Switching to Pop_OS was easy. I have a dual boot setup but I basically never touch windows now.
It took a tiny amount of effort to figure out how to troubleshoot games which was mostly just getting protonup-qt and downloading whatever current cachyos and GE versions of proton are available and then if a game doesn’t just work on proton 9.0-4, enabling one of those.
I also had an issue with audio crackling that I found a workaround with a launch flag on games. I found it to be system-wide so I incorporated it into a pipewire-pulse.conf file which sets it on boot. Zero issues with audio now in any game.
Lutris works great for non-steam games including whatever you can manage to download anywhere. Once you setup one program it’s easy to setup others. I have a prefix setup per game (which is basically like a folder with a windows file system where the game data lives.) Really love how it works overall.
FSR4 isn’t hard to get working on a 9070xt (a launch option is all it takes.) Overall stuff is just copacetic.
Monster Hunter Wilds runs great (for mh wilds) - it’s basically the same as windows.
Age of Wonders 4 feels like it has better 1% lows and overall stability.
Enshrouded feels like it runs better than windows.
Farthest Frontier just worked on the 1.0 release, no issues.
Eternal Strands just works.
Soulmask just works.
Armored Core VI took a bit of troubleshooting for me. At first it wouldn’t take controller inputs unless I used Proton Experimental, and audio was a mess - but this was basically the first game I tried on here. I found out the input issue was from easy anticheat becoming what steam recognizes as the game (which is fixed in proton experimental, proton-ge and proton cachyos.) After I figured out the aforementioned audio fix and I figured out how to swap proton versions within steam itself (It’s a drop down selection box in game properties) all my issues went away and it just works now.
Overall i’m super impressed. I have no desire to go with windows - though I am itching to try other distros. If I was gonna start over today i’d use Endeavour, Cachyos or Bazzite probably. The former because I don’t mind tinkering but the others because they sound perfect for gaming.
Recently came over from windows myself to Pop OS 24.04. My experience has been much like yours. I actually like it way better than windows. I’m not looking to try others right now but am having fun learning the commands and setting up my environment.
I’m in love with the workspaces for productivity, and love that I can leave a game fullscreensl on one workspace then flip over to another with my notes and tools.
Install Qemu and have a play with Kernal Virtual Machines to try other distros. You can get a feel for them in a near native speed and find something you like.
Even if you stay with your current distro, VMs are useful. I have a Win11 VM (fully licensed), as well as some dedicated linux VMs sandboxed for testing software, and a VM set up with a VPN for torrenting, plus a variable number that I play with to learn linux. I’ve set up Arch from scratch in a VM just for fun/interest for example.
If you don’t mind a bit of tinkering, definitely get on something Arch-based. Endeavour’s install process is a very easy way to get started.
On the plus side, you’ll have any new features and fixes before most other distros. The bad news is that you’ll have access to any new features and bugs before most other distros.
Switching to Pop_OS was easy. I have a dual boot setup but I basically never touch windows now.
It took a tiny amount of effort to figure out how to troubleshoot games which was mostly just getting protonup-qt and downloading whatever current cachyos and GE versions of proton are available and then if a game doesn’t just work on proton 9.0-4, enabling one of those.
I also had an issue with audio crackling that I found a workaround with a launch flag on games. I found it to be system-wide so I incorporated it into a pipewire-pulse.conf file which sets it on boot. Zero issues with audio now in any game.
Lutris works great for non-steam games including whatever you can manage to download anywhere. Once you setup one program it’s easy to setup others. I have a prefix setup per game (which is basically like a folder with a windows file system where the game data lives.) Really love how it works overall.
FSR4 isn’t hard to get working on a 9070xt (a launch option is all it takes.) Overall stuff is just copacetic.
Monster Hunter Wilds runs great (for mh wilds) - it’s basically the same as windows.
Age of Wonders 4 feels like it has better 1% lows and overall stability.
Enshrouded feels like it runs better than windows.
Farthest Frontier just worked on the 1.0 release, no issues.
Eternal Strands just works.
Soulmask just works.
Armored Core VI took a bit of troubleshooting for me. At first it wouldn’t take controller inputs unless I used Proton Experimental, and audio was a mess - but this was basically the first game I tried on here. I found out the input issue was from easy anticheat becoming what steam recognizes as the game (which is fixed in proton experimental, proton-ge and proton cachyos.) After I figured out the aforementioned audio fix and I figured out how to swap proton versions within steam itself (It’s a drop down selection box in game properties) all my issues went away and it just works now.
Overall i’m super impressed. I have no desire to go with windows - though I am itching to try other distros. If I was gonna start over today i’d use Endeavour, Cachyos or Bazzite probably. The former because I don’t mind tinkering but the others because they sound perfect for gaming.
Recently came over from windows myself to Pop OS 24.04. My experience has been much like yours. I actually like it way better than windows. I’m not looking to try others right now but am having fun learning the commands and setting up my environment.
I’m in love with the workspaces for productivity, and love that I can leave a game fullscreensl on one workspace then flip over to another with my notes and tools.
Install Qemu and have a play with Kernal Virtual Machines to try other distros. You can get a feel for them in a near native speed and find something you like.
Even if you stay with your current distro, VMs are useful. I have a Win11 VM (fully licensed), as well as some dedicated linux VMs sandboxed for testing software, and a VM set up with a VPN for torrenting, plus a variable number that I play with to learn linux. I’ve set up Arch from scratch in a VM just for fun/interest for example.
If you don’t mind a bit of tinkering, definitely get on something Arch-based. Endeavour’s install process is a very easy way to get started.
On the plus side, you’ll have any new features and fixes before most other distros. The bad news is that you’ll have access to any new features and bugs before most other distros.