this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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I downloaded this program called "Driver Easy," which scans my hardware, searches automatically for driver updates, downloads and installs them for me. If I could download a wizard that got rid of windows, installed a nice user-friendly version of linux, while keeping my old programs, files and junk... I'd do it in a heartbeat. All I want to do is play my video games from Steam, download shit to watch, browse the internet, write in Libreoffice... Can I do all those things with Linux? Can I download some install wizard to switch?
If that wizard existed, a shit ton of people would switch. It's just the idea of deleting my current OS and putting in a new one makes me thing I'm gonna brick my machine.
Steam works on Linux BTW. Actually a lot of my games run better on Linux than windows
Don't delete your OS then. Just buy a small SSD to put Linux on and go from there.
Those driver tools are often bundled with malware and do a poor job validating what they download is safe and correct. They are often associated with services that crawls the internet for downloads and tries to match the hardware id.
Generally, drivers are available from the motherboard or device manufacturer page. That said it's rarely the solution and for your gpu (amd or Nvidia) they already have their own tool for keeping you up to date.
But with Linux most of that is taken care of for you by either the kernel itself or your distro's maintainer.
Most games work fine on Linux and may only require small tweaks. You can check the games you're interested in playing on protondb. http://www.protondb.com/
The notable exceptions are games with aggressive anticheat software. Such as but not limited to (EA games, PubG, Fortnite, GTA5)
If you're looking for something "easy" look into Kubuntu LTS.
I can say that both versions of GTA5 on steam run without issues, though I've never played online, but the option is available.
Yeah it's the online component effected by the anticheat.
It used to work last year but they block Linux now.
Ah damn that sucks. And that for an online mode notorious for its cheaters.
It's always a good idea to back up your important files before a big change like switching operating systems, and your old software won't work. But drivers haven't been an issue for me in years. Mint is probably a super easy distribution for the switch. You can load it on a USB and give it a try before committing to the full install.
You just need to think outside of the box. Instead of thinking. Instead of: "Can I convert my windows programs to linux?" Think: "Is there a free linux alternarive?". 99℅ of the time the awnser is yes and most of the time they are even better. I made the mistake of seeing linux as a windows replacement and forced my self to get the same shit running on my linux distro. Then I changed my way of thining and it completely made the transition so much easier. Yes it will take a little time to get the thinks the way you want. But with a little investment you will have a machine that YOU control. And not the other way around. I had to boot up my windows partition the otherday to copy some leftover documents. And it felt so fucking alien to me... And Ive been a windows user since 95. But It has been a long time since my computer actually felt like mine again.
One of the bots could write one maybe