Surprising to myself, I have been a Linux user for over 12 years…
Through the many years I have bounced between and tried Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Parrot OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro. I have tried Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, KDE, Mate, Deepin. And more. I have 3 computers, all using a Linux distro right now.
I love the idea of Linux - free, free as in freedom, free of telemetry. And well, I thought I would never entertain the idea of switching, here I am today, strongly considering Mac OS.
Lately, I have become extremely frustrated and tired of dealing with little bugs, crashes, versions, and dependencies. Not to mention notable UI issues. It is starting to hamper my productivity when working.
Right now I am using Ubuntu and I cannot drag and drop into VS Code from Nautilus, I can’t drag and drop from the default archive manager, I am experiencing screen tearing issues, one piece of software I use crashes often but not Debian and vice versa, I have to manually reset screen brightness when it dims after timeout, etc. I have experienced issues of similar nature across all distros I have used and I am becoming burnt out.
I think part of the issue is that there is a huge variety of Linux distros, different combinations of kernels, desktop environments, window managers, package managers, file managers, network managers, etc… Not to mention devices. There is too many variables, and too many projects to maintain.
Sorry for the rant, I have seen many similar posts, but I have been using Linux for over 12 years, powering through, ignoring and working around these issues and I am pretty fed up.
While I am conflicted, I am thinking Mac OS looks like a good middle ground.
Any suggestions? What has been the most stable distro and compatible for you?
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I understand you. I reckon distro hopping burns people out in itself. I personally recommend using EndeavourOS if you’re minimum tech savy and ZorinOS if not. OpenSUSE is not a bad option if you worry about dependencies because it installs all of them and their relatives and the relatives’ relatives… XFCE is by far the best DE imo. Gnome and KDE are a recipe for burnout. In spite of the amount of users they have the most issues. XFCE just works and you can get a skin to make it look more mac like.
Generally I’d recommend avoiding Ubuntu and its forks (so ZorinOS) too if you’re somewhat tech savy. Avoid Fedora if you’re short tempered. It has a big community but things tend not to work OOTB hence why the need for the community. I find EndeavourOS by far the best. Rolling so no reinstalls. I just yay --noconfirm to update.
I also recommend to install Steam as a flatpak so you don’t deal with 32bit libs and flatpak handles them for you to limit issues. My only issue rn is my PC is so ancient the last released bios update was in 2015. 😅
Much love to all my fellow tuxes. 🥰
I felt the same after using Arch for 2 years. I switched to Fedora now and It’s pretty stable. Drag and drop with VSCode is generally broken, not an issue with your system
You should really try a distro that’s actually up to date instead of ubuntu or debian, things are changing rapidly because of wayland, and you might not have a good experience on stable distros until the big transition is done.
What would you recommend here instead? Or rather what are you using for your daily driver?
Personally I’m using Fedora and it’s as painless for me as it gets. I don’t think Linux desktop can get any smoother than that.
As far as I know the Fedora Workstation (with Gnome) is really polished. I’m personally using KDE, which - being KDE - has a rough edge here and there, but it’s getting so much better with each upgrade that I’m really impressed now.
I’m actually having the opposite experience (for the most part). All the little papercuts of yesteryear are almost completely gone, and it’s only looking better on the horizon. Of course your mileage may vary depending on use case and hardware…
Some things of the top of my head:
- Flatpak replacing 3rd party PPAs. Brand new software without dependency hell or breaking system packages? Yes please
- Snaps and AppImages too
- XDG Portals standards, making snaps and flatpaks play nice with confinement
- Audio and Bluetooth? It “just works” now
- Pipewire
- Even gaming works really well now, with Proton, DXVK etc
- AMD and Intel drivers baked in to the kernel
- Wayland finally being production ready for many use-cases, and being adopted as the default, fixing so many of the ancient X11 issues (screen tearing, multiple displays with different scaling, refresh rate, fractional scaling) ( cries in Nvidia )
- Nvidia finally changing their mind so Wayland on Nvidia can be a thing (I can’t wait 😊)
- KDE Connect / gsConnect phone integration
- Screensharing on Wayland even on legacy X11 apps becoming a thing through the new screensharing Portal
The only problem I’ve had recently is Ubuntu’s forced snapification, and snap being very rough around the edges for Desktop apps (ahem drag’drop)
It depends on why you are using FOSS now?
For me its a principle choice of freedom and privacy since 1998, so I cope with the downsites on the desktop as much I can.
That is exactly why I choose to use FOSS including Linux. As much as I want to standby this principle, I have come to a breaking point after dealing with its issues, issues we have all experienced. I believe it is hands down the best choice for server use, but for work and productivity, I need something more matured that is going to work out of the box. I am glad that the community here took this criticism well but I think it’s important to discuss and understand that there are still some strides to be made. But at the end of the day, I’m just some guy ranting and who knows, maybe I’ll be installing a Linux distro after a month of using Mac OS.
This summer I use Linux on my desktop for 25 years. What do you think the first years looked like? My first laptop took me 3 weeks to get it properly installed with Suse back in 1998. For the last 10 years installing and configuring whatever distro is a piece of cake. Ofcourse soms things are not as you want them to be: the good thing is you can change everything in FOSS, and if it does not excist you can create it. People complaining at Linux Desktop are realy complaining on their own limitations. Don’t complain! Not about yourself. Not about the Linux Desktop. Never ever give up! Make your list of whats not working for you. And than work and change until your list is history. Keep your head up strong. You’ll never walk alone!
Same story, same tips, but I started with SuSE Linux 4.3 in 1996. Just try stuff, read the error messages, read docs and ask. A lot of peaople who know stuff are happy to help out of altruism or the chance to show off. ;-)
Do it.
I currently use all 3 (M1 MacBook Air for a laptop while I’m at work, and Ubuntu 23.04/Win10 dual boot desktop, and an old Dell Latitude core2duo running AntiX for just sorta messing around with)
All 3 of the systems have their ups and downs. I just recently tarted using Linux again after trying it off and on for several years. This time seems like it’s properly sticking for me though.
I also like to do audio production, and no matter how much people like to yell about how you can do music production on Linux, it’s a right pain in the ass to deal with Jack and finding a DAW that doesn’t have that classic FOSS learning curve.
So, I use Windows for music production because FL Studio works great, ASIO is surprisingly just fine and it supports all the plugins I use.
I like MacOS on laptops because of the fantastic touch pad, pretty insane battery life, good screens and good speakers. Not to mention that the Apple Silicon has been WAAY more than powerful enough for anything I throw at it.
I use Ubuntu as just a basic daily driver. Discord, Telegram, Firefox, a file browser. I don’t really need to do much more than that on a daily basis. I enjoy that Linux provides me the ability to reduce big companies spying on me, but otherwise… It’s fine. Gaming through steam proton is fine, chatting with friends is fine. It all just feels very middle of the road. I do appreciate the fast boot times I get, and the immediately usable desktop. The styling of Gnome 44 is also nice, but I just love “dock + top bar” setups personally.
As someone who uses all three, if I was forced to use any one of them for the rest of my life… It’d probably be MacOS. You get the flexibility of an underlying unix system, and support for pretty much everything Windows has these days.
I say this as a primarily Linux user who also does music production on Windows, but anyone looking for a great DAW on Linux check out Bitwig. I found it really easy to use and well-designed. I’ve done a ton of music production on it and it works great. The only reason I prefer windows is because there are more compatible plug-ins.
I’ve thought about bitwig, but I don’t like their monetization method. Only reason I slowly upgraded my fl studio over the years is because I know it’s a lifetime key and that I’ll be getting every update. $400 for one year of updates (starting, I know renewal is cheaper) is atrocious to me.
I think I must have pirated Bitwig because I definitely haven’t paid for anything. That said, I don’t really use it much anymore. I’ve been trying Ableton and don’t mind it.
I use Mac OS for work and Debian for my personal stuffs. Both have pro and cons.
On Debian. bugs happens, but not that much. But you are right, some stuffs are not simple as it should be, like configuring my wide screen display need to enter some CLI commands.
On the other hand, for Mac OS, everything work out of the box until you have a special need. I have those in mind:
- you need to install
homebrewas package manager. Debian/Ubuntu haveaptwhich basically works for (almost) everything out of the box - can’t play my FLAC files using iTunes, so I need to buy a paid software or do some research. On Linux, Rhythmbox works pretty well out of the box. I currently use
mpvusing CLI, I didn’t find a better alternative - the AZERTY keyboard layout doesn’t work well with “not apple” keyboard. I needed to install an extra software to do this
- some pieces of software don’t work as good as Linux (Inkscape, Libreoffice, etc…)
- Docker is not as good as it is for Linux
- OpenVPN is not integrated as the Desktop as Gnome do
VLC will play whatever you throw at it… can’t believe you didn’t use it. Also homebrew isn’t a requirement, it’s a nice to have, sure. But macOS works just fine without it.
- you need to install
Been trying out Linux mint recently and I haven’t had any significant issues with it yet. I do miss some of the the tiling options that I get with windows though. I’ve been gaming with the steam deck, though I keep around a windows 11 desktop with WSL2 for windows only workflows and some games.
Whenever there’s an issue I just RDP into the other machine for what I need, haven’t had anything game breaking for me yet
I second Mint with XFCE. I have been using it for a decade and since I’m family tech support guy I installed it on all the PCs I have to support including some used for watching TV and YouTube high end Thinkpads, cheap Laptops used for school. It stays out of my way and just works. Of course there are issues here and there, but it was most solid distro for me. The ease of upgrade is stunning, dealing with Ubuntu servers an upgrade is almost always a new install and data migration, with Mint upgrading feels easy and fun.
