I had similar experiences switching from macOS to Ubuntu. I wrote an article about this, where I compare the two OSs as "Home and Hotel" [1].
How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
51–60 of 232 posts
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, the way Linux works just doesn't jive with a lot of people? Like, everything has a middleman involved. Drivers for your hardware? Have to be merged into the kernel. Applications? Should go through (all of) the distro package repo(s) unless you want it to be a pain …? This is a really strange perspective, since I've found Linux to remove middlemen. No more searching a manu…
Getting the driver from the manufacturer directly is somehow involving a middleman in your world, but having that vendor have to submit kernel patches and hope they're blessed by the community, merged, and eventually distributed by the distros isn't? > No more waiting for Microsoft to roll out fixes; you can apply your own changes yourself. You don't have to wait, since vendors can roll out new drivers. And what's th…
I mean that is essentially how all science is done. It has to go through peer review for it to be worth anything. So that is a strong point. You second point is also an exaggeration. You typically wouldn't compile anything (unless you want to). All supported distros will provide binary updates.
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#53I've used Linux since the early 1.x kernel versions, but for my next laptop I'm thinking about switching to a MacBook. Not because of the software (I prefer Linux to macOS), but because of the hardware. Apple seems to be the only manufacturer that so far escaped the race to the bottom and which still produces somewhat premium hardware. I want: a hidpi screen with lots of nits and a good contrast, a trackpoint or a hu…
>premium hardware
>apple
if I can't get proper i/o it's not premium at all. beyond that things shouldn't be bent from having them in your pocket.
iToddlers BTFO
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#54I have been using Ubuntu on and off since about 2005. Last year I switched from OSX on a dated macbook to Ubuntu on a newer Dell XPS. On the whole I am happy with the switch: with many of the apps that I use based on electron (slack, atom, mailspring) or directly in the browser (google docs), it is hard to notice the difference. I do most of my work related writing in latex, so this has also not been very noticeable.…
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Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#55Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows is a first rate OS saddled with some stupid bullshit that's been piled on top of it. And be fair, maintaining a Linux configuration just the way you like it is a lot of work too. If it weren't, there wouldn't be hundreds of slightly-different distros.
> Windows is a first rate OS saddled with some stupid bullshit that's been piled on top of it. I'm sure there are good bits of Windows - Microsoft has a lot of very smart people working for them. But I've never experienced Windows as a first rate OS - it's always had bullshit on top (and beneath) it. > And be fair, maintaining a Linux configuration just the way you like it is a lot of work too. If it weren't, there w…
> Maybe "just the way you like it", but "functional and not sending your private information off to a dubious corporation" is pretty easy.
Sure, and that's great if that's all you want out of a personal computer.
> When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent enough to debug.
Bull. I've been using Linux for decades and it's always the same story. You have a problem with X, you do a search for your problem with X, you find a dozen solutions that don't apply to you because you're on a different distro or they're from 2013 when half the software stack was different. Of course the error reporting is vague and the documentation is out of date, referring you to the source for details. If you dare go somewhere to ask about your problem, you most likely get told you're using the wrong distro. It really isn't all that different from the situation on Windows.
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#57Linux 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's because he uses a GPU, if you had a master/slave setup in the OS you could just run graphics on the CPU and it'd be way better than it is now. Linux will proudly run two applications faster, but how about we start running one application faster?
Another thing is it's trying to replicated a 1970s mainframe, like yeah that works great for corporate servers and universities but simple put - desktop users don't need that shit at all, multi-user systems are outdated and single user systems are fine for desktop users. There's no reason to run anything at any security level other than ring 0 on the desktop, obviously it's bad if one process can crash a server, but on the desktop having one process being able to crash the system isn't a bad thing. Just write better software. As for infected software - don't run anything you didn't compile yourself - on any system.
The project has also become bloated, there's an estimated 15 million lines of code in the kernel not to mention the binary blobs and that's simply extremely difficult to maintain, not to mention it's a terrible starting point for any new operating system or for anyone wanting to know how an operating system actually functions, in this respect Minix does a much better job; in fact it was the starting point Linus himself used to write Linux in the first place. Linux is simply not readable by a single human, and that ends up completely defeating the purpose of it being a free software project; you simply cannot check every single line of code for malicious intent.
systemd - what do I even need to say that's not already been said about this steaming pile of atrocious, malicious, stupid, bloated piece of garbage. have fun with your pseudo-svchost.exe.
all in all that's my two cents on desktop linux, I think there's way better systems to use and that linux isn't all that.
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
i run win steam with wine and the games work surprisingly well most of the time
Steam for Linux now runs some games under their own Wine btw there's a good number of them they support now.
Yes, for anyine who wants to do further research it's called Proton. Valve has tried several times in the past to make gaming on Linux more attractive, but this has by far been their most successful attempt.
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#59I 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…
> has all the software I need
That's really the key to it all. Frankly, Windows, macOS, and just about any Linux are all good enough and have been for a while now. For most people, it all comes down to what software they want to run.
Re: How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting the driver from the manufacturer directly is somehow involving a middleman in your world, but having that vendor have to submit kernel patches and hope they're blessed by the community, merged, and eventually distributed by the distros isn't? > No more waiting for Microsoft to roll out fixes; you can apply your own changes yourself. You don't have to wait, since vendors can roll out new drivers. And what's th…
I mean that is essentially how all science is done. It has to go through peer review for it to be worth anything. So that is a strong point. You second point is also an exaggeration. You typically wouldn't compile anything (unless you want to). All supported distros will provide binary updates.
> I mean that is essentially how all science is done.
Installing software shouldn't have to be a formal scientific discipline. It isn't rocket science unless you make it rocket science so you have an excuse to invent package managers.
> All supported distros will provide binary updates.
Eventually. On their own schedule. If you want (or need) the latest driver as soon as the vendor says it is ready, you'll be compiling. Otherwise you have to wait for the kernel maintainers, then the distributors.