I'm mostly a Mac user but I tested Windows 11 versus Bazzite in VMs in my Unraid server, and the Windows 11 install was a nightmare to then be left with a nightmare UI and a bundle of GPU driver issues, meanwhile Bazzite took two clicks and worked.

Obviously there are very cutting edge drivers you can't get on Linux, and Nvidia support is questionable, and some anti-cheat doesn't work, etc, but if you mostly play games released in [current year - a few] on hardware released [current year - a few] it's really a much more enjoyable experience.

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alias_neo a day ago | parent | next [-]

I've never really used old hardware, and generally I've not had too many issues using the latest hardware with Linux. I don't tend to buy PC hardware on release day either, so within a few weeks/months of release when I'm buying, drivers are usually available. I've been through a half dozen generations of Intel laptop for work usually with Nvidia GPUs but my current one is the first with an Intel Arc GPU, for which there are no Ubuntu 24.04 drivers as far as I'm aware, and I'm not entirely sure whether it is/can run the dedicated GPU right now or if I'm using the iGPU; but my work doesn't require GPU accel beyond my desktop and my IDE and terminal (Alacritty).

The biggest issue I find is external devices that need firmware flashing require some crap piece of Windows software from the manufacturer in order to flash, so I'll spin up a Windows VM and USB passthrough to do the update then blow it away again.

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kwanbix a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I hate W11 to the point that I am still running W10 (IoT) on my machines (I also run Solus and Mint). That said, I have never experienced what you say in the first paragraph.

	▲	threetonesun a day ago \| parent [-]
		Windows has at least three screens in the install that are upsells on other Microsoft products, plus a screen where you have to disable multiple analytics trackers. The GPU driver issue might have been a VM issue but to get even basic support I needed to install the AMD drivers, and ended up in some endless loop of the installer telling me it could install drivers for my GPU, installing them, then saying it wasn't supported. I figured the issue out eventually, after watching the AMD installer (with ads!) run for the Nth time, but like I said I'm not trying anything cutting edge, so drivers baked into the OS that I don't have to think about are much nicer.