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Windows is a mess and the 16 pages of privacy settings to disable on Windows 10 aren't great either, but if there's one OS that demands the most time troublesho

by Nition 9y ago

Windows is a mess and the 16 pages of privacy settings to disable on Windows 10 aren't great either, but if there's one OS that demands the most time troubleshooting and dealing with issues, I'd struggle to claim it isn't Linux.

dotancohen 9y ago
As a Linux user since 2001, I would have agreed with you up until 2008-2010 when Ubuntu really started making strides. If you haven't tried Ubuntu in the past decade, you really should. Other than one motherboard with some wacky onboard NIC, I have had zero problems that took more than a casual google to solve. This is across literally dozens of installs for friends, family, neighbours, etc. I won't do other people's installs anymore as the support adds up, such as Powerpoint presentations not opening properly in LibreOffice, but the systems just work. Most people spend their entire time in a web browser anyway, so there isn't much to go wrong. Note that I praise Ubuntu as a desktop even though I personally use CentOS as my desktop. It is Ubuntu that brought Linux to the masses.
- Nition 9y ago
  My experience has been quite different. I've never done an install of Unbuntu even in the last few years where everything worked out of a box, whereas Windows always has. Just as one example I did an install on a new Intel NUC about a few months ago where the wifi worked on 16.04 but not on 16.10. Soon after I installed it on a laptop where the wifi worked but not the ethernet. I think this part of your comment is key: > I have had zero problems that took more than a casual google to solve The problems I have on install are (almost) always solvable in an hour or so of Googling and messing around in the terminal or in config files. That includes the two examples I gave earlier - I've got those working now. But that's an hour for us, people who do this stuff every day. A random person who isn't so good with computers and decides to try Linux really needs everything to work. Even this: > Most people spend their entire time in a web browser anyway, so there isn't much to go wrong. isn't always a safe bet. I installed Ubuntu for someone who basically just wanted to check emails, write documents, and watch some on-demand TV. The on-demand TV site didn't work because it needed the HAL layer in Flash and that'd been removed entirely from Ubuntu. Luckily someone has kindly hosted a repo with the required files[1]. But a random newbie is never going to get that working. Yes, the site requiring Flash like that is a bit out of date. But it still works on Windows and Mac. [1] https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal

by Nition 9y ago

dotancohen 9y ago

As a Linux user since 2001, I would have agreed with you up until 2008-2010 when Ubuntu really started making strides. If you haven't tried Ubuntu in the past decade, you really should. Other than one motherboard with some wacky onboard NIC, I have had zero problems that took more than a casual google to solve. This is across literally dozens of installs for friends, family, neighbours, etc. I won't do other people's installs anymore as the support adds up, such as Powerpoint presentations not opening properly in LibreOffice, but the systems just work. Most people spend their entire time in a web browser anyway, so there isn't much to go wrong. Note that I praise Ubuntu as a desktop even though I personally use CentOS as my desktop. It is Ubuntu that brought Linux to the masses.

Nition 9y ago
My experience has been quite different. I've never done an install of Unbuntu even in the last few years where everything worked out of a box, whereas Windows always has. Just as one example I did an install on a new Intel NUC about a few months ago where the wifi worked on 16.04 but not on 16.10. Soon after I installed it on a laptop where the wifi worked but not the ethernet. I think this part of your comment is key: > I have had zero problems that took more than a casual google to solve The problems I have on install are (almost) always solvable in an hour or so of Googling and messing around in the terminal or in config files. That includes the two examples I gave earlier - I've got those working now. But that's an hour for us, people who do this stuff every day. A random person who isn't so good with computers and decides to try Linux really needs everything to work. Even this: > Most people spend their entire time in a web browser anyway, so there isn't much to go wrong. isn't always a safe bet. I installed Ubuntu for someone who basically just wanted to check emails, write documents, and watch some on-demand TV. The on-demand TV site didn't work because it needed the HAL layer in Flash and that'd been removed entirely from Ubuntu. Luckily someone has kindly hosted a repo with the required files[1]. But a random newbie is never going to get that working. Yes, the site requiring Flash like that is a bit out of date. But it still works on Windows and Mac. [1] https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal