Windows to Linux for a Poweruser

[@ChrisTitusTech]

It should be noted: This is for POWERUSERS! Yes, a beginner should use Linux mint, but a poweruser is someone that knows quite a bit about computers. Making an ISO, probably interacted with the Linux terminal more than a dozen times already... and so on. Mint to a Poweruser simply isn't that great. Powerusers like to change a lot of things and Mint probably feels like XP or an old version of Windows and they will want to change a bunch of things. That is why I recommend Debian and Arch... Yes, it will be rough starting out, but is a better platform for building, modifying, and tinkering.

[@goldark3]

Gaming is way easier now i disagree, its actually just work if you use Steam or lutris you even have heroic launcher(epic custom launcher for linux) i had no problem with game at all and they run great

[@marcelgommans2020]

What a strange statement. Whay makes Mint not so great for Powerusers that like to change a lot of things? You can change everything you want due to the Ubuntu or Debian base.

[@oserodal2702]

​@@marcelgommans2020Mint and Debian arguably are way too slow moving for software developers.

[@Lavamar]

I think he's saying that Debian forces you to set a lot of things and therefore learn a lot of things whereas something like mint doesn't.

[@travisretriever7473]

"Yes, a beginner should use Linux mint," Or Nobara if they're gamers/want the best out of Linux gaming fresh out of the box.

[@fairmania]

"Linux is only as stable as the person using it" made me chuckle. My whole system should be on fire right now... Great video as always Chris, thank you.

[@comosaycomosah]

lol this shit is too true too

[@Mario583a]

"We're all mad here" ~~ Mad Hatter

[@tomspencer1364]

A general principle, probably discover in the stone age, that applies to absolutely everything.

[@Vospi]

Appreciate you not being "on the team" while being devoted. Makes you way more trustworthy in my book.

[@wizicozypher]

My crazy colleague whom i have nicknamed "MadArch" put it plain and simple. "If you wanna really transition to linux, KISS yourself all the way. Keep your requirements simple and your hardware simple" Like Chris mentioned, either virtualize or get a raspberry pi and start using it as your main OS and figure out the shortcomings. My biggest obstacle was having to completely forgo playing the latest games temporarily until I really had a good understanding of Linux. What I ended up with? Dual booting temporarily until I truly knew what I needed to sacrifice in order to ditch Windows 10 and switch completely to Debian with KDE Plasma Linux is a time sink to switch to, and anyone who doesn't have the patience nor the time to spare is better off continuing using Windows or Mac until the time is right.

[@potatogod3000]

Nicely put. I switched to Linux fulltime when I was a student and tinkering with my PC at home. I was able to afford completely wiping out the hdd on accident, dump 100+ hours installing and tinkering with debian, arch and fedora, learn the ins and outs of package management and get familiar with all the Linux quirks and terminology. It took me a year to finally settle down on a workflow that suited me after deciding which desktop environment, applications and base distro (commands for package management, distro stability, package availability etc.,) I was comfortable with. If you don't have time, do a virtual machine install first. Then flash the OS you choose into an USB and trial-run the OS by booting right from the USB (this way, you can test out hardware compatibility. Don't worry about NVidia GPU compatibility because their proprietary drivers support the same stuff as their windows driver)

[@scpatl4now]

You could also use a live USB stick.

[@petergplus6667]

True, don't even think about Linux if you want things to just work.

[@The_Last_Question]

This hits home, mom wants to keep using her old PC but win11 won’t run on it So we are seriously debating getting her a Mac mini, a new windows machine, or running a Linux distro on that machine until the decision become obvious

[@drjimbarnes]

@@The_Last_Question Buy mom what she wants. Remember, she's been a great mom to you, no doubt.

[@cubeskywalker4953]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You have got to be among the top 5 most level headed linux youtubers on the internet! Thanks for all you do!

[@leod9968]

Which are the other 4?

[@cubeskywalker4953]

@@leod9968 I say that Titus would be in that top five because: -He doesn't go on "Windows is evil" tangents like some linux youtubers -He will readily admit that linux isn't perfect, just like windows isn't perfect -He uses windows often enough to know what the "normal" world deals with on a daily basis I don't have an official top 5. But if I did he would be on that list, as well as Micheal Horn. Who would you put on the list? Someone who would not be on my list is Brodie Robertson. Don't get me wrong though, I am subscribed to his channel and really enjoy his content. But it feels like he has only been in the linux bubble for a while, and doesn't have as much RECENT experience daily driving windows like Titus seems to have. (now just watch him or his other subscribers show up and roast my comment 😅)

[@nikolanikolv]

As far as linux distributions are concerned, it doesn't really matter which one you use as long as you use linux

[@vipvip-tf9rw]

as long as you use mainline or mainline direct dirivative, like mint or kubuntu, and not manjaro or something niche like proxmox with de

[@AfterArch]

no Ubuntu

[@Splarkszter]

It does because of ease of use. Linux Mint is one of the best 'just works' distros

[@homermakes]

I’ve tried all the big names but Debian is the most “just works” and yes Linux is almost never just works

[@sonphamthe2341]

@@vipvip-tf9rw dont recommend snap based distros

[@tomspencer1364]

The first thing I like about this video is the title. It tells you who its aimed at and what the goal is. The next it is organized well and the explanations are clear.

[@launebaer86]

Chris, thank you so much for your video, coming at the right time! I am an IT Admin who was "born" into Windows and I work mostly with Windows Server. I played a bit with Raspberry Pis for things like PiHole and Adguard but never became familiar with working in Linux and remembering prompts etc.! I swear to myself to never go to Windows 11 (for obvious reasons) and stay at Windows 10 as long as possible. But now I challenged myself and I will try to move to Linux Mint as baby step. Please keep up the good work, I think do to Windows Copilot and stuff more people than ever are willing to move away from Windows. And as you mentioned in the video, a lot of work can be done in Browsers nowadays! :)

[@wizicozypher]

I think Windows Recall was the last straw for alot of people. Its still well known that Windows 11 still has a poor market share due to the combination of both the hardware requirements and Microsoft literally not giving a flying hoot about other peoples security when they didn't encrypt the Windows Recall screenshots... Keep your requirements simple and your hardware simple, it'll seriously help you on your journey understanding the simple stuff before tackling more obscure usage requirements buddy

[@smileychess]

I've had a Framework laptop with Windows 11 for a while. It finally dawned on me to switch to Linux Mint, as that laptop is a secondary computer and perfect for tinkering. So far it has gone 98% smoothly, and even got Steam working with very little effort. Now I'm itching to transition my main PC to Linux (probably Debian). Unfortunately my job involves Windows software, but I might just build a tiny PC for that work only, and everything else will go Linux. We'll see!

[@dingokidneys]

Something that a lot of Windows users wouldn't be aware of is that Linux comes with documentation: real documentation of all the terminal commands available by using the 'man' command. (man == manual) Use is like: $ man ls You get all the documentation of the 'ls' command. There's also 'apropos' which is the same as 'man -k' which will search through the manuals for keywords and give a brief description of matching commands. Use 'man apropos' to see how to use it. :) To find stuff that deals with docker, use: $ apropos docker Or for network manager stuff: $ apropos "network.*manager" Another thing to get to terms with is regular expressions as they are used widely across Linux CLI commands and are massively powerful.

[@MMOStein]

Mint is super boring and too windows like. Just install Debian directly or Arch like Chris said (Fedora is good too but idk why he didn't mention that one). Mint is literally designed for people who don't want to use a computer (like Windows....). They made it easy/similar to Windows as possible, so you WON'T need to learn anything. If you are even remotely proficient in tech, you don't need a distro to treat you like a toddler. If you intend to poke around the system and LEARN some Linux, stay away from the super easy distros.

[@BeepBoop2221]

Born to windows, moulded by it. I did not see a Linux terminal until I was a man.

[@Practical-IT]

Used Windows (mainly to support other people) since 1990 Used Linux Since 1997-1998-ish Used macOS since 2008 The best statement of the whole video was your closer. Your system will only be as stable as the person using it. This doesn't just apply to Linux, but ANY OS. Windows is a strange beast. I've met a lot of people in my IT career who claim to be "Windows Power Users" but beyond configuring games, they are pretty useless.

[@C.Vitalizio]

Don't you feel limited as an IT pro using Mac os? Genuinely curious...

[@df3yt]

Feels like a prison for me. It's taught me to be less critical of Windows and Linux.

[@dingokidneys]

I think "Power User" is a relative term, i.e. used where I used to work, it included anyone who could do anything beyond create and use MS Office docs. In other workplaces it might be people who can troubleshoot their own network issues. I was described as a "Unix Systems Admin" by our IT manager when talking to an IT consultant even though I was an accountant because I could do things on our Solaris systems like write data analysis scripts in Perl and AWK and set up and manage the software to allow us to interface with our bank's secure back-end. I wouldn't have called myself that. Power User is a very flexible term that can mean a lot or nothing at all, in my experience.

[@dontyouknowalready2168]

Heyho! Powernoob here. Is there still a thing in Windows, called power user? Running ps and cmd as admin quite often pretty much useless without bypassing the restrictions. Like I'm unwanted in their recommended way of being.

[@milohoffman274]

Debian stable is now released every other year. Its reputation for being very old comes from the old days when it was 5-7 years between releases. When Debian 13 comes out in a few months, it will be pretty much have the latest stuff with KDE 6.2+, hyprland, etc. Plus you can just use flatpak to always have the latest version of things like browers, apps etc, while still using the very stable base Debian OS.

[@dingokidneys]

You also have options such as distrobox, docker, podman, as well as full virtualisation environments to try the new hotness out in without disturbing the stability of your base system. I have used distrobox to test compile my network driver on later versions of my base system so that I know my wifi connection will still work when I upgrade the base system. I have a problematic wifi dongle. ;p

[@SirChristoferus]

Compatibility for the current generation of hardware is looking pretty impressive for Debian 13’s alpha releases these days. It’ll probably attract many new desktop users when the official release arrives, especially with Windows 10’s EOL approaching.

[@m.heyatzadeh]

This is one of the most honest guides and it's very informative. It doesn't gaslight users into thinking Linux is flawless. I wish all experienced Linux KZbinrs were this hoenst.

[@MarcRitzMD]

I think your hardware-compatibility discussion could have mentioned that you could face issues with audio equipment in general and anything that relies on a software counterpart. Changing settings and macros on some keyboards, mice, anything by Elgato. HDR and HDCP/DRM stuff is also a perennial problem

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Yeah the audio in Linux kinda sucks and I wish elgato made their stuff for Linux. My production machine where I record is still Windows because of all the Elgato gear I'm using.

[@alexeyrafaelhernandezmilla9904]

@@ChrisTitusTech Is not a Linux problem if Elgato don`t want to make it easy for linux there is nothing to about it

[@master74200]

@@ChrisTitusTech If you don't use elgato however, and you're willing to use the already-everywhere Pipewire solution, then it may actually be _easier_ to get going with recording. I don't speak objectively of course, since there's no current source for this information, but my experience so far has been that if you plug in a mixer and use the Pro Audio solution and don't mind settings up your audio workflow graph manually once, then you'll be able to go much farther easier on Linux than on Windows. On macOS it may be easier than both, though. But Windows is not a powerhouse for audio work, there's just a lot of companies pushing to get there, and after having several competing ASIO implementations installed it gets quite messy really fast, to the point where having multiple Windows machines may be the only solution.

[@notjustforhackers4252]

flatpak install streamcontroller You guys even look?

[@Bhananan]

definitely, i was researching and wanting to install my software to manage the "realtek hd audio" sound card and re-program the audio connectors (i have 2 sound systems) and both use the "audio output" the blue and green jack, from the realtek software it lets me re-program so they share the same audio output.... i didn't find how to do it in linux or anything related... a shame because i loved everything else, in fact the logitech g hub doesn't work either so i can't use my logitech hardware like the mouse etc. the dpi and the other gadgets that i use in windows... i hope someone tells me how to do it and if so i'll go back to linux... by the way i tried "bazzite" very good

[@wotw86]

Chris, link to the article is broken, it looks like you didn't publish it yet?

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Done

[@JustIceForSake]

It works here, try again now

[@sweep-]

To think this young gentleman did a drunken arch install, oh so many years ago… thanks Chris for all the vids through the years! Keep up the good work!!

[@EgorBakanov]

Finally a refined version of a talk you make 7 month ago 👍

[@Starhartdeer]

I've listened to many hours of linux-related content. I like having absorbed a bunch of info by proximity :)

[@sozonpv]

“Office 2010 straight up does not work “. This is why I like Titus. Humility and honesty = trust. When you see a Linux/wine video that is showing office 2010 with background music you know it is suspect.

[@catriona_drummond]

Don't use a Pi or a virtual machine! Use a proper PC, maybe an older system, something with an Nvidia graphics card, odd peripherals, WiFi sticks and whatnot. Linux LOVES to run smoothly in a virtual machine with all its drivers nicely sorted. It's on bare metal when it gets messy. Test it on bare metal.

[@master74200]

And don't have that bare metal be a Raspberry Pi, on that I agree. Things that will work effortlessly on an ordinary PC, games, even certain drivers, simply won't work on a Raspberry Pi. It's a terrible idea to completely switch OS, CPU architecture, and host platform, all at the same time.

[@bobclarke5913]

@@master74200 The Pi wormed its way into people's brains so deep that here we are two generations beyond it making any sense for a PC/NAS role in a world where you can get a little x86 box cheaper that it's still a suggestion. One that needs to be gently de-programmed from those afflicted.

[@Nevil_Tan]

You can have both windows and Linux in a single machine only thing you need an extra hard disk for Linux and choose witch Os you want to boot as PC start. a 500GB SSD is chipper than a raspberry pi and your PC is powerful than any single board PC.

[@Rakitzch]

3 very important but often overlooked hurdles are: File permissions, Firewall, Keyrings. They're simple "set and forget" differences, but a lot of people trip up on those 3.

[@gadeane287]

Awesome, Chris. I sure wish I had seen this before my first foray into Linux. Well done!

[@okcount]

glad to see you back, chris

[@rinaldir8628]

Every Linux newbie should watch Chris' video. It gives the needed perspective before the migration.

[@Skudster13]

I'm still a strong poweruser in Windows for gaming and work, but I have a few servers and some other systems running Linux. When I started to move things over to Linux, it was tough because I was fighting against using CLI (easier than people think) and wanting things to work like Windows. Once I wrapped my brain around the basics of working in Linux (still learning), it all got a lot easier. I honestly wish this video existed back when I started my switch as it would have saved me a ton of anguish and time. Thank you Chris!

[@NONAME69-p2e]

I did exactly what you have said in this video. I was a windows PU for my whole life, and when windows 11 released I decided it was time to switch. I used Debian for a week, got bored, and went right to arch. It really wasn’t hard to figure it out and I have learned so much about computing in general by using arch. I now triple boot between a super debloated Windows, Debian, and Arch, but I find I use arch the most (btw) 10/10 would recommend for anybody with a little bit of time to kill, who has a good technical aptitude, and wants to switch to Linux.

[@ytbone9430]

I test drive Debian / Linux for some years now. The more I get into it, the less I'm impressed with Linux in general. It's still nice to have as a side kick and doing special server work without any licensing costs. There are some fun parts in Linux as well of course, but rather rare. Anyway, I wonder how you got bored after 1 week, since it seems impossible to figure out all the things Debian does not do or does differently than Windows and its application ecosystem in 1 week! o)

[@matthewmoore757]

Linux is better at some things, and Windows is better at other things. There's no right answer here. Just Use what works for you. I use Arch and Debian at home. But for my business i need Windows. I'm using Windows LTSC for that. A good operating system gets out of the user's way and just serves as a medium for running the software you want to run. That's what an OS is supposed to do. In my opinion the LTSC version of Windows, is the only one that qualifies. The fact it requires a bulk volume license is annoying. I wish that wasn't the case. But it is what it is. I Love Arch to death. But i'm certainly not going to try to run my business with it. I don't think that would work out to well. Operating systems are tools. Sometimes you just have to pick the right tool for the job. It's as simple as that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@michaelgleason4791]

I can't think of anything that Windows is functionally better at. Some things just aren't ported to Linux. If that is what you're defining as "better," then I guess? More like a necessary evil. I don't run Windows because they have no respect for privacy, and they make some files impossible to delete or edit. It's MY system, not Microsoft's. And yes, I run a business from Linux.

[@leod9968]

@@michaelgleason4791 He's probably talking about functionality, not privacy. I have an old PC from 2009 (I use it as a backup and file server, Internet connection is blocked, it doesn't have a keyboard, mouse or monitor), a 2018 notebook computer which I daily use for work and a desktop PC I built in 2022. I installed Windows on the three computers and had no issues at all. I had Windows 11 on the three computers, then rolled back to 10 on two of them. I used to be a System Administrator at IBM, I obtained the MCSE 2003 - Security certification in 2007 and upgraded it to the Windows Server 2008 certification program around 2010. I consider myself a power user nowadays as I haven't been managing servers or network appliances on datacenters since 2016. Currently, I dual boot Windows and Debian on the notebook my latest build. I cannot express the amount of frustration I had setting Debian up, especially on my laptop computer. I lost many, many hours of my life trying to set everything up. I had issues with the Realtek sound module, a USB bluetooth dongle (I needed to use both the onboard Qualcomm Bluetooth module and the dongle at the same time), the Nvidia discrete GPU and my Logitech mouse (I had issues customizing the buttons, infinity scroll wheel and LEDs). I also use the notebook to connect it to my Roland electronic drum set and I also had lots of issues to make it work as I do with Windows (I use it to both apply DSPs, play drum-less audio tracks, capture my drumming sessions and monitor sound). I had to engage with different people multiple times to make everything work at some extent on Debian, because I still couldn't make it work perfectly, that is, without latency or audio quality issues. I love using Linux when it works but it doesn't replace Windows in a way that I can feel confortable deleting it completely from my computers, in my humble opinion, even if I understand your concerns regarding privacy and I agree with those. The perfect Operating System has to be as transparent as possible so users spend the less amount of time fixing and troubleshooting issues, and Linux is not there. In terms of functionality, due to the heterogeneous nature of the whole Linux ecosystem, maybe it will never be (just like Windows, which has its fair share of issues -- especially those related to privacy).

[@KeepEvery1Guessing]

30+ year Linux user. My systems are dual boot with Windows (mostly, not the r-pis), but I now don't let Windows connect to the network (I only really have a couple of apps that require Windows) because the last time I let Windows see the web, an update overwrote my booter (probably the laptop vendor's fault, rather than MS, but still, it doesn't happen when running Linux). And from my level of experience, this video is spot on.

[@DoomsdayLastSurvivor]

You are so amazing, thank you so much for encouraging me to install Arch Linux after learning Debian. I have just installed Arch Linux and i freaking love it. So much easier to install Nvidia drivers. Thank you Christ you are a gem.

[@riverlefae2047]

I have settled on the Cinnamon desktop. I'm not moving to Wayland until Cinnamon has finished the work on porting the DE

[@Masaliantiikeri]

"Linux is only as stable as the person using it" -CTT 2025

[@ringo8410]

I would add that people who have used Linux for a long time also lose touch with what it's like to switch to another OS. It's easy for them and they assume it has to be as equally simple and the solutions to issues as self-evident as it is for them. A segment of the community lacks empathy for newbies.

[@eliaszmonokolo5325]

This is the best beginner’s guide for Linux. I think that a person who wants an easy system to run a browser and LibreOffice will stick to Linux Mint, but an advanced user will use Debian. I started with Ubuntu on a VM and then moved to Debian on real hardware.

[@daviddrumm3673]

You can have BOTH now days, Linux Mint LMDE 6 runs on Debian.

[@eliaszmonokolo5325]

@@daviddrumm3673 Thanks

[@poluefemus]

i don’t think i’ll ever use linux on my main computer since so many things i use just don’t support linux tho it is awesome that linux can look super clean, and it has better privacy and lower resource usage

[@adamturtle69]

I needed the video when I started using Linux. I think it's good that you are told what works and what doesn't work because a lot of people in the Linux world are telling you nonsense. Linux is good and everyone should try it out but not everything works well with Linux and some things just don't work at all. Thank you for telling me all this again but like I said I would have needed it sooner.

[@Luckdragon2000]

For myself and for ease of operation and the fact I'm a gamer, Nobara Linux is my personal choice. I began playing with Linux in 1999 with SuSE Linux while in High School, and then joined the Navy in late 2000 and didn't play with Linux again until I was introduced to Ubuntu in 2009. I played with Ubuntu for a few months before putting it down again until 2019 and found it worth investigating more seriously. Then I began finding more info in 2020 about how to game on Linux and was impressed with the viability getting better. Now, thanks to Microsoft becoming spyware with Win11, and Steam along with Proton and Lutris making legitimate strides with Linux gaming for all, I'm moving exclusively to Linux. Really glad I found your channel in 2020 where your channel and a few others have provided unbelievable help in making Linux not so scary.

[@fotnite_]

As a former Windows power user, I first switched into Arch Linux, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Arch revitalized my love of computing and much of that came from learning how it works. Arch is just difficult enough that it demands you to learn the basics of Linux, but not so difficult that you are required to learn much beyond the basics. The tools are dead simple and easier to reason about than what other distros provide, which actually makes it easier to learn about than other distros. Not to mention that the Arch Wiki is really really good. Nowadays, I use Universal Blue on my desktop, but I'm going into that with all of the knowledge I gained from years of running Arch Linux on my desktop and Debian on my home server. I even still use the `arch-install-scripts` package on my server because tooling like `genfstab` is just so good.

[@ConnorFreebairn]

I've been looking forward to this video for a long time, thank you.

[@RX120D]

Personal anecdote; I switched to Linux and have had nothing but a good time with gaming. It is way easier than I expected it to be. The only game I had issues with is CS2 when trying to play with a stretched resolution. That was on an NVIDIA GPU, but I'm now using AMD so it might be time to revisit that.

[@MesaPrimeX]

If installing Linux, remember to use a Secure-Boot enabled distrobution. It protects software and operating system updates to your computer, while invalidating known UEFI bootkits. (Bootkits being the worst kind of Linux malware)

[@Stef.Cata051]

I tried using Linux mulți times on my main system (a laptop because I'm traveling a lot) and I always ran back to windows like a coward. I'm quite familiar with linux, I use it on my server, my tv box, some random computers in my workshop to control some CNCs but I just can't find software and I don't expect that the kind of software I use will ever be available on linux. And it's nice to not have to switch from one os to another. I already consider myself a power user when it comes to windows, you can mod that as well but not to the extent you can with linux so my windows install it's not your typical windows install. One more problem I have with linux and I'm going to complain about until it's fixed: Inconsistent battery life on laptops, one day the system whippes the floor with windows when it comes to endurance the next day it can barely last 2 hours. I've been trying to fix it in many different ways without success, my laptop doesn't even have a dedicated gpu, it uses the amd igpu

[@repotranstech]

Loud fans and battery life.Thats why am still on windows.

[@rocket2739]

Thank you so much for this video. I've been dual booting Mint for 6 months but I'm nearly 100% of the time still on Windows 10 because everything just works there. Every time I want to do a task in Mint, I'm losing time fixing things that I never expected not to work. As a power user and gamer, the transition is HARD.

[@spunky1682]

Great initiative Chris! It cannot get simpler than this to get bird eye view of installing linux for newbies! Keep it up

[@waynebenge3886]

Good video Chris being 45 years with Windows now 70 years old and now I am with Linux mint LMDE having fun.

[@balintmagyar3285]

I use Linux for only a year, so there is still much to learn ahead of me. This video is useful in many ways, that is sure. I totally agree that sparing the research and preparations before making the move from windows to Linux leads almost certain disaster. As it happened with me in 2007-08. In 2023 I prepared for four months with learning videos, links and a handful of distros to try with. So in January 2024 my move was very smooth and succesful. I tend to disagre in question of virtual machine (or dual boot). Back in my first attempt I used dual boot aswell (Vista and Ubuntu) and though I hated Vista because it was a very bad, buggy OS, but it was still familier. I was not forced to learn when I run into something. That's why after four months I installed win 7, deleting both Vista and Ubuntu. Because of this, a year ago I pushed a hard reset, deleted Windows 11 from my desktop and installed Linux Mint. And I am happy since then. I started distrohopping after six months and found the distro I chose for permanent (blackPanther OS) to my SSD, using my HDD and my laptop, trying out other distros regularly.

[@sergeykish]

Experience differs. I've switched in 2006, kept dual book for some time, my job required Windows anyway. In two years job switched to Linux, Windows partition become unused and dropped. There was not much software on Linux, not even Flash that was used across the Web, we've got it with Chrome few years later.

[@BrianBarton]

I love Linux, but my music workflow does not. Have to stay with Windows for now. I’ve tried using yaybridge to run my VSTs, but didn’t work out great for me.

[@bouncy19661]

Probably mention live environment before installing too see if it will work.. then when everything works, install

[@AutieTortie]

to

[@bouncy19661]

@AutieTortie hard drive, ssd

[@emarsk77]

Finally a honest Windows to Linux video! This matches my experience pretty well. I switched to Linux back in the days when you would buy a magazine with a CD to install it, and my first experience was… Slackware… oh boy what a learning curve! But eventually I survived the transition and began distro-hopping. I tried probably hundreds of distributions, and a few BSDs as well, and I would agree that the most relevant ones are Debian and Arch, and the most friendly is Mint. After some years, though, I grew tired of the constant tinkering (and bullshit like the flame wars about systemd). Plus, I needed a reliable DAW: I had big hopes for Ardour but it never delivered, and installing anything that doesn't come with an official package for your distro is a huge PITA, with conflicting versioned dependencies and whatnot. Eventually, I gave up, switched back to W10 (with Reaper) and discovered that in the meantime Windows had become much more reliable and usable, with virtual desktops and a terminal and WSL and even a pretty decent package manager. I like to keep an eye on Linux though. (Well, technically I still use it under WSL.)

[@JohanAntonissen]

Omg I'm a veteran Linux user under Titus's definition. I feel so proud. P.s. windows bad.

[@wildman1978101]

Im a windows guy that is brand new to linux. I just switched to OpenMandriva about a week ago. Im not a power user but Im not useless on a computer either. The switch was very easy. I haven't had to resort to using the command line yet and Ive asked quite a bit from it.

[@turbo5546]

I'm in the middle of trying to switch my daily driver over to linux. Already moved my laptop that doesn't get much use over to linux a couple of months ago and things have been going okay, so i decided to take the plunge and see if I could start running linux on my daily driver machine. The transition has been more challenging as I've found issues and bugs with stuff that worked just fine on windows. But I'm trying to work through the issues and stick with it as much as possible. But I have my windows drive as a fall back if I need to. One thing about switching is when you run into an issue you don't have time to spend an hour finding the issue usually, you just need to get your work done. Which is why I like having windows as a fallback, if something isn't working, switch back to windows and get my work done, then figure out the issue later when I'm not trying to get something done.

[@anikethkumar904]

I'm just a regular user, but your videos helped a ton on the switch from windows!

[@BenSolomonIM]

Great point about using Linux on a VM. Started using it in Hyper-V for a little while - tested about 8 distro's - before making Manjaro my main OS on the Laptop, and am in the process of doing the same on the Desktop. Doing an Arch install was an education in and of itself.

[@Crackalacking_Z]

Regarding drivers, what works, is already in your kernel, rolling distro means newer kernel, higher change of newer drivers, therefore better support for newer hardware ... BUT you can also load drivers as kernel modules in case something isn't in the kernel yet, those can often be found in the AUR.

[@arthurrock4979]

No bs! Before I got a graphics card for my first rig, I started from OpenSUSE, then finally got my hands on Windows XP sp3. As you always do, I also messed a lot with everything I could, long had duel boot by then, and the game "Gumboy Adventures" actually clearly "ran" with more frames on OpenSUSE through Wine, than on XP! Everything was rendered by the CPU. I think it was OpenSUSE 12. something, with the appropriate version of Wine. So even quite a heavy Linux distro with Gnome can really kick ass, even when it shouldn't be.

[@LiamsMusic]

May I rant a moment? I HATE windows since 8.0 and I refuse to go to 11 so I’m trying SO HARD to use Linux but it’s driving me mad!!! Why is mounting a network share from a windows server so difficult??!! I can’t just browse to it in the GUI I have had to go into terminal and make some login file with credentials and then set permissions on that file and put it in the right location then edit some other file to keep it logged in on reboot. AND then the most confusing part for me WHY are mounted things in a folder on the boot drive!? I don’t understand the files reside elsewhere, but they’re located in a mount folder on the boot drive? What if my network share was unavailable but I didn’t realize and copied files to this folder that’s supposedly a mount point on my local drive? Does that now mean I just copied files to my local drive?? What happens to them when the network share is remounted there? Why can’t they just give you drive letters!!??? Ugggghhhhhh besides that, I’d be perfectly fine with Linux

[@michaelholstein6587]

This!

[@gurpreetsingh-oo5zw]

This is not much difficult. type 'smb://' in your file-manager's address bar without commas. Replace with your server's ip and you will be prompted for user id and password for windows server. Enter the details and you get to access windows folder.

[@cvl14]

Assume everything in /mnt, /media or /run is a mounted drive. udisk, which is probably what your dietro used to mount things, creates the directory just before the mount and deletes it after the umount, so there is no /media/somedisk left when somedisk is not mounted.

[@cvl14]

if you need to mount things manually you can replicate this behaviour with a pair of simple scripts, e.g. mkdir mountpoint ; mount stuff mountpoint and umount mountpoint ; rm -d mountpoint btw you can mount something on a nonempty directory; until the dir is a mountpoint, the actual content is not accessible.

[@sergeykish]

As I remember you can connect to Windows share with GUI from most popular DE file managers like Dolphin (KDE), Nautilus (Gnome). I don't remember were permissions correct. Nowadays I'd ask AI tools such questions. I remember it was hard making SMB share accessible from Windows 10 but not the other way around.

[@CoolDudeClem]

I can get most, if not all of Windows apps running on Linux. My plan is to use Linux as my daily driver, and Windows just for games. I'm still checking out various distros, while I really like Mint, I'm going to try out Fedora, Bazzite and maybe MX Linux too.

[@captaincool9155]

You can try nobara also, have pretty nice gaming support

[@danmarius]

I made the Windows to Linux transition almost 11 years ago. It was not easy at all but it wasn't too hard being a software engineer and easier understanding how things are working. Now I like Linux much better than I ever liked Windows.

[@stevenshook5676]

Newbie Linux user here and admit I did a lot of distro hopping in the beginning. But I took your advice from an older video and tried Debian. Am now using Debian for awhile and will continue to do so. Debian just seems to work for me and when I run into a problem a quick search of the internet and wha-lah, I have the answer and the fix. Thanks for the advice on going with Debian.

[@ussul6524]

lol I did cold turkey to Archer bc it was in Valve videos... I got so burned OMG . I hated myself. Then did couple distros and stayed at Mint bc it made most sense. Rocking it for 2nd year with gaming on Steam Proton. 🎉 I am happy now, also thanks to you Chris. Your videos helped me a LOT.

[@kizersoozie]

Great video Chris, I've sent a link to my son who's thinking of installing Zorin on his laptop. Personally, I've tested/used 45 distros over the past 25 years, and eventually settled on Mint. I did dual-boot Windows/Ubuntu for almost 10 years before making the switch to Mint only, and have no intention of ever using Windows again. I will forever and always refer to Arch as the Ikea of Linux - here's the instructions and components, now build it yourself.

[@UltraZelda64]

I've been using Linux for over 20 years and Debian and Debian-based distros tend to be by favorites, but sometimes the age of the software included can be a problem. Flatpak can help with this by allowing you to install the latest versions of some applications on a rock-solid base, but then you're adding complexity by using a second package manager to manage those applications. These days though, the need to have the latest versions of software is not as great as it once was, because the current state and maturity of software in general is through the roof. I do like distro hopping though, and sometimes I use the need for a newer version of a program as an excuse to try something new--which is exactly why I'm actually using Fedora right now.

[@SankalpSaxena99]

I use Linux daily but there are just 3 things that stop me to fully switch. 1. No good word or excel replacement (I don't want to use cloud version) and alternatives are not polished. 2. Adobe Photoshop 3. Anti cheat (Cause I play only 2 game and one of that game require anti cheat) and one thing I miss in Linux is quick clipboard (windows+v) So I do dual boot cause I don't want to use windows more then I need to but there are some things you just can't escape.

[@HenryT]

OnlyOffice

[@DoomsdayLastSurvivor]

I freaking love Arch Linux, thank you Chris !

[@JonathanMarocco]

Fun to hear you more or less describe my own experience from the past 15 years, Chris. Wanted to host a few services on owned but ageing hardware. Installed Ubuntu server as it was the only distro I had heard of. Wondered what the hell I got myself into when I managed to get to a first prompt. Broke everything,multiple times. Scratched my head and kept at it until I got to where I wanted and more. Never looked back. Linux is just fun. Keep up the great vids...

[@SenileOtaku]

For desktop environments, I'm starting to make more use of NsCDE. Kind of reminds me of working with AIX. NsCDE is basically a skin/customization of FVWM, and it's handy for getting away from GNOME's malicious breakage of the UI.

[@JamesConroy-cm1od]

Great new video,Thanks Chris !!

[@MrMysticphantom]

Man I WISH a Windows Power User guide was there when i was forced to make my transition to fulltime linux. It's been 3 years since I became Linux primary (Ive been using Linux part time for dev and automation work for a decade before), but man I am still not even 40% as productive and competent with Linux as I was with windows. Its a hard transition, its not like like i havent spent the time, but I have a job and responsibilities. And The BETTER & more Productive & more advanced you are with using windows the more difficult and longer your transition takes.

[@df3yt]

The transition from Windows to Linux is way easier and less frustrating than Windows or Linux to MacOS.

[@aldntn]

Moving from win10 (I really didn't hate win10) I installed Lubuntu on a fresh SSD and ran from usb for a couple of weeks to get everything set up the way I wanted and to copy all the files I wanted from the old drive. When everything was done I swapped the drives. The old drive becomes something like dead storage.

[@einfachfabi989]

Can you remake the video where you explain how to use / conigure looking glass and Qemu ?

[@cortx7]

I think you got it backwards. It's RHEL that is based on Fedora, not the other way around. You also mentioned Flatpak twice in the article (honest typo).

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Yeah a lot of my articles are braindumps and I use them to organize my thoughts, but you are correct Fedora is upstream from RHEL and is essential a test bed for RHEL.

[@cortx7]

@ChrisTitusTech Keep up the awesome content, BTW 👊

[@Rakitzch]

People don't talk about _truly_ "Big Tech" because the 2 backdoors are scary. For context of new installs, don't use RHEL or Solaris, unless you're employed by IBM or Larrryland (Oracle). And if you're a user not a business, don't worry, they're just front-facing proxies. There are more interesting ways of spying on you.

[@PaxAlotin]

*Like many people - I used Windows at work and Mac at home* It gave me enough experience to know both systems, both good & bad. Curiosity took me to Linux. Personally, I found it an easy system to get used to. 20 years later, I no longer use Mac or Win. Nowadays, its Linux Mint LMDE-6 for me.

[@PaxAlotin]

BTW - Chris --- I'm not a Neck-beard. I only play chess - so that's all I can talk about.

[@retiredbecktek]

Love you site. I used your Ultimate Windows Utility to mod Win 11 iso for my conversion from W10 to 11 change over. Interesting your discussion re Linux. I've settled on Endeavor OS and Manjaro (both Arch) and MX, *Xubuntu (both Debian) Distros to use for quite awhile (MX/Manjaro ones for yrs). PS *Xubuntu when installed it, it used mbr vs EFI partition on the linux drive I was using. This *distros grub allowed me to have w11 secure boot active in bios/UEFI and allowed all my linux's to now boot under its *grub loader. Whereas secure boot killed all my Linux's abilty to boot, using their EFI grub loaders. Just a workaround I discovered thought I'd mention.

[@Ramotttholl]

Linux Nobara is also a great starting spot. only time i needed the terminal the past year is to version upgrade from nobara 40>41. though if i didnt mind wiping my pc i could have just clean installed instead.

[@fivemonkeees]

One thing I found challenging when I started using Linux for work was that the package names often seem to have very little to do with what a package does. It can make looking for the right package for your needs quite frustrating. It's nice that your name is an in joke but it it's frustrating when you're learning a whole series of new software names.

[@Wolverineeeeeeee]

I wish I had dove into the Arch based distros when I first started. I chose Mint first, and it was just too simplistic for me. Then I went to Fedora KDE Spin, and I liked it better, but it was slow. I finally settled on EndeavourOS with CachyOS kernel and KDE. Gnome 48 is looking good, though, so I'm probably going to try it out when it has a final release in March.

[@mark-sk3do]

I have an older secondary laptop that doesn't meet MS's arbitrary requirements for Win11, so have replaced Win10 with Ubuntu and it now works great again

[@narutoexpert]

I'm on Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon, and it's extremely fast, no issues, and I have all of the software I could ever ask for. I had windows 10 on here for a while, but after a few bad updates, kept messing up the install. I just said forget it, and go back to Linux after a little break. I'm just glad the update manager isn't a nightmare, and I'm not scared of breaking my system, after a major update, etc. I'm running a Core i7 4790 24GB Ram, and GTX 1050, so it's older, but it works great.

[@gregf9160]

I'm a software engineer and a Linux and MacOS user. They are both basically Unix-Derived. Anything I do on one, works just fine on the other.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

I run Garuda Linux Bare Metal on a 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro. Its flawless. AUR has everything I ask it for. Homebrew works fine.

[@EmirKATIRCI]

I'm over 40. As a person who started using linux with slackware in 1995 and a windows user longer(Dos than 3.1 times) since. I can tell you one thing and I know I'll be hated for saying this but Linux is as far away as it was in 1995 to the normal user. It doesn't matter if you were a windows user or mac or whatever... Because we still don't have the ease of use of windows. To this day I've yet to see any linux that gives the same battery life or ease of use experience for laptops. I had a MSI GE72VR model guess what Nobara Linux installed without any problems and booted into bios. And I'm not talking about EFI or Secure Boot stuff! It literally booted back into BIOS after install. I tried anything and everything it didn't work and asked about it discord their solution was to use another linux distro(not kidding). This was in 2023 and that laptop was from 2015. I've got a new laptop and any linux distro including so called laptop friendly ones are no where near the out of the box windows experience. So, I say again for anyone who knows what they are doing and choosing their own hardware linux on a desktop machine is marvelous but for all the other people it's just not good. That's why all these years linux never managed to become a daily driver for me. If it is different for you and you're happy with your own setup continue to be happy.

[@kwando472]

Linus himself said what you said and he claimed it's due to for example too many packages not one. Not one kernel code where everything works out of the box there's forks and tweaks and many different made programs doing the same but became outdated. So open-source is great for fiddling around without constraints but it also means there is no certainty the creator or anyone else will keep it updated. There's also downsides with windows having a monopoly on their kernel with innovation only going one way. Server side Linux is great I will never switch to windows on that side.

[@onelazyowl]

skill issue

[@sergeykish]

Dell 7480, installed, no issues. I accept that cases like yours happen but don't you find ridiculous expanding your experience on everyone? It is obvious that people install Linux on notebook. I had no issues with Dell since 2014. I've installed it on Acer Aspire One 751h in 2010. There was no open source driver for GMA500 but that's different issue.

[@EmirKATIRCI]

@@kwando472 I totally agree. I love opensource and I love Linux. I don't want there to be monopolies but in the end real life forces you to use windows or mac more than linux.

[@EmirKATIRCI]

@@sergeykish It seems you misunderstand what I'm talking about. I'm not generalizing my experience I'm talking about how you need to have a certain level of experience and knowledge to deal with Linux unlike windows and mac. I love linux but for me it is best on desktops. You like having to deal with all the issues on new laptops to fix linux go for it. Enjoy your life how ever you like. But don't tell me linux and windows have the same user experience for a beginner.

[@McSquiddington]

As for test boxes; the older I've gotten, the more I've realized that a *ton* of people have a forgotten laptop or a netbook gathering dust in the back of some closet, somewhere. Even before recommending that someone start with a VM, my first question is always to check if they have something like that. That way, they get that bare-metal feel on a piece of hardware that typically is no longer vital to their day-to-day stuff.

[@hatembenzakour4947]

Can you make a video about how to customize the Linux Terminal?

[@stephenlopiano1599]

Speaking of Debian, I am still using a security updates supported newer version of the Debian operating system Bookworm 12 for internet use on an old HP Compaq desktop with Intel Pentium 4 maxed out with 4 GBs of RAM and 32 bit cache with a Radeon Graphic Card RS220 2GB added. Additional operating systems on the same hard drive include Tricia Mint 19.3 (the last available for 32bit cache architecture machines) and an older version of Debian 9.1 (i686) installed many years ago. On a separate hard drive also have the original operating system the computer started with (used and refurbished), Windows XP (these days for off-line use only). Had my first experience with Linux on this machine starting off with AV Linux and then Debian all off-line back then since I could not afford internet at home would go to library and use internet there to download Linux operating systems and take them home on a usb thumb drive.

[@mahdhatre]

While I agree that a first time Arch user would benefit going through the somewhat painful manual install process, I wish the Arch Wiki included a reference to the archinstall script, which is pre-installed on first boot of Arch. It's a game changer for those new to linux and/or put off by the manual install, but are interested in Arch.

[@joelcarson4602]

I was basically the IT dept. At a small printing company and for over TEN YEARS, from Win7 onward only used two paid pieces of software, Windows 7 and Quickbooks (Yeeeeech!!) While doing everything else needed with Open Office, Thunderbird, GIMP, Inkscape, irFanview, a bunch of OpenSource utilities and my own aching brainpan. Because of needing more access to Adobe Postcript in later years that included Illustrator, and acrobat, mainly for customer file handling and film output. It got worse as time staggered onward of course. I think few people in the visual media industry appreciate how the very baseline of EVERY part of that pyramid actually starts with print, and Adobe has that locked in tighter than a microbe's bunghole because of Postscript and therefore Illustrator and Creative Suite. The ONLY part of that Adobe hasn't been able get a total lock in on is the color Nazis at Pantone because they had that locked in before computers were the size of your nerd basement.

[@bananam4x]

What about using your steam deck desktop if you have one?

[@MikeDawson1]

if you're going to recommend starting in Arch, then I would recommend CachyOS. However I personally would recommend Fedora or Kubuntu to beginners

[@zoumius]

One problem I solved easily is using slimbook battery to scale my gaming faster it definitely helped

[@bennyccp]

My only experience with Linux has been the Steamdeck Desktop mode. I just ordered a System76 Desktop monday. Looking forward to making the switch

[@edsonpimentel2522]

i have a side hobby of building and repairing computers, but have never used linux. i have created a "road map" of what 0225 will look like for me in the fiel of I.T and getting some of the compTIA certs. learning linux and python is part of all that. what would you recommend so someone in my shoes. ALSO im a huge fan and your channel is one of my BIGGEST insertions of mastering the craft such as you have!

[@emiliofahr504]

Debian and Arch are not distributions for beginners. Debian is super extremely stable and has very old packages so people who want to game are going to have a bad time. Debian is my number one server OS. Arch is fairly complicated for a new user. I have not kept up with Ubuntu but that's where I started and it's known to be good for beginners. I think Mint was also a good recommendation. Personally, I use fedora and I think it's strikes a great balance of reliability, modern packages, and ease of use. Plus it has the backing of Red Hat

[@chromaticv1]

which is why i think he specified this for power users!

[@emiliofahr504]

@chromaticv1 Fair enough but they are still beginners.

[@Na_Odysee_i_Rumble-BEZ-CENZURY]

​@@emiliofahr504 using *Fedora Silverblue* , a very solid system, up to date, for sure more secure than Debian. Everything works easy to use! Newest technically modern, simple UI. GNOME 👍

[@dingokidneys]

@@emiliofahr504 I don't agree. Power Users in my mind are people who can support other people using computers; who understand how PCs work from boot to user land, who know what partitions and filesystems are, know the difference between the different ones and when and why to use which, who can use live boot environments to troubleshoot problems and can sort out simple network problems. If you understand the underlying concepts, you can move from system to system without too much trouble. I've moved from DOS to Windows, to Linux, to FreeBSD and Solaris building on knowledge as I go and no step was particularly bothersome.

[@Lauriciu]

That's what I wanted to say too. He made the same mistake he accuses others of doing: forgetting how hard it is to move to Linux.

[@Poo_Monster]

I was a bit jealous with how fast that GIMP loaded. sometimes I opt out of using GIMP because I don't like waiting for it to load. (my computer is a potato).

[@esofron75]

Great video, Thanks. I used to use Ubuntu for many years and i switched to Windows 10. Since 2019, i am using macOS. How easy is to switch back to linux, not ubuntu, any other distribution. I am really used to use Debian based distributions, but i like to try something different.

[@johngangemi1361]

I had the same journey from MS Windows to Linux Distros. It is a steep learning curve, but worth it.

[@刹那-g7c]

True. Linux is not for an immediate change, if you have been using another OS for more than 3 years. In my case I made the change at work, a couple of months later I installed Mint on a partition of my PC next to Windows, and finally after 2 weeks of extensive exploration and testing I bought a new SSD and gratefully and respectfully, I put Windows on hold with no return date. I have no plans to go back to using anything other than a Linux distribution (choose the one that suits your needs) which in my case turned out to be a rock-solid stable OS. As with everything new, you will have to learn and research how to customize/configure your PC until you like it, with the assurance that there are communities, videos and plenty of help online with years of updates with solutions to every problem that may arise. Finally, if the change is too much, you can always go back.

[@yerachmielb1]

I built my new PC a couple months ago, and I installed Linux Mint on my old daily driver. While I see some ability to tweak and customize, and in some ways it's very different from Windows, in other ways I feel kind of like I haven't changed anything from my old debloated Windows 10. Also, why not use WSL? No need to deal with a VM?

[@sher1x165]

Have you mentioned a hardening of your Linux installation?

[@Shawn-z6z6u]

I have been messing with Linux for the last 5 years on USB drives or on bare metal. I like some of the Arch linux distros, ubuntu and some debian. The plan was to watch and see where Linux is going especially when it comes to gaming. It is definitely better than it was 5 years ago. I would say that yes, I am a novice and learning as I ago...maybe not as fast as I would like, but I am slowly learning. So, I decided to cut off Windows 11 from my Alienware R10 and start using Linux. It has been close to a month now...had a couple of hiccups and reinstalls after trying different things. Then installed a different distro, Nobara...downloaded the latest distro for January 2025...but seemed to have a bug during updating the system. So went back to Mint 22.1 and it has actually been working pretty good. Now, I wouldn't look at myself as a power user....but I do gaming...FO4, Far Cry 5/New Dawn, Outerworlds, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition...I have a few other games. Everything is working great on Linux Mint 22.1...which I am quite surprised, because I tried Mint a year ago and the gaming side just didn't want to work. The only other thing I need to figure out is my music collection, iTunes and my iPhone. I still have a notebook and pc that has windows 10 installed, until I figure out this bump in the road. And everything else I do...I can do it on Mint...don't need Windows. I was a little wary at first installing Linux on my Alien pc...there were no videos of Linux users using the higher end Alien machine with Linux. But for me it has worked. Yay!! Any suggestions on my music collection and iPhone...the process of transferring music back and forth. Thanks

[@pepavasata6790]

I really feel like Fedora should've gotten a mention. It's a fantastic middle point between Arch's rolling release and Debian's ancient packages.

[@casper75559]

On some real sbit tho! you choose a good time to make a vid like this. I believe peeps are starting to realize just how invasive Windows is becoming and switching over. I just did and am super glad I did. 9:50 I will say, this true, Its only natural, its good starting point.