looking for distro for switching from windows 10

utkukck11

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currently im using windows 10 i used some linux distros before but idk which one is better and gives the best perf for my hardware
specs: intel i5 4200U
8gb 4x2 ddr3 ram
intel hd 4400 igpu
amd r7 m265 dgpu
(i had some issues on some distros because i have 2 gpu so if u guys recommend a distro that comptible with dual gpus it will awesome)
 


Most any distro will work with your rig. Try several live usb versions see which one fit your style of operation and works with your hardware. Live sessions will not be as fast as installed versions but will give you a good Idea. I would try Mint, Ubuntu,
MX amoung others. good luck.
 
currently im using windows 10 i used some linux distros before but idk which one is better and gives the best perf for my hardware
specs: intel i5 4200U
8gb 4x2 ddr3 ram
intel hd 4400 igpu
amd r7 m265 dgpu
(i had some issues on some distros because i have 2 gpu so if u guys recommend a distro that comptible with dual gpus it will awesome)
You're better off staying on Windows.

Otherwise you say you tried Linux OS's but remained dissatisfied. That's where I come from. On another day I would have recommended Arch Linux or something based on it but I guess you've been there, done that. Maybe you're not interested in a general purpose OS which isn't Windows.

You might want to have more RAM for some games. I don't understand what is the need for more than one GPU (by different manufacturers causes even more trouble) if an user could focus attention on one screen at a time and this is even more important in an MMORPG.
 
When looking for a suitable distro, Ventoy can come in handy, you can add several distros to a pendrive, & then boot them on your computer to see how well they work with your hardware.

 
Yes but few distros come with Wine pre-installed, if someone is most interested in playing games only available for Windows. Few distros are "gaming ready" as ISO, that also come with Steam and other "equipment". Finally few distro ISO's like 4M Linux cannot be used with Ventoy.

I guess this path was already taken:

Might be able to install inside a Virtual Box environment but the experience will be different if the Linux OS is traditionally installed. Definitely upgrade the RAM if that is going to be the route the OP decides to take. The enjoyment you will get will vary by kilometer per second. (Days? Weeks? Months? It's just a variation of "YMMV"...)
 
Maybe this can help you find a Distro:
 
I keep advising people to install a virtual machine application if they want to try out Linux distros. I wonder why others do not offer the same advice. I think virtual machine software makes the first steps of migrating from Windows to Linux easier because you can continue to run the Windows that you know while you explore Linux. Linux is free, so there is no cost other than your time, so trying out distros and learning Linux may prove to be a worthwhile use of it.

A virtual machine application lets you run Linux distros in their own separate windows on Windows 10 while you run other Windows programs at the same time. You can use the full screen and switch views back and forth between Windows 10 and Linux. It is like having two computers running on the same screen at the same time. You can create a new virtual machine and install any Linux distro from a downloaded .iso file. You can take "snapshots" of a virtual machine to revert it back after a test. You can copy virtual machines or delete them at will. Your limitations will be disk space and computer RAM memory.

It is what I do. I have run a "secondary" Linux desktop in a virtual machine on my Macs for years and have many other virtual machines for different purposes.

VirtualBox is free and open source:
https://www.virtualbox.org

VMware Workstation Player - The commercial VMware Player is free for personal use. Click on the FAQ "tab" and read the question about free use. It is not open source or what most people call "free software", so some Linux people would avoid it on principle. What the heck, you are already running the commercial Windows 10. See:
https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player.html

Beginners, please ignore:
Microsoft includes Hyper-V with Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions, but NOT Windows 10 Home. Hyper-V is another virtual machine software that runs on Windows. The Hyper-V in Windows 10 has been modified by Microsoft to give a better user experience for desktop users. For several reasons, I would not recommend Hyper-V for most users, but I am mentioning it for completeness. For some, it is already there and they know how to use it.
-> Based on my experience with Hyper-V on Windows Servers, I would recommend that beginners try VirtualBox or VMware first.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/
 
I keep advising people to install a virtual machine application if they want to try out Linux distros. I wonder why others do not offer the same advice.
Not everybody has the RAM and the computer capabilities for it. Also I'm not eager to follow a commercial product about this. There would be at least one thing where the "virtual run" would fail, or would give a false positive, where the real installation doesn't lie. Especially I dislike it when any program is faking it.

Last year I tried Boxes app on Fedora 35. It didn't work for my 11-year-old HP laptop with 4GB RAM. In fact, Oracle's junk didn't work neither installed on Windows10, but this was before the update to 21H2 which almost bricked my machine. :/

Good advice to try virtual machine iff the user's computer could handle it. Especially if he/she isn't ready to give up Windows.
 
Yes but few distros come with Wine pre-installed,

It takes all of 5 minutes or less reading the guide on winehq.org, it's not rocket science. Just following steps and you're off playing games. Typically the wine version bundled with distros is so outdated you want to update it anyway. Alternatively, grab the appimage for Heroic Games Launcher. It makes downloading the latest WineGE and ProtonGE version easy.
 
Here is my suggestion:

1) Install Linux Mint. Worked great for me the last 5 years and it's the one I have the most experience with.
2) Install wine development version from https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu
3) Download Heroic Games Launcher appimage at https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/releases
4) Install Steam and download a game to download various Proton versions

You end up with the best of all worlds: latest Wine versions from winehq, latest Proton versions from Steam, latest WineGE and ProtonGE through Heroic Games Launcher. Having a 90%+ succes rate with this trying to play Windows games.
 
I keep advising people to install a virtual machine application if they want to try out Linux distros. I wonder why others do not offer the same advice.
What you think of as easy is not easy for the average computer user. Linux distributions already offer live versions where you can try them out as well as install them from there.

While technically virtual machines are a reasonable way to try out new operating systems, this so far out of the comfort and knowledge levels of average users it doesn't work. Try working at a technical helpdesk for 72 hours and you'll quickly figure out you can't herd these cats, and you're just happy they didn't hurt themselves.
 
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Personally, I always recommend starting with Ubuntu. It's the most popular Linux distro, it's very beginner friendly, and you get the benefits of more community support if you run into issues since it's the most popular Linux distro.

Of course, you could always go with a Ubuntu-based distro like Pop!_OS or Linux Mint, and most of the documentation would still apply to you so you wouldn't be completely in the dark that way.
 
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Gaming is not an easy subject if somebody wants to leave Windows into Linux and doesn't take the time to study things through.

This is how elaborate it could get:

Someone here said "just read winehq-dot-org", but it could take more than that for a specific game. There are games that will work only for Windows. (Copy protection enough said.) That's why I said originally that if the OP only cares about playing games, way more than "a little" word processing, web browsing or something else he should remain on Windows.
 

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