To Win 7 Users: Install Linux Mint

[D. Flame]

First off it sucks what Steam is doing to you. Not making this post to shame you, but just to try to help.

Mint actually feels a lot like Windows 7 or Windows XP, but it is more up to date. It has a software store so installing stuff like Steam is super easy.

I have also installed it for non-tech savvy 60 and 70 year olds, and even they can use it without problems.

As for games, I wanted to test it with an lower end machine, so I took a Dell Optiplex 3040 as a base and worked from there. I got a refreshed Intel Core i5-6500 on Amazon for like $50, and I got a new RX 6400 for like $150 and put them in the Dell.

To install Windows games in Linux you just need to do a few extra clicks. On the page with the install button for your game -> click the gear icon near the right side of the screen -> click properties -> the properties box will open -> click the compatibility tab -> put a check mark in that box, and leave it set to "Proton Experimental" and close the popup. Then just click install like normal.

As for how well the game will work when installing this way. It should work just as well as the Steam Deck does, since the deck is also using Linux. As for that Dell machine that I tried, I was even able to run newer games like Resident Evil 4 remake and Armored Core 6 on it. I was playing them at lower settings and 1080p, but they were running on Linux. Older games like DOOM (2016) were running at a full 60 FPS on higher settings.

You can even put Linux Mint on a USB drive or burn it to a DVD and boot it from that to try the it out before committing to the change.

[D. Flame]

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

NTFS is the standard for windows.
Ext4 is the standard for Linux.

For sure? Like will it run most everything on my library with proton enabled? He pointed me to ProtonDB to see which games will work but I see so much about using different partitions, it won't work unless its on the same drive as the OS, it works on this format on that format etc when the old rig had a dedicated 2tb SSD for all the steam stuff. See this is why I wanted him to walk me through this stuff but I have no idea what happened with him he dropped into the twilight zone around new years.

I think you are misunderstanding a lot of stuff. Let me try an analogy:

NTFS is like writing on unlined white printer paper.
Ext4 is like writing on a yellow steno pad.

Windows is like writing in French.
Linux is like writing in English.

Proton is like an English/French translator.

[warriorofthewind]

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

For sure? Like will it run most everything on my library with proton enabled? He pointed me to ProtonDB to see which games will work but I see so much about using different partitions, it won't work unless its on the same drive as the OS, it works on this format on that format etc when the old rig had a dedicated 2tb SSD for all the steam stuff. See this is why I wanted him to walk me through this stuff but I have no idea what happened with him he dropped into the twilight zone around new years.

I think you are misunderstanding a lot of stuff. Let me try an analogy:

NTFS is like writing on unlined white printer paper.
Ext4 is like writing on a yellow steno pad.

Windows is like writing in French.
Linux is like writing in English.

Proton is like an English/French translator.

And that is why I wanted my linux bro friend to help me with this stuff. Most everything in my library looks like it'll be supported via proton according to proton DB but other stuff might not. I even tried checking for a linux version of a favorite image program I use and even though people asked for linux support pretty please with sugar on top the devs on their own forums essentially told people to **** off ;3

[Knightspace]

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

Zefar님이 먼저 게시:

Looking at the Hardware survey now it shows all Linux versions going down.

I suppose people tested it out and saw the flaws it had and moved to Windows again.

It is down by TWO THOUSANDTHS OF ONE PERCENT.

Meanwhile Macs dropped by 450% more than Linux did.

Lol, Zefar making ♥♥♥♥ up again i see.

[warriorofthewind]

Knightspace님이 먼저 게시:

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

It is down by TWO THOUSANDTHS OF ONE PERCENT.

Meanwhile Macs dropped by 450% more than Linux did.

Lol, Zefar making ♥♥♥♥ up again i see.

What survey is he looking at? I'm old enough to remember when Windows came bundled with stuff like word, excel, etc OOTB nowadays all their ♥♥♥♥ is 'subscription-based' it's getting to the point where they want to charge you for the act of breathing. Mint's been working fine so far I'll just need to get everything reinstalled but I been able to find Linux versions of stuff like Blender, 3dCoat, Inkscape, and Gimp just fine.

[Vitdom]

Nope, checked it out. It is nothing remotely similar like Windows XP.

[Watermelon {JESUS IS LORD}]

or you can install OPENSHELL on win10 or win11 and skin windows to look like win7 or xp

that way you have a windows os that looks like 7 or xp

[HighBall]

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

Knightspace님이 먼저 게시:

Lol, Zefar making ♥♥♥♥ up again i see.

What survey is he looking at? I'm old enough to remember when Windows came bundled with stuff like word, excel, etc OOTB nowadays all their ♥♥♥♥ is 'subscription-based' it's getting to the point where they want to charge you for the act of breathing. Mint's been working fine so far I'll just need to get everything reinstalled but I been able to find Linux versions of stuff like Blender, 3dCoat, Inkscape, and Gimp just fine.

Steam Hardware and Software Survey
The survey is randomized and per machine, not per user. Which makes it more of loose check month to month. But I think it's quite good for year over year. I think a percentage point is generally reliable if you see it for 3 or more months.

Steam Tracker[www.gamingonlinux.com] from GOL keeps a historical record of the Steam Hardware and Software Survey so you can see the YoY and month to month.

[Zefar]

Knightspace님이 먼저 게시:

Lol, Zefar making ♥♥♥♥ up again i see.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ Go to OS versions and look it up. I'm factually right on this.

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

What survey is he looking at? I'm old enough to remember when Windows came bundled with stuff like word, excel, etc OOTB nowadays all their ♥♥♥♥ is 'subscription-based' it's getting to the point where they want to charge you for the act of breathing. Mint's been working fine so far I'll just need to get everything reinstalled but I been able to find Linux versions of stuff like Blender, 3dCoat, Inkscape, and Gimp just fine.

The link above. The one we always use around here.

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

It is down by TWO THOUSANDTHS OF ONE PERCENT.

Meanwhile Macs dropped by 450% more than Linux did.

It's still going down. There where people who probably tried it out and changed their mind when a program didn't instantly run on it.

It's also a small community so small changes are still quite a lot for them.

[D. Flame]

Zefar님이 먼저 게시:

Knightspace님이 먼저 게시:

Lol, Zefar making ♥♥♥♥ up again i see.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ Go to OS versions and look it up. I'm factually right on this.

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

What survey is he looking at? I'm old enough to remember when Windows came bundled with stuff like word, excel, etc OOTB nowadays all their ♥♥♥♥ is 'subscription-based' it's getting to the point where they want to charge you for the act of breathing. Mint's been working fine so far I'll just need to get everything reinstalled but I been able to find Linux versions of stuff like Blender, 3dCoat, Inkscape, and Gimp just fine.

The link above. The one we always use around here.

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

It is down by TWO THOUSANDTHS OF ONE PERCENT.

Meanwhile Macs dropped by 450% more than Linux did.

It's still going down. There where people who probably tried it out and changed their mind when a program didn't instantly run on it.

It's also a small community so small changes are still quite a lot for them.

AFAIK, they randomly pick machines to check, and if someone doesn’t login then it can’t participate either. The margin of error is somewhere in the single digits as a result, and you are trying to stir up ♥♥♥♥ over 2/1000 of a single percent. That’s like taking 1 percent, splitting it into 1000s pieces, then taking only two of those pieces. LOL

[HighBall]

Zefar님이 먼저 게시:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ Go to OS versions and look it up. I'm factually right on this.

Disingenuous, seems more accurate.

Zefar님이 먼저 게시:

It's still going down. There where people who probably tried it out and changed their mind when a program didn't instantly run on it.

Historical Steam Survey data[www.gamingonlinux.com]
This might help you with your facts.

[HerbalNekoTea]

warriorofthewind님이 먼저 게시:

I had a friend who sold me on Linux Mint but the second SSD in the new rig was not formatted when I had it built and I have no idea what format to use I've seen so much contradictory information, and my friend for whatever reason decided to ghost/block me across all platforms so I haven't been able to consult him for advice. I'm frustrated because he spoke so highly about Mint then hung me out to dry and it does work nicely for generic stuff like internet access but I haven't installed anything from steam yet because I wanted to put all games (nearly 1tb of my current library) on a dedicated ssd. I've seen some things work just fine, they don't, its hit and miss and I don't want to deal with ifs and maybes I need absolutes before I try anything. I've tried to reach out to him to no avail and I'm running out of patience I was willing to wait a week for him to get things sorted out but finding out he blocked me for no specified reason is infuriating.

Sorry for the late reply, have you gone into the main setting of steam and go in the compatibility tab and select the enable proton for all title tick case ?

[Princess Luna]

Does C++Builder works there?

[HerbalNekoTea]

Princess Luna님이 먼저 게시:

Does C++Builder works there?

We got the classic GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) which had been forked to everything before Linux even exist, it's one of the best compiler, we also got Clang. If you need microsoft stuff, there's VS Code that exist. I personally don't like VIM Emac, since i used 10 years ago to use nano before i found out about micro.

[Rin]

One should look into Garuda (Arch distro) if they're gonna move away from Windows, especially if they game AND do other things and cba with how Linux is and works. As for protondb, the average Linux user runs trash hardware (i.e Steam Deck) so often take it with a grain of salt if it mentions playable but then have other issues. Proton-ge is all you really need except when you play MP and the game happens to use EAC (Halo MCC/BDO to name a few) or some other form of kernel infested malware.

Also: https://github.com/kevinlekiller/reshade-steam-proton and I hear it works with SpecialK as well although I haven't tried.

As for Garuda, don't bother with the gaming edition just get the regular dr460nized edition and you're set. I also highly recommend to get the daily/weekly builds instead of the twice a year builds many distros use which will become bothersome in the long run.

[D. Flame]

Rin님이 먼저 게시:

One should look into Garuda (Arch distro) if they're gonna move away from Windows, especially if they game AND do other things and cba with how Linux is and works. As for protondb, the average Linux user runs trash hardware (i.e Steam Deck) so often take it with a grain of salt if it mentions playable but then have other issues. Proton-ge is all you really need except when you play MP and the game happens to use EAC (Halo MCC/BDO to name a few) or some other form of kernel infested malware.

Also: https://github.com/kevinlekiller/reshade-steam-proton and I hear it works with SpecialK as well although I haven't tried.

As for Garuda, don't bother with the gaming edition just get the regular dr460nized edition and you're set. I also highly recommend to get the daily/weekly builds instead of the twice a year builds many distros use which will become bothersome in the long run.

Still using Mint. Just picked up Tales of Arise for $9.99, and it played perfectly on a laptop with a 3050. Solid 60FPS the whole time.