Linux

Recent Linux convert here. Had some small background with it due to use at work (through WSL, unfortunately 😅). When Windows became too overbearing and intrusive for my own taste, decided to take a plunge and created a dual-boot setup with Bazzite (of course on my private machine). It was honestly refreshing to see stuff run with the same (or sometimes even better) performance.

This short anecdote now leads me to the conclusion; is it as good as we think it is?

Imo: hell fuckin' yeah. It gets the job done and respects me as an end-user (with the trade-off of "some manual work might be required").

Also, as a side-note: I live in the EU; I grew tired with an overbearing, salesman/rapist-like mentality of MS (and Windows, by extension) while reaping benefits of some modicum of privacy regulations. I cannot even begin to fathom how fucked the situation is where ppl don't have these protections to rely on.

When I first transitioned away from Windows. Linux was admittedly a little less stable and reliable but unlike windows, there was a well documented solution pathway to almost every Linux problem I encountered, whereas Windows solutions always amounted to recommending uninstalling/reinstalling hardware in the Device Manager and rebooting the computer. I remember a few times that windows updates completely crashed my install and I had to roll-back to an earlier version or even do a repair/reinstall from disc -The documented Windows solutions (aside from the reinstall) rarely worked. Now it's 20 years later and I rarely have reliability issues with Linux aside from my one hardware failure -but that's not a Linux-specific issue.

Win 7 was cool to tinker with but buggy as hell to the point Ubuntu was just as much work as the time but with even more possibility.

8 was so bad it was worth skipping.

10 was the peak of it just works for windows. Gone were the days of troubleshooting triple AAA games on my PC, they worked or needed patched by the devs.

That said if I NEEDED something to work choosing windows 10 or server was an exercise is maschocism. Need this container? Unsupported. Need this service configured like this? Gfl finding where that is set. Need HA? Just Ha. Certain network configs beyond basic client? The guys with decades of Windows admin exp still have no idea.

I had to troubleshoot both but windows gives you the nice feeling of being able to say "this sucks they should fix that" because I know ain't. Its not built for me to fix it either. Linux however begs you too. Its all there, you can do anything, even you might not really want to.

if it didnt work, why would it be running the majority of the internet.. among other things?

linux is prolly better than we give it credit for

Unix is definitely a less headache than Windows at this point.

It depends on who you ask. If you ask this to a M$ refugee, they will praise it. If you ask a *BSD user, they will bitch about it.

All operating systems suck ass. There are problems and issues with all of them. It's the same argument for programming languages. Now it's the same argument when it comes to what brand of vehicle Ford or Chevy.

Don't get hyper focused on a brand, on a label. Simply use what's best for you and your needs.

Nah, still has a lot of bugs, it simply don't have the same money that Microsoft has to fix quirks in certain hardware, and it's too fragmented, Microsoft knows what kernel that interface gonna run, KDE don't so they always need to fix for different kernels

Switched to linux with ububtu, had good experience until snap Firefox became default.

Switched to arch linux with i3 wm through some random installer. Struggled a lot and couldn't understand anything. Watched a few videos on manual installation and got basic idea like systemd, compositors, etc. Followed wiki and youtube videos to manually install again and never looked back.

Currently using arch linux with hyprland and quite happy with my setup. I don't think I can use any other distro as a user cause aur is so good.

I really struggled with learning about how to learn linux things. Like nvidia drivers, kernels, etc. Once there are enough people documenting their experience I think linux will be very easy. Endeavor, mint, kde plasma, now upcoming cosmic should be user friendly.

Linux users are self-selected for increased tech savvy, so they'll say, "Yes, it's the best," but really, the Linux community is still extremely forgiving of terrible user interface, and value things like FOSS over things like apps with robust, accessible feature sets. Linux users are happy to fix functionality holes with writing a shell script, and think nothing of it: it's not a lack in the OS, it's a testament to the power and flexibility of the OS!

I've used a few flavors of Linux, and their GUIs are almost uniformly terrible, only partially functional without using a terminal. For instance, they have various software and OS update apps located in semi-random menu locations, and none of them work as well as "sudo apt update / sudo apt upgrade / sudo apt full-upgrade / sudo apt autoremove". And there's a huge part of the Linux community that thinks this is great and not a problem at all.

Windows hides the ugly sausage-making from typical users, and forces IT folks and other developers to wrangle with it. Linux makes IT/dev lives easier while making typical users somewhat hamstrung if they're scared of a CLI. So, if that has meaning for you with regards to the question "Is Linux as good as we think it is?" then you may have your answer.

Send diff to their lists.

Linux to me is just an optional substitute of an OS, but it has yet to make it my primary day-to-day use. Linux isn't going to make the problems I get aggravated with like the verification-hell we deal with, go away. It's going to happen on both Windows or Linux regardless.

I have more patience when I give any laptop I get Linux, than I ever will should I decide to make Linux a primary OS of choice on my primary desktop machine. Because Linux does give me the whole 'works out of the box' feel with laptops than Windows would when it comes to driver hunting and I'm talking with old laptops, not newer ones where all of that is currently provided.

In general, I think genuinely that Linux requires a more hands on approach. But the best thing is, I solve a problem ONCE. Then I store the script to git and forget about it. The problem is done, it no longer exists.

I also use Linux & Ungoogled Android on everything--and it is the best we got now that doesn’t involve a significant time sink or expertise to get things working. I would love to see alternative platforms be popular & with general hardware compatibility & either Nix or Guix support as well, I would consider giving it a run in the future since I like being open if something better is on offer. I like to keep light tabs on the Haikus, BSDs, OpenIndianas, & such of the world just in case… particularly if we ever got a memory-safe kernel with some proofs behind its logic (Rust doesn’t go hard enough, sorry fanboys). That said, generally, Linux is still good.

No, not even close.

I've used Unix systems for years at work, and have dual-booted windows with various flavors of Linux at home for just as long. When I just need something to work, particularly something new or after a stressful day at work, I just use windows.

Why? Because it will just work. Maybe it won't work precisely how I want it to, maybe it will send all my data to Bill's push notifications, but it will run. In the rare case it doesn't, a quick google will fix it.

Compare that to Linux, where most things will work most of the time. And when they don't, you get to hunt through GitHub issues off-the-clock like a peasant, wading through comments from people with entirely different configurations and 'dunno it works for me'.

Linux is for tinkerers, and for people who want a Unix shell and can't afford a Mac, it has a long way to go to be more than that.