I'm toying with the idea of moving from Windows 11 to Linux. At work, I use a Mac and love the ecosystem, but I'm getting really frustrated with Windows 11 due to constant ads, Copilot features, and privacy issues. I mainly game on my PC with titles like Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and some sim games like ETS2, Raceroom, and Assetto Corsa. I also do some photo editing and graphic design, so I'm curious if I can run Affinity using Wine. I don't mind doing a bit of tweaking, but I'm hoping for a stable Linux distribution that works well out of the box. My hardware isn't brand new, with a Ryzen 5800X, 32GB RAM, and Radeon 6750 XT, so I'd love to know if there's good support for that. Any advice would really help! I've tried Ubuntu before, but it seems to be less popular these days.
4 Answers
I recently switched to Zorin 18, and the transition from Windows was really smooth. Just be aware that Linux has different ways of installing software, so you'll need to do a bit of research on that.
If you liked macOS, consider trying GNOME as your desktop environment. It's visually appealing and functional. For distributions, I’d suggest Bazzite since it’s immutable, making it harder to mess things up, plus it includes native Steam support for your games. However, keep in mind that I faced some issues with Affinity and ended up using cloud tools like Figma instead.
You might really enjoy using Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop! It's user-friendly and has a similar feel to macOS, which should make your transition smoother.
Check out ProtonDB for compatibility with your games. The titles you mentioned should have decent support. Just be cautious with running Affinity since it may pose some challenges under Wine. Look for any existing user experiences for guidance on that front.
Zorin is awesome for gaming too! I've had a good experience with it, and it seems to handle most games well.