Ive been extensively evauluating linux distros now in the last 3 months in order to advise and assist my clients to switch from Windows. My intetion is to "shrinkwrap" a "skeloton" image which I can re-use as far as possible but the following must be true:
The solution must look and feel like Windows
The solution must have all the basic software, ie Office, Steam etc. and their associated devices working smoothly straight away.
I have now evaluated, Steam OS for PC from Valve, STEAM OS Fork, BAZZITE OS, Open Suse and now ZORIN OS.
The best version is BAZZITE, no problems straight away except the looks are too much Gaming Associated.
I am disappointed that on the ZORIN test, none of my devices worked straight away, ie, Wireless Mouse, BlueTooth Mouse, XBox controller.
Same hardware for all my test and multiple times retried. ZORIN is also difficult to see how to address the problem without getting into lower level driver struggles.
I will keep an eye on ZORIN OS as it will be the best solution if the Steam Accessory (main-stream) devices can be tested and make to work right from the start with no problems.
The main thing is that I am not looking for solutions to fix, it must simply just work from the start. Thanks to everyone that is putting so much in work into getting this all done. There is a little bit more work to be done, but is getting very close now.
My kit is all AMD AM4, Integrated Radeon Graphics, SSD, XBox Series Controllers, Blue Tooth Mouse, Wireless Keyboard.
This is, by far, the most common source of frustration for people new to the world of Linux.
Windows and Linux are different systems, and you'll always find differences between them. You can spend days and weeks tweaking the settings and coming up with custom themes that mimic the interface to spectacularly levels of resemblance, and they'll still be different systems.
One of the differences that you will encounter is in the form of software availability. Software vendors don't like investing time and money in developing software for markets with small potential for commercial success. This is why software like Microsoft Office doesn't exist in Linux.
The same is true for other type of software: drivers. If you have specialized hardware, chances are that there is no version of those drivers for Linux. Until volunteers are able to reverse-engineer them, since these companies don't make the source code available, there's nothing you can do.
Another major difference you will find between Linux and Windows is financial availability. Most Linux projects are run by volunteers on their free time and/or depending exclusively on donations. Microsoft, in contrast, is a multi-trillion dollar company.
None of this is to say that Windows is better than Linux, nor the opposite. I'm just laying it some facts for you, and I do mean this with the best of intentions: I've seen far too many people walking away thinking that "Linux sucks" because "it's not Windows". Without adjusting your expectations, you're setting yourself for failure on this experiment.
I'll leave this up for a while in the hopes that someone who actually uses any of those devices (I do not, so I cannot help you with this) can provide some information, which might help someone else in the future.
As far as I'm aware this should work straight away out of the box, especially if it's a first party Microsoft controller. You should be able to plug in straight away and have it work. If you're trying to make it work wirelessly, as long as your bluetooth is functioning correctly it should also work in that realm (although some first party controllers don't use bluetooth, annoyingly).
I know sometimes Steam can stop controllers from working properly by default, since it sort of tries to take control of them, but if you don't set steam up to use them right, it'll just make the controllers dysfunctional at the best of times.
Is the XBox Controller ... a Controller from the XBox or a third-party Controller for XBox? And when You write that it doesn't work, what exactly does this mean? Does it simply do nothing? Is it recognized but do nothing? Do You get Error Messages?
I also agree, if you are setting up a bluetooth connected controller, please make sure Bluetooth is enabled, and that you've connected your device here first...
