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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

#201

Post by kdamica »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #148
kdamica wrote: post #112

I've been using Linux as my primary OS for about a year now, and while I agree that Linux has come a long way, it's definitely not ready for prime time just yet. Here's why: - GUI performance is bad. I have a reasonably high end system, but switching between desktops is choppy unless I turn my resolution down to 1600x900. - Trackpad support is bad. It works but feels clunky. You really feel the difference when you us…

> GUI performance is bad. This depends heavily on the GPU drivers used, which in itself is probably a problem, but is far from universal. I didn't have any issues with Bluetooth & hibernate for years now, I am surprised you'd have hibernate problems on a System76 laptop as I don't even have a 'Linux-friendly' laptop per se and hibernate works. > The next time I'm ready to drop $1500+ on a laptop, I'll probably just g…

I agree with what you're saying on the advantages of Linux. I want it to be awesome. I love all the customization and the fact that I don't need to worry about the bad decisions of some company affecting my desktop experience (e.g. the awful mac touchbar with its persistent Siri button), but right now there are so many quality of life problems that the experience is sort of ruined for me.

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

#202

Post by bootlooped »

jenscow wrote: post #195
Reelin wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that installing something that's not in the official repositories and getting a functioning .desktop file set up for it can (in some cases) be a complete PITA if you don't already possess a reasonably detailed understanding of how the desktop launcher system works under the hood.

Do you have an example? If you're at the point where you're downloading software that isn't in the repo, and their packages don't create a shortcut, then you're at the level where you can figure out how to do it yourself.

Technically competent users also value their time and effort though. I don't like complicated install processes; that's independent of whether I'm able to accomplish them or not.

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

#203

Post by squirrelicus »

rgomez wrote: post #131
squirrelicus wrote: post #126

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 packa…

Very sad. I jumped into the Gentoo wagon for similar reasons. And it's been working flawlessly for me since then.

I love Gentoo. I'm just not willing to wait for my packages for compile.

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

#204

Post by gbuk2013 »

dysoco wrote: post #199
gbuk2013 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been running Linux Debian Sid) as my primary OS for well over a decade and it’s great not to be an average user. It has come so far over the years (back from when kernel / Xorg / drivers whatever) has to be compiled to get things to work. Now it mostly just works, although some effort is always required. Over the years I have reduced my GUI usage to a minimum (it is still very useful for some types of operations…

Have you used Arch Linux by chance? How would you compare Sid's stability to Arch?

I have not tried Arch.

Sid is quite stable but things will occasionally break (once or twice a year). Never so bad that it needed a rebuild (touch wood) but enough to be scary if you don't know enough to keep a cool head about it.

Latest example is some nice person breaking udev around Christmas causing it not to mount LVM partitions during boot. Luckily Linux does the right thing and drops you to an emergency shell and it's very easy to mount things by hand and resume boot. It did make my heart beat faster for a few minutes though! ;) This was the worst breakage for several years to give some perspective.

Also, best not to upgrade the (Sid) system for a few months after a new Stable release - that's when the floodgates (from Experimental) open and issues are often seen.

Overall, it is easily worth it for me to run Sid and get the latest software versions. I always run Stable on servers though.

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

#205

Post by squirrelicus »

chess_buster wrote: post #141
squirrelicus wrote: post #126

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 packa…

Huh? What's wrong with Apple now?

The assumed-integrated ecosystem is nice but exposes your information to too many components and too many developers and business people under the apple umbrella.

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

#206

Post by squirrelicus »

andrepd wrote: post #135
squirrelicus wrote: post #126

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 packa…

If that's your problem why didn't you switch to a "just works" disto like Linux Mint, instead of windows?

(1)I cannot stand the standard UIs and DEs from Linux. I use openbox with no DE because it provides me with the best experience. I only ran Ubuntu Minimal when I used it. (2) all the complaints I have with Ubuntu apply equally to Mint.

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

#207

Post by squirrelicus »

zozbot123 wrote: post #184
squirrelicus wrote: post #126

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 packa…

Because system upgrades never break things in Windows 10, right? Seriously, if updates are problematic for you and you don't care about running the "latest and greatest", move to a stably-supported distribution like Ubuntu-LTS, Debian or even CentOS. They won't be "out of date" as long as they're in their support period. Updating every 6 months like vanilla Ubuntu does is just pointless churn, and don't get me starte…

If I could choose to only get security updates, I would go back to Ubuntu in a heartbeat. Instead I have to pull down a gig of system-breaking masturbatory open source "enhancements" every upgrade, even though I was on xenial LTS.

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

#208

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

JdeBP wrote: post #159
_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PowerShell is significantly superior to bash+coreutils in many ways Presumably it should be, given that PowerShell came out in 2006, while Bash appeared in 1989 and is tied to the model of Bourne shell which appeared in 1977 which itself was tied to the model of the Thompson shell of 1971. Which means that traditional UNIX terminal environments have certain artificial limitations which are tied to these earlier par…

Newer implying better is a bad presumption. Don't compare on dates. Compare on architecture and design.

That's not what I meant. I haven't used PowerShell enough to have an opinion on it, but in theory the designers of PowerShell would have had the opportunity to observe text-based shells of the past and improve upon the paradigm.

(For instance, I prefer using eshell to a traditional terminal, because eshell [in addition to giving the user access to Lisp as an additional scripting/interface language] it is not only the 'command line' part of the buffer which accepts input, but potentially other parts of the buffer; you can use Plan 9 style terminal features; cd to multiple directories simultaneously etc..)

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

#209

Post by shmerl »

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…

From your comment, it sounds like you are completely unfamiliar with how distros releases are organized. Learn about it, if you want to use Linux.

Ubuntu LTS is not a desktop oriented option, so surely it's quite behind in desktop usability. Especially when you aren't even using the latest one, but one version behind the latest LTS. That's really old. Get some up to date modern distro, select KDE and enjoy.

TL;DR: don't use server distros for the desktop use case.

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

#210

Post by shmerl »

bigiain wrote: post #28

So 2019 is _finally_ gonna be the year of Linux on the Desktop? (Pardon me if I seem a little skeptical, I've heard this song before...)

Define finally. Is 2019 good for using Linux on the desktop? It sure is.

Do you expect Windows users to run to install Linux to replace Windows? Most probably don't care or don't know how to.

So usually people who switch to Linux at least know how to install an OS on their computer.

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