It only saves your sanity if you have a full AMD build. Otherwise, you better be an IT pro or have the time and inclination to do a lot of learning. Nvidia drivers are notoriously problematic with Linux
i have both a gaming laptop with nvidia gpu and a steam deck, and the steam deck manages to outperform the laptop with linux even though the laptop is orders of magnitude more powerful (on windows it easily beats the steam deck).
so yes, amd is a lot more optimized for linux than nvidia and i know many people who wouldn’t surrender half of their fps for some privacy/freedom.
This was kind but not the point. I spend 40 hours a week contributing and fixing shit (Devops+SE work) I can deal with an HDMI handshake failing because fuck Windows and I’ve done lfs ages ago. It’s not abnormal, this is copium.
Most users, especially non technical are not going to deal with this bullshit.
I’ve been using Linux with various GPUs (AMD, nvidia, and integrated) and various distros since 2008 and I’ve never had this issue.
I worked in a place that built and maintained computers with Linux installed and again never seen the issue you describe.
The hardest time I ever had whit a GPU was back when I was using Ubuntu on an AMD card back in 2008. And the hardest thing then was figuring out what repo to use as newb.
Builds with an integrated GPU in the CPU with a different dedicated GPU used to be difficult until bumblebee came about and now they couldn’t be easier.
It is true that people might have to read error messages every now and then, but in the open source community, error message make sense and you can research them entirely yourself.
I don’t doubt that you are having an issues, it may be something as simple as your hardware is too new for the distro release you have installed and you should update. However, to say that everyone will have some weird issue is wrong.
I’ve convinced about 5 friends and neighbors (one over 70) to switch to Linux in the past 2 years. All I did was provide install media and help them boot to it. They figured the rest out and didn’t have issues either.
It only saves your sanity if you have a full AMD build. Otherwise, you better be an IT pro or have the time and inclination to do a lot of learning. Nvidia drivers are notoriously problematic with Linux
Not anymore. I’d say there has been massive improvements in the last 3-5 years for Nvidia. This was one of the main reasons I didn’t swap over sooner.
Guess stop this nonsense. There are plenty of Nvidia issues.
funny how this is downvoted so much even though it’s the sad truth
What nonsense? I’ve used nvidia since the early 2000s. There are no more issues than AMD right now.
i have both a gaming laptop with nvidia gpu and a steam deck, and the steam deck manages to outperform the laptop with linux even though the laptop is orders of magnitude more powerful (on windows it easily beats the steam deck).
so yes, amd is a lot more optimized for linux than nvidia and i know many people who wouldn’t surrender half of their fps for some privacy/freedom.
I have an nvidia pc with Linux on it and a steam deck. My PC out performs the steam deck by a large margin. I use stock drivers, no fancy tweaks.
probably the difference betweem a laptop and desktop gpu
It’s 2026. I still am yelled at by nerds about issues in Linux that apparently didn’t exist 🤣
You people are the reason Linux will never be mainstream. The inability to admit any sort of bug or luck or driver support from a nerd is astounding.
I know I know, get a different distro and I’m holding it wrong.
Who’s yelling at you?
Nvidia hasn’t been an issue for like 10 years.
It’s super easy to install either the open or proprietary nvidia drivers on most distros nowadays.
And KDE with Wayland works great on nvidia GPUs.
Stopn taking. There are regular NVidia issues. I don’t even get reliable HDMI handshakes and HDMI passthrough doesn’t work.
You got an abnormal issue, and I would help you troubleshoot if you’d like.
This was kind but not the point. I spend 40 hours a week contributing and fixing shit (Devops+SE work) I can deal with an HDMI handshake failing because fuck Windows and I’ve done lfs ages ago. It’s not abnormal, this is copium.
Most users, especially non technical are not going to deal with this bullshit.
I’ve been using Linux with various GPUs (AMD, nvidia, and integrated) and various distros since 2008 and I’ve never had this issue.
I worked in a place that built and maintained computers with Linux installed and again never seen the issue you describe.
The hardest time I ever had whit a GPU was back when I was using Ubuntu on an AMD card back in 2008. And the hardest thing then was figuring out what repo to use as newb.
Builds with an integrated GPU in the CPU with a different dedicated GPU used to be difficult until bumblebee came about and now they couldn’t be easier.
It is true that people might have to read error messages every now and then, but in the open source community, error message make sense and you can research them entirely yourself.
I don’t doubt that you are having an issues, it may be something as simple as your hardware is too new for the distro release you have installed and you should update. However, to say that everyone will have some weird issue is wrong.
I’ve convinced about 5 friends and neighbors (one over 70) to switch to Linux in the past 2 years. All I did was provide install media and help them boot to it. They figured the rest out and didn’t have issues either.