I wish. NVIDIA is still a buggy mess for me, and it seems that I am the only person with these issues, I see people praising NVIDIA on Wayland all the time now.
And VR is still bad on Linux.
I still love Linux, but I can’t use it for now. God i miss NixOS );
Nothing is stopping you from using more than one OS. Use NixOS for everything other than what you’re having problems with. And not using it at all won’t do anything to solve the problems, use it and try updated and new things every now and then, eventually it’ll work.
I mean, yeah. But it gets tiring to switch between them all the time.
I actually installed NixOS again, and I’m trying to figure out the solution. God help me with NVIDIA.
I use X11 with Nvidia without issue. While I like the idea of Wayland, and it being pushed a lot now, it really remains beta software. While I think it’s good Wayland is being focused on and promoted by the distros and DEs, I think it’s a bit of a distraction from Linux as a whole.
I’ve had to switch back to X11 on both Nvidia and AMD devices due to bugs or compatibility issues in Wayland.
I agree about VR - I keep dual boot windows on my PC and VR is about the only thing I use it for now. But the result is I just use VR less.
I dual boot Windows for VR and Fusion360. Do alternatives exist? Yes, but it’s just not something I want to spend hours tinkering with for what I perceive to be a worse experience.
I tried ALVR but it kept disconnecting if it connected at all. VD on Windows works flawlessly every time.
I heard of an ALVR alternative made by Collabora, you could try it. Dunno if it’s good or not.
Thanks for the heads up. It looks like it’s called ElectricMaple. I’ll definitely give it a go, although having no updates on the main branch in 6 months doesn’t fill me with confidence.
I suspect your issues stem not from hardware incompatibility but outdated kernel/applications. If i had to guess you run one of the ‘stable’ distros. Which translates to dealing with bugs for longer.
How out of touch are you? Thry are using the most up to date repo.
Nix has the largest and most updated repo of all of them by a large factor according to live stats.
Ah yes nix… The famously immutable distro. Yeah 100% pebcac.
Last round of nvidia drivers made a mess, nix has a wiki on the issues on how to fix them until they are resolved.
Tbh running AMD isn’t easier. For my workload I needed OpenCL and when it wasn’t installed by default, and wasn’t apart of apt package manager. I had to follow a script which involves amdgpu and only having OpenCL install if I wanted my machine stable.
Not the best experience.
For Nvidia some distros have installers built in to handle it. Like Mint where it’s one click and a restart and I have everything.
The best way to use AMD GPU compute is to use containers. Keep in mind AMD only really has good performance on newer cards.
My problem isn’t installing, it’s after installing. Vsync has extra bad latency, frames are reversed, and more. And this is on 565, the latest version.
Games are unplayable.
I said good riddance to Nvidia forever. My amd card is better anyhow and has never had an issue on Linux
I never had any major issues with nvidia and VR is improving aswell
That just makes it even weirder, how does seemingly nobody have any problems on NVIDIA, except a small minority?
What driver version are you using?
I’m semi convinced the downloads don’t work right if you use the GUI distros like Mint provide for Nvidia drivers
My 2080ti had multiple issues until I installed a different version (same issues) and then RE-installrd the original drivers manually
When I updated later: same exact series of events went down except I was able to get it to install on the third try from GUI properly because I wanted to see how many tries it might take for the lulz
I think it’s older cards and some sort of glitch in the proprietary driver manager shit most people use by default
It can’t be that, I use NixOS. But yeah, GUI installers are buggy as shit for me too. And i don’t use an old card.
Nvidia is just universally shit :(
It’s mostly people on older cards with those problems I guess
Me for example on my GTX 1080 can’t use G-Sync (monitor blacks out in specific fps ranges). Nvidia “fixed” this like 5 times already. Newer cards work correctly I guess?
I also get graphical bugs in Wayland after Nvidias final Wayland “fix”. Other people somehow do not experience this so I guess newer cards work correctly (again)
Imo Nvidia just didn’t bother fixing this on their old cards so there is a minority left with those problems which can be ghosted safely by Nvidia because “those bugs got fixed”
It’s not uncommon for Nvidia to ignore their normal users since the most money comes from other companies purchasing their GPUs anyway
I have an rtx 3060, i don’t think that counts as old. I feel you, should have gone with AMD
I have an rtx 3060, i don’t think that counts as old
Huh, that just makes everything weirder
I feel you, should have gone with AMD
Yeah, this is definitely my last Nvidia card
I am using the latest proprietary driver on a gtx 1650 gpu and my distro cachyos preinstalls it
I’ve been planning to switch my PCs at home to Linux as a winter project this year.
I just installed a new SSD and put Mint on the main newer machine yesterday. Nary a speed bump in the process, and it’s so nice to have the snappy desktop and update experiences I’m used to from running Linux all day at work.
Why is this thread getting flooded with people saying how they can’t use Linux? Isn’t that a little odd coming from a Linux community?
Because people are mad any time someone suggests they could change anything about themselves. It’s pretty sad.
But this is a Linux community
I understand. I agree with you. Just commenting on how personally people take things and how stubborn they are
Lemmy is still a small place with a lot of Linux users, so this likely shows up in several people’s /all
Ignore the trolls
Because on lemmy a post getting 100 up votes is enough to end up somewhere high on all, so your seeing people from outside of the Linux community in here.
I would say “people don’t see the community a post is in before commenting?” But of course they don’t. :'(
People outside of the community are allowed to have a different experience than those within it.
Of course, but sometimes communities have a specific context that is important to be aware of. Just to give an extreme examples: Communities like unpopular opinion, that you should upvote if you do not agree with that opinion. Or circle jerks communities that the point is to be tongue and cheek about the particular subject. Or the nosleep community that, if am not mistaken the name, everyone has to interact with the post in character as if it was real.
The title of this post is “I Don’t See a Reason to Switch to Windows from Linux Anymore in 2025”, surely that invites discussion?
I read the combo before my original reply as “there is a bunch of people with no interest in Linux or that just hates Linux coming to a Linux community just to say that Linux sucks”. I feel like that if it was a more general technology sub it is fair, but in a Linux community is more weird, like people interested in Linux will discuss its shortcomings in a more positive way not just being dismissive. But I may be interpreting things wrong.
That’s why I’m here, front page.
I don’t see why. You can be interested in Linux and like some aspects of it but still get annoyed at the blinkered zealots claiming that there’s no reason to use Windows.
There is no reason for some people to use Windows
Definitely true for a minority. Not the way most of these articles are presented though (including this one).
I never had a reason to use Windows outside of job requirements. If I bothered I could find a job without such requierements.
Lemmy is weird and this showed up on my ‘all’ page yesterday and again today. So that’s where you’re probably getting those comments (and mine!)
But I’ve been using Linux servers long enough and switching to Linux for my workstation once i finish getting parts for a new build
Hiya, intending to switch from Windows to Linux (it looks like I’ll finally be pulling the proverbial trigger this holiday season!) but I got here via Local sorted by Active on programming.dev. I am not subbed to Linux.
In other words, people outside the target audience are getting exposed to this post.
People who come here to say Linux is not good or that this community is an echo chamber and get mad for pointing out obvious flaws in the OS miss two things:
-
The post is an opinion of someone. Notice the “I” in the title? That should give you some clue.
-
You are offended when people suggest that you learn and adapt to the OS, but you suggest that Linux should support your workflow without any effort on your part to learn the OS. Which is hypocritical to say the least.
-
I can’t afford a broken system anytime and that’s why i can’t use linux. It breaks when you least expect.
Try Silverblue or Kinoite. They’re designed such that if you find an update breaks something, you can literally revert to the version before that update with a reboot. Application distribution through flatpaks offers pre-configured environments so it’s not a pain to get stuff running. Toolbox lets you dick around in isolation from the system. You’d really have to go out of your way to break something. Great stuff.
Silverblue and kinoite are great but I recommend bazzite to people now, silverblue/kinoite don’t work with twitch out of the box because of some ffmpeg nonsense, bazzite is just a lot easier since the iso is pre-configured to your hardware and everything just works.
Agree 100%. Bazzite is what you want if you’re gaming or you need the nvidia proprietary driver.
You also can revert transitional packages
My son was literally crying earlier today because his VR headset is no longer visible from Windows and all of his efforts to fix it (driver updates, tweaking various program settings, and so on) failed.
So… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Try a different USB port.
My Valve Index doesn’t like my on-board Asus ports but works fine when plugged in a PCIe USB card.A perfect example of what windows stans are blind to. That you will literally always have trouble on windows doing most things (at some point), and depending on what software you use and other factors, windows might be more problematic for you than even running a rolling release that might break any time. That’s the case for me. Also, running the less stable releases is absolutely a choice. Other more stable releases probably break far less often than windows.
Funnily enough I could say the same about Windows
That thing has broken itself more times than I can count but my 2 linux machines (I still have 1 Windows machine) have been rock solid for 2 years now
The most only reason I have the last Windows machine is because I’ve been lazy about switching it lol
It really depends on your needs for sure. My linux systems have been rock solid. Been windows free for years. But i absolutely know people who have workloads that break seemingly weekly on linux. Like say example android emulation. Easy on windows, bluestacks. On linux? Lots of options from waydroid to blissOS on qemu but they break fucking constantly
While I can’t speak for others I use Waydroid and it is pretty solid.
When it works, it works great. But almost every update for me and my friend completely breaks waydroid and it will just refuse to boot stuck at the linage booting animation for eternity. Been trying to get him on stable android it’s the only thing he misses from windows but it’s been a chore
I I believe Linux appeals to a specific group of users. Personally, I rely heavily on Microsoft Office. Unfortunately, LibreOffice and OpenOffice don’t meet my needs because they often alter document formats when I share files across different platforms.
You could use PDF
Yeah my Windows system has my Lightroom install and my Fusion 360 install, part of my laziness is that I hear that you can get both to work but I haven’t bothered to shift over and make the attempt at getting them to work.
The open source alternatives for those 2 just aren’t there for me.
You can get Fusion 365 working but it is a pain and I wouldn’t recommend it.
What you could do is setup Windows in a KVM VM with some sort of graphics acceleration. With guest addons it will be like native.
I rely heavily on Microsoft Office
Oh, boy. Get a better job.
Literally every office job ad in my country wants MSOffice experience. Many also want GSuite even though that’s redundant. I’ve even seen one in the legal sector that wanted WordPerfect. Can’t speak for the other guy, but not everyone has an option to “get a better job.”
Yeah, that’s a lie.
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=4f87b9a36bbb1839
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=061114cdc20ef415
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=4736c4c40c53499b
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=34e18aa739dd2a54
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=3cdb4d0af94558c3
https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=46bf61f624a4900b
Top six jobs on Indeed, search query “office assistant” in Calgary, AB. Ctrl+F for “MS Office” or “Microsoft”. Can’t show you the one that wanted WordPerfect because it expired months ago and I didn’t save the link. Not to mention it would dox me.
YeAh, ThAt’S a LiE
Here are the results of searching “Linux sysadmin”, none of them requires MS Office experience but they all require Linux experience. Do you understand now why your comment is stupid?
Quintessential Linux user comment
I think it’s really funny when people say this because this is exactly what made me stop using Windows.
The only thing I ever had consistently break on me on Windows was the search indexing running constantly and eating up all my resources. Easy enough to turn that off, but then you can’t search files. I switched because I don’t like corpos. Just curious what happened with your system to make you ditch it.
The system would intermittently just hard crash. I suspect it was a GPU driver issue (the Radeon RX 5700XT had notoriously unreliable Windows drivers for a while).
Well to be fair, this dude heard a story once that someone else’s OS broke! /s
In my experience Windows takes way more troubleshooting and time debugging and fixing things than linux does. Theres a reason people use linux for critical servers, it tends to be extremely reliable once everything is set up.
Not to mention is is very easy to automate. You can deploy thousands of servers with a button and delete them all if you want.
Immutable systems do not have this problem at all.
Try out bazzite, which is based on silverblue/kinoite but comes with some extra stuff preconfigured.
i never saw one to begin with
Like most articles on itsfoss, this one is only a notch over clickbait — a kernel of an idea not fully developed, written with the last minute energy of a student who pushed off the assignment until right before deadline — but I’ll be damned if that title isn’t beautifully turned.
I haven’t had to have Windows installed for more than a decade, but on recent occasion I’ve borrowed Windows and Mac computers for work. Those revisits didn’t give me reason to switch back, only to long for my lean Arch install.
As the next major version of Windows approaches like a Santa down the chimney with all sorts of “AI”-infested gadgets in his sack, I do hope more will make the more often mentioned switch to a Linux distro from the
advertising platformOS that came with their computer.But this headline deliciously reminds us that there is already a good chunk of users who made the jump, or are sitting on the dual booting fence, one boot (sorry!) on either side. This article is for them, yes, but also a gentle nudge for those still gathering courage.
At this stage, it is time to seriously change the perspective of that switch. The single reason for switching from Windows to Linux is … the utter state of Windows. Only the most blinkered of tech journos can continue to pretend that all is well on Windows, and not at all a sophisticated malware infection.
So bravo itsfoss for the clever barb, less so for the depth of the article itself.
I like the writing style of It’s Foss. They don’t make there articles dry and the tone is always positive and honest.
I think the Linux switch will heavily depend on your work flow and whether you like to tinker at all. I think It’s Foss is right to say that for some Windows is not an option. People like me use a lot of Linux tools and apps.
I agree that the tone of their articles helps push the quality above some other tech blogs. At the very least they’re sincere!
Windows is no longer an option for me either — I had made a conscious effort to use FLOSS apps even before switching, so there wasn’t much holding me back. And, as you say, once I’d started modifying system settings to disable Microsoft telemetry, I was already at Linux tinkerer levels…
“Anymore”? I haven’t ever owned a Windows machine, and I haven’t used a Windows machine since 2015. I do have to fix a random issue on my wife’s work laptop about once a month.
I get that there are some things some people can’t do without and which keeps them in Windows: games, and requirements of their business (Word, Excel, PPT), but nothing about Linux has gotten significantly better in recent years. Incrementally, over there past decade, sure, but no big, recent change that might justify the title.
Except in the same way I’ve never needed Windows: in a very specific, individual way.
Coming from someone who just migrated myself and my family within the last year. Flatpaks were a big deal. I get people have their criticisms of it but wow, installing and updating apps is so much easier now compared to when I tried linux last and flatpak is probably the main reason why we are still on Linux today.
As a person who was all in on the AppImage distribution system (vs Flatpaks), I’m both sad and excited to see how well Flatpaks seem to be working out.
I guess they won that little competition in the end - which seems good, as there’s now a healthy standard we can focus on.
It’s genuinely great to now have widely accepted distribution independent packaging standards.
I’m glad Flatpack appears to be winning over the utterly horrible Snap, but I still don’t like it. I fear a day when it becomes difficult to get software that isn’t packaged in Flatpack, and I have good reason to: Ruby Gems. Long ago, I was big into Ruby, and was a major contributor (I authored one of the core standard libraries). Gems came along, and I hated them; eventually, for unrelated reasons, I stopped using Ruby altogether, and now when I encounter it, it’s impossible to use anything that doesn’t have Gem woven into it. Consequently, AFAIK, my current system has nothing Ruby installed on it - unless my OS package manager is doing it under the hood.
IMHO, Flatpacks are a really poor work-around for people supporting and using programming languages that don’t build software correctly. Rust and Go do it right: they build stand-alone executables. Flatpack adds literally no value to software built with these. They’re not the only languages that do this, but they’re the ones having their moment; any language that builds stand-alone, statically linked binaries would do.
I’m with you about AppImage; it would have been a better solution. Any packaging solution requiring extra software to be installed and a service to use is a bad design. I’d be objecting less if AppImage were emerging as the winner.
Incidentally, this is why Podman is superior to Docker: yes, you still need extra software to be installed, but there’s no system service with crazy, root-level permissions required to run containers with podman.
I said this in another thread but I set up a windows vm for someone because they needed it to run literally one scam tax software, otherwise they had no reason to switch back from Linux.
Even stuff like icue that uses windows drivers for peripherals will run in a VM with USB pass through.
And even then there’s a nice open source alternative for icue; you only need it if you want to edit hardware profiles.
US? Here in scandi tax seems to work well automatically, as in, we just log into the government website and click OK most years. Corrections are easy enough too, if you need it, but it’s usually not required.
I just started using W11 after reading up on how to install it without all the bloat and spyware, and how to configure it to my liking
25 years in and I still don’t see a reason to switch to Linux
My dude, you better take cover… 🤣
Meh, it’ll take them at least an hour to get their keyboard drivers working 😂
I know you think this is funny but I haven’t dealt with a driver issue in linux since I switched to it. However in windows I’ve sunk hundreds of hours of my life into trying to get a driver working. So that comment is unintentionally funny lol
Could you come fix the built-in SD card reader on my laptop with your magic drivers? Had to give up and buy an external one after even the internet said it will likely never work properly.
Small price for never using windows again though
I didn’t say driver issues don’t exist on Linux. I said I’ve had to deal with that shit on windows countless times but not on Linux. Because that’s my personal experience.
However in windows I’ve sunk hundreds of hours of my life into trying to get a driver working
Christ on a bike mate, hundreds of hours? You’re embarrassing yourself 😂
Hope you don’t work in IT lmao
Kinda proves you haven’t. Also you’re probably 15.
You can’t install Windows 11 without bloat and spyware, all you can do is minimise it and much of it cannot be disabled or removed. Linux can have 0 bloat and spy ware.
That is the difference.
You can get pretty close and go far by Ameliorating your Windows install.
Security nightmare.
Sir this is Wendy’s
Because windows is annoying as hell to use and you get literally nothing from the spyware, ads, and intentional dark-patterns.
Windows is constantly malicious, even if you do your best to make it not so, it’s designed to be as malicious as possible while still being tolerable.
Linux has never done something bad to me that was outright malicious. that alone makes a huge difference for me.
linux is slowly getting better, windows is rapidly getting worse.
Are you actually bragging about refusing to learn anything? You sound like someone I knew who bragged about never having read a book in her life. Sad energy.
My reason is that VR gaming is not feasible on Linux, so I need to keep a Windows VM to play VR games.
why not?
Most VR headsets don’t work at all on Linux, and for those that do, most games don’t work anyway. For those that do work, they are unstable, and SteamVR itself is unstable and prone to crashes. Even when things work for a while, the frame rate is lower than on Windows, which is much more important for VR games.
So as much as flat games work perfectly on Linux nowadays, it’s just not there for VR.
I ask because it works fine for me
What sort of hardware are you using (gpu and headset)? I’m thinking of picking something up soon.
amd gpu, have tried quest and index. quest takes some work but index doesnt have issues. performance might be better on windows but I wouldnt know
Nice, thanks. I’m on nvidia. I was thinking about the quest simply because it is so much more affordable, and newer than the index. Only thing holding me back is I don’t have a meta account nor do I want to make one, even if it’s just for the quest.
meta account would be necessary unless there’s another way to run developer tools
Soooo many of these threads go like this
Op - “I have xyz problem on Linux”
Commentor - “I don’t have that problem I’m using amd”
Op - “yeah I’m using nvidia”
Nvidia is just anti-Linux lol
But… I wanna play Fortnite.
Play better games lol (/s)
I know it’s not a solution for everyone, but this is why I dusted off my Xbox. Fortnite on Xbox supports keyboard and mouse too
I don’t have an Xbox. Come on.
I figured, which is why I worded my comment the way I did.
It’s an option worth considering for games that are incompatible.
I mean, if the option is “just have a separate device that runs a Microsoft OS”, it might as well be my desktop.
I don’t exclusively mean Xbox. Playstation, Nintendo consoles, take your pick.
I get that, but the suggestion is still to have a dedicated device to play Fortnite and that’s exactly what I’m doing, the device just happens to be a PC running Windows.
My daughter wants to play Sims 3 and use her Zune. I’m sure it’s possible to do both with enough work and time spent tracking down old utilities but how much time do I want to spend on that when I could just crank out a VM.
sims 3 works ootb with proton… why do you need your computer for a zune?
That is not my experience. And you need a PC with the Zune software to manage your media on the player.
Did I just go back in time?
It’s funny to me that I couldn’t* even tell which post of mine this was a response to 😅
Yes, we are quite anachronistic in my house.
I’m surprised that Zunes even work anymore. I thought that Microsoft had that locked down so tight that it wouldn’t work without the Zune software on your PC (which likely hasn’t been updated since 2012).
After the 3rd (iirc) Guardians of the Galaxy movie referenced Zune, they have had a small resurgence
I have multiple 120GB Zunes, one being my original and the others I bought for cheap when everyone was dumping them for their phones. They all work fine. You do have to track down the software; I keep the executable on my local file share. I just found my old brown 30GB Zune in storage. It has music from a bunch of local bands from the area I grew up in that are irreplaceable. Unfortunately the software can’t read it because the firmware is out of date, and it can’t be updated without wiping the music off it, which defeats the purpose. There’s a utility called zalternator that allows you to mount the zune as a disk but I haven’t been able to find a copy anywhere. I was going to make a Windows XP VM and install the 1.1 version of the Zune software and see if that works. I digress, they do work still, with a bit of effort. MS could have brought it all back after GotG3 and cashed in, but nope!
deleted by creator
I remember Zune did not play well with Linux at all. One time I plugged my Zune into a Linux laptop just hoping to charge it. From that point on, until I plugged it back into a Windows PC, the Zune would play one song then skip the next two. As in track 1, 4, 7, then roll over to 2, 5, 8, etc.
That was the only problem I had with my Zune though, RIP Zune, you were the best.
Oh wait except for the leap year glitch. Microsoft apparently didn’t think people would still use Zune in 2008 so all the Zunes stopped working for the duration of the leap day lol.
Me neither, if anything it’s the other way around.
Let me give you 2 big reasons:
- Linux does not work with the particular hardware or software you want or need to use.
- It’s a PITA to just do basic stuff.
Linux Mint is very simple to use these days.
Ubuntu is even easier. If we’re trying to convert windows users on ease we really should be sending them the beginners kit
Mint is Ubuntu, minus controversial Canonical stuff, plus an extra layer of polish and a very nice DE that is Windows-like out of the box.
Controversial stuff and polish are fundamentally changes that make it that much harder to Google an error message and look at step by step fixes which is what most end users will need.
All mint adds for people who won’t bother to learn the differences (most people) is confusion
That depends entirely on what you’re trying to do.
Most things work without hiccups.
Once again, that’s fine so long as you don’t need the things that don’t work.
Point 2 is wrong. It’s very easy to basic stuff. I’d argue it’s easier than Windows, which is a convoluted mess. You’re just used to it being shit.
Point 1, maybe. The fact you just keep repeating “particular hardware or software that does not work” without actually giving an example shows you’re talking out of your ass though. Sure, there are a few cases, but not many anymore. Most, if not all, of those cases can be handled by a VM though.
I can’t agree with you tbh. It depends on the distro. On Windows I can basically one-click install OpenMW and it Just Works™. I can’t even play it on my distro because for whatever reason it’s broken. I ended up having to flat out purge it and install the daily build to get it working. Maybe it works better on other distros, idk. Worked fine until my distro updated some months ago. When I was still running Lubuntu I had to build it from source to get it to work.
This is the nature of open source and decentralized platforms. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if anyone expects the mainstream to adopt it when ease of use has been the name of the game for the last 20 years then they’re mistaken. As good as Linux has gotten, there are still kinks that need worked out before the average user will adopt it. One step towards that is government adoption. This will almost certainly lay out a stable baseline standard that can be built off of for a more coherent experience. I can see Linux competing with Windows provided it comes up to par on UX.
Having an app store is easier than expecting people to download things from the internet, just because your distro fucked up doesn’t mean this isn’t generally a win for linux.
i work IT, software fails to install ALL THE TIME on windows for all kinds of reasons
Having an app store is easier than expecting people to download things from the internet
…how exactly do you think the app store works?
Do you just not realize that Windows and Mac also have app stores?
…how exactly do you think the app store works?
I meant websites, obviously.
Do you just not realize that Windows and Mac also have app stores?
On windows, the app store is extremely lacking, mac, sure.
Glad we sorted that out.
You keep implying Windows has ease-of-use on its side. That is just blatantly not true. I don’t know a Windows user that hasn’t had to edit registries, for example, and that’s a pain in the ass. Windows is just a piece of shit that people stepped in so long ago they stopped smelling it. They don’t pay attention to how bad it is to work with because “that’s just the way it is.” The one benefit is the software mentioned above (with just a vague notion of “some software” when the vast majority is fine), though again most work with a VM if Wine isn’t enough. Support is an issue of getting users there though. If people keep assuming that what you’re saying is true they’ll believe you and not try it. If they switch the software developers will start targeting Linux.
Playing old games is also often really painful on Windows, and requires a lot of hacks. On Linux I’ve had a very good time with that honestly. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky, but Wine with Proton has made the experience with old games pretty easy.
Sampling bias. The people you know are likely more technologically inclined than the average user. Really, effectively anyone who uses Linux is simply due to the nature of the thing. To people like you and me, the average user is a literal idiot. And that’s something we forget. The average user doesn’t ever have to finagle with registries and probably doesn’t even know they exist. Hell, they probably don’t even know how to change their default browser from Edge. And don’t get me wrong, Windows is a piece of shit. But it’s undeniable that its standardized protocols and coherent ecosystem make it easier for the average person. I do concede that this is due in part to software developers targeting Windows primarily, but I don’t see a world where Linux is used by the masses unless some distro sees adoption and standardization by some larger body.
As for old games, if I played Morrowind via Steam it would work fine but the reason I play OpenMW is because it modernizes the engine. 1080p isn’t even possible in vanilla. 100% improvement imo, but it causes me problems on occasion.
I don’t know a Windows user that hasn’t had to edit registries, for example
You’re experiencing more delusions. 99.9% of Windows users wouldn’t even know what that is.
(with just a vague notion of “some software” when the vast majority is fine)
Again you’re asking me to write out what is a list a mile long. I’m not doing that.
I will give you one example though. I went to download GrayJay yesterday. I got the file. I have no idea what to do with it. Because there are a dozen types of files for Linux and all of them have to be installed differently. I got a folder. I know from years of experience how to install .deb, .rpm, flatpak and appimages, this folder has 398457 files in it and none of them are those. That’s not even getting into how a lot of Linux software, you’re expected to know how to compile the fuckin thing yourself…
You know how to install programs on windows? You download the .exe, double click the file and it installs itself, every time.
You know how to install programs on Mac? You click download on the .dmg, double click the downloaded file and it installs itself, every time.
It looks like GrayJay only has an android application, with a desktop one in testing. I’m assuming you have to compile that yourself because it’s in testing. You aren’t supposed to be using it if you can’t compile it from source. Just run the android one in an emulator if you need it on desktop. That’s the same thing you’ll need to do on Windows.
You know how to install programs on windows? You download the .exe, double click the file and it installs itself, every time.
Yeah… You have to go to their website, hope it’s the real one, download the .exe and install it. Then to update it you have to do the same thing. On Linux you just tell your package manager to install it and then you’re done forever. It’ll keep it updated and you never have to think about it. The fact Windows apps are required to check online for updates and then you have to open it in a browser and download and install it yourself is the most garbage experience. You’re just used to it.
I’m assuming you have to compile that yourself because it’s in testing
Weird, you don’t have to compile the Windows or Mac versions…? 🤷♂️
hope it’s the real one
…why wouldn’t it be the “real one” on their website?
The fact Windows apps are required to check online for updates and then you have to open it in a browser and download and install it yourself is the most garbage experience. You’re just used to it.
…no, they update themselves? Have you just never used anything other than Linux? It’s hard to imagine how you would not know this unless you hadn’t.
It’ll keep it updated and you never have to think about it.
Other than the pop-ups telling you you need to update every 5 minutes?
From their FAQ: “Do you have a desktop version? A desktop version is actively in the works, and already in internal testing phases.”
It looks like you can download the pre-built applications for all of them though, including Linux. You probably just need to use chmod to let your system know it’s allowed to execute it.
…why wouldn’t it be the “real one” on their website?
I meant the website.
…no, they update themselves? Have you just never used anything other than Linux? It’s hard to imagine how you would not know this unless you hadn’t.
No they don’t… They tell you if there’s an update and then you have to do it.
Other than the pop-ups telling you you need to update every 5 minutes?
Mine doesn’t. I’m on Garuda. It just has an icon on the task bar.
The fact you just keep repeating “particular hardware or software that does not work” without actually giving an example shows you’re talking out of your ass though
LOL I love it when people get offended because someone disagrees with them and then try to put forward their experience as if it’s a fact. I didn’t repeat anything. I said it literally 1 time. You expect me to sit here and list the dozens of hardware configurations that I’ve personally used that have conflicts with Linux? Hell anything with an Nvidia GPU (which is the vast majority of GPUs in existence) is an exercise in software engineering just to get it functional.
- Linux does not work with the particular hardware or software you want or need to use.
That’s a good reason
- It’s a PITA to just do basic stuff.
What’s outright bullshit so kinda obviated your argument. Sure, if downloading onto a thumb drive and rebooting a few times is hard becase you expect your OS to be preloaded then maybe but that wasn’t even your point.
Mint has a web browser, Office Software, Graphic Software, Music Players etc all loaded. Open up the Application Installer, a GUI and type in the obvious bar at the top for what you want, download and good to go.
Sure, if downloading onto a thumb drive and rebooting a few times is hard becase you expect your OS to be preloaded then maybe but that wasn’t even your point.
You’re right. It wasn’t. Not sure why you brought that up.
Open up the Application Installer, a GUI and type in the obvious bar at the top for what you want, download and good to go.
You’re intentionally misrepresenting the situation. That’s great if the software you’re looking for is available in the “application installer”. That is very often not the case. If it’s available at all, it’s often a .deb or .rpm or appimage, or you’re expected to compile it yourself from scratch.
AppImages won’t even run without some fuckery. And when you do that, they still have no icon and can’t be pinned in your app tray. Sure, you can install Gear Lever to greatly simplify this process if you know about it but it’s not typically not installed by default, which makes this process completely unintuitive.
And if they only make a .deb available, and you’re running Fedora, well fuck you.
These are all complications that simply don’t exist on Windows or Mac.
- It’s a PITA to just do basic stuff.
In my experience basic stuff like browsing files, editing documents, launching apps, installing apps, and obviously a million things using a web browser, are all easy and snappy in a fresh out of the box install of Linux Mint.
That’s cool. That’s not been my experience at all. Nor has it many many other people. It’s like the number 1 complaint, and the number of delusional people who try to pretend like it doesn’t exist is insane.
is it a pita because you expect it to function like windows or are there specific roadblocks youve encountered?
It’s a PITA because there are a dozen different installation methods, and if anything at all is not functioning perfectly, the only advice you’ll get is typing random commands into the terminal that report back some generic error that you have no idea what to do with.
i dont mean this in a judgemental way but that sounds like you dont understand or just dislike the process and conflate that with difficulty. the commands aren’t random, you just don’t know them. people who have learned how to use the OS (granted, not everyone has the time for that) generally know what commands do before they paste them in. I have a much easier time running a single command rather than navigating through layers of GUI but not everyone will share that preference
that sounds like you dont understand or just dislike the process and conflate that with difficulty
LOL and what exactly else would you call that? They’re random to me. I don’t know them, I don’t want to know them, I just want it to work like every other sensible OS where I can figure out how to complete basic tasks without needing a computer science degree. That’s what most people want and it’s why Linux will remain a niche OS by nerds and for nerds, because that’s the way they like it, which is fine, but let’s not try to gaslight people into believing there’s no reason people might want something else.
i literally said it’s up to preference, and I don’t have a CS degree, I did in fact figure it out
and what exactly else would you call that?
I’d call it baby duck syndrome. I hate hunting for exes online to install the most basic software and how there’s no way to update all of my apps with a single click but I understand the way I’m used to isn’t the same as the best way.
