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Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

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Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#561
post #44

Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure. Linux distros generally don't annoy users with stealthy automatic forced updates. Linux dist…

> Linux users don't have to worry nearly as much about malware, trojans, viruses, exploits. It's more secure.

Wait, Linux doesn't prevent doing stupid things, quite the opposite.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux runs better on both new and older hardware. This is very much debatable. What's true however is that if your HW is not supported by at least Windows 8.1 you're SoL. > Better as in programs open faster, the file manager opens faster, the task manager opens faster. Everything uses less memory and less CPU cycles. Everything is snappier. I haven't observed any slow downs in Windows 10 for ages. As for "less memo…

≥ Except there's 100 times more software in Windows Really? I bet dockerhub alone has more linux-capable software than windows has anywhere. I also expect that a randomly chosen GitHub repo is more likely to support Linux than it is to support Windows. Maybe these aren't fair comparisons, but I'm not sure what would be. The ecosystems are so different it's hard to know how such a count would go.

Dockerhub is a drop in an ocean, no central repository can hold windows software, it's that big.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#563

"Most people use Windows on the desktop because it's the default" That's just a stereotype, and that's not true. I keep using Windows (hardened and almost isolated Parallels instance of Windows 7), because Linux has serious lack of software I need. I need fully functional MS Office, including API bindings for data import to Excel, and no, Libre Office Calc does not have even 20% of features I need. Of course, I need…

Just look at Android, iPhone, Chrome OS.

No compatibility with Windows, hardly anyone changes OS. Have not heard much complains about MS Office, Photoshop or Enterprise Architect. People use browser 99% of the time.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#564

Microsoft is doing what Linux claims to be faster and more aggressively than ever before. If you couldn't beat windows 7, the OS that ran for decade with no major upgrades to functionality, at the desktop game how are you going to beat an OS that changes faster than we can keep up as admins? We all cried in 2016, 17, 18 when ms was patching too fast, releasing too fast, now they are steady pushing a semi-annual build…

> Microsoft’s “More Personal Computing” Division, which includes Windows, Xbox, Surface and related businesses, rose in the holiday quarter to $13.2 billion in revenue, up from just under $13 billion a year ago, reclaiming the title of the company’s largest division, at least for the moment.

https://threatpost.com/google-yanks-106-malicious-chrome-ext...

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#566
post #340

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.

It still is tbh.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#567
post #408

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…

> I have the same effective level of support which is to say none-at-all or via the community of volunteers. I find community support for linux much much better (askubuntu, superuser and numerous blogs rather than official ms forums). Not sure if this is because I am software developer and am used to stackoverflow-like kind of support or windows "community support" is a mess.

I literally dread ever having to Google for help on Windows related issues because the various forums are some of the worst cesspools of crowdsourced ignorance out there[0]. Every question has a dozen or more responses and almost none of them have anything useful to say. Absolutely awful.

I suspect the reason the quality of the community support for Linux is so much better is that the community is smaller, self-selecting, and generally more knowledgeable versus the majority of the Windows community. Up until recently it required a certain commitment to run Linux on the desktop and that still bleeds through.

Normally when I buy a new computer I just get a Macbook Pro but, with Apple seeming a bit off the rails, and working from home making a desktop machine more viable again, I'm thinking about building my own machine. I'm also seriously considering Linux because Windows 10, I'm afraid, drives me to distraction most days (I have to use it for work unfortunately).

[0] The StackExchange sites aren't quite as bad, but the other forums are absolutely grim.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#569
post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on the driver problems you had? I keep reading this here but people never give actual examples.

First and foremost, sound. I tried to get mixing -- simultaneous playback from different programs -- to work, spent like half an hour on trying to figure out and gave up. On Windows, it works out of the box, so half an hour was more than generous allotment of time. Next, sleep / resume. Has never worked for me on Linux; at the work place where I used Linux, I just let the machine run overnight. That would be a no-go…

> Skylake

From this I gather that we are talking ~5 years ago?

> First and foremost, sound. I tried to get mixing -- simultaneous playback from different programs

I remember this being a problem 10 years ago, but not since pulseaudio.

> sleep / resume

I successfully use systemctl suspend a lot. But yeah, depends on the hardware, def. a pain point.

> experimental support for the chipset [...] completely froze

Not sure what to respond to this. Experimental drivers are expected to be, well, experimental, as in highly unstable.

> clipboard

Ok.

Thanks for the info, this will be helpful to know what to look out for when getting New hardware.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 5.9 kernels running fine on two laptops with intel graphics. Have you investigated what exactly stopped your systems from booting?

It hangs when trying to load the i915 module. CPU goes up to 100% and display goes black. Obviously it works with some, probably most intel GPUs but seems they aren’t bothering to test it with the older ones anymore. There’s a bunch of bug reports about it, so it’s not just me. usually they get closed with some list of voodoo kernel parameters that supposedly fix the problem but none of them fix it for me.

Damn, that sounds frustrating :/
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