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My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

scottrlarson.com

91–100 of 173 posts

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#91
post #33

I've been on a similar journey and have largely ended up in the same sort of place - "Well, everything else has gone to hell in a handbasket, so I suppose I'll use the only things left I don't actively object to." And that list is getting smaller. You could mostly call me a "Unix Greybeard" at this point - I grew up with Windows, learned the joys of Unix on IRIX in the early 2000s, and never really went back. Linux i…

Thanks for your reply. It was helpful to hear someone on a similar journey. I am just reaching the point of take a stand for whats right, rather than what I have to get by with. No with Linux in much better shape, I can do it. From time to time I think about switching back but Im making most of what I do work.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#92
post #78

Every time I try this I go thru standard stages: 1. Ugh I want to run docker natively, Ubuntu looks good, I’ll do that 2. Install latest Ubuntu. It’s great! Love the shell. Hardware works. I can run Windows in Virtual Box for odd apps. 3. Why is my battery life so bad? Why won’t Bluetooth stay connected? 4. I am full Linux. I am living the creed! 5. I am so tired of constantly fixing something. Why is Spotify renderi…

This comment is strange because the only OS that I never had serious issues with Bluetooth is Linux, specially after migrating to PipeWire. Windows always had some strange driver that were hit or miss depending of the dongle. However macOS is much worse: I have a Galaxy Buds 2 that works perfectly in all my devices (Android, Nintendo Switch, my notebooks running Linux, etc.), but with my work provided MacBook Pro it…

I've also had bad experiences with bluetooth on macbooks. For me the apple "magic" mouse becomes unusable if I also have any bluetooth headphone connected.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#93

Fair comments but as someone who has tried many times to adopt Linux, I can honestly state that nothing in Windows comes close to the user-hostile UX approach in Linux. For example, Radarr is an extremely popular tool for managing movies. It connects to usenet and torrent clients, as well as indexers and movie databases. It makes maintaining a home movie collection seamless. Radarr is not in major package managers, a…

This is true, although the Windows model of .exe installers , which require admin permissions, isn't even the one to follow. The macOS, and especially the App Store model is far more user friendly. The non-esoteric distros and GNOME[1] recognize it and ship with a software manager akin to an app store. Those install snaps or flatpaks with one click. That's how you'd install Steam and all of its dependencies like Prot…

> The macOS, and especially the App Store model is far more user friendly.

MacOS and App Store models are the worst, most user hostile way to install anything. I like the .exe model best, it offers most flexibility and freedom to the user.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#94
I've no doubt that significant proprietary software and games tie people to Windows. However, if a) those are not core to your desktop OS use, b) you care about privacy and your OS not doing a lot of external communication behind your back, and c) you're a member of this community, it's hard to understand why you wouldn't take something like Linux seriously as a daily driver.

Step one is admitting that all desktop operating systems suck - none of them are actually engineered, they've just been crafted over decades. Second is realizing that unless you don't give a damn about what is going behind your back on your own system, you will have to embrace some form of suck. Maybe the Windows and MacOS fans don't mind having to do things like trick Windows into not sending "telemetry" or using Little Snitch to block whatever daemons Apple wants communicating to their servers for every executable you run.

As much as I swear JWZ was right about the CADT development model, more often than not, if I learn the incantations I can deterministically make Linux do what I need it to do. And I'm no software development badass like many here. I hate that I have to know so much about something so clearly not well-engineered, but am glad that it's deterministic and there's no vendor hellbent on trying to keep me from configuring my system in the way I see fit. In the worst case if I can't figure it out from documentation, forums, whatever, I can look at source code. I'm not going to tell you "Linux is awesome!", but I will say that I think it's the least bad option.

Also, of the common choices out there, I find today's KDE to be quite usable and pleasant.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#95

Am I the only one that uses Linux, Windows, and MacOS daily? Why settle for just one OS environment? What a time to be alive. I fail to see the value in all of these culture wars. It never ends. All of these systems work great for me. Thanks to all of hard work from all of the engineering teams and volunteers that put these systems together.

They're not merely culture wars, they're also value wars. Both Windows and MacOS are headed toward continuous behind-your-back communication with their respective motherships. In the case of Windows, they have the audacity to shamelessly advertise on your personal computer.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#97

Am I the only one that uses Linux, Windows, and MacOS daily? Why settle for just one OS environment? What a time to be alive. I fail to see the value in all of these culture wars. It never ends. All of these systems work great for me. Thanks to all of hard work from all of the engineering teams and volunteers that put these systems together.

Man its much worse than culture wars. It's really about anti-choice an anti-customer decisions, all for the possibility for profit.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#98
post #21

Fair comments but as someone who has tried many times to adopt Linux, I can honestly state that nothing in Windows comes close to the user-hostile UX approach in Linux. For example, Radarr is an extremely popular tool for managing movies. It connects to usenet and torrent clients, as well as indexers and movie databases. It makes maintaining a home movie collection seamless. Radarr is not in major package managers, a…

> Bottom line: make it so users never ever, for any reason ever, need to use the CLI. The more I think about, the more I'm convinced that it's an unconscious choices made by developers to keep away non power users.

Nah, non-Electron GUI dev is a mess and I don't want to add 100mb to my app. CLIs are easy to write.

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#99
post #62

Linux isn't even close for normal people's desktop use. Just recently I tried and failed to simply set up a screensaver that turns my screen black (not off!) to save my display from burn-in. Eventually I just gave up. You can't do this with stock GNOME. I also tried xscreensaver (but the Debian-specific instructions in the man page are out of date) and xfce4-screensaver, both didn't work. I've been using Debian GNU/L…

Use xautolock with i3lock w/ a black image..

Re: My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

#100
post #62

Linux isn't even close for normal people's desktop use. Just recently I tried and failed to simply set up a screensaver that turns my screen black (not off!) to save my display from burn-in. Eventually I just gave up. You can't do this with stock GNOME. I also tried xscreensaver (but the Debian-specific instructions in the man page are out of date) and xfce4-screensaver, both didn't work. I've been using Debian GNU/L…

Use xautolock with i3lock w/ a black image..

That will still black the display when I'm watching youtube.
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