Who thinks Linux is better??

[MrFixitBlankFace]

7 hours ago, sandvich64 said:

linux is a better option for lower end machines

I agree.  If you have a nice machine treat it with a nice OS, Windows.   If you really want Linux, get Ubuntu, but still, you won’t be using your PC up to it’s full potential.

[Tolrag]

I'm more tech savy than the average Joe out there, but not nearly as much as any of you guys. I run Ubuntu on dual boots on some systems.

 

I really like the face that it is light, basically free, responsive, and non intrusive. That being said, i could not use it as my main OS at the moment for one big reason: software compatibility.

 

In Windows, if you want a driver, a software, or anything, you just click, install and play. On Linux, chances are that your driver is not available, or that the software you want to use requires you to use some other compatibility software to use it. Most of the time, you'll have to go in the terminal and write lines that you don't know anything about. Assuming that your issue is not too rare or too recent given the fact that easy to access support for noobs like me is often just not there.

 

Things like connecting a wireless printer or downloading a basic software can be very hard, while on Windows you don't even think about it.

 

I know that to receive higher support, Linux needs to be used by more people, and I know comparison is not necessarily fair. But that is what I feel like using Linux anyway.

[finest feck fips]

4 hours ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

I agree.  If you have a nice machine treat it with a nice OS, Windows.   If you really want Linux, get Ubuntu, but still, you won’t be using your PC up to it’s full potential.

If using Linux really *feels better* to you (as it does for me), you'll eventually find yourself buying a PC specifically to use it with Linux. And then you might make some other compromises, but none of them will be failing to use the hardware you have.

And there is also some hardware hat you won't be using to their full potential on Windows because it limits you in other ways. So for example, with storage devices, you can buy a single Optane disk to get some crude tiered storage, but you can't use an arbitrary RAID of NVMe drives for tiered storage like you can on Linux. Or, alternatively, you may not be able to get the same kind of balance between storage capacity and redundancy out of an array of disks as you can with RAID-Z. And you can't leverage the features of your flash storage which make them great devices to take snapshots on with Windows since it doesn't have any copy-on-write root filesystem options.

Your point is mostly a good one for people with existing hardware that they bought without consideration of Linux, though.

[finest feck fips]

17 hours ago, urmamasllama said:

4. gaming. it may not be as robust as windows but thanks to advancements from WINE DXVK and VALVE it's at least in a far better place than macs are. there are some rare cases where a game running in wine may actually perform better than it does on windows. this is especially true with much older titles as Wine is better equipped to handle them in some cases than windows compatibility mode.

I hadn't thought about comparing it to the macOS situation, but this is very true. I'm a Linux guy first and a gamer second, but gaming on Linux is pretty damn sweet right now. I've certainly got more excellent, well-performing games in my Steam library for Linux than I have time to play, or have actually played. I don't think the same is true for Mac people. Is it?

[vanished]

10 hours ago, Patrick C. said:

If using Linux really *feels better* to you (as it does for me), you'll eventually find yourself buying a PC specifically to use it with Linux. [...]

I don't mean anything by it, but I just realized this reminds me of that old Apple ad where they're parodying the Kennedy speech, "ask not what vista can do for you, ask what you can buy for vista!", in response to the fact it had poor hardware support and made a lot of people change stuff out to make it work.

[Tristerin]

Newb to Manjaro only - its neat, but for a consumer like myself it has quite the learning curve (Im into hardware not software).  ALOT of information online - but same can be said about Windows 10.  I use Windows 7, 10 and Manjaro atm in this house and I would have to say Windows 10 is the best for me, as a Gamer - because its "plug and play" in comparison.

[Windows7ge]

I love the repositories and how the terminal enables you to manage & download packages. It doesn't matter what I need I don't have to go to various websites to download installers for each individual program I can just open a terminal and go "apt install app1 app2 app3" and it will find, download, & install all of them.

 

I also like how many versions are considerably more light-weight than Windows. Doesn't have as much overhead when doing certain tasks like compute or virtualization. HyperV is fine & all but QEMU on Linux just seems to work better/smoother for my tasks. The VMs don't seem to suffer as big a performance penalty. Admittedly I haven't tried vmware for workstations yet but maybe that'll be different.

 

I like how you have the freedom to swap-out the system kernel itself if it isn't working for you. That's cool. I need to explore this more myself for reasons.

 

Then, of course the most popular reason. It's free (most distros anyways).

 

I just like the overall freedom and efficiency of the platform.

[TheVillageIdiot]

Just not better at gaming.... Which would be a nice concept. I could stop dual booting.

[finest feck fips]

14 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I don't mean anything by it, but I just realized this reminds me of that old Apple ad where they're parodying the Kennedy speech, "ask not what vista can do for you, ask what you can buy for vista!", in response to the fact it had poor hardware support and made a lot of people change stuff out to make it work.

It's true, it's not an attractive pitch to folks who are used to the range of hardware access that a monopolist commands

[Lolucoca]

It's sort of easy to use once you get used to it

Linux doesn't just install an update without asking you if you want to install it

It's free

It's much sexier if you ask me

[Spood]

- you can customize your install the way you want. From distros to desktop environment, and then customize those environments... 

 

- sort of safer than windows for the same reasons Macs are: not as popular so not as many viruses actively developed for it. 

 

- large community to help (or tell you to RTFM) 

 

- a lot more control on your system and privacy

 

- much lighter than windows which is perfect for old computers that you still want to keep. 

[umaxtu]

Handling software installation and updates through package managers is far superior to Windows where each program has to handle its own updates (ignoring the App Store). Also, I’ve found updating through the package manager to be faster and reliable (less likely to crap out mid update). 

[MAYERMAKES]

Linux gives you REAL control of your hardware, for example I use it to directly control pins on the Board of various single board computers, You can do this also on big Motherboards to run specialised or even homemade hardware. If I have trouble with a USB device i can talk to it directly to find out where the problem lies. that is possible but very cumbersome on windows or mac. You can also run linux on almost any hardware you can get my hands on, and if you want to go really high end (i don't mean current gen gaming, but Cluster computers and distributed cloud computing on your own network) you can even make your own beowulf cluster with linux to offload workloads like rendering a video to dedicated machines within your cluster while your age gaming on the main rig.

Linux is also great for doing creative work, you find suitable programs for almost anything. I run a little videoproduction company/hardware development thingy 99% on open source linux software that is available for debian/ubuntu.

The OS is truly open so you can even make your own custom os that perfectly suits your needs.
Here are some projects i did that use Linux as the operating system and do stuff you can't do with windows:

Giant Resin based 3d printer:

Worlds first MacPro that does grate cheese:

a rig for moving timelapses/hyperlapses, moving cmara shots and stop motion animation (yes liek the expensive edelkrone stuff)

Digitizing an old Super 8 camera (a task some people threw a lot of money at before)

a pocket touchscreen computer( unlike a smartphone it allows you to run desktop software)

A VR system to play the original DOOM in VR

 

[skyfox572]

Fine-tuned controllability and the power of choice.

 

If I want my UI to look a certain way, I can just do it. It might take a little finagling and playing with files, but I can make everything look exactly how I want it to, with no objections that I'm breaking the software or I'm using "unsigned drivers".

 

Specifically with Arch, I get to pick essentially everything that I install. inb4 "arch is a pain in the ass to install, use [insert distro] instead". Yes I know. I never said it was easy.

 

Which also leads into even more choice. Don't like the package manager you have? You can still use linux, and just change distros. And its all free, so you aren't burning $150 to install your OS all over again because you forgot to get your key or link it with your account.

 

Finally, everything* can be done in command line. This is important, not just for a compatibility feature, because everyone can interface with a command line, be they deaf, blind, both, or neither. But this is also amazing for remote work. You don't need to install a bunch of fancy software that may or may not work, or that you may have to pay for. You can simply open a terminal and SSH into the system, and do whatever you want, as though you were there. (You used to be required to install third-party things to do this on windows, but the Linux terminal, for free, built into windows, has made it possible on essentially any computer.)

[OYS73R]

As me being a heavy user of android and root. I can have linux on the go with my secondary phone, regardless of what version of android it's running if it's running any android at all.

 

Linux on mobile phones is simple and quick to install and with the help of TWRP, you can switch between softwares in minutes by using backups, On the go, so when I go to college, I can manage my computer at home and my server. Lock down anything within a buttons reach and most importantly:

I install my own applications

 

Linux is much easier to use once you get used to things, one downside being gaming but that even is catching up.

[weeryan17]

Main reason linux is better is because almost everything is open source so when issues pop up their is a community who can fix them, also you know exactly what it running because it's open source.

 

I recently switched over to linux though because it's better for developers. On linux i can run server stuff you can't really run on windows, because of the previously mentioned open source you can interact with parts you normally wouldn't be able to, and the community is open to help you develop stuff for linux.

[Tuero]

I use all 3 major OS's on a daily basis (Windows desktop, MacOS, Ubuntu workstation/desktop), and I work in the ML/Deep learning space, so my answers are a bit biased towards that. My end goal is to have a separate personal Ubuntu box for dev work which I ssh into while my main box would be Windows. I put a lot of money into my worksation so I can only afford one box at the moment, so Ubuntu is the main OS with Windows running in a QEMU VM

• Historically, all the major ML/DL frameworks have been built with Linux in mind. Its a bit easier now, but in the past non-linux systems would either be completely incompatible, or you would suffer major performance hits trying to get these to run on Windows
• For these frameworks, often you would need separate versions of CUDA, python, etc. and Docker was a real PITA on Windows to handle this
• A lot of the standard tools you would need/want as a programmer (make, shh, your favourite C compiler) either already comes or takes 5 seconds to setup in Linux. Its almost faster to create a new partition and install Linux on your Windows machine than it is to get these things setup in Windows

Mind you, a lot of this has changed for the better and is getting easier on Windows, but I don't think it will ever catch up to Linux for this area. I don't particularly like Linux as a main OS, I would much rather use Windows as everything just feels nicer and some things are a real pain to setup or get support for on Linux. That being said, I am willing to sacrifice those nice to have if it means my workflow is much easier to deal with. Once I have my monitors filled with terminal/sublimetext, I am happy

[sGerli]

• Better for development use than Windows, development tools mostly just work, no need to fight with weird windows errors or permissions.
• Very light, so it can run on old hardware or in a VM easily
• Package managers are awesome. Easy to use, easy to manage updates.
• Customizability: you can do almost anything you can imagine with all the available options of DMs, and DEs.
• You can have no GUI if you don’t need it.
• It’s free.

[devsnek]

On 9/26/2019 at 2:22 PM, James said:

• battery life beats windows since the 5.x kernel
• free as in freedom, free as in beer, open source
• control over literally everything
• perfectly themed desktop environments
• keyboard shortcuts for everything

 

[busybox]

On 9/26/2019 at 11:25 PM, kelvinhall05 said:

Easy to install (except Arch lol)

personnaly I was surprised by the time it tooked me to install it... in fact ir's pretty simple, of course you'll need to execute a lot of commands but they are pretty simple and straight-forward, and many guides can help you to do this online. gentoo is another story btw...

 

And to answer to the original question, here are my 10 reasons why Linux is better :

• Free and Open Source
• Light, fast, even with resource hungry window managers such as KDE, Deepin... (even on low end or old hardware !)
• Customisable AF (icon packs, GTK themes...)
• More easy to use compared to older linux distros (ubuntu does the job very well for a simple distro)
• Good compatibility (new Nvidia drivers, Proton...)
• No forced updates
• Can be used on the go (personnaly I use a 32GB USB 3 key for my ArchLinux install that I use everyday on my laptop, but I can ise it on school's PCs for example, and I keep all my files and apps)
• Almost no viruses, especially on Arch (and Arch like distros) where YOU compile the software from an Open Source library, called here in Arch the AUR, so you can check all the code for viruses (that are very very very rare)
• You can do basically everything from the terminal, from connecting to your wifi to recover your OS
• No unnecessary telemetry, not desired softwares, everything is controllable and removable

[MarceloJKD]

Customizability is the best for me. 

Safety is just crazy. When I'm on Windows and I'm sure I'll get a virus or malware on an email link I simply go to Linux and give it try. Never had any issues in 10 years.

But to be clear Linux is not my main system due to driver issues. Really annoying.

[ReHaNTHEREAL]

On 9/27/2019 at 2:55 AM, kelvinhall05 said:

Works better on old/weak hardware.

IMO sexier (Deepin OwO)

More secure in terms of viruses

FREE!

Easy to install (except Arch lol)

Customizable (KDE especially)

Easy to install software (espcially on Arch-based stuff with the AUR and whatnot)

Less spying/data collection (none on some distros)

More variety (distro for everything from a NAS to tablets to just regular desktops)

Open source also

[linuslikeslinux]

One thing I'd like to mention (additionally to the many valid points from others) is filesystems. There is a vast amount of file systems supported and even the "simple, standard" ext4 supports hardlinks which enable easy incremental backups (also with frontends like backintime) which are comparable to Apple's time machine you mentioned in your IOS video (with Anthony I guess).

Another thing you praised in your Apple video (rightly so) is Airdrop. With kde connect similar features are available for Linux+Android.

 

My major pros in no particular order:

 

• relatively sane standard directory structure and naming where most things are in a logical place
• everything is a file -> same tools to configure anything
• mounting (naming scheme of devices and just mounting them in the desired location)
• customization: Everything can be as you want it. Control music via application launcher (e.g. press alt+d and enter song to be played) - no problem
• package managers. Install any program from a repo -> it safe, you don't have to manually update it (like e.g. notepad++ on windows)
• programming and managing libraries is so much easier (due to package managers)
• You only get what you want
• For me, at least: Fun messing with every component of your system
• / instead of \ for paths -> much easier typing of paths, especially on non-english layouts
• do things fast in the shell
• file permissions I actually understand (including execute bit -> a lot safer against accidental execution of "attachments"

In summary: While not always everything works as I thought it would (or at all), I can actually understand it, reproduce it and fix it myself (and make it work as I want it) which is mostly due to open standards and interfaces. Therefore I don't have a hassle with reboots, reinstalls  (of software or the OS) or shady registry hacks in order to fix or change something. And there is no account forces down my throat.

 

Thanks for making this video, I am looking forward to it.

 

Edit: In terms of custumizability, take a look at r/unixporn.

 

[shell32]

• Linux is the standard in software industry. Most of the servers around the world are running Linux so most developers are working on Linux so there will be more and more software for Linux and most of them are free and open-source.
• Linux is designed to keep compatibility with UNIX. Thanks this and the long history of UNIX as well as GNU, users from UNIX will have nearly same experience on Linux.
• Desktop is not a part of the system itself. This is good for me since terminal and shell are much more efficient for works. I use Linux every day but haven't seen the GUI on it for months.
• Some software can have better performance on Linux (most of them are designed for Linux and then ported to other platform actually)
• Package management. This is important for developer.
• More system details. You can see the hardware information, file properties, stop and start services, query logs with one command without moving mouse to click here and there and open/close tons of dialogs.
• Easy to write script to automate everything.

[j0zeft]

1- Much less resource hungry - I can create a machine that would boot up and be functional with 1GB RAM! it'll be slow, but it will also be functional

2- Working with the Terminal is way faster than working my way through the WIndows settings/Control Panel hybrid! (Mac OSX is useless garbage for stupid people)

3- ssh

4- Tens of distributions to choose from, or to switch whenever bored!

5- Because of that first point, you have more resources for gaming - which is getting more serious in Linux now

6- From a professional point of view, it's way easier to figure your way out on a Linux machine than a Windows machine:

As a person who works with both, I get more windows-related questions in the office than Linux! with basic Terminal knowledge, you can figure out your way in Linux to do everything

7- All development tools are built around Linux: cURL, netstat, nslookup, openssl... etc. ! You can use that with windows as well, but they feel out of place.

8- You can bring your home folder to a different machine, or just reinstall the OS and bring the home directory back, it will come with your files, AND some (if not all) of the installed software!

 

Tl;dr:

1- Easy on the resources

2- More intuitive

3- Supported by almost everything

4- Easy to reinstall