Well, it happened. I was really enjoying my kick on Linux for some time, and I even switched my custom-built system to Linux, which I was really enjoying. Games were running smoothly; I was enjoying the stability and the familiarity of navigating the system, without advertisements being shoved in my face… that is, until I hit the wall of my VR hardware.
My Linux VR Woes
Let me dive into this by telling you what hardware I have. I am someone who has a BigScreen Beyond, Index Controllers, Vive 2.0 Trackers, and a Quest Pro (for when I want to do face tracking stuff). With that said, it turns out it is my fault for owning a Big Screen… turns out to make it work properly, you have to apply a Kernel patch. Then it was really easy to use my Quest Pro with ALVR, but that doesn’t work because I wanted to use my Index Controllers, as I’m not a fan of the Quest Pro controllers. Space Calibrator doesn’t work on Linux, and when I tried to compile the Linux version, which had not been updated in two years, it wouldn’t compile due to the outdated GLIBC dependency.
I attempted to get stuff working, but I am not a C or C++ developer so my attempts to fix it were kind of crap. That said, I was able to get it to compile, but it still didn’t launch correctly. With all that said, I could enjoy VR… just without full body using ALVR with the Quest Pro headset. I think this is okay for someone who doesn’t use full-body or is a VR enthusiast, like myself.
Getting Back to Windows
So, while I have been on this journey from macOS to Linux and now back to Windows. To be fair, I haven’t tried to use Windows as my daily driver in years. I’ve been using macOS as my primary operating system for the past five years. In addition, I’ve some experience with Linux desktops as well. However, that being said, I didn’t want to deal with bloat and ad crap that Windows ships with now. However, there are numerous tools available, and customizations that allow me to turn a lot of that functionality off.
My first step was to use WoeUSB from GitHub to burn the downloaded ISO from Microsoft, and it was a pain for me. This is a slight side tangent, but I don’t use AD Blockers in my browser and rely on DNS filtering. I noticed that was enough to trigger Microsoft to block me from downloading the ISO. So I used my common workaround when I run into this: tell Firefox to “use Cloudflare DoH” and then toggle it back off when I am finished.
To keep Windows bloat to a minimum, after I completed my installation, I downloaded CTT’s Windows Utility and ran its tweaks. I then also went through and turned off every “Microsoft Service” I could. This has resulted in a relatively clean installation so far, and I am pleased at the moment. I also enjoyed using the tool for installing software I wanted to have, and it uses Winget under the hood, so I can even keep tons of applications updated, just like I do on Linux. I’ve noticed that Windows may have some newer features that’ve become mainstream since I’ve been here.
What’s Next?
Well, now that I’m back on Windows for the moment, I’m on day one, and we’re going to see how it feels for me. So far, software compatibility has been largely de facto, as I am currently on Windows, and I’ve been happy with that. I’m wanting to be someone who doesn’t have to toy with my daily driver after I get off work, or I want to chill, have my desktop get out of my way, and let me focus on what I want to do.
I will use this as my daily driver for the next month and see what it is like to be back on Windows 11 after not using it for years. So far, not too bad. Turning off all the extra ads and annoyances makes it seem nice, and it’s a lot like what I enjoyed back from the Windows 7 era. I look forward to reporting back on my experience, especially in a world that is so focused on everyone leaving Windows, and what it might be like for someone coming back to Windows.
