What OS are you maining?

[LOTO]

First post on this forum. Greetings, ya primitive screwheads.

As of the death of WIndows 10, I've officially made the jump to Linux. Using Mint Cinnamon, and I feel pretty at home. Inspired my Matt's work of installing stuff on hardware not meant for it, I dusted off my old college laptop, slapped an SSD in there, and did a test run of Linux using that.

Now I've put it on my main desktop PC. Unfortunately, a bunch of the really obscure stuff I've enjoyed making use of in WIndows just isn't looking like it's all that possible, so I've put Windows 10 on a separate drive so I can boot into that if I ever need to, like, run DOS games at 320x200p.

[flatrute]

First post on this forum. Greetings, ya primitive screwheads.

As of the death of WIndows 10, I've officially made the jump to Linux. Using Mint Cinnamon, and I feel pretty at home. Inspired my Matt's work of installing stuff on hardware not meant for it, I dusted off my old college laptop, slapped an SSD in there, and did a test run of Linux using that.

Now I've put it on my main desktop PC. Unfortunately, a bunch of the really obscure stuff I've enjoyed making use of in WIndows just isn't looking like it's all that possible, so I've put Windows 10 on a separate drive so I can boot into that if I ever need to, like, run DOS games at 320x200p.

Welcome to the forum! It is nice to see people are seriously moving out of that hellscape for the past months For DOS games, using forks like DOSBox-X and DOSBox Pure Unleashed are better than keeping a copy of Windows around. There is also 86Box for programs needing specific combinations of hardware that the obscure programs you mentioned might have troubles running. (If such programs are something along the lines of Adobe Cloud Suites, however, then I suggest opening your view and trying out Linux native alternatives as they are catching up in term of capabilities for the majority of usecases in the past few years.)

[flatrute]

By the way, I am on Windows Server 2008 R2 for a few months now since why not

[LOTO]

For DOS games, using forks like DOSBox-X and DOSBox Pure Unleashed are better than keeping a copy of Windows around.

Unfortunately I've already tried DOSBox-X and I get absolutely horrid screen tearing, no matter the vsync setting. I'll give Pure Unleashed a look at some point.

My solution was to use a decade old, obscure, Korean fork of DOSBox called DOSBox Daum, which works exactly the way I need it to. It does advertise a native Linux release, but as a total noob to the ecosystem I have no idea how to actually install it since it was only ever released on the creator's website as a standalone download.

[flatrute]

Unfortunately I've already tried DOSBox-X and I get absolutely horrid screen tearing, no matter the vsync setting. I'll give Pure Unleashed a look at some point.

My solution was to use a decade old, obscure, Korean fork of DOSBox called DOSBox Daum, which works exactly the way I need it to. It does advertise a native Linux release, but as a total noob to the ecosystem I have no idea how to actually install it since it was only ever released on the creator's website as a standalone download.

Now that is a first... I assume that the DOSBox-X build you used was linked to SDL1? It is a real old library (like, back in the 9x days) that was only "maintained" via a compatibility layer with SDL2 (that is now also under maintenance since the release of SDL3) and thus are not behaving well with the current Wayland ecosystem of modern Linux.
As for the Daum fork you mentioned, unlike Windows, program libraries are not compatible between updates, it is unlikely that you could run it into your current Linux install without figuring out the exact versions of libraries that the program needs. (Also, it is a bad idea in general for a software developer to self publish their programs on Linux as each distros has its own tweaks that only its maintainers could know.)

[LOTO]

Now that is a first... I assume that the DOSBox-X build you used was linked to SDL1? It is a real old library (like, back in the 9x days) that was only "maintained" via a compatibility layer with SDL2 (that is now also under maintenance since the release of SDL3) and thus are not behaving well with the current Wayland ecosystem of modern Linux.

I should be clear that the screen tearing was also present on Windows. Literally the ONLY version of DOSBox I was able to find that didn't have that issue was the Daum fork.

[flatrute]

I should be clear that the screen tearing was also present on Windows. Literally the ONLY version of DOSBox I was able to find that didn't have that issue was the Daum fork.

May I ask what games that exhibit such screen tearings?

[LOTO]

May I ask what games that exhibit such screen tearings?

System Shock is the only game I play using DOSBox tbh. Using the GOG CD DOS release.

[Doublewhammy]

Just go with the flow yo... windows 11

[LOTO]

Just go with the flow yo... windows 11

Not in a million years.

Disregarding the intrusive adware and spyware, my PC doesn't meet the inflated minimum specs for the OS. Though I'll admit it was tempting to go with it after a bunch of the stuff I tried to do with Linux didn't work.

[flatrute]

Not in a million years.

Disregarding the intrusive adware and spyware, my PC doesn't meet the inflated minimum specs for the OS. Though I'll admit it was tempting to go with it after a bunch of the stuff I tried to do with Linux didn't work.

I bought a Thinkpad L13 Gen 4 as a stopgap until I have the budget to go with a Framework machine and as soon as I saw Windows 11 I immediately wiped the drive and installed Debian 13 into it

[sadlyascii]

debian of cource, i used to use gnome shell, but for now i switched to swaywm

[Metabloxer]

I used to dual-boot Win10 and Ubuntu because I was giving Linux a go. I've fully moved into Linux now. I use Kubuntu on my work PC, but have started to use my Steam Deck more and more for most things (which means SteamOS).

My Steam Deck isn't what convinced me to move to Linux, as I already was, but it did convince me that KDE Plasma is the best option for people used to Windows.

[SONIC122]

My main laptop is a 2010 MacBook Pro running MacOS Ace Ventura. I use this old guy for school, since all of my school stuff is just in a browser.

Screenshot 2026-03-05 at 8.34.53 AM.png

My Main PC still runs Bimbows 10, Because its what I installed forever ago, and everything works fine, so im not gonna mess with it. Thats the thought process of most of my computers, "its working, im not gonna mess with it"

Screenshot 2026-03-05 at 8.39.16 AM.png

Believe it or not I have a 3rd "main computer", a 2012 Mac Mini, Which runs MacOS Sequoia, and is the best Mac I own. Its a surprisingly good computer after upgrading to an SSD and installing 16GB of RAM, way before the RAM-pocalypse of course.

Screenshot 2026-03-05 at 8.53.57 AM.png

[Aidan0504]

i am sadly maining windows 11 but i use vmware for windows xp and up and 86 box for windows me and below

[SONIC122]

i am sadly maining windows 11 but i use vmware for windows xp and up and 86 box for windows me and below

oof, I bought a new thinkpad and it came with windows 11, immediately downgraded that shit back to windows 10 lol

[KaptainTomat]

Mentally, biased by my childhood - Windows XP
Currently due to hardware? - NixOS