Hi All.

I'm making a serious attempt right now to switch over to Linux for my daily driver, I have tried in the past but always hit hurdles.

I've used Manjaro and Garuda in past attempts but these always "Worked till they didn't" with programs that just stopped working one day for no reason or the updater just failing to install updates in both the GUI and Terminal (I understand Garuda isn't focused on general usage but I just wanted to give it a shot).

I'm trying Zorin OS Core and so far everything is good but if anyone has any packages or programs to try that can help with the transition that would be great.

I would say my skill level is Beginner to very early moderate.

Also please don't turn the thread into a distro war thread, thank you.

Bottles is a GUI set of tools to configure and manage Windows "apps" and games. Is very simple to use and configure.

https://usebottles.com/

Just a little tip: since Bottles is distributed as a flatpack (self contained program with no permission to access system files), your Windows programs and games must be located inside the Bottle Directory (Wine prefix, wich is a "emulated C: Windows drive).
1: install bottles
2: Create a Bottle, say for games
3: open the Bottle and click the directory button
4: optional, create a bookmark in the file manager singe the directory path is a bit convoluted
5: copy the games you need and enjoy :)

I had Manjaro Linux running in a VM. That one died too because I badly neglected updates... But that was totally my fault alone. You see, It's a rolling release and you kinda have to stay on the ball all time or else the upgrade path breaks. Not sure about Zorin OS, though, what it's based on and what update regime it has. (edit: Running Ubuntu Linux myself since 10 years. No major problems with that one so far.) :-)

Otherwise, what Dark_art_ said.
- Bottles
- Flatseal
- sandboxing in general

I too want to keep some Windows tools around (for example WinRar, TotalCommander, Foxit PDF), because I haven't found alternatives for them that are as powerful *and* convenient as those. And all those nice Windows games of course...

Previously, I ran everything under the system's default wine environment, but that's a bad idea. Because 1) all files, settings, desktop integration get mashed together and 2) a default wine setup also brings the risk of potentially allowing Windows malware to run and mess with you profile and user files. (System files should be okay though because of restricted rights).

Happy linuxing!

woo yaywoo boo Sorry to hear that. And the Arch Wiki/Linux community was stumped?

I'm not going to say that Linux installations cannot be borked irreparably, or become so far gone that a reinstall is easier, but distro hopping and starting from scratch is almost always worse than troubleshooting and getting to the root of the problem.

You will most likely have issues with any distro, the key is to stick with one you like, has good support and documentation, and learn it enough to troubleshoot or google-fu and fake it till you make it.

TLDR; Try and stick with it, don't hop onto other distros too quickly. No matter how some people sell their shiny distro that they use! What are we talking about here? GOG Linux gaming related software? Or like, text editors? :) Or like, utilities that you are used to on Windows and would like to have similarly on Linux? What's your use case here? Surely not. Surely not amongst Linux users. Surely.

Was a little vague on things wasn't I, but then again there are so many possibilities it would be hard to narrow it down.

I got things like LibreOffice and basic Internet down, I guess my main concerns would be security and such, though Linux isn't generally targeted by malicious actors you don't really here anything in this area for tools to help combat this on Linux.

Prob worth asking on the zorin forums actually. pretty helpful bunch.

Havent used zorin sinze ~15 so I'm afraid I'm not too up to date, but hope yer enjoying it.

Just installed Bottles. So far looks interesting, maybe I'll try it with a game or program that requires a background application.

If you run into issues with Zorin then I recommend checking out Linux Mint - it's a great choice for daily use and perfect for beginners, plus I wrote a beginner's guide for it: https://gitlab.com/adamhm/mintguide

I've been using Linux Mint for the past 11+ years so far without any major issues, won't ever be going back to Windows :)

Ditto, probably for a bit more than 11 years at this point, but I was dual booting until 5 years ago. I've since gone cold turkey fully on Linux (Mint) and never looked back. I was only ever using Wndows for gaming purposes, but these days Linux works just as well within ~10-15% of Windows performance in most cases.

Probably worth mentioning that the tiny bits of Linux support GOG offers is for Ubuntu and derivatives, so you'd likely want to pick something along those lines. Although I've heard Arch folk are pretty happy with game compatibility as well in general, but your mileage may vary.

For everything else, use Wine, Wine Staging or Proton, depending on how "bleeding edge" you want to be and you'll be fine. There's a learning curve to be sure, but it pays off. Try Midnight Commander, and scratch that NC itch you've had for years :P.

Take it slow. There's no need to get everything working at once.

It's more like moving into a new flat or house. At first, you sit on a huge pile of moving boxes. You take out the most important things that you use daily. Then a few more things that you like to have around. After half a year, you discover that your original boxes are still half full with old trash you'll never need or want again. :-D

For stability and things not going pear shaped after a bit of fiddling, I usually recommend Debian Stable.
But Endeavour OS is also an option if newer packages are important. It’s Arch, so it can break. But their forums are the friendliest, most helpful place you’re likely to find on the web. Have you ever tried Double Commander? It’s pretty much a straight up clone.

I don't recommend any Debian derivatives, as I beloathe their Staleness is Stability philosophy; it means Ubuntu being derived from a stale Debian is now the leftovers, and Mint, which is derived either from Ubuntu or Debian LTS is the crumbs. Hope you like your software with freezer burn and a buttload of backports holding it together.

I'd sooner suggest OpenSuse, with it's very loaded YAST graphical setup tool, or a Fedora Spin; both of them are close to bleeding edge, but without the "You figure it out" of Gentoo or Arch.

Both of them are related to commercial products, and that comes with upsides and downsides. For example, Red Hat is basically supporting Gnome; though I think Gnome is loathsome and leads to learned helplessness due to their extreme take on Kai Krause's Padded Cell software philosophy. When you need to install an extra utility just to change a theme (and more recently, they just decided to punt themes out), this is what leads people to me hoping for the dethroning of the GTK.

OP asks not to turn the thread into a distro war; first thing Darvond does is take a stab at Debian. :''D

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I would have suggested Heroic Games Launcher, but seeing as how wolfsite managed to successfully get bottles running - kudos. =)

Hey cool, thank you! :-)
Looks promising, it even has the directory synchronization function that I love so much.
I will try that one out to see if it is reliable enough.

edit: It seems that old Krusader got a revamp, too. So many options! :-D



Yeah, it has quickly become a competition of selling alternative distributions.

Let the OP use their chosen distribution for a while and get familiar with it. There's nothing wrong with Zorin OS.

Started Linux 4 years ago thanks to adamhm and his guide for beginner so i was dual booting mint and windows 10 but only use windows for games. I switched to Manjaro after 1 year and a half with Linux Mint and stopped using Windows and last year i discoverd Garuda Linux and when i installed it, i decided to completely remove Windows as i was no longer booting it, it was just taking space on disk.

Some games might not work or require some tweaks but i'd rather not playing a game that won't work in Linux than return to Windows, there a plenty of games that work almost out of the box with tools like Heroic Game Launcher for GOG games et Epic Games, and Lutris for the other store, and Steam have it's own Proton to run games on Linux so no need to tweak.