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> the year of Linux on the desktop It already happened: Windows + WSL2. Windows is the best linux distro.

by 0x457 2y ago

Rinzler89 2y ago
Eh, yes and no. Windows kernel plus it's backend features for security, emulation and virtualization, which enable things like WSL2 and backwards compatibility to work are great, but they're hampered by a crap front end with news, ads, web search in start menu, and dark patterns everywhere being forced down your throat like OneDrive holding your files ransom in the cloud if you don't pay attention or the failed push for the CallBack feature with unencrypted screenshots, or Windows Explorer being slow as shit due to it now running JavaScript code for some reason. All in all, I'm moving away from it to linux, as I don't like the direction Microsoft is taking, and learning to fix the rough edges of Linux will serve me better in my career than trying to keep up with and fight the dark pattern frog that Microsoft keeps boiling slowly. Mutahar on YouTube did a review of a leaked copy of Windows 11 Chinese Government edition which is Windows 11 Enterprise with everything non essential stripped out of it: no AI, no telemetry, no OneDrive, no ads, no news, no Edge, no media player, no web search in star menu, no defender, nothing, just the kernel, drivers, window manager and explorer, that's it, kind of like lightweight linux distros. If Microsoft would sell that to us consumers I would buy that in a heartbeat. But no, we get the adware and spyware version.
- 0x457 2y ago
  So on my main PC I have Windows 11 and NixOS. I don't remember the last time I've rebooted to linux. Simply because, thanks to home-manager, my terminal experience is identical between nixos in WSL2 and nixos on bare metal. But yeah, Windows 11 was a bit of a downgrade compared to Windows 10 in terms of how much needless shit has been added to it. > learning to fix the rough edges of Linux will serve me better in my career than trying to keep up with and fight the dark pattern frog that Microsoft keeps boiling slowly. Yes, but pretty much everything desktop related is completely useless in non-desktop use-cases. I'd rather go back to macOS. "fun story": couple weeks ago I had to do something that was not possible in WSL2 due to how esp32 devboard I had worked. I've decided to add linux vm to my freebsd server, and passthrough usb controller that conveniently was plugged in (unused). Simply because I knew that the moment I reboot to linux I might get sidetracked into fixing my linux on desktop instead of working.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  I use Linux since 1995, and have used multiple UNIXes, most of the well known commercial ones since 1993. Unless we are talking about installing it on a classical desktop PC tower, or some embedded device like the Raspeberry like boards with the OEM custom distribution, I am not bothering with it, it goes into a desktop VM and that is it. Too many wasted weekends throughout the years, always sorting out the same issues.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    Which issues? Have you considered that maybe those issues from 1995 have been fixed in 2024?
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      Have you considered that maybe I have been using various flavours of Linux for the last 29 years?
      - Rinzler89 2y ago
        I did, which which is why I first asked about which issues you had.
pjmlp 2y ago
Most of the stuff WSL 2 allows for was already available with Virtual Box and VMWare Workstation, which I have been using since 2010. The nice part of it, is coming in the box. In any case, I do agree, Linux on the Desktop will stay packaged in a VM, without the hurdles of dual boot, or lack of the hardware support OEMs will never care about. Even on devices that ship the Linux kernel like Chromebooks, running the Crostini GNU/Linux distribution is done inside of a VM, WSL2 style, and to this day there are several issues regarding hardware support that Google never bothered to improve.

> the year of Linux on the desktop It already happened: Windows + WSL2. Windows is the best linux distro.

by 0x457 2y ago

> the year of Linux on the desktop It already happened: Windows + WSL2. Windows is the best linux distro.

Eh, yes and no. Windows kernel plus it's backend features for security, emulation and virtualization, which enable things like WSL2 and backwards compatibility to work are great, but they're hampered by a crap front end with news, ads, web search in start menu, and dark patterns everywhere being forced down your throat like OneDrive holding your files ransom in the cloud if you don't pay attention or the failed push for the CallBack feature with unencrypted screenshots, or Windows Explorer being slow as shit due to it now running JavaScript code for some reason. All in all, I'm moving away from it to linux, as I don't like the direction Microsoft is taking, and learning to fix the rough edges of Linux will serve me better in my career than trying to keep up with and fight the dark pattern frog that Microsoft keeps boiling slowly. Mutahar on YouTube did a review of a leaked copy of Windows 11 Chinese Government edition which is Windows 11 Enterprise with everything non essential stripped out of it: no AI, no telemetry, no OneDrive, no ads, no news, no Edge, no media player, no web search in star menu, no defender, nothing, just the kernel, drivers, window manager and explorer, that's it, kind of like lightweight linux distros. If Microsoft would sell that to us consumers I would buy that in a heartbeat. But no, we get the adware and spyware version.

0x457 2y ago
So on my main PC I have Windows 11 and NixOS. I don't remember the last time I've rebooted to linux. Simply because, thanks to home-manager, my terminal experience is identical between nixos in WSL2 and nixos on bare metal. But yeah, Windows 11 was a bit of a downgrade compared to Windows 10 in terms of how much needless shit has been added to it. > learning to fix the rough edges of Linux will serve me better in my career than trying to keep up with and fight the dark pattern frog that Microsoft keeps boiling slowly. Yes, but pretty much everything desktop related is completely useless in non-desktop use-cases. I'd rather go back to macOS. "fun story": couple weeks ago I had to do something that was not possible in WSL2 due to how esp32 devboard I had worked. I've decided to add linux vm to my freebsd server, and passthrough usb controller that conveniently was plugged in (unused). Simply because I knew that the moment I reboot to linux I might get sidetracked into fixing my linux on desktop instead of working.
pjmlp 2y ago
I use Linux since 1995, and have used multiple UNIXes, most of the well known commercial ones since 1993. Unless we are talking about installing it on a classical desktop PC tower, or some embedded device like the Raspeberry like boards with the OEM custom distribution, I am not bothering with it, it goes into a desktop VM and that is it. Too many wasted weekends throughout the years, always sorting out the same issues.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Which issues? Have you considered that maybe those issues from 1995 have been fixed in 2024?
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Have you considered that maybe I have been using various flavours of Linux for the last 29 years?
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      I did, which which is why I first asked about which issues you had.

pjmlp 2y ago

Most of the stuff WSL 2 allows for was already available with Virtual Box and VMWare Workstation, which I have been using since 2010. The nice part of it, is coming in the box. In any case, I do agree, Linux on the Desktop will stay packaged in a VM, without the hurdles of dual boot, or lack of the hardware support OEMs will never care about. Even on devices that ship the Linux kernel like Chromebooks, running the Crostini GNU/Linux distribution is done inside of a VM, WSL2 style, and to this day there are several issues regarding hardware support that Google never bothered to improve.