Those who tried Linux and went back to Windows, what caused you to go back to Windows? - eviltoast

Additionally, what changes are necessary for you to be able to use Linux full time?

  • harmonea@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I got tired of everything taking so much effort. I was almost always able to eventually wrangle what I wanted out of the OS, but every change I wanted to make and thing I wanted to try needed so much searching and learning. I wanted stuff that just worked, even if it was “dumber.”

    That, and some parts of the community I ran into were really prickly. One that was especially memorable: I was asking for help on a big-ish project with a lot of followers and helpers and didn’t expect the lead dev to answer my question, but when he did, he felt the need to make a snide as hell comment about how I have no business being there if I’m going to forget to start a service. On top of the exhaustion I was already feeling, I had a massive moment of “okay my guy, I guess I’ll just fucking leave then.”

    Anyway, it just feels better being a poweruser on windows. I know enough to keep it clean, safe, and slim (like using powershell to disable the bits they don’t expose to a settings UI, for example) – to truly admin my machine – without having to work so hard for it day in and day out.

    • Autocheese@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yikes, that is why I hate tech forums. Too many times I’ve asked an informed/thought out question I’m unable to find via search and the first replier basically says “hey go FUCK yourself.”

      • Zero@ezekielrage.com
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        1 year ago

        I work in IT, this is how a lot of engineers and administrators are to be honest. I hate the dick measuring contests in my field.

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, those kinds of interactions are inevitable when the developer/user relationship is so close. And it goes both ways. I saw a thread just yesterday where a user reported an issue on github, a second user said they saw it too. Later the first user posted a workaround to the issue, and the second user came back with “took you long enough”, and that was the end of the exchange.

      Some people in the world are just dicks, but that doesn’t mean we should reject interacting with everyone. Similarly, a community of user-maintained software is going to have some asshats, but that doesn’t mean we should hand our computing freedom over to one or two corporations. Just my two cents.

      • harmonea@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Some people in the world are just dicks, but that doesn’t mean we should reject interacting with everyone.

        Corollary: Your personal aversion to corporations doesn’t mean users have have any motivation or obligation to keep trying when we’re getting pushback from both the software and those who maintain it.

        Anyway, I’m not sure how you got that I reject interacting with everyone after my experience, but extrapolating my statement to that kind of extreme phrasing sure doesn’t fill me with confidence about future interactions, either.

        • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Hey there, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m not discounting anything you’re saying, I agree that it’s definitely a very real phenomenon, and didn’t intend to provoke a defensive response. I didn’t say that you were “rejecting interacting with everyone”, on the contrary, I’m saying that in the physical world you deal with people who act like dicks, but you specifically DON’T reject interacting with everyone. I’m drawing a parallel between that behavior in the physical world with how I believe we should also behave in the digital one.

          I also did not say that I have any personal aversion to corporations, I owe most of my daily comforts to corporations, so I would be a hypocrite to say as much. But if I had said that “I don’t think we should stick our hands in blenders” that doesn’t mean I have a personal aversion to blenders.

          Cheers

    • _cerpin_taxt_@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Currently my experience with 3D printing. It’s one thing after another, and the community, at least on Reddit and Facebook, fucking sucks. If I ask a question, it’s always “hey how about you go fuck yourself” or an essay that has zero relevance to what I’m asking. Made a post on Reddit the other day (I know, but have a single burner account until the 3D printing community here takes off more) and just asked to see some settings due to just constantly having issue after issue. Half of the responses were people just telling me they’re not fucking wizards and they need to know what kind of problems I’m having. I… didn’t ask for that whatsoever. I very explicitly just asked for someone’s slicer settings to compare to.

      • harmonea@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s absolutely the worst help forum experience, when you’re asking one question but everyone extrapolates the question they think you REALLY meant to ask and talks down to you about it.

        And of course if you try to steer the conversation back to your actual question, you get painted as the unreasonable one placing all sorts of conditions on the generous free help others are allowed to bestow upon you.

        The less reliance on others Linux requires, the better off it will be for general adoption.

        • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
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          1 year ago

          everyone extrapolates the question they think you REALLY meant to ask and talks down to you about it

          It’s true, but the “X-Y problem” is real.

          The question may be “what’s the best way to do X”, when they actually want to do Y and they concluded, erroneously, that X is the best way to do it. Responders suspect this, so they want to steer the questioner to a best explanation to find out if that’s the case, just to watch the questioner’s tantrum when the immediate answer is not what they expect.

          • harmonea@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Speaking only for myself, if I want to know the best way to do Y, I ask about how I can do Y. If I’m at the stage where I’ve moved on to asking about how to do X, there’s a reason I want to approach the problem that specific way – personal preference, limitations of my setup, learning a new approach, whatever else – and I’m not there to get into some asinine argument defending my choice, I’m there to find out how to do X.

            So while I’m well aware of the thought process behind it, I will never not find it incredibly disrespectful to disregard the question being asked in order to make snarky little guesses at intent and answer a totally different question.

            • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
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              1 year ago

              This, of course, assumes perfect understanding on your part. That could be a mistake, specially as you are, you know, asking for help.

              • harmonea@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                The standard “come prepared with a good question” is simply not as hard for a savvy user to meet as you’re making it out; certainly it’s far easier than scrying between the lines and derailing the topic on purpose, and it strikes me as arrogant that anyone would trust their own attempts at mind-reading more than the clear words on the page. I’ve got a very good idea why you’re taking this all so personally that you’re replying to it three weeks after any of it was active.

                Well, at least the very fact that you’re taking it personally means it dug deep enough that you’re aware it’s a problem, even if you still have a bit of a journey before you accept it needs a change.

                • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
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                  1 year ago

                  The standard “come prepared with a good question” is simply not as hard for a savvy user to meet as you’re making it out

                  Your mistake is presupposing a savvy user.

                  I’ve got a very good idea why you’re taking this all so personally that you’re replying to it three weeks after any of it was active.

                  Please enlighten all of us about the procedure granting you telepathy, or shut the fuck up.

        • _cerpin_taxt_@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Haha your second paragraph sums it up perfectly. A few folks did share their settings, but they were for completely different printers/hardware haha. Most of the online guides I’ve found are written under the assumption that you’re already a master at the hobby, and it’s strangely spread out in random little nooks of the internet - there’s not really a ton of centralized discussion forums. Maybe the hobby is way smaller than I thought, or maybe I’m just in way over my head, but I fix tech problems for a living - did not expect this to be as much of a challenge. Never buy a 3D printer if you value your sanity and living stress-free. Sorry, I just needed to rant for a minute haha.

          • Statick@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            Yeah 3D printers are fussier than I expected. Especially when printing anything involving supports and more specifically… small areas that need supports. I print a lot of stuff for D&D and have just started cutting things up into pieces with blender to print easier, then glue it together

            I will say. My first thought was obviously to ask what what printer, to see if I could send you my profile for you to compare (depending on the soccer you use). Then my second was to ask if you’re having issues and if so, what the issues are.

            Only because sometimes a seemingly large issue could be a very small fix.

            When I first started, I got it working great and then out of no where nothing would stick to the bed. I spent more time than I’d like to admit messing with settings only to realize it was the oils on my hands causing adhesion issues. Some 99% IPA fixed all my issues real quick haha.

            • _cerpin_taxt_@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              That would be awesome! I’ve got an Ender 6 with a Micro Swiss NG extruder. I was printing decently with the stock hardware, but that stock extruder was a nightmare and kept slipping or completely losing grip on filament mid-print, so I upgraded to this extruder. Now I’m just trying to find that perfect spot to where it extrudes but doesn’t grind filament. I’ve been having some really messy prints.

              I just had a feeler gauge arrive in the mail, so I’m about to use that to try leveling the bed more accurately. Everyone says to just use a piece of paper or something, but different paper is different widths haha.

              I do have a PEI bed, so stuff sticks and comes off way easier now, but I would love to check out your slicer settings to get a good baseline! What kind of hardware do you have, and which slicer do you use?

              • Statick@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                Sure thing, I have a two Sovol SV06’s, one for a 0.4 nozzle and one for a 0.2 nozzle, and a Bambu Labs X1C.

                The SV06’s took me a few weeks to tweak, especially the one with the 0.2 nozzle.

                Here is my cura profile for the Sovol SV06 with the 0.4 nozzle https://filebin.net/ljh52w2lehipzbms

                Just using that outright probably won’t work. What I would do is load up the default Ender 6 profile that Cura has, and then adjust settings based on mine. For instance. You went from a bowden extruder to a direct drive. So you can probably copy my retraction settings as a baseline and adjust from there. You need far less retraction on direct drive extruders (i.e. 0.2mm-1mm for direct drive vs 5mm-8mm for bowden).

                I would also look up CHEP and Teaching Tech on youtube. They have great videos on bed leveling and everything else related to 3d printing.

          • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Most of the online guides I’ve found are written under the assumption that you’re already a master at the hobby

            I’ve had exactly the opposite experience lol. Most of the stuff out there is dreadfully basic, and if you want detail like scientific comparisons of the strength-weight ratios of different infill patterns, good fuckin luck. Some chum on YouTube will have some half baked experiments and that’s as good as it gets.

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I’ve found this same type of animosity and superiority all over tech forums in general.

      • harmonea@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You’re not wrong, but running Linux directly correlates to more time spent on “tech forums in general,” so it’s still a bigger problem with that OS than others imo.

      • harmonea@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I was trying to run my own personal-use instance of LiveJournal back 20 years ago when it was open source (and not owned by Russia). Just to see if I could, as is the spirit of a tinkerer.

        There was a handful of paid staff as well as a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers, so I expected one of them to answer a low-priority newbie support request, not… what I got.

        • Paralda@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunate, but to be fair, things have changed a lot in 20 years.

          There are definitely still angry linux nerds on forums, but I think the experience is a lot more streamlined.

  • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It just doesn’t work. It’s a simple as that. Things are constantly breaking. When they do I look up support articles that are written in fucking Klingon and sent to the terminal to type in commands that always return some sort of generic error “command not found” or some shit because the solution is written for a different one of the 862700422 available distros.

    I have no idea how to install all the different program types (flathub, db, appimage, etc.). Windows has exe. I click “install” and boom, it’s done.

    Sometimes I try to remove software in the package manager and it acts like it is uninstalled but it’s still fucking there.

    I can’t even select a file because there are no previews. Just a gazillion blue squares with names like “dlcosn_3947912947”.

    And other reasons, but I digress. I don’t have time to learn a new career, I just want a computer that works.

  • meathorse@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I really, really want to love Linux.

    Mate introduced me to Red Hat in the very late 90s and I keep trying various distros every year or two - last time was about 2020 so my views here might be a bit out of date now…

    When Ubuntu launched I truely believed this would be the start of genuine transformation. While I do see the overall progression in modern distros - installing them is easier than ever - but at its core, it just doesn’t seem to truely improve when it comes to usability and user friendliness. As others have said, small changes or issues might require hours of research or a game of copy/paste/pray with commands found on a long lost forum page.

    MS make plenty of mistakes and dumb changes but windows has had significant improvements over the years both to the interface but also functions:

    W2k/XP dragged us kicking and screaming out of DOS and into the modern era.

    Vista made much needed changes to security/driver issues - but it was still a slow pig - particularly updating.

    Win7 fixed what Vista should have been - faster, cleaner and simpler, BSoD mostly a thing of the past now driver manufacturers have caught up from Vista fixed updates a bit.

    Win8.1 improved boot speeds, had a lot of good under the hood changes that improved deployment and self-repair, good tools for power users (we just don’t talk about that start menu)

    Win10/11 greatly improved the updating process - still far from perfect but significantly faster and more reliable. No longer the upgrade lottery it was in XP - 7 era.

    Not wanting to start a fight here, just my perspective - unfortunately, every time I install Linux, the visuals look good but it always feels like a fancy modern skin over top of something akin to Win98. Sure, it’s fast, secure as a MF and not riddled with modern bloat but genuine advancement of the platform feels absent.

    Maybe it’s because I don’t live elbow deep in Linux like I have in windows desktop for the past 20+ years. I do know that it’s versatility and power is incredible - from phones and Pi’s to world class infrastructure, so maybe that’s it. It’s designed for maximum power and flexibility that it’s not really suited as a general purpose desktop for the masses like windows. It might always remain as a oddity at the desktop level, insanely powerful in the right hands and just a little too complex and less refined to appeal to those not willing to go deep into really learning it.

  • techgearwhips@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Shit never works and I basically have to become a programmer and expert in CLI to get shit to work… until it breaks again. So after having to Google everything on how to do supposedly simple shit, I always end up going back to Windows and GUI’s because I don’t have time to become a developer.

  • b14700@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    because i like driving but hate fixing my temperamental car

  • Carter@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    My PC only gets used for gaming and I was fed up of switching into Windows for every other game. I WANT to use Linux but game developers just aren’t allowing me.

    • aliceblossom@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You should look into VFIO. I was in the same place where I wanted to have a Linux desktop but I don’t want to dual boot to play games because that shit is CRAZY annoying. However, there’s a way to virtualize Windows inside of you Linux desktop and get 99% of your GPU’s performance due to VFIO. I think if you use Kubuntu specifically there’s a really strong guide for setting it up, although admittedly it’s not trivial. Good luck!

  • Kyle@lemmy.mlB
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    1 year ago

    I think it comes down to my level of proficiency with computers. I’m a photographer and an artist. However, I am above average tech literate but with absolutely no formal training compared to anyone in the computer sciences.

    When I use a Mac or PC I am a power user and most people think of me as very tech inclined there. I used terminal or command prompt for commands that I have learned from Google for a specific tasks and can follow most guides and tutorials online, but I can’t come up with strings of commands creatively to fix a problem.

    With Linux, there’s all these weird little problems that might be unique to me and looking them up is really difficult and when someone says “oh it’s easy. Use the terminal” as if this incredibly confusing thing that I have zero fundamental knowledge of can solve my problem. A genuinely feel illiterate when I use Linux. I can write sudo though 🤷‍♂️

    I feel like saying “just use terminal” is like telling a kindergarten kid to just use creative writing, algebra and calculus. The fundamentals have not been taught yet, I have no idea what to do.

    When I learned Mac or PC, I was shown how to use a mouse, I could read and just clicking around and opening things and reading help files let me intuitively learn on my own what to do. With Linux, this way of learning achieves nothing. Maybe I can turn wifi on and off assuming it works when I install it.

    And then when an update breaks everything and I have to mess around and terminal for hours or days between doing actual work, It’s a nightmare. The only Linux thing I’ve managed to keep running for years on end is a Synology. I use it for a bit of backup things but thank goodness the OS updates and app updates all work. Nothing is broken and I barely touch the machine. It just grabs my files from the network and backs them up. You should have seen how shocked I was when I was trying to install something on docker and it took days for me to realize I just type the name of the thing I want and it grabbed it from the web and installed it automatically. I spent way too long trying to figure out how to grab the actual package files and open them like installing something via an MSI file in windows.

    • catshit_dogfart@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I am literally a Linux system admin, I bang on a command line interface for a living.

      But I don’t use Linux at home, it’s just so much work. Every single thing is complicated. Last time I really tried in earnest to switch to a full Linux setup I was somewhere in the middle of a quick and easy 24-step process to get my webcam working, compiling the drivers from a modified source - and it was just a moment that broke me. Like, I’ve been working on this for an hour and I know I can do it but this is stuff I don’t even think about with windows.

      So I broke down and bought Windows 10. It’s what I was trying to avoid, being a tight ass and didn’t want to buy an new OS.

      I just don’t have the patience to troubleshoot every tiny thing like a big endeavor. I can, I just don’t want to. Everything I install, every peripheral I connect, it’s always a big deal getting it to work. Heck with that, not worth the trouble.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And here I use Windows and get into a blind rage within 5 minutes at how much fucking around there is getting devices working properly, and then they just drop out for no apparent reason.

      • Communist@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think anything like this has really been the case for a long time. How long ago was this?

      • somedaysoon@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Bullshit… I honestly can’t believe half the comments here… so much conjecture, straight up bullshit, or opinions outdated by like 10+ years. Yours is another… if you are actually familiar with Linux, there is absolutely no way that you would put up with the lack of control and customization, the god-awful workflows, and knowing there are ads and telemetry data being sent from Windows.

    • tko@tkohhh.social
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      I think you’ve hit the nail on the head… many of us grew up using Windows and/or Mac. Incremental changes to the OS aren’t a hindrance because of the baseline familiarity with the OS. Without OS familiarity, you’re going to feel like a fish out of water.

      I’m getting better with linux, but I still daily drive on a Windows machine and I’m not sure if that will ever change.

    • ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The Windows command line is just so far removed from linux/mac terminal. Powershell is the closest Windows has out of the box really, and it’s a poweruser tool exclusively. Not to mention that by default, Powershell comes with aliases for common commandline inputs, so users are still not learning the correct commands and syntax.

      This builds an ignorance problem, as you alluded to. I’ve done a lot in android and linux, but not enough where I can hammer away at a linux terminal and do anything but cause damage.

      And I don’t think this is a “fault” in linux so to speak, but it’s an issue that needs to be overcome for most users to make the switch from something where the terminal was strictly and “optional” tool for them.

      • thiccdiccnicc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        WSL? Windows for GUI programs and WSL for any CLI work. All my servers are Linux but I just ssh into them. Everything runs this way all nice and happy and I never ever touch PowerShell.

  • Redredme@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It kept working.

    Linux, every time, without fail, commits suicide after a few weeks/months. It’s never something big, always small stuff. A conf file which got fucked by a package. Init.d calls something stupid. Mbr bullshit.

    And the same applies to get stuff to work. It’s not hard, but researching the issue and fixing it takes time. Those issues do not exist in windows.

    It gets annoying. Windows, for all it’s shit has gotten more and more self repairing over the years.

    I want to work. I want to play. Now, preferably.

    • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      A few years ago I installed Ubuntu on a laptop, used it a bunch of times then it got put away for a year or so. When I booted it back up it told me the OS was out of date and needed to be updated. When I tried it gave me some errors. I searched online and basically I couldn’t update because it was too old. I needed to update in stages but the next release was also out of support.

      I realised I don’t use it enough to care. I installed windows on it.

      I do use Linux at work and on things at home like routers, retro gaming, etc. They’re not really comparable though.

    • b_n@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      So, I’ve been running Linux as a desktop for a number of years, never had a problem of it dieing weekly or monthly. I’ve had my share of “ah shit, I should restart because some package updated and tings got a little spooky”, but never out right ded.

      In saying that, I’m used to this modus operandi, and how to fix these things, but I’m curious as to why you were having weekly/monthly issues. E.g. were you running the latest distros, and not LTS versions?

      A comparison with windows is that they control the whole OS, and on theory everything is LTS. Linux gives you those freedoms, and also those problems if you choose to use them etc.

    • Prootje@kbin.social
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      This, and gaming. Linux has come a long way, but has a long way to go. Linux seems to be a long string of hicccups that need to be solved, instead of something that works for me. Although the POPos distro was by far the smoothest, it still became troublesome trying to play games on it.

    • 200cc@lemmy.tedomum.net
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      Linux, every time, without fail, commits suicide after a few weeks

      You must be doing something really wrong with it because on popular distros this is not really supposed to happen. If you encounter such issues report them to the devs. You probably want to try a more stable distro

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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        They’re not doing anything wrong. This is my experience, as well as many many others. Why else would so many people and businesses overlook a completely free operating system? I’ve used all the “stable” distros.

        If I reported issues to the devs, I wouldn’t be doing anything else, and it wouldn’t solve the problem I have TODAY. This is not a solution.

        • CurseBunny [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          “Why else would so many businesses overlook a completely free operating system”

          Well, they don’t. Plenty of businesses use Linux systems. It’s not (only) because it’s free, though. The issue of licensing often isn’t a factor that comes into play over having a system that just works. It’s easy to customize, flexible and comparatively secure. Your experiences with Linux are valid, but many businesses and individuals do use it daily and for good reason.

        • somedaysoon@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          You are doing something wrong. Linux doesn’t blow up by itself… my grandparents and wife both run it for the past 5 years and haven’t had a single issue with it. So how is it that I know people that are completely tech illiterate and have no problems running it, but so many self-proclaimed “power users” here have issues with it?

          Linux isn’t going to wall you in and prevent you from breaking it. That’s what I love about it, it gives you power and control over your machine, but if you don’t have the knowledge to wield that power, then you shouldn’t be fucking around with changing things. Stick with the package manager, and don’t fuck with system configs… unless you actually understand how it effects the system.

          Why else would so many people and businesses overlook a completely free operating system

          There are many, many reasons… not a single one is stability.

          • shapis@lemmy.ml
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            If you think that’s the case. Check some big forums for each big distro right after a point update to read the tales of woe and breakage.

            My personal experience with this has been:

            Pop_OS broke after an update. Unrepairable as far as I could tell. And I tried hard. Happened to multiple.people there was a reddit thread about it.

            Fedora broke on an update. Not sure if repairable. I didn’t try. I had the most boring vanilla installation possible.

            Arch has been unbootable twice over the years. And had to do many manual interventions. Both times it was fixable.

            People are not lying to you when they say it breaks randomly. Just because it wasn’t your personal experience doesn’t mean it isn’t a common experience. You just have been lucky so far.

            • somedaysoon@midwest.social
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              People are not lying to you when they say it breaks randomly. Just because it wasn’t your personal experience doesn’t mean it isn’t a common experience. You just have been lucky so far.

              Your’e right people are not lying, they just don’t realize what they have done to break it. Linux is great because it gives the users full power… and that includes the power to break it. Windows babysits the user, and it doesn’t allow them to make changes that break it.

              If you think that’s the case. Check some big forums for each big distro right after a point update to read the tales of woe and breakage.

              So? A lot of dumb people use Linux too… just because dumb people break things doesn’t mean that Linux isn’t stable. There is a reason 90% of web and cloud infrastructure runs on Linux… because it’s a more secure and stable OS.

              You just have been lucky so far.

              Luck has nothing to do with it.

              • shapis@lemmy.ml
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                Your’e right people are not lying, they just don’t realize what they have done to break it.

                I’m running a fresh Debian stable build for the past 2-3 days, with NO apt package installed(other than flatpak), no other modifications, vanilla as vanilla gets, only flatpaks installed.

                So far: On first install, apt upgrade was broken… lol… yeah.

                Other than that, it freezes on suspend, and I’m getting weird screen flickering that it’s really hard to troubleshoot so far, specially because when I turn on OBS it mysteriously just doesnt happen. Also steam doesnt open up sometimes, sometimes it does, depends on if you’re feeling lucky or not, it also doesnt respect the DE settings, so when it does open the scale is wrong, and everything is tiny.

                And this is with a distro known to be stable.

                • somedaysoon@midwest.social
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                  Why don’t you explain to me why I have not had any problems running 3 servers for the last 5 years. And why I’ve not had any problems running it on 6 other machines of varying desktops and laptops? Why don’t you explain to me why 90% of web and cloud infrastructure chooses Linux because it is so reliable and stable? I do everything in Linux… everything, including recording in OBS and video editing in Lightworks, no problems.

                  So tell me, why is it only certain users that seem to have a problem with Linux? Why do you think that is? Because it seems to me the really basic users get on fine with it, and the really advanced users get on fine with it. The only people that have problems are Windows power users that have no fucking clue what they are doing, but try things anyways and break things.

            • somedaysoon@midwest.social
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              If you think that’s the case. Check some big forums for each big distro right after a point update to read the tales of woe and breakage.

              Again, Linux gives the user full control over it, and that includes the ability to break it… again, many people can not wield that power properly.

              People are not lying to you when they say it breaks randomly. Just because it wasn’t your personal experience doesn’t mean it isn’t a common experience. You just have been lucky so far.

              You’re right, they are not technically lying, they are just too dumb to realize the thing they did to break it. When immutable distros become more popular, those people will be less likely to break things.

              You just have been lucky so far.

              It has absolutely nothing to do with luck. Don’t get me wrong, some Linux distros are known for updates breaking them. Arch based distros are infamous for it… but those are bleeding edge, rolling release distros. Distros based on Debian? Redhat? Never fucking break… there are reasons 90% of the top web and cloud infrastructures run on Linux: security and stability.

              And Windows breaks all the time with updates… multiple times Windows updates have deleted peoples’ user files. That’s the most erogenous thing an OS can do… delete important user files.

              https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/microsoft-explains-why-windows-10s-october-2018-update-was-deleting-peoples-files/

              https://www.howtogeek.com/658194/windows-10s-new-update-is-deleting-peoples-files-again/

  • Skates@feddit.nl
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    First time I ever seriously used Linux was for work, back when I was a developer. You’d have to pay me to use it again. I like gaming, but I don’t like wasting my time troubleshooting games. Nor do I enjoy debugging random crashes/black screens in random drivers. Sure, it’s fun, but if I’m gonna work for it, someone somewhere better be signing my overtime slip. Cause I get a few hours free per day, and I’d rather not deal with sigsegv anymore if I can help it.

    Not to mention sound. My job as dev included using ALSA for some use cases. I don’t know if you ever had the misfortune to need to do that or how it went for you, but if I ever need to touch that shit again I will scalp Torvalds with a goddamn headphone jack.

    I installed windows 11 when I bought my last PC. I figured I’d give it a shot, see if it’s as bad as all my dev friends say it is. You know how many drivers I’ve had to fix to make my games work? Zero. You know how many hours I spent debugging weird issues? Also zero.

    There’s a reason windows has a price tag. And part of that reason is that it works better than free stuff. I’m a believer in FOSS, but if you’re a craftsman and you can’t hammer a nail without needing to adjust your hammer every few swings, you should find a hammer that’s not made out of silly putty and dreams.

  • BearPerson@lemmy.ml
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    You have ro spend some time making things work, I don’t always have the time.

    Although I’m using WSL2 with Ubuntu because of the terminal.

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        I use wsl2 for programming stuff, It is easier for me to configure the terminal. I find linux terminal more intuitive but that’s probably because at work I’m using Mac OS.

        The only thing I like about Linux is the terminal, the rest is garbage, unless you have time and mental strength to configure it correctly, and it still won’t work.

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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    1. I found navigating overly complicated at times. The command window uses all the little archaic squiggles around the edge of the keyboard and one missing space will do you in.

    2. For me, the wifi connection always seems sketchy. I currently still have a Linux PC connected to my TV. It’s only used for surfing the net and every time we use it to exercise to a YouTube channel, I might as well walk away and do something else before it can get in. I really should change my distribution on that and see if it helps.

    3. When I got really serious about it and was having all kinds of issues the community asked for my hardware list and when I posted it, the response was, “Oh, all that stuff is too new, you have to wait for someone to write drivers for it.” I always build my own computer and I don’t like the idea of a let down when I turn it in for the first time.

    There’s a lot to like about Linux and I always want to free myself from the Microsoft shackles, but every time I do, it just doesn’t work for me.

    • chronomancer@lemmy.one
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      Your wifi issues sound like a network card with poor support in the kernel. I think hardware compatibility is one of the most understated sources of user friction in Linux. Nearly anything modern will work but only a few vendors’ network drivers are really as performant as their windows implementation.

      Not much you can do as a user unless you want to become a driver developer and/or reverse engineer.

    • bug@lemmy.one
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      The command window uses all the little archaic squiggles around the edge of the keyboard

      Are you telling me that cmd/powershell is preferable‽

      • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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        I’m sorry, I’m not really proficient with Linux. I probably used the wrong term. I meant where you type all the sudo commands and stuff. I’m more of a mouse user due to windows.

        • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ml
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          Yes, they knew that, you described it fine. They were asking if Window’s equivalent, PowerShell or CMD is preferable. Though they fail to realize that most Windows users will never need to use either of those tools under normal operation, even if they could choose to use them to simplify some tasks. The terminal in Linux is encouraged, whereas equivalent(-ish) tools in Windows are optional and really only required for Sys Admins.

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            Depending on your Linux distro you can manage entirely without using the terminal, there are plenty of graphical package managers. My point is that if you do need to do command line stuff then a bash terminal is much more user-friendly than the horrors of cmd or powershell!

            • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ml
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              Oh, I’m certainly not arguing with you. I have to use Windows for work and hate it. Been daily driving Linux for years on my own PC. I should find out if I can get WSL up and running on my work machine. I’ve been contenting myself with git bash thus far. PowerShell is at least better than CMD, but truthfully I’ve never really put the effort in to learn it properly since I very rarely need to do anything complicated on the command line in Windows.

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                I’d definitely recommend WSL, wasn’t to hard to set up on my own machine so unless you’ve got a locked down work machine then probably worth the effort

                • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ml
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                  Funny thing just happened. Started working on a new project at work and in order to get properly set up I have to get WSL up and running. How convenient, and more than a little coincidental with the timing.

  • joshinator@feddit.de
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    I think the main difficulty with Linux desktops is this “all or nothing” approach to the OS.

    Recently got a Steam Deck and most of the games really just work, but that’s a handheld where I play solo. On desktop I mostly play online with friends.
    I really don’t want to constantly switch OS depending on the anticheat situation when we play something else.
    And then there is software (fusion360, simhub) & hardware (3d mouse, joysticks, ffb wheel, maybe VR?) that just works on Windows.

    So instead of maintaining Windows & Linux on dualboot I just stick with Windows on the desktop.
    And I used Linux for a long time on my laptop (and can’t wait to ditch MacOS), still use it on servers, but the desktop is just a whole different beast.

  • Schnitzeltier@feddit.de
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    Quite simple: When using Linux, I tend to play around, try different stuff, switch distros every couple of month… When using Windows or MACOS, I just use it as is and don’t try to break stuff. And while I could use Linux quite easily without breaking it, my inner child prevents me from using it this way…

    • Zozano@aussie.zone
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      Tell me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances, without telling me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances

  • garyyo@lemmy.world
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    Necessity. When most of the software you use is reliant on Windows it’s hard to make Linux your daily driver. That being said, the changes needed to make it worth it are already done in limited contexts. Steam deck is pure Linux, the user interface and everything is implemented in a way that the user does not have to deal with the complexity, but the underlying mechanisms for doing wonky shit is still there if you want to mess with it. It’s kinda the best of both worlds in that sense.

    If we wanted a desktop experience to replicate that, you would just have to do the exact same thing. Abstract the user experience such that the layperson does not need to engage with the complicated bits, but leave them there for those that do want them. And arguably that is being done with some distros, but it’s just not quite there yet.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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      Steam works flawlessly with Linux now. If you have an Nvidia GFX card then you can even get a Pop!_OS install with the driver pre-configured. It’s pretty rad!

    • PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com
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      Necessity for me, too. After three years of using Linux, I went back to school and it was needlessly difficult trying to get everything to work together. The nail in the coffin was when I had to use some proctoring software and I couldn’t use a virtual machine. I just went back to Windows.

      If I didn’t have to use Windows, I’d probably still use Linux. I really enjoyed how snappy it was.