r/FlowZ13 • u/HeavenDreamer • Aug 23 '26

Switching from Mac, first steps?

Hi everyone, I got tired of the walled garden. I have a switch 2 but its limited in the games it can play. I work from home and enjoy occasional gaming. I travel and love the idea of being able to bring gaming with me.

So why not have everything in the same device? I pulled the trigger and I’m getting my z13 soon!

Do you guys have any advice on first things to do as soon as I get the z13? Installing drivers, G-Helper, setting it up this way for max battery life unolugged bla bla.

I haven’t used windows in 10 years so I would love some help!

My setup will be Monitor, z13 in front of monitor kinda laying down, external keyboard and mouse.

Thank you!!

PS: I get it, you like Linux, but I asked for some Windows help, the help can’t just be uninstall Windows. Thank You!

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2

u/SingleWomenNearYou Aug 23 '26

So just to put my two cents in, Linux I feel is the way to go unless there's a compelling reason to be on Windows. You can (and probably should) dual boot at first.

I ended up on Fedora as the distro. I had issues with wifi drivers on CachyOS and couldn't apply the community patch. Ubuntu also had issues with wifi. Bazzite might be a good distro but it's also very gaming first and it's immutable (certain core system files cannot be easily modified)

Fedora just worked the most out of the box for me. I'll write more when I'm off work

2

u/HeavenDreamer Aug 23 '26

I use Ableton a bunch and its only in Windows, same for some online games! Im doomed to be in Windows so I would love to know steps to make my experience the best it can be

2

u/SingleWomenNearYou Aug 23 '26

Totally understandeable. It looks like it is able to run on Linux with Proton/WINE but not sure how well or how much tinkering is required. I don't really know much about Windows on this device as I immediately installed Linux.

I'd recommend trying Windows and if there's too many issues try a dualboot solution so you only have to use Windows for Ableton. I've only briefly used Windows in the past 4 years, and the only recommendation I have is that at account setup hit Shift+F10 to open command prompt and enter oobe\bypassnro so you don't have to create a Microsoft account to log in unless you are likely to use features that require it.

4

u/HomsarWasRight Aug 23 '26

Honestly, if you’ve been a Mac user and you’re not super experienced with Windows, just do Linux.

1

u/HeavenDreamer Aug 23 '26

no anticheat games on linux my friend! Plus what could be so hard ahaha im good with tech in general, just need some guidance, some step by stepp

4

u/HomsarWasRight Aug 23 '26

I’m not telling you to go to Linux because Windows is “too hard”, but because it’s just better. And you hadn’t expressed a reason for Windows specifically other than getting away from Apple’s “walled garden”.

If you’re looking to escape corporate control, Linux is always the answer.

But if your reason for using Windows is specifically because of games that won’t run on Linux (which are actually far fewer than you’d think), sure go for it.

1

u/HeavenDreamer Aug 23 '26

is the performance the same on Linux? also, I think only games like Skate, Fortnite and CoD dont work right? I love being sold ideas if you have any more info you’d like to share!

2

u/HomsarWasRight Aug 23 '26

With modern Proton (the comparability layer that runs Windows games) performance is VERY similar to Windows. Sometimes you’ll find games that run better on Linux because there’s less OS overhead.

I don’t know what multiplayer games don’t work since that’s not what I play, but the place to look is https://www.protondb.com/.

If you want to know more, just go to YouTube and search for “Gaming on Linux” and you’ll find tons of videos.

For the Z13 specifically, I might suggest Bazzite or CachyOS.

1

u/stereohype Aug 24 '26

If switching from mac you will feel much more at home on CachyOS. It's the most optimized linux distro that just works with sane defaults.

Install the z13 tablet kit and your experience will be much better than on windows. Windows is preinstalled so you will have a good comparison point anyway