So its been about 2 months now since I made the swap to Linux, after having considered it for a large part of this year. It had been years since I last tried it, and Ive been rather fine with using Windows until recently due to just how simple it was. Things just worked, I didn't need to fiddle with settings or worry about what software or hardware was compatible and all that stuff. My PC just worked.

I made the switch, however, due to Microsoft's insistence at progressing their enshittification policy. It became too much for me to handle, and so I decided it was time to try Linux again.

At the words of a close friend to not get paralyzed by distro choice, I looked through a list, saw that 'Garuda' had a bird logo, and had an install designed for 'gamers' so I picked it and that was that. It was super easy to install, and within the same day I was logged into Steam and able to play games. That was the most important thing to me, of course. Most software simply worked, and it was easy to set up and get going! I was thoroughly impressed!
However, that isn't to say it was without issues. Most of my issues popped up due to my other bits of unusual hardware, like my streamdeck, and my Roccat Torch microphone. My Hue lights. Those sorts of things. Setting up the streamdeck for my needs (that is, controlling audio output devices, and controlling my Hue lights in my room) requires me to use two different pieces of software, one of them passing commands through the other. And I am used to putting my computer to sleep when I go to bed, and while Im at work, as opposed to turning it off. This caused a bunch of other issues where the computer wouldnt wake, wouldnt respond after waking, or actually BSODing on waking up.
Every day I used the system was a new adventure. Something would break, stop working, or work weirdly. Some programs seemingly randomly reset their settings. Windows wouldnt return to their positions I left them at. I had to start learning about the various versions of the kernel, the difference between wayland and x11, the differences in windows managers and shells and all sorts of things that I still dont quite understand, but Im starting to. Google has been helpful, but also somewhat annoying, since its often not as simple as just searching for 'linux *insert issue/error message*' due to how many different distros and even versions of distros there are.

However, there has not been a day since I swapped that I havent been able to use my computer for what I wanted to use it for. The swap hasnt been perfectly smooth, but at the same time, it has been smooth enough that my system has always been available to me and never actually broken or fucked up. After 2 months, Ive gotten largely used to things, and feel comfortable in recommending to anyone that is curious or hesitant to at least try making the switch.
If you use your system primarily for gaming, like myself, you will likely be pleasantly surprised. Gaming has been the least problematic thing Ive dealt with since making the change. Sure, some games or launchers dont exactly play nice, but with a little bit of tinkering, pretty much everything plays fine. The most problematic game I had to set up was Starcraft 2, simply because it has to run through the battle.net launcher nowadays, and that was a bit of a pain to set up. But now, I launch battle.net through Steam, and it all just works. Steam itself handles almost everything using its Proton compatibility layers, and every modern game Ive tried runs perfectly well.
The most annoying thing to get used to, though, was file management. The file structure of the Linux OS compared to Windows has confused me plenty of times, and trying to find specific game folders is a bit of a headache at times. Which 'documents' folder has my saved games and such? Where are the config and settings files for such and such game? Where do all my application files install to? That sort of thing. Its no longer 'program files,' or in my case, 'apps' and 'games' folders on a drive. And steam games end up in a 'compatdata' folder now, with each game having its folder labelled with its appid number... FOr example, Doom The Dark Ages is appid 3017860, so its install folder is 'steamapps/compatdata/3017860/' while Elder Scrolls Online is 306130. It takes some getting used to, and there are ways to find those appid's. It just slows me down, for now.

Now, I do run an AMD setup, and AMD tends to have much better Linux support, with their GPU's in particular. Ive not taken much, if any, performance hit in my games, and I hear that nvidia GPU's may lose 20% performance in some games. Everyones mileage may vary. And not every game works fine or perfectly. Doom TDA, for example, will refuse to launch and just black-screens then crashes if I enable any sort of frame-gen. Which, in my case, is somewhat needed considering I run at 4k resolution, so for me to run Doom TDA at 60+ FPS smoothly, I need framegen. I suspect there will be updates either to Doom, or two the GPU drivers or such, that will fix this issue but for now, I just dont really get to play TDA. A shame, but not the end of the world. Things like that DO exist though.

All in all, I recommend trying out Linux again if you havent tried it for a while, or are keen on getting away from Microsoft. Its not as complicated as you may think or feel, and most of the OS just works. It definitely WILL be a learning experience, and be ready for that, but in the end you can certainly get used to it and may well find it to be an easier and smoother overall experience in the end.



Now, for the sake of reference, I have a dear friend that helped me a lot in getting set up. I also started with computers some 20ish years ago, when I first built my own, installed my own Windows OS, and had to find drivers on CD's and floppy disks for hardware. Ive been through a lot of this process of setting up before. Ive configured ini files for games, Ive had to ensure my HDD switches were set to master/slave/auto, and specify IRQ's for sound cards. Ive used DOS in the past, and know the basics of getting around in a terminal or cmd line interface. So this isnt really the perspective of a complete noob or such. This likely helped me out immensely in setting things up. Mostly the 'I have a friend that knows tons and answered so many questions' part.