Yeah that extra Microsoft tax is a killer. Plus, you'll notice your systems seems new and snappy for the life of the hardware, unlike Windows. Where your system gets slower and slower every year. I used a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro with Ubuntu until a couple years ago. It was great until I just needed a ton more ram and tons of cores for my dev project. I basically out grew the system, it still works great, fast and snappy. Gave it to my cousin who uses it as a daily driver.

I've heard good thing about Tumbleweed. I'm sure that will keep your system feeling fast and new for life of the hardware.

Distrobox is designed to use your current setup in the distrobox. Pretty sure if you chsh inside a distrobox container it will change it for your normal system.

For sure you can type: distrobox enter <name> -- bash -l <--- lower case L

That will have distrobox start you in bash with whatever bash configs you have.

OSX Server would like a word.

That's actually the same reason I switched to Linux. I thought it was stupid that I would have to upgrade my hardware just to use the latest WindowsME. Switching to Linux back then. Let me enable all the new textures for Everquest. With Windows my system wasn't performant enough. I though it stupid and I had perfectly good hardware that still ran for several more years just fine. The TPM thing is absolute B.S. and worse then why I switched.

Honestly I think SteamOS is the crowbar forcing open the Desktop space. Microsoft's dominance in the desktop space has been with Normies where they can use the power of their purse to maintain their position. Normies don't care what OS they run. Normies just want the computer to "do the thing" that they need done. Console gaming is a great example of that. None of those gamers care what OS they run and they know nothing about it. If you look at IoT, Windows is free in that space, yet Linux dominates the market by about 80%.

Historically if a big volume OEM sells a PC they are required to sell a Windows license if they want to take advantage of Microsoft's volume licensing discount. If you are selling 400 dollar and even 800 dollar laptops, a 100 dollar license is a huge chunk of the cost. You have no choice but to take the volume licensing discount as manufacturer. Especially if you also compete for government contracts. The knock-on effect, these OEMs will have to spend money on Windows engineering efforts for each of their devices. That's drivers, software, and testing. And when you are competing on volume, that doesn't leave much left over profit to have engineering efforts for a second or third operating system.

The kicker for Microsoft, Microsoft waved the license for Windows on devices with screens smaller than 9" in 2014. Which means, the new Lenovo Steam version should come with SteamOS. The Steam version will likely be the more popular version of the Legion Go S. Other OEMs will see that and begin to offer a Steam version of their device. That all means engineering efforts for Linux on all the handhelds. The same thing for Steam consoles, although I wonder how the 9" rule will apply. Game devs are supporting SteamOS more and more. The knock on effects will eventually lead to OEMs no longer taking the volume licensing discounts. You will see Linux machines in the big box stores, especially when these OEMs are spending money to support Linux for the console.

Microsoft doesn't dominate any space other then the Desktop where they've had vendor lock'in for 30 years. The writing is on the wall. They are losing the handheld space and soon they will be #4 in the console space. Microsoft better have something big soon or pandora's box will be opened.

I watch a few SteamDeck you tubers and they all have switched to Linux. One is waiting for SteamOS to finally drop. Which I can understand, I mean, he is a normie gamer and isn't really looking to get into computers, just wants to play games. He sees SteamOS as a silver bullet, since he is problem free on his Steam Deck. Which just reiterates, normies don't care what OS they run, they just want to do the thing they care about.

I wouldn't say it's a pipe dream either. 20 years ago, if I switched someone to Linux, they would eventually have a problem and switch back. Not because Linux was bad or anything like that. Now, if I switch someone, they just keep going with Linux. The year of Linux Desktop already came. It doesn't dominate yet, but there are few niches that Linux doesn't support, mostly the audio/art niche.

The only markets Linux doesn't Dominate are the Desktop and console space. The only thing holding back Desktop domination is Microsoft and it's vendor lock-in strategy. It says a lot when Microsoft has to use the power of their purse in order to maintain their position. Even Linux dominates in the IoT space with ~80% of the market, despite Microsoft having to make Windows IoT free.

I'm old enough to remember when people thought OSX Server was a competitive option because it was technically "unix". Needless to say, once people figured out Apple was using Linux for their own servers, despite numerous attempts to switch over to OSX Server. OSX Server went tits up. Apparently OSX Server hung around as an addon to OSX for casual use.

The internet is amazing sometimes.

Games with partial controller support. I mean, I can hold the guide menu button and then use the right stick to move the mouse, but it sucks balls in comparison to just a quick swipe of the track pad. It makes the game feel fluid instead of wonky. For more complex games they act as controller augments. You can configure anything you want. When I use my PS controller, it just feels like it's missing a necessary feature without the touch pads. I think most people think of the track pads as a replacement for L3 and R3 and they were in the past. Now though, we have gyro and flickstick. To me, gyro and flickstick over track pads.

Nice. Sounds like you are getting your feet wet pretty good. When the next Gnome version drops, I might have to check out HDR. I saw there were mixed opinions on HDR for work and productivity.

I hear you on that. My TV and SteamDeck support HDR and I can't believe what a difference it makes. I'm not even one to care about such things, but I definitely noticed. Apparently HDR is experimental with the right vulkan extensions in Gnome 47. We are almost there. The devs at Gnome spend so much time debating everything and over analyzing things.

edit: I've not tried Nobara, and I'm not sure what you use your machine for, but if it's the normal, boot computer to login screen, login to account, load Gnome, play games, desktop experience. Then you could add a Gamescope desktop session to your login screen. Instead of choosing gnome at login you would choose Gamescope. Just have your Gamescope session launch Steam BigPicture like the Steam deck does. Of course, if you don't play your games through Steam then it's kind of pointless. Also pointless if you are using your machine for productivity and work, haha.

It hardly matters which distro you choose. I've been using Linux for almost 3 decades. I'd say there are a few categories you might consider.

If you like the older Windows looking UI, look for distros with DE's that have that look. If you don't care about stability, then you might be okay with a distro that has a rolling release model.

Most distros have several DE's that you can install and switch to, though the options are limited for some distros. That doesn't mean you can't do the work to get the DE built and installed yourself. Hardly anybody does that, but the point is it's possible.

I go with a point release and then switch my kernel to update with the mainline and I do that with Mesa drivers as well for gaming. I think it's better than going with a rolling release who's stability is unknown at any given time.

For my work machine I go with the LTS Ubuntu. Then I enable live kernel updates. I'm a software developer and it seems like anything developer related is almost guaranteed to be packaging for Ubuntu. I can just add, for example, postgresql's apt source to my apt source list. This gives me the latest postgresql tools even though I'm on the LTS version that is a couple years old. So, I'm stable with the latest tools and my kernel is updating live so I never have to reboot.

Anyways, all that to say, don't worry too much about the distro you pick. You can generally just make them your own. You probably just want to pick a distro that gets you near what you want. That should save you from having to distro hop.

This is actually how things were prior to HMO's.

If you delete a program from the Programs folder, does it get uninstalled from the system? Nope. You have to go drag the registry and delete any mentions. You have to go looking for shortcuts and delete all those in multiple locations. If you go to the control panel -> add/remove programs, that works decently, but it's not guaranteed. It's been a couple decades since I've used windows regularly, but there were all kinds of folders, appdata roaming and that's just what I remember having to go dig through because there is no real standard for anything. That doesn't even get into system files and dlls.

There are package managers for Windows too. Choclatey is something I have seen in README.md files for various install instructions.

The Unix-like install locations are for organization. Goes back to Unix-like server oses. Linux is Unix-like as well. Linux doesn't have a registry to keep track of all the locations for all the files and configurations for each program, so organized locations where the system can expect to find specific things is how it's done. I much prefer the organized file structure, digging through the registry where there is only the minimal organization was something I always hated.

This is the real answer. Windows is abysmal.

Quit your crying. You got back the same energy you gave out. You've had 30 years to change your trope.

It's a tough call man. I've been using Linux for nearly 20+ years. It's great, it always has been great. There are a lot of cliches where people just assume because they are a tech enthusiast with Windows they should be competent under Linux as well. It's just the wrong mindset. I don't know shit about Windows and the times I have to use it, I just look like a moron. All that to say, your approach needs to be, how does one do this under Linux. What is the Linux way of doing things. The same goes hand in hand for Mac or Windows or and of the other Unix-like operating systems.

If you are stuck on Windows for now, that's okay, but you should just keep moving little by little toward Linux. Kind of like using OpenOffice, using Audacity, your Arduino software does have a Linux version. Arduino IDE is based on Electron which is basically Chrome. So, if you can run Chrome you can run your Arduino software.

I'm not sure why you were told your hardware was too new to be supported. They could have just switched you to a mainline kernel, even mainline mesa drivers for gaming. There are so many open standards these days, most hardware is supported by default. I can see too old or, for example, you have a cheap Chinese network card that never had Linux drivers written. I'm guessing that's not your actual problem though. If it were, you could easily buy a cheap network card that is, Linux compatible. You don't need to replace the entire system just for one peripheral.

Your CNC router software is supported through Parallels for Mac (basically you'll use a Windows virtual machine), so you can do the same under Linux.

I don't know about that Cad software, obviously you can run them in a VM no problem. Same with the Sony Vegas Pro software.

I don't think you are stuck on Windows. You might need to run some of your specialized software in a VM, for the times you need it. Probably wont be bad, you could easily have the Window VM run on a second Virtual Workspace (Similar to Task View which Windows added in Windows 10 I believe) and you just switch to the Virtual Workspace when you need it. Just make sure you pass the GPU through to the VM. Same thing with your CNC machine, you want to pass that through to your VM (just a couple mouse clicks, usually), that's what they would be doing with Parallels on Mac.

You can try WINE for things. I don't use WINE to run Windows software. I do use the Proton variant for gaming though. I have used Wine to run the PS5 controller update software for updating my PS5 controller firmware a couple times. I don't own a PS5 so I have to use the software. That would never have happened ten years ago. But I do all that through Bottles which handles all the WINE and Proton nonsense for me.

It might be better if you go to a LUG (Linux User Group) nearby and get help with all this. None of it's hard, but the first couple times, things will probably seem overwhelming. Windows isn't easier, it's just that everybody is used to all the noise you have to deal with in Windows and so they don't notice all the crap they deal with. I'm sure the same for me on Linux.

The 90's called and want their specious cliché back.

Dude, your wifi dongle manufacturer obviously inbox'd their driver with MSFT and didn't mainline their driver into the Linux kernel. When drivers are inboxed, MSFT will maintain them for as long as they are able to. Linux kernel maintainers will do the same when drivers are mainlined into the Linux Kernel. Your dongle manufacturer is the one to blame. Things aren't plug and play because it's "Windows". That's like a Mac enthusiast saying, "My Mac, It just works". It better "just work", there is only handful of devices that are even compatible with Mac. There are plenty of Windows compatible devices that don't have inbox drivers for Win11 and Win10 and guess what, they don't "Plug and Play".

The solution was to just buy a Linux compatible device for the newer kernel you were running. Or, downgrade to a kernel that has support for your device. If it's Windows that doesn't have the inbox driver, you'd have to downgrade the entire OS. Most people don't do that, they just buy a newer device that's compatible with the newer Windows version they are using. Why would things be any different for Linux. Or Mac for that matter. And really, you couldn't just buy a 15 dollar USB Wifi dongle that was compatible with the OS you were using???

If a Windows user buys a Mac, they will just assume they have to buy Mac devices and Mac software. If a Windows user installs Linux, suddenly everything had better work out of the box or the entire Linux eco system is a failure for everyone in the world.