Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

No. Thanks to Steam Deck, most popular windows games also work on Linux. See https://www.protondb.com/ for a complete list of 18,000 titles… Someone already mentioned that kernel level anti-cheat is the big, obvious blocker.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

Im guessing that most moders target Windows users therefore, don’t think mods would be AS easy. Not saying modding wouldn’t exist or work at all. Edit: see sp3ctr4l’s reply to this comment. They know more than me

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

There are workarounds. Linux has some great alternative software to popular paid stuff. See LibreOffice or Krita.

There are also more advanced options to run Windows apps under Linux, see Wine or Virtual Machines

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Yes. Similar to the above answer/ similar to aforementioned Proton. For .NET specifically, there is a Linux runtime.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

This can depend a lot on what distribution you’re running, but definitely, there are ones with easy buttons for whole-system updates.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

It’s different and probably overall better than windows. Most distros are much better out of the box than windows.

Open source is ususually a security advantage because (long story short) security mistakes can be caught by more people.

I don’t have a good answer for you on anti virus. I am very privacy and security conscious and I dont use one on linux. My personal opinion is that you don’t need one and shouldn’t need one if you’re not downloading sketch stuff.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Totally. GPU drivers are much, much better than they used to be.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Theoretically. You would have to try really hard, but for normal use, no. More likely, you could lose data or access to the system if you misconfigure stuff (just like with Windows)

Distro recommendations. My personal opinions, don’t flame me.

• Bazzite. hard to mess up, gamer focused, super simple updates, and targeted support for gamer hardware. Feels like a cross between steam deck and windows. Less support for tinkering but if you never want to touch the terminal, this is my choice.

• Pop!OS. Simplified Linux with great driver and steam support with easy updates. More tinkering support than Bazzite

• Linux Mint. Easy to start on but more traditional back-end. Much more support (forum posts) than the previous two. A lot of what works on Debian or Ubuntu works the same on Mint, so you’ll be able to do all kinds of fiddling

Wasn’t me

In the street?

this is the most responsible idea. i love it

that’s a great idea re: music. i use a ton of Chromecast audios and, when Google “forgot to update the certs” I was SOL

This is me. I’m taking the L on this one and I’ve (at least occassionally) used Unix-like systems professionally for 15 years. I’m all self-taught on Linux and didn’t figure out Tab until I was doing some awful Grub troubleshooting and it spells out that tab autocompletes. So I tried it in terminal and then smirked at the camera like Jim

This is so awesome. I this will be my light reading for the next week

It would have helped if I got her name right Andrea BoRman

YouTube channel

Here’s a list of self-host/foss/Linux YouTubers. Check them out. I’ve learned SO much from them:

• Veronica Explains
• Network Chuck
• Jim’s Garage
• Andrea Borman
• Awesome Open Source
• Techno Tim

I can add links to each but searching should find them easily

I have this exact same setup. Open Web UI has more features than I’ve been able to use such as functions and pipelines.

I use it to share my LLMs across my network. It has really good user management so I can set up a user for my wife or brother in law and give them general use LLM while my dad and I can take advantage of Coding-tuned models.

The code formatting and code execution functions are great. It’s overall a great UI.

Ive used LLMs to rewrite code, help format PowerPoint slides, summarize my notes from work, create D&D characters, plan lessons, etc

Womp womp

Neptr covered it better than I could’ve. I also added privacy badger though I’m not sure that does anything🤷

I’ve tested this on Debian and roughly:

1. Mullvad (default): A+
2. Librewolf (+setup): B
3. Librewolf (default): C
4. Firefox (default): D
5. Chromium (default): F

Try out https://coveryourtracks.eff.org

Not to discredit or counterpoint what you’re saying… But in some jurisdictions, that’s illegal. As an example, California RTA/RTF laws make it a requirement that some data should be deleted unless there’s a different legal standard requiring the data be kept. Enforcement? Who knows?

I have a vague recollection of the developers building the highest settings were optimized for a future where single-core performance was where computing power would develop on… But then, cpu technology advanced towards parallelization/hyperthreading/multi core, and it took far longer for single core performance to catch up to Crysis’ highest demands

+1 on this entire list.

I also recommend Grim Dark. It’s $2.70 rn

Resistance is futile

I haven’t seen anyone mention that this could be a massive improvement for persons using adaptive technologies to interact with audio media. Ive personally witnessed complaints from users of hearing aids and transcription tools who get annoyed by music messing up the content they’re trying to get from a video or podcast

Ancient meme is ancient

¿Rule? Rule…? RUUUUULLE?