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I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

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Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#451

Post by leptons »

Aurornis wrote: post #238
adontz wrote: post #86

These articles... I'm not sure who are the target audience, because I am definitely not and I don't know anyone who is. Specific OS is not the important, anything with modern KDE is good enough to replace Windows 10/11. But do I (and all my colleagues) need Microsoft Office (Word, Excel at least) and/or Drawing software (Adobe or something) and/or god forbid Visual Studio 2026, and some other corporate software to ma…

I have a Mac laptop, a Linux workstation, and a Windows workstation for different purposes and I use them all. I agree. Every time someone says they switched OSes and they don’t miss anything, it’s revealed that 90-100% of their work was in generic outlets like the web browser, terminal, e-mail, and Slack. To be fair, that could cover a lot of people. In my experience watching people make the switch in the real world…

The only reason I'm not using Linux on my work-provided computer is due to the security software. None of it runs on Linux, it only runs on Windows and MacOS. Glad I don't have to use any software that only runs on Windows to do development. Hopefully the security software will someday support Linux.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#452

Post by 112233 »

voxleone wrote: post #299

It’s worth acknowledging the real challenges raised in this thread: desktop Linux still has rough edges for some use cases, hardware support isn’t always perfect, and niche professional software may lack native support or require workarounds. But these obstacles are not intrinsic technical limitations so much as ecosystem and investment gaps, areas where community projects, standards efforts, and wider adoption could…

I'll be glad if someone tells that I'm wrong but doesn't current windows 11 present even more of the same challenges? Last I tried, old driver compatibility in newer windowses was not fantastic, Wine slowly is becoming more compatible with legacy windows programs than the windows itself, forced updates are dealbreaker for many usecases. And need for workaroubds and poking around has reached Windows XP levels.

I mean, there are two ways to make Linux better alternative than Windows, and currently the main effort is coming from Microsoft...

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#453

Post by hnlmorg »

layer8 wrote: post #400
hnlmorg wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…and they are? I don’t doubt there’s been plenty of new features. But are they significant enough that users on older versions or non-MS suites are left longing for the latest version of Excel? I just don’t think there is much innovation left. Or at least not without changing the UX and/or paradigm significantly. Neither of which have happened.

Take a look here: https://www.icaew.com/technical/technology/excel-community/e... . There’s really been a sea change since around 2019. In the aggregate, they change how you work with Excel today.

Thanks for the share. These do look like really nice improvements.

Albeit I wouldn’t say they’re significant enough that LibreOffice would struggle to keep up.

But it is nice to see that Excel is still working on basic quality of life features.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#454

Post by osigurdson »

GlacierFox wrote: post #336
osigurdson wrote: post #314

I don't know about the "you should too" part. I use Arch, it works fine for me but I am patient and want to use it. Realistically, I would expect the largest migration should be devs switching from mac to Linux. I don't see any reason at all to use a mac for development anymore.

Has apple severely degraded the developer experience on MacOS recently or something?

You may not need it but no kernel support for containers / cgroups is a deal breaker for me. Windows at least makes an attempt with WSL. But, at the end of the day, most things are just about rationalizing what you want to use. I personally identify with Linux tribe, not Mac tribe therefore that is what I want to use.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#455

Post by Cu3PO42 »

graemep wrote: post #439
meetingthrower wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS Office is hardly "niche professional software." I hate it, and recognize that I can use the online services, but the reality is that I have to send, receive, and work in this application and I can't easily do it on Linux.

> the reality is that I have to send, receive, and work in this application Why? You can edit MS Office documents fine in LibreOffice and other similar software.

If you're working in a corporate environment, this may not be viable. LibreOffice is great software, but it's not 100% compatible. Things may look slightly different, get lost or otherwise cause problems. I've really tried, but at the end of the day I occasionally do need to use actual Microsoft Office.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#456

Post by a456463 »

everdrive wrote: post #32
dividedbyzero wrote: post #23

Not saying I'm not considering it given the current political climate, but I'm spoiled by my Macbook Air. The Thinkpad I've been issued for work costs about the same, runs hot like crazy, always has fans running, is cheap-feeling plastic, thicker, heavier, garbage touchpad, weird keyboard layout (printscreen right next to the arrow keys, what were they thinking?), mushy keys, barely serviceable display ... what do I…

I don't think anyone will build as nice hardware as Apple anytime soon, so I think if that's your primary requirement then any other choice will be a compromise. I don't really like Apple, but it must must acknowledged that even a few basic things (the monitor turning on immediately as I open the screen, the touchpad quality, etc.) seem totally elusive to other manufacturers. Apple's pretty imperfect, and it's sad to…

Eh. debatable. my work MBP frequently dies and the screen never turns on when i plug it in. I have to wait 15-20 minutes for it to turn on. My Linux laptop on the other hand, the screen turns immediately power or no power/just plugged in

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#457

Post by anthk »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #364
quesera wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love you guys, and I wish you were right, but I don't think you are. Any of the above moves (military bases, Visa/MC, ASML, etc) would make the US suffer, but it would collapse the EU. Europe has a decade or two of hard work and crippling costs to significantly disengage from the US, and no one has the vision or fortitude to make that happen. You also wouldn't have any security. If you disengage from the US militar…

> This is just an exercise in establishing dominance (i.e. The End of Politeness). I agree. It's a way to assert dominance and the EU countries are partially responsible for the state of things. I mean, when you outsource your manufacturing capabilities to China, your tech services to the US and your security to NATO, then it frees up a lot of cash to spend on other things and that is probably why life in the EU is p…

Again, Russia would need to fight harsh natural disasters first. If any, they will need us. Earthquakes due to ice melts and current flows will be no joke. Temperatures will be warmer in the Arctic, and a potential small war due to gas/resources/routes will happen, everyone knows that. But what no one speaks it's that the damn nature can crush any vehicle in between no matter if it's from USA, Europe, Russia or China. It will be scary and nature doesn't give a shit where are you from. Every base you set on either ice or the coast can be plummeted down due to a quake/tsunami in hours.

Also, back to economics. The inner European market can be huge. We have decent armies ourservers, too, among market with the whole Mediterranean, Africa and South America (Spaniards know how to do deals, no matter which political side). Oh, and don't forget China, the Chinese will love to sell us advanced tech at bargain price.

The US tries to set right wing sided mafias in LatAm, Europe tries to get good deals. The US needs to behave like gentlemen and not like thugs.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#458

Post by osigurdson »

School-Cotton wrote: post #391
raffael_de wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of those advantages are practically irrelevant for the majority of users or a matter of having gotten used to things being a certain way.

That just isn't true. Battery life, for example, is definitely not irrelevant for most users.

Mac battery life is insane - I agree. It is very impressive what they have done. Still, I prefer my ThinkPad running Arch even though it probably has 1/2 the battery life of my Macbook.

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#459

Post by a456463 »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #242
GuB-42 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To each his own. I liked may company issued ThinkPad so much I ended up buying one myself and I have been pushing back getting a replacement (HP Elitebook). Some of your points are common, such as the touchpad being garbage, or that it runs hotter than an Apple Silicon MacBook Air. But most people consider ThinkPad keyboards to be way better than Apple's and while most (not all) ThinkPads have a plastic shell, they c…

ThinkPads run the gamut. Their flagship line is nice. In most regards, I enjoy my first gen X1 Nano — good keyboard, screen (even if it annoyingly requires fractional UI scaling), body feels solid despite being lightweight, soft touch plastic makes it feel nice to hold. Trackpad is just ok but the trackpoint makes for that. It likes to spin up its fan doing the most insignificant things though (even plugging in a ped…

Are you running windows on this?

Re: I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

#460

Post by systemtest »

QuiEgo wrote: post #352

I am very interested in the Steam Machine, because it will be an out-of-the-box Linux experience with (hopefully) no tweaking required. Hardware designed for Linux gaming from the beginning. I'm willing to put up with worse performance per dollar to not have to spend time tweaking the thing myself, similar to a game console. I think Steam Machine + macOS laptop + NAS running debian headless is my personal compute pla…

I'm not interested in the Steam Machine, but I DO am interested in switching my gaming PC to Steam OS! I hope the Steam Machine will put more pressure on getting Steam OS to the masses.
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