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I've always kind of wondered what you guys are doing with your computers where you run into issues with Linux. For 95% of users, even software developers, in th

I've always kind of wondered what you guys are doing with your computers where you run into issues with Linux. For 95% of users, even software developers, in there off time you just want a web browser. If you are developing, Linux is almost certainly better. The vast majority of languages have all their libraries available in the built in package manager, the included versions being guaranteed to work together. I'm obviously not suggesting you run Arch Linux, but any Debian based distro will pretty much just work. And Ubuntu LTS doubly so.

haZard_OS 9y ago
I second that. I own a System76 laptop (Ubuntu 16.04 pre-installed) and an HP stream that I bought specifically to run POP! OS. I have also replaced several of my colleagues' OS with a Linux distro and I have yet to encounter a problem that took more than an hour to solve...and even those minor problems rarely occur. I am by no means a Linux guru - I just grew disgusted with Windows and wasn't willing to switch to Apple.
driverdan 9y ago
Linux has always had issues on laptop hardware. Poor power management, inability to switch between integrated and discrete video, lack of hardware support (eg fingerprint readers). It seems that for every one of these issues that gets fixed a new one appears. That said you can get some decent laptops now with full Linux support. You have to stick to that hardware though.
metafunctor 9y ago
I switched to Macs quite a while ago, when many things usually didn't work out of the box with Linux. Wifi, bluetooth, hibernation, full disk encryption, GPU support, and external monitors were all things you would either spend a lot of time configuring or even compiling kernel modules from source. The situation today is a lot better. I believe some research into Linux support is still a good idea before purchasing, say, a laptop.
pjmlp 9y ago
> If you are developing, Linux is almost certainly better. Assuming UNIX programming is the only thing developers are supposed to do.

haZard_OS 9y ago

I second that. I own a System76 laptop (Ubuntu 16.04 pre-installed) and an HP stream that I bought specifically to run POP! OS. I have also replaced several of my colleagues' OS with a Linux distro and I have yet to encounter a problem that took more than an hour to solve...and even those minor problems rarely occur. I am by no means a Linux guru - I just grew disgusted with Windows and wasn't willing to switch to Apple.

driverdan 9y ago

Linux has always had issues on laptop hardware. Poor power management, inability to switch between integrated and discrete video, lack of hardware support (eg fingerprint readers). It seems that for every one of these issues that gets fixed a new one appears. That said you can get some decent laptops now with full Linux support. You have to stick to that hardware though.

metafunctor 9y ago

I switched to Macs quite a while ago, when many things usually didn't work out of the box with Linux. Wifi, bluetooth, hibernation, full disk encryption, GPU support, and external monitors were all things you would either spend a lot of time configuring or even compiling kernel modules from source. The situation today is a lot better. I believe some research into Linux support is still a good idea before purchasing, say, a laptop.

pjmlp 9y ago

> If you are developing, Linux is almost certainly better. Assuming UNIX programming is the only thing developers are supposed to do.