Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

No. Thanks to Steam Deck, most popular windows games also work on Linux. See https://www.protondb.com/ for a complete list of 18,000 titles… Someone already mentioned that kernel level anti-cheat is the big, obvious blocker.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

Im guessing that most moders target Windows users therefore, don’t think mods would be AS easy. Not saying modding wouldn’t exist or work at all. Edit: see sp3ctr4l’s reply to this comment. They know more than me

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

There are workarounds. Linux has some great alternative software to popular paid stuff. See LibreOffice or Krita.

There are also more advanced options to run Windows apps under Linux, see Wine or Virtual Machines

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Yes. Similar to the above answer/ similar to aforementioned Proton. For .NET specifically, there is a Linux runtime.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

This can depend a lot on what distribution you’re running, but definitely, there are ones with easy buttons for whole-system updates.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

It’s different and probably overall better than windows. Most distros are much better out of the box than windows.

Open source is ususually a security advantage because (long story short) security mistakes can be caught by more people.

I don’t have a good answer for you on anti virus. I am very privacy and security conscious and I dont use one on linux. My personal opinion is that you don’t need one and shouldn’t need one if you’re not downloading sketch stuff.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Totally. GPU drivers are much, much better than they used to be.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Theoretically. You would have to try really hard, but for normal use, no. More likely, you could lose data or access to the system if you misconfigure stuff (just like with Windows)

Distro recommendations. My personal opinions, don’t flame me.

• Bazzite. hard to mess up, gamer focused, super simple updates, and targeted support for gamer hardware. Feels like a cross between steam deck and windows. Less support for tinkering but if you never want to touch the terminal, this is my choice.

• Pop!OS. Simplified Linux with great driver and steam support with easy updates. More tinkering support than Bazzite

• Linux Mint. Easy to start on but more traditional back-end. Much more support (forum posts) than the previous two. A lot of what works on Debian or Ubuntu works the same on Mint, so you’ll be able to do all kinds of fiddling

this is the most responsible idea. i love it

that’s a great idea re: music. i use a ton of Chromecast audios and, when Google “forgot to update the certs” I was SOL

How can one reproduce this?

It’s not often discussed that Microsoft, Amazon, and other ‘very cool’ tech companies still practice this 80s firing the bottom 10% bull.. It has nothing with being a low performer, but everything to do with culling jobs indiscriminately and creating an in/out culture. Managers are forced to place employees into bottom performance slots, sometimes arbitrarily, so that teams/groups/departments fit the bell curve nicely. Then, people get fired, bonuses go out, and everything is peachy at the end of the fiscal yesr.

Let that stew for a few years and these behemoths are factories of pet projects and crunch culture. Your long-timers are either golden performers who’ve seen massive churn and project turbulance OR they’re climbers, willing to step on top of anyone or burn any project to climb the ladder or at least keep their spots.

Thanks for the info. This is really promising.

Price?

I know 😢 is was

100%

VS Code has a fully open source base which excludes proprietary extensions and default telemetry ( kind of how AOSP is for Android)

Check here for more info:

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Differences-between-the-repository-and-Visual-Studio-Code

This is great work. Thank you for your contributions

Ollama is FOSS, SD has a proproprietary but permissive, source-available license, but it is not what most people would associate with “open-source”

This is so awesome. I this will be my light reading for the next week

Thats the vibe. In this case, it seems like they get more value from the signals they interpret from the devices already out there.

In a better world, these devices (and maybe even the Chromecast protocol) would be open sourced

It would have helped if I got her name right Andrea BoRman

YouTube channel

Here’s a list of self-host/foss/Linux YouTubers. Check them out. I’ve learned SO much from them:

• Veronica Explains
• Network Chuck
• Jim’s Garage
• Andrea Borman
• Awesome Open Source
• Techno Tim

I can add links to each but searching should find them easily

I have this exact same setup. Open Web UI has more features than I’ve been able to use such as functions and pipelines.

I use it to share my LLMs across my network. It has really good user management so I can set up a user for my wife or brother in law and give them general use LLM while my dad and I can take advantage of Coding-tuned models.

The code formatting and code execution functions are great. It’s overall a great UI.

Ive used LLMs to rewrite code, help format PowerPoint slides, summarize my notes from work, create D&D characters, plan lessons, etc

Valid concern as I use their browser often. From their FAQ (link):

I’m considering adding it to the alternatives list I posted. Can anybody else validate their privacy policy? Seemd ok but I’m a bit iffy regarding their use of telemetry. Maybe I’m overthinking it

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