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I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

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Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#221

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn »

vanviegen wrote: post #213
mnls wrote: post #164

Every now and then a new article "Why you should go Linux". I get it, I like Linux too but every case is different. I want to use Linux but I have to use Digital Audio Workstation. So in my case, I shouldn't dump Windows (and thousand of $$ I've spent on audio software). I know people desperately want to believe that Linux is "there", but it really isn't. And will probably never be. It’s still too confusing for the a…

> It’s still too confusing for the average user (many distros, many desktop environments, Wayland vs X, systemd vs init, snap vs flatpak). Users don't need to know about any of that, except for picking a distro and just using whatever is there. Regarding DAW - I get sticking with Windows if you have thousands invested in it. Even so, there's quite a bit of professional software out there with native support (like Bit…

They absolutely do, the moment you have any problem you are on your own. I spent half a day troubleshooting why nvidia drivers were not loading (mint was not signing them and secure boot silently kicked the module out), and I'm many times more proficient at technology than an average person.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#222

Post by odie5533 »

iinnPP wrote: post #181
pelagicAustral wrote: post #179

I have... I switched to Bluefin, which is a branch of Universal Blue, which is flavour of Fedora. Sounds complicated, but in fact is the best thing to ever happen to Linux. I get all the ease of use of something like macOS but pre-built with tools for development like distrobox, and then I can just build my dev environments and get shit done in no time, without having to worry about breaking updates or nuking the who…

As another anecdote in favor of Universal Blue's approach. My mother (who can't use a computer but to check email or regular websites) has been swapped to Aurora and has nothing but positive feedback. Been 90 days with zero issues.

I've not heard of Universal Blue before, so thank you both for mentioning it! Seems like a great step forward for Linux Desktop!

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#223

Post by reactordev »

g947o wrote: post #180
reactordev wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reaper is just as good as FL Studio or Logic Pro. VSTs are really your biggest hurdle. Depending on how they are compiled, they may rely on platform specific code. Most big plugin makers have VSTs for all platforms though and your license works on all. The pathway is there should you choose, one day. Linux is quite good now. That being said, I know a lot of niche plugins that some guy wrote that only works on windows…

"as good as" (debatable in the first place) isn't enough justification to switch. Everyone has their own workflows, settings etc that they used over many years, which they are not going to give up, just to "switch to Linux". This is about real loss in productivity.

Yes but readers may be reading and think that Linux isn’t capable. It is. There’s plenty of DAWs available. You can also use WINE with proton to run FL Studio on Linux. My suggestion is just that, a suggestion to explore the possible.

If we just learn one thing and never change then we wind up being left behind. While FL Studio and Logic, Cubase and Ableton are what most people know. There’s ways of running ALL of them on Linux.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#224

Post by pawelduda »

zkmon wrote: post #219

I never understood the Linux guys. All that matters to a common user is the user interface and whether their apps and games run or not. They don't care about telemetry, architecture etc. The damn thing should just work and it should allow familiar interactions. I have tried switching to Linux several times over the decades. It required many compromises on the interface and compatibilities. Why is it so difficult to s…

Have you tried Linux with KDE? Feels more Windows-ish than modern Windows

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#225

Post by amlib »

sva_ wrote: post #114
saidinesh5 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like my HP Omnibook 14 with the Ryzen AI HX 370 chip.. it's sleek, well built (so far, at least).. insane battery life.. the standby time on Linux is in weeks and the battery life when light browsing/YouTube viewing is easily 9+ hours. Even the finger print sensor finally just works. The touchpad gestures with kwin input actions are as smooth as, if not better than os x. The only thing my work 16" MBP does b…

You can get more than double that battery time with an ARM

Once you cross the ~7h battery range the cons of having to use apple hardware and software is too much to bare.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#226

Post by johnebgd »

zkmon wrote: post #219

I never understood the Linux guys. All that matters to a common user is the user interface and whether their apps and games run or not. They don't care about telemetry, architecture etc. The damn thing should just work and it should allow familiar interactions. I have tried switching to Linux several times over the decades. It required many compromises on the interface and compatibilities. Why is it so difficult to s…

Trademarks and other intellectual property rights prevent cloning those.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#227

Post by flexagoon »

iinnPP wrote: post #181
pelagicAustral wrote: post #179

I have... I switched to Bluefin, which is a branch of Universal Blue, which is flavour of Fedora. Sounds complicated, but in fact is the best thing to ever happen to Linux. I get all the ease of use of something like macOS but pre-built with tools for development like distrobox, and then I can just build my dev environments and get shit done in no time, without having to worry about breaking updates or nuking the who…

As another anecdote in favor of Universal Blue's approach. My mother (who can't use a computer but to check email or regular websites) has been swapped to Aurora and has nothing but positive feedback. Been 90 days with zero issues.

To be fair, the people who barely use the computer are the easiest to move to Linux. As Mental Outlaw said, "to a normie, an OS is just a bootloader for Google Chrome". If all you do is check emails, it doesn't really matter what OS you have installed.

Switching to Linux hasn't been an issue for those users for a long time - it's usually gamers, users of professional software, or IT people with deeply established workflows who have troubles

I guess the only part that matters is updates, and atomic systems like Fedora Silverblue do allow you to enable automatic updates without the fear of breaking everything, which is great

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#228

Post by amanaplanacanal »

Frankly I'd love to switch from Windows to Linux. But it's the applications. My last attempt to switch got hung up on a few things (in order if importance, probably):

- Quicken. I have 30 years of personal financial data in quicken. I'm not completely opposed to migrating to something else, but I haven't seen a good substitute. I'd probably have to learn double entry bookkeeping, and I'm unsure if other software could still download data from my bank and investment accounts. I'm sure as hell not going to start entering transactions manually (ugh).

- Ableton live. I do have a copy of bitwig, but I am unfamiliar with its workflow, and would have to figure out which of my vsts I would lose, and it seems a big pain in the ass.

- Plex server. For some reason, out of the box this was dog slow. Because of the other issues, I was unwilling to spend the time to try to figure out what was going on with this.

- The are games I would probably lose, but honestly there are so many games available I doubt I would care that much.

How many hundreds of hours am I gonna have to take to figure this all out before I have a working system again? Not my idea of a good time even if I like the outcome.

Edit: and this is from somebody who loves the idea of Linux! I first installed 0.11 or 0.12 way back in the early 90s from a stack of floppies!

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#229

Post by fragmede »

grigio wrote: post #156
fragmede wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you hadn't heard of Framework, they're making modular laptops with the intention of reducing e-waste. http://framework.computer

Frameworks computers are expensive, you aren't reducing the e-waste because on amd ryzen ai laptops the ram is soldered like in the other laptops from other manifacturers

Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. They're expensive because they don't have the volume that other manufacturers have. If you dig in my comment history, you'll see me complain about the soldered in ram as well, and some of their other decisions. However their modular configuration is still better than the rest of them.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#230

Post by aNoob7000 »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #221
vanviegen wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s still too confusing for the average user (many distros, many desktop environments, Wayland vs X, systemd vs init, snap vs flatpak). Users don't need to know about any of that, except for picking a distro and just using whatever is there. Regarding DAW - I get sticking with Windows if you have thousands invested in it. Even so, there's quite a bit of professional software out there with native support (like Bit…

They absolutely do, the moment you have any problem you are on your own. I spent half a day troubleshooting why nvidia drivers were not loading (mint was not signing them and secure boot silently kicked the module out), and I'm many times more proficient at technology than an average person.

I bought a brand new Dell laptop with Windows 11 25H2 at the end of November 2025. The first patches released by Microsoft in December did not install. WTF!!!

If you go online, you will see a whole YouTube videos and articles on how to fix the issue. Let me tell you, after a considerable amount of time, I gave up.

I'm running Ubuntu 24.04 on my desktop, and I can't remember the last time I had issues applying patches.

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