Decision. Do the inventory before the install: exactly one class — kernel anti-cheat games and locked-down corporate MDM — is a genuine hard blocker in 2026 [5] [3]; everything else in a .NET/TypeScript workstation is a soft blocker with a known price. Then run a fixed-length trial against tickable criteria, with a pre-committed rollback date — retrospectives that succeeded treated the switch as a tool-selection problem with a per-app verdict list, not a conversion [8].
Blocker inventory — fill this in first
| Class | Ask of each item | Usual 2026 verdict | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Is the exact model on Ubuntu’s certified list? Suspend, Wi-Fi, dock, fingerprint? | Certified ThinkPad/Dell/HP: fine. Uncertified + Nvidia + fingerprint: expect fixes [7] | Soft ⚠ |
| Employer policy | Does MDM/conditional access admit a Linux device? | Intune supports enrolled Ubuntu LTS + GNOME, corporate-owned only; anything else fails compliance [3] | Hard if unlisted |
| Dev toolchain | Does the IDE/SDK have a native Linux build? | Visual Studio proper: never on Linux, Microsoft reconfirmed 2025 [1] → Rider or VS Code. SQL Server runs in Docker; SSMS doesn’t — Azure Data Studio retired Feb 2026, so VS Code mssql or DBeaver [6] | Soft |
| WinForms/WPF | Do you still maintain desktop Windows apps? | Designers are Windows-only → keep a VM | Soft (Hard if daily) |
| Office / collab | Native client or web? | Teams native Linux client retired; PWA is the supported path [2]. Excel VBA/Adobe: no equivalent | Soft; Hard for macro/Adobe work |
| Personal / civic | Kernel anti-cheat? eID? | EAC/BattlEye block Linux unless the studio opts in [5]. Belgian eID middleware is officially packaged for Debian/Ubuntu/RPM [4] | Anti-cheat = Hard; eID = non-issue |
Triage rule: hard = no Linux path at any cost → keep a Windows partition or a second machine. Soft = works, costs setup time or a VM → allowed to hurt during the trial. Non-issue → delete from the list; don’t re-litigate it later.
Go/no-go criteria — tick, don’t feel
- Zero unresolved hard blockers (VM/partition counts as resolved only if you accept it permanently).
- 21 consecutive days without booting Windows for anything unplanned.
- Suspend/resume survives 20 cycles incl. dock and external display, no black screen.
- Full solution build + test suite green, wall-clock within 110% of the Windows baseline you measured before wiping.
- Every app in the inventory has a working replacement or an explicit decided-to-drop mark — no blanks.
- One real deploy to the homelab done end-to-end from Linux.
- Zero unrecovered data-loss or “couldn’t work today” incidents.
Rollback date
Pick it now: trial start + 60 days. On that date you either wipe the Windows partition or restore it — no third option. Any criterion unticked at the date defaults to revert. Undated trials don’t fail, they dissolve.