Linux - Your thoughts and opinions

[Tommy]

So I decided to make a general thread about Linux, and your thoughts and opinions on it.

I've been trying out many Linux distros over the past couple of years and while most of them are the same outside, the insides can be quite different which is why I make sure to give them a fair going over before judging them. After months of testing Debian Linux, I can safely say that I understand why Linux has not taken over the Windows market.

I consider myself a very advance Windows user, I'm even certified in A+, and even I find Linux somewhat clunky and unpleasant to use. It's possible I'm not looking for information in the right places, but there are just so many things that I do not like about Linux in general, but then there are a few things I do like. So I'll start with the things I do like.

Things I like
-Almost all versions of Linux are free
-There are MANY versions of free software alternatives to everyday Windows programs, I especially love KolourPaint, it's essentially MSPaint XP on steroids
-You can own a current OS for nothing
-Stability is quite good, security is awesome
-Drivers are often times fully included right out of the box and you don't need to chase a bunch down to make things work
-Even very old hardware can be supported just fine, unlike Windows which fabricates old hardware as unusable, if Linux can support old hardware, so can you Windows. You just don't want to.

Things I don't like
-Hard to update certain software, especially browsers like Firefox that are somewhat integrated into the OS itself, aka ESR versions, and change them to mainstream versions
-Does not play as nice with Windows via networking. I do not care for how complicated Samba can be sometimes
-I hate the desktop, I want shortcuts on my desktop, I do not what them going into a folder called desktop but they never show up on the desktop
-I definitely don't like all the stupid little folders that are obscure. Windows has Users, Program Files, Windows, System32, etc. What is var, lib, srv, proc, etc? Those mean nothing to me.
-Updating programs can be complicated if you don't get command line down. It's not horrible but somewhat inconvenient
-It's very easy to break something, even while updating, and literally ruin your entire installation
-I don't find the support communities very friendly most of the time

With the last one, I'm sure they get tired of hear the same questions asked over and over again, especially ones that they deem easy to figure out. But at the same time, if you want people to jump ship to your software, you need to be willing to help them out. Most of the world relies on Windows and Linux is a very different beast. Although some distros exist like Q4OS, which is by far my favorite so far, they can mimic Windows, but underneath they are still totally different creatures.

Do I hate Linux? Of course not! I think it's a pretty cool platform but as I see it, there are two types of users for it. Advanced programmers/developers, and hardcore geeks/nerds. I don't mean the latter in a bad way at all of course since I consider myself somewhat of a nerd. But Linux just isn't ready for primetime use for most people. Heck, some people here at work have a hard time understanding what you mean when you tell them to click on the "Big Blue E", or using "the slash above the enter key". There's no way they'd comprehend terminals and shells and command line, etc.

How do you feel about Linux, what are your likes/dislikes? Where do you see strengths or weaknesses? I'd like to know your thoughts!
 

[dencorso]

I like debian. Not some derivative distribution, but plain vanilla debian.
Now, regardless of what linux distribution one uses, I think the best desktop environment is Trinity, hands down.
If not that, then xfce. All others are too much fireworks and eye-candy for my taste. Of course, just my 2¢. YMMV.

[CosmoDreamy]

Both posts above sum it up for me really. Q4OS is cool, as is the Trinity DE. (And funny enough I'm also a fan of Xfce, probably because it's functional and customisable enough but not stupidly heavy like GNOME 3 is - I also love the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix' attitude the Xfce developers take, which explains the slow update scheduling they use).

Though yeah, GNU+Linux will never hit it for the average PC user unless various BIG companies were to sell their own distributions or something along the lines of that (similarly to how MacOS builds from FreeBSD). Maybe MS should think about this instead of bothering with the 15-year-old underinvested NT 6 kernel.

Edited June 29, 2020 by CosmoDreamy

[UCyborg]

On 7/22/2019 at 5:53 PM, Tommy said:

Most of the world relies on Windows and Linux is a very different beast.

The Linux on desktop hasn't caught on, but: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-everywhere-10-things-didnt-know-penguin-powered/

[Tommy]

On 2/24/2023 at 8:03 PM, UCyborg said:

The Linux on desktop hasn't caught on, but: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-everywhere-10-things-didnt-know-penguin-powered/

Fantastic point! Heh, I almost forgot that I created this topic so long ago. I'm still exploring Linux to this day and in fact I do have a VM running CentOS on my main Windows server which is just used as a service. But some of these other things it powers is absolutely fascinating! Imagine being a cow getting milked by Linux! I do wish it would start catching on more on the desktop world though because it truly does have a lot to offer! But I think so much of it relies on the programs people need to use that just isn't available on Linux and sometimes the free alternatives just don't cut it in the professional world.

[UCyborg]

I've been using the desktop Linux occasionally for over the decade now. Back when I bought this computer, the disk I bought with it lasted a really short time, I applied for warranty and while I waited for the new one, I could boot a Linux distro from the USB and play Quake Live, back when it was still natively compatible with Linux and launchable through a web browser plugin.

Well, I guess that's what I mostly did when I messed with it, try to get fun stuff working. I also tend to use GParted for partitioning tasks, I don't remember when was the last time I used any Windows based partitioning utility, though it's also true it's not something I have to do often. It's also handy for backing up/restoring partitions on Android smartphone, you combine few command-line utilities and BAAM, you're writing a complete file system image. At least as long as you have the phone that's not completely locked down...

For desktop, it was mostly GNOME 2 or later MATE, just because that's what Ubuntu came with all those years ago. These days, I gravitate towards KDE, among other things, it allows setting desktop background per-monitor. I was also surprised when I discovered I can turn off mouse movement acceleration (known in Windows world as "Enhance pointer precision" checkbox) in the GUI: "Whaaat, you can do that without needing to write a script that executes on login?"

Oh, and Compiz (the compositing window manager) was fun. I'm not experimenting much these days, so don't really have a layout in my mind what exactly do different software combinations offer, and yeah, so far, I only used two desktop environments. It's also true I don't actually need some advanced functions in window management since I spend most time in the web browser anyway. Still, KDE is supposed to be pretty functional, and if you want functional, how much other options really are out there?

What I find really strange, you apparently can't bridge wired and wireless network interface or maybe only with some complicated knowledge of networking on Linux. At some point, I wanted to plug my desktop to the laptop's RJ-45 port - the laptop wirelessly connects to the access point (modem) and if you have wired and wireless interfaces bridged on the laptop, plugging the desktop in would make it appear as an equal member on the network. If you use internet sharing option instead, then it will be hidden behind a NAT point. Bridging is easy on Windows, no idea how to do it on Linux (the wired/wireless combination is problematic, wired/wired should be a breeze). Oh, but I have a wireless router, the iconic Linux based Linksys WRT54GL, there, it's also easy, at least with the right community-developed firmware.

[UCyborg]

On 2/25/2023 at 2:03 AM, UCyborg said:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-everywhere-10-things-didnt-know-penguin-powered/

Another example are smart TVs, LG for instance uses webOS, SAMSUNG uses Tizen. Google is everywhere of course, so there's also Android TV.

Also infotainment and such systems in cars, Volkswagen and their friends definitely use Linux on their infotainment systems. After peeking inside the archive with the software of one such infotainment system in the example below, one may recognize the familiar update.zip file structure if the person has ever flashed homebrew Android on their smartphone.

Filesystem of system partition:

Also the infamous systemd:

Edited June 24, 2023 by UCyborg