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I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

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

#571

Post by grub5000 »

BuddyPickett wrote: post #468
sovietmudkipz wrote: post #301

I’m so close to the switch myself for silly reasons. I don’t like windows due to their creepy business practices and negative design patterns in their OS so I’m very bias against it. Forcing copilot is just the latest in their creepy practices… For more details on why I came close to switching: I use my win desktop as a host for ai services such as Comfy UI for stable diffusion generation since it is a beefy platform…

Copilot is already great and it's only getting better. I can get so much more work done and the same amount of time or get the same amount of work done in a lot less time. It's funny how many people were afraid of AI. Technophobes abound in this world

Funny, I disagree. I think copilot truly sucks compared to the other options. But you can uninstall copilot, so I don’t see why it bothers people at all.

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

#572

Post by NamlchakKhandro »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #414
voxleone wrote: post #299

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…

Will these issues with Linux ever be overcome? I want to switch but I just don't feel confident yet, and I wonder how long the "yet" will remain.

> Will these issues with "the other side of the road" ever be overcome?

> I want to switch but I just don't feel confident yet, and I wonder how long the "yet" will remain.

For people like you who think like this.

FOREVER

You'll always dream up some reason why this side of the road, is just better.

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

#574

Post by mjr00 »

Aurornis wrote: post #568
mjr00 wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the world does not care. I suspect that is more true today than ever before. There are now adults that grew up in the age of social media that have no idea how local computing works. Yep. I was amazed when I was talking to a friend who's a bit younger (late 20s) and told him about a fangame you could just download from a website (Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers, for the record) and he was skeptical and concerned…

> and he was skeptical and concerned at the idea of just downloading and running an executable from somewhere on the internet Ironically, being concerned and skeptical about running random executables from the internet is a good idea in general.

> Ironically, being concerned and skeptical about running random executables from the internet is a good idea in general.

I agree you shouldn't run random executables, but the key word is "random". In this case, Ring Racers is a relatively established and somewhat well-known game, plus it's open-source.

It doesn't guarantee it's not harmful of course, but ultimately for someone with the mindset of "I should never run any programs that aren't preapproved by a big corporation", they may as well just stick to Windows/MacOS or mobile devices where this is built into the ecosystem.

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

#575

Post by jakkos »

zahlman wrote: post #356
jakkos wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> System updates obviously don't become less risky because of the OS they're updating The last time I used arch, I ran an update and it broke my bootloader, meaning the next time I restarted it wouldn't boot at all. Sure I could make a recovery USB and fix it, but at that point I was away from home, and just really needed to do the totally crazy thing of "using my computer to actually do work". (To be clear, I didn't…

My point was exactly that GGP shouldn't have expected to be able to do the system update without risk. But the usual way to install Linux nowadays is from a live boot, so you automatically have a recovery drive anyway. It's not hard to set up regular restore points with Timeshift or similar, either. That said, I haven't had problems like what you describe in nearly 4 years.

I've used Windows, Ubuntu, and NixOS all for longer than I ever used arch and never had an update leave my computer inoperable.

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

#576

Post by scrlk »

myself248 wrote: post #220
kryogen1c wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> weird keyboard layout Classic lenovo. Some models have FN as the most bottom left key, instead of ctrl. Gotta be the worst design decision ive ever seen. Everyone copy+pastes and finds, whoever thought that was a good idea really needs relieved of decision making power.

You've got history backwards. IBM Thinkpads did it that way 30+ years ago, when there was no consensus in the industry. Do you switch it now, and anger every lifetime Thinkpad loyalist, or keep it and annoy just the folks who switch back and forth between different vendors' laptops? In a brief survey of laptop photos from the early 90s, IBM, Toshiba, Zenith, NEC, Packard Bell, Compaq, and Fujitsu all put Fn on the ou…

> Thinkpads are the last major holdout

ThinkPads were one of the last major holdouts, they went to the Control-Fn layout in 2024.

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

#577

Post by throw-qqqqq »

BuddyPickett wrote: post #442
DetectDefect wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do we want our fundamental computing environment to be ultimately under our control, or controlled by private interests with their own incentives? The reality is a lot more nuanced than that. Should one live in a forest, devoid of any city services and company of other individuals, so that one may be under "own control"? This is the essential value proposition with Linux and it's no wonder many prefer the comfortin…

Not everything that runs on windows is proprietary I use a lot of open source software on Windows myself. Windows is also a lot easier to configure to run exactly the way I wanted to run and to be the OS I need it to be. It's extremely customizable and easy to control. It's also modifiable in many many more ways.

You are using subjective claims to back an objective assertion…

Windows is strictly quite a bit less configurable than Linux. You likely just know Windows better?

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

#578

Post by nlkl »

mnls wrote: post #164

Every now and then a new article "Why you should go Linux". I get it, I like Linux too but every case is different. I want to use Linux but I have to use Digital Audio Workstation. So in my case, I shouldn't dump Windows (and thousand of $$ I've spent on audio software). I know people desperately want to believe that Linux is "there", but it really isn't. And will probably never be. It’s still too confusing for the a…

I see this mentioned again and again, but I don't buy it.

For power users or users with niche use cases, sure there might be specialized software that lock you into Windows or Mac.

But for most casual home users, I think Linux would be perfectly adequate, and familiarity being the only real detractor.

Assuming someone can help install a friendly Linux distribution (and that the hardware is compatible), then what are the big blockers? Gaming maybe, for those where it is relevant.

But looking at all my not so tech savvy family members and friends, a browser, online versions of MS Office (or Libreoffice for sure), maybe Spotify or the like, would really be enough. Being able to install apps via an (actually useful) app store is a big win in itself.

Looking at those friends/family members, it is not like they are able to support their Windows machines either when something goes wrong or needs to be changed - I (or someone else technical) always need to help out anyway, fixing driver issues, installing software, changing any non-trivial settings, and so on. And I could just as well do that on Linux - and whether I need to pull up a terminal is irrelevant.

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

#579

Post by mystifyingpoi »

raffael_de wrote: post #555
mystifyingpoi wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? Most people don't care about battery, so let's just have a crap battery? That argument would work, if Apple released a super light laptop with a tiny battery, specially made for "most people who sit at their desk". No, people do care about battery life. That's where Macs excel. (I'm saying this as a Thinkpad user, where getting 6-8hrs of battery is doable, if you don't do anything on the laptop).

my point is that foregoing a superior OS for reasons that are only relevant on paper is not logical.

Sure, there are pros and cons for everything. It also depends on circumstances. I remember in 2012 I'd dim the screen and play with cpufreqd to get maximum time out of a battery, because I had a 3h train ride to my university weekly, with no power sockets most of the time on the train. I barely could do 3h. Today, in age of cheap PD powerbanks and USB-C everywhere, I'd easily take a better OS over battery life.

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

#580

Post by nikanj »

adontz wrote: post #86

These articles... I'm not sure who are the target audience, because I am definitely not and I don't know anyone who is. Specific OS is not the important, anything with modern KDE is good enough to replace Windows 10/11. But do I (and all my colleagues) need Microsoft Office (Word, Excel at least) and/or Drawing software (Adobe or something) and/or god forbid Visual Studio 2026, and some other corporate software to ma…

Target audience is anyone who will click it. They don’t make money from you installing Linux, they make money from you wanting to read how the switching went
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