Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems
Who was solving your problems before then?
I spent a year on Linux and forgot to miss Windows
Submitted 3 days ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/features/861968/year-using-linux
Comments
Nalivai@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
To give the author credit, ignoring the other flaws with windows, most things “just worked” and generally either didn’t have an issue or if it did, fixed it’s own issues. I didn’t really have to resolve any issues or anything. Heck it even fixed itself if it failed to update, rolling back the changes and alerting the user next boot (which I usually just ignored and let fix itself which it generally did after a few days/tries! lol)
My current rig had Windows as the primary OS from 2016 to about 2024, during that time I don’t recall any times I had to actually look up any issues unless I personally created the problem. I think the most extensive issue I had was my 5700xt crashing under high load but that wasn’t something I could fix anyway as it was a driver issue, or when i made the entire system unbootable cause I messed up making a recovery partition
When I swapped back to Linux (Linux Mint at first, then Linux Mint DE, then Debian 12, now Debian 13), I had multiple hurdles from my headset not functioning, to my video card not being supported, no login screen, etc, these issues didn’t fix themselves, I had to fix them. Granted some were easier to fix (like the no login screen was a super simple edit to a config file), but it wasn’t something I had to deal with on windows.
Linux isn’t going to hold your hand like Windows does with issues. So yea you need to resolve your own issues, Linux isn’t going to do it for you, the most it will do is post a command in the log saying “issue X expected, run this command to fix”
innermachine@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Running windows is like playing with an action figure. You take it out of the box and it does what it’s supposed to. Linux I consider more like a Lego set. Sure you have to put some stuff together before you really play with it, but it’s YOUR creation by the time your done with it and you can modify to shit your use case. If you have no interest in tinkering with ur OS windows or Mac is just a better option, if you want to tailor your experience how you’d like Linux is the way. I run W11 on my gaming PC because I don’t have time to mess with it and experiment anymore. I have played with so many Linux distros but never had one work flawless out of the gate, and always reserved it for my secondary fuck around rigs because if I wanted to fuck around I could but I do want something that i can press the power button and evrything works fine without use of my brain after working a 13 hour day where i might get lucky to play for 40 mins lol. My fuck around time these days is totally sapped by project vehicles and house issues the last think I wanna do is play around in terminal when I have 10k other more important things to do :c
cecilkorik@piefed.ca 3 days ago
This is a common misconception I think. “Stable” from a development point of view (which is what Debian is) is not the same as “Stable” from a user point of view. It can be, as long as no other variables are changing. But a typical desktop user IS a variable, and they change other variables all the time. “Stable” makes sense on a server, where the server has a defined role and a specific purpose that basically never changes. It’s “stable” and if the OS is also “stable” that gives you assurance that nothing is going to break unexpectedly… ONCE you have it tested and set up properly to be stable in the first place.
But installing on a fresh system where you’ve never run this OS before is the antithesis of stable. You are initially in an “experimental” state, and you may need the latest updates and patches to even be compatible with the hardware you’re running. Then you’re going to use this system daily, downloading stuff, installing new apps and tools regularly, changing configurations when you feel like it. None of this is stable. And that’s fine, it’s not wrong, it’s just the reality of being a user with a desktop system. It’s not stable, it’s not supposed to be. It’s your daily driver.
To paraphrase George Carlin, a bad driver, driving a safe car doesn’t really make you safe, at all. First, learn to drive THEN get your safe car. A stable distribution like Debian is for people who already know how to find all the compatible-by-default hardware and do the configuration necessary to make things safe and stable and using Debian assures them that once they have got it into that state, Debian isn’t going to undo their work and make unexpected changes.
For users, especially on the desktop, you often want bleeding edge latest updates to fix these kind of compatibility issues as soon as they’re identified, even without absolutely rigorous testing and validation. You want the opposite of “stable” development, in order to make your own system more stable as quickly and reliably as possible in the circumstances. It will never be as stable as Debian running on a server, but that’s normal, and expected. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Debian is a good OS, but as a desktop user, on your main system, it might be counterproductive. For what it’s worth, I run PikaOS, which is a gaming-focused distro derived from Debian (Debian’s stable foundation is a huge asset for people building distros on top of it) but provides prompt access to all the latest updates and patches needed for gaming and includes configurations and drivers for supporting the latest consumer level hardware and all the common tools and things that power users want, that are becoming popular day by day. This is the opposite of “stable development” but it’s perfect for a desktop system in my opinion and they do a great job.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Who was solving your problems before then?
Every tech company in existence, in exchange for all of your privacy and now subscription fee.
For the low low price of all of your money and privacy you can avoid having to figure out how to backup your own files and have a team of developers ensuring that any kind of difficulty that you have will be fixed before you even realize it was a problem.
Once it is ensured that you will never develop those skills you are completely dependent on their services and they can keep jacking up the price.
Hate Netflix’s price increase, or password sharing restrictions? Too bad you spent 8 years not learning how to setup streaming media that you control. Hate listening to ads in order to listen to music? Well, it looks like Spotify doing everything for you has paid off for them.
Everyone has traded their privacy for convenience, if you want your privacy back then you have to give back the convenience and learn to do things for yourselves.
eli@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The entire internet? Whatever problem you had on windows you can just Google it and there’s either a YouTube video, reddit thread, or some obscure forum post that fixes your exact issue by copy and pasting some Powershell commands or a random bat file or GitHub project.
Linux? It’s gotten better, but the community side can get quite toxic or outright ignorant of how to troubleshoot any kind of issues tbh.
scala@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Same with Linux. Is there a problem Search it. Someone had that problem before. Shit even basic AI can help you out if you can’t quickly solve the issue.
Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s probably the opposite of my experience and an experience of everyone I know.
With Windows problems you do get a lot of very, very long youtube videos that says a lot of things, but unless your problem is trivial, the shit wouldn’t work, and random bat files aren’t working for unexpected problems, or are just viruses. More often then not though, you get a question on Microsoft forum, with one answer asking you to run that windows repair bullshit that never actually solves anything. And then you just accept that it’s not something you can do and move on with your life, thinking that ignoring the problem is actually solving it. Alternatively there is for some reason very expensive program that does what you wanted badly, while using 20% of your machine’s resources, but you’re so exhausted at this point, that you pretend it’s normal.
With Linux you will get snarky answers telling you that you’re an idiot for not reading the error message on your screan (which is, yeah, you are), or that you’re an idiot for not reading the first page of man (which is, yeah, see above), or the most detailed explanation of inner workings of this specific thing that is giving you troubles, and you pretend to understand all of it while just copying and pasting all the random commands from the answer like an idiot that you are. But if you actually want to learn, you just do that, and then your problem is solved and you’re a bit more knowledgeable in the end.
Every time people talk about how Linux community is unhelpful, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. How can I always find help and support no matter how weird and obscure or banal and trivial my problem is, am I special or do people don’t know how to google? I mean, snarky and condescending? Yeah, that happens. But unhelpful? Never in my experience.
scintilla@crust.piefed.social 2 days ago
Some random Indian guy on YouTube with a tutorial that somehow perfectly solves your weird issue.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
My first night on Linux was rough. Getting all my apps installed and set up was exhausting, especially because I had no experience using the command line. For those who haven’t stared into the dark void of a Linux terminal before, it’s where most system management happens — installing apps, running updates, and the like. It’s an unavoidable part of the Linux experience
Bullshit. And fuck you for propagating this notion, yet again.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Oh for fucks sake, so much neckbeard energy here dismissing this guys personal experience.
When you’re a new user and don’t know what the fuck is the native app store application is and when a new user goes to find their old windows apps that have Linux install instructions, what’s the first thing that they have there? Guess. It’s always find your flavor of Linux and the first steps shown are always terminal commands with sudo apt get or sudo dnf.
That’s everyone first time with Linux until they learn more about it so get off your high horse and condescending gatekeeping attitude.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Gatekeeping, I hate that word. So useless. In this scenario the author is gate keeping saying all the linux system management is the command line. Its “exhausting”. Well bullshit. Let me say it again: BULLSHIT.
It is perpetuating a myth. This is not true. They are gatekeeping the users who don’t want to because they are saying it has to be this way.
Look, I like the command line, I get why sharing information is so much easier by providing a command rather than a wall of screen shots.
Yet at the same time, my travel laptop over here, two years in, has never had to have “system administration” and package installation from a command line. Depending on the distro it simply is not necessary.
The user has choice.
LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
You dont have to. But honestly its worth the time to get over the fear of the terminal. Understanding how they work and being comfortable using them has many advantages. So many things do not require a bloated GUI application. Like again its not necessary but its a bandaid that I think is worth it to rip off.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
I really take issue with the author suggesting that you need to. You do not need to, and it is a myth that needs to go away. Particularly when they said it was “exhausting” installing applications. Linux is miles ahead on that front: you look through a list of what you like, or search for them, and click on the ones you want.
Also for system management, there is no need for the terminal either and the author says “It’s an unavoidable part of the Linux experience”. That one in particular really doesn’t sit well with me.
Now can you? Yes. Should you? Also yes, because it is the easiest way to convey and execute an idea. But you do not have to.
And they fail to mention that windows does this too, for almost every task for system maintenance is done this way: press run+r, now type “whatever -command”.
Anyways a moderately mainstream article and they are going to scare people away over something they did not need to do. Which after a year you would think they would have figured that out.
mech@feddit.org 2 days ago
I ran Fedora Silverblue for a year with the terminal uninstalled.
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe 1 day ago
Why do you people constantly lie so aggressively about this? That post exactly describes every single Linux migration I’ve ever done.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Depends on your distro. Maybe on Ubuntu or Mint, sure. I’m running EndeavourOS, and it’s terminal or nothing. I’m fine with that, but YMMV.
Spaniard@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I am running EndeavourOS and it’s possible to function without terminal. I use it because I love it but no need at least not for app installing having Discover.
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe 1 day ago
Even on Ubuntu I had to use the terminal pretty frequently. Older games especially are a big PITA to get working sometimes.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Na sorry, hes right.
For someone who doesn’t spend every moment on their pc, its daunting and takes energy to learn and remember all of this just to make your pc run.
brianary@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Keep in mind that changes are coming even if you stay on Windows or Mac or Android or iOS. AI in particular is going to require everyone to relearn everything in non-deterministic ways, so you end up begging the system to do what you want in new creative ways. Also, the UI will be radically reworked over and over. There’s really no way to avoid learning new ways to do things on an invention that’s less than 50 years old.
Yes, it’s work that we don’t usually have the energy for, especially now, but the best we can do is look for a community to support each other through it all.
tyrant@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I came across this the other day but haven’t had a chance to use it. Hopefully this saves someone a lot of time installing programs.
new_guy@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Huh ninite for Linux. That’s neat
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Awesome!
DivineDev@piefed.social 2 days ago
The trick is to learn to absolutely despise Windows before doing the switch, then everytime something breaks on Linux you reminisce about the olden days and decide that typing two or three commands in the terminal isn’t so bad afterall.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The trick is to
dump your personal files into a seperate, non OS hard drive so that if shit hits the bricks, you have a parachute.
Ask me how I know.
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Backups are a good idea.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Or you can do like I did and simply put an extra hard drive in, load Linux on it. Then use your old Windows hard drive as a storage drive. For the first couple of weeks it was a nice safety blanket to have.
Oh, and if your PC doesn’t have the room inside for an extra hard drive. Make it an external.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Step one: download bazzite Step two: install Step three: ??? Step four: Fuck windows
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I would caution against fucking Windows - you’ll likely end up with a nasty virus
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
That’s why you use a firewall and open a port to insert your ramdisk
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
*conditions apply, your situation may vary with Nvidia hardware
Katana314@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I kinda get there’s some common meme about Nvidia being Linux’s kryptonite, but everything’s been okay for me on CachyOS. This after some issues earlier in the year on Mint and even Bazzite.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, the Linux community has done a shitload of work to bring Linux up to as good as windows (in the technical sense) and better than windows (regarding the often hostile user experience).
Microsoft is now helping with the marketing by making the windows experience even worse, driving more people to “take the plunge” only for them to realize there isn’t a place where the floor suddenly drops away and you’re left helpless, and that that actually is a better description for using windows outside of the rails MS wants.
If you use an AMD gpu, there’s actually fewer steps to go from empty disk to playing a game, assuming that game isn’t trying to do things with the kernel or is one of the rare games that aren’t compatible for reasons other than anti-cheat (I’ve seen one game like that so far, forget the name of it but a logistics game that needed some dotnet library or something and I ended up giving up and refunding it rather than troubleshooting it until it worked, though others on protondb did say they got it working).
The days where windows gives an easier or better experience are gone, even ignoring all the next level enshitification of win 11. I’ve been on Linux for about a year now but wish I had switched sooner.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
If you use an AMD gpu, there’s actually fewer steps to go from empty disk to playing a game
That’s the theory, assuming that the Amd Gpu works with Linux. It might also just crash your system, which is a know problem of the driver, which hasn’t been fixed.
psoul@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Waiting patiently for commercial software to be ported to Linux:
- creative suites, I think Canva is working on Affinity for Linux but they want to release their iPad version first. Wine is working right now but there are a few things I’m getting tired of (navigating folders and trying to print). I know, Gimp, Inkscape and Krita.
- 3D modeling software for engineers, like solidworks or NX. I’m trying Blender add-ons for CAD but it’s not as capable. Don’t you dare suggest FreeCAD.
- Music production software, esp. Ableton.
YoSoySnekBoi@kbin.earth 3 days ago
- Music production software, esp. Ableton.
For what it's worth, REAPER works great on Linux. Ik it doesn't fill quite the same niche as Ableton but it is very capable, especially paired with yabridge for using VSTs via WINE.
HexaBack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
and if you’re into a tracker-like workflow, renoise works really well on linux (assuming you can set up jack/pipewire properly or undo the horrror upon linux audio servers that is p*lseaudio. i feel this applies to most daws on linux)
ShadowZone@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Not my experience, sorry. I have bought Reaper years ago and the Windows experience was flawless. In order to even get audio, I need to launch Reaper via terminal using “pw-jack reaper” otherwise I have either garbage audio or too much latency.
My VST plugins (iZotope RX 11, iZotope VEA, Arturia Keylab, Bias FX) wouldn’t run via yabridge, haven’t figured out why yet.
I assume it has something to do with activating licenses or whatever crap like that. The entire “pro audio” industry and their overbearing licensing and “security” schemes can go suck a duck. For real.
Damage@feddit.it 2 days ago
And drivers too. Yeah, we’ve got the big stuff covered, Intel, AMD, NVidia all release Linux drivers. But peripherals manufacturers mostly target Windows, maybe macOS, but leave Linux driver to be developed by the community.
laranis@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Don’t you dare suggest FreeCAD.
I have a Hope/Hate relationship with FreeCAD. Sometimes I can get it to do something useful and I get hopeful. Then I try to do something simple and ruin the entire design and have to start from scratch and I curse the developers lineage for all of time. I want it to be great, and it is closer than it has ever been. But it isn’t a replacement for professional design suites.
HexaBack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
i’m just dreaming of a good after effects clone (or port) for linux (preferably open source). left-angle autograph kicked the bucket, and pikimov is just a bit too limited. at least fusion360 can be streamed in a browser now, but freecad seems to be getting quite good as of lately. i pretty much only use windows at school now for ae/cad work.
Grass@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I wish I could just go in and use freecad but it just doesn’t make sense to me. the software I’ve tried before I could just go in and make something by winging it but freecad that seems impossible
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
The alternative to FreeCAD on Linux is OnShape running in the browser.
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Affinity Suite for Linux would be a game changer.
KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Might be worth looking at BricsCAD (but honestly as an engineer who has professionally used a number of different CAD packages, FreeCAD honestly isn’t that bad and I happily use it at home, it just has a different workflow)
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Seems like someone posted a update or extension or something for Freecad that changed the interface and made it more familiar. I don’t mind it the way it is, but apparently others like the change.
MimicJar@lemmy.world 2 days ago
In contrast, Linux won’t stop you if you try to use a command that deletes every file on your PC (“sudo rm -rf /”).
Actually AFAIK it will stop that specific command nowadays. I don’t have a VM handy to test, but without the “–no-preserve-root” flag it should give an error.
(Don’t actually run that command on a machine you care about, I’m only 80% confident.)
1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world 2 days ago
textik@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Goddamn this mf really did hold the gun up to his own head and pulled the trigger just to prove it would go click.
Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
could this be based on the distro?
or is it built into the kernel?
vikingtons@lemmy.world 3 days ago
archive link
Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Anyone else facing captcha loops whenever they try to view an archive.is link? Haven’t been able to read subscriber only articles for months now
mjr@infosec.pub 3 days ago
Not every time, but far too often. They don’t seem to care that they’re discriminating against people with AV impairment, plus locking out some secure browsers.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 days ago
LLM-driven web scraping is intense for some sites, so their bot detection software is tuned in a way that creates a lot of false positives.
Obscuring your browser fingerprint, or blocking javascript, or using an unusual user-agent string can trigger a captcha challenge.
If you’re not doing that and seeing a site suddenly start giving your captchas then they may be being DDoS’d by scrapers and are challenging all clients.
A site that archives content is especially vulnerable because they have a lot of the data that is useful for AI training.
It is incredibly annoying, but until we have a robust way of proving identity that can’t be gamed by bad actors we’re stuck with individual user challenges.
vikingtons@lemmy.world 3 days ago
No but I do get about three or four challenges
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 3 days ago
I don’t have this problem; You probably are using TOR or a VPN and it triggered the captcha
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I haven’t faced a captcha but, it just took a solid 2 minutes to resolve and load the article for me. Maybe they have something else happening behind the scenes impacting performance so they are locking down certain routes?
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 1 day ago
Been using linux exclusively for personal computing since 2019 and don’ miss windows either.
ziggurat@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not exclusively but almost exclusively since 2004 here, the time when there was a thing similar to wine for printer drivers
IzzuThug@lemmy.world 2 days ago
A lot of misinformation and people going about things wrong in the comments.
Do y’all not do research before buying a house, buying a car, or applying to a new job?
Y’all need to go back and learn critical thinking.
PKscope@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Would be nice to be able to read the article. This hiding shit behind an account just guarantees I’ll never read it on your site.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
The Linux/Mac combo covers just about every computing requirement, even for corporate users. You do not need Windows unless you play competitive online multiplayer games.
Me:
Mac -
- Music production software
- Adobe software
- Some corporate VPNs and VDI access required by some clients
- Corporate MS software required by some clients
Linux -
- Everything else
oyenyaaow@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
i miss handwriting input; both english and chinese writing. yes keyboard is faster but time spent writing isn’t that wasted for me, and my posture is better when i used a drawing tablet exclusively instead of mouse and keyboard, also i’ve bullied windows handwriting recognition enough that it’s pretty much chicken scratch input.
Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
I had crashes on Linux because of defective hardware but first thought it was because of software/config/driver issues. I reinstalled the OS, problem persisted. I installed two other completely different distros, problem still there. To make sure it’s not because of Linux in general, I installed Windows…
Damn the installation of Windows (newest image) with updates and only the basic drivers for GPU and mainboard took longer than installing three different Linux distros, and I’m not exaggerating!
Linux: Boot installer, choose to use network installation so you get the newest packages, maybe add or remove some features, choose locales, enter login credentials, reboot when finished, done.
Windows: Boot installer, workaround to use local account, installing files, reboot, installing more files, choose locale and login credentials, answer questions about privacy, install more files, reboot, login to Windows, download updates, reboot, download more updates, open edge (optional: install other browser), visit mainboard manufacturer website, search for correct drivers, install, reboot, visit GPU website, download driver, install, reboot…
And then it’s only the absolute minimum. No debloat or other software installed like office suite or steam which on Linux can selected and installed directly with the OS.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems
This is a good takeaway from the article. If you have a problem, you need to at least try to search for a solution.
Since joining The Verge in October, I’ve started using a MacBook for work
Imo that The Verge requires MacOS (or windows) for their workflow is a huge red flag for anyone who is using Linux.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 days ago
When the day comes that Linux runs all of my games, I will give the dual-boot the boot. :)
richardwallass@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I did the same but I cannot replace it. Half of my devices are not working.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
At this point, the remaining voluntary (as in: not forced by work) windows users are one giant ass Stockholm syndrome victim group/
Almost everything in Linux is easier to set up than on Windows, and thanks to the command line and basic architecture not changing, 10-15 year old tips are still valid today more often than not. Unlike Windows.
And Windows users who would fail to set up Linux from scratch & read online references to fill their knowledge gaps have most definitely never set up a Windows machine themselves, and are instead using preinstalled OSes, and buy a new computer when they need to upgrade to a newer OS version, as well as take their computer to an IT service person when something breaks.
LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
I switched months ago after some full screen pop up for Windows 11 took over my whole screen in the middle of me doing stuff. In a blind rage, i plugged my usb in and downloaded Pop. Did a full clean install and never looked back. There have been some hiccups, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed right away.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I think i had to boot into my windows partition 3 times last year. twice for the battlefield beta, and once for a discord quest because I really wanted the points for something in the shop.
oldest_meme_420@hilariouschaos.com 3 days ago
I keep forgetting that I use Linux, since everything feels … normal. I switched from Win 11 to Fedora a few months ago.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I think I’ve booted my windows install maybe two or three times after getting things setup on my Bazzite box, and each time was desperation because I couldn’t get something working on a time crunch (like my microphone no longer working before a telehealth appointment) and most of the time it’s user error (like the audio profile being switched so the mic wasn’t enabled for some reason).
Honestly, the only complaint I have is that periodically flat/snap apps (isr offhand) don’t want to open and I have to reboot a couple times before they do. Can’t say the same for my windows installs…
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 days ago
The only problem I’ve had so far on Linux was due to my RAM breaking. Same shit could’ve happened on Windows. As much as everyone talks about needing “manual intervention” in Arch, I had to do the same shit on Windows after a bad update pushed unsigned USB drivers (which I was unaware of, I only saw the blue screen) then once I did a system restore it just failed after wiping my hard drive despite only using tools from Windows itself. I ended up having to get a third party tool to fix it all, because the vhdx files Windows made assumed my computer was UEFI despite only supporting BIOS. It was a mess.
The moral of the story is: Windows still has these problems, people are just more used to solving them so it doesn’t feel like they’re solving a problem.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 days ago
Yep. I’ve been during linux as my main desktop for maybe a year or two now, and it’s been fine. I don’t tinker with it. Most things just work.
The only thing that’s been a little dicey is mods for games, but I think I just need to figure out how like wine and proton prefixes work. It’s probably not hard, I just haven’t had a need lately.
mlg@lemmy.world 2 days ago
~~Why are these mainstream media journalists going out of their way to make Linux work and look harder than it is?
You don’t need to open the terminal to install software or configure anything, that’s literally the whole point of every big DE that ships well made GUI apps.~~
He solved his problem by switching off of Ubuntu to Fedora, I think I almost shed a tear lmao
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 2 days ago
But remembered to write a shitty article about it
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 2 days ago
So I’ve gone back to linux for my daily but holy hell the driver support is very much still not there, especially for gaming.
The wifi driver is flakey and drops connection requiring a disable/re-enable every so often, power management doesn’t work quite right with sleep mode locking up the system every so often, keyboard no use of most of the advanced features, same for the mouse and never mind about the other various nits that I end up finding that honestly don’t have much info because there’s no official driver support from the companies, just mostly wonderful people who are making things work but don’t have that industrial knowledge and limited time.
Still, absolutely no regrets in moving back to Linux because Windows has been just horrible since 7 and 11, which I still have to use at work, is just absolute crap.
Switorik@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I’m about a year in. I started with mint and I’m on endeavor now. It can be a bit fiddly to get setup. Once setup it behaves the same way, but less ads and copilot/edge aren’t forced on you non stop.
The only issue we have is anticheat, and that only affects games like battlefield/cod. So not much of a loss there.
KingPapaDaddy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Only problem I have with Linux is it not working on my hardware. Windows of course works fine. So many stories of a Thinkpad T480 and Linux being such a dream, until you try it and it doesn’t work.
yesman@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Linux can be intimidating. And there is going to be a learning curve. Especially if you’re the kind of windows user who’s familiar with gpedit and has custom .bat files.
But what get’s left out is the joy and satisfaction that comes with learning how to Linux. I just re-installed my OS a week ago, and I was able to recognize and resolve dependency and permissions issues without having to look anything up. I also finally learned and started using rsync for backups over SSH/SAMBA. I know it’s not much, but it made me feel like a real hackerman.
The only thing I learned in my last few years of Windows was how to disable features that annoyed me.
GhostlyPixel@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I would think someone who is taking advantage of bat files would feel right at home with shell scripts in Linux, in my experience, shell was much easier to pick up than batch
Batch is probably the same, but what always made me laugh about shell scripts is you could ask a bunch of people how to do something, and they’d all have a different way, it’s like there’s always a new tool to learn and try to fit into your workflow if you want, I love it
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I think I agree with this. I believe that if you are heavily into group policy or a centralized registry it would be a harder conversion. But you can even “hack” bat files to work for both Linux and Windows depending on what launches it. I had to do that with a testing bot that I sometimes ran on windows, sometimes ran on Linux. It involves abusing the label system on bat (which translates to a command true which accepts no arguments on sh). Granted you are still writing both files but, using this method you can have the windows version of it on the same page as the bash version so you can go line by line instead of having a second file open
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
i was that person. i had custom windows isos to remove the bloatware and tweak it to my liking.
its frustrating as fuck at first because linux does some things completely differently, it a way that does look weir as hell for power-windows people. i banged my head at it for a couple of year before i had that level of comfort again.
but once you get the hang of it oh boy. it’s a blast and you ask yourself why you didn’t do this sooner. it truly changed computers for me and renewed my interest in them, who would have thought computers can be so awesome when they aren’t enshittified.
jimmy90@lemmy.world 2 days ago
bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite bazzzite BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE BAZZITE
ok?
Nugscree@lemmy.world 2 days ago
No. Bazzite is pretty good at one thing and that thing is gaming. If you want do anything else and there is no flatpack/appimage for it you’re shit out of luck, unless you want to ostree and thereby breaking the reason for using an immutable distro in the first place. That is the whole reason I tried and switched my main rig over to Fedora 43 KDE so I could at least use a normal package manager.
Greddan@feddit.org 1 day ago
Yup. Bazzite for the battlestation and productivity, NixOS for goofing around.
other_cat@piefed.zip 2 days ago
I agree that the puzzle solving is a huge factor in my enjoyment of Linux, and is the same for friends of mine who hopped over. But sometimes I have to remember there are some people who despise puzzles and they are not going to have a good time.