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Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

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Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#121

Post by codeflo »

pjmlp wrote: post #75

Yet another one of thoses guides. When XP came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to Toy'R us interface. When Vista came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to DX 10 drivers and hardware requirements. When 8.x came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to tablet UI. When 10 came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to telemetry. Now Windows 11 came out, naturally everyone is going to go…

OTOH, 11 is the first version of Windows where Microsoft actively tells a large portion of their userbase that they don’t want them to run it. I’m not a believer in “the year of the Linux desktop” either, but those insane policies around fictitious hardware requirements surely must have some impact on market share?

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#122

Post by atraac »

I honestly tried multiple times, I really wanted it to work for me. I have XPS 9570 and I simply could not get basic stuff to work, like fingerprint reader, trouble with proprietary gpu drivers etc. There was always something not working, something throwing an exception, something that requires this one simple bash command to get to work. I just gave up. I tried few most popular distros on multiple laptops over last 8 years and there was always a problem with something. When I was younger I had no problem with that, but now... I simply don't care enough to go through it, I just install Windows and continue with my mediocre life.

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#123

Post by rbanffy »

EastOfTruth wrote: post #106
pjmlp wrote: post #75

Yet another one of thoses guides. When XP came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to Toy'R us interface. When Vista came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to DX 10 drivers and hardware requirements. When 8.x came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to tablet UI. When 10 came out everyone was going to go GNU/Linux, due to telemetry. Now Windows 11 came out, naturally everyone is going to go…

Why is Windows 11 the only one that you don't give a reason? Vista was just complete shit BTW... I skipped over it to Windows 7. Switched completely to Linux after that.

It still too soon to know what problems and pains will Windows 11 cause.

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#124

Post by iso1210 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #40

Off topic: since I've never developed apps for Linux, what is the popular language/API that people use for Linux (or better, cross platform) development these days? (Ha ha, I'm already feeling like the is hardly a question that there is a simple answer for.)

electron

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#125

Post by wiz21c »

28 years of Linux at home and about 20 of them with full linux (ie, no windows at all). I feel sooooo great.

- I update when I want to (but admitedly, I have to understand what each lib is about; not for the end user)

- I don't feel constantly baby-sitted

- Nobody pushes his "latest new version that I must try unless I tell I don't want to"

- the window manager just does the job

- when I want to understand what happens, I can definitely look in the code, on the web, etc.

- there's a community of people like me :-)

but that's true, now and then, there's this tricky config stuff I want. Nothing fancy, but certainly out of reach for regular users, such as : making the sound mono; fixing grub 'cos debian's update screwed it; installing stuff which is not in the repo, fixing KDE's theme install gone wrong,...

But now, to me it's more of a choice : either you get advertisment and a real feeling of being screwed versus sometimes there's something tricky to fix...

(and 28 years ago, that choice didn't exist. It was either an almost working Windows versus 3 months of ./configure;make install until the go*amn sound card could play something... such a long way)

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#126

Post by davrosthedalek »

smoldesu wrote: post #58
itsbits wrote: post #28

Aren't these reasons (even if they are convincing) apply to Mac systems as well?

Good point, there are some specific places where Linux really excels over MacOS: - 32-bit app support - Nvidia GPU/CUDA support - Encryption without a question mark at the end - I can hide my topbar (or ostensibly move it wherever I want) - I don't get a popup asking me to try Safari every week

For some of these, Windows wins against MacOS as well. And I have the impression, every Mac OS release, I have to debug the C++ dev environment of my students. 3 years ago I was praying that a new student had a MAC, because I could get them going easily. Now I'm praying they are on Windows, because WSL+Ubuntu just works. (I'm not praying they have Linux, because that realistically never happens. Would be great though.)

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#127

Post by Synaesthesia »

superasn wrote: post #96
CaioAlonso wrote: post #5

As a counterpoint: Reasons to consider NOT switching to Linux https://corn.codeberg.page/notlinux.html

My only two reasons would be no Photoshop and fewer games, though it's definitely catching up on both.

Music making software is really lacking on Linux compared to Windows and Mac.

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#129

Post by inanutshellus »

consumer451 wrote: post #3

I just went back after 3 years of Ubuntu. Admittedly I am a dilettante but I never did anything very "hacky" and still ended up with a broken upgrade path, twice. I can't have this in a work desktop machine. My employer gives zero f's about my privacy concerns.

I missed an upgrade cycle and didn't upgrade for like 18 months*. turns out EVERYTHING BREAKS. They actually delete the f'ing repos and you can't upgrade, you just get a wall of 404s.

I understand the "We only to support on LTS releases" argument but I didn't think that meant "We actively sabotage our short-term releases".

Huge huge huuuuge barrier for normies IMO.

* FWIW, I didn't upgrade when it was prompted because I was "too busy sawing to sharpen my saw" so-to-speak. I was on a major project, have known video card issues with upgrading, and was worried I'd be unavailable for work for 3 days trying to fix my UI. So I waited until the next LTS to upgrade. Turns out you can't go from an old STS to the next LTS and you have to baby-step through the STS's ... which no longer exist. wtf.

:pretend-this-is-a-flame-emoji:

Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux

#130

Post by xeromal »

iso1210 wrote: post #111
xeromal wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact elitist mentality that the article writer is talking about. Not only are you saying everyone who can't figure it out is dumb, but you forget, there are actually people who probably can't understand it because its a different icon like very elderly people. My grandma would only use a browser if I set the icon to the little IE6 icon. lol

About half of windows users are dumber than the average person, and the average person is dumb.

Amen. Hell, I might be one of those dummies.
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