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Not even close. Take any typical distro and you find that none of the components are really designed to work with each other and so they all have the risk of fa

Not even close. Take any typical distro and you find that none of the components are really designed to work with each other and so they all have the risk of failing in different ways. What that means in reality is that you are now mentally managing all these components instead of just the OS as a whole. For example, a window manager in Ubuntu crashing due to an NVIDIA driver, at the same time the USB drive containing a potential fix cannot be mounted due to some random problem with the USB stack. Once you figure this out and get your GUI back, attempts to adjust settings cause more headaches when your specific Ubuntu variant has renamed all the tools for no real reason and you are left hunting for the specific toggle only to eventually discover it is not exposed so you are relegated to editing some random config file. All of this just leads you to lose confidence that your system is ever really stable. You start to get an underlying worry that at any moment, a wrong button click or the wrong app will break something in your system. You wonder how after 10 years they still cannot understand how to QA this thing. Releases do not get linearly or exponentially better but are a checkerboard of random issues being fixed whole other new issues are created. Contrast that with Windows 8: Take Windows 7, enhance performance + add a easily skippable start screen. You still have the comfort and confidence of a solid OS (Win7) but with a different background. I can live with that.

ubercow13 6y ago
I agree that stuff sounds annoying but I don't think Windows is much fundamentally better like you are implying it is. Almost every point you make can basically also apply to Windows. > USB drive containing a potential fix cannot be mounted due to some random problem with the USB stack Driver stuff also breaks on Windows, for example I did have a new laptop where the Intel Wifi card would always stop working after an hour or so with no way to diagnose the problem, due to bad drivers presumably. > your specific Ubuntu variant has renamed all the tools Have you not noticed how all the new settings dialogs since they started trying to deprecate Control Panel have piled up different interfaces for accessing the same settings, some of which don't have all the settings meaning you have to dig back in the old interfaces. Plenty of stuff on Windows you might want to change requires editing the registry. One difference on Windows is that Microsoft will probably overwrite that setting change randomly on a subsequent OS update. > after 10 years they still cannot understand how to QA this thing Do you not see the frequent articles about Windows 10 QA issues, there was one just the other day on HN front page for a while [1] > checkerboard of random issues being fixed whole other new issues are created Sounds like every OS. See [1] [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2020/05/18/new-windows-10-update-deletes-files-causing-serious-problems-for-millions/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2020/05/18/new-wi...
- Answerawake 6y ago
  >Driver stuff also breaks on Windows, for example I did have a new laptop where the Intel Wifi card would always stop working after an hour or so with no way to diagnose the problem, due to bad drivers presumably. I tend to find that on a clean install pretty much every Windows machine I have encountered operates smoothly. I tend to stick to brands such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer. I guess with no name brands there is a chance the drivers are not up to snuff? Even then I find that most drivers these days are included via Windows 10's Update feature. They have been solid. Again, I am only comparing a clean install. Every year for the last 10 years I have found something that is system breaking in Linux. The example I cited was the most recent attempt to try the latest Ubuntu & Ubuntu mate distros. I go back and try again every year as a side project but I usually switch back to Mac in a day or so when I discover more problems. >Have you not noticed how all the new settings dialogs since they started trying to deprecate Control Panel have piled up different interfaces for accessing the same settings, some of which don't have all the settings meaning you have to dig back in the old interfaces. Plenty of stuff on Windows you might want to change requires editing the registry. One difference on Windows is that Microsoft will probably overwrite that setting change randomly on a subsequent OS update. Yes I have seen them but it hasn't been an issue for me as Control Panel is still there basically unchanged since Windows Vista. Thats ~13 years where I can feel confident that a toggle that I expected to be in a certain place has always been in that place. This shouldn't be changing so much in Linux or any OS. A toggle in a control panel is something you use once in a blue moon and forget about. Having to hunt down the toggle because it keeps changing just adds to frustration you don't need. >Do you not see the frequent articles about Windows 10 QA issues, there was one just the other day on HN front page for a while Windows has always had issues with updates and upgrades from old crumbly systems. I admit that. Mac seems to be the best at this. Linux fails on a clean install(my story was from a fresh clean install). It is not a fair comparison. In regards to the checkerboard comment, I'd like to add that you have to consider the severity of the issue. On Mac & Windows the majority of issues in a clean install have tended not to be severe system breaking issues in my experience. In Linux the system breaking issues(like the ones I describe) are fixed and replaced by totally different system breaking issues. This is a important distinction because it raises the amount of tolerance required to keep using the OS.

ubercow13 6y ago

I agree that stuff sounds annoying but I don't think Windows is much fundamentally better like you are implying it is. Almost every point you make can basically also apply to Windows. > USB drive containing a potential fix cannot be mounted due to some random problem with the USB stack Driver stuff also breaks on Windows, for example I did have a new laptop where the Intel Wifi card would always stop working after an hour or so with no way to diagnose the problem, due to bad drivers presumably. > your specific Ubuntu variant has renamed all the tools Have you not noticed how all the new settings dialogs since they started trying to deprecate Control Panel have piled up different interfaces for accessing the same settings, some of which don't have all the settings meaning you have to dig back in the old interfaces. Plenty of stuff on Windows you might want to change requires editing the registry. One difference on Windows is that Microsoft will probably overwrite that setting change randomly on a subsequent OS update. > after 10 years they still cannot understand how to QA this thing Do you not see the frequent articles about Windows 10 QA issues, there was one just the other day on HN front page for a while [1] > checkerboard of random issues being fixed whole other new issues are created Sounds like every OS. See [1] [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2020/05/18/new-windows-10-update-deletes-files-causing-serious-problems-for-millions/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2020/05/18/new-wi...

Answerawake 6y ago
>Driver stuff also breaks on Windows, for example I did have a new laptop where the Intel Wifi card would always stop working after an hour or so with no way to diagnose the problem, due to bad drivers presumably. I tend to find that on a clean install pretty much every Windows machine I have encountered operates smoothly. I tend to stick to brands such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer. I guess with no name brands there is a chance the drivers are not up to snuff? Even then I find that most drivers these days are included via Windows 10's Update feature. They have been solid. Again, I am only comparing a clean install. Every year for the last 10 years I have found something that is system breaking in Linux. The example I cited was the most recent attempt to try the latest Ubuntu & Ubuntu mate distros. I go back and try again every year as a side project but I usually switch back to Mac in a day or so when I discover more problems. >Have you not noticed how all the new settings dialogs since they started trying to deprecate Control Panel have piled up different interfaces for accessing the same settings, some of which don't have all the settings meaning you have to dig back in the old interfaces. Plenty of stuff on Windows you might want to change requires editing the registry. One difference on Windows is that Microsoft will probably overwrite that setting change randomly on a subsequent OS update. Yes I have seen them but it hasn't been an issue for me as Control Panel is still there basically unchanged since Windows Vista. Thats ~13 years where I can feel confident that a toggle that I expected to be in a certain place has always been in that place. This shouldn't be changing so much in Linux or any OS. A toggle in a control panel is something you use once in a blue moon and forget about. Having to hunt down the toggle because it keeps changing just adds to frustration you don't need. >Do you not see the frequent articles about Windows 10 QA issues, there was one just the other day on HN front page for a while Windows has always had issues with updates and upgrades from old crumbly systems. I admit that. Mac seems to be the best at this. Linux fails on a clean install(my story was from a fresh clean install). It is not a fair comparison. In regards to the checkerboard comment, I'd like to add that you have to consider the severity of the issue. On Mac & Windows the majority of issues in a clean install have tended not to be severe system breaking issues in my experience. In Linux the system breaking issues(like the ones I describe) are fixed and replaced by totally different system breaking issues. This is a important distinction because it raises the amount of tolerance required to keep using the OS.