Ask HN: Why don’t you use Linux as your daily driver OS?

> My friend tried to use Linux-only for a while, but he said trying to video conference just sucked.

As an FYI, for folks reading this, I spend at least half of every day in video conferences and this is largely a non-issue these days. The vast majority of platforms have web-based clients that work great, and many have native clients that are quite good as well. The biggest issue is probably screensharing on Wayland, which can be fiddly to get working and is subject to client issues, so stick with Xorg if you can.

In terms of hardware, I just end up buying gear designed to work with Linux rather than trying to make Linux work on a random piece of equipment. That means typically Dell or Lenovo, though newcomers like Framework are also prioritizing Linux support.

If you're using just random gear, older is better, as Linux support comes eventually but it often lags.

Edit:

By the way, I have to say, I've appreciated a lot of the comments in this thread. While I don't myself have the deep affection for the mac trackpad, and so can't really comment on that experience, everything else in this comment thread absolutely rings true to me.

And I say that as a person using Linux as a daily driver!

I would like to, but just always put off by various small things. I like the UIs available in linux and the free and open software. But often there is a difficulty, a nag, an issue to solve. And things don’t fit together, it’s lack synergy between its components. Hardware support is another difficulty- track pads like others said.

Tbh, I am looking to upgrade my laptop, and was thinking of going pure linux, but all these things are making me reconsider. I don’t want to buy a nice piece of hardware and then struggle to use it because of software compatibility. Yes I know there are Linux only systems with dedicated hardware, but tbh the hardware (system76 etc) isn’t as good as other options (that I can tell), and it locks me to linux. And yes, there are linux/windows laptops like x1 and xps, but I don’t want to buy Lenovo and I’ve had bad experiences with dell. So, I’ll probably end up going Apple and donating to some linux alternative to help forgive my sin of giving in.

What distro were you running? It's pretty rare to encounter this on Debian or Ubuntu unless you're running an unstable release and are encountering package breakage...

I feel comfortable with any of the three major OSs. Currently my daily driver is macOS, though I do most of my dev work on a remote Linux machine.

I wouldn't switch from macOS to Linux because my previous experience is that Linux won't work well or be unstable (with updates) on some hardware—in my case, a laptop. I have been reading that the situation has improve, but honestly I don't want to risk it. In general, even in purely software land, updates haven't always been smooth.

Even if all these issues were resolved, I'd need additional motivation to go through the effort of switching.

I learned that you gotta pick a boring Linux distro as your main OS. For me it's Kubuntu LTS. Sure, I've had small glitches like bluetooth headphone issues or flaky double screen support, but once you solve them, you're set for 5 years. At my age, I'll upgrade my main OS maybe 10-15 times at most.

I used to eagerly try the six-month releases, but I can't devote time to beta test anymore. Give me a boring, non-bleeding edge Linux, I can work with that.