i dont really understand the revenue model here. i also dont understand how there’s going to be enough computational power to do LLM shit for all windows users all the time? this sounds bad for the environment.
Running a pre trained model is much cheaper than training one. But I’d imagine in this case you’ll be sending it over to Microsoft Servers, so they can keep track of everything you ever search so they can better advertise to you.
I’m thanking yall for this. And also idk what so different in linux, but I just want apps on here. Like I can find an alternative, but I have to say it, most of the time it’s just worse. Like how do you replace AMD Software or Logitech Ghub or Realtek audio (or whatever is the deafult for win, it’s so seamless).
To add to this, I can install a standalone app for every feature that AMD Software has, but I don’t want to. And Ghub got de-drm-ed for like two mice, but I own a different one. Video recording and Audio settings are basically non-existen. Good luck changing the quality of your audio.
To add even more, I’m more and more used to these alternatives, so idk if I’ll still cry about it in a few years. Re-learning computers is such a pain. I hope I’ll be able to give linux to my kids as a norm (basically to use without terminal mastery).
Most of the time there is no 1:1 replacement, it all depends on which features you use from these apps. Some suggestions:
AMD Software
CoreCtrl can do most of the important stuff from the AMD software like GPU overclocking, custom fan curves and per-game profiles.
Logitech Ghub
Piper has a lot of support for different mice and keyboards, maybe yours are supported there?
Realtek audio
I’m not sure what Realtek audio does nowadays, which features do you need?
Video recording
OBS is available and does pretty much does the same stuff as on Windows. If you need to capture gameplay you will have to install obs-vkcapture which is the Vulkan/OpenGL replacement for DirectX capturing included on the Windows version of OBS.
Audio settings
Which settings do you require? What do you mean with “Audio quality”?
Unfortunately most Pipewire/Wireplumber settings are hidden behind config files and I’m not aware of any applications to manage them. The KDE audio settings are quite decent but limited in scope. However, most of the Pipewire settings have a sensible default and probably shouldn’t be changed unless you’re doing audio production.
qpwgraph is quite powerful when you need to connect multiple devices together or have virtual audio devices.
Okay update: Piper does support my mouse. Which is good, because I can now config the profiles without windows. But also sad, because I’m still having my scroll wheel problem. I’ll say it briefly maybe you know something about it. My mouse send hight res and normal scroll ups and downs inconsistently. When I scroll wirelessly it sends 5 hi res events, which get’s turned into a normal one, so it sends both. the 5 events is inconsistent, so sometimes I don’t even scroll. What apps use is inconsistent, so sometimes i scroll 5 times instead of 1, or even worse when apps wait for the 5 hi res next to each other, meaning it doesn’t even scroll sometimes. But all of this is gone when I plug in. When wired my mouse only sends “normal” scroll events and everything works perfectly. I got the leads: ([1], [2], [3], [4]) (I have to admit, I haven’t read all of these, at one point they just turned into technical gibberish for me)
They say sex is good and all, but I bet they never received a reply like this before. I’m going to respond one by one.
I mostly used AMD Software for instant replay, I miss this loads. Tried replay-sorcery like 3 times, failed all 3 times. I gained more knowledge since, fixed discord’s screenshare, so I might give it another shot, but I also heard that you can get instant replay with OBS somehow.
I’d like some alternative to fancontrol, I know I could set fanspeed in the bios, idk why I don’t. But I had a nice lil software that managed fans, now I don’t.
Piper also doesn’t support my mouse. It does however support the one I just switched from a month ago…
Idk what Realtek does, but I never had any sound related problems on windows. AKA it just worked, I’d like it back pls. I now use pipewire-pulse. Made Virtual Surround sink, loving the customization, hating the documentation. I’d still like to fix the bandwidth (I read somewhere that it’s limited by default) and mess around with EQs, my lead is AutoEq.
OBS just doesn’t work. But I remember it barely working on windows as well. It’s popular, I can probably fix it.
I already have qpwgraph, but I don’t have a use for it, I just used it to visualize, and fix connections when they’re wrong. Might do some soundboard fun later with it, or in-game mic trolling :p
Thanks for the links tho, I’ll look into what I can utilize. But don’t get me wrong I love linux, there is just so little support, paired with such a steep learning curve.
rant: I’m not using linux for long, and I have a bunch of stuff to get working. Password manager, find nice image and PDF viewers (web browsers feels cheap), fix recording (obs can’t capture and barely can anything else), get (or make) a nice theme, try out tiling window managers, set-up WMs so I don’t have to dual boot anymore. While don’t even get me started on stuff I have no Idea how works on linux. Like grep’s powerful, how does regex work, links?, everything in /etc, bash script. hopefully I can get these answered in 2024. I hear the memes that this is the “year of linux desktop”; well it’s certainly for me.
Which distro do you use? I don’t really have much sound issues here and I have a pretty exotic setup.
I mostly used AMD Software for instant replay, I miss this loads. Tried replay-sorcery like 3 times, failed all 3 times. I gained more knowledge since, fixed discord’s screenshare, so I might give it another shot, but I also heard that you can get instant replay with OBS somehow.
Yes, I use OBS for that. The feature is called “Replay Buffer” and I have it running with no issues with hardware encoding. I would recommend you use the OBS flatpak, depending on your distro you might also want to use Steam in a Flatpak to make things easier.
I’d like some alternative to fancontrol, I know I could set fanspeed in the bios, idk why I don’t. But I had a nice lil software that managed fans, now I don’t.
I’m not aware of a software that controls all fans but I didn’t really look since I just let them do what they want. CoreCtrl can do the GPU fan but I also leave that alone.
Piper also doesn’t support my mouse. It does however support the one I just switched from a month ago…
You might have some luck requesting support for your mouse/keyboard on their git page, maybe support can be added.
Idk what Realtek does, but I never had any sound related problems on windows. AKA it just worked, I’d like it back pls.
What does not work?
I’d still like to fix the bandwidth (I read somewhere that it’s limited by default)
There’s no bandwidth limit on Pipewire that I’m aware of. The default sampling rate is 48000 if you mean that but it’s a sensible default and you probably don’t want to change it.
and mess around with EQs, my lead is AutoEq.
AutoEq sounds good. EasyEffects definitely can do your EQ and much much more.
there is just so little support, paired with such a steep learning curve.
The learning curve can be steep but don’t be afraid to ask, there’s a lot of helpful people on here. Also most Github/Gitlab projects might look intimidating but they also gladly offer support for applications there.
PDF viewers
Okular is included with KDE and is pretty competent.
Like grep’s powerful, how does regex work, links?, everything in /etc, bash script. hopefully I can get these answered in 2024.
Those are not strictly needed in order to “use” Linux but if you want to learn about them you there’s a lot of resources for them out there. ChatGPT is also pretty useful in helping with bash scripts/commands since they’re sometimes hard to read.
Thank you. I’ll look into this “Replay Buffer” and OBS in general, as it doesn’t work atm. I’m on Arch, and when I plugged in my laptop to the TV via HDMI it didn’t play any sound. With some brute force commands (can’t remember, could maybe check history) I managed to play a static noise on the TV, but I couldn’t get it recognized as an audio device. Gave up after a while as we just wanted to watch the movie, so we found another way instead of me holding up my family with debugging.
Basically the same as in Windows: Keepass with manual sync between devices(using Syncthing for example) or Bitwarden (Vaultvarden if like you like to selfhost and don’t have enterprise account).
I wonder if native D3D would really help at all. Most OpenGL drivers in Mesa are really Gallium drivers. Gallium is a low level internal Mesa API uses to implement support for higher level APIs, including OpenGL and Direct3D 9. Vulkan support isn’t implemented on top of Gallium, because Vulkan is apparently lower level than Gallium is. These drivers are still pretty damn fast, despite having to go through and intermediate API. If Gallium is fast enough for OpenGL drivers, I don’t see why the lower level Vulkan can’t be fast enough for Direct3D drivers. As far as I’m aware, the performance difference between DXVK/VKD3D and Direct3D drivers on Windows is already negligible.
It’s definitely not 20%-30% behind. I’d say the difference is usually 10% or less. Sometimes DXVK is even a little ahead. Does depend on the game and drivers, tho.
I found KDE Simon, and Numen … I’ve only ever used a commercial product, Dragon Naturally Speaking, many years ago. It was used so I could speak instead of typing texts but it did have functions to assign commands as well - don’t think it worked on Linux though.
Might want to check out Ubuntu Unity. It was made more Netbooks(when those where a thing) and Touchscreens. But as another poster pointed out Bliss looks really nice for this use case
I’ll look at that, thanks! I put Bliss on one and I’m not really happy with it yet. Just trying to type my wifi password had the UI wigging out on me, had to use a usb kb just to type the pass. I’ll look into Ubuntu Unity tho, thanks!
These days I’m most interested in Endeavour and Garuda, mostly as gateways into the Arch world without the headaches. Endeavour seems more mature so that’ll be my next install.
I’m giving up on Manjaro since it seems to lag and have odd discrepancies with Arch/AUR.
Going further back I liked Mint and SuSE and even Ubuntu, but the lack of gaming focus has driven me to other distros.
Barely any, honestly. I only vaguely recall one or two instances in the past year where I couldn’t find what I needed as a Flatpak or similar ready-to-go app. As a general user it’s pretty great honestly and I’m impressed at how easy it’s become.
I’m on Manjaro since 5 years and don’t have any lags or “odd discrepancies” with the AUR (AMD setup, xanmod kernel). The general antipathy towards Manjaro on is not justified IMHO.
Love both of those distros, Endeavour is committed (their philosophy) to no GUI, only CLI commands, so keep that in mind. Garuda Gaming edition is the best gaming distro out there imo, handy GUI to configure everything, great privacy controls/browser. Manjaro should never be used, they hold back packages for “testing” which goes against Arch in general and can break AUR packages, thus your system. Another good Arch distro, minimal with optimized kernels, a privacy browser based on Firefox, is CachyOS. Those three I would recommend for Arch, besides Arch itself.
Endeavour is committed (their philosophy) to no GUI, only CLI commands, so keep that in mind.
That’s actually the first time I’ve seen that mentioned. It’s not highlighted on their website, in fact I had to go digging for this old 2019 article to get some insight on the philosophy there.
I’m not afraid of CLI so this is fine. I’m not an expert by any means but using it more will push me to learn. The updater frontend in Manjaro is kind of inconsistent anyway (e.g. it only shows Flatpaks sometimes) so I’ve often found myself using pacman in the terminal already.
Yeah, they don’t advertise it, but if you are on the forum, the devs let you know, especially if you need help with any GUI…“We don’t support…” Not saying the devs are bad, lovely people, but that is just their thing.
I do scientific computing and I’ve used Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and NixOS for work.
Any and all of these can do what you need. Hell, you could probably throw your whole development environment into a docker container and use it anywhere. Pick one and go with it.
That said, here are my preferences:
Right now, I really like NixOS and Nix for development environments, but it’s a lot to learn, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you were really excited to try it.
Before NixOS, I used Arch on my laptop, and it was soooo nice to be able to build my own desktop environment just the way I wanted it from the ground up, which is possible on any distribution, but the Arch documentation makes this much more approachable. If you are happy with KDE Plasma or Gnome, and you’re using well-supported hardware, then I wouldn’t say Arch is really worth the time (unless you’re excited to play with it).
Fedora and Nobara (a Fedora-based distribution with a lot of gaming-focused presets) have been a breath of fresh air coming off the heels of painstakingly setting up Arch and then NixOS. Fedora is pretty nice out of the box and Nobara has been the best experience of going from zero to gaming even when compared to Windows.
Debian (especially Debian 12) has been fantastic for servers and for machines that don’t need to use the newest hardware. It’s still my go-to for lots of things.
Ubuntu is fine, but Canonical, the company that makes it, has made some unfortunate choices lately, and with Debian 12 being as good as it is, I don’t think I’ll ever have a reason to go back.
Side note: One thing to look out for in the near future is System76’s COSMIC desktop environment, which seems to be doing a lot of things right. There is already active development to get it working on NixOS, and I’m sure it will be available on Pop!OS from the start. I would also bet that it would be ready to go on Arch not long after. It will likely eventually be easy to install on all distributions, but if you want to try that out as soon as it’s ready, one of those three would be a good option.
Well put. The one thing I would add is using the Nix package manager on a distro other than NixOS! I’m daily driving Fedora 39 + Nix (home-manager) with zero problems. My pick would either be Fedora or Debian.
Tons of good documentation either way. Flatpak the packages you, no kidding, need to be easy / consistent to debug. Non-root podman for containers. Nix for more up to date packages than are available in the native repos (especially useful with Debian) + the other benefits like nix-shell.
I have OnePlus 6T with Droidian and must say it is this close to daily drive for me.
Everything works and there are apps for almost everything I need. As someone who uses only FOSS social media and things, there is Mastodon and Matrix client, I just lack maps with navigation (can use Organic Maps via Waydroid). Beyond that what is left is polish and tiny things, like for the performance or support for controlling media via buttons on bluetooth speaker.
I also tried PostmarketOS, that is adapting real Linux to phones (when Droidian is taking Linux kernel and drivers from Android and building on that). It is great if someone can get around lack of camera support etc., but for me now it can act like a second device or RPi alternative.
The ability to… you know, just use normal SSH and all the commands, Flatpak apps, all Pipewire tools, not fiddling with Android Studio and it’s stupid SDK or customizing my UI with just CSS is magical.
Seriously, fuck Google and Qualcomm for creating such hostile drivers ecosystem. There are brands like Fairphone that I think would happly support Linux but can’t because of Qualcomm only releasing their own vendor kernel prepared only for Android.
Been keeping an eye on postmarketOS, have been wanting to use it with a more modern phone in the USA, like a Pixel 4a or something. How has droidian been? Haven’t really heard too much about that project, its a full Linux distro? You can apt-get stuff?
I would switch in a heartbeat if MS office would be on Linux. I have tried all alternatives, including MS office online and I always encounter some kind of formatting fuck up. That’s just not acceptable for my job.
you could run it in a vm if you really have to, they have very low overheard on modern computers. mine isn’t even modern, it’s a thinkpad x230 laptop, it can run a win10 vm without slowdown. also hlps to have a vm sitting around in case oyu need it for anything else
Can I ask what you’re using? I tried virt-manager with a win 10 installation and it barely works. Granted an i5 5200U is not beefy by any means but at 100% CPU usage everything just stutters.
India, Greenland, Greece and Turkey are the four countries with the fastest growth of Linux users. I’ve checked their neighbouring countries, and it looks like they are still in the 1-2% range.
India is the eye opener … an enormous market of 1.5 billion people and the majority of them are too poor to pay for any specialty OS … it’s going to turn into a futuristic dystopia down there … people living in slums but scrounging up old neglected and forgotten hardware to bring them back online with Open Source Software.
Edit: I don’t normally make big corrections or changes to my comments but after rereading this, I think I went a bit too far with my assumptions about another country and culture … thanks @embed_me for putting it to my attention
Indian here. The reason isn’t Windows’ price tag - pirated Windows is very cheap and common - but a government push to make us less dependent on foreign (i.e. US / Chinese) companies. Schools, government offices, hospitals etc. have shifted to, or are shifting to, Linux (mostly Ubuntu and Mint). This shift started over a decade ago, but the US sanctions on Russia have spooked the government into speeding things up now.
Ok as an Indian allow me to interject. The reason people use linux is not because of poverty. Even the cheapest laptops come preloaded with activated windows.
We get introduced to Linux based OSs in schools. That plus people are heavily pushed into engineering and lately computer science and software engineering.
Honestly I’m a little surprised it’s so low relative to linux. It definitely has a strong presence. I’m thinking it won’t be as popular because of the lower cost to value ratio
I was probably too hasty in my assumptions … simplistic, stereotypical maybe even a bit racist
I just thought it made economic sense … why build an entire economy or business using foreign owned software and basing it all on a foreign company, especially one with unknown loopholes that would put the company’s and country at risk by a foreign power.
Thanks for the correction and insight … I’ll be more careful about my assumptions in the future.
Also another thing you are wrong about: You may be surprised to know that the second hand market for computer electronics is non-existent. As far as I know, there are only a handful of cities in the whole country where there is a second hand local market. Cheap electronics don’t last that much and in laptops there are only so many components you can buy separately and install. (Overwhelming majority of the computers are laptops, not the traditional CPU towers)
Also another thing I failed to mention is, the government tried to make a distro for govt use at one point but idk if anything came out of that. But I want to say there’s definitely a growing presence of linux here
It was not so common to use linux in schools in other states and in kerala, all government schools use a Kite Ubuntu which is fork of lts ubuntu. Its like the law to use free software for education in kerala. Me also got introduced to linux from school so i expected you are from kerala too. And Free software is most popular in kerala afaik.
The intensity of free software user group in kerala shows it too fsug.in
I have a stack of old phones in my drawer of tech I need to go through and check which ones work on postmarketOS. I think I have an old Pixel or two as well as Nexus phones.
After the bug with pop_os that happened to Linus I stopped using it. I’d like reliable system and clearly the pop_os team doesn’t know how to package their software if a dependency error that bad happens
They commented on their video that it was their fault. There was never a packaging issue. The issue was that we pushed a systemd source package update to Launchpad, which silently didn’t build or publish the 32-bit systemd library packages, because Ubuntu had systemd on a blacklist for 32-bit package builds. We noticed this minutes after packages were published, and had it fixed within an hour later.
This didn’t actually affect any systems in the wild because apt held back the update until we had worked around the restriction on Launchpad (there was an invisible ceiling to the package version number). They were only affected during that time period because they manually entered that sentence from the prompt in a terminal. We stopped using Launchpad with 21.10, so all packages released since then are the same packages that are built and tested by our packaging server, and used by our QA team internally.
The drama and reputational damage that LTT caused was unnecessary. Especially given that they uploaded this video a week later, and never attempted to reach out. They still have yet to properly edit the video.
That vid is actually good, it exposes lots of issues that regular users run into when switching to linux, in fact debian changed apt to make it harder to remove essential packages like linus did.
On Arch to remove essential package you will not be prompted with confirmation to remove them, you will have to add --nodeps --nodeps twice to the command to be able to do so, no idea how long this has been the case on arch or if it was implemented after linus vid as well, but that is something that should have been that way a decades ago, I still see on reddit posts of people that accidentally delete grub or remove important directories from their system.
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