From my limited research and understanding, Nvidia makes Linux drivers, but they’re closed source. These work fine. They open sourced some stuff but not enough to really change much yet.
There are also FOSS drivers, but the performance for those vary.
Is this correct? Should I stick to proprietary drivers if I want consistent performance?
Thoughts on Nouveau vs Proprietary
The Noueveau drivers could be fine on older Nvidia gpus (like geforce 6xx series). Anything newer and you'll be throwing away compute power. Nvidia is the only actor who can resolve this situation by giving Linux a proper implementation to drive the GPUs, and they haven't done it.
I built my desktop before I switched to Linux full-time. Next time I buy a GPU I'm selecting AMD. But as it stands I'm stuck with my GTX 1070.
As for the experience of using Nvidia, it's fine. I use Fedora Linux and the driver shim gets recompiled automatically with each update, which takes like a minute. I don't have much to say about this because it really is just "fine."
Thoughts on switching to Linux
The reality of the world is that 90% of desktop computer users are on MS Windows. So when it comes to thing like games, you will have to put in a little more elbow grease (like my efforts to get the GOG Skyrim version to work correctly with mods).
It seems to go in one of three ways:
The experience of Linux is "I have a nice, non-spyware computer that can do anything I want." Linux systems are very powerful, and it's got a lot to explore and uncover for the novice power user. Or, if you just want a simple computer experience, it can be a reliable foundation upon which you browse the web and check emails. No need to get nerdy with it.
I grew up on Windows and have dabbled with Linux off and on since the mid-2000s, before finally committing full time three years ago. Linux has improved significantly over the years, even within just the three years I've had it on my desktop. I expect to stay a Linux user for the remainder of my life.
Fuck proprietary software, btw.
I've been using Mint on an old laptop. It's fine, although I think I may need to reinstall it because I might've messed up some settings. It takes up a lot less memory which is great. So far the only issues I have is with trying to understand the different window managers (metacity, compton, compiz, etc.) because unlike the other options and features, there's almost nothing noob friendly on these topics.
I don't know why you are researching three dead window managers, but it's generally not something you need to think about. Just like how you don't need to know about dwm to use MS Windows. But if you have specific questions about WMs I can try to answer them here.
They're included in Linux Mint with the option to choose between them. I have a problem where when I close my laptop lid and open it back up, the unlocked screen will display for like a solid 2 seconds before switching to the locked login screen. I've tried all the different WMs but the only one that doesn't do that is Compiz, but it has screen tearing so I switched back to Xfwm4
I had assumed that Linux Mint (with Cinnamon) users Mutter, but apparently it uses something called Muffin instead. But if you are seeing these other options then I assume you did not install the Cinnamon version but the XFCE version instead. I guess they don't package it correctly or something, but XFCE and xfwm should be robust enough to handle closing a laptop lid correctly.
(in other words, i don't know what the problem is but I think I'd recommend just using the standard implementation -> Mint with Cinnamon)
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Never mind. It doesn't work lol.
damn.
Well if nothing important is on that computer, I would suggest a more conventional installation.* For instance, if you choose Mint I'd pick the option with Cinnamon, which shouldn't be that heavy even on an old laptop and would have the best support for that distro. I mean, I just run regular Gnome (in Fedora Linux) which basically has the reputation for being the heaviest desktop environment on my 12 year old Thinkpad X201 and it performs just fine. And certainly without any issues like the lock screen not working correctly when I close the lid.
*I'm implying a reinstall but you might be able to get away with just installing the Cinnamon packages and switching your display manager/environment to it.
btw, last time i checked like 2 years ago, it was about a 50% performance hit in the one thing I benchmarked. That's just too much.