I've tried but so many software that I am using is only available on Windows.
Also, some minor annoyances like my Bluetooth headset identifies my laptop running Linux (tried w/ Ubuntu based distros) as a mobile so I can't connect to my mobile and laptop in the same time!
Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
181–190 of 346 posts
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#182We have three choices for the desktop: -one that seems to treat anyone as an idiot and it's an walled garden -one that is broken -one that kind of works but is boring and it is kind of a new skin on a very old paradigma interested most in keeping backwards compatibility 20 years ago as an OS enthusiast, I was in Heaven. Apart from Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, we had a lot of new operating systems, each trying to work on…
20 years ago there were a bunch of half-baked OSes that had very narrow hardware support, little to no security models, and horrible developer ergonomics that made doing native GUI Linux apps seem easy by comparison. It's actually good that these died out.
Are you sure about BeOS? Half baked? If any, the half-baked OS in that era was Linux. Until the 2.4 kernel it sucked having several sound daemons. BSD's got it right at least.
Haiku OS didn't die, and the day it gets hardware accelerated GL/Vulkan support (now it's done thru MESA/Lavapipe/LLVMpipe), we'll talk about which os is thruly half-baked.
On security, your sensitive data belongs to an unprivileged user, do unless you set your perms to ugo+r/ chattr +i to your sensitive files, you are screwed in the same way. Yes, OpenBSD has unveil/pledge, but it's still dangerous.
You can set another user account for that, sure, but the most correct to handle that is to set that data in external media and access it on demand.
Disk storage is dirt cheap today.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#183Yet 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…
... when Windows 12 comes out it will be half GNU/Linux
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#184Yet 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…
And indeed these are points when many switch or at least try to, which is good. And some of those stick for good, some go back.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Everytime Apple upgrades Xcode I am worried something in my development workflow breaks (as has happened many times in the past). Same is true for every major macOS release the last 5 years or so.
I’m getting to the point that I consider switching to Linux, but the biggest show stopper for me is my work as iOS dev. Hopefully can move to some other tech in a couple of years so I don’t have to rely on the Apple platform for my income.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#186Disclosure: I'm a developer advocate at Microsoft with a focus on Linux, I am typing this on a laptop running Windows 11 (it also has another SSD that runs Linux), and I'm a diehard Mac user.
I hate this sort of SEO-driven clickbait that is trying to inflame wars that frankly, were settled two decades ago. Use Linux. Use Windows. Use macOS. Use Chrome OS. Use OpenBSD. Use Haiku. If you're a complete masochist, use GNN Hurd. Use whatever works.
It will never be the year of the Linux desktop (and that's totally OK!) and poorly-written articles like this do nothing to help change that.
Plus, the article is wrong. There are plenty of Linux distributions with tons of telemetry and spyware (Deepin Linux is literally run by the Chinese government) and talking points against TPMs and secure boot are so completely 2010, I had really hoped we had moved past that by now.
Again, use whatever you want. But this is such lazy writing, I'm disheartened to see it rank so highly on HN, just because people want to get territorial about what computing platform other people use.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly for me it is the other way around. I have Windows 10 on the main PC, KDE Neon on a NUC and "obviously" several Raspberry Pi's doing various things. I spend far more time maintaining the Linux machines, while my Windows box just works. KDE Neon has been much better last year, but still every now and then some conflict pops up which requires manual command line intervention. Clearly YMMV... That said, I'm…
What exactly are you doing to maintain the Linux system? Configuring it? I haven't done much of any Linux maintenance over the past decade, and I'm nearing two decades of full time use. The only issue I could sink time into is the lack of deep (S3) and that's completely an issue caused by Microsoft's capture of most laptop manufacturers (they have forced new hybrid sleep states that don't even work on windows machine…
Well I try to update packages every now and then, security and that jazz, which has a non-zero chance of requiring manual intervention. Merging config file changes is a common one, every now and then some package mess to clean up.
Not saying it's a huge deal, though I do worry about screwing up the config changes, but it's a lot more work than what I have to do to keep my Windows machine running.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#188The real reasons I use Linux are mostly out of convenience. For example, updating all my software and OS using one command rather than clicking on 50 updaters.
This and its dual, not having to restore apps configuration every 3 weeks because some bloatware has the rights to change boot settings etc I like windows for various reasons but it's a constant maintenance chore. Linux is more like a stone wall.. set and forget.
> This and its dual, not having to restore apps configuration every 3 weeks because some bloatware has the rights to change boot settings etc
What type of shady apps are you installing that is modifying boot settings?
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#189It's kind of funny, but Eric S. Raymond seems to be reincarnating in multiple dudes even if he's alive and well. I doubt even he has still faith in desktop Linux.
So I wasn't the only one who got a huge ESR vibe from that article.
Re: Reasons to switch from Windows to Linux
#190The real reasons I use Linux are mostly out of convenience. For example, updating all my software and OS using one command rather than clicking on 50 updaters.
I do it out of respect for my hardware. On Windows, it wasn't unusual to be idling ~45c with Spotify and Discord open. That same workload stays well under 35c on Linux, even with my rather paltry 6-year-old CPU.
Might be different sensors you are reading.