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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

#711

Post by Lvl999Noob »

bubblethink wrote: post #597
Lvl999Noob wrote: post #206

I recently switched to linux from windows. The only reason I was sticking with windows was because hoyoverse refuses to support linux. I finally decided I need some break from them anyways and took the plunge. First, I tried to install fedora atomic cosmic. It kind of worked but I could not get it to work with my dock + external monitors at all. Now that I am used to that setup, I can't go back. Not wanting to spend…

The trick with linux is being selective when you buy hardware. Getting things to work the first time is hit or miss, but once they work, they tend to continue to work without too many surprises. For laptops, that means thinkpads.

The dock and monitors aren't mine actually. I got them from work. The work laptop runs windows 11 so the hardware is only tested for windows. I will buy my own stuff when I have to return these and then I will make sure it all works with linux.

What distro / wm / de is good with external monitors, in your opinion? After going through some of the comments on some threads, it feels like external displays are a common pain point across all linux systems.

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

#712

Post by pjmlp »

jm4 wrote: post #702
pjmlp wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it is still a mess to support laptops, because everything still needs to be reverse engineered instead of landing into upstream.

My laptops have been running fine for years.

What I had with Linux did also worked fine, provided I was happy with randomly dropping wlan sessions when doing heavy downloads, using OpenGL 3.3 instead of the OpenGL 4.1, watching YouTube without hardware decoding, and having to take out the battery when it hang during a reboot.

Other than that, it was a great Linux laptop, 2009 - 2024.

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

#713

Post by shinycode »

cwillu wrote: post #700
shinycode wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Change for change's sake, needless shifting in settings/config menus. Weird "we tried to make this similar to mobile" themes in some places but not others. Overly complex os navigation That is garbage ? Changing the UI of settings ? MacOS navigation has been the same for a decade. Who uses the settings daily ? I don’t even open settings once a month. Every single piece of UI evolve and must evolve. The ones that do…

Functionality that you use once a year or less is _exactly_ the sort of thing that needs to be consistent. It's literally the last place that an innovation should arrive, after that innovation has been fully developed and battle-tested.

So among the hundreds of things that makes an OS garbage, you’ll likely place as top criteria an UI you use once a year. Windows settings has been the worse of the worse of all UI settings ever. That’s my criteria then, macOS is luxury in any kind of form compared to the maze and hidden UI that make windows.

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

#714

Post by tonyedgecombe »

leptons wrote: post #659
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pro version doesn't remove the adverts.

What "adverts"? I've been on Pro for over a decade on a dozen machines and have never seen one single "advert".

From https://www.howtogeek.com/windows-11-wont-show-any-ads-if-yo...

"It doesn't matter whether you have the $140 Windows Home edition or the $200 Windows Pro edition; you'll see plenty of ads throughout your Windows system. There are ads in File Explorer, and you'll even find them in the Start menu."

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

#715

Post by immibis »

ranger_danger wrote: post #679
immibis wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Google Pixel hardware is just fine and not evil, and they're looking at a different vendor for the next version anyway, because Google is making it so the Pixel will only run approved OSes.

You mean the Pixel hardware that employs a proprietary black-box security chip that they pinky-promised to open source but never did?

Oh no! A TPM without a driver! How can I trust any device that has a TPM I don't have a driver for?

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

#716

Post by cwillu »

shinycode wrote: post #713
cwillu wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Functionality that you use once a year or less is _exactly_ the sort of thing that needs to be consistent. It's literally the last place that an innovation should arrive, after that innovation has been fully developed and battle-tested.

So among the hundreds of things that makes an OS garbage, you’ll likely place as top criteria an UI you use once a year. Windows settings has been the worse of the worse of all UI settings ever. That’s my criteria then, macOS is luxury in any kind of form compared to the maze and hidden UI that make windows.

Don't read what I didn't write.

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

#717

Post by bubblethink »

Lvl999Noob wrote: post #711
bubblethink wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick with linux is being selective when you buy hardware. Getting things to work the first time is hit or miss, but once they work, they tend to continue to work without too many surprises. For laptops, that means thinkpads.

The dock and monitors aren't mine actually. I got them from work. The work laptop runs windows 11 so the hardware is only tested for windows. I will buy my own stuff when I have to return these and then I will make sure it all works with linux. What distro / wm / de is good with external monitors, in your opinion? After going through some of the comments on some threads, it feels like external displays are a common p…

Yes, external displays can break in weird ways. I remember that a common annoyance used to be that windows and applications don't go back to where you left them before suspending. There are likely other paper cuts as well in areas of variable refresh rates, colour management, etc. I think the biggest issue with external displays, screen tearing, is solved now due to wayland. As for hw and distros, stick to intel or amd igpus, especially in laptops. Both gnome and kde are pretty good these days. Ubuntu and Fedora are both quite good. Distros aren't that different anymore these days. The differences boil down to release cadence mostly.

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

#718

Post by jijijijij »

malshe wrote: post #663
arcfour wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god, I had a Mac for work recently and had to spend 3 weeks becoming an expert in Mac External Displays And Thunderbolt just to get my HP Thunderbolt 4 dock (officially compatible with Macs!) to use a dual monitor setup with it. Finally I got it working, but every configuration I tried Just Worked(tm) on Linux. Jeez...

This sounds more like problem of HP’s dock than a Mac. Just because they said it is officially compatible with Mac doesn’t mean it is. Also, compatible with which Mac- Intel or M series? I use three different docks on two Mac Mini (M4 Pro) and they all worked out of the box. I did my research before buying them by watching YouTube reviews.

This is exactly the double standard, or bias when talking operating systems.

When it's macOS/Windows, it's someone else's fault; when it's Linux, it's Linux fault.

When you have to tinker on macOS/Windows that's just what has to be done, no biggie; when you have to tinker on Linux, it's a burden nobody should be subjected to.

People are blind to the work they've grown accustomed to. There are many things that are much, much easier on Linux than macOS or Windows.

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

#719

Post by jijijijij »

dannyfritz07 wrote: post #138
jacquesm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been like that for 15 years or more. The fact that you now need an account for almost any piece of hardware, including computers, phones etc is a major drawback that arrived with the internet era. Linux has been able to avoid that temptation.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. 15 years ago I was still looking up installation and driver procedures and workarounds to install Linux on my devices. I failed to install arch in college because I didn't have a driver for my SATA drive for example. Today though. Yeah totally easy. Especially if you get one of the many machines with Linux support. Smooth sailing all around.

That's Arch for you.

I've been on Linux since Ubuntu 8.04 or longer and I literally never had OS install problems with any of it at all. Except for Arch, but what did you expect? Hands-on is the point of Arch Linux.

On the other hand, I remember installing a lot of drivers by hand on windows. Most people never (re-)installed Windows or macOS to begin with.

Probably depends on your hardware, but that's a matter of vendor support, not operating system. It's not like Microsoft or Apple are writing all those drivers. With a Thinkpad or Brother, you likely never had problems with Linux for the last 20 years. People don't complain they can't install macOS on a Chromebook, and Windows has been the absolute OS monopoly everyone had to support. However, with tinkering, you can install Linux on a washing machine.

What has drastically changed is the user space software side. First off some FOSS alternatives like Blender, OBS, Krita... are becoming equal or better than the competition, but Valve also basically solved gaming on Linux, now. Virtualization and software development is and always has been better.

To be fair, Linux also shines now due to enshitification of everything else.

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

#720

Post by shinycode »

cwillu wrote: post #716
shinycode wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So among the hundreds of things that makes an OS garbage, you’ll likely place as top criteria an UI you use once a year. Windows settings has been the worse of the worse of all UI settings ever. That’s my criteria then, macOS is luxury in any kind of form compared to the maze and hidden UI that make windows.

Don't read what I didn't write.

We agree on what you said then
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