10 ms·
YMMV. I switched off of OSX as my primary machine around 2015 and moved to full time Linux. Just decided to commit and fully dove in. I tried several different
by brightball 3y ago
YMMV.
I switched off of OSX as my primary machine around 2015 and moved to full time Linux. Just decided to commit and fully dove in. I tried several different flavors for months at a time from Fedora to Ubuntu. Eventually I settled on PopOS.
I was really happy with everything up until my work shifted to management and spending > half my day on Zoom calls. For some reason, I periodically would have issues with peripherals. Picking the wrong mic, having to close and reopen Zoom, correct camera not working, etc. None of this is an issue if you're on a laptop but it regularly was a problem since I used my machine as a desktop all day.
I decided I finally need to get a machine with a beefy GPU this year with all of the LLM stuff happening (plus my son is getting into PC gaming) so I bought an Alienware desktop with Windows. First Windows computer I've owned since 2005. Now I have a 3 screen setup where my middle and left screen are the Windows computer, my fully loaded System76 Meerkat is on the right using Barrier and 99% of my development work is remote on that machine.
No issues with the peripherals for meetings on the Windows machine. Still greatly prefer the Linux machine for everything else but the reliability of knowing that my peripherals are going to work for meetings has been important. Plus, I started a tech podcast (Carolina Code Cast) and that's been important for all of the A/V that goes with it.
All that to say, there are tradeoffs. Eventually, I hope that Linux will have first class peripheral support. I'd like nothing more than to install it on this Alienware machine one day.
- Enginerrrd 3y ago>"For some reason, I periodically would have issues with peripherals. Picking the wrong mic, having to close and reopen Zoom, correct camera not working, etc.". This problem is probably even worse on windows for me, FYI.
- totallywrong 3y agoHave you tried a modern Fedora? I don't know about Alienware but for me in a wide range of laptops (including Intel Macbook Pros) hardware issues are a thing of the past.
- brightball 3y agoFor 90% of things I'd agree with you. When it was plugged into a USB hub that had a couple of cameras, mics and speakers there would be issues. It's entirely possible that the hub itself was a problem but it hasn't been an issue thus far with Windows. I _really_ hoped that WSL would be better than it is when I decided to try this. It's quirky.
- pipe01 3y agoHave you tried pipewire? It fixed some weird issues like the ones you mention for me
- brightball 3y agoI have not. Any good links?
- throw555chip 3y agoYes Google "Ubuntu 2022" or "Kubuntu 2022" if you prefer KDE (I do), install and run it, that's all you have to do.
- brightball 3y agoIn that case, the problem still exists. I was running the most recent PopOS (Ubuntu based) and it was still a problem.
- throw555chip 3y agoPopOS isn't from Canonical. Use Ubuntu or Kubuntu for a wonderful Linux Desktop experience. It's only worked for me since 2006.
- loufe 3y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- throw555chip 3y ago> Still greatly prefer the Linux machine for everything else but the reliability of knowing that my peripherals are going to work for meetings has been important. As a long time Ubuntu user, used to use Skype, now Teams, Google Meet, Google Voice (used to be Hangouts) and sometimes Zoom, I have had no issues, or no more than when work makes me use Windows, when using peripherals.