9 ms·

Why I Stick with the Linux Desktop

73 points by philk10 13y ago

abalashov 13y ago
When I was about ten years old, virtual desktops were the most proximate cause of my switch to Unix (addiction to using Solaris-based UltraSPARC workstations in the university lab nearby). I just thought they were so cool. Have only run Linux on the desktop ever since. I'm 27.
mattkrea 13y ago
Nice. Not all that compelling because the bigger problems for Linux as a daily driver aren't covered (for me anyway) but highlights some features I did not previously know where fairly ubiquitous across window managers.
- wtbob 13y ago
  Out of curiosity, what sort of issues do you have using Linux as a 'daily driver'? I ask because I've been running Linux-only on a daily basis since '99, and (obviously) haven't had any major issues to cause me to change that decision.
  - ardemue 13y ago
    Not the OP, but my Canon MP550 printer is not recognized out of the box in Ubuntu. Never had any other issue.
  - buckbova 13y ago
    My experiences . . . Things like setting up dual monitors used to be such a major pain (for me) or hardware support like for a bluetooth dongle. I had some problem with an intel chipset that kept crashing a laptop in 2005. I tried debian and suse varieties with no luck. I have a newer laptop with #! that works well now but I can't do things like VPN into my job because the software needs windows or mac. Basically this laptop collects dust unless I want to do use linux specific software which is rare.
    - kiallmacinnes 13y ago
      > Things like setting up dual monitors used to be such a major pain (for me) or hardware support like for a bluetooth dongle. Dual monitors have got much easier over the last 3 or 4 years, at least on ATI. No clue about nVidia. .. and Intel graphics have always been rock solid on Linux. Before I got my 30" screen, I had 3x 19" spread over 3 different ATI cards. It worked like a charm once I allowed Ubuntu to auto-install the ATI proprietary drivers. > I had some problem with an intel chipset that kept crashing a laptop in 2005. I tried debian and suse varieties with no luck. Ugh .. That sucks.. Not sure that would have had a (reasonable) workaround :) > but I can't do things like VPN into my job because the software needs windows or mac. Another, that sucks. I've had no problems with OpenVPN, Cisco IPSec, Cisco AnyConnect, Juniper NetworkConnect and probably a few others on Linux.. But I'm sure there's still hundreds of pieces of VPN software that don't have linux versions (or re-implementations) --- Sadly - 99.9% (plucked from thin air) of Linux issues are due to proprietary software/drivers/etc. Of these, a good majority are easily replaceable with cross platform solutions. Pity :(
      - yogo 13y ago
        My experience with nvidia is that it's just as easy as Windows these days. There's even a gui app that was probably inspired by Windows' monitor config.
      - mattkrea 13y ago
        This is most of the case for me but unfortunately our company isn't going to rewrite internal systems just for me ;-)
  - cenhyperion 13y ago
    For me personally it's image editing software. I need to be able to collaborate easily with graphic designers and manage my personal photography. Adobe's tools are the industry standard and what I need to collaborate with others. That's the single thing holding me back. If I could have photoshop and lightroom on linux I'd switch in a heartbeat. Until then OS X will probably remain my main desktop.
    - yogo 13y ago
      I know the feeling. I run Photoshop and Illustrator in VirtualBox but it would be such a great feeling to launch them right from dmenu one day.
    - pjbrunet 13y ago
      I'm not a heavy GIMP user but it imports/exports PSD pretty well, right? I was a heavy Photoshop user from 1.x to 3.x and all the basic features are there ;-) Color curves, hue-saturation, feathered selections, 99% of what you need to get shit done is the same as Photoshop. Granted, digital art is not my day job. So I don't know what newfangled tools Photoshop has now. I hate layers in GIMP as much as I hated them in Photoshop, I'm oldschool ;-)
yogo 13y ago
For window lists I usually use scroll + click (openbox) if I need to view the complete list before making a selection, alt + tab otherwise.
ardemue 13y ago
What I enjoy the most on my Linux desktop is how it handles installing/upgrading software. It's just easy, and it works. When I'm on Windows I can't stand the google-download-execute-untick boxes-next-next cycles. This post is more about UI features though.
- yogo 13y ago
  Agreed. pacman -Syu is a godsend. Of course that's just the face of a great package manager and packaging. In many ways on Arch you could make the argument that it just works.
  - ardemue 13y ago
    It does not get any better than pacman for sure, but I'm pretty happy with apt-get update && apt-get upgrade :)
    - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
      The best package manager on Linux I've ever used is Sorcery, although pacman is a close second. I'm still partial to the *BSD way of ports, however.
      - yogo 13y ago
        Source-based distributions have their advantages but for me the biggest disadvantage is the wasting of my time.
- wubbfindel 13y ago
  You should try out "chocolatey" on windows. It enough people adopt it, more packages will get on to it.
  - lucajona 13y ago
    Or Scoop at http://scoop.sh http://scoop.sh (I made it).
VeejayRampay 13y ago
It's way too nice to Apple to call their piss-poor Spaces "Virtual Desktops". Call me when I can finally arrange them how I want (i.e. 2 rows, 2 columns) and not have them in line, which is stupid and inefficient. I'd also like a call when Apple finally implements maximize for windows. And don't get me wrong, I am a Mac user, just a highly frustrated one when I see people praising them as the second coming of the prophet even though a lot of extremely useful features are just missing because some dude at Cupertino decided that Mac users didn't need them. PS: Negative post, I know, but it feels good.
- selectodude 13y ago
  Agreed. Spaces circa 10.6 was so much better than the crap we have now. But it seems like Apple is at least fixing their regressions for the first time since 10.7.
  - caiob 13y ago
    It was indeed, but the usage was much lower. At least people use that feature now.
- alayne 13y ago
  It's best to just have keyboard shortcuts for each space (Control 1-4) rather than move left to right. Even if you are moving in a 2x2 virtual screen you usually still have the inefficient diagonal case.
  - VeejayRampay 13y ago
    You're absolutel right about that. I should have mentioned that I mostly use 3 virtual desktops (browser in the first one, vim in the second and some messaging app on the third) so I do arrows for 99% of my moving anyway.
- 0x09 13y ago
  You should try TotalSpaces. I can't speak for it, but it appears to replace the functionality lost from 10.6. For me Spaces in 10.5 and 10.6 is as good as any *nix WM and better than several due to the linear wrapping behavior (on a 2x2 grid any workspace is accessible via directional key from any other.)
RexRollman 13y ago
Personally, I have no real love for the "desktop" paradigm. Give me Xorg, Evilwm, and some Xterms.
gknoy 13y ago
Virtual desktops .... I always thought this would be useful for switching between different contexts, like work vs. personal, but I’ve rarely used it in practice. I'm a virtual desktop addict. If I may, I'd like to share how I use mine, so that you might perhaps find them more useful in your own work. I have dual monitors, and four virtual desktops (in XFCE, but that doesn't matter). Originally, I used only two workspaces (email/reading, development), and this has evolved a bit over time into 4. What I like about using virtual desktops is that I have a spatial mental model of where each thing is, which helps me ensure I don't mix up dev/production, and helps me avoid alt-tabbing to find what I want. I make extensive use of my window manager's ability to maximize on the left or right half of a screen. (This would probably not work well for me with a single monitor, unless it were a large one.) 1: E-mail/calendar on the left monitor, automated build system output on the right. This is for things that are semi-important but which I don't want to regularly have interrupting me. 2: Web browser with the app I currently am developing, and my console window on the left monitor, full-screen IDE (PyCharm) on the right. (I also put emacs or a terminal on the right as well when writing extensively in those.) This workspace is where I spend more than 80% of my time. 3: Github on the right screen, for pull requests, code review, issue tracking. I use this for a context-switch from developing code to reviewing it. I'll also use this workspace when babysitting a code release, to help ensure that I don't mix up local stuff with remote stuff. 4: music player. I stream music, so I rarely need to look at this except to change channels.
- davidw 13y ago
  I'm exactly the same way, with emacs occupying one, remote ssh's another, a browser another one, root windows elsewhere, xchat in its own, and so on. I now have 10 of them.
- fein 13y ago
  1L: Chrome 1R: urxvt (stickied) + inspector + xchat 2L: Emacs 2R: speedbar + urxvt(stickied) 3L: Pgadmin 3R: urxvt(stickied) + pgadmin view/ query window 4: nice n clean A friend came in today and was talking about how much he liked the brand new, amazing "pin" feature in win 8. I laughed when he described sticky windows and vdesktops. edit: Fluxbox here tho, not lxde or xfce.
jstrate 13y ago
The middle click paste really hit home for me. I recently started working at a mostly Apple Big Co. And the middle click paste is sorely missed. Maybe I can find some equivalent but I always just took it for granted.
encno1s3 13y ago
This is in no way a bashing of Linux. I love linux, I use it daily, but it's the desktop that I have issues with.. I've used Linux as a Desktop exclusively from 1999 to circa 2008. When I finally gave up. I think it was Ubuntu releasing buggy PulseAudio which broke the sound for me that was the last straw. I still use Linux as a desktop occasionally but I just don't have the patience to deal with the weird quirks anymore. And there were plenty of quirks over the years. I never understood why Linux went with Windows inspired ctr-c and ctr-v. For me especially since I do most of my work in a terminal window it was always counter intuitive. Shift-Ins is problematic on laptop keyboards and even on full size keyboards it requires both hands. Each year (or so it seems) Bryan Lunduke does a "Why Linux Sucks <year>"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxX8a_TC7I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxX8a_TC7I) and I love it.
- patmcguire 13y ago
  Audio is one of those things they've never figured out. There's a good "truth in graphs" about that: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/files/penguinswf/linuxaudio.png http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/files/penguinswf/linuxaudi...
  - jebblue 13y ago
    For Ubuntu it's been figured out for years. I use Google Voice, play music, do audio in multiple accounts, it all just works.
    - majurg 13y ago
      Those are all very basic functions. Let me know when I can produce Pro level audio work on a Linux machine without hiccups.
      - welterde 13y ago
        JACK is the sound system of choice for that. For everything else plain ALSA works just fine.
- 13y ago
excitom 13y ago
When I saw that millisecond-faster copy/paste was item #1 I kinda lost interest in the rest of the article.
BlackDeath3 13y ago
I'm such a noob. I learned way too many things from this post.
farresito 13y ago
I've been using Arch Linux for a little more than two years, and it's probably one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Once you get used to the terminal, you will never want to touch a Windows computer (unfortunately). I have i3wm (tiling wm) + (rxvt + tmux + vim) + luakit (browser with vim keybindings), and some other stuff, and my productivity went straight up. Of course you might not want to go to that extreme, especially if you are not used to the terminal, but it's worth giving it a try.
- orthecreedence 13y ago
  I'd have to agree with your decisions. I'm on Slack, but almost the same setup: i3, tmux, urxvt, vim. The setup is unstoppable. I've found that I no longer need quick launch links (just define/use shortcuts for whatever you need). Switching desktops is really fast and easy (you don't drown in ridiculous animations just by switching to the "browser" desktop), and floating/hidden windows make opening a quick shell really simple. Doing everything via keyboard saves so much time...however I do come from the vim world, so I may be biased =]. On top of all that, i3's config is really, really easy. Admittedly, I haven't used any other tiling window managers. I did a bunch of research after deciding to try one out, landed on i3, and haven't really looked back. Would definitely recommend it to an efficiency-minded person. Also the simplicity of i3 is beautiful. Combine its minimal interface with a few shell windows with opacity=.85 and you've got an incredible looking desktop that's easy to navigate, responsive, and efficient. Even my not-very-tech-savvy girlfriend saw me working in it and said "Wow, that's pretty!"
  - farresito 13y ago
    I've tried some other tiling wm's, and i3wm is the one I've liked the most. It just has the right balance. dwm is pretty nice, too, but didn't like it as much. I'm glad to hear some other people enjoying a similar configuration of his linux :D. The only problem I've found is when I go to public places; people just look too much. They are not used to such a lightweight and non-windows/non-mac system.
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  Great choice. I use almost the same setup (on Slackware) except with uzbl as my browser (again a WebKit-based browser with vi keybindings) and dwm, although I alternate between WMs and DEs a lot. The Unix way in general just feels so much more natural. There are alternative WMs and DEs for Windows too, though. I haven't tried any.
Nux 13y ago
I love the linux desktop, especially Gnome2. For me it's a godsend. I make heavy use of workspaces (got 6 of them atm), very handy to organise work/tasks, even on dual monitor setups. It's very easy to move applications on another workspace or monitor, even without the use of a mouse. "Always on top" and "Always on the visible workspace" are great features that I use even right now (mplayer running in my upper-right corner while I type this). I use a distro based on RHEL6 that's super stable and don't have to put up with annoyances like rolling-release specific breakages and so on. All my laptop's hardware is well supported and just works. Firefox, Thunderbird and Libreoffice are excellent applications that more than meet my requirements. Virt-manager & kvm rock and Gnome-terminal is pretty damn awesome. I use Windows rarely and it feels like having my hands tied at the back. I know it's not for everyone, but for me, it has been the decade of the linux dextop. :-)
- samspenc 13y ago
  Chromium, Thunderbird and Apache Openoffice for me ... but otherwise I could have written the rest of your post! :D (Yes, the newer versions of Openoffice are actually really good, and their UI is really comfy for someone coming in from MS Office on Windows/Mac.)
era86 13y ago
I also run Linux on my laptop at home. Window snapping and auto tiling is a must-have nowadays. Also, didn't know about #2 (setting window z-positions). Going to play with that later!
Siecje 13y ago
It would be nice if pasting with the middle click ignored the newline character. I use always-on-top.exe[1] on windows One feature I would really like is the ability to lock a window to a region of the screen and allow other windows to be snapped around it. Firstly you should be able to snap a window into the four corners by pushing the mouse into the corner for x seconds. (like ctrl+alt+numpad 1, 3, 7, 9) If you had a window locked to the right side of the screen you could still snap another window to 50% of what's left. And if you manually re sized it to be small be able to snap another window to be 50% of the screen space that is left after two windows have been locked. If this is possible please let me know. 1: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/keep-window-always-on-top/ http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/keep-window-always-...
pinchyfingers 13y ago
- Package management - Everything can be done via CL in case of emergency - Switch terminals via F1, F2, F3... if the GUI terminal (F7) messes up - Use whatever window manager I want with no hassle - Most distros recognize hw and install drivers automatically (versus needing a rescue disk to install Windows) - Develop apps locally using exact same environment used on server - No worries about losing support for my hw (try installing Windows 8 or the latest OSX on an old machine) - Option to show WiFi password (why the f can't you do this in windows?) - Fingers crossed for more Steam games coming soon
buo 13y ago
As a Linux user, what I miss most when I use Windows is focus-follows-mouse.
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  This is by far the most important productivity improvement for me. I only have to move my mouse to where I want to type, and that is it.
- diaz 13y ago
  For me, also related to focus is the amazing, best feature ever of having two windows open and write on one and, scroll on another without losing the focus from where I'm writing :)
aryastark 13y ago
I've been using Linux "on the desktop" since '96. I stuck with it because, it's Unix. It's not BSD pretending to be Windows. It's not Android, running around with a Java dress on, pretending to be something it's not. X11 sucks and so does Unix. But they suck less than every other system out there. I can make X11 act however I want it to act. It can act like Windows, or it can act in some new way that was not blessed by the high priests, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. If I want my system to do something, Unix provides the toolset. It's an amazing ecosystem for learning, exploration, and creation. If you know a bit about Perl, Python, or Bash then you can pretty much make data do what you want. A file is not just an opaque blackbox, requiring a single expensive proprietary application to interact with it. Fitting together disparate tools in a way that was never envisioned by the authors of said tools is not a "hack." It's just good design.
dman 13y ago
a)Tiling window managers are another nicety that is under represented on windows and osx. b) In the past when I wasnt using tiling window managers - devilspie was really nice since it allowed me to specify where different windows would popup, allowing me to step away from physically arranging windows. c) Be able to remove features you dont like / use. I currently have my system boot into a dwm session with a minimal set of services started at bootup. Most visual experiences / fonts are all configured via config scripts. Which means that I just need to scp two directories on any new machine and turns into the same flavor visually and behaviorally that I am used to. It is relaxing being able to upgrade machines / move to new machines knowing down to the pixel what environment and keyboard shortcuts you are going to get.
SwellJoe 13y ago
All of these are nice, and contribute to my enjoyment of Linux. But, there's one thing that always makes me reboot from Windows into Linux (if I was gaming or watching Netflix; I usually run Linux): Having to do any work involving the command line, whether local work such as development, or remote work such as building and deploying packages or website updates. PuTTY isn't a bad ssh client...but, it's not the same as always having a bunch of gnome terminals open in tabs and being able to "ssh myserver" or "vim myprogram" or whatever I need to do. The mental friction of having to click through menus to open a new ssh session for every server I need to work on (I've usually got two servers open when working: staging and production; and I've often got three or for sessions per server). Sure, I could use screen or tmux, but I can't remember the key combinations. And with gnome terminal tabs I don't have to. Worse, PuTTY doesn't seem to support the keepalive functions that OpenSSH does. I can keep my ssh sessions open all damned day under Linux. Under Windows, if I walk away for lunch or a nap, I have to relog everything when I get back. Not having them in tabs, and not being able to manage windows under Windows in any reasonable fashion is also frustrating. It's an exercise in frustration finding the right terminal (there will always be two or three with the same label, unless I explicitly make an effort to change it; with tabs I can put them in the order I always use and know exactly where everything is without reading; windows get moved around all the time). Lack of middle mouse button paste was always a nuisance until I got an awful HP Envy 15 lappy without a middle mouse button...it has the Mac style single mouse button with click areas, which never work right, in Windows or Linux--I often get a right click when I wanted left and vice versa...I've had to retrain myself to use three finger click, which is error prone and I end up getting a double paste....basically I'm realizing that I've been living in misery ever since I got this awful laptop. I need to order a bloody mouse, so I can stop punishing myself with this clickforsaken thing. Actually, there's a ton of things that are coming to mind now that are just an awful nuisance. Lack of a good command line is the biggest. I use locate and find all the time; the analogs on Windows are a joke. grep! sed/awk/perl for munging things quickly! cygwin is a second class citizen and I'm always trying to figure out where I need to go to do what I need; the paths are so weird and long. That can be said of Mac OS X, as well, to some degree...while it has an actual UNIX underneath, it still has all the clunky Mac baggage that makes it ornery.
- passionfruit 13y ago
kelvie 13y ago
The thing that keeps me on Linux (mostly), is the ability to use alt+drag (I actually re-bind this to Win+drag) to move and resize windows without having to move my mouse to the title bar, or to the thin edges of the windows. I can just use alt+left drag to move my window, a large target, anywhere I want it to, and likewise to resize it. It's really annoying for me when I have to use a Windows VM (for example), and not be able to do this.
- kazoolist 13y ago
  If you use VMware Player (and/or presumably Workstation) in "Unity" mode, you can alt-left drag to move and resize the virtualized-Windows-windows. Sometimes it gets a little wonky, but it works great 95% of the time.
- dhruvmittal 13y ago
  I'm constantly missing this when I work on an OS X machine. Somehow, I end up with the window titles offscreen and just get momentarily stumped when I want to move it again.
gprasanth 13y ago
beware of hidden characters in commands while pasting them in terminal from random sites.
gprasanth 13y ago
beware of hidden characters in commands while pasting them in terminal from random sites.
atoponce 13y ago
I use Awesome as my WM of choice on both my laptop and on my workstation. It just works, and I can get stuff done _fast_. Besides tiling windows as the major win, I really love the plethora of virtual desktops. I use these with ease. I have a triple monitor setup on my workstation, and have at least 3 virtual desktops in use on each monitor, and sometimes using 5-6 on each when really digging into work. Middle-click is a must have on a GNU/Linux system also. I've seen people bitch about it on laptops, saying it should be removed, but Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows don't take full advantage of it. Pasting with middle-click is an epic win for the GNU/Linux desktop, IMO. The largest win, however, is proper package management with Debian. This alone keeps me using GNU/Linux on the desktop, and it's nice to see Apple following suit with their App Store. Cloud package management is vastly superior to "hunt and download".
lelele 13y ago
I stick with GNU/Linux (Desktop or not) because it is the most widespread OS designed and maintained by hackers for hackers. Enough said.

73 points by philk10 13y ago

When I was about ten years old, virtual desktops were the most proximate cause of my switch to Unix (addiction to using Solaris-based UltraSPARC workstations in the university lab nearby). I just thought they were so cool. Have only run Linux on the desktop ever since. I'm 27.

mattkrea 13y ago

Nice. Not all that compelling because the bigger problems for Linux as a daily driver aren't covered (for me anyway) but highlights some features I did not previously know where fairly ubiquitous across window managers.

wtbob 13y ago
Out of curiosity, what sort of issues do you have using Linux as a 'daily driver'? I ask because I've been running Linux-only on a daily basis since '99, and (obviously) haven't had any major issues to cause me to change that decision.
- ardemue 13y ago
  Not the OP, but my Canon MP550 printer is not recognized out of the box in Ubuntu. Never had any other issue.
- buckbova 13y ago
  My experiences . . . Things like setting up dual monitors used to be such a major pain (for me) or hardware support like for a bluetooth dongle. I had some problem with an intel chipset that kept crashing a laptop in 2005. I tried debian and suse varieties with no luck. I have a newer laptop with #! that works well now but I can't do things like VPN into my job because the software needs windows or mac. Basically this laptop collects dust unless I want to do use linux specific software which is rare.
  - kiallmacinnes 13y ago
    > Things like setting up dual monitors used to be such a major pain (for me) or hardware support like for a bluetooth dongle. Dual monitors have got much easier over the last 3 or 4 years, at least on ATI. No clue about nVidia. .. and Intel graphics have always been rock solid on Linux. Before I got my 30" screen, I had 3x 19" spread over 3 different ATI cards. It worked like a charm once I allowed Ubuntu to auto-install the ATI proprietary drivers. > I had some problem with an intel chipset that kept crashing a laptop in 2005. I tried debian and suse varieties with no luck. Ugh .. That sucks.. Not sure that would have had a (reasonable) workaround :) > but I can't do things like VPN into my job because the software needs windows or mac. Another, that sucks. I've had no problems with OpenVPN, Cisco IPSec, Cisco AnyConnect, Juniper NetworkConnect and probably a few others on Linux.. But I'm sure there's still hundreds of pieces of VPN software that don't have linux versions (or re-implementations) --- Sadly - 99.9% (plucked from thin air) of Linux issues are due to proprietary software/drivers/etc. Of these, a good majority are easily replaceable with cross platform solutions. Pity :(
    - yogo 13y ago
      My experience with nvidia is that it's just as easy as Windows these days. There's even a gui app that was probably inspired by Windows' monitor config.
    - mattkrea 13y ago
      This is most of the case for me but unfortunately our company isn't going to rewrite internal systems just for me ;-)
- cenhyperion 13y ago
  For me personally it's image editing software. I need to be able to collaborate easily with graphic designers and manage my personal photography. Adobe's tools are the industry standard and what I need to collaborate with others. That's the single thing holding me back. If I could have photoshop and lightroom on linux I'd switch in a heartbeat. Until then OS X will probably remain my main desktop.
  - yogo 13y ago
    I know the feeling. I run Photoshop and Illustrator in VirtualBox but it would be such a great feeling to launch them right from dmenu one day.
  - pjbrunet 13y ago
    I'm not a heavy GIMP user but it imports/exports PSD pretty well, right? I was a heavy Photoshop user from 1.x to 3.x and all the basic features are there ;-) Color curves, hue-saturation, feathered selections, 99% of what you need to get shit done is the same as Photoshop. Granted, digital art is not my day job. So I don't know what newfangled tools Photoshop has now. I hate layers in GIMP as much as I hated them in Photoshop, I'm oldschool ;-)

yogo 13y ago

For window lists I usually use scroll + click (openbox) if I need to view the complete list before making a selection, alt + tab otherwise.

ardemue 13y ago

What I enjoy the most on my Linux desktop is how it handles installing/upgrading software. It's just easy, and it works. When I'm on Windows I can't stand the google-download-execute-untick boxes-next-next cycles. This post is more about UI features though.

yogo 13y ago
Agreed. pacman -Syu is a godsend. Of course that's just the face of a great package manager and packaging. In many ways on Arch you could make the argument that it just works.
- ardemue 13y ago
  It does not get any better than pacman for sure, but I'm pretty happy with apt-get update && apt-get upgrade :)
  - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
    The best package manager on Linux I've ever used is Sorcery, although pacman is a close second. I'm still partial to the *BSD way of ports, however.
    - yogo 13y ago
      Source-based distributions have their advantages but for me the biggest disadvantage is the wasting of my time.
wubbfindel 13y ago
You should try out "chocolatey" on windows. It enough people adopt it, more packages will get on to it.
- lucajona 13y ago
  Or Scoop at http://scoop.sh http://scoop.sh (I made it).

VeejayRampay 13y ago

It's way too nice to Apple to call their piss-poor Spaces "Virtual Desktops". Call me when I can finally arrange them how I want (i.e. 2 rows, 2 columns) and not have them in line, which is stupid and inefficient. I'd also like a call when Apple finally implements maximize for windows. And don't get me wrong, I am a Mac user, just a highly frustrated one when I see people praising them as the second coming of the prophet even though a lot of extremely useful features are just missing because some dude at Cupertino decided that Mac users didn't need them. PS: Negative post, I know, but it feels good.

selectodude 13y ago
Agreed. Spaces circa 10.6 was so much better than the crap we have now. But it seems like Apple is at least fixing their regressions for the first time since 10.7.
- caiob 13y ago
  It was indeed, but the usage was much lower. At least people use that feature now.
alayne 13y ago
It's best to just have keyboard shortcuts for each space (Control 1-4) rather than move left to right. Even if you are moving in a 2x2 virtual screen you usually still have the inefficient diagonal case.
- VeejayRampay 13y ago
  You're absolutel right about that. I should have mentioned that I mostly use 3 virtual desktops (browser in the first one, vim in the second and some messaging app on the third) so I do arrows for 99% of my moving anyway.
0x09 13y ago
You should try TotalSpaces. I can't speak for it, but it appears to replace the functionality lost from 10.6. For me Spaces in 10.5 and 10.6 is as good as any *nix WM and better than several due to the linear wrapping behavior (on a 2x2 grid any workspace is accessible via directional key from any other.)

RexRollman 13y ago

Personally, I have no real love for the "desktop" paradigm. Give me Xorg, Evilwm, and some Xterms.

gknoy 13y ago

Virtual desktops .... I always thought this would be useful for switching between different contexts, like work vs. personal, but I’ve rarely used it in practice. I'm a virtual desktop addict. If I may, I'd like to share how I use mine, so that you might perhaps find them more useful in your own work. I have dual monitors, and four virtual desktops (in XFCE, but that doesn't matter). Originally, I used only two workspaces (email/reading, development), and this has evolved a bit over time into 4. What I like about using virtual desktops is that I have a spatial mental model of where each thing is, which helps me ensure I don't mix up dev/production, and helps me avoid alt-tabbing to find what I want. I make extensive use of my window manager's ability to maximize on the left or right half of a screen. (This would probably not work well for me with a single monitor, unless it were a large one.) 1: E-mail/calendar on the left monitor, automated build system output on the right. This is for things that are semi-important but which I don't want to regularly have interrupting me. 2: Web browser with the app I currently am developing, and my console window on the left monitor, full-screen IDE (PyCharm) on the right. (I also put emacs or a terminal on the right as well when writing extensively in those.) This workspace is where I spend more than 80% of my time. 3: Github on the right screen, for pull requests, code review, issue tracking. I use this for a context-switch from developing code to reviewing it. I'll also use this workspace when babysitting a code release, to help ensure that I don't mix up local stuff with remote stuff. 4: music player. I stream music, so I rarely need to look at this except to change channels.

davidw 13y ago
I'm exactly the same way, with emacs occupying one, remote ssh's another, a browser another one, root windows elsewhere, xchat in its own, and so on. I now have 10 of them.
fein 13y ago
1L: Chrome 1R: urxvt (stickied) + inspector + xchat 2L: Emacs 2R: speedbar + urxvt(stickied) 3L: Pgadmin 3R: urxvt(stickied) + pgadmin view/ query window 4: nice n clean A friend came in today and was talking about how much he liked the brand new, amazing "pin" feature in win 8. I laughed when he described sticky windows and vdesktops. edit: Fluxbox here tho, not lxde or xfce.

jstrate 13y ago

The middle click paste really hit home for me. I recently started working at a mostly Apple Big Co. And the middle click paste is sorely missed. Maybe I can find some equivalent but I always just took it for granted.

encno1s3 13y ago

This is in no way a bashing of Linux. I love linux, I use it daily, but it's the desktop that I have issues with.. I've used Linux as a Desktop exclusively from 1999 to circa 2008. When I finally gave up. I think it was Ubuntu releasing buggy PulseAudio which broke the sound for me that was the last straw. I still use Linux as a desktop occasionally but I just don't have the patience to deal with the weird quirks anymore. And there were plenty of quirks over the years. I never understood why Linux went with Windows inspired ctr-c and ctr-v. For me especially since I do most of my work in a terminal window it was always counter intuitive. Shift-Ins is problematic on laptop keyboards and even on full size keyboards it requires both hands. Each year (or so it seems) Bryan Lunduke does a "Why Linux Sucks <year>"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxX8a_TC7I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxX8a_TC7I) and I love it.

patmcguire 13y ago
Audio is one of those things they've never figured out. There's a good "truth in graphs" about that: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/files/penguinswf/linuxaudio.png http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/files/penguinswf/linuxaudi...
- jebblue 13y ago
  For Ubuntu it's been figured out for years. I use Google Voice, play music, do audio in multiple accounts, it all just works.
  - majurg 13y ago
    Those are all very basic functions. Let me know when I can produce Pro level audio work on a Linux machine without hiccups.
    - welterde 13y ago
      JACK is the sound system of choice for that. For everything else plain ALSA works just fine.
13y ago

excitom 13y ago

When I saw that millisecond-faster copy/paste was item #1 I kinda lost interest in the rest of the article.

BlackDeath3 13y ago

I'm such a noob. I learned way too many things from this post.

farresito 13y ago

I've been using Arch Linux for a little more than two years, and it's probably one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Once you get used to the terminal, you will never want to touch a Windows computer (unfortunately). I have i3wm (tiling wm) + (rxvt + tmux + vim) + luakit (browser with vim keybindings), and some other stuff, and my productivity went straight up. Of course you might not want to go to that extreme, especially if you are not used to the terminal, but it's worth giving it a try.

orthecreedence 13y ago
I'd have to agree with your decisions. I'm on Slack, but almost the same setup: i3, tmux, urxvt, vim. The setup is unstoppable. I've found that I no longer need quick launch links (just define/use shortcuts for whatever you need). Switching desktops is really fast and easy (you don't drown in ridiculous animations just by switching to the "browser" desktop), and floating/hidden windows make opening a quick shell really simple. Doing everything via keyboard saves so much time...however I do come from the vim world, so I may be biased =]. On top of all that, i3's config is really, really easy. Admittedly, I haven't used any other tiling window managers. I did a bunch of research after deciding to try one out, landed on i3, and haven't really looked back. Would definitely recommend it to an efficiency-minded person. Also the simplicity of i3 is beautiful. Combine its minimal interface with a few shell windows with opacity=.85 and you've got an incredible looking desktop that's easy to navigate, responsive, and efficient. Even my not-very-tech-savvy girlfriend saw me working in it and said "Wow, that's pretty!"
- farresito 13y ago
  I've tried some other tiling wm's, and i3wm is the one I've liked the most. It just has the right balance. dwm is pretty nice, too, but didn't like it as much. I'm glad to hear some other people enjoying a similar configuration of his linux :D. The only problem I've found is when I go to public places; people just look too much. They are not used to such a lightweight and non-windows/non-mac system.
vezzy-fnord 13y ago
Great choice. I use almost the same setup (on Slackware) except with uzbl as my browser (again a WebKit-based browser with vi keybindings) and dwm, although I alternate between WMs and DEs a lot. The Unix way in general just feels so much more natural. There are alternative WMs and DEs for Windows too, though. I haven't tried any.

Nux 13y ago

I love the linux desktop, especially Gnome2. For me it's a godsend. I make heavy use of workspaces (got 6 of them atm), very handy to organise work/tasks, even on dual monitor setups. It's very easy to move applications on another workspace or monitor, even without the use of a mouse. "Always on top" and "Always on the visible workspace" are great features that I use even right now (mplayer running in my upper-right corner while I type this). I use a distro based on RHEL6 that's super stable and don't have to put up with annoyances like rolling-release specific breakages and so on. All my laptop's hardware is well supported and just works. Firefox, Thunderbird and Libreoffice are excellent applications that more than meet my requirements. Virt-manager & kvm rock and Gnome-terminal is pretty damn awesome. I use Windows rarely and it feels like having my hands tied at the back. I know it's not for everyone, but for me, it has been the decade of the linux dextop. :-)

samspenc 13y ago
Chromium, Thunderbird and Apache Openoffice for me ... but otherwise I could have written the rest of your post! :D (Yes, the newer versions of Openoffice are actually really good, and their UI is really comfy for someone coming in from MS Office on Windows/Mac.)

era86 13y ago

I also run Linux on my laptop at home. Window snapping and auto tiling is a must-have nowadays. Also, didn't know about #2 (setting window z-positions). Going to play with that later!

Siecje 13y ago

It would be nice if pasting with the middle click ignored the newline character. I use always-on-top.exe[1] on windows One feature I would really like is the ability to lock a window to a region of the screen and allow other windows to be snapped around it. Firstly you should be able to snap a window into the four corners by pushing the mouse into the corner for x seconds. (like ctrl+alt+numpad 1, 3, 7, 9) If you had a window locked to the right side of the screen you could still snap another window to 50% of what's left. And if you manually re sized it to be small be able to snap another window to be 50% of the screen space that is left after two windows have been locked. If this is possible please let me know. 1: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/keep-window-always-on-top/ http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/keep-window-always-...

pinchyfingers 13y ago

- Package management - Everything can be done via CL in case of emergency - Switch terminals via F1, F2, F3... if the GUI terminal (F7) messes up - Use whatever window manager I want with no hassle - Most distros recognize hw and install drivers automatically (versus needing a rescue disk to install Windows) - Develop apps locally using exact same environment used on server - No worries about losing support for my hw (try installing Windows 8 or the latest OSX on an old machine) - Option to show WiFi password (why the f can't you do this in windows?) - Fingers crossed for more Steam games coming soon

buo 13y ago

As a Linux user, what I miss most when I use Windows is focus-follows-mouse.

rogerbinns 13y ago
This is by far the most important productivity improvement for me. I only have to move my mouse to where I want to type, and that is it.
diaz 13y ago
For me, also related to focus is the amazing, best feature ever of having two windows open and write on one and, scroll on another without losing the focus from where I'm writing :)

aryastark 13y ago

I've been using Linux "on the desktop" since '96. I stuck with it because, it's Unix. It's not BSD pretending to be Windows. It's not Android, running around with a Java dress on, pretending to be something it's not. X11 sucks and so does Unix. But they suck less than every other system out there. I can make X11 act however I want it to act. It can act like Windows, or it can act in some new way that was not blessed by the high priests, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. If I want my system to do something, Unix provides the toolset. It's an amazing ecosystem for learning, exploration, and creation. If you know a bit about Perl, Python, or Bash then you can pretty much make data do what you want. A file is not just an opaque blackbox, requiring a single expensive proprietary application to interact with it. Fitting together disparate tools in a way that was never envisioned by the authors of said tools is not a "hack." It's just good design.

dman 13y ago

a)Tiling window managers are another nicety that is under represented on windows and osx. b) In the past when I wasnt using tiling window managers - devilspie was really nice since it allowed me to specify where different windows would popup, allowing me to step away from physically arranging windows. c) Be able to remove features you dont like / use. I currently have my system boot into a dwm session with a minimal set of services started at bootup. Most visual experiences / fonts are all configured via config scripts. Which means that I just need to scp two directories on any new machine and turns into the same flavor visually and behaviorally that I am used to. It is relaxing being able to upgrade machines / move to new machines knowing down to the pixel what environment and keyboard shortcuts you are going to get.

SwellJoe 13y ago

All of these are nice, and contribute to my enjoyment of Linux. But, there's one thing that always makes me reboot from Windows into Linux (if I was gaming or watching Netflix; I usually run Linux): Having to do any work involving the command line, whether local work such as development, or remote work such as building and deploying packages or website updates. PuTTY isn't a bad ssh client...but, it's not the same as always having a bunch of gnome terminals open in tabs and being able to "ssh myserver" or "vim myprogram" or whatever I need to do. The mental friction of having to click through menus to open a new ssh session for every server I need to work on (I've usually got two servers open when working: staging and production; and I've often got three or for sessions per server). Sure, I could use screen or tmux, but I can't remember the key combinations. And with gnome terminal tabs I don't have to. Worse, PuTTY doesn't seem to support the keepalive functions that OpenSSH does. I can keep my ssh sessions open all damned day under Linux. Under Windows, if I walk away for lunch or a nap, I have to relog everything when I get back. Not having them in tabs, and not being able to manage windows under Windows in any reasonable fashion is also frustrating. It's an exercise in frustration finding the right terminal (there will always be two or three with the same label, unless I explicitly make an effort to change it; with tabs I can put them in the order I always use and know exactly where everything is without reading; windows get moved around all the time). Lack of middle mouse button paste was always a nuisance until I got an awful HP Envy 15 lappy without a middle mouse button...it has the Mac style single mouse button with click areas, which never work right, in Windows or Linux--I often get a right click when I wanted left and vice versa...I've had to retrain myself to use three finger click, which is error prone and I end up getting a double paste....basically I'm realizing that I've been living in misery ever since I got this awful laptop. I need to order a bloody mouse, so I can stop punishing myself with this clickforsaken thing. Actually, there's a ton of things that are coming to mind now that are just an awful nuisance. Lack of a good command line is the biggest. I use locate and find all the time; the analogs on Windows are a joke. grep! sed/awk/perl for munging things quickly! cygwin is a second class citizen and I'm always trying to figure out where I need to go to do what I need; the paths are so weird and long. That can be said of Mac OS X, as well, to some degree...while it has an actual UNIX underneath, it still has all the clunky Mac baggage that makes it ornery.

passionfruit 13y ago

kelvie 13y ago

The thing that keeps me on Linux (mostly), is the ability to use alt+drag (I actually re-bind this to Win+drag) to move and resize windows without having to move my mouse to the title bar, or to the thin edges of the windows. I can just use alt+left drag to move my window, a large target, anywhere I want it to, and likewise to resize it. It's really annoying for me when I have to use a Windows VM (for example), and not be able to do this.

kazoolist 13y ago
If you use VMware Player (and/or presumably Workstation) in "Unity" mode, you can alt-left drag to move and resize the virtualized-Windows-windows. Sometimes it gets a little wonky, but it works great 95% of the time.
dhruvmittal 13y ago
I'm constantly missing this when I work on an OS X machine. Somehow, I end up with the window titles offscreen and just get momentarily stumped when I want to move it again.

gprasanth 13y ago

beware of hidden characters in commands while pasting them in terminal from random sites.

gprasanth 13y ago

beware of hidden characters in commands while pasting them in terminal from random sites.

atoponce 13y ago

I use Awesome as my WM of choice on both my laptop and on my workstation. It just works, and I can get stuff done _fast_. Besides tiling windows as the major win, I really love the plethora of virtual desktops. I use these with ease. I have a triple monitor setup on my workstation, and have at least 3 virtual desktops in use on each monitor, and sometimes using 5-6 on each when really digging into work. Middle-click is a must have on a GNU/Linux system also. I've seen people bitch about it on laptops, saying it should be removed, but Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows don't take full advantage of it. Pasting with middle-click is an epic win for the GNU/Linux desktop, IMO. The largest win, however, is proper package management with Debian. This alone keeps me using GNU/Linux on the desktop, and it's nice to see Apple following suit with their App Store. Cloud package management is vastly superior to "hunt and download".

lelele 13y ago

I stick with GNU/Linux (Desktop or not) because it is the most widespread OS designed and maintained by hackers for hackers. Enough said.