Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#531

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:00 PM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #58

throwaways885 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Astronomically lower probability of catching a virus. Yes because nobody uses consumer desktop Linux. With higher market share the malware will come. > No bullshit forced updates when the OS feels like it. True, but that also means you're going to end up with a lot more botnet nodes out there because people will never update. Or they'll never update and still complain things are not working. > No phoning home with…

> > Astronomically lower probability of catching a virus. > Yes because nobody uses consumer desktop Linux. With higher market share the malware will come. Linux has a higher server market share already, and its virus problem there is still not as bad as Windows'. > > No bullshit forced updates when the OS feels like it. > True, but that also means you're going to end up with a lot more botnet nodes out there because…

> Linux has a higher server market share already, and its virus problem there is still not as bad as Windows'.

Server use cases are vastly different than Desktop use cases. I have administered a lot of Windows servers in my time and not a one of them has ever had a virus. Workstations on the other hand...

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#532

Post by cycomanic » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

modo_mario wrote: post #510

roytries wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this an extremely weird set of argument. Opening the task manager or explorer takes less time than I can measure on both Windows and Linux... what kind of metric is this? As for background services, of course they spend (at that moment unused resources). But you completely forego that they have an actual usefulness. Indexing files makes searching later faster. Prefetching makes loading commonly used programs f…

>Opening the task manager or explorer takes less time than I can measure on both Windows and Linux... what kind of metric is this? I feel like a lot of people here are devs running reasonably modern computers but as someone running dualboots at home (manjaro KDE) and at work from time to time dealing with the kind of desktops most people use in their day to day life.... (As in they're not actually that old but weren'…

The slowness is something I particularly notice with python. I'm a linux user, but many of my students work on windows. Every time they show me something on linux and import numpy or scipy it takes like 10s for the import. While on my linux system it's typically instantaneous. Can anyone elaborate on where this is coming from?

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#533

Post by GoblinSlayer » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC

ACS_Solver wrote: post #426

TsomArp wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with you. I consider myself a geek, a fairly advanced user of software and a software developer. I have been trying different versions of Linux since the Mandrake Linux times, so about what, 20 years? I always come back to Windows, which from Windows 2000 has been getting better and better. Of course there have been sh*t moments like Windows Vista and Windows 8, but Windows 2k, XP, 7, and now 10 (ente…

I think it really comes down to what software you need, more than proficiency. Just like you, I'm an advanced user, a software developer, and Mandrake was my first serious Linux. For me though, software isn't missing on Linux, it's missing on Windows. I rarely need an office suite, and my needs are limited to simple Word/Writer documents and even simpler Excel/Calc spreadsheets, so even MS Office 97 or StarOffice 5 h…

I use grep and ssh on windows regularly, didn't find any problems yet, have sed too.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#534

Post by alphachloride » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #506

alphachloride wrote: post #132

I 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…

>regularly dropping to command line for configuring my system I've really never understood this complaint. "oh why do I have to use a standardized set of abstractions for configuration instead of bizarre bespoke GUIs that are different for every piece of software."

Its pretty simple: GUI is more intuitive. I do not find them bizarre. Their diversity or bespokeness doesn't register as a hindrance to me. The options are visible all at once, or are a couple of clicks away. Contrast this with the command line where I more or less have to memorize each application's interface or look online or browse the manual for answers.

GUI lets me use keyboard + mouse. CLI is keyboard only.

Regardless of any rationale, my experience is what it is. No amount of counterpoints are going to change what I've felt using CLIs.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#535

Post by utxaa » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #509

jamaicahest wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did any of you replying actual read my comment or did you just auto-reply "buy a supported Linux laptop"? I said ". With Windows I can buy pretty much any laptop and expect it to work with", and you are saying "Just research if the laptop you want to buy works with Linux", you are completely missing the point. I do not want to have to bother researching if a specific laptop will run Linux and research if all the hard…

I, too, would like to live in a world where I do not need to research if a particular laptop will work with Linux. The reason I don't live in that world is because laptop manufacturers, in the general course of things, don't ship their laptops with Linux; they ship them with Windows. The obvious answer is to buy from manufacturers who ship their laptops with Linux. You could try Dell or System76. Incidentally, it wou…

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-ser...

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#536

Post by GoblinSlayer » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

ACS_Solver wrote: post #464

TsomArp wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you. It is a matter of what software do you need. That said, for my use case, I have never found a software that I need on Windows that is only available on Linux. The opposite happens to me a lot.

> That said, for my use case, I have never found a software that I need on Windows that is only available on Linux. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that most Linux software is open source and can be run on other platforms even if mainly meant for Linux. Git is a prime example, developed as a Linux program - in fact developed by Linus Torvalds specifically for the kernel - but it runs on Windows with a fe…

FWIW, git didn't simply run on windows, it was rewritten to do it.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#537

Post by kerberos84 » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

majkinetor wrote: post #463

tester34 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which ads? I do ask seriously - I'm using Win Pro and I'm not sure what you're talking about recommendations of installing Microsoft Chrome?

The same ads in search that were present on Ubuntu way before Windows ...

it is not the same thing to see ads while already paying for the OS.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#538

Post by 3np » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

Ygg2 wrote: post #521

3np wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was the last time you gave it a serious try? I've been Linux only for several years now and things have stabilized a lot in past years. Ubuntu's kind of lost its way recently though (snaps/apt mess, went a tad bit early with pushing Wayland as default). The derivatives like Mint, Manjaro, PopOS and Zorin seem to be the way to go for the average user. The one thing that might trip you up is (these days rare) hard…

If you try anything remotely exotic, it's a no go on Linux. E.g. I remember nVidia drivers always being crap. Even the blob ones. Latest example for me is Swiftpoint Z mouse. Doesn't work on Linux. From what I understand, either drivers are in the Kernel and thus open source. Or the drivers are outside of Kernel and thus break on every kernel update.

I assume the nVidia experience is not recent? They’ve ramped up Linux efforts significantly. Even if despite officially embracing nouveau they’re still a bit toxic, in practice it should be expected to work fine (though see below, and apparently there were some issues with 5.9 specifically).

As for Kickstarter projects with proprietary drivers targeting only Windows and/or OS X, well, yeah...

You’re right that with proprietary closed-sourced drivers one has to be prepared to be a bit cautious or conservative when upgrading the kernel. Though unlike Windows there’s no real reason to always be on the most recent version (critical kernel security issues are rare).

Running a 4.x kernel is still considered bueno.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#539

Post by michaelmrose » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:34 PM UTC

RMPR wrote: post #360

michaelmrose wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is just not to use snaps. Snap is trash. Consider PPAs if you need the most recent version of a particular piece of software.

In my experience PPAs often break on upgrades

Traditionally there is some manual work to do in updating ppas to point to the new release but apparently assistance also exists for the lazy

https://askubuntu.com/questions/42895/is-there-a-tool-to-upd...

You can also set RELEASE_UPGRADER_ALLOW_THIRD_PARTY=1 before running the updater to allow third party repos to remain enabled during upgrade.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#540

Post by tenebrisalietum » Mon, Nov 16, 2020, 4:53 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #328

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a programmer > dropping to command line for configuring my system Doesn't add up. You're a programmer, write a script if it bothers you? > I find the user interface on windows nicer Seriously though, expand on this. Interested in what you are comparing it to; Gnome, KDE, etc.

> Doesn't add up. You're a programmer, write a script if it bothers you? It does add up. "I'm a programmer" doesn't mean "I want to program every little thing in my life". I want to be not a programmer for a significant portion of my life. You don't expect a surgeon to perform surgeries all the time, do you?

No but it's a lot like saying "I'm a mechanic but it's too much of a burden for me to change my own oil or tires." I probably wouldn't use your services.