I've used linux off and on for years now, but recently made the complete (no dual boot) switch over to Pop!_OS and I will never go back to windows. Not sure how long it's been this good, but everything just works now. Music production and games (like seemingly every game because of steam proton) both run straight up better than they did on this same tower. Anyone still using windows really needs to give it a shot regardless of past experiences.
I've been using Linux exclusively for like 20 years, have followed wine development - including contributing a few patches - for almost as long, and since Vulkan, dxvk and proton arrived, it's like game compatibility has sped up x20. It's insane. I've played AAA, graphic-intensive Windows games that just came out through wine+dxvk with similar performances as on Windows. This was unthinkable even 5 years ago.
The large amount of Unity games has also helped - both because developers can usually port them very easily on Linux and because even if they don't, they usually instantly work perfectly through wine. It's amazing.
Mind you, Valve may have helped, but this is still largely the result of almost three decades of thousands of volunteers all over the world working on wine for no financial incentive. Imagine the kind of projects we'd see if everyone had their basic needs taken care of and much more free time to dedicate to such pursuits (and not just software but art, books, research...).
Oh yeah, don't mean to minimize all the community effort over the years, but for a tech moron like myself being able to just check a box in steam and have everything work is great. In the past I had tried to use wine with little success and would always spend way more time tinkering than actually playing anything so the only games I would play on linux were the few with native support. Same kind of thing used to be my main hangup with linux in general due to everything being just a bit too difficult to be worth it, but yeah now it's just easy as hell to get set up with everything I use a computer for.
Oh yeah, don’t mean to minimize all the community effort over the years
I know ! just trying to convey how incredible it seems after decades of steady progress. I was on Linux when basically the two only mainstream native games available on it were Neverwinter Nights 1 and Doom 3. That was it. Wine was hit or miss, almost only worked for very old games, and using it meant having to compile it and patch it yourself, and spend hours to make a game work. We've come a long long way and it's awesome.
I've used it professionally on windows for years previously and so far haven't had any issues with performance, hardware inputs, or plugin compatibility. Everything works pretty much exactly like I'm used to.
The only thing keeping me on windows is producing music. I'm used to FL Studio, but wouldn't mind switching if I can have a similar work flow on another DAW. I'll Def look into it. Thanks!
It is QUITE different from what's going on with Windows or Mac, but there is a rich ecosystem of audio programs developed on top of the JACK audio system. There are a lot of rough edges in there, but it's all free and you can plug MIDI and audio from one program to another to another and it's very neat. You can synchronize DAWs like LMMS or Ardour with midi sequencers, drum machines like Hydrogen, synthesizers, effects racks, and so on.
I've used linux off and on for years now, but recently made the complete (no dual boot) switch over to Pop!_OS and I will never go back to windows. Not sure how long it's been this good, but everything just works now. Music production and games (like seemingly every game because of steam proton) both run straight up better than they did on this same tower. Anyone still using windows really needs to give it a shot regardless of past experiences.
I've been using Linux exclusively for like 20 years, have followed wine development - including contributing a few patches - for almost as long, and since Vulkan, dxvk and proton arrived, it's like game compatibility has sped up x20. It's insane. I've played AAA, graphic-intensive Windows games that just came out through wine+dxvk with similar performances as on Windows. This was unthinkable even 5 years ago.
The large amount of Unity games has also helped - both because developers can usually port them very easily on Linux and because even if they don't, they usually instantly work perfectly through wine. It's amazing.
Mind you, Valve may have helped, but this is still largely the result of almost three decades of thousands of volunteers all over the world working on wine for no financial incentive. Imagine the kind of projects we'd see if everyone had their basic needs taken care of and much more free time to dedicate to such pursuits (and not just software but art, books, research...).
Oh yeah, don't mean to minimize all the community effort over the years, but for a tech moron like myself being able to just check a box in steam and have everything work is great. In the past I had tried to use wine with little success and would always spend way more time tinkering than actually playing anything so the only games I would play on linux were the few with native support. Same kind of thing used to be my main hangup with linux in general due to everything being just a bit too difficult to be worth it, but yeah now it's just easy as hell to get set up with everything I use a computer for.
I know ! just trying to convey how incredible it seems after decades of steady progress. I was on Linux when basically the two only mainstream native games available on it were Neverwinter Nights 1 and Doom 3. That was it. Wine was hit or miss, almost only worked for very old games, and using it meant having to compile it and patch it yourself, and spend hours to make a game work. We've come a long long way and it's awesome.
Yeah it really is great. :rat-salute: to you and all the other contributors over the years!
What do you use for music production on popos?
Reaper
I've used it professionally on windows for years previously and so far haven't had any issues with performance, hardware inputs, or plugin compatibility. Everything works pretty much exactly like I'm used to.
The only thing keeping me on windows is producing music. I'm used to FL Studio, but wouldn't mind switching if I can have a similar work flow on another DAW. I'll Def look into it. Thanks!
It is QUITE different from what's going on with Windows or Mac, but there is a rich ecosystem of audio programs developed on top of the JACK audio system. There are a lot of rough edges in there, but it's all free and you can plug MIDI and audio from one program to another to another and it's very neat. You can synchronize DAWs like LMMS or Ardour with midi sequencers, drum machines like Hydrogen, synthesizers, effects racks, and so on.
reaper is so cool
As a power user, I'm never sure what to recommend to newbies for Linux, based on this I'll check out Pop!, sounds promising.