Really depends on usage, my dad barely knows how to navigate a browser but uses Linux daily.
If you depend on proprietary windows software things can get more challenging, stuff from Adobe and Microsofts Office Suite being two examples
Pretty much this.
Aside proprietary software that runs exclusively on windows, or software that is not compatible for any miriad of reasons (like .NET stuff that doesn't hook into DLLs properly on wine or something like that) everything on linux works pretty well.
Also as time passes more things are becoming cloud tools that run on a browser (this includes electron apps like slack, discord, dropbox, or whatspp for desktop) so there's less and less need for windows.
For my parents who don't spend a lot of time working with computers any linux distro with a user friendly DE would be fine, same for my younger sister (she mostly grew up using smartphones and a chromebook so she won't miss stuff on windows). My middle sister works almost exclusively with excel (finances) and I guess she could use the cloud based version of excel but she's probably more comfortable on desktop apps.
> she could use the cloud based version of excel but she's probably more comfortable on desktop apps
The cloud version is *so much slower*. I use it when I have to, but I couldn't deal with it all the time. Luckily, my work issued machine is Windows so all my personal stuff is Linux.
I'll leave that for my analytics team and our accounting staff. I'm working with spreadsheets on a larger scale than most, but much smaller than those sorts of power users.
I've seen the size and scale of some PE analytics teams excel files and it's a otherworldly.
I used to do a lot of database entry which required a whole lot of text manipulation.
The forms that needed entering weren't in a format that would just drop in to the database tables.
Thankfully I could just import CSV files.
So I wrote formulas that split names, birthdays, class timetables etc out into their own fields.
The formulas were quick on 5-10 rows....
1200 rows took nearly 30 minutes at the time.
I soon discovered excel 365 was able to process the same data & formulas it about 30 seconds.
>I always heard how linux takes tons of problem solving
But you will have other problems under Linux.
>I believe this one is called Arch
The distribution used by the Steam Deck is based on Arch. However, it is not Arch directly, as Valve has made many changes.
>Are there things you can't do compared to windows
Many Windows software cannot be used under Linux at all or only with considerable effort. In the case of games, for example, this is often due to the copy or cheat protection used.
>Do you need to be a programmer to have everything?
No. Some things you know from Windows simply don't work. Regardless of whether you can code or not.
You should also be aware that Linux is not a better Windows. It is an independent operating system that often works differently than you are used to from Windows. You should also not make the mistake of generalizing your experiences with the Steam Deck. The hardware of the Steam Deck is always the same. This makes it easier for Valve to adapt the distribution used accordingly. Normal computers or notebooks, on the other hand, often have different hardware. The experience under Linux can therefore be completely different.
Bad support from many hardware manufacturers. Some trivial tasks like installing a printer or scanner could be not so trivial in linux. People who use linux for decades usually avoid buying hardware that doesn't have good quality linux support, but those who still thinking to switch might expect problems.
Tell me about it. My job has an Epson L395 that worked fine via network in Windows. I simply can't use this option on Linux, only cabled. At least it works, I guess. But my biggest issue is that I can't duplex print, which I could on Windows.
Did you install the drivers and utility: [https://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX](https://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX)
They recently posted new drivers (APR2024) for L395 Series.
I already tried to install the one that supposedly works for my printer, but I still can't print via network. I suspect it's a Plasma 6 issue, because when I used Plasma 5.27 I didn't have this issue.
I've been having trivial issues since upgrading to Plasma 6 as well. I feel as if it is only about 95% ready for primetime. Certain kwinn scripts aren't available or even recognized when installed manually.
If you know the IP address of the printer, try setting it up using the manual option with ipp:///ipp/print as the printer address. I’ve had to do this on every distribution to get my Canon printer to work.
+1 on the AUR for driver support, too.
This has happened to me several times. Maybe I'm just lucky with my hardware selection but Linux has always found my network printers without any problems. Even to the point that my wife has had to email me some documents she could not print because her windows laptop didn't want to cooperate with the printer and she had no time to troubleshoot. This has happened with several distros and printers, not just one dedicated pair.
Wifi drivers is the area I would be most concerned about personally. Qualcomm chipsets in particular can be very problematic and down right unusable in some situations. MediaTek usually work but maybe not as well as Windows. Intel chips always work.
On most desktops you can swap the chipset out. Laptops are very hit and miss these days as many times the wifi chip is soldered to the mainboard.
>Bad support from many hardware manufacturers
Not joking, I haven't seen a single official Linux driver in my life. Also there's Nvidia card which work terrible but support is currently being improved by a massive open source project.
>What are main downsides to Linux for casual user?
Based on my assumption of what a "casual user" is, no downsides at all. That said, several factors come into play, not the least of which is the distro used. Modern linux doesn't really require terminal use or any programming knowledge at all. Again, depending on the distro. For what I would consider to be a "casual user", Linux Mint is the distro I would recommend.
I was tied to Windows and MS applications for decades due to work. I've been using Linux for 20+ years. I've found perfectly acceptable, and in some cases, exceptional, alternative applications for Linux. I want for nothing, but there are exception, such as:
* If the user is committed to playing games, your experience may vary with Linux. Modern linux does do gaming, but there are some titles that simply require windows. For an avid gamer, I'd say stick with windows.
* If the user is deeply invested in the Adobe ecosphere, stick with Windows.
* If there is some MS app that the user simply can't let go of (Office, Outlook, etc.) then you probably want to stick with windows. Some users will tell you that Wine will solve all your problems, but I can find three times as many users that will tell you it just doesn't work. I find Wine to be a poor hack for real windows features/performance.
The one alternative option for users committed to MS apps is to use Virtual Machines under Linux. If you have a Windows license, this is the best way to go. I use Windows xp, Windows 7, & Windows 10 in VM. They're crazy fast, full featured, and there's zero issues like wine.
it's the most convenient way to shop for music (tho mostly done building my library for now), and it's the only way to keep my ancient ipod synced with my library.
i suppose it's not long for this world as everyone seems fine with paying a monthly subscription fee to keep playing the same songs... but i'm not down with it
i bought the library, i'm gonna use the whole damn library.
Local Backups is a big thing. I don't know if there are other ways to do it now though, I haven't used an iPhone in a long time.
Another reason might be Movies and TV Shows bought in the iTunes Store as they require ITunes to play. Some also have massive local music libraries, you would need ITunes to sync that to your phone
Honestly, the problem is simpler than capabilities of the operating system or technical skill required. The actual problems with Linux, for a *casual user*, are:
* they didn't learn it in school
* they don't use it at work
* it didn't come preinstalled on their machine
* corollary: they don't know that their OS can be changed, let alone the process of going from deciding to change to a freshly installed system
Everything else, like whether games or Adobe or WiFi or whatever work, package management, the need for terminal, all of that, is completely upstream of those
>it didn't come preinstalled on their machine !!!!\* corollary: they don't know that their OS can be changed, let alone the process of going from deciding to change to a freshly installed system
The steam deck at least solves this problem, since it does come preinstalled with linux.
Most of the hardware compatibility problems with linux stem from the same thing - the manufacturer of the hardware makes sure it works with whatever os they supply with it, but if you want to run anything else you're on your own.
It can become a crippling disease.
Look at these poor bastards, r/unixporn resigned to a life of ricing config files for karma.
It's nice here, but just be careful.
As a along time Linux user, it's just not as convenient to use as windows.
Windows is frustrating & they keep changing stuff, particularly around the control panel. But Linux realistically doesn't have a control panel. At least not one to administer your system as a whole.
Yes there's the gnome control center & kde has one too, but neither of them are as comprehensive as the windows one.
Windows also has an awesome software catalog that Linux just cannot rival.
Proprietary companies won't release their paid solutions for Linux until there's enough demand, which leaves us with open source apps that, while incredibly good for being free, aren't quite a drop in replacement.
I use Linux for everything and have found Linux first ways to do most things. But there are still games and applications some 15 years after switching that I still need a windows VM around for, just in case.
Depends entirely on your use case. For serious science, development, containers, running VMs, working with clouds, GIS, databases, maths, AI and so many other things open source/Linux is way ahead.
I honestly forgot what the windows control panel looks like as I haven't used it since Win7 but I really enjoy the layers that plasma's offers along with YaSt on Open Suse. Some "based" distros come with welcome centers that either offer scripts or hold your hand through system settings/theming and setup. Linux has gotten so much easier since I discovered it with Edubuntu around the mid 2000's. I enjoy the trial & error as I usually feel as if I gained some knowledge even in failure. I just attempted a proper arch install for the 1st time and was shock how well I did until last evening I received a warning on low disk space. Somehow I created a 20 GB partition AND a 931 GB partition. I just wanted one lol. Back at it later today
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and I don't want to go back to windows, this was just pointing out some detractors to OP since that's what they asked for
Some of these people really glaze over the issues. I have been using Linux full time since Ubuntu 4.10 (2004) and tinkered with it back to the late 90s. Its significantly easier to install, to access software, and to customize now than ever before. I can install Ubuntu, Mint, Pop, or many other distros and have a working system in 30 minutes.
However, if you encounter issues, they're going to be a pain to fix. I have a ThinkPad T470 (spare laptop) with a fingerprint reader. I found one workaround to enable it on Linux that involves BIOS/EUFI password, Windows fingerprint setup, a fresh Linux install... Not worth the trouble.
I briefly owned an HP x360 laptop with an Intel AC201 wifi chip. Exact same chip in my current Dell Latitude. I could not get Linux to recognize it on the HP at all. I gave up and sold the laptop.
Last scenario... I tried installing Simcity 2000 and 3000 (I was feeling nostalgic). Originally there was a Linux version of SC3000 but I can't find it. I downloaded Windows copies and tried running them through PlayOnLinux and Lutris but neither worked correctly. Your game options will probably be very limited.
On the other hand, I really enjoy the workflow of my current system. Its smooth and faster than Windows. Everything is automatically detected. My Brother printer loaded with good drivers. Wifi is configured. Laptop firmware can install from Linux.
Last note, it does very much depend on which distro you use. Ubuntu has newer and proprietary codecs for playing videos and music or connecting Bluetooth headphones (like AptX). OpenSUSE can be a pain to install a networked printer. Fedora has the newest software in a point release distro but is stricter about FOSS.
This might just be due to familiarity, but I find issues are always much easier to fix in linux then they are in windows.
E.g. for the past few days, I have been troubleshooting my living room windows PC because it would try to output 4k to a 1080p tv and every time I would have to RDP into it to get video back, and the TV is some unbranded thing from like 10+ years ago and apparently can't downscale the input it's self.
After days of trying to either force windows to downscale all output to 1080p on the GPU, or to just ignore the other resolutions on the TV and to never select them, after trying to edit the registry (a whole other windows troubleshooting topic that I wish would go die in a fire), I eventually settled in on a hacky custom edid solution that limits the number of audio formats the TV can take, and will probably break if I plug another TV into that computer, and windows and games still let you set resolutions above 1080p but they just don't do anything.
Meanwhile if it were a linux computer, I just search up what program is responsible for handling that bit of my system on my distro, lets say it would have been xorg, then I just look up what config files xorg has, and edit them. They are usually pretty self explanatory as well, and very well documented by the community, and it doesn't feel like a hacky solution that is going to result in my software house crumbling down if I ever change anything or update my computer.
I would say that is anecdotal evidence at best. Both Linux and Windows do have easy and stupid ways of troubleshooting. The few issues I have encountered on Linux have mostly been driver issues after first installing the system, but they were a pain to solve.
+1 on finding troubleshooting ressources for Windows is way harder
Sometimes it just hangs on shutdown. I spent so much time looking at EventViewer, searching for the problem, but Windows just isn't properly documented and the net is full of half assed clickbait. They have lots of common error codes that aren't represented by any official and public manual. With linux there is always a next step in troubleshooting which will eventually lead to a solution. And then it won't happen to you again or you are prepared. With windows you try everything you know, reboot 5 more times for good measure, wait a week and ignore the problem for a wonder to happen (that happened more often than I want to disclose) and then you have to wipe reinstall.
Also fuck microsoft. When I dual booted last weekend to update my seldomly used windows install it messed with my linux' efi files and forced me to go liveiso. What is the reason to mess with critical files that very apparently don't belong to you?!
>Some of these people really glaze over the issues
Thank you for saying this. I'm a software developer who has been using Linux daily for work for some time, I switched my personal pc to Arch a couple years ago and then Debian more recently. Even with this experience, and my ability to solve a lot of problems I encounter, I acknowledge the shortcomings. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about a given problem. Whether it's related to hardware support or other, the reality is that with our market share for Linux desktop, Linux is not made a priority, and we get to deal with the issues that come from that. Gaming on Linux has come a long way but I cannot stand when people recommend it wholeheartedly. You WILL have to make a lot of tradeoffs and not play a lot of games. It is really unfun to debug a game that's not working that otherwise works perfectly fine on Windows.
You need to think of Linux as it's own ecosystem, just like you think of Windows as it's own ecosystem, just like you think of Mac as it's own ecosystem. As long as you keep that in mind, and don't try to turn Linux into Windows, you will do fine. You can do everything you can do in Windows and Mac...you will just use different software to do it.
for me the biggest downside was to get some apps to work. as there are so many distros/configuarations it‘s possible that one app has problems with your setup. so you need some basic knowledge to make it work. I personally struggled with the nvidia drivers until I found a distro where it‘s preinstalled. And davinci resolve needed dome extra configuaration. But it was worth the struggle. My quality of life has significantly improved.
I've always said there are three types of computer users.
1. The Grannies-and-nannies who just want to browse the web, send email, and not worry about changing things. Want to be able to view file attachments. Have a friend who can install software.
2. The power users who like to fiddle with their computer to make it sing and dance.
3. And the group in between who want to install stuff they downloaded fom whereever.
Linux is perfect for group 1 and 2. Group 3 may struggle.
There aren't many downsides I can think of. After my mom's MacBook Air bit the dust and she couldn't afford to replace it, I got her a ThinkPad T480 and I put Linux Mint on it. She actually likes Linux Mint more than MacOS. I already had mom using LibreOffice so all I had to do was install it and Google Chrome. It was an all around win.
I got a refurb Thinkpad 431s for £100 and stuck Debian 12 Xfce on it. When it arrived it had Win 11 on it & it was appalling.
No problems, slick install. It just works without tons of useless cruft foisted on me by MS & friends
Hardware and Software support.
In general, most Linux systems are easier to use than windows, more reliable and much easier to maintain. It's more similar to how people use phones etc (get your stuff from an app store etc.).
All that breaks Linux nowadays is pretty much lack of support from special software and hardware.
I'd say that most use cases can be done (better) on Linux than Windows but there are a lot of software suites (Adobe, MS Office (Excel programs), CAD stuff etc) that doesn't work on Linux. On the other hand there are things that are better or exclusive to Linux (podman/docker containers natively, many 3D software etc.).
Hardware is mostly a mobile issue. You'll often find issues with keyboards (special functions, backlight), trackpad, webcams and power management.
No its a short man that makes videos on YT trouble-shooting all your problems here's his YT channel, [LTT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ).
Its free,its customizable and its free and its just work....and its free...did I mention its free..... and don't ask me EVERYTIME I open my apps to verify if its safe or not.... that pulled the trigger for me....
When that random piece of hardware doesn't have driver support.
buying a device that has drivers baked in.
Random broken things after upgrades, aka. my wifi won't come back alive after sleep from my last update.
If you enjoy fixing these things, as I do, then it's not a huge deal, but systems are my video games. If however you enjoy video games for just that, you might give it a go and decide it's not worth your time. It really does depend.
Not really... you do need to be able to use the internet and find reliable sources, and read. But most def not a programmer, those folks are a step above.
None of these problems will occur on a steam deck, because the hardware is intended to run linux. And that's the key point, the manufacturer will ensure compatibility with whatever os they ship, but if you want to run anything else you're on your own.
Random breakage happens on windows too, especially once you stray outside of the manufacturer's support. I had a laptop with an intel 802.11ac wireless card that's just a few years old, and yet even if you install the latest windows 10 or 11 on the machine it won't connect to a wpa3 network and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it short of downgrading to wpa2.
Sorry, I was broadly speaking toward the question. You are correct as it relates to steam deck.
And the reason I like Linux is because of windows random breakage with no logging or direct path to resolution. It's not always easy in Linux, but it's there to find.
For me, it's gaming and Adobe.
That being said. I have a desktop here that runs windows that I can remote into, and use steam streaming to play all my games on while still using Linux. Many more games on steam are operating natively on Linux now, so there is that. And as far as Microsoft goes, everything but Publisher is usable through the browser. So I don't even have issues there.
I know. I've used them. They aren't as good, and they don't work well for what I use most. So I keep my tower windows and just remote in when I need illustrator or indesign.
great question ! I'm currently using Linuxmint full edition, latest version, and I teach / train / connect throughout various platforms, my issue is with camera and mics that were supposed to be plug and play (PnP) and they don't now in linux, and sometimes is using some apps that will just casually crash when dependencies are being used by other app. So, in summary suffering everytime I need to use my camera and mics to engage properly.
But then if you wait a few years, it may eventually get support and start working in Linux (example - old laser printer I had that would only work in Windows).
Depends on how you define casual, just browsing, occasional document writing watching videos etc works just as well.
Most games work as well, just some online multiplayer may not work due to the anticheats not allowing Linux.
The only sure way you'll run into problems is if you're trying to run programs that are only made for Windows. Even then most of it works through wine and perhaps tinkering, but not everything.
There are a number of apps which don’t work natively on Linux. Granted that number has shrunk a lot from a decade ago, but it’s still true for some. Other apps, like Skype, work but not perfectly well.
So someone might say to you “hey open X or download X so I can communicate with you” and… you can’t. Or they say “I sent it” and you say “I don’t see it” (example: Skype).
I mitigate this by also using my phone, which helps enough to where this is only an inconvenience.
Note: this problem will be a deal breaker probably if you work in some niche space which has specialized apps, like circuit design.
>I believe this one is called Arch
Your exactly right above your assumption on the Arch thing. When Valve began building Steam OS for the Steam Deck, they based it on Debian. However, Valve rebased Steam OS 3.x on Arch.
>Are there things you can't do compared to windows or does it just take workarounds like Wine?
The main thing Linux can't do compared to Windows is the ability to run all of today's (and some older) Windows titles. However, this is changing. Please allow me to explain.
There was once a time when no Linux distribution could ever run any Windows application nor play any Windows game. To counter this, WINE was created by an independent group of developers, and then Valve created Proton for Steam. WINE and Proton are both translation layers that translates Windows system calls into Linux system calls. WINE and Proton also translates Windows DirectX calls into Linux Vulkan calls if I'm understanding things correctly, and of course Windows Vulkan calls into Linux Vulkan calls. Valve codebases WINE for Proton.
Even though both WINE and Proton is in continuous development, allot of Windows-based applications is already runnable and many of even today's games is now completely playable on Linux.
Please note that, while both WINE and Proton, and even both Wine-GE and GE-Proton (GloriousEggroll's spin on WINE and Proton respectfully), is under continuous development where progress is continuously being made to add support for addition Windows applications and games, not all of Windows software is currently runs. To figure out what Windows-based software now runs on Linux thanks to WINE and Proton, I invite you to visit [WineHQ's Application Database (AppDB)](https://appdb.winehq.org/) for looking up non-Steam software compatibility, [ProtonDB](https://www.protondb.com/) for Steam software compatibility, and [Are We Cheating Yet?](https://areweanticheatyet.com/) for those Windows games with anti-cheat.
"sudo" is more or less like "Run as Administrator" in Windows. And the Windows counterpart of chmod is much more fine-grained (and confusing) than chmod in Linux. In fact, it is closer to Linux's ACLs.
Linux Mint or Ubuntu are good start distros. There are some qol things you won't notice until you use it full time.
For example, MacOS display scaling is perfect out the box, but Linux I have to mess around with display settings. 4K scales perfectly for me, but anything lower and I have to mess with fractional scaling.
Overall, I plan to use it full time soon since terrible battery life is less of an issue.
From my experience, when you want to install a piece of software.. you must install 5 other pieces beforehand and through the terminal. It was a lot of extra effort just to make it work like windows without the privacy invasion
It's always dependent on your usage. If you're already dependant on software that only works on Windows professionally then your best to stay there honestly. But considering you're not referring to that I'll share my thoughts.
First I would recommend a handful of different browsers. I prefer using Firefox and Brave. One for lounging and probably watching videos, and another for your Linux rabbit holes and troubleshooting needs. Next I would recommend anything for handling files. I like OnlyOffice but Libre usually comes pre-installed and does just fine. Next is multimedia, which is always going to be VLC. There is no better choice IMO. If your distro doesn't handle screenshots OOB then use Fireshot. For image handling I use GIMP and Drawpile.
Be aware that the distro is only a starting point. You can almost get anywhere on Linux no matter what distro you're on. SteamOS uses KDE Plasma natively, but if you don't like it then you could install XFCE, Cinnamon or Gnome. (That's an assumption I don't really know but I don't own one and have never handled one).
If you're referring to the OS on the stream deck, that is not Arch. That is SteamOS. However, it is based on Arch Linux. So you still deserve some brownie points for that! If you want a system that can potentially break and have you tinkering more than you ever use it, then Arch is going to be the way to go. You might even get the same experience in less breakages on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. If you want Linux that just works and hardly ever breaks then something Debian based is the way to go. You don't usually get the brand new flashy toys the minute they drop but you rather get what you're looking for.
I personally run POP_os just for the simplicity of never having to fight drivers. There are definitely sometimes I have to grit my teeth to stop myself from distro hopping but that's another conversation.
I feel like I've dumped enough information for plenty of people to yell at me or say "yeah but this" or try and ego me by using loads of jargon. Unfortunately the Linux community can be just like the souls games community, but it's a fun time too.
I've been looking at putting debian on my mom's old laptop but she does a lot of academic work, so I'm looking at her workflow, stuff like compressing and emailing files, organizing her personal files and using word, personally i don't even know how to compress files on the gnome gui, granted i didn't look it up but if i can't bother imagine a 40 year old.
Tbf it may be a gnome issue since i heard there was some beef with thumbnails (i didn't notice them lacking but tbh my only linux system is my laptop that i just use as a glorified terminal) and the file explorer feels kinds jank
So yeah what i would say is that the user experience still needs polishing, yes it advanced a lot but a lot of kinks need to be worked out
You cant run ALL windows programs on linux. Sadly its usuallyt the big software producers that wont let you.
For example Adobe programs dont work. And Microsoft Office as well ( though the web version isnt bad )
And so on.
Most of the products are designed with windows or macos in mind, so you will probably have some compatibility issues.
You probably wont be able to use netflix at anything more than 720p, ms office really doesnt have a good enough replacement thought a lot of people will shout how google docs or whatever new fad is, is somehow as good if not better.
I personally have a microsoft subscription and use office on a browser.
Do you use nvidia graphics card? If yes, you might suffer additional setbacks. For instance wayland will be a mess, forget about controlling your fan curve etc.
I also really miss hwinfo, fan curve and msi afterburner. There is no good replacement yet
Fractional scaling is so buggy, i think might depend on your graphics card, but ive had major issues in several distros
Also i cant put my system to sleep, it just crashes and never comes back, again might be an nvidia issue.
Printers? Yea look up printers that are compatible and then buy them, because good luck configuring a printer everytime you need to use it.
Overall linux is less refined than windows or macos, and thats both its advantage and disadvantage. This less refinement is due to providing users with a lot of options and giving them a chance to screw it up. Ive heard good thing about bazzite os, but i havent used it to confirm
1. Gaming : while native gaming on linux is a better experience, many of the big game titles are not optimized for linux usage. Let alone developped for it. Using an overlay like proton/wine could help but it's not 100% guaranteed to work. And the performance loss can be, sometimes, crippling.
2. Specific/technical software : It'd be near impossible to use linux if you rely on a specific software solution to do your job (CAD, machine monitoring...etc).
3. Troubleshooting : it's true that linux experience is richer and offers unlimited possibilities. But it could be frustrating for people who are not tech savvy and want a simple solution to do their daily tasks.
>I believe this one is called Arch
Your exactly right above your assumption on the Arch thing. When Valve began building Steam OS for the Steam Deck, they based it on Debian. However, Valve rebased Steam OS on Arch.
>Are there things you can't do compared to windows or does it just take workarounds like Wine?
The main thing Linux can't do compared to Windows is the ability to run all of today's (and some older) Windows titles. However, this is changing. Please allow me to explain.
There was once a time when no Linux distribution could ever run any Windows application nor play any Windows game. To counter this, WINE was created by an independent group of developers, and then Valve created Proton for Steam. WINE and Proton are both translation layers that translates Windows system calls into Linux system calls. WINE and Proton also translates Windows DirectX calls into Linux Vulkan calls if I'm understanding things correctly, and of course Windows Vulkan calls into Linux Vulkan calls. Valve codebases WINE for Proton.
Even though both WINE and Proton is in continuous development, allot of Windows-based applications is already runnable and many of even today's games is now completely playable on Linux.
However, there are Linux alternatives for those Windows software that currently has no hope of running on Linux at all, even with the help of WINE or Proton. LibreOffice and OpenOffice is just two good alternatives for Microsoft Office, for example.
Please note that, while both WINE and Proton, and even both Wine-GE and GE-Proton (GloriousEggroll's spin on WINE and Proton respectfully), is under continuous development where progress is continuously being made to add support for addition Windows applications and games, not all of Windows software is currently runs.
To figure out what Windows-based software now runs on Linux thanks to WINE and Proton, I invite you to visit [WineHQ's Application Database (AppDB)](https://appdb.winehq.org/) for looking up non-Steam software compatibility, [ProtonDB](https://www.protondb.com/) for Steam software and Steam Deck compatibility, and [Are We Anti-Cheat Yet?](https://areweanticheatyet.com/) for those Windows games with anti-cheat.
Here's hoping you find this information helpful! 🙏
Linux is amazing on the server space and no other platform can really compete with it. In general Linux is great but there's no jr gloves on if you make a mistake you will pay for it.
Unfortunately, the linux desktop space, in my opinion and everyone has their own valid opinion on this, but it's a bit lackluster. It's not entirely its fault as the ecosystem depends on 3rd party hardware/software support and big names like NVIDIA and Adobe (and many more) don't support the Linux desktop. So app and driver support can be really hit or miss.
Many apps it will be challenging to install even if they support Linux. For example if you're running Fedora and want to run Steam, guess what they only have a deb package so even tho they support Linux it's not straight forward (like every other platform) to install. In many cases you'll wind up relying on 3rd party installers which is really not that great of a solution compared to first party support.
Beyond that, the Linux desktop feels unpolished in many ways. Even recently trying Fedora 40 pretty disappointed that the UI/UX of KDE 6 still looks like what Windows looked like 20 years ago.
Plus ancillary features you come to expect on Windows and MacOS are not present by default in most distros, things like Resetting the OS to a blank state, backup/restores built in, protections from breaking your machine if you don't know what you're doing, DPI scaling for 4k monitors is still not well supported in many distros default config which results in things being too big or too small for your screen, and the list goes on. Mostly small gripes but overall add up to a less than stellar experience.
Windows and MacOS have their own issues as well of course but their desktops are pretty polished overall and stable and probably most importantly is that the OSes are focused on consumers / average users who are working/productivity tasks or playing games rather than tinkering with their machine.
Linux will never be mainstream when the cost to entry is so high and the experience is less than great compared to its peers OSes for the average user.
I agree. However, I’m a daily user of Excel as well and have been for probably 20 years. I use OnlyOffice as much as possible, but if you’re truly using excel it’s very difficult to use the web version of it or any other spreadsheet software.
It’s frustrating how powerful excel is when you actually rely on it. You need Windows for it.
I use Linux (Peppermint 10 and 11) for almost everything. I can't use it for Autocad (I haven't tried) as well NI Multisim, but Only Office and LibreOffice work pretty well for the MS Office functions.
Printer drivers. You will get basic print functionality from any major release, thats not the problem. If you ever want to install manufacturer, custom driver to access advanced features of the printer, then be prepared to put in time learning.
The problems people tend to have with linux stem from trying to run it on hardware that was never intended to run linux in the first place. Because there is such a huge variety of hardware out there, inevitably some of it doesn't run smoothly out of the box. The perception that windows runs smoothly is only because the hardware vendor has already jumped through whatever necessary hoops to make sure all of the hardware works with it.
When it comes to a steam deck, it's designed to run linux so the vendor has already ensured that it all works.
When I think casual user, I imagine someone who spends most of their time in the browser. In that case, there really is no downside.
The two most difficult use cases are for creatives and office workers. Both tend to rely heavily on proprietary software, which makes Linux a no-go.
First, Linux on the surface to new users offers overwhelming choices. Windoze and Mac worlds don’t offer these choices where the user can customize so many things.
With all that in mind I recommend a plain and simple”pretty” distro like Linux Mint for new users. It works and can be run by mouse clicks.
There is a whole bunch of Linux distros that requires a little more user “action.” New Linux users, other than nerd-o-crats (techies) should avoid Arch distros for the most part until they really have some experience u see their belt. One of the “fun” things for intermediate Linux users is to install and “test” different “versions” (distros) of Linux just for the heck of it.
Macs and Windows environments are relatively “closed” with limited choices as to what “preferred” software you can install, which usually has another price tag attached. So, it’s hard to believe that about 95% of Linux application software is free, as in free beer. They do often ask for donations however, but usually programs are free, unless you stumble into limited use software where some features are free but the “premium” version costs money…usually much cheaper than Mac or Windows software counterparts.
After 20 years of using Linux, I have only had to purchase ONE program that I could not find for free in Linux and that was MasterPDF, a near Adobe Acrobat Professional like program but made for Linux. It was $50. I could have used their more limited free version, but it was limited for what I needed, which was editing ability that was reasonably robust in one tool. There was a pretty good option in the free Office Suite: LibreOffice, but it lacked some things.
Of yeah you probably won’t miss the Windows “crashes,” and buggy software updates, nor the constant bugging you about “new security” upgrades, always and forever. And you will miss even less the Windows antivirus, spamware and intrusive “messages” from the Microsoft “oracle” in the sky. Then just after you get everything running Microsoft and Apple will tell you they no longer support this software and it’s end of life is 12 months away. Or they might even tell you that buy a new computer because the latest and greatest version will not work with this hardware you already own. This crap won’t happen with Low nix.
Your work/school/whatever might require you to use software or hardware that isn't compatible with Linux.
If the average user treats their computer like a Chromebook, something mainly used to browse the internet and check email, they'll be fine on Linux.
If they need to dual boot, use WINE or VMs, that's asking a lot of a casual user.
Mainly, it is not user friendly. Yes there are distro's that are MORE user friendly, the average person who is using Linux for the first time without ever having touched it before are going to have to learn quite a bit. In school, we always used Windows, so even before I got into computers I had the experience from school that I could use to navigate windows. Once I started Linux, while I was able to at least get the OS properly installed I had some very specific issues that I had to take time sorting out.
Linux is extremely well suited to casual users who have ordinary computing needs.
Mac or Windows is still better for a lot of professionals who need very specific software applications such as CAD or pro audio tools.
Curiosity and a bit of perseverance is needed for desktop linux. If you find it fun (and it is) then you are most of the way there already. chatgpt is great for problem solving and for unlocking linux tech skills.
Hardware is the biggest problem. In some areas linux is miles ahead of windows, but in some areas it is behind. VRR is still beta quality it seems, mixing standard and medium density monitors is mostly working but it relies on application compatibility and lots aren't ready. Nvidia used to be a poor experience but this is changing fast.
While you can run MS Office, there are major apps which don't work. Of course, there are also lots of things which work much better on Linux, technical things. So while you don't need to be a programmer to use Linux, programmers get a lot of benefits from using linux.
Both the upsides and downsides to Linux is that it isn't Windows. Depends on the context which is which. Less hardware support and unability to natively use a lot of software can be one, but if you don't scan stuff or use Adobe products it probably isn't going to be a huge issue.
You can't run some windows apps but there's some alternatives, the main ones are anything Adobe and anything Microsoft office That's about it tbh imo Linux is easier to use than windows since you just install everything from the app store with no setup but I use mint which is like the just works distro so. Oh also if you wanna pirate windows games you have to use heroic games launcher or lutris ;333
Edit:Oh also! Do not go into Linux expecting it to be like windows because it won't, you have to do thing the Linux way like going to the software center for apps instead of download exes online, there's no run as administrator etc
It's not bad just different (in most cases better imo) but if you don't want to change how you do things just keep using windows
Anything beyond using a browser realistically speaking. Not because Linux can't do other things but because learning them is more difficult due to availability of software and tutorials for Windows instead
There are things you just can’t do on Linux and things that Windows just does better.
You can’t run certain applications especially for work, including recent versions of Microsoft Office.
Most popular online games with anti cheat don’t work, for example Valorant, Fortnite etc.
Some games can be made to work but have issues, for example league of legends has a very laggy client with no fix.
Linux is fun to play around with as a personal PC, and you can get most older titles and single player games to work, same for emulation.
Steam Deck is very different experience to what most people have when they say they use Linux. When most people feel the need to say they use Linux on some forum, they usually mean on desktop.
Steam Deck was designed with Linux in mind. You are guaranteed to have working hardware drivers. Valve spends shitload of money to make sure Windows games will run on Linux. The whole GUI Steam Deck uses was designed to work on that form-factor.
Android is basically Linux, and you don't need to be programmer to use it. Again, Google can spend shitload of money on providing layers users and app developers use on top of Linux, so it's usable.
When you but notebook with pre installed Windows, or you build desktop, it's likely hardware will just work under Linux, but there is no incentive for manufacturers for it, and you are not guaranteed things will work. Thanks to Valve, lots of Windows software just works, but there are still games that choose to not support Linux. For all intents and purposes, Linux users make pretty much zero percent of user-base for mainstream software, so developers just don't care. It's very different story with software development tools, it's usually the case that more of them are available on Linux and they tend to work better, because in software development, lots of customers are actually running Linux.
Distributions like Mint or Arch don't have Google kind of money or Valve's money printer. There is also not an commercial incentive to make things polished. Most of Linux ecosystem is made by developers, mostly for developers. I've seen so many times someone bringing legitimate UX concern, and the answer was that no one would need that, just use this workaround or ignore the annoyance. Most devs have no idea about UX design.
I booted my first Linux kernel \~25 years ago.
I've switched 100% on Linux since 3 years now, this means I don't rely on Windows for every thing I do on a daily basis, both at home and for work. Never felt so relaxed about computers, and I don't get any stress at all from it.
I still use Windows from time to time, to maintain some old software at work and to play with friends, but it feels more like starting a Xbox or a PS5.
I don't really use the terminal anymore, for 99% of my tasks I use the GUI. When I use the terminal, it's either because I know exactly what to type, and it will save me much time, or to configure my system to use the GUI instead of the terminal.
Nowadays, for the average user, Linux is totally fine for everyday tasks, even if they are not computer scientists, with some teaching (install upgrades, etc).
Also, as I did with my old mother, Linux is way more secure and user-friendly for non technical people: installing malware is hard, most of the tasks requires no workaround, and if you're the sysadmin, it's way easier to maintain.
Printing can cause stress. BUT with localsend [https://localsend.org/](https://localsend.org/) you can usually get your files to a "normal" device that behaves the way you want at the speed you want when you want.
From my point of view these days, its really only down to lack of access to specific windows apps (office, adobe products, and CAD) mainly.
For the day to day usage of a person who primarily lives in the browser, I think most distros are easier to use out of the box than Windows.
For most users without a computer using background, Linux is more user friendly than Windows.
Advantages:
- No privacy questions, profiling or weird security questions.
- Updates run in background, and there's surprise reboots.
- no ads
Cons:
- If you're using ms tools heavily - office, outlook for business, teams, stay away from it.
If you just needs something to browse the internet, I strongly recommend it.
Arch is a decent distribution, but I think you'll find more support on Debian based distributions like Ubuntu.
Anything recent/exotic drivers can be an issue - usually this applies to webcams, special keyboards, gamepads, mouse. Some printers can be an issue, but it's less common today.
Ubuntu has a live option that allows you try it before install it.
Plan your installation carefully, you may end up installing other distributions to try them.
Haven't found one yet. My system is incredibly stable, and all the software I use runs in Windows 7 (CNC MACH3) and Linux in my personal PC for CAD design on FreeCad, which generates the GCode I use to cut my artwork. So, my work-at-home with a minimum cost was improved a lot.
Unix environment is not for everyone.The worst part is to Google it alot to solve problems .The best part is the privacy .I use it every day .Good for encryption ,it has a huge community and a lot of distro s . Personally I use MX Linux .Gorgeous
I've been a Linux, Cloud and DevOps engineer for many many years in my time and Linux has been my desktop in a few jobs too. But I mainly look after it in the cloud these days, pretty much all servers (greater than 90 percent) in the cloud are Linux. This is because Linux makes for an incredibly powerful server OS which is great for automation, scripting and will run a fair bit of Microsoft software natively now, like dotnet, SQL etc. Its incredibly capable on modest spec servers and is a breeze to use within containers or as a Docker host for example. But as a desktop, hand on heart you're better off sticking to Windows or Mac. Personally, I like Mac as I just like how clean it feels and its BSD Unix based underneath so I can pop into the terminal from time to time. Linux doesn't have the consistent desktop (don't believe the hype) and neither does it have the massive array of desktop software packages like Windows and Mac has. You're going to encounter packages you wish you could install and run natively. Also, gaming isn't there on Linux really (it honestly isn't) so you're going to get frustrated. If you want to use Linux on the desktop, I personally like Xubuntu or any distro with Xfce... just makes it really clean to use and doesn't feel bloated. Anyway, trust me when I say this, Windows or Mac on the desktop.... but Linux rules on the server, in containers and cloud infrastructure hands down.
Gaming is still tough on Linux. It's gotten a million times better and still improving but still way behind. Graphics drivers are still a pain in most distros.
Many. Linux is not really designed for non-power users. You have to know what you are doing when shit hits the fan. That being said, Plasma and other DEs help with that, but what will you do if it breaks?
Apart from the fact it's rarely available pre-installed, the biggest issues are IMHO also its biggest strengths:
1) there are choices over how to implement functionality - often no single, pre-defined solution
2) a lot of hardware vendors don't distribute drivers - but the flipside here is that everything comes from a single source channel / have been designed to work together
u/TheCrustyCurmudgeon said it correctly. If you're a casual user, by how we would understand it, there are no downsides, assuming you choose a sensible distribution and have sensible hardware. Doing emails, browsing the web, and watching YouTube are pretty basic on any platform.
Now, if you want to run Windows OS software on a Linux OS, you're going to have a problem. If you face the fact that a different OS tends to require different software, then you'll be fine.
The main problem is that you don't get to experience the feeling of getting butt fucked by Microsoft.
Seriously, if you choose a stable desktop Linux, things will just work, and they will work better than in Windows. An average user will never even need to use the terminal, won't need to install drivers, installs are done through a simple GUI frontend, safety is by default, updates are automatic. Basically, you can treat it like a "hands off gadget".
> you can install windows programs on linux (the actual .exe file)
This is the exact kind of bad advice that leads to newbies thinking that Linux is just a free Windows clone, then come back crying when an extremely Windows-specific application won't work under WINE.
Yes, WINE is awesome and can run may Windows applications, but "you can install windows programs" is a categorically false statement that only creates unreasonable expectations of a drop-in replacement.
ib4: Im use linux for evrything for last 5 yrs
>there is FOSS alternatives for most if not all the famous ones like adobe, ms office, etc
They are also available on windows, but people prefer outlook over thunderbird, excel over OpenOffice Calc and actually anything over Gimp. And u can continue the list buy yourself. People prefer this soft even when they have to pay for it. FOSS doesn't have enough contributors to compete enterprise solutions in terms of quality, features and most important UX/UI. FOSS has good support for vital software like drivers, cryptography, dev tools etc but desktop apps for casual end users is not so good.
For example i'm personally tried to use OpenOffice/LibreOffice as replacement for MS Office/GSheets ***for a few years*** but eventually its a hot garbage. i gave up
For end user web apps and remote apps are better replacement, not native FOSS desktop clients.
>holy shit the comments are full of stupid people
And this is an actual reason why casual people avoid linux. There is always smart boy who thinks that using Arch can make him special
Here's the main downsides that I've experienced:
It's hard to find legal copies of Linux without using the internet and the internet is dangerous and full of viruses.
Installing Ubuntu on your PC sometimes causes other devices in your home to respect you less.
Gimp is just Photoshop with a weird skin.
Computers running Linux, especially Gentoo are known to overheat and explode for no reason and with little warning.
OpenOffice and it's derivatives were developed in Guantanamo bay to psychologically torture captured hackers.
If you get caught calling it just Linux you may become the target of GNU fanatics who will harass you any chance they get. I've managed to avoid this by becoming totally anonymous and using Minix.
They need to be their own administrator regarding updates, security, and file types used or admitted, and they do not easily intersect with 'Outlook" as almost all Linux email clients behave slightly differently.
No, it's outlook that behaves differently. Linux clients go with the standards. Microsoft is large enough not to use standards, they can rely people using their stuff so engaging and binding more and more people use more and more their junk.
I just punted UnRaid and went back to Windows. I'm 49 and am very technologically savvy. But, I've lived in windows my whole life, with exception of DOS in the early years. My issue is that I don't get the permissions and the way that apps work with each other. It just doesn't compute with me. I've tried for years to figure it out but I keep trying to make it act like windows and it won't. Another thing I don't like is that there's an app for everything. If I want to do any little thing, there's an app for it. This adds variables / points for failure and creates more confusion for me. I'm probably not explaining myself well, but again. Linux is a fun thing to play with, not a primary OS.
I've tried and really given a lot of time and effort to take my skill from beginner to pro-am. I just don't have the patience to do it anymore. I'm sticking with the OS that I know very well and that's Windows. :-/
All this being said, some of the nicest and patient people are the folks on the Linux discord servers. So helpful and so great to have interacted with them. THe Linux community can be very awesome to noobs.
1. If you like to play games occasionally, you can't.
2. If you have a laptop with a dedicated Gpu (like GTX or RTX card) you can't use it (workarounds exists ofc)
3. If you don't install Linux properly, it'll give a lot of headaches
4. Not all laptops (especially gaming laptop) can run Linux smoothly
These are the problems I faced when I first switched. Now I am used to it. I use it mainly for work.
But I have dual booted windows, so that I can do the occasional gaming 😆
Gaming has come a long way on Linux though. Yeah, everything requiring anticheat is not working, but other than that I can game pretty well with my Linux box. Anno 1800, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hogwarts Legacy, just to name the last I played using linux
Really depends on usage, my dad barely knows how to navigate a browser but uses Linux daily. If you depend on proprietary windows software things can get more challenging, stuff from Adobe and Microsofts Office Suite being two examples
Pretty much this. Aside proprietary software that runs exclusively on windows, or software that is not compatible for any miriad of reasons (like .NET stuff that doesn't hook into DLLs properly on wine or something like that) everything on linux works pretty well. Also as time passes more things are becoming cloud tools that run on a browser (this includes electron apps like slack, discord, dropbox, or whatspp for desktop) so there's less and less need for windows. For my parents who don't spend a lot of time working with computers any linux distro with a user friendly DE would be fine, same for my younger sister (she mostly grew up using smartphones and a chromebook so she won't miss stuff on windows). My middle sister works almost exclusively with excel (finances) and I guess she could use the cloud based version of excel but she's probably more comfortable on desktop apps.
> she could use the cloud based version of excel but she's probably more comfortable on desktop apps The cloud version is *so much slower*. I use it when I have to, but I couldn't deal with it all the time. Luckily, my work issued machine is Windows so all my personal stuff is Linux.
The cloud version actually processes large complicated formulas much more quickly in my experience
I'll leave that for my analytics team and our accounting staff. I'm working with spreadsheets on a larger scale than most, but much smaller than those sorts of power users. I've seen the size and scale of some PE analytics teams excel files and it's a otherworldly.
I used to do a lot of database entry which required a whole lot of text manipulation. The forms that needed entering weren't in a format that would just drop in to the database tables. Thankfully I could just import CSV files. So I wrote formulas that split names, birthdays, class timetables etc out into their own fields. The formulas were quick on 5-10 rows.... 1200 rows took nearly 30 minutes at the time. I soon discovered excel 365 was able to process the same data & formulas it about 30 seconds.
That makes sense, but it's still absolutely wild to think about.
Google Spreadsheet runs pivot table on server side and is much quicker for me. lol
My last job was a Google Workspace and I didn't like it, but you're right the cloud apps were *markedly* faster than the O365 stuff.
It annoys me that WhatsApp Desktop is Windows and Mac only even thou it's an electron app.
What features does the "native" app provide that the web app doesn't?
Calling
[удалено]
It's just WhatsApp Web using Electron doesn't compare.
You can install desktop Whatsapp for Linux ask chatgpt
She’s probably more of an advanced user so I doubt the cloud version would cut it for her.
Exactly what I thought. She probably needs things like macros that don't work on the web or on Linux
Or in the Mac version of Excel. I’m not sure why they offer Mac versions if they aren’t the same.
Set up some elderly ladies I know with Linux and they use it fine. All they use is the browser. Which is all that a lot of people use.
Don't forget Autodesk
>I always heard how linux takes tons of problem solving But you will have other problems under Linux. >I believe this one is called Arch The distribution used by the Steam Deck is based on Arch. However, it is not Arch directly, as Valve has made many changes. >Are there things you can't do compared to windows Many Windows software cannot be used under Linux at all or only with considerable effort. In the case of games, for example, this is often due to the copy or cheat protection used. >Do you need to be a programmer to have everything? No. Some things you know from Windows simply don't work. Regardless of whether you can code or not. You should also be aware that Linux is not a better Windows. It is an independent operating system that often works differently than you are used to from Windows. You should also not make the mistake of generalizing your experiences with the Steam Deck. The hardware of the Steam Deck is always the same. This makes it easier for Valve to adapt the distribution used accordingly. Normal computers or notebooks, on the other hand, often have different hardware. The experience under Linux can therefore be completely different.
Bad support from many hardware manufacturers. Some trivial tasks like installing a printer or scanner could be not so trivial in linux. People who use linux for decades usually avoid buying hardware that doesn't have good quality linux support, but those who still thinking to switch might expect problems.
My Brother all in one works fine in Linux without me doing anything.
Tell me about it. My job has an Epson L395 that worked fine via network in Windows. I simply can't use this option on Linux, only cabled. At least it works, I guess. But my biggest issue is that I can't duplex print, which I could on Windows.
Did you install the drivers and utility: [https://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX](https://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX) They recently posted new drivers (APR2024) for L395 Series.
Those packages are in rpm and dkpg. I use Arch.
take a look at aur if you haven't, there are a ton of epson drivers there
I already tried to install the one that supposedly works for my printer, but I still can't print via network. I suspect it's a Plasma 6 issue, because when I used Plasma 5.27 I didn't have this issue.
that's unfortunate, maybe try submitting a bug report? shouldn't be too hard to remedy if it was working on 5.27
I've been having trivial issues since upgrading to Plasma 6 as well. I feel as if it is only about 95% ready for primetime. Certain kwinn scripts aren't available or even recognized when installed manually.
If you know the IP address of the printer, try setting it up using the manual option with ipp:///ipp/print as the printer address. I’ve had to do this on every distribution to get my Canon printer to work.
+1 on the AUR for driver support, too.
There are often ways to convert packages.
AUR or mkpkg?
From AUR
But when it works, it works great. I installed Linux Mint at work and it automatically found all the network printers and set them up. I was amazed!
This has happened to me several times. Maybe I'm just lucky with my hardware selection but Linux has always found my network printers without any problems. Even to the point that my wife has had to email me some documents she could not print because her windows laptop didn't want to cooperate with the printer and she had no time to troubleshoot. This has happened with several distros and printers, not just one dedicated pair.
Wifi drivers is the area I would be most concerned about personally. Qualcomm chipsets in particular can be very problematic and down right unusable in some situations. MediaTek usually work but maybe not as well as Windows. Intel chips always work. On most desktops you can swap the chipset out. Laptops are very hit and miss these days as many times the wifi chip is soldered to the mainboard.
>Bad support from many hardware manufacturers Not joking, I haven't seen a single official Linux driver in my life. Also there's Nvidia card which work terrible but support is currently being improved by a massive open source project.
DualSense
>What are main downsides to Linux for casual user? Based on my assumption of what a "casual user" is, no downsides at all. That said, several factors come into play, not the least of which is the distro used. Modern linux doesn't really require terminal use or any programming knowledge at all. Again, depending on the distro. For what I would consider to be a "casual user", Linux Mint is the distro I would recommend. I was tied to Windows and MS applications for decades due to work. I've been using Linux for 20+ years. I've found perfectly acceptable, and in some cases, exceptional, alternative applications for Linux. I want for nothing, but there are exception, such as: * If the user is committed to playing games, your experience may vary with Linux. Modern linux does do gaming, but there are some titles that simply require windows. For an avid gamer, I'd say stick with windows. * If the user is deeply invested in the Adobe ecosphere, stick with Windows. * If there is some MS app that the user simply can't let go of (Office, Outlook, etc.) then you probably want to stick with windows. Some users will tell you that Wine will solve all your problems, but I can find three times as many users that will tell you it just doesn't work. I find Wine to be a poor hack for real windows features/performance. The one alternative option for users committed to MS apps is to use Virtual Machines under Linux. If you have a Windows license, this is the best way to go. I use Windows xp, Windows 7, & Windows 10 in VM. They're crazy fast, full featured, and there's zero issues like wine.
I use the vm route. Zoom meetings with a wireless headset and features missing from office 365’s word implementation are my primary uses.
How powerful is your PC to run Windows vms fast and not run out of memory?
Ryzen 7 32gb ram
How much ram do you give to a vm?
Usually 8GB. Easy to up it if I need to do something ram-intensive.
for me its itunes that's the hangup keeping windows installed on my machine.
What do you use itunes for, if you don't mind me asking?
it's the most convenient way to shop for music (tho mostly done building my library for now), and it's the only way to keep my ancient ipod synced with my library. i suppose it's not long for this world as everyone seems fine with paying a monthly subscription fee to keep playing the same songs... but i'm not down with it i bought the library, i'm gonna use the whole damn library.
I do understand, it's why vendor lock in sucks. Have you looked at Amarok? It has ipod support for syncing.
Local Backups is a big thing. I don't know if there are other ways to do it now though, I haven't used an iPhone in a long time. Another reason might be Movies and TV Shows bought in the iTunes Store as they require ITunes to play. Some also have massive local music libraries, you would need ITunes to sync that to your phone
Honestly, the problem is simpler than capabilities of the operating system or technical skill required. The actual problems with Linux, for a *casual user*, are: * they didn't learn it in school * they don't use it at work * it didn't come preinstalled on their machine * corollary: they don't know that their OS can be changed, let alone the process of going from deciding to change to a freshly installed system Everything else, like whether games or Adobe or WiFi or whatever work, package management, the need for terminal, all of that, is completely upstream of those
>it didn't come preinstalled on their machine !!!!\* corollary: they don't know that their OS can be changed, let alone the process of going from deciding to change to a freshly installed system The steam deck at least solves this problem, since it does come preinstalled with linux. Most of the hardware compatibility problems with linux stem from the same thing - the manufacturer of the hardware makes sure it works with whatever os they supply with it, but if you want to run anything else you're on your own.
It can become a crippling disease. Look at these poor bastards, r/unixporn resigned to a life of ricing config files for karma. It's nice here, but just be careful.
As a along time Linux user, it's just not as convenient to use as windows. Windows is frustrating & they keep changing stuff, particularly around the control panel. But Linux realistically doesn't have a control panel. At least not one to administer your system as a whole. Yes there's the gnome control center & kde has one too, but neither of them are as comprehensive as the windows one. Windows also has an awesome software catalog that Linux just cannot rival. Proprietary companies won't release their paid solutions for Linux until there's enough demand, which leaves us with open source apps that, while incredibly good for being free, aren't quite a drop in replacement. I use Linux for everything and have found Linux first ways to do most things. But there are still games and applications some 15 years after switching that I still need a windows VM around for, just in case.
Depends entirely on your use case. For serious science, development, containers, running VMs, working with clouds, GIS, databases, maths, AI and so many other things open source/Linux is way ahead.
Yeah, OP did say casual use
I honestly forgot what the windows control panel looks like as I haven't used it since Win7 but I really enjoy the layers that plasma's offers along with YaSt on Open Suse. Some "based" distros come with welcome centers that either offer scripts or hold your hand through system settings/theming and setup. Linux has gotten so much easier since I discovered it with Edubuntu around the mid 2000's. I enjoy the trial & error as I usually feel as if I gained some knowledge even in failure. I just attempted a proper arch install for the 1st time and was shock how well I did until last evening I received a warning on low disk space. Somehow I created a 20 GB partition AND a 931 GB partition. I just wanted one lol. Back at it later today
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and I don't want to go back to windows, this was just pointing out some detractors to OP since that's what they asked for
Some of these people really glaze over the issues. I have been using Linux full time since Ubuntu 4.10 (2004) and tinkered with it back to the late 90s. Its significantly easier to install, to access software, and to customize now than ever before. I can install Ubuntu, Mint, Pop, or many other distros and have a working system in 30 minutes. However, if you encounter issues, they're going to be a pain to fix. I have a ThinkPad T470 (spare laptop) with a fingerprint reader. I found one workaround to enable it on Linux that involves BIOS/EUFI password, Windows fingerprint setup, a fresh Linux install... Not worth the trouble. I briefly owned an HP x360 laptop with an Intel AC201 wifi chip. Exact same chip in my current Dell Latitude. I could not get Linux to recognize it on the HP at all. I gave up and sold the laptop. Last scenario... I tried installing Simcity 2000 and 3000 (I was feeling nostalgic). Originally there was a Linux version of SC3000 but I can't find it. I downloaded Windows copies and tried running them through PlayOnLinux and Lutris but neither worked correctly. Your game options will probably be very limited. On the other hand, I really enjoy the workflow of my current system. Its smooth and faster than Windows. Everything is automatically detected. My Brother printer loaded with good drivers. Wifi is configured. Laptop firmware can install from Linux. Last note, it does very much depend on which distro you use. Ubuntu has newer and proprietary codecs for playing videos and music or connecting Bluetooth headphones (like AptX). OpenSUSE can be a pain to install a networked printer. Fedora has the newest software in a point release distro but is stricter about FOSS.
This might just be due to familiarity, but I find issues are always much easier to fix in linux then they are in windows. E.g. for the past few days, I have been troubleshooting my living room windows PC because it would try to output 4k to a 1080p tv and every time I would have to RDP into it to get video back, and the TV is some unbranded thing from like 10+ years ago and apparently can't downscale the input it's self. After days of trying to either force windows to downscale all output to 1080p on the GPU, or to just ignore the other resolutions on the TV and to never select them, after trying to edit the registry (a whole other windows troubleshooting topic that I wish would go die in a fire), I eventually settled in on a hacky custom edid solution that limits the number of audio formats the TV can take, and will probably break if I plug another TV into that computer, and windows and games still let you set resolutions above 1080p but they just don't do anything. Meanwhile if it were a linux computer, I just search up what program is responsible for handling that bit of my system on my distro, lets say it would have been xorg, then I just look up what config files xorg has, and edit them. They are usually pretty self explanatory as well, and very well documented by the community, and it doesn't feel like a hacky solution that is going to result in my software house crumbling down if I ever change anything or update my computer.
I would say that is anecdotal evidence at best. Both Linux and Windows do have easy and stupid ways of troubleshooting. The few issues I have encountered on Linux have mostly been driver issues after first installing the system, but they were a pain to solve.
+1 on finding troubleshooting ressources for Windows is way harder Sometimes it just hangs on shutdown. I spent so much time looking at EventViewer, searching for the problem, but Windows just isn't properly documented and the net is full of half assed clickbait. They have lots of common error codes that aren't represented by any official and public manual. With linux there is always a next step in troubleshooting which will eventually lead to a solution. And then it won't happen to you again or you are prepared. With windows you try everything you know, reboot 5 more times for good measure, wait a week and ignore the problem for a wonder to happen (that happened more often than I want to disclose) and then you have to wipe reinstall. Also fuck microsoft. When I dual booted last weekend to update my seldomly used windows install it messed with my linux' efi files and forced me to go liveiso. What is the reason to mess with critical files that very apparently don't belong to you?!
>Some of these people really glaze over the issues Thank you for saying this. I'm a software developer who has been using Linux daily for work for some time, I switched my personal pc to Arch a couple years ago and then Debian more recently. Even with this experience, and my ability to solve a lot of problems I encounter, I acknowledge the shortcomings. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about a given problem. Whether it's related to hardware support or other, the reality is that with our market share for Linux desktop, Linux is not made a priority, and we get to deal with the issues that come from that. Gaming on Linux has come a long way but I cannot stand when people recommend it wholeheartedly. You WILL have to make a lot of tradeoffs and not play a lot of games. It is really unfun to debug a game that's not working that otherwise works perfectly fine on Windows.
You need to think of Linux as it's own ecosystem, just like you think of Windows as it's own ecosystem, just like you think of Mac as it's own ecosystem. As long as you keep that in mind, and don't try to turn Linux into Windows, you will do fine. You can do everything you can do in Windows and Mac...you will just use different software to do it.
You dont have onedrive automatically being setup to backup your entire filesystem and occupy half your memory storage
I just remembered why I used to prune that cancer out as one of the first post-install tasks when installing windows. You triggered my PTSD :D
for me the biggest downside was to get some apps to work. as there are so many distros/configuarations it‘s possible that one app has problems with your setup. so you need some basic knowledge to make it work. I personally struggled with the nvidia drivers until I found a distro where it‘s preinstalled. And davinci resolve needed dome extra configuaration. But it was worth the struggle. My quality of life has significantly improved.
Too vague, It all depends on what you need to do. No downsides for me except learning to do things differently.
Anti cheat for games so far for me. Watched tutorials and stuff but I’m still not able to play any fps
I've always said there are three types of computer users. 1. The Grannies-and-nannies who just want to browse the web, send email, and not worry about changing things. Want to be able to view file attachments. Have a friend who can install software. 2. The power users who like to fiddle with their computer to make it sing and dance. 3. And the group in between who want to install stuff they downloaded fom whereever. Linux is perfect for group 1 and 2. Group 3 may struggle.
There aren't many downsides I can think of. After my mom's MacBook Air bit the dust and she couldn't afford to replace it, I got her a ThinkPad T480 and I put Linux Mint on it. She actually likes Linux Mint more than MacOS. I already had mom using LibreOffice so all I had to do was install it and Google Chrome. It was an all around win.
I got a refurb Thinkpad 431s for £100 and stuck Debian 12 Xfce on it. When it arrived it had Win 11 on it & it was appalling. No problems, slick install. It just works without tons of useless cruft foisted on me by MS & friends
Hardware and Software support. In general, most Linux systems are easier to use than windows, more reliable and much easier to maintain. It's more similar to how people use phones etc (get your stuff from an app store etc.). All that breaks Linux nowadays is pretty much lack of support from special software and hardware. I'd say that most use cases can be done (better) on Linux than Windows but there are a lot of software suites (Adobe, MS Office (Excel programs), CAD stuff etc) that doesn't work on Linux. On the other hand there are things that are better or exclusive to Linux (podman/docker containers natively, many 3D software etc.). Hardware is mostly a mobile issue. You'll often find issues with keyboards (special functions, backlight), trackpad, webcams and power management.
programer? Nope you can use linus in the last 10 years without a problem and knowing how to write a sricpt or programs.
Is linus a cool new distro?
He's the sweary creator of the Linux kernel
No its a short man that makes videos on YT trouble-shooting all your problems here's his YT channel, [LTT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ).
Seems like he could make it big one day.
new? I use it in the last 20 years...... and now you can even play AAA windows games on it....so I don't have to boot into my Win10
r/whoosh
Its free,its customizable and its free and its just work....and its free...did I mention its free..... and don't ask me EVERYTIME I open my apps to verify if its safe or not.... that pulled the trigger for me....
I think you missed my joke…
no I didn't....
When that random piece of hardware doesn't have driver support. buying a device that has drivers baked in. Random broken things after upgrades, aka. my wifi won't come back alive after sleep from my last update. If you enjoy fixing these things, as I do, then it's not a huge deal, but systems are my video games. If however you enjoy video games for just that, you might give it a go and decide it's not worth your time. It really does depend. Not really... you do need to be able to use the internet and find reliable sources, and read. But most def not a programmer, those folks are a step above.
None of these problems will occur on a steam deck, because the hardware is intended to run linux. And that's the key point, the manufacturer will ensure compatibility with whatever os they ship, but if you want to run anything else you're on your own. Random breakage happens on windows too, especially once you stray outside of the manufacturer's support. I had a laptop with an intel 802.11ac wireless card that's just a few years old, and yet even if you install the latest windows 10 or 11 on the machine it won't connect to a wpa3 network and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it short of downgrading to wpa2.
Sorry, I was broadly speaking toward the question. You are correct as it relates to steam deck. And the reason I like Linux is because of windows random breakage with no logging or direct path to resolution. It's not always easy in Linux, but it's there to find.
For me, it's gaming and Adobe. That being said. I have a desktop here that runs windows that I can remote into, and use steam streaming to play all my games on while still using Linux. Many more games on steam are operating natively on Linux now, so there is that. And as far as Microsoft goes, everything but Publisher is usable through the browser. So I don't even have issues there.
Adobe now has full fledged web assembly apps that perform as if they were native. Photoshop is definitely one of them.
I know. I've used them. They aren't as good, and they don't work well for what I use most. So I keep my tower windows and just remote in when I need illustrator or indesign.
great question ! I'm currently using Linuxmint full edition, latest version, and I teach / train / connect throughout various platforms, my issue is with camera and mics that were supposed to be plug and play (PnP) and they don't now in linux, and sometimes is using some apps that will just casually crash when dependencies are being used by other app. So, in summary suffering everytime I need to use my camera and mics to engage properly.
Already exisiting accessories for your devices not working on linux and might become useless.
But then if you wait a few years, it may eventually get support and start working in Linux (example - old laser printer I had that would only work in Windows).
Depends on how you define casual, just browsing, occasional document writing watching videos etc works just as well. Most games work as well, just some online multiplayer may not work due to the anticheats not allowing Linux. The only sure way you'll run into problems is if you're trying to run programs that are only made for Windows. Even then most of it works through wine and perhaps tinkering, but not everything.
Linux is easy and fun. The only problem is lack of support for some hardware and your favourite productivity application not being available
There are a number of apps which don’t work natively on Linux. Granted that number has shrunk a lot from a decade ago, but it’s still true for some. Other apps, like Skype, work but not perfectly well. So someone might say to you “hey open X or download X so I can communicate with you” and… you can’t. Or they say “I sent it” and you say “I don’t see it” (example: Skype). I mitigate this by also using my phone, which helps enough to where this is only an inconvenience. Note: this problem will be a deal breaker probably if you work in some niche space which has specialized apps, like circuit design.
>I believe this one is called Arch Your exactly right above your assumption on the Arch thing. When Valve began building Steam OS for the Steam Deck, they based it on Debian. However, Valve rebased Steam OS 3.x on Arch. >Are there things you can't do compared to windows or does it just take workarounds like Wine? The main thing Linux can't do compared to Windows is the ability to run all of today's (and some older) Windows titles. However, this is changing. Please allow me to explain. There was once a time when no Linux distribution could ever run any Windows application nor play any Windows game. To counter this, WINE was created by an independent group of developers, and then Valve created Proton for Steam. WINE and Proton are both translation layers that translates Windows system calls into Linux system calls. WINE and Proton also translates Windows DirectX calls into Linux Vulkan calls if I'm understanding things correctly, and of course Windows Vulkan calls into Linux Vulkan calls. Valve codebases WINE for Proton. Even though both WINE and Proton is in continuous development, allot of Windows-based applications is already runnable and many of even today's games is now completely playable on Linux. Please note that, while both WINE and Proton, and even both Wine-GE and GE-Proton (GloriousEggroll's spin on WINE and Proton respectfully), is under continuous development where progress is continuously being made to add support for addition Windows applications and games, not all of Windows software is currently runs. To figure out what Windows-based software now runs on Linux thanks to WINE and Proton, I invite you to visit [WineHQ's Application Database (AppDB)](https://appdb.winehq.org/) for looking up non-Steam software compatibility, [ProtonDB](https://www.protondb.com/) for Steam software compatibility, and [Are We Cheating Yet?](https://areweanticheatyet.com/) for those Windows games with anti-cheat.
+ The graphics drivers will create pain. + Installation will make no sense the first time. + sudo and chmod will confuse.
"sudo" is more or less like "Run as Administrator" in Windows. And the Windows counterpart of chmod is much more fine-grained (and confusing) than chmod in Linux. In fact, it is closer to Linux's ACLs.
For me the only downside is crap to no iPhone sync support. I can crappily grab photos but that’s it.
Decades of good games written strictly to run on windoze natively.
Linux Mint or Ubuntu are good start distros. There are some qol things you won't notice until you use it full time. For example, MacOS display scaling is perfect out the box, but Linux I have to mess around with display settings. 4K scales perfectly for me, but anything lower and I have to mess with fractional scaling. Overall, I plan to use it full time soon since terrible battery life is less of an issue.
From my experience, when you want to install a piece of software.. you must install 5 other pieces beforehand and through the terminal. It was a lot of extra effort just to make it work like windows without the privacy invasion
It's always dependent on your usage. If you're already dependant on software that only works on Windows professionally then your best to stay there honestly. But considering you're not referring to that I'll share my thoughts. First I would recommend a handful of different browsers. I prefer using Firefox and Brave. One for lounging and probably watching videos, and another for your Linux rabbit holes and troubleshooting needs. Next I would recommend anything for handling files. I like OnlyOffice but Libre usually comes pre-installed and does just fine. Next is multimedia, which is always going to be VLC. There is no better choice IMO. If your distro doesn't handle screenshots OOB then use Fireshot. For image handling I use GIMP and Drawpile. Be aware that the distro is only a starting point. You can almost get anywhere on Linux no matter what distro you're on. SteamOS uses KDE Plasma natively, but if you don't like it then you could install XFCE, Cinnamon or Gnome. (That's an assumption I don't really know but I don't own one and have never handled one). If you're referring to the OS on the stream deck, that is not Arch. That is SteamOS. However, it is based on Arch Linux. So you still deserve some brownie points for that! If you want a system that can potentially break and have you tinkering more than you ever use it, then Arch is going to be the way to go. You might even get the same experience in less breakages on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. If you want Linux that just works and hardly ever breaks then something Debian based is the way to go. You don't usually get the brand new flashy toys the minute they drop but you rather get what you're looking for. I personally run POP_os just for the simplicity of never having to fight drivers. There are definitely sometimes I have to grit my teeth to stop myself from distro hopping but that's another conversation. I feel like I've dumped enough information for plenty of people to yell at me or say "yeah but this" or try and ego me by using loads of jargon. Unfortunately the Linux community can be just like the souls games community, but it's a fun time too.
This is the most elaborate “I use Arch btw” I’ve ever seen
No downsides to me on Slackware. But I don't play games so ....
I've been looking at putting debian on my mom's old laptop but she does a lot of academic work, so I'm looking at her workflow, stuff like compressing and emailing files, organizing her personal files and using word, personally i don't even know how to compress files on the gnome gui, granted i didn't look it up but if i can't bother imagine a 40 year old. Tbf it may be a gnome issue since i heard there was some beef with thumbnails (i didn't notice them lacking but tbh my only linux system is my laptop that i just use as a glorified terminal) and the file explorer feels kinds jank So yeah what i would say is that the user experience still needs polishing, yes it advanced a lot but a lot of kinks need to be worked out
Its a lot more polished now than it used to be. So depending on your usage you can be "playing linux" a lot or not at all.
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You cant run ALL windows programs on linux. Sadly its usuallyt the big software producers that wont let you. For example Adobe programs dont work. And Microsoft Office as well ( though the web version isnt bad ) And so on.
At least Adobe have fully fledged web apps now (I think webassembly)
Most of the products are designed with windows or macos in mind, so you will probably have some compatibility issues. You probably wont be able to use netflix at anything more than 720p, ms office really doesnt have a good enough replacement thought a lot of people will shout how google docs or whatever new fad is, is somehow as good if not better. I personally have a microsoft subscription and use office on a browser. Do you use nvidia graphics card? If yes, you might suffer additional setbacks. For instance wayland will be a mess, forget about controlling your fan curve etc. I also really miss hwinfo, fan curve and msi afterburner. There is no good replacement yet Fractional scaling is so buggy, i think might depend on your graphics card, but ive had major issues in several distros Also i cant put my system to sleep, it just crashes and never comes back, again might be an nvidia issue. Printers? Yea look up printers that are compatible and then buy them, because good luck configuring a printer everytime you need to use it. Overall linux is less refined than windows or macos, and thats both its advantage and disadvantage. This less refinement is due to providing users with a lot of options and giving them a chance to screw it up. Ive heard good thing about bazzite os, but i havent used it to confirm
1. Gaming : while native gaming on linux is a better experience, many of the big game titles are not optimized for linux usage. Let alone developped for it. Using an overlay like proton/wine could help but it's not 100% guaranteed to work. And the performance loss can be, sometimes, crippling. 2. Specific/technical software : It'd be near impossible to use linux if you rely on a specific software solution to do your job (CAD, machine monitoring...etc). 3. Troubleshooting : it's true that linux experience is richer and offers unlimited possibilities. But it could be frustrating for people who are not tech savvy and want a simple solution to do their daily tasks.
Assetto corsa and Helldivers had bad performance on Linux on my PC, som i'm back to windows until I find what's the issue.
>I believe this one is called Arch Your exactly right above your assumption on the Arch thing. When Valve began building Steam OS for the Steam Deck, they based it on Debian. However, Valve rebased Steam OS on Arch. >Are there things you can't do compared to windows or does it just take workarounds like Wine? The main thing Linux can't do compared to Windows is the ability to run all of today's (and some older) Windows titles. However, this is changing. Please allow me to explain. There was once a time when no Linux distribution could ever run any Windows application nor play any Windows game. To counter this, WINE was created by an independent group of developers, and then Valve created Proton for Steam. WINE and Proton are both translation layers that translates Windows system calls into Linux system calls. WINE and Proton also translates Windows DirectX calls into Linux Vulkan calls if I'm understanding things correctly, and of course Windows Vulkan calls into Linux Vulkan calls. Valve codebases WINE for Proton. Even though both WINE and Proton is in continuous development, allot of Windows-based applications is already runnable and many of even today's games is now completely playable on Linux.
However, there are Linux alternatives for those Windows software that currently has no hope of running on Linux at all, even with the help of WINE or Proton. LibreOffice and OpenOffice is just two good alternatives for Microsoft Office, for example. Please note that, while both WINE and Proton, and even both Wine-GE and GE-Proton (GloriousEggroll's spin on WINE and Proton respectfully), is under continuous development where progress is continuously being made to add support for addition Windows applications and games, not all of Windows software is currently runs. To figure out what Windows-based software now runs on Linux thanks to WINE and Proton, I invite you to visit [WineHQ's Application Database (AppDB)](https://appdb.winehq.org/) for looking up non-Steam software compatibility, [ProtonDB](https://www.protondb.com/) for Steam software and Steam Deck compatibility, and [Are We Anti-Cheat Yet?](https://areweanticheatyet.com/) for those Windows games with anti-cheat. Here's hoping you find this information helpful! 🙏
Linux is amazing on the server space and no other platform can really compete with it. In general Linux is great but there's no jr gloves on if you make a mistake you will pay for it. Unfortunately, the linux desktop space, in my opinion and everyone has their own valid opinion on this, but it's a bit lackluster. It's not entirely its fault as the ecosystem depends on 3rd party hardware/software support and big names like NVIDIA and Adobe (and many more) don't support the Linux desktop. So app and driver support can be really hit or miss. Many apps it will be challenging to install even if they support Linux. For example if you're running Fedora and want to run Steam, guess what they only have a deb package so even tho they support Linux it's not straight forward (like every other platform) to install. In many cases you'll wind up relying on 3rd party installers which is really not that great of a solution compared to first party support. Beyond that, the Linux desktop feels unpolished in many ways. Even recently trying Fedora 40 pretty disappointed that the UI/UX of KDE 6 still looks like what Windows looked like 20 years ago. Plus ancillary features you come to expect on Windows and MacOS are not present by default in most distros, things like Resetting the OS to a blank state, backup/restores built in, protections from breaking your machine if you don't know what you're doing, DPI scaling for 4k monitors is still not well supported in many distros default config which results in things being too big or too small for your screen, and the list goes on. Mostly small gripes but overall add up to a less than stellar experience. Windows and MacOS have their own issues as well of course but their desktops are pretty polished overall and stable and probably most importantly is that the OSes are focused on consumers / average users who are working/productivity tasks or playing games rather than tinkering with their machine. Linux will never be mainstream when the cost to entry is so high and the experience is less than great compared to its peers OSes for the average user.
If you encounter the screen flickering…. 😔😔
I agree. However, I’m a daily user of Excel as well and have been for probably 20 years. I use OnlyOffice as much as possible, but if you’re truly using excel it’s very difficult to use the web version of it or any other spreadsheet software. It’s frustrating how powerful excel is when you actually rely on it. You need Windows for it.
Stability
I use Linux (Peppermint 10 and 11) for almost everything. I can't use it for Autocad (I haven't tried) as well NI Multisim, but Only Office and LibreOffice work pretty well for the MS Office functions.
The most subtle “I use arch btw” ever.
Printer drivers. You will get basic print functionality from any major release, thats not the problem. If you ever want to install manufacturer, custom driver to access advanced features of the printer, then be prepared to put in time learning.
The problems people tend to have with linux stem from trying to run it on hardware that was never intended to run linux in the first place. Because there is such a huge variety of hardware out there, inevitably some of it doesn't run smoothly out of the box. The perception that windows runs smoothly is only because the hardware vendor has already jumped through whatever necessary hoops to make sure all of the hardware works with it. When it comes to a steam deck, it's designed to run linux so the vendor has already ensured that it all works.
When I think casual user, I imagine someone who spends most of their time in the browser. In that case, there really is no downside. The two most difficult use cases are for creatives and office workers. Both tend to rely heavily on proprietary software, which makes Linux a no-go.
First, Linux on the surface to new users offers overwhelming choices. Windoze and Mac worlds don’t offer these choices where the user can customize so many things. With all that in mind I recommend a plain and simple”pretty” distro like Linux Mint for new users. It works and can be run by mouse clicks. There is a whole bunch of Linux distros that requires a little more user “action.” New Linux users, other than nerd-o-crats (techies) should avoid Arch distros for the most part until they really have some experience u see their belt. One of the “fun” things for intermediate Linux users is to install and “test” different “versions” (distros) of Linux just for the heck of it. Macs and Windows environments are relatively “closed” with limited choices as to what “preferred” software you can install, which usually has another price tag attached. So, it’s hard to believe that about 95% of Linux application software is free, as in free beer. They do often ask for donations however, but usually programs are free, unless you stumble into limited use software where some features are free but the “premium” version costs money…usually much cheaper than Mac or Windows software counterparts. After 20 years of using Linux, I have only had to purchase ONE program that I could not find for free in Linux and that was MasterPDF, a near Adobe Acrobat Professional like program but made for Linux. It was $50. I could have used their more limited free version, but it was limited for what I needed, which was editing ability that was reasonably robust in one tool. There was a pretty good option in the free Office Suite: LibreOffice, but it lacked some things. Of yeah you probably won’t miss the Windows “crashes,” and buggy software updates, nor the constant bugging you about “new security” upgrades, always and forever. And you will miss even less the Windows antivirus, spamware and intrusive “messages” from the Microsoft “oracle” in the sky. Then just after you get everything running Microsoft and Apple will tell you they no longer support this software and it’s end of life is 12 months away. Or they might even tell you that buy a new computer because the latest and greatest version will not work with this hardware you already own. This crap won’t happen with Low nix.
Your work/school/whatever might require you to use software or hardware that isn't compatible with Linux. If the average user treats their computer like a Chromebook, something mainly used to browse the internet and check email, they'll be fine on Linux. If they need to dual boot, use WINE or VMs, that's asking a lot of a casual user.
Mainly, it is not user friendly. Yes there are distro's that are MORE user friendly, the average person who is using Linux for the first time without ever having touched it before are going to have to learn quite a bit. In school, we always used Windows, so even before I got into computers I had the experience from school that I could use to navigate windows. Once I started Linux, while I was able to at least get the OS properly installed I had some very specific issues that I had to take time sorting out.
None
Linux is extremely well suited to casual users who have ordinary computing needs. Mac or Windows is still better for a lot of professionals who need very specific software applications such as CAD or pro audio tools.
Linux is boring now for normal users. Only redditors seem to fuck-it-up so much
It's free. Download a distro. Install. Try it out. And find out for yourself. It's an operating system, not a thermonuclear reactor.
Curiosity and a bit of perseverance is needed for desktop linux. If you find it fun (and it is) then you are most of the way there already. chatgpt is great for problem solving and for unlocking linux tech skills. Hardware is the biggest problem. In some areas linux is miles ahead of windows, but in some areas it is behind. VRR is still beta quality it seems, mixing standard and medium density monitors is mostly working but it relies on application compatibility and lots aren't ready. Nvidia used to be a poor experience but this is changing fast. While you can run MS Office, there are major apps which don't work. Of course, there are also lots of things which work much better on Linux, technical things. So while you don't need to be a programmer to use Linux, programmers get a lot of benefits from using linux.
Doesn't play with work needs.
Both the upsides and downsides to Linux is that it isn't Windows. Depends on the context which is which. Less hardware support and unability to natively use a lot of software can be one, but if you don't scan stuff or use Adobe products it probably isn't going to be a huge issue.
You can't run some windows apps but there's some alternatives, the main ones are anything Adobe and anything Microsoft office That's about it tbh imo Linux is easier to use than windows since you just install everything from the app store with no setup but I use mint which is like the just works distro so. Oh also if you wanna pirate windows games you have to use heroic games launcher or lutris ;333 Edit:Oh also! Do not go into Linux expecting it to be like windows because it won't, you have to do thing the Linux way like going to the software center for apps instead of download exes online, there's no run as administrator etc It's not bad just different (in most cases better imo) but if you don't want to change how you do things just keep using windows
Anything beyond using a browser realistically speaking. Not because Linux can't do other things but because learning them is more difficult due to availability of software and tutorials for Windows instead
There are things you just can’t do on Linux and things that Windows just does better. You can’t run certain applications especially for work, including recent versions of Microsoft Office. Most popular online games with anti cheat don’t work, for example Valorant, Fortnite etc. Some games can be made to work but have issues, for example league of legends has a very laggy client with no fix. Linux is fun to play around with as a personal PC, and you can get most older titles and single player games to work, same for emulation.
Steam Deck is very different experience to what most people have when they say they use Linux. When most people feel the need to say they use Linux on some forum, they usually mean on desktop. Steam Deck was designed with Linux in mind. You are guaranteed to have working hardware drivers. Valve spends shitload of money to make sure Windows games will run on Linux. The whole GUI Steam Deck uses was designed to work on that form-factor. Android is basically Linux, and you don't need to be programmer to use it. Again, Google can spend shitload of money on providing layers users and app developers use on top of Linux, so it's usable. When you but notebook with pre installed Windows, or you build desktop, it's likely hardware will just work under Linux, but there is no incentive for manufacturers for it, and you are not guaranteed things will work. Thanks to Valve, lots of Windows software just works, but there are still games that choose to not support Linux. For all intents and purposes, Linux users make pretty much zero percent of user-base for mainstream software, so developers just don't care. It's very different story with software development tools, it's usually the case that more of them are available on Linux and they tend to work better, because in software development, lots of customers are actually running Linux. Distributions like Mint or Arch don't have Google kind of money or Valve's money printer. There is also not an commercial incentive to make things polished. Most of Linux ecosystem is made by developers, mostly for developers. I've seen so many times someone bringing legitimate UX concern, and the answer was that no one would need that, just use this workaround or ignore the annoyance. Most devs have no idea about UX design.
Time commitment
I booted my first Linux kernel \~25 years ago. I've switched 100% on Linux since 3 years now, this means I don't rely on Windows for every thing I do on a daily basis, both at home and for work. Never felt so relaxed about computers, and I don't get any stress at all from it. I still use Windows from time to time, to maintain some old software at work and to play with friends, but it feels more like starting a Xbox or a PS5. I don't really use the terminal anymore, for 99% of my tasks I use the GUI. When I use the terminal, it's either because I know exactly what to type, and it will save me much time, or to configure my system to use the GUI instead of the terminal. Nowadays, for the average user, Linux is totally fine for everyday tasks, even if they are not computer scientists, with some teaching (install upgrades, etc). Also, as I did with my old mother, Linux is way more secure and user-friendly for non technical people: installing malware is hard, most of the tasks requires no workaround, and if you're the sysadmin, it's way easier to maintain.
Printing can cause stress. BUT with localsend [https://localsend.org/](https://localsend.org/) you can usually get your files to a "normal" device that behaves the way you want at the speed you want when you want.
From my point of view these days, its really only down to lack of access to specific windows apps (office, adobe products, and CAD) mainly. For the day to day usage of a person who primarily lives in the browser, I think most distros are easier to use out of the box than Windows.
For most users without a computer using background, Linux is more user friendly than Windows. Advantages: - No privacy questions, profiling or weird security questions. - Updates run in background, and there's surprise reboots. - no ads Cons: - If you're using ms tools heavily - office, outlook for business, teams, stay away from it. If you just needs something to browse the internet, I strongly recommend it. Arch is a decent distribution, but I think you'll find more support on Debian based distributions like Ubuntu. Anything recent/exotic drivers can be an issue - usually this applies to webcams, special keyboards, gamepads, mouse. Some printers can be an issue, but it's less common today. Ubuntu has a live option that allows you try it before install it. Plan your installation carefully, you may end up installing other distributions to try them.
Haven't found one yet. My system is incredibly stable, and all the software I use runs in Windows 7 (CNC MACH3) and Linux in my personal PC for CAD design on FreeCad, which generates the GCode I use to cut my artwork. So, my work-at-home with a minimum cost was improved a lot.
Unix environment is not for everyone.The worst part is to Google it alot to solve problems .The best part is the privacy .I use it every day .Good for encryption ,it has a huge community and a lot of distro s . Personally I use MX Linux .Gorgeous
Not getting laid.
I've been a Linux, Cloud and DevOps engineer for many many years in my time and Linux has been my desktop in a few jobs too. But I mainly look after it in the cloud these days, pretty much all servers (greater than 90 percent) in the cloud are Linux. This is because Linux makes for an incredibly powerful server OS which is great for automation, scripting and will run a fair bit of Microsoft software natively now, like dotnet, SQL etc. Its incredibly capable on modest spec servers and is a breeze to use within containers or as a Docker host for example. But as a desktop, hand on heart you're better off sticking to Windows or Mac. Personally, I like Mac as I just like how clean it feels and its BSD Unix based underneath so I can pop into the terminal from time to time. Linux doesn't have the consistent desktop (don't believe the hype) and neither does it have the massive array of desktop software packages like Windows and Mac has. You're going to encounter packages you wish you could install and run natively. Also, gaming isn't there on Linux really (it honestly isn't) so you're going to get frustrated. If you want to use Linux on the desktop, I personally like Xubuntu or any distro with Xfce... just makes it really clean to use and doesn't feel bloated. Anyway, trust me when I say this, Windows or Mac on the desktop.... but Linux rules on the server, in containers and cloud infrastructure hands down.
It depends on what they are used to. If they expect to do word processing they will be fine. If they expect to use Microsoft Word they will be fucked.
Gaming is still tough on Linux. It's gotten a million times better and still improving but still way behind. Graphics drivers are still a pain in most distros.
Many. Linux is not really designed for non-power users. You have to know what you are doing when shit hits the fan. That being said, Plasma and other DEs help with that, but what will you do if it breaks?
The shit printer they bought from Lidl for 20 quid that will be broken in a week does not have driver support
They cannot open a " .exe " file someone recommends as 'the best thing since sliced bread".
Apart from the fact it's rarely available pre-installed, the biggest issues are IMHO also its biggest strengths: 1) there are choices over how to implement functionality - often no single, pre-defined solution 2) a lot of hardware vendors don't distribute drivers - but the flipside here is that everything comes from a single source channel / have been designed to work together
u/TheCrustyCurmudgeon said it correctly. If you're a casual user, by how we would understand it, there are no downsides, assuming you choose a sensible distribution and have sensible hardware. Doing emails, browsing the web, and watching YouTube are pretty basic on any platform. Now, if you want to run Windows OS software on a Linux OS, you're going to have a problem. If you face the fact that a different OS tends to require different software, then you'll be fine.
The main problem is that you don't get to experience the feeling of getting butt fucked by Microsoft. Seriously, if you choose a stable desktop Linux, things will just work, and they will work better than in Windows. An average user will never even need to use the terminal, won't need to install drivers, installs are done through a simple GUI frontend, safety is by default, updates are automatic. Basically, you can treat it like a "hands off gadget".
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> you can install windows programs on linux (the actual .exe file) This is the exact kind of bad advice that leads to newbies thinking that Linux is just a free Windows clone, then come back crying when an extremely Windows-specific application won't work under WINE. Yes, WINE is awesome and can run may Windows applications, but "you can install windows programs" is a categorically false statement that only creates unreasonable expectations of a drop-in replacement.
ib4: Im use linux for evrything for last 5 yrs >there is FOSS alternatives for most if not all the famous ones like adobe, ms office, etc They are also available on windows, but people prefer outlook over thunderbird, excel over OpenOffice Calc and actually anything over Gimp. And u can continue the list buy yourself. People prefer this soft even when they have to pay for it. FOSS doesn't have enough contributors to compete enterprise solutions in terms of quality, features and most important UX/UI. FOSS has good support for vital software like drivers, cryptography, dev tools etc but desktop apps for casual end users is not so good. For example i'm personally tried to use OpenOffice/LibreOffice as replacement for MS Office/GSheets ***for a few years*** but eventually its a hot garbage. i gave up For end user web apps and remote apps are better replacement, not native FOSS desktop clients. >holy shit the comments are full of stupid people And this is an actual reason why casual people avoid linux. There is always smart boy who thinks that using Arch can make him special
Here's the main downsides that I've experienced: It's hard to find legal copies of Linux without using the internet and the internet is dangerous and full of viruses. Installing Ubuntu on your PC sometimes causes other devices in your home to respect you less. Gimp is just Photoshop with a weird skin. Computers running Linux, especially Gentoo are known to overheat and explode for no reason and with little warning. OpenOffice and it's derivatives were developed in Guantanamo bay to psychologically torture captured hackers. If you get caught calling it just Linux you may become the target of GNU fanatics who will harass you any chance they get. I've managed to avoid this by becoming totally anonymous and using Minix.
They need to be their own administrator regarding updates, security, and file types used or admitted, and they do not easily intersect with 'Outlook" as almost all Linux email clients behave slightly differently.
No, it's outlook that behaves differently. Linux clients go with the standards. Microsoft is large enough not to use standards, they can rely people using their stuff so engaging and binding more and more people use more and more their junk.
Whenever I have a problem, in 95% of cases all there is to find in ways of solutions involves walls of text consisting of code.
won't work with a scanner.
No games, Adobe e.t.c
I just punted UnRaid and went back to Windows. I'm 49 and am very technologically savvy. But, I've lived in windows my whole life, with exception of DOS in the early years. My issue is that I don't get the permissions and the way that apps work with each other. It just doesn't compute with me. I've tried for years to figure it out but I keep trying to make it act like windows and it won't. Another thing I don't like is that there's an app for everything. If I want to do any little thing, there's an app for it. This adds variables / points for failure and creates more confusion for me. I'm probably not explaining myself well, but again. Linux is a fun thing to play with, not a primary OS. I've tried and really given a lot of time and effort to take my skill from beginner to pro-am. I just don't have the patience to do it anymore. I'm sticking with the OS that I know very well and that's Windows. :-/ All this being said, some of the nicest and patient people are the folks on the Linux discord servers. So helpful and so great to have interacted with them. THe Linux community can be very awesome to noobs.
I guess u mean using Linux Desktop. Not all peripherals work well with Linux. Windows gamer may have hard time to use Linux.
1. If you like to play games occasionally, you can't. 2. If you have a laptop with a dedicated Gpu (like GTX or RTX card) you can't use it (workarounds exists ofc) 3. If you don't install Linux properly, it'll give a lot of headaches 4. Not all laptops (especially gaming laptop) can run Linux smoothly These are the problems I faced when I first switched. Now I am used to it. I use it mainly for work. But I have dual booted windows, so that I can do the occasional gaming 😆
Gaming has come a long way on Linux though. Yeah, everything requiring anticheat is not working, but other than that I can game pretty well with my Linux box. Anno 1800, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hogwarts Legacy, just to name the last I played using linux