I’ve been daily driving Pop!_OS for about two years. I’ve had to troubleshoot and look up how to solve problems here and there, but it has largely been pain free. About eight months ago I had to dual boot Windows 10 because my wife wanted to play Hogwarts and for the life of me I couldn’t get Linux to stream to the client connected to the Xbox controller and TV upstairs.
Well, today she goes to boot up the game, and the lag is beyond terrible. None of the settings I try change anything, and even trying Sunshine/moonlight instead of Steam Link is only a bit better. I decided to try booting the game in Linux, and lo and behold, the game is once again liquid smooth via Steam Link client, and whatever issues I ran into 8 months ago are gone.
I’m not used to Windows being the OS I have issues with.
It really is kinda bonkers how much Linux has improved in the time I’ve been using it (since windows 10 came out and I objected to the way they did things). The first year or so, I’d have to always tweak something, have some kind of issues with programs, etc.
But the most recent install I did (ThinkPad, which is kinda cheating lol) it was zero effort. Install, get my settings where I prefer them, start using the machine. Haven’t had a single issue at all. Haven’t done much gaming on it, because laptop, but within its hardware limits, it even does that flawlessly.
The only complaint I have about Linux is the lack of serious music programs. I’m a bit obsessive about how I manage my music though, so I’m one of the few people I’ve seen complain about it. Most folks are fine with whatever music player they run across. I’ve run across a supposed way to get musicbee running right on Linux, which I’ll try next time I’m bored. If that works, I have almost zero reason to ever touch windows again.
For your music problem look into running a plex media server and using plex amp to play the music. It may not be super practical if you don’t have a selfhosting setup. But its so far above anything else I have tried. Plus I can steam to my phone as well.
As an open source alternative, I prefer a Jellyfin server and then using Feishin as a client. Nicer UI and options. Plex is a major no-no for me since they’ve started emailing people what they’ve been watching on their own servers. Privacy issues and required online login/plex-owned accounts for my own media? No thank you.
