Would it be a good option for me?

I am probably not going to enrol in the next MS initiative of going as cloudfull as possible, so, I'm finally starting to seriously consider moving to Linux one day.

My PC specs are in my signature, bellow, and my hardware controllers aren't that many:

- Saitek Combat Pro rudder pedals;

- Thrustmaster T.16000;

- Hotas unit of an old, broken, X.52 Pro;

I would accept staying only with X-Plane, and Aerowinx PSX as well as Condorsoaring can perfectly work in Linux too.

I've been following @coastaldriver's thread about his move to Linux, and evey time I read new posts I get more tempted 🙂

Would I miss IL2, DCS and MSFS...?  Sure I would, but I'm getting just too old to run all these sims...

Well, but I'll miss "Aces of Thunder" ( @Litjan 🙂 ) which I just purchased and am really enjoying too...

I have Mint also, and it works great with xplane. Mind that not all utilities are for Linux, some are windows only.

I am using Linux Mint on two desktops for more than  3 years. One on an old PC that outlived its usefulness as the main PC for P3D under W10 and the other one as a dual boot system (Linux Mint on a 1TB M2 SSD and W10 on a 2TB M2 SSD).

On the weak PC I use a Thrustmaster T.16000 and  Thrustmaster TCA and on the more modern PC  also the Thrustmaster T.16000 and the Honeycom Bravo Throttle. On the W10 partition I have in addtion to XP12 also MSFS2020 installed. Have to admit that I hardly use the W10 partition 😔

All works well under Mint but to get the Honeycom Bravo Throttle working under Linux was a bit troublesome as Honeycom does not supprt Linux. The other components were easy.

Ugh, why does every beginner want to use Mint. It's always so much behind the curve. Go for Fedora with Plasma instead for a modern desktop not too far from Windows and more recent packages. Plus usable documentation. If every FPS matters, there is no way around CachyOS or at least EndeavorOS. Since all modern distros except Arch and Gentoo bring a GUI installer, it shouldn't be too hard. Cachy's and Endeavor's base - Arch Linux - is also well documented.

As for hardware, the T.16000M works out of the box and the Saitek pedals and X52 are so old, it'd really surprise me if they did not.

IL-2:BoS seems to work fine with little tweaking according to ProtonDB: https://www.protondb.com/search?q=IL-2

DCS works fine with tweaks (also from experience): https://www.protondb.com/app/223750

Same for MSFS20 and MSFS24: https://www.protondb.com/app/1250410 https://www.protondb.com/app/2537590

Aces of Thunder is a no-go, but still a very recent release, so subject to change: https://www.protondb.com/app/2754090

 

For your XP use case, your ToLiss buses are completely fine in Linux, AutoOrtho/MapEnhancement should work and X-World naturally works. What won't work is some X-Aviation releases (check the store pages for OS compatibility).

 

49 minutes ago, Bjoern said:

Ugh, why does every beginner want to use Mint

Because its eady to install, i use mint mate, just works.

JComm - my other threads sort of cover it. Step 1 is go and burn a couple of Linux sytems on a stick boot them up and have a look at them and Linux more generally. There may be quite a few Linux Distros but at the end they are still Linux and the core of that is kept clean and functional by Mr Torvalds himself. Some hardware may be problematic - Cinnamon Mint had the required NVIDIA drivers I required and lots of other programs I was already familiar with having been using the Windows open source versions anyway. 

Lots of people for various reasons go with dual boot so they can retain Windows and all those programs that are Windows hard wired. You can sort of do it with Wine but as for the sim programs - you either do that or bid them goodbye. After all I don't wistfully think about reinstalling FSX on my computer - its history along with P3D etc. My very important consideration for being able to go to a pure Linux system was simple as well - I had to have basically standalone programs except Internet- the world of cloud and streaming is not possible for me simply because the Telco's in my country do not provide the capacity outside of major city clusters of optic fibre networks. So I cannot say oh no no more MSFS because I never had it. Laminars XP12 runs faultlessly on my Linux box all on its own drive. I have had not bugs at all - so nothing more to say except I look at the aircraft models I have accumulated and think well that is pretty representative of everything about in the real world of aviation - so there. 

I kept a lot of stuff I did for FSX/P3D days (Model rebuilds, documents data etc) just in case. Then again I still have boxes in the shed with MS98 and ATPL on disks (No disk ready though LOL). 

I think there are issues with some peripherals - but as I only have a Logitech 3D Pro and no VR and I am happy with XP as it is so do not want Map Organiser. Streaming Ortho or whatever. 

I actually found a default installation more than acceptable visually - 90% or airports are payware quality by default. I have litterally double my performance in terms of FPS now and every time I run XP (I tinker a lot with different aeroplane models) I am constantly pleasantly informed about just how good this simulator is and it just gets better and better. So what else does one want? 

Real life stuff is handly securely and speedily by Linux as well. Cannot think of a single Windows program I could remotely require for a home user. 

Love Cinnamon, although I use it with Fedora

What to expect

 

If you want to escape everything that supposedly makes Microsoft toxic, you must first leave the Google ecosystem. Browsers, Gmail, search engine, Android, Smart TV, YouTube, etc. 

Otherwise, all you'll be doing is trying to put out a fire with spit by switching to Linux.

Of course, also leave MFS if what bothers you is working in the cloud.

Linux comes in many flavours, which is unfortunately why it has never been a real alternative to Windows on home systems. They have always insisted on reinventing the wheel over and over again, and that creates such significant differences that it has always overwhelmed less advanced users.

If you just want to play x-plane, use the distribution you like best, but if your intention is to play games, I recommend you go directly to the Steam distribution.

I've never had the need to play outside of Windows, which is why I've always used FreeBSD as my operating system outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. I've also flirted a lot with Debian in Linux, which I've always considered the best project within the penguin ecosystem.

6 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

If you want to escape everything that supposedly makes Microsoft toxic, you must first leave the Google ecosystem. Browsers, Gmail, search engine, Android, Smart TV, YouTube, etc. 

Otherwise, all you'll be doing is trying to put out a fire with spit by switching to Linux.

Of course, also leave MFS if what bothers you is working in the cloud.

Linux comes in many flavours, which is unfortunately why it has never been a real alternative to Windows on home systems. They have always insisted on reinventing the wheel over and over again, and that creates such significant differences that it has always overwhelmed less advanced users.

If you just want to play x-plane, use the distribution you like best, but if your intention is to play games, I recommend you go directly to the Steam distribution.

I've never had the need to play outside of Windows, which is why I've always used FreeBSD as my operating system outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. I've also flirted a lot with Debian in Linux, which I've always considered the best project within the penguin ecosystem.

You probably want to leave windows because the UI is super clunky compared with Linux and mac, performance is substandard, customisability is awful and forced updates regularly break everything.

I'd say the biggest cause of that is Microsoft have found it basically impossible over the last 20 years to recruit the best talent, and it shows.

The general desktop experience on Linux however isnt that great for people who aren't of a more engineering background, Cinnamon is really different in that respect, because the mint team is different, they do seem to actually care about creating a desktop that is a pleasure rather than a chore to use, their file explorer (Nemo) is by far the best of any of them (with maybe the exception of finder on macos), I had been using that long before I switched to Cinnamon, since I switched to it I have found the rest of thier desktop experience is to a similar high standard - you want x/y/z and it has probably been done already, works well, and is easy enough to configure, the same cannot be said in the slightest for the others.

Edited February 18Feb 18 by mSparks

18 minutes ago, mSparks said:

Probablemente quieras abandonar Windows porque la interfaz de usuario es muy torpe en comparación con Linux y Mac, el rendimiento es deficiente, la capacidad de personalización es terrible y las actualizaciones forzadas rompen todo regularmente.

Yo diría que la causa principal de esto es que a Microsoft le ha resultado básicamente imposible durante los últimos 20 años reclutar a los mejores talentos, y se nota.

Sin embargo, la experiencia general del escritorio en Linux no es tan buena para las personas que no tienen un trasfondo más de ingeniería, Cinnamon es realmente diferente en ese aspecto, porque el equipo de Mint es diferente, parece que realmente les importa crear un escritorio que sea un placer en lugar de una tarea para usar, su explorador de archivos (Nemo) es por lejos el mejor de todos ellos (con quizás la excepción del Finder en macOS), lo había estado usando mucho antes de cambiarme a Cinnamon, desde que me cambié a él, descubrí que el resto de su experiencia de escritorio es de un estándar alto similar: desea x/y/z y probablemente ya se haya hecho, funciona bien y es bastante fácil de configurar, lo mismo no se puede decir en lo más mínimo de los demás.

I don't know what you do with your computers, but my experience is radically different from yours. I've never had those problems with Windows, and I've used every version of Windows since 3.1. In fact, in terms of desktop functionality and ease of use, it has always been a step ahead of all the *Nix systems I've worked with.

The one I have no experience with is Apple's operating system, nor have I ever had any need to pay the extra cost for a Mac.

1 minute ago, Aglos77 said:

I don't know what you do with your computers, but my experience is radically different from yours. I've never had those problems with Windows, and I've used every version of Windows since 3.1. In fact, in terms of desktop functionality and ease of use, it has always been a step ahead of all the *Nix systems I've worked with.

The one I have no experience with is Apple's operating system, nor have I ever had any need to pay the extra cost for a Mac.

Its so bad now its a meme

Edited February 18Feb 18 by mSparks

3 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

The one I have no experience with is Apple's operating system, nor have I ever had any need to pay the extra cost for a Mac.

👍 better to stay with FreeBSD

Mint just works, and is plug and play.
Also, I dont care about a desktop, just installed mint with a default download, and voila, action.
XPlane 12 works great, no stutters or whatsoever. I recently let someone build an PC, with AMD cpu and videocard.
It uses the MESA drivers, and just work, no tuning whatsover needed. There isnt even any control panel at all.

Use degoogled-chromium to get rid of the google spyware.

Of course, no running MSFS. But other games run very well with Portproton, some even better (FO3 for example or ETS2)

But, thats just my experience. Your milage may vary if you spend a lot of time at the desktop. Altough even for that I couldnt care less, but you have a ton of options for that in Linux, and zero in Windows.

Mind, all is free!

Edited February 18Feb 18 by Johan_Dees

22 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

Because its eady to install, i use mint mate, just works.

So are the other distros. But well, everybody hops eventually. I think my first distro was Xubuntu or CrunchBang, but I've settled for Arch pretty quickly because it can be kept minimal and is faster than the others.

 

20 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

After all I don't wistfully think about reinstalling FSX on my computer

I think FSX still does not run properly on Linux. The 3D part works, but the UI uses very weird libraries that got no consideration in WINE or Proton whatsoever. You wouldn't miss it anyway. I think even on my current main rig, I coud not manage more than 18 FPS with 600+ AI aircraft in the skies over JFK.

 

20 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

I kept a lot of stuff I did for FSX/P3D days (Model rebuilds, documents data etc) just in case.

Me, too. I think even Gigabytes of painfully assembled AI packages. But by now, I guess they belong in a museum. 😂

 

20 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Real life stuff is handly securely and speedily by Linux as well. Cannot think of a single Windows program I could remotely require for a home user. 

Well, funnily enough my biggest gripe with Linux is something alike to MS Office. LibreOffice's UI does not cut it at all if you have to use MS:O at work (and OnlyOffice is not up to spec), but fortunately, I found Starmaker Office, which costs money, but has Linux clients and feels pretty much the same as MS' alternative.

 

12 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

If you want to escape everything that supposedly makes Microsoft toxic, you must first leave the Google ecosystem. Browsers, Gmail, search engine, Android, Smart TV, YouTube, etc.

Swiching mail providers to a GDPR-compliant one is fairly easy, as are general purpose software alternatives. The hard part is when social interactions are involved, as this would require your entire circles to make the jump with you.

 

12 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

Linux comes in many flavours, which is unfortunately why it has never been a real alternative to Windows on home systems. They have always insisted on reinventing the wheel over and over again, and that creates such significant differences that it has always overwhelmed less advanced users.

"Reinvent the wheel" is an overstatement, as Linux distros are pretty much alike under the hood. Everything else is just a matter of personal preference, which takes a bit of time to figure out. But since the OS is free, all it takes is a free disk partition and a bit of time. Thanks to the relative popularity of Linux, one can even narrow down the range of interesting distros beforehand by reading articles or watching reviews.

 

12 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

I've also flirted a lot with Debian in Linux, which I've always considered the best project within the penguin ecosystem.

This is a distro whose appeal I just fail to comprehend. Start a stable release cycle at theend of the grid and finish it lapped three times over.

41 minutes ago, Bjoern said:

 

 

I think FSX still does not run properly on Linux. The 3D part works, but the UI uses very weird libraries that got no consideration in WINE or Proton whatsoever. You wouldn't miss it anyway. I think even on my current main rig, I coud not manage more than 18 FPS with 600+ AI aircraft in the skies over JFK.

 

Me, too. I think even Gigabytes of painfully assembled AI packages. But by now, I guess they belong in a museum. 😂

 

 

Yes I had recreated the world for the 1960s courtesy of CalClassic and its devotion to piston liners. Then I got the seaplane bug and redid the world for every seaplane port or base I could find from the 1930s to the 1960s. Alas it required a peculiar library sorter to do scenery. The downloads of it are all still about on the net and the impressive JBK Short S23 was a blast. Really had the KBT Lockheed Electra L188 re-done beautifully Nothing like that comparable in XPlane - has the potential but alas no decent seaplanes except the Boeing 314 and the Hydroz PBY all the rest are just lighties. No big pistons like the DC-4 or DC-6 or the Constellation. DC-3s C-47s are splendidly done - choose your flavour. 

Linux is fast, robust, trouble free and XP performance is stable and double what it would do on Windows. Simple really. Do not need another sim at all.