Trying to move to Linux Mint - aka Dumb Moron tries to avoid using Windows 11 for as long as possible
Recently I've been making the gradual transition to move from Windows to using Linux. This is something that I'd been meaning to do for some time but always put off because I was lazy. However, the official end of Windows 10 support and all the bad things I'd been hearing about Windows 11 had me thinking it was probably best to make the switch sooner rather than later.
As someone who'd used been sticking with Windows since Windows 95, it was a little daunting moving over. I've essentially had the 'same' PC since my student days in 2007 - not literally the same PC, but my files and system have stayed pretty much since I built my first PC all those years ago and moving to a new operating system would be a big change up to my usual work flow.
Still, about a year ago I finally decided to install Linux Mint, which I heard was a pretty good Windows-like system and worked pretty well as Baby's First Linux. I've been hopping on and off it since about a year ago, and right now I am happy to report my Linux set up is more or less set up for daily use. It wasn't exactly a smooth journey, though. There were a couple of issues that I haven't yet managed to overcome, and I kind of felt like rambling about it a bit.
The PCI Capture Card saga
In the past, I used to have a PCI capture card that had S-video and composite input. This is how I used to capture footage from my consoles back in the day, and how I recorded some of my old Youtube videos - from capturing Monster Hunter 3 footage from my Wii, to recording my playthroughs of Shenmue 1 and 2 for my old Let's Play, that little thing certainly brought life to my YouTube "career". At some point, I did an overhaul of my setup and got a new motherboard, and unfortunately this board lacked the regular PCI slots needed for this device - it only had those smaller PCI-e slots. So I went and purchased a different capture card that was compatible. Bad news, though - it didn't have S-video input, and for some reason it only supported PAL50Hz input.
Why did I give all this background? Well in my testing of Linux Mint, I tested the capture card and to my pleasant surprise it seemed to work completely fine in OBS - no need to fiddle with drivers or propriety software, it worked right out of the box. Not only that, I noticed it was giving me the option to record in 60hz! Splendid! So I recorded some footage of the PS2 Transformers game for a bit as a test, recording in lovely 60hz, only for the capture card to, seemingly, stop working all together. What happened? Did I break it? Was it never intended to record in 60hz? Maybe there was a reason that, on Windows, I wasn't permitted to record in 60hz? Whatever the reason, I no longer have a capture card capable of recording analogue video. Oops!
I Just Wanted to Draw Anime Titties
As you may or may not know, I infrequently draw things digitally, and for the past few years I've been drawing using Clip Studio Paint. Unfortunately, CSP does not have native Linux support (I did find a guide to get it working using Wine but I have not tried yet). No worries, though - Krita is an open-source alternative to CSP that works perfectly on Linux and, from what I've tried, is a perfectly cromulent replacement. Yippie!
However, my weapon of choice to draw is an old display pen tablet - an Artisul D13. I purchased this because I was too cheap for a Wacom, and it has served me well. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have support on Linux, only Windows drivers are available. I've had a peruse on forums around and looked at digimend stuff and there doesn't seem to be an easy solution. The issue is, for some reason, the tablet has no pen sensitivity. There are buttons on the side that act as shortcuts for undo-ing actions or scrolling and zooming, and those work fine, but pen sensitivity doesn't. However, I did find a work around - unputting some digimend command line code (sudo uclogic-probe, if you're wondering) somehow prompts the computer into recognizing the tablet properly, causing pen sensitivity to work. Unfortunately, this has the effect of rendering the side buttons non functional, so I resort to having to undo using ctrl-z on the keyboard, and scrolling and zooming on my canvas using the UI buttons like some kind of cave man. It's fine though, these are relatively minor work arounds and I suppose I'd just have to learn to live this this.
Or so I thought, because on a few odd occasions, my tablet just... works... Fully functional, pen sensitivity and working buttons... and I don't know how or why. It doesn't happen often, some days I switch on my computer, log in, and it's working as it should. Most of the time, it doesn't. I don't know how or why. I am clearly too stupid to figure this one out. I will perhaps research more into this at some point but, as you may remember, I am a Linux n00b, I barely understand how to tie my shoelaces.
In conclusion - Goodbye Windows? (Probably not)
Overall, despite the issues above, I'm pretty happy with Mint - it runs every game I've tried on it perfectly fine, it's clean, loads fast, no bloatware, it's great! I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in getting into Linux but is daunted by the technical side of things. Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to FULLY migrate from Windows - as mentioned, CSP does not have Linux support. My Elgato HD Capture card (which I use to record HDMI) also does not work on Linux. I've also been getting pretty deep into the VRChat rabbit hole these days, and my Bigscreen Beyond 2 headset also seems to be Windows only. For this reason, I'll keep dual booting with Windows for when I want to hit up VRChat or anything else that I can't figure out on Linux.
Hopefully, I'll be using Linux more often from now. Although it hasn't been entirely free of issues, I can't say the journey hasn't been enjoyable. I've actually somewhat enjoyed trouble shooting my issues. I've also found it refreshing having more customization options - I recently found a theme that changes the appearance to make my desktop look like Windows 95. Although I'm not sure I'll keep using it, I did find it very funny, and it also bought back memories I had messing around with desktops on old Windows. Years ago Nintendo released official themes for Windows XP that drastically changed the look of the GUI. I especially liked the Wind Waker theme. You don't really see that kind of fun in any modern system these days, and I think it's a real shame. We all need a little whimsy and fun in our life, and a lot of whimsy can come in the form of garish, obscene desktop themes and dumb looking mouse cursors.
i feel like a computer. sometimes i’m hot, i’m not always bright, i have a lot of tabs open, i spazz out, people get annoyed with me, and i tend to shut down a lot. also people give up on me and move on to something better.
