Surprising to myself, I have been a Linux user for over 12 years...
Through the many years I have bounced between and tried Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Parrot OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro. I have tried Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, KDE, Mate, Deepin. And more. I have 3 computers, all using a Linux distro right now.
I love the idea of Linux - free, free as in freedom, free of telemetry. And well, I thought I would never entertain the idea of switching, here I am today, strongly considering Mac OS.
Lately, I have become extremely frustrated and tired of dealing with little bugs, crashes, versions, and dependencies. Not to mention notable UI issues. It is starting to hamper my productivity when working.
Right now I am using Ubuntu and I cannot drag and drop into VS Code from Nautilus, I can't drag and drop from the default archive manager, I am experiencing screen tearing issues, one piece of software I use crashes often but not Debian and vice versa, I have to manually reset screen brightness when it dims after timeout, etc. I have experienced issues of similar nature across all distros I have used and I am becoming burnt out.
I think part of the issue is that there is a huge variety of Linux distros, different combinations of kernels, desktop environments, window managers, package managers, file managers, network managers, etc... Not to mention devices. There is too many variables, and too many projects to maintain.
Sorry for the rant, I have seen many similar posts, but I have been using Linux for over 12 years, powering through, ignoring and working around these issues and I am pretty fed up.
While I am conflicted, I am thinking Mac OS looks like a good middle ground.
Any suggestions? What has been the most stable distro and compatible for you?
Do it.
I currently use all 3 (M1 MacBook Air for a laptop while I'm at work, and Ubuntu 23.04/Win10 dual boot desktop, and an old Dell Latitude core2duo running AntiX for just sorta messing around with)
All 3 of the systems have their ups and downs. I just recently tarted using Linux again after trying it off and on for several years. This time seems like it's properly sticking for me though.
I also like to do audio production, and no matter how much people like to yell about how you can do music production on Linux, it's a right pain in the ass to deal with Jack and finding a DAW that doesn't have that classic FOSS learning curve.
So, I use Windows for music production because FL Studio works great, ASIO is surprisingly just fine and it supports all the plugins I use.
I like MacOS on laptops because of the fantastic touch pad, pretty insane battery life, good screens and good speakers. Not to mention that the Apple Silicon has been WAAY more than powerful enough for anything I throw at it.
I use Ubuntu as just a basic daily driver. Discord, Telegram, Firefox, a file browser. I don't really need to do much more than that on a daily basis. I enjoy that Linux provides me the ability to reduce big companies spying on me, but otherwise... It's fine. Gaming through steam proton is fine, chatting with friends is fine. It all just feels very middle of the road. I do appreciate the fast boot times I get, and the immediately usable desktop. The styling of Gnome 44 is also nice, but I just love "dock + top bar" setups personally.
As someone who uses all three, if I was forced to use any one of them for the rest of my life.. It'd probably be MacOS. You get the flexibility of an underlying unix system, and support for pretty much everything Windows has these days.
I say this as a primarily Linux user who also does music production on Windows, but anyone looking for a great DAW on Linux check out Bitwig. I found it really easy to use and well-designed. I've done a ton of music production on it and it works great. The only reason I prefer windows is because there are more compatible plug-ins.
I’ve thought about bitwig, but I don’t like their monetization method. Only reason I slowly upgraded my fl studio over the years is because I know it’s a lifetime key and that I’ll be getting every update. $400 for one year of updates (starting, I know renewal is cheaper) is atrocious to me.
I think I must have pirated Bitwig because I definitely haven't paid for anything. That said, I don't really use it much anymore. I've been trying Ableton and don't mind it.