How Many People Here Switched to Linux?

[elsandosgrande]

1 hour ago, Schwarzie said:

Well thats my collection of several attempts to switch to Linux over many years, not all at once, so it wasnt a total desaster Still, every time i ruefully came back to Windows.

Well, the fonts on Linux are just fine, the hardware detection is a strange issue, though most likely remedied in newer releases of the kernel (my laptop is from mid-2016, yet proper support for it's wireless device came two years later, though I only waited for one year as I bought it on November 3^rd 2017, and the workaround was either crippling Bluetooth for the sake of WiFi or vice versa). You might want to aim for a Dell laptop or an HP one, as most will work flawlessly (like my mom's HP) and the others will most likely have relatively easy workarounds (like my HP Pavilion, as the motherboard is buggy, so I have to disable hardware IOMMU with the "iommu=soft" boot parameter, a workaround which I found almost immediately on AskUbuntu). Generally, go with something that's not bleeding-edge if you want to use Ubuntu and similar distributions, but you can use more bleeding-edge hardware if you are going to use a rolling-release distribution. I'm using Gentoo now, so my perspective is a bit skewed (custom kernel, compiling nearly everything locally, rolling-release as well, ...).

 

Anyway, may fortune follow you in your future endeavors!

[German_John]

I've switched to Linux, mostly. Right now I'm on Windows 10, which I use for days at a time when I want to play something that's doesn't work with Lutris. Really, most of what I do is in a browser, so there's no difference.

It happened pretty gradually, I'd been playing around with Linux for a few years, then made the jump to a chromebook for uni, got crouton for some of the weirder programs that I needed. Last year I built my first PC and went for Ubuntu, plus Windows 10 for those few times. My old laptop still runs windows, but I've moved my voice recording station over to Lubuntu, my girlfriend to mint and/or Ubuntu (she's not complaining too much. It's free, it's faster, and all she needs is libreoffice, a browser, and audacity). 

And man I'm happy with it. 

[German_John]

22 hours ago, Schwarzie said:

Thats no wonder to me. I tried several time to switch to Linux on my non Gaming system (i use Notebooks in Dockingstations for that for 10+ years now) and even though the Systems i tried it on are renowned for good Linux compatability ALWAYS(!) something doesnt work, no matter how much time i spend to solve the issue. Be i the nondetection of the closed screen when my Thinkpad T61 was sitting in its Dockingstation (which forced me to switch resolutions and multiple screensettings manually while windows 7 did all what i wanteds out of the box) or nonworking wireless lan cards (also in a Thinkpad) or not detected Lan chips (was a Intel one in yet another thinkpad) it simply drove me crazy.
 

Funny, I've had lots more compatibility problems (hardware wise) on Windows. I've had one laptop from 2003 that just plain wouldn't work (wouldn't even recognise a connected PS2 device), and one more modern where the touchpad wouldn't work, but the touchscreen would, weirdly enough. Other than that, I'd never had to install drivers or mess with anything, even for GPUs (unless I wanted features like DXVK, etc.). On Windows, running anything without AMDs own drivers sucked for me, I don't know why I still at times need to install drivers for regular USB devices, and the weirdest one for me was actually software: playing the original kotor on Windows 10 just didn't work at all, even in XP compatibility mode. Wine on Ubuntu did it perfectly (once I had set the resolution to something modern). 

[Breadpudding]

On 4/19/2019 at 8:03 PM, elsandosgrande said:

Ummmm, AMD drivers are working just fine for me. Funnily enough, it's only Nvidia that can't work properly with Wayland (that would be a death sentence for me, as I need Wayland for the touchpad gestures and Wayland always works better for me for some reason that Xorg, since KWin crashes on anything other that Xrandr when on Xorg).

I'd actually have to agree with the person you're quoting. I've had more difficulty installing AMD drivers than I have Nvidia drivers. NVidia drivers come in a nice little .run file I can load in failsafe mode(When X11 isn't running). AMD on the other hand is a bit less portable since they check in the install script whether you are using Ubuntu or SteamOS, that's it. For my friend who uses an AMD GPU, this means constant hell since he's trying to run Debian. The first time I tried installing AMD drivers for his system, I needed to modify the shell script to get it to install as if it was Ubuntu. Personally, I'd like a more platform-independent solution to driver installation. I'm using an Nvidia card so it's not much of an issue to me, plus many distributions have packages for drivers(However Debian is horribly out-of-date).

[Schwarzie]

22 hours ago, German_John said:

Funny, I've had lots more compatibility problems

Well thats just you. You will have a hard time to argue that Windows has less driver support then Linux, especially with some extremely exotic garbadge. (for example say high to cheap GDI printers where even big brands arent unproblematic).

Your whole post smacks me with the undertone of "look how Linux is better" which it arguably isnt in all cases. Yes there are some things Linux does more comfortably (Repository and Updates without reboot), there are a lot of things were Linux allows for more customization. Which is main the reason i try Linux from time to time.
I have the fanatical believe that i use my computer the way I want and that an OS is merely a tool that enables my software to run. It has to be as invisible as possible and allow me the workflow im used to. And im fully aware that a lot of that is simply shaped by habbit over time. Im using Windows now for 25+ years (yes i survived Windows for Workgroups...) and therefore there are things where im utterly unwilling to spend any time to bend the OS to my will. For example my detachable quicklaunchbar in the left corner of the screen where i can start all applications with a single (yes that is VERY important!) click or a defined keyboardshortcut if i so desire. Since Windows Vista MS is increasingly hostile to this feature and from Windows 7 on it was outright kicked out. I found at least one Linux window Manager, XFCE, that has the same feature as Windows 95-Windows XP had Out of the box and easy to find (Both Connamon and KDE didnt. Or at least that well hidden that i didnt find it). And yes i tried a multitude of dockersoftware. They ALL(!) suck in various shades. Nothing comes close the the sheer simplicity of such a simple bar (i dont like eyecandy and currently use TrueLaunchBar under Windows. And im not happy to need 3rd party applications for something that i consider a basic OS functionality, especially since that Tool dioesnt come free) No fuss, no animation, just one click. The deletion of this feature was one of my main driving factors, besides curiosity, to switch over to Linux from time to time. BUT everytime you run into anything that doesnt work the way you want out of the box or doesnt work at all out of the box you quickly find yourself delving into the depths of the command console and the, to the eyes of someone who grew up with DOS and Windows, very unusual folder structure and then all ease of use evaporates. I would consider this together with the missing designguidelines for Usability of Software (no no i wont delve into the religious wars between users of Vim and EMACS) to be the two main issues for the lack of Linux success on the desktop. And Endusers usually dont care if an issue is the fault of the OS, the driver or the software, they just see that something doesnt work. In Windows more often then not even a Layer 8 problem can solved by the cause problem itself somehow. While all the time clicking around and having a direct visual feedback without the necessecity of knowing "arcane" console commands. With Linux? Said person is simply out of luck.
Linux still has quite some way to go before it reaches the ease of use Windows has towards casual users, and these are the vast majority. It also doesnt help that a big chunk of the Linux community is outright hostile towards beginners. Especially the non tech savvie beginner types.
So no, Linux isnt outright better. The things it does better usually wont make up for the things it does worse. But at the same time i have to admit that over the course of the last 15 years Linux made huge steps towards ease of use for casuals without giving up its strength. But i cant see great success for it without the console becoming truly optional.

That said, the most hillarious things with my issues were that actually out of all the stuff that didnt work out of the box 2 times it hit a networking device which usually is THE strongpoint of Linux. The (actually unfixable) behaviour around the screen closed sensor in the Thinkpad was something that at least didnt surprise me totally, even though it was highly annoying.
At least the fontrendering was apparently fixed. Due to this thread (and to much free time over the holidays) i put Linux Mint on a spare disk and i cant find a difference to Windows or MacOS anymore. *thumbs up* to whom it belongs.

[Nettly_]

I have switched to Linux mostly because I want more from my OS.

[elsandosgrande]

8 hours ago, Breadpudding said:

I'd actually have to agree with the person you're quoting. I've had more difficulty installing AMD drivers than I have Nvidia drivers. NVidia drivers come in a nice little .run file I can load in failsafe mode(When X11 isn't running). AMD on the other hand is a bit less portable since they check in the install script whether you are using Ubuntu or SteamOS, that's it. For my friend who uses an AMD GPU, this means constant hell since he's trying to run Debian. The first time I tried installing AMD drivers for his system, I needed to modify the shell script to get it to install as if it was Ubuntu. Personally, I'd like a more platform-independent solution to driver installation. I'm using an Nvidia card so it's not much of an issue to me, plus many distributions have packages for drivers(However Debian is horribly out-of-date).

Are we even talking about the same drivers then? Are you talking about the Pro drivers or the ones from the repos? If you're talking about the Pro ones, then we have nothing else to say on that matter.

[Breadpudding]

1 hour ago, elsandosgrande said:

Are we even talking about the same drivers then? Are you talking about the Pro drivers or the ones from the repos? If you're talking about the Pro ones, then we have nothing else to say on that matter.

These are the drivers from AMD's official site for the Radeon RX 550. It took ages to get it working.

Edit: Those were the drivers he used before. Now he's using the repo version because it was easier to use.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Breadpudding

[elsandosgrande]

1 hour ago, Breadpudding said:

These are the drivers from AMD's official site for the Radeon RX 550. It took ages to get it working.

Edit: Those were the drivers he used before. Now he's using the repo version because it was easier to use.

No wonder it was hard to set up, you went the roundabout way. True though, they should make it less of a hassle if they're offering them on their web page in the first place.

[wasab]

On 4/18/2019 at 6:44 PM, jonhyNoCash said:

According to steam, still not enough people have changed

Only if Linux user's games and within this group, only the subset that game using steam and within this subset, only the subset of this subset who did the steam hardware survey are included. Don't look at the stats too highly. Steam isn't the only vendor that offers Linux games. GoG has a dedicated Linux section as well as many indie developers and open sourced games 

[Dat Guy]

On 2/18/2019 at 3:44 PM, Jaxseven said:

I wanted to know how many people here have decided to experiment with Linux or try to make the full switch. 

I have decided to get rid of Linux and experiment with Unix a few years ago. Haven't looked back.

 

(Disclosure: One of my laptops runs Gentoo, because I failed to read about the WiFi chipset before I bought it. But I'm fine with that - Gentoo is acceptable.)

[elsandosgrande]

3 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

I have decided to get rid of Linux and experiment with Unix a few years ago. Haven't looked back.

 

(Disclosure: One of my laptops runs Gentoo, because I failed to read about the WiFi chipset before I bought it. But I'm fine with that - Gentoo is acceptable.)

Wait, you couldn't get drivers working with anything but Gentoo? I mean, I'm not complaining (Gentoo here as well), but that baffles me still.

 

EDIT: I have no clue how to make these italics NOT bold (Linus, go and read up on markup; yes, I tried setting and unsetting bold without unsetting italic, but to no avail).

Edited April 23, 2019 by elsandosgrande
I have forgotten that Linus was not smart enough to include markup support

[Dat Guy]

I had the choice between Linux and Windows, effectively. And I already had enough Windows machines. So I needed to find a non-shitty Linux distribution. Gentoo fits in.

[elsandosgrande]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

I had the choice between Linux and Windows, effectively. And I already had enough Windows machines. So I needed to find a non-shitty Linux distribution. Gentoo is fine for that.

So, Ubuntu is not adequate for you? Could you please elaborate upon what you perceive as "s*****" and what as "non-s*****"? I'm honestly just curious about how your criteria differ from mine.

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, elsandosgrande said:

Ubuntu is not adequate for you?

systemd.

[elsandosgrande]

4 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

systemd.

Oh, here we go again. Just to be clear, I personally prefer systemd (configs are a pain in the neck) and I do not hate anyone that differs in preference, but I would still prefer that people did not throw around less-than-polite words in general, but more so when discussing Linux things.

 

On a separate note, I never knew that KDE has Systemd System Settings module before installing Gentoo. I guess you really do learn something new every day.

[Dat Guy]

Just now, elsandosgrande said:

I would still prefer that people did not throw around less-than-polite words in general

Did you just say systemd is a curse word?

 

I find systemd to add too much unnecessary complexity. Gentoo has a OpenRC flavor (which is the default one). I'm very happy to have that.

[elsandosgrande]

3 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Did you just say systemd is a curse word?

 

I find systemd to add too much unnecessary complexity. Gentoo has a OpenRC flavor (which is the default one). I'm very happy to have that.

No, s***** is a curse word. Having to go through those OpenRC configs is a pain and I already have a "workflow" set from Ubuntu and Antergos, so yeah.

[Dat Guy]

4 minutes ago, elsandosgrande said:

s***** is a curse word.

YMMV.

 

But - of course - that's quite off-topic here.

 

[elsandosgrande]

1 minute ago, Dat Guy said:

YMMV.

Could you fill me in?

[Dat Guy]

I did.

[elsandosgrande]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

I did.

The acronym?

[Dat Guy]

Your Mileage May Vary.

[elsandosgrande]

Oooh.

[Source Slayer]

I switched to Ubuntu maybe about 7 years ago. Then I got a new computer in 2016, and was too lazy to install it again until I finally gave in four months later. So it really depends on when I start counting.