Advice for migrating from Windows 11 to Linux

[jak_2456]

Hey everyone! I've been considering migrating my Dell XPS 15 7590 from Windows 11 to Linux (probably Mint but I'll look around to see if anything else looks appealing to me). What are some things I should consider while doing this? I have some decent experience with Linux in general since I've installed it on numerous devices in the past and I have two devices running it already. However, I have never migrated one of my main use devices to Linux before, so I was wondering what to expect.

What I use the laptop for:

• Web browsing
• 3D modeling and slicing (using FreeCAD and Creality Print)
• Gaming (although the games I want to play are verified to work under Linux

Some things I'm unsure about:

• NVIDIA drivers (my laptop has a GTX 1650)
• Docking station compatibility (I have a Dell WD15)
• Battery usage vs. Windows
• USB monitor support (I have a ViewSonic VA1655 portable monitor)

 

[mechtech]

Anyone try Zorin? Any good?

 

[jak_2456]

Anyone try Zorin? Any good?

It's good. I don't know why I didn't choose that instead of Ubuntu!

 

[wNotyarD]

It works fine on Windows, so I think it'd work if there were drivers (unfortunately there aren't and won't will be any time soon).

Oh no, I used it just fine on Windows, and in case it didn't read well Windows would immediately give me a "try again". Mint didn't, and that was a very annoying hassle.

Maybe it improved (my experience was 10 years ago, after all), but I wouldn't know.

 

[jak_2456]

I've now been using Ubuntu on my laptop for almost four months now. It's been a very decent experience, and I feel quite accustomed to the experience now. I'd probably go with Kubuntu or some KDE distribution if I were to do it again, but GNOME is still decent. I haven't really had any major issues either, and basically everything I've wanted to use the computer for has worked fine. One thing that was a bit strange was that touchpad gestures worked in Wayland but not X11. After hearing the recent news about Microsoft implementing Recall in Windows 11, I'm glad that I've gotten accustomed to daily-driving Linux now! I'm now considering swapping my XPS 15 7590 for a 2-in-1 and was wondering if Linux's pen support is any good.

 

[AusWolf]

I've now been using Ubuntu on my laptop for almost four months now. It's been a very decent experience, and I feel quite accustomed to the experience now. I'd probably go with Kubuntu or some KDE distribution if I were to do it again, but GNOME is still decent. I haven't really had any major issues either, and basically everything I've wanted to use the computer for has worked fine. One thing that was a bit strange was that touchpad gestures worked in Wayland but not X11. After hearing the recent news about Microsoft implementing Recall in Windows 11, I'm glad that I've gotten accustomed to daily-driving Linux now! I'm now considering swapping my XPS 15 7590 for a 2-in-1 and was wondering if Linux's pen support is any good.

I'm glad to read about your positive experiences.

Like I usually say, the only reason people are scared to switch to Linux is because they think it's a vastly different user experience than Windows. It's really not. It's just better.

 

[Space Lynx]

If you like the Steam game called LIMBO, it is supposed to be able to run on Linux natively, but will not run at all, max fps is like 5 fps. Some games are still broken on Linux, even though they were not broken on Linux to begin with.

So, just keep that in mind, if you want to play all your games, you still need Windows sadly.

 

[blinnbanir]

I tried Bazzite for a day. I tried my favorite Sim in AMS2 and the performance sucked but I missed AMD software the most.

 

[wNotyarD]

If you like the Steam game called LIMBO, it is supposed to be able to run on Linux natively, but will not run at all, max fps is like 5 fps. Some games are still broken on Linux, even though they were not broken on Linux to begin with.

So, just keep that in mind, if you want to play all your games, you still need Windows sadly.

Had a similar experience with Saints Row 4. There is a native Linux build, but it didn't run at all. The Windows build, however, ran better than in Windows itself.

 

[jak_2456]

I tried Bazzite for a day. I tried my favorite Sim in AMS2 and the performance sucked but I missed AMD software the most.

I don't run Linux on my sim racing PC because Moza Pit House is incompatible with it, and EA Sports WRC has overkill anticheat that doesn't work (still a great game ignoring that). For my basic use case on my laptop, though, it works well.

 

[_roman_]

Nothing wrong with dual boot. Binary games should be kept separate form your data anyway. I have big concerns about games in general.
The few open source games which I compile from source code do not really add up. Endless-sky for example.

I believe if I ever want to test steam again i would have to use a binary distro anyway to keep my box free of clutter, lint files, junk packages which are pulled in and anyway already exists on my box.
So using windows 11 pro for gaming or bazite / ubuntu / whatever they call their gaming gnu userspace with the linux kernel does not make a big difference in my case. A second system needs to be installed and updated.

 

[jak_2456]

Nothing wrong with dual boot. Binary games should be kept separate form your data anyway. I have big concerns about games in general.
The few open source games which I compile from source code do not really add up. Endless-sky for example.

I believe if I ever want to test steam again i would have to use a binary distro anyway to keep my box free of clutter, lint files, junk packages which are pulled in and anyway already exists on my box.
So using windows 11 pro for gaming or bazite / ubuntu / whatever they call their gaming gnu userspace with the linux kernel does not make a big difference in my case. A second system needs to be installed and updated.

I agree, and if I had games and/or software that only works on Windows, then I'd probably dual-boot my laptop. Ubuntu worked well enough for the games I wanted to run though, so I didn't feel the need to.

 

[Deleted member 245263]

I received yesterday Dell 7435 2in1. It has 1TB drive and had windows11 installed.

I decided to keep windows11, since there is prolly license hardcoded to the motherboard, so why not.

The original partitions were - EFI 100mb, ~950gb for the system C and 2 other typical strange windows partitions.

I just shrinked the big windows partition nvme0n1p3 to 150 gb, and made 3 linux partitions in free space - nvme0n1p5,nvme0n1p7 (ext4),nvme0n1p6 (swap).

Booted arch iso, Installed arch normally (actually migrated - rsynced from old laptop over wifi/ssh, it does not matter ), installed GRUB (bootloader letting me choose the OS to boot) to the original EFI partiton and it works w/o problems.

edit:
i updated the bios, turned off tpm and secure boot first

 

[_roman_]

#62 @fevgatos

I would not use swap, except maybe when the box has only 8Gib or maybe 16Gib DRAM.

I would not have separated your data from your /. You waste space which is unused.
When you want to fix that. run gpated as root from sysrescue cd from usb. (note only a year old version boots here for some reason). -> move shrink your data partiton to around 120% of the current usage. Grow your /. Move the files. Change the mount points. remove the partition and finally grow /. pay attention to user permissions and the entries in /etc/fstab and what mount says before and after the changes
If the swap disturbs, it can be removed in a live-cd and later created again. You just need to add it again later.

You can backup your "data" or your home folder anyway. It is directly accessable via directories.

--

I doubt much boots with secure boot. I think secure boot is an apple computer and intel processor flaw because of thunderbolt 2. There is some interesting story i read a few days ago about thunderbolt and code execution for intel and apple.