I’m been having some issues with Windows 10, namely whenever I update Microsoft keeps adding random bloatware that I don’t want.
I’ve used Linux before and would go back to it except there’s a lot of the OS asking for permission repeatedly. Are there any Linux builds with less of that non sense? I’ve tried IOS before but I don’t enjoy it.
Also if I do switch to Linux is Steam compatible as well as Zoom, Spotify, GOG, etc? I could easily Google this stuff but I trust yall and I know you’ll steer me in the right direction.
What kind of bloatware? Which version of Windows 10 do you have, Home or Pro?
In what kind of instances do you find this is the case? At this point I’m most accustomed to Arch Linux because that’s what Steam OS is built on, but I used to use Debian and Ubuntu. I don’t find it particularly more intrusive than Windows or macOS. However you might find yourself in Konsole more often than you would the command line interface in Windows, depending on the types of things you need to do.
Yes, you can definitely run Steam in Linux, but you’ll need to install Proton so that you can play non-Linux executables. I don’t believe Spotify has a supported Linux desktop app, so you’ll need to either use the webapp or a third party client. Zoom has a first party Linux client. For GoG and Epic I highly recommend Heroic Games Launcher instead because it lets you manage Proton and Wine layers directly from within the launcher.
Honestly if you want to start playing around with these things and get used to what is, and isn’t available in Linux, I recommend booting your Steam Deck into desktop mode and trying some of these apps out there. Plug the Deck into a dock and connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor and it will operate exactly as a Linux PC would in desktop mode.
The bloatware is just Micosoft Bing type shit which I never use and my old man brain won’t change from what has been working lol!
It was brief thing about the permissions, it was a Ubuntu build which I don’t recall the version. I don’t recall exactly but it seemed like every action required me to put in my password and my tolerance to it was waning.
That’s a genius idea about the Steam Deck! Dude you’re freakin smart! I’ve been using it just running Steam OS playing Wingspan (which is amazing by the way) and the battery reporting seemed to resolve itself. The messages about battery draining fast rarely come back and when they do I just ignore them.
The problem with this is both Google and MS are shoehorning AI into their browsers. My suggestion: switch to Vivaldi which also renders with Blink and has no bloat. Keep Chrome or Edge around for the rare instances where you need to switch.
I’ve turned everything related to Bing’s AI off, such as removing Copilot from the task bar, and just generally ignoring anything. Thankfully my work machine is an enterprise device so there’s no baggage, but even my home device is pretty free from crap after removing anything I didn’t want, and that’s just Windows 11 Home Edition.
You can use sudo in Konsole to elevate your access level when executing a Konsole command, and then you won’t be bugged, but you want to be careful you don’t make any big system breaking changes when using sudo.
Frankly, both Windows 10 and 11 ask me for admin privileges for quite a lot of actions, so maybe Linux does as well and I’ve just not registered it as any more frequent than Windows does.
Are you playing in console or desktop mode?
Some games do drain the battery very quickly, but it is annoying that the batter reporting tool seems off. You might want to try repairing the SteamOS installation, which I don’t think is something we discussed when previously troubleshooting this. You just need to make a Steam Deck recovery boot stick (I can’t recall if you already did that) and then run the following option:
Reinstall Steam OS: This will reinstall SteamOS on the Steam Deck, while attempting to preserve your games and personal content.
There is always a possibility that when I flashed the Deck and installed the latest version of SteamOS that something didn’t take properly, and running the reinstall function might resolve it. Especially since it does seem the battery monitor is software related.
Shouldn’t be hard. I’ve installed Linux on old PCs and it worked great. I also had good luck with cloudready (Chrome OS) on PCs to turn out of date PCs into chrome books essentially.
I reinstalled Steam OS it it seemed to have fixed the battery report! Thank you. The projected battery life is up to 2 hrs and when a new time is projected it seems accurate based on processor power, screen brightness, etc.
Also I installed the new back shell and it is fantastic! Transparent purples looks great!
The one Windows version we do not speak about is Vista. Just forget it existed.
Shortly followed by Windows ME that never really worked.
The best Windows, if you have to use it, is usually the newest one that works with your hardware (10 for me right now because my CPU isn’t “11 ready”), at least after some patches, just because it will be the one with the least security risks and getting updates the fastest if a new risk is found.
I am also contemplating to give an old laptop a new life with Linux, but haven’t decided on the distribution yet.
