Read the original post for context: The Linux Talk
Ah yes, the Linux talk, once again. I didn’t think I’d be talking about this again so soon, but it’s here again. Wait…
It has been over a year since then?! What the hell! Time sure flies, eh?
New Stuff Since Then
There’s been some interesting news since then. The Windows 10 activations without ESD (Electronic Software Delivery) will reach End of Support in 14 October 2025. Lenovo launched a version of the Legion Go lineup with SteamOS support. Speaking of SteamOS, you can download it and put in your AMD-powered handheld, as Valve made it available to the public. And if you want something similar, there’s Bazzite, I suppose.
Pretty cool stuff… Until…
“Can Linux save my PC?”
Until this question comes up. If your hardware is too old to run even the last version of Windows 10, you might want to try to tackle Linux for yourself. If all you do is office-related work, like using Word, Excel or just simply browsing the web in general, there’s a near 100% chance your PC will be able to use Linux. That doesn’t mean it’ll run well or it’ll be smooth but if the choice is between running Linux poorly or not run anything at all, I think I know what I’d pick.
If you have a gaming PC that is quite old and it’s not supported by Windows 11, and Windows 10 is the last OS that it can run, it might tempting to jump to a Linux-based distro and continue gaming. However, if your hardware is too old, Linux will notmake any difference.
Statistically speaking, most PC gamers out there use Nvidia GPUs in their PCs. In fact the common PC nowadays has either a 6 cores Intel or AMD CPU and an Nvidia GPU, meaning that the experience jumping from Windows to Linux will be… Miserable.
You probably don’t know about this (if you do, congrats) but Nvidia’s Linux drivers are both proprietary AND terrible. I had issues trying to run a G210 in a home-server machine. You know the G210, right? A non-glorified display adapter they still sell brand new to this day. I had issues with that, and it works just fine with Windows. This is a big problem for a lot of people that are looking into jumping to Linux, because their Nvidia GPUs will not work well, as the drivers are terrible. And then they’ll just blame Linux for sucking and keep using Windows. Probably their intention because the Linux enterprise drivers appear to be solid, but those aren’t for games. There are open-source drivers but they aren’t as good as the Windows ones (don’t mind the Blackwell/RTX 50 drivers).
That is a real issue, people (and gamers in general) don’t want to keep troubleshooting their games or computers, they just want to use or play. Mind you, this can happen with Windows too, especially with some problematic games or applications but it’s not that frequent.
In short, your 2010-era gaming PC won’t be able to run games better using Linux, you should absolutely upgrade. Your old 2010-era non-gaming PC might continue to be useful.
SteamOS changes the game, but not quite
As I mentioned, Valve released SteamOS 3 in a beta state for people use on their AMD-powered hardware. However that hasn’t stopped people with AMD-powered PCs to try it out and be disappointed with it.
Valve has said that SteamOS is not a main desktop OS replacement, just like the Steam Deck can be your primary computer but absolutely shouldn’t be. This is because its interface was made for a handheld computer, and any other usage might feel different, nevermind the fact that it boots into Steam directly, and then you can access the desktop. Didn’t stop people from trying, of course and with newer hardware, it’s very possible to get similar performance to Windows while playing games.
But once again, I’d like to stress that SteamOS is not a OS replacement. If you have a Windows machine, you can keep using it, it’s not gonna just stop working the moment the EOS date comes up. But in the meantime, you can try out Linux with Steam or SteamOS, assuming you’re not using a Nvidia GPU.
Closing Words
Another year, another claim that this year Linux will have a big moment and swoop in, taking at least double digits in usage count. And it never happens. Like I said in my previous post, I think you should try it, get yourself familiar with it, and maybe it’ll work out for you. Otherwise, you might wanna stick with that works for you, because that’s all we’re looking for.