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> Just switch to Linux already. I did this. Again. After running Linux as my main desktop OS from about 1992 - 1999, and some years since then. > It's real

> Just switch to Linux already. I did this. Again. After running Linux as my main desktop OS from about 1992 - 1999, and some years since then. > It's really there. Some compromises required, sure, but they are already far and between. I'm not sure about that, and borderline disagree. There are a lot of compromises: - The Linux desktop is far flakier and far less elegant than Windows and especially macOS. KDE's a little less flakey than GNOME, I suppose. - A lot of the apps you love don't exist on Linux. - The Linux replacements for the apps you love are way less functional. - Keyboard shortcuts are chaotic unless you spend a lot of time deep diving on how to configure them coherently across applications. - Odd behaviors with snap/flatpak apps, but those will get worked out with time. Pluses: - The underlying Linux OS is rock stable with compatible hardware. - You can customize your desktop pretty much infinitely, if that's your thing. - Everything is free. - Logging is, compared to macOS and Windows, excellent. - If you're a developer, everything is more compatible on Linux. Anyways, after a year, I went crawling back to my Mac. I still have a Linux desktop SSD in the PC, ready to go, but I rarely pop in anymore. That said, if you live the terminals plus browser lifestyle, you won't miss much switching to Linux desktop. Edit: for context, I used UNIX and Linux way before I ever used Windows or DOS. I have, in the past, done deep dives on Windows, Windows kernel, Windows and .net programming, etc. I just prefer *NIX.

firebaze 3y ago
Let's just agree to disagree. I grew up with Windows, learnt programming on it, was C++ proficient, COM, COM+, switched to C#, .NET, WinForms, WPF ... and that was when it got too much. If you know Windows, you probably can at least feel why. I earned quite a lot of money with Windows. I had tons of apps on Windows, and all alternatives on Linux are better to me (IntelliJ vs. Visual Studio, VS Code the same, CodeLion). I had a MacOS stint in the middle of the transition, so maybe that's a difference. But still: I'm not you, you are not me, and that's okay. I'm just proof that it is probably subjective, and not objective, what you describe. And regarding the desktop OS experience: couldn't disagree more. But, as already said, probably taste :)
- lstamour 3y ago
  If Adobe or Serif announced Linux support, I’d switch in a heartbeat. I was about to add DaVinci Resolve to that list, but they actually released official Linux support, so I can cross some video editing off my list. And one presumes all web-based tools such as Figma also work well on Linux these days, so… the list of tools that aren’t Linux compatible might be vanishingly small now. But not zero, sadly.
  - firebaze 3y ago
    Figma works perfectly on Linux¹. If you don't believe me, let's privately talk. E-Mail me at glitch@qygge.com, if you like. ¹ our (sub-orga-wide) UX crew uses MacOS, almost all Devs use Linux, and both of them use Figma
  - init2null 3y ago
    Too many dev commenters will hand-wave away complaints about graphics work on Linux. Bitmap and vector graphics are terrible, and I have tried the options. RAW photo editing is mediocre. Font rendering and color management has always been behind. When I switched to a Mac, it wasn't that MacOS got vastly better. It was that Windows has been getting dramatically worse. I that being said, Resolve and Blender on Linux can nicely serve subsets of the creative community. We just need more.
- runjake 3y ago
  My hope is to find a viable enough setup to return to Linux, preferably on a modular component, unified memory ARM64 architecture of some sort, but I'm flexible.
jacquesm 3y ago
It's just what you're used to. I wouldn't be able to get through my day on a windows box, I'd be so frustrated. A lot of the apps that I love don't exist on windows. Unix vs windows is like a very large and well stocked toolbox versus a set of nail clippers and a bent hairpin.
- runjake 3y ago
  I agree. I did hold out for a year on modern Linux desktop, but I think the relative elegance of macOS has ruined me, I think. At some point in the next year or two, I plan to re-dogfood Linux desktop with i3 or Sway, as I effectively work in a tiled arrangement and it's far more stable than GNOME. I don't really use Windows, but when I do, I'm pretty much in a web browser or WSL. I don't have much interest in the rest of it anymore, especially with the ruination Microsoft is committing. While I've done a lot of Windows programming and PowerShell and whatnot, I'm a UNIX native, I'm old, and I'm sticking with some variant of it until EOL.
pmontra 3y ago
> A lot of the apps you love don't exist on Linux. About this point, I switched to Ubuntu in 2009 after I realized that all the apps I was using in Windows XP were open source and available on Linux too. Some of them were actually Linux native and were much faster there, example: Gimp.

firebaze 3y ago

Let's just agree to disagree. I grew up with Windows, learnt programming on it, was C++ proficient, COM, COM+, switched to C#, .NET, WinForms, WPF ... and that was when it got too much. If you know Windows, you probably can at least feel why. I earned quite a lot of money with Windows. I had tons of apps on Windows, and all alternatives on Linux are better to me (IntelliJ vs. Visual Studio, VS Code the same, CodeLion). I had a MacOS stint in the middle of the transition, so maybe that's a difference. But still: I'm not you, you are not me, and that's okay. I'm just proof that it is probably subjective, and not objective, what you describe. And regarding the desktop OS experience: couldn't disagree more. But, as already said, probably taste :)

lstamour 3y ago
If Adobe or Serif announced Linux support, I’d switch in a heartbeat. I was about to add DaVinci Resolve to that list, but they actually released official Linux support, so I can cross some video editing off my list. And one presumes all web-based tools such as Figma also work well on Linux these days, so… the list of tools that aren’t Linux compatible might be vanishingly small now. But not zero, sadly.
- firebaze 3y ago
  Figma works perfectly on Linux¹. If you don't believe me, let's privately talk. E-Mail me at glitch@qygge.com, if you like. ¹ our (sub-orga-wide) UX crew uses MacOS, almost all Devs use Linux, and both of them use Figma
- init2null 3y ago
  Too many dev commenters will hand-wave away complaints about graphics work on Linux. Bitmap and vector graphics are terrible, and I have tried the options. RAW photo editing is mediocre. Font rendering and color management has always been behind. When I switched to a Mac, it wasn't that MacOS got vastly better. It was that Windows has been getting dramatically worse. I that being said, Resolve and Blender on Linux can nicely serve subsets of the creative community. We just need more.
runjake 3y ago
My hope is to find a viable enough setup to return to Linux, preferably on a modular component, unified memory ARM64 architecture of some sort, but I'm flexible.

jacquesm 3y ago

It's just what you're used to. I wouldn't be able to get through my day on a windows box, I'd be so frustrated. A lot of the apps that I love don't exist on windows. Unix vs windows is like a very large and well stocked toolbox versus a set of nail clippers and a bent hairpin.

runjake 3y ago
I agree. I did hold out for a year on modern Linux desktop, but I think the relative elegance of macOS has ruined me, I think. At some point in the next year or two, I plan to re-dogfood Linux desktop with i3 or Sway, as I effectively work in a tiled arrangement and it's far more stable than GNOME. I don't really use Windows, but when I do, I'm pretty much in a web browser or WSL. I don't have much interest in the rest of it anymore, especially with the ruination Microsoft is committing. While I've done a lot of Windows programming and PowerShell and whatnot, I'm a UNIX native, I'm old, and I'm sticking with some variant of it until EOL.

pmontra 3y ago

> A lot of the apps you love don't exist on Linux. About this point, I switched to Ubuntu in 2009 after I realized that all the apps I was using in Windows XP were open source and available on Linux too. Some of them were actually Linux native and were much faster there, example: Gimp.