Here's what it's like to live with Linux as my desktop OS.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/31142642

There are more than a billion PCs in use and, according to StatCounter, only 71 percent of them run Windows. Among the rest, about 4 percent run Linux. That’s tens of millions of people with Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc as their desktop operating system. I envy them.

Windows 11 has become more annoying lately as it shoves ads for XBox Game Pass in my face, pushes AI features no one asked for and demands that I reconsider the choices I made during installation on a regular basis. Plus, it just isn’t that attractive.

I’m ready to try joining that industrious four percent and installing Linux on my computers to use as my main OS, at least for a week. I’ll blog about the experience here.

It’s hard to give up Windows forever because so many applications only run in Microsoft’s OS. For example, the peripheral software that runs with many keyboards and mice isn’t available for Linux. Lots of games will not run under Linux. So I think it’s likely I’ll be using Windows again, at least some of the time, after this week is through.

However, for now, I’m going to give Linux a very serious audition and document the experience.

  • Antithetical@lemmy.deedium.nl
    341·
    3 days ago

    It is a nice look into the switch from a perspective of a windows user. But since he is experimenting there is a also a lot of bad choices or wrong information.

    He gripes about things not going smoothly while replacing his whole desktop environment (when was the last time you replaced your explorer.exe?).

    And clamping to old ways of doing things. Which is understandable but would go a lot better with a little bit of guidance. Why force Chrome while Firefox was probably pre-installed or Chromium also works. Using Filezilla while Dolphin can probably do it in an integrated way. Using Notepad++ while Kate probably covers most of his use-cases.

    This doesn’t invalidate his experiences but it does indicate a resistance to switch.

    There is some valid criticisms as well though. The docking station that bugs out or KDE Connect that is confused. We can improve those things, but hardly force Logitech to bring their (horrible) software suite to Linux.

    Maybe he should give it another few weeks to actually feel that while his old ways might not transfer over 1:1 the new ways give him a lot more power.

    • Cenzorrll@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 days ago

      From the article, I wish them the best but this line of thinking is not the Linux way:

      The first app I installed on Ubuntu (on both my machines) was Chrome browser. While Chromium, the open source version of the browser, is available in Ubuntu’s App Center (its app store), the official Google version is not.

      If you’re wanting to give Linux a try, you gotta be willing to let go of the Windows way. Chrome is not better than chromium because Google. Don’t complain that a specific app is hard to get running if you aren’t willing to try the alternatives, especially if there’s literally a Linux version maintained by the same developer

    • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, when someone is interested in switching I always advise them to sort out their apps first. Many Linux applications also run on windows, the reverse is rarely true.

    • nezach@discuss.tchncs.de
      61·
      3 days ago

      I absolutely agree with you. He should have gotten help from the beginning, so a lot of his problems wouldn’t have manifested in the first place. Reading his experience is interesting but it doesn’t really convey the willingness to use a linux based OS, or any other OS that isn’t Windows for that matter. Notepad++ is great but will not work on MacOS either and especially the choices in text/code editors under linux are immense. And Ubuntu as first choice isn’t good for somebody doing the switch nowadays IMHO. Still kudos for jumping into cold water like that and still continuing.