How go about fully committing to linux? (I want to dump win11)
Posted by Broesmeli@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 46 comments
As of the recent news from microsoft, i am really willing to try and probably stay on linux for good. I know a little bit about distros and such but i also discovered that onedrive / teams and rhino3d is not available as far as i can tell. I really depend on these applications for my startup and also i need excel + powerpoint. Everything else (gaming, programming, ...) should be no problem. I know there are alternatives for everything but i especially need rhino/grasshopper. For excel + powerpoint i would be fine with openoffice.
Has someone done this recently and can give me a little guide? Should i maybe dualboot windows? (I dont prefer having two os)
Thanks for your suggestions!
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Silent-Currency-4234@reddit
Install a stable distro like Mint. When it breaks, fix it instead of reinstalling Windows. That's it that's the whole way to do it.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
yup, but first not on my main machine.
Silent-Currency-4234@reddit
What's the hesitation? You've already listed alternatives for everything you want. I can tell you Linux isn't going to auto-update your machine to a blue screen of death overnight like Windows might. Stability and security-wise these days... There's no real reason to not simply take the plunge. If you don't do it on your main machine you'll never fully commit, and Microsoft will keep putting more and more spyware and adware into your OS and making it's stability worse and worse as they enshittify it with AI slop code.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Ahh damn you really have a point there..
Miraj13123@reddit
if you are just a linux user who needs only browser then its okey.
but you can't ditch windows if your favorite games only run in windows.
for the time being lets think that you don't play games and you need the browser only but you are a programmer (not web dev). then you have to test your program in the most popular os to see if your windows binary(.exe) works. so there's no escape cause you have to keep windows in dual boot for constant debugging
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Nah man i need that 3d software, visual studio code, excel & powerpoint.. i dont care that much about my games.
Miraj13123@reddit
when i said games i means all the softwares that are windows only.
excel has online version which is minimalist. the PowerPoint's online version minimizes the animation and a lot of feature to a certain extent. so if you just just use excel for normal spread sheet without doing high level stuff that can be done by the online alternative then you're good to go. also you can try the Microsoft office's alternative from google
excel --> google sheet word --> google doc powerpoint --> google slide. etc. ......
but that 3d software. do u have any alternative for that?
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
I think i can get around the m365 part but not rhino.. i need that grasshopper/simulation plugins. If i switch, i need to start from scratch. Guys dont get me wrong im not holding on to windows for dear life i really want to switch to linux. I hate w11 every day more.
Miraj13123@reddit
also if you are new to linux. ......
never go for the "ditch windows" option. have mercy on your life and time. you'll waste a lot of time and then return to windows.
instead, do dual boot
Silent-Currency-4234@reddit
It's super super super super weird to me that Rhino3D is "Open Source" and then in the rest of the sentence says "Please give us a thousand dollars no you may not see the source code"....
Usually "Open Source" software is actually free, people can see the code, people are able to make copies/forks of the code and modify it for their own wants and needs, build it for other operating systems, and use it. For free.
The companies who release Open Source software and actually give away the software then make their money selling support. If you want/need professional help with the software you give them money for a support contract and they give you a ticket desk and phone number for your account. They help you with setup and errors and will prioritize patching bugs in the main release because of the issues you raise in the paid support system.
These people are being extremely disingenuous.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Completely agree. Though its in comparison pretty cheap software for 1000.- lifetime.. and there are not a lot of alternatives with visual programming (grasshopper) and so many community plugins.
theaveragemillenial@reddit
Honestly if you aren't familiar with Linux don't try and run your start up on it, that's a disaster waiting to happen.
Get comfortable on Linux at home for gaming etc, keep windows for work for now.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Its so sad, i feel like linux is FINALLY going more public as i read more and more about it but still its not quite there yet. I hope major software are getting compatible with it in the next few years. Gaming is already not that big of a problem anymore, so its on the right track i think.
I can only switch if my software is fully supported as i dont want to have a second workstation / vm running win
theaveragemillenial@reddit
I feel you've misunderstood.
Linux is there, you aren't and that would be the problem when it comes to running your startup successfully.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
oh yeah maybe lay it out that way. Either way Rhino doesnt run on linux so its not there there in my opinion. It's an industry standard modeling software and people in the business depend on such software. if they dont run without fideling around then linux is not there. Photoshop is another case people depend on. We cant just go to gimp because its similar, we need to use it sometimes.
I could handle a little workaround dont get me wrong (i would also love to honestly..) but its too mission critical for me, based on the comments here.
Silent-Currency-4234@reddit
The software problem is that people insist on using $26,000,000 software from megacorporations.
GIMP and other image processing apps are every bit as powerful as Photoshop, people don't want to spend the time learning it. There are several very powerful modeling and CAD programs that are open source. People don't want to spend the time learning them.
The software is available. People are drinking the corporate Kool-Aid. At the end of the day you have to decide if your security, privacy, and money (in that order) are worth the time it takes to inconvenience yourself and learn something new.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Not speaking of adobe but rhino is quite cheap. Its 1000 euro lifetime. You never get that on corporate cad software. yeah i know the problem but as an employee coming from a school where no open source software is taught (literally every school i know) its hard to completely switch software and catch up with the years of learning the corporate solutions..
PresentDirection41@reddit
If you're reliant on OneDrive/Teams/Excel/Powerpoint, obviously you should stay on Windows.
painefultruth76@reddit
Libreoffice for officesuite.
You'll have to tinker around with various Linux based 3d modeling software options.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
My program depends on grasshopper in rhino.. so a different modeling software will not work..
painefultruth76@reddit
Maybe WINE, but that's not an introductory operation, especially for a production environment. Libreoffice is available for windows, and you can shut off the windows crap, to a degree... winaerotweaker... don't forget to move your files to local directories and repoint the user libraries away from onedrive...
SapphireSire@reddit
Are you the type of person who can solve your own problems?
Enjoy terminals or at least want to learn?
Imo the biggest challenge is the beginning and the best way to learn is spending a weekend installing either slackware or Arch with a few minimalist window managers and then compiz for the glory.
I learned myself in 1999 with red hat 6.0 and e16....e16 is stilly favorite.
It's fairly easy today yet still good to know FDISK to setup your filesystem.
For a more common distro is Fedora, very easy yet I still don't like gnome or kde as much as it's pushed.
whatever you decide, give it a week before giving up. Use a terminal whenever you can.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Im already quite comfortable with the terminal as i run my own homelab. So i think installing it with a little guidance should be doable.
SapphireSire@reddit
Installing has never been easier.
I only suggest manually setting up your file system bc it's also easy and you will have a basic understanding of where files are.
Customizing your own menus are another easy way to fast track the simplicity and elegance of it.
Imo it's not any more difficult than setting up a winX with powershell but so much more powerful.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
why the downvotes?
Nearby_Astronomer310@reddit
Instead of dual booting you can run a virtual machine for anything that you need.
Also you may wanna consider the privacy and control/freedom aspects of the software that you are using.
tdammers@reddit
Then IMO you should either rethink how your startup is going to operate, or stay on Windows.
Onedrive is a Microsoft service, and in good old Microsoft fashion, they are using it as a way to soft-lock you into their ecosystem. That's a liability anyway, so you might want to look for alternatives - it's not like "cross-platform cloud storage" isn't a thing, so I would go and survey what's out there, compare the costs, and weigh those against that lock-in liability.
Teams works fine on Linux (worst case, use it in a browser - I do that all the time), and for clients who won't use anything else, you should be prepared to use it, but for anything else (especially internal comms), it's probably worth surveying the alternatives. Most of them work fine on Linux.
Rhino3D won't work on Linux; you may have some luck with Wine, but that tends to be hit-or-miss, and 3D performance may or may not be good enough. If Rhino (rather than "any industry-strength 3D modeling software") is pivotally important for your core business, then, see above, either rethink your core business, or stay on Windows. If your business could work with other 3D modelling software, then go survery the alternatives. Blender is open source, and people have made entire CGI movies in it, so that might be an option (impossible to tell without knowing your specific requirements though); and AFAIK there are also several commercial 3D modelling solutions that will run natively on Linux. Do some research, estimate how much it would cost to migrate your business over, and decide whether it would be worth it.
IMO dual booting is rarely convenient; the biggest issue is that you cannot run Windows and Linux applications simultaneously.
If I had a business that required some Windows software, and there was no way around having actual Windows running somewhere, I would do that on a separate machine, and then use whatever network stuff you need to share things between them. This way, you can run Windows and Linux stuff at the same time, without having to reboot; you won't have Windows butcher your boot partitions when you upgrade it; you'll be running actual Windows, on metal; and you can put up whatever defenses you need to isolate the Windows software from your Linux machines (running other critical stuff, like business adminstration software or whatever).
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Thanks a lot for that comment! I think reading this i will stay on windows for work and migrate my gaming machine to linux. Or i buy a cheap second hand laptop and try it on there.
FairyToken@reddit
I understand the conflict. For one client I need to use their Win software, which I do by remoting into a separate Windows laptop with Rustdesk. Over time I will want to move this into a LTSC VM but for now that's the most easy way.
In your case I would also recommend to try Linux on a separate machine and get acquainted first. Definitely has its perks.
fishead62@reddit
take a look at Winboat. From what I understand, it runs Win 10 or 11 in a VM and uses Remote Desktop to pop the windows program dialogues into your Linux desktop. Go to r/winboat for more info.
I’m in the same situation; I need a few windows programs and just found out about Winboat. But, Winboat uses docker to containerize the win environment. I have podman installed over my docker and that’s getting in the way of Winboat. But they announced they’re working on an update for podman support and it should be out in a month or so. I’ll try it then.
ososalsosal@reddit
Depends how much you need to get done and whether you have the opportunity to commit to learning it. You absolutely can just rip the band-aid and go 100% Linux, but you don't want to be under pressure to be productive for a while. It's fun to learn if the only goal is seeing if you can replace windows. Otherwise it can get frustrating (but not as much as you might think).
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Yeah so its probably better if i try it in an isolated space like a vm or different machine. It would be bad if i couldnt get the software to run and thus not be productive.
ososalsosal@reddit
I just put it on a netbook and tried to see what I could make it do.
TobberH@reddit
You might be able to use WinBoat for running Rhino.
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
I was just researching a bit and stumbled upon this! Need to try it.
Puzzled-Spell-3810@reddit
rhino3d is not supported on linux and honestly i would stick with windows if i were you
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Alright.. so i will buy an older dell xps 13 and slap linux on it to finally try it out.
tendiveton@reddit
The main problem is the 3d software, if you depend on it, don't use Linux!
I feel like you have your head in the right place, and also do not like the Win economy and the fact that you are paying a very high price for it (not talking about money).
In your case, if you don't like tinkering and spending time with computers, I would switch to mac - yes I've said it - alternatively have a dedicated workstation with windows for work only (Dualboot is bullshit imo)
As you said Gaming, ms-office and programming etc is really not a big deal anymore. Gaming is getting really really good on Linux, only a few games still lock-out linux for AC purposes. Only/Libre-office is good enough for writing. Presentations can be done with LaTex or tools like Figma (if you need fancy) and exported as PDF.
In any case, you should really really try to get away from onedrive!
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Thanks man, yeah i think i'm waking up :D, just recently built my own unraid server with a lot of docker containers on it.
I must say i'm more scared to try mac than linux. The hardcore mac os user just has that mindset "i always did it like that" despite some things make no sense to me ui/workflow wise.
Unfortunately i think because of rhino3d i need to stay on windows for now tho. And the onedrive thing...: i absolutely dont like it but right now i use m365 and there is 1tb cloud storage included in my plan. I dont want to pay for another cloud storage. So thats why i use it for now. But i feel how they are sucking me into this microsoft shithole and i hate it.
raphaelian__@reddit
Teams is available as a web version, microsoft office has good alternatives, and, at least on GNOME, Microsoft OneDrive sync is available natively in settings/online accounts
Myese@reddit
I have my Google drive hooked up to gnome and it rocks! So much nicer than MS' one drive program that comes with Windows and infests it...
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Ah nice i didnt know that!
Electrical_Tomato_73@reddit
Anything that works on a browser is available on linux. Teams is available as a native app, not sure about onedrive. No idea about rhino3d or grasshopper. Excel/powerpoint web versions work, and libreoffice is a pretty competent replacement if you need offline office software. (NOT OPENOFFICE, that is an unmaintained years-old disgrace from the Apache folks)
Broesmeli@reddit (OP)
Ah sorry dude i meant libreoffice..
Individual-Cap9038@reddit
I recommend LibreOffice which is the default office suite on most distros.