Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

541–550 of 636 posts

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#541

Post by utxaa »

cycomanic wrote: post #526
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…

Except that's not true, you can buy a laptop that has windows installed and it typically works. However trying to install windows yourself, you often run into all sorts of issues.

windows installation have improved dramatically over the last 3 years.

i always have had a debian and a windows laptop. for at least 20 years. 95% of my time is on the debian one.

this year was the first time where i thought a windows laptop might be enough. i am waiting for the next release of the WSL2 and i think i'm jumping ship for good.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#542

Post by utxaa »

mnahkies wrote: post #332
hanklazard wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: linux laptops, I'm writing this from one of the new Lenovo Carbon X1 models that comes pre-installed with Ubuntu. I prefer pop!_os (except for the name) so I installed that when I first got the machine, and it's worked with no issues. I've had it for a few weeks and zero complaints. The fingerprint reader even works with linux, which wasn't the case on my previous gen CX1 laptops. Let me also just say that I am b…

I setup Debian on an old desktop for my mum a few years back, and she was able to use it happily with no issues or support from me - for the average person that just wants a web browser and some word processing it works great! When it comes to development I find it immensely better, and found that it has also made me much more confident when I poke around on servers - no context switching between my local environment…

wsl2? eat your cake, and have it.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#543

Post by utxaa »

f1refly wrote: post #362
simonh wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2018 I ended up calling both Apple and Microsoft for phone support within a few months of each other and, to my surprise, got excellent support from both of them. The Apple issues turned out to require an NvRAM/SMC reset to fix a weird performance issue. The Apple support person was very polite, helpful and knowledgeable. The Microsoft issue was I’d bought a laptop which came with an Office trial, but wanted to en…

I'm not sure how high your requirement on the "it just werks" factor are, but I can not recommend borgbackup enough for general use. They have a script[0] for local backups one can copy-paste in a cronjob and it takes care of backups reliably from that day on. Saved me from my own stupidity more times than I'm comfortable admitting. [0] https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/deployment/autom...

also restic.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#544

Post by AzzieElbab »

gitweb wrote: post #179
AzzieElbab wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flickering and font rendering

Sounds more like a mis-configuration on desktop environment specific, rather than a problem with Linux or Wayland. I'm using Sway with Wayland and don't experience any of the issues you mention. In fact, I find that it is easier to read than Windows and definitely a lot snappier.

See that is the problem. Sure everything is fine if all I use is sway + alacritty and terminal based apps on a single screen but as soon as I mix in multiple terminals, x11 apps, glitchy hdpi, experience starts to deteriorate quickly

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#545

Post by ajford »

pxeboot wrote: post #253
rubyn00bie wrote: post #214

I just moved to Linux as my primary OS; been fucking great. 11/10 Overall, everything seems to "just work" at least as well as on MacOS and is not quite (for me) as endlessly frustrating as Windows. Gaming has also been effortless and honestly just the most delightful surprise about the whole thing. I can write code AND play games... on the same machine... and it's running Linux?! I would've lost that bet ten years a…

> Really, most modern Linux distros are pretty god damn nice. This has been my experience recently as well. For laptops at least, as long as you buy a system with known good Linux support, the vast majority of the common complaints I see are not really valid. If you need macOS or Windows to run a specific application exclusive to that platform, great. If your software all runs on Linux, you can gain a lot of freedom…

I've often found that simply buying an older model of a relatively popular brand is more than enough to get a working combo.

My go-to is Lenovo, and sticking to the Thinkpad line. Occasionally I've had some growing pains, but I've found using a model that's at least 12-18 months old is more than sufficient for patches to have made it upstream.

Obviously if you have some specific need for a rather new model, then going for something like the Dell XPS line or some other "Linux Certified" line is a better plan. But for my needs, anything within the last 6 years will likely be good enough in my book. I tend to kick intensive jobs off to my local server or set up a one-off in the cloud.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#546

Post by utxaa »

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…

check out the WSL. that's the killer feature that will cause me to switch.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#547

Post by heavyset_go »

danmur wrote: post #340
heavyset_go wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really, most modern Linux distros are pretty god damn nice. I agree, and what really sold me was Plasma Desktop, as someone that couldn't stand KDE 3 & 4. It used to be that GNOME was the desktop environment you could turn into a Windows or macOS clone, but it looks like that switched with GNOME 3 and KDE 5. I have Plasma Desktop set up[1] to take advantage of my macOS muscle memory when it comes to the GUI and key…

I'll have to try KDE again, I always found it really messy and disorganised (but that was many years ago). It's really hard not to have some bias, but I used OSX for work for about five years, currently been using Windows at work for about two years, and I still find Gnome to be the most usable and aesthetically pleasing desktop by far.

> I'll have to try KDE again, I always found it really messy and disorganised (but that was many years ago).

This was my reason for not using KDE for years. The UI these days is cleaner and leaner, rivaling XFCE in resource usage.

> I still find Gnome to be the most usable and aesthetically pleasing desktop by far.

This was my initial impression, as well. But if you want to do something that the GNOME team feels is superfluous, you're either out of luck or depending on some plugin that will break your DE if you upgrade GNOME.

On Plasma Desktop, almost everything is configurable, but it isn't overwhelming and disorganized like it was in KDE 3 & 4. There's a considerable amount of polish. Plugin bugs don't take down the entire desktop environment, either.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#548

Post by heavyset_go »

anonymou2 wrote: post #441
heavyset_go wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really, most modern Linux distros are pretty god damn nice. I agree, and what really sold me was Plasma Desktop, as someone that couldn't stand KDE 3 & 4. It used to be that GNOME was the desktop environment you could turn into a Windows or macOS clone, but it looks like that switched with GNOME 3 and KDE 5. I have Plasma Desktop set up[1] to take advantage of my macOS muscle memory when it comes to the GUI and key…

So you install Linux to install a bunch of proprietary software on it? I don't get the point.

I'd prefer not to use Zoom or Slack, but my clients use them, so I end up using them, as well. Matrix is getting better, and I've heard good things about Jitsi and its clones, so hopefully one day I can ditch the proprietary apps for open ones.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#549

Post by Accacin »

tmjwid wrote: post #406
Accacin wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally got fed up with tweaking Arch/DWM and switched to Manjaro with KDE on my main machine, I went through all the versions of Manjaro and all had their problems and I finally settled on KDE. Looks good, allows me some tweaking, runs surprisingly light. Although, still some annoying bugs, the most annoying being when I open an application on my 1440p screen, KDE often opens it on my second monitor for no real re…

> Although, still some annoying bugs, the most annoying being when I open an application on my 1440p screen, KDE often opens it on my second monitor for no real reason. This here is my most hated thing about KDE. I run it on Debian so my version is pretty old compared, has it been fixed in newer versions? I have been thinking about switching to Neon, but I don't care for the Ubuntu base verses vanilla Debian.

No it hasn't, it's very inconsistent though. Emacs and some other software does it everytime, although most seem well behaved. I'm on 5.20, probably not the latest version I'd have if I were on Arch though.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#550

Post by GoblinSlayer »

Nginx487 wrote: post #401
keutoi wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a stereotype, but the statement itself is not an exaggeration. An average user has most of the software he needs even in linux. It is not foreign to the user if it is the first one (if it is default) he/she encounters.

"Average" user must have used very limited amount of software. I agree, not everyone need software for modeling or design, but again, looking at Grammarly, which is pretty useful addon, and it's only available for MS Office. "Average user" may start from Libre Office, but end up disappointed, why addon developers don't care about him. And they don't care (well, maybe just deeply concerned), because investing 20-30% o…

You mean spell checker? Libre office has it.
Post reply on HN