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

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

#181

Post by krut-patel »

rcarmo wrote: post #128

For me, it’s the lack of polish and full corporate productivity suite. There are _zero_ effective replacements for a multitude of things I need, although I would be perfectly happy with a fully standard implementation of Remote Desktop (and no, Remmina still lacks the authentication and virtual desktop workspace support I need). Edge and Teams betas are coming close to providing around half of what I need, but not al…

> (I work at Microsoft).

Just in case you didn't know, since the SolarWinds debacle from last year, Microsoft has completely blocked authorisation for corpnet and other tools on anything other than enrolled devices. And since they only support managed devices on Windows/MacOS, using Linux for day job is a no go. Last I checked, circa Jan, I couldn't use Teams/Office on a web browser in Linux (of course, this might have changed in the meantime).

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

#182

Post by phendrenad2 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #163
karmakaze wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that Starcraft 2 plays perfectly on Linux. Here's some instructions (I haven't tried myself): [0] https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-starcraft-2-on-ubuntu...

I guess that people interested in gaming will want to play more than a single, decade-old, game.

Someone really needs to study this phenomenon. If someone said "I don't drive a Prius because I need to tow my boat" and five people immediately said "Hey I put a HEMI v8 diesel engine in my Prius, and it works great to tow my cart full of rocks! (But I haven't tried it on the open road)" you'd think "What are these people doing? Do they think that was helpful?" Do any academic papers touch on what is going on here?

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

#183

Post by rcarmo »

krut-patel wrote: post #181
rcarmo wrote: post #128

For me, it’s the lack of polish and full corporate productivity suite. There are _zero_ effective replacements for a multitude of things I need, although I would be perfectly happy with a fully standard implementation of Remote Desktop (and no, Remmina still lacks the authentication and virtual desktop workspace support I need). Edge and Teams betas are coming close to providing around half of what I need, but not al…

> (I work at Microsoft). Just in case you didn't know, since the SolarWinds debacle from last year, Microsoft has completely blocked authorisation for corpnet and other tools on anything other than enrolled devices. And since they only support managed devices on Windows/MacOS, using Linux for day job is a no go. Last I checked, circa Jan, I couldn't use Teams/Office on a web browser in Linux (of course, this might ha…

Yes, I know. I keep my work machines separate (always have, by personal policy), so I never had to deal with that. But the auth limitations and general feature gaps have always prevented me from even thinking about trying, and are more representative than specific policies.

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

#184

Post by madamelic »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #120
Engineering-MD wrote: post #114

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 t…

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-bleedin…

I think that's the big point here.

Too many people think Linux and think some complicated OS where you are handed a barebones OS and you have to assemble the rest. You can absolutely do that but you really shouldn't unless you know why you are doing that.

Ubuntu LTS works great. I've been running off it for over a decade (god. just realized that.) and it's almost always been plug-and-play. The days of having to constantly fiddle with drivers is over. I made the jump back when node development on Windows required fiddling but node on Linux did not. `sudo apt install build-essential` and I was basically ready to go.

The few times where I had to fiddle with Ubuntu were pretty painless. The nice thing about using a really common OS where some tinkering skill is expected is you can search for anything and someone has almost definitely written out exact steps on how to solve it.

If you get a problem with Windows: good luck, because the technical support for Windows is taking it to Geek Squad / re-installing the OS entirely. I'll admit I am being a little facetious on this.

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

#186

Post by lostmsu »

probably_wrong wrote: post #176
lostmsu wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are any of those problems of "unchangeable 800x600 resolution" magnitude? Could you name a few?

I can name two. I had Windows 7, which was then upgraded to Win10. Problem is, my computer doesn't support UEFI, so I cannot reinstall Win 10 from USB on an SSD even though it's gotten really, really slow (as in, 15sec for right click). I also cannot generate a recovery DVD because the generated image is too big and doesn't fit. As a result, the computer spends it's first 15+ minutes updating stuff I don't need. The…

Win 10 has a reset button in settings similar to mobile phones.

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

#188

Post by fsflover »

reacharavindh wrote: post #77

Three reasons. 1. Cohesiveness - there are many things Linux does excellently if done independently. But, when you want a cohesive experience to achieve a good user experience, it falls flat in its face. Examples: Have an excellent file system? Check. ZFS, ext4 and plenty more. May I expect a simple equivalent of a GUI file explorer in the class of Windows Explorer or Finder? Nope. There is not even thumbnail preview…

> 3. Reliability around on/off/on/off/suspend operations like that of a laptop.

This is definitely caused by unsupported hardware. I'm using Linux for many years, suspend works 100% of the time on my Librem 15 and Lenovo.

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

#190

Post by hajile »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #172
hajile wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not mac-specific. My Pixelbook has a better trackpad experience than my M1 Macbook and it runs on Linux (ChromeOS). The big problem is a lack of investment by either Linux or Windows. It's such a huge quality of life improvement that I really don't understand why there's not more focus. The real downer on Linux for me (chromebook aside) is that it's hard to get good laptop battery life and even with all the tw…

Does the trackpad usability steeply decline when you switch from ChromeOS to, say, Ubuntu?

I've never dual-booted my pixelbook, but using Crostini doesn't affect the trackpad because it is using ChromeOS as the host.

I've heard that GalliumOS (based on Xbuntu) uses the ChromeOS trackpad drivers and works well, but I've never had the time to mess with it.

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