6 ms·

My experience aligns far more with parent's than yours. The Linux Desktop experience is still pretty garbage.

by AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

symlinkk 6y ago
Let’s hear some specific examples.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  Installing software that isn't in your distro's repo, either because it is too new, too old, or was just never adopted by a maintainer, is usually a pain in the ass. Software routinely requires tiresome google searches that largely land you in out of date non-documentation in order to get basic functionality (like say, drag and drop) working. Getting help from the community is basically impossible because whatever you're trying to do you're "using the wrong software/distro" or "don't really want that". Oh yeah, and any time you bring up these sort of things someone like you shows up to do their damnedest to dismiss these complaints. Often by comparing these problems to similar problems in Windows, as though that is somehow changes anything.
Shared404 6y ago
I'm thinking it's been a few years, and/or you and the parent decided to install arch/gentoo instead of ubuntu/fedora.
- Firehawke 6y ago
  My experiences with Debian have been pretty clean outside of needing to pre-prepare the binary blob package for the ethernet and wifi drivers on the slightly older laptop that I wanted to install it on. This was expected due to Debian's stance on non-free packages on the install media. Pretty much any other modern distro install has gone 100% cleanly with no prep-work needed.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    That pretty closely matches my experiences as well. The only exception is that my first experience with Linux on something other than a raspberry pi was an optimus laptop. NVIDIA issues aside, I've never had any issues with using a desktop oriented distro as a desktop. Way fewer issues than I've had with Windows.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  Maybe Linux would get wider adoption if its evangelists weren't so condescending? Maybe instead of assuming everyone who's had a bad experience with your OS must be missing something obvious, you should give the benefit of the doubt? Until earlier this year I ran Lubuntu on 4/5 of the PCs I own. I've tried other distros but that one worked the best for me and it was still a giant pain in the ass. There's only 1 Linux PC left in my fleet now and it is mostly because I haven't turned it on in 6 months.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    You are of course correct. I'm sorry about my outburst. I've had too many experiences with "Haha linux on desktop bad nerd haha" people, and let it get to me. I apologize.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      Not sure if the replier was only specifically talking to you. I don’t like Linux [on the desktop]. Most responses in geekier online communities do seem to be smug and/or assume you don’t know things. That was happening in this thread too outside of you. For reference, I too have spent a decent amount of time with Lubuntu. I doubt I’ll switch from Mac for foreseeable future.
      - Shared404 6y ago
        > Not sure if the replier was only specifically talking to you. > That was happening in this thread too outside of you. I was guilty of it as well though, and would rather accept responsibility and change than carry on perpetuating the current state of affairs.
julienfr112 6y ago
Here is an example : take an Intel nuc : Ubuntu, everything works out of box. Win10 ? Let's download a WiFi driver on Intel site ! Let's hope you have Ethernet or a windows 10 supported wifi device. And no, the wifi dongle lying around is too old, windows 7 only... What is your example ?
- yqot 6y ago
  Here's a counter example. Buy a thinkpad and try to put whatever distro you want on it.
  - likeclockwork 6y ago
    Have an X1 Yoga here with Arch on it, it was painless. Bought an X390 for my mom last year, tossed Ubuntu on it after putting in a larger NVMe. (she prefers to use a more 'mainstream' distro so she can follow tutorials to setup new dev environments for things she's tinkering with) Her Macbook Air is weighing down paper now.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      The Air is actually a quite good Ubuntu machine, I used it for several years, years ago.
  - unixhero 6y ago
    I just did. 202p Lenovo T490. Installed Linux Mint on all three of them, one for me and the rest for family members. Everything works out of the box
  - seanhunter 6y ago
    Have a thinkpad X1 Carbon Pro and have run fedora, ubuntu and Qubes OS on it at various points. Have Ubuntu on it now (as that's the distro my company wants everyone to use). In all of those distros the install has been completely trouble-free and everything works completely fine. Also I don't use wayland and don't have the scaling perf problem that someone else was talking about.
- 6y ago
Legogris 6y ago
My guess is the contrast in experience can come from difference in hardware. Drivers can be a big hassle for desktop if you're unlucky. Occasionally when I get new hardware that's not a laptop it can be frustrating with GPU or (curses) Bluetooth drivers. It's been improving a lot, though. Lenovo and Dell have really gotten better over the years. Funnily enough, Windows is going to phase out drivers from Windows Update, so I can see the scales shift.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  My pains with Linux rarely have to do with hardware. It is a gigantic complex incongruent mess of an operating system where software routinely requires hours of my time to make it work properly, google searches have a tendency to land you on 5 year old pages, which in Linux terms means they are now 3 major revisions out of date, and the community is full of condescending evangelists.

My experience aligns far more with parent's than yours. The Linux Desktop experience is still pretty garbage.

symlinkk 6y ago

Let’s hear some specific examples.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
Installing software that isn't in your distro's repo, either because it is too new, too old, or was just never adopted by a maintainer, is usually a pain in the ass. Software routinely requires tiresome google searches that largely land you in out of date non-documentation in order to get basic functionality (like say, drag and drop) working. Getting help from the community is basically impossible because whatever you're trying to do you're "using the wrong software/distro" or "don't really want that". Oh yeah, and any time you bring up these sort of things someone like you shows up to do their damnedest to dismiss these complaints. Often by comparing these problems to similar problems in Windows, as though that is somehow changes anything.

Shared404 6y ago

I'm thinking it's been a few years, and/or you and the parent decided to install arch/gentoo instead of ubuntu/fedora.

Firehawke 6y ago
My experiences with Debian have been pretty clean outside of needing to pre-prepare the binary blob package for the ethernet and wifi drivers on the slightly older laptop that I wanted to install it on. This was expected due to Debian's stance on non-free packages on the install media. Pretty much any other modern distro install has gone 100% cleanly with no prep-work needed.
- Shared404 6y ago
  That pretty closely matches my experiences as well. The only exception is that my first experience with Linux on something other than a raspberry pi was an optimus laptop. NVIDIA issues aside, I've never had any issues with using a desktop oriented distro as a desktop. Way fewer issues than I've had with Windows.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
Maybe Linux would get wider adoption if its evangelists weren't so condescending? Maybe instead of assuming everyone who's had a bad experience with your OS must be missing something obvious, you should give the benefit of the doubt? Until earlier this year I ran Lubuntu on 4/5 of the PCs I own. I've tried other distros but that one worked the best for me and it was still a giant pain in the ass. There's only 1 Linux PC left in my fleet now and it is mostly because I haven't turned it on in 6 months.
- Shared404 6y ago
  You are of course correct. I'm sorry about my outburst. I've had too many experiences with "Haha linux on desktop bad nerd haha" people, and let it get to me. I apologize.
  - skinnymuch 6y ago
    Not sure if the replier was only specifically talking to you. I don’t like Linux [on the desktop]. Most responses in geekier online communities do seem to be smug and/or assume you don’t know things. That was happening in this thread too outside of you. For reference, I too have spent a decent amount of time with Lubuntu. I doubt I’ll switch from Mac for foreseeable future.
    - Shared404 6y ago
      > Not sure if the replier was only specifically talking to you. > That was happening in this thread too outside of you. I was guilty of it as well though, and would rather accept responsibility and change than carry on perpetuating the current state of affairs.

julienfr112 6y ago

Here is an example : take an Intel nuc : Ubuntu, everything works out of box. Win10 ? Let's download a WiFi driver on Intel site ! Let's hope you have Ethernet or a windows 10 supported wifi device. And no, the wifi dongle lying around is too old, windows 7 only... What is your example ?

yqot 6y ago
Here's a counter example. Buy a thinkpad and try to put whatever distro you want on it.
- likeclockwork 6y ago
  Have an X1 Yoga here with Arch on it, it was painless. Bought an X390 for my mom last year, tossed Ubuntu on it after putting in a larger NVMe. (she prefers to use a more 'mainstream' distro so she can follow tutorials to setup new dev environments for things she's tinkering with) Her Macbook Air is weighing down paper now.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    The Air is actually a quite good Ubuntu machine, I used it for several years, years ago.
- unixhero 6y ago
  I just did. 202p Lenovo T490. Installed Linux Mint on all three of them, one for me and the rest for family members. Everything works out of the box
- seanhunter 6y ago
  Have a thinkpad X1 Carbon Pro and have run fedora, ubuntu and Qubes OS on it at various points. Have Ubuntu on it now (as that's the distro my company wants everyone to use). In all of those distros the install has been completely trouble-free and everything works completely fine. Also I don't use wayland and don't have the scaling perf problem that someone else was talking about.
6y ago

Legogris 6y ago

My guess is the contrast in experience can come from difference in hardware. Drivers can be a big hassle for desktop if you're unlucky. Occasionally when I get new hardware that's not a laptop it can be frustrating with GPU or (curses) Bluetooth drivers. It's been improving a lot, though. Lenovo and Dell have really gotten better over the years. Funnily enough, Windows is going to phase out drivers from Windows Update, so I can see the scales shift.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
My pains with Linux rarely have to do with hardware. It is a gigantic complex incongruent mess of an operating system where software routinely requires hours of my time to make it work properly, google searches have a tendency to land you on 5 year old pages, which in Linux terms means they are now 3 major revisions out of date, and the community is full of condescending evangelists.