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

I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

notebookcheck.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

671–680 of 832 posts

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

#671

Post by anonymousDan »

tombert wrote: post #667
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…

I have been running desktop Linux for a very long time, but I actually agree. There's a lot of rough edges. I do think a lot of these problems do go away if you are a bit proactive in choosing compatible hardware. I bought my mother in law a laptop for Christmas, and I put Linux Mint on there [1]. There were no issues getting it working on Mint with Cinnamon, but that's in no small part because I double checked all t…

How do you check the hardware is compatible in practice? Is there some reliable resource for doing this?

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

#672

Post by tombert »

anonymousDan wrote: post #671
tombert wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been running desktop Linux for a very long time, but I actually agree. There's a lot of rough edges. I do think a lot of these problems do go away if you are a bit proactive in choosing compatible hardware. I bought my mother in law a laptop for Christmas, and I put Linux Mint on there [1]. There were no issues getting it working on Mint with Cinnamon, but that's in no small part because I double checked all t…

How do you check the hardware is compatible in practice? Is there some reliable resource for doing this?

As a rule AMD stuff is pretty safe, but to answer your question, I generally go look at kernel sources, or sometimes I go and see if I can find the model in the NixOS Github and see how many workarounds that they have to do to get it working.

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

#673

Post by kachapopopow »

vlod wrote: post #656
kachapopopow wrote: post #628

At some point it is not that Linux is better, it's about rejecting the decisions made by a company blinded by profits.

Yeah this is what switched me. I was forever complaining about wall gardens and yet was too 'comfortable' with my macbook-pro as it was the best laptop period. I switched to a thinkpad x1-carbon and popos and never looked back. Sure I would love 10 hour battery life, but it's not THAT big of deal (for me) to carry a charger.

new intel cpus might change that as long as standby is fixed :)

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

#674

Post by bhewes »

embedding-shape wrote: post #641
bhewes wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows VM with USB passthrough. I haven't had any issues with USB devices this way.

> Windows VM That's not wine, and I'd rather keep dual booting that running Windows VMs that barely can keep up. Have you tried doing music production inside a Windows VM before?

Yes Ableton, VST and usb. I have used the Coreweave windows VM with Nvidia to run everything audio and video, though haven't routed USB devices to it.

Cognitively it's easier to just buy a second PC for windows. But threadripper pro etc have so many cores and pcie lanes it's easy to run multiple OS VMs with dedicated GPUs at close to native speed in one box.

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

#675

Post by anonymous908213 »

throw-qqqqq wrote: post #577
BuddyPickett wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I think there are two factors that lead people to make statements like that. The first is a given: they're talking about configuring it as a user, not a developer. Obviously Linux can do whatever you want it to do if you build your own distro from source. But additionally, while Linux is also substantially configurable in userland, those configurations might not actually cover the cases people need. You can, for example, pick between GNOME, KDE, etc -- which, on a pedantic level, is "objectively" more customizable than Windows, where you have exactly one option. Yet, if the settings within all of the off-the-shelf GUI shells do not serve the use cases the settings of the single option on Windows does, users will have every reason to assert that, on a practical level, the degree of customizability is inferior and not sufficient for them.

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

#676

Post by bhewes »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #504
bhewes wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows VM with USB passthrough. I haven't had any issues with USB devices this way.

I've tried to passthrough Behringer audio interface, as well as HX Stomp (to, of course, avoid dual-boot) and it stuttered like crazy. Maybe there is a way to make it more "realtime" but it's not the default, at least in VirtualBox.

Yeah passing through usb devices to a VM for audio seems to be a dark art like working with a bunch of analog equipment. Everything has to be tuned. I do understand why a bare metal windows and/or mac computer is always in a studio, one can skip the head ache. Even if main DAW is Linux.

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

#677

Post by broodbucket »

koyote wrote: post #658
freeopinion wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktop Windows still has rough edges. Desktop MacOS still has rough edges. Desktop Linux still has rough edges. Pick your poison. Niche professional software may lack native Windows support or require workarounds. Windows has a strong grip in enterprise environments where it is desirable to remove desktop control from users. You have things like FreeIPA and Samba making weak offers beyond directory services in that…

> Desktop Windows still has rough edges. Desktop MacOS still has rough edges. Desktop Linux still has rough edges. Pick your poison. I think this sentiment is often overlooked as people are used to their 'poison'. As someone who uses Linux a their main personal machine (with dual boot to Windows every now and then) as well as W11 for work, it's amazing what you get used to. I was almost agreeing with OP, remembering…

The thing I like about Linux is that if your thing doesn't work you have a way better chance of being able to wrangle it into working (odds increasing as your technical skill increases)

Meanwhile on Windows if something doesn't work you're generally SOL.

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

#678

Post by Barrin92 »

DetectDefect wrote: post #384
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…

> 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…

>Should one live in a forest, devoid of any city services and company of other individuals

extremely bizarre comparison given that 90% of people spend their time on the web which is utterly agnostic as to what operating system you're on.

The reality of Linux in 2025 isn't that you have to live like Tom Hanks in Cast Away and talk to a football as your best friend, it's that maybe you have to spend a few hours learning how the OS works. Almost your entire Steam Library runs on Linux courtesy of Valve and a lot of ambitious individuals.

If people are too lazy to invest even the tiniest bit of personal effort into trying out new things that's one thing, but at least be honest about it instead of giving me the "I don't want to live in the jungle" spiel. Don't be the tech equivalent of the person who runs around telling everyone they can't get into shape without a million dollars and a personal trainer

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

#679

Post by AuthAuth »

everdrive wrote: post #32
dividedbyzero wrote: post #23

Not saying I'm not considering it given the current political climate, but I'm spoiled by my Macbook Air. The Thinkpad I've been issued for work costs about the same, runs hot like crazy, always has fans running, is cheap-feeling plastic, thicker, heavier, garbage touchpad, weird keyboard layout (printscreen right next to the arrow keys, what were they thinking?), mushy keys, barely serviceable display ... what do I…

I don't think anyone will build as nice hardware as Apple anytime soon, so I think if that's your primary requirement then any other choice will be a compromise. I don't really like Apple, but it must must acknowledged that even a few basic things (the monitor turning on immediately as I open the screen, the touchpad quality, etc.) seem totally elusive to other manufacturers. Apple's pretty imperfect, and it's sad to…

Apple's only just started getting good hardware. For so long their hardware was so below standard and in a lot of areas it still is. Apple users will sit there with a straight face telling me about how much they care about a good cpu when I know they paid 3k for a low tier intel cpu and 8gb of ram not to long ago.

Also when they talk about how their laptop can handle all this stuff without fans spinning up its only because the laptops come with next to no cooling and spend most of the time thermal throttling.

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

#680

Post by unlikelytomato »

The real issue is the lack of support. Real users buy those support packages from vendors. They bring their PC in to be fixed at their local shop. They might Google a problem and find a solution occasionally of they are feeling spicy but how often do you get screenshots to get something to work in a Linux GUI? Web browser only laptops are great until your uncle gets a "killer deal" on some random printer on Facebook marketplace and they can't get it to work. Or a webcam. Or a Bluetooth headset. Or a game controller. Scanner. etc etc.

On top of all of this, they will just give up and buy a new machine and return it if that doesn't fix their issue.

Linux provides virtually nothing on any of those fronts unless you get a private level 8 tech support contact provided by your grandson. Who wants to be 24/7 on call for their extended family?

Post reply on HN