This content provides a comprehensive guide for Windows users looking to switch to Linux for a more stable and gaming-friendly experience, detailing the installation process and essential tools for a seamless transition.
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with Windows 11 becoming even more
annoying with AI advertisements, often
breaking features if you update too fast
on a very frequent basis recently and
the fact that many users just prefer
Windows 10 and are now forced to update
if they want to keep their PC secure.
Linux is often being mentioned as a
suitable alternative. Sure, it's not
perfect and the competitive scene in
particular still needs some convincing.
However, from a purely functional
standpoint, Linux can essentially play
any Windows game you throw at it thanks
to the efforts from Valve and the open-
source community which worked on
compatibility layers like Proton. But
how does someone actually switch to
Linux? How do you download and install
it? How do you make sure that you don't
lose all your data? And which programs
are required to make this a flawless
experience? All of this and more in
today's video. This video was made
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please make sure to check out the join
button or the link in the video
description down below. The first thing
that you need if you want to switch over
to Linux is a USB stick or a different
medium that is not your main drive that
you currently use on Windows and to
choose a Linux distribution that you are
comfortable with. On the desktop, the
choice of such a distribution does not
really matter and I always say to choose
one that just looks right to you or one
that comes with some of the programs
installed that you want to use later.
Anyway, as Windows replacement and also
a great gaming option, I currently like
to use Fedora. But if you're mainly into
gaming, then Basite might actually be
the better choice here because it
already comes with Steam pre-installed
and also supports Gamecope, the native
Steam OS overlay if your system supports
it. Just select desktop if you want to
install it on a regular PC. Enter your
hardware details on what you currently
have in your system. Choose between KD
Plasma or Gnome depending on what
interface you prefer. And here you can
choose if it should start the Gamecope
session by default. Again, like
mentioned earlier, this depends on if
your system supports it. I'm just going
to say no here and download the ISO.
Now, in order to actually install Basite
on our currently in use drive, we need
to boot the installer from a second one
since the main disc cannot be in use
during the installation. And in my case,
that will be the USB stick that I showed
you before. But first, we need to get
our downloaded ISO on there. I
personally like to use the Fedora media
writer since it's uncomplicated, didn't
cause any issues so far, and it works
for basically every DRO. P users are
more into Rufus, but hey, this one works
just fine as well. Now, before we
proceed, if you want to install Basite
on your PC and don't want to lose all
your data, then you can either copy all
of your important files to a dedicated
storage like an external drive or you
pay close attention. If you don't have a
dedicated storage or one that is big
enough, then as a workaround, what you
want to do is to move or copy all your
important files to one folder and
compress it to a zip file. Then you look
at how big that file is. Open up the
disk management tool, rightclick the
partition that says C, and click on
shrink volume. And then you enter a
value that is slightly above the file
size of your zip file. Basically, we
want to have enough space so that our
zip file fits on there, but also don't
waste all of the other space. Then you
right click the new partition, select
new simple volume, just click through
the wizard, enter backup as the volume
label, and you now have a dedicated
drive in your explorer where you can put
your zip file. Again, if you don't want
to keep any data or you use an external
storage or similar, you can just skip
this step since this is just a
workaround to keep your data in case you
only have one disc. Now we can reboot
and press the key that puts you into
your boot menu. On many motherboards,
that key is either F7 or F8, but it
varies and you might need to look up the
correct key for your specific brand.
Alternatively, you could also open the
UFI configuration and set a different
boot order. And as a tip, in case the
Bite still doesn't boot, check if the
secure boot configuration says something
about Windows only. In that case, either
change it to allow third party or
straight up disable it. Now after saving
bas should boot and we can start with
the installation. Click on install to
hard drive and choose a language. You
might need to also change your keyboard
and time zone. Now listen carefully. If
you have copied your files to an
external drive then you can choose use
entire disc. However, if you use the
workaround that I've shown you before,
then you want to choose share disk with
other operating systems and click on
next. Now you want to delete all
partitions except the one that has the
size of the backup one that we've
created earlier. This basically means
that Basset will install itself on our
main drive but not overwrite the backup
partition that we created earlier. Last
but not least, we will also create a
user account. So just enter a name,
username and password and click on begin
installation. After the installation is
finished, if you left secure boot
enabled, it will ask you to enroll a
so-called mock key, which is used to
verify that you yourself approved that
basite is allowed to be booted with
secure boot turned on. Essentially, just
choose enroll mock. Enter universal blue
according to their documentation and
boot into basite. Please note that you
actually don't see what you type here.
Once in basite, you can connect your
backup drive to recover your data or if
you use the workaround, mount the backup
partition in the Dolphin file manager by
entering the password of your user.
Okay, so now you can log into Steam,
start downloading your games and play
them. But what about non Steam games?
Well, Basite comes with an application
called Lutris pre-installed and it
allows you to install other game
launchers and even regular Windows
software to a certain extent. While it
does support some integrations in its
preferences, the quickest way to find
all the required tools is to just search
for the game you want to add, choose an
installation method, and Luch handles
the rest. If you want more granular
control over your games, or maybe you
have a game that is pretty old and
requires manual fixing, maybe even on
Windows, then I personally recommend
bottles instead of Lutris because you
can more easily separate environments. I
can create a so-called bottle for the
Ubisoft games launcher, for example, and
create a second bottle with all the
required tweaks for that complicated
game without the two affecting each
other. You can download bottles from the
bizarre software store. And this is also
the place where you can find most other
software because Linux is mostly based
on software repositories instead of
having to find all of the installation
files yourself on the internet. Here you
can find Discord, Spotify, Office,
different browsers, and much more. The
only disadvantage the Basset has over a
regular Fedora installation is that it
is using a so-called atomic model, which
means that installing system
dependencies is a bit more difficult due
to the system being locked down to
prevent accidental tempering. Why would
you care about that? Well, some gamers
like to configure their mice and
keyboards, and those often need to
install dependencies deep into the
system. Most online tutorials refer to
using the command line with commands
like you just or RPMOS3 and you can use
them if you want to. However, if you're
lucky, then you don't even need to go
down that rabbit hole and rather just
launch the best portal setup tool
whereas you can install programs like
open RPG to reconfigure your keyboard or
get access to various streaming service
shortcuts very easily. For some
programs, however, you might need to use
the command line. And in all honesty,
that's why I usually recommend a desktop
operating system DRO like Fedora or
Soren OS to most users. Sure, you
technically are able to mess up more
there since they are not atomic and they
also don't feature all of the gaming
related optimizations like pre-installed
software like Steam, but hey, Windows is
also not mainly targeted towards gamers.
Anyway, now you know how to set up Linux
for gaming and we even assume the worst
case with preserving data. Summarized,
we only downloaded an ISO file and put
it onto a USB stick, followed a guided
installer and that was it. If you even
disabled secure boot, you don't even
need to worry about the mock enrollment.
It's basically just a few clicks and you
got a full gaming operating system
going. Very nice. So, what do you think
of this video? Are there any important
tips or steps that I haven't considered?
Do you use Bazad or Fedora yourself? And
which tweaks do you like to use? Please
let us know in the comment section down
below. Before I end this video, I
quickly wanted to mention that if you
want to support the channel, make even
better videos, then please feel free to
check out our membership program as well
as our online shop, whereas each sale
helps to support various open source
projects. If you've liked this video,
then please make sure to show a like and
also don't forget to subscribe to the
channel so that you don't miss out on
any future Linux videos just like this
one. I hope you had a blast watching and
that I'll see you again very soon. But
in the meantime, all that's left to say
now is good morning, good afternoon, or
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