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"The sad state of <minor desktop feature> on Linux" Linux on the desktop is death by a thousand cuts.

by ktjfi 8y ago

geoka9 8y ago
I think it depends on one's requirements. If you want a system that can be customized heavily (for example you don't like using the mouse and want to use keyboard for everything), Linux is a godsent. If you want perennial consistency in your work env, it's very helpful too. For example, I've been running the same setup for 12 years, bringing it over from the old laptop every time I got a new one. In exchange for that convenience, I have to wrestle with wifi/ethernet settings once every few years (when I change my hardware); for me it's a small price to pay.
- Insanity 8y ago
  Absolutely, the trade-off is a no-brainer to me. As a software engineer I would hate to be stuck on windows and see my productivity suffer. I think windows is not inherently worse though, it is probably great for how some programmers work or think, but to me Linux distros feel like a better match
- keithpeter 8y ago
  "I think it depends on one's requirements." Computers are tools, endpoints these days. I have been happy with Linux but then again my needs are not super-complex. I have a recent freetype with a defaultish configuration and the results on my small by today's standards monitors are readable.
GlenTheMachine 8y ago
Yep. I just tried a three month experiment with using Linux as the primary OS on my laptop. That experiment came to an end last week, and I'm back to macOS. What killed me was: - wake-on-open working about 33% of the time. The other 66% of the time required a reboot. - substantially worse battery life - clunky handling of Exchange calendars. The major Linux applications are fine for personal use, but they really struggle in an enterprise environment. - buggy rendering of Word docs (both OpenOffice and Abiword, but the bugs were different) - no easy way to change screen resolution over VNC. This turns out to be important if you actually try to use screen sharing to get stuff done, and use two or more different platforms as the client. - the straw that broke the camel's back: my linux email client worked well (for emails - not calendars, etc) for almost the entire three month experiment, until last Friday it somehow decided that my password was different from what it actually was, and insisted on interrogating the enterprise email server several times a second using the bad password. The Exchange server here is configured to lock an account after N incorrect passwords. So effectively the client auto-locked my account every time I fired it up. I still have no idea why it's using an incorrect password, and debugging it wold require my sysadmin to essentially stay on the phone with me and keep hitting the "unlock account" button, or whatever he has to do. My relationship with him would not survive this, and using Linux isn't worth pissing him off. So, back to the Mac for me. I'll try again in another five years and see if anything's improved. It wasn't any one big thing. It was a lot of little things. Bugs that probably were work-around-able, but not worth it. Little bits of friction in the office applications interfaces that made using them just a little more painful. Multiply by a thousand, and you have a substantially worse productivity environment (unless you're a software developer 100% of the time, which I'm not).
- nizmow 8y ago
  Regarding the VNC point in your post, I’ve experimented with this a whole lot in recent times getting a good remote desktop solution going. TigerVNC server, using its embedded X server, plus the TigerVNC viewer, work absolutely perfectly. Even including the viewer supporting proper dual head, resizing, switching and all. Of course, if you want to use your existing X server it might not work as well, I haven’t tried it. For most of the rest of your complaints, I use web apps for everything, even on OS X / Windows. Sad at the state of native apps on both Windows and Linux.
  - GlenTheMachine 8y ago
    I can't use web apps. My org doesn't allow any proprietary data to exist on the cloud.
- lallysingh 8y ago
  #s 1 and 2 are hardware. I genuinely haven't had those problems in ~4 thinkpads I've used over the years that have been linux-only. Linux is a lot easier on g-suite enterprises than in exchange/office ones. Considering how much of the latter's going online now, maybe it won't matter at all later.
- izacus 8y ago
  Considering the problems... were you actually trying to run Linux on a MacBook, which is pretty much a full proprietary, non-documented platform with bunch of Apple proprietary and undocumented power management controllers?
  - GlenTheMachine 8y ago
    No. Dell XPS 15.
fareesh 8y ago
I would not use it on a laptop, but it my OS of choice for my desktop. Battery life, wifi, power management, etc. are all terrible. On Desktop, almost none of those things matter enough.

"The sad state of <minor desktop feature> on Linux" Linux on the desktop is death by a thousand cuts.

by ktjfi 8y ago

"The sad state of <minor desktop feature> on Linux" Linux on the desktop is death by a thousand cuts.

I think it depends on one's requirements. If you want a system that can be customized heavily (for example you don't like using the mouse and want to use keyboard for everything), Linux is a godsent. If you want perennial consistency in your work env, it's very helpful too. For example, I've been running the same setup for 12 years, bringing it over from the old laptop every time I got a new one. In exchange for that convenience, I have to wrestle with wifi/ethernet settings once every few years (when I change my hardware); for me it's a small price to pay.

Insanity 8y ago
Absolutely, the trade-off is a no-brainer to me. As a software engineer I would hate to be stuck on windows and see my productivity suffer. I think windows is not inherently worse though, it is probably great for how some programmers work or think, but to me Linux distros feel like a better match
keithpeter 8y ago
"I think it depends on one's requirements." Computers are tools, endpoints these days. I have been happy with Linux but then again my needs are not super-complex. I have a recent freetype with a defaultish configuration and the results on my small by today's standards monitors are readable.

GlenTheMachine 8y ago

Yep. I just tried a three month experiment with using Linux as the primary OS on my laptop. That experiment came to an end last week, and I'm back to macOS. What killed me was: - wake-on-open working about 33% of the time. The other 66% of the time required a reboot. - substantially worse battery life - clunky handling of Exchange calendars. The major Linux applications are fine for personal use, but they really struggle in an enterprise environment. - buggy rendering of Word docs (both OpenOffice and Abiword, but the bugs were different) - no easy way to change screen resolution over VNC. This turns out to be important if you actually try to use screen sharing to get stuff done, and use two or more different platforms as the client. - the straw that broke the camel's back: my linux email client worked well (for emails - not calendars, etc) for almost the entire three month experiment, until last Friday it somehow decided that my password was different from what it actually was, and insisted on interrogating the enterprise email server several times a second using the bad password. The Exchange server here is configured to lock an account after N incorrect passwords. So effectively the client auto-locked my account every time I fired it up. I still have no idea why it's using an incorrect password, and debugging it wold require my sysadmin to essentially stay on the phone with me and keep hitting the "unlock account" button, or whatever he has to do. My relationship with him would not survive this, and using Linux isn't worth pissing him off. So, back to the Mac for me. I'll try again in another five years and see if anything's improved. It wasn't any one big thing. It was a lot of little things. Bugs that probably were work-around-able, but not worth it. Little bits of friction in the office applications interfaces that made using them just a little more painful. Multiply by a thousand, and you have a substantially worse productivity environment (unless you're a software developer 100% of the time, which I'm not).

nizmow 8y ago
Regarding the VNC point in your post, I’ve experimented with this a whole lot in recent times getting a good remote desktop solution going. TigerVNC server, using its embedded X server, plus the TigerVNC viewer, work absolutely perfectly. Even including the viewer supporting proper dual head, resizing, switching and all. Of course, if you want to use your existing X server it might not work as well, I haven’t tried it. For most of the rest of your complaints, I use web apps for everything, even on OS X / Windows. Sad at the state of native apps on both Windows and Linux.
- GlenTheMachine 8y ago
  I can't use web apps. My org doesn't allow any proprietary data to exist on the cloud.
lallysingh 8y ago
#s 1 and 2 are hardware. I genuinely haven't had those problems in ~4 thinkpads I've used over the years that have been linux-only. Linux is a lot easier on g-suite enterprises than in exchange/office ones. Considering how much of the latter's going online now, maybe it won't matter at all later.
izacus 8y ago
Considering the problems... were you actually trying to run Linux on a MacBook, which is pretty much a full proprietary, non-documented platform with bunch of Apple proprietary and undocumented power management controllers?
- GlenTheMachine 8y ago
  No. Dell XPS 15.

fareesh 8y ago

I would not use it on a laptop, but it my OS of choice for my desktop. Battery life, wifi, power management, etc. are all terrible. On Desktop, almost none of those things matter enough.