What if I just... quit Windows?

I think I've asked myself this question three or four times over the past 25 years, but this is the first time the reasons pushing me to do it are this compelling, and the tools available are this mature.

So why not give it a shot?

But first, let's talk about the reasons. Why switch?

You probably haven't missed it, but the geopolitical situation is tense, and our tech dependence on the US is becoming genuinely dangerous. Windows is the ultimate Trojan horse, providing access to thousands (billions?) of PCs—both personal and professional—and it's getting harder to ignore.

Between the backdoor suspicions in 1999 with the _NSAKEY affair, renewed suspicions in 2017 with DoublePulsar, and the confirmed story about Bitlocker encryption keys being handed to the NSA, it would be incredibly naive to think we're safe.

Beyond that, the Windows 11 migration has forced countless companies to replace hardware that was still working perfectly fine.

Honestly, the first reason was enough. But since we're being thorough...

Now, how do I actually do this?

My Constraints

I want to switch, sure, but not at any cost—so let me give you some context.

Like anyone who works in tech, I regularly get asked to "take a quick look" at someone's printer that stopped working, a phone that won't boot, or some finicky word processor.

Here's a scoop: I don't know how to do that. It's not my job. I know, it's wild—I spend all day on a computer, but that doesn't mean I can fix it or anything that looks like an assembly of electronic components. Worse, I hate doing it.

Fine, maybe I'm exaggerating. With enough effort and online documentation, I can sort of solve some problems. But again, I hate it.

The truth is, I don't want to spend time tinkering with everyday tools, any more than I want to take apart my fridge or my car.

Okay, the car example is probably bad—I genuinely know nothing about cars. And sure, when I was younger, I found it fun to mess with my autoexec.bat and config.sys to get games running in high memory. But those days are over. Gaming should be a hobby, not a technical challenge.

So you get it: I want to switch to something simple that doesn't require me to become an expert in obscure command lines just to make things work.

Second useful clarification: I've been using Unix/Linux professionally since 1997. I'd already installed Mandrake in '99 as a dual boot, and I've had work machines running Ubuntu and Debian. So I'm not starting from zero, and I know that for professional use, I'd have no trouble adapting to Linux.

But for personal use, I need to do video editing (I use Filmora) and I like playing video games—so that's going to factor in.

And apparently, Linux can now do all of that.

Apparently...

Testing Without Breaking Everything (Almost)

The idea wasn't to buy a new computer—that would be pretty dumb since my current PC is still great. I bought it in 2018; it has 32GB of RAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, a GeForce GTX 1060, and runs games like Overwatch 2 or Baldur's Gate 3 without any issues.

The idea also wasn't to reinstall over Windows and risk being PC-less for days or weeks.

So I bought a new 1TB SSD to enable dual boot and test different OSes. Dual boot isn't a long-term solution since I want to get rid of Windows, and switching between systems is a pain anyway. But it's perfect for testing. Plus, going from 1TB to 2TB was becoming necessary because video editing eats up disk space fast.

Of course, since I have clumsy fingers and my eyesight is declining with age, I managed the impressive feat of stripping the screw thread that holds the NVMe drive to the motherboard. I really thought I'd be giving up much sooner than planned. But after a quick chat with Gemini, I discovered that PCI-to-NVMe adapters exist, letting you plug SSD drives into a PCI slot.

So, another purchase, a few days, and €20 less later, I was finally able to plug in that damn drive.

Choosing a Distribution

The first step is picking a Linux distribution, downloading an ISO (~4GB), flashing a USB drive with BalenaEtcher, and running the installation.

Remember these steps—they'll come up several times...

My first choice was Bazzite, which is gaming-oriented, but I quickly soured on it when I saw that the co-founders were airing their dirty laundry on the internet—never a great sign. We only allow that kind of drama for Linus Torvalds.

So I installed Pop!_OS next, which is supposed to be user-friendly and gaming-compatible.

Pretty quickly, the disappointments piled up. My video editing software, Filmora, isn't available on Linux. Neither is Proton Drive.

For Proton, there seems to be a version in development, so I can wait.

As for Filmora, it means I'll have to learn DaVinci Resolve. It's frustrating because I have my workflow down in Filmora, but I wouldn't be losing out by learning DaVinci—it's an excellent editing tool. Frustrating, but doable.

However, I also ran into a lot of issues with slowdowns and system freezes. I became very familiar with xkill (to force-close windows), especially while installing Lutris to run Overwatch.

Yes, I'm using Overwatch as my benchmark for testing whether this migration is feasible. It's THE game I play the most. Don't judge me.

After a long stretch of frustration with Lutris that never worked, I eventually switched to Steam because Gemini told me Overwatch is now playable on Steam. Installing Steam had to be done via command line since the default installer didn't work (sigh). I then launched the Overwatch download (60GB...) and went to do something else. The computer went to sleep and wouldn't wake up afterward... Apparently, computers can have trouble waking up too. So I had to reboot—and lost the game download...

Thrilled (not) and fresh as a daisy (also not), I disabled automatic sleep mode and restarted the download. After several hours, I finally launched the game and... it didn't work. The game started, it seemed smooth, but my character kept staring at the ground as if my mouse wasn't being recognized.

We're talking hours of struggling, lots of terminal commands when I explicitly didn't want an OS that forces me to do that. I'll admit the urge to give up was really strong.

And then someone told me: "Maybe you should try a less exotic distro."

Okay. Fair point. Can't give up that easily.

And besides, at this point, I should mention something. One of my motivations was to get away from US tech. But choosing a Linux distro—sure, it's open source, but there are companies behind these distributions. Both Bazzite and Pop!_OS are US-based, so I wasn't really meeting my goal anyway.

So the next day I went with Linux Mint (Ireland). Re-downloaded an ISO, re-flashed a USB drive, re-ran the installation. Joy.

Verdict: Mint seemed more stable—no freezes, no sleep/wake issues—but the interface felt dated, like Windows from the 2000s. Someone quickly suggested I try Zorin OS (also Ireland). No problem, I'm getting good at flashing USB drives by now.

So I re-downloaded an ISO, re-flashed a USB drive, re-ran the installation.

And I have to admit, the result is pretty nice. The OS is pleasant to use, the interface stays close to Windows, so the learning curve is gentle. But this time I knew the main test was getting Overwatch to work to fully validate the migration.

So I installed Steam directly through the built-in app store. Launched the Overwatch download (still 60GB, hasn't changed) and waited.

After several hours, finally, I could start the game and... another failure. The game was completely choppy, pixelated everywhere, the menus barely responded. Time for xkill again...

But this time, I wasn't giving up.

So I called in reinforcements: Gemini.

First, we tried modifying the game's launch options to force Proton, but no luck. I'm acting like I know what Proton is—I really don't. I discovered Proton, Wine, and Lutris all on the same day, and I'm definitely not going to explain what each one does or why Proton over Wine. No idea, and I don't really care.

After several terminal commands, we concluded that the game wasn't using my Nvidia card even though it was correctly installed, because Flatpak was blocking it. Was this diagnosis correct? No clue. But I installed Flatseal to manage Steam's permissions.

Did it work? Not at all. Gemini then suggested reinstalling Steam not via Flathub, but using the native version directly (with a .deb file).

At this point, I wasn't going to balk at yet another installation—and I was pretty lost anyway. I didn't even know what Flathub was until last week.

So I reinstalled Steam, re-downloaded the game (yes, again), reinstalled Proton, changed the Proton version twice because the experimental version was incompatible with my setup, changed the launch options three times under Gemini's guidance, and after several hours, the game launched!

Well, almost. It started compiling Vulkan shaders.

Apparently, this precompiles them to avoid doing it during gameplay. I have very limited knowledge of what a shader is, and I don't know why this is necessary on Linux, but hey, for 10 more minutes, what's the difference at this point...

I quickly jumped into a practice match, tested a few characters, and had a weird feeling. The game wasn't smooth, and when I displayed the FPS counter, I saw I was capped at 60 FPS with occasional dips to 50. And trust me, you feel 60 FPS. There are little glitches here and there, a lack of fluidity. It's playable. You can live with it. But it's not at all pleasant, especially when you've experienced the game at 175 FPS before, on the same machine.

And you know what Gemini suggested? Try Lutris.

So I installed Lutris, re-downloaded Battle.net like I did on Pop!_OS, suffered through the same slowdowns and stuttering—which helped me realize it wasn't Pop!_OS's fault, but rather Lutris's—launched Battle.net only to hit the exact same error I'd had on Pop!_OS, and reached the same conclusion: Lutris is hell.

Gemini then said, "If Lutris isn't cooperating, I recommend Bottles. It's an ultra-modern app available in the Zorin store that's become the go-to for installing Battle.net."

But at that point, I'll be honest. I gave up...

Alright, time for a recap.

Takeaways

Well, I wouldn't call it a failure, but it didn't work, as they say.

Overall, the Linux experience for professional software development is excellent—but I already knew that; that's clearly not the barrier. Zorin OS does a great job for a Windows user like me; you find your way around quickly.

For other professions? Hard to say. The risk is always having one or two apps that aren't available on Linux. The OS itself is now truly capable, but if software vendors don't publish their apps for Linux, it'll always be a barrier. This is the case for CAD software (AutoCAD, Revit, SolidWorks), the Adobe suite for creatives, and several pro tools for video editors (Adobe Premiere, After Effects).

And that makes the option questionable for broader adoption. Again, Linux isn't the problem here—the software vendors are. If they don't see Linux as a mainstream platform, it'll never become mainstream.

And speaking of the mainstream, some of them are gamers—and I can't honestly say Linux is ready for them. I know some of you are going to push back on this. I have plenty of friends who've guaranteed they can game on Linux, and I believe them. But it would be hypocritical of me to write that it's as easy as on Windows.

Obviously, I'm exaggerating. For someone who just does basic office work at home, with a pre-configured computer, it should be fine. And it's true that all my peripherals were detected without any issues—printer, RØDE microphone, dual monitors, etc. So yes, I'm being a bit unfair.

But as soon as gaming comes into the picture, I struggle to say it's okay. I spent hours typing obscure commands into a terminal. I tweaked launch options in Steam and Nvidia settings I'd never seen in my life, and in the end, it still doesn't work.

You can absolutely tell me I'm not skilled, that the problem is between the chair and the keyboard. I readily admit all of that. I didn't even know most of the software I dealt with these past few days (Flatpak, Wine, Proton, etc.). But I shouldn't need to be skilled to play games on a PC. And clearly, I'm not the only one this happens to—I spent hours searching Reddit and saw plenty of people with similar issues.

I wanted to migrate. I spent hours on this. I read dozens of forum posts. Don't tell me I'm being disingenuous. I'm not patient, that's true, but I tried.

And the worst part is that I'm frustrated. Because I really wanted to switch. I'm willing to learn DaVinci to replace Filmora. I'm willing to change my work habits, relearn a new OS. But damn, I want to be able to play games :)

So for now, I'm keeping the dual boot, but it's not a solution. I'm still somewhere between stage 3 (denial) and stage 4 (anger) of grief, hoping I don't reach acceptance and resignation too quickly...

I'll keep looking for solutions online, but clearly, this is becoming expert-level work, and it wasn't supposed to be. Things aren't looking good for this 2026 goal.