2024 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop, at least for my boyfriend. He’s running Windows 7 right now, so I’ll be switching him to Ubuntu in a few days. Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.

  • EddyBot@feddit.de
    2381·
    11 months ago

    it is kinda wild that people abandon Windows 7 because of Steam and not because Microsoft stopped patching it several years ago

    Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.

    I don’t think Steam actually recommends any distro since some time anymore

    • Takios@feddit.de
      168·
      11 months ago

      People don’t care about security until they get hit. Source: working in IT for 10 years.

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        63·
        11 months ago

        And then suddenly they care a lot and do all the wrong things for wrong reasons because they know shit

        • Madlaine@feddit.de
          48·
          11 months ago

          “I don’t worry about missing security patches. I just have 5 anti-virus tools running simultaneously, they keep me safe.”

            • De Lancre@lemmy.world
              1·
              11 months ago

              I mean, they do make your device slow. That why tools like InSpectre exists. For some old cpu’s like my notebooks one it can be up to 20% performance impact, so if you not planning to use it with internet (or at least as main access point via browser) ever again, why not get yourself free performance?

          • 3ntranced@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 months ago

            And all of the anti-virus tools are 50 updates behind so they’re essentially non-functional bloatware even moreso

        • Coasting0942@reddthat.com
          5·
          11 months ago

          Effective immediately employees must update passwords every week, and cannot match any past password.

          Managers will receive hardware security dongles to make their logins easier. Employees may feel free to register their personal hardware security dongles on site but off the clock.

        • SapphironZA@lemmings.world
          19·
          11 months ago

          I would support a law that requires software companies to open source software that they discontinue support on.

          That way, companies that disappear don’t have their customers at risk.

          And software companies will support software for longer.

          • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
            14·
            11 months ago

            I think the problem with this is that the corpos will just keep pushing out updates that barely change anything and call the device “supported”

            • SapphironZA@lemmings.world
              7·
              11 months ago

              There is sure to be some of that, but they will at least get the blame for when it goes poorly.

              They are obligated by many of their corporate and government clients to patch any security flaws and fix bugs.

              I would prefer that they don’t touch what is working and just focus on fixing bugs and security issues.

              This moving feature set and release of half finished software approach is why people have hated windows so much since the windows 8 days.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
          61·
          11 months ago

          In this case they could have switched to Windows 10 years ago and even 11 is perfectly fine, especially if you install it in English UK so a lot of the cleanup work is done for you.

          • moonburster@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 months ago

            This only is true if you have a pc that supports it. In my case windows 10 was the end station for my workstation

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
              1·
              11 months ago

              And it’s still getting updates until 2025 (more if you want to pay) and Windows 11 can be installed on hardware without TPM 2.0 (witch will be more than 10 years old when Windows 10 stops getting updates)…

              At some point people have to accept that the world is moving forward and technology is continuously improving… At what point do you consider that your machine is old enough that it’s acceptable to retire it? Should I be able to install Windows 11 on my Pentium 150mhz?

              • moonburster@lemmy.world
                1·
                11 months ago

                Kek. I mainly use it for a little gaming. It has an i7 2600 and an rx6700xt. Works stellar for my usage, so if I can keep using it for the next 10 years I will.

                We should stop retiring hardware that still meets demands

      • FalseDiamond@sh.itjust.works
        131·
        11 months ago

        Even IT people don’t give a shit about security until it’s way too late. Source: getting out of a job where the median age of a server is around 3-4 years old with no updates and runtimes hard installed outside repositories.

        • prole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          61·
          11 months ago

          I think this is just kind of a side effect of capitalism.

          If it’s costing them in the short term, and the results aren’t evident or won’t be seen until the long term, they almost always won’t do it.

    • Lem453@lemmy.ca
      23·
      11 months ago

      Nvidia gpu drivers wont even install on win 7 anymore. That by itself causes huge performance issues on new games that have driver optimizations.

      Probably the same story for amd drivers

      • Wolfwood1@lemmy.world
        10·
        11 months ago

        Why would you need new Nvidia drivers in Windows 7 if every new game released requires Windows 10 or above?

    • NekuSoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de
      93·
      11 months ago

      it is kinda wild that people abandon Windows 7 because of Steam

      There’s this certain subsection of Win7/8 diehards that absolutely confuse me. It’s one thing to keep using them on old systems, but I’ve seen a few people posting about their brand-new PC, equipped with RTX 4090s and 13th gen I9 processors, who are adamant on running those outdated operating systems as their only OS. Such a waste of money.

      • cannache@slrpnk.net
        5·
        11 months ago

        Nah I think it’s just that windows 7 and 8 was and still is quite literally one of those ones where it hit the sweet spot between good UI and UX and actually having huge range and compatibility straight off the bat. Plus everything was pretty smooth back then, but hell, nobody ever says how many viruses and dumb apps were floating around for Windows 7x32 and x64

        • NekuSoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de
          3·
          11 months ago

          I mean that’s true, but what what I was specifically referring to was those using top-of-the-line hardware, which you can’t properly utilize on those systems because the CPU scheduler isn’t optimized for modern CPUs and you can’t really make good use of the GPU either due to the lack of DX12. With that hardware you need Win10+ or a somewhat recent version of Linux.

          It’s almost certainly a very small percentage of the already small percentage of people still running Win7/8, but I’m just stunned everytime someone brags about such a crappy setup.

    • Nilz@sopuli.xyz
      3·
      11 months ago

      I don’t think Steam actually recommends any distro since some time anymore

      I think they do by proxy since they only distribute it via .deb (and with Steam of course) and all games in the store that have a native Linux version mention some kind of Ubuntu version in their requirements as well. Which is funny since the Steam Deck doesn’t even run Ubuntu.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      2·
      11 months ago

      I don’t think Steam actually recommends any distro since some time anymore

      The way steam works for package maintainers is basically “ok we need at least kernel xyz+, graphics drivers, valve already packaged the rest”. Supporting it is trivial unless you insist on replacing libraries steam includes as runtime with your own versions, which you shouldn’t. It’s kind of its own user-level distribution in a sense.

    • Limonene@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      11 months ago

      Yeah, Windows 7 is very old. It’s definitely a concern. I keep him highly firewalled on the network so that hopefully he won’t get hacked.

      I usually play on Debian, but when I contacted Steam for support regarding Proton, they said they only supported Ubuntu or Steam OS. Since Steam OS isn’t currently available for PC, that means Ubuntu.

    • cannache@slrpnk.net
      1·
      11 months ago

      To be fair they’ve got enough market share to start a distro they got enough market share to be platform agnostic

      • labsin@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        11 months ago

        They already have their SteamOS, which has 43% of the Linux market share on Steam (I guess almost all Steam Deck)

        https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=linux

        SteamOS isn’t included in the combined numbers, but comparing it to Arch which is only 0.15% of steam, the deck is <1% of the total.

        I actually quite like the read only incremental update model of SteamOS combined with flatpak. It makes the OS a lot simpler and I rarely ever change the OS much outside of apps that I can install in home or with flatpak. And if you have special hardware, you are probably already looking at other distros anyway. There is enough choice.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
          2·
          11 months ago

          Linus himself has been long advocating for something flatpak-like in general: One of his projects, subsurface, is not exactly of interest to most people for the simple reason that most people don’t dive, why should half a gazillion distros maintain their own packages? Distros should focus on the actual OS part and a full-featured DE, from document viewer to browser – stuff everyone needs, also the little stuff practically noone wants to choose, like, say, a desktop calculator.