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I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

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Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#191

Post by 0x073 »

ghusto wrote: post #84

> I subconsciously tell myself 'If I just used Linux, I could be like them!'. Your intuition was right. Learning to fix issues in Linux gives you long-term transferable valuable skills in troubleshooting and far-reaching knowledge. Learning to fix Microsoft's latest fubar gives you nothing, unless you're in corporate IT fixing other people's computers. You'll become more confident and niggles won't bother you that mu…

As Linux moves faster than windows I disagree. Systemd, wayland and flatpak resetting my skills in this areas completely windows 11 is still more or less the same.

Additional the UI behavior also more often changed than windows e.g gnome 2 to newer versions many core apps are more minimal/less functions and yes I just can fork and use the old behavior as open source but then my pc is more about fixing issues like under windows.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#192

Post by vrighter »

nsvd2 wrote: post #129
Telaneo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found Windows issues to be just as usage-blocking. I tend to have better luck with google-fu when it comes to Windows problems, just though the user base being so much larger, so it's much more likely that someone's written a guide or an explanation of my exact problem, while on Linux, it's much less likely that someone's written an exact guide, but general knowledge goes further (but you need more of it to fill…

I usually find the exact opposite, where for Windows I can sometimes find a few SEO optimized pages with vague instructions, but for Linux I'm much more likely to hit a wiki or forum with in-depth technical information to solve my problem.

"run sfc /scannow"

"that didn't work. That has never done or found anything"

"I'm just going to close this issue as solved"

Most support posts

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#193

Post by DeathArrow »

I tried linux as a desktop on and off for over 25 years. As an server OS it's more than ok and everything I worked in last years got deployed to linux (because BSD lacks OCI containers)

In fact, I am using now Pop!_OS in parallel with Windows. But linux desktop experience still feels broken when compared with Windows and macOS.

I want to install the system with the defaults, not spend time configuring it and have an "it just works" experience. But even if I spend tons of time configuring and fiddling with it, something will fail, there will be problems, something won't work at all, something won't work properly and something will require complex workarounds that take time and exhaust my patience.

Before trying Pop!_OS I tried CachyOS. It provided me a broken desktop experience but in a different way.

Probably the best linux desktop experience now is provided by WSL2, followed by ChromeOS.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#194

Post by franktankbank »

ryankrage77 wrote: post #187

I've also experienced vanilla linux installs breaking more often than Windows. When it's stable, it's incredibly stable, but I've been bitten by a completely vanilla install suddenly being bricked after a reboot, before I've even managed to install anything or change any settings, more than once. Windows has a lot of annoyances and quirks, but generally it seems much more reliable that I'll at least be able to log in…

What hardware are you running? I haven't had issues like you describe in the last decade.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#195

Post by seb1204 »

franktankbank wrote: post #194
ryankrage77 wrote: post #187

I've also experienced vanilla linux installs breaking more often than Windows. When it's stable, it's incredibly stable, but I've been bitten by a completely vanilla install suddenly being bricked after a reboot, before I've even managed to install anything or change any settings, more than once. Windows has a lot of annoyances and quirks, but generally it seems much more reliable that I'll at least be able to log in…

What hardware are you running? I haven't had issues like you describe in the last decade.

Same, the times of weird WiFi issues is gone

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#196

Post by vikingerik »

thewebguyd wrote: post #61
kenjackson wrote: post #25

I'm learning that while Windows has a bad rap in some tech circles, its surprisingly still pretty well regarded. This past school year my daughter and niece both moved from Windows to Macs. A couple of weekends ago I asked them both how they liked it -- they seemed to transition well to the Mac. They both said the same thing -- Windows was better at basically everything except the Message app and iPhone mirroring, bu…

I think Windows (and some, but not all, Linux window managers/DEs) are really kings of "general productivity" type work that macOS is really unintuitive about. I daily drive a MBP now, and have since the M1 air released, but even this many years later I still think the more windows-y desktop metaphor is superior for any type of work that requires heavy multi-tasking (which I do as a sysadmin type role). Apple tends t…

On MacOS (at least my older version on a 2015 MBP), Cmd-~ switches between app windows. Totally undiscoverable but knowing that restores a lot of usability.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#198

Post by osigurdson »

arnoooooo wrote: post #139
osigurdson wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a ThinkPad USB-C docking station. I think it is basically the same as what you are talking about but if not, the main convenience is that you can plug in one cable which provides power, 2 external displays and a mouse. Super great if / when it works but not reliable with Arch (not blaming the distro specifically, it could be kernel or anything in the stack).

To fix my Thinkpad USB-C docking station on Arch, I asked Gemini and just followed what it said. It took a few minutes.

I've definitely tried that with claude code. It seems AGI will be needed to solve this one.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#199

Post by topaz0 »

Kwpolska wrote: post #185
topaz0 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libreoffice is also pretty good these days if you need to edit office files, impress has the most compat issues but they are rare even there. In many ways it is more capable than office ime.

The UI is still terrible, still on the level of Microsoft Office 97.

Several years ago they added like 4 new "modern" UI styles that you can choose that are more fashionable. They're definitely innovating here, though I still find I'm most productive in the older style. And the sidebar for detailed properties is a huge improvement over 90s all-menu UI. Theme editing is also more accessible than in the Microsoft versions imo.

Re: I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows

#200

Post by martinald »

graceful6800 wrote: post #178
martinald wrote: post #37

Two thoughts (I was in the same situation, constantly trying desktop Linux then pinging back to Windows after hitting issues). 1) Fedora is really worth a try, it's extremely polished. The best thing is the packages in the repo are generally much more up to date that debian based distros, which maeans less random PPAs to work around it, which cause issues. 2) The biggest change is having Claude Code/Codex able to dia…

Genuine question, how is everyone else dealing with giving agents elevated permissions? Obviously the answer is "don't", but some things are pretty harmless, like journalctl and dmesg, and are pretty useful for debugging the system. I guess you could make a new user to run the harness under and give it no-password sudo rights for select commands? That doesn't feel like a great solution but it's the only thing I can c…

I use sudo -A with some openssh ui for sudo. I tell the agent to use sudo -A for anything that it needs and then it pops up with a sudo password prompt.
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