Linux isn’t ready. Not for home users anyway. And I’ve tried recently. Just constant problems that if I wasn’t getting paid I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with.

I stopped using Linux on my desktop PC in 2007. Last year I switched back, and wow everything is so much smoother now. Video, sound, webcam, networking, all worked perfectly out-of-the-box. No more messing with fglrx for hours to get ATI/AMD graphics working. No more figuring out ALSA vs OSS vs PulseAudio vs whatever else. I don’t know what the sound subsystem is even called now, because I don’t need to know. It just works.

KDE is beautiful now, too. I tried a few desktop environments and liked KDE the best.

Great time to switch. I’ve been using Linux on servers since 1999, but it’s totally viable for desktops these days too.

So long as you need a terminal to do anything on a Linux machine it’s not gonna get any mainstream appeal, most people can barely install a app on windows where they just have to click next a few times. Also if the laptop you buy comes pre-installed with windows what would motivate a regular joe to go out of his way to install Linux on it and risk messing things up by making a mistake. Also people don’t want to replace their windows only software and gaming is another reason to stick to windows for now. I’d rather use Linux, but I’ll wait till Steam has made most games compatible with Linux, and Nvidia and Amd give proper driver support for linux

The average ‘advanced’ window user: CLI is scary!

Also the average ‘advanced’ windows user: if you open regedit and add this DWORD entry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Microsoft/application/windows/something, then you can stop Microsoft from screwing you, but it’ll revert after each update so you gotta keep fixing it

If you want to see what linux was like 15 years ago try installing OpenBSD lol

Fits but hurts. Like Linux is ready now

I have had people tell me " I dont feel like building my own OS from scratch " I’m like what are you even talking about?

So, which distro is the ready one?

Let’s be real. Most people can’t really use Windows, either. Anything harder than clicking the Chrome icon is beyond most users.

Wow, so many wrong comments. My parents using Linux laptops for 10 years (which i give them second hand when i buy a new one). Now i set up NixOS with auto updates, and never needed to touch it again myself.

Question: Would I still struggle to get games working on a desktop using Linux as I have in the past (always some driver issue for some crucial bit of hardware; either the GPU can’t do 3D or the NIC doesn’t function, etc) or would they work as well as on a Steam Deck, that doesn’t have to account for a variety of hardware differences? Almost every single person I have seen lately saying gaming on Linux is awesome now, is using a literal device designed for it. But what about my hardware? Is getting wrappers for nVidia drivers still a fucking PITA with a 50/50 chance of actually working correctly?

I love Linux for just basic computing needs or running servers. But I’ve always had a bad time when trying to play games.

Android, too.

The other type I see is people who complain that Linux isn’t usable, and it gradually turns out that the only thing they’d consider usable is an OS exactly like Windows.

I swapped to Arch Linux in the last month and it’s been great. Gaming has been fun. The Nvidia drivers are still kinda confusing, and honestly I wouldn’t put my mom on Arch Linux as of right now, but it’s good enough.

I’m writing a document so my SW engineering friends can swap over as well within a day and be up and running, and it’s just neat to see Linux gradually growing in my circles.

If you’re on Linux, don’t forget to donate to your favorite SW creators even if they’re less flashy than say Larian studios or what have you lol.

I have to use Windows at work and by early afternoon if I’m not forced to reboot for an update I have to reboot because the machine has basically ground to a halt.

Why does Windows slow down the longer it’s been booted?