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Generally unpolished quirkiness that requires time and attention to resolve. For example, in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free b

Generally unpolished quirkiness that requires time and attention to resolve. For example, in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free browser scrolling despite hours of fussing with X11 and compositor settings or graphics drivers. Or how my default file associations change unbidden all the time, frequently to poor choices like GIMP to open a JPEG. And more recently Internet Explorer through WINE for no clear reason. I try every two years or so to daily drive Linux on my personal desktop. Between these kinds of rough edges and running CAD tools, I inevitably eventually go back to Windows no matter how much I enjoy my terminal emulator options in Linux.

fsflover 5y ago
> in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free browser scrolling Sounds like a hardware/driver problem. How is this a fault of Linux? I guess your hardware came with Windows and the vendor never cared about Linux support.
- zbrozek 5y ago
  I've had a lot of hardware over ten years, including workstations issued by my employer that were engineered for first-class Linux support. The problem is never ubiquitous - sometimes it's just one browser and not another. Further, this is just one example of dozens of rough edges that may-or-may-not be present on any given setup. Lots of people aren't visually sensitive enough to even notice. I've had to point to specific regions of the screen and describe the shape of the tear to get observers to be able to recognize them. But your comment sort of makes the point for me. Hardware support and drivers (especially in-kernel ones) are absolutely a reason to judge an OS for suitability for desktop use. I run Arch on all my servers and it's great. But I struggle to get an acceptable user experience on the desktop. There are, of course, tons of other rough edges. Inconsistent input grabbing behavior across desktop environments (KDE not working properly with Remmina, for example), volume controls being difficult to use or having strange response curves, compositors hanging on monitor reconnect, infinite audio and video decoding issues, etc etc etc. Sure, each of these is individually surmountable at the cost of some hours of searching the intertubes and fussing at the command line. But then you end up with a magic snowflake installation that is brittle and you're down a bunch of time. Not worth it.
- curtisblaine 5y ago
  Who cares whose fault is it? What counts, and what OP is talking about, is just the experience.
andor 5y ago
For example, in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free browser scrolling As I understand, making something completely tear-free is impossible with X11, which is one of the reasons for Wayland.

fsflover 5y ago

> in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free browser scrolling Sounds like a hardware/driver problem. How is this a fault of Linux? I guess your hardware came with Windows and the vendor never cared about Linux support.

zbrozek 5y ago
I've had a lot of hardware over ten years, including workstations issued by my employer that were engineered for first-class Linux support. The problem is never ubiquitous - sometimes it's just one browser and not another. Further, this is just one example of dozens of rough edges that may-or-may-not be present on any given setup. Lots of people aren't visually sensitive enough to even notice. I've had to point to specific regions of the screen and describe the shape of the tear to get observers to be able to recognize them. But your comment sort of makes the point for me. Hardware support and drivers (especially in-kernel ones) are absolutely a reason to judge an OS for suitability for desktop use. I run Arch on all my servers and it's great. But I struggle to get an acceptable user experience on the desktop. There are, of course, tons of other rough edges. Inconsistent input grabbing behavior across desktop environments (KDE not working properly with Remmina, for example), volume controls being difficult to use or having strange response curves, compositors hanging on monitor reconnect, infinite audio and video decoding issues, etc etc etc. Sure, each of these is individually surmountable at the cost of some hours of searching the intertubes and fussing at the command line. But then you end up with a magic snowflake installation that is brittle and you're down a bunch of time. Not worth it.
curtisblaine 5y ago
Who cares whose fault is it? What counts, and what OP is talking about, is just the experience.

andor 5y ago

For example, in ten years of using Linux at work I've never experienced tear-free browser scrolling As I understand, making something completely tear-free is impossible with X11, which is one of the reasons for Wayland.