To give the author credit, ignoring the other flaws with windows, most things “just worked” and generally either didn’t have an issue or if it did, fixed it’s own issues. I didn’t really have to resolve any issues or anything. Heck it even fixed itself if it failed to update, rolling back the changes and alerting the user next boot (which I usually just ignored and let fix itself which it generally did after a few days/tries! lol)
My current rig had Windows as the primary OS from 2016 to about 2024, during that time I don’t recall any times I had to actually look up any issues unless I personally created the problem. I think the most extensive issue I had was my 5700xt crashing under high load but that wasn’t something I could fix anyway as it was a driver issue, or when i made the entire system unbootable cause I messed up making a recovery partition
When I swapped back to Linux (Linux Mint at first, then Linux Mint DE, then Debian 12, now Debian 13), I had multiple hurdles from my headset not functioning, to my video card not being supported, no login screen(this surprised me as I had thought Debian was supposed to be stable), etc, these issues didn’t fix themselves, I had to fix them. Granted some were easier to fix (like the no login screen was a super simple edit to a config file), but it wasn’t something I had to deal with on windows.
Linux isn’t going to hold your hand like Windows does with issues. So yea you need to resolve your own issues, Linux isn’t going to do it for you, the most it will do is post a command in the log saying “issue X expected, run this command to fix”
Running windows is like playing with an action figure. You take it out of the box and it does what it’s supposed to. Linux I consider more like a Lego set. Sure you have to put some stuff together before you really play with it, but it’s YOUR creation by the time your done with it and you can modify to suit your use case. If you have no interest in tinkering with ur OS windows or Mac is just a better option, if you want to tailor your experience how you’d like Linux is the way. I run W11 on my gaming PC because I don’t have time to mess with it and experiment anymore. I have played with so many Linux distros but never had one work flawless out of the gate, and always reserved it for my secondary fuck around rigs because if I wanted to fuck around I could but I do want something that i can press the power button and evrything works fine without use of my brain after working a 13 hour day where i might get lucky to play for 40 mins lol. My fuck around time these days is totally sapped by project vehicles and house issues the last think I wanna do is play around in terminal when I have 10k other more important things to do :c
Fully agree. When I mention switching to Linux on the rare occasion it comes up I make sure to mention that you can do basically anything on the platform, but with that customization comes drawbacks. If you are afraid to research an issue then I would not recommend full stop. I also mention not to be afraid of needing to use the terminal if needed. Don’t expect a 1:1 it’ll do most things you can do on Windows, but there will be some things you just can’t
Running windows is like playing with an action figure. You take it out of the box and it does what it’s supposed to. Linux I consider more like a Lego set. Sure you have to put some stuff together before you really play with it, but it’s YOUR creation by the time your done with it and you can modify to suit your use case
I really love this analogy, and plan to steal it for future use.
I’m not sure I entirely agree anymore. I’ve installed Mint OS on both my mother’s and my grandmother’s computers and neither of them have complained a single time about it to me. Setting up a printer was even easier, I tried helping an acquaintance with W11 set up a printer and it was hell, with Mint it just figured out everything relevant on its own, I just had to confirm that it was correct.
No kidding! W11 and w10 always worked with all of my printers (Canon) out of the box, once the printer was connected to WiFi they always just picked them up and worked! Last time I tried to get a cheap wifi card (Linksys) to work on Ubuntu however, not so lucky lol.
I sometimes forget others dont have these massive time sucks and can afford to troubleshoot for hours. I cant! Even though its kind of fun, I have shit to do.
No kidding! I never feel like I have enough time, always feel like I’m behind on all my projects and spreading myself thin. When I had less money and less projects and didn’t own a house I played so much more video games and messed around Linux installing new distro every couple weeks on my old rigs or laptops that had fallen into my lap. Now my times all tied up with all the messes I have gotten myself into, speaking of which I should probably be putting the new exhaust fan in my bathroom that’s been sitting new in the box for 6 months or something instead of fucking off in the fediverse :'(
To give the author credit, ignoring the other flaws with windows, most things “just worked” and generally either didn’t have an issue or if it did, fixed it’s own issues. I didn’t really have to resolve any issues or anything. Heck it even fixed itself if it failed to update, rolling back the changes and alerting the user next boot (which I usually just ignored and let fix itself which it generally did after a few days/tries! lol)
My current rig had Windows as the primary OS from 2016 to about 2024, during that time I don’t recall any times I had to actually look up any issues unless I personally created the problem. I think the most extensive issue I had was my 5700xt crashing under high load but that wasn’t something I could fix anyway as it was a driver issue, or when i made the entire system unbootable cause I messed up making a recovery partition
When I swapped back to Linux (Linux Mint at first, then Linux Mint DE, then Debian 12, now Debian 13), I had multiple hurdles from my headset not functioning, to my video card not being supported, no login screen(this surprised me as I had thought Debian was supposed to be stable), etc, these issues didn’t fix themselves, I had to fix them. Granted some were easier to fix (like the no login screen was a super simple edit to a config file), but it wasn’t something I had to deal with on windows.
Linux isn’t going to hold your hand like Windows does with issues. So yea you need to resolve your own issues, Linux isn’t going to do it for you, the most it will do is post a command in the log saying “issue X expected, run this command to fix”
Running windows is like playing with an action figure. You take it out of the box and it does what it’s supposed to. Linux I consider more like a Lego set. Sure you have to put some stuff together before you really play with it, but it’s YOUR creation by the time your done with it and you can modify to suit your use case. If you have no interest in tinkering with ur OS windows or Mac is just a better option, if you want to tailor your experience how you’d like Linux is the way. I run W11 on my gaming PC because I don’t have time to mess with it and experiment anymore. I have played with so many Linux distros but never had one work flawless out of the gate, and always reserved it for my secondary fuck around rigs because if I wanted to fuck around I could but I do want something that i can press the power button and evrything works fine without use of my brain after working a 13 hour day where i might get lucky to play for 40 mins lol. My fuck around time these days is totally sapped by project vehicles and house issues the last think I wanna do is play around in terminal when I have 10k other more important things to do :c
Fully agree. When I mention switching to Linux on the rare occasion it comes up I make sure to mention that you can do basically anything on the platform, but with that customization comes drawbacks. If you are afraid to research an issue then I would not recommend full stop. I also mention not to be afraid of needing to use the terminal if needed. Don’t expect a 1:1 it’ll do most things you can do on Windows, but there will be some things you just can’t
I really love this analogy, and plan to steal it for future use.
I’m not sure I entirely agree anymore. I’ve installed Mint OS on both my mother’s and my grandmother’s computers and neither of them have complained a single time about it to me. Setting up a printer was even easier, I tried helping an acquaintance with W11 set up a printer and it was hell, with Mint it just figured out everything relevant on its own, I just had to confirm that it was correct.
No kidding! W11 and w10 always worked with all of my printers (Canon) out of the box, once the printer was connected to WiFi they always just picked them up and worked! Last time I tried to get a cheap wifi card (Linksys) to work on Ubuntu however, not so lucky lol.
Fellow project car and house enthusiast here!!
I sometimes forget others dont have these massive time sucks and can afford to troubleshoot for hours. I cant! Even though its kind of fun, I have shit to do.
No kidding! I never feel like I have enough time, always feel like I’m behind on all my projects and spreading myself thin. When I had less money and less projects and didn’t own a house I played so much more video games and messed around Linux installing new distro every couple weeks on my old rigs or laptops that had fallen into my lap. Now my times all tied up with all the messes I have gotten myself into, speaking of which I should probably be putting the new exhaust fan in my bathroom that’s been sitting new in the box for 6 months or something instead of fucking off in the fediverse :'(
Ame here on every front. You’re literally me or im you! Haha. Hello friend