No more blue screens Not having to reinstall Windows every 6 months just to keep it running fast
2005 was over 15 years ago.
True. But 2020 is right now.
Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
161–170 of 636 posts
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#162I know quite a lot of folks here are fed up with moves away from native apps and towards Electron-wrapped web apps (and often for totally valid reasons) but it's been a godsend for making Linux a usable daily driver OS. IMO if you're doing eg web dev work in a GSuite / Slack / Figma / etc organization, it's never been a better time to try desktop Linux!
Can anyone say why browser based IDEs like Jupyter Notebook are taking over desktop programs? I'm finding I keep getting pushed to Jupyter and just am not crazy about it.
People want something like a persistent REPL, and for whatever reason most IDEs have either not supported this or supported it badly.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#163Totally outdated and overall pretty useless. Objective in the sense it proclaims to be is not possible. Almost all of the points are completely irrelevant for the average potential user.
It's on github not disney.com, and mostly still accurate.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#164Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure. Linux distros generally don't annoy users with stealthy automatic forced updates. Linux dist…
While I agree with all of these 100%, I'm a UI/UX designer, so Adobe continues to hold me hostage to my Apple and MS boxes. Some of the Linux alternatives are good, but they still aren't as good as Adobe. I still do quite a bit of JS development and some app development on my older Linux rig, but I just wish at some point Adobe will pull their heads out and support Linux. I remember in several threads on the Adobe fo…
i was tethered to a windows box for photoshop and then i discovered Krita. it is such a joy! the UX is very thoughtful (unlike my experience with gimp which i could just never get used to). its also very powerful with GMIC (you get content aware fills and other things that used to set Adobe apart. not anymore!)
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#165I am a sample size of 1. For me, the inconveniences of using linux are far greater than the inconveniences of using windows. This article is targeted at the developer community mostly. As a programmer, I cannot recall being hindered by file name conventions, un-resizeable dialog boxes, bug trackers etc., as much I have been inconvenienced on linux by poor driver support, and regularly dropping to command line for con…
I recently spent 30 minutes figuring out why the Bluetooth pairing process wasn't giving me the pin number I needed to pair my new wireless keyboard. Ugh. Eventually, after searching through forums, I updated the right modules to get it working. I want to use Linux as my daily driver, but I am frustrated by little things that don't work or go wrong.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#166Whilst the OP is after ostensibly practical examples, I would add something I haven't yet seen mentioned and that is education. If you are wanting to learn more about computing and how operating systems work, Linux is excellent at giving you this opportunity. It actually takes one of it's weaknesses and turns it into one of it's biggest strengths. Because you often need to tinker a bit with scripts and problem-solving in order to get certain things working the way you want, you learn a lot.
For example, when I was into gaming in my younger years I was lucky to have access to a family computer rather than a gaming console. Because of this, I gained experience tinkering with config.sys and autoexec.bat in order to make my games run on limited memory, and later, learning how to add hardware like 3D accelerators for faster performance. If I had been stuck with a static console without any room for modification, I may have taken a less interesting career path as a result. I feel a similar lamentation when seeing kids with iPads, but feel hope when I see them tinkering with Minecraft :)
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#167Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure. Linux distros generally don't annoy users with stealthy automatic forced updates. Linux dist…
> Linux runs better on both new and older hardware.
This is very much debatable. What's true however is that if your HW is not supported by at least Windows 8.1 you're SoL.
> Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier.
I haven't observed any slow downs in Windows 10 for ages. As for "less memory and CPU cycles" it's just outright false. Windows offers much better hardware acceleration for everything: display rendering, video encoding and decoding, RDP (VNC in X11/Wayland taxes the CPU quite a lot and forget about effectively streaming video via VNC), etc. Linux is quite horrible in this regard.
> Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure.
Unless you're obsessed with downloading software illegally, it's not an issue in Windows either. I don't remember the last time I had to deal with malware for my +20 of friends using it.
> Linux distros generally don't annoy users with stealthy automatic forced updates.
Windows updates are very much in your face.
> Linux distros have a better app store experience than Windows, plus most of whatever there is free without much if any risk.
Except there's 100 times more software in Windows.
> Linux doesn't have any phone home telemetry type "features" built into the OS.
No one has ever proven Microsoft accesses or downloads any of your files, or uses telemetry data to find out what applications you're running.
> Linux user experience is much more customizable. There are a much greater variety of tools at your disposal to customize how you want your desktop to look and operate.
This one is true however with a lot of choice comes a lot of confusion and doubt.
> Linux is free.
Windows 10 OEM license can be bought for as little as $10. This is 100% irrelevant nowadays.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#168I spent roughly 1999-2015 trying mightily to get off Windows and become Linux only. I finally decided that the Linux desktop was never going to solve its feature and compatibility shortcomings to make that possible. I much prefer Linux as a development environment, but for anything related to office productivity, compatibility issues force me to be on Windows so much that it's not worth the effort to switch to Linux…
I found my peak of productivity with WSL2 and an Arch Linux VM. Truly the best of both worlds.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#169I am a sample size of 1. For me, the inconveniences of using linux are far greater than the inconveniences of using windows. This article is targeted at the developer community mostly. As a programmer, I cannot recall being hindered by file name conventions, un-resizeable dialog boxes, bug trackers etc., as much I have been inconvenienced on linux by poor driver support, and regularly dropping to command line for con…
Proton makes almost everything playable on linux. Sometimes with worse performance, sometimes with a lot better performance so it balances out.
Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)
#170Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure. Linux distros generally don't annoy users with stealthy automatic forced updates. Linux dist…
> Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. This is very much debatable. What's true however is that if your HW is not supported by at least Windows 8.1 you're SoL. > Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. I haven't observed any slow downs in Windows 10 for ages. As for "less memo…
You can't buy/use an OEM license for windows on a box you build yourself can you? The last windows machine I put together, I paid > $100 for Windows itself.