Poll: Why don't you use Linux?

[Oktokolo]

The still ongoing Windows 10 topic sparked my curiosity why people do not just switch to Linux. But users of other OSes are also allowed to vote.

[AluminumHaste]

I've tried using Linux on 3 different computers over the years.

2 laptops and a desktop.

 

Every time there's a huge show stopper.

I've always tried to use the most stable, user friendly distro.

 

Linux people on the forums HATE new Windows users asking "dumb" questions and are assholes. I get it, you people probably hear the same dumb, noobish questions a million times a day. GG on chasing away new users.

 

I've had hard locks and weird shit happen where the desktop crashes and I have to hard reset the computer.

I mostly use my computer for gaming, and up until very recently that's been a no-go on *nix, either compatibility or performance or both.

 

I WANT to get away from Microsoft and Windows, but Linux just isn't it, and I don't know if it ever will be.

 

I've completely lost interest in getting linux working on my computer, I'm already using Windows 7 and Windows 10 now, I don't really want to add a 3rd OS to this computer.

[Epifire]

I'm not gonna lie I've been on Win7 for some time now because I don't want to have a bunch of my fragile old installs busted on the switch to 10. I hold out for the idea that MSFT will make the decision they usually do (every three or so versions) to make a scaled back workstation/barebones release. None of this smart features garbage, or touch interface bs; just a (mostly) stable release that allows me to move ahead with the times. It's hard to say why exactly I'm a Windows guy. Probably because I grew up using it and assumed eventually they'd calm down and stop marketing to the, "fast crowd" wanting something flashy and stylish.

I feel like I'd want to try Linux at least once in my life, as it sounds like something I could get behind. It also seems foolhardy in my eyes to switch from a perfectly fine version of Windows to a new platform I know nothing about. Maybe when my preferred features go the way of the dinosaur and MSFT only pushes for hip features will I look elsewhere.

[jaxa]

https://www.xda-developers.com/linux-apps-chrome-os-overview-crostini/

[Sotha]

I used to use Linux. After Win10 came out I've been using that because it seems to be stable and pleasant to use. I am not sarcastic or trolling. For me Win10 has mostly worked just fine.

 

Actually, it was the Linux side that had problems. In win side, you just install programs and stuff work, most of the time. In Linux side stuff mostly work, but if something goes wrong, you have to spend a lot of time trying to fix it. For example, if you use proprietary drivers for your video card, and you get a kernel update, you desktop environment is trashed and you have work in console to get the drivers back in working conditions. I usually search the issue online and always I have been able to fix them in the end. I don't have an unpleasant experience of the Linux community.

 

But I just don't have time for fixing basic stuff that break surprisingly. On Windows side, stuff just work.

 

Actually, my wife is the Linux user in the family nowadays. She has an old laptop she uses for work on text documents. The machine had Vista, so it worked horribly slow until I installed Kubuntu on it. She has been mostly happy with the Linux she has been using, and we have gotten more life out of the laptop. Now, the Kubuntu has gotten updates, and it is getting slow, too, so I think I will install Lubuntu on the laptop. Maybe she gets few more years out of the laptop and we save some money. Of course, we could used 300EUR and buy a new Windows laptop, and that would save my time because then stuff would mostly work and I would not have occasionally fix stuff.

 

So I guess I see Linux as a good way to save some money by bringing old hardware to life.

[Obsttorte]

I've used Linux in addition to Windows during writing my Diploma Thesis, as some of the program libraries I needed back then only worked under Linux (well, there may have been a way to get it to work under Windows, too, but as I am no programmer using Linux was the easier way). I can't remember the exact distro right now but I haven't had any issues at all, and besides some minor things it was not much of a difference than working under Windows. And as a little bonus TDM ran smoother under Linux back then (TDM 1.07, from 1.08 on it didn't made a difference on whether I've ran it under Windows or Linux).

 

The main reason I am using Windows 7 right now instead of Linux is that I mainly use my computer for gaming, and most games run under Windows only, at least if you don't want to fallback to virtual machines and stuff like that. I guess once the day comes when most games require Windows 8/10 to run I will rethink my decision.

[Fidcal]

I've tried 5 or 6 of the free demo download discs and I'd like to switch to Linux BUT...

 

None of the ones I tried gave quite enough configurability - they were better than Windows but, like M$oft, they still assume they know what's best for you and set limits.

 

Once I got one of them tolerably configured then I tried searching the net and installing. I failed. Over and over. It was a mystery and there's just not enough non-geeky help that I could find. I also recall trying to find a list of software that runs under Wine. At that time I found the only way was to register with Wine. I resent having to join something as the only way to find out if I want it so I said to myself FU! If you're so secretive you don't even have a shop window then I can't be bothered either (Yeah, hassle makes me irritable because it's so bloody unnecessary! Anyway, that was a year or two back. In the last few months I did find a public list.) Anyway it came down to this:

 

Windows is a pain in the arse hassle but there is help out there if you can endure having to search for every damn little thing instead of M$oft making the knowledge available at the point of use.

 

Linux is a pain in the arse hassle for the new user to set up because there is not enough plain-English guidance (that I found before my motivation petered away.)

 

Instruction is a very great skill that very few of us have. It's not enough to know your subject; you need to communicate well. M$oft are notoriously useless but there is (mostly) enough info out on the net. I recall the old days of win 95, 98, XP with a proper indexed guide on your local pc. Even that wasn't enough because you need more keywords not just the keywords that M$oft use. I do recall back in the DOS days using QBasic and then Quick Basic. I wanted to pause a program to wait for a keypress or something. 'Pause' wasn't in the index. 'Wait' referred to listening to ports. 'Halt' was something else I think. Weeks passed... zzz... Somehow I stumbled across 'Sleep'. How the hell can you look up 'Sleep' in an index if you don't know the word? But anyway, a keyword indexed search list is a good method if you enter every possible term you can think of PLUS features that are not even in the software so the user can at least find an entry that says: 'not available'! Now this Cortana thing is not a bad idea but I stamped on that without even trying after hearing how M$oft use it to gather info about you. The search feature almost always ended with it offering to search the net!

 

Hang on, I'm ranting. Back on track. Linux: yes, if there were a good reliable guide and, ideally, more configuration. My ideal OS would be a void where you can set up any number of panels/bars/rectangles to be any size shape or menu or button panel, any font or font size or icon size, any colour, transparency, gradation, shading, imagery etc, and put them where you want, and set the rules you want for how they behave and popup or not (all with a default setup of course.)

[stgatilov]

I can write many reasons, but I guess it mostly boils down to present habit and skill.

 

I have huge experience working with C++ in Visual Studio (Linux hardly has any equivalent), working with files in Far Manager (I used mc over putty, it's too bad in comparison).

Same can be said about skills of OS maintenance.

Switching to Linux means dropping all those skills and learning entirely new ones, which is tremendous waste of time overall.

 

[zergrush]

I've been using Xubuntu in my old laptop for years. Updating it is as usual and running a fair share of GoG and steam games on it. I don't remember the last time my desktop crashed, or that I had a major problem that took me a while to solve.

 

PROTIP: run a *buntu or debian-based distro with a DE that doesn't suck and that is properly developed by an active community. Avoid GNOME3 and stick to XFCE and MATE distros. LXQT also appears to have a very promising future. Obvious recommendations go towards Xubuntu, Linux Mint and Lubuntu. I have no experience in Fedora-based distros so I'm unable to comment on those.

[peter_spy]

I don't want to equate using computer in my leisure time with stress.

[Fidcal]

PROTIP: run a *buntu or debian-based distro with a DE that doesn't suck and that is properly developed by an active community. Avoid GNOME3 and stick to XFCE and MATE distros. LXQT also appears to have a very promising future. Obvious recommendations go towards Xubuntu, Linux Mint and Lubuntu. I have no experience in Fedora-based distros so I'm unable to comment on those.

 

Erm... which means in English? That's what I was talking about. Linux users use Linux-speak full of distros and *buntus and DEs. And stick to XFCE and MATE distros as if they are a special kind of group that includes others but I don't know what that is. In other words, Linux users talk as if one is already a knowledgeable Linux user rather than a beginner. Probably because they've been laughed at when they started so they have to use the lingo. Yes, I'd do the same with Windows with regular Windows users, but if a friend who'd only ever used a mobile phone was thinking of getting his first PC, then I'd try to speak more simply about Windows.

[Sotha]

Oh god, I am a linux nerd, because I understood (and mostly agree with) what he said.

 

But a newbie is flooded with many distros and they may easily choose a poor one. Or a once-good distro might fall out of grace... that's what Kubuntu looks like to me, because it used to work better than nowadays. Bloat gets added, I guess.

 

This might help (or just muddy the waters even more: https://www.distrowatch.com/

[freyk]

Why i dont use Linux, on my main systems, because
"I dont want to invest the time needed to,.." learn to solve "technical" problems when i want to do something on a Linux distro.
(and im just lazy sometimes).
If i want to test or do something on a linux distro/mac os/etc, I use a virtualmachine on virtualbox. (long life to snapshots!)
I have tried many linux distro's and stayed at Opensuse.

Edited February 16, 2019 by freyk

[demagogue]

Some games don't use Linux and FAQs, tutorials, & support for a lot of things assume Windows.

But I'll run Linux (or I used to) in a virtual machine for a few development-related things.

I was happy using it that way for those things.

[Fidcal]

What Linux needs is a new, intelligent Messiah. She'll create a new more flexible distro (snigger) which the user can configure how he likes, but more importantly, she will bestow upon her disciples a new Linux Bible to guide us on the path. And yeah, there shalt be no weeping nor wailing nor fucking head scratching, but joy shalt fill the land and her users shalt prosper verily. On the first day shalt thou install, by the second all is happily configured, by the sixth thou shalt have downloaded and have up and running all the essentials, and by the seventh day thou shalt rest from this great work, put up your feet, and enjoy.

[Anderson]

Windows 10’s File Explorer Will Soon Let You Access Your Linux Subsystem Files:

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/199652/windows-10s-file-explorer-will-soon-let-you-access-your-linux-subsystem-files

[kano]

The only two reasons I used Windows was because it was what I was taught in school as a kid and it ran my video games. But now that I am older, video games are less important to me. I wouldn't say that I outgrew them, because I don't really believe that and I still enjoy playing older games (which luckily do almost always work on Linux). It's just that I'm not into modern ones, because they mostly suck ass. From the mandatory spyware they come wrapped in, to the lack of fan-mod/level support, I can just pick them up for $5 from the used bin on a console, as that's all they're worth to me. The upsides of doing this are that I don't have to deal with Windows and I don't have to worry about what proprietary software houses are doing to my computer.

 

I'm really happy that AMD has improved their Linux drivers significantly. It used to be that NVidia was the only choice for graphics on Linux. But now we actually do have a choice. Back in the days of Windows XP, I started teaching myself Linux as a side project, after experiencing Microsoft's product activation malware. I knew that in time, the tyranny on Windows would only get worse, so I needed to come up with an exit strategy sooner than later. Microsoft's self-admitted wilful deception of users with GWX and foisting of bloatware onto customers that they never asked for because of business deals with third parties (Whose computer is this anyway?) has proven me right. https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/342871/hey-microsoft-stop-installing-apps-on-my-pc-without-asking/

Edited February 16, 2019 by kano

[Sotha]

LOL! Today I had time to install Lubuntu on my wife's old laptop. I think it was again a typical linux-experience:

 

1) Installation went great. I did spend some time looking up how to partition properly, because it is over 5 years since my previous linux install and I had forgotten. Found info and continued.

2) Everything worked out of the box, except....

3) Windows key opens the launch menu -> great! But there is no way to do the snap-window-to-50%-of-window-space operation which I use all the time. Again, looking for information...

4) It turns out the functionality should be there, with key binding Windows-Key+Left or Right. But the functionality does not work out of the box. Again, looking for information....

5) Turns out the developers dropped the ball and Windows key cannot simultaneously open the launch menu AND have the window50%snapping working. It is either or. Again, looking for information...

6) I disabled the windows key->launch menu feature. The windows key + Left/Right 50% windows snapping started working! Fortunately, ALT+F2 starts a launch menu, so now I can both snap windows to 50% and use a shortcut to launch apps.

7) now the old laptop works and is lightning fast without sacrificing functionality or useability.

 

So the Linux-experience is that things are often almost great, but then there is some silly overlooking by the developers and you miss out functionality you would really like.... but if you are ready to do some investigation and play around, you might get a fix that gets you everything you need.

[woah]

I use linux as my main computer and run a Windows VM within it to play games.

 

I still like hacking around and stuff so that's probably why I'm fine with it. There was one point where I had a stressful job and started to lose my patience for it but that is no longer the case.

 

On linux I often feel like I'm fighting the computer to get stuff to work but the quality of the experience has been improving over the years (slowly but surely). But on windows, more and more I feel like I'm fighting for actual control of my computer. I really dislike the latter (and copy-on-write VM images have been really handy for rolling back a lot of BS). The open source software user experience problem seems to mostly be an issue of incentives. And while private companies are highly motivated to create a nice user experience, that has its own costs (even if they are less obvious or take some time to set in).

 

I'm also pretty proficient with linux command line and find it convenient for "getting shit done" in many cases, even if it can be hacky. Windows has counterparts to that but I've always found gaps.

 

 

I wouldn't blame anyone for using Windows or MacOS though. And I can't think of a single person that I'd genuinely recommend linux to.

Edited February 17, 2019 by woah

[stumpy]

at least 80 percent of my games don't run on Linux, plus Microsoft no longer sees Linux as a rival, which usually means they own shares in it.

[Jetrell]

I have Lubuntu on my laptop and Windows 7 on my desktop. My plan is to completely switch over to Linux when Microsoft discontinues Windows 7. That's the plan anyways.

 

[Fidcal]

If you're happily running Win 7 then no need to abandon it just because M$oft no longer support it - that just means you don't get updates or help from them and probably won't be able to download a recovery image. I'm still running XP on an old PC in my back room as a standby. It saved my arse when my main PC crashed out; I could still go online, get email, and order a new PC with Win 10

[OrbWeaver]

My advice to anyone considering Linux is to totally ignore any online opinions (including mine) saying that this distribution sucks, or that desktop environment sucks, or that you should or shouldn't use this particular configuration. Everyone has their own personal views, but none of it is objectively correct, and online flame wars don't cast any real light on the issues. Just like flavours of ice-cream, you have to decide for yourself what works for you.

[Jetrell]

If you're happily running Win 7 then no need to abandon it just because M$oft no longer support it - that just means you don't get updates or help from them and probably won't be able to download a recovery image. I'm still running XP on an old PC in my back room as a standby. It saved my arse when my main PC crashed out; I could still go online, get email, and order a new PC with Win 10

It's great that you're still able to use XP - that gives me joy and hope. I used XP up until just a couple of years ago on one of my older PCs but I finally gave up because finding drivers and going online became a hassle so I made the switch to Vista but then I quickly jumped to Windows 7.

 

I've been using Lubuntu for a long time now and I've been very happy with it as long as I don't attempt to play any games...

[kano]

If you're happily running Win 7 then no need to abandon it just because M$oft no longer support it - that just means you don't get updates or help from them and probably won't be able to download a recovery image. I'm still running XP on an old PC in my back room as a standby. It saved my arse when my main PC crashed out; I could still go online, get email, and order a new PC with Win 10

Yeah if you are using Windows 7 I would at the very least continue to do so until the last moment, when support ends. They were forced by market pressure to extend both Windows 98 and Windows XP support. And if enough people stay on Windows 7, we can make it happen again.