I’m curious as to what everyone’s reasons are! The Linux desktop has came quite a far ways in the last few years and is improving every day. I’d say for most people, Linux could easily replace Windows as their daily driver nowadays.
I’ve used Linux and simply had no use for it. My DAW of choice is Ableton Live and there’s no Linux version. I tried running it through windows emulators but that was just finicky. The only big name DAW I know about that has a Linux version is Reaper, which is fine, but I’m not that great with Reaper and the stock fx aren’t great. I don’t know of any free software style DAWs for Linux that would work with vsts and ASIO.
I did use Ubuntu on a Chromebook for a long time when I was trying to learn more coding, but then I figured out I don’t enjoy coding. That’s probably my main reason for disliking Linux. I don’t wanna mess around in the guts of code, it’s tedious and uninteresting to me. I just want it to work already.
I think an overlooked potential userbase for linux is older people who are still on windows XP. I have a few family members on manjaro mate (I know there are better distros, but it’s what I use personally) which is overall more familiar to them than newer windows versions would be. Get it set up with regular BTRFS snapshots and a grub hook, and you can talk them through rolling something back easily.
I do use Linux, but it isn’t quite there with gaming (although it is getting there). That is the only thing keeping me on windows 10 on the desktop. Every other kernel in my household is Linux.
I hate windows 11, so I will be making the full switch soon I guess.
tried it and it fucked my computer up
I have a bad history with Linux, but in the future I plan to conquer this weird dimension as the current one (windows) is going to shit
I mainly use my pc to play games, maybe 90% works fine but that 10% is still quite a lot. Also, even if the games themselves work sometimes extra tools (like overlays) around them don’t, which is the case for my main game.
Lastly I have struggled with X11 in the past so much with my multiple different resolution and refresh rate monitors working, and it doesn’t seem like Wayland is there yet either.
I look forward to these things being ironed out, it has come a very long way in the past few years, I do believe a couple more and I’ll be able to switch back to Linux.
I got a new laptop recently and decided to try Linux again. That being said, I ended up jumping into Fedora Sericea to experiment with both the immutable image thing and to try i3/Sway, so we’ll see how that goes
I use Linux at work regularly, and often prefer Linux and suggest Linux for work projects. It’s an extremely capable OS for infrastructure and embedded applications. It’s a pain as a desktop though. It’s just clunkier and harder to do things. Intermediate level configuration tasks which you can do with one dialog in Windows require editing shell scripts and decoding APIs designed by mathematicians in the 70’s on Linux. It’s just too much when I want to relax after work.
Also I like gaming, and gaming through a compatibility layer like Wine is always annoying. I don’t want launching a new game to be a project in itself.
Intermediate level configuration tasks which you can do with one dialog in Windows require editing shell scripts and decoding APIs designed by mathematicians in the 70’s on Linux.
Full disclosure, I’ve used linux since high school, to the point where I am lost as shit on windows. What I’m trying to get at is that the question I’m about to ask is not supposed to be judgemental or disbelieving or anything, I’m just genuinely curious: can you please give me an example of an intermediate config task that’s significantly easier on windows than linux? I have a hard time believing such a thing exists, but that’s likely because I haven’t used windows since like the vista days
can you please give me an example of an intermediate config task that’s significantly easier on windows than linux?
I feel like it’s the kind of thing that use to be true. I think it’s easier to edit a a text file in linux and run the restart service command in terminal than it is to wander through window’s new maximum white-space electron GUIs and hope what you’re looking for isn’t removed in windows 10 or doesn’t get reset back to default on next update.
I absolutely agree. I’ve been very happy with linux for years. I love a well-documented plaintext config file!
Gaming. For anything work/school related I’ll use a vm or ssh into the school labs if i think the task will be easier on linux
I feel like I’ll need to switch to linux at some point whether I want to or not, since the assholes at microsoft seem to want to turn Windows into a subscription service, but for now windows is fine and I’m scared of fucking up my computer trying to figure out how to get linux going.
The file system. I can’t touch that mess. And because I know Linux (Unix) will never adopt the windows file structure. I have given up on the idea of switching to linux, I am too attached to my partitions
Plus there are no professional grade CAD software for linux
What is it about the windows file structure you would miss?
Having partitions at the top of the hierarchy. C:\ for everything system and finicky programs like adobe suite and autodesk. And other partitions each for a specific aspect.
D:\ for personal
E:\ for portable software
F:\ for work files
And so on.
I hate to be dictated where to put my files. I very rarely put files in \my documents or \music folder . I like to install programs wherever I like.
And removable drives parading as files accessible from inside another file isn’t to my liking too
You can say I have been brainwashed by windows. But some of its aspects are just superior to me.
This is one of the areas I think *NIX blows Windows out of the water. The Windows file system hierarchy is a complete disaster and probably one of the worst things about Windows. Programs just throw their junk wherever they feel like and it makes finding things like config files an absolute nightmare. Is it in %APPDATA%? Nope. Is it in Program Data? also nope. Is it in the Program Files? why is it in the Program Files?!
I don’t like programs spreading their files everywhere. But I very rarely have to deal with that. Because I am not an OS nerd. I just look for it in forums when needs be. What frustrates me in windows is apps leaving breadcrumbs all over the registry after an uninstall.
For development, Linux is soooo nice. But when I want to play games, anticheats don’t tend to be happy running under wine. X11 is also ancient garbage, and Wayland is just not ready.
So instead, I run windows. When I need to do Linux stuff, I use WSL. VSCode lets me run it under WSL as if it were running on Linux directly, and very few of the things I’ve used under WSL have complained about it.
As soon as Wayland is actually ready, and companies stop their anticheats from getting mad under wine, I will switch back over.
RGB lightining and Valorant.
Also I would really love an immutable kde distro that is very up to date.
I can barely manage to do the dishes most of the time and you expect me to learn a new OS?
I hate how almost all system programs have weird names/icons. KDE, why is a file explorer named Dolphin?? It has zero link to files to me. And that goes for a lot of default programs making it unintuitive to use.
Windows uses clear names for everything, why can’t Linux do the same? Or at least, let me rename Dolphin (and others) to a name that makes sense. But that appears to be impossible too.
