this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nope. I have to know how fix everyone else's computer.

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

I just tell everyone, that i can only help with Linux.

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[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Switching to Linux: "I don't know how to do something"

Years after, being forced to use Windows: "I cannot do something"

(Then someone join the conversation with Adobe or MS Office argument, but I am talking about OS vs OS)

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Opposite.

Fedora with KDE is a Pain, and GNOME is simply underpowered a lot.

Installing GrapheneOS or programming a microcontroller just didnt work. I have no idea of udev rules and these things should work better. (Tbh I will try to fix the packages)

Also processes crashing just often freeze my entire everything. No seperation, no ctrl+alt+del task manager which nearly always works. The task manager is a normal app, and it just doesnt start if the desktop is down.

Virt-manager has not enough RAM? Yeah, Plasma crashes and I need a hard reboot. Yay.

Meanwhile Windows sucks, but it works. Also it is better for

  • collaborative normie documents
  • office: easy presentations (again, collaboration), excel: easy graphs with a UI that makes sense
  • arcgis: qgis is better on surface, but all the underground transformation tools are so messed up.

Many things in Uni make me get insane on Linux. Being the only one literally learning another program, while learning a bit of that proprietary license garbage too, is burnout and I will probably fail in the "recognize this button in arcGis and explain how to do x" exam.

[–] Titou@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

used to do collaborative works on Linux, never had any issues

[–] thoughtorgan@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago
[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Why bother with Windows? Mostly the same reasons moving from Windows to a Mac can be a pain, however on macOS you get better professional software support and less reasons to virtualize Windows from time to time. To be fair, what's the point of using X operating system if some of the tools you need require a virtual machine or you've to use alternatives that are sub-par, will make you waste time and have a worse experience. Again even under macOS with Microsoft's own MS Office for Mac things sometimes aren't as compatible as they should be.

Linux desktop is great, I love it but I don’t sugar coat it nor I’m delusional like most posting about it. Here is a list of cases that aren't easy to deal in Linux:

  • People who need the real MS Office because once you have to collaborate with others Open/Libre/OnlyOffice won’t cut it;
  • Designers who use Adobe apps that won’t run properly without having a dedicated GPU, passthrough and a some hacky way to get the image back into your main system that will cause noticeable delays;
  • People that run old software / games because not even those will run properly on Wine;
  • Electrical engineers: Circuit Design Suite (Multisim and Ultiboard) are primarily designed for Windows. Alternatives such as KiCad and EasyEDA may work in some cases but they aren’t great if you’ve to collaborate with others who use Circuit Design Suite;
  • Labs that require data acquisition from specialized hardware because companies making that hardware won’t make drivers and software for Linux;
  • Architects: AutoCAD isn’t available (not even the limited web version works) and Libre/FreeCAD don’t cut it if you’ve to collaborate with AutoCAD users;
  • Developers and sysadmins, because not everyone is using Docker and Github actions to deploy applications to some proprietary cloud solution. Finding a properly working FTP/SFTP/FTPS desktop client (similar WinSCP or Cyberduck) is an impossible task as the ones that exist fail even at basic tasks like dragging and dropping a file.

If one lives in a bubble and doesn’t to collaborate with others then native Linux apps might work and might even deliver a decent workflow. Once collaboration with Windows/Mac users is required then it’s game over – the “alternatives” aren’t just up to it.

Windows licenses are cheap and things work out of the box. Software runs fine, all vendors support whatever you’re trying to do and you’re productive from day zero. Sure, there are annoyances from time to time, but they’re way fewer and simpler to deal with than the hoops you’ve to go through to get a minimal and viable/productive Linux desktop experience. It all comes down to a question of how much time (days? months?) you want to spend fixing things on Linux that simply work out of the box under Windows for a minimal fee. Buy a Windows license and spend the time you would’ve spent dealing with Linux issues doing your actual job and you’ll, most likely, get a better ROI.

Also, the guys take on "what you go for it's entirely your choice" when it comes to DE is total BS. What usually happens is that you'll eventually find out while you can use any DE in fact GNOME will provide a better experience because most applications on Linux are design / depend on its components and installing them on KDE will simply give you small issues here and there, windows that don't pick on your theme or simply create a frankenstein of a system composed by KDE + a bunch of GTK components.

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aaaand as always the problem is proprietary corpo software :). People locked to this exists and there are not a few, but how is the OS to blame?

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Half of the success of Windows and macOS is the fact that they provide solid and stable APIs and development tools that "makes it easy" to develop to those platforms. Linux is very bad at that. If major pieces of an OS are constantly changing and it requires large re-works of the applications then developers are less likely to support it. To be fair the Linux situation might be even harder than that - there are no distribution "sponsored" IDE (like Visual Studio or Xcode) and userland API documentation, frameworks etc.

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, this is one of the most common disadvantage of Linux ecosystem. Unless using something like Debian, but then comes (a little, but still existing) fragmentation.

My comment is about proprietary apps here. The biggest roadblockers with any change to next-gen technologies in the stack like Flatpak, Pipewire, Wayland, etc. are always them. Because with FOSS when someone create a new store or tech, they can be the ones doing ports of common apps, but with locked down software all he can do is please the original developers - the only ones able to do what they want with the program.

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My comment is about proprietary apps here. The biggest roadblockers with any change to next-gen technologies

Yes, but those proprietary apps provide good features, support and have tons of hours of dev time and continuous updates that the FOSS alternatives can't just match. We need that software as much as we need FOSS.

with FOSS when someone create a new store or tech, they can be the ones doing ports of common apps,

This isn't true. Linux was the worst track ever of supporting old software, even worse than Apple. Rewriting applications for the latest version of GNOME doesn't count as "support older software", counts only as a pain in the ass that makes Linux unattractive to professionally developed / non FOSS software - after all who wants to constantly spend time updating an app just because the GNOME team decided to reinvent the wheel again to no marginal gain?

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

There unfortunetly is something to it, like shown by some game developers dropping Linux port when Proton got good enough and just officially supporting the game to work with Proton.

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[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com -3 points 1 year ago

No, I still need it for non-linux programs with no suitable alternative.

No, I’m not listing those for anyone to suggest inferior replacements. It’s a fact, not a debate.

[–] twinnie@feddit.uk -5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I like the idea of ditching Windows because of all the telemetry but I just need a machine that’s going to do what I need it to do without a fucking battle. Everything on Linux is just so difficult, it’s like every time I give it a go I wind up spending hours trying to figure out how to do something that would take ten seconds on Windows. I wanted to make a desktop shortcut that would run a script with root privileges. On Windows that’s right click, drag, and select the option to make a shortcut. Takes a few seconds. Took me ages to figure it out in Ubuntu, mostly because it wasn’t working as it should. Yesterday I did an apt upgrade on another machine and it wiped out the WiFi. I’m still working on fixing that and now I’m looking into compiling my own drivers.

On linux you also have to just click drag and choose "make a link".

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Funny, for me it's windows that I'm constantly battling.

Be it having to constantly restart and do updates that take forever.

Searching online and downloading then clicking through installers for software I want, rather than just going into an app store.

Having to manually remove ads from my start menu

Remove as much telemetry as I can (that of course accidentally gets reset by some updates)

I have dark mode set, yet so many programs (even first party MS stuff that's part of the OS!) doesn't respect it, so I get randomly blinded at night

Each individual app running their own updater services in the background

Having to remember to run disk cleanup every once in a while because temporary files and old update files hang around for ages, eventually slowing my system down and taking dozens of GB of space

There are some good things - Win11's window tiling is genuinely excellent, for example. But man, overall, Windows is just difficult and tedious to use. The only reason people use it is because it's the default. Not because it's good or it's easy.

[–] Guenther_Amanita@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

I felt the same when I started using Linux.
My whole computing experience was on Windows, and when I switched, I expected Linux to be working the same and being a 1:1 replacement.

Just don't expect it to be the same.
Even if it sometimes looks like it (e.g. Mint oder KDE-based distros) it absolutely isn't similar.

People don't have the same expectations on MacOS, so why should we on Linux?

And if you really don't like it at all, then stay on Windows. No shame at all. Use the right tool for the right task.

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