Perhaps a stupid question since I happily run P3Dv5 with Windows 10 on a modern PC and also have MSFS 2020 installed on that same PC (but hardly use MSFS 2020)

Since I am getting more and more fed up with Micosoft and their policy to force customers to have an account with them, I am thinking of converting my old PC ( Intel i7-6700K, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080 before used for flight sim only) to Linux Mint 64 and get X-Plane 11 (or wait for 12?). Had a bit of experience with Linux some 20 years ago and used X-Plane on Windows 7 also some years ago.

Want to run this PC at my 2nd home near LSZH.

Do you think this could be a good idea or just be a waste of time and money?

Go for it.   Linux will give you a much smoother experience.   And "No" , it's not that hard to start using X-plane in Linux.  Probably might have an issue with Nvidia + Secure boot. @mSparks can help I believe , i have an AMD GPU so no issues with secure boot + ubuntu, but in a day or two will be getting the RTX 3050.

Can't say that you wait for XP12 as non have an idea about it's release. 

 

4 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Perhaps a stupid question since I happily run P3Dv5 with Windows 10 on a modern PC and also have MSFS 2020 installed on that same PC (but hardly use MSFS 2020)

Since I am getting more and more fed up with Micosoft and their policy to force customers to have an account with them, I am thinking of converting my old PC ( Intel i7-6700K, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080 before used for flight sim only) to Linux Mint 64 and get X-Plane 11 (or wait for 12?). Had a bit of experience with Linux some 20 years ago and used X-Plane on Windows 7 also some years ago.

Want to run this PC at my 2nd home near LSZH.

Do you think this could be a good idea or just be a waste of time and money?

honestly linux mate seens more stable than mint.

16 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Want to run this PC at my 2nd home near LSZH.

Do you think this could be a good idea or just be a waste of time and money?

Linux as a second machine is absolutely a valuable endeavour. MacOS is now best as a first for most users.

16 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Intel i7-6700K, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080

Hehe, stick Linux on that and it should end up a better machine than anything with windows on it.

16 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Had a bit of experience with Linux some 20 years ago

You are in for a very pleasant surprise, 20 years ago Linux was pretty specialist for doing things that couldn't be done in Windows, now there are (at least) 2 completely viable and high quality desktop environments that once set up pretty much surpass windows in every way. KDE if you prefer a windows 7 like desktop, gnome if you are prefer the Mac way of doing desktops.

16 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Linux Mint 64

I'm more of a Redhat distribution based kinda guy, Oracle Linux 8 for "solid", Fedora Core [35 at time of writing] for cutting edge new stuff.

There are two other "primary" distributions that the others are based on, Mint and PopOS are the leaders derived from (fixing issues with) Ubuntu, Manjaro seems to be the leader of Arch based distros.

Which yours is derived from will mainly determine where to look for answers to questions, Ubuntu/Arch/Redhat all do key things like installation and configuration slightly differently. Linus Tech Tips just did a linux challenge, its worth watching their experiences before deciding which you go with.

16 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

or wait for 12?

Only if spending around $60 on flight sim that you know is going to be obsolete in 1 to 2 years is to much for you, coming from P3D I suspect you are going to be mostly blown away by how little you have to spend on XP to enjoy it.

Thanks for all the answers, that is very encouraging.

So I will flatten my "old" Flightsim-PC and install Linux (Mint or Mate). Mint at the moment is very popular (amongst the Linux enthusiasts) here in Germany and gives a lot of support (so they say). Then gather some experience with it, perhaps change the type of Linux after that and go for X-Plane. For many (non-technical) reasons I will not consider MacOS.

My present main Flightsim PC with P3Dv5 and MSFS2020 will stay as it is and continue to be mainly used on IVAO and VATSIM

 

Manjaro would also be an option.

And make sure to google how to install the proprietary Nvidia driver on your chosen distro. The open source installed by default is unusable for gaming.

Edited February 26, 20224 yr by Bjoern

3 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Manjaro would also be an option.

Thanks for the hint regarding the Nvidia driver. Wilco.

As to Manjaro I found the comment "Manjaro Linux ist für fortgeschrittene Linux-Nutzer" .  So I will wait a "bit" as I regard myself as a rookie and not an experienced user when it comes to Linux 😩

17 minutes ago, Yogipriester said:

not an experienced user when it comes to Linux 😩

In that case PopOS nvidia distribution should be a good choice.

The install should be nothing more than putting it on usb stick and booting from it.

And all you really need to know about using gnome is you move your mouse into the top left corner to get to the desktops overview, application search and start. from there you can open firefox, download and run the XP installer and you should be good to go.

For quality of life I have the file explorer bound to windows key+e and terminal window to win+t (only because running stuff from the terminal is generally quicker than finding stuff in menus once you know the commands)

Edited February 26, 20224 yr by mSparks

On 2/26/2022 at 6:35 PM, Yogipriester said:

Thanks for the hint regarding the Nvidia driver. Wilco.

As to Manjaro I found the comment "Manjaro Linux ist für fortgeschrittene Linux-Nutzer" .  So I will wait a "bit" as I regard myself as a rookie and not an experienced user when it comes to Linux 😩

Manjaro is based on Arch Linux, which is probably the best documented Linux distro out there. So as long as you can read and comprehend things, you should be fine.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Main_Page

https://wiki.archlinux.org/

Meanwhile I finally succeeded to install Linux. Tried first to install Mate with the help of a SD-Card where I mounted  the Mate ISO using the Rufus utility. I had no working DVD-RW in the house and also no free USB-stick. Living in the deep countryside one has to shop in the internet. All went fine with the installation and the setup until I rebooted - it was not able to boot.

Exactly the same happened with with the SD-Card and Mint. However, finally the USB stick arrived and I was able to install Mint again and to my relief it also rebootet 😁 Obviously there is a big difference between a SD-Card and an USB-stick...........

It was much easier than I thought to setup Mint and also the installation of X-Plane 11 was no problem. All worked well so far and that "old" desktop is performing very well, much better than I hoped. But I have to get used to the different keyboad assignment (although I told X-Plane 11 to use the same assignments as FSX).

Little problem only when installing a VPN-Client. It said that it was already installed but I was not able yet to find the file (NordVPN) so that I could start the client. It is not shown under the installed programmes and I dearly miss my "Total Commander" I am used to under Windows. Perhaps such a nice utility is also available for Linux?

I am writing all this at full length and exposing a bit of my mistakes made so far in order to thank you all for your help. 🙏 Perhaps this might also encourage one or the other reader not conversant with Linux to shift from Windows to Linux.

 

5 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Meanwhile I finally succeeded to install Linux. Tried first to install Mate with the help of a SD-Card where I mounted  the Mate ISO using the Rufus utility. I had no working DVD-RW in the house and also no free USB-stick. Living in the deep countryside one has to shop in the internet. All went fine with the installation and the setup until I rebooted - it was not able to boot.

Exactly the same happened with with the SD-Card and Mint. However, finally the USB stick arrived and I was able to install Mint again and to my relief it also rebootet 😁 Obviously there is a big difference between a SD-Card and an USB-stick...........

It was much easier than I thought to setup Mint and also the installation of X-Plane 11 was no problem. All worked well so far and that "old" desktop is performing very well, much better than I hoped. But I have to get used to the different keyboad assignment (although I told X-Plane 11 to use the same assignments as FSX).

Little problem only when installing a VPN-Client. It said that it was already installed but I was not able yet to find the file (NordVPN) so that I could start the client. It is not shown under the installed programmes and I dearly miss my "Total Commander" I am used to under Windows. Perhaps such a nice utility is also available for Linux?

I am writing all this at full length and exposing a bit of my mistakes made so far in order to thank you all for your help. 🙏 Perhaps this might also encourage one or the other reader not conversant with Linux to shift from Windows to Linux.

 

Get ready to learn lots of command line stuff,, and Mate far more stable than MINT ive used both, Just now with xplane

11 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

Get ready to learn lots of command line stuff,, and Mate far more stable than MINT ive used both, Just now with xplane

Yes I will when I am back there, have to search also for literature. So far I made all just by intuition or whatever it is called. 🥳

But for Mate it is too late at the moment, pity that I did not pay attention what Linux version I put on the USB-stick. Up till now I had no crash and I hope it will stay like that.

Any recommendation as to a file programme like Total Commander that works for Linux?

2 hours ago, Yogipriester said:

Any recommendation as to a file programme like Total Commander that works for Linux?

Dolphin on KDE, Nemo on Gnome should be fine.

On 3/4/2022 at 8:35 PM, Yogipriester said:

Living in the deep countryside one has to shop in the internet.

Come on, Nordberlin (according to your location) isn't that bad...

 

On 3/4/2022 at 8:35 PM, Yogipriester said:

It is not shown under the installed programmes and I dearly miss my "Total Commander" I am used to under Windows. Perhaps such a nice utility is also available for Linux?

https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/

9 hours ago, Bjoern said:

https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/

I'll second that. I even use the doublecomander on my Windows-laptop in my job (apart from my Linux home-PC).

Edited March 7, 20224 yr by uwespeed