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

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

#121

Post by tjoff »

ikfmpwdsoz wrote: post #65
drb91 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ubuntu with a Mate GUI "just works", has all the software I need and lacks BS like the Windows interface. How do you figure? Every part about Ubuntu, from keybindings to menus to window management to user interface expectations, are directly copying windows.

You pay for Windows, but Linux is free. Windows is filled with ads; Linux has none. Windows is slow; Linux is less slow. Windows tried to pull some weird tablet hybrid nonsense; Linux desktops are just desktops. Cinnamon, Mate and KDE took the very best parts of old Windows and made them better. Gnome and Pantheon ripped off macOS and they're also great. Every single one of them is more polished and more useable than…

I have never seen an ad in windows in my entire life on any of my machines. Apparently it is the first thing I disable when I open up the settings on a new install. It's gotten to the point that I'm almost curious about it. Ubuntu has the amazon integration which bothers me about just as much.

Ubuntu tried to pull some weird netbook phone hybrid that didn't work well on any type of device. 8 years we had to live with Unity.

I'd say that the UI of Windows 10 is about ten years ahead of anything in the linux world (and I doubt linux well ever be as polished). I say that as someone who is possibly going to do the switch to linux this year, but I'm in for a rough transition.

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

#122

Post by leowoo91 »

ryebreadistasty wrote: post #57

Linux is fucking trash and lemme tell you why: First is SMP. Multi-core on Linux is absolute trash and Linus is fuckin' dumb for thinking that multi-core isn't useful and is overrated. A way better setup is having a master/slave setup, all applications run on core 0, and when they want multi-core they make a slave task on another core directly. Linus said that the only thing parallel is good for is graphics but that'…

- Linux kernel has SMP and good multi-core support, just for you to know.

- Linux kernel is not just for desktop, and being used in near real-time systems as well as mobile. It is the 'distribution' that makes the difference to their audience.

- Multi-user environments are very real in workplaces. At least one additional employee account is needed for using a system without modifying it.

- There is no obligation to understand car design to drive them. But, what if one day you wanted to check the engine? That is at least you can't do with proprietary systems.

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

#123

Post by simion314 »

drb91 wrote: post #25
joe_the_user wrote: post #3

I switched to Linux about ten years. I basically got tired of having an OS I paid for (in buying a computer) not really be "mine". Lately, I have had few problems installing and running Linux on the various cheap laptops I've bought. Ubuntu with a Mate GUI "just works", has all the software I need and lacks BS like the Windows 10 interface. I don't really think there's any objective barrier to using Linux for a signi…

> Ubuntu with a Mate GUI "just works", has all the software I need and lacks BS like the Windows interface. How do you figure? Every part about Ubuntu, from keybindings to menus to window management to user interface expectations, are directly copying windows.

You get downvoted because you are very wrong, Ubuntu used GNOME or Unity, this desktops were very different then Windows, they had a top bar or side bar, they had 3D compositing before Windows released Vista, menus were not invented by Microsoft, MS did not invented the clipboard, keyboard shortcuts, I don't think they invented the "window" either so what is your point exactly? that Linux DEs should be forced to use things different then Windows

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

#124

Post by astrobe_ »

number6 wrote: post #102
Animats wrote: post #83

I've used Linux on the desktop for over a decade. Currently, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on x64. It still sucks for the average user. The GUI is lipstick on a pig. As soon as anything goes wrong, it's back to the command line. You look up the problem, and there will be a dozen articles about it, all contradicting each other. Look up what it takes to create a desktop icon for something. (Hint: the top result in Google won't work…

Thanks for your comment. It made me realise that OSes are like programming languages in regards to the tasks you can do with them easily. I can think of different things that are easier in Linux than in any other os. But would you try to create a website in C++?

I believe that in both case there is a placebo effect: if you have to program in a language you don't like, you'll be unmotivated, bitch about it frequently etc. If you program in a language you like, it doesn't really matter how well it is fitted to the job, because you'll take shortcomings as challenges and sort of want to prove it can be done productively.

"The right tool for the right job" is only part of the story. Proficiency can go along way.

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

#125

Post by simion314 »

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.

You can't have GPL apps on iOS, you can't put them in the Store and you are not allowed to side load apps, this is one reason I dislike Apple, others include the fact you have to replace the battery, motherboard or some body part (I can't remember for sure) and the entire keyboard if one of your keys breaks. This is why personally dislike them and why I will not use their products but I understand that people value different things then me.

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

#126

Post by squirrelicus »

It's funny. I recently switched from Linux after 10 years back to Windows.

I ran Arch Linux for about 7 years. After systemd I spent years justifying why I used it even though it would constantly break and require a reformat more often than Win7 did. I went to Ubuntu, and it was marginally more stable. But even there, I was bitten too many times. Libicu upgrades breaking everything, updating packages breaks the package manager or ruins systemctl settings. Really, the whole problem that pushed me back to Windows is a combination of constant systemd nightmares and bad package maintenance.

I've... Kind of been loving Win10. Sure, it's marginally more evil than Linux, (but less so than Google and Apple products these days), but at least I don't have to constantly wipe my machine or keep it out of date to keep using it. Weird how the tables have turned.

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

#128

Post by Alan_Dillman »

likeclockwork wrote: post #95
drb91 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it copies the user interface of windows, with all its problems, but it doesn’t carry over the reliable variable DPI support, a notifications framework, a unified reliable software management interface, and consensus on how to provide basic utilities like secret management, file associations, and accessibility controls for the visually impaired. That is, the features of windows ACTUALLY worth copying. Linux is stil…

> Until the FOSS community decides to unify behind a single experience [...] People always say this whenever Linux is under discussion. No one actually wants this. If you want "one-size fits all" use MacOS or Windows and see how that fits you.

Precisely. The Linux community was/is a movement of people who do not want one size fits all. People who do not want a dictated experience.

People who trumpet a unified Linux experience expect the river to somehow flow backwards.

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

#129

Post by Alan_Dillman »

Krasnol wrote: post #96
dgzl wrote: post #90

I started using Ubuntu Linux about 8 years ago, about the same time I started my CS degree at school. Over the years, my interest in Windows shrunk to essentially just PC gaming. When school got serious I stopped gaming as much, and all my needs from both school and personal computing were met with open source tools. Every once in a while I would try a new distro as live CD, just for kicks, and to see how things are…

> But don't feel put off by this, we actually have a lot of fun in the terminal. I believe you. I grew up on a C64 and later DOS and really, I don't miss it. It's nice to have the console just in case but I don't want it to become something I have to use again. It always was that "waste of time" you're describing there and I've never seen it the other way around. I can do that swishing with one hand. One finger even…

"One finger even or my nose if I have to. A double click does it. A GUI where I can see all the options, select them, apply and run. So...human."

Blech. Do you remember when games like Leisure Suit Larry went from text input to "click the right pixel"? All sorts of exploration and hilarity was lost.

You can see all the options because there aren't as many.

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

#130

Post by AsyncAwait »

Animats wrote: post #83

I've used Linux on the desktop for over a decade. Currently, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on x64. It still sucks for the average user. The GUI is lipstick on a pig. As soon as anything goes wrong, it's back to the command line. You look up the problem, and there will be a dozen articles about it, all contradicting each other. Look up what it takes to create a desktop icon for something. (Hint: the top result in Google won't work…

The notion that this is somehow better on Windows is, from my experience, false. In fact if say the GUI freezes on Linux, which doesn't happen often with open-source GPU drivers for Intel/AMD, then I still at least have the option to switch to tty and restart the display server. On Windows the option seems to be a hard reset pretty much.

There's also many occasions where some .exe has simply "stopped working", or some system process takes over the CPU, with me none the wiser. If I install a 3rd party driver, there's some chance Windows will at some point attempt to replace it with an inferior version from its own driver database.

Then there's the whole update situation, which effectively takes control away from you, the computer owner, not to mention it could delete user data.

And yet, despite OS updates being forced upon you, application installation and updating is often still mostly an annoyingly manual process of browsing to some site, doing some sanity checks to make sure the site's legit, which your 'average user' is not doing, downloading the .exe and trying to avoid accidentally agreeing to have some toolbar installed in the process.

Add to that the telemetry, ads, nagging to use Edge before you switch etc. and am pretty sure that's not even most of it, as I luckily don't have to use Windows often.

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