Could be small or big.
My answer has always been that, Linux can’t handle everything I’d ask out of it that I normally can with Windows. I know the games issue has been progressing far from the days when that used to have been an archaic flaw with Linux for the longest time. Games might not be the issue except for some concerns I have for some games.
I was taking some time a few moments ago, to check if a program called Firestorm Viewer would work on Linux Mint which could’ve been my distro of choice. And the description written on the linux page described exactly the kind of concerns I’d have for compatibility and usability from going Windows to Linux.
They said that their viewer was tested and designed to function mostly with Ubuntu and while it could work with other distros, it’s not to be expected to be smooth.
That’s the kind of sentiment and concern I have always had with Linux if I were to go from Windows to it. There are programs and tools on Windows that I have that are used for specific purposes and I know they will not function on Linux. Furthermore, incase anything breaks down, any and all solutions would only be applicable to that thing that would be far easier to solve than just being SOL if I was on Linux.
It is something as a user that I just can’t simply afford to deal with on a regular basis if I made the switch.
So while I may not have too much of an issue running games, I won’t have too much of an issue using alternatives, I won’t have to deal with the Windows ecosystem .etc I will just be running into other walls that would simply make me second guess my decision and make me regret switching to the point where I would dip back into Windows in a hurry.
Only remaining windows devices in my house are my wife’s gaming rig, my gaming rig, and my work laptop.
Gaming rigs are using heavily debloated windows 11 installations, and if I ever figure it out enough they will act a lot more like game consoles than PCs eventually. The moment Linux can reliably play all the games I frequent, Windows will be purged.
Work laptop is non-negotiable sadly. My work uses Windows 10 and an absurd amount of permission controls over it. I am a web developer and every time I need admin permissions for UAC, I have to send a ticket to IT and wait for them to remote into my laptop just to enter a password. Dumbest shit I’ve seen, but this company is the masters of time wasted. But at least it isn’t Windows 11 I guess.
Other devices are mostly linux. Wife’s work laptop is MacOS.
I just want Serato DJ Pro to release a Linux version…
Nvidia and Asus suck with linux. With default drivers of any popular distro, my CPU fans won’t go over 4k RPM on their own, despite the thing easily heating past 90ºC.
Only on windows, running asus’ “rog gaming center” piece of shit, the actual maximum speed of the fans can be turned on, it’s loud as fuck, too. I suppose it runs at around 10kRPM, which is a HUGE difference.
I gotta check how linux support is for huion kamvas right now, since I have one as my main screen no less (the laptop screen gets all fucky when it heats up, which takes 2 minutes after turning the thing on)
I’m a lazy bastard who keeps pushing it off
🤣
I have tried several times, with both Ubuntu and Mint, and it never ends well for me. I even use Ubuntu as a web server for years, and have similar problems there, just in a different use case. I don’t even get to a point where I’m unable to run apps that can run on Windows. It always seems to work fine during the first few hours and while doing the setup and config stage, I eventually run into a never-ending troubleshooting wormhole that leads nowhere but aggravation. I’ll spend hours upon hours scouring the internet for solutions and it always ends the same way “I have this same problem, and this fixed it.” and whatever “this” was never fixes it for me, whatever it is. I feel like Linux is just so always evolving that there’s no standards and a command that works for one user on a previous version/distro is just completely useless for me because of some obscure technical glitch or difference whatever my installation has. Dealing with repositories, updates and endless dependencies is always just impossible and it’s completely alien to someone who’s used Windows for 40 years.
My current iteration is I’m running a dual boot machine with Mint and Windows with the intention of phasing out Windows, but I’m unable to trust Linux Mint to be there when I need it. After a day or so of installing apps and configuration, it became unstable. I attempted to update the video drivers to the “recommended” version and it seems to have borked the whole Linux installation and nothing on the internet seems helpful, and the communities aren’t very friendly to n00bs.
So I always end up back on Windows, even though my hateful soul wants to ditch it badly. As much as I hate Windows and MS, Windows rarely has severe stability issues.
Are you me!? What you described is exactly my experience with Linux. I really want to completely ditch Windows, but I’m not keen on the idea of spending full days of my life every year on maintaining a Linux installation. I tried Ubuntu, Manjaro and PopOS, all of which have bugs preventing audio from being played on my laptop (I spent so many hours troubleshooting and couldn’t figure it out). Finally tried Mint and audio works most of the time, but Mint is a super mediocre experience that I’m not excited about and I don’t understand why people rave about it. My laptop is dual boot and I use Mint 95% of the time but it’s pretty lame and doesn’t feel like “my” OS.
Linux enthusiasts scratching their heads wondering why the masses aren’t switching over to Linux need to understand that it’s nowhere near ready to go mainstream. Even after decades of development it takes more troubleshooting and customization than 95% of people are willing to give it.
Maybe you should try something Arch-based like Cachy OS? Coming from Mint I don’t think I could live without the Arch wiki now. Just like you said, I was tired of the never ending obscure forums. I’m personally using EndeavourOS and everything just works™️. I’d like to think it’s due to the fact that less things are pre-configured, so my configs are the singular source of truth. I would say Ubuntu based distros are not good for extensively modifying.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll check them out. I had not heard of those.
I’m convinced it’s much less straightforward than people here say it is.
I hate Windows, but I only use my computer for OpenOffice, some liiiiight browsing, and old-school light pirating (light enough TPB fits all my needs), so meh.
My new neighbor is an old leftist techie though, and when my 9 year old laptop dies, I may ask him to convert me. Maybe.it is not, but for the simple use case you mention, it’s actually more intuitive.
you can try it out straight from the usb.
it can be straightforward, but oftentimes it is not.
everytime i ever try to use linux on anything, even VM or usb, the video/audio drivers are forked and it takes hours to fix it w/ some sort of custom settings file editing. wasted hours of my life trying to edit this files. never again
The flash drive I used to install it finally died several months ago and I haven’t bothered to get a new one yet.
No consensus on pronunciation of name.
I don’t have any reason to use Linux personally.
I’m not self hosting or running servers out of my house. I’m browsing the internet and playing the occasional computer game.
I use a apple desktop and a windows pc.
Fusion 360.
Blender is not suitable for me because from what I’ve read it’s good for sculpture work but not good for dimensional accuracy.
There is Free cad but last time I looked at it, it was very far behind in terms of features. But as soon as that can do STL mesh to editable object conversion I’ll switch.
Affinity software, Linux alternatives just are not there sadly. If affinity released a linux version tomorrow I’d be gone.
Adobe software doesn’t work
Winboat allows you to run Adobe software as if it was a native app on Linux. Or you can just use a virtual machine. There’s really no excuse not to use Linux anymore. I personally use Lutris for my non-Steam games, and other Windows programs.
I’m going to give that a shot because I thought there was no way
I went back to windows for a few months on the newer desktop. I installed mint and discovered it had a lot of problems with the hardware. HDMI, Ethernet, WiFi, and various downstream things didn’t work. I fixed some of it with help from forums and such, but eventually I went back to windows.
But a couple months later, I tried Pop!_OS and that has worked perfectly out of the box. No regrets.
While we are nearly an “All Linux” shop at home, there is one machine that I won’t change.
It is a HP oscilloscope running a heavily modified version of Win98. Back then, it cost as much as a new car, and it still works mostly fine (and where it doesn’t, I know, and can work around). The Windows is basically an afterthought to the hardware, and I don’t think I could get any kind of drivers for the hardware - not even for a newer Windows version. So that remains.
But even my wife wants to switch to Linux now instead of going Win11.
I have a professional advantage in being a windows power user. Only way of maintaining that is running windows at home. I do have several Linux systems too.
being a linux power user is a big advantage.
