4 ms·

Ever since WSL2, Windows has been objectively the best desktop os (with the only caveat that you have to have the pro version which lets you disable a bunch of

Ever since WSL2, Windows has been objectively the best desktop os (with the only caveat that you have to have the pro version which lets you disable a bunch of the annoying stuff, and disabling that stuff takes a little bit of tweaking). You get the advantage of having all the software that doesn't work under linux, while having a linux dev environment that works very well even with Cuda for ML.

kbolino 3y ago
Getting WSL2 working just right can still be an unnecessarily complicated process. And the Home versions of Windows do indeed suck for power users. But Windows will generally support every monitor and resolution/scale well which can't be said of Linux (which struggles with hidpi) or macOS (which can't do fractional scaling and has blurry fonts on lodpi).
justinclift 3y ago
But you still get the forced ads and any other related monetisation crap they can think of too yeah?
- jrepinc 3y ago
  And all the spyware. No thanks. Windows not respecting basic human rights like privacy is just a big no no.
  - ActorNightly 3y ago
    I mean, if you use any popular software from big companies, you really don't have privacy either. Microsoft is no different. Its not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
    - jlpcsl 3y ago
      Does not make it less of a crime and big deal if more evil corporations do it. If anything it makes it even more of a big deal and more concerning.
      - ActorNightly 3y ago
        Thats a separate topic. The issue is that people claim that Microsoft does not respect privacy, while [insert their favorite electronic brand here] does.
- ActorNightly 3y ago
  I dont know if you can do this on the home edition, but on the pro edition you can basically set the login to the local computer instead of logging in with microsoft account, and it disables pretty much most of the stuff.
linuxandrew 3y ago
Ever since Proton and Wine, Linux has been objectively the best desktop os. You get the advantage of having all the software that doesn't work under windows, while having a windows dev environment that works very well even with Cuda for ML. FTFY
- ActorNightly 3y ago
  The issue with that setup is that it takes a lot more to get it to work, and its never a guarantee. I used to run Solidworks under Wine and it took some researching to setup. Proton has gotten better, but when a game releases, its never really a guarantee that it will work right out of a box. Some of the games that are 4 years old at this point are still silver. Whereas if you go with Windows and WSL2, everything just works with a lot less setup. WSL2 also has an x server now, which means graphical applications work under Windows. For laptops, linux is the way to go because of i3wm, nothing as good as that exists for mac or windows, and because they are more resource constrained, you can do more tinkering and disable a bunch of things to speed up the system. For desktops however, the only reason I want linux is to do development, which pretty much only requires a file system and a linux terminal, which WSL2 with VSCode Remote SSH extension provides fully.

kbolino 3y ago

Getting WSL2 working just right can still be an unnecessarily complicated process. And the Home versions of Windows do indeed suck for power users. But Windows will generally support every monitor and resolution/scale well which can't be said of Linux (which struggles with hidpi) or macOS (which can't do fractional scaling and has blurry fonts on lodpi).

justinclift 3y ago

But you still get the forced ads and any other related monetisation crap they can think of too yeah?

jrepinc 3y ago
And all the spyware. No thanks. Windows not respecting basic human rights like privacy is just a big no no.
- ActorNightly 3y ago
  I mean, if you use any popular software from big companies, you really don't have privacy either. Microsoft is no different. Its not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
  - jlpcsl 3y ago
    Does not make it less of a crime and big deal if more evil corporations do it. If anything it makes it even more of a big deal and more concerning.
    - ActorNightly 3y ago
      Thats a separate topic. The issue is that people claim that Microsoft does not respect privacy, while [insert their favorite electronic brand here] does.
ActorNightly 3y ago
I dont know if you can do this on the home edition, but on the pro edition you can basically set the login to the local computer instead of logging in with microsoft account, and it disables pretty much most of the stuff.

linuxandrew 3y ago

Ever since Proton and Wine, Linux has been objectively the best desktop os. You get the advantage of having all the software that doesn't work under windows, while having a windows dev environment that works very well even with Cuda for ML. FTFY

ActorNightly 3y ago
The issue with that setup is that it takes a lot more to get it to work, and its never a guarantee. I used to run Solidworks under Wine and it took some researching to setup. Proton has gotten better, but when a game releases, its never really a guarantee that it will work right out of a box. Some of the games that are 4 years old at this point are still silver. Whereas if you go with Windows and WSL2, everything just works with a lot less setup. WSL2 also has an x server now, which means graphical applications work under Windows. For laptops, linux is the way to go because of i3wm, nothing as good as that exists for mac or windows, and because they are more resource constrained, you can do more tinkering and disable a bunch of things to speed up the system. For desktops however, the only reason I want linux is to do development, which pretty much only requires a file system and a linux terminal, which WSL2 with VSCode Remote SSH extension provides fully.