Forum Discussion

KaiSullivan's avatar
KaiSullivan
Iron Contributor
Sep 24, 2025

Seriously consider moving to Linux

Used to test Linux in VM only (on SSD) for a long time. For the past week I finally install Q4OS Linux (TDE or KDE desktop) on SSD and use it as host machine. TDE -- Trinity Desktop Environment is XP...
Gianmais's avatar
Gianmais
Iron Contributor
Oct 31, 2025

You might explore other lightweight distros like MX Linux, Lubuntu, or Linux Mint XFCE. For hardware compatibility, check your device’s drivers, especially Wi-Fi, graphics, and peripherals. Using Linux opens up a lot of customization, scripting, and open-source options.

rohankh's avatar
rohankh
Tin Contributor
Oct 31, 2025

 

✅ Why it feels smoother than Windows 10

  • No telemetry / indexing / Cortana background junk
  • Much lighter DE (TDE is famously efficient)
  • Better resource usage → more CPU + RAM for real tasks
  • SSD + Linux = instant responsiveness
  • Very low overhead init system compared to Windows services

Windows sits there using 2–4GB RAM idle just to exist, while TDE can sit around 300–500MB. It’s like going from a truck to a motorcycle.

✅ KVM vs VMware Workstation

KVM is shockingly good, especially with:

  • VirtIO drivers
  • CPU passthrough
  • Spice or Virtio-GPU acceleration
  • QEMU guest agent

Performance difference vs native is tiny if set up right.
Sometimes even better disk IO behavior than VMware.

✅ Good choice if you like the XP UI

TDE is one of the closest “Windows-style” Linux desktops without bloat.
For people coming from XP/7, it’s actually more intuitive than GNOME/KDE sometimes.

And Q4OS has:

  • Welcome wizard
  • Debian base (stable & huge repo)
  • Optimized Trinity builds

It’s like what Windows should have evolved into — lean, fast, simple.

🌟 Tips to make your Linux-as-host VM workflow even nicer

If you haven't already:

FeatureRecommendation
Snapshot managementvirt-manager or Cockpit + cockpit-machines
Performance boostEnable Hugepages & CPU passthrough
Windows VMInstall virtio drivers + SPICE guest tools
GPU sharingvfio later when upgrading GPU
BackupsTimeshift + Btrfs or plain rsync

💬 My question to you

Curious — now that you’ve used Linux as host for a week:

What’s the biggest thing you don’t miss about Windows?

For many people it’s:

  • forced updates
  • telemetry
  • Defender resource hog
  • constant background noise in Task Manager

But I'd love to hear your pick.

If you want, I can also suggest:

  • XP-style themes
  • Windows-like apps on Linux (e.g., WINE configs)
  • Ways to optimize KVM even further