Windows 10 to Linux Part 1: First steps - Trials and tribulations

In this video we are going to evaluate how well the process of migrating to a completely different operating system goes.

This is a multipart series on moving from Linux to Windows.

00:00 Introduction
00:59 Downloading Ubuntu Budgie and copy to Memory Stick
04:14 Trying Ubuntu Budgie - boot from Memory Stick
09:42 Preparing the computer for Ubuntu Installation - backup and shrink windows partitions
14:52 Ubuntu Budgie Allocation of linux partitions
21:11 Ubuntu Budgie 1st Impressions
23:28 1st Problem - Ubuntu App Center & Incompatible Nvidia Drivers
26:30 2nd Problem - Bad Generic Graphics Driver and defective apps
30:51 3rd Problem - Unable to Revert to Nvidia Driver
33:05 4th Problem - OBS Studio doesn't work
33:31 5th Problem - Steam Games
36:52 6th Problem - System Monitor doesn't kill processes
38:06 1st Solution - Fixing Cities Skylines
39:18 2nd Solution - OBS Studio Now Works!
40:55 X-Plane in Linux
44:29 Initial Conclusions

[Someone-jfmb]

17:30
Swap file is generally preferred over swap partition.

The reason being it is a lot less painful to change the size later on if needed.
If you do swap partition and want to either expand or shrink it, you will have to go through a painful process of shrinking/expanding existing file system + partitions to accomandate that. Which is a very easy to lose data because you need to resize the file system first before resizing the parition.

The other thing about swap is it is also used for hibernation (saving current state to disk). That is saved to swap and if you don't have enough of it, it will fail. My go to is spend 1x - 1.5x of RAM size on swap so that it is pretty much guaranteed to hibernate.

25:23
Some of the drivers are for "server". You can see "server" at the end of the package name.
Normally it should "just work" but unfortunately it doesn't in this case. Nvidia drivers/cards are always annoying to deal with unlike AMD which works out of the box.
When dealing with this, it is normally good to downgrade 1 version at a time until it works. The X.Org driver (the last entry) should only be used only as last resort.

26:36
This is probably a combination of the budgie desktop and the X.Org driver you selected.

28:02 33:20 39:56
Yeah, that's why the app store says it is "unofficial". It is not guaranteed to work. I haven't used ubuntu for a while but on some other app store/distro, there's an option to choose which source to install from, maybe you can find the flatpak version there.

36:15
I assume you are running the native version. This is probably 1 of those funny situations where Linux native support is worse than just running the Windows version with proton, which unfortunately is true for many games.

37:44
Probably the budgie desktop fault here. The "End Process" there is probably trying to "Terminate" instead of "Kill", which the difference is one is asking the program itself to end and the other one is forcefully ending it.


Overall, there are many pitfalls when it comes to playing games or doing "poweruser" (very losely) stuff on Linux. And Ubuntu is partly at fault here honestly where they are offering so many flavors which they are grabbing more than they can chew, trying to support too many things.

A more mainstream Ubuntu would solve some of the issues you have but a distro like PopOS is probably the way to go to have a more "pitfalless" experience for playing games.

[andrewd]

So you don't have to repeat the process on a regular basis, I would recommend using the LTS version. LTS stands for long term support. Typically you get 5 years from release. Other versions of Ubuntu are normally supported for 9 months. I made the transition a few years ago and am happily using an elderly i5 that is not able to run Windows 11. Hopefully your excellent video will inspire others to try Linux and help keep unsupported PCs out of the e Waste bin.

[robf]

I've tried dual booting into various Linux distros over the years, but have always tended to drift back into just Windows. The friction and hassle was just too much work for me. But having seen your video and read the comments here I may have another go.

[julesprocter]

I moved across to Linux about 15 years ago. Initially on Ubuntu, but now I just use Mint. It takes me about 2 hours to build a new system, and is rock solid. Also has the benefit that all my apps also work on my Raspberry Pi4.

[Ray-dsdc]

Oh dear, so many problems! There will be the odd problem with Linux when you want to get every last Steam game working.
However, I think that the message here is don't start with odd-ball variants of distributions like the Budgie desktop. Keep to the standard Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, PopOS, etc, desktops that every one else uses. I have about 600 games, from modern to ancient pre-Windows 95 games with almost all of them working on Linux Mint (that uses the old X-Windows server).

[tylerb]

Another think you can do is download ventoy onto a flashdrive. Then you can put several Linux ISOs on it. That way you can try a few in live iso boot before you settle on a distro.

[Atomic-Purple-Guy]

for me it was much simpler because I started Linux around the XP era. I only dual booted for gaming but now I can do that in Linux. However I still need it for Photoshop but if adobe made a native Linux version i'd no longer need to dual boot. Yes gimp exists but not viable for my workflow.

[grahamleiper]

Good video.
Hadn't heard of Ubuntu Budgie.
Was beginning to look at various Linux distros but also ChromeOSFlex for some older PCs I still use as I'm not keen on hacking them to run Win 11 as presume they'll randomly stop working after an update.
Think it's a big own goal for Microsoft and the best excuse for a move to Linux (for users that way inclined - it's not for everyone) since the end of XP support.

[Dutch-linux]

raspberry pi is not the same as running linux on a pc... different architecture.. your experience is basically 0 ....just use Linux mint it are video's like this that harms the linux community because of the lack of understanding how and what and then using an experimental DE like budgie is not helping either... just listen to the recommendations and use MINT !!!

[alymzhanchik]

IIRC there are ways around paying for Windows 10 updates... If not, I might need to hop onto Linux as well 😭

[UltraZelda]

Been there, done that... over twenty years ago.

[shadyKING]

I'd rather prefer outdated Pop!_Os 22.04 or Linux Mint 22 with lack of features on X11 then latest Ubuntu on Wayland.
If next time when i install Ubuntu this stupid snap gives me any kind of error i will never install this garbage again.

ZorinOS looks like a way to go for newbie in my eyes, because preconfigured wine (if im not mistaken it is preconfigured in Zorin) is a gamechanger for me even on Arch Based distros like CachyOS.

[Dutch-linux]

2 you have the unofficial version of obs installed.. you install it with obs no studio behind it and scroll down in the software manager list till you see the official one !!!! come on you got to look what things say !!!!

[areriff]

most linux software is less polish.
I use linux only to tinker but never for actual productive works.