For reference, the current estimated amount of desktop Linux users globally is somewhere between 60-80 million. In English-speaking countries, the total is around 19-20 million.

That sounds about right when comparing Microsoft’s claim of “1 billion” Windows devices. 5% of a billion is 50 million(not a perfect comparison as 5% Linux is total including MacOS/others from statcounter but you get the idea). So 50 million to 100 million Linux users globally sounds about right.

Some OEMs with some models here in the USA also offer it. HP and Dell offer it. I think Dell gives Fedora and Ubuntu? And it takes off ~$130 USD or so from the price, so it’s the full Windows license cost.

Personally if I have that option I’m taking it and just reinstalling whatever I want anyway, but it’s nice having that option.

Also if I’m going to spend $2k+ on a new laptop and they don’t give me a non-Windows/blank OS option then I’d go to support and request a special product link. Otherwise I’ll find another brand or buy used.

but we’re all running essentially the same Linux Kernel

Uh, yes and no. If you’re on Linux Mint 22.2+ you’re on 6.14. If you’re on Linux Mint 22.1 you’re on 6.8.

If you’re running Arch or equivalent, you’re either on 6.17 or 6.18 at the moment.

Now that doesn’t seem like a huge gap, but 6.8 came out March 2024. 6.14 is from March 2025. Debian 13.3 I think is on 6.12 which is November 2024.

These all seem recent, but Linux moves at such a fast pace that if you’re gaming you really should be on the latest kernel for the best possible performance for gaming, especially if you have newer hardware.

Of course use whatever you like, but I would tell people to evaluate what would be the best option for their environment. For me I run my own websites and game servers. They’re all on Debian containers.

If my mom came up to me and said she wanted to try “Linux” on her laptop, I’d just throw Ubuntu 24.04(or 26.04 for the next LTS) on it because I know she just needs something to surf the web.

And for me I recently went all in on CachyOS for my laptop and gaming desktop. I’m not running the latest and greatest hardware(Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series, Nvidia 3000 series), but this is my first attempt at a Arch based distro(well except my Steam Deck) and it’s been pretty rock solid.

Pretty much how AMP by CubeCoders works. It’s all docker containers

Install Tailscale on all devices.

Then ssh into whatever you need.

If you need desktop remote access the Windows RDP should work for Windows to Windows machines.

For Linux host to Windows client I’ve had good experiences with Remmina Desktop.

GW2 gamer here too, I’ve been switching over to Linux over the past few months and this is on one of my to-do lists(figure out HUD/overlay software for GW2).

Another hurdle I’ve had is getting mod support. For example, Tale of Two Wastelands. The standard installer is exe only and it runs via proton but it doesn’t use all CPU threads to decompile the game assets. Takes over a hour to do. Luckily someone was able to build something that fixes this for Linux, takes 10 minutes or so depending on your CPU: https://github.com/SulfurNitride/TTW_Linux_Installer

So I’m sure something is also available for GW2

Going back through my github issues/comments, it was around May 2024 with the v1.105.0 release was my last attempt.

I’m happy to hear it is stable now, I’ll probably give it a shot again here soon. Again, I loved the app and I was hosting it for friends/family to share photos of my kids, so it helped immensely with everyone collaborating with uploads(though mobile uploads for individual photos wasn’t available at that time, had to direct people to use the website…).

To be fair I don’t think I used the docker installation back then, so I’ll probably make a stack for it this time around.

Way too late, at least for me.

I’ve switched over to CachyOS on three devices. My main laptop, a spare laptop(for the wife to try), and a gaming PC. All three are great and easy to use. No stupid pop ups, no AI, and I don’t have to worry about it not booting up compared to Windows(which this was the opposite 10 years ago!).

At this point even if they make a great OS and call it Windows 12 I have zero faith that they won’t reverse and make Windows 13 terrible.

At least with Linux I have a dozen or so options to choose from and they all work just fine. So if CachyOS becomes terrible(doubt) then I’ll switch to something else.

At this point Windows needs to go above and beyond and be stable for YEARS and multiple versions before I switch back, which big doubt.

This is what we use Jira Service Management for at work(break/fix tickets), but Jira, the core software, is used for stuff like code development.

Not sure what use case OP has for Jira specifically, but I could see it being beneficial for a homelab where you’re building out docker containers manually or tracking your own coding projects or you want an (overkill) way to do project management for your homelab.

I really want to use Immich but I’ve installed it 3 different times and each time an upgrade completely breaks my installation and I spend hours troubleshooting. And yes, I read the patch notes and do whatever changes they mark in bold red as a warning.

It’s amazing when it works and they’re doing a great job at adding features, but my God does it break if you just look at it wrong.

Didn’t the CEO say he wouldn’t even eat that shit?

Since others were posting end of life style docs, here is another: https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm

Cloud options:

• Microsoft Azure offers credits for edu emails I think, and I think you can renew it annually. Also check their B1 servers. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students
• Google free tiers: https://docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#free-tier
• AWS | Not sure on this one, their website is confusing, but look into it: https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/
• GitHub “student developer pack” https://education.github.com/pack
• Oracle cloud “always free” options, bottom of this page: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
• InterServer(never heard of them before) offers 1 year of web hosting: https://my.interserver.net/student_signup.php

Self-Host locally options:

Honestly you can probably find a N100 or N150 miniPC online for cheap, like $200 USD or less. Install Proxmox(or just install Ubuntu or whatever), install Docker+DockHand, and then install Tailscale and from your laptop/computer with Tailscale on it. You’ll be able to remotely access it, spin up whatever servers you want, and I doubt your campus IT will even see anything due to the tailnet mesh.

If you’re not living on campus, then even better, just self host your own stuff.

3 arm Tux, nice!

KeepassXC and syncthing, free and easy