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It's like asking me asking you why I would drive a Mercedes over my BMW. How would you know? All you could do is to list a million things that are different on

It's like asking me asking you why I would drive a Mercedes over my BMW. How would you know? All you could do is to list a million things that are different on a Mercedes compared to a BMW and then claim every one of those differences makes a Merc better. Is that what you expect to get as replies to your question?

mrkramer 4y ago
For a casual user who uses computer for work and gaming I would go with Windows. People say Linux is free and open source, more secure and you get privacy but is it really worth it? Idk.
- danielheath 4y ago
  To me, Linux means having the option of a system that lacks distractions. That’s a drastic ux improvement for me personally; IMO windows UX peaked with 2000, and XP was nearly as good. I haven’t played much multiplayer anything (a little MTGa, among us, tabletop simulator and beat saber) but none of the single player games I’ve tried on Ubuntu have had any issues; just open steam and press play. Windows started pushing f2p games in the start menu, changed UI toolkits twice in two generations, etc; it’s become unpleasant for me to use. Apple have similarly dropped the ball on UX in the past 5 years. IMO Linux UX has caught up thanks to those companies failures.
  - gps0 4y ago
    What are some DEs / window managers you think are quite simple and let you focus?
    - danielheath 4y ago
      I’m using classic i3, with a nearly stock config. I have a key binding to start a launcher (in lieu of a start button). I3bar to indicate which workspaces have new chat messages etc. Default black background, all non-critical notifications disabled; I get distracted easily, so I craft an environment that avoids distractions.
      - omnimus 4y ago
        simple window manager - how can you say i3?! most people wouldnt know how to do anything in there
        danielheath 4y ago
        Most window managers are easy, but not simple. i3 is simple, but not easy. In general, I'd prefer to have something both simple and easy, but in most cases that's not an option.
    - freeone3000 4y ago
      Xfce is nice.
- paranoidrobot 4y ago
  I was a long time Windows user. Since the 3.11 days. Windows was originally very much "You do you". Outside of Domain-joined machines, it was much more of a suggestion to update. Thing would update when you restarted/shut down. A basic Windows install had some basic tools and utilities, but they largely didn't push things on you - and once you had set preferences, that was that. Then Windows 8/10/11 came around. Ads through the UI. A half-dozen or more sponsored bits (both 3rd party and their own other products). You'd log in one day and find they'd installed some other piece of crap. Features were disappearing behind the Microsoft Store. You'd try and set up a machine, and it'd play stupid games about "Oh, you need a Microsoft Account to log in", hiding/removing options to skip if it detected an internet connection. You'd install Chrome or Firefox, and it would beg and whine. They changed up how you set browser preferences twice, to deliberately make it harder to switch. It would "helpfully" reset browser preferences back to Edge "for security". Updates were force-installed, regardless of whether you wanted to. I remember being at a conference and hearing from maybe a half-dozen presenters who'd all had Windows push an update during the conference. Some it was just before they were about to present. Some had their machine sitting in it's various phases of Updating for an hour or more. Some had Windows reset a bunch of other preferences/configuration, and fuck up demos they had planed. For me, the security and privacy benefits are secondary to "Let me use the machine that I'm paying for". Ubuntu/Pop_OS might prompt me to install updates, but I've never had it tell me I have 15 minutes before it is going to force applying updates, 5 minutes before I'm supposed to join a meeting. Ubuntu might have some sponsored bits, but they're gone when you remove them. The end of Windows 7 was the end of me using Windows, because I just can't trust the OS to do what I want, when I want. This isn't just me, either - I've converted three other non-techie folks over to Ubuntu, too - all they did was stuff in Chrome and the occasional bit of printing. They had similar issues with Windows forcing changes on them that they didn't want. Multiple times I'd had to reset browser settings, because Windows decided that Edge was better. So Edge imported their contacts, but not the Chrome apps and couldn't sync passwords to the Google Passwords service.

mrkramer 4y ago

For a casual user who uses computer for work and gaming I would go with Windows. People say Linux is free and open source, more secure and you get privacy but is it really worth it? Idk.

danielheath 4y ago
To me, Linux means having the option of a system that lacks distractions. That’s a drastic ux improvement for me personally; IMO windows UX peaked with 2000, and XP was nearly as good. I haven’t played much multiplayer anything (a little MTGa, among us, tabletop simulator and beat saber) but none of the single player games I’ve tried on Ubuntu have had any issues; just open steam and press play. Windows started pushing f2p games in the start menu, changed UI toolkits twice in two generations, etc; it’s become unpleasant for me to use. Apple have similarly dropped the ball on UX in the past 5 years. IMO Linux UX has caught up thanks to those companies failures.
- gps0 4y ago
  What are some DEs / window managers you think are quite simple and let you focus?
  - danielheath 4y ago
    I’m using classic i3, with a nearly stock config. I have a key binding to start a launcher (in lieu of a start button). I3bar to indicate which workspaces have new chat messages etc. Default black background, all non-critical notifications disabled; I get distracted easily, so I craft an environment that avoids distractions.
    - omnimus 4y ago
      simple window manager - how can you say i3?! most people wouldnt know how to do anything in there
      - danielheath 4y ago
        Most window managers are easy, but not simple. i3 is simple, but not easy. In general, I'd prefer to have something both simple and easy, but in most cases that's not an option.
  - freeone3000 4y ago
    Xfce is nice.
paranoidrobot 4y ago
I was a long time Windows user. Since the 3.11 days. Windows was originally very much "You do you". Outside of Domain-joined machines, it was much more of a suggestion to update. Thing would update when you restarted/shut down. A basic Windows install had some basic tools and utilities, but they largely didn't push things on you - and once you had set preferences, that was that. Then Windows 8/10/11 came around. Ads through the UI. A half-dozen or more sponsored bits (both 3rd party and their own other products). You'd log in one day and find they'd installed some other piece of crap. Features were disappearing behind the Microsoft Store. You'd try and set up a machine, and it'd play stupid games about "Oh, you need a Microsoft Account to log in", hiding/removing options to skip if it detected an internet connection. You'd install Chrome or Firefox, and it would beg and whine. They changed up how you set browser preferences twice, to deliberately make it harder to switch. It would "helpfully" reset browser preferences back to Edge "for security". Updates were force-installed, regardless of whether you wanted to. I remember being at a conference and hearing from maybe a half-dozen presenters who'd all had Windows push an update during the conference. Some it was just before they were about to present. Some had their machine sitting in it's various phases of Updating for an hour or more. Some had Windows reset a bunch of other preferences/configuration, and fuck up demos they had planed. For me, the security and privacy benefits are secondary to "Let me use the machine that I'm paying for". Ubuntu/Pop_OS might prompt me to install updates, but I've never had it tell me I have 15 minutes before it is going to force applying updates, 5 minutes before I'm supposed to join a meeting. Ubuntu might have some sponsored bits, but they're gone when you remove them. The end of Windows 7 was the end of me using Windows, because I just can't trust the OS to do what I want, when I want. This isn't just me, either - I've converted three other non-techie folks over to Ubuntu, too - all they did was stuff in Chrome and the occasional bit of printing. They had similar issues with Windows forcing changes on them that they didn't want. Multiple times I'd had to reset browser settings, because Windows decided that Edge was better. So Edge imported their contacts, but not the Chrome apps and couldn't sync passwords to the Google Passwords service.