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

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    To start, I’d recommend checking out Flathub and seeing what’s available there. Flatpaks are relatively new but anything there can be installed on basically any Linux distro. It’s organized by category so you can see your options.

    Chrome is available on Linux if you’re worried about switching. Firefox is usually the default and what I use just because I’ve always used it (plus, it fully supports ad blockers whereas Chrome now cripples them). Also, Chromium is essentially the exact same as Google Chrome. Both are made by Google and Chrome is just Chromium before Google adds all its branding and stuff.

    Don’t worry about antivirus. ClamAV is there if you want to run a scan but you don’t need anything like Norton.

    VPN: check your provider. Most work with OpenVPN or have a Linux client.

    Gmail obviously works in the browser but there’s a ton of desktop email clients. To give three examples I’ve used:

    • Geary is a simple, clean email client that just does email does it well. Not very customizable, though.
    • Thunderbird (made by Mozilla) has more features/options and supports extensions. If Geary is too simple, Thunderbird is a good middle ground.
    • Evolution is like the Microsoft Outlook that comes with the paid Microsoft Office Suite. It has a calendar and all that enterprise-focused stuff. Probably overkill but it’s there if you need it.

    Windows 10 is listed and I’m not quite sure what you mean but you can always run it in a virtual machine if you need it. I use Gnome as my Desktop Environment. Gnome Boxes is super simple. VirtualBox is more complex but has every option I’ve ever needed.

    Don’t worry too much about the Desktop Environment thing. KDE and Gnome are the biggest two and both are pretty much equally capable. (You can also always install stuff made for the other if you want. It just might not match the theme.) There’s loads of desktop environments but don’t be intimidated by all the choices. Some are stripped down and designed for older or low-spec computers. There’s one focused on Chinese users. You can ignore most while you get your feet wet.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    0·
    2 months ago

    JBL sounds like your audio gear, depends on what. Bluetooth, USB audio ot 3.5mm jack connections generally work fine without issue. (Installing PulseAudio Volume Control will help you with finer grained volume control). Some DACs that require custom Windows drivers might not work.

    Gaming stuff, Steam will have you covered, Lutris, Heroic, or itch.io for non-Steam stuff. The one unintuitive thing you have to do once you log in is to go to Steam Settings and check the “Use Steam Play for All Titles”. Just like that, 75% of your library that only have a Windows version will suddenly be playable and you’ll hardly notice a difference: just Download then click Play, that’s it (maybe a bit slower launch time).

    I would recommend Firefox or Librewolf over Chrome as you have done already, but you should know that Chrome and Chromium do work on Linux FYI.

  • 烧烤培根汉堡@pawb.social
    0·
    2 months ago

    someone got oculus software to work through wine with access to hardware a while ago and they’re working on something called Oculus Ameliorated which might be simpler to get working

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
    0·
    2 months ago

    Lol that table is pretty strange

    What does “Windows 10” mean? XD

    Also btw dont expect all games to work in Wine. You should use Steam if you want a pain free experience.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago
    • Gmail: any paid hoster
    • pycharm is on linux
    • Star Citizen runs in Proton, no?
    • Remote desktop: look into VNC, i like Rustdesk
    • VPN: Wireguard
    • Norton AV: no need
    • Windows 10: scrap it
  • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months 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
        0·
        2 months 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.

  • Heavybell@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Star Citizen runs just fine under linux. For the most part, anyway. Being under active dev it breaks occasionally, but the Linux User Group has always gotten it working again so far.

    https://github.com/starcitizen-lug/lug-helper

    I would recommend using Wine directly over using Lutris right now, but that’s an option you can pick in this script. Join the discord if you have trouble, people are friendly there if you’re polite.

    Don’t use Proton/Steam for it.

  • foremanguy@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    Recommend you Linux mint.

    But preferably use LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) instead of Mint based on Ubuntu

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    0·
    2 months 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
      0·
      2 months 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
        0·
        2 months 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
          0·
          2 months 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.

  • sbird@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    gmail -> proton or tuta if you don’t care about IMAP, or any other decent email provider (I use disroot, I set my brother up with mailfence, they both seem quite good. I use them with thunderbird) pycharm -> not an IDE, but I like VSCodium (vscode without MS)

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
        0·
        2 months ago

        I saw it as pandering to trump, so his administration doesn’t make proton illegal in USA

    • sbird@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      also, check out some of the firefox forks. I personally really like Floorp since it lets me put the tab bar at the bottom and customise the UI! Librewolf is also decent but some of its privacy anti-fingerprinting stuff makes it a bit annoying to use

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Gmail is web-based, you can use it with Firefox. For that matter Linux doesn’t bind you to Firefox either, you can use Chrome and other browsers. I never used office 360 or Libre, I just use google docs.