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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

#731

Post by mrheosuper »

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…

The ultimate question is "Would you give up the right of owning your machine to have access to services", and with the decline of rooting scene on Android, the answer is pretty clear.

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

#732

Post by blauditore »

drdec wrote: post #283
CarVac wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, Unity was great as a UI even on desktop. The main issue was poor performance early on.

To me, the killer feature of Unity was the searchable application menus. Wish that was still a thing

Same here! Never found a replacement for it in Gnome Shell.

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

#733

Post by malshe »

freedomben wrote: post #726
jijijijij wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 muc…

Indeed, and especially the double standard regarding "oh but on Linux you have to carefully check if the hardware is supported by Linux" but when it's a Mac it will "just work." In GPs comment they have to do the same hardware compat research as a Linux user does, but that's never listed as a downside for Mac

This is a bizarre complaint. There are more Mac users than Linux users but still far fewer than Windows users. As such, there are so many examples of hardware and software that are incompatible with Mac. Our IT dude keeps telling me to switch to Windows because of better support from third party vendors.

My comment was specifically about the HP dock. I have nothing for or against Linux as I have never used it, don't know anybody who uses it, and I have no plans to use it. I am simply not qualified to comment on Linux.

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

#734

Post by einpoklum »

saltmate wrote: post #269
einpoklum wrote: post #172

I noticed the blog post said nothing about working with documents, i.e. the office suite the poster was using. Or - maybe he wasn't at all? I wonder. Same goes for email, although perhaps he was just using webmail.

Have you ever heard of Thunderbird? There's to my knowledge no other mail client besides maybe mutt that offers more features and flexibility. For office, LibreOffice doesn't feel very modern but is capable of a lot of things.

I am a Thunderbird extension developer, my friend...

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

#735

Post by einpoklum »

bigyabai wrote: post #214
einpoklum wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and considering the GTK file picker we still have to live with, that's saying something.

File pickers are an XDG standard, you can replace it whenever you want: https://flatpak.github.io/xdg-desktop-portal/docs/doc-org.fr...

Unfortunately, you can only replace it with whatever is readily available... which AFAICR is not much, or just nothing. And even for that you have to be aware of it being replaceable and how to perform that replacement :-(

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

#736

Post by ranger_danger »

immibis wrote: post #715
ranger_danger wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The Titan chip does a lot more than sign and store keys. It also has storage (could contain malicious payloads) as well as an RNG and AES/SHA accelerators (which could be weakened/compromised), among other things.

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

#737

Post by jijijijij »

malshe wrote: post #733
freedomben wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, and especially the double standard regarding "oh but on Linux you have to carefully check if the hardware is supported by Linux" but when it's a Mac it will "just work." In GPs comment they have to do the same hardware compat research as a Linux user does, but that's never listed as a downside for Mac

This is a bizarre complaint. There are more Mac users than Linux users but still far fewer than Windows users. As such, there are so many examples of hardware and software that are incompatible with Mac. Our IT dude keeps telling me to switch to Windows because of better support from third party vendors. My comment was specifically about the HP dock. I have nothing for or against Linux as I have never used it, don't…

Don't take it personal. This wasn't about you specifically, but the sentiment frequently observed. No one would have been blaming HP when we were talking Linux. The need for tinkering, or hardware considerations is frequently brought up against Linux; it's never brought up for macOS, on the contrary, on macOS everything "just works" - even when it doesn't. On Windows, for years, you had/have to search the web for obscure software and drivers, then download them from shady third-party websites, repeating the process for updates; on Linux you always were able to install and update almost everything signed and shipped from trusted sources through the package manager, long before app stores, but apparently adding a line to some config file is unbearable inconvenience. Somehow people are very ignorant about the limitations (sometimes unfixable) and troubleshooting in Windows and macOS, but hyper vigilant when it comes to Linux.

I am running this Fedora installation for a few years, now. No clean install in-between, just super stable and pleasant upgrades. Everything just works for me. Zero tinkering. If there is a bug, it's usually tracked and gone in a few weeks, at most the next release 6 months off. If a HP dock doesn't work, it's HP's fault for not using open standards, certainly not a problem of Linux.

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

#738

Post by bigfatkitten »

ekianjo wrote: post #491
tombert wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with this characterization. I don't run Gnome now (since I have more fun hacking on Sway), but I really don't think that the characterization of it being a "tablet desktop" is actually very fair. I found Gnome to be very productive, and actually extremely keyboard focused. Outside of a tiling window manager like Sway or i3, I actually have found it more keyboard-centric than any other desktop I've used. Th…

GNOME gets flak because they keep removing stuff people want for no good reason.

GNOME’s design philosophy apparently amounts to one developer (with no training or experience in design) saying “I don’t personally consider this feature to be important, and so it’s gone.”

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

#740

Post by conz »

mft_ wrote: post #721
conz wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: "if you want Linux to win with non-experts, it needs to target being a better experience for non-experts than the alternatives" I agree in broad terms, but let me re-capitulate this. Which OS do you think would offer a better experience for non-experts when installing on bare-metal? By my reckoning, Windows is a nightmare to install afresh on random hardware, and MacOS wont work on most-all random hardware. Users…

> I agree in broad terms, but let me re-capitulate this. Which OS do you think would offer a better experience for non-experts when installing on bare-metal? By my reckoning, Windows is a nightmare to install afresh on random hardware, and MacOS wont work on most-all random hardware. Users think that Windows is easier because they almost never have to install it from scratch. I've done multiple installs of every Wind…

Re: "Or can I use the built-in Software Manager (FWIW, I really like the one in Mint, except when stuff isn't available on it.)"

I think this (built-in Software Manager) is probably the right track for most normal users. Last time I checked, the Debian software repo had over 120,000 packages, so for most normal users, the bulk of what they need is likely there and thus likely easier to install than apps on MacOS or Windows. My usual track record for installing a new desktop for family members, including the top 100 apps they likely need, is under 30 minutes for Linux. The last time I tried this with Windows, it took days of effort and frustration and to some extent opened the computer up to security risks because of the multitude of binary sources I had to trust.

But yes, once you start needing specialist software, then your-mileage-may-vary. Having said that, apps like Blender are already in the Ubuntu repo, which should mean they are also in the Mint Software Manager, and thus a single-click away from installation.

In general, I would consider Linux to be the easiest platform to install software on for the most common 80% of the software that normal users need. It's certainly the easiest to maintain and update that commonly used software of any of the mainstream desktop OSes.

Again, I think a lot of the mismatch of norms & experiences comes down to what someone becomes accustomed to. If you're accustomed to downloading an installation binary (EXE/MSI) and double-clicking that to install on Windows, then you can become accustomed to downloading an installation binary (DEB/RPM) and double-clicking that to install on Linux (viz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOPQPrzmnw0).

Cheers.

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