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I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

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531–540 of 832 posts

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

#531

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…

>niche professional software may lack native support Microsoft Office is not "niche professional software"

I have two Windows systems; I use LibreOffice on them. It's just so much better.

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

#532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The touchpad is great, yes, I like it, too. But I'm anyway mostly using mouse and keyboard and occasionally the 3-finger-swipe which is possible with Thinkpad+Linux as well since a few years. Thinkpads are also famous for their touchpad/trackpoint if one doesn't fancy using a mouse.

> I'm anyway mostly using mouse and keyboard Have you considered that you're using the mouse because the touchpad doesn't work as well on any other OS? It's not the hardware, it's the software somehow that makes the touchpad usable in Mac OS.

i have been using macbooks for many years as that's usually the only corporate option next to thinkpad+windows. and i definitely prefer a logitech mouse.

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

#533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh!, and the one thing I miss is Affinity Designer. While I haven't experimented with it that much yet, Affinity (the new one, the one after the Canva acquisition) does work in Wine 10.20. Now, I won't say it is a smooth experience, one of the workarounds that I needed to do is use Wine's virtual desktop so Affinity's tooltips are rendered correctly instead of being pure black, and the GUI does seem to not render c…

Getting it running in linux is the easiest part dev wise. It is the rest of the iceberg that causes problems. - You need your support to be able to support linux which means they will need training and experience helping people in an entirely new system - Linux comes in finite but vastly more combinations than OSX and Windows which means you are probably going to need to pick something like Ubuntu or struggle with th…

>- Linux comes in finite but vastly more combinations than OSX and Windows which means you are probably going to need to pick something like Ubuntu or struggle with the above

This is easily solvable by distributing the app via a distro agnostic mechanism, like as a Flatpak or AppImage. Using Flatpak also eliminates the need for rolling their own app update mechanism.

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

#534
post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an clarifying perspective. In particular, I think this sheds light on understanding the various perspectives in the thread: > Viewed through the lens of digital autonomy and citizenship, the question isn’t simply “Is Linux perfect?” but rather: Do we want our fundamental computing environment to be ultimately under our control, or controlled by private interests with their own incentives? We make choices, bec…

The people who wanted A created B. It's not really a conflation but more of a causal reality.

Yes but the headwinds of Linux adoption are (to some extent) that Linux is the best choice for A, but it is not far and away the best choice for B (not saying it’s bad or even worse than Windows, it’s just not CLEARLY better).

But when you approach 99% of the population who, to the extent they’ve even thought about it, will only judge an OS on B, Linux is just one of 3 main choices (sorry BSD folks. Don’t yell at me). Is it the best choice purely on functionality and app ecosystem? Maybe, but also maybe not.

Since the majority of Linux does not come on hardware by default what you’re essentially asking people to do is to buy a car and swap out the motor. We have to convince them why that new motor is better and is worth the effort of doing so. If it’s marginally better or worse, it just won’t be worth the headache to most people.

To be clear Linux (and MacOS) are my preferred OS. I haven’t owned a Windows box in at least 5 years.

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

#535

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…

Desktop Windows still has rough edges. Desktop MacOS still has rough edges. Desktop Linux still has rough edges. Pick your poison.

Niche professional software may lack native Windows support or require workarounds.

Windows has a strong grip in enterprise environments where it is desirable to remove desktop control from users.

You have things like FreeIPA and Samba making weak offers beyond directory services in that direction. You have things like OpenTofu and Ansible making partial efforts in that direction. But you don't have an integrated goto standard solution for giving Linux desktop control to the enterprise. So Windows continues its grip in the enterprise. (If I'm wrong, please post a correction here. I'll be grateful for the education.)

For companies less obsessed with taking control away from users, Windows has less of a grip.

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

#536
post #200

As somebody who's doing the same thing for the first time in almost 2 decades: kubuntu wins for me. Mint was too buggy. It just felt so single-threaded. It had upsides - easiest Nvidia support for example. Cinnamon is nicely customizable and has some great ideas but it's just too rough around the edges. Raw Debian was just too hard to get Nvidia drivers playing nice. But for "I'm comfy editing config files but I need…

> Where is the systemd service manager?

Kde used to have a systems settings module for Systemd. There are defitely GUIs for managing user services (its called Background services for me)

> Why are all the file managers so bad at editing permissions?

What does right click and then choose properties in Dolphin not do satisfactorily for you?

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

#537

Can we stop with the implicit agism that always pops up in Linux threads? I know it's meant to be positive for Linux but it's still agism that diminishes people whose only crime is that they're of advanced age.

I hate it too. Not long ago I met a grandmother who had spent part of her career writing embedded software for nuclear reactors. I met many others who had jobs in technology.

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

#538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I sympathize with this angle, there's another side to this coin: if more people do the switch, maybe some applications will finally get linux versions. I'm a Sunday photographer and quite like Lightroom and Photoshop (I know about the drama, but to me, I get enough value from them compared to Darktable and the GIMP to not switch just yet). It's the only reason I still have a windows pc hanging around the house.

I am in a similar boat; my media editing machine ruined windows 10 so that I can use Lightroom. But I would dearly love to ditch windows so I'm currently looking to try out running Lightroom under Winapps to see if it is usable. There's no way of passing the GPU through without something like SR-IOV so I'll have to see how it goes. https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps

I was thinking of doing that, but since that would require me to switch the monitor and whatnot, it would be just like using two PCs. And since I only use my desktop for LR and not much else, jumping through the hoops with emulation doesn't make much sense.

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

#540
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing is quite as slick as Apple, but companies are popping up doing pretty sleek Linux-first laptops, I have a Starlabs notebook [1] and am waiting for their new Starfighter [2]... [1] https://starlabs.systems/pages/starbook-horizon [2] https://starlabs.systems/pages/starfighter

Batter life claims are very bold. Also the starfighter launches with a 3 year old CPU . Doesn't seem to me like a good deal especially price wise.

It looks like the best option for somebody who wants a great laptop and doesn't want a Mac.

And the price looks perfectly fine.

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