How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too • Hacker News Board

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#11

Post by tyingq » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 2:59 AM UTC

sys_64738 wrote: post #7

Nothing he says Is dependent on the Linux kernel so he could have run WSL under Windows 10. For Linux builds of GUI apps he could use a free X server. I wonder if this can be applied to the majority of people. If the app is available for Windows then use the Windows version (e.g. Chrome at least until Edge uses Chrome engine) otherwise use the app under WSL. Microsoft has made it easy to run GNU tools under Windows s…

WSL can be pretty slow for some tasks. It's REALLY slow for me when creating lots of files, like a git clone might do. See, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18948601

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#12

Post by shmerl » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

simplecomplex wrote: post #10

The author says he switched because of “Then came 2018, with its stunning revelations and outrages by Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. With privacy and free speech—in short, digital autonomy—deeply under threat” Comparing Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple is apples to oranges. What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech? You don’t need to switch to Linux to stop using Facebook and Twitter...

> What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech

Apple affects many things negatively by being extremely pro lock-in and patent aggressive. So I'd say it's a good thing when someone stops using Apple's products and switches to Linux instead.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#13

Post by rdiddly » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:05 AM UTC

simplecomplex wrote: post #10

The author says he switched because of “Then came 2018, with its stunning revelations and outrages by Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. With privacy and free speech—in short, digital autonomy—deeply under threat” Comparing Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple is apples to oranges. What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech? You don’t need to switch to Linux to stop using Facebook and Twitter...

It's possible that he means "revelations... by... Apple" -- like the fact that they received all that attention from the feds.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#14

Post by _emacsomancer_ » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:08 AM UTC

sys_64738 wrote: post #7

Nothing he says Is dependent on the Linux kernel so he could have run WSL under Windows 10. For Linux builds of GUI apps he could use a free X server. I wonder if this can be applied to the majority of people. If the app is available for Windows then use the Windows version (e.g. Chrome at least until Edge uses Chrome engine) otherwise use the app under WSL. Microsoft has made it easy to run GNU tools under Windows s…

But who has the patience for Windows with its opacity and maintenance overhead? Most people don't know any better, of course, and aren't necessarily to be faulted for that.

I certainly don't have the time anymore to sysadmin any Windows machines.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#15

Post by simplecomplex » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

shmerl wrote: post #12

simplecomplex wrote: post #10

The author says he switched because of “Then came 2018, with its stunning revelations and outrages by Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. With privacy and free speech—in short, digital autonomy—deeply under threat” Comparing Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple is apples to oranges. What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech? You don’t need to switch to Linux to stop using Facebook and Twitter...

> What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech Apple affects many things negatively by being extremely pro lock-in and patent aggressive. So I'd say it's a good thing when someone stops using Apple's products and switches to Linux instead.

It’s not a good thing if you like seeing software devs get paid :)

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#16

Post by _emacsomancer_ » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:10 AM UTC

jotm wrote: post #2

If you have Windows-only software, you can always just be a "pirate", flip Microsoft off and block all updates, telemetry and whatnot. Use what you want, give nothing back heh

> If you have Windows-only software, you can always just be a "pirate", flip Microsoft off and block all updates, telemetry and whatnot

It's an awful lot of work to maintain this, and of dubious value with the end result being running a second-rate OS.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#17

Post by doxavore » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:11 AM UTC

Is there a pleasant way to run a Linux laptop today with decent drawing/touchscreen support, HiDPI, and working dock/undock multi-monitor support?

I have used various distros on and off over the years, but today I can run Windows 10 on a Surface Book 2, and the non-development portions of my experience are spectacular, for the low, low price of selling my soul: lazy file syncing with OneDrive, pen support combined with OneNote is spectacular. Unfortunately, WSL only gets me so far when I want to use more than vim. For better or worse, I don't get to spend all of my time coding, so I'd like Linux with a real, modern notebook experience that can let me get my work done without praying to the gods that my external monitors come back on when I plug in.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#18

Post by shmerl » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

simplecomplex wrote: post #15

shmerl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech Apple affects many things negatively by being extremely pro lock-in and patent aggressive. So I'd say it's a good thing when someone stops using Apple's products and switches to Linux instead.

It’s not a good thing if you like seeing software devs get paid :)

The company doesn't need to be a nasty anti-competitive jerk to pay developers.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#19

Post by davidscolgan » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:18 AM UTC

doxavore wrote: post #17

Is there a pleasant way to run a Linux laptop today with decent drawing/touchscreen support, HiDPI, and working dock/undock multi-monitor support? I have used various distros on and off over the years, but today I can run Windows 10 on a Surface Book 2, and the non-development portions of my experience are spectacular, for the low, low price of selling my soul: lazy file syncing with OneDrive, pen support combined wi…

My strategy has for a long time been to run Windows 10 for all of my browsers and games and paint programs and then run a virtual machine of linux with VirtualBox. I just use terminal Vim, so I run the virtual machine headless and ssh into it with a cygwin terminal.

It's a bit janky but no more janky than actually running Linux on a laptop. No worries about my HDMI projector connection working, no fighting with wifi, games on Steam work, and I get a full Linux for development.

The magic comes from proxying my development servers (like Django's) through the guest machine into Windows. I've got it set up so that if I type `localhost:8000` into any Windows browser, it hits my virtual machine's localhost.

So yeah, complicated, but from what I can see it gives me the best setup I know of with the least amount of fighting with the operating system.

Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too

#20

Post by cwyers » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 3:26 AM UTC

CaliforniaKarl wrote: post #8

Tangentially-related rant (since the author is pushing Ubuntu): I wish Canonical would offer an 'End-User Desktop Support' offering. Right now Ubuntu Advantage is available for $150 per year, but that's only for enterprise (you have to order at least 50 units). I think it would be interesting if Canonical offered an equivalent product for home users, understanding that the $/year would be higher. That would give all…

You'll never get end users to pay more per seat than an enterprise product. You just need to find a way to make the end user product sufficiently worse that enterprises won't care about the price difference, they'll just buy what they need.