Approaching the end of window 10 and have no plans on upgrading to 11.

I am trying to find alternatives to applications I regularly use before jumping ship (it is mostly a gaming focused pc) any suggestions?

There’s oculus software for my vr but don’t know what I’m going to do with that

Small update: probably going to do Linux mint as that appears to be the most beginner friendly

Update two: that’s a lot of comments, and Thanks for all the info

  • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    6 days ago

    • AMD drivers: use the built-in MESA drivers that include the official AMD support.

    • Gmail: ProtonMail for the service, Kmail for the desktop client.

    • Chrome: Firefox, or Librewolf if you care about privacy.

    • Office365: LibreOffice for full FOSS or OnlyOfficr for less freedom but more comfort.

    • iTunes: depends entirely on what you use it for, but I buy my music mostly off of BandCamp these days.

    • MuseScore: MuseScore

    • Norton: Why were you using Norton in the first place? It’s practically a virus itself. If you need an antivirus on Linux, you might want ClamAV/ClamTK for something that runs locally only, or Microsoft Defender for Linux.

    • Py-Charm: Py-Charm, VSCode, Vim, Kate/KWrite

    • Remote Desktop to iOS: I got nothin’

    • Star Citizen: Star Citizen

    • Steam: Steam

    • VPN: Wireguard

    • Windows Games: install locally using Wine and then add to Steam as a non-Steam game to use Proton for better support.

    Windows 10: run it in a VM if you still need it, or keep it on a separate SSD and dual boot into that.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        Kmail is simple and to the point, and at least in my experience is easier to set up. Bonus, if youre on KDE, it integrates very nicely.

        It’s also more performant than Thunderbird.

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    3·
    6 days ago

    Off the top of my head:

    Gmail or any email: Thunderbird is pretty sweet and I need to use it more, but mostly just use the web clients anyway.

    If you own GoG games, you can use Heroic Launcher instead of GoG Galaxy. It’s gotten amazingly good, really fast. :)

    • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      I’d recommend Lutris over Heroic both because it runs locally where Heroic is Electron, and because Lutris allows community-based native Linux ports for games where applicable, eg. for Ultima VII: The Black Gate + The Forge of Virtue, Lutris gives you the option of installing that game with Exult instead of DOSbox, for Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II, you have the option to install those with OpenLara, for Doom 1 and 2, you have the option to install those with ZDoom, for Little Big Adventure, you can install that with the ScummVM runner, etc.

      Also, at least for DOS games where you don’t have the option to install a community-based modern port, you can use native DOSbox as a runner instead of Windows DOSbox as well through Lutris.

      Oh, and one more bonus particularly for GOG games in Lutris’ favor over Heroic, is Lutris uses the offline installers so that if anything ever goes wrong with any given GOG game, you can just reinstall from the offline installer where Heroic operates more like GOG Galaxy or Steam in that it’s always downloaded from scratch.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
        1·
        3 days ago

        Hey, points for Lutris! Thanks for sharing!

        I’ve had issues in the past installing stuff with Lutris, although for advanced scenarios like using community engines and stuff, that’s really cool. I definitely have both installed on my machine for different reasons. Lutris handles EA / Origin stuff pretty well. (Titanfall 2 and Sims 2 Ultimate (not the Steam one) run beautifully on Linux, truly glorious!)

        Electron annoys me as well, but I will say that I appreciate how Heroic hooks into GoG APIs. It handles auto-updates, cloud saving, play time logging, that kinda stuff that made Galaxy decent and had a degree of convenience-parity with Steam.

        (Maybe Lutris does this too now?)

        For a complete newbie , I’d say Heroic has a bit of a smoother and expected ramp to just “Download game and run.” But if you want more control, Lutris definitely has more options!

        I also can’t recommend Bottles enough for other games that aren’t from distribution platforms. Shockingly simple.

        • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          Even for Doom3, both vanilla and BFG, and RTCW, Steam versions included, Lutris allows you to install native community ports for those pretty easily too.

  • Peasley@lemmy.world
    3·
    6 days ago

    What do you use iTunes for? That stood out to me.

    Also Chrome works fine on Linux, though Firefox is a better browser even on Windows.

    • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      For anyone who uses Apple Music, I recommend the Cider app. I believe it costs $3 and you get versions for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

      I haven’t found any MP3 players on Linux that I’m totally happy with. All of them have some trivial issue (eg not displaying Album Artist correctly).

      https://cider.sh/

      • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        As I pointed out, if you have an older iPod, eg. like an iPod Video or Classic, or any other player that supports it, Rockbox is a thing you can flash onto it.

        • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          I do have one and I have a Mac with iTunes Match (iCloud music syncing for iPhone). That said I keep most of my actual files on my Ubuntu machine and might want to experiment with the iPod at some point.

          • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
            1·
            5 days ago

            You’ll need an original iPod, iPod Mini, or iPod Video or Classic for Rockbox compatibility. iPod Touch is just an iPhone without the phone, so it’s locked into iOS, but the original iPod, and iPod Mini, Video, and Classic all support Rockbox.

            I presume any generation of iPod Shuffle or Nano is also locked into Apple firmware.

              • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
                1·
                5 days ago

                Then it’ll support Rockbox. I would recommend flash-retrofitting it for long-term reliability if it hasn’t been retrofitted already, though, the spinning rust is a known weak point on older iPods.

          • Majestic@lemmy.ml
            2·
            5 days ago

            There is AFAIK no way to do this.

            Apple’s never open-sourced the APIs and interfaces and it only works on Macs and Windows. For this you will need to have either a Windows install (recommend separate drive so it doesn’t break Linux bootloader) or a persistent or not Windows VM with USB passthrough. I’m not even sure how well the VM situation works but it probably should. You don’t even have to have a license for Windows, you can just run it in the VM for this purpose alone but it does mean oh at least 40GB set aside on your drive for the VM image plus more if you want to do things like back-up the phone.

    • RepleteLocum@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      6 days ago

      I have iTunes, because I have an iPhone. I don’t know of any other good way to get mp3s on my phone. (And to get games for emulators)

  • Kurroth@aussie.zone
    1·
    5 days ago

    Pico might be a good way to jump shop on VR. Not sure if you can change OS on current hardware. But next purchase you have plenty of options.

  • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
    1·
    7 days ago

    I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.

    I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.

    The mere fact that it generates a new system for you on update and lets you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).

    How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.

    Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.

    Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lmde is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.

    I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.

  • Richard@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 days ago

    AMD DRIVERS - Linux’s built in drivers

    Chrome - Chrome

    gmail - gmail

    Office 360 - Office 360 (web)

    Norton - You don’t need such piece of adware in Linux

    Py-charm - py-charm

    Star citizen - Star citizen though steam

    VPN - Proton VPN (my suggestion)

    Windows 10 - Fedora KDE

    My suggestions if you want a smoother transition, repeated ones have Linux versions

  • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    Antivirus is completely unnecessary and terrible on windows and linux… and on linux it’s uniquely useless. Everything is installed from a centralized repo, antiviruses won’t be of any help at all. antiviruses came about because windows let executables just be run easily and simply and used them as the default way of installing software, this was beyond idiotic and the reason that OS became infested with malware. Linux never made that mistake from the start, and so antivirus is unnecessary.

    Norton is basically just malware, however.

      • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
        1·
        7 days ago

        On windows you install things from random websites as the primary method of installing stuff, this means anything can install anything and has installers that can install bonus stuff. This is why windows has so much malware.

        On linux, imagine your distro is an app store, ubuntu is an app store, mint is an app store, fedora is an app store. The apps themselves can’t manage installation so they can’t bundle nonsense with them. you just click install and you get only the thing you wanted and nothing else.

        Since your distro curates all the software, as long as you trust your distro, you’ll know there’s no malware on your computer, because you get all your software from the distro (or flathub but same idea).

      • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        7 days ago

        9 times out of 10 the software you’re looking will typically land in your Distribution’s repository, before it lands in the main repository it’ll be vetted for stability and security in a testing repository.

        For example; Steam-Installer is located in the main repository for Debian 12 (Bookworm) they also have a newer version in their Debian 13 (Trixie) repository for testing the next generation of Debian..

        If you want to install software outside your distributions repository you will need to vet the software yourself and make sure it’s compatible with your distro.

        Hope that explains it a little easier.

  • Synapse@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 days ago
    Software Linux support
    AMD driver ✅ open-source drivers for CPU and GPU are included in the Linux Kernel and work very well. If you have bleeding edge news hardware, check online in which Kernel version they are supposed and choose Linux distro accordingly
    Web Browser ✅ Chrome/chromium, ✅ Firefox. All are commonly available in your distro software repository by default, or otherwise with Flatpak
    Web-based email ✅ not dependent on OS. Local Email client software are available, one exemple is Thunderbird.
    Office suite ✅ LibreOffice, or anything web-based such as Google Docs will work independently of the OS
    Itunes Many music players/library managers are available on Linux, I don’t have any specific recommendations here, I am self-hosting Jellyfin for my music needs
    JBL not sure what you mean here ? Your headset/speakers ? Don’t see why it wouldn’t work
    Music score reader/editor ✅ MuseScore, I also use Guitar Pro (7, 8) inside Bottle (wine) and it works with some tweaks needed for fixing font bug
    Antivirus ✅ ClamAV, arguable if you need an antivirus at all
    Python ✅ many IDEs are available, a scary amount of Linux distribution rely on Python under the hood 😅
    Remote desktop ✅ RDP protocol (many clients available), ✅ Rustdesk, ✅ anydesk, ✅ TeamViewer)
    Game platforms ✅ Steam, ✅ Heroic Games Launcher (for Epic and GOG), ✅ Lutris
    VPN ✅ OpenVPN and ✅ Wireguard protocols are supported (maybe others), you can find many providers using these protocols. Most ask you to use their app, but digging a little you often have options to configure the VPN connection without installing anything extra. I know Nord on client works on Linux, I haven’t tried other. Mulldav is a very frequent recommendation in Linux communities
    Windows games compatibility ✅ Wine/Proton via Steam, Lutris, Heroic and Bottles. The only thing that will block you is competitive multiplayer games with Anti-Cheat
    • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      There might be some cases even for single-player games where DRM platform-locks you into Windows but that’s rare from my understanding.

        • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          Like I said, it’s rare especially for games, it’s more common in productivity software though…

          cough Adobe… cough

          The current standard DRM for the games industry, Denuvo, will work in Proton.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      0·
      6 days ago

      @op, they may suggest you to change your kernel version to support newer hardware, don’t do this unless you know what you are doing and can undo it from cli. its fine 90% of the time but can cause weirdness or no boot.

      • Synapse@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 days ago

        This isn’t exactly what I recommend. Only in the case the hardware is bleeding edge, as in, it was released less than 6 month ago, then check in which Kernel version it starts to be supported, as well as check the Kernel version shipping with the distribution you are interested in installing. Distro Kernel version >= Kernel version where the driver starts to be included, no problems. Otherwise, check a distro that has more frequent upgrades.

        Things to check: GPU, CPU, WiFi chip, Ethernet chip. In windows you can find the information in the device manager. On Linux (e.g: test with a live USB) the command lspci with display the information.

        A common case would be: I am interested in Debian because I heard it’s the most stable, will my AMD 5070XT work with that ? Probably not very well, better Check Ubuntu non-LTS or Fedora.

        I am not recommending op to modify the Kernel from the Linux distro, just consider this point in choosing the distro.

        • DFX4509B@lemmy.orgEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          Even on older kernels, if anything hardware like GPUs will benefit more from running newer drivers than a newer kernel, ie. AMD cards from GCN1 up to present-day RDNA3 are actively being supported by Mesa and the dev branch generally tends to have more optimizations especially for newer cards but also older ones as well, than the latest stable branch.

          The EL distros - CentOS Stream, Alma, and Rocky, all have a package which allows you to install a manufacturer repo that lets you install the latest AMD drivers from, for example, and CentOS Stream 10 and Alma 10 are both on the 6.12 kernel now.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          1·
          6 days ago

          oh my observation comes from the blogs recommending it.

          but i couldnt have put it better myself, except i think you mean 9070 XT

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6·
    7 days ago

    AMD drivers: Native, will auto-install as the mesa library, AMD is tits in Linux, it just works.

    Gmail: Thunderbird works with Gmail accounts and can sync the calendar.

    iTunes: Rhythmbox has a very similar layout to iTunes and so should feel pretty familiar.

    Anti-virus: Linux doesn’t really need antivirus in the same way Windows does because it’s more locked down and doesn’t have the same vectors of attack. If someone is hacking a Linux machine, it’s a corporate server, not your desktop PC. If you still think you might need one ClamAV is available for Linux distributions. (.deb for Debian derivaties and .rpm for Fedora derivatives)

    Py-Charm: As others have noted, Python is installed natively and is usually already implemented “out of the box” on a fresh install. No need for a program to run it, Python is just… there already.

    Remote Desktop: Whatever distribution you have will likely also come with a Remote Desktop client. I am unaware of whether or not they will connect natively to iOS.

    Star Citizen: You should be able to add this as a non-Steam game to Steam and use Steam’s Proton compatibility layer to play it. A few years ago they were literally asking for Linux players to test it with Proton and Easy Anti-Cheat.

    VPN: Linux has extensive VPN support including “roll your own” through either OpenVPN or Wireguard.

    Windows Games: Steam, using the Proton compatibility layer, which is essentially WINe, just made a little easier. As with Star Citizen, just add it as a non-Steam game and viola.

    Windows 10: The Distribution of your Dreams is just around the corner… I’ve heard Mint isn’t a terrible place to start.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      6 days ago

      If OP is a gamer and not too comfortable with Linux, Bazzite is a good choice of distribution.

      It’s a so-called “Atomic” distro. Basically what that means is that it works more like Android / iOS than Windows or a traditional Linux distribution.

      The base system including drivers and key applications is built as an image by Fedora. Every 2 weeks or so, they release a new one, and Bazzite users get the new one the next time they reboot. Everything in that base image is tested to work together, so you don’t get weird incompatibilities. You can still install all the other software you want, but you tend to do it using Flatpaks rather than rpms/debs. (For someone who doesn’t know what that means, Bazzite is a nice OS because that’s something you don’t need to learn right away.)

      Bazzite is meant to be something that you can install on a SteamDeck, or another handheld gaming PC, but it also works great for desktop machines. But, because it’s meant for handheld machines, they’ve worked extra hard to sand away some of the rough edges.

      If you’re a more advanced user, Bazzite is still good because you can still do almost everything you’d do on a normal distribution, you’re just discouraged from doing things that affect the base image because it makes updates slower and means they’re not guaranteed to work. I actually really like some of the things you’re encouraged to do in Atomic distros that you wouldn’t do normally. For example, using distrobox as a way to install certain kinds of dev tools. I currently have one project I’m running in an Ubuntu distrobox and another I’m running in a Fedora distrobox. It keeps some of the tools isolated to the “box” where they’re needed. I haven’t used Fedora much lately, so it’s fun to have the more familiar Ubuntu environment in one, and then the other one where I can experiment and learn.

      For someone who doesn’t play games, Bazzite probably isn’t ideal, but I’d still recommend an Atomic build. There are downsides, but unless you’re the kind of person who really likes building their own kernel and making sure it’s optimal for their system, it’s so nice to have a stable base image so you can focus on the other stuff.

      • Mactan@lemmy.ml
        0·
        7 days ago

        nearly, it’s too bad they’re hung up on wine 8 default. have to manually switch to proton since 8-26 is too old

        • N.E.P.T.R@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          7 days ago

          Using either ProtonUp-qt or ProtonPlus you can install newer/alternative Proton versions, including one optimized for Star Citizen

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    2·
    7 days ago

    AMD Drivers: if your GPU is new enough (which it probably is since you’re playing Star citizen) it should be just magic here since they come together with the kernel.

    Chrome: it’s available for Linux, no need to switch. Although Firefox is very nice too.

    Gmail: not sure what you mean, Gmail is a website, those are available on any platform. If you meant a desktop email client (which honestly I have never in my life used) there’s Thunderbird.

    Office 360: Are you talking about Microsoft 365? Is that not a website too? In any case Libre office is a nice alternative to the classical Office desktop app too in case you want that.

    I-Tunes: A quick search online reveals people use wine to run the Windows version of iTunes, although I would probably consider migrating. Spotify has a native client and there are some places where you can buy music and have it locally for playback.

    JBL: not sure what this is other than a brand for speakers.

    Anti-virus: You almost assuredly don’t need an anti-virus on Linux, as long as you install software through the proper channels (i.e. using the package manager) chances of virus are so small it’s not something to worry about. Most Linux anti-virus serve to check windows binaries in the system to avoid someone using the Linux machine to send virus to Windows users.

    PyCharm: it’s available for Linux

    Remote desktop to iOS: Not sure this is possible even on Windows, I use remmina for remote desktop, it supports several ways of connecting to the other device so maybe see if it works for you.

    Star citizen: Never played it but it seems to be playable with Wine.

    Steam: While steam is available not all games are compatible, check out https://www.protondb.com/ to see the status of any specific Steam game.

    VPN: should be native on Linux, there’s a protocol caller OpenVPN which most VPN providers will give you a Config file for that you can use directly on the network applet on Linux.

    PS: Next time share the list in text, it makes it easier to reply

      • LouSlash@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        7 days ago

        For an average user i would recommend Firefox

        For someone tech-savy and privacy focused - LibreWolf

        Why? Some websites will not work properly on LibreWolf because of how hardened it is (not extremely, but just enough to break some things on websites). I don’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not for everyone atm since many people want things to just work™

        • SeekPie@lemm.ee
          1·
          4 days ago

          If you want more customizability, then Floorp’s also a great option.