Got a long one. I’ve gone back and forth a few times (I’ve landed on a dual-boot Windows 10 and Arch setup, maining Arch) (btw) and my biggest takeaway is this:
Mainstream Linux distros, like Mint, do have admittedly very polished basic experiences. The problem is, though, is that it breaks down as soon as you introduce it to unique use-cases or hardware features.
Linux, specifically stable distros like Mint, are already ready for mainstream use for people who use it for basic stuff like email, web browsing, desktop social media like Facebook, and so on. It’s also very usable for gaming, as we saw with Steam Deck, but still has issues primarily with adoption.
But if you have for example, a 2-in-1 laptop or a VR setup, things break down very quick. I had to configure my 2-in-1 manually and not everything works still, and VR is a joke if you don’t have a Vive or Index, and even that’s iffy. SteamVR is still extremely buggy and missing features.
Linux is, by design, configurable and open. This is both its greatest strength and weakness, because it allows users to set up their systems how they want, but only if they know how to. A truly “user-friendly” distro is simply not possible if you retain the configurability, which Valve knows, and is why SteamOS is locked down the way it is. This model is growing in popularity but it’s not quite here yet.
At the end of the day, I still use it despite these shortcomings because I feel it’s important. I should be able to look at the code and know what my machine is doing, and trust that it respects my rights and freedoms. This is why Linux, and maybe BSD, have to win. But for now, I still have a drive with Windows 10 because it’s just simply not a full experience yet, and that’s okay. For now
Two (minor) issues I have right now in Linux (stuff I need to research more on how to mitigate, at least the first one):
RX 6800 with LG 27GL850: In Windows AMD patched like a 1-2 years ago the drivers to use 5W-10W while on desktop. On Linux it still uses 32W and the only workaround is to reduce refresh rate from 144Hz to 120Hz.
Audio: When switching between different audio devices (“Line out” and “S/PDIF” some apps do not handle the switch instantly like in Windows. So for example if I’m playing a song in Spotify and I want to S/PDIF (which is connected to some studio monitors in the living room in my case) I need to close spotify and open again. In Windows you can switch without interrupting the song. Same happens while gaming. (Restarting a game is a PITA). I also use S/PDIF with my wired headphones that I use for gaming.
I bought Skyrim for PC so that I could give mods a try. Wine was garbage at the time, and I wanted to use my computer to game. So, Windows it was.
Thanks to proton, I was able to switch to arch on my desktop for the last few years before my power supply died. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what’s wrong with it. I’ve been staving off insanity for a few months now with my steam deck. I got a dock for it a couple weeks ago, so I’m technically running an arch desktop again even if it is KDE.
Because in my experience Linux hasn’t been consistently reliable in the long term.
My computer is a tool. I need it to just work, not cause me work. I’ve tried many distros and sooner or later something random stopped working, causing me to stop what I was doing and troubleshoot the problem.
Like the time I installed Mint on my desktop and my GPU fan ran full throttle all the time. Or that time when OpenVPN stopped working from one boot up to the next. Or those times when a fresh install hung up and failed fully boot.
Contrast that with the thousands? tens of thousands? of days when Windows just started without incident, got out of my way and let me work or game or whatever.
Is Windows bloated and slow? Yes. Is it constantly spying on me? Yes. Is it annoying in dozens of little ways that Linux isn’t? Yes. But it is consistently reliable and Linux isn’t.
I’m not a Windows fan boy, and I’d love to be able to use a linux desktop on the reg but every time I forget my previous disappointment long enough to try again, I am once again disappointed.
One thing has been working well for me. I have a Raspberry Pi with Raspian running Pi Hole, MiniDLNA and a couple of other things. It’s been as solid and reliable as I could ask.
It’s always something that doesn’t work and I can’t get working. Right now (I dual boot) it’s my 4G modern in my laptop that I don’t seem to understand how to activate the GPS receiver in. Even if I got it to work I wouldn’t know since I have no idea on how GPS is supposed to work on Ubuntu…
I like to use parsec to play games with my friends. When I found out Linux could not host parsec, that was a bummer for me. If parsec had compatibility to host in Linux I’d switch back immediately.
I’m definitely a Linux novice, tried it on and off over the last decade and currently dual boot Mint on my laptop. I love Mint, it’s been the easiest version of Linux by far.
Now the bad, DaVinci Resolve Studio just does not play nice. I know this is more of a Resolve problem, but still, it doesn’t connect to my NAS efficiently. As an editor, this is a deal breaker. I hope it gets fixed in the future.
Second, it won’t even see my Bluetooth keyboard, once again, probably something to do with the hardware, but it works on everything else, even Android. I also have weird issues with my wireless Xbox controller in that the trigger buttons don’t register in games. Still trying to troubleshoot that.
I still try to use Mint as often as I can, but there always something that keeps me from switching fully.
I tried to use Ubuntu for a bit but I just wanted to have regular Firefox with the built in updater, turns out this is way more of a hassle than it is on Windows.
It shouldn’t be that hard to “install” a program like Firefox directly from a website but all you get is an archive thing that you have to manually “install” basically, it’s tricky enough that someone wrote a tool just do do this: gitlab.com/…/Firefox-automatic-install-for-Linux
APT and Flatpacks are all cool but an offline installation should still be available and easy to use without being forced to use a terminal. Maybe I’m incorrect and I would love to hear about it but this is my experience.
Steam for whatever reason is basically installed the same way on windows as on PC in terms of user experience, you download a file and double click it. Maybe it’s Mozillas fault? Who knows, it’s frustrating in any case.
Ubuntu (and most other linux distributions) have a slightly different way of installing programs and applications. It has an app store, similar to Android and iOS, you can search for Firefox (and other apps) from in there. If I’m not mistaken, Ubuntu searched and notifies you for updates regularly.
The philosophy of Ubuntu (and most other linux distributions) is that you don’t need to go to a bunch of different sites to download your software, you can just download all your software from the “app store”.
And all of these tools are GUI’s (so ‘point and click’-based), so you don’t need to open a terminal, if you don’t want to.
Everything you said is true but it’s beside the point, all this app store stuff shouldn’t affect how easy or hard it is to install something the old fashioned way.
I know Firefox is there but I would to have the option to install it and programs like it without some kind of app store.
You mentioned android and it’s a perfect example of what I want, you have a nice app store but you can if you want download any app or anything from a website and it’s just one file that’s easy to install and it won’t update along with everything else or they can often check for updates on their own.
to me this is a feature rather than an issue, whenever a package is updated in the package repository it’s super convenient to just update them from the same place instead of having auto-updaters built into all applications on the system. i guess that’s a preference thing though.
Yes but my main issue is that installing software can be a pain in general. The script that someone made just to download and install firefox from mozilla.org is evident of that:
“The objective is to provide a method to easily install Mozilla Firefox directly from Mozilla’s website and enable Firefox’s automatic update feature for the latest releases. Providing a pure stock Mozilla Firefox experience for everyone using your Linux computer at home.”
Isn’t it kind of odd that this has to have a script in the first place? Or is it actually easy and this script is redundant? From a windows perspective the fact that you can’t just download an installer that works it’s pretty weird. I notice that other software often offers .deb or .rpm files and maybe those are more what I want…
But also repositories can be a pain, I remember trying to install the emulation thing RetroArch via the app store thing on ubuntu and that was outdated and installing cores was very different from how I did it on PC.
“Cores should be downloaded from within the program using the Online Updater’s Core Updater, if possible. Some distros patch out the Online Updater, in which case you’ll need to install cores using your package manager. There are core packages available in the PPAs, as well, and they will continue to be updated, but new packages for new cores will not be created.”
My pattern with linux is that I tinker with it until I eventually break it in a way I don’t have the knowledge or skill to repair, and then I balk at the thought of starting from scratch again, so I just put windows back on the machine…
I never tried Linux, but I consider it every few years. However if I weigh that
O&O Shutup10 and group policies can remove all the telemetry and intrusiveness from Windows +
most of my work involves Adobe products +
my main hobby is gaming, with the vast majority of my games not having a Linux port
there are simply too many factors that would make Linux to be more hassle, have less performance or downright impossible to serve as a substitute for Windows, while for me personally not really offering any practical benefits over Windows.
Basically visual arts software and some writing software. Additionally I have a free version of Ableton Live Lite 11 (so one music-making application as well) that came with my keyboard.
I mostly do photography, writing, and other visual arts type work on my two computers. I use quite a few photography and painting applications (Photoshop, ArtRage, Rebelle, Lightroom, Inspirit, and a few others; I’m also looking at BlackInk), as well as Scrivener and MS Office when I’m writing. I don’t know if any of those run well or at all in Linux or in Wine, etc. Also I stopped flirting with learning programming and there wasn’t much point maintaining a Linux machine after that. I think Linux is better than Windows all around, and I hate Windows, but it’s just because I use certain apps and from what I’ve heard and seen the Linux apps just aren’t as good.
TLDR, creative software that won’t run on Linux (to my knowledge, anyway).
Add comment