I like this hobby, but it is so irritating that I cannot apply this hobby to workstation because of industry standards. Adobe and linux are no options for progressional work.
As a gamer and software developer, I've been Windows-free for over two years, no regrets, maybe kernel level anticheat competitive multiplayer games, but I have tons of other games and not much time to spend in multiplayer.
Ubuntu on desktop gaming PC, Ubuntu on laptop, Steam Deck, Debian/Raspbian for servers. GNOME everywhere except on Steam Deck which has KDE, love both.
> Linux won't stop you if you try to use a command that deletes every file on your PC ("sudo rm -rf /").
It will definitely stop you from running that command because of "--preserve-root" that is enabled by default, if you want to break your system you have to opt out of it. Just don't try to put an asterisk after, pathname expansion will be a different case ("rm -rf /*").
I've been gaming on Linux (CachyOS) for roughly a year now as well, and I love it. Better performance, faster loading, but I do admit there are drawbacks.
I'm a developer, so I'm techy enough how to look up what I don't know, but I would never recommend this to someone who struggles with technology.
Kernel antic heat is frustrating but usually its games where I feel like I won't lose anything if I don't play it.
It's sort of hilarious to me that for anything high performance-- or indeed low-middle performance, Windows is entirely out of the question. C++ compilation under Windows is 60-80% slower than in a Linux VM on the same machine. The EM simulations we do at work are several times faster on Linux.
That aside, the Windows API is one of the most godawful, miserable pieces of code I've ever had to work with. I've been up to my neck in WinRT writing Bluetooth drivers and holy fuck I wouldn't wish this misery on anyone. I don't know how any developer or engineer ever gets anything done on Windows.
Last job let me use Linux where it mattered most, and new job doesn't care so long as the work is done. I don't think I'll accept a job anywhere that requires Windows in the future. There is just plain and simple no feasible way to do my work on Windows anymore.
Everything I see on this topic involves gaming. The last game I played in a long while was Cities Skylines on my laptop (which was taxing, but ran it fine). I used to use Macs, but for a long time, until up to 2013, I decided that since I look at mostly text editors, terminals and a web browser and some other common things, I'd rather spend less for equipment and get used to some desktop UI on a Linux. I have had reliable ThinkPads (procured used) for years as a result. While there were bumps, it's been fine. Since I am in the vicinity of financial applications, I have to use Windows about 30% of the time, and I hate it every time. Can someone be the Steam for Excel, please? :)
I love Linux and use it daily, but this paragraph gave me pause:
"I’ve spent dozens of hours combing through Reddit threads, analyzing old Stack Overflow solutions, and, in times of true desperation, asking AI chatbots like Mistral’s Le Chat and Anthropic’s Claude for help deciphering error messages. Luckily, the Linux community is also very supportive. If you’re willing to ask for help, or at least do a little troubleshooting, you’ll be able to work out any problems that come your way."
There are many people -- like my Mom or Dad, for example -- who will never find this appealing and are likely to dig themselves into deeper holes trying to fix system issues on the command line. That's why Steve Jobs was on the money when he talked about a computer that was as intuitive as an appliance -- it has to "just work" for most normies. While I'm as frustrated with Windows as the next person, I'd probably just hand the average person a Mac mini instead of popping a linux distro on their machine if they needed a new computer (though if all they are doing is just browsing the web and reading emails, a ubuntu install is probably fine).
> Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems
That being said, given the huge uptick in Linux articles lately, I can only believe Canonical is funding something here. It's just too sudden of a surge.
I'll probably still game on Linux, but who knows if that will last after a few more "freeze on resume" situations. These just don't happen on Windows and most Linux sentiment seems to be coming from anti-Onedrive feelings, which is fair, but the popups are easy to click through. Random Linux instability, not so.
One common complaint with the idea of the year if the Linux desktop is that Linux simply doesn't "just work" in the way MacOS and even Windows do. I think that's becoming less and less a barrier though for both the fact that Linux is getting closer to "just working" (especially as Windows and MacOS get further away), but also because more and more of the people still using Windows are power users and aren't as intimidated by the command line or manually resolving library dependencies or whatever. Like, there's a lot of PC gamers that'll happily spend hours on messing with their system to eke out another 5 FPS, or doing manual dependency resolution to get 200 SkyDome mods to play nicely together. "Doesn't just work" isn't as big a deal to power users that are more likely to be annoyed by Windows and MacOS's trajectory anyway
I built a new PC in May of 2024 and decided to put Linux on it. Partly as a challenge to see how long I could last with it, partly because I want my kid to know how a computer works and use a platform that respects the user.
I went with Fedora Kinoite, and everything worked perfectly fine. I did choose an AMD GPU for this experiment, going with a 7800 XT.
Later that summer I decided to rebase (not reinstall, rebasing in fedora atomic is neat) to Bazzite, a more gaming focused version with some convience features, but that's about it.
Everything I want to do on my computer works fine, I don't feel hamstrung by it and really enjoy using it. The only game I regularly play that doesn't work is Battlefield 6, which I had a small Windows drive for, but I stopped playing that after the hype died down. The Finals, Arc Raiders, CS2, Hunt Showdown, Guild Wars 2, all run great.
I first learned Unix in high school in 1991. I wanted a Sun workstation so bad but they were over $10,000 in 1991 money. Got a PC in 1994 just to install Linux and I've been happy ever since. Completely skipped over windows 95 and all the stuff after and continue to ignore it.
As a long term linux user, I agree with the comments that essentially say: "you found a hobby and not an OS".
While I see that recommending a different distro seems like more change and more fiddling about, Bazzite is something to try out for sure. As long as you don't have a very complicated usecase, it really does get out of your way and remove a lot of the foot-guns you find on linux.
I really think it's ideal for a gamer usecase, and it's also great for a parent/casual user who does most of their work inside a browser anyway.
As a programmer with a big distro-hopping past, I've switched to Bluefin/Bazzite on all my personal computers and things work well. I'm glad to have something that works well out of the box and glad to not think about the OS.
I work on Linux every day and wish it was Windows. Linux is package dependency hell. Switching to working on a different application I am often forced to setup a new VM to even build it without breaking other apps I am working on. I never had that problem on Windows.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 41.9 ms ] threadIn other words, you've found a new hobby along with your new operating system.
And that's OK --- but not everyone is looking for a hobby.
> Linux won't stop you if you try to use a command that deletes every file on your PC ("sudo rm -rf /").
It will definitely stop you from running that command because of "--preserve-root" that is enabled by default, if you want to break your system you have to opt out of it. Just don't try to put an asterisk after, pathname expansion will be a different case ("rm -rf /*").
I'm a developer, so I'm techy enough how to look up what I don't know, but I would never recommend this to someone who struggles with technology.
Kernel antic heat is frustrating but usually its games where I feel like I won't lose anything if I don't play it.
That aside, the Windows API is one of the most godawful, miserable pieces of code I've ever had to work with. I've been up to my neck in WinRT writing Bluetooth drivers and holy fuck I wouldn't wish this misery on anyone. I don't know how any developer or engineer ever gets anything done on Windows.
Last job let me use Linux where it mattered most, and new job doesn't care so long as the work is done. I don't think I'll accept a job anywhere that requires Windows in the future. There is just plain and simple no feasible way to do my work on Windows anymore.
"I’ve spent dozens of hours combing through Reddit threads, analyzing old Stack Overflow solutions, and, in times of true desperation, asking AI chatbots like Mistral’s Le Chat and Anthropic’s Claude for help deciphering error messages. Luckily, the Linux community is also very supportive. If you’re willing to ask for help, or at least do a little troubleshooting, you’ll be able to work out any problems that come your way."
There are many people -- like my Mom or Dad, for example -- who will never find this appealing and are likely to dig themselves into deeper holes trying to fix system issues on the command line. That's why Steve Jobs was on the money when he talked about a computer that was as intuitive as an appliance -- it has to "just work" for most normies. While I'm as frustrated with Windows as the next person, I'd probably just hand the average person a Mac mini instead of popping a linux distro on their machine if they needed a new computer (though if all they are doing is just browsing the web and reading emails, a ubuntu install is probably fine).
> Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems
That being said, given the huge uptick in Linux articles lately, I can only believe Canonical is funding something here. It's just too sudden of a surge.
I'll probably still game on Linux, but who knows if that will last after a few more "freeze on resume" situations. These just don't happen on Windows and most Linux sentiment seems to be coming from anti-Onedrive feelings, which is fair, but the popups are easy to click through. Random Linux instability, not so.
I went with Fedora Kinoite, and everything worked perfectly fine. I did choose an AMD GPU for this experiment, going with a 7800 XT.
Later that summer I decided to rebase (not reinstall, rebasing in fedora atomic is neat) to Bazzite, a more gaming focused version with some convience features, but that's about it.
Everything I want to do on my computer works fine, I don't feel hamstrung by it and really enjoy using it. The only game I regularly play that doesn't work is Battlefield 6, which I had a small Windows drive for, but I stopped playing that after the hype died down. The Finals, Arc Raiders, CS2, Hunt Showdown, Guild Wars 2, all run great.
While I see that recommending a different distro seems like more change and more fiddling about, Bazzite is something to try out for sure. As long as you don't have a very complicated usecase, it really does get out of your way and remove a lot of the foot-guns you find on linux.
I really think it's ideal for a gamer usecase, and it's also great for a parent/casual user who does most of their work inside a browser anyway. As a programmer with a big distro-hopping past, I've switched to Bluefin/Bazzite on all my personal computers and things work well. I'm glad to have something that works well out of the box and glad to not think about the OS.