Lemmy is so Linux-focused and people are surprisingly opinionated about it.
people are surprisingly opinionated about it.
Getting repeatedly burned by soulless multibillion dollar comanies tends to do that to a person.
That, plus this is a FOSS service. You don’t come to Lemmy if you don’t like FOSS to some extent, so it follows that people would gravitate towards a FOSS OS too.
My PC still runs on Windows 10 and my phone is still Android 16. I just don’t care enough to bother changing cause I haven’t had any issues with my current setup.
I still use Windows 10 for my gaming rig. I only use Linux for servers. Rn the only server I have is my media server; it’s running off an old Samsung Galaxy S7 phone with a 2TB microSD card running Slackware.
How did you unlock the bootloader on a Samsung phone?
It was years ago, back when there was a viable workaround to get rid of Knox. Afaik, the S7 was the last phone that had any way to do that.
I’ve used all three OS, and I flat out prefer windows. I realize it’s a minority opinion here and that’s fine. People can use whatever OS works for them and as long as they are happy, good on them.
I use everything.
Windows 10 still on my main desktop, although there is a Zorin nvme setup inside, just need to make the final change. Got a 3070 rtx a few years ago I barely get to use.
Windows server 2022 for my DNS/pinhole setup
Windows 10 LTSC for my seeding/downloading
Zorin on my main laptop
Zorin on my kids old renewed 12" MacBook air.
Windows 11 on my kids desktop with a local account. (he’s my guinea pig)
I just used opencore legacy patcher to put sanoma on a 2012 27" iMac that was meant to be recycled. Just ordered kit to take it apart and upgrade the hdd since it’s slow as fuck.
I have bazzite on an old Lenovo gaming laptop
Windows 11 for work
Husband uses genuine MacBook pro from 2016 or so
Truenas scale for my home file server and Plex media. Old secondhand AMD ryzen 7 3700x and as much ram I could find from recycling old devices. 4x 20TB drives I bought refurb in 2024 when I rebuilt it all, had had this thing almost 20 years, just upgrading as needed
Truenas scale (second) for my backups with Veeam, secondhand AMD ryzen 5 4500 and 32G recycled RAM.
Proxmox server for testing fun things.
I love dabbling in everything and keeping old hardware alive. Nearly all my hardware is from clients that needed their devices wiped and recycled. I destroy their data and save what I can for fun/education. Things that are just too old or unreliable or unsupported for businesses are great.
I wipe and reload many I can’t use, give them away. I think that’s all my stuff.
I’m in the Apple ecosystem, hardware-wise, and pretty happy about it. Not much to discuss, if other people feel differently, that’s fine.
I agree on the hardware front.
I made the choice to move from windows to Mac for my work-provided laptop and I absolutely love it for track pad alone. I have never used another machine where the track pad worked so well. The movement feels natural in relation to how the cursor moves on the screen and the gestures seem so reasonable for my mind.
I’m always open to suggestions when it comes to better hardware but, right now, I can’t see changing away because I like the feel so much.
My only complaint Hardware wise is all the extra lengths that Apple go to to make sure that things are less upgradable etc.
I’m not defending Apple, but they made a choice. Less repairable, but more durable. Needing repairs less vs. being easier to repair.
Have they succeeded in “needing repairs less”? Arguable. But for the iPhone, few phone last as long as long as you take even minimal care of it.
Also, the vast majority of laptops are not upgradeable, never have been.
Only the desktops have this issue. And for the more “normal” desktops, they are actually upgradeable. At least the last version of them was. Not sure if it will be still when the update it… wouldn’t count on it. Like I said it’s clear Apple made their choice.
A MBP is super easy to open up compared to just about every other shitty piece of plastic held together by clips molded into the case.
All laptops I own are upgradeable. I didn’t buy them with that in mind. I just bought most of them cheap and used on eBay. The most recent one I got I upgraded the m.2 WiFi to wifi6 a few years ago. Bumped it from 16 to 32GB of ram. 256Gb Nvme to 1Tb.They even sell 4k panels for them. Though that is a very Advanced upgrade. The only thing I can’t upgrade is the CPU and the Apu inside.
All modern apple silicon desktops or laptops have soldered in Ram and proprietary storage. All of them. Unfortunately this seems to be a trend that other manufacturers are looking to follow. The storage is technically kind of upgradable. But you have to jump through massive Hoops to do so compared to any standard computer.
Maintaining a system? Apple has many pieces hardware locked to a system. Going to get a replacement board for your apple silicon laptop? Good luck. If you get lucky it might not be hardware locked. This was one of the major bullshit things that got Louis Rossman on his right to repair campaign specifically.
Durability? Yes Apple Hardware is way more durable than your standard 200 dollar cheap chromebook. But if you look at similarly priced devices. Most of the time they’re just as durable. I would actually like apple silicon if it wasn’t for all the anti-repair anti-competition lockdown that they performed. If Apple would just provide basic device trees Etc allowing the BSD and Linux communities to build their software for their devices. They would be my preferred Hardware. But they and Qualcomm are notoriously bad about that. Leaving everyone to feel around in the dark reverse engineering things needlessly.
After the fappening Apple actually started to care about privacy whereas Google just got worse in every aspect. So yeah, I believe you are happy with it. I’ll stick to Android/GrapheneOS nonetheless until we eventually get a true alternative.
Me too ✌🏻 I like it, the hardware is rock solid and software-wise I try my best not to get too far into the walled garden. It’s a good compromise
Been a Mac user for 15 or so years. Then hackintosh and then when that died went to various Linux distros for my desktop but I use a M1 MacBook pro for work still and an M3 MacBook Pro for personal use. Tho I’m falling out of love with apple I enjoy the usability of macOS (at least past versions). Really wish Linux had that level of polish.
Which (in your opinion, dear reader) DE’s have the most promise of having the same level or better UX polish as MacOS? It would be a dream to contribute to a mass-usable, intuitive FOSS DE.
Well Darwin Law applies here too
Macs are my daily driver and have been for decades. You’ll have to fight me to take mine.
I use Linux for VMs and NUCs and servers. Less than I did a decade ago, but that’s only because I have less energy to put into random projects as I get older. Gone are the late-night hackathons until 4am. I support mostly Windows at work.
Of course there are.
It also shouldn’t be surprising that something like Lemmy, an open-source project originally aimed at tech geeks and still used by a LOT of tech geeks, is filled with Linux users. Linux is an open-source project used by a lot of tech geeks.
I use Linux (though dual boot Windows for Fusion 360 and a lot of Windows at work), but if someone asks me about switching to Linux I don’t ram it down their throat. It’s good and all but it’s really not for everyone, and despite what people on here would have you think it’s certainly not as easy to use as Windows. You’re much more likely to run into a difficult problem and not know how to fix it though it’s changed a bit since you can just get Claude to take a look at things now. Windows can have annoyances but generally you can live with them.
Linux, I think, is for people who are quite technical and people who aren’t technical at all (and just need a web browser). For the people inbetween Linux can be a struggle. It’s improving incredibly quickly but the out-of-the-box experience is still pretty terrible (looking especially at KDE here).
out-of-the-box experience is still pretty terrible (looking especially at KDE here).
I have to wonder how long ago you used KDE. It has very sane defaults these days, and arguably has since the Plasma 5 days.
It’s good and all but it’s really not for everyone, and despite what people on here would have you think it’s certainly not as easy to use as Windows.
Absolutely. You have to be prepared for things to not work the first time and have basic troubleshooting skills to investigate, even if the answer is simple.
I deal with people who freak the fuck out if their app isn’t pinned to their taskbar. I’ve learned to deal with these people, I would never in a million years talk tech to these people in a serious manner.
I think there’s plenty of non-Linux people here, you just don’t notice them because they have interesting things to talk about instead of their OS testing hobby.
How did you end up on Lemmy, a FOSS service, and not understand how people might prefer a FOSS OS? I think it’s you who’s the strange one here, not Linux users. You’re insulting people for choosing FOSS while also choosing FOSS.
Like how to disable today’s forced ai or kernel level anticheats being totes ok
Ey, it’s fine to use Windows, no need to insult Linux people though.
You can do some really cool shit with Linux, when it comes to ricing etc. You don’t have to like it, but it can be a really cool hobby.
If they’re not insulting Linux users, they have to deal with copilot shoving its nose into whatever they’re working on.
Like, how many days in a row do I have to dismiss the fucking AI prompt asking me if I want to have my data mangled? I’m not sure the actual answer, I just ignore the fucking banner because I can’t be assed anymore. I’m sure there’s a setting somewhere, but MicroSlop will move and re-enable it again later so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
interesting things to talk about
I’m here for the Star Trek memes and Dull Men’s Club. Interesting things? Pfft!
Yeah, we can just STFU about it.
It’s more like there’s nothing to opine on or take pride in. Source: I use mac for work and I’ve used windows for decades.
Edit: actually I’m wrong. MacOS was a nothing topic for years but this new UI design is pure hot garbage. So I guess it makes sense to talk shit about that.
MacOS was a nothing topic for years
Maybe I’m showing my age here, but I remember when Macs used to boast about being virus free (because hackers couldn’t be bothered to write malware for it).
Haha I am of a similar age and I remember that too. I was more talking about the past 5-8 years. Not a lot has been happening in macOS worth mentioning, until they destroyed the UI recently.
Discontinuing support for older hardware seems to me like it should be a thing worth mentioning but Apple users seem ok with buying new stuff so it isn’t seen as a problem.
I think in order to use desktop Linux you have to be comfortable making your computer a hobby. I’ve tried many distros across 16+ years and I couldn’t go for more than a few days without some part of the OS breaking, some app not working properly, or some functionality simply not being available. Depending on your career and lifestyle, some or all of these are solvable if you’re willing to put in the effort.
Sometimes I’m willing to put in that effort, but increasingly I just want my computer to be a tool that gets out of the way. I think militant Linux users regard that extra effort as a positive in and of itself, or are willing to put up with it for ideological reasons, and thumbs up to them for that, but they can’t grok the fact Linux simply doesn’t work for some people. If you need THE MS Office or Adobe, and many many people do, Linux isn’t going to work. If you need accessibility, as I do, Linux isn’t going to work.
I think the original meaning of “The customer is always right” fits here. If someone says they need something that Linux can’t provide, and especially if they’ve tried what Linux offers and found it unfit for their needs, they need to be taken at face value instead of being gainsaid at every turn.
If you’ve found that Linux meets your needs, hats off to you. I’m even a bit jealous, but until my needs align with what Linux can provide I can’t switch. I’ll keep trying Linux here and there just as I have the last 16 years, but I’m not holding out hope that accessibility will improve, and won’t be able to switch until it does.
This really isn’t trua anymore with immutable kde distros, everything really does just work. You have to relearn some things but that’s a fundamental issue with switching to anything, the recent ltt experiment confirms pretty much the only thing that’s missing at this point is anticheat and it’s the year of the linux desktop. I feel like your stance was valid a few years ago.
Let’s talk about my recent exercise in mapping persistent network drives: Windows: Right click in file explorer, select map drive, enter server path, user name password. Check the Reconnect at login checkbox. Click OK.
Linux: Add user to soduers file, sudo make a directory in /mnt, chown of directory to user, sudo install smbclient, create a cedentials file with server user and password, modify fstab file and add mount command to that and refererwnce credential file, well network stack doesent load until after it tries to map the drives on boot so then I added a 60 second wait to wait for the network to come online.
Yes, things are better now when it comes to installing and hardware compatibility, but for the average person the steps I took to map a network drive is not feasible to pull off. Most people just want things to work without going through multiple steps of trial and error
Yes, things are better now when it comes to installing and hardware compatibility, but for the average person the steps I took to map a network drive is not feasible to pull off. Most people just want things to work without going through multiple steps of trial and error
Here’s you’re problem: the average person has never used a network drive. You aren’t an average user.
I’m using Garuda, and have been for several years. 99.9% of the time, things just work. Then few times it doesn’t are when I’m trying to do something more advanced, and that’s fine. The experience for the average user is pretty much solved, and that’s what matters. If you are doing something more advanced, you also know how to figure out how to solve it.
Is it perfect? Of course not. However, I (and I assume you too) am the type of user who modified registries in Windows to get things working how I want. That is far worse of an experience than anything I’ve had to do in Linux (for the simplicity of what it was doing at least). Sure, MS makes it pretty easy to do some things, but they also make it almost, if not actually, impossible to do others. I was tired of dealing with that and have enjoyed Linux much more.
I didn’t like using Linux when I tried it the first few times 10+ years ago. Now, it’s pretty good, but you do have to commit to it. You have to learn how it works, just as you had to do for Windows at one point. Just because you forgot about all the shit you dealt with on Windows doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. You have to come to Linux knowing it’s not Windows, and you are not going to know how to do everything. If you come in with the mindset that it should work like Windows then you’ll inevitably have a bad time.
GNOME: Browse to the location in the files app. Drag the folder to the shortcuts list. Done.
Network drives are a legitimate painpoint, luckily kde just got over a mil to work on network drives in particular, this will be a solved problem soon.
i will say using a network drive makes you not an average user though.
Click the script the IT guy gave you. Most end users don’t know what a network drive is.
This sounds very similar to things that were being said five and ten and fifteen years ago.
militant Linux users
lmao
I know this would be an Microsoft Propaganda post
A lot of that comes down to user error. Either in not managing/understanding expectations or using it on proper hardware. If you buy from a system integrator like system 76 tuxedo etc etc etc. You’re going to have a good Hardware experience. If you try using some random old laptop. There’s almost always going to be parts of it that don’t work or at least don’t work well.
The other part is down to use case. If you are deependant on Mac only software and try to transition to windows you are going to have a hard time. It’s no different with Linux. Windows has ways of doing things, Mac has ways of doing things. Linux/BSD has many ways of doing things to. If you are not a new user. You’re adjusted to a specific ecosystem. Change will take time and effort.
As to your stability problems. The biggest issue I’ve had in recent years was the upgrade to Wayland. There were issues around getting KDE switched over initially. But it was easily handled and smooth ever since. I have even switched over my entire immediate family and I have far less tech support issues than before. I will say though that post covid and definitely in the last 10 years there has been a dramatic sea change in everything. If you haven’t tried it in a while it’s definitely worth trying again. Linux is a better alternative than it’s ever been depending on your use case.
TIL severe retinal scarring is “user error”
Ok so I don’t have any MAC machines and my primary daily driver for the past 10yrs has been Linux.
I’ve only got one Windows 10 MS Surface Pro laptop and I have to say that my Windows 10 Pro is unlike everyone else’s because I know exactly what to turn off and what to rename safely.
I prefer Linux but I don’t evangelise. Use what gets the job done the quickest.
Yes I use a MacBook to remote into my Linux boxes. Because Apple hardware is just so much better than anything else you can buy, and zsh terminal is fine. I would probably put Linux on it if I could, though to be honest the ergonomics and vertical integration with MacOS is just very good, and I’d have to really consider tradeoffs. Like swapping and memory management on MacOS is just magic on Apple silicon. I have a thinkpad with Debian as my “utility knife” laptop, and it has 8GB more, slower RAM, but my M2 MBP is significantly smoother even on stuff like FreeCAD which it is basically a RAM/swap stress test.
Can you explain what you mean by “ergonomics” when talking about an OS? I’m kinda confused.
Basically the user experience is well thought out, polished, and high quality. The workflows are mostly intuitive for doing basic things. The only exception to this is the lack of repository and package manager. The .dmg drag and drop thing is… honestly kind of jarring.
Ok. I’ve only used it in terms of like how physically comfortable a thing is, so this makes a lot more sense.
