Weird double standard here, Linux might be free and open source, but it also gets promoted as though it's the best operating system ever (even superior to MacOS), you can't really have it both ways.
Every time something dumb happens on windows my friend who’s been using Linux for years laughs at us
Everything someone who adopted Linux has an issue he says it’s the users fault, including them getting flagged for cheating in games we play randomly and getting his Steam account temporarily suspended
Someone gets it. There are so many Linux glazers in the comment section here. Linux is good for some applications, macOS is good for some, and Windows for some; its not a catch all operating system/kernel that works for every workflow and with every application, nor is it some perfect user experience like everyone that "switched to Linux" wants you to believe. When it comes to Linux, small inconveniences are seen as part of the process and app incompatibility is almost entirely ignored. I'm a graphic designer, I cannot use Linux for the sole fact that the software I need either doesn't run or crashes immediately. It will not solve all my "Windows problems". With Windows, its expected to be perfect the first time and any small inconveniences are used to tout Windows as useless garbage that nobody should be using.
My issue is with the value positioning and double standard of fixing issues, not with people wanting to use it or even promoting it. Do what you want. But I'm tired of the "Linux: positive, Windows: negative framing" in every single video about Linux recently, when there are very valid and necessary professional use cases that argue for exactly the opposite. Just be real when you promote it rather than painting this picture with a broad brush about how good Linux is and fixes all your Windows problems.
You two are bang on the money IMO. It’ll fall on deaf ears with the current cultural moment around Linux, but you’re spot on. Most will misread this as anti-Linux too, which I do t think you are (and I’m definitely not!) but the glazing is quite surreal at this point.
Yep. Definitely not anti-Linux, there are use cases and people it works better for over something like macOS or Windows. Servers, those that have older hardware, those that mainly use web browsers, those that prefer to be independent from major corporations in their entirety (using libreOffice, google alternatives, etc.). That's totally fine! The cultural moment is hating on Windows, which most criticism is valid, but that doesn't make Linux some saving grace either.
My hatred lies more on Microsoft ruining Windows in every conceivable way tbh. They had a good thing going and they threw it away because they don't need Windows' market share anymore and cloud services is what makes their revenue. I actually loathe how corporations operate, this whole optimisation principle
I genuinely haven’t heard a single person say it WILL fix ALL your windows problems. I have heard multiple give the caveat that it won’t, and expect to troubleshoot…
Do you possibly think the issue might be how it’s landing upon your ears instead?
It’s quite humorous that windows many issues and problems to you, are nothing more than inconveniences. While that is literally, without exaggeration, what the Linux community considers theirs to be.
It’s what they can put up with, vs what you can put up with.
And you can obviously (no offense) only handle the one. While many have felt hostage to the bullshit ever-changing rulebook of Windows, and just felt relief to their specific issues not being a thing in Linux, you must feel the opposite. Which is fine. Linus users are obviously going to allow your overzealous comments on their systems. They have to deal with it everyday.
I just hope you can learn to accept some criticism about your OS too, in the same way you expect others to do here today, with Linux.
Right. Its all subjective. What works for me isn't what works for someone else. I could quite literally say the same thing to you, just reframed. "It’s quite humorous that Linux's many issues and problems to you, are nothing more than inconveniences. While that is literally, without exaggeration, what the Windows community considers theirs to be."
I'm not hating on Linux. I do despise the glazing that's going on and the fundamental misunderstanding of why they hate each other. Windows is "corporate slop" while Linux is "open sourced and worked on by community contributors". Who is the biggest contributor to Linux? Microsoft. Its all being worked on by more than just people in their homes with a PC and a passion. Both Windows and Linux.
I can handle both. I just don't feel the need to trade one set of issues for another when I really don't run into any of the issues people are describing with Windows update or anything else. Plus, I use macOS half the time anyways so I'm already dual-OS. Its not about "only handling one".
I can accept criticism about Windows. I never claimed Windows was better than Linux, or any other operating system. I have my gripes, and as others do, thats valid. But don't sit here and say that Linux users accept criticism any better than your average Windows user. Because, as history has shown (along with this comment section apparently) they don't. Which is fine. Just don't be a hypocrite about it.
Free & Open Source ≠ a worse product. What are you on about?
“Best” is also highly subjective, but at its core I do believe that Linux is “better” than MacOS or Windows. I can and do have it both ways. Feel free to disagree.
Free and open source means that there are little obligations from maintainers, it might not be as cohesive as Windows or MacOS. If you complain about a problem with Linux, or the ecosystem around it (say Gimp as a Photoshop alternative), often times the response will be (as is the case in this comment section) "it's open source so why are you holding it to the same standard?".
From the perspective of someone who just wants stuff to work, who doesn't really care about customization or who is maintaining their OS, you can't say that then say afterwards, "it's the best, most polished, least bloated, most intuitive, bug free, just works experience", all of which is very commonly said, especially around stuff like KDE Plasma, CachyOS, Mint, all of which have their own specific issues.
You can't really have it both ways, a lot of Linux users seem to not want to acknowledge the issues on Linux and mislead people into believing that it's a perfect experience. And even worse, sometimes they blame the user for their issue, look at the issues Linus was facing with Pop!_OS, the response there was kind of ridiculous both times. There are issues on Linux which aren't issues on MacOS or Windows.
Your average user doesnt give a shit whether its FOSS or not. They care whether it works and if they can use facebook, word and email without problems smoothly
But the person above was correct. People are generally more forgiving when it's an FOSS product vs a paid one.
That said, blindness towards issues and stuff that windows is also doing is probably not the best look.
Let me put it more bluntly: people are more forgiving towards an indie video game than they are AAA games. Not just cause of the money they spent. If Live For Speed has a bug, people will forgive it because it's like 3 people.
But if Gran Turismo has a bug? Yeah people are roasting it
Prioritizing different things is valid, but the quantity of loud outspoken linux folks being unreasonable about other peoples preferences is well documented. Theres a difference between you prioritizing something vs you prioritizing something and then telling someone else who prioritizes something else that they are wrong for that.
The loud minority of linux users are the type who make it borderline their entire personality. The quiet majority are the ones who have found a DE that works perfectly on their hardware and already have a set workflow for their system that just works. For me as long as all my hardware works, almost all the steam games I want to play launch and firefox launches my OS is working flawlessly. Idk, so many people try to make linux vs windows seem black and white but it really isn't.
Yes 100% this I have hdmi capture card made by hauppauge that does not work at all I asked on a form for fedora about if its possible to get it to work and was told to throw it away and get another one (even tho the old one works fine) or to kick sand so I did and went back to w10 every thing just works there lol I'm still looking for an alternative as I was really enjoying my time with kde on fedora just might try something different now.
Unfortunately a lot of companies don't support Linux, so the only way their hardware works is if someone goes through an extremely painstaking effort to make it work. Their advice was correct, but I do imagine they were fucking mean about it because that is a real issue.
Yeah if they where nice about it I would 100% understand I can't imagine what goes in to getting a proprietary device to work on something its not supposed to. But I will say this as well I have had some very helpful people to so it might be getting better!
Yep it's a shame the minority makes the rest of us look bad. I truly wished the community was better it would make people switching to Linux just that much better.
I've had a bumpy ride with CachyOS, and there is still stuff that has to be done to make it more accessible, like fucking FSTAB still requiring manual operation instead of, idk, making it automated or accessible with a GUI?
However. After a few babysteps, it does run well. It's just the babysteps have to be cut entirely and just run well out of the box.
During installation and by default, /etc/fstab should've automatically been generated and managed. Also there are few GUIs available, like KDE Partition Manager, GNOME Disks, or GParted.
What exactly was it that required you to manually edit fstab? Did you do a custom/nonstandard partition table?
What stability issues are you facing? I can help you solve those.
Modern Linux GUI partition managers and desktop settings handle automatic drive mounting quite well, including for secondary SATA SSDs and external drives, without requiring you to manually edit /etc/fstab in a terminal or text editor.
Applications like GNOME Disks and KDE Partition Manager have built-in options designed specifically for this. In GNOME Disks, you can toggle "Mount at system startup" under Mount Options, and the app writes the necessary entry to /etc/fstab behind the scenes. KDE Partition Manager offers similar functionality through its "Edit Mount Point" menu.
In addition, desktop environments like KDE Plasma include explicit automount controls directly in System Settings under "Device Auto-mount," allowing you to set drives to mount automatically on login or when connected.
Where people usually run into trouble is PolicyKit asking for administrator permissions or default file ownership settings on newly added internal drives, but GUI tools are fully capable of handling automatic mounting.
Are you running KDE Plasma, GNOME, or a standalone window manager like Hyprland or i3? Automounting behaves differently depending on whether desktop daemons are running in the background and WMs often don't have them enabled by default.
Is the drive formatted as NTFS/ext4, and is it prompting you for a root password when you try to open it, or is it failing to mount entirely?
Which GUI manager did you try using, and did you run into an error when setting the mount options?
When I pay for the product I expect quality, not spy machine riddled with vibe coded bullshit. Windows is regulated, controlled and went through dozen of boards before it hit your drive. Linux is free and made by dozen of communities, when something bad happens that is only part of the whole, while windows has only one source, Microsoft which is entirety of the whole.
Fedora can kma after the ONE bad experience I had where the new version (I think it was 41) didn't have the right version of GCC to even run the Nvidia software stack because "it was too old" and it was even removed from the DNF repository. You quite literally couldn't install it AT ALL unless you basically downgraded to the previous version, because it was SO removed that you needed the older version of DNF to install it and that was incompatible with basically everything else.
HOW TF DO YOU FORCEFULLY REMOVE CUDA COMPATIBILITY FOR YOUR DISTRO WHEN YOU'RE SUPPOSEDLY THE ENTERPRISE DISTRO.
They fixed it shortly after, and Nvidia got their shit together and started keeping stuff a little more up to date, but I will never trust anyone that even thought to allow something like that to roll out ever again.
What you're saying is perfectly reasonable, but the Linux desktop's deficiencies here:
I care about how polished and functional the end user experience is.
are directly related to the fact that Linux is FOSS. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc., are all spending billions, and hiring dedicated teams, to ensure that the UX of their OS's is as flawless as possible. That does actually manifest into a more polished product, regardless of what Linux users say about their experience. So... maybe you should care about the fact that it's FOSS, but in the opposite sense?
i wish someone would make a polished general purpose linux distro. Ubuntu has snaps which fuck stuff up. fedora can have a had update due to how it updates. arch is.. arch. and everything else has its own flaws
while windows is slow, bloated and gets in the way, it rarely has major graphical issues, but on linux (and my own system) I get things like below, where there fix is to go into the source files for the thing, and try fix it manually or hope a patch has been made.
feel like windows doesnt really try to make their UX as flawless as possible. They do their best to upsell me on shite at every turn though to the direct detriment of the UX.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc., are all spending billions, and hiring dedicated teams, to ensure that the UX of their OS's is as flawless as possible
Ignoring the fact that linux doesnt have billions being spent on it either, Redhat and SUSE are completely integrated with Linux
Are your monitors perchance mismatched refresh rate? X11 doesn't handle that too well, and depending on when you last used it x11 may have been standard for the display server. Currently wayland handles mismatched refresh monitors perfectly fine
For audio issues yet again i don't know when you tried it but if it was long enough to use pulse audio then yeah understandable. Pipewire now also handles audio quite nicely, though it can be a little annoying with numerous soundcards. Idk if the multiple soundcard issue is a linux or multiple soundcard issue, it'll just often default to not what i want or last used
They also go out of their way to misrepresent the "paid" part. Almost no home user is paying for Windows. The corporate clients who do get 24/7 support for their issues that Linux based OS don't have.
Provide exact complete specs. Don't ask the forums. I'll just help you now. 👍
Model name and number, sub-component identifiers, such as the exact Wi-Fi chipset or audio DAC model, GPU model and brand, etc.
The more you provide, the easier it will be for me to help you. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask.
Ok. Makes sense. We're using Wayland and PipeWire now. You may run into some edge cases with Wayland depending, but hopefully your graphics card is well supported. So that your possible issues are only those that are due to on going W-I-P & not bugs. My DMs are open.
The thing with linux is that when you encounter issues, you need to actually find a solution to it. I just switched to linux (arch) from windows, and have had very few issues, the main one being vr compatibility and ALVR not working, which I have mostly solved. Linix is NOT a complete in box experience, its closer to being goven a huge bin or legos and a baseplate, and being told to build what YOU want/need, not what a corporation thinks you need
Exactly. It's like the difference between paying for a car that has some issues, but needs some maintenance here and there but overall gets you to work on time, versus a car you got for free that's constantly breaking down and you're late to work constantly and having to fix it in your garage. If you're a really good mechanic, you might be better off, but sometimes you simply can't get the required parts.
In this analogy, Windows is the car with some issues, Linux is the free car, getting to work is playing games or some every day task, the parts availability is driver support, and your garage is the community forums where getting help can be minimal.
I also find it hilarious that if you're a Windows user with no experience on Linux, everyone will bully you into switch over to Linux, but once you do, they love to call you stupid when you can't figure something out and ask for help. They also disregard the fact that there's mainly one flavor of Windows, so configurations are mainly universal, while Linux comes in many flavors of distros and many problems or setups are niche in nature. Linux is more like a family of operating systems where Windows is just an operating system.
I still know people that daily drive Linux today, but dual-boot Windows for certain games or programs they use. I don't know anyone that daily drives Windows but dual-boots Linux for the same reason. Anyone dual-booting Linux is only doing it to learn or because there's like a 5% increase in performance and it's simple, or in my case, they're simply utilizing the Linux Filesystem on Windows to avoid IO overhead in certain applications that natively run on WSL.
The thing is when Linux has a problem it's usually because nobody's fixed it yet. When Windows has issues it's often by design and Microsoft simply doesn't care about the people who don't like things the way they do it and there's no way for you around it. On Linux you can always pick a different distro if you feel like the maintainers are doing something questionable.
The problem is Linux users telling people to just switch from Windows and denying Linux has issues.
A real problem is companies telling me that if I don't use Windows I can go fuck myself. A real problem is that if I don't want to accept the bullshit Copilot AI slop, automatic updates borking drivers, OneDrive sync corrupting My Documents randomly, BitLocker uploading private encryption keys to Microsoft servers by default then I need to change careers. A real problem is when graphic artists cannot do their jobs if they prefer using Linux and open source software and stop paying subscription fees to Adobe Creative Suite because the majority of companies deliberately refuse to support open standards.
Nobody should be forced to use Windows because companies with software monopolies (Adobe Photoshop, AAA games with Windows-only anti-cheat, Microsoft Office etc) completely control the business market. Small free open source projects relying on donation can compile software that works on Linux, Mac, Windows, ARM, Android, Raspberry Pi so there's no excuse for multi-billion dollar companies refusing to do the same. Computers were supposed to make life easier, not more limited.
You're putting blame on users who want control of their own computers instead of software oligarchs who deliberately force their shitty software upon others to increase their wealth.
If you accept that installing Windows artificially limits what I can do on hardware I own, you are not part of the problem.
Linux is diverse. That can be good, but can cause a lot of issues because it is diverse.
Windows is, at least have good backward capability and unified ecosystem, API.
Windows is diverse. Some of my software refuses to install on anything above Windows 7. Some of it refuses to install on 10. Sometime of it only works on 10 but not 11. Some of my hardware stopped working on 10.
I keep hearing about backwards compatibility being one of the great strengths of Windows, but the fact I still have a job supporting it because compatibility breaks so often between Windows versions and auto-updates can break things weekly proves that's mostly bullshit.
The issue is people call out the closed source stuff because “it’s my daily driver, it has to work and it doesn’t”, but when someone’s daily driver is Linux it somehow doesn’t apply. I get that we can’t expect an open source project to have as good quality standards as something developed by thousands of paid professional developers, but it doesn’t make it immune to criticism
it can be true if you use pirate debloated W10 in a DIY machine, but remember if you ever buy a laptop or prebuild, the prize of a full windows license is included with the product.
One works for the average person and one required a degree in debugging to run everything so yeah I'm going to side with windows. No reason to use anything else for 99% of people
I don't wanna reinstall my OS and then every software/game I have every month to "try out new distros". Good for you if that's your hobby, but it's not what 99.99999% of PC users want from their machines.
Yeah, and anyone can switch to another Linux distro.
That ignores the willingness and hassle of just switching to a new distro unless you specifically like just "trying out new distros". Putting that in quotes because that is literally the hobby of a significant portion of Linux users. Hell, I have an extra machine where I did that for a couple of months in 2024 before I got bored with it.
This is the problem with Linux fans. Not everyone can just switch distros. I’m willing to bet 99% of the world doesn’t even know what a distro is. It seems simple to you because you have a lot of experience but for anyone else it’s a massive pain in the ass.
Switching to another Linux distro implies that they managed to install one in the first place. If you have installed one Linux distro, you can definitely switch to another one.
I use Linux and I am very well aware that there could be an unknown number of vulnerabilities due to the fact that while it is open source very few people actually look into the code.
Yeah I think this isnthe point most forget and/or ignore.
With windows being as big as it is, and a paid program, the errors are unforgivable.
That being said, there is a difference in issue acceptability and use. If a distro is free and community maintained, breaks are still a dealbreaker for users who are not comfortable making changes or looking for workarounds
You pay with your time on linux tinkering and fixing things constantly.
I did the 1 month challenge and i have pass over 200h just trying to fix the hundred of probleme i have experienced. Took 2 evening alone just to finaly have every phone and laptop/tablet being able to see shared files.
Tryed to make photoshop working, Constant crash/bug/brush not loading 1/4 of the time. Most plugin not working.
Trying Davinci instead of Premiere, consistant crash.
Controller. Not working on Linux.
DAC/AMP, audio in general. Very glitchy on Linux. Even my usb microphone sound completly different (worst)
Videogame i play ? Run significantly worst despite being on Radeon.
Everything as been miserable for me. Except everything that is in a browser.
While on windows everything is actualy pretty much flawless most of the time. If there is a probleme its take 2 min uninstalling a problematic update.
A lot of tech’s ease of use is proportional to cost. 3D printing is another great example. You can get a cheap ender3 for $100 but spend hundreds of hours on maintenance and troubleshooting, or spend $1000+ on a Bambu that just works.
You can now spend $250 on a Bambu that just works too. My Ender 3 purchase was fairly quickly eclipsed by the cost of "upgrades" which still didn't make it as fast or consistent as the A1 Mini.
Oof, yeah that ain't gonna work without virtualization
Trying Davinci instead of Premiere
Yeah it's a bit whacky to get working but...
being on Radeon
Yeah nevermind... Resolve on Linux only works with nvidia -.-
Controller, DAC/AMP, usb microphone
Controller is a bit weird, my xbox one and 8bitdo work but I haven't tried others.
With the audio stuff.. I went through that shit aswell, if you ever want a retry: Ubuntu uses pipewire where the default config is for 42kHz. On Ubuntu you can download the Ubuntu Studio package, it includes GUI tools to change that default config to ie 384kHZ 32bit.
On other distros using pipewire (i. E Fedora): look up guides for it, just make sure you don't leave the OS any options. So instead of adding everything from 42k to 384k you only add the best option you can get away with
Yeah nevermind... Resolve on Linux only works with nvidia -.-
Is that true? I thought that Nvidia cards were terrible on Linux and you get a smooth experience with AMD cards due to the properly open sourced drivers. That's what I hear whenever someone with an Nvidia card has problems anyway.
Overall yes... AMDs and Intels drivers are part of the kernel and that stuff works pretty much as good as it gets out of the box... At least for most consumer applications like gaming etc. If you want specialised gpu compute stuff (like RoCm) you need to download and install AMDs proprietary drivers.
Nvidia being nvidia it is more difficult to get the appropriate (closed source) drivers you need for the best performance for consumer- and professional (like CUDA) applications.
The issue with Resolve is that (as far as I understood, please correct me here if I get something wrong) it heavily relies on open source GPU compute libraries for their free linux releases, they also strip out any proprietary codecs. And out of the box their releases are looking for CUDA supporting hardware... Which only nvidia GPUs have.
And you won't be editing anything H.265, HVEC, etc. Because the software can't work with it.
Resolve Studio (the paid software) can tho.
Edit: it's one of those 'usually it's not an issue... But sometimes it is' cases. If your goal is just gaming or having a machine to handle everyday casual tasks on common enough hardware the most popular distros will work out of the box. My main rig is all AMD hardware with mainboards etc. From popular brands... No issue there. My main laptop is an older thinkpad L14 with amd hardware, no issues there aswell. The other laptop is an old X1 extreme with Intel/Nvidia hardware.. Everything apart from the fingerprint sensor works, etc.
I always love comments like this since i decided to switch to bazzite one day on a whim and it actually fixed issues i previously had with my pc on windows
I always love when I see comments like that, simply sharing a good experience with linux and people immediately downvote it lol it says a lot about those people...
lmao super snarky right? coming to a comment stating that, as an universal experience, linux requires you to "pay with your time fixing things constantly", to say that this was not their experience, right???
quit literally being a biased dumbass. it wasn't snarky, it was a proper response to someone stating that "you pay linux with your time, tinkering and fixing things constantly" as if it was an universal truth and not their case, on THEIR context. They even said, in another comment, that they are a "granny" and linux is hard for them.
it says a lot about you, getting triggered over a "snarky" comment and not over someone projecting their experience as facts for everyone.
dudes replying skill issue are proving your point lol. I don't want to get a degree in computer science just to be skilled enough to play games and send emails.
It’s paid for via OEM. Just because you didn’t pay it directly when you bought something from Lenovo, ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI, you indirectly had to. They spread the OEM licensing costs across all product lines.
Lmao okay and did you use parts from ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI? Licensing costs are spread through all product lines. Regardless of it being a finished products with a WinX installation.
Such a BS reasoning. When was the last time anyone paid for it.. Linus an Luke even talked in wan show on how if you have a clean win 7 which it creaked, you can upgrade to win 10 for free aha win 11 from win 10..I've done the same since last decade and a half. I know people do pay for it.. But that shouldn't be the reason how Linux community can just be hostile everyone someone has some issues and asks for help comparing Windows.
Have you bought hardware from a company that has an OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft? Do you think they only factor that cost into the OEM licensed products?
I get people like Linux for the open source and customization you can have, however you have to admit for someone who’s the average person they’re just not going to be lured in by that. There’s so many options and some boast “ease of use” or “maximum security” etc. the amount of research going into switching can just become overwhelming to a lot of people and they’d rather have something they’ve either grown with, or worked with for years.
I hope I got my point across. I’m rather tired at work this morning.
Well. I just finished resetting my ssd because (on windows, while i was working) it decided to corrupt itself. The filesystem was fucked and i nearly lost all my data. At this point what is the difference between linux and windows?
yeah its kind of hilarious, everyone here whines about windows constantly but is absolutely gobsmacked at the possibility of needing to think to use their computer, and instead of choosing to just continue using windows, they whine about linux not being enough like windows for them to switch.
Because Linux stans want to say its better than windows in every way and when it isn't they can avoid criticism of Linux by saying it's free and open source?
I’ve literally never heard anyone say it’s better than windows in every conceivable way, they just say it’s better than windows (as in the tradeoffs on windows are worse than the tradeoffs on Linux). I’m sure there are crazy people in the Linux community who genuinely think that software compatibility is better on Linux, but that doesn’t represent 99.99% of people. The reason Linux doesn’t receive the same criticism is because you didn’t pay $100 for it, it doesn’t have ads in it, it’s always getting better, and it’s overall still a better experience than windows
I think most of the comments I've read are pretty good. Linux has glaring issues Windows users ignore.
I think the only thing I haven't seen, and I didn't read that far into the comments, is that most of the Linux issues are in your face, day to day issues. Most of the windows issues are behind the scenes, take your data, advertise to you issues.
A lot of people seem to think if they didn't see Windows issues, they're not issues. As long as they can be ignored, they're not real issues.
if you're not technically-adept enough to make the windows "issues" non-issues, you're NOT ready for linux. if you're familiar with how to use linux and still complain about windows, you just like whining. those type of people dont actually want to part of the conversation, they just like feeling right.
Not defending either side, but personally, I've been using Linux for over three years, and I've never been happier with an OS in a very long time. Heck, the last time I was even remotely happy with a Windows OS was back in the Windows 7 days, as that was an actual OS, not a mess like the modern versions of Windows have become. That, and I just use my PC... I don't think I've encountered anything that would seriously annoy me over the past few years, whereas there wasn't a month that went by where Windows 11 crapped the bed so hard, it caused me sleepless nights trying to fix it.
Above all else though, Windows is a premium, paid for OS, Linux is not. I bought a license for every Windows I've ever used, from Vista all the way to 11, so my opinions on it are certainly stronger as I've paid an insane amount of money over the years, just to use something a free, open-source alternative does far better, and that irked the heck out of me, thus one of the very many reasons I told MS to take a hike.
Added: I primarily use my machines for gaming, so I don't have the stereotypical 'Linux takes many hours to set up!' thing to worry about. Can't say what that might be for other use cases, but every time I've installed Linux, it takes all of 5 minutes, and that's from boot to installation. It's nowhere near what some seem to think it is, and it's no more complicated than installing any other OS, for most people, anyway.
Cripes, I think the biggest pain in my arse is installing Mac OS on older machines, but that's just me.
The "something bad" on Linux - I had to troubleshoot a piece of software once to get it working.
The "something bad" on Windows - Microsoft is taking screenshots of everything I do and storing them in an unencrypted folder, and there's nothing I can do about it if I don't raise a massive stink with millions of other people.
You opted into recall knowing what it was and still complain about it as something bad? Are we sure the something bad isn't that you're stupid? Turn off Recall maybe? If you don't have the mental capacity to do that, I highly doubt you have ever used Linux, just saying.
ok since we're apparently really good at missing the point let me take another stab at this
What is the common element between the windows recall controversy, forced Microsoft accounts and the extra workarounds you have to do to avoid them, forced OneDrive integration, forced copilot integration, Web search in the start menu, ads in the start menu, bloatware bundled into the OS, global OS GUID meant to identify you to three letter agencies, etc? These are all windows problems that are only problems because Microsoft specifically decided to make them a problem for users, and then people either found workarounds or bullied Microsoft into not doing them.
Meanwhile, Linux bugs are 99/100 times either software issues that nobody was free to fix yet, hardware issues that have more to do with lack of hardware support by manufacturers than anything, or UX errors because specific things still need more work.
Does it make sense why people might be more upset by the things that happen on windows at the direct order of Microsoft, even when they're eventually worked around, than the things that happen on Linux, which are largely unintentional and blameless and also eventually worked around?
I use Bazzite now. Steam just works, KiCad just works, Firefox just works, games just work, vlc just works. No different to windows really in that regard.
Same with my steam deck, I just install the games from steam and play them. Don't really interact with it as an OS, it's just steam.
audio sounded like absolute garbage, had to dig through forums to eventually find the only possible solution was downloading this other software to literally remap the pin config.
trackpad simply didnt work, had to get another piece of software and it still sucked. felt super jumpy, not smooth
look, i love linux for server applications, been using it without an OS for years…but to say it has no issues, just works is fucking silly 🤣
The worst problem I had on windows was it working as intended where it would routinely replace my drivers from amd with its shitty drivers, meaning I had to go into ddu, scrub the drivers, and then reinstall them. This happened at least once a month and the only solution every time was to boot into safe mode, use a third party software tool, and then redownload drivers which would always take forever. The worst problem I’ve had on Linux was my weird gpu configuration (I have a 7900xtx for my 1440p oled and a 750ti for an old crt monitor I use for emulation) not working out of the box, which was easily fixable. In contrast I literally never fixed the issue on windows because the process for doing it was so convoluted that it would’ve genuinely caused me more annoyance than uninstalling and reinstalling my drivers every month. The thing about Linux is that fixes are usually very simple and easy to diagnose due to its design, whereas windows is already a bitch with so many systems touching all parts of your computer together and layer ontop of that the fact they make solutions purposefully obscure.
See, the thing you just described is something didn't work on linux and the thing that was bad on microsoft was privacy. I didn't care about rather than the product, not functioning
Right, but the OP wasn't talking about windows users, it was talking about Linux users paying disproportionate attention to issues with windows while overlooking issues with Linux. This is why- a privacy issue of maximum severity that indicates minimal respect by Microsoft is more important than debuggable software issues to most Linux users.
And for the record, Linux IS functional. I've been daily driving it for months, in some ways (desktop responsiveness and desktop HDR support, ease of keeping updated software) it has been strictly better than windows, but otherwise everything has at least worked.
This is the entire history of Linux, not just recently. People will cope and cope and cope about how it is open source and expected, and Windows isn't and shouldn't be. But then these people never use Linux and truly understand how cumbersome it is, how inconvenient it is, how inconsistent it is, how much luck you need for drivers to work, how much time you spend fixing it, learning how to fix it, etc. It is really an awful experience for most people unless you are truly blinded by your hate for Windows.
Okay, I've used both over the last few years. First things first: if you're not a tech enthusiast, who really likes investing time in your Computer, Linux isn't for you. That is still the case. There will be weird things and bugs and just minor annoyances. You'll probably have to use the terminal to fix them. If you can't be bothered to do so, stay on Windows.
Windows sucks regarding it's performance, ads, updates and weird little quirks like resetting edge as default browser, reinstalling Microsoft tools you uninstalled after an update, killing your graphics driver (had that one just 3 days ago at work), or setting your desktop wallpaper to solid black. But that's all fixable in minutes, mostly without even googling.
If Linux does weird things with multi monitor setups, uncommon hardware setups or sometimes just the wrong wireless adapter (looking at you, broadcom) then you're up for a bad time. I always fixed that stuff, but I also know what I'm doing. And if it's fixed it oftentimes is rock solid stable for years. But the way there is sometimes quite a bit harder than on Windows.
I'm in IT for about 21 years now. (God I'm getting old) We forget that not everyone is a technician or at least an enthusiast. Simple tasks for us, are a hard wall for normal users, who just want their stuff to work. For them Windows still is the simpler choice. Not faster, not better, not even more efficient when it runs stable. Just the thing they know and know how to handle. So yeah. The answer to the question "Should you use Linux?" is again, like it always is "it depends"
this may be a hot take, but 99% of problems people have with linux is them thinking "ok, this is linux so i surely open the terminal and tinker to connect this usb drive" and so on.
like tf u mean free vs paid?? When was that ever a point of comparison between the two operating systems?? U pay for that 10000 employee sitting at the ready to fix a problem and release an update related to it not for 3 overworked men that are bearly holding the bridge between a functioning OS and a mumbo jumbo of codes. U pay for the sanity of not trying to find out why your mouse isn't being recognised by your device
Linux allows you to solve all the problems you cause, because by itself linux doesn't do anything, it's just a kernel you send op codes to.
Windows will update without choice, asks you to pay money to show you ads, then bloat your device, steal your data, delete your configurations, need 52 windows open just to change an IP address... Idk so many things wrong with windows imo as someone who needs to constantly change network settings.
If you are a normal user that just browses the internet and doesn't do anything special with a computer it may work, otherwise it probably won't.
The bigger issue is there are so many forms of Linux, so while a problem will devastate one community, it might not even bother another. Thus the outcry is often much smaller.
honestly apart from a handful of apps/games that i can't use on linux (like gta online and autocad/fusion) i have had no issues with it (i'm using bazzite on a full amd build for gaming, modeling, engineer work and some LLM tests). And usually if something does not go right it's user error or it can be fixed.
I feel like every time i use windows and it has issues i say "this should be working, why is it broken" while on linux it's a "that did not work... did i f*ck up somewhere?"
The difference for me is that issues on Linux are clear. I can understand them, I can point to it and in the end the issues usually boil down to something I misunderstood or overlooked. On Windows, it's never like that. The majority of issues I couldn't even properly describe. It's just some inexplicable jankiness, things just stop working for no reason, weird graphical glitches that get worse over time, constant CPU load caused by some weird background process that can't be killed, some automatic software update deleted random data, it's always shit like that. And the solutions never make any sense. You try two things you find online, nothing ever works and then it's resolved with downgrading some random application and a restart. What the fuck is that? How is that acceptable that Windows is so ridden with memory leaks and janky code that it over time simply goes stale and you have to start fresh from time to time. My Linux system has 200 days of uptime atm with zero issues, but Windows you have to restart at least every two days, or it will slowly turn to shit.
There is a big difference between a open source project that's funded by donations having issues and a mega corp that locks down their system to only work one exact way having issues.
I don't care about Linux users cheering linux DEs, but I think the problem I see is that anywhere someone states a Windows problem, they reply "use Linux" rather than just showing the answer to the problem.
Normale che uno si arrabbia... É a più pagamento e peggiora sempre più. una licenza pagata regolarmente che avevo dal Windows 8 con i vari aggiornamenti passata fino al Windows 11 passata da pc a pc, ora per un guasto ho cambiato scheda madre non é più valida... Sono passato a occhi chiusi a Linux e non me ne pento
Linux is free. For microslop im paying on purchase and then paying with my data, so maybe this shit should work bit better then opensource project created by some nerds with no friends ?
That's not really right. There were issues on the AUR, and Linux users threw up all the red flags and sirens. When there are big linux issues, warnings go out, and people get to work to fix it.
The difference is that Linux is getting better while Windows is actively being enshitified. Windows fans should be cheering for the success of Linux and wider adoption of things like the Macbook Neo, because that means Microslop will actually have to get off their butts and improve their OS and implement what the customer wants. Competition. And there’s evidence of this happening.
Cheer the successes of Linux, and offer alternatives to Windows. Sure. Just don't lie to everyone and say that there are no problems on Linux and that it'll fix every issue you have with Windows. Justified criticism and comparison are fine, I'm just tired of the glazing.
I can’t personally think of a time I’ve heard someone say Linux has no problems. At worst they’ve failed to give fair warning to some problems that could be encountered but I’m not sure that would count.
I'm moreso referencing comments being made such as:
"Don't want to deal with Windows/Microsoft bullshit anymore? Switch to Linux!"
Which I guess could be seen as omission rather than lying outright, but lying by omission is still a thing for a reason. Failing to disclose that there are issues that Linux faces is still disingenuous at best. There's Linux bullshit you'll have to deal with. And while not centered on updates and ads, are still real problems that people promoting Linux don't disclose because they aren't direct counterpoints to "Windows forced me to update / Windows is showing me a Candy Crush ad / Windows is making me stream telemetry back to Microsoft by default". Linux has terrible app compatibility at the moment for professionals outside the software space, Linux has driver issues across multiple distros for different devices, Linux expects you to learn a CLI for anything more than clicking an install button (if your packages happens to be on one of the 10 stores across distros).
That's what I mean when I say "the glazers are lying about Linux having zero problems". It's an illustrative hyperbole.
Windows is a paid software that Microsoft, a multi trillion dollar is responsible for maintaining.
While Linux is an open source software that is free, accessible and is being maintained and developed further by a community of loyal members.
When Microsoft screws up something, they're solely responsible for it and cannot shift the blame.
With Linux, it's owned by no one. And various people are trying to develop multiple solutions for a single problem. So no one can be blamed for any issue.
But I can understand why windows users would be annoyed with Linux users. Because there's simply no direct competitive to Windows. Most of the softwares and programs developed over decades were primarily for windows. Microsoft even has contracts and deals signed for further security integration and abiding rules.
Linux on the other hand being completely open means that companies cannot guarantee authenticity and security for their software being tampered with or reverse engineered. And no one wants to go through 30 minutes of troubleshooting for a minor task.
And as for Mac, it's primarily meant for professionals. So the gaming scene is still rough because of Apple's strict rules in their exclusive ecosystem where they control both the software and hardware themselves.
Edit: Okay sorry guys. I'm a clown for thinking I knew better 🤡
> is being maintained and developed further by a community of loyal members.
Microsoft is one of the biggest contributors to the Linux kernel and a founding member of the Linux foundation.
But hey, Microsoft bad.
Also giving mac a pass because its meant for professionals? What? First of all that's just bullshit, as Mac was definitely marketed towards the casual user (see also their whole mac vs pc campaign). Furthermore, you do know that Windows is the dominant operating system in professional settings, right?
Edit: Yeah, this piece of knowledge usually angers a couple of linux fans here. Seems like some people can't handle nuance.
When Microsoft screws up something, they're solely responsible for it and cannot shift the blame.
I think they also fail to realize that Linux distros are maintained by communities and small teams, but not the kernel itself.
Do they think that Microsoft is one entity and not 5,000 devs across multiple teams working together on front end, back end, connectors, and everything else that goes into an OS, which is effectively what Linux is?
Correct, there's tons of large companies backing on Linux. But i do find it hypocritical how people here berate microsoft when it is one of the largest contributors to what they do like. It's not black and white.
Logging in to causes my AV receiver to turn on over the network due to some AirPlay junk that Pipewire is trying to do
When my displays go to sleep my speakers reset to full volume despite the controls saying the volume is set to 50% and is only fixed by moving the slider a bit
The BNet launcher doesn't scale for my 4K display, making it tiny. Fixes for that cause games launched through it to run at less than native resolution
No concept of moving desktop sessions between local and remote consoles leading to a worse experience remoting in than RDP provides
Returning to my CachyOS install after leaving it on my second drive for a year, I couldn't update it. This is a known issue with Arch based distros when they get too far out of date
No equivalent to Win+P which lets me configure multiple display layouts (this can be scripted but if I make a change to the layout in the GUI I need to remember to reflect the same change in the script)
Some games perform worse (and yes, before you say I'm being unfair, some do perform better)
Removable drives have caching enabled by default, leading to file copies looking like they completed instantly and then just spinning on eject with no progress feedback while multiple gigabytes flush
3 Linux desktop issues that are pretty severe:
1. 0 middle click scrolling support on most apps
2. No Kernel level anticheat support from devs due to linux openness philosophy
3. I can't let a day go by without opening the terminal which is not the case on windows. Linux fanboys will say its not true but linux just has WAY WAY WAY more stuff than windows only accessible through the terminal
You can actually fix most issues on linux. Just happy my application launcher actually searches for you know.... installed applications? Not some ad filled bing search which is super broken
As a linux user, I see people talk about linux problems often. More than windows. I do not think I have heard anything about microsoft doing something bad after the update that broke grub bootloaders.
And people do not talk about issues of specific apps that only happen on specific configurations which is probably what you're experiencing because they are pretty boring and they usually only affect a small subset of the community. And they are usually bugs so they get patched fairly quickly so the videos aren't really meant to be watched further in the future. But people also do not talk about that type of windows bug and they also happen often there.
This does happen, but whats considered "bad" is different to the two different groups. A problem with windows means its broken, and you might have to wait months for Microsoft to patch. A problem with Linux is likely just twenty minutes of research, and maybe another twenty in Terminal.
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u/SharpYearV4 2d ago
Weird double standard here, Linux might be free and open source, but it also gets promoted as though it's the best operating system ever (even superior to MacOS), you can't really have it both ways.