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2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

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Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#601

Post by handbanana_ »

applied_heat wrote: post #235
handbanana_ wrote: post #214

I really don't understand what is different about my installs of Windows 11 compared to what I read in all these types of articles. I have zero issues with the platform day in and day out with heavy workloads like Pro Tools and Unreal Engine devkit. Games run without stutter and issue, all my features are snappy, Explorer loads instantly, etc. Even search is performant and gives decent results. I have tweaked a few s…

Is your windows 11 home edition or managed by corporate IT?

I have pro edition on multiple home systems, definitely have had more issues with my corporate issued Win11 laptop, but it's also many major versions behind what I have at home.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#602

Post by cryptica »

fantasizr wrote: post #255
cryptica wrote: post #136

I love the fact that there are different Linux distros optimized for every person. I started using Linux almost a decade ago; starting with Ubuntu, then I moved to Kubuntu and now I'm on Omarchy which is even more optimized for developers. I feel very comfortable recommending Linux to people now though I would recommend a different distro depending on who is asking. IMO Ubuntu is the simplest general-purpose one. Kub…

I've loaded up omarchy and I'm really digging all the keyboard short cuts and window tiling.

My previous setup with Kubuntu was quite developer friendly with workspaces but Omarchy takes it to the next level. I'm very happy with it. I actually like most of the default tools that come with it. For example,.I was using a lot of vim before but actually neovim is a big improvement.

It has a lot of nice-to-haves which I wouldn't have bothered setting up individually but having them altogether out of the box does improve the overall developer experience significantly.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#603

Post by d12bb »

justinhj wrote: post #49
jasonlotito wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Crazy when the two most significant desktop OS's (Windows and MacOS) have native UIs where something has gone horribly wrong.

Both are absolutely fine. I don't get it. I use both os daily and neither is remotely laggy, looks nice, supports all the hardware and software and I don't have to be surprised or spend hours downloading drivers to make it work.

macOS is fine on all officially supported machines. Windows 11 is fine on high-end machines, and sucks on everything else. I have to use Windows 11 for work unfortunately, an almost bare install with just the two programs we use added, no background stuff or other extra resource hogs, and it just. sucks. shit!

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#604

Post by wltr »

leptons wrote: post #134
sylens wrote: post #14

If this wasn’t HN, I would swear that my personal recommendation algorithm has gotten Linux desktop-pilled and that’s why I’m seeing so many posts like these every day. But in reality I think there is a groundswell of momentum happening here, and with component prices rising, I only see this continuing as more people look to breathe new life into older hardware.

If Microsoft could make me move to Linux, they will be getting a lot more people to switch. I was very into Microsoft's OS since v3.0, I used Outlook for all my email for decades. I recently moved over to Linux Mint and Firebird for email and have not looked back. All my Windows VMs are now Linux VMs. All of Microsoft's invasive "AI" was the last straw. I don't like the direction they are headed.

I was a bit puzzled by Firebird (I thought that’s a fork of Thunderbird, like, say, LibreWolf or Waterfox), but I couldn’t quickly find the project, so my assumption is that it’s just the misprint, and author thinking of Fire-fox -> Fire-bird, not being into ecosystem for too long to remember the actual bird. Anyway, that’s irrelevant to the point author’s making, and I’m happy there’s a new Linux adopter now. Thanks, M$, I guess.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#605

Post by einpoklum »

wltr wrote: post #604
leptons wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Microsoft could make me move to Linux, they will be getting a lot more people to switch. I was very into Microsoft's OS since v3.0, I used Outlook for all my email for decades. I recently moved over to Linux Mint and Firebird for email and have not looked back. All my Windows VMs are now Linux VMs. All of Microsoft's invasive "AI" was the last straw. I don't like the direction they are headed.

I was a bit puzzled by Firebird (I thought that’s a fork of Thunderbird, like, say, LibreWolf or Waterfox), but I couldn’t quickly find the project, so my assumption is that it’s just the misprint, and author thinking of Fire-fox -> Fire-bird, not being into ecosystem for too long to remember the actual bird. Anyway, that’s irrelevant to the point author’s making, and I’m happy there’s a new Linux adopter now. Thanks…

Maybe it's supposed to be BetterBird [1], a Thunderbird tracking fork whose logo is a red phoenix rather than a blue bird?

[1] : https://betterbird.eu/

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#606

Post by hexbin010 »

Alupis wrote: post #580
hexbin010 wrote: post #469

So I just tried KDE with Fedora 43 on a 4 year old Intel Dell laptop (I've used Linux pretty extensively for 15+ years). It's hilariously bad : - I managed to make a process crash just clicking around the Settings app - Sleep doesn't work (spins up the fans, then turns them down, then turns off off displays etc but I then the fan are spinning, so something is running). Looking at the menu, supposedly Firefox is 'bloc…

Can you run MacOS on your 4 year old Intel Dell laptop? I've been running Fedora full-time for years and have not experienced any of the issues you have listed here. Some of your issues sound like hardware to me?

It was running headless Debian for a while with no issues, and Windows prior to that. The hardware is fine (it's a Dell dock too fwiw). Drives are NVMe

I'm not sure what you mean by your question.

---

So I tried KDE on Debian Stable, which is a bit less broken (it gets the Ethernet preferencing correct). But still:

- Logout causes the monitor to turn off then on, introducing more delays and flickering

- Only certain application seem blessed to be permitted to be pinned to the task manager when you right click in the applications menu. For the others, you have to drag and drop. You can only drop to the left of the existing icons, not the right. You can't change the order or remove them unless you enter the editing mode which is non-obviously done by right clicking then "Show panel configuration". You are however allowed to drag the open windows around without editing? Go figure

- Switching from the Dark theme to the Light theme just crashed plasmashell

- GWenview stutters between images because its default animation is enabled, and set to software. Much better turned off.

- Dolphin "Duration" column doesn't work for videos (I checked baloo was indexing properly, including with 'content') (edit: had to fully relaunch Dolphin...)

- Display scaling set itself to 170%. Seems like an odd number?

- Konsole configuration has many options, but none that I can immediately see to change the default font size ?! Well, at least I can configure Thumbnail generation and Memory Monitoring

(edit: oh right you have to create a new Profile - oh and you can't edit the current "built-in" profile. What a mess. Steps: hamburger menu, Settings, Configure Konsole, Profiles, New, Appearance, "Choose", Apply, OK, OK... not done yet...got to make your new profile the default one..."set as default", OK. Finally, you've changed the default font. Madness!)

I don't know how anyone defends this

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#607

Post by gingersnap »

I've been using Linux now as my personal desktop OS for 10-15 years. I actually really liked windows, and still think that windows XP and 7 was great OS for me. My Linux mint is still in style of the old windows versions.

But this year I used windows at a new work, and tested using my wife's windows computer. And for the first time I really feel it's shit.

First when I moved to Linux, 10-15 years ago, windows was better and smoother. 10-5 years ago Linux was getting close and worked equally for everyday, only being problem when things really break. Now is the first time that Linux actually is equal and probably overtakes windows. Microsoft making the move of discontinuation windows 11 puts the nail in the coffin

So I agree, 2026 is the year of Linux desktop.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#608

Post by nirui »

doublerabbit wrote: post #498
nirui wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That brings back my memory (again) installing Mandriva on my old old old computer which has a NVIDIA TNT2 graphics card. It was a completely nightmare back then to install driver for it in order to get it to output at the correct resolution and refresh rate... Now I have a Thinkpad T440p with a GeForce GT 730M dGPU which NVIDIA no longer provide driver for newer Linux kernels, so I have to use slower nouveau driver.…

I recall my older brother and his friends trying to install Linux on a system with a Matrox S3 graphics pn our families computer, HP Pavilion 133mhz with 16mb RAM. Back when X was Xfree86 and you were required to create the X configuration without internet.

Oh yeah, the Internet... is was very hard to get things set up if you changed one file and then it turned to a command prompt with no possibility to access a browser, LOL.

Now days when the same thing happens, you could just grab the Internet phone located right in front of you and search away. Technology really changed life.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#609

Post by Conan_Kudo »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #292
xmcp123 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, .NET, developer tools, and VS. Basically you have tight OS integration vs developer friendly cross platform.

I think it also includes GitHub now.

I believe GitHub is under a different group (CoreAI), not DevDiv.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#610

Post by pimeys »

pixelesque wrote: post #466
pimeys wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: I've been using enterprise thinkpads for the past 15 years and never had issues with wifi, or suspend. So again, it's about how you choose your hardware so it works with Linux...

I had a Thinkpad T480s that was absolutely perfect with Linux (Mint), although very underpowered, but that was due to Intel CPU. This year I got a T14s Gen6 AMD as a replacement, and it's essentially unusable on Debian-based distros (Ubuntu, Mint), but works fine with Fedora and with Windows. On Ubuntu and Mint, X just locks up every 80 seconds or so, and I have to hard-reboot it (or switch ttys and restart X). Nothi…

I have the T14s Gen3 AMD and everything just works with CachyOS and Fedora. In general I tend to use as recent kernel as possible with AMD. They do update their drivers a lot in every Linux version.
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