this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Better is debatable. For the average dev, Linux is an obvious improvement for most development tasks. For the casual user? Not even Ubuntu is 100% out of the box yet. I'm currently working through the migration to Ubuntu as my main OS and there have been things where I 100% had to open up a terminal for (or something similarly manual or confusing), which is typically not an option for non-developers or the technologically disinclined. Most Linux diehards seem to forget that not everyone is technologically literate, especially when they push the latest fork of a fork of a branch of arch with barely any UI or support for familiar applications.
You got me curious.
What exactly had you going for the terminal? Although not a fan of that distro in particular, I must admit they were the ones who made a significant push to make Linux more accessible to every one.
I'd risk 97% of end user machines nowadays are ready to go after going through a standard install of Ubuntu.
I think the first thing was Windows' fault (and also the fault of my dual boot setup, which i imagine most casual users won't be going for) - apparently "Fast Startup" means doing some hardware shenanigans that prevents Ubuntu from hooking into the motherboard's network adapter.
After disabling that, I had to install a specific version of the nvidia graphics driver (535) from a PPA to get all 4 of my monitors working. Before that, I couldn't configure display settings at all because my screens would flash for too long and prevent me from clicking the "Keep Settings" button. And before that, only one monitor worked and the other three were black screens that I could move the mouse to, but couldn't move applications to.
And finally I had to figure out how to set a "default" audio device because apparently this isn't a configurable thing (that I could find). I noticed I would have to manually set my audio device after every reboot - after enough reboots I found that there is a command to list audio devices by ID and to set the active output device by ID, so I added it to the list of startup commands. Honestly this one is the most perplexing because I would think setting a default audio device from a list of multiple would be some pretty basic functionality. I'm guessing that I probably just missed it, or gnome hides it.
After that is mostly gaming setup stuff. I would consider it to be common knowledge that most games aren't intended to be run on Linux, so I don't mind some difficulty there.
Slightly unrelated, I have learned that apt purging openssl is a huge no-no and am now reinstalling Ubuntu again entirely :)
I had a dual boot where windows would from time to time rewrite the boot and the system would just load into it.
Because it was an older motherboard it still had IDE and SATA; after some research, I found someone saying it was a BIOS "feature" where the default master HDD was alway on the IDE channel. The solution: get rid of the IDE disk (and windows along with it).
The rest of what you describe remembers my own misadventures when I started. But back then at 2006 and with Debian.
I've read articles where people were saying that even running the NVidia Quadro boards was very much anti-climatic, with the biggest hurdle being installing the proprietary drivers.
And when it comes to games, WINE is going very far to make many things works where they were never intended to. And many titles are already being shipped with penguin in mind
Have fun!
PopOS Nvidia version for Nvidia machines - much better experience.
I can't speak for the Nvidia issue. (Only that it is widely know that Nvidia actively works against Open source and only just has begun changing their stance, so Nvidia support is still poor on Linux. Their proprietary drivers aren't great either. I stick to AMD since using Linux, they work great out of the box)
But the audio issue baffles me. Under Kubuntu with KDE I just klick on the Loudspeaker in the systray and choose the device. It even remembers it over unplugging and replugging devices.
Rgarding openssl: Thats the price you pay for freedom, you can change the system how you want, even into non working states ^^ BTW: You can repair such mistakes with a LiveCD even major ones like this.
I wish. Both at home and in the office, we rely on too many Windows-dependent applications that do not work on Linux.
I run Ubuntu as my main OS since I can kinda do what I want with my laptop at work and obviously control my personal laptop as well, but everything production-wise at work is Windows on the client side, and I still have a Windows PC for gaming for games that require anti cheat that isn't supported on Linux.
I vastly prefer Linux but Windows is a far lower friction/barrier to entry for most.
People resist change because of familiarity or, even worse, it's the crap that comes preloaded with every computer and some idiot told them they void warranty if it is removed (this is illegal nowadays but many shops still float this idea).
I can understand specialized applications but the bulk of office work does not require it. And industrial applications even prefer linux as it means they can tailor the software to their specific uses.
I was writing this and what came to mind was a conversation on a podcast where journalists were at some point debating they could not live without their Apple computers, while complaining how expensive they were.
They write text! Any freaking OS can provide support for at least two dozens of text processors.
It's mostly about perception, in my view.