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Linux is good now

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Re: Linux is good now

#701

Post by shevy-java »

I have been using Linux since almost 23 years now. I don't praise it as flawless in any way, but compared to Microsoft it is a much more efficient operating system. Top 500 supercomputers also running Linux kind of hint that Linux is very good.

Despite this, Linux as ecosystem has numerous problems. The "wayland is the future" annoys me a lot. The wayland protocol was released in 2008. Now it is almost 20 years. I don't feel wayland is ever going to win a "linux desktop of the year" award. Things that work on xorg-server still do not work on wayland - and probably never will. I am not saying wayland is useless, I ran it for a while on KDE (though I actually don't use KDE, I use icewm typically), but it is just annoying how important things like GUI on Linux simply suck. In many ways Linux is kind of a server computer system, not really a desktop computer system. I use it as one, but the design philosophy is much more catering to the server or compute-work station objective.

Also, GTK ... this thing keeps on getting worse and worse with every new release. I have no idea what they are doing, but I have an old GTK2-based editor and this one consistently works better than the GTK3 or GTK4 ported version. It was a huge mistake to downgrade and nerf GTK to a gnomey-toolkit only. Don't even get me started on GNOME ...

Re: Linux is good now

#702

Post by dueyfinster »

vertnerd wrote: post #691

I'm solo developing a spaceflight simulator on Linux (using the Godot engine), exporting binaries in both Linux and Windows. It turns out that I really didn't need to bother with the Linux export anyway because Steam runs the Windows version on Linux without any problems. The ONLY thing I'm still having trouble with under Linux is Steam VR on the HTC Vive. It works. Barely.

Interesting, do you think game devs in future will just target windows/proton and not bother with native Linux ports?

Re: Linux is good now

#703

Post by cogman10 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #646
joe200 wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are comparing Fedora with Debian stable. Everyone who wants to have Debian stability (and ecosystem) with the most new upstream software should go for Debian Testing (and don't be fooled by the name "testing" !). Debian Stable is for servers, Debian Testing is for desktops. Just try Debian Testing (and I used Slack, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian)

This is from like 20 years ago, but I remember Debian Testing as the one where updates broke the system most frequently, or maybe the longest without fixes: Stable was stable, Sid / unstable was what most Debian developers were using... and Testing was the weird thing that was neither a release nor tested and fixed "live" by developers. What changed?

Most of the problems that break a system are being resolved in unstable rather than testing.

I've ran testing on my home server, though since it's a bit old now I've switched it over to stable when testing switched to stable.

Re: Linux is good now

#705

Post by symbogra »

kombine wrote: post #577
Cort3z wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been working professionally on Linux for many years. But about once a year I have to reinstall the os because it craps out for various reasons. The same story goes for most of my team, but for some reason they seem ok with this. My issue with Linux is this: I don’t feel like a consumer, but a janitor. I don’t want this. Yes you can do whatever you want, but I don’t want to do those things. I want to write code…

I've been using Fedora and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my laptop and desktop respectively. Both are going around a year, and I haven't had major issues with them.

Looking at the logs I installed Fedora 35 on this laptop over 4 years ago when I got it and have upgraded through to 43 with no serious issues aside from some mDNS configuration that I had to fix.

Re: Linux is good now

#706

Post by andrepd »

kentonv wrote: post #242

I switched all the machines at https://lanparty.house over to Linux a couple months ago. So far, we've experienced noticeably fewer problems on Linux compared to Windows. Stability and performance are better. I can't think of one game we tried that didn't work. And wow is it nice not to have all the ads and crapware in our faces anymore. (I'm aware that Battlefield series and League of Legends won't work due to draco…

> I'm aware that Battlefield series and League of Legends won't work

I consider this a feature, not a bug

Re: Linux is good now

#707

Post by joe200 »

luke5441 wrote: post #662
joe200 wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are comparing Fedora with Debian stable. Everyone who wants to have Debian stability (and ecosystem) with the most new upstream software should go for Debian Testing (and don't be fooled by the name "testing" !). Debian Stable is for servers, Debian Testing is for desktops. Just try Debian Testing (and I used Slack, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian)

Debian testing is pretty much the worst option to choose. It can be as "unstable" as unstable, while being nearly as out-dated as a stable at points. If you want to help Debian test the next release and actually report issues choose Debian testing.

It looks like you have never used Debian testing (or used it 10 years ago ?). The testing phase is in Debian Sid and _not_ in Debian testing.

Re: Linux is good now

#708

Post by cogman10 »

mcv wrote: post #586
tapoxi wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TVs don't support displayport, so it makes Linux PCs like the Steam Machine inferior console replacements if you want high refresh rates. A lot of TVs now support 4K/120hz with VRR, the PS5 and Xbox Series X also support those modes. (Some games support 120, but it's also used to present a 40hz image in a 120hz container to improve input latency for games that can't hit 60 at high graphics quality.)

Why don't TVs support displayport? If HDMI 2.1 support is limited, a TV with displayport sounds like an obvious choice. I thought audio might be the reason, for as far as I can tell, displayport supports that too.

Legacy is a bitch.

It took a long time to move from the old component input over to HDMI. The main thing that drove it was the SD to HD change. You needed HDMI to do 1080p (I believe, IDK that component ever supported that high of a resolution).

Moving from HDMI to display port is going to be the same issue. People already have all their favorite HDMI devices plugged in and setup for their TVs.

You need a feature that people want which HDMI isn't or can't provide in order to incentivize a switch.

For example, perhaps display port could offer something like power delivery. That could allow things like media sticks to be solely powered by the TV eliminating some cable management.

Re: Linux is good now

#709

Post by joe200 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #646
joe200 wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are comparing Fedora with Debian stable. Everyone who wants to have Debian stability (and ecosystem) with the most new upstream software should go for Debian Testing (and don't be fooled by the name "testing" !). Debian Stable is for servers, Debian Testing is for desktops. Just try Debian Testing (and I used Slack, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian)

This is from like 20 years ago, but I remember Debian Testing as the one where updates broke the system most frequently, or maybe the longest without fixes: Stable was stable, Sid / unstable was what most Debian developers were using... and Testing was the weird thing that was neither a release nor tested and fixed "live" by developers. What changed?

This is how the flow happens: [upstream] -> [Debian Sid] -> [Debian Testing] -> [Debian stable]

The testing happens in Debian Sid.

Re: Linux is good now

#710

Post by EMM_386 »

kentonv wrote: post #242

I switched all the machines at https://lanparty.house over to Linux a couple months ago. So far, we've experienced noticeably fewer problems on Linux compared to Windows. Stability and performance are better. I can't think of one game we tried that didn't work. And wow is it nice not to have all the ads and crapware in our faces anymore. (I'm aware that Battlefield series and League of Legends won't work due to draco…

"And wow is it nice not to have all the ads and crapware in our faces anymore."

I don't understand this - and I'm not being a Windows defender here, I use Linux when I can (and promote its use).

But my Windows 11 installation has zero ads and zero "crapware". And it's a Dell!

Everything that I didn't want on the machine was removed when I purchased it (two years ago). I see no ads. If I did, this can be fixed easily by even non-technical users with OOShutUp10 or similar - or just edited with a registry change.

I've been using Windows since 3.1 and there were some ugly years but that is not the current state-of-the-state. I'm just calling it like I see it at this point.

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