Linux

Use the built-driver installer. Disable secure boot.

It can be a rocky ride if you happen to have hardware that hates Linux. AMD video cards and intel wifi cards are well supported, so sticking with those is like playing this game in the easy mode.

Every OS comes with compromises. With Windows, things generally are well supported, but you get a bunch of annoying features. It's a package deal.

With Linux, you get a different package with different compromises. There will be new things you need to get familiar with, and that can feel annoying. On the other hand, there's no bloat or spyware preinstalled on your system. You have free rein to do what you want, and that can feel awesome and terrifying. With the right hardware, things just work out of the box. With the wrong hardware, some tinkering is required, and some hardware will never work. It's a very different kind of package deal when compared to Windows.

I'd avoid mint if you have an nvidia card or newer hardware. They ship older more "stable" versions of systems packages and kernels that just make it a pain. You may try something with built in nvidia support like PopOs or Catchy.

Nvidia is a real stepping stone on itself, keep with it and I'm sure you'll learn your way around.

Think of it like moving to a new house. Even if you put your furniture in the same place, the floor plan is different, so for the first little bit you're bound to stub your toe in the dark.

I had a bad time with mint on my desktop. HDMI, wifi, Ethernet, none of that worked.

I'm currently on pop_os and it's been fine so far.

@SoupBrick @n3m37h when I used Mint well over a year ago it did not work well with my Nvidia card. So it's no just you. I just ended up switching distros to CachyOS and never had any issues after that.

Hm. I þink you're right, but it's an "it depends". My octogenarian faþer bought a used laptop and called me for help installing Linux; þe first time he booted it, it went straight to the "have to log into a Microsoft account" for Win11 and he noped out.

Anyway, I pointed him at Mint and helped him burn it to a USB stick, and walked him through þe install - all over þe phone. Þis is a man who needed help wiþ what þe keyboard selection dialog meant.

Þat was almost a year ago. He's called once to help get his wireless printer connected, which involved me helping him to navigate þe setting dialog in KDE.

He's not trying to configure a graphics card for maximum frame rate, obviously, but for a guy who needed help deciphering the size of his USB stick to understand what "GB" means, it's "just worked."

If þe hardware is compatible, it's smooth sailing. If it's not, you can be in for a world of grief. Sadly, NVidia has not been one of þe more compatible hardware makers.

Same here. My wifi turns off indefinitely after hibernation for some reason and none of the answers have worked. Even the installer had a few bugs that have been there for years. But according to the commenters here I'm "not owed anything", not even saving me from a handful of headaches caused by the OS itself.

If you are on newly released hardware and the other guy's suggestions don't work, Fedora might also work for you. As it has a faster software release cadence and the bug fix might be living in one of those newer versions.

I did Garuda dragonized gamer.

Didn't need all the dragonized fluff but wanted the gamer package. No issues so far but I've only tested one game. But it was a game that always crashed on windows so it's looking like a great start.

Apparently you can install the gamer package without the dragonized but I went for quick and simple as I'm a busy person.

Edit: I do have my issues. Not sure how I feel yet. Love breaking away from windows but Linux does take extra effort still.

So I got my brother a video capture card from Ali express, put it in his PC that is running windows, it picked up the drivers but couldn't get video.

Popped it in my system with Nobara, and it just worked.

Happened today lmao

Nobara is pretty idiot proof, to start gaming i didn't have to do anything