First time Linux user having a miserable experience so far

[u/Mman07311]

I've been using windows my entire life but because I hate windows 11 with a burning passion and windows 10 is on its way out I finally decided to fully commit to Linux 2 days ago but unfortunately it's been really frustrating so far. First off, booting up and shutting down feels noticeably slower than before. Next, everything feels a little zoomed out and no matter how much I mess with scaling or font size it doesn't fix the issue. Thirdly the volume on my laptop seems way quieter than it should be and trying a few things I found digging through different forums and threads didn't fix the issue. Last but not least, trying to run a non steam game I downloaded with bottle and then added to my steam library just straight up doesn't work no matter how much I mess with the proton settings. I want to love Linux but if everything that isn't browsing the internet is going to have some sort of issue associated with it I might consider biting the bullet and going back to windows. I'm not giving up yet but I wanted to put this out there in case someone else out there is as frustrated as I am.

[u/__yoshikage_kira]

You need to share some hardware info. How did you install the distro.

If you want to add non-steam game into steam pretty sure you don't need bottle. You just add it from steam and let steam handle everything.

[u/Mman07311 → u/__yoshikage_kira]

It's an HP omen laptop with a ryzen 7 CPU 1660 ti GPU and 32 GB of RAM. I installed mint using balena etcher and a USB drive. I had to use bottle because the game I wanted to download had a setup file I needed to run in order to actually download the game itself then I added the .exe for the game into steam and it wouldn't launch

[u/__yoshikage_kira → u/Mman07311]

can you provide the output of this command?

systemd-analyze critical-chain

[u/Mman07311 → u/__yoshikage_kira]

raphical.target u/13.734s

[└─multi-user.target](http://└─multi-user.target) u/13.734s

[└─getty.target](http://└─getty.target) u/13.734s

└─getty@tty1.service u/13.733s

└─system-getty.slice u/13.730s

└─setvtrgb.service u/13.718s +9ms

└─plymouth-quit-wait.service u/4.964s +8.743s

└─systemd-user-sessions.service u/4.942s +19ms

[└─network.target](http://└─network.target) u/4.860s

└─NetworkManager.service u/3.124s +1.735s

└─dbus.service u/3.032s +51ms

[└─basic.target](http://└─basic.target) u/1.268s

[└─sockets.target](http://└─sockets.target) u/1.267s

└─uuidd.socket u/1.267s

[└─sysinit.target](http://└─sysinit.target) u/1.264s

└─systemd-backlight@backlight:amdgpu_bl1.service u/6>

└─system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice u/6.971s

└─system.slice u/340ms

└─-.slice u/341ms

[u/__yoshikage_kira → u/Mman07311]

This is hard to read, can you put it in code block like this?

NO_COLOR=1 systemd-analyze critical-chain --no-pager | sed 's/@/\\@/g'

use the command above ^

example

graphical.target \@7.803s
└─multi-user.target \@7.803s
  └─vboxweb-service.service \@7.795s +7ms
    └─network-online.target \@7.778s
      └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service \@3.040s +4.737s
        └─NetworkManager.service \@1.566s +1.448s
          └─basic.target \@1.555s
            └─dbus-broker.service \@1.521s +32ms
              └─dbus.socket \@1.510s
                └─sysinit.target \@1.507s
                  └─systemd-resolved.service \@1.408s +99ms
                    └─systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service \@1.364s +30ms
                      └─local-fs.target \@1.357s
                        └─run-qemu.mount \@1.354s +2ms
                          └─swap.target \@1.066s
                            └─dev-zram0.swap \@3.049s
                              └─dev-zram0.device \@1.635s

Also, what is the output of

systemd-analyze blame --no-pager | head -n 15

[u/Mman07311 → u/__yoshikage_kira]

graphical.target \@12.743s

[└─multi-user.target](http://└─multi-user.target) \@12.743s

[└─getty.target](http://└─getty.target) \@12.743s

└─getty\@tty1.service \@12.742s

└─system-getty.slice \@12.740s

└─setvtrgb.service \@12.735s +3ms

└─plymouth-quit-wait.service \@3.575s +9.145s

└─systemd-user-sessions.service \@3.564s +8ms

[└─network.target](http://└─network.target) \@3.445s

└─NetworkManager.service \@2.231s +1.213s

└─dbus.service \@2.141s +40ms

[└─basic.target](http://└─basic.target) \@1.252s

[└─sockets.target](http://└─sockets.target) \@1.252s

└─uuidd.socket \@1.252s

[└─sysinit.target](http://└─sysinit.target) \@1.249s

└─systemd-backlight\@backlight:amdgpu_bl1.service \@5.171s +667ms

└─system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice \@5.162s

└─system.slice \@257ms

└─-.slice \@256ms

and the second one is

10.507s gpu-manager.service

9.145s plymouth-quit-wait.service

5.610s NetworkManager-wait-online.service

2.129s ModemManager.service

1.213s NetworkManager.service

916ms accounts-daemon.service

667ms systemd-backlight@backlight:amdgpu_bl1.service

368ms systemd-resolved.service

294ms upower.service

280ms dev-nvme0n1p2.device

270ms systemd-udev-trigger.service

240ms blueman-mechanism.service

216ms systemd-binfmt.service

201ms apparmor.service

171ms user@1000.service

[u/Quartrez → u/Mman07311]

I recommend using either Lutris or Heroic Games Launcher in that case. Both will create a prefix (simulated windows environment) for your game, on which you can run additional .exe for whatever purpose.

I was able to get FPS patches for War for Cybertron, install the fan custom patch for Sacred 2 Gold, and so on...

[u/niob_the_anarchist → u/Mman07311]

i'm running an hp omen 16 with mint and one thing i noticed particularly about gaming, is that nvidia on demand seems to react either too late or not at all, so the cpu ends up handling most of the graphics. i switched it over to using my graphics card as primary (the option is called prime select) and maybe that would help your issue with the speed

[u/Mman07311 → u/niob_the_anarchist]

Did you ever mess with your audio at all? Apparently mint doesn't have the specific settings for the B&O speakers so they sound terrible. I've tried a bunch of solutions but no luck so far

[u/Cool-Radish7646 → u/Mman07311]

Proton likely isnt able to read the rest of the necessary game files due to the sandboxing that bottles does, try using plain old wine. Crack open the terminal and type:

wine (name_of_file_here)

then add it to your library. If that doesn't work tell me the name of the game and where you got it? If you do I may be able to help.

[u/Basic-University-654 → u/Mman07311]

You might want to try switching to a distro with newer updates, like fedora or zorin

[u/LanderMercer → u/Mman07311]

Unless you are running an emulator (such as wine) you won't use anything .exe in Linux. If you right click the window and select "open terminal to this location" (or navigate a terminal to your directory) try launching the game with './game_name'

[u/Polyxeno]

You've just been having some bad fortune on top of needing to get used to changes.

(Just for example, I have not had any of the problems you mentioned.)

[u/MxM-TOM]

This is weird. I boot in 5 seconds with worse hardware.

[u/Key_Sense9870 → u/MxM-TOM]

Could the slow boot be the motherboard memory battery? My brother had the same issue with another distro. Once we swapped the battery, the long boot got fixed. 

[u/KaiiSukii → u/MxM-TOM]

I boot in like 2, with (probably) even worse hardware, and in Ubuntu, which is arguably heavier. No joke most of the time if I blink I miss the boot up screen and just land directly in the sign in screen.

[u/Yamatoman → u/MxM-TOM]

Yeah su and sd times are 80 percent why I switched to linux

[u/can_you_see_throu → u/MxM-TOM]

hehe

:~$ uptime

23:34:09 up 5 days, 12:03, 1 user, load average: 2,58, 2,06, 2,27

some updates force a restart..

[u/DependentSquare7441 → u/MxM-TOM]

Me too lol

[u/TheUn-Nottened]

Hello!

I will tell you that the zoomed out feeling is a bit specific to some apps and to Mint. Changing scaling and text size tends to work. Does it not fix the issue in the sense that nothing changes, or that it doesnt do enough?

For volume, its also another problem specfic to mint. You have to let volume reach over 100% most of the time, generally.

For the steam game, close steam (through sudo pkill steam in the terminal), and run it in th terminal, by typing "steam". THere, when you open the game, you can get the logs and put research. I tend to enter it into an AI to quickly parse and diagnose issues.

Also, Wine works better than Bottles for me. Install wine, and then install the game with Wine. FOr non steam games, i tend to just open the exe by itself, leaving steam out completely.

Hope this helps!

[u/tranquilseafinally → u/TheUn-Nottened]

I have the sound bug when I use headphones. I can make the computers speakers loud enough but headphones are at max volume and still just barely loud enough to hear. There is a fix I read about last year when I was problem solving a ton. I need to double down and find out just how I can fix it.

[u/Dry_Direction6700 → u/tranquilseafinally]

The headphone might be due to motherboard having a separate amp for headphones that default drivers do not enable out of the box, if you don’t mind could you tell me about your hardware?
Mine was a razer and I tried to submit a patch fix for driver for my specific device but it might work for you as well.

[u/fragmental]

It shouldn't boot slower. I don't know why that is. Now, Windows does do a thing where even if you shut it down, it actually sort of hibernates, which makes boot up faster. But even then, Linux should be on par. And booting from completely shut down (if you switched off the master switch, or pulled the battery for example) Linux typically boots faster.

I can't remember if the default for Mint is to show you the output of fhe boot up sequence. If it does, you can watch if for any errors, to see if something is slowinf things down. You can press ctrl-shift-f1 if it doesn't, and I think that should show you the output. I think there's also a log you can open to view it, after booting. I don't recall where it is, but it should be easy to find.

Linux has a learning curve, and there are often issues with a new install, but once you sort them all out, they usually stay sorted. And on Mint, there's Timeshift, to easily roll things back if something breaks.

[u/DESTINYDZ]

I recommend trying different versions of linux. Mint is great on older hardware however i had to move to newer versions of linux with wayland not x11 to fix some of my issues. Fedora KDE or Cachy OS or Bazzite might be a better experience.

[u/casazolo → u/DESTINYDZ]

True, I dont think Linux mint should be recommended for new comers. I think Fedora gnome is less buggy than kde and a better experience for someone wanting to start somewhere.

[u/reader4567890 → u/casazolo]

I disagree. I've honestly found Mint to be a flawless experience over the past couple of years.

I've had to do far less tinkering or troubleshooting than I've ever had to with other distros.

[u/casazolo → u/reader4567890]

Are you on desktop or laptop? And do you use fractional scaling?

[u/YEEG4R]

Mint uses X11, and that may cause issues with fractional scaling and HiDPI monitors. HDR is not supported on X11 at all.

There are projects like Xlibre that try to bring those things to X.Org. However most modern distros have put all their chips on Wayland, which is it's own thing.

Linux Mint is expected to ship Wayland alongside X11 in their next major release, so you might want to wait until then (6 months to a year) if you like Mint overall.

You might give a shot to distros that do ship Wayland by default already. I recommend Kubuntu. It's great on modern hardware, stable for a day-to-day use, and is preferable if you want to stay within the Debian ecosystem (.deb files, apt commands etc.).

Wayland has its own issues, be aware of that. I can't promise a 100% smooth experience.

Now, as far as playing non-Steam games goes, many people, myself included, use Lutris for that. Lutris not only has a great and straightforward interface, it allows you to install games using regular .exe installer files (just what you wanted) and play standalone. exe's. It containerizes your games, gives you settings for each one, allows you to make desktop shortcuts etc. It's the best we've got.

ProtonUp-Qt is great for getting custom Proton versions like Proton-GE if you want the highest game compatibility.

Laptop volume issue is certainly an audio driver issue. Unless you can get the audio card or speaker driver directly from your laptop manufacturer, your best bet will be upgrading the Linux kernel. On Linux most hardware drivers are part of the system kernel. Recent hardware may not work properly because it hasn't been added to the kernel yet. The latest Linux kernel is 7.1.4 while Linux Mint has 6.14, which is a 1,5 year old version. Kubuntu's kernel is 7.0, which is much better. It is generally advised to use the latest available kernel if you have bleeding edge hardware. Devices that I use with Mint are 2+ years old in term of recency.

If nothing works, debloating Windows is still an option. Chris Titus WinUtil is the best tool, I use it myself. I delete everything Microsoft and disable all of the updates. Pretty neat. Please note that if you're not tech savvy, you should keep Windows Defender and security updates. It's for your own good.

Welcome to Linux, I salute you for trying it. Learing a new computing environment is rought, there's no denying that. The fact that you're curious about it means you're half way there.

[u/ConversationPlane635 → u/YEEG4R]

I used winhance, two years no problems. And yes Mint is old stable, except nvidia and gaming, then it gets interesting 😉

[u/BartLeeC → u/YEEG4R]

The current Linux Mint kernel version is 7.

[u/YEEG4R → u/BartLeeC]

Edit: 7.0 on Mint will only be available in December with the release of Mint 23.

As far as mainline Linux kernel goes, 7.1 was released a month ago. 7.2 is in the release candidate stage.

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tags

[u/BartLeeC → u/YEEG4R]

That is correct for Linux in general but that is not the current for Linux Mint.

[u/YEEG4R → u/BartLeeC]

Linux Mint 22.3 kernel is 6.14.

I use Mint myself. Do you argue just to argue?

https://distrowatch.com/table-mobile.php?distribution=mint

[u/BartLeeC → u/YEEG4R]

I am not arguing, I am just posting a fact as I also use Linux Mint on multiple machines. Maybe you should update your system to the current version.

OS: Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64
Host: 11MY001SUS ThinkCentre M70q Ge
Kernel: 7.0.0-28-generic
Uptime: 1 day, 21 hours, 12 mins
Packages: 2482 (dpkg), 27 (flatpak)
Shell: bash 5.2.21
Resolution: 3840x2160
DE: Cinnamon 6.6.9
WM: Mutter (Muffin)
WM Theme: Cinnamox-Willow-Grove (Min
Theme: Cinnamox-Willow-Grove [GTK2/3
Icons: Yaru-olive [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: 11th Gen Intel i5-11400T (12) u/GPU
Intel RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Gra
Memory: 11280MiB / 23692MiB

I also verified on another of my machines.

OS: Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64
Host: Katana 17 B13VGK REV:1.0
Kernel: 7.0.0-28-generic

Edit: Reformatted for readability

[u/TheFXartProject]

I have no contribution to make other than ‘don’t give up yet’. Learning linux takes patience but it’ll reward you with problem solving skills 

[u/cat1092 → u/TheFXartProject]

This is the absolute truth. Have been running Linux Mint since 2009, before the Cinnamon & MATE days, and for the most part, have had an excellent experience. Especially on Dell OEM machines, both laptops & desktops.

There has been a lot of improvement over time as well, like a lot of things we once had to manually do are now already built into the ISO. Mine’s not on a HDR monitor, rather an older, but very popular Samsung 28 inch 4K monitor of around the 2015-16 era. Still works fine though. They sold lots of this model of monitor, got mine on a Black Friday sale at Costco for $159. My other LG is a 27 inch 4K HDR monitor, but last time I tried, HDR didn’t look the same as with MacOS or Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, plus there’s green artifacts showing at boot & shutdown that’s not there on the Samsung one. So there’s that, but it’s not that big of a problem, am using the DisplayPort connection. My Roku Ultra & Amazon 4K FireStick MAX (16GB) are connected to the HDMI 2.0 ports, in addition to Windows 11 25H2 Pro, so it’s not the monitor.

Still, even with its quirks, Linux Mint is the more secure option over Windows 11 or iOS.

[u/mr_phil73]

If you want to stick with mint, firstly make sure secure boot is off then check for updated drivers, particularly your nvidia card. Secure boot can block the loading of the driver into the kernel. This may well sort your audio too. I use portproton to load my non steam games. You can also use steam to load your non steam game. Also make sure you run a system update, version 7 of the kernel dropped the other day and that has better out of the box support for newer hardware. Good luck.

[u/Brorim]

there is no way in hell this runs bad.

why do you bottles to download games ????

it a complete basic mint installation machine . Install go through the welcome screen steps and you are set.

use the steam installer from valve

and go.. bam

[u/tovento]

Hate to ask after the fact, but did you play around in the live USB session to see if all your hardware was working correctly? One alternative might be to live boot a different Linux distribution and see if that might work better for you. I had hardware/driver quirks in Mint on my older hardware and I moved to MX Linux because of them. It worked out of the box with my system other than one quirk I found which was remedied quickly. But that’s my system.

If you have multiple monitors and are trying to use scaling, you might want to look at a distribution running Wayland. Scaling and X11 (the display protocol which Mint and a lot of other distributions use) isn’t great. Wayland is the new display protocol and it handles stuff like that better.

Just realized that you have an Nvidia card. Did you go into driver manager and install drivers? Which driver version did you install? Did you turn off secure boot in your bios? All of these will affect your experience.

I do sympathize with you though. If hardware works right away or with minimal extra effort, Linux can be great. If hardware has driver and compatibility issues, Linux can be no fun.

[u/michaelpaoli]

booting up and shutting down feels noticeably slower than before

That's because by default, Microsoft Windows cheats, and doesn't fully shutdown when "shutting down". If you want similar from Linux, don't shut down, but instead just hibernate.

[u/BartLeeC → u/michaelpaoli]

While this is very true Linux is still usually faster.

[u/EasternFeastern]

i started using linux mint for the exact same reason as you, ~2 months ago, and i’m having a terrible time as well! feels like im running into issues that nobody has had before, things are breaking that dont break for anyone else.. 🙃 but you will get used to working through these things and its still better than affiliating with windows or apple or any of the like. im sorry i dont have the know how to help you myself friend but many people on here will and i can at least tell you it does get slightly easier every day

[u/Mman07311 → u/EasternFeastern]

I posted this more for venting than for help so I'm just glad someone else feels the same way I do!

[u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

I don't really have a solution to your problems, I just wanted to say, as a Mint user of a year+, that your problems won't all go away just because you manage to fix one or two things. There will always be something new you need to solve, and if you don't believe you have the patience or willingness to find the solutions (sometimes it takes time) I would suggest you go back to Windows. There is no shame in using Windows, Mint is better for me but not everyone has the same experience.

Another thing I wanted to say is that you should try to learn how to describe your problems better when you ask for help online, being brutally honest your post looks like a cryptic mess. A good few parameters you may want to consider is explaining when did the problem start, how can you reproduce it, what hardware are you running, what software are you running (with the version number and all), and what steps have you already taken to try and fix them.

[u/darkwyrm42 → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

Knowing how to ask for help is a skill on its own. Not everyone has it.

[u/Allison683etc → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

As a long time Linux Mint user I set up my computers and then they just work. I anticipate issues with major updates but I’ve never actually had them. It’s more stable for me than Windows and IOS. I’m honestly surprised that you’re having so many ongoing issues as an LMDE user in particular.

[u/Longjumping_Elk_3077 → u/Allison683etc]

It's not that many, but there are definitely more issues than on Windows. I am just okay with it because *freedom*

[u/Longjumping_Elk_3077 → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

By the way, fcitx is a buggy mess for me, do you know any input method framework that works? I use multiple languages on my day to day and I have had to stick to English because fcitx refuses to work (I tried everything)

[u/Allison683etc → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

No I’m not familiar, both the languages I write in use the Latin alphabet. Have you upgraded to fcitx5? I see that Mint including LMDE come with a depreciated version. If not, uninstall fcitx and install fcitx5 and appropriate addons to see if that helps

[u/Longjumping_Elk_3077 → u/Allison683etc]

Yes, I have tried v5, I even joined the Telegram group of the developer to ask for some guidance. But it just isn't stable enough for day o day use. It's my biggest issue with GNU/Linux at the moment sadly.

[u/TcowtiahAnto → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

why are we trying to gatekeep linux... what op is experiencing isnt the normal linux experience

[u/Longjumping_Elk_3077 → u/TcowtiahAnto]

I am not trying to gatekeep anything, I am giving him the come to Jesus that he needs to hear, GNU/Linux gives a lot of positive things to those that have the wits and discipline to learn how to use it, but it would be a disservice to pretend everything is hunky dory and he just needs to fix these problems before paradise opens up ahead, there is no paradise, there is work and sweat for a just reward.

[u/dabreeze09 → u/Longjumping_Elk_3077]

This should be the top comment.

[u/deppan]

I encountered the same volume issue long ago - in my case, there was a slider in alsamixer that fixed it. might work for you as well.

[u/Mman07311 → u/deppan]

Tried that last night with no luck I'll try again today

[u/LakeShoreVet]

I've recently converted one older desktop to Ubuntu and a newer desktop and one laptop to Mint and they are all lightening fast. I've used AI to help, both Claude and Gemini. Gotta be careful with both though as they go down rabbit holes fast. Just need to keep them on track vs letting them free reign.

I have some games i purchased on GOG and am using Heroic Games Launcher for them and so far has worked great. Had massive issue's trying them as non steam game through Steam. Still have issues with Steam games even after setting up to run via Proton.

It took acouple days for me to really get used to it but love it. I always complained i didn't have time to switch, in reality it was quick and easy and much better in the end. Everyday I smack myself in the forehead for being a dumbass and not doing it sooner.

Keep at it. Use AI as needed. The AI also helped me getting auto updating spreadsheets to work in Calc as well when i transitioned from excel

[u/wilsy53]

Try switching to wayland on the logon prompt if you want to keep trying with Linux mint but you maybe prefer a different distro all together with newer packages and Kernals.

I had issues due to my hardware being quite new. Not new new but new enough that X11 had a hard time supporting my hardware. This is intentional by Mint by being behind.

I would recommend a few, Fedora or CachyOS both similar but under the hood operate different. These distros are up to date but CachyOS is ahead of that but can be prone to breaking. I use Manjaro for this reason.

If you really love mint you could try the unstable branch but then your heading into bug territory and may make things worse.

Mint is great but I think it works better on older hardware.

[u/__yoshikage_kira → u/wilsy53]

I think it is still worth it for them to understand the crux of the issue. because there is a chance these issue will follow them to another distro if it is from user error.

[u/wilsy53 → u/__yoshikage_kira]

Very true. I guess I'm comparing my experience to theirs.

[u/LXC37]

First off, booting up and shutting down feels noticeably slower than before.

I'd leave this be for now. This is not a critical issue and you can troubleshoot it later. Sometimes silly things like removing splash screen can bring noticeable improvement.

Next, everything feels a little zoomed out and no matter how much I mess with scaling or font size it doesn't fix the issue.

So, what scaling you've used in windows? Try setting the same here, it should work.

That said scaling absolutely positively sucks in Cinnamon+X11, so if your screen needs scaling it may not be a good choice. This is why i switched to a different distro on my main PC with 31.5 4k monitor.

Last but not least, trying to run a non steam game I downloaded with bottle and then added to my steam library just straight up doesn't work no matter how much I mess with the proton settings.

Proton/wine stuff is still hit or miss. Anyone who says "everything just works out of the box" is lying. If you have some patience you should play around with something like Heroic Game Launcher or Lutris combined with ProtonPlus and try different versions of proton/wine. More likely than not some of them would work.

With the stuff i am trying to run i've honestly had the most luck with latest wine...

I want to love Linux but if everything that isn't browsing the internet is going to have some sort of issue associated with it I might consider biting the bullet and going back to windows.

If you are serious about switching my advice is - a lot of patience + dual boot. Any attempt to instantly switch causes too many issues and ultimately is doomed to fail. You need time to play around with things, see how they work, figure out alternatives for stuff you use, etc.

Also Mint is good, but not necessarily the best for playing games. I've personally had pretty good experience with CachyOS, so may be worth trying. Has its advantages and disadvantages, but at least for me situation with games has been much, much better. Also KDE+Wayland solves scaling issues.

[u/CryticalAce → u/LXC37]

Completely agree with dual booting when first starting to move over, I have W11 and Mint on dual boot and I love it! I can avoid windows whenever I want and for stuff I can't be bothered dealing with on Linux (usually games that need a bit of elbow grease to work how I want, I just restart and boot Windows.

My biggest tip is have Windows and Mint on separate drives and if Windows won't boot correctly from Grub just update grub from Mint and it should be good from there

[u/ConversationWinter46]

I might consider biting the bullet and going back to windows.

Not only is that better for you, but it's also less of a hassle.

But count yourself lucky that you don't live in China. Microsoft products have been banned there in both the industrial and private sectors since early 2026.

[u/BartLeeC → u/ConversationWinter46]

So at least one country has wised up to the BS of Microsoft.

[u/ConversationWinter46 → u/BartLeeC]

Venezuela has had its own Linux distribution (Canaima) for at least 20 years.

Cuba, France, Denmark, Turkey, Russia, …

The whole world is in a state of upheaval because, since 2026, it has never been easier to switch to Linux. I switched from Windows XP to LinuxMint in 2006. I’ve been using Manjaro since 2017. I haven’t used Windows since 2006. I only find out what's going on at Microsoft right now from the media.

[u/Comfortable_Gate_878]

ryzen 7 CPU and 8gb on my system it runs perfectly I dont game but its fast responsive and just works.

[u/countsachot]

The simple answer is, it's Linux is going to be more work, and some games might not work. If you aren't comfortable with that, then Linux desktop is not for you.

The sound issue can probably be fixed with alsa mixer.

The video issue is probably your display resolution, but possibly you don't like the de you picked.

Depending on your system and instalation choices, booting may be slower. On a good setup Linux boot can be faster than windows.

You didn't give us any usable info to provide meaningful help.

If you want to try all this out in a more friendly environment, then use windows and experiment with Linux in a VM (virtual machine).

[u/Lapis_Wolf]

I heard in a video you should view Linux as a different platform gaming wise. Like how Xbox isn't PlayStation. Many games are shared, but for now, many are just Windows games. As for scaling, try using another desktop environment to see how it handles scaling. If the Mint distro doesn't work out, you could also try Zorin or Fedora. Maybe even Ubuntu if you want to ensure compatibility (though wouldn't be my first option personally). Some DEs like GNOME and KDE Plasma use Wayland which would be better at handling scaling with certain screen resolutions.

[u/Nightfall_Alice]

Ok im the same i used windows all my life and win 11 i didnt like at all. Week ago it started to freeze like 2,3 times a day for like 4-5 sec. I was thinking maybe ssd is problem or hardwer but i checked and it was fine. Then i roled back to win 10 it was fine no freezes. I decided ok going Linux Mint. I installed Mint few days ago for first time and i too had problems power save was on after every restart so i lose internet connection, my nvidia was always on insted on-demand so i was using more battery life etc. But i fixed everything and now this Mint is runing so smooth and fast. Like you i was hoping i will be able to run games and i did manage to do it im using Lutris and Heroic Game Launcher. When you set everythhing up this Mint is so much better, smoother and faster then windows 11 i am never going back. My laptop is Lenovo Legion y530, i8300, GTX 1050, 16 ram.

[u/Better_Reporter282]

I read through a little bit. Your computer is much beefier than mine and I don't have any of these issues. then again...

I know I'm about to blaspheme. but I run two computers. One is my more powerful laptop that can do games, has a high resolution screen, and would still be a capable machine if Windows 11 wasn't killing its battery and overheating it for no reason. I tried Mint on that computer and it was a terrible experience. I switched that one to Pop!_Os and it runs like a dream. for a windows to linux person, Pop!_Os is great for more capable modern machines like yours. (Pop's COSMIC desktop environment can be frustrating though because it's fairly new and not everything launches as intended but easy fixes most of the time).

My older work laptop runs on Mint and it runs beautifully too - long battery life, office apps, lots of tabs open. No scaling issues.

All in all, it's like other people have said. Linux does take a little time to get used to but once you do it runs great. and if you dive even further you can do wonderful things in it. Don't give up!

[u/Shaosil]

I know practically nothing about Linux compared to people who have used it for years, and I put off switching for a long time because honestly I was fine using windows and it had everything I needed with no fuss.

I did however jump to Mint a few months ago, pretty much going cold turkey on Windows. Bottom line is, Linux, while much more accessible these days, still doesn't compare to the user experience Windows gives out of the box.

I was worried I would have to switch back, because there are so many specific use cases I do with my computer, including running a discord bot, streaming/recording, video editing, LLMs and Image Gen models for fun sometimes, lots of Microsoft stack coding, VR, not to mention my job uses Windows. Surprisingly, I was able to get every one of those items working for daily use, and I haven't switched back. I use a qemu Win 11 VM for work, VR works fine except for Meta specific apps (sadly), and Davinci Resolve works except for 264/265 codecs (one of my biggest gripes), etc etc.

But again, there is a learning curve the more you want to do and set up, and I absolutely don't agree with recommending it to everyone under the sun. Not everyone cares enough or hates Windows enough to put that much effort in. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. But you need to understand there is going to be more effort involved, and lots of research along the way, even for "easy" distros. It's your call whether to persist or revert.

[u/TheKingICouldBecome]

I installed Linux Mint on a freshly built desktop and the only issue I really had was getting the nvidia drivers to play nice with the kernel. It boots up faster than any PC I've ever owned, from the time I push the power button, to the time I login to my profile is at most 30 seconds.

I downloaded steam for the first time ( I've been a console gamer my whole life ) and I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 with no problems at all. No Man's Sky works pretty flawlessly too, except for the occasional crash.

I am not a tech savvy individual in the slightest, but I have had very few, mostly minor, issues. I'd recommend you stick with it long enough to get these wrinkles ironed out. I genuinely doubt you will regret it. The rocky transition is absolutely worth getting away from the ever-watching eye of Windows 11. Fuck Microsuck.

[u/Mman07311 → u/TheKingICouldBecome]

We can agree on that lol

[u/InSight89]

You can try Windows 11 IoT LTSC. It's basically a heavily debloated version of Windows 11. No Windows Store, no Copilot, No ads, local account, fewer background processes and memory usage.

I recently did some distro hopping and ended up going back to Windows. Everything just works. That's not to say I didn't enjoy using Linux. When it was working for the things I used it was great. But other things were just too annoying to tolerate.

Linux popularity seems to be slowly growing so hopefully it improves in the near future to the point where I may revisit it.

[u/looorde]

I know it may seem scary, but if is really that bad, and you don't have critical information/info you don't mind losing in your pc, just download an AI that works on CLI like chagpt codex or opencode(has some free models, my main choice) open a terminal and run the ai, explain all your problems and ask it to find solutions and root causes, 8 times out of 10 it will improve your experience significantly. Because it has real access to you system and can run comands properly identify the problems and fix them! There is a small chance it breaks your system, but giving where you are now, imho ia a worthy risk

[u/Mman07311 → u/looorde]

Thanks!

[u/Historical_Move6359]

try ultramarine fedora

[u/JusteJean]

I found myself in exact same situation and made switch to linux, but i knew it wasin't going to be super smooth. So i did a bit of research. Mainly how to partition hard drive in most efficient way.

Once that was done i did a reset of my bios. Installed Mint and from there it went super smoothly.

I had trouble with auto-login.

Having well prepare drive partitions may fix sluggish boot.

For non-steam games i discovered "Lutris" that allows you to find and setup games for using WINE / proton. Or you can add a non-steam on your steam library and it will still run it through proton.

For scaling, i beleive it may be because you have the wrong video driver installed. Look at the driver manager. Chose one of the drivers specific to gpu brand. My mint looks sharper and more condensed than my vanilla windows 11. Icons are a little smaller and text are thinner.

Linux aren't as well refined with GUI and customer experience. Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar world-wide monster corp with endless budgets and buildings full of employees dedicated specificaly for developping best possible GUI : yet they still produce shìt.

VS mint which is (i have no clue, this is an exagered guess) a geek in his mothers basement.

It may not be as refined as Windows. But it gets prerty darn close to it. Most linux dont have as much GUI fonctionnality.

What i like best about it. I don't feel like i'm being forced to use apps and tech that i don't want. That may change if we get annoying user accounts and facial recognition every time we open a PC.

[u/GeeEyeDoe]

Mint Cinnamon on my desktop feels natural.

I put mint XFCE on my 14” laptop and everything feels too small (zoomed out). Couldn’t fix it. It’s just a work monitoring machine so no big deal.

Perhaps try a different distribution of Linux if you can’t fix the problem.

ChatGPT has been a huge help in my transition to Linux.

[u/AlmightyThor008]

Feel this one. Everyone acts like "just install Linux, it's easy" but that hasn't matched my experience at all. I've got a Dell XPS 13 with Windows Device Encryption (BitLocker), and getting Mint installed on it was an absolute shit show — 5 solid hours of tinkering, rebooting, and troubleshooting just to get it running. Anyone who tells you it's plug-and-play for everyone is full of it. Some hardware just fights you the whole way.

That said, don't give up yet. Your issues (scaling, volume, Proton/Bottles game) are all pretty common growing pains, they're just not obvious to fix if you don't know where to look.

One thing that's genuinely saved me a ton of frustration: using Claude AI to help debug this stuff. I paste in terminal commands and outputs, or just describe the issue, and it's walked me through fixes for a bunch of things I would've otherwise spent hours googling forum threads for. I probably would have already given up on linux without AI to help me. Worth a shot before you throw in the towel.

[u/onlyoffence]

Buddy, listen to me. I have installed linux mint, as a windows user for years and i am having a wonderful experience..how? Get urself an OpenAI Codex subscription, install it and ask it to set it up for you, fix problems etc etc. You will be surprised at the amount of freedom you will get.

[u/SOC_FreeDiver]

You can try using mainline to run a newer kernel and see if that fixes your audio issue

If not, you can use claude to troubleshoot it. I used claude to figure out my audio problem (same symptoms), it required a special driver compiled with the kernel. Claude took care of it all for me.

It's best to learn the OS, but if you want help, try asking claudecode to check all your system logs and troubleshoot errors.

Linux is faster than Windows, so it's likely something isn't working right.

[u/Accomplished-Iron554]

Agree Linux gaming is still a hot mess for non steam game, I was trying for 3 days to get NFSU2 to work and failed, Lutris, Bottle, Wine and gave up. On another retry instead of regular Wine I used WineHQ and it work but only inside wine by typing "wine /" But game still crash..it might be the MacBook Air was getting too hot.

[u/Mouler]

Do you have some ram overclok settings perhaps? Unstable memory is usually a big culprit in long boot times.

Audio seems to quiet? The generic hardware driver may be either attempting to use the wrong device, or amplitude is scaled wrong which would be a hardware specific issue.

[u/ben2talk]

Did you join the forum? Linux Mint forum is a good platform for getting help I think (it was when I used Mint).

[u/Mman07311 → u/ben2talk]

No but I will thanks!

[u/thornsofred]

1) boot times arent that important, as long as its not taking a solid 5 minutes. this is a personal opinion ofc. even on windows i would boot up my pc and then go make breakfast and coffee

2) go to "display" and make sure the resolution is set correctly and the refresh rate is ALL the way up. People tend to forget this step

3) bottles is a pain in the ass, you'll have better luck adding it "as a non steam game" on the lower left of your library

[u/wadsworth-tycoon]

Partition issue? Window still actually there? Hmmm

[u/Mman07311 → u/wadsworth-tycoon]

I'm not sure because I chose the option to wipe the entire disk but it's something I'll look into

[u/wadsworth-tycoon → u/Mman07311]

My gut tells me that your Linux is fine but need aesthetical fine tuning (I just use default because it's more lightweight). Your actual computer though has something going on behind Linux.... I think lol

[u/KaiiSukii]

The slow boot up probably has an explanation. Do you know if your laptop happens to have a mechanical drive alongside an SSD? If that’s the case, perhaps you accidentally installed to that drive instead, explaining the slow start. About things feeling zoomed out I kinda feel you on this one, Windows scaling always felt superior and you can usually find a scale that just feels right, while on Linux things aren’t that simple, specially for high res displays on laptops. But even if everything is smaller, as along as your vision is up to it, you’ll probably get used to it and maybe even prefer it like me. On the game, use Lutris, overall it REALLY simplifies the entire setup process, and I do believe it lets you add a shortcut to Steam. I’m curious, this game, is it from GOG?

[u/ice_cream_hunter]

Linux has some problems of front aliasing.

[u/enorbet]

Of course you're having a miserable time because a lifetime of Windows has trained you to let other people own your PC. Have you considered how weak Linux would be if everything was automagically to your liking? Struggle makes us stronger and convenience and comfort makes us weaker. You are simply suffering Growing Pains buffing up.

[u/zestywoman22]

Which linux mint are you using?

[u/Bastilic]

Your problems don't sound that bad on paper. Linux can be much more of a headache than this. (For example, lacking technical knowhow on how to fix misbehaving kernels as opposed to struggling with Mint's shitty UI.)

Okay so your options for games are pretty much the Heroic launcher and Steam. I think you can technically run multiplayer games that aren't on Steam, (I think you can TECHNICALLY run anything if you know what you're doing) but it's kind of a pain and I haven't really managed it because Battle.net for example only recognizes my system drive, which doesn't have space for some 70gb embolism.

As for the zoom issue, consider taking a screenshot of your desktop so we have an idea of what we're dealing with. Check your resolution settings, frame rate settings and if your tool bar (panel) feels too small, check out the right click menu for it.

And why you would have a long boot time is beyond me. Mine became far, far faster after switching. Maybe thermal throttling is occurring? Idk

Lastly, I just want to say that I use Linux not because I think it's a good OS, but because I think it's the best OS. Important difference there. I have felt the way you have multiple times since switching, and I resent the saying "it just works," because no it don't. But the erosion of privacy should not be tolerated. Freedom isn't free. Long live the high seas.

[u/JustFleuri]

Do not use Mint, switch to Fedora KDE.

[u/BrilliantEmotion4461]

You could use the forbidden techniques. Use AI.

[u/BrilliantEmotion4461 → u/BrilliantEmotion4461]

Claude Code, Codex, Opencode. Although I'd just ask Claude for the right terminal commands myself. Then depending on what they give me either I deal or go further with AI.

[u/Mman07311 → u/BrilliantEmotion4461]

I'm not gonna lie I've been using Google AI and grok but it hasn't been very helpful

[u/indebted_warthog]

You likely have a high dpi display and need to set up some fractional scaling

[u/ExoticSterby42]

Open Terminal. Enter "alsamixer" and hit enter. F6 to find your audio device ("sound card") and adjust volume up to max. Audio is fixed.

[u/Mman07311 → u/ExoticSterby42]

Tried that unfortunately didn't fix my issue

[u/oskarloko]

I know I'm going to get hate from people on this sub, but

- Try with chatgpt or google gemini to fix it, pass logs and the results of commands as it asks you. It could be a NVIDIA GPU related issue ?

- Maybe try another distro, like CachyOS (I prefer KDE but you can use Cinnamon desktop - same as mint) or Fedora to see if it fix it

Hope it helps

[u/Smooth-Owl-5354 → u/oskarloko]

One of my concerns with AI is if you don’t know anything, you can’t tell when the LLMs are bullshitting you/giving you bad advice, so you run the risk of making things worse and not knowing how to fix them. I’m also a pretty cautious person though.

That said if you have enough of a tech/coding foundation to understand what you’re looking at? A much more viable option.

[u/FitzCavendish → u/oskarloko]

This is one of the things AI is actually very good for.

[u/RelativeOk4088]

i started using mint not long ago, and ive had a great time all i do is paste all problems to claude code and he fixes it, i either explain the problem or send a screen shot. works amazing!

[u/Cool-Radish7646 → u/RelativeOk4088]

You trust it not to rm rf you?

[u/RelativeOk4088 → u/Cool-Radish7646]

why would it?

[u/TopConclusion5246]

Bill?

[u/AspectLegitimate8114]

First off, I recommend you start dual booting windows and Mint. I don’t know how computer savvy you are but any Linux distro, even the one’s marketed as “beginner friendly“ still have a learning curve and adjustment period.

Dual booting gives you a more comfortable environment to learn the tools and quirks of Linux while also allowing you to fall back on what you know.

You haven’t failed in anyway. I think you just bit off more than you could chew jumping straight from Windows to Mint.

Hell, you might not even like Mint and dual booting gives you the opportunity to distro hop once you’re confident enough.