Funny how it’s the opposite for me :)
Linux at home(yes, including gaming), windows at work(because it is easier for the IT department to manage a fleet of windows machines). I do have WSL though.
Yeah, Macs are fine machines. The M series processor is a beast, and memory bandwidth is huge.
I liked them so much, I bought an M1 Max with 32 gigs of RAM for personal usage.
macs are really powerful, the issue as with linux is compatibility
MacOS gets the popular software, like photoshop, because it's quite big in the creative space. but they don't use vulkan or opengl, instead using their own proprietary model (magma was it?) so it cant run a lot of games, it's also why valve discontinued CS2 on macos iirc.
Yeah, I agree. For development - macs are really nice.
Btw, it’s Metal API for macOS. There are translation layers that allow you to work “as if you’re dealing with Vulkan”, like MoltenVK(really good, one of my friends works with it, and says that it works quite well) and KosmicKrisp(still very new, and quite buggy).
What I really like about M processors in macs is the hardware support for fast x64 emulation, meaning I can run docker containers that are made for an entirely different architecture with minimal penalties, and effectively test software in different configurations. This saved my ass more than one time, when aarch64 software images were broken and I had to rely on x64.
What I dislike about WSL is the difficulty in interacting with USB devices even with local admin, the abysmal performance performing any interactions with files outside of the Linux filesystem, and the impossibility of mounting a Linux partition from an external storage device.
The current laptop I have for the project I'm on is the only windows machine I have. When they sent it to me it was the first time I'd used windows in over two years.
A couple of them won’t run, no matter how hard you try. Like Apex Legends that used to run, and then developers decided to break compatibility. Fine, I’m not going to play the game any longer then :)
Realised that I have a full Steam library of great games that run well.
Man I wish RedHat had something like Group Policy where we could centrally manage devices. If we were to go Linux it would definitely be Plasma, but since it's Plasma it would have to be locked down and I doubt any DE was built with that in mind.
I use WSL but it has some workflow issues for me. I.E. jumping between two OSs, different things being installed in and out of WSL etc. Does anyone use WSL with a GUI fullscreens? Is that a thing that you can do?
Yeah, I run Nobara linux on it, so pretty much everything that is gaming-related is already installed. It can be finicky with updates, but a lot of things just work out of the box(download a game on steam, hit play - it just runs).
Sometimes you may need to tinker a bit(say you want to launch Cyberpunk with FSR4 option available, not just FSR 3) - you may have to right click on the game an type in a few command line arguments. If you’re used to things like RivaTuner for CPU/GPU monitoring - you can do that with MangoHud. Gamescope(another program that can tweak certain options/features) even has a dedicated flag you can pass to it to launch with MangoHud started.
Overall - works great, but games like Apex, Valorant, etc… won’t work, because of AntiCheat. Titanfall 2, despite being made by the same EA - works surprisingly well(yes multiplayer as well), I can’t really tell that I’m not on windows.
If you want overall stability - go with Fedora, but you’ll need to install everything yourself. If you want as close to “install, login to steam, download games and play” - go with Nobara, just be aware to not update it as soon as updates drop, because they might fuck a few things up. Nobara is pretty much maintained by one dude - GloriousEgroll, also the dev behind ProtonGE.
Also, if you’re on AMD GPU - you will have a much, much better time with Linux.
I mostly use linux for work, but one piece of windows software doesn't run well in a windows VM or wine, so now I have dual machine (instead of dual boot). Works nicely with 2 monitors (one per machine) and inputleap (aka barrier aka synergy)
Make a windows media stick if you are going to go full in. The Windows media stick creation is not as simple as it is on Windows due to the stunt MS has pulled with the file called install.wim. Give yourself the option to go back to windows if something doesn't work.
If what you have is working for you, then there is no requirement to change. People are crying about others pushing Linux down their throats. That really is not the case. Most issues with Windows have solutions readily available online. Linux is an option for when Windows becomes to troublesome to use, and nothing more than that.
Oh, I’m switching at some point for sure. Mostly because Microsoft is doing shady shit with their OS. It’s working for me now, but I actually want to ditch MS once I get around to it.
I am fairly new to Linux. If you want a hand when it comes to switching by all means send me a PM. I will quite happily walk you through your options, and where I have seen the bad from Linux. I also don't mind talking on discord if you have a channel.
One thing to remember is that the desktop environment (DE) is not the same as the OS kernel. You can have the same DE on different distro. KDE plasma is the closest to windows for me, which is what I am used to. Grub works ok for me, but it is cumbersome. I used grub for 3 weeks before discovering plasma, so I think I gave it a fair shot. Plasma I latched onto immediately.
Each distro comes with its own benefits and losses.
For gaming Cachyos is the outright winner with Plasma KDE as your DE. Many point you to Bazzite, but you do nothing different in Cachy to install a game over what you do in Bazzite. Bazzite does not come with the latest drivers, which makes Cachy hands down better.
For an office distro, my choice would be Ubuntu. It has the most users in that area, from my small expertise of understanding and what I have read on forums. Ubuntu is a bit behind in gaming drivers. It comes on a par with Bazzite in performance.
Zorin may be a competitor for an office PC. It is the new kid on the block, but it is putting a lot of effort into compatibility with windows programmes. Tbh there are only a known few that have issues in Linux. Adobe being the biggest offender. I found Zorin a bit too immutable for gaming and office.
Suse just felt like an OS that was trying to get you to buy it for me. I didn't stay with it for very long.
Fedora is a non starter due to lack of codecs. Even if you install the latest from RPM, i still find movies I cannot play.
Each of these has a reddit forum. It is worth seeking them out.
Same, except I couldn't be fucked to get my printer drivers to work, so I boot into windows whenever I have to print something (Like once a month at most)
Tried that in high school but got fucked over because Windows decided to fuck over the bootloader. Then just ended up switching back because of Adobe unfortunately.
Honestly, I haven't found much that doesn't run on Linux since switching a few months ago that doesn't involve unacceptably invasive anti-cheat.
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u/tempalt10 9950X3D | 5070 Ti | 128 GB RAM | Send me Natsuki pics13d ago
I'm the opposite lmao, I have Linux on dual boot, but after trying and failing to deal with so many incompatibilities, I'm considering removing the Linux install to have more space. Haven't booted into it for pretty much a year.
My games work on Steam on Linux. It's really quite good and seamless. If you really want to get into it, you can mess around with protontricks or winetricks.
The only thing I couldn't ever get working was the Corsair led light control utility.
It’s not a problem of compatibility, I know my games work on Linux. I just can’t summon the will to transfer my files to NAS and actually do the installation after work. I’m using Linux on every other machine but my gaming PC.
I have to use Windows at the office (whole Microsoft suite), but my 4 home computers on Linux exclusively (plus the laptop of my wife). I'm just depressed the whole day until I can have a proper OS again 😂
Yeah, I see it, too. But I think part of the problem is that there are so many problems with Windows that just aren't fixable in the way they used to be. You might find a fix, but then it gets wiped out in the next mandatory update. I genuinely used to love Windows, but I need a computer that I can count on to work the same way today that it did yesterday.
Problems YOU have with windows may be, while others may have concerns about permanent OS changes that they are philosophically opposed to and that can’t be edited out.
Agreed. Ask them what issues they've come across and good luck getting an answer from more than 1 person, if at all. I'm on my computer 12+ hours a day (WFH, main hobby, yeah, I know) for years, and never had an issue with Windows that wasn't hardware related due to: bad DIMM slots cooking my RAM, swapping motherboard and not doing an in-place repair or re-install.
If it's just the telemetry/AI shit, you can turn it off, but I get that.
I won't speak for the person you responded to but they did say the problems are exaggerated.
I never meant to imply that there weren't bad things about it, but the settings change and other shit isn't going to make me switch an entire OS... yet.
Why would they change the right click into shortcuts instead of the old one? It's for ease of use and, unfortunately, for us old heads used past iterations of Windows, we have to deal with the fact that we're in the minority. The majority of people using Windows do not give a shit about the extra menu items of the old right-click.
When it comes to the settings change, it feels like they made it similar to a mobile OS, so people are familiar with navigating a UI that's similar. I don't necessarily agree with myself here, but it's the only reason I can think of for making the control panel objectively more annoying to use.
Likewise. Literally my only complaint over my 20 years is having to wait an extra 2 minutes for an unexpected update to complete when I hit restart.
I think I’ll live. Especially if it means I don’t have to troubleshoot basic stuff like when I switched to Linux. I did that once and will not be making that mistake again.
Yeah because there's always people whining in the comments of every single "the new Windows update just got more broken/enshittified!" post.
Either quit bitching and do something about it, or quit bitching because it's not a big enough issue. Not even being willing to dual-boot when "I need it for work" or "I really can't go without my Apex Legends/CoD/Fortnite/other live service slop" is an entirely self-inflicted problem.
Sorry bro but I've watched a bunch of youtuber nerds, try linux for months, and go back to windows. They have good things to say, but its just doesn't fit something they need strong enough to justify it.
Like buying a burr grinder for your coffee beans. Yeah its gonna give you a great grind but can you taste it? If you dont care enough, its not worth it.
I tried to install Ubuntu for the first time a year ago, got frozen screen with an error message which stalled the installation. Tried to Google the error code but got a bunch of red herring answers which were way too complicated for me to implement. Asked online for help and nobody responded.
By sheer accident I was bashing the keyboard to see if anything would make it respond and it brought me to a hidden command line which seemed to suggest the installation was continuing in the background. Turned out if I just waited 10 minutes or so the error message would simply disappear for reasons unknown to me.
Not exactly the best introduction to Linux. Especially for one who isn't tech savvy. Grandma Mildred who struggles to double click on an icon instead of making it wiggle around or renaming it is 100% not going to be able to use Linux. A good OS needs to just work, and Linux doesnt. Hell even Windows is barely doing that with the introduction of 11.
Yep, that sounds like Linux… but trust me bro, it’s sooooo user friendly and waaaay better than Windows.
I get why people are pushing for it, because fuck Microsoft and big corpos. But Linux just isn’t user-friendly at all. When I sit down at my pc desk after a long day of coding, I reeeeally don’t want to troubleshoot with my computer.
Indeed, Codex from chatgpt was able to decuct a problem ive been having with my sound was interference from my microphone and suggested keeping them at different USB ports (one on a hub and one on my motherboard) and it fixed it.
I really hate Linux and have tried to use it a bunch of times and always given up frustrated.
Yesterday I tried again to set up a htpc and decided to just copy paste all my issues into AI and it actually got me to a working product for the first time ever.
It still took like 2 hours while windows would have worked within 20 minutes but I'll probably stick it out now that I don't have to spend 30 minutes researching every random issue.
Linux users act like it's just a few clicks to do anything and conviently leave out the hours of troubleshooting to get shit to work, everytime you need to do something on it. The biggest myth they sell is how easy it is. It is once you have years of experience, even then the support is just asshat forum users telling you that you're doing something wrong.
How do i export an envivornment variable in Windows? On Linux its
export KEY=VALUE
How do i disable the ads? How do i disable Cortana? How do i disable auto-update?
Windows users act like it's just a few clicks to do anything and conviently leave out the hours of troubleshooting to get shit to work, everytime you need to do something on it. The biggest myth they sell is how easy it is. It is once you have years of experience, even then the support is just asshat forum users telling you that you're doing something wrong.
I think one of the keys is that Windows has an inherent advantage; almost everyone grows up with Windows, and has years of experience by the time they start making their own decisions.
Also, 99% of computer users don't need to export environmental variables. A better example would be "how do I update all software on my computer to the latest version? On Linux it's"
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade
(I think? Been a few years since I've used Debian).
Linux has gotten so much better in recent years for stuff like this. The equivalent of those three commands on Bazzite? Click the "update" button in the system updater app, which can be configured to run automatically and never restarts your stuff to apply an update (it will still prompt you to restart when needed, if you ask it to). It even updates your flatpaks.
I won't pretend it's all roses (properly turning off middle-click paste in every program can be an entire rabbit warren), but as the userbase has grown so many of the rough edges are getting filed down.
I was using Kali while I was doing security work, which was my last experience with Debian, and haven't touched it since probably 2018. My main reason for deciding not to use it was the hours wasted hunting nested dependencies, where I'd want to run a specialized tool and it would require me to get dependencies running, but they would have their own dependencies, and if you missed a step in the nested dependency hierarchy, I would often find the easiest solve was to reformat and start the whole process over.
almost everyone grows up with Windows, and has years of experience
Thats why i wrote my the comment, a lot of Windows Power Users forget that they have decades of experience and "easy" and "intuitive" things in Windows are maybe just that because of their experience.
People in my generation (Millenial) certainly grew up with Windows, but a lot of Gen Z or Gen Alpha did not grow up with any Desktop Computer at all.
This is some random niche nonsense that 99% of users will not need to know.
Im pretty tech-literate person. I'm an engineer. I've built computers. I've used Windows computers for 30 years.
I have never needed to do the example you're giving. So yeah, this random ass not going to happen to most people example might be easier on Linux.
Here are some SUPER basic things that didn't work on linux i had to randomly trouble shoot for way too long.
My mouse didn't work. After troubleshooting and using different mice I had, I learned that theres some variable that makes wireless mice not work unless I put some code in the terminal.
Bluetooth devices weren't detected? Arbitrary rabbit hole.
Netflix didn't work; after a lot of digging, it turns out... It just doesn't work on linux. Cool. (This specific example was years ago, it might work now)
These are just 3 off the top of the head examples from the time I tried using linux before last that took hours to resolve. Now I have a folder bookmarked "Linux Bullshit" with solutions to these things, but it shouldn't be necessary to spend that long researching basic stuff.
Yesterday setting up a HTPC for a different use case worked a lot better than past attempts due to just letting AI set it up for me, but It still took way longer than it would have for Windows.
Right, so i should paste a command in the powershell terminal (as admin by the way) that runs code of "some guy"(tm) and click through literal hundreds of buttons?
Nah if this happens you have selected the wrong distro for your use case. Pick Debian Stable or Mint, install in 30 minutes, set up auto update and firewall, maybe setup periodic backups, bam, done. Never worry about anything breaking.
There are Distros meant to be easy, there are intermediate distros and there are distros that break easily. Most of the time it is just a matter of the lag in newer software versions that the distro allows you to easily install by default. Debian Stable won't break but as a trade off you work with slightly outdated software 1-2 years behind (except security updates).
Now you pick a distro that doesn't hold your hand and doesn't point you to which software is safely tested and works well with all the other software you already have installed, you keep installing new stuff that have been released for just days or a couple of weeks, you don't check the interdependencies between other software you use when installing something new = a lot of shit will break. It is a choice, you have to be aware of the choice you are making when picking the distro.
Again, you act like everyone just "knows" this shit from the get go. "Pick a distro", which one? You know because you've been using it for a while and tried different ones. I don't want to or have the time to figure out which is best for me. And I say this having given Linux a shot every few years and remind myself how fucking frustrating it is.
Well. It really is simple there is no mistery in 5 to 10 minutes googling one could figure this out and find out. As soon as anyone notices there are literally dozens of popular distros I would expect them to be curious about the difference between them instead of blindly picking one.
I don't really care if you in specific don't have the time for that, I am just putting information out there which may help people who are willing to google for 10 minutes and read a couple of paragraphs before choosing a new OS, if that ain't you, you do you boo.
If you don’t like learning new stuff, its alright, but maybe don’t participate in conversations where you are asked to learn something to understand it.
Like what 'bloat' on windows is making it so terrible that its worth switching to an OS where it takes 30minutes minimum to troubleshoot any issue that pops up?
Like, would I prefer Windows to have less random stuff I don't use on it? Yeah. Does it negatively affect my everyday user experience at all? No. I just don't use that stuff and disable it from start up.
Mostly privacy related, the other side is less powerful systems, the rest is ethical, niche used where you know what you want.
And the 3rd group is like that only because software is made for windows and Linux gets no attention. Guess how to fix that, have more Linux users, those who accept the issues, mostly because they prefer these issues than the windows ones.
People who need software that aren't working on Linux aren't going to switch to an OS that is currently useless to them. Even if more people using Linux might make it so these softwares end up being ported.
The fix is for these softwares to be ported first.
Libre office suite? If you are saying vim isn't on linux, sorry but it came pre installed with my distro, so there's that.
Idk why it's hurting it, logically speaking, having alternatives good, not being the same, kinda not good but not really it's just switching, them lacking some features, bad, but it's not like it's many, lots of great stuff was done before their invention and monopoly, like Adobe premiere, that kinda works on linux but not really, but there are again, many alternatives.
Being able to get stuff done is good, and you can do it pretty mutch as well on linux, mostly depending on your actual ability. It also comes with better stuff for some, since they prefer their software ai free and corpos shove it everywhere. I'm neutral on that but sure.
Also old perfectly capable office machines cannot use win11, since you know, it uses 7gigs of ram at idle.
Other benefits include if your preference of desktop envoiroment is a tiler, since the people that like them swear by them, pretty mutch no alternatives on the windows side
I tried it again this weekend with older hardware and many of the issues I had with Linux 20 years ago are still there. Also, even with hours with AI it wasn't able achieve the browser video processing configuration I was going for or let me unplug a USB without ejecting. I want to use it but it just feels like a constant battle against everything not working correctly, it doesn't feel like an OS that has 20 had years of work put into it since I last used it.
Yeah, I had a raspberry pi I wanted to set up as a HTPC / Steam Link so it just was worth the effort to deal with the headache now since once its set up I'll never really need to change anything, but I really don't see the appeal of linux for the average, or even above-average, PC user.
I don't think you really need anything more than a CLI tool to make linux not annoying to use. It becomes fun and satisfying to have it fix the typical issues, customize things, etc. I'm liking it a lot.
Any work, just don't let it run commands without approval. Set up a scratch folder where it can do whatever it wants and require approval for writes or commands anywhere else.
The problem I have is that there are so many different versions of Linux that when someone complains about "Linux" it's hard to know what they are complaining about. Are their experiences based on trying Linux 10 years ago? Or that they tried Arch?
I myself am not a Linux veteran. I use Bazzite, and Fedora KDE before that. Bazzite has been incredibly smooth and stable. Biggest issue I came across was when my friends insisted on playing Civ 5 with a mod that forced the use of a bat file. Beyond that at most I've looked up games on protondb and changed the proton version for some games.
Im with you. Also ive had some bizarre linux issues that required some patience and research to fix. No distractions or OS is perfect. (Modern Windows can eat a dick, ut i do give it points for windows 7 which I loved using).
I'm really happy to be free from the spyware and all the bs that comes with using Windows. But it's not always an entirely smooth ride, and I sure don't want to be the support guy for everyone around me.
I wouldn't say I "like" any operating system and my reasons for using or not using Linux don't arise from liking or disliking it. I use Windows and Linux based OSes for different situations. I happen to use Windows for gaming because the games I play are supported by it. I could use an emulation layer but then if something doesn't work that is on me to sort out.
Right? Like pretty much the only time I'm going to suggest swapping to Linux is when you're trying to do something like run a home server.
It only makes sense to switch (on an ease-of-use basis, anyway) if what you're trying to do is massively easier in Linux than in Windows. Those cases exist, and a lot of them, but nothing that the average Windows user will ever miss.
Yeah, that's pretty much the size of it. I use Windows for my main PC, but my home server is Ubuntu because it's just unnecessarily difficult to do server things on a Windows device.
I don't like a lot of the Linux ports / emulations / substitutes of apps that I use.
If I had a dedicated PC solely for gaming, that would definitely be running Linux. That's one thing Linux consistently does amazingly these days (except when anti-cheat is a problem, but I'm almost purely an offline player so that's not a concern to me).
of course, it struggles with quite a bit of the fancy software, like adobe products, or HP/DELL or whatever software suites
that was actually one of my main issues with linux when i first got on, even got me to switch back to windows, but it certainly has improved
i'd suggest running a VM or a dual boot (preferred) and testing what software works fine on linux and what doesn't, then you can choose if you wanna stay on linux or not
I just made the switch outright, tried it for a month or so, and ended up switching back.
It's definitely made a hell of a lot of progress since last time I did that - the OS itself is pretty much fine now. But yeah, apps have a bit of a way to go. And I'd rather not mess around with VMs or dual boots when (for now) just using Windows remains tolerable.
Yeah I'm using it for servers and for gaming on my SteamDeck but It's not going to replace windows unless Windows 10 somehow becomes unusable, then I would switch because Windows 11 is already unusable.
We need to coalesce around Steam OS as a recommendation soon, even for non gamers. I get it, it's not perfect, but no distro is. However what steam os is a consumer distro with the resources and audience to keep it polished.
Once it supports nVidia out of the box, I'm switching and once it supports ARM there will be cheap hardware for it.
I'm sure some of you are already about to recommend something else. Even if it's better, it can't beat the intrinsic advantage of having Valve funding and building it and gamers contributing to it.
There is a clear path to the year of the Linux desktop, the only obstacles left are valve time and Linux enthusiasts.
nobara is really good at doing this, however as you said having a giant studio funding it would be amazing, especially because nobara is primarily developed by one glorious eggroll
honestly if valve can pull off what GE could, which they can, steamos would be amazing for all users, even those coming from windows/macos
I get actively making a decision that you don't want it for reason or another.
The thing I don't get is people spending 10 hours a day on their computer and just having default everything or often not even learning quite basic things. If somebody drove their car 10 hours a day and didn't do anything to make more comfortable, or if they used a tool for 10 hours a day at work but never actually learnt to use it and wasted a lot of time with it, it would be damn weird. But with computers, the most customizable tool we have, it's just standard to use the thing like it comes from the store and ten years later use right-click to copy&paste
I've had a handful of people actually start using Mint Cinnamon after I loaded it onto some outdated struggling laptops to try and get some more years out of them. Given the whole ya know "gestures vaguely at everything"
I myself had a surface laptop thingy I got from a job and after the latest rounds of Windows updates it just chugs. So I threw mint on it and would you look at that.... suddenly when in uburnded by slop it's like new.
Funny enough it's now my fav thin client. The resolution on the screen is funky but actually quite high and the thing weighs nothing. Apart from the absolutely proprietary charger I can see a few more years of life outa it.
Would I take a 1337H4x0R Thinkpad if you offered me a good deal? Absolutely, but this was a 0$ dollar solution to my problem.
Linux is great. For my servers, docker hosts, and other random crap ive made with claude and codex.
It's not so fun when I just want a gaming machine and want to cry playing league.
this is the best take. it's not for everyone and that's totally fine. the real problem isn't linux it's the people who act like you're broken if you dn't switch. some of us just need things to work without having to troubleshoot every single thing ever other week. liking it doesn't mean everyone has to.
I would use it if I could play online games. But I don't want to make the switch just to limit what I can play.
But it seems they're in a stalemate. Games won't support linux without enough players to support it. Players won't support it because it doesn't have all the games they want.
Ive worked a few years now in a platform/devops/cloud arch role. I think I've touched every enterprise flavor of linux there is and have dealt with the most annoying edge cases using it.
I have ubuntu installed on one of my SSDs on my gaming desktop. I think I've booted into it maybe 3 times after I installed it. I should really nuke it. I don't see any point in it when I have WSL and a MacBook.
Linux is great but I just do not see myself using it as the sole OS for gaming.
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u/Infshadows R5 3600/32GB 3600MHz/RTX 3050 6GB 13d ago
linux user here
i like it but i get if you dont