So You Want to Move to Linux

With Windows 10 getting EOL'ed in the last few weeks, I've gotten a number of questions from some friends about what it's like to game on Linux, which has given me a reason to dust off the blog and fire off a post about how a gamer should swap to Linux.

There are a few things to consider, which I'll break down, but one thing to remember is that the only thing that can go wrong is you waste your time. Just keep track of your Windows license key and you can always go back to the way things were.

Note - if you're using Nvidia hardware, this will be way more of a pain in the ass. There'll be an extra blurb for you at the end.

TL;DR The latest Fedora KDE edition will be the best option for Windows migrants looking to game.

The longer answer:

There are a few solid choices for Linux beginners. Ubuntu, POP!_OS, Fedora are the big three. Unfortunately, explaining the differences between them requires explaining what exactly a "Linux" is.

Kernel, desktop environment, package manager, package update cadence - these are the three technologies that largely set apart distributions from each other in $(CURRENT_YEAR). Windows more or less has these components, but obscures any detail from the user, so needing to know anything about them as a Windows user is not important, even for power users.

Kernel - the part of your operating system that talks with your hardware. It's super important for device compatibility. If you have a new system, you're probably going to need a newer kernel.

Desktop environment - the way your desktop looks and feels. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome, but there are dozens of them. One thing to note - an OS does not need a desktop environment. A computer without a desktop environment will just be a "terminal".

Package manager - the tool used to download applications. This can be a tough one to wrap your head around as a Windows user - you're probably used to just going to a website and downloading an exe/msi installer. Linux does things more like your phone; instead of the Play Store or App Store, there's DNF or APT that have their own list of "apps" you can install. The distribution you choose may have a different package manager than another distribution.

Package Updates - package managers can be configured with a "source list" that tell the package manager which versions of packages to look for. It's more complicated than that, but for the sake of this blog, that's good enough. Just know that distributions can (and do) specify specific versions of applications that you can download.

With those things understood, Fedora is (in my experience) the best choice because it ships very up to date (but not MOST up to date) packages so you get modern but not bleeding edge software, a very recent kernel (but not MOST recent) for best hardware compatibility, the DNF package manager which most "non package manager" software will have installers for, and it comes with a number of desktop environments so you can easily customize your experience should you desire to.

Ubuntu and POP! are both Debian based. Debian is a distribution that has a philosophy of stability, which means that its packages and kernel are VERY old. Downstream distributions tend to share that philosophy. One thing that POP! does that Fedora and Ubuntu do not, is bundle Nvidia drivers - installing those is quite a bit of tedium, and often they don't perform as well even when installed correctly as they would in Windows.

You'll need to put the operating system on your computer's disk, replacing Windows. Super easy. Just requires a USB disk.

First you need to get the disk image - a .iso - from Fedora's website. Get the x86-64 version, KDE spin. Here's a link: https://www.fedoraproject.org/kde/download

Next you'll need to image your USB disk. This requires "etching" software - balenaetcher or rufus are my Windows go-tos.

Using your software, select your USB disk and your .iso, then blow it away.

Once that's etched, turn off your computer and go into your BIOS. You can do that by hammering a bunch of keyboard keys, or googling your motherboard's BIOS key and hitting it until you get a screen. Go to "Boot order" or equivalent (you'll have to do some figuring here, all BIOS screens are different) and select your USB key.

There will be an installer that guides you through things. You'll select your language, your disk to install it on (make sure it's the one inside the computer, not your USB disk), and create your user account. Install and reboot.

After logging in, go to "Discover" and settings, then enable Flathub. Or follow this - https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora - the TL;DR is that we're setting up FlatHub as a package source to install stuff. It's generally the single supported place for a lot of Linux software.

With FlatHub enabled, you can install those packages using the Discover app. When using Discover, there will often be Fedora Flatpak, Fedora, and Flathub sources for applications - make sure you choose Flatpak. If you don't, it'll probably be fine, but I always prefer Flathub Flatpaks. Other sources may not be as up to date or well supported as the ones in Fedora repos.

Once they're installed, you should be ready to rock and roll. Send me an email if I've forgotten anything or if you have any questions: [email protected]

I mention earlier in the bit about Distros that the kernel is what's "in charge" of interfacing with the hardware. If you're on Nvidia, understanding that will probably be useful.

The Linux kernel is open source software. They cannot mix it with commercial software and ship it (Some distros and business do anyways, but it's a very grey area).

Unfortunately, some hardware does not have open source drivers, so they cannot be bundled with the Linux Kernel. As you might have guessed, that's the situation with Nvidia. You'll have to download and install the kernel modification to allow Linux to work with Nvidia hardware.

Broadly, there are two steps - adding the non-free (non open source) software repository that the Nvidia driver lives in, and installing the right one.

Adding the repository can be done with this guide:
https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
Follow the non-free steps.

Installing the drivers can be done with these steps:
https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA

Good luck and godspeed. You should probably just buy an AMD card.