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I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

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Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#621

Post by Nathanba »

rickcarlino wrote: post #260

Linux is one of the last strong defenses for the idea that people should control the computers they own. On desktops and servers, root access is normal, and attempts to take it away do not work because software freedom is well established. On phones, that never happened. There is no real, mainstream “Linux for mobile,” and the result is a world of locked-down platforms where things like “sideloading” are treated as s…

What I don't understand is why it is so much effort to use linux on a phone. Surely these 8 core ARM monsters these days should be more than enough to handle a full kernel. Hopefully it's not a driver issue where manufacturers only contribute the necessary drivers to the android kernel, not the linux one.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#622

Post by Kye »

t_mahmood wrote: post #517
rickdg wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ubuntu and the default remote desktop just stopped working since 24: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rdp-stopped-working-after-upg... With Linux, you just have to be prepared to hit a bug and find no help coming anytime.

I had one client who's explorer didn't load, we tried different file browsers, all that used explorer as backend failed to load, only double commander (forgot the exact name, it's a dual pan file browser like midnight commander) that worked. And we couldn't find any solution online, at the end he was stuck with it for over an year, as it was not possible to reinstall. On Linux everything is mostly decoupled, so this…

Most explorer issues are really file system issues. It's touchy. chkdsk in offline repair mode usually fixes it. For the rest, clear the thumbnail cache.

The ways Windows breaks are different from the ways Linux breaks, but there are still ways to fix it. Most of the rest are solved with one or two commands, and it's usually the same two: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-fil...

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#623

Post by ahartmetz »

trueno wrote: post #442
pedalpete wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac feels like it is constantly trying to sell you on their cloud services. A few times a day it will tell me that I haven't backed up to the cloud. Windows is strangely less direct, but will regularly automatically try to save something to onedrive and force a subscription. Plus, it is just full of ads and nonsense.

as a dude who uses all three heavily for work & personal (windows/linux/macos) macos doesnt even come close to windows in the "trying to sell me on the cloud services" front. microsoft ddos's my brain with sign in with an o365 account at every corner of computing now. microsoft products are actually insane now. i have quite a few mac vms for development things and ive had no issue just disabling all the icloud pieces…

The HP ZBook G1a is similar to a Macbook in case(*), touchpad, screen and audio quality, design and performance - just the efficiency and battery life are kind of crap and, uh, I haven't figured out yet how to configure reliable sleep on Linux. It lasts 6-7 hours idle. You can also empty the battery in an hour with heavy compile jobs, but that one Macbooks do as well according to info I've found on the net.

(*) Aluminum is more about perceived than actual quality - I wouldn't mind touching something with lower heat conduction, especially in winter. The only thing that I really like about it, compared to a Thinkpad, is the stiffness of the screen part.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#624

Post by noAnswer »

rickdg wrote: post #295
herczegzsolt wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are sensitive to these issues, unfortunately you need to go with a mainstream linux distribution and use near-default settings. It's great that you can customize everything and use your own window manager, compositor, etc ... but these issues are the price you pay. It is unfair to compare this to Windows, where you don't even have these customization options. Specifically for the network manager applet, it is…

I use ubuntu and the default remote desktop just stopped working since 24: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rdp-stopped-working-after-upg... With Linux, you just have to be prepared to hit a bug and find no help coming anytime.

The default remote desktop client on Windows 11 can have his picture freeze. Mouse and keyboard input still goes through though. (Which is especially dangerous because enraged users will smash their keyboard.) Years without a fix from Microsoft. Just a registry hack as a workaround.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#625

Post by codingrightnow »

toddmorey wrote: post #9

Commercial OSes (both Windows and MacOS) now feel so insanely agenda driven, and the agenda no longer feels like anything close to making the user happy and productive. For Mac, it feels like Apple wants to leverage what came out of VisionOS and unify the look and feel of mobile and desktop--two things no one asked for. For Windows, it feels like ads for their partners and ensuring they don't fumble the ai/agent tran…

I am curious about how you are improving the Linux experience with claude code. Can you dive into that a little?

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#626

Post by illiac786 »

Nathanba wrote: post #621
rickcarlino wrote: post #260

Linux is one of the last strong defenses for the idea that people should control the computers they own. On desktops and servers, root access is normal, and attempts to take it away do not work because software freedom is well established. On phones, that never happened. There is no real, mainstream “Linux for mobile,” and the result is a world of locked-down platforms where things like “sideloading” are treated as s…

What I don't understand is why it is so much effort to use linux on a phone. Surely these 8 core ARM monsters these days should be more than enough to handle a full kernel. Hopefully it's not a driver issue where manufacturers only contribute the necessary drivers to the android kernel, not the linux one.

Battery/sleeping is the main challenge I believe, not processing power. Linux laptops still struggle a lot with sleep. And Windows laptop too btw.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#627

Post by jacquesm »

Kye wrote: post #620
mixmastamyk wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows has also needed external drivers installed at times, since the DOS days. It's the nature of obscure, new, or advanced hardware.

The difference was the device came with a disk containing the driver for DOS and Windows.

I don't see how that is Linux' fault.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#628

Post by etrvic »

toddmorey wrote: post #9

Commercial OSes (both Windows and MacOS) now feel so insanely agenda driven, and the agenda no longer feels like anything close to making the user happy and productive. For Mac, it feels like Apple wants to leverage what came out of VisionOS and unify the look and feel of mobile and desktop--two things no one asked for. For Windows, it feels like ads for their partners and ensuring they don't fumble the ai/agent tran…

I've been using macOS since 2020, but for the last year I have seriously considered switching to Linux. macOS Catalina felt really fast, easy to use, and lacked the useless features they kept adding and the ipadOS like interface they began implementing. In 2020, the feature set felt much more intentional.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#629

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

63stack wrote: post #367
rickdg wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ubuntu and the default remote desktop just stopped working since 24: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rdp-stopped-working-after-upg... With Linux, you just have to be prepared to hit a bug and find no help coming anytime.

>With Linux, you just have to be prepared to hit a bug and find no help coming anytime. I'd argue it's the opposite. Windows stuff randomly breaking on forced unattended updates is a common trope by now. If you try to search for solutions, you will find "Trusted Microsoft Computing Expert Gold Level Diamond Star" people on MS forums giving you advice ranging from "reinstall drivers, uninstall drivers, update bios, ru…

Also a long-time Linux user/administrator. Whenever I've tried searching for Windows answers to issues, I've been genuinely shocked by how low quality the answers are. I've got just a basic understanding of Windows, but it's obvious to me that over 99% of all Windows advice is from people who are just posting meaningless answers so that they can get points for answering or similar.

Re: I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great

#630

Post by palata »

immibis wrote: post #605
palata wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that the proprietary office suites are needed. The alternatives are good enough for what people do, aren't they? The problem is that people don't want to change, because it takes some effort. Why would people use WhatsApp instead of Signal otherwise?

There used to be programs that would connect to multiple proprietary systems, like Pidgin. If we had this today we'd have one free-software app for WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram (and some used in other countries, like IIRC Zangi?). However, the social and regulatory environment changed - now whoever made that app could expect to be charged with a crime.

I don't have a definitive opinion on such messaging apps. I like that it bridges between different services, trying to free the users from the lock-in, but...

If I talk to someone on Signal today, I know that they are probably using the official Signal on the other side. With the guarantees that I know from Signal. Now what if half of the users of Signal were using a third-party app? How much can I trust this app?

Say Matrix has a bridge to Signal. I talk to someone over what looks like Signal from my end, but it goes to some third-party server that pretends to be Signal and then relays those messages to my friend on their Matrix client. As a Signal user, I cannot know it, but my conversation is not E2EE anymore. And it kind of defeats the point of using Signal entirely, doesn't it?

I guess my point is that in terms of security, there is value in making it possible to verify that both ends are using the official Signal app, by locking it as much as possible (e.g. with DRM-like technology). But of course it's annoying to be locked in. Even though I don't feel personally super locked into Signal: I could move to another similar app in a minute. But again people tend to be lazy and don't want to switch apps. It's a hard problem, I guess.

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