You're interested in exploring Linux?
You're interested in exploring Linux?
It's really tough to set up GoXLR on Linux. I had to visit my distribution's repository and hit the download button. Once downloaded and installed, it took a long time—about three minutes from start to finish—to open and set it up after clicking the icon in the taskbar. The Nvidia drivers don't work well in Linux, just like they do on Windows. A common issue across Steam and some native apps is tied to Wayland, not a Linux-specific problem. I’m sticking with SystemD because it functions better. You should check which distribution it uses; Mint is preferred over Fedora since KDE Plasma has many customizable panels. Most desktop environments have 3 or 4 themes, but some let only the root user change basic settings. This means one person can pick a theme and install apps for themselves, while another might have a different theme. Yes, Adobe is a huge problem, and while similar apps improve in Linux, they’re still lacking. Running most Windows apps in a VM works, though not as smoothly. Edited June 1, 2025 by Thomas53 Hit Send before proof reading.
I’m not aware of any GoXLR projects on Linux—I haven’t owned one myself. I was just using it here to illustrate how sometimes things can go wrong. Solutions can vary, and sometimes the right term isn’t even the best choice. Often it feels like a workaround rather than a true fix. This issue has mainly affected Windows in the past year. I don’t see much reason to argue about it; the core problem lies with Steam, Proton, and Wine relying on X11. It’s essentially a matter of time before they fully adopt native Wayland support. I believe this will happen soon. While I agree with your perspective, the truth is that Valve and the Wine team are likely to resolve this themselves by properly backing Wayland. They’re not focused on tweaking old X11 apps, which makes sense. What I’m trying to share is some possible directions people could explore. Personally, after trying Mint, I’d have preferred jumping straight to Kubuntu or Fedora KDE as my first Linux distro. Everyone’s preferences will naturally differ when considering a switch.
This is actually a minority of Linux users, but unfortunately the most vocal, most of the people promoting Linux as the Windows killer and it's your fault if linux sucks are from the gaming and everything must be free and open source community. A lot of us will actually tell you otherwise. I have used linux for over a decade for both work and personal use and rarely touch windows outside of development purposes, I still use proprietary applications and I still think linux sucks but I use it anyways because it's what I know and it just meets certain expectations that windows doesn't. I don't rely on windows software and i'm not a heavy gamer however. One thing people will have to accept is most things will work for windows, you can probably just go out and buy it and it will work, the same is not true for Linux and it will often decide for you what you can get. It's not really that NVIDIA drivers are bad as they really are not, it's that the primary target for everything on Linux is the mesa stack which is Intel and AMD. Mesa itself is considered non-standard and is often influenced and developed alongside other projects like dxvk/vkd3d. The software you use will really determine your experience here, but in general because NVIDIA is its own separate thing it is less supported. This is not entirely true. Your distro will influence packaging choices as well as versioning and this matters for a couple of reasons. Versioning affects well what version of packages you get and each distro follows different release cycles. Ubuntu Is a set release distro whatever Ubuntu 24.04 releases with is what it will have for most of it's lifecycle, this brings stability in workstation and server spaces possibly not in the way a lot of people seem to think. A set release distro just guarantees there are no breaking changes in its lifecycle. Arch on the other hand will get packages as they are released in upstream stable, then its own testing repo before landing in Arch stable. This doesn't make them necessarily unstable but things change frequently which works against server and workstation use cases adding additional maintenance. And yes there are solutions to software like flatpak and snap which both come with their own issues, but it's a start to potentially solving a lot of this. But what about hardware? This is where things get fun because hardware support is tied to the packages you have available. If a new AMD GPU comes out it might be supported on Arch in a few weeks or so, but a set release distro like Ubuntu it might be supported in its next major release which could land in its non-lts 6 month release but only if it landed in their testing beforehand otherwise make that 12 months and if you are tied to lts then maybe 24 months. NVIDIA kind of gets a win here because no matter what distro you go with, so long as their kernel module compiles you can have the same driver no matter where you go, but it also takes a loss as backwards compatibility is shorter lived and eventually that driver will break. This is true for pretty much anything out of kernel tree and/or proprietary. Now there are community repos that address this to a certain extent, but then you are relying on a community member and not the distro and depending on what it is they may have to stay in sync to prevent breakage. Packaging choices will affect package availability and what features they support, Fedora for instance has a very small repository and most users rely on rpmfusion which is entirely community maintained, they also happen to disable hardware acceleration for various codecs on AMD and Intel. Debian recently removed network functionality from keypassxc I believe. Valve almost completely blocked steam from being run as a snap because ubuntu was breaking their application, this has since been resolved however after a couple years but if you do have problems and you are on ubuntu do please try using the deb from valves website. Just something to think about. You can use what you want, personally I could care less. At the end of the day as long as it works for you that's what matters. Just whatever you do don't rely on WINE/Proton for anything important. It should however be noted that PopOS is still on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and they will be switching Desktop Environments for 24.04 LTS so it will be a big change.
So I'm considering giving it another shot? No, we don't actually try it—we rely on it. It's the only tool I've depended on for over ten years, maybe even a decade. My partner has been using it for nearly seven years. Windows is familiar to me, though I know it's often unreliable and just commercial garbage that many people resort to. It breaks down when you need it most, wiping your files and leaving everything vulnerable to viruses. Now it keeps claiming it won't work anymore. Who would think of using something like that? We mostly stick with Linux Mint, which about sixty others I know use.
This summary offers a well-rounded and mostly gaming-focused overview. Thank you for providing it! It’s been challenging to explain this to newcomers to Linux. Many situations make it easy to rely on specific tools or programs—like Adobe, MS Office, or certain creative applications—especially when your daily tasks depend on them. In reality, while alternatives exist, they often differ significantly and may not meet the same needs.
Since Proton’s popularity has grown, some expect Linux to instantly replace Windows. But as you noted, that’s not always the case. Even with compatibility layers like Proton, perfect performance isn’t guaranteed. If native support isn’t available, users have limited options. This isn’t unique to Linux; similar issues exist on macOS, where well-known software usually ships with native versions.
People who depend on Windows or macOS-only programs are better off sticking with those platforms or using dual-booting until vendors offer a proper Linux port. In most cases, it doesn’t matter much. It’s wise to steer clear of overly specialized or obscure tools initially.
@Nayr438 raised important ideas about packaging that I agree on. One thing to note is that some distros, like Fedora, enforce strict free software policies. Patented content isn’t easy to access, though it can be enabled. Most systems distinguish between free and proprietary apps—often leaving proprietary ones out by default. This impacts things like Nvidia drivers.
Other areas affected include media codecs such as aptX and H265, which mainly influence encoders. If your headphones only support basic formats and you’re stuck with SBC or SBC-HQ, it could be a sign of deeper issues.
There are always differing opinions, but claims like “this is the best” should be treated with caution. Gentoo offers incredible flexibility, but its steep learning curve makes it less appealing for beginners or even some advanced users. Unless we clearly define what “most powerful” means, it’s hard to dismiss such assertions.
Personally, I’ve seen this trend: older systems often perform better, especially with modern games that rely on heavy anti-consumer DRM. Games from EA or Origin that break or behave unpredictably without workarounds are a common frustration. But again, unless you have specific needs, it’s usually not worth the hassle.
As long as software works and doesn’t disrupt others, people rarely care about the exact tools used. If you force someone to use an “.odp” file expecting them to adapt, you risk alienating them—especially in a business context.
This debate can definitely generate pushback, but for most users, the benefits don’t outweigh the drawbacks. Still, if privacy concerns or restrictions on device longevity matter, Linux might be worth exploring.