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Well, no, it's not the Linux of 2000, it's worse than that, because it's closed source. The GNU/Linux (e.g. the ecosystem) of 2019 is really fantastic. It keep

Well, no, it's not the Linux of 2000, it's worse than that, because it's closed source. The GNU/Linux (e.g. the ecosystem) of 2019 is really fantastic. It keeps on getting better, and better, and better. There may be a few missteps, maybe you don't like GNOME 3, but you can still use Xfce, or KDE, or LXDE, or i3 or whatever else if you want, no-one is stopping you. By contrast, if Apple or Microsoft update the OS and make it wanky in some way you're SOL. It honestly boggles my mind that professional software developers tolerate that kind of stuff. I guess if you're a web dev or you're 20 years deep into a career in a specific stack the benefits outweigh the costs. I'm probably coming up on 15 years of *nix now. I do look back sometimes. It's universally terrible.

yawgmoth 7y ago
Earlier this year I purchased a fairly pricey Asus laptop. A few months in the wireless card appeared to commit seppuku so I reinstalled the drivers, no dice, reinstalled windows, no dice and now my touchpad was broken. Every driver failed to affect any device, so I installed the latest Ubuntu and it all 'just worked', including the keyboard backlight. When I explained this to ASUS support they said the hardware must be faulty and my only option is to send the laptop in. That is ostensibly not true as Ubuntu can't magically repair hardware failures. Meanwhile my other Windows box restarts every night, but fails to apply updates, so every time I use it I am greeted with that failure and no insight or path to success.
- dheelus 7y ago
  I had this happen to my Dell XPS 15 about 2 years back. It was a year old at the time so still under warranty. Dell said it was a hardware failure and I had to return it. IT issued me a new Precision 5520 that has worked really well since.
- gimboland 7y ago
  "Ostensibly" doesn't mean what you think it means here.
bluegreyred 7y ago
As somebody on a 2015 15" MBP looking to make the switch, how do you deal with things like Word/Excel documents or updating the firmware of IOT things (not mine but those of relatives) that only offer proprietary Windows and Mac updaters/installers? Do you just spin up a KVM and pass through USB, or use a separate computer? These edge cases (and the uneasy feeling that there are many others that I won't discover until I make the switch) are the main reasons holding me back at the moment. The lack of interoperability because Linux is not an established consumer OS (yet).
- iwalton3 7y ago
  Im my case, I use Crossover and a VM. They work well for my use cases. > Word/Excel documents I run Office 2010 in Crossover, which works very well. (I have a copy of 2016 as well, but it is slower.) You can also try WPS office, which does a decent job of handling Office documents. > updating the firmware of IOT things I have a Windows VM and I use USB passthrough for things like iTunes. I usually use it less than once a month.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    59 EUR for a year of non-commercial usage [1] is steep IMO. [1] https://www.codeweavers.com/store https://www.codeweavers.com/store
    - iwalton3 7y ago
      I've never liked how much Crossover costs to stay on the latest version. I only pay for an upgrade when if it breaks. (You can use the last version you payed for indefinitely.) They also will occasionally have discounts. Prior to having CrossOver, I used PlayOnLinux. When I last used it, Office 2010 worked, but had some issues such as fonts not being embedded in exported PDF files. It may also be possible to install Office through Steam, which has the Proton compatibility layer based on Crossover. There is some information on using Proton for non-steam games here: https://streamable.com/pukwz https://streamable.com/pukwz Of course, Crossover is just an enterprise supported version of Wine, so you could probably get Office working in plain Wine, but the automated setup support a tool like Crossover or PlayOnLinux provides makes it significantly easier to get things working without unusual and difficult to troubleshoot issues.

yawgmoth 7y ago

Earlier this year I purchased a fairly pricey Asus laptop. A few months in the wireless card appeared to commit seppuku so I reinstalled the drivers, no dice, reinstalled windows, no dice and now my touchpad was broken. Every driver failed to affect any device, so I installed the latest Ubuntu and it all 'just worked', including the keyboard backlight. When I explained this to ASUS support they said the hardware must be faulty and my only option is to send the laptop in. That is ostensibly not true as Ubuntu can't magically repair hardware failures. Meanwhile my other Windows box restarts every night, but fails to apply updates, so every time I use it I am greeted with that failure and no insight or path to success.

dheelus 7y ago
I had this happen to my Dell XPS 15 about 2 years back. It was a year old at the time so still under warranty. Dell said it was a hardware failure and I had to return it. IT issued me a new Precision 5520 that has worked really well since.
gimboland 7y ago
"Ostensibly" doesn't mean what you think it means here.

bluegreyred 7y ago

As somebody on a 2015 15" MBP looking to make the switch, how do you deal with things like Word/Excel documents or updating the firmware of IOT things (not mine but those of relatives) that only offer proprietary Windows and Mac updaters/installers? Do you just spin up a KVM and pass through USB, or use a separate computer? These edge cases (and the uneasy feeling that there are many others that I won't discover until I make the switch) are the main reasons holding me back at the moment. The lack of interoperability because Linux is not an established consumer OS (yet).

iwalton3 7y ago
Im my case, I use Crossover and a VM. They work well for my use cases. > Word/Excel documents I run Office 2010 in Crossover, which works very well. (I have a copy of 2016 as well, but it is slower.) You can also try WPS office, which does a decent job of handling Office documents. > updating the firmware of IOT things I have a Windows VM and I use USB passthrough for things like iTunes. I usually use it less than once a month.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  59 EUR for a year of non-commercial usage [1] is steep IMO. [1] https://www.codeweavers.com/store https://www.codeweavers.com/store
  - iwalton3 7y ago
    I've never liked how much Crossover costs to stay on the latest version. I only pay for an upgrade when if it breaks. (You can use the last version you payed for indefinitely.) They also will occasionally have discounts. Prior to having CrossOver, I used PlayOnLinux. When I last used it, Office 2010 worked, but had some issues such as fonts not being embedded in exported PDF files. It may also be possible to install Office through Steam, which has the Proton compatibility layer based on Crossover. There is some information on using Proton for non-steam games here: https://streamable.com/pukwz https://streamable.com/pukwz Of course, Crossover is just an enterprise supported version of Wine, so you could probably get Office working in plain Wine, but the automated setup support a tool like Crossover or PlayOnLinux provides makes it significantly easier to get things working without unusual and difficult to troubleshoot issues.