Hello, I am wondering if I could get a stranger on the internet to let me know if I should use Linux. I just wish more people would literally just say “Use Linux”.
Don’t know if this is a useful perspective, I switched to Linux about 2 weeks ago, coming from windows all my life, and most recently win10. It’s been tough, it seems like you can do anything you want, but you’re gonna spend many an hour troubleshooting early on for sure, and if you don’t have some amount of command line experience that’s gonna suck
I’m curious because I’ve been on Linux full-time for 2 years now and an avid user for years before, but my friend is thinking of switching and I want to know what he might need help with.
If you’re using a new computer with Nvidia graphics, expect that to be a pain point. I’ve also had issues with the grub bootloader though within weeks I had a mitigation flow. Just remember to have a second computer around to use the internet to troubleshoot, and put important info you need that you work on on the PC on an attached thumbdrive also. This way you don’t have to worry about losing data. Makes the migration a lot more peaceful.
You know, Linux is great. I love it. I run a lot of things on it. But it can be a frustrating experience. Simply put, its not a one to one replacement and it will simply not fit into some peoples lives like windows has up to this point.
My personal experience with linux desktops (some arch flavors and fedora) combined with Wayland and an Nvidia card have been pretty abysmal.
On prior Fedora’s and Endeavor, I had Firefox crashing constantly, no clue why. Crashes reduced this week with the release of Fedora 43 but its still not stable. This is something I’ve not experienced under windows ever since they rewrote firefox like… 10 years ago now?
With KDE plasma, its system apps like settings crash. I’ve not had to restart my PC with the physical restart button under windows for quite a while now. But when using KDE, the whole thing freezes and will just not respond.
I’ve tried playing some CS2 literally today and couldn’t make it through a match without a crash.
Vendor software for hardware devices (drivers) is missing linux support a lot of the time and while I appreciate open source alternatives, they just don’t cover the edge cases I had. As an example: razer rbg lighting effects stacking is non existent on linux. Open RBG works… but its not good enough.
I’m sooo ready to use KDE Plasma on a daily basis and really want to, but the stability I want is just not there yet. If you have simple use cases, don’t stray too far onto the edge, possibly have older hardware and don’t need Wayland or don’t use Nvidia, I’d definitely recommend it. I use Mint on my 14 year old laptop just fine, but its got an old ass nvidia card, uses x11 with cinnamon and I don’t game on it. Stable as a rock. I use Debian (headless) on my home server and it hasn’t crashed with a 3 year uptime.
Desktop linux on a gaming machine… I’ve just been disappointed.
Sorry for the dump. I’m voicing my frustration out of love for linux, not out of hate.
I’m in the same camp. I have home servers that run linux and it works great there, but on the desktop I’ve run into a surprising amount of stability issues. It’s honestly worse than it was 20 years ago in that regard.
I was like this until last year. Used Linux a lot for work but couldn’t make the jump on my personal computers because there was always some thing or another that was annoying.
Then one day i made one more distro change and suddenly I was having the best experience I’ve ever had in any OS. Now I can only hope I can keep riding on this wave for a long time.
I seriously can’t imagine what could be going on here. I’ve got opensuse, debian, and mint in the household for non-savvy people and it all just works. I have a rare problem with a Tumbleweed update, like twice a year. Printing, wifi, everything. It is way more stable than my Enterprise-managed Windows 11 machine. So I am seriously curious what problems people are having.
A lot of problems basically boil down to using an nVidia card and dealing with their drivers. Either use an AMD GPU/APU or if you don’t need anything fancy the iGPU in an Intel CPU.
Often it is the hardware. One should check what is supported, the chipsets etc… Or just get Framework (or maybe a mainstream Dell). It’s a pity they only do laptops…
It’s a tough change, I won’t lie. It depends on what you need too, good luck if you need Adobe apps.
The first while is frustrating, weird and unfamiliar, but there will come a time where Windows will feel that way instead.
Hello, I am wondering if I could get a stranger on the internet to let me know if I should use Linux. I just wish more people would literally just say “Use Linux”.
Use Linux
Use Linux
Thx
deleted by creator
Don’t know if this is a useful perspective, I switched to Linux about 2 weeks ago, coming from windows all my life, and most recently win10. It’s been tough, it seems like you can do anything you want, but you’re gonna spend many an hour troubleshooting early on for sure, and if you don’t have some amount of command line experience that’s gonna suck
I’ve been casually using gnu/linux for nearly twenty years and i’m still looking up commands I use with some regularity.
You’ve been using Windows all your life. It will take time to be comfortable with Linux since it’s a different workflow, that’s normal.
What have you run into that sticks out to you?
I’m curious because I’ve been on Linux full-time for 2 years now and an avid user for years before, but my friend is thinking of switching and I want to know what he might need help with.
If you’re using a new computer with Nvidia graphics, expect that to be a pain point. I’ve also had issues with the grub bootloader though within weeks I had a mitigation flow. Just remember to have a second computer around to use the internet to troubleshoot, and put important info you need that you work on on the PC on an attached thumbdrive also. This way you don’t have to worry about losing data. Makes the migration a lot more peaceful.
You know, Linux is great. I love it. I run a lot of things on it. But it can be a frustrating experience. Simply put, its not a one to one replacement and it will simply not fit into some peoples lives like windows has up to this point.
My personal experience with linux desktops (some arch flavors and fedora) combined with Wayland and an Nvidia card have been pretty abysmal.
On prior Fedora’s and Endeavor, I had Firefox crashing constantly, no clue why. Crashes reduced this week with the release of Fedora 43 but its still not stable. This is something I’ve not experienced under windows ever since they rewrote firefox like… 10 years ago now?
With KDE plasma, its system apps like settings crash. I’ve not had to restart my PC with the physical restart button under windows for quite a while now. But when using KDE, the whole thing freezes and will just not respond.
I’ve tried playing some CS2 literally today and couldn’t make it through a match without a crash.
Vendor software for hardware devices (drivers) is missing linux support a lot of the time and while I appreciate open source alternatives, they just don’t cover the edge cases I had. As an example: razer rbg lighting effects stacking is non existent on linux. Open RBG works… but its not good enough.
I’m sooo ready to use KDE Plasma on a daily basis and really want to, but the stability I want is just not there yet. If you have simple use cases, don’t stray too far onto the edge, possibly have older hardware and don’t need Wayland or don’t use Nvidia, I’d definitely recommend it. I use Mint on my 14 year old laptop just fine, but its got an old ass nvidia card, uses x11 with cinnamon and I don’t game on it. Stable as a rock. I use Debian (headless) on my home server and it hasn’t crashed with a 3 year uptime.
Desktop linux on a gaming machine… I’ve just been disappointed.
Sorry for the dump. I’m voicing my frustration out of love for linux, not out of hate.
I’m in the same camp. I have home servers that run linux and it works great there, but on the desktop I’ve run into a surprising amount of stability issues. It’s honestly worse than it was 20 years ago in that regard.
I was like this until last year. Used Linux a lot for work but couldn’t make the jump on my personal computers because there was always some thing or another that was annoying. Then one day i made one more distro change and suddenly I was having the best experience I’ve ever had in any OS. Now I can only hope I can keep riding on this wave for a long time.
Eyy you didn’t mention the distro you jumped to. Around these parts, that’s a spanking.
Out with the distro or prepare your buttcheeks!
I seriously can’t imagine what could be going on here. I’ve got opensuse, debian, and mint in the household for non-savvy people and it all just works. I have a rare problem with a Tumbleweed update, like twice a year. Printing, wifi, everything. It is way more stable than my Enterprise-managed Windows 11 machine. So I am seriously curious what problems people are having.
A lot of problems basically boil down to using an nVidia card and dealing with their drivers. Either use an AMD GPU/APU or if you don’t need anything fancy the iGPU in an Intel CPU.
Ive got a 1070 and the nvidia drivers work fine. They are pretty good about updating along with Tumbleweed updates. Other stuff around is Intel.
1070 is old at this point and the driver is mature. For newer GPUs, even on windows, drivers take time to become more stable.
Often it is the hardware. One should check what is supported, the chipsets etc… Or just get Framework (or maybe a mainstream Dell). It’s a pity they only do laptops…
Yeah i guess the hardware is the variable factor. My stuff is pretty old, so maybe it is better-supported.
It’s a tough change, I won’t lie. It depends on what you need too, good luck if you need Adobe apps. The first while is frustrating, weird and unfamiliar, but there will come a time where Windows will feel that way instead.