ditching windows
thu, 28 may 2026, 06:42pm utci've recently found some time to get reacquainted with the linuxsphere(tm) and used it to install endeavourOS on my desktop pc. since being assembled, it has run windows 11 exclusively as my use case is essentially gaming and watching youtube, usually at the same time - two things windows handles out of the box without any issues thanks to update pulling the correct drivers automatically these days
still, i would characterize contemporary microsoft as a company whose decisions you tolerate rather than welcome, their operating systems having suffered from bloatware issues and inconsistent feel for at least a decade now. this along with their apparent gross mismanagement of github post-acquisition and insistence on integrating copilot into about every application you could imagine has led to some user discomfort to put it in neutral terms
the real dealbreaker for me personally is having an os license tied to a microsoft account and needing to log into an online service to even get to use the thing i paid for on my own damn computer standing in my living room. and don't get me started on the insulting telemetry options. i remember the feeling of disbelief that came over me many moons ago when i found out that you can choose between sending only some or all of your data to microsoft. call me old-fashioned and a pinko but i like local accounts and despise corporate spooks
my nvidia gpu and the absence of a vendor-provided, open-source driver for it has until now prevented serious excursions into linux land for gaming, but that's really only half true. the more accurate reason for my hesitance is my historical habit of running into kernel panics and freezes when doing anything computionally demanding about 10 years ago, presumably due to nouveau, when i was still distrohopping and had a fascination for the OS family while lacking the curiosity and technical aptitude required to really know what i was doing. i kind of expected linux to just be as easy to pick up and run as windows which was misguided. these past occurrences have permanently created an atmosphere of dread due to the perceived fragility of my setup, like a groaning jenga tower that might keel over if i exhale too hard in its general direction. windows has always seemed more stable by default and provided an ease of use i valued highly, so i just shelled out for a license when i bought my computer parts and linked it to a new, stupid microsoft account
i'm happy to report that it is indeed no longer 10 years ago and linux is now a much more mature experience out of the box, effectively retracting its prior demand for curiosity and tinkering. it's so mature in fact that i have had exactly zero problems installing steam as well as heroic, and running a multitude of graphically intensive video games without any configuration whatsoever, namely cyberpunk 2077 on heroic and re4make as well as crusader kings 3 on steam, all powered by the wonderful proton. this is a far cry from the wine i came into contact with back in the day. all of this is probably old news by now, but it genuinely feels like a revolution to me living under a rock
despite the easy setup, i remained skeptical and needed to know exactly how performance compares. i couldn't get heroic's fps counter to work on cyberpunk, so i decided to run cd projekt red's benchmarking tool provided with the game to compare the numbers to those i got on windows. graphical settings were set to high with raytracing disabled, and the resolution matched my 2k monitor's native setting. i did not think it possible, but there is virtually no difference in frames per second across operating systems
| os | avg | min | max |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | 91.12 | 78.54 | 109.48 |
| windows | 92.75 | 80.78 | 110.10 |
god bless the souls who have so valiantly toiled in the dark to create proton; i could kiss their feet. i do get some microstutters occasionally when new things appear on the screen or the scene is changed abruptly pretty much across all the games i've tested which is really annoying but ultimately an okay sacrifice to make if it means that i can finally rid myself of the malicious entity that is microsoft and its offensive software which is exactly what i did earlier this week. for the first time ever, all devices in my household are running linux
the thing to collectively leave behind once we have freed ourselves from microsoft is omarchy and the concept of the personality cult