This post is basically to encourage people to check Linux out. What is stopping you from ditching Microsoft?
Edit: I forgot to mention this but if someone is looking for a recommendation for a Linux distribution then I'd personally recommend Manjaro KDE or just any of the popular distributions with KDE Plasma as the Desktop Environment really. Edit 2: For those who might be looking for more stability and don't need to have the most up to date software I'd recommend Kubuntu.
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Windows, is in fact, NSA/Windows, or as i have taken to calling it, NSA plus Windows. Windows is not an operating system unto itself, but rather a non-free component of a fully functioning NSA system.
Many computer users run a modified version of the NSA system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of NSA which is widely used today is often called “Windows”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the NSA system, developed by the PRISM Project. There really is a Windows, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Windows is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Windows is normally used in combination with the NSA operating system: the whole system is basically NSA with Windows added, or NSA/Windows. All the so-called “Windows” versions are really versions of NSA/Windows.
WINE and steam proton exist. stop repeating this shitty argument. you can run games on linux easy
want to know if a game will run on linux? look it up on the proton database
Its a valid argument if you don't want to mess with stuff too much and just play steam games online with your friends. Most people are still really intimidated by computers in general.
the most you have to do is click a checkbox in steam to enable it, and then maybe copy/paste some launch flags from protondb website. an extra 10 seconds of work. it annoys me to hell and back when people make linux out to be some elite thing used only by shadowy hooded computer masters typing at 300 wps in a terminal. linux is insanely easy to use as long as you are ok with taking a few minutes to read some wiki pages
Not everyone is technically inclined. Just giving someone a link to a giant wiki with thousands of articles and saying "just take a few minutes to read it" isn't very helpful either. If you don't fundamentally understand what a wiki article is telling you to do and for some reason you are not able to follow the instructions they're giving, you're going to have a massive headache... and I seriously wouldn't recommend Arch to any first time linux user. Like I am with you, Linux isn't some crazy complicated thing that only 1337 h4x0rs can use, but let's not also pretend that grandma can just install Arch or Gentoo as long as she reads a few wiki articles.
Plus as I said, it's not always as easy as clicking a checkbox. Clicking a checkbox isn't going to help you bypass BattleEye anti-cheat. It's not going to help if you have major performance issues in game. I get what you're saying, you can game on linux but let's not pretend anyone who isn't doing it is just can't read a wiki. It's disingenuous.
The fact that there's literally anything you have to use the command line for in Linux immediately makes it unusable for most people. I have a hard enough time using it and I can write C programs and know how computers work. There are a million startup scripts and folders and things you have to know about to be able to fix problems. If Linux is going to be useable to regular people you have to get rid of all the conventions like the file system and config files and virtual terminals and stuff. Basically Android or whatever.
It's not even a matter of having to mess with stuff in some cases, e.g. BattleEye games don't work with wine or proton. If your friends want to play something like Rainbow 6 Siege, you're SOL.
Not every game works in linux, not every game is going to give optimal performance in linux, some folks are going to have driver issues with their hardware in linux. Just because the games you play work well does not mean everyone will have that experience.
Why would I want another os if I just go back to windows for a majority of the time
I'm considering doing a Windows/Linux pass-through for this exact reason. Windows Bad. (G*mes Bad too I guess).
I've been using Linux for about a decade now and my daily driver for 7ish years. I did start leaving my desktop in windows but I mostly use it for games so no point in switching back and forth. Even my TV is using ubuntu in the form of an old laptop in clamshell mode.
I get extremely frustrated when I have to fix an issue on windows or mac because every support article is a braindead company support line asking you to turn it off and on, where as linux support is knowledgeable forums that know how to fix your problem rather that go "lol ur screwed, just reinstall"
The bar is higher but a lot of solutions are pretty copy and paste and if you look up a few terms each time to understand it, you suddenly know how to use a linux system. You can't say the same as much for fixing windows.
Gentoo gang. Herbstluftwm gang. Emacs gang.
Been running GNU+Linux since 2004 when I was indoctrinated by eastern European software communists on IRC. Been dual-booting since before reliable 3rd party NTFS drivers were even a thing. I remember tying up the phone line for five days straight downloading ISO images and nearly getting my dad fired. I remember the woes of trying to get my "winmodem" running so I could dial in to Earthlink.
My first install was on a Pentium 2 machine I found in the trash. I got Debian installed on there and of course, there were issues with X11. This was in the dark ages before X did any auto-configuration and the only way to get it running was pouring through 100s of lines of configuration files. I never got it working. But I did have a login prompt on the TTY, so I logged in and started fooling around with the shell. I learned how to create files. delete them, move them around, change their permissions. I learned you can make scripts, flip the executable bit, and run them like ordinary programs. I learned how unix permissions work and how the system is designed to constrain the permissions of running programs to the user, instead of giving them free reign to bulldoze the entire system. Though a somewhat similar permissions model existed in Windows NT, most commercial software developers never seemed to get the memo by this point and a lot of software would malfunction if it wasn't running on an administrator account.
A few years later we switched to DSL and I was able to get a Linux machine online for the first time ever using PPPoE. Soon after, I discovered the magic of package managers. Growing up on Windows, I had become very used to the paradigm of wandering to all sorts of random corners from the internet, downloading programs from them, installing them, and maybe updating them years later when something broke. The worst part of it was when setting up a new Windows install (a periodic necessity on Windows XP) - having to remove a bunch of included garbage, while needing to seek out dozens of bare essential programs like Firefox, 7zip, Notepad++, X-Chat, Pidgin, GIMP, VLC, etc. etc. just to survive. The idea that you can fetch everything you need from one place, only needing to trust one third party, and that updates and everything can be handled automatically blew my mind.
Over the years I have messed around with Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, FreeBSD, Gentoo, and a few other special purpose distros. For the time being I have found myself at home with Gentoo, but I have an eternal fondness for Debian, and Fedora is pretty snazzy if you roll with the RPM Fusion repositories to have patented codecs and proprietary drivers.
GNU+Linux may not have everything, but it is the only platform that consistently improves. It is the only platform where upgrades feel more like opening a Christmas present than opening a letter from the IRS.
how did you learn initially? were you buying or checking out books, or were there sufficient online resources?
It really isn't. I have switched my family's laptop to Manjaro and they haven't complained.
drivers can be hard, but programs are super fucking easy most of the time. easier than windows in many cases.
once you can move in terminal its all just easier. command line is like the emergency option in windows, but in linux its just nice. saves steps over GUI so many times.
yeah but a lot of the basic commands aren't that hard to get your head around; you just need to stumble through them for a little while, put in the effort to learn, and then your computing experience will make you more, rather than be an accomplice in your dissolution to todler-level intelligence mindless consumer.
well, if this were 2005 and windows was a slightly problematic insecure mess but you still mostly owned your computer, and your phone was some nokia that could survive a nuclear explosion and keep sending texts, I wouldn't necessarily have a good argument against that.
but this is 2021, we live in a pretty fucking explicitly cyberpunk dystopia, and if you don't want to be a filthy fucking snitch, you need to have a basic grasp of your devices. if you want to be a part of any resistance to power in any meaningful way, you need to be on your shit.
you don't have to fucking elliot alderson or lisbeth salander, but you need to learn how to function in society (or fight against it) while minimizing your complicity in engines of oppression-that doesn't just mean not buying nestle anymore, it means not searching google, not giving facebook a single byte of data, and keeping your ISP in the god damn dark.
if you don't either have a handle on your tech, or live in a shack in the woods with no access to the outside world, you are a capitalist asset. you are a tool. you are not an asset to any dissident movement. you're just another snitch. don't be a fucking snitch.
I haven't had any problem installing programs on Linux. It's way easier than on Windows actually because you don't need to look for an exe file to download. I hear drivers can be a problem for some people tho
I like Linux for everything except a desktop/laptop computer, mostly because of how much software doesn't run on it. It's great for pretty much everything else though.
Impossible for me. Literally nothing of value for me is on Linux. Unfortunately. We have a technology community btw.
Absolutely essential for servers obviously. I can't imagine doing server stuff on windows. The horror.
It's mostly games keeping me on MS even though there's been a lot of improvement for gaming on Linux. Another thing is I've just been using MS my whole life and I've adapted to its crap factor. I know every exploit and hack to make things work how I want or kneecap the spyware and every time I try Linux I get a little further each time but eventually I think "Eh, I can already do this and that on Windows, might as well just use that." I've got an old laptop but I've had nothing but trouble trying Linux on that. If it's not the kernel causing freezes and crashes it's the sound being way too quiet at full volume. And no matter what distro or DE it was always way slower than MS.
