaces using ifconfig, and configure one and then manually configuring its IP address and routing just to run the updates.

Definitely not the way to start with a new OS IMO.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Linux is not beginner friendly no matter what its evangelists try to tell you.

Unless you're doing Bazzite on all AMD system. At that point its about as beginner friendly as it gets.

 

[Brakum]

Sounds like one of those crappy situations where you find yourself having to illogically unconfigure, reboot and then reconfigure again, or you end up in a terminal having to disable network interfaces using ifconfig, and configure one and then manually configuring its IP address and routing just to run the updates.

Definitely not the way to start with a new OS IMO.

Yeah like i said, i would probably have found solutions to all those problems eventually, i didnt think oh this is impossible, just aren't worth my time right now.

 

[HogIsland]

We aren’t there yet. Hopefully soon either Steam or MS has a better option sooner rather than later for gaming focus on proper PCs. Valve seems closer to this. I was hoping we would see more than what we did at CES.

at no point is valve taking responsibility for every network device under the sun. that's what mostly went wrong here.

 

[intbal]

OP, you need something with bulletproof reliability, while also being 100% user-friendly.

I recommend...

 

[RoboFu]

OP, you need something with bulletproof reliability, while also being 100% user-friendly.

I recommend...

Commander X16 is basically a modern C64

 

[Brakum]

at no point is valve taking responsibility for every network device under the sun. that's what mostly went wrong here.

It's not every network device under the sun. It's modern ones.

Like having a 10 year old pc and some piece of software not working because your hardware is no ponger supported is fine. That usually happens sooner or later.

Your hardware being too new is not a problem i had seen outside of linux ever. I could see it happening if it was like a few days. But not months, and the next update is till not gonna have it. Maybe only with mint 23 which is 18 months away. So support for 2024 hardware is coming in late 2026 possibly? Im sure it's not gonna take that long and they'll probably do it sooner but still it's gonna be months or a year.