Windows 10 vs Linux? What's better and why?

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

I've never used a Linux OS but it sounds like its superior to Windows for performance and customizability. Here's my initial questions: 

 

-Can I do everything I would do on a Windows OS on a Linux OS.

-Can I run any windows program on a Linux? (Wine?)

-How steep of a learning curve is it? Is it coders only difficulty? Or can any semi-intelligent computer geek learn it quickly? 
- What are the major pro's and con's

What I use my PC for?
-Video and photo editing

-Gaming
-Web browsing

-Crypto mining (sometimes)
-General work

[Chris Pratt]

There is no better. It depends on your personal preference and the software you need/want to use. For example, I do actually prefer Windows, but given I spend most of my day in Visual Studio, I have no real option to switch to Linux, if I wanted to. Sure, there's other IDEs that might do the job on the Linux side, but nothing comes close to Visual Studio.

 

If you like Linux and you have all the apps you need to be productive, great. However, the best apps tend to be Windows. As much as Adobe is the embodiment of all the world's evil, damn if they don't make some of the best picture/video editing software on the planet.

[GorujoCY]

Crypto mining, General Work and Web browsing can work flawlessly on Linux

for Video and Photo editing Don't expect to Run Photoshop or Premiere (Davinci Resolve does have Native Linux but that's it and the alternatives to Photoshop is something like Gimp) or you'll have to drastically change your ways for using the other programs or alternatives. don't expect to also be able to use Microsoft Office, if that's what you need

 

Gaming is also a niche use case, Don't expect to play big titles either hassle free or worse even with tinkering, especially games with anti cheat and Janky DRMs 

Only 70% of top 100 Games on steam just work, but not the best results, also it's something further from the truth. It really depends on what games you play to make Linux Gaming viable, in general no game will work hassle free, not to mention work at all (ok most do and native ones but still)

 

2nd edit: as others said, Most windows apps can run, but don't expect all of them to run well or flawlessly

[Dat Guy]

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

it sounds like its superior to Windows for performance and customizability.

 

That depends on which software you intend to use. (You can customize Windows rather well, even including replacing explorer.exe by different desktops like Cairo, but only to some extent.)

 

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-Can I do everything I would do on a Windows OS on a Linux OS.

 

Linux is notably worse for gaming and multimedia software (e.g. there is no really good alternative to Affinity Designer/Adobe Illustrator).

 

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-Can I run any windows program on a Linux? (Wine?)

 

Wine does not work with all Windows software. A compatibility database exists. Anyway, if you intend to run Windows software, you would not gain anything from using Linux at all.

 

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

How steep of a learning curve is it?

 

Depends on the desktop and the distribution, mostly.

 

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

Or can any semi-intelligent computer geek learn it quickly? 

 

In theory, yes.

 

11 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

- What are the major pro's and con's

 

I, personally, don't like Linux (I much prefer illumos and OpenBSD), so YMMV, but I think Linux is a mess: The kernel was made by one team, the init system was made by another team, the base system was made by a couple of other teams ("GNU"), the desktop is yet another team. All the teams don't talk to each other a lot and it shows.

 

From your questions alone, I'd say: just stick with Windows. You wouldn't ever get the time spent with "learning Linux" back.

A computer is a tool to get things done. If you get things done with Windows, there is no reason to switch.

[Nayr438]

30 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-Can I do everything I would do on a Windows OS on a Linux OS.

Anything you can do on Windows, you can do on Linux. The bigger question will be, what software do you utilize and is it Linux Compatible. If it's not, are you willing to learn how to use alternate software to accomplish the same task, even if it's more involved.

 

30 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-Can I run any windows program on a Linux? (Wine?)

 

No.

 

30 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-How steep of a learning curve is it? Is it coders only difficulty? Or can any semi-intelligent computer geek learn it quickly? 

Depends on your Distro. Something like Pop_OS!, KDE Neon, Ubuntu, will require minimal configuration from the user meanwhile something like Arch requires the user to setup everything.

 

30 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

-Gaming

You will have to be selective about what Games you choose to play on Linux based on current Compatibility.

 

24 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

For example, I do actually prefer Windows, but given I spend most of my day in Visual Studio, I have no real option to switch to Linux, if I wanted to. Sure, there's other IDEs that might do the job on the Linux side, but nothing comes close to Visual Studio.

This really depends on what your used to, I personally find Visual Studio to be a horrible environment, but then again I am not a Windows Developer. I would pick CLion over VS any day, with KDevelop + Kate being my main on Linux.  It all just comes down to preference and what your used to working with.

[suedseefrucht]

15 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

What are the major pro's and con's

I tried ununtu and linux mint in a dual boot config with windows.

It turned out pretty nice. Fast boot, no updates interrupted me.
I can just type a command, when I'd like my system to get updates.
Good for browsing, good for photo editing with gimp, good for programming.

 

But then, I like to game and it is either impossible or there is a lot of effort needed to make it run.

Installing packages can also be difficult for a linux newbie like me.

 

So for a laptop I use for browsing and presentaions, I would think about using linux.

But for a main PC or gaming PC, I would use windows, because everything is possible with it.

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

13 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

There is no better. It depends on your personal preference and the software you need/want to use. For example, I do actually prefer Windows, but given I spend most of my day in Visual Studio, I have no real option to switch to Linux, if I wanted to. Sure, there's other IDEs that might do the job on the Linux side, but nothing comes close to Visual Studio.

 

If you like Linux and you have all the apps you need to be productive, great. However, the best apps tend to be Windows. As much as Adobe is the embodiment of all the world's evil, damn if they don't make some of the best picture/video editing software on the planet.

That was my main concern. So your telling I cant run any windows software on a Linux via a third party app such as Wine?

[Chris Pratt]

7 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

This really depends on what your used to, I personally find Visual Studio to be a horrible environment, but then again I am not a Windows Developer. I would pick CLion over VS any day, with KDevelop + Kate being my main on Linux. It all just comes down to preference and what your used to working with.

Sure, and there's certain languages it wouldn't even work with. All my development is cross platform with .NET 5, but I'm a fanatical C# convert, so I need something that works well with that. Also, depending on when the last time you tried Visual Studio, I might agree with you. Previous iterations were a far cry from where it is today. The level of Git/Docker integration it has now is an absolute must, and I couldn't use it without that.

[GorujoCY]

2 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

That was my main concern. So your telling I cant run any windows software on a Linux via a third party app such as Wine?

you can

but don't expect for example to run Photoshop flawlessly or anything like that

some basic/intermediate etc. Apps can

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, Nayr438 said:

Anything you can do on Windows, you can do on Linux.

This is not quite true.

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

12 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

 

That depends on which software you intend to use. (You can customize Windows rather well, even including replacing explorer.exe by different desktops like Cairo, but only to some extent.)

 

 

Linux is notably worse for gaming and multimedia software (e.g. there is no really good alternative to Affinity Designer/Adobe Illustrator).

 

 

Wine does not work with all Windows software. A compatibility database exists. Anyway, if you intend to run Windows software, you would not gain anything from using Linux at all.

 

 

Depends on the desktop and the distribution, mostly.

 

 

In theory, yes.

 

 

I, personally, don't like Linux (I much prefer illumos and OpenBSD), so YMMV, but I think Linux is a mess: The kernel was made by one team, the init system was made by another team, the base system was made by a couple of other teams ("GNU"), the desktop is yet another team. All the teams don't talk to each other a lot and it shows.

 

From your questions alone, I'd say: just stick with Windows. You wouldn't ever get the time spent with "learning Linux" back.

A computer is a tool to get things done. If you get things done with Windows, there is no reason to switch.

Great, that answers that then, Stay away from Linux But yeah I understand what your saying.
Can you elaborate on illumos and OpenBSD, what are they good for?

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, GorujoCY said:

you can

You can not, as described in the Wine AppDB.

[OhioYJ]

I use Linux for everything except gaming. Audio, video, image editing,  day to day tasks all done in Linux. Maybe because Ive done them that way for so long I find Windows cumbersome and slower to use for many of these tasks?  

 

I'll caveat that by saying my editing skills are amateur at best. However Linux works well for my needs. I also don't need Wine, I'm using Linux native programs for everything. 

[GorujoCY]

1 minute ago, Dat Guy said:

You can not, as described in the Wine AppDB.

ok you clearly didn't read the whole thing, I said you can run Windows apps but not all of them (eg. Don't expect to run Photoshop)

[Dat Guy]

Just now, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

Can you elaborate on illumos and OpenBSD, what are they good for?

 

illumos - a fork of OpenSolaris - is the only free SysV UNIX, a direct descendant of AT&T UNIX, in existence since Oracle has made Solaris proprietary software again. Solaris itself is the successor of SunOS. The Wikipedia has some information on it.

While they imported some FreeBSD code by now, they mostly remain original software (after all, Solaris was the first operating system with dtrace and ZFS), being closer to the POSIX standards than both BSD and Linux. A desktop-friendly distribution of illumos is OpenIndiana. Note that it is not meant to run on low-spec hardware.

 

OpenBSD is a reliable, highly secure operating system which works really well on desktops, servers and embedded systems like routers. It derives from 386BSD (it was forked from NetBSD in 1995). I never had a more reliable WiFi and ACPI on a laptop. Most Linux software can be used on OpenBSD.

[suedseefrucht]

9 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

Stay away from Linux

For gaming, yes.

 

For small/weak devices, I recommend linux.

For example, you can make a great webserver and awesome home automation stuff with raspberry pi OS on a raspberry pi. (Some kind of debian linux)

[Dat Guy]

2 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

For small/weak devices, I recommend linux.

 

Again, this mostly depends on the distribution and desktop environment.

 

2 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

For example, you can make a great webserver and awesome home automation stuff with raspberry pi OS on a raspberry pi.

 

The Raspberry Pi supports quite a few operating systems, some of which are faster and lighter than Raspberry Pi OS.

[GeorgeKellow]

Run a Linux distro (Mint, Ubuntu etc) inside a VM and play with it? You'll get to grips with a few things and if you break anything (Dont do rm -rf” or “* rm -rf) you can revert back to a check point 

 

 

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, GeorgeKellow said:

(Dont do rm -rf” or “* rm -rf)

 

You can perfectly do * rm -rf. It won't do much.

[GeorgeKellow]

2 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

 

You can perfectly do * rm -rf. It won't do much.

sudo rm rf /* this even  

[mahyar]

1 hour ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

Can I do everything I would do on a Windows OS on a Linux OS.

depends,be more specific 

 

1 hour ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

Can I run any windows program on a Linux? (Wine?)

depends,be more specific (again)

[mahyar]

42 minutes ago, GorujoCY said:

Don't expect to run Photoshop

correction don't expect to run more modern versions of photoshop 

[connorkincaid]

1 hour ago, Chris Pratt said:

There is no better. It depends on your personal preference and the software you need/want to use. For example, I do actually prefer Windows, but given I spend most of my day in Visual Studio, I have no real option to switch to Linux, if I wanted to. Sure, there's other IDEs that might do the job on the Linux side, but nothing comes close to Visual Studio.

 

If you like Linux and you have all the apps you need to be productive, great. However, the best apps tend to be Windows. As much as Adobe is the embodiment of all the world's evil, damn if they don't make some of the best picture/video editing software on the planet.

Visual Studio is the best thing in the world. In the same boat. 

[wasab]

I use Linux because I am more familiar with it than windows by this point. My steam friends are all macos or Linux players and games just can't do multiplayer with windows. 

[wasab]

12 hours ago, connorkincaid said:

Visual Studio is the best thing in the world. In the same boat. 

Visual Studio is the best thing in the world. In the same boat. <-

 

Visual Studio *code* is the best thing in the world. In the same boat. <-