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Linux is good now

pcgamer.com

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Re: Linux is good now

#81

Post by lawn »

savolai wrote: post #5

Linux desktops have felt flaky for me for a few years now. I’m trying to figure out how much of that is bad choices vs real problems. Ubuntu’s default desktop felt unstable in a macOS VM. Dual-booting on a couple of HP laptops slowed to a crawl after installing a few desktop apps, apparently because they pulled in background services. What surprised me was how quickly the system became unpleasant to use without any o…

Not at all.

I've run Void Linux + Xmonad for many years without any such issues. I also recently installed CachyOS for my kid to game on (KDE Plasma) and it works super well.

Re: Linux is good now

#82

Post by unethical_ban »

LennyHenrysNuts wrote: post #32

It's been good for twenty years, the only difference is that OP finally gave it a fair go.

Proton for games had changed things dramatically. Gamers can legit switch to Linux with barely a second thought, without being technical.

Linux/x86 still is poor for battery life compared to Apple.

Re: Linux is good now

#83

Post by mkozlows »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #38
babl-yc wrote: post #33

I switched my desktop from macOS (10+ years) to Ubuntu 25 last year and I'm not going back. The latest release includes a Gnome update which fixed some remaining annoyances with high res monitors. I'd say it pretty much "just works" except less popular apps are a bit more work to install. On occasion you have to compile apps from source, but it's usually relatively straightforward and on the upside you get the latest…

But what about laptops? I don’t use desktop machines anymore (last time was in 2012). Apple laptops are top notch. I use ubuntu as vm (headless) for software development tho

Works well if the laptop has hardware designed to support Linux. Framework stuff is great, for instance.

Re: Linux is good now

#84

Post by rvnx »

stryan wrote: post #20
rvnx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edited: My bad, I misread, started ranting about Gimp, how terrible this software was

GIMP is definitely not a daemon; I don't think it even has a run in the background mode. Maybe something with snaps?

No no, just misread, my fault, sorry. Mixed "dragging up demons" and then it reminded me of my traumas with GIMP, PulseAudio, CUDA, etc

Re: Linux is good now

#85

Post by solumunus »

Tried to switch to Linux plenty of times over the past few decades, this year it finally stuck. I can confidently say I’ll never install Windows again. Everything pretty much just works and any issues I’ve had have been quickly resolved with the help of LLM’s.

Re: Linux is good now

#86

Post by BuyMyBitcoins »

sho_hn wrote: post #63
pygar wrote: post #30

Every year at around this time there is a lot of linux related content in tech media. It's a slow moving evergreen topic perfect for a scheduled release while the author is on holiday. This is just filler content that could have been written at any point in the last 10 years with minor changes.

I've been working on the Linux desktop for 20 years, and I've been using it on the desktop since 1999, so I lived through the infamous "Year of the Linux Desktop" era. I've not seen anything like the current level of momentum, ever, nor this level of mainstream exposure. Gaming has changed the equation, and 2026 will be wild.

Gaming, and Microsoft enshittifying Windows 11 to an absurd degree.

The bloat is astounding. This is especially egregious now that RAM costs a fortune.

Re: Linux is good now

#87

Post by ofalkaed »

regularfry wrote: post #62
ofalkaed wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The personal desktop has fallen in relevance enough for that to be possible. The goalposts moved, now linux needs to have phone, tablet, and laptop with smooth effortless integration between them all. I recently switched to using a thumb drive to transfer files to and from my phone/tablet, I became demoralized when faced with getting it all setup.

KDE has phone and laptop integrated well enough for me. It's worth giving it a try but the more devices you want integrated the more of a risk it is in case it doesn't quite work right. But I've got enough other devices in the house which I can't put KDE on (work laptop, Windows machine I need for some specific software) that I can recommend https://github.com/9001/copyparty over thumb drives.

I actually intended to set everything up but did not have time and needed to copy some files, so dusted off a thumb drive. I am liking it quite a bit and I think I prefer it to the alternatives.

Re: Linux is good now

#88

Post by jaapz »

ofalkaed wrote: post #24
lorenzohess wrote: post #4

2026 YOTLD?

The personal desktop has fallen in relevance enough for that to be possible. The goalposts moved, now linux needs to have phone, tablet, and laptop with smooth effortless integration between them all. I recently switched to using a thumb drive to transfer files to and from my phone/tablet, I became demoralized when faced with getting it all setup.

What integration between phone and desktop would you like to see?

Re: Linux is good now

#89

Post by solumunus »

pygar wrote: post #30

Every year at around this time there is a lot of linux related content in tech media. It's a slow moving evergreen topic perfect for a scheduled release while the author is on holiday. This is just filler content that could have been written at any point in the last 10 years with minor changes.

Perhaps it could have been written, but it would have been far less accurate.

Re: Linux is good now

#90

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

pjb88 wrote: post #53

Any recommendations for a distro? I've used Mint in the past, loved it until I spent a day trying to get scanner drivers to work. Don't know if that's changed now, was 4 years ago

You're going to get everyone's opinion here. Try a bunch of the major ones and see what works best. I did this and landed on Fedora but ymmv
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