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Upgrade to Linux

upgradetolinux.com

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Re: Upgrade to Linux

#61
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that suggestion odd as well. I can't think of a single reason why Ubuntu should be favoured over Fedora as a quote "easy way to try and step into GNU/Linux" either. All three of their distro suggestions ship GNOME by default. Fedora is such a clear choice for those who want to use GNOME without all of the non-standard crap Canonical insists on tacking onto the DE and the overall environment.

As a Fedora user I can see one almost-reason. IIRC Fedora by default only ships with the FOSS repos enabled. Most average users probably want to enable the rpmfusion repos to get things like media codecs, drivers, and various other nonfree stuff. It's not hard to do this, but it makes it more of a "turn key twice" solution compared to Ubuntu.

Fedora ships proprietary firmware in their "FOSS" repos, so your first statement isn't entirely accurate. Debian will now install firmware by default too. I think the only distros that now don't are Guix and other FSF affiliated distros.

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#62
Direct marketing doesn't seem like a very good method to attract people.

Linux needs to do one thing to make it a viable option: Make steam and all windows based steam games work out of the box.

Linux needs to do one thing to win the consumer market: Make all steam games work better than on windows out of the box.

If linux can do that, they can win a market that is not the server market. If Linux cannot do that, then people are trapped on Windows for the foreseeable future.

That is the "did we solve your problem. y/n?" of the desktop environment. It is the only question that matters. I don't see the purpose in marketing Linux for non server purposes until that hurdle has been jumped.

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What do you mean by “It does not get viruses”? Well, I mean, um https://www.linuxexperten.com/library/e-resources/linux-malw...

I know that some people say "virus" when they mean malware in general. However, a literal virus is a snippet of code that attaches itself to an executable. When the executable is run, the virus also runs. The virus then finds more executables and attaches itself to those too. Literal viruses on diverse unices were indeed fairly rare in the past (and are still not common). Traditionally on most linuxes (and bsds) you…

>Traditionally on most linuxes (and bsds) you obtain trusted executables from a known good source (your distribution ) , whilst files from other sources are never run at all.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people installing applications by piping curl output to Bash are also on linuxes and bsds

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#64

Direct marketing doesn't seem like a very good method to attract people. Linux needs to do one thing to make it a viable option: Make steam and all windows based steam games work out of the box. Linux needs to do one thing to win the consumer market: Make all steam games work better than on windows out of the box. If linux can do that, they can win a market that is not the server market. If Linux cannot do that, then…

To be honest, it's closer than you'd think. I find very few games now that I can't run through Steam+Proton, to the point I forget I'm not on the 'Native' OS for them.

And what I've also found is that issues that affect my games on Linux Steam are usually also reported for Windows (i.e. black screen on loading, certain freezes).

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that some people say "virus" when they mean malware in general. However, a literal virus is a snippet of code that attaches itself to an executable. When the executable is run, the virus also runs. The virus then finds more executables and attaches itself to those too. Literal viruses on diverse unices were indeed fairly rare in the past (and are still not common). Traditionally on most linuxes (and bsds) you…

>Traditionally on most linuxes (and bsds) you obtain trusted executables from a known good source (your distribution ) , whilst files from other sources are never run at all. On the other hand, the vast majority of people installing applications by piping curl output to Bash are also on linuxes and bsds

What can I say, I enjoy living dangerously.

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#66
I love Linux systems. My daily driver, an MSI GS-66, runs Ubuntu as the primary OS. But despite the fact that it's 2022, I still have to spend at least a few hours every month fixing things.

The latest issue is that after updating the kernel and graphics drivers, I can't suspend the PC anymore. It dumps a bunch of crap to dmesg, then returns to the login screen. This is a known issue on the forums, and it's still broken.

I also have to deal with broken wifi semi-regularly, most recently last year, when an update took out the wifi drivers until I could roll it back (at home, since I don't have ethernet at work).

I love Linux, but it's a love-hate relationship. I still don't think it's ready for mass adoption until it can be as reliable as windows or MacOS for consumer PCs.

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#67
Most of my day to day work is on a Thinkpad running Fedora. I also have a work laptop running Windows, and a personal macbook pro. Two quick points:

1. The emphasis in this website of "you can change what you want" targets a pretty small population. Anecdata of the worst sort, but the vast majority of people in my orbit absolutely do not want to manage their computer. They want it to largely disappear so they can work and watch cat videos. Most of them think customizing their computer means changing their wallpaper. And that's fine! I never lead with "I can customize this machine to do what I want." I lead with "Eh, I got tired of forced reboots and disruptive updates and privacy issues so I switched to Fedora and it doesn't do any of that. If I want to fiddle with something I can [and I very, very much do tinker], but I don't have to."

2. I laughed at the notion of using linux to bring an ancient 5-year-old computer in the closet back to life. I mean, yes, that is one of the great things about linux, but the macbook pro I'm typing on right now is 5 years old and it runs like it's new. The hardest thing to convey about Apple equipment is that the TCO is lower because you can easily upgrade on a 5-7-year cycle, pretty much as long as Apple gives security updates. Expensive at the front end (though competitive with similar Windows machines), but not as expensive over the lifespan. (And, emphatically, I'm not saying you can't experience long ownership cycles with PCs, but, from experience, it's harder.)

On the other hand, when this MPB runs out of gas, I'm probably going to replace it with a thinkpad, or possibly with an ARM Mac running linux.

Re: Upgrade to Linux

#68
post #10

This website is terrible. Its "resources" are almost entirely just links to articles and youtube videos. The information is poorly presented and poorly written. Why is the front page entirely taken up by a picture of a penguin?

It's a reflection of the linux ecosystem because it's imbued with the linux mentality.

Just throw things together (that were all designed and built separately) and convince yourself it will form a coherent whole.

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