[moltopoco]

Many gamers are married to Windows exclusive games like Fortnite etc., but gamers are also more rebellious than corporate IT staff and many have actually built their computers from parts, so they are not scared of flashing a USB drive. I'm optimistic that this group is the next one to break away from Windows.

[tavavex]

Gaming is the biggest thing that keeps me on Windows, followed by the fact that I use an Nvidia GPU, followed by a very localized case of inertia where I have so much data, settings and programs concentrated in my OS install that migrating it all over is going to be a monumental pain in the ass. But luckily, Linux gaming has gotten way better and I don't play the kind of games that categorically refuses to run there (anything with highly involved anti-cheat systems), so once my version of Windows becomes unsupported, I'll bite the bullet and make the Linux install into my primary one.

I think people like me are the real first line that's most likely to switch - techy people who play games (which had so far kept them on Windows) and that suffer firsthand at Microsoft's attempts to get them directly in addition to already being treated horribly by default. This group is less afraid of changing things up and has more incentives to switch. But if we talk of gamers in general, it may take a while until a meaningful number of them switch over, even though they are far more motivated than the average PC user. Even though they're the prime candidates, it's going to be a very, very steep uphill battle.

[zenoprax]

> ... localized case of inertia where I have so much data, settings and programs concentrated in my OS install that migrating it all ...

Your first step is start swapping out Windows-specific programs for cross-platform alternatives. Eventually you'll have to just cut the rest loose and make the jump though. Don't bother dual-booting either or you'll just delay it further.

I made the transition a few years ago and it was far less dramatic than I imagined.

[tavavex]

Luckily, there's not that much Windows-only software I must use. Unluckily, it's pretty essential:

- Fusion 360 (the only alternative seems to be learning a different, likely far more involved CAD)

- Paint.NET (a simple, quick, no-nonsense image editor - while there are image editor alternatives, as far as I can tell there's nothing quite like it)

The bigger issue that might keep me dual-booting are graphical features. Things like VR and HDR are already known to be janky on their "native" Windows implementations, so I'm scared to imagine what any of that is going to be like on Linux. Neither are common use cases, but I still want to hold onto those where possible.

[zenoprax]

I feel that pain. I was using Lightroom since 2009 or so and I it took me many hours over many Saturdays to extricate myself from its grasp. That being said, my efforts to abandon it was the only thing that exposed a lot of problems (metadata, duplicates, etc.) so... it worked out in the end.

[dotancohen]

Which lightroom replacement are you using on Linux?

[zenoprax]

I was hoping you wouldn't ask :P

I don't have a replacement at all but this coincided with a reduced desire to tinker with and touch up my photos in general. I'm currently working on a modular Unix-y/CLI-focused way to safely ingest photos (archive originals with PAR2; then move from source and rename), reject/rate as needed, ensure timestamps are correct (UTC for DSLRs), geotag with whatever GPX I have, and then eventually some sort of LLM-based tagging. Exif will do a lot of heavy lifting here.

All I really need now is a way to rate my photos and I'll probably use Digikam for that. Raw processing doesn't have a CLI solution that I like so I'll probably have to use RawTherapee or something as well.

[shevy-java]

Right. I said that when Windows loses the gamers, its monopoly will eventually collapse. Office-use is another area where Windows has a stronghold, but the gamers are typically quite clever people, whereas elderly people often have physical problems and grew up in a time where computers weren't so dominating.

[lawn]

> Gaming is the biggest thing that keeps me on Windows, followed by the fact that I use an Nvidia GPU

The Nvidia issue is overblown IMO. If you use their binary blobs it works pretty well.

[tavavex]

This is just a personal anecdote, but I was speaking from past experience. Perhaps things have improved now, but back when I seriously used Linux on my own PC, the 2-3 times when the system randomly stopped booting properly and had to be tinkered with for me to be able to do anything with my computer, all of these issues were caused by something (Nvidia) GPU-related.

[digiown]

The situation is much better now. I've never had any issues with using the proprietary drivers on Arch on wayland in the past few years. If anything, AMD's drivers are noticeably more buggy.

[hulitu]

> where I have so much data, settings and programs concentrated in my OS install

Don't forget to back up.