My week with Linux: I'm dumping Windows for Ubuntu to see how it goes

[erazog]

I agree with the latest conclusions update in the article though I would rather Linux GUI's be a defined platform from top to bottom rather than just swappable interfaces though that isn't popular with the Linux scene, there is one example ElementaryOS which is MacOS Linux but it lacks the resources needed for fast development.

The Debian distro allows you to pick multiple GUI's during the install phase and the login screen can swap which one to use upon login but other distros aren't deigned for that or its too complicated for average users.

KDE and Flatpaks are the best hope for Windows users, if only Ubuntu would just enable Flatpak support out of the box (they wont), a trusted corporate backed distro like this would be ideal with actual support not just community get good learn Linux attitudes.

@Amdlova look up Bazzite Linux it is SteamOS for general PC's, you can use the official recovery image of SteamOS on various hardware but Bazzite is way easier to just install and deploy especially if you have an Nvidia GPU. If you can live without the Valve GPU control panel then Kubuntu is the way to go.

 

[lazerguyct]

The premise here is ridiculous. "My week with Linux" After probably using Windows for decades giving Linux a week is tbh pretty dumb. Even a month would be a short period of time to come to any firm conclusions.

 

[lazerguyct]

Linux is just a big mess. really it is anyone who has tried to meaningfully use it will am sure agree UNLESS they are well versed in the command line side of the OS.
The truth is most folks dont want to have to spend hours compiling stuff that frankly should just work for most folks lifes too busy or they have other stuff to do like kids, work etc, take an example i have personally, i run a laptop on linux and every other update something break, a repository has moved or is no longer where it needs to be, leading me to then go on a hunt for it, if i was just an average user with little knowledge of how to do this then my laptop would eventually stop doing anything or even become vulnerable due to a lack of updates, its very strength in being open source is its weakness as it becomes fragmented and only those with the time to sit down and study CLIs are able to use it, for that reason away from commercial areas its pretty much dead in the water especially compared to Windows which while it has its own issues 99% of the time just works

Linux is a big mess? Lol, if Linux is a mess Windows is the great Pacific garbage patch of the operating system world.

 

[Stomx]

Linux is just a big mess. really it is anyone who has tried to meaningfully use it will am sure agree UNLESS they are well versed in the command line side of the OS.
The truth is most folks dont want to have to spend hours compiling stuff that frankly should just work for most folks lifes too busy or they have other stuff to do like kids, work etc, take an example i have personally, i run a laptop on linux and every other update something break, a repository has moved or is no longer where it needs to be, leading me to then go on a hunt for it, if i was just an average user with little knowledge of how to do this then my laptop would eventually stop doing anything or even become vulnerable due to a lack of updates, its very strength in being open source is its weakness as it becomes fragmented and only those with the time to sit down and study CLIs are able to use it, for that reason away from commercial areas its pretty much dead in the water especially compared to Windows which while it has its own issues 99% of the time just works

Agree. But note : this is mostly for desktop version of Linux, not the command line (terminal) one. This is why i simply ignore the effing reminder on desktop Ubuntu or Linux Mint every time i login notifying me that "We have 4234 updates". I do not need your damn updates. I did not need any Windows updates last 20 years, because it added nothing valuable besides security updates, though I cared them also myself.

But with Linux specifically Ubuntu if i will use their damn updates in a year the desktop OS will be broke and need a clean install. Chris Titus who worked with dozens of flavors of Linux spoke about this issue many times. Same happens if you start to try some software installing numerous packages and uninstalling them, with short time the OS is quickly dead. Nothing like that happens with Android, everyone probably tried 10000 apps last 10 years with not a single issue. Also installing was one click and uninstall or update also one click, not a permanent hell like with most of apps in Ubuntu. Chris T verdict was: people abandoning Ubuntu, company does not care about desktop version of it. And recommended out of 30 Linux flavors just a couple, one of which was Mint partially because of simplicity of GUI and ability to undo last installs and return OS back

 

[USAFRet]

Agree. But note : this is mostly for desktop version of Linux, not the command line (terminal) one. This is why i simply ignore the effing reminder on desktop Ubuntu or Linux Mint every time i login notifying me that "We have 4234 updates". I do not need your damn updates. I did not need any Windows updates last 20 years, because it added nothing valuable besides security updates, though I cared them also myself.

But with Linux specifically Ubuntu if i will use their damn updates in a year the desktop OS will be broke and need a clean install. Chris Titus who worked with dozens of flavors of Linux spoke about this issue many times. Same happens if you start to try some software installing numerous packages and uninstalling them, with short time the OS is quickly dead. Nothing like that happens with Android, everyone probably tried 10000 apps last 10 years with not a single issue. Also installing was one click and uninstall or update also one click, not a permanent hell like with most of apps in Ubuntu. Chris T verdict was: people abandoning Ubuntu, company does not care about desktop version of it. And recommended out of 30 Linux flavors just a couple, one of which was Mint partially because of simplicity of GUI and ability to undo last installs and return OS back

Some of those updates you've been ignoring are for actual fixes to security holes.
Both Linux and Windows.

 

[herrwizo]

As for your autohotkeys issue, this was a pure misfortune that you went with a bleeding edge distro (Ubuntu 25.04) which is Wayland only. Using any other LTS distro like 24.04 would at least enable you to switch between X.org and Wayland. As of now, the latter is getting better each day, but feature set is incomplete (especially in terms of key capture) and this makes it not a good choice for power users. For general desktop usage it is fine. It apparently boils down to security and fear of keyloggers. so key capturing has to be implemented on each window compositor level. Which, as of now, is not. The efforts are being made, though.

 

[Lamarr the Strelok]

Very good article/blog.He did a whole lot more than me on my simpler installs of linux. Also: If all you do is go online and look at cat pix/ vids,check e mail and other basic stuff, you don't need to touch the CLI in Mint. Click on firefox after installation and you're off. Same with updates. It's a little red icon you click on and enter a password and that''s it. No futzing with repositories,etc.
And for every device I have I usually install updates. Android and Windows I'll research before installing but I don't mind any OS updating itself.
I have hard drives with various flavo(u)rs of linux and I update some of them monthly. I usually get 400 or so updates when I do this but even on my meh isp it doesn't take long. Usually couple minutes at most.

 

[TheOtherOne]

I will keep repeating this (have been for YEARS), as long as Linux doesn't support 100% out of the box gaming without any ifs/buts/multiple steps to make it work hurdles, I will NOT use Linux.

 

[Grobe]

I will keep repeating this (have been for YEARS)

then just don't - it just keep adding noise to the discussion.

as long as Linux doesn't support 100% out of the box gaming without any ifs/buts/multiple steps to make it work hurdles, I will NOT use Linux.

In my mind, that says a lot more about the user then the OS being discussed.

to mods: I hope this isn't too controversial of a statement - but I have a hypothetical question (take away the narrow focus on one OS and think in broader terms): What are people doing on this forum if the mindset is that everything being purchased is expected to work out of the box every time?
Isn't this a forum to use if you actually are planning/trying to fix something yourself rather than just bring the computer to the repair shop every time?

 

[USAFRet]

Isn't this a forum to use if you actually are planning/trying to fix something yourself rather than just bring the computer to the repair shop every time?

Its a forum for as wide range of topics.
Not all of them in the "fix it yourself" realm.

 

[bit_user]

I will keep repeating this (have been for YEARS), as long as Linux doesn't support 100% out of the box gaming without any ifs/buts/multiple steps to make it work hurdles, I will NOT use Linux.

I don't care what you use, nor am I invested in gaming on either OS, but isn't it pretty standard to install drivers on Windows, when installing it from scratch? How is that not extra steps?

On Linux, Intel's official graphics drivers are bundled and there's not much difference between the bundled vs. proprietary AMD drivers. Nvidia is working towards an open-source Linux solution (finally), but they're not there yet. However, some installers do give you the option to add the Nvidia driver repo, if they detect a Nvidia GPU.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't care what you use, nor am I invested in gaming on either OS, but isn't it pretty standard to install drivers on Windows, when installing it from scratch? How is that not extra steps?

That only comes in when doing a DIY build.

The vast majority of people don't do that.
They buy a system, incl OS, and it comes fully configured.

 

[bit_user]

That only comes in when doing a DIY build.

The vast majority of people don't do that.
They buy a system, incl OS, and it comes fully configured.

Well, if we're comparing prebuilt vs. prebuilt, then it would only be fair to compare against a machine with Linux pre-installed.

 

[USAFRet]

Well, if we're comparing prebuilt vs. prebuilt, then it would only be fair to compare against a machine with Linux pre-installed.

Which are few and far between.
And even then, rarely aimed at the gamer community.

 

[bit_user]

Which are few and far between.
And even then, rarely aimed at the gamer community.

Yeah, gaming PCs are a minority of the prebuilt market and Linux Gaming PCs are indeed rarer. However, it's not uncommon to see Linux among the choices of operating systems, when ordering a prebuilt PC.

That said, I think a machine needn't be designed for gaming, in order to consider how well it plays them. So, I'd suggest it's an unnecessary ratcheting up of the requirements to say it has to be a gaming-oriented prebuilt. The main requirement should just be a prebuilt with a dGPU, of which there are plenty that will ship with Linux.

 

[USAFRet]

That said, I think a machine needn't be designed for gaming

Fully agree.

But that magic word carries a lot of weight in marketing.

gaming laptop
gaming PC
gaming desk
gaming mouse
gaming glasses
gaming chair
..................

 

[blppt]

By the way, I just figured out how to get Xscreensaver working in Wayland. Its not going to lock the screen or anything like that (supposedly impossible the way Wayland works vs X11) but if you set the settings you want in the XScreensaver GUI when logged in with X11, then when you've logged back in using Wayland just run this simple command in a terminal:

nohup xscreensaver

Edit: you don't even need to do nohup---if you are in Gnome, alt+F2 and just type xscreensaver in the box will do it.

It will start the daemon in the background, monitoring for idle and activate the way it would under X. I'm so happy---this solves the one huge hangup I had with Wayland vs X.

I don't know if it will work with anything besides Blank Screen, but that's all I ever use anyways.

 

[GeodeArc]

Hi, thanks for giving linux a go!

Here are my thoughts on some of the statements in the last post.

- Shame on all the peripheral vendors who don't offer Linux versions of their apps.
Thank you for saying this. Wish more vendors were open to Linux.

- Too many ways to install software:
Id say Ubuntu, and its proprietary store definitely over complicate this. In my experience, other distros/software stores handle software installation significantly better. I also don't think snaps are a great software source, but that's my opinion.

- KDE is better than Gnome
I agree with this, but the limits you experienced with the taskbar were kinda Ubuntu's fault (basically uses a bunch of preinstalled extensions to make GNOME different). You could've install dash to dock, and Arcmenu from the extension store (tbf, how could you have known, not your fault), which would have resolved all of the limitations you faced.

- Chrome - "it's a shame, though, that it's not in the AppCenter"
Once again, a weird ubuntu issue. Chrome is a flatpak, meaning it should appear in any other software store (once unverified software is enabled, if you are Linux mint).

- Photoshop Elements
Id definitely give photopea a go. It has nearly an identical interface and (pretty much) the saame keybinds that Photoshop has. Its made to be a direct photoshop replacement, and can match most of its features. It also has a great community, and resources on how to get started. Its a website, so performance may not be as good as a native app, but is still really good.

- Logitech MX Master 3S Mouse
Yeah screw logitech lol, I have all logitech peripherals and not having official software sucks. What ive done is setup hardware profiles in a windows virtual machine (adding my peripherals as hardware devices), and just using those. This is not perfect, and things like macros dont work. Also not too sure if the MX master 3s has hardware saving, my G502 X and G915 did.

- OBS Studio
OBS is official and native to Linux. Not sure where you heard that it was community maintained, but you can have a look at their website. I've had good experience with the flatpak.

- MS Office
I've never loved libreoffice really. Would 100% give OnlyOffice a go, its very powerful and has a very similar UI. While not a one to one replacement, I personally havent met any limitations.

Once again, thanks for giving it a go, its only (hopefully) gonna get better from here.