Help me change my windows gaming pc to Linux
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Really I think a temporary dual boot to test everything would be the sanest option, and then when you're ready to commit, back up your home folder and repartition your drive accordingly. If you end up never ready to commit, well, second-gen Ryzen is officially supported on Windows 11 as long as you enable fTPM and Secure Boot in your BIOS.
Here's a few pointers based on what I've found out:
- The desktop environment or WM is important. Given your need for Steam Link to work I'd suggest using one with X11, as last I checked Steam Link just gives you a black screen and audio under Wayland. Linux Mint would carry over your knowledge of apt while maintaining an interface that's pretty familiar to Windows users and is I believe still an X11 distro for now.
- I got the EA app working using Bottles but it constantly feels like a cat-and-mouse game fixing it whenever it has an update. I basically stopped using it altogether for that reason. Not trying to scare you off — it's just not a great experience.
- Play with drivers for your GPU. The situation with Nvidia is, I'm told, not as dire as it once was on Linux but still needs more when than AMD or Intel graphics to work well. The proprietary driver may still give the best experience on games, though Nouveau seems to be doing very well. This is admittedly something I need to come back to in order to confirm (I have one machine with Nvidia graphics and it's in storage specifically because Nvidia graphics under Linux were such a pain).
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Idk about EA, but I'm running mint and steam works great with proton. Super duper user friendly.
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I second bazzite. I tried arch since I heard it was so customizable that you gained performance but after numerous headaches of tring to connect to the internet, downloading packages one by one without even knowing what I was doing since Im still not even that familiar with the linux ecosystem, i just downloaded bazzite, used rufus to put it on a key, and it worked first try no hassle.
Im a bazzite boi now.
Im actually impressed with how well nvdia is slowly becoming useable too on that distro, half a year ago you couldnt even use wayland and had to still use x11 but now it works (DISCLAIMER FIDDLING IS REQUIRED WITH NVDIA I HEARD THAT WITH AMD IT JUST WORKS) -
I suggest revisiting dual boot, despite your history. You want to have grub/Linux on it's own hard drive, in a Linux style filesystem and default to it in bios. Then get the windows boot registered in grub.
Windows won't know about grub that way, no way to mess with it.
Windows 10 EOL doesn't mean it will stop working. If sims has trouble just use win.
Mint or a gaming focused distro. Not arch/endeavor/manjaro unless you're comfortable with Linux CLI already
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All games which u mentioned works well,in case not to have problem with ea app itself which can broke from time to time find just pirated versions of Sims with all dlcs and install it will work without being broken lately
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The Sims 4 is gold on ProtonDB, so it should run just fine. Check out some of the comments in ProtonDB about running the game, if not purchased through Steam.
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Mint has treated me just fine since I converted.
I'm not proficient with Linux whatsoever, but Mint has literally been the most newbie user-friendly OS I have tried to date. So Windows can suck it.
For gaming, Steam runs things great. And for other things like GOG, Battle.net, Lutris has server me well. Proton does a good job.
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Does pop then use SNAPm because then I don't really want to touch it. Imo. SNAP is so slow and bloated I don't want it on my system if I can avoid it.
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Almost everyone here recommends Lutris, but I had a far better out-of-the-box-experience with Heroic.
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I briefly tried to install lutris on my laptop about a year ago, but i found it really confusing to use. If I remember correctly it required a disk or iso to install and i have everything through either steam or EA or som older games just installs natively so I didn't really understand why or how I should use it.
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I I wrote to someone else here I don't really understand Lutris when I tried it about a year ago. I found it a bit confusing on how to use it and gave up rather quickly because steam ended up worked for my needs back then. But now I want remote play and Sims to work and I feel like I'm starting from scratch even though I very good with Linux. Gaming on Linux is a whole different ordeal with drivers and compatibility layers and I don't want my girlfriend (or myself for that matter) to be bothered by this when we just want to game.
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There is also nonsteamlaunchers but I haven't tried it on desktop. Full disclosure, even on steam deck I swapped back to lutris because updating was clunky. Still, might be an option for you.
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Check out Bazzite!
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Yep sounds like OP's dual boot issues are due to installing windows last. It only overwrites boot each startup if it doesn't have its own partition.
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Seconding Heroic. Lutris confused me too but I was able to connect Epic and GOG to Heroic.
Also, when you’re not using steam remote play Sunshine/Moonlight works wonders for remote streaming.
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Usually deb or flatpak if you use the popshop
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Linux mint cinnamon. I tested sims4 a few months ago. Ran fine. And surprisingly I didnt need to repurchase from steam, somehow I linked my ea account.
Sometimes games crash but not often for me.
That's when I tweak the Proton version. -
I second this, have been using this as a daily driver on my laptop and PC, and I'm really enjoying it. Seems very very stable.
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I have installed all of those Sims games at one point. It works fine. Mods work without any problems as well.
Lutris will help you for the most part.
I think for Sims 3, I specifically had to use Lutris 7.2 as the runner (IIRC, I have to check again). It didn't work with other versions. I will verify this when I'm home.
I did the most setup for Sims 3 (there is a whole guide for performance). I don't remember details too well, but it's still set up I think, so you can go ahaed and ask questions
Minecraft runs native, for Steam games you can see protondb.com
I'd be worried a bit about the Nvidia GPU. But since I have no experience with them, someone else should give you advice on this.
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I've been using Bazzite for a good while. It just turns your PC into a fancy console. Boots right into Steam. Everything can be done with a controller. If you can use a console, you can use Bazzite.
Of course Chimera and Nobara are very similar in that way. Bazzite is just the new hotness.
