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I'm definitely biased, on my private machines, GNU/Linux has been my OS of choice for more than twenty years now, except for ~3.5 years of using a Mac. Having

by krylon 5y ago

I'm definitely biased, on my private machines, GNU/Linux has been my OS of choice for more than twenty years now, except for ~3.5 years of using a Mac. Having said that, I really, really like MATE, especially because it doesn't change much. It's a great desktop, IMHO, so I want it to stay that way. Hardware/driver support is a bit flaky sometimes, but it's much better than it was 20 years ago. And having worked as a Windows admin for a couple of years, I know from first-hand experience Windows has its own share of problems, and personally, I am much happier with GNU/Linux.

xvilka 5y ago
It depends on hardware so much... I usually try to stick with Dell laptops because they often work more than others to test and improve the hardware support, but some laptops in the past worked out of the box just fine, for some laptops I filled 5 different kernel bugs and only 6 months later most were fixed. Thus it's kind of random.
criddell 5y ago
I like Linux just fine, but I could never get by with just Linux. There are too many other applications that I want to run that aren't available on Linux. Also, I'm a developer and none of my users are on Linux. That means I use Linux just for infrastructery-type stuff.
- okamiueru 5y ago
  It saddens me a bit that, mostly, the reason anyone wants or needs Windows is because of software exclusivity, which, by and large, has little to do with limitations or features of the os. I can only imagine how better off the world would be if all those resources were not spent on something proprietary. Maybe this is a unpopular opinion, certainly a subjective one, I'll admit. I'll add to it that I feel MacOS is probably the worst actor to this effect, as it scratches the "not-Windows" itch, while, to my experience also being a very underperforming OS. Software availability shouldn't be the deciding factor, and for all other things, you are mostly worse off these days.
  - criddell 5y ago
    > MacOS [...] a very underperforming OS In what way? I think it's pretty great and probably has the most interesting indie software choices. I always wonder why there's so little interesting software on the PC or Linux. Linux I get - the financial incentives are weak. But Windows has massive market share. Aside from games, I think it under performs when it comes to attracting developer talent. > you are mostly worse off these days I strongly disagree. All of the major operating systems are good enough these days. Each has their niche where they are the best choice. Different incentives drive the development of each. None is good at everything. I don't think it's necessarily a bad place to be.

by krylon 5y ago

xvilka 5y ago

It depends on hardware so much... I usually try to stick with Dell laptops because they often work more than others to test and improve the hardware support, but some laptops in the past worked out of the box just fine, for some laptops I filled 5 different kernel bugs and only 6 months later most were fixed. Thus it's kind of random.

criddell 5y ago

I like Linux just fine, but I could never get by with just Linux. There are too many other applications that I want to run that aren't available on Linux. Also, I'm a developer and none of my users are on Linux. That means I use Linux just for infrastructery-type stuff.

okamiueru 5y ago
It saddens me a bit that, mostly, the reason anyone wants or needs Windows is because of software exclusivity, which, by and large, has little to do with limitations or features of the os. I can only imagine how better off the world would be if all those resources were not spent on something proprietary. Maybe this is a unpopular opinion, certainly a subjective one, I'll admit. I'll add to it that I feel MacOS is probably the worst actor to this effect, as it scratches the "not-Windows" itch, while, to my experience also being a very underperforming OS. Software availability shouldn't be the deciding factor, and for all other things, you are mostly worse off these days.
- criddell 5y ago
  > MacOS [...] a very underperforming OS In what way? I think it's pretty great and probably has the most interesting indie software choices. I always wonder why there's so little interesting software on the PC or Linux. Linux I get - the financial incentives are weak. But Windows has massive market share. Aside from games, I think it under performs when it comes to attracting developer talent. > you are mostly worse off these days I strongly disagree. All of the major operating systems are good enough these days. Each has their niche where they are the best choice. Different incentives drive the development of each. None is good at everything. I don't think it's necessarily a bad place to be.