Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Linux. I don’t want “using the computer” to turn into a hobby that I need a computer science degree for.
That's one of the reasons I switched from Windows to Linux.
Every single patch and every single version upgrade made using worse as all the settings changed weirder and weirder and hidden or missing.
Yes, I have less issues that needs to be fixed, or tweaked on Linux than on Winslop. Less popups that appear out of nowhere, and no forced upgrades while being on the toilet
Yeah, I just have a tough time believing you guys, from my limited experience with Linux, but also from many others here who seem to be Linux users, but can appreciate why others don't use it. Folks talking about updates bricking peripherals and whatnot. It's something that has literally never happened to me in the last 30+ years I've been Windowsing.
If Linux users could stop being so hyperbolic in their superiority, it might entice me to try it out. Windows isn't some unusable shit and everyone knows it. It's had its issues since day one. And to suggest Linux is just this set it and forget it OS is preposterous. Let's all be real.
FYI, we're actually substantially downplaying how superior Linux is.
That's part of the message we're trying to share, now that it is ready. You're allowed to use Linux as a shit-free alternative to Windows. For some people, that is enough.
But that's barely skimming the surface of all the cool shit happening on Linux today.
There's so many options for Linux though. Mint is super beginner friendly and doesn't focus on the terminal. You don't have to set up Arch your first time around.
Thank you for confirming that, yes, we are on lemmy.
Lol, touché.
Which one is "literally just legally distinct windows 10"?
Anything with the KDE desktop!
That's a neat thing about Linux, the look and feel is actually totally separate from the distro. Everyone focuses on distros when really, that's mostly under-the-hood stuff, the look and feel is the desktop environment.
KDE is windows-10-like (out of the box, you can also rearrange the crap out of it, ours is set up more like Mac!) and also happens to be one of the most full-featured desktop environments, so you won't be missing stuff (like HDR support or whatever).
So, a distro with KDE.
Debian is great if you want something that Does Not Break on you. Ever. It will never throw you a curveball with an update. That also means you just won't really get updates very much, outside of a Big Major Upgrade every couple of years. If you're tired of Windows Update screwing with you, Debian's perfect.
Fedora is pretty good if you want the new shinies all the time. Major updates every 6 months. Debian has a bigger appstore and even stuff that isn't in there often provides .deb packages, which Fedora can't run, but it's not a huge deal.
Mint doesn't have a convenient KDE version (but you can install KDE after the fact). It has its own desktop called Cinnamon. More Windows 7 vibes. It's based on Debian so you get the Debian compatibility, as well, and they put work into making sure you have GUI apps for stuff like installing drivers (Debian you might need a terminal command or three during initial setup).
There's also immutable distros like Bazzite, which is basically SteamOS But Desktop. It also comes with similar restrictions to SteamOS, though. Good for an Appliance Computer, an absolute fucking pain if you ever need to install drivers/VR stuff/other system software or what-have-you. I'd avoid for your main computer.
-- Frost
You've just lost 90 percent of the population. They didn't understand a word you said. That's the problem with Linux and its developers. They assume people know all this stuff.
I'm out of touch, not stupid. I understood them just fine.
I mean, I could just go "TLDR grab Debian's live KDE edition" if that's easier!
The whole point in me explaining all that is that people don't know all this stuff. That's why I'm explaining it. I did gloss over the fact that distros exist, but it seems like the person I'm replying to already knows that multiple versions of Linux are a thing so that's not a huge issue.
And going "here's some options to pick from" helps if it turns out you've got different priorities than we do. But yeah, "TLDR Debian" is also good if you're overwhelmed.
@starlinguk @forestbeasts meh... he wanted to give you all the info and all the options,, that may be confusing for someone that only option was windows until now... Nowadays I dont give options, just try Kubuntu and see if you like it.
It looks like debian with KDE would be worth looking at. How do I obtain this?
Haha. I often forget to mention that part!
A ton of really good software is also free. I found the hardest part was choosing which software was right for me.
My least favorite thing about Linux is that I can't pirate it
Yeah! https://www.debian.org/CD/live/, the little teeny "live KDE" link. =^.^=
You don't want the "netinst" ISO on the main page. It technically works, but it's a pain to use and needs internet access to install. Its only redeeming quality is the small download size and fitting on a CD (if you're burning it to a CD-R which is unlikely).
I just installed Debian with Plasma, and have been using a system with Mint and Plasma as my daily driver for a few months now. I used the default Cinnamon for about a year. Plasma is definitely way more polished and allows almost everything to be done via menus which is NOT a given with most Linux things. It does work most of the time but expect to run into some basic task you didn't even think about on Windows and having a frustrating experience chasing solutions to untangle how to do it.
I'm never going back to Windows but the amount of times I've had to do something convoluted to attempt something you'd think would be easy is too damn high.
It's recommended to run a ‘live usb’ first to see if there are any problems with hardware compatibility. Nowadays many distros have their installers as live usbs anyway, but idk about Debian.
Debian is weird in even having non-live ISOs, but they do have various live ones with different desktops! (Don't grab the one from the homepage, grab one of the live ones instead.)
I see the model of ‘burn seven dvds to then have every package under the sun’ is alive and well.
And honestly, in the coming age of "OSes that don't spy on you will be illegal!!", I'm really, really glad for that. We've got the entire 27-ISO set of Debian 13.0.0 squirreled away. There's even more discs for the sources, and they go to great lengths to ensure that everything can be built with no external dependencies that aren't available in the archive.
Debian: It's Apocalypse-Proof.™
-- Frost
A good reason why I don't want to "get" Linux is this guy posted in this thread with Linux as his example, and it's the most replied to thread with each user trying to justify their distro.
This is like me going into a bible belt small town, expressing my spiritual beliefs, and watching as each of the individual churches try to try and "save" me.
Until Linux users "get" why Windows is the marketshare leader and not demonize it like the spawn of Satan when it's literally just an OS on a completely optional piece of hardware, I don't think I'll ever "get" Linux.
Though I do care very much for Android if that counts. 😉
You don't have to tell people you use Linux or talk to them about it. I know that because I use Zorin OS, which is a really modern feeling Linux distro with a slick user interface, that's perfect for people like you and I, who don't want to be bombarded with opinions on the "right" operating system and just want to use their computers in peace. You should totally switch!
I can't ever tell what is critical to people. I got my wife her first MacBook last year. She's used it three times and hates it. I'm like.... red yellow green, and everything else is just like iPhone. Nope, she despises it.
I moved my daughter from windows to Linux Mint, and she barely noticed. She can't use her VR the same way, and that was the only difference that bothered her.
So I can't say you wouldn't hate Linux, but I can tell you I don't want my hobby to be fucking with OSes and Mint was perfect. You can just use it. Steam games, browsing the web, damn near everything works exactly the way you'd expect on Windows. I don't happen to need a second computer after my work MacBook, but if I did it would be Linux for sure.
Well, except no OneDrive. Which another point in Linux's favor.
For the Mac, I’ve had opposite experiences thanks to all of y’all online. Both my ex and my youngest kid wanted Mac’s, but I was the one cautioning that they may be popular but they’re different and some people don’t like that. He wouldn’t even try mine: I have windows, Mac and an assortment of Linux he can just try at any time
Jokes on me, I spent a ridiculous amount of money buying my kid a school Windows laptop (with him there apparently not speaking up) since that’s all he’s ever used, and I had to return it for a Mac
Don't take anything I've said as being anti-Mac. I am much happier to be on Mac than Windows. I would be happy on Linux as well, perhaps happier, but the corporate world being what it is, it turns out Linux doesn't make it easy to load a computer up with a bunch of spyware.
Okay, I'll be fair. Windows and MacOS are like... 3 things (If you still support Mac on Intel). Linux is like.... 500 OSes. Even if you strip it down and support the most common, you're looking at Arch (so customized that might as well be a separate OS for each user), Ubuntu, Fedora, and maybe Mint. So it's way more work to support Linux even if Linux were as easy to support as Mac and Windows, and I believe it is not.
I'm very happy with my Mac. But my wife hates things that change. She's one of those people who will hang onto a 15 year old laptop because "everything is the way I want it," even if it's all janky as hell.
I put Ubuntu on my MacBook a few weeks ago.
What kind of VR setup are you using?
I've been successfully using SteamVR on atomic Fedora. If she also uses SteamVR, I'd be happy to write details about my setup (though it's fairly standard)!
I think so. She has an oculus 2 and she is trying to connect wirelessly to Steam VR. I haven't really tried myself for a couple of years. It used to work fine on windows, at least wired. Wireless never worked that well for me.
I never got it to work in Linux but I haven't tried in a couple of years and I assume it's gotten better since then.
I'd say here we go making os a hobby, but it took some effort in windows, too.
Ah, I haven't used wireless VR yet, so I can't comment on that. Planning to wait for the Steam Frame, I'm sure Valve will make it work well enough. There is a project called ALVR that I keep reading about in the context of wireless VR on Linux, might be something to look at if you wanna dig deeper.
I'd argue that my setup allows you to not treat the OS as a hobby, but your mileage may vary :) I'm using an atomic Fedora variant (specifically Aurora, which is focused on developers - but there's also e.g. Silverblue (Gnome) or Kinoite (KDE) as normal day-to-day versions, and Bazzite which focuses on gaming). Steam is running through Flatpak, and everything else - SteamVR & the games themselves - honestly just worked for me. Sometimes SteamVR shows an error after starting, in that case I have to quit, unplug my headset for a few seconds, plug it back in & start SteamVR again, but other than that it's been a fairly painless experience.
I should mention that I use a Valve Index, but as long as you're using SteamVR, things should work the same.
I think a lot of Linux people really do more harm than good when they try to sell people on Linux. Some of it is because they wildly overestimate how much the average person knows about computers, and some of it is just over sharing.
I've been using Linux for about half a year now. I'm a slightly above-average computer user, but not some kind of programming prodigy. I've had one significant hiccup when I was first installing it, which you probably won't have because that was a weird quirk of my specific 10+ year old motherboard.
After that everything has pretty much been smooth sailing. 99% of my general computer use is exactly the same as on Windows (though to be fair, I've been big on free software for a long time so I was using stuff like libre office and gimp instead of Microsoft office and Photoshop already)
I haven't yet run into a steam game that won't run for me. One or two of them I had to add a launch option or choose a different proton version, and I figured that out by basically just googling "steam Linux game name" and a couple keywords about the problem I was having like "audio stuttering," and the first search result had the fix.
Some games even run better for me now (mostly they're about the same, some are very slightly worse)
If you use a lot of mods, they can be a bit of a pain in the ass to figure out how to get them running, but it's usually doable, and once you do it's done and you don't have to do it again.
If you rely on specific windows-only software, usually you can get it running with WINE. That does take some figuring-out. But again, once it's done, it's done.
And overall my computer runs better and boots up faster without all the windows bloat.
It also breathed new life into my parents computer, and they're tech-illiterate, retired, old people. They've had no issues with it so far.
--
In case that convinced anyone to give it a try, here's my recommendations.
Think about what software on your computer you use. See if there's a Linux compatible alternative. Try that out, see if you can live with it. Do this before you ever even think about making a Linux USB.
Pick a Distro - here's where a lot of guides fall apart I think. I'll make it easy. If you're primarily a gamer, go ahead and choose bazzite. If you're looking for a general computer to browse the web, do your homework, etc. choose whichever flavor of Ubuntu (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc.) or Linux Mint (which is ubuntu-based) looks prettiest to you. Don't think too hard about it, don't do too much research about the pros and cons of different desktop environments, don't listen to the people who have some moral and philosophical bones to pick about Ubuntu. Just go by vibes. It's stable, it works, it's about as well-supported and documented as it gets, and if you do have a problem, you'll find the answers in the Ubuntu forums without too much searching.
Put that on a flash drive, and just run off of that for a week or two. See if you can live with it. Bear in mind it will probably be a bit slower running off the flash drive than it will be once it's actually installed. Play around with it, you can't really break anything unless you purposely go rooting around in your windows hard drive and start deleting shit willi-nilly. If you absolutely hate it, just pull the flash drive out and forget about it.
If you decide you like it, take a deep breath and go ahead and install it.
My brother you’re in like the 99th percentile of computer users. The vast, vast majority of people can’t understand what a browser tab is, much less a motherboard.
https://xkcd.com/2501/
It do be like that.
Like, most linux user seems to not understand that just being able to boot to other OS is witchcraft to the general population. Most of my friends never even heard of Linux. Their phone is the computer.
Windows is that as well.
Preach. Any thread remotely about operating systems turning into a "Fuck windows" Linux cicrclejerk is just annoying as fuck. I'm almost refusing to use Linux just to spite Lemmy.
And I'm well aware I'm a spiteful person, it's how I've survived 38 years, and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, it's worked out just fine!
Haha. Fair enough.
But also, fuck Windows though. Really. Microslop could have made a good OS, they have in the past.
Today, they're just choosing not to.