Surprising to myself, I have been a Linux user for over 12 years…
Through the many years I have bounced between and tried Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Parrot OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro. I have tried Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, KDE, Mate, Deepin. And more. I have 3 computers, all using a Linux distro right now.
I love the idea of Linux - free, free as in freedom, free of telemetry. And well, I thought I would never entertain the idea of switching, here I am today, strongly considering Mac OS.
Lately, I have become extremely frustrated and tired of dealing with little bugs, crashes, versions, and dependencies. Not to mention notable UI issues. It is starting to hamper my productivity when working.
Right now I am using Ubuntu and I cannot drag and drop into VS Code from Nautilus, I can’t drag and drop from the default archive manager, I am experiencing screen tearing issues, one piece of software I use crashes often but not Debian and vice versa, I have to manually reset screen brightness when it dims after timeout, etc. I have experienced issues of similar nature across all distros I have used and I am becoming burnt out.
I think part of the issue is that there is a huge variety of Linux distros, different combinations of kernels, desktop environments, window managers, package managers, file managers, network managers, etc… Not to mention devices. There is too many variables, and too many projects to maintain.
Sorry for the rant, I have seen many similar posts, but I have been using Linux for over 12 years, powering through, ignoring and working around these issues and I am pretty fed up.
While I am conflicted, I am thinking Mac OS looks like a good middle ground.
Any suggestions? What has been the most stable distro and compatible for you?
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I’m actually having the opposite experience (for the most part). All the little papercuts of yesteryear are almost completely gone, and it’s only looking better on the horizon. Of course your mileage may vary depending on use case and hardware…
Some things of the top of my head:
- Flatpak replacing 3rd party PPAs. Brand new software without dependency hell or breaking system packages? Yes please
- Snaps and AppImages too
- XDG Portals standards, making snaps and flatpaks play nice with confinement
- Audio and Bluetooth? It “just works” now
- Pipewire
- Even gaming works really well now, with Proton, DXVK etc
- AMD and Intel drivers baked in to the kernel
- Wayland finally being production ready for many use-cases, and being adopted as the default, fixing so many of the ancient X11 issues (screen tearing, multiple displays with different scaling, refresh rate, fractional scaling) ( cries in Nvidia )
- Nvidia finally changing their mind so Wayland on Nvidia can be a thing (I can’t wait 😊)
- KDE Connect / gsConnect phone integration
- Screensharing on Wayland even on legacy X11 apps becoming a thing through the new screensharing Portal
The only problem I’ve had recently is Ubuntu’s forced snapification, and snap being very rough around the edges for Desktop apps (ahem drag’drop)
It depends on why you are using FOSS now?
For me its a principle choice of freedom and privacy since 1998, so I cope with the downsites on the desktop as much I can.
That is exactly why I choose to use FOSS including Linux. As much as I want to standby this principle, I have come to a breaking point after dealing with its issues, issues we have all experienced. I believe it is hands down the best choice for server use, but for work and productivity, I need something more matured that is going to work out of the box. I am glad that the community here took this criticism well but I think it’s important to discuss and understand that there are still some strides to be made. But at the end of the day, I’m just some guy ranting and who knows, maybe I’ll be installing a Linux distro after a month of using Mac OS.
This summer I use Linux on my desktop for 25 years. What do you think the first years looked like? My first laptop took me 3 weeks to get it properly installed with Suse back in 1998. For the last 10 years installing and configuring whatever distro is a piece of cake. Ofcourse soms things are not as you want them to be: the good thing is you can change everything in FOSS, and if it does not excist you can create it. People complaining at Linux Desktop are realy complaining on their own limitations. Don’t complain! Not about yourself. Not about the Linux Desktop. Never ever give up! Make your list of whats not working for you. And than work and change until your list is history. Keep your head up strong. You’ll never walk alone!
Same story, same tips, but I started with SuSE Linux 4.3 in 1996. Just try stuff, read the error messages, read docs and ask. A lot of peaople who know stuff are happy to help out of altruism or the chance to show off. ;-)