I'm in the process of migrating to Linux from Windows. It'll likely be a long-term project as I'll need to do a ton of troubleshooting & learning to get my set-up fully functional on Linux. But I figured it's worth making a micro-page on it to talk about the process.
Though uh... since December 2025 I've been daily driving Linux & haven't felt a need (nor want) to boot into Windows. I've achieved my goal so this is just here for archives I guess.
For a look at my considerations:
- I'm prioritizing art & productivity in terms of my usecase.
- For the most part, I'd like stability. I'm looking at Debian-based distros.
- I consider myself a computer novice, but I'm ok learning more technical stuff & using the terminal as I need it.
- My main computer is a Lenovo Legion 5 (2021 ryzen 7 5800H / nvidia RTX 3050 model). I'm planning on dualbooting Windows & my distro of choice as I slowly switch over.
last updated: February 06, 2026
Now Running:
⚙️ Kubuntu 25.10 "Questing Quokka"
- On a my Main System! (and my testing laptop)
- Mainly wanted to try KDE Plasma, and in the event I need X11 I can still install it later on Plasma 6.4
- The main gripes I have are snaps & some warryness of canonical due to how pushy they are about the latter, and some of their past decisions.
- My experience with the OS is positive, let's see how it goes on main. On my previous device it just worked.
Things I Need to do Research On
I'm open to help with any of the problems I run into (or warnings if I'm about to do something system breaking lol). But... I don't have a contact option set up yet. I guess my neocities profile can be used as a stand-in for one for now
(neocities profile)
- X11 vs Wayland - I'm lost on this one. I have a drawing monitor (XP pen innovator 16). I've heard from artist blogs that X11 has stronger support for drawing tablets, but I've also heard that multi-monitor & mixed refresh rate set-ups work better on Wayland (drawing monitor's at 60 Hz, laptop's 165 Hz & on windows I haven't found any options to adjust it...) I think I'll just install both sessions & switch as needed, since many art-related & color management tools aren't fully supported (if at all) under wayland right now. Krita being the most notable.
- Art Software & hardware on Linux - All of my software has naitive linux versions, so the real concern for me is X11 vs Wayland and getting hardware running. Ideally I'd like to avoid having to boot into Windows for art, as there's already too many intrusions to my current digital art setup. I'm currently not doing professional work, so I'm aiming for "good enough for hobby use". Though it's hard to research as there's very few resources for linux artists...
- BMS on Linux - It can run if I use the Java version, but there's a few niche problems I need to figure out, such as what to do about extracting JP locale zips. Extracting it wrong will cause crashing.
- Battery Performance - Gaming laptop + Linux is a nightmare blunt rotation in terms of battery performance, but I'd also like to optimize it as much as possible so I can still work away from my desk if I want to.