Hard Truths About Linux

[@TheLinuxCast]

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[@goldilockszone4389]

You have sublime command over your language. The kind of words you use (for eg today you used the word _ornery_ ) is amazing. I have only heard a few use this level of _english_ like Elon Musk, Charlie Munger, Siddhartha Mukherjee and Bill Gates. Perhaps, you are bettered by David Foster Wallace and Benjamin Franklin :)

[@hydroboy17]

"If you dont value your time, use Linux" *proceeds to scroll tik tok for hours in bed*

[@GeistInTheMachine]

True.

[@linuxrant]

Wow, that is spot on.👌

[@araaraavery]

The actual quote is, “Linux is free if you don’t value your time”. It’s not use it if you don’t value your time

[@Anon.G]

​@@araaraaverydepends how much you do

[@tarmaque]

Hard truth #1 about Linux: When you start talking about Linux to any non-Linux computer user it will come through in their ears as just so much Klingon. I've been experimenting with Linux off and on now for nearly 25 years, and the reaction I get from most people when I bring it up is a blank stare. The only real exception to that is my friend who is an IT professional and maintains databases. He comes and goes from the Linux ecosystem, but usually goes back to Windows because that's what he uses at work. However he did run Ubuntu at home for a few years a decade ago and more recently asked me which distribution would breathe new life into his mother-in-law's laptop.

[@davidturcotte831]

And the answer is virtually any if set up correctly. But there are degrees of correctness. Least correct but still correct? Big Linux. Mostly correct? A light Arch variant like Archcraft. Almost perfectly correct? NixOS. Perfectly correct? Gentoo.

[@dstinnettmusic]

@@davidturcotte831 Can you honestly imagine some random middle aged woman who has only ever used Windows or Mac OS trying to use gentoo? This is an issue for Linux. The “community” just has no scope for how most people use a computer.

[@tarmaque]

@@davidturcotte831 I recommended Ubuntu Mate, and that's what he went with. There was no way he was going to step out of the Debian ecosystem since that's what he was familiar with. And she's actually over 80 years old so I wanted something as Windows-like as possible yet still lightweight. (I actually recommended either Mint or Mate and he tried both before setting her loose with one. That was about 6 months ago and she's doing fine.)

[@glebglub]

@@tarmaque being an IT professional who works with Windows I'm surprised he didn't just hook her up with a copy of W10 LTSC with all the garbage stripped out. doing that + re-pasting the cpu&gpu with arctic MX-4 + an SSD + Waterfox made my laptop from 2009 faster than my dad's 8th gen laptop, even if the SSD is only on Sata2 (good ol' random/write speeds). or did mans already try this and was looking for even MORE performance?

[@davidturcotte831]

@@dstinnettmusic I was half-joking, sir. Gentoo would be the best for breathing new life into the hardware due to the fact that it can be configured for very low RAM use with optimizations to use the processor to the best of its capabilities. It's not perfect for the user, though. For that, I would probably go with some sort of Lubuntu or a Mint Cinnamon. When I set my mother up with Linux in 2009, it was Linux Mint with Gnome 2. She loved it and used it without any major issue until the computer died due to being kept in a high-soot environment.

[@rhwinner]

The gentoo community btw is much friendlier and accessible to the newbie than most.

[@MyAmazingUsername]

I believe it. Gentoo is the hippie crowd. :)

[@gksudolol]

From experience on Gentoo the past year and a half, I've seen that the community is more 'willing' to help the less tech-savy, or those coming over from distributions such as Ubuntu and Arch

[@MyAmazingUsername]

​@@gksudolol They need all the users they can get. There's like 30 of them in total. They also tend to be greybeards which is the more mature crowd.

[@joshua_lee732]

​@@MyAmazingUsername there's more than 30

[@wyfyj]

Very very true

[@Skelterbane69]

I disagree bout the driver part. On windows, I remember having to manually update my nvidia card through their experience program. On linux, I had to install the nvidia driver once, then I switched to amd and haven't even thought about drivers until now.

[@ascrassin]

I run a dual boot and nowadays, all driver update are done in the system updater. Nvidia experience is just if you want the functionality in it (even if it does offer an interface for driver update.

[@nanohatakamachi1066]

I second that. I had some problems when Wine was conflicting with Nvidia drivers once, but that was the only big deal with drivers I ever had right in the beginning of my journey 8 years ago. It took some months until realizing that, because the nouveau driver wasn't that bad for me (was using a GT 440 until 2019~). After upgrading to AMD parts I got zero problems. Up until now.

[@gandir5720]

I totally agree.

[@agaskew]

Agree - as an AMD user I've never even considered installing any GPU drivers

[@chipgw]

I dual-boot & have Nvidia; I haven't had to do much of anything with the graphics drivers on Linux for years, but on Windows I've had to fix BSOD related issues that have cropped up once or twice by booting into safe mode, uninstalling the current drivers with DDU, and reinstalling the drivers. So while I'm sure there are people who have the driver experience described in the video, my case has been quite the opposite.

[@denizkendirci]

optimus laptops are generally the thing that trying my patience on linux. having more than one gpu somehow turns into a disadvantage from an advantage when it's on linux.

[@michiii555]

lmaoo so true, im strill trying just to install nouveau and then prime, it's so difficult 🥲

[@rhwinner]

One of my fave things about Linux is you can get under the hood and get your hands dirty, if you are so inclined, and to the extent that you know what you are doing. This makes it easy to fix things and to modify things according to your taste, right down to the kernel if you so desire.

[@wyfyj]

Which is what I learned when installing and running a Gentoo system

[@walter_lesaulnier]

I'm a compulsive tinkerer and love Linux- especially KDE Plasma. When I use my other PC with Windows it drives me crazy that it is so unconfigurable.

[@LillyAnarkitty]

Realistically you are required to get your hands dirty whether you want to or not. Between Linux's own shortcomings as a desktop operating system, and the lack of driver and software support from the mainstream, things just consistently break down and you are going to have to spend many hours researching and troubleshooting that you would not have to on windows.

[@rhwinner]

@@LillyAnarkitty Depending on your hw, that sometimes happens. Not my experience, as I choose my hw carefully.

[@richmahogany1]

Also your hands will get dirty when scolding hot oil starts spewing out through the fucking air vents.

[@alexisbatyk6301]

I enjoy a lot your content. And you're the reason why im good at vim now!

[@Wonderingax]

Saying that Linux is a timesink is like saying that learning a new language, going to highschool or hanging out with friends are a timesink, EVERYTHING is a "timesink" , everything needs time to be done.

[@chrisfaron]

Just followed you, I'm a on and off Linux user and I think you covered the points in a pretty unbiased way, keep up the great work

[@m4rt_]

ixve actually spend longer setting up/fixing video drivers on wondows compared to on linux. The amd driver is built into the kernel...

[@browaruspierogus2182]

Yes the reason I was and still am a little reluctant to dive into Linux is majority of devs or geeks in community are very rude and unhelpful. They want to keep all things secret and tied up between their tight groups. If this doesn't change Linux will not progress better

[@tambuchalinux]

There is a new helper that will assist you in learning Linux and will never put you down, no matter how dumb your question may be. It's called chatGPT.

[@browaruspierogus2182]

@@tambuchalinux you kinda sound like one of them

[@zeckma]

Recently I was trying to get Steam to work on Linux From Scratch and needed help. The Steam, Arch, and Reddit guys absolutely sucked and made me regret asking things or even posting guides for my solution. However, the LFS mailing list was really helpful and chill, so I really only trust those guys, and the Gentoo Greybeards!

[@alphaclusters4537]

Yep. Most of them are pretty much modern barbarians who look down to nearly everyone using different OS, especially Windows. Literally treats those users like criminals and targets for racism and rudeness, e.g if you are using Windows you don't have the right to complain and you should be humiliated and robbed. Talking sense even with your best efforts to them is nearly impossible. They mostly don't respect the differences and people's needs.

[@markwiering]

I cannot speak on behalf of all Linux forums, but from my experience, I can tell that the forums of Puppy Linux and MX Linux are very friendly. You get instant responses of people who try to help you, explain in detail how something is done, send code snippets in case you need to use the terminal, give advices etcetera. They approach you as friends; not as vermin.

[@phonewithoutquestion80]

The best I've used the "time sink" for was attempting to install Linux From Scratch via a crusty Ubuntu 20.04 live iso... And then failing miserably because I can't into virtual disks. I have the sense of humor to consider that a good memory. I need to try it again. Anyways good watch!

[@tarmaque]

You have no idea. Back in the day I managed to install Debian on a first generation iMac before OS X was released. 1999 if I remember correctly. It installed and worked, and I was using Blackbox for a window manager. Unfortunately the dearth of applications at the time made it less than useful to me, so as soon as OS X was released I simply installed that. Pretty sure I never connected it to the internet with Linux. That was back in the AOL days, and Linux wasn't supported. But that was after I had spent the better part of a year trying to get Linux installed on a 68k Mac with mixed success. I remember ordering the CDs (six or seven of them) and having a helluva time. I could get it installed, but couldn't get anything graphical to work, and my knowledge back them of the command line was lacking at best.

[@zeckma]

The LFS guide recommendeds a few distros to install LFS, but none of them had the software I needed X3 I used Garuda which worked okay! grub-install tho throws a fit on it because of airootfs, so I used gentoo for that step. Only do LFS if you want, it's never a requirement!

[@ArniesTech]

Nice and honest overview, Matt 💪🙏

[@7rich79]

Perhaps not a hard truth, but something I've experienced: whichever distribution you choose, when you Google for information on how to do something the best search result is for a different distribution. :D

[@itsfish8672]

1 hard truth is watching Matt stumable around using Nano,its painful LOL.

[@RandomGeometryDashStuff]

02:39 no need to find installers in internet or cd/dvd that came with card?

[@drzmuhammed]

One of many things what linux taught me is how to be on your own ,learn yourself , try fail try again , and i thank god for showing me this rabbit hole , i regret times i used windows, things moves faster and efficiently in linux , be it development or be it work

[@tarmaque]

Hard truth #2: Terminal commanders will tell you that you have to be comfortable in the command line to get anything done, but this is nonsense. You can do almost anything on a modern Linux install and never open the terminal at all. The terminal is very powerful of course, but it also involves a lot of memorization and esoteric commands, not to mention excellent typing abilities. I rarely open a terminal these days. It's simply not necessary for those who aren't ubergeeks. Particularly if you're a dyslexic like me and can't remember a command to save your life. (Where is that T-shirt you can buy with all the Unix commands printed on it upside down?)

[@somegeezer4058]

Most of the people I tell assume I'm some kind of hard core coder. Who am I to tell them they're wrong?

[@Skelterbane69]

To me, using the terminal is kinda like using a "harder" distro. It's harder to learn, but once you do, it's way more efficient and customizable etc. It's all about choice.

[@gepron1x]

Well, not using terminal just limits you, really. There is a lot of things which does only have a CLI. You know, ffmpeg would be just better than some wacky audoconverter you downloaded from Ubuntu repository which has much less possibilites and indeed uses ffmpeg under the hood.

[@odisdracul]

Honestly, as far as the terminal goes, there are essentially 10-15 commands that handle the heavy lifting that normal users would need. If you can remember those and get in the habit of being able to look up what you would need, (one of the handy commands is apropos), you can navigate a terminal well enough to not feel overburdened.

[@Revenant483]

I agree 100%. There are two types of Linux user just like there are two kinds of windows user. Personally I started on MSDOS then Windows 3.1 in the IT / telephony industry. I have progressed through all the versions up to Windows 10. All that being said I decided to stop the insanity of giving Microsoft all my personal data. I built my modern Home PC with AMD hardware / AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and MSI RX 6800 XT I use POP_OS with KDE on top and have rarely had to open the terminal, except to install a few FOSS apps that were on github and a few times to get to the root to add some icons and graphics. I have never had any incompatibilities or errors running any AAA game through Steam with Proton or software from Blender and Graphics Editing using wine to run some Windows based graphic editors I like.

[@sbrazenor2]

Tribalism is a problem. You mention Ubuntu and immediately talk shit about its users. Ubuntu may not be the best, but it's a good starting point.

[@ColonDee.]

That was completely unnecessary (and I'm not rly a fan of Ubuntu myself but there's no need to bash it for free). Just like the comments at 8:42. Like, this guy is fighting ghosts. The Reddit comment wasn't even talking about GNU at all, but about how Linux being just a Kernel has the consequence of not being a single consistent immutable thing that people think of when it comes to an OS (like Windows). Is it a relevant comment to the thread? Idk. But the way he immediately jumps into complaining about GNU people makes me think how both sides are paranoid and proves the point of the community having bad eggs

[@walter_lesaulnier]

My hardest Linux truth is pulling my hair out over permissions. Just trying to get QEMU on 2 different instances of Fedora to use a shared storage drive is exasperating.

[@KyzerSusie]

With each new edition of Windows that rolled out I had new/more/different issues. After 'distro hopping' since the late 90's, I landed on Linux Mint, and now run that on three separate systems. My main desktop has an Nvidia card, and I've never had an issue with it on Mint. I can run the 20+ Steam games with no problem, and in a couple cases they run smoother than they did on Windows. Mint automatically found and installed my wifi printer without any hiccups, and I've been using Mint to do everything I used to do in Windows. I live in Canada, my wife lives in the USA. She recently got a refurbished desktop from amazon that came with Windows 10 already installed. She's not the most computer literate, so I've been remotely connecting to try and tweak things the way she wants. It's reminded me of why I no longer run Windows, and will never do so again. If you want control of your computer use Linux, if you don't mind your computer being controlled by a corporation, use Windows.

[@bassernx]

Linux tends to have alot of success with non-FOS software. A recent example of this would be the steamdeck.

[@verumignis4778]

Sadly yes, its the large corporations that can afford marketing their closed source version of linux. That being said I would rather that then some windows crap.

[@heroe1486]

​​@@verumignis4778 Closed source versions of Linux don''t exist, that's what the GPL prevent

[@verumignis4778]

@@heroe1486 We are talking about distros, but if you insist, from now on let's call them "distrobutions of GNU/Linux with proprietary components"

[@Barzi2001]

I was on the market for a new laptop and I wanted to take the Linux route. At the end, thanks to Linux community, I bought a macbook and never looked back.

[@krozareq]

I rarely run into a-holes but mostly my interaction is limited to Git repo issue boards and AUR comments. 8:19 "I'm not into the electrical engineering on how computers work" Not a GNU/Linux thing but I recommend watching some videos on Ben Eater's channel. He made his own 6502 processor on breadboards and shows how things work at the EE level. Really good if you like to play around with assembly because his LEDs show you what's in each register, flags register, program counter, etc. ASM x86_64 syscalls to the Linux kernel is very easy. Although his channel is not Linux related as the 6502 is 8-bit and Linux has never been 8-bit. But that's more for people that played around with Commodore systems, etc. back in the day. Linux is incredibly easy compared to older OSes and PCs. How many Linux users need to know what an IRQ is? Learning the FHS and where things belong in your distro's filesystem is the most important thing. Then build and create packages for your distro. Automate these tasks with some shell scripts. Then you pretty much have Linux down. Another benefit of Linux is that the kernel natively runs on ARM processors and relatively easy to build on ARM platforms and has many ARM distros. This is important because the x86 architecture is hitting a wall and CPU designers are having to fab all kinds of wild and crazy designs in the silicon to keep pushing out more performance. x86 nodes are also very expensive. PC really needs to go to ARM or similar architecture. Cheaper to produce, lower temps, and a lot more performance. In essence, you're ready for the future. IMO Windows will hold ARM adoption back because of legacy software.

[@neandertalac]

I found out that there's a lot less clicking around in Linux. So, it's faster in the same work task. And when installing systems, Linux install is up to half an hour, try to install Windows, and you lost a day.

[@szponiasty]

I love Linux community. I remember years ago, sharing my solution to Pulse Audio, like in 2014, for full support of ASUS Xonar PCI-e audio. Now it's 2023 and I use the same card 3 PC-s later, and it works out of the box, without bugs i wrote workarounds back then xD What's your favourite distro?

[@DrWrapperband]

Just wondering in my KDE plasma system is "officially" KDE/Linux?

[@SpreadiesInSpace]

No, KDE is the desktop manager, the thing that gives you the look and feel along with a set of coherent tools and applications. What you run under that can be anything (like Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, etc.)

[@unicorn_tamer]

Alright, I am gonna disagree with the drivers thing. On windows I always had to go around and search on a random 2008 website and download a driver for windows xp just because windows decided not to work. On Linux, other than messing around a bit for my graphics card (just doing some optimizations for myself), I *never* had the need to install a driver or something.

[@rameynoodles152]

I agree. And this is still a major problem even on Windows 10. I had to go to my motherboard manufacturers site, lookup my motherboard, download several drivers of differing versions for differing versions of Windows 10... and my audio stopped working... on Windows AND Linux. Then I had to repeat these steps, but download a slightly older driver.... and it still didn't work. So I looked up a generic driver... which didn't work. So I downloaded and installed the driver for WINDOWS 8 instead, AND THAT WORKED.. On Linux, I don't need to do anything, except for installing Nvidia drivers from the AUR, which is dead simple.

[@Pharisee312]

Ubuntu makes installing proprietary nvidia drivers easy with the additional drivers app

[@supergrafxengine4620]

Yeah, like always. Unless you own a Radeon and shit start to hit the fan.

[@Pharisee312]

@@supergrafxengine4620 I am using Nobara and it provides an easy AMD GPU Pro driver installation

[@BinarySmurf]

@@Pharisee312 Indeed - I've been using Nobara as my daily driver for 3 weeks and it installed the 525 nVidia drivers as part of the Post install. 🤷🏾‍♂ Absoluely no issues whatsoever,.

[@ok-Luis]

Wait... the second point, the drivers one, I dont know why people insist on this being an issue... I tell you from my experience: - AMD Graphics card: Easier on linux, on Windows you have to manually download drivers and so on. - Wacom drawing tablet: Easier on linux, on Windows is actually a pain. - HP Printer: Same, on linux just plug and play, on windows, have to download driver and a create a f*kng HP account and log-in. - XBOX and PlayStation controllers: Same, plug and play on linux, good luck tryng to us the PS controller on windows. - MIDI controllers: Some of them plug and play on linux as well. I use the Numark mixtrack pro 3 and works like a charm with Mixxx, no drivers needed. I think we'll reach year 2080 and people will sill complain about drivers on Linux just out by habit... I think the only real issue would be with nvidia graphics card but really is no time consuming to download and install the official drivers provided by the company.

[@BinarySmurf]

"As sad as it makes me to say, people still use Ubuntu' - Why is this such a prevailing attitude? Ubuntu was my gateway into Linux. I think it's an excellent beginner distro with a massive community, and more importantly any issue I had to Google - the first solution was ALWAYS Ubuntu based. Recommending Ubuntu as a first distro is a no-brainer.

[@markwiering]

I have had bad experiences with Ubuntu. In the settings menu, I set an alternative keyboard layout, saved it and then went to use it. It did not work. I went back and all my changes were reverted to the defaults. I changed them again and... nothing worked. I went back - and none of my changes stuck. This went on for a while. Also... my gateway to Linux was Puppy Linux! 😀 Man, I LOVE that operating system! 😀😀😀 The latest builds of Puppy Linux are cluttered and buggy, but in the past, Puppy Linux used to be really good! 😀

[@sep69]

Can't say I agree with you on the driver part. I remember searching the internet for obscure windows drivers and manually having to install them where on Linux stuff either works right out of the box or I 'apt install' some nvidia package and it then works. All out of the repo of my particular OS so well tested and maintained by my distro.

[@TheLinuxCast]

Was that recently?

[@angelazuniga-jones9539]

Pop os has worked like that for me since I installed it over a year ago on my surface book 2. Everything I need is apt install 😂 The only issue I had was trying to figure out how to get the surface kernel to work in order to do the tablet mode but that’s a very specific problem that most users shouldn’t have. Reddit was actually pretty helpful for me during that bit so I’ve been lucky. The last time I used windows there was certain device drivers I had to go hunt for that was a pain. I only switched to Linux because of my steam deck so I’m not really knowledgeable yet

[@Apollolabsphoto]

'your device can live longer with linux' until you find the driver you need for internet is removed from the kernal in an update. rare, but oh so much fun when it happens and you have no other PC access and 1gb phone data remaining.

[@StrikerEureka85]

i'm currently using Nobara Linux. I used EndeavourOS before. I will say that something I fondly remember is that the EOS community was always very friendly, welcoming, and always willing to help.

[@davguev]

You make it sound like Nobara's community isn't 😅

[@KilianGosewisch]

A few years ago your graphics driver argument would have been true. But there were so many fuckups on nvidias and microsofts side that it's not generally true anymore. Now as I'm writing this i remember upgrading my Windows 7 to Windows 8. I only got a black screen after the update was complete. I tried everything and then i formatted and reinstalled. Later a friend of mine got the same problem and by accident i moved his mouse just to see that the primary screen was "bonked" and only displaying black, the second screen also just displays black but thats default behaviour on the windows lock screen. So the whole time i just needed to "blindly" log in, mirror the screens and then update the driver....

[@johanb.7869]

Some guy said sooner or later you will run into some problems, but that's the same for Windows. Like for instance on my HP Sleekbook a W10 update borked my whole computer, nothing worked anymore. And that was the reason for me to try Linux. Peppermint 8 to be exact. And I liked it instantly and have never used Windows again.

[@gregcampwriter]

If Linux is your job or hobby, it will take the time that one would expect. But I've found that Cinnamon Mint lets me do what I've always done on computers while taking a lot less time to solve problems. Windows problems made it necessary for me to set aside a day each.

[@gulfsailor2003]

Ive run into both super helpful and super useless support. I will say, if new users simply Google something, or try the man pages, or ask ChatGPT or Bard, or just spend more than 2 minutes researching the issue, they're probably get it. This is basic troubleshooting, and one should learn some patience anyway.

[@jamesford3443]

I have daily driven Mint for 3+ years now and ran it part time for 2 years before that. I am not a gamer or content creator, but even then I still have the rare time suck using Linux. Small example recently. A friend was visiting me from out of town and needed an excel document printed. This was a spreadsheet he would print at home with no issue normally but due to being Out of town he asked if i could print it for him. For whatever reason both Libreoffice and OnlyOffice both wanted to print this as 2 pages when it should be only 1. It took nearly 20 minutes of messing with the settings etc to get the print area to be recognized correctly and then print ok. So what should have taken 2 minutes max, took 10 times that long. When I first tried to install Mint on my PC years ago, i got a weird display problem on first boot where it was tripling the screen and was essentially unusable. Turned out to be a driver issue in the version of Mint, and 2 months later when a new version of Mint came out, it finally was able to display ok. My biggest issue though is the applications. As much as I love open source, LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are simply not as full fledged as MS Office. Also the lack of an easy to configure Out of the box "eco system" for many is a show stopper. Many apps seem a bit half baked, or "basic alternatives" to their more flushed out proprietary cousins. All that said I do not see myself moving from Linux back to Win or Mac

[@Ratselmeister]

get the same pirated excel and windows your friend used and run it in virtual machine.

[@igorgiuseppe1862]

as for productivity it really depend on the tools you are using blender is faster on linux , but some tools simply arent avaliable for the system. for example, if you need to do some image adjustments that are possible on gimp but arent possible or are really hard to do on photoshop, you can use linux or windows for that task, but if the effect that you need is possible on photoshop but impossible/hard to do on gimp, then you waste A LOT of time trying to do on linux. anything text related for example, applying an effect to an text, gimp isnt good at that. another example is when there is an specific niche tool that linux dont have an alternative or not an good one. substance painter is an good example, its so niche that most linux users dont discuss about it (despite the fact that we have alternatives), we are always quoting adobe stuff and office as if those were the only things out there but ignore other niches) video editing is another area where linux dont have any great option (davinci resolve is the closest thing we have but the version for linux lack codecs and other stuff like that, you have to pay for the full version to have some codecs and still get an incomplete experience) another example is game engines we didnt had any good for MANY years, yet no one talked about this.

[@autohmae]

Windows can be a time sink too, people used to call them: powerusers

[@halmyrach]

Interesting video, but I'm not sure those are specific to Linux or negatives #1 time sink: like you mention you can spend some time on it to customize forever, IF you want it. My setup must have taken me maybe a few hours on install day. People distro hoping non stop or having for hobby to tweaks the OS is just an usage possible but far from the main appeal. #2 drivers: excluding the elephant in the room (Nvidia), it's also a pain under Windows to try to install older hardware such as scanner or sound cards. I'm fine doing a 2 minutes internet research beforehand to know if some hardware is supported by the kernel. But it's true that for recent hardware Windows is usually painless. #3 and #4 community: you can find a-holes on internet for every topics so nothing new :P But seriously some distros communities are amazing, I've been running EndeavourOS and using their forums is always nice. Regarding the complexity people of medium knowledge about computers overthink it. Normal people don't care about the OS they don't know what it means. I installed Fedora on my 68 years old mother because Windows 10 was becoming too slow for her laptop. She's happy with it, faster and easier to maintain than Windows for her. And that's from someone having issues sometimes between right and left click. More than enough to check her emails, browse internet, write and print documents and so on. For people having more advanced usages like gaming, modding, coding, we are use to spend time to tweaks things anyway. It's just learning the way it works under a new OS that can be annoying for some. But once learned it's pretty much the same time requirements. Some things can be faster, others slower.

[@TheLinuxCast]

I didn't say they were negatives. In fact for #1 I said it wasn't.

[@ascrassin]

The worst time sink for me that I had in “normal” use, was because of a dependency hell. There was a GitHub project that I wanted to use that used an old version of a package and wouldn't work on the new version. I had to install all the dependency manually.

[@gandir5720]

Well yes #1-time sink, but I spend even more time and more ripping out my hair from my head trying to make Windows do my bidding. In Linux everything goes fast and if you put in the work once you can easy do everything again just running a script. #2 Nvidia needs to be installed and downloaded on Windows manually to get the latest version. A lot of linux distors you get it already installed and updated to the latest version when you update your OS. # When it comes to communities and Linux, I would say Nobara is the best one, a lot of interactions from the maintainer and everyone that works on the project. And the regular users are also extremely helpful. Even if its mostly made for gamers it's OfCourse works perfectly with all workloads.

[@MinaSchloch]

Some comments: I understand everyone may have a Different opinion on whats the best, but Desktops are getting better and better. A Problem with Fedora as an example for a not-rolling but pretty up to date Distro, is that it ships too new packages often. There is no middle ground, so bugs occur and I again find myself as part of the Linux-dev community, writing bug reports, thinkint about fixes, instead of just doing what tasks I should do. Flatpaks also rarely have some problems not yet fixed like drag&drop (Gimp flatpak wtf how do you do that?), native messaging and so on. There is a "Android custom ROM install Flatpak" that can even use ADB so not thaat big of a problem. So as it looks, Flatpaks are the future, the one app source you need to care about. Then: - immutable Distro with some kind of stability but new packages and Kernel - autoupdates - rollback in cases of breakages (looking at you Fedora with your hidden grub!) - Flatpaks, some native apps, Distrobox for development, some weird apps like RStudio and temporary projects. Thats it! Learn these things and you have a system thats - up to date - self-updating - can reset if breaks - supports nearly all packages (except Snaps not converted to Flatpak)

[@dyna.]

Good vid. Elitism is indeed an issue but tbh it's mostly on the user layer, not so much in the developer/power user world, lot's of friendly people there. So please don't think all linux users are like that. But it's unfortunate that when just starting out the chances you'll run into one are much bigger. Later you'll learn what the best places are to ask questions without any drama. I actually already ran into it on my very first encounter with linux. Somewhere around '95 i saw some guys run it at a lan party, as computer nerding and OS'es where already a hobby i was very interested but they wouldn't even tell me how i could get it... didn't matter of course because then i new it existed so that didn't take long. (ah the pre-internet times... i got it by gettting a CD collection from a physical book store in another city. Maybe someone should try to start an online book store with delivery...nah that could never work :) Naming is also funny, i just pretty much called it just linux from the start, of course knowing it was just the kernel. I had a lot of people telling me that actually it's called... Doesn't really happen a lot anymore nowadays tho, and when it does i jokingly (or am i?) respond that modern linux should probably more likely be called systemd/linux, which can lead to some hilarious reactions.

[@fairphoneuser9009]

On an Ubuntu forum somebody wanted to mess around with me because of the file system I used 9 years before... 😁

[@William0271]

Just before the 8 minute mark you suggested that it's sad so many people use Ubuntu, why is that? It's the only one I've tried so far and while I find it inconvenient it works fine?

[@OcteractSG]

Wine works, but it’s not magic. If you want to play Windows games on Linux, you’ll learn more about Windows that you ever did as a Windows user.

[@TheLinuxCast]

This is a good one.

[@grimvian]

For me, an operating system is just "something" that serves as a foundation for the applications I use. I use Windows because I have sufficient knowledge about Windows, allowing me to work comfortably with the applications. Deep down, I wish to use Linux, but it feels like a girl who doesn't want me as a boyfriend. I have tried Linux several times but always end up in an endless distro hopping nightmare. There are friendly Linux users who understand that beginners may not know the Linux command line or other Linux terms, but there are others who don't do anything good for beginners. I wish there was a video about transitioning from Windows to Linux without too much trouble. I also wish there was a standardized Linux version that could cater to beginners, intermediate users, and advanced users. Perhaps in the "beginner mode," there could be an application that detects when the user is attempting to perform a task in a "Windows Style" and provides guidance on how to accomplish it in a "Linux Style".

"but it feels like a girl who doesn't want me as a boyfriend." Nailed it... and neither does her family and friends... Except one or two friendly people that help you and explain you how to cater to her temperament flaws.

[@KuruGDI]

I think if you distro hop and use the terminal you already have the knowledge that _apt_ is not the package manager for every distro. Even I knew that years before I switched to Linux. I didn't know exactly what package manager was used by which distro, but not even I was stupid enough to confuse "apt" as a package manager with "Linux" as a ecosystem.

[@1pcfred]

apt is not a package manager. apt is just an interface to the package manager. dpkg is the package manager. Every distro should use Debian's package management too. It is defacto the most popular by far. Although RPM is the official Linux default package manager. Probably because Linus owns stock in Red Hat. I kid.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

Anything you become a nerd for can become a time sink.

[@verumignis4778]

Why do you say gnome is not customisable? It very much is. Gnome exist for a while and are extremely good

[@robertheinrich2994]

the main issue for me is: in about 2 years, over a billion PCs will be deprecated by the decision of microsoft. at the same time, many people have just basic needs. web browsing, videos, simple text documents, etc. but have the problem that money doesn't grow on trees. so, just think about it. people have 4 choices. run win 10 without security updates. run win 11 with tricks. buy a new PC or run linux. just saying, that will be a massive problem

[@theseabass]

This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I'm not too beat up about the hardware part in my case, as there's a high chance I'll upgrade to compatible parts with 11 at some point, but 10 being close to EOL means I had to start thinking about 11. Everybody mentions all the data scraping that 11 does, 10 too mind you, but once I started hearing about MS experimenting with ads in the file browser I knew I had to jump ship. I knew someday there would be a point of no return for me and windows, but seeing ads forced that way and knowing thats the OS I'd be forced to use in a few years? Nope. Better to start getting used to Linux today.

[@robertheinrich2994]

@@theseabass yes. my parents recently asked me to get a "new" laptop for them, a lenovo T450s with a i5 5th gen. they like the robust design. so now I'll set the older laptop it is going to replace up with mint. my parents are fairly tech savy, I just told them: none of your machines are windows 11 capable, one way or the other you have to do something. test mint and tell me if you like it.

[@madissiimkull]

Everything you love as a hobby will become a time sink. Photography is more or less time sink for me cos i love it. I push the boundaries of my skills in it.

[@merakli2022]

I love linux! I love spending my time on linux. It is my hobby! So it is not time wasted. And I learn a lot during that time.

[@pwesiti]

I’m just now learning cli in Linux so I am not even a novice yet. So, legitimately curious, if one wants Linux but easy why not use macOS? Again not memeing and I don’t want angry comments. I’m legit curious.

[@Abdelkrim.]

i really like use Linux than Windows but i always back to Windows cuz i like games (FPS) and my biggest issue on Linux is not video card drivers but mouse drivers

[@tambuchalinux]

I think most people just don't want to take the time to learn how to use a new operating system. I remember being like that. I never really gave Linux a chance until years after I heard of it.

[@BspVfxzVraPQ]

Systemd became the defecto standard.

[@1pcfred]

Systemd is the defective standard?

[@m4rt_]

Every comunity has some not so nice people, but in some they are more vocal.

[@tigerscott2966]

Use one Linux computer to serf online and use another computer with Windows for gaming... No internet connection for that machine...

[@stevejohnson1321]

Thankfully, those of us with average hardware never need drivers. If you have uncommon video, sound or wifi, that may be a different matter. I would rather have the routines written into the kernel than a driver for every little device and USB reference. Drivers are a "windows" kludge that I don't miss. My radeon 6600 needed one, but I've never needed drivers otherwise. If you do need a driver, sometimes Ubuntu and the "firmware" version of Debian will be better at finding them. That makes both non-free -- free as in freedom. Gnu-Linux generally has no warranty, but it's also usually free of cost. If you don't like what you got, try something different.

[@tigerscott2966]

KODACHI has a lot of potential, but it is very complex... Pop OS works great for developers and Xero Linux is a highlight reel...very interesting and fun too.

[@raderator]

Linux is great if you wanted to become a computer hobbyist. It's like going back to the 90s with Windows. I can remember spending half my time fixing things. Linux isn't that bad tho. Plus, all the distros give you stuff to play with .

[@CyrusBrinkworthRAS]

yes Linux is special, with out Linux my sound card was outdated(HoontechDSP2000,32bit&pci) now it is working nicely in 64bits what ever Linux I chose, I wonder who created the driver? a great man!

[@MrScientifictutor]

Great explanation

[@bertnijhof5413]

Linux is not my time sink, because Ubuntu always works :) Since 2008 I use Ubuntu and now almost in 2024 I still use Ubuntu. When needed I use Windows in a VM. If I like to have a look at a distro or Ubuntu flavor, I use a VM. In principle I keep the VM forever, but after 2 or 3 errors I delete them, it saves time :( The surviving ones are; Linux Mint; Zorin; Manjaro; Fedora; Peppermint; Debian and OpenSUSE Leap. From the flavors I kept Xubuntu; Unity; Mate and Budgie. I deleted more than 30 distros and flavors over the last 12 years. I have 60 VMs of which 24 still receive updates. The time I spend specific on Linux, is say 5 hours per week for the 24 VM updates and my weekly backup. Last quarter I reduced the number of VMs from 70 to 60. By the way I have collected all 16 Windows versions and all Ubuntu LTS versions, the first 4.10 and 5.04 my first try out.

[@darkphotonstudio]

Bad takes on on Reddit!? No way! In all seriousness, I’m not an IT person, and I’ve always been a desktop Linux user. I’ve learned just enough of the CLI to do what I need, I use Linux for content creation. Linux has came a long way since I started with it around 1998. It was agonising back then. Now days, it’s as easy as Windows and in some ways, easier.

[@BWGPEI]

Linux is for me a great way to learn, and it's less trouble to me than Unix was in the old days.

[@KilianGosewisch]

Best counter argument to the gnu/linux pedants: DID YOU JUST ASSUME MY USERLAND? I USE ALPINE

[@operius2385]

I can't believe people are still talking about how installing nvidia drivers can be problematic. I've used nvidia cards on linux since 2001 and for more than a decade the driver was offerd automatically on opensuse or you could install it with 5 mouseclicks. And that's opensuse that is not known for being the most newbie friendly out there. Ubuntu, linux mint, mandriva, zorin just to name a few all made it so very easy. So if you do have problems installing a nvidia driver on your distro of choice, maybe that's because you choose a distro that requieres some technical effort from the user to set things up. Some people just want to do things themselfs. But in that case it is stil not a problem, but a choiche.

[@igavinwood]

With regards to the "community", it's not a computing, or tech issue, it's simple politeness and good manners that makes the difference. I've used DOS, Mac, Windows and RedHat and have met all sorts of people from arrogant, ignorant to indulgent and helpful in every sphere across many countries. If people want to be rude and self defeating I leave them to it. If people want to engage and are polite then I am willing to spend time with them. Shouting at people that don't listen will not make them hear you, similarly no one listens to the person that's p***ed them off.

[@MotownBatman]

N00b since '96.... I have constantly customized it until I broke it, then Format & Try again... It was a long time before I realized how dumb I was to NOT use a /home Hidin' in Dryden, MI

[@darrenclift6704]

i used linux off and on since 1991 when it came out, was forced into windows most of the time though, now that games, and other stuff alot of other stuff for linux now, i made the move to 100 percent linux since 2014, best thing i ever did, as for drivers, i really didnt have to many problems, i use a geforce, found the best way to install the latest geforce driver is using the apt install command. works the best. I currectly using linux mint 21.1 XFCE with the 6.4 kernel now. no problems. I love linux and will never return to windows.

[@MegaManNeo]

Gatekeeping is still a massive issue.

[@djyotta]

I like how you put it that users of free (as in beer) software won't have a claim on the developers time. I wonder how much this plays into the perception of lots of a**holes in the Linux community. I often see a bunch of complaints reeking of entitlement followed by a snarky response. I think I'm guilty on both counts despite my best efforts to be diplomatic...

[@patpopov]

Linux is easy unless you want to make it hard.

[@Skelterbane69]

This.

[@SwiatLinuksa]

I always repeat that! Think hard get hard. Think easy get easy;)

[@heroe1486]

This and you could say that about any tool that actually really let you dig into it, python can be easy but if you start to try to understand how things work under the hood that's another thing

[@jeffrey3617]

I’m hungry and need to see a machine possibly a vending machine and have access to run code is Linux or Mozilla a good choice

[@lunsj]

Chalk me up to the people who have an excellent experience with Plasma. Very happy with it.

[@stephanhuebner4931]

Despite all the improvements due to the Steamdeck, Proton and Wine, playing Windows games on Linux is still often an abysmally bad experience, when it comes to actually getting games to run successfully. I'd even argue that Proton hurt gaming in a way, as developers don't feel the need anymore to actually develop their games for Linux natively. At the very least the process is quite often still too complicated for any casual gamer. If it runs on Steam out of the box, fine. But if not, and you don't know about protondb, lutris or some of the other more "obscure" solutions, you're usually screwed. And even if you do know about these, the process often requires a lot of experimentation to actually get something working.

[@your_new_sjw_waifu]

I only fight with video drivers on Linux if the GPU is Nvidia. AMD and Intel just werks®

[@afroceltduck]

A hard truth for me is that Linux does regular updates better than Windows, but Windows does version upgrades better than Linux. Who on Earth wants to upgrade their distro every 6-12 months? If you do an in-place upgrade, it can cause problems. If you want to avoid said problems, you do a fresh install and have to set everything up again. Windows, you get a new version every few years or more, and only have to deal with version upgrade problems at that time. Obviously, a rolling release avoids this, but that brings its own issues.

[@heroe1486]

As you said it's not Linux, rolling releases exist and I'm yet to see those issues it brings on Arch. LTS versions also exist. And version upgrades seems to go well these days according to Ubuntu users.

[@youdontknowme2508]

I mean, nobody is forcing anyone to upgrade every year. If you're okay with what you have just use the LTS.

[@Skelterbane69]

As someone who's used endeavourOS on my main machine and a variety of other distros on my laptop: I have never had an update that caused any form of trouble. I once neglected to update my main pc for about 2 months and when I finally did update, nothing broke.

[@kelvinpina3392]

pop os is very stable

[@dstinnettmusic]

The worst aspects of Linux are all the community for me, and that isn’t unique to Linux. It’s more a problem of how people talk to eachother on the internet.

[@christianmino4073]

Here are my thoughts on Linux windows and Mac. Max OS is great and if you a) have a lot of disposable income and don’t mind the MANY restrictions that come with your hardware AND software or b) have a specific need for software that is apple only then go with mac and if you don’t like it for everything else find a way to either dualboot Linux or get a Mac laptop (you probably are anyway) and only use it for that use case and then do what I say next. For browsing the web, email, watching videos and regular pc use I daily drive pop is/manjaro on my two different machines (pop is familyl pc, manjaro my gaming rig) and I dual boot into windows for gaming. If you don’t game you probably need windows for SOMETHING. Unfortunately, Linux isn’t the end all be all but it made my life much easier when it comes to not having headaches while I just use my computer for writing documents (I use Apache open office on windows anyway, I don’t need the full office from Microsoft. I love open office just wish it had an email client but I install my own and it works just like it came with the office package) because on windows I get issues and annoying updates and malware and defender annoying me and it uses up 4 gigs of ram (I have 32gb ddr4 so it’s not like it matters but still) and I don’t have that with Linux at all. I think everyone should dual boot into Linux to save them the windows s headache.

[@markdavid7013]

Linux does entail somewhat of a "learning curve"...but most people can work through that with a little help.

[@bernhardbinde4865]

A hobby is always a timesink thats not an argument. And there are a******s in every online community (this is imo something that happens when people feel anonymous).

[@seansean7653]

How i can make money using Linux?

[@MrMunkyMeat]

One thing I have noticed as workflows have changed from data to creative for the masses, is that linux is becoming a harder sell as it lacks driver support for the needed tools. This in turn is making it harder to be "productive" on linux. I use mint on the laptop I use for writing and it works fantastic. Once I move into the other aspects, I have to use a windows machine. Most of the software needed for cameras, audio interfaces, stream decks, ETC., is at best lacking in linux. At worst, totally non-existent. As more and more people dabble in streaming and making YT videos, you have to wonder how long it will be before we finally see a unified kernel that gives devs a solid base to build on as this is the only path to getting companies to see supporting linux as worth while. Currently, the life span of driver stability in linux is a matter of seconds before something has to update and break it.

[@theseabass]

This is exactly what I'm running into. I installed Mint a few days ago, and just dove head first into it. A good portion of people's main complaints like gaming or software support can be solved with alternative software, proton or open source alternatives, but that hardware support is a big downer. I have two different internal capture cards that are a complete no go on Linux. That means any small amount of streaming I used to do is off the table unless I want to invest even more into hardware that would be compatible, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to get one that has the same functionality as the current ones.

[@TroyYounts]

Agreed, Linux 'Could be a time sink but, I use PopOS and -as you say, it is only what you make of it. Ironically, i got burned out on learning more Linux NOT because of Linux Rather because of my Service Desk Job for WINDOWS users at Parsons!

[@gandir5720]

Windows and MacOS can be a major time sink to in the same way, that is true to all operating systems, I would even say Windows is a bigger sinkhole for time than Linux if you want ot be a real power user.

[@unconnectedbedna]

Hard truth about YOU and this channel: You look cool af! xD

[@amare65]

Well, he's a close friend of Charlie Brown and he carries a blanket.

[@KuruGDI]

Another hard truths: - Linux has no (killer) feature for the average user that makes it really worth switching to - Switching to Linux will set you back in productivity for your first weeks since everything works a little different than what you are used to (which can be very frustrating) - Linux can do the same things as Windows, it just does them in a different way - If you have a running Windows system that already is configured to your liking, it's actually quite stupid to switch to Linux since there is pretty much no point in doing so I know "Linux" (as an ecosystem) has it's qualities, but for the average user who just wants their PC to _work_ and do not care about how it's doing it, Windows works _good enough_ (or not terrible enough) and therefore there is little to no incentive to switch to Linux. There also is no killer feature that people really care about that would set Linux apart from any other OS system. A demonstration of what I mean: A colleague at work uses Edge (yes, the Windows browser). When I asked him why he is using it and not some third party browse he shrugged and said that it's good enough. Why switch to Firefox then? If you don't even switch the browser, why switch to Linux then?

[@Germanas1985]

i think i will be able to handle it - so i will watch it :D

[@Aitiustus0]

I've heard so many things of people talking down to Ubuntu users yet I've never had anyone talk down to me for using Ubuntu. A search of why Ubuntu sucks yields positive click bait. Please roast my distro, I've been feeling really good about life, using Ubuntu, things in general and need to be taken down a peg.

[@celdepescaun39]

As someone else pointed out , if you are happy with Windows why switch to Linux ? For me is just like another recipe , of the same food.

[@tigerscott2966]

Linux is the king now.... Yes, I have wasted a lot of time distro hopping and yes some distros are too complex for even seasoned users...

[@mattboh69]

“linux is free if your time has no value”

[@heroe1486]

That's nonsense tho, Windows and MacOs cost money and time.

[@Skelterbane69]

@@heroe1486 Free as in freedom. _Probably._

[@paulj505]

Yeah, the fact that many linux people expect everything for free, reveals another hard truth. That because of that, Linux will never become more popular, and some drivers, softwares and games will never be supported on it. And Linux will remain a single digit percentage on market share. So once I was saying otherwise, but now I say, that if you are gamer, then just use windows.

[@roomtemp6374]

Windows is the path of least resistance if gaming is your primary concern. But their tendency lately towards turning the customer into the product is unacceptable. I've reached the crossing point where linux is good enough and windows isn't worth it. I was surprised how easy it was to get my modest steam collection working on linux. And even some retro dos/w95/w98 era stuff that doesn't play well with later versions of windows. (I don't play many things that require an anti cheat though.) "many linux people expect everything for free" Some people seem to have a heightened sense of entitlement these days. I'm not sure that can be pinned on linux as It appears to be a more generalized phenomenon. On the flip side I see a lot of linux people taking their time to help others where they can. So it's not all bad.

[@walter_lesaulnier]

A hard truth is that Linux is built by computer geeks for computer geeks. Of course there's lots of distros that claim to be super easy and may say to just drop Windows and use Linux (while neglecting a LARGE learning curve). A few years ago I watched a video where the guy spent 5 minutes bashing the "bugginess" of Windows before spending 20 minutes trying to fix bugs in the Linux distro he was trying to demo -mostly manually editing conf files. Think of the impression a Windows user who was considering giving Linux a try would think if that was the first video they saw while researching Linux.

[@Skelterbane69]

But that depends on which distro you use.... Installing mint is a few clicks and then you're done. Using it is even easier.

[@walter_lesaulnier]

@@Skelterbane69 True, but I'm thinking more of when a Windows user trying Linux for the first time runs into an issue. They Google for info and solution for the issue and usually find solutions involving sometimes complex terminal commands that they have no clue about what those commands and options actually do. The worst thing is when solutions that are 10 or 15 years old come up in the search and they don't catch how outdated the info is. A lot of Windows users have never even opened a terminal before- or maybe just to follow a video or article and do one extremely simple thing. When I'm helping Linux noobs I'll often create a simple problem on a system in a VM and sit beside them as they solve it. Doing this a couple of times can GREATLY improve their mindset and opinion of Linux and has produced good results. Once they get into the flow of how to properly research and solve an issue, their user experience and perception of Linux is infinitely better.

[@linuxrant]

Hard Truths: - People will never learn to say GNU/Linux - Linux can't work fully as totally Libre-Free software, (there always will be some free drivers missing) - Too many Big laptop manufacturers and publishers will work hard not to preinstall Linux on new computers (But I don't lose hope) - Human Psychology (the choice paralysis effect) will prevent people from exploring Linux. - Linux Phones/tablets will never land, (But I still dream) - Nvidia support suck (but it might get a little better in the future). - Gaming on Linux will always be good but mostly for tinkerers or Steam gamers. - Packaging Paradox. native packages suck to build, but run better. flatpaks/snaps are great to build, but suck when running. (slightly)