Linux isn't ready for professional work?

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#Linux #office #work
00:00 Intro
00:27 Sponsor: 10% off your first website with SquareSpace
01:25 Linux is everywhere
02:47 Developers
04:00 Office Work
06:57 Media Creation
08:15 AI
08:58 The tip of the iceberg
11:19 Not for everyone
13:40 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux
14:41 Support the channel
The first thing is that Linux is everywhere and already used by professionals all around the world.
I could take the example of Android, which is the most popular smartphone OS in the world, and using a Linux kernel. I could turn to the absolute domination of Linux on the server space.
I could also point to every NAS out there, generally using a Linux kernel, if we look at IoT and small appliances, Linux also dominates the space. But it's not what people intend when talking about an OS. Generally, they mean that the Linux DESKTOP isn't ready for professionals.
The first obvious counter argument is developers. Linux is used by 47% of professional developers. That's higher than the market share of macOS among developers.
• Why Linux is better fo...
If we take the vast majority of people who will interact with a computer, what do they truly need in their day to day job? A web browser, an email client, an office suite, and a usable interface.
On that specific front, Linux has all that's needed. Whether it's KDE for an interface closer to Windows, or GNOME for the simplest thing to use possible, the Linux desktop IS one of the most usable out there.
In terms of web browsers, there's no question, we have them all. For email clients, we do lack Outlook, but the web interface might be enough for most people's needs, and if not, we have awesome clients that can replace Outlook: Evolution and Thunderbird.
LibreOffice might be a great option for a lot of people, but it does have some problems, let's face it. But LibreOffice isn't our only choice. For perfect compatibility, we have access to SoftMaker Office, now called FreeOffice, or to WPS Office.
Now, for media creation, Linux lacks all the Adobe programs. But that doesn't mean we don't have tools either. Davinci Resolve is a tool used by professionals and hollywood studios to edit videos, edit audio, and create virtual effects. It basically does what Audition, After Effects and Premiere do, in one single package. it's available on Linux.
We have Blender for VFX. Houdini, a tool used by VFX artists for simulations? It's on Linux.
Maya? It's on Linux. Studio One, a professional DIgital Audio Workstation, just released a beta for Linux. We have inkscape, Ardour, Krita - one of the most popular digital drawing apps- OBS, PDF Studio for editing PDF documents, Bitwig, and a lot more.
Whether you like AI or not, it's happening. And AI is a professional domain in which Linux is the standard.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. Cybersecurity professionals mostly use Linux. Almost 100% of supercomputers used for any specific domain run Linux. The whole space industry runs on Linux. A bunch of military sytems run Linux.
The market share of Linux on the desktop is low, there's no denying that: it's listed at barely 3%, far below macOS or Windows. But this doesn't include another system: Chrome OS. And chrome OS has 3.9% market share on the desktop. Combined with non Chrome OS Linux ssytems, taht's almost 7%. it's still lower than proprietary OSes, but that's a LOT of computers running a Linux system.
Now, that doesn't mean Linux is ready for every professional out there. If you absolutely need certain software that's not available, then Linux won't work for you. But I'd argue that it's not necessarily a Linux problem: it has the tools needed to do the same job in most cases. It's just not the tools you're allowed to use, or want to use.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

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[@Tailslol]

dunno,most desktop environement on my x99 intel and my nvidia video card are unstable when i try them, and for my work, substance painter, 3ds max, maya and photoshop are not on linux, i found as well that vr and shader support on unity is kind of a mess on linux, and well, there is no ui for stuff like color management or mouse wheel sensitivity in linux making it quite hard in everyday use in my work.

[@univera1111]

@@Tailslol tell him. Instead of finishng the job and getting paid, im tinkering with the os.

[@aaronplays_]

It's not the fact that there's no professional tools in Linux, it's the fact that Linux doesn't work 100% for all of those tools, there's always a weird issue that prevents people from doing what they want to do. That goes on to waste time for those professionals and I'm sure you'd understand how important time is in the professional world. Let me share the issues I'm having with a completely fresh install of Nobara 38 on a new SSD-- You mentioned DaVinci Resolve being available on Linux. Does it work 100% the same as it does on Windows? Can I install it in any distro and immediately open it and edit videos? Keeping Nvidia driver issues aside, does the Linux version work exactly the same as on other OS with AMD GPUs? I can use the free version of DaVinci Resolve with full capabilities of my AMD GPU on Windows, can I do that on Linux too? I understand that Linux distros don't like packaging proprietary drivers, but what do they do to inform the user of that? I'm trying to switch to Nobara and had a wifi card not work because the drivers weren't installed and I wasn't informed of it anywhere. Searching for "wifi not working linux" doesn't provide results that would be helpful for an average user or their specific cases. Speaking of wifi, how the heck do hotspots work on KDE? I installed the wifi drivers and got it running to the point where I can connect to my router's access point and get internet. But, I also sometimes need to have wired internet directly to my PC and connect my phone to PC hotspot for quick access. Searching for "turn on kde hotspot" on the internet shows results ranging from simply clicking the Hotspot button, to creating a manual hotspot connection, to completely wiping and reinstalling the drivers. Moreover, the wifi will connect to the hotspot of one of my phones, but not the other. Why? On other OS, creating hotspots takes max 3 clicks. On KDE, if you install a Flatpak app, you'll get a Plasma Workspace notification saying that "app is running in the background. Click to find out more". But it doesn't tell you that if you ignore the notification, it will not set the permission for the app to run in background. I was trying to use OnlyOffice and ignored the popup as I didn't find it important and then spent the entire week trying to troubleshoot why OnlyOffice keeps crashing 10 seconds after opening. The user has no knowledge that the Flatpak apps need that permissions to function properly. It's not the fact that there's no required features in Linux, it's the fact that there's no guarantee that they'll work because they are not polished and not well thought out, making even using webapps through browsers painful as the wifi wouldn't work. I'm technically sound enough to troubleshoot these, but is your parent, uncle/aunt, sibling, or any other average user going to be able to find the correct drivers? Users aren't mostly dumb, they can find their way around some technical problems. They aren't frustrated because something isn't working, they get frustrated because they don't know why it's not working.

[@joelpichette]

linux isn't ready ? linux is ready.... since 2018 it's ready. no more console mode debugging, you shouldn't have to type sudo no more.

[@knoplef]

In 2011 right after college I got a job at the SEO company. 45 out of 50 employees worked on Ubuntu. In 2011, in Siberia, Russia. It was ready back then. The smoothest workstation experience of my life.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Damn, that’s cool!

[@UndoEverything]

@@TheLinuxEXP and probably cold too 😹

[@udittlamba]

@@TheLinuxEXP yes, it's siberia. It was super cool

[@ndrechtseiter]

Эх, в 2011-ом Убунта покруче была, чем сейчас, конечно

[@theworldoffun8997]

@@ndrechtseiter да, грустно это, что от идеального десктопа мы пришли к тому, что Каноникал постоянно пытается идти против камунити с своими Юнити, Мир и снап

[@MrMysticphantom]

You got it exactly right..and truthfully you should have just made this quote your conclusion and highlight emphasis..."it's not that Linux and software on Linux isn't ready for professionals, it's just many professionals are locked in software that aren't in Linux properly, yet"

[@KeithBoehler]

Yeah its an unfair standard. No one would say "Windows is bad because it cannot run Final Cut or Garage Band".

[@talkysassis]

@@KeithBoehler Or even better: Mac users blame devs when the programs don't have a mac version. Then why should people blame Linux for the same thing?

[@wombatdk]

It's not the fault of Linux. But that doesn't make Linux a viable alternative to Windows in many industries. Just like Windows was, for a long time, no alternative to Mac in the creative/print industry. The conclusion basically nails it, but not in the way he intended. Linux is good for some things. For many things, it flat out isn't. And will never be.

[@rigierish3807]

​​@@wombatdkThere is nothing Linux couldn't do: it's the most versatile OS, modifiable to the single line of code for your use and your specific use only. So Linux doesn't have any limitation other proprietary OS do have. The only reason Linux isn't fitted to some use is because some people in power decided it wasn't. And the problem is that if everybody says and believes Linux isn't "ready yet" or "never will be mainstream", whether it's true or false, nobody will have reasons to switch to it, which will never make Linux viable, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's why I didn't wait for the industry to consider Linux a viable option to switch to it. That's why I can validate that video since I experienced Linux full time for a long time now and I can confirm it's absolutely ready for the average user (and no, I don't work in IT and have no particular predisposition to it, yet I can still use Linux, so people saying you have to be an expert to use this OS never touched a user friendly Linux distro once, like Mint or PopOS) So, in a way, you're right: it's not Linux's fault, it's people's fault for claiming Linux isn't a usable or viable OS while it absolutely is for 90% of the population.

[@doigt6590]

@@wombatdkit's because of people like you that "linux will never be x"

[@nerdy_dav]

As a consultant, I work with many businesses. in 25 years in the industry I think I can point to the biggest reason Linux doesn't have a big desktop share today: Microsofts stranglehold on educational institutions. In Australia especially, when studying at uni, I lived through the transition from Unix, to Microsoft. I saw first hand how Microsoft infiltrated educational institutions from primary school to college and university. I was automatically failed in an assessment in systems design when I refused to use Windows NT as a part of my design. What does this do: It floods the corporate and professional world with people who only know Microsoft. Who can only administrator Microsoft and who can only design a solution with Microsoft. In my work day to day at new clients, I request a Linux machine for my work, and most of my clients "won't allow" or "can't provide" a linux desktop system. The excuse is almost always, "the admins don't know how"

[@ettoreatalan8303]

Thanks for your advice.

[@jcugnoni]

100% agree. I work in higher education.. and everything revolves around MS products and services. But there are many collaborators who are switching to Linux for teaching or include Open Source software in their classes. The IT however is not prepared but usually let us use what we want as long as we don't ask for support ;-)

[@notNajimi]

Which is funny because distros like Ubuntu and openSUSE/SLE provide tools for joining Windows networks out of the box. Surely they could make it work but they just don’t try because it requires learning something new and supporting it

[@theguydudebroo]

Android isn't just the most used mobile OS, it's the most used OS of all time. It has even more users than Windows.

[@Varrisk]

People are more forgiving of Microsoft's errors and faults in their Office Suite than LibreOffice/OpenOffice/etc.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yep

[@jacksoncremean1664]

that's partly because when linux desktop breaks, it's a massive pain to fix it. although this isn't the case for servers.

[@justy1337]

Fr. I also wish there were more mainstream laptops that had first-class support for Linux. Of course this is a matter of commercial reasons but it'd be great to have that option!

[@moetocafe]

to be honest - LibreOffice and the likes are at least 10-15 yrs back in technology and user performance, compared to MS Office. But it is a small sacrifice to make, given all the benefits of Linux vs Windows.

[@joshuapettus6973]

@@jacksoncremean1664 I could say the same about when windows desktop breaks. Seriously I have seen some really arcane failures in my career. Honestly when linux breaks I generally find it more straight forward as to why. And in all honestly I break my linux server on a monthly basis trying new things. Some of the time it has been difficult to fix depending on what I did and am trying to do (backup, backup, backup). But granted so far my track record for finding solutions have been pretty good and the failures were logical. Windows and windows server however, sometimes I just want to put my head through a wall...

[@Didier88600]

Hollywood use linux and open source stuf for films... if they are not "professionnals" who are ?

[@Joel11111]

I’d imagine most of that is Linux servers. e.g. rendering farms and stuff. Linux server is fine. Most of the complaints people have about Linux is related to the desktop. Whether or not those issues affect you depend on what you use it for. “Professional” is very broad and generally when people make complaints about “professional” use cases they implicitly mean “the kind of professional I am” and forget how diverse the use cases for computers are.

[@dermond]

It's true that in animation there's a majority of studios that use Linux not only as their Render servers but for animate as well, like DreamWorks, Disney/Pixar, and 60% of VFX departments (Thats why things like Davinci Resolve, Nuke, Modo, Houdini, Maya (Of course Blender). It's just not visible to the public eye, but they use it because it's comfortable that the OS is not in the way of your work. I'm a animation student using Linux, just because I like it, and found no issue using it.

[@nuculabs]

I'm a home user and Davinci Resolve although it "works" it's a horrible program on Linux. Some codecs are not available, audio doesn't straight out the box and good luck because converting a 1GB file to the supported codecs yield a 20GB file. Also, you can't use hardware encoding on Davinci Linux if you don't have an NVIDIA GPU. Saying that Davinci Resolve works on Linux is just wrong, it's crippled and barely works.

[@Cameo007]

For me it says "GPU Memory Full". But the bigger problem is that the playback doesn't work. I can export my projects but I can't really edit them. So I don't know what to do. I could install Windows on my 128G internal SSD, but Windows needs 40GB with Davinci and a bit of free space. And also my problem is not very widespread.

[@seedney]

⁠@@Cameo007Which distro you using?

[@seedney]

@@nuculabswhich codecs you mean?

[@Cameo007]

@@seedney nixOS. Now I'm trying to get it running again. (Tut on yt). But as it's actually building I don't know if it works.

[@arsenii_yavorskyi]

not every professional is a programmer or a server admin. what about the those who rely on specialized software?

[@mearetom]

It's very much ready, but professional software are not.

[@bryanbagayas8447]

YES! Always have to resort to web app

[@mrtony3152]

Best comment, this will fit perfectly, on every Linux video.

[@RobertWilke]

This is what it's all about there are quite good quality software that matches or exceeds commercial ones. But people being people, are lazy and don't want to learn new stuff so they complain and never embrace Linux. If Microsoft ever put Office on Linux to buy. The floodgates would open to the rest of the commercial market. Until then Linux will flounder on the desktop.

[@KCKingcollin]

*Adobe software is not ready lol

[@MrGamelover23]

​@@RobertWilkeNo, fool, it's not about being lazy, it's about being locked in. The thing about industry standards is that if you're not using them, you are literally incapable of working with someone who does.

[@Hobbitstomper]

The definition of "Professional" simply means that a person can earn their living from a specified activity. If Linux is your primary tool that you use and rely on to earn a living, then yes, by definition your tool (Linux) is ready for professional work. Not only is it ready, but it's an integral part of your profession. This however does not mean that this tool can automatically be used by every other profession. It comes down to each individual profession if Linux is a viable option.

[@michaelprice3031]

Right, like how it is much easier for a software developer to use Linux than a mechanical engineer, where a lot of CAD packages are missing (Solidworks, Autodesk, etc)

[@korakys]

When people say "linux is not ready for professionals" they mean _Linux, the OS, not the kernel, is not ready for people creating visual or audio media_ Devs are devs and office work can be done on anything. A lot of this media creation work, especially when it comes to creating media for exclusive use on computers, can be done on LinuxOS already, that is true. However creating media for films, for print, and other physical stuff... Linux struggles with that.

[@RogerioPereiradaSilva77]

Well, there is OpenToonz, that little crappy app created specifically for Ghibli to produce their animations, crappy as they may be, that also runs perfectly on Linux and I'd venture to say that those Ghibli folks might be onto something... ;)

[@KaraiAleru]

It's not that people are locked on software that isn't made for Linux. The problem is that the software that is made for Linux sometimes is not on par with the alternatives on Windows or Mac. Photoshop is so more easy to use and with more advanced features than Gimp. I use Blender for my professional work and is the only software that I can properly say is better than it's counterparts in a lots of aspects (cinema4D and Maya). For creative works, there aren't many softwares that can compete yet and it doesn't make sense to fully switch. It's a shame because I'm eager to switch as soon as many of the softwares I use can work on Linux or get usable alternatives. But it's not there yet.

[@hpp676]

Big true. Blender is the only open source software I can think of that has reached a level where it's advanced enough and comfortable enough to do large scale work with. Most open source software is just lagging behind.

[@bobowon5450]

problem with linux is that there is ALWAYS 1 app that you absolutely need, but don't have access to.

[@KarriOjala]

What would that be?

[@TehObLiVioUs]

ah yes like affinity photo/serif programs that don't run via wine ): but is such a better deal than adobe subscription and is like 90% of what they can do yet gimp/krita/etc...... don't quite hit the mark, yeah ): somethin like that

[@lucadipaolo1997]

@@TehObLiVioUs Precisely. For me, even DaVinci is a no go, since it has zero support for third party audio plugins on Linux. Heck, even if it did, most plugins I need don't work properly with Wine.

[@ghost-user559]

Basically for every single creative career or profession Linux is missing something essential. From Desktop Publishing to Graphic Design to Audio Production and Film Editing. Everything is so close, but not there yet. We need a emulation layer or something to just let us run everything at the cost of some overhead.

[@KarriOjala]

@@ghost-user559 That doesn't make sense to me. Reaper is one of the leading DAWs, I use it weekly. What is missing in it? You could of course use Ardour too and many others. That's pretty much a complete audio production unit if you know how to use them. I can't help with what you're used to but that's another problem entirely. Graphic design - maybe. I get everything done with Krita, but I don't do anything complicated these days. Have you though tried to get everything advanced done with it? You might be surprised how far you can go. Editing - yeah, well. If Kdenlive doesn't crash, it gets the job done. If it does, then DaVinci Resolve is probably the only option. If you get the pro version, then that should cover most of your Hollywood level needs.

[@Matthew_Curtis_Photography]

I think it depends on what profession you are in, if you are a professional photographer for example, then there is simply no solution on the linux desktop.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Dark table?

[@Matthew_Curtis_Photography]

@@TheLinuxEXP Very buggy for me when I've tried it in the past, it obviously lacks a lot of features as well compared to lightroom, capture 1 etc etc, but I'd be willing to look past that if it were to actually be stable, maybe I'll give it another shot at some point.

[@pidusredlah]

​@@TheLinuxEXPIt's about as good as Kdenlive for video editing.

[@swordz2330]

@@TheLinuxEXP darktable just simply doesnt compare to lightroom in a professional scenario. Its UI is clunky and its missing a lot of the features

[@rasaskitchen]

I have been using PopOS for 3+ years professionally as a web developer. Sure, there are some issues with multi-monitor setup, some audio issues here and there, and some sleep issues but nothing that a script can't fix.

[@catalinpreda4666]

How did you solve the sleep issues? Mine just logs off instead of actually suspend

[@nathanwhite704]

Yeah but you shouldn't have to fix it to begin with, most people prefer their workstation pc to work out of the box.

[@M1szS]

@@nathanwhite704 if you can't spend a bit of time to prepare your system, that you will use for 1000s of hours, then you are straight up dumb and lazy, but even if you are, windows isn't perfect either, i had to do a lot of troubleshooting on windows to get stuff to just work, way less than on linux mint that im currently using.

[@grlff]

​@@nathanwhite704this is interesting thought, but being a pro means to solve any linux distributive issues like a pro)

[@nathanwhite704]

@@grlff depends on what you're a pro in. You shouldn't expect someone who's a visual effects artist to do the work of RHEL certified systems administrator.

[@FlynTie]

In my experience it's not Linux who isn't ready for professional work, it's companies who pull the plug on Linux support. Recent example in my line of work is Adobe pulling the plug for the Substance toolset after they acquired the company. Before the acquisition the Linux client for their software was available through all channels, now the only way to get it is through Steam which was a big slap in the face for everyone with a perpetual license. Linux itself is more than ready and often times even performs better by utilizing system resources much more efficient but if a company/developer decide to not support it in the first place, Linux can't do much against it.

[@FlameSoulis]

The biggest thing that hurts Office Work is the lack of Microsoft Office support. This is mandatory in all cases, because it's what people learned to use and what most clients also use. Additionally, the email servers are often MS's and often tied to other security policies revolving around it. In theory, yes, Linux could be used for many office jobs and could drastically reduce costs while not sacrificing too much. However, despite daily driving a Linux laptop that I also do some work with, the hurdles of dealing with office documents WITH FULL COMPATABILITY is the one thing holding me back, and no, O365 as a PWA doesn't work.

[@phehlix]

Why does Microsoft 365 not work? The commercial version (not the free version you get with Windows) supports almost all common use cases. It is not 100% feature complete, but I guess Microsoft just took the opportunity to clean up. Thanks to telemetry they know which features their customer use. If you look at the "NEW" Outlook for Windows, it basically is identical to the web client. I guess that in the next few years all MS Office applications will be replaced with their web versions stuffed into a nice wrapper application. Microsoft is all about cloud and services these days, and they probably have no interest in maintaining a separate desktop version. Anyway, I used the web versions of 365 for years, because the Mac versions suck (and I wasn't allowed to run Linux at work). And I never ever had compatibility issues with Windows users.

[@wichad3]

The 365 web apps are so good these days you can get by without the desktop apps. I have been for 12 months.

[@dedoyxp]

@@wichad3 it sucks, lacks feature compared to desktop one and lag compared to opening on the desktop apps

[@doigt6590]

@@dedoyxp if it lags, then it's either time to switch to linux or get rid of your computer and get a new one; it's a sign that your computer just isn't capable anymore.

[@wichad3]

@@dedoyxp maybe three years ago I would have agreed with you... They have added most of the day to day features users now. Performance is fine for me... Even with large datasets and chunky formulas

[@PeakKissShot]

My work computer is a windows machine who's sole purpose is to remote into a Linux server 😂

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Hahaha that’s the life

[@Alex-zu5jh]

I use linux for development and music production. While development experience is really good, I can't say music production is ready. Many popular VST plugins don't support Linux, and you have to use bridges like Carla, LinVst, etc. It's getting better(decent sampler, vital, surge...) bitwig it's really good, but their packaging or its only .Deb or flatpak, and with flatpaks, the wine bridge doesn't work. There is still a lot to improve, but recently, it got so good I switched my both computers fully on linux.

[@mort_brain]

Thank you for this, sometimes I forget how important can overall overview videos be for new folks instead of trying to explain from own point of view.

[@wsippel]

Linux is the standard in visual effects - it's not just the rendering, it's also on workstations. Pretty much all major professional software suites are either also on Linux, or even only on Linux: Nuke, Maya, Smoke, Flame, Houdini, Modo, Mari, Resolve - pretty much everything. Also minor tools like PureRef. The Academy Software Foundation in partnership with the Linux Foundation promotes its use, and works on constantly improving it further for movie production tasks.

[@FLMKane]

It's crazy how Linux dominates 3d animation but somehow CAD and CAE software is stuck on being windows only for most cases. Absolute pain in the ass

[@saminyead1233]

Linux isn't just ready for developers, it's actually even preferred. I use Linux regularly for my dev work, and some of the built-in tools here simply just work! Things like curl for making some quick requests to a server or checking an API, the GCC compiler so that you can start writing C code right away out of the box - things like these just makes the development experience more pleasant. Not to mention the Linux terminal is a very powerful tool for devs.

[@Nik.leonard]

Linux is so better than anything for developmen that I hope I can soon install Asahi or other distro in my company provided Macbook Pro M1

[@csaratakij6339]

Except for game development, lots of tools that properly work depend on Windows. And the majority of gamers are on Windows. Which is sucked because a lot of dev tools that are not related to game dev on linux is superb. (Suck to be game dev I suppose)

[@Nik.leonard]

@@csaratakij6339 Unity, UE and Godot can be run on linux, I don’t know if the experience is good in UE or Unity but in Godot is basically the same.

[@user-iq2cg6uq3v]

Curl works on windows. GCC can be installed. Where is the real point to use linux.

[@nastybytes]

​@@csaratakij6339because it works out of the box

[@samsam21amb]

I think the absence of Adobe and Microsoft 365 on Linux is the real reason why organisations will not move over, because everyone’s used to their programs…. And I don’t think boomers in offices are willing to switch DE’s and learn entirely new, but similar programs… also advanced .xslx files can’t even run on the excel web app and need the proper desktop app. So some work styles don’t work. But do 100% believe anyone and everyone can use Linux, but I’m just stuck using office web apps like outlook, OneNote and teams for school, so… yea

[@Jp-ml3jo]

Honestly one of the biggest issue is Microsoft Teams not being able to screen share on Wayland. A very small problem but blocker in profesionnal context

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Xwayland video bridge to the rescue!

[@Jp-ml3jo]

@@TheLinuxEXP of course ! This is what I am actually using ! But this is still a hack. This kind of thing should work out of the box. And what is frustrating is that it is not a Linux issue but it is because of the apps developers not wanting to patch their apps (just updating their electron version basically)

[@berndborte8214]

I've resolved a lot of issues by setting up screen-share for chromium properly and then just using PWAs. It does work for Slack this way for me. Might be worth a shot for Teams too.

[@MrMysticphantom]

Boy this is a MAJOR pain point for me lol😢.... Slack usage too..I can't use slack properly...not the web app...PWAs are great ...but I don't want some of my tools performance and process tied to my browser usage therefore a crash or issue in 1 affecting the other....

[@cyberturkey77]

it shouldn't work out the box if its Microsoft specific software. That's like saying emulation should work out of the box without installing anything. Different platforms different issues. @@Jp-ml3jo

[@kaffeeringe]

Professional support might be a problem for professional Linux use. As a small company you need and external company for IT-Support. I don't think, there are so many.

[@jahndo]

The lack of industrial software like cad programs and plc-ide's for Linux is a shame. Being able to use codesys or tia on Linux would be a game changer

[@cameronbosch1213]

5:43 You forgot Mailspring, which is not only licensed under the GPLv3, so it's FOSS, but it also works on Linux and has been better in terms of weird ISP setups than Thunderbird in my experience.

[@ettoreatalan8303]

Mailspring is even more buggy than Thunderbird in my experience.

[@cameronbosch1213]

@@ettoreatalan8303 Mailspring has only been problematic once, although it necessitated a full reset of the config folder for the flatpak version. Otherwise, it's been smooth sailing!

[@eekee6034]

It always seems to be the same. Something works brilliantly for some people and badly for others.

[@GustavoBhr]

Mailspring was my choice for some time. I was so tired of Thunderbird weird setups. But nowadays decided to redirect everything to my main Proton email account and then using a Proton web app based on Brave. It just works everywhere and no more reconfiguring after a new installation.

[@nosherkhan3232]

I just started a new job and the first thing that I did was take the company laptop that was set up with Windows 11 for me, plugged in a USB key I had prepared, and installed Endeavour OS on it. Since all my work is tied to my Google account, I had absolutely no problem setting up & it's been working like a dream for me. In fact, I'm having fun tinkering around with KDE Plasma while on the job (thanks for your Latte Dock template BTW). All in all, I can do everything I need for work on a Linux system and not be bothered at all.

[@danielmugas3009]

3 years using linux for gaming and simple tasks, as you said, most people don't need too much in a pc, office, web browsing etc. linux has all the tools that any normal person would need, its just that people don't like change even if is for the best.

[@rigierish3807]

​@danielhalachev4714We should still do our best to convince others that Linux is a more than viable alternative because if you're not directly impacted by 97% of the users not using Linux, you will certainly be indirectly impacted, notably by the fact you will have a lot of mainstream software, critical to some users, absolutely unusable on Linux. And if alternatives to those programs exist, it would still be great if they all worked on Linux, instead of having to choose and compromise. So if there were only 2 or 3 times more Linux desktop users than there is now (which isn't much of the total market share), 90% of the programs not working now on Linux would work, because companies are ultimately only interested by money and don't care about OS war.

[@guglielmobartelloni]

The thing is that switching is very painful for a normie. Not only they have to install a new OS but the look and feel, even if it's similar, is not the same as windows.

[@danielmugas3009]

@@guglielmobartelloni facts.

[@carnistpolice]

The look and feel is definitely not the same, it's dramatically better, a lot more smoother and more efficient

[@gewdvibes]

@@carnistpolicethat’s your opinion but it still doesn’t change the fact. Someone’s parent who can barely use windows isn’t going to make a usb tool and go into the bios and change the boot drive and install Linux and navigate through the different options. Sounds simple to me and you but it might as well be gibberish to them

[@mohamedketata8259]

The company I work at was exclusively using Debian when it was "independent" in tunisia, but when it was merged with the main branch in france, now they obligated everybody to either use windows or Mac Technically it was always part of the french branch but politics opened some flows between tunisia and the world recently

[@axeldewater9491]

damnit

[@Winnetou17]

I'm in the same exact situation. Except that I'm from Romania. The big corporation that now I'm a part of (the previous company was aquired) now only supports Macs and Windows, while before we had Linux too. I hope I'll be able to make Linux a reality, but it seems it will take years.

[@takamatsu781]

For digital illustration artist perspective, there is a few professional art software in Linux. Of course there is Krita, Inkscape, Gimp... but I think in Windows, there are a lot software option to use than in Linux. In Windows, (for example) If they don't like to use Krita, they can switch to another software like CSP or Photoshop. But in Linux, the option is very limited. In Linux, yes we can use Wine to use the windows software, but in most applications (especially the new one), the pen pressure in Wine doesn't work at all. I think this is kind of situation really discouraging for many digital artists. For many professional digital illustration artist, transitioning from windows to linux is hard. But not that hard if they love to use software like Krita, Inkscape, GIMP, and some art software in Linux.

[@asatyrlover2358]

This. I love linux a lot and I want to move full there but I can’t stand krita, I just don’t vibe with it. Gimp is good for photo editing but not that nice for illustration. Beside, each program has a different pressure feel and if you can’t adapt to that as well, it can be difficult to move.

[@oldmonkplays]

Been using Fedora for the last 12 years for my personal/work laptop without much issues. Works great for me. Initially there were some issues related to wifi connectivity and audio/video playback. After changing my machine five years back, I have not faced any such issues. Works great out of the box for me, every single update of Fedora.

[@logicalfundy]

CAD work would be much better if FreeCAD pushed harder to push RealThunder's work into the main branch. The topological naming problem is a nightmare for CAD work and is really holding FreeCAD back.

[@TheJacobG]

I think the biggest issue is time. Time to migrate data and applications, then train employees, then deal with any problems that pop up afterwards. Many companies will do the math and determine the gains from moving to Linux do not outweigh cost of the transition.

[@SchmidtDrums]

Until all of their ip is stolen or the data is held hostage.

[@fuseteam]

This but also more general. For most people the benefits aren't worth the time for them

[@chlorobyte_projects]

@@fuseteam oh, except that they absolutely are. Windows takes more time and money out of your life on a continuous basis. It actively reduces your computer - a data processing tool - into a mess with its own mind that makes its own choices.

[@Nick-id1yk]

​@@chlorobyte_projectslinux costs me more time than windows.

[@GeorgiBalabanov]

​@@SchmidtDrumsDo you think everyone at CDPR works on Linux now after ALL their data was leaked?

[@DoctorJasonWilson]

I’m a freelance investigative reporter and I have used Ubuntu and derivatives like Pop_OS as daily drivers for almost five years without a hitch- I write all my notes and drafts in markdown and submit in whatever format the client needs using tools like Pandoc. The best thing about Linux is that it stays out of the way- it’s actually simpler and easier to apply to the most common workplace use cases that most people have besides software lock-in, I think the issues that really deter people are installation, the small learning curve after installation, and most importantly the lack of UI polish in some distributions and applications.

[@moetocafe]

Great video, thanks for it. Very extensively explained and in just 15 mins, you've covered so many use cases for the OS.

[@Mik3l24]

For music production, Bitwig (which is similar to the increasingly popular Ableton Live) has also had a Linux version for a while, it's even on Flathub. But unfortunately, there's another problem with comparability here - VST plugins. Well, technically the standard is Linux compatible, but... tell that to plugin developers. And since they're not executables but DLLs, Wine alone isn't going to cut it, you also need to run a special VST bridge, that might require to be installed from source... But a lot of plugins also have DRM/antipiracy stuff. So you probably aren't going to get industry standards like Kontakt. Though there still are amazing open source synths like Helm! EDIT: I incorrectly assumed Vital was open source too. But it's still available for free for Linux, if you don't mind closed source and making an account.

[@X-3K]

is that true for VST3? i always assumed it was probably compatible since .vst3 is it's own file type like .png, but an audio plugin is considerably more complicated than an image so VST3 might very well not be automatically cross-platform Also, Vital is *not* open source, to quote the EULA: "You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE PRODUCTS" so i think that slot should go to Surge XT or Vaporizer 2, a hybrid synth and wavetable synth respectively Vaporizer is probably the more direct competitor to Vital, although i haven't used it that much, i'm more experienced with Surge

[@Mik3l24]

@@X-3K Whoops, I assumed Vital was OS because Helm from the same creator is. Gonna have to correct this! At its core, both VST2 and VST3 are dynamically linked libraries (extension is just a hint here) and it seems that libraries are handled differently between Linux and Windows. ...and I've just searched and there exists both LinVst and LinVst3 (which is the bridge I mentioned)

[@somecallmetimelderberries432]

I completely agree. I've used Linux as my primary work OS while the rest of my group used Windows. IT only supported Windows, but I was able to work and get my job done just fine using Linux...for over 10 years.

[@mausmalone]

I would point out however that a lot of professionals are corporate employees - and those professionals don't get a choice. They run whatever the corporate IT office installs on the company-owned PC and that's almost always Windows. The appeal isn't how well the operating system will run for the user - it's how the IT department can configure it to be locked down /from/ the user and managed by a central authority through remote administration.

[@majorpaindiaz]

Even if they had a choice, would they chose Linux?

[@John7No]

one thing that is often gets overseen is that although linux in IT/Tech can provide with a future proof or at least get you a good qualification, in other sector such as media creation you heavily depend on Windows/Mac environments and apps to advance your career.

[@The8BitPianist]

The reason Valve put so many resources into SteamOS and Proton, making Linux way more viable for everyday users, is because Windows 8 was so terrible. They were scared of getting locked into an environment that could turn hostile toward them. So even that is thanks to bad Windows decisions.

[@logicalfundy]

I am so happy they did that, and continued the work with the Steam Deck. The difference between 20 years ago and today is night and day.

[@javaman2883]

A major issue I have with the metrics provided by statcounter and others is that they estimate OS Market Share based on web browsing. A lot of professionals are not sitting at their workstations browsing the internet all day long, they are getting tasks done. Graphic designers, animators, developers, effects artists, etc. need to produce output, which is done by staying off the internet. So the OS of those workstations will be under-represented in those charts.

[@traveller23e]

Also Microsoft may have very good data collection and can probably tell us _exactly_ how many modern Windows machines are running worldwide, but there's no such telemetry for Linux (by design).

[@kaz49]

I think that another big reason why people stay on Windows is because Windows is, like, a standard at this point. Others expect you to have Windows, and they expect you to be able to do things you can do on Windows, like run a .exe file without WINE spitting out a bunch of errors or waiting for a VM to boot. If you can't do that, you might end up losing business to delays or incompatibilities. Also, some professionals might not be willing to learn how to run WINE or a VM, especially if they're not a tinkerer kind of person.

[@slizgi86]

It depends, from my graphic point of view, is not there yet. So much software is only on win/mac. And for some, breaking from Adobe for some people is hard, even if there are alternatives, they are not on the same pair in matter of quality, stability and performance, even if they are better and better with every update. Video stuff is kind of there, with davinci but with extra steps and troubles, because of codecs and performance in matter of GPU is "limited". 3D is great with blender, or with 3D Coat or Plasticity. Music, I don't know, but it will be hard to beat macOS in this department for sure. For programming, it is great, unless you depend on full Visual Studio (VSC is great, but it is not a full IDE) or unless you make stuff for macOS/iOS.

[@kuhluhOG]

Well, there is a hurdle which is hard for Linux to overcome: familiarity And that is so much of a hurdle, that sometimes even Microsoft struggles with it. For example I know of a government office where they still use Office 2004 because when they tried to upgrade to Office 2007 (the version where Microsoft introduced the ribbon bar) the workers (government officials are unfireable in some countries) threw a fit. So they eventually had to change back.

[@guglielmobartelloni]

The big thing I'm missing is on the music production stand point where plugins are the key and they aren't supported

[@gimcrack555]

I'm just a normal computer user. Which means I only do basic computer task, a home user. Been using Linux for the past 20 years and never went back to Windows the day I left. And that glorious day was on July 15, 2003. Which mean every single Linux application does all my computer task just fine. I even game on Linux. I just game with Linux games. Linux been ready for the Desktop since I made that switch. Everybody else is just missing it.

[@MilersMascots]

Main reasons I switched back to Windows earlier this year: - Had to use a Windows VM to install MS Office/Teams for work purposes - Couldn't sync with my iPhone - Could no longer play Roblox with my child - Couldn't use my BT keyboard/mouse to login past LUKS I didn't mind using a Windows VM. I can eventually replace my phone. I have another keyboard/mouse I can use to login past Luks. But as silly as it sounds, Roblox was the straw that broke the camels back. You can do anything on Linux, except the things you can't do. There are workarounds for 99% of things, but honestly I just don't have the time. Looking to get back into it at some point, but in no rush.

[@julian.morgan]

I've been kinda nagging Presonus to port Studio One to Linux for years now and IMO this could be a very, very significant move for the whole Linux community. What sort of distinguishes using a DAW from most other professional applications is that the recording engineer has an insane number of highly technical **other** matters to juggle and the very last thing we want to be putting any time and attention on when recording is the bloody computer. There's the talent and what mood they're in, and how that affects their performance, there's mic choice and placement, there's the whole signal chain, room acoustics, talk back, monitoring, latency . . . the list is endless and then you multiply it, not by how many musicians you're trying to record simultaneously, but by how many audio channels each musician is recording to. So one drummer = 6 to 10 channels, one guitarist typically 2 or 3 assuming they don't also want to sing, and so on. It quickly gets very complicated, so when it's all set up and everyone finally manages to get all the notes in the right place, the damn thing better just work! This means that audio recording engineers need a very SERVER-like level of reliability and uptime which has made it, in my opinion, a no-brainer for professional audio to be done on Linux for at least the last ten years. What has been completely missing is for any of the big names in audio HARDWARE manufacturing to join the dots and realise the opportunity they have to create a bombproof reliable ecosytem in which their hardware can work seamlessly with software, since they can control the OS and eliminate a great many variables. Presonus as a hardware manufacturer who also develop a very decent quality DAW, have been resisting porting to Linux for many years, so I'm delighted they've taken this step in releasing a beta - I really hope that's going to mean some very talented engineers will be contributing upstream to audio on Linux, pipewire, and of course driver support for at least their own gear. They'll also eventually be very happy not to have to endlessly pander to the quirks, U-turns and general nonsenses of Apple and Microsoft. I strongly suspect that Valve and Steam showed them the way forward in this.

[@MrBreadoflife]

well the issue at this point is the audio system in linux is subpar compared to macos and windows. Good luck getting your audio interface to be reliable or even work in linux with multi track recording. I use studio one myself, and this should be a welcome addition if it is stable, but what good is it if the audio interface and the various controllers are not...time will tell.

[@KingKrouch]

@@MrBreadoflifeAbleton Live works fine for me on WINE with the FL Studio ASIO plugin, but I tried the native Studio One port and it’s audio implementation was very buggy and it lacked MIDI bindings for my keyboard.

[@MrBreadoflife]

@@KingKrouch not a fan of ableton the gui is so convoluted, but i suppose if it works reliably that is something!! I think if studio one is going to be good on linux, them or another company is going to have to develop an audio chain separate from pulse audio or whatever is currently there. ATM i am building a hackintosh on old i5 4570 and my audio interface and studio one seems to be working reliably.

[@navnitms]

Around 350+(out of 430+) Developers in my current company run Different distros of linux (Mostly Ubuntu) in their workstations

[@DavidAlsh]

I use Linux daily as a software engineer (Fedora/Gnome). I have found it a more productive environment than MacOS. I also have been playing video games on Linux most days (lies of p, recently) Weirdly, I have even found Windows 10 to be more productive than MacOS - but no laptop is as nice to use than a MBP

[@jlwtrading]

Perhaps the reason that Linux on the desktop has not taken the PC market by storm, is because, still today, much work has to be done in Terminal (in the CLI). For example, the whole procedure of disk partitioning/formatting is really a common chore which is a pain to do in the CLI, as apposed to the easy to use windows program "Disk Genius". I know that there have been some half hearted attempts in recent years to put this into a linux gui, but they have not been very flexible or easy to use.

[@eDoc2020]

I've never heard of "Disk Genius" but GParted works very well on Linux and has many features Windows Disk Management doesn't have.

[@AAAMGGG]

In Theoretical Physics we use linux quite a lot, pretty much anyone who uses and develops numerical solution and/or simulation that I know are on linux. Of course in more lab like application with very obscure soft to power lab equipment (yes, I am talking about you Leica microscopes) windows is must have though.

[@Joel11111]

In my experience with scientific computing in Python the software compatibility is the best on Linux. Windows and MacOS are both *mostly* supported, but have their blind spots. You only need one unsupported dependency to cause headaches.

[@kpcraftster6580]

Also can't forget OriginLab's suite still being windows only

[@AAAMGGG]

@@kpcraftster6580 true, that is the reason why I keep windows VM. I've never made it working in wine

[@nox5555]

@@AAAMGGG Windows is not always helpful in a lab. those machines dont get replaced ever, you only get new stuff in addition but never to replace. Thats why i have to run win95 and XP as VMs all the time.

[@tom_marsden]

Linux is ready for SOME professional work but not ALL professional work.

[@MrOrtmeier]

Great job Nick. Really enjoyed this one 👍

[@justy1337]

I've been daily driving Arch with an i3 gaps setup and then eventually back to Gnome 42 for over 3 years on my personal computers and tbh, everything about it (from the perspective of a software developer) has been great minus Nvidia drivers and support for CUDA hardware acceleration in desktop applications. Of course, I'd love to play certain games which would only run on Windows (Linux gaming has gone a long way). But the only major problem I've had time and time again was some hardware incompatibility with whatever setup I had going. So, that's why eventually, I've moved my main daily driver (which uses Nvidia discrete graphics through Optimus RIP) back to Windows. For all my development work though, hands down some Linux distro would be best (minus some platform-specific development like Swift).

[@petersimmons7833]

As a security professional, I ditched windows (except virtualized copies for simulated networks) a bit more than 2 years ago. And it plays my games just fine. Based on my paycheck, my wife thinks I’m a professional.

[@plablolxd]

6:57 for audio tools, there is a professional DAW called Reaper that's available on Windows, MacOS and is also available on GNU/Linux. It's very user-friendly, and gives a free life-time trial version that is exactly the same as the paid version. (It's part of their marketing vision, if you like their software, you eventually will be more likely to pay for it but you are not forced to)

[@Wohma]

Second this, I have been a happy user of Reaper for about a decade and it's great

YES, Reaper is awesome! :-) Been using it for more than 10 years now.

[@RAM_845]

But NOT ALL third party plugins work on linux even via emulation...I'm talking from experience.

[@guglielmobartelloni]

For me it's not the lack of DAWs in Linux but the lack of vsts that are a huge part of the audio production process

[@RAM_845]

@@guglielmobartelloni Exactly even if some "run" but they're buggy too,

[@Slate245Ivanovo]

Love your videos, Nick, but I've got to interject for a moment. Thunderbird doesn't support exchange atm. The plugin you talked about is incompatible with the latest version (or at least was a month or two ago). That said, exchange isn't something I'd use out of my own volition...

[@jonesing4fame922]

Thank you for commanding my attention and heightening my awareness! Please comment on which distro of Linux is "professional" friendly. Thanks in advance.

[@Crazynin1]

The "tip of the iceberg" session could also be replaced by BSD. But i know that people who arent familar with linux would say "but they are the same", so it actually doesnt matter. Also i know many NAS OS's and IoT Devices are BSD aswell (the O.G. TrueNAS Core vs the linux TrueNAS Scale for example).

[@Watchandlearn91]

Back when I was in school for my PhD, I pretty much had to use MS Office as the alternatives caused problems with some of the massive documents we worked on (specifically my dissertation) and for that reason I had to either use Windows or macOS. But now that i've graduated, thankfully I can use whatever I want and I choose to use either Ubuntu or Mint (I flip flop between them) on the desktop. For a laptop, I use macOS because I like the new Apple Silicon macbooks so much. Hoping Qualcomm offers some real competition there and I can run a Linux machine with this kind of performance and battery life (and have it not feel like a space heater).

[@Joel11111]

I've been running Asahi Fedora on my M1 MacBook (dual-booting alongside MacOS) without issue. The only annoying thing is that the speakers do not yet work and many apps do not ship a Linux arm64 version. The battery life is also noticeably worse. Also, (just out of curiosity) why MS office for writing something as lengthy as a dissertation and not Latex?

[@Watchandlearn91]

@@Joel11111 For any of the research papers I submit to a journal or a conference for example, I’ve always used Latex. As you say it works a lot better for scientific papers like that (I do computer science research with some area of machine learning mainly). For the dissertation, it was university policy to use their provided word template as a starter and then to submit the final doc in docx and pdf both. I think it was just the pdf we had to submit to proquest.

[@Joel11111]

@@Watchandlearn91 Ah man yeah the bureaucracy of some things can be less than optimal sometimes.

[@Watchandlearn91]

@@Joel11111 Yeah the sad part is that all dissertations end up looking very similar because the first like 5 pages are the same. I guess they think it looks professional (and I can see that) but it also just makes everything look copy/pasted even though the contents are completely different.

[@darkboxstudios]

I literally work every day with Linux since I started my career almost 9 years ago. So yeah is ready for professional work, what is not ready for is "Normal desktop user experience". Edit: I commented to quickly (Video title trigger me xD). Dev case is covered in the video.

[@howling-wolf]

As a sysadmin apprentice who uses linux sicne 2 out of three 3 years off my apprentice ship, I can say that it is awesome and all tools for that job are on linux :D

[@jamesjackaman8803]

Generally I do agree with this, the downside is when you hit desktop publishing, yes Gimp and inkscape are sort of ready and would be an almost viable alternative as they can save as .psd and .ai files and work with them too, BUT.. Scribus is NOT ready.. (as David Revoy found out, a French artist who solely uses Linux in his workflow.) Colour matching and output are incredibly hit and miss and it took him months to get something that he was happy with, something that you can't do outside of personal projects where deadlines and clients are fact of life. Add to the fact that there is effectively no file exchange format for Scribus that will work across other applications, so if you are working with other professionals then they will most likely not be able to open and work with your files. Other than that I agree that Linux itself is ready, it just needs to gain more attention and support from a wider range of proprietary software to make the exchange of documents and files more seamless.

[@MrBreadoflife]

The infinity suite needs to make linux versions, is a solid replacement to adobe products. But yes desktop publishing software is weak on linux. Gimp or other publishing software won't cut it in a print shop or design studio.

[@MrBreadoflife]

The infinity suite needs to make linux versions, is a solid replacement to adobe products. But yes desktop publishing software is weak on linux. Gimp or other publishing software won't cut it in a print shop or design studio.

[@ghost-user559]

Mac is still absolutely king of Desktop Publishing unfortunately

[@dominic213w]

I think the issue is there isn't an excellent compatability layer that works out of the box, like what Valve is doing with their steam os. If people can use a compatibilty layer to bring all their windows programs and packages, then there would be native apps for linux because there's a demand for them. Technically it's definitely possible because the mac os belongs in the same family as linux.

[@doigt6590]

MacOS is part of the Unix family. Linux is in its own Unix-like family. MacOS has more in common with oses like Solaris, FreeBSD and AIX than Linux.

[@marinlos]

Great points and video Nick. Thanks a lot. I've been using Linux exclusively for 14 years, mostly for teaching. So it's definitely useful and ready for many people

[@vincentschumann937]

I work in electrical device manufacturing and nearly all our (frontend)software is windows only for ONE reason: DRM a lot of it has EXTREME DRM measures like hooking straight into the windows ntkernel. Some of it also modifies the bios as a failed install completely bricked my bios (not to hard to fix thx to having a dual bios mainboard but still) so i would say it really depends on what work you do

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Why does no one ever mention "Lightworks"? It's a brilliant editor.... whenever I hear this tedious 'no pro software' argument I always point people towards "Academy Software Foundation - ASWF", then smugly flip them off 😉 Great video Nick, needed saying.

[@gabsriel]

I work generaly on public institutions. The main and huge problem is not to switch, but to teach the small differences. I would say that around 80 percent of colleagues would feel completely lost, even if it look like almost the same. Even a tiny little change makes huge anxiety...

that reminds me of the ribbon move in MS office and the pain it caused.

[@hopelessdecoy]

Yeah, I actually got a cheap loaner laptop so people can try Linux without touching their main PC, I tell them don't be afraid to break anything and explore. Institutional spaces being migrated would cause protests and walkouts (Unless it is a small but high adapting team but still).

[@rastatugan]

working as a dev and integrator for industrials, i'll use and install / help to moveto linux and bsd often lately , for the workstation , industrial graphism as well as production machine

[@RonakDhakan]

2:54 & 8:45 All of the top 500 most powerful super-computers run Linux. This shows Linux's power.

For me as someone who is making a slow transition from MacOs to Fedora the most challenging thing is not to use alternative softwares, but to FIND them in the first place. For example I am still looking for a textexpander tool that is still maintained from the developer - and works. That's what makes the switch harder for me. And some things are still missing on linux (commercial software), so it's not a breezing journey, but something that has to be conquered. :-)

[@fenndev]

Could "espanso" be what you're looking for? It's a text expander tool available cross-platform, looks like. I'd post a link, but KZbin would block my comment. AlternativeTo is a good website for finding alternatives to software you currently or used to use, and you can filter for programs that work on Linux.NM

[@rushi7312]

You could make one yourself fairly easily. You can use launchers like wofi/tofi/dmenu. The launcher accepts an input list and displays it. When you select one of the inputs (with search, arrow keys, mouse), it will return the selected element of the list. That element can be the name of a script that will copy the desired text to your clipboard. Is this is a hack? Idk. Most likely. But I am sure I could make it work. I do that kind of thing all the time for myself. I hate bash and I am a noob at it. But it is still useful at times.

@@rushi7312 Yeah, probably I will do something like that, find a way to make it work. :-) But this is what I mean: Linux DE are awesome but is not like you come from a big OS like MacOs, simply change a few apps and you're done. Yes, I do learn the terminal commands and I am digging deeper. But it's not an "easy switch". I guess we all deal with this kind of "blindness" when we are experienced in our field: We forget how hard it was in the beginning and can not relate anymore. Thanks for taking the time and actually giving me something I can go deeper with - I really appreciate that! :-)

[@d4rfnader]

Probably dependent on the profession/type of work you're doing. I'm in academia and for my own projects I can get away with linux, but the moment I need to collaborate with someone its far easier to have mac/windows to minimize any potential hiccups, especially when working on the same documents. Additionally, Microsoft Office for web is still a trash heap the moment you need to do something remotely complex and the linux alternatives aren't quite there for reliability on large scale, complex documents, whether it be formatting or stability. I've never had any alternative to microsoft office run particularly consistently on multi-hundred page documents. Finally, again, dependent on your discipline, industry software support is hit or miss at best (for instance IBM discontinued SPSS support in linux, a key analysis software in my discipline), not to mention missing programs like NVIVO or other old-guard analysis programs that often lack usable web interfaces if there are any at all (I am aware that R exists and have learned it, but the point still stands). So software lock is definitely a thing, it's what holds me back the most.

[@sammadden5540]

I use Ableton & Max MSP, unless they switch over to supporting Linux I probably won't change. But for Bitwig/studio one/Reaper users if you don’t need VSTs it's a great way to keep overhead down.

[@Ja.KooLit]

as always, very informative. thanks Nick

[@MarcosCodas]

It really depends on the industry you work in. I was having this conversation with my wife the other day. Linux is 100% ready for any professional industry. But it doesn't have third-party support for professional apps. The ecosystem is not as rich. When you need to produce work based on proprietary tools needed for collaborative things (in my case, CorelDRAW which is the standard for print shops in my country) then it falls apart. Also, if you want to work with audio and premium VST plugins, a lot of times the authorization system does not work on Linux (even if the DAW supports VSTs). So the commercial tools don't work, and when you're doing really specialized work (Pantone color matching in the case of CorelDRAW for printing, and stuff like massive audio reconstruction, re-reverb, etc for DAWs) you just can't waste time trying to make commercial applications work. And there are no real open source or even commercial, Linux-compatible alternatives. However, I do a lot of my (also professional) work with HTML programming, game development (I use GDevelop on a browser), SEO, journalism... all of that I can do without issue on a Linux computer and in fact, I do have a laptop I use for that. But there is no parity when it comes to commercial viability, particularly in the creative industries, and pretending otherwise only hurts because the perception is that there is parity, so nobody works on actually achieving it.

[@talkysassis]

The thing is: The system itself is the better we can get to do all those things, but people tend to think that third party support is related to the system. The real question is: Can Linux handle those program if they were ported? The answer is YES. Then is smart to not blame the OS for things made by other people who just refuse to give support.

[@MarcosCodas]

@@talkysassis Yes, and no. Of course Linux can support those things if people bothered to port them. But companies don't port them because of the small user base, and the small user base IS a Linux problem. So it's not that easy to just wash Linux's hands of the whole affair. If Linux desktop adoption was higher, more commercial companies would be compelled to add a Linux version of their apps (which require extra resources to develop and maintain). At 3% market share, it just isn't worth it to them. And I can't blame them.

[@talkysassis]

@@MarcosCodasThe thing is: Few people use Linux because of that. So it's a paradox.

[@MarcosCodas]

@@talkysassis indeed.

[@MarcosCodas]

@@talkysassis I do feel however, that if more effort was put into compatibility layers like Wine and Proton to ensure compatibility not just with games, but with commercial software, that Linux desktop adoption would be HUGE. Kind of like what Mac is doing with Rosetta 2.

[@RealHellession]

I found that the free version of Davinci resolve is basically useless on Linux. It supports almost no file formats and you have to go through the pain of splitting apart the audio and video into weird formats for it to even work, so I don't think that counts if you are a free user. For video editing (At least outside of kdenlive) I still have to resort to Windows VMs with GPU passthrough, though it's possible I haven't tried hard enough to get things working.

[@VallThyo]

The biggest problem isn't even with Linux itself, is that a lot of companies built their envoirments over a Windows base, so having alternative doesn't mean much because a transition, retraining people to use the sofware and a lot of other problems that migrating to a alternative - even if it was better, are still there. Here in my country a lot of places still use Windows 95 systems, because migrating over to something else would be so massive that it's almost impossible. Aside from that, I think most people who are in the Linux space(use and have it as a hobby) know how much it's actually used, but for the average person it has this distorted image of being hard, or not being good because it's free, as well as Linux demanding more of the user. if I had to retrain my employees to use Linux for a migration, I probably would just keep using Windows, because it's a lot hardeer, since the computer they have at home is likely running Windows as well.

[@majorpaindiaz]

It is not Linux's fault 😛

[@act.13.41]

I worked I.T. in an Active Directory network environment for over 30 years. Nothing but Windows. At home, nothing but Linux. 😁

[@rijaja]

I started working as a developer and my company imposes windows on us. It was a very rough experience. Oh and thanks for the tip about thunderbird and exchange! I thought it was impossible because it didn't work out of the box but I'll dig deeper this time. They give us outlook 2010 (yes really) and if we don't like it we have the web app.

[@v1d300]

The real problem is what you pointed out earlier in the video, *buy linux hardware*. Most people find it reasonable and easier to buy Windows hardware and then use Linux on it. And that should be the easy part but Nvidia and Intel do not work well with Linux and thats the real problem when most Laptops out there (used or new) are based on these hardware vendors. :( Most new hardware sold out t here does not have a stable driver release. Only when a laptop gets about 2-3 years old, you can run any distro on it without any issue. But most people want newer hardware that that.

[@owethumsomi7260]

I work at my sisters law firm and i have convinced her to switch over to Linux. We have 4 desktops and 3 of them run Kubuntu, with email being run on Thunderbird. The one system still has Windows since we use Lexis Convey, a conveyancing software requiring Windows OS and MS SQL server. Before it was Windows and Spark mail and i must say, the guys say that moving away from Spark mail to Thunderbird was the best. Its way more efficient. Credit to the people i work with for not having RTC

[@kyb9623]

i love the channel. i do entry-level, professional editing. i'd love to see you compare OpenSuse, Fedora and Neon for Davinci Resolve (or similar programs) for professional use.

[@francisquebachmann7375]

Problem with FOSS alternatives are the lack of 100% file content consistency with other software like adobe. If someone edited a psd file and you open the file to GIMP and edited it and send it back the file to a person who uses an adobe software. It will come out very different and the layouts are messed up. Linux might work for indie stuff, but if you're working with large clients that uses adobe or Autodesk, they will expect layout consistent when doing collaborative work. As much as I hate to say this but, I think Google might have the shot at disrupting Adobe or Autodesk if they make a web apps that can replace it or, have a universal graphics format/file type that can edit raster, and vector files, basically PSD and other proprietary file formats needs to be replaced with open-source ones. Like how HTML 5 killed flash

[@taoliu3949]

That's not just with FOSS, it's with any editing program. The issue is compliance with documentation. Even Microsoft has been found guilty of not following their own documentation for .docx

[@Lampe2020]

I'm using a desktop that has basically received its last update in 2018 (last officially used on Ubuntu 17.04). Yes, you've guessed right, it's Unity. And it's the best DE I've ever used on Linux, as its workflow fits perfectly to me with the pretty keyboard-friendly navigation. And it seems the desktop was basically already ready back then, as it's still useful so long after.

[@teklife]

Unity was and still is hands down the best, its peak was during the 14.04 release. so powerful! i wish i was living in the alt universe where the ubuntu phone got funded and all the hater babies just shut up and either actually tried to use unity in earnest and discovered how stable and powerful it was, or just shut up and used MATE instead and just let canonical spend a shitload of resources to develop a unified DE across devices (auto, phone, tv, tablet).

[@duckrinium]

This video kinda works as a list of apps you can use in your professional workflow! People might have not heard of some of them! 😄

[@kote315]

When people say "professionals" they mean "Photoshop users"

[@Nik.leonard]

For media creation pro usages, low-latency audio on Linux has been historically a pain in the neck with ALSA/JACK (but fortunately is improving with Pipewire). Also the screen capture issues with Wayland, and of course, the complete absence of Adobe, Autodesk and a lot of audio plugins and DAW’s that are not in linux and quite hard or impossible to run with wine.

[@seedney]

Have you tried MPD server?

As a DAW I am using Reaper since more than 10 years on MacOs - and happily found that they have a linux version too. For podcasting and similar stuff it's way more than enough. I don't know about professional music production though.

[@Nik.leonard]

@ The problem is not Reaper, is the plug-ins. Running VST on linux is complicated.

@@Nik.leonard Ah okay, I am not there yet, just installed reaper, have not made a podcast on linux yet. So that will be a journey ... ;-) Thanks for letting me know!

[@Nik.leonard]

@@seedney MPD is for audio playback, unless I’m wrong I think is unrelated to audio production.

[@africandreamchild]

Love this channel for the segway to the sponsors! :-)

[@Satook]

I agree with most use cases but there I haven’t found a substitute for Excel on Windows. When you need to grab/collate/tabulate a few thousand rows, Google sheets or online Excel is decent but Windows native excel can handle millions of rows with much more sophistication than any other spreadsheet tool I’ve used. It’s still the best for financial/business modelling work. Jypter notebooks might be a good replacement but that’s a big jump for a lot of spreadsheet folk.

[@traveller23e]

When the rows are in the millions I have to wonder whether some kind of script would be better suited to the task on hand

[@StMidium]

As someone who works in the space industry using exclusively Linux for everything, I can confidently say yes, Linux is definitely ready for professional work...

[@guss77]

When someone says "Linux isn't for professionals", 99% of the time they say "professional" to mean someone that uses Adobe tools. It's not that these people will disagree that software engineers, IT professionals, fact checkers, dairy farmers or dentists are "professional", it's that they don't think about other people.

[@RogerioPereiradaSilva77]

Right? "Your mom can't use Photoshop on Linux and therefore it is shite!". Well, my mom can't use Photoshop on Windows either as she wouldn't know what to do with it. Does that mean that Windows is shite, too? 😀

[@harkai-ne2yb]

You make such as great videos. Good time and have von fun with Linux! 😄

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks! 😃

[@marinrealestatephotography]

Speaking of content creation, I installed Nobara 38 on bare metal and I can't get DaVinci Resolve Stuio to start. I tried the current 18.6.2 as well as an earlier version (18.1 I think) and neither program would start up. My understanding is that DaVinci Resolve is supposed to run out of the box with the Nvidia drivers packaged with Nobara. Is that wrong? Do I have to install the Nvidia drivers that are listed in the installation instructions provided by BlackMagic design (which was for CentOS 7, I think)?

[@debasishraychawdhuri]

Use a more mainstream distro.

[@QuesoDePalo]

I've used it professionally more than any other operating system

[@DanielBrotherston]

Honestly, I find the "if it was so good, people would already use it" argument so revealing. People honestly haven't the slightest idea how decisions are made.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yep!

[@Haltroy]

Lately, I upgraded my HP laptop's NVMe drive with a 1TB one which means my previous dualboot of arch and Windows 11 was gone so instead of doing another dualboot system I just jumped the shark to Linux completely and I don't regret it. Most of the software that I used was open source ones and the ones that are not available on Linux are easy to be installed with Wine (like Proteus the circuit simulation program) and despite barely playing Cyberpunk 2077 at 30fps now my system is always running it 60 fps (although this might be because of the update but it was surprising that it still worked). I've been using Linux on this computer for 3 years (starting with Fedora) and I already did use Linux on my older machines (probably around 2018 with Ubuntu since I tried to get my AMD graphics card to work on anything and thanks to HP or AMD that it is not reachable and that GPU did crash Ubuntu so I never looked back at AMD for that. Imagine having 4GB and not being able to use that.) TL;DR: Windows has fallen billions must install endeavourOS

[@aysbg]

I dont think I use any app that is not available on Linux, at least not any of the essential ones... but whenever I tried switching to Linux (tried many distros over the years), I spent far too much time tweaking something rather than doing my primary work. So, inevitably I go back to Macos. I do timemachine restore and continue where I left off.