Seriously consider moving to Linux

[Dave3000]

The one thing that made me decide to go back to Windows 11 Pro was that it in CachyOS I was installing a 3rd party addon for FS2024 and I got a message at 100% that there was an error during the installation of this addon and it ended up not being installed. This was with the FSS 727-100 installation through the Contrail app, which is not supported in Linux and I only could get the app to work in Linux through Protontricks. Stock FS2024 (Steam version) I had no issues installing in LInux, but installing stand-alone addons, it's a hit and miss.

 

[mikeymikec]

The one thing that made me decide to go back to Windows 11 Pro was that it in CachyOS I was installing a 3rd party addon for FS2024 and I got a message at 100% that there was an error during the installation of this addon and it ended up not being installed. This was with the FSS 727-100 installation through the Contrail app, which is not supported in Linux and I only could get the app to work in Linux through Protontricks. Stock FS2024 (Steam version) I had no issues installing in LInux, but installing stand-alone addons, it's a hit and miss.

Yeah, I've often felt like I'm not being adventurous enough in Linux and maybe I should try harder to game in Linux, but the fact of the matter is these days I give myself a bit of time to game (say a single run of Hades 2 which takes about 45 minutes), and I sure as hell don't want to be spending that time trying to get the game working and end up not getting the downtime I wanted. Hence I dual-boot Linux with Windows, the latter pretty much purely for gaming.

 

[Dave3000]

Yeah, I've often felt like I'm not being adventurous enough in Linux and maybe I should try harder to game in Linux, but the fact of the matter is these days I give myself a bit of time to game (say a single run of Hades 2 which takes about 45 minutes), and I sure as hell don't want to be spending that time trying to get the game working and end up not getting the downtime I wanted. Hence I dual-boot Linux with Windows, the latter pretty much purely for gaming.

I see no point in dual booting in my case because all my software the I use works in Windows and I don't need to do extra work to get them to run in Windows whereas I have to in Linux for non-native Linux software, and even then it's a hit and miss. I tried dual booting in the past with Linux and Windows, Windows for just gaming and Linux for everything else, but I found it a hassle.

 

[notposting]

It's pretty interesting watching MS implode in slow motion. They dominated desktop computing(the only area of computing they lead in), and all they had to do was make minor improvements, and apply a little polish. Everyone would've been happy, and nobody but geeks would be thinking of linux. MS has been a better evangelist for gnu/linux than RMS or Linus ever were :^D

There was a point somewhere around 2010 where I was all in with MS. We ran Windows 7 on the desktop. Had an HTPC in the living room running WMC. Had it in a slick looking case, only used a remote control, plenty of plug-ins to make it seamless. Had clear-QAM HD cable with the HDHomerun, had ad-removal, an on-screen guide, integrated server-side DVD playback, photo albums through Skydrive/Onedrive, media center extenders...the WAF was high.

Had a WHS v1 pushing 20TB, which backed up the machines nightly, the drive pool concept was great and worked great, allowed bare metal restores, and had all of our DVDs ripped to it. If the system failed, the drives were still just NTFS.

Skydrive at the time allowed LAN syncing but it was kneecapped in short order.

Had a WP7 followed by a series of WP8 devices.

Of course, MS followed up by: killing WMC; removing the good bits from WHS v2 before killing it; taking the slick performance of WP7/8 and turning it into a stuttery mess with 8.1 and then eventually killing it as well. And Windows has been declining ever since as well.

edit: and like most people, I'm somewhat lazy. If they had just kept barely iterating but keeping things updated, I would likely still be there.

 

[DavidC1]

I can't move to Linux permanently because I need Microsoft Excel, and the files I use break in anything other than the full version of it. Even the online free version doesn't work properly.

I've been playing with DeBloaters though. Careful look and choosing what to DeBloat would prevent services breaking.

I know even Windows 10 is bloated, and it isn't the unnecessary services and telemetry they install. I have installed 8.1 in one laptop and it boots faster and it's much more responsive. Plus I noticed the idle power went down from 4.8W to 3.7W or something. So the overall code is bloated.

That tells me after 8.1 they stopped being efficient in code because they only had to aim for Desktops. The mentality of the engineers and team working on it is probably the biggest factor in efficiency of anything. 10 is bloated, 11 is probably worse.

 

[Zepp]

I can't move to Linux permanently because I need Microsoft Excel, and the files I use break in anything other than the full version of it. Even the online free version doesn't work properly.

I have found that excel works well in a properly setup windows VM

I know even Windows 10 is bloated, and it isn't the unnecessary services and telemetry they install. I have installed 8.1 in one laptop and it boots faster and it's much more responsive. Plus I noticed the idle power went down from 4.8W to 3.7W or something. So the overall code is bloated.

That tells me after 8.1 they stopped being efficient in code because they only had to aim for Desktops. The mentality of the engineers and team working on it is probably the biggest factor in efficiency of anything. 10 is bloated, 11 is probably worse.

I was a fan of 8.1 but I liked the full screen start menu with the arrangeable tiles that most people hated.
I didnt like how 8.0 booted straight into it though
I recall 10 feeling similarly awful to use when it first released as 11. especially interface lag. I remember one attempt to migrate ended with me ragequitting it back to 8.1 after a hard system freeze. I think the primary reason I finally switched was AMD driver's stopped supporting 8.1

Ironically I recently spun up 8.1 in a vm to reminisce. The default IE11 was a mess to use and download a real browser only to find none of them would install on 8.1. so my interest to play around fizzled pretty quick.

 

[DavidC1]

I have found that excel works well in a properly setup windows VM

Okay, I will migrate but not now. I have to transfer all my files and change my settings. It's not a priority.

I was a fan of 8.1 but I liked the full screen start menu with the arrangeable tiles that most people hated.
I didnt like how 8.0 booted straight into it though

The Tile Menu is atrocious. It's annoying having to switch between that and the desktop interface. Having a proper Start Menu back is a necessity.

Can't really use older OSes anymore. The browsers stop supporting after some point.

 

[Zepp]

The Tile Menu is atrocious. It's annoying having to switch between that and the desktop interface. Having a proper Start Menu back is a necessity.

at the time i had a more involved workflow and found I really jived with hitting win key and instantly having all the most used apps, that I organized into priority groups, pop up right in my field of view and near my cursor to launch. nowadays though I just end up using traditional start menus

 

[DavidC1]

at the time i had a more involved workflow and found I really jived with hitting win key and instantly having all the most used apps, that I organized into priority groups, pop up right in my field of view and near my cursor to launch. nowadays though I just end up using traditional start menus

I had Windows 8 and 8.1 as main computers as well. Of course on laptops. It still was annoying. The insulting part was that it was basically a skin on top of Windows 7 with Start Menu thrown into the Recycle Bin.

I guess it's somewhat ok for a larger screen, but it's a huge waste of screen real estate aside from the obvious issues unique to Windows.

If they were more forward-thinking it would have been a bigger version of iOS/Android which is basically Windows but a touch optimized version of icons. In 1996 they had such thing called Windows 95 Plus! with Internet mode. Basically just one-click open version. It would have been so much more elegant.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The ground swell is growing. Almost every tech tuber I watch is doing Linux content now.

I booted my wife's 11 pro setup to run updates. What a 💩 show of filthy advertising. Immediately after it hit me with turning on back up. It's one of many reasons why I am full time CachyOS now.

 

[Zepp]

The ground swell is growing. Almost every tech tuber I watch is doing Linux content now.

I booted my wife's 11 pro setup to run updates. What a 💩 show of filthy advertising. Immediately after it hit me with turning on back up. It's one of many reasons why I am full time CachyOS now.

I'm eagerly waiting like a vulture circling overhead for one of my parents and/or wife to get fed up enough with windows to allow me to show them my 'curated' windows like debian desktop I setup as a switch option for them.

It's glorious how stupid easy using linux is now for the simple desktop users who mostly just surf on a web browser

 

[lxskllr]

The weak spot for linux is the office pro that uses windows. They know windows and the related software inside and out, but wouldn't otherwise be considered "techy". They're less flexible, and not willing/unable to learn new things.

 

[mikeymikec]

The weak spot for linux is the office pro that uses windows. They know windows and the related software inside and out, but wouldn't otherwise be considered "techy". They're less flexible, and not willing/unable to learn new things.

not willing = winner winner chicken dinner.

I've encountered plenty of customers who retired rather than learn to use computers at work, but zero customers who retired rather than learn to use the new MSO when the ribbon was introduced. Yet LibreOffice is Very Very Scary, so scary in fact that many customers don't want to even look at it. Ditto Linux.

Also, I offered my siblings their own e-mail addresses on a family domain perhaps a year or two before e-mail went completely mainstream (I'm guessing the year was 2001), and their reaction was very much like, "what will people think of me having an e-mail address", then when it was normalised, there was no such concern.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yes, there is no saving the older generations with poor neuralplasticity. Indoctrinate young PCMR members and it is a done deal. I think that is where the traction is coming from.

 

[manly]

Yes, there is no saving the older generations with poor neuralplasticity. Indoctrinate young PCMR members and it is a done deal. I think that is where the traction is coming from.

In wealthy countries (particularly U.S. but some others as well), iPhoneOS and macOS market share is shockingly high. The new MacBook Neo continues Apple's tradition of youth indoctrination. I realize this thread is about the Year of Linux 😉 but my point remains that Microsoft's continued "success" has almost nothing to do with their long PC dominance, which has long been eroded by the shift to mobile.

Everyone gets more stubborn as they age, myself included; but legions of older folks (including my mom) have transitioned to using iPhones and iPads as primary computing devices. It's not as impossible as it seems. And I never have to worry about cleaning malware off her Apple devices.

I do agree that MS Office is still a cash cow for the company, so they have to protect that moat.

 

[mv2devnull]

Some actors in EU will probably release "Euro-Office" next summer in an attempt to offer alternative to MS Office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro-Office

I frankly don't care whether I can get anything done with any "office". I can always call them worthless crap.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

In wealthy countries (particularly U.S. but some others as well), iPhoneOS and macOS market share is shockingly high. The new MacBook Neo continues Apple's tradition of youth indoctrination.

Sad but true. iPad kids are the idiocracy version of a microslop free future. 😝 I think of the scene at the hospital where she just presses emojis.

It is simply exchanging one anti-consumer corpo overlord OS for another. With the dumbed down, walled garden, throw away e-waste, that goes with it. If that is the windows combo breaker/successor? I guess it's what plants crave.

 

[WelshBloke]

Some actors in EU will probably release "Euro-Office" next summer in an attempt to offer alternative to MS Office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro-Office

I frankly don't care whether I can get anything done with any "office". I can always call them worthless crap.

I'm very confused about why the EU want to fork some software that they wouldn't use because it was Russian owned when they could just use libre office (or fork that).

 

[Triloby]

The weak spot for linux is the office pro that uses windows. They know windows and the related software inside and out, but wouldn't otherwise be considered "techy". They're less flexible, and not willing/unable to learn new things.

The weak spot for Linux is anyone still heavily reliant on either Office, Adobe, or any productivity software that's strictly Windows-only and won't run on Linux no matter what. The other issue is that even when there are alternatives to Office and Adobe, they're not perfect one-to-one solutions.

Excel and Photoshop/Premier will have features and functionality that just don't exist on LibreOffice or DaVinci Resolve/GIMP. From what people tell me, GIMP is not a great replacement for Photoshop. DaVinci Resolve can be a nice replacement for Premier/After Effects; if you're willing to wrap your head around the concept of node compositing. I don't know if any Office suite alternatives support VBA scripting to the same extent Excel does.

 

[manly]

Welp, some big changes have arrived.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”: Every Major Change Explained

I break down every architectural change in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: sudo-rs, Wayland-only, GNOME 50, Ptyxis terminal, post-quantum cryptography, x86-64-v3 optimization, and TPM full-disk encryption management.

www.fosslinux.com

 

[Zepp]

Welp, some big changes have arrived.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”: Every Major Change Explained

I break down every architectural change in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: sudo-rs, Wayland-only, GNOME 50, Ptyxis terminal, post-quantum cryptography, x86-64-v3 optimization, and TPM full-disk encryption management.

www.fosslinux.com

I find it quite surprising they are moving to make x64_v3 the only build version, cutting pre-Haswell/Ryzen cpus completely out. At least Windows 11 had fake hardware requirements that were easy to spoof.

Really don't like deprecating synaptic package manager and focusing on the app center. I have never liked any of these app centers. They have always been sluggish, buggy, prone to freezing or simply not working at all, and they dont show all your installed apps. Hope they made some big improvements to it in 26

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, for updates I just use the terminal. For browsing packages, synaptic is still my first choice. Fairly lean and reliable.

 

[Dave3000]

Yea, for updates I just use the terminal. For browsing packages, synaptic is still my first choice. Fairly lean and reliable.

The common user would most likely not know about synaptic much less be willing to use the terminal, at least not someone that just wants things in Linux to work without a hassle and even then some things don't work, at least can't get to work from the end user's end, such as running a Windows program using Proton or Wine but even then an issue might crop up that makes that program unusable in Linux even through Proton or Wine. I have been using various distros of Linux for years on and off, have good experience with the terminal, and this is the first time I heard of synaptic for browsing for packages. I either use native versions from the package manager or deb versions (if using an Ubuntu-based distro and can't find a native version or the native version is outdated), or flatpaks (which I try to avoid but sometimes I don't have a choice). I always end up going back to Windows and I could not stick longer than a week with Linux at a time. I always end up going back to Windows, specifically Windows 11 Pro.

 

[lxskllr]

The terminal's easy. That's why I use it. I'm not otherwise a big terminal user. I don't use sudo on my system, so when I have administrative stuff to do, I login as root. Since I don't often login as root, the update routine is usually just arrow up once or twice to recover the bash history, and hit enter. The command is apt update && apt upgrade. Update updates the repos, and upgrade lists the upgradable packages. It then asks if you want to proceed. Yes is default, so you just hit enter. If you decide you don't want to upgrade, type n [Enter], and you're back at the prompt. Then just close the window, or do something else.

Typing this all out is much more complicated than just doing it.

 

[mikeymikec]

The common user would most likely not know about synaptic much less be willing to use the terminal

Logically, if one can follow instructions, the ease of running one command to install LibreOffice on Linux (if it isn't already installed) compared to the probably 10-15 instructions to buy and install a standalone copy of Microsoft Office on Windows, is no contest whatsoever.

I think a lot of people are willing to put themselves through a lot of awkwardness because the awkwardness is "more familiar".