After 30 years on Windows I switched this month to Linux, for pretty much the same reason. It's great. And it feels so fast. All my software exists natively on Linux (minecraft and game emulators for the kids, KNIME, Intellij, and Blender is a lot faster on Linux). No Word or PowerPoint, but there's Libre Office and it's good enough.
Who'd have thought that 2021 would be the year of Linux on the desktop. Not because it has gradually improved (it has), but because the alternative has declined so much.
> As a vocal critic of the Linux Desktop, even I feel that soon Microsoft will have succeeded in making Windows so horrifically awful and user-hostile that the Linux Desktop will start to look good by comparison.
I use multiple platforms at work and that's really the biggest difference to me.
Linux is much faster, like a lot! Specially on older hardware. And not only the filesystem and that stuff. With recent gnome versions the interface is much more fluid too.
At this point I think if you desperately need MS Office, MacOS is the way to go. I will never buy a Windows machine again, and being forced to use it in a work setting would be a deal-breaker. Fortunately at this point even MS isn't stupid enough to make that a requirement as far as I'm aware.
I will stick with MS Office. I can use it when disconnected from everything, and (note hyperbole, but the cynicism is real) I avoid the creepy feeling that Google is logging every mouse movement and keystoke I make for teh ads.
In fact I welcome my evil Microsoft overlord any day before I use something from Google. I see MS as the lesser of two evils.
Always with the Linux. I can't use Linux, I work in a Microsoft world. I can turn off the keylogger, and virtually anything else I don't want/like. I cannot (assuming I used their products) stop Google from storing my (MY!!) data on their infrastructure and having their way with it.
Yes I've tried Libre. ODT files don't play well with MS Office. Pivot tables in Calc are... frustrating. No OneNote, no Outlook, no Visio. Linux doesn't work on my hardware, and Visual Studio doesn't work on Linux.
The distribution fragmentation... I'm expected to install flavour X or Y of Linux not actually knowing before I start that my hardware even supports it? Brain = explode.
Joining a community (Linux) that stomps all over people that have a dissenting view (I actually like Windows - have done since I started using it in 1990) is philosophically not a community I want part of (Stallman is an exception I have a lot of time and respect for).
A VM adds complexity - why would I do that when native Windows is pain-free and just works?
And no, I don't "need" offline editing, I just want it. After all the cloud is a computer just like mine - that happens to belong to someone else. The cloud introduces a risk of data theft and complete data loss. And yes, probability is low, but impact and exposure are both very VERY high. I don't run that risk at all using my own hardware.
Oh boy, don't know if I read that correctly, but it seemed a bit heavy on emotions from your side. It's just an OS and my comment was just a recommendation. And these are just some observations for my own self interest, please read these in a neutral tone:
> ODT files don't play well with MS Office
Can't you save in docx format from within libre office?
> Linux doesn't work on my hardware, and Visual Studio doesn't work on Linux.
Could you elaborate on these two points?
> The distribution fragmentation...
The downside of a strong open source community is that you are spoiled for choice, yes.
> that stomps all over people that have a dissenting view
Not Linux specific I'd say. There are people like that everywhere.
> why would I do that when native Windows is pain-free and just works?
If Windows works perfectly fine for you, then yes, Linux + VM doesn't make much sense. For the rest of us that are not fans of how Windows runs things, it's usually a last resort option and very few people use it.
> I don't "need" offline editing, I just want it.
Sorry, that's what I meant, more like either/or want/need.
> And yes, probability is low, but impact and exposure are both very VERY high.
Definitely, that's why you'll find lots of people in the Linux community that run their own NAS at home and have lots of fun with it.
Lol you read that very correctly, but please don't take the emotion either seriously or personally.
All your points are noted. Importing ODT files into Word makes a mess of formatting and layout. I've wasted many hours fixing documents. Linux doesn't like my graphics card, and on my previous hardware setup wouldn't recognise my ELP web cam, my Windows Phone, and for some inexplicable reason, my Ergodox keyboard.
Visual Studio is software for Windows - it won't work on Linux (I see no benefit in virtualising when I have so many other issues with Linux, plus the real or imagined perf impact of virtualisation - at age 50 I'm way past the place where I spend a week on a PC build just to see if I can - I know I can, I no longer want to).
Yes, there are vocal people behind every technology. I guess I'm just tired of hearing "Linux" as the panacea for all things Windows or Microsoft. I know Microsoft's history. Better than many, having used their stuff starting with MS DOS in '84, maybe '85, and having actually worked there.
You wrote -
If Windows works perfectly fine for you, then yes, Linux + VM doesn't make much sense. For the rest of us that are not fans of how Windows runs things, it's usually a last resort option and very few people use it.
You're absolutely correct in that statement. My problem with Linux isn't that. My problem is what a5aAqU did in his reply to my first comment. He suggested Linux even though my post made my preference clear. This happens almost every time I mention using and liking Microsoft products and technologies.
It's not something I'd ever consider doing to anyone saying they use/like Linux. I love when people get along, regardless of... well, anything. Diversity is beyond value. It's how we grow.
> My problem with Linux isn't that. My problem is what a5aAqU did in his reply to my first comment. He suggested Linux even though my post made my preference clear. This happens almost every time I mention using and liking Microsoft products and technologies.
I wasn't suggesting that you switch to Linux. I was just pointing out that you can't escape the keylogging by using Windows. Linux is the major platform where you can fully control your computer, but it still might not be the right platform for you.
> don't take the emotion either seriously or personally.
> I did not mean to offend.
None taken! Happy that this turned out a healthy discussion.
I was just a bit surprised finding out that there's hardware that doesn't work on Linux. It's been almost the gold standard for hardware support (ignoring nvidia of course). Thanks for enriching my knowledge on that one.
Ah and I seem to have misread "visual studio" as "visual studio code", apologies for that. Yeah most Windows software will always be tricky to get into Linux, that's definitely true.
Your post just made me realise that when I find myself in a OS discussion, instead of starting to list out pros and cons of Linux, I'll just ask if they're happy with their current OS. That should probably clear up a lot of things from the get-go.
Once again, thank you for your post and I hope windows keeps treating you well. If not, you'll always know where to find Linux.
LibreOffice reads and writes MSOffice files just fine. I do it every day. Maybe there are some edge cases that affect someone, but it's never been an issue for me.
Sadly, not for me. Google docs has a hard failure mode in that if your document is hundreds of megabytes in size, docs backs your document up every few keystrokes and everything slows down to a crawl. I couldn't figure out how to turn this auto backup off.
Ubuntu LTS. It also serves for my wife and (small) kids so something easy that works out of the box.
It's great because it gives the kids a computer that's 'theirs' but I can manage their freedom to the level that they're ready for (access to internet etc). And the oldest one (9y) already started to meddle with shell scripts so the experiment seems to work =)
Who'd have thought that 2021 would be the year of Linux on the desktop. Not because it has gradually improved (it has), but because the alternative has declined so much.