The amount of comments in here that are conjecture or just straight up bullshit is off the charts… my tech illiterate wife, and my 80+ year old grandparents use Linux without any problems.
Different needs, different hardware, different skill levels. My kindergarten kids used it for 2 years for school, no problem. I still don’t use it because its too rough for my advanced needs.
Linux runs circles around Windows in terms of privacy, security, control, customizaton, and DE workflows and efficiencies… so what advanced needs keep you from using it? I’m genuinely curious because Linux is far more advanced than Windows in basically every single way I can think of… I can’t think of any reason I would prefer to use Windows over Linux. The only problem Linux suffers is from software support, so if you are in an industry with software that doesn’t support it… well then, yeah, you have to use Windows. Or if you want to play a game with anticheat… and you are okay with installing what is essentially a rootkit on your computer, then yeah, Windows.
I’ve used both regularly for years and went back to Windows when I switched to PC gaming and it’s just so much better. Everything just works on Windows.
Linux really needs to work on improving its user experience if it wants to be a true competitor to Mac and Windows. All these little config tweaks and command line prompts you have to do to get things working on Linux just isn’t going to win a bunch of people over who are used to things being a few clicks on a wizard to get working.
Edit: it’s been years since I last tried Linux so maybe things have changed.
It’s been too long so I don’t remember but there were several things I tried to install that required me to add a new repository, install from that, and then fiddle around with config files to get it to work.
Lots of people swear that Linux is easy but that’s never been my experience. It’s always command prompts and config files.
It’s been years since I last used Linux so maybe things have gotten better. I’ll likely be finding out eventually when Win 10 EOL comes because I don’t want Win 11.
fwiw, I’m now pretty darn happy with Linux and gaming. Granted, I use Steam, so there’s that.
There are issues sometimes, but I just keep a copy of windows around for windows-only things. Generally, Linux “just works” for me, but I’ve also learned to just skip it when something requires too much involvement to get working.
I bought Skyrim for PC so that I could give mods a try. Wine was garbage at the time, and I wanted to use my computer to game. So, Windows it was.
Thanks to proton, I was able to switch to arch on my desktop for the last few years before my power supply died. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what’s wrong with it. I’ve been staving off insanity for a few months now with my steam deck. I got a dock for it a couple weeks ago, so I’m technically running an arch desktop again even if it is KDE.
Couldn’t have dual monitors due to Nvidia drivers not working correctly. Couldn’t play Overwatch. Deep Rock Galactic ran very badly and slowly. I’ve used Linux in the past for years but it’s just not good on a gaming laptop.
ah yes, those highy sought after delights of being restricted, linux is not bad, it’s just like a very strict parent that takes away all your gaming consoles and tells you it’s for your own good, and you know what? i’m happy to be violated everyday by the whims of such a helicopter parent, it’s a feature!!! If possible I would like daddy Linux to remove all my rights to music, movies, entertainment, and leave me only a code editor, a console and a chatroom with my employer, that way I would only work night and day to make money, it would be heaven to be trapped into a world where my only possible thoughts are of code and work.
Because in my experience Linux hasn’t been consistently reliable in the long term.
My computer is a tool. I need it to just work, not cause me work. I’ve tried many distros and sooner or later something random stopped working, causing me to stop what I was doing and troubleshoot the problem.
Like the time I installed Mint on my desktop and my GPU fan ran full throttle all the time. Or that time when OpenVPN stopped working from one boot up to the next. Or those times when a fresh install hung up and failed fully boot.
Contrast that with the thousands? tens of thousands? of days when Windows just started without incident, got out of my way and let me work or game or whatever.
Is Windows bloated and slow? Yes. Is it constantly spying on me? Yes. Is it annoying in dozens of little ways that Linux isn’t? Yes. But it is consistently reliable and Linux isn’t.
I’m not a Windows fan boy, and I’d love to be able to use a linux desktop on the reg but every time I forget my previous disappointment long enough to try again, I am once again disappointed.
One thing has been working well for me. I have a Raspberry Pi with Raspian running Pi Hole, MiniDLNA and a couple of other things. It’s been as solid and reliable as I could ask.
First time I ever seriously used Linux was for work, back when I was a developer. You’d have to pay me to use it again. I like gaming, but I don’t like wasting my time troubleshooting games. Nor do I enjoy debugging random crashes/black screens in random drivers. Sure, it’s fun, but if I’m gonna work for it, someone somewhere better be signing my overtime slip. Cause I get a few hours free per day, and I’d rather not deal with sigsegv anymore if I can help it.
Not to mention sound. My job as dev included using ALSA for some use cases. I don’t know if you ever had the misfortune to need to do that or how it went for you, but if I ever need to touch that shit again I will scalp Torvalds with a goddamn headphone jack.
I installed windows 11 when I bought my last PC. I figured I’d give it a shot, see if it’s as bad as all my dev friends say it is. You know how many drivers I’ve had to fix to make my games work? Zero. You know how many hours I spent debugging weird issues? Also zero.
There’s a reason windows has a price tag. And part of that reason is that it works better than free stuff. I’m a believer in FOSS, but if you’re a craftsman and you can’t hammer a nail without needing to adjust your hammer every few swings, you should find a hammer that’s not made out of silly putty and dreams.
Odd that you’ve had so much trouble with Linux. My experience generally had been that it requires more time on initial config, then it just keeps working unless you change something.
The issues with games usually arise because people try to run games made for Windows on Linux. Just like you can’t run Linux games on Windows (unless you use WSL, which is just straight up running Linux), you can’t easily run most Windows games on Linux.
Years ago I had the opposite issue. The printer driver would rarely work. When I switched to ubuntu for unrelated reasons the printer worked everytime. I suspect that this is very unusual and 99.999% of the time your scenario is more likely. Just wanted to share =).
Gaming is the only reason I dual-boot back to Windows. Out of curiosity, what’s your distro and hardware config? I’ve had no luck with Proton or Lutris on Suse or Ubuntu. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to play a game all the way through without issues. Not sure if it’s my distro choices, Nvidia drivers, or the specific games I try to play. Even Steam Deck certified games do not work properly for me.
Hardware is 5950x, 64gb ram and a 4090. Although before I had a 3070 Ti.
I’m on Arch, but what problems are you having with proton or Lutris? Which Nvidia drivers do you have installed (dkms?) and what kernel?
With the state of proton, I almost never have to check the force compatibility tool and select a version, it’ll work out of the box. There have been a few exceptions of course.
With Lutris, I got stuck on an error about architecture. I tried changing WINEARCH to WIN32, but it didn’t work. Tried making a new systemwide default prefix in win32, didn’t work. Went down a bit of a rabbit hole on Google but I was not able to get the game to even install, let alone run.
With proton, games install and typically run, but not without issues. For example, when Return to Monkey Island launched, it was Windows-only, so I tried it in Proton. It worked for a day, then mouse input just stopped working entirely. Half an hour of trouleshooting later I decided it would be easier to just boot into Windows. That’s the general experience I’ve had with Proton, even for Steam Deck certified games. And then sometimes games run but with unacceptable performance, like Stray.
Until recently I was stuck on the 510 drivers because the newer ones broke CUDA in the Ubuntu repositories. That was recently updated to I think 525, but I haven’t tried any games since updating. But I also had similar problems on Suse with drivers from Nvidia, and the old Ubuntu LTS (18.04 was it?).
If Lutris is going to be so finicky about Wine versions and prefixes, I wish it would just bundle its own instead of using the system wine. I use Wine for other things and can’t easily nuke my whole config.
I’ve basically given up on playing non-native games on Linux. It seems like this is a “me” problem but I can’t imagine what’s so unique about my Steam install. I try to keep as close to stock Ubuntu LTS as possible precisely to avoid these issues, but here I am.
I’d be interested to know the breakdown of AAA titles in that library!
Gimp is appropriately titled as it is a joke compared to Photoshop. If this is the closest suggestion to a suitable replacement it will guarantee windows/osx always has a place in my work environment.
For AAA titles (not gonna list every one), here’s a few:
Hogwarts Legacy, Dead Space remake, Resident Evil 2/3/4/7 remakes, God of War, Returnal, The Last of Us Part 1, Uncharted 4, all the Assassin’s Creeds, Atomic Heart, the Batman games, Bioshock games, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Death Stranding, Elden Ring, Days Gone, Dying Light 1/2, all the Far Crys, Final Fantasy 7 remake, FF8-15, Ghostrunner, GTA5, Hi-Fi Rush, Spider-Man/Miles Morales, Tomb Raider games, Sekiro, Sonic Frontiers, Star Wars (all) and Jedi Fallen/Survivor, The Division 1/2, The Witcher 1/2/3, Yakuza (all), plus more
Yeah, Proton has made leaps and bounds the past few years with the sheer amount of time and money Valve is funneling into it. Now you can often expect newly released games to run just fine on Linux through steam, the big remaining hangup being anti-cheat software.
I would guess a “serious gamer” is one who wants to play all the latest AAA multiplayer games. Just not possible for Linux to work for 100% on Day 1 with the ridiculous kernel-level anti-cheats.
For me, even though I play mainly on Linux, the issue is with random niche mods or hardware; Tobi eye-tracking, headtracking, VR.
It’s always something that doesn’t work and I can’t get working. Right now (I dual boot) it’s my 4G modern in my laptop that I don’t seem to understand how to activate the GPS receiver in. Even if I got it to work I wouldn’t know since I have no idea on how GPS is supposed to work on Ubuntu…
I like to use parsec to play games with my friends. When I found out Linux could not host parsec, that was a bummer for me. If parsec had compatibility to host in Linux I’d switch back immediately.
I never tried Linux, but I consider it every few years. However if I weigh that
O&O Shutup10 and group policies can remove all the telemetry and intrusiveness from Windows +
most of my work involves Adobe products +
my main hobby is gaming, with the vast majority of my games not having a Linux port
there are simply too many factors that would make Linux to be more hassle, have less performance or downright impossible to serve as a substitute for Windows, while for me personally not really offering any practical benefits over Windows.
I wanted to dual boot linux and windows but installed linux on the wrong drive partition and wrote over all of my data. Decided i was too stupid for linux. To be fair that was 3 years ago, maybe ill try again soon
I spent three days installing Arch from scratch. After I got it working, I wiped everything and did it again and again, I wrote 2 simple script to automate the process, and after I was done, I wiped everything and installed Manjaro lol.
It’s a good learning experience, I recommend every new Linux user do it in a sandbox at least once.
If you try again, follow a dual-boot guide for your distro. Also, make your root and home partitions separate, so if you run into issues, you can reset safely.
Two things: the Adobe Creative Cloud (which I hate but am totally dependent on) and better support for FreeSync with more than one display. Even with a 7900XT, which gets open-source drivers, graphics stuff is just easier on Windows.
Quite simple: When using Linux, I tend to play around, try different stuff, switch distros every couple of month… When using Windows or MACOS, I just use it as is and don’t try to break stuff. And while I could use Linux quite easily without breaking it, my inner child prevents me from using it this way…
Tell me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances, without telling me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances
The best thing about Windows is that if there is something you want to do, either there is a detailed guide online for the specific issue or someone went a step further and created a simple tool to accomplish that task. Windows is stable/reliable/accessible.
To run Linux it would need to be just as easy to install, be as compatible with games as Windows, and not have to involve deep dives into Linux user forums to accomplish basic stuff.
With the main intention of Linux, outside of just not supporting Apple or Microsoft, is to be able to customize your OS experience. I don’t have time/patience/desire to do that. I want my computer to be there ready to open a game launcher and launch that game without issue. That is true about Windows 99.8% of the time, I have not had that same experience with Linux.
The best thing about Windows is that if there is something you want to do, either there is a detailed guide online for the specific issue or someone went a step further and created a simple tool to accomplish that task
My experience is the opposite. Whenever I run into a weird problem on Windows, half of the time I can’t find an answer anywhere. And when I find an answer, it often seems really sketchy, like deleting a specific registry key, without explaining WHY it is required.
I also had some problems, where I couldn’t find anything with Linux, but less so than on Windows.
I guess it depends a lot on what you do, I don’t play a lot of games and don’t need any Software that’s supported only by Windows.
ArchWiki is my first point of contact after experiencing an issue. Its an amazing resource.
I’m surprised Windows default troubleshooting solution has been to employee people who spend their time answering questions on forums, often just copy/pasting answers which often don’t apply to the question being asked.
I could never get my bluetooth microphone to work under Linux, and I was having to input my password many times every day just to accomplish simple tasks. Couldn’t even make the password into a PIN, that wasn’t allowed for some reason.
If you’re talking about using sudo you can edit your sudoers file to make it so that whenever you use sudo in a terminal session you don’t have to use the password for the remainder of that session. It’s not an immediately obvious solution to most people so I’m not saying this to downplay your experience by any means, just letting people know this stuff is changeable
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