{"id":1576961,"date":"2026-05-12T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/n3yrFMTE5LWRDWroPTmzR"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:26:00","slug":"ive-spent-30-years-with-microsoft-but-linux-and-pop-os-might-have-converted-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/ive-spent-30-years-with-microsoft-but-linux-and-pop-os-might-have-converted-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve spent 30 years with Microsoft but Linux and Pop! OS might have converted me"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There’s a sadness in the technosphere right now, ain’t there? This overwhelming disappointment that sort of lingers at the back of your mind like unkempt cable management. Enough journalists have called out the enshittification<\/a> of PC gaming (or platform decay as us sophisticated lot call it), I’m certainly not the first in that regard. But back in January of this year, I finally had enough of it in Windows, and sacked off the legendary operating system entirely in favour of Pop! and that’s a big bloody deal for me.<\/p>\n

I’ve been using Windows since around 1998. At the age of seven, it was my first insight into the world of PC gaming. Since then, I’ve navigated the trials and tribulations of Microsoft’s best efforts day-in, day-out. From Win 98 all the way up to modern-era 11 and every service pack in between. <\/p>\n

I’ve gamed for hours beyond count, crafted all manner of UIs, websites, and programs with it, finished my degree thanks to it, and it’s been a critical part of my time in tech journalism. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to become editor of Maximum PC magazine, or even gotten a job there to begin with. Yet through all the ups and downs, and the best efforts of my Linux-touting colleagues trying to push me to the big open source OS in the sky, I just refused to try any of the open source distros out. At least that is until recently.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it, modern-day Windows is just a bit crap. You fork out all this money for an official license, one that’s meant to provide you with complete access to a clean, fast, modern-day OS, without issue (and it’s not cheap, for the “official” non-OEM one), and yet what you get is an excessively degraded experience compared to what it once was. One that honestly feels like it’s just continually getting worse, no matter how many times you reinstall it. <\/p>\n

From over-eager back-end telemetry forever pinging Microsoft’s servers on your use habits, to the aggressive Copilot AI integration that may or may not be reading your card data, or all of the other intrusive ads begging you to sign up to Microsoft 365, Teams, Candy Crush, or some other madness, there’s always something to disrupt your flow. And that’s not even mentioning the constant stream of Windows Updates rammed down your throat every three and a half seconds, that could potentially brick your entire rig at a moment’s notice. So yes, I felt it was time for a change. Finally. After 28 years. <\/p>\n

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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Pop! OS)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And the thing is, Linux now has so many distros dedicated to gaming, to privacy, to Nvidia compatibility, to productivity, that there’s a flavor for everyone. And better yet, they’re built from the ground up to not only be efficient, but to minimize that friction that often comes with being a Windows refugee. You’re not going to be sat in terminal for 22 hours a day, pretending you’ve travelled back in time to 1988.<\/p>\n

So then. Pop! OS. Why? How? What are the drawbacks? That’s what I’m here to explain, very specifically, my experience with it. I’ll be clear, I’m not a huge Linux expert, I haven’t tried all the distros. I’m very new to the world of open-source OS’s, but I chose Pop! as it feels like a good middle-ground between the lot of them. It’s mature, the Cosmic UI is beautiful, and with the Steam Deck really normalizing Proton now, making gaming far smoother, it really is the perfect time to give it a go with an OS that kinda holds your hand a bit. <\/p>\n

The setup<\/h2>\n
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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Pop! OS)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good news is you can just try this out. You don’t need to fully commit and fry your entire Windows install to give it a whirl. Instead, we can use Dual Boot to effectively dabble with both, the only compromise being you’ll need to shrink an SSD and get a bit of partition space back. Admittedly a bit of a commodity these days, but y’know.<\/p>\n

My advice? Back up anything you consider mission-critical, and make sure Windows is fully up-to-date first. Then you’ll need to identify what hardware you’re running. With Pop! OS, System76, (the devs behind it) has a wide variety of ISOs available, depending on if your GPU is AMD or Nvidia. If you’re running Big Red, grab the standard “Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS” ISO from its download page system76.com\/pop\/download\/<\/a> or if you’ve got a big ol’ green GTX 16 series or above, nab the “Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with NVIDIA” variant instead. Then, and because I’m getting bored of these wee paragraphs, you’ll need to do the following:<\/p>\n