Windows & macOS can't do this, but Linux can!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Get 100$ credit for your own Linux and gaming server: www.linode.com/linuxexperiment

[@mkyral]

@NoName You don't have to use it.

[@CommentGuard717]

​@@NoName-pe9wrI don't know man. I feel like you've never tried it, even though a lot of things he said were a little bit false. For example, you definitely can live boot windows But when I installed Linux it was kind of weird like it was harder to fall asleep because I feel like I wanted to use my PC more if that makes sense. Think of like rooting your phone or something. Something similar to that. It's like it's so hard to explain other than it's just different and somehow better. I don't even know how to say it's better, but when I use it it just makes me like I guess you could say excited to use it

[@BirdLopers]

please add your nice references as urls, e.g. great UI & UX customisation examples: www.youtube.com/@linuxscoop useful sites to help choose a distro for you: distrochooser.de/en/ and distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

[@TiestoElement]

What browser is being used in the video?!?!? It looks super slick. Reminds me of safari.

[@cjay2]

But only Windows (XP, 7) can run the programs that I require to do my work. Duh.

[@kelvinhbo]

You can shutdown your display server and only use CLI mode for extremely long battery life on a laptop. Highly overlooked Linux feature that I use a lot myself.

[@ayushmaanraturi]

what do you do in the CLI mode?

[@MsMaciek]

@@ayushmaanraturi If he knows how to use vim then he can do some C++ programming etc.

[@GamingWithUncleJon]

​@@ayushmaanraturi just about everything can be done on the command line. Except inherently graphical tasks like video or pr0n

[@sudhanshusrivastava5663]

Can you suggest any blog or tutorial to do it?

[@shallex5744]

@@GamingWithUncleJon while not strictly "from the command line", you can do both of those things without a display server in something like mpv by outputting directly to the GPU using the KMS/DRM functionality of linux

[@dmpath]

I'm one week into my Linux experience after decades of running windows. I thought it would be too difficult to switch to Linux. Boy was I wrong. Linux does everything I need and after paying Microsoft for years I can now see a windows free future.

[@UToobSteak]

Welcome!

[@diogomarquessimoes]

Awesome! Welcome to the Linux world.

[@xperience-evolution]

Welcome to the family. Have fun!

[@dmpath]

@@xperience-evolution thanks, I'm having a blast.

[@FunFreakeyy]

For me it was the same. When I tried it I realized "this is what windows should have been". Most people only stay on windows because of software support, not because the OS is so great.

[@xymaryai8283]

learning that distros have to maintain all the packages in their repo if they modify any libraries that applications expect was mindblowing, having no stable target for what you can expect to have to include or what version to write for... Makes me really appreciate the Steam Linux Runtime, i'm confused why distros haven't agreed on something similar for user applications.

[@LaughingSeraphim]

Because Linux is a soup sandwich of a garbage os whose devs and fans refuse to admit its crap.

[@Hellscaped]

@@LaughingSeraphim Are you sane? Linux is literally running the site you are using right now. It runs google, amazon, microsoft, and 99% of companies.

[@dddux]

For applications there are appimages, flatpack, snaps that come with all the dependencies. You just download and run it. In rare cases it doesn't work, but in most it just works.

[@mach1553]

Only the flimsier distros, I can't even think of running a wanna be desktop Linux distro crafted by a geek with a Band-Aid 🩹between his lenses 🥸. @@LaughingSeraphim

[@psybin]

@@LaughingSeraphim 👈 😆

[@mirage809]

Package managers were such a game changer to me when I switched. It's just so nice having an app store like solution for handling software. It feels so much more polished than grabbing an installer online and it's just nice to have basically everything updated in a single click.

[@Soundwave142]

Fun fact; Linux had the "app store" before Windows and Mac did!

[@MegaManNeo]

winget is pretty awesome tbh.

[@JeffJackowski]

Thanks to those package managers, programs can have dependencies, like libraries, that also get installed but are managed separately from the programs that need them. A lot of Windows software include the libraries they need, so a Windows system can end up with a bunch of copies of the same library. There are some ways around this with some libraries, but it seems easier for developers to just include everything in their installer.

[@meowcula]

It's always the first bit of advice I give to new linux users - definitely do not go hunting around random developer websites looking for your applications! Those days are over - it's repo time!

[@woofkaf7724]

And you are waiting when developers of OS or Packet manager will add newer version.

[@israellai]

The lack of lock-in is huge for me. My entire philosophy regarding consumer products is to avoid any sort of lock-in.

[@BruceCarbonLakeriver]

Pretty nice philosophy :)

[@RichardFreeberg]

The Microsoft accounting department hates people like you.

[@ClokworkGremlin]

So many companies try to get you to lock into their ecosystem so that they can force you to buy only their accessories. When I make products, I try to go the other direction. If I make a product that works with everything, then it makes it easier to pick up my products, no matter which accessories you may already have.

[@philmarsh7723]

This is why I didn't use C#

[@yuvrajsingh15823]

​@@philmarsh7723 I also don't use it as well for exact reason,my colleagues prefer and saying it is very easy. But that sounds the deal you make with devil , where he pulls you into an easy zone , but you later found you are trapped. And microsoft is known for this.

[@dctb51]

As a dedicated user of old equipment, Linux is what I turn to inevitably at some point. From netbooks to Mac Pros, Linux runs on them all, pretty much. Writing this on a 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac!

[@Vitorfernandes83]

Ok. But why would anyone be using a 15 years old computer? Tech moves way too fast that computer will be frustrating to use. Life is short. Get yourself a good computer.

[@nou4605]

@@Vitorfernandes83 Maybe realise not everyone is made of money or doesn't like to contribute to e-waste if they can avoid it? Why does someone need the latest computer if their workload is super light.

[@Vitorfernandes83]

@@nou4605 why would you not want the latest and best? Go get a job. Then you can have whatever you want.

[@rajatkholiya]

@@Vitorfernandes83 because usage is very light.

[@Vitorfernandes83]

@@rajatkholiya what’s your point? I don’t want light. I want the best and greatest

[@mrbloodyhyphen-5657]

By far the best feature of Linux for me is sheer freaking customizablity of your OS. You can change so much about it and really make it your own.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Oh yeah. It’s insanely powerful!

[@yoyoma2026]

While this is true for me, the fact that we get a great out of the box experience for noobs on gnome and cinnamon is what really sells it: my parents can use Linux too

[@Nk-ti4st]

Especially tiling wms!

[@MjolnirFeaw]

You all seem to say that but as a long time Windows user I can't even see what you're all talking about. What is it that you want to customize and can't on say windows 10 ? I mean yeah, right you have to adapt to where your task bar is and can't move it around but if you don't distro hop - which you can't on Windows or MacOS, obviously - I don't see how that's a problem. Not saying there isn't a point to be made here. Just saying people who don't know linux yet - which are kind of the target of this video, because if you're on linux you already know why - we don't know what we're missing there. Maybe we should.

[@Revenant483]

@@MjolnirFeaw I guess what everyone means is that in Linux if you don't like anything in the Linux system that annoys you or seems unintuitive including the Kernel, you can find a 100's of replacements that are all 100% free and open source. For Example, I have a laptop running POP_OS a Linux Distribution made by System 76. It is built using Ubuntu LTS as a base. I don't like Gnome desktop they use so I changed it to KDE desktop just by installing KDE over top. I can still access Gnome if I ever wanted to or need to but I don't have to use it. You can not do anything like that inside of Windows or IOS. You can find apps to change some things but it is locked down, and will void your warranty if you try.

[@Finkelfunk]

Modularity is probably the single biggest reason why any developer will choose Linux. The workflow you can achieve with a fully customized Linux install is unlike any that you can get even if you start to doctor around in your Windows configs for years

[@magetaaaaaa]

Even if you tweak Windows, they'll just flip your settings back to defaults during updates. At least in the past they'd turn on all of the telemetry and data collection settings again, not sure if they still do.

[@yarnosh]

Meh, I spent 12 years on Linux exclusively and I can honestly say that the modularity is highly overrated. I did it because I like tinkering, not because I actually need it that customized. Ultimately I switched to MacOS because I just wanted stuff to work. I want a system with sensible defaults and I'll just learn how it does stuff. I wasted so much time fiddling with stuff on Linux that should just work. The modularity (also known as fragmentation) is also Linux's greatest weakness and what keeps non-developers away from it.

[@jackmcslay]

@@yarnosh If fragmentation was a problem for general consumers we wouldn't have multiple manufacturers making android phones rarely with a stock android instead of the manufacturer's own customized version.

[@yarnosh]

@@jackmcslay Fragmentation becomes a problem when the consumer is left to decide which Linux distribution to install (often having to try a few different ones to find the one they like) and then find out there's a whole bunch of different package managers, different ways of configuring the system, different sound subsystems, etc. An android device is still much more like an appliance than a general purpose desktop computer. There's no comparison.

[@jackmcslay]

@@yarnosh "the consumer is left to decide which Linux distribution to install (often having to try a few different ones to find the one they like)" I really cannot understand this argument. Nobody ever complains about having too many different houses or cars to choose from which differences impact people's lives far more than a choice of linux distribution. "and then find out there's a whole bunch of different package managers" there's like 3 (apt, yum and pacman) with a few others still without much traction like flatpak and snap which you can't choose unless you're creating your own linux from scratch and any consumer-oriented distribution will have a package manager no more complicated than the apple store or microsoft store. "different ways of configuring the system" meaning that being able to configure a folder share with a script you found on the internet as an alternative to finding 3 different windows in a graphical interface is a bad thing? "different sound subsystems" now you're grasping at straws. Even power users are unlikely to care about that. "An android device is still much more like an appliance than a general purpose desktop computer." shows how out of touch with reality you are. The amount of people who have a phone as their primary computing device today outnumbers by a significant margin those who have a desktop or laptop for that purpose. I know a number of people who use phones regularly and rarely use a desktop or laptop.

[@KosmasMakrogamvrakis]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it before (a lot of comments!), but the verbosity and the transparency of Linux systems, is a key point for me. You can always see and know what your computer does, you have all the information in your hands, and you can find out exactly what, how, when your computer does anything. I have little experience with MacOS, but in windows, you can not understand what is going on (eg. why the drive is heavily loaded), except using complex and difficult third party tools.

[@atharvachoudhary6974]

So true. One thing I remember which made me forget about windows all the more easily, was the directory structure for unix based OS. Windows is so shitty, personally I would install programs anywhere and lose track and it would make my own life harder. Linux was a breath of fresh air and it taught me to properly run an OS and respect the machine

[@lazymass]

​@@atharvachoudhary6974oh yeah, classic, you make a mess, but it's somehow fault of someone's (or something's in this case) else... Sorry but that's laughable

[@atharvachoudhary6974]

​@@lazymass didn't say I was the best person. But me being a noob having no context, linux would have been much easier to pick up. Still was in hindsight even when I was using windows for all my childhood! Gotta give something to them tho I still have a Windows machine to run my Music Production workflow. But Linux is my go to for everything, INCLUDING some old USB mics which don't get read in windows somehow but are running smoothly on my current Kubuntu install

[@toby9999]

​@@atharvachoudhary6974How could you install software on Windows anywhere and lose track of it? Control Panel list all of your installed applications. You can uninstall from there. Compare that with the crappy Linux method. It does my brain in. It's an incompatible mess. At least it was last time I looked. Didn't like it.

[@stephencoakley]

Printing support cannot be understated. I'm one of the defacto resident "computer guys" for family and friends that can fix their computer problems for cheap or free, and printing issues happen *all the time* on Windows. I'd say its on the top 5 most common list of things that I fix. Printing on Linux is a breath of fresh air. It just amazingly works all the time without me needing to do anything at all. MacOS is somewhere in the middle -- usually printing just works without doing anything, but every once in a while I have to remove a printer and add it again to reset some sort of stuck config.

[@Ebalosus]

As someone who does "computer guy" for a living, I second this. In my over 15 years in the industry, I haven’t encountered any issues with printing from Linux. MacOS/OS X would be close behind, because although it’s much better than Windows, you can still get wonky cases due to either lacking or botched AirPrint configurations on the printer, wonky drivers, or hardware that straight up isn’t supported. Windows remains (of course) are perennial pain in the ass due to a multitude of overlapping reasons, and is why I totally get why other IT people refuse to deal with printing issues in the slightest. It’s wild, because as long as printers have been around, you’d think there would be some degree of standardisation and interlopability with printers, yet it feels like the printer industry is still in the same place it was in the early 90s…

[@m5a1stuart83]

modern linux yes, but not in the past. Samba was hell in the past.

[@m5a1stuart83]

@Zaydan Alfariz commenting that Linux is not easy in the past. How long do you use Linux?

[@comet.x]

unfortunately I still get printer issues. However, that is almost certainly the 'smart' printer's fault. printers are just awful machines

[@lavacreeperking_4740]

How? I use Fedora and I have a HP printer. The only way I was ever even able to get the printer to print a test page was to install HPLIP, but even then I could never get my documents to print properly. They would always start at the very top of the page and leave a big gap at the bottom, parts would get cutoff, and sometimes only a small portion of the document would even print ant the rest of the page would be blank. One time I even tried running a live boot on my friends Mac who also had a Cannon printer and I was never able to even get it to print a test page. The only way I have been able to print anything is to use an Android device to print stuff from my printer. How is everyone able to print from Linux except me?

[@AggressiveHayBale]

Booting a system from USB is an amazing feature even just for fixing some errors that in other situation would result in a complete system reinstall. This feature saved my OS at least a couple of times

[@dingdong2103]

You can do this with macos easily, just use a pre-installed macos hdd/ssd in an USB enclosure and boot from it. I'm running Macos Big Sur in my 2007 imac like that even though Big Sur won't install on the imac. It works by USB boot perfectly and is as fast or faster than the old hdd.

[@DrumToTheBassWoop]

isn't windows restore point the same thing ?

[@dingdong2103]

@@DrumToTheBassWoop Nope. Windows restore point requires a working installed Windows to use - and it's more likely to fail than work.

[@DrumToTheBassWoop]

@@dingdong2103 windows backup ?

[@oaquique]

@@dingdong2103 you can boot to Windows RE (Recovery Environment) both from your computer or USB stick and fix issues in your computer. This has existed since, at least, Windows Vista.

[@zer0pointnothing]

After getting my Steam Deck, I decided to get Linux on a USB so I had something portable, and I've honestly fallen in love with it. I've only tried Arch so far, but when I get my next PC, I'm definitely going to do some distro hopping until I find something that I can settle with. Then again, Arch's KDE Plasma is already perfect for my needs. Honestly, the one thing that's keeping me attached to Windows is the support for games. If the few games I love to play start supporting Linux too, I'm probably going to leave Windows and never go back. Sure, it has its quirks, but that's the fun part. Nothing feels better than finding something not working on your OS and being able to fix it *yourself*. Fun fact, this was actually sent from my little ArchUSB I set up for the first time I ever had my own Linux OS (i don't count SteamOS since that's a little locked down lol).

[@xGshikamaru]

Try lutris, there are a lot of games that are supported if you know the quirks you have to go through. Lutris takes care of that for you, if your game doesn't run natively, you can use wine.

[@Kedvespatikus]

I have the bet that you will settle down with Arch or perhaps with one of its spinoffs. :)

[@zer0pointnothing]

​@@KedvespatikusOh, you would be 100% right XD. Seven months later and now I'm daily-driving Arch Linux with KDE Plasma both on my AMD laptop and my Nvidia tower. No regrets. I love Linux

[@therewasblood]

arch with plasma is *chef'skiss*

[@colonelfustercluck486]

I changed over to Linux by going dual boot...... setting up a PC that has Windows and Linux on seperate partitions on you SSD / Hard Disk. Now I rarely use windows at all. Maybe I need to use some peculiar software for some task, once every now and then. Usually I only turn my WINDOWS on to update it now...... I made the change about 5 yrs ago, and it was a challenge then. Butt everything is so easy now..... literally change to Linux and connect your printer and everything.... turn it on and it works. For software, there are forums that can advise you while you are in the learning stages. It's pretty darned good. One note, it that if you are going to mess around and do installations, partitioning and 'techy' stuff. Have a 2nd seperate working PC, as you may need it to save you arse, if you make a mistake!!!!!

[@yodarunamok]

And note that the "one size fits all" problem is getting worse. Constraints are getting worse and worse. Personally, that is the main reason I've moved to Linux. Also, in my experience MacOS gradually forces you to upgrade -- problems will start to crop up that don't go away until you upgrade, even though they would appear to have nothing to do with the OS version.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, and after a few years, you have to buy a new computer to get the update!

[@scifino1]

The keyword you're looking for is "planned obsolescence" (via software in this case; Apple has also been doing this with hardware, e.g. by making components that will break with usage, like batteries and hard drives, difficult to exchange, nudging you to buy a new device instead).

[@tristanheckroodt]

@@scifino1 Very well stated

[@sihamhamda47]

@@scifino1 Yeah Apple components nowadays are paired with locked firmware code that makes it impossible to upgrade/replace if it's broken, and if the users keep changing the hardware, its users would be bombarded with numerous hardware failure message on screen that makes almost any features unusable, or even worse, the device won't turn on at all

[@igordasunddas3377]

More so: in a foreseeable future there'll be no other way to break out of the box than to install Linux. MacOS on M1/2 processors is kinda limiting, Windows since 10 is going downhill and putting more and more constraints. I have a Windows 10 PC, but I'll only be using it for games (which is a pity since it's really powerful). I have a MacBook for development and another one for my job. I'll certainly explore Linux for the former as soon as Asahi Linux is more stable. My Home NAS is running Ubuntu Server since 16.04 came out and it really never caused issues and now with Cockpit and almost everything inside containers + RAID + Backups I'm confident in the system and also learned a lot on how to treat it.

[@haddock8087]

As a software developer, one of the biggest advantages of Linux is docker performance. It's native on Linux whereas it's virtualized on the others (it's worse on Apple ARM, it's emulated if you have to work with x86 images).

[@fltfathin]

docker is linux "exploit" anyways, since everything is a file you can sandbox and flexibly route things by making environment that only have the files they need to run. you can't do that on other GUI oriented OS

[@gondra007]

I Second to that. Docker on windows 10 is totally garbage. Docker on Debian 11 feels like your not using any Container at all.

[@leogama3422]

​@@fltfathin You basically described chroot... macOS can do it, I believe. It is a certified, POSIX compliant Unix system after all. But it cannot isolate some system resources that Docker needs to be isolated.

[@rishabdhar6900]

Heard about Orbstack? The performance of Docker with Orbstack is near native on MacOS. Docker starts up in 2 secs on my Mac machine (which is very close to Linux). Memory usage of Orbstack is a measly 64 MB and it uses dynamic memory for spinning up Docker containers.

[@gondra007]

@@rishabdhar6900 Thanks Brother will have a look

[@yaynative]

Printer installation on Windows 10 and 11 is just as convenient as in Linux. Windows can find a printer on the local network, retrieve and install a driver for it. For some printers you'll have to obtain and install the driver manually, but that's true for Linux as well.

[@HikingFeral]

It took me a few attempts over about a year of dual booting, uninstalling, reinstalling Windows etc but now I only have Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on my devices. I am currently watching this video while playing FFXIV at 150fps, all of my Steam games work well, some of them better than Windows. I am working on my university TMA with Libra office and saving it in a docx format for compatibility with my Uni's Microsoft Word. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to try but I am so glad to say I only use Linux and that very very little of my data is shared and only then the data I choose to let Ubuntu have.

[@adamfryman6789]

Its nice when you finally find the one for you. I had been going backwards and forwards between windows and linux. Then i got a steamdeck, now I trend towards games with deck compatibility. Mint has been my daily driver since then.

[@masterchiefburgess]

I've been using only Linux on my personal laptop since the mid-2000's. Various distros - Slackware, Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, and now Zorin and Pop! OS. I was a network support technologist (retired in 2009), supporting a networks of Windows PC's laptops and servers. I got so fed up with supporting (buggy) Windows devices that I vowed to get rid of it on my own personal PC's. I took the ultimate step in January when my old ACER died - I replaced it with A Starlabs Starbook. Didn't even have to blow away Windows to install Zorin; Starlabs provided the laptop with the Linux distro of my choice already installed!

[@Akab]

Everyone who sends me an office project file (docx) only gets a "please send me an actual document file like pdf instead of a project file."

[@ed223-p5g]

i only stay on windows because of the games, but i heard that a lot of them work now like you said. I think next year or so i will change to linux, i'm sick of windows ads and development is so much better on linux

[@jan-lukas]

​@@Akabpdf is even worse imo, it's not portable at all despite the name "portable document format". Like, there's NO good pdf editor on Linux

[@nyverinorlyth9555]

Interesting tip: Even on some computers where the bios is locked, you can still bootup your live disk, assuming that they have windows installed, just hold shift before you reboot and you can select your USB from windows bootloaders, some public computers lock the bios but not this thing, allowing you to use your Linux.

[@3kinformaticamanutencaoeve91]

Someone would use Plop or even modern Ventoy. On Ventoy you prepare once a pen and simple put the live iso on a folder. This is valid to installers too. Very hand on wheel. I am not considering all regarding on security issues. Someone know if this aproachs has any treat?

[@melanovapedia7924]

ohh, interesting, I will try it in laptop friends,

[@yvesbeilher637]

..but then, if it's locked, you have to know the password. Right ?

[@nyverinorlyth9555]

@@yvesbeilher637bios settings password from my tests, no. if you have a bitlocker on boot, that would stop it. unles its already booted

[@leogama3422]

I'll try that!

[@07Convertable]

Actually, Windows does have reference drivers for most of the printers that it auto-discovers. You will still need to download the manufacturers package if you need more than simple printing needs. I did this just last night at a client's site. However, ghostprint works on a majority of printer devices for Linux.

[@brd5548]

Here's another very important and exclusive one for Linux, Docker. Yes, Windows and macOS does have the docker desktop app, but the desktop app is implemented through a virtualized Linux system, thus not very efficient and can cause many headaches. For native Linux system, docker or portainer are very efficient, having almost zero performance overhead.

[@melanierhianna]

Yes Docker is based on LXC which is specifically a Linux thing. BUT the system that LXC uses exists in MacOS. MacOS has its own system built in. I could argue that Linux can't run the MacOS docker like system. And actually the built in virtualisation is about 99% efficient and easy to use.

[@Luc484]

​@@melanierhianna Actually, performance of docker on macos is really bad. Mostly unusable for some applications. Try to build the Ubuntu kernel on it. I gave up.

[@Freshbott2]

They’ll fix it soon enough anyway. I use docker cause it’s what I know but there’s so special sauce. If I’ve understood correctly it’s a security nightmare and it doesn’t achieve anything BSD can’t do more securely and efficiently in jails which is why it doesn’t have it. Given the chance to run something in Docker or standalone I always go standalone, only using docker cause I have to. And Portainer sucks. It’s always more work than compose and I’m not some vim elitist or something.

[@certs743]

The issue with OpenSuse is just a setting on the firewall for network printers. The defaults are a bit more locked down. Excessive for most home users but relatively easy to solve even from the installer.

[@jyvben1520]

suspected it was some security measure

[@certs743]

@@jyvben1520 Oh for sure. OpenSuse's primary customer base is companies not home users.

[@antoniom.andersen6704]

Yeah, I agree, it's a bit excessive. I have no printer so not a big problem for me :)

[@certs743]

@@antoniom.andersen6704 It does make a bit more sense when you remember a large part of their users are company workstations not home users. Don't need some random employee sending print jobs to random printers in a business.

[@antoniom.andersen6704]

@@certs743 Yeah, it does :)

[@nathanmiddleton1478]

Always love your videos. They're great for background listening. Thanks.

[@ozrencupac]

I really love the modulation on linux, the fact that there is no "default" always installed app and that i get to choose what i want is awsome

[@antonius254]

yeah if you compare to xiaomi or any android phone ... is awsome :)

[@comet.x]

firefox: I made the mistake of spamming enter while installing KDE... The amount of shit it comes with

[@ratemisia]

@@comet.x This is why many of us still use lighter DEs like Budgie, XFCE, or MATE ;)

[@judewestburner]

In the server world Linux is a game changer. Being able to treat servers as cattle instead of pets meaning you can create em and destroy em at will is something Windows cannot really ever hope to offer with its server licensing model

[@mach1553]

Interesting analogy

[@ChrisRLowery]

With datacenter licensing, you absolutely can do that, but it's not exactly cheap

[@rondobrondo]

This genuinely expanded my consciousness

[@Arsenic71]

Actually there is a special licensing model for ephemeral Windows VMs, like the ones used for sandboxing.

[@hellmalm]

Microsoft’s Azure cloud services run on Linux, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud as well. Linux is the undisputed king of servers these days. Only in local scenarios are Windows DC servers used on scale. And Unix is still big in banking and insurance (AIX running COBAL).

[@pietstreet8311]

Not to forget: Linux can read (and often write) almost all Disk Filesystems, Network Filesystems and virtual Harddisk Formats. You can use qemu-img and backup your entire Harddisk to a .vhdx or .vmdk File on a external Drive or a Network Share. I use Knoppix Linux as my every Day Swiss Army Knife when fixing Computers.

[@leecowell8165]

Yep... I've rescued valuable data from Windows boxes that would no longer boot BUT the drive itself was perfectly fine. This is because I can read NTFS from a boot stick and simply move those files to another stick. These people think I'm GOD.

[@bombus_]

same but with finnix. having a utility Linux live install is sooooo useful

[@LeLocutusFranc]

Linux need ntfs-3g to read ntfs partition. Windows can also read linux partition with third party software.

[@jimmyking92]

Being able to boot from usb/live cd in order to access drives and their data after a failure to boot an OS (especially regarding Windows installations) is a lifesaver.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Oh yeah

[@ruddock7]

Rufus does that with windows. Windows to go boots via usb!!

[@terdik36]

@@ruddock7 yeah but a linux live cd is just simply better, one reason is that it already includes all the drivers you would need (if you don't have an nvidia gpu of course), so the resolution and the overall graphical performance is just way better

[@nymrieko4170]

You can connect your Mac to another Mac as external disk via TB port. Or you can boot it into Restore mode, which is actually special version of the OS with needed tools installed into computer’s hardware. Even some old motherboards from ASUS has simplified version of Linux installed into onboard flash. Much better variant that is always ready to be used. And you cannot use Linux to correct problems with Mac’s APFS

[@alishxn]

Only using linux i can proudly say *"i use arch btw"* with windows and mac I can't 😂

[@psimbyosis8162]

i usually use debian distros on dual boot but arch with xfce is awesome. in poor and old pc like entry level celeron laptops turns it into a functional computer and consumes 1gb of ram.

[@alishxn]

@@psimbyosis8162 Arch is even better with hyperland

[@psimbyosis8162]

@@alishxn hyprland wm looks beyond awesome, maybe for programmers and pro users. here a casual. thanks for the windows manager.

[@UNSCPILOT]

I use Arch... by cheating and just using Garuda Linux, been loving it for over a year though and only had to open up my old Windows 10 install a couple times to move a few things like Sketchup files, since that program doesn't support Linux and I've moved to Blender instead

[@freeculture]

I use Gentoo. Never looked back at Arch. Compile against your actual libs means rock solid, and on top of that you can customize the features you want or not on each package, while even being allowed to have multiple versions of them... It is too good once you are ready.

[@yf4wx]

As developer, for me a big deal run docker natively without virtual machine. It means you can develop apps and use docker even on slow machines

[@reno145]

Another thing Linux can do that Windows can't is keep my 79 year old father in law from calling me with tech issues every few days. Once we switched him from Windows his system stability became rock solid.

[@thesoulofmemories]

its not windows fault that your old father or mother dont keep up with technology. Simple! Dont blame it on the tech companies!

[@Kaleidoscopers]

@@thesoulofmemories theyre boomers bruh they just dont know how a lot of the features work and how they are used.

[@Kaleidoscopers]

@@thesoulofmemories + probably dementia

[@shadow-wulf]

That's what I'm dealing with, my FiL is going senile, and remembers to use windows help..... the problem is he does whatever the first fix is, which is almost always get your Restore Disc.....😱😱😱😱

[@erikjvanderveen]

You never had to help him anymore? Then I guess after changing to linux your 79 year old father understood nothing anymore and he decided to never touch the device again and he has or will soon move the whole thing to the attic. Ask him about it.

[@tsukinoko_kun]

You actually can change the app icons on Mac without any third-party apps. Just open the details' window of the app and drag and drop the new icon into the old one on the top left (shortcuts might not update immediately).

[@shaakunthala]

Some time ago I used to have my entire Linux installation on a portable hard drive. Connect to any computer, it just works.

[@S3nt1n3l1]

Id like to see you walk through a step by step migration from another OS to Linux. I'm falling out with Windows and Linux is looking more tempting by the minute.

[@sergeykish]

While migrating from Windows I've replaced software I use with open source alternatives - LibreOffice, Krita, Gimp, etc. Next tried different distributions with LiveUSB. Installed Dualboot - that was scary as I had no knowledge how to recover but everything was fine. Eventually I've broken boot but with LiveUSB it is always easy to boot into Linux and there are plenty of info how to recover.

[@ozzybiker1013]

Go for it, I switched to Linux in 2000 when it was still in its early years. It has been my sole operating system since then. If I try and use a windows PC, it is the most unfriendly unusable OS that makes simple things so complicated.

[@dingdong2103]

I switched to MacOS/linux more than a decade ago and it gives me the creeps now every time I have to open a windows box. I have a zero trust policy on them, I always treat them like they have an infection. Most do, despite having 3-4 AV / malware scanners and broken registry through use of 'cleaners' :D

[@freeculture]

@@sergeykish I don't recommend dual boot because its easy to mess up, if you have backups, go for it. But complete removal of the old OS is always easier in a PC at least.

[@sergeykish]

@@freeculture Yes, it is possible to make mistake, it is better to have separate hardware. I had no separate hardware in my time of switching to Linux.

[@dannyshaw4057]

The live systems and the support for old hardware are absolutely key! I have a 15 year old laptop, and it was back to a perfectly useful working computer with a live distro. Subsequently I did buy a cheap HDD and installed, very useful to have a spare computer - the dev tools on linux are great, so for a few small programming projects of experiments it is brilliant.

[@sergejlavrov3446]

I bought a cheap chinese SSD 1TB for 48 USD and used Diskgenius to copy the old system onto the SSD and the 15 year old AMD/Lenovo Notebook runs like crazy. In the past one could even install Mac os on Intel PC's or with some tricks on AMD.

[@onlyhereformoney175]

​@@sergejlavrov3446 say goodbye to your data

[@KorbenDalasCZ]

if all users were like you, intel amd nvidia etc. would go bankrupt

[@zarroth]

Yep, moved all my financials to an ancient laptop that is now running linux. Keeping all of that stuff completely isolated is just a wise move in general, especially if you have old spare hardware laying around that won't be always online.

[@dddux]

It0s also fun having a USB drive with your favourite Linux distro, so you can impress friends by running it on every computer they've got. ;)

[@weather2456]

Wasn't so easy for me to print on Linux as you presented it but at the end I printed

[@Lambda_Ovine]

the painless printing advantage is a bigger deal than what must people realize, including linux users themselves. When I used to work on IT, about a third of all the tickets that opened where printer related, either users having issues connecting their laptops to a wireless printer, to big printers serving an entire Windows Server LAN, and the issues were always buggy proprietary software, outdated drivers or perfectly fine printers that stopped receiving support from manufacturers. We had one client, a mid-sized company, that was smart enough to setup a Linux server to manage printing jobs

[@andrewcrook6444]

MacOS has CUPS the Linux printing system included.

[@davidioanhedges]

Generally speaking if there is a problem printing on Windows it's Windows or a driver, on Linux it's the Printer ...

[@pheloniouspunk1417]

@@davidioanhedges Sure, and unpopular opinion here, you can delete and add a full set of drivers to a server in no time. I am a senior copier tech with 30 years of experience. As I write this I am in charge of a fleet of over 500 various machines across a wide territory and not one set up involves a linux server. It's too bad too because I love working with Linux and have several flavours running on VM's on my machines. Every idiot IT guy knows how to run a windows print sever. I'm not saying well but for a few bucks you can cut the expertise of the IT guy to almost nill if you run a win server. Not throwing shade but simply pointing out a full linux server set up is rare and finding competent IT guys to administer is even rarer.

[@EarthStarz]

Well done to linux for providing basic pri t functionality. Too bad it can be a headache trying to get full device support when you need it. Sort of like most of their drivers. Would much ruther deal with mature win drivers tha sudo..... sudo.... sudo... f that

[@davidioanhedges]

@@pheloniouspunk1417 I understand completely why people use Windows Print servers in business - all the workstations and most of the servers are Windows so its the easiest option ... As people who used to run IBM used to say ... no-one ever got fired for running IBM ... Note the used to ... With near everything that can be virtualized now using a windows server license and an azure license for a print server is getting harder to justify

[@wimh-e7l]

Once I got used to Linux, I tried Windows from time to time due to lack of gaming support. But productivity really was holding me back on Windows. And now I have a laptop with Linux (Fedora, but I want to switch to an Arch based distro again) with gaming support as much as I need. Lutris does all the Windows support and Steam does the rest. I haven't even taken the time to look at Windows 11. I'm sure I will see it on a friends PC some time in the future. But I'm sure I won't be able to help them anymore with problems. To all beginners: Don't blindly copy and paste commands you find on the internet in the terminal. It'll break your system. But instead, try to understand what the command is about to do. Be aware of commands that do a wget/curl on a .sh file and feed it to /bin/sh (for example) using a pipe "|" to run. Those can screw up your system quite easily. All commands in that script would be executed immediately. Only do that if you know the author. Otherwise, just download the script manually and review it before running.

[@karlosh9286]

I still do have a windows PC , just for games supplied via Steam. I guess I should try steam on my main linux home laptop, but then I built a silly powerful windows gaming PC . Anyway , I don't trust any of my important personal data on the windows gaming machine, that's too important ! ( okay apart from a Windows and Steam login !) Most of my time , I'm not playing games, and thus on linux !

[@XiX_Mega_W]

Yeah, I switched to windows a while ago due to a driver problem (and switch back to linux around 1 month ago), but then my productivity really dropped, i didn't make any youtube videos since my video editor was extremely slow on windows and i didn't have most of my files and the OS was simply less responsive.

[@johnwayne-kd1pn]

Actually, if gamers knew what was best for them, they would switch to GNU/Linux too. It's the better future for gaming, and I hope it happens. Imagine being able to run your games without Windows howling at your resources. You can set up a custom gaming system that only plays games, and does whatever else you want it to do, and nothing more, and so run a gaming system that doesn't waste resources and time on anything else than your games. Pretty much everything the community developers put their hands to become better than their Windows counterparts, including many drivers (and that's without any priveledged access that driver development in Windows has). Imagine the enourmous improvements and optimizations that could be done to graphics drivers and graphics layers. Performance could become quite alot better than what it is on Windows, and as a result games could become better and perform better on a more stable and less problematic platform.

[@XiX_Mega_W]

@@johnwayne-kd1pn only thing stopping me from having a perfect gaming experience on linux is games intentionally stopping their anti-cheat from working on linux. i dont understand what they are trying to do here.

[@johnwayne-kd1pn]

@@XiX_Mega_W Cheating sucks... Well, obviously we can thank Valve and Steam for their push to promote gaming on GNU/Linux systems. And sure, they can incorporate anti-cheating functions in Steam etc. Other anti-cheats can do the same. But then we put ourselves at the mercy of those single actors. I think like alot of things, there are many solutions to this, including new community anti-cheat functions. In any case, due to norms and historial situation, there is still a long way to go for gaming on GNU/Linux, but in theory it could be much greater than gaming on Windows. Ultimately it's up to the gamers to make the choice, and for companies, groups and individuals to make the conditions as favourable as possible. Ps. It's worth mentioning Vulcan in all this too. Such things matter too.

[@banaantje0456]

In my experience printing on macOS is pretty similar to Linux. They do actually ship a lot of drivers with the OS if you cannot use AirPrint. Just pick the printer from the detected list, select the appropriate model if it didn't do so already, and done! (Though on the new arm macs it's not that simple as (at least some of) the drivers are x64 based while the printer add tool doesn't mention that.)

[@ren5689]

MacOS is linux

[@banaantje0456]

@@ren5689 It's not though. They're both unix-like but that's where the similarity stops basically.

[@ratemisia]

@@ren5689 MacOS is BSD, actually. The closest open source relative of Mac is FreeBSD, not Linux.

[@typingcat1814]

These are terrific points. I think most of the "advantages" of Windows have nothing to do with the Windows OS and are really just about compatibility and maximizing one's software options. Of the three, macOS is the worst, because you lose both the maximum compatibility of Windows and the customizability and OS creature comforts of Linux. The only nice thing I can say about macOS is that it maybe the best OS for "non-computer people" barring maybe ChromeOS (but it won't steal your data as much).

[@Chalisque]

Microsoft are religious about backwards compatibility in Windows, and that is something that we should applaud and learn from. That you can run software written for Windows 98 on a contemporary Windows 10 machine (well maybe not always) without a recompile speaks volumes. Compare that with Macos where, after 5 years, it's "Sorry Sir, we don't do vintage". Linux is somewhere in the middle. For example, binaries compiled for Debian 11 can't just be dropped into Debian 10 and work. And binaries compiled for Debian 5 can't be dropped into Debian 11 and just work. (Last time I tried, there were libc version mismatches.) For music, I daily drive Windows (Reaper and Ableton). For video editing, again Windows (Da Vinci). For VMs I have Windows on my 5950X which is great for spinning up many VMs. (VirtualBox's bridging so that VMs can have their own IP address is a killer feature for me -- last time I tried to set up bridging or kvm, I messed up the wifi settings so bad I had to reinstall.) For things like watching youtube videos or consuming media, I often use my Windows laptops. I have a mac mini as my entertainment machine connected to my TV, and one connected to a pen display for graphics things, and also for building software on a mac (both off eBay for £180, and are all I need until the 2014 minis are obsolete, and by then 2018 minis will be on eBay for a similar price). For my coding workflow, I run KDE. I have two or more activities (sets of virtual desktops, with its own desktop wallpaper config), each of which has 8 virtual desktops. Then Konsole has tabs, Each tab has a tmux. Some tmux windows have a nvim or vim, which may have tabs. So my switching goes 3-4 levels deep. I get close under Windows with Windows Terminal (and I do love Microsoft's Terminal, and like VS Code as a contribution to the FOSS community). Generally Windows, Mac and Linux each have their strong points. By having multiple of each I can easily switch to whichever is the strongest platform for a particular task. I needn't be Windows vs Mac vs Linux. But rather some of each.

[@dingdong2103]

I disagree. MacOS is perfect for people who own ipads and iphones or people who do music production. Everything happens just so easy and seamlessly like syncing photos, backing up, sending your clipboard content from a mac to iphone or vice versa... Windows just feels so clumsy to use after that. The laptop touch pads are best in the industry and screen quality top notch, you just can't buy a similar quality windows laptop especially now that the M chips came.

[@typingcat1814]

@@dingdong2103 That's true, I did overlook the beauty of "the ecosystem" for those like that sort of thing.

[@dingdong2103]

@@typingcat1814 I used to be a windows fan and hated macs untill I had to start using a macbook for work. In about a year it grew on me so much that I dumped windows on everything except my and my kids gaming pcs. Now it's macos or linux all the way.

[@driedurchin]

​@@typingcat1814 Mac, being POSIX, is still pretty nice for programming it you don't care about customization. That being said, you can run custom window managers on Mac, like yabai

[@alrafiqmusic]

I tried many Linux distros in my journey to replace Windows and Mac. I hopped between Mint, Manjaroo, and Ubuntu, and later settled on KDE Neon, I've been having the time of my life with this distro. It literally brought back my passion for computers, I can tinker with almost every setting and it replaced my daily workflow without issues!

[@jaimeduncan6167]

Most people have lives. (I am a geek too) and don't like to spend hours tinkering with computers. For them, a computer is a tool, and they don't want to spend a lot of time changing stuff. When they want to express themselves they simply do.

[@romeoneverdies]

@@jaimeduncan6167 then go with mainstream distro ... ubuntu or my favorite : xubuntu. (a little lighter) ubuntu has the biggest support base , red hat is more commercial etc.. they each have their own quirks but overall its pretty similar from one to the other ... all applications in linux are usually cross compatible or can be "built" to your specific install. i used to use slackware ... but too much trouble when you reinstall ... with xubuntu its more seamless ... i always go for LTS too.

[@joeswheat]

@@jaimeduncan6167what distros of Linux are you installing🥱 most these days, take less time to install than windows

[@mikem9536]

@@joeswheatThat wasn't his point, the issue with linux for noobs is there too many options and there's a ton of bad options/combinations/conflicts to be aware of.

[@joeswheat]

@@mikem9536 "Most people have lives" 🥱

[@frankenberry9670]

1. You can recompile the Linux kernel so that it is tailored to your specific hardware setup. 2. Linux runs on a very wide range of hardware architectures, the list on Wikipedia is extensive.

[@xard64]

My switch from Intel based desktop computer into AMD one is a perfect example of the Linux advantages: I cloned the Intel machine disk content to a new disk and the moved the new disk to my AMD machine and booted: everything worked out of the box and all of my software was installed along with my data and everything - computer upgrade done! This was the most painless hardware migrations I've ever done and after that I even technically had two PC computers fully configured and ready for use.

[@SaxaphoneMan42]

It has definitely been nice being able to swap out hardware at a whim, also as much as openSUSE's printer setup is a pain point, I'm glad it's getting mentioned, hopefully it gets better.

[@madchiller123]

Honest question. What do you do when you have industrial equipment that only has a Windows program/interface?

[@jscottupton]

Somebody gives an old computer to a windows user....it's still an OLD computer. Somebody give an old computer to ME (a linux user) I think "wow, a new computer".

[@LeLocutusFranc]

Not for surfing. Because Linux or Windows your old computer can't do more than it can do.

[@gnagyusa]

Great summary. The ability to just move a drive to another computer is a hugely under-appreciated feature of Linux. If your motherboard dies, you just plug the drive into another one and you're back in business in under a minute vs. hours spent setting up a new computer from scratch.

[@link1565V2]

You can do that with Windows as well. Source: I've done it multiple times.

[@brianconnery2801]

How? Every time I upgraded to a new PC, I searched hours online for a solution to swap my boot drive and there were none. I always ended up having to set everything back up from scratch. @@link1565V2

[@dddux]

Yes, this is HUGE. With W or M you are pretty much f-ed. You can only read the hard disk from another W or M and backup the data. With Linux, you just copy it to another computer and continue working like nothing happened. :) I'm still using the same Debian I installed in 2013. I just upgraded it every time new Debian stable got released. Never happened to me with W or M. They always force you to start with a fresh OS and in many cases fresh hardware. Capitalism....

[@ScaryGuyID]

@@link1565V2 could you explain more how to do it correctly and what is the important thing need to take more attention?

[@RubCalBat]

@gnagyusa, that was very true years ago. But today with machines in UEFI it's no longer the case when Linux was installed in a BIOS machine. That's my case now. I installed Ubuntu 23.10 on a 12 year old machine and when I plug the disk in my UEFI computer it's not even seen. I'm struggling now to know how to overcome that situation.

[@JuanCarlos611]

I recently moved a Linux hard drive from a desktop PC to a laptop. In about 5 minutes it was up and running, no problems at all.

[@skf957]

After years of prevaricating, a couple of months ago I made the switch to Linux Mint 21.1 from W.10. The main thing that had kept me on Windows for so long was my dependency on Outlook and the 10GB+ .pst file that I constantly used as a reference. So when my W.10 laptop started to deteriorate, rather than wait for it to fail I bought a replacement 2022 model Asus running W.11. I made sure everything was OK hardware wise, then blatted over W.11 with LM. All seemed OK except that there was no sound - which had worked fine under Windows. Using Linux I get sound through Bluetooth or wired to the audio jack, so not a terrible problem. The LM forums had posts relating to my exact h/w and sound problem, and it seems to be related to the Pulse Audio s/w but also to the Asus BIOS. As one post suggested, I changed the Linux kernel from 5.x to 6.x OEM. I still need to see if a BIOS update is available. I won't however be manually updating or otherwise adding lines of code to various system files as some of the forum posts suggest. I need this machine to be stable. Oh, the other thing that I did was to install VirtualBox and I can, if needed, run W.11 and Outlook just for reference. I now run Thunderbird on Linux as my email client. Two months in and I really like running Linux. No telemetry, updates applied when I want them to be, reasonably light-weight (well, compared to Windows). Not so good: the sound issue, battery management, load dependant CPU ramp up/down (despite running auto-cpufreq - now I might play with that a bit...) to name a few. Great video, thanks for posting.

[@st0rmrider]

Mac and cheese is way better than Linux and cheese.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Hahaha 😂😂

[@youtube.user.1234]

🧀

[@JustByteMe]

🤣🤣

[@ghosthunter0950]

You don't like programmer socks cheese?

[@bedroomvampire]

@@ghosthunter0950 Sounds more wrong than you think it is

[@drmgiverdrmgiver5335]

There have been printers that i have needed to install manually from a downloaded driver.

[@ruthlessadmin]

Pretty good list. The only correction I'd add, is that you really do want to reboot after Linux updates, even if it is technically optional. You can run into a lot of very bizarre, if not harmful bugs & app crashes, when there is a different version of a library/app on disk than in memory. It's also the only way to guarantee you're using the updated versions of all libraries & apps, after an update. Also, I wouldn't get too carried away trying to install a Linux HDD into another system. True, it works "fine" as a general rule, but depending on how customized your system is, the new hardware may barf all over your config.

[@jjz4574]

On Linux you can have multiple seats, meaning multiple users on one PC at the same time. Giving each users own GPU, keyboard and mouse.

[@nahiyanalamgir7056]

I can't imagine my life without Linux! macOS is livable but it got so heavy (for no reason) over the years that I changed my mind.

[@cidsx]

Another note: you never have to pay for windows if you "miss the free update window." It's always free as long as you have a license from Windows 7 or later.

[@gblargg]

Also if you have a business machine (e.g. Dell Optiplex) it probably has a hardware key so you never have to enter a key for free updates.

[@coolzack1012]

Imagine paying for a windows key. I probably owe microsoft about 700$ in windows keys lol.

[@gblargg]

@@coolzack1012 They want you to "pirate" Windows. They get you locked into their system and drawing others around you into it (so they can be compatible).

[@ridesinspain4053]

I've tried upgrading a licenced windows 7 on a laptop from my work to windows 10, but it would not let me without buying a new licence. That's one of the reasons I stopped using and supporting Windows long ago, and whenever I have to use it, or help somebody with it, I get annoyed straight away.

[@jaimeduncan6167]

But you are locked to stuff like a single language or a bunch of other stuff, it's a nightmare. Even the OEM licenses sometimes come with a bunch of lock-ins or features that do not work Microsoft make it free as in beer to compete with Mac OS but it can become a licensing nightmare.

[@XenGi]

My favorite Linux feature that I immediately miss on other systems is the middle mouse button clipboard.

[@marcelorauber_]

Yes! And the possibility of fixing windows on top. This is very important for the workflow, especially for those who work with texts

[@TheLinuxEXP]

That’s so useful!

[@marcelorauber_]

@@odarkos Yes, it's possible with an add-ons (but not by default). I already installed another one myself, but it doesn't work very well

[@gblargg]

Agreed, it minimizes clicks. Drag once to select text you want to copy, middle- click where you want it pasted. As a bonus it doesn't disturb the contents of the clipboard.

[@cigmorfil4101]

​​@@marcelorauber_I have my mouse focus set to be the window it was last in/over - no need to click to get focus and so windows stay in the order I've left them. Great when typing notes from a source reference: I have the note taking window at the back with as much showing as I need and the reference window open on top. Try that with Windwos? Impossible. To get focus have to click into the note taking window which brings it to the front obscuring the reference material... At work I forget and keep trying to use my Linux ways on the Windwos machine I have to use. I'm forever typing in the wrong window as I move the mouse to the new window and the old old still has the focus as I didn't click, and forgetting to ^C after selection and then click where i want it, followed by ^V, instead of just highlight, move mouse to where wanted and centre click to copy-paste in one action.

[@cynth0984]

you can delete a file on a linux system while it's opened in a program. similarly, you can update a program while it's running

[@cynth0984]

@nicksterj yeah. softlinks work like this by design. do modern macos'es not have hardlinks/aliases anymore?

[@simonjanca]

Open source is not just a software. It's a lifestyle. Open to people, behave, be helpful.

[@monochrome_linux]

1 more thing that I like in Linux is that your window manager/ desktop environment is running as an independent program and is not tied to the file manager or dock or anything like that. Meanwhile on windows, if you kill the file manager, the windows desktop environment dies and on MacOS if you kill the dock, your macOS desktop also crashes. idk why they do this but thankfully Linux doesnt.

[@fR33Sky]

I believe this is due to the file preview/ suggestion/ search quirks. Good thing on macOS is if an app decides to crash and to take the window manager with it, that doesn't lead to a complete OS malfunction. In some cases, when Windows also doesn't crash on the spot, I was able to relaunch the explorer via run command or a task manager. Also, there's little chance on Windows trying to reboot just the 3.5-jack driver if it feels funky, part of the crew, part of the ship

[@ridesinspain4053]

Imagine you had a server running a GUI by default. What a waste of resources.🤣

[@0raj0]

Well, if you mention that, then it should be absolutely mentioned that the X Window system is NETWORKED at its very base, so you can have applications running on multiple computers in the network and having their windows on a single desktop...

[@pierrec1590]

I have a 2015 vintage Macbook, and they no longer maintain the OS for that machine. Sad.

[@magnuspetters]

I remember in 2008 when I first tried Ubuntu and my function keyboard buttons worked out of the box (that I never got to work on Windows). I was impressed to say the least.

[@gblargg]

It was Ubuntu 12 where I switched to it full-time, because suspend and resume finally worked on my desktop PC. Having to boot the computer fresh each time and shut it down when done was such a hassle.

[@lloydbond13]

Yo, was at my parents house a couple months ago. My mom's laptop's special function row hasn't worked for 5-6 years. My dad is complaining about having to buy new machines for win11. I pulled out a USB thumb drive with Ubuntu on it. Plug it in my mom's computer, rebooted to the LiveOS. Everything worked just fine, even the special function row worked just as my mom remembered it once did. You should have seen my dad's face.

[@gblargg]

@@lloydbond13 I had some keys go bad so I used an X11 keymap to remap to another key sequence.

[@maxxiong]

Two specific things that made me use Linux for a very long time: 1. Poor swap usage on Windows. I had a machine without SSD before and Windows was swapping to disk unnecessarily which causes huge lag spikes. 2. Sleep issues. Windows wakes from sleep randomly these days even if your lid is closed. These aren't issues for me anymore so I just use Windows so I can game and use Windows-only software without rebooting. I still use Linux on my school laptop because I need native Linux to do certain research tasks (perf doesn't work on WSL for example) and for a reliable sleep function. There is also the Windows Update issue but I have Win 11 pro so I can disable auto updates.

[@eMorphized]

Hibernation on Windows is also not great. It doesn't register as turning off, but the drivers stop anyway, and then they won't turn back on when you resume because it's not a reboot.

[@maxxiong]

@@eMorphized I just don't use hibernation lol

[@JanuszKrysztofiak]

#2 I heard this happens on Windows when one closes the lid while the laptop is attached to AC power and then unplugged. It is related with a phone-like 'feature' to maintain some activity even with lid closed, after all - with bringing ads to the OS - Windows has to be able to greet you with new content once you open it :)

[@bloomingbridges]

I don't think I've ever had to install printer drivers on Mac when plugged in via USB to be able to print or scan. "AirPrint" sounds like a service for discovering and configuring printers connected to the network, so not sure if I've technically ever used it. In the Windows XP days I spent months personalising the look & feel of my OS, but as I'm getting older I'm increasingly in favour of "convention over configuration". It helps me focus on getting things done. At the same time a distro like Arch is appealing to me, because it cuts out all the things that I don't need.. not sure the perfect OS exists for me personally. Great video though Nick, keep them coming 💜

[@greyed]

The one thing you missed, but hinted to, was how installing the software from the repos means you also update all software at once from the very same repos with one tool. I have much of the same every-day software on my Linux machines as I do my work-mandeted Windows box. Updating on Linux is (in my case) done via an apt tool (aptitude is my choice here). On Windows, the same general suite of software requires me to remember to update them individually, or have them each update themselves (IE, nag me to update them) individually. The only exception to that are my games. Which are on Steam. Which is why when discussing this feature of Linux with people who balk at being unable to download and install random applications from any ol' website I let them know the package manager is to applications as Steam is to games. Given that most Windows peeps enjoy the one-stop updating of their games from Steam, it makes them think.

[@romakrelian]

Great video. I feel like we’re going to need a million more of these before people finally get the message.

[@fflecker]

Since 1999 I use Linux and swapped directly from DOS to it. I never had Windoof on my private Computers and always tried to find a job where they use Linux and I can shine and grow. It never worked, since they don't use it. The people will never learn.

[@akshayjain7983]

For HP printers one needs to install plugin (driver) into kernel before it can be used. I know this from personal experience of Linux use since many years.

[@capitanodessa7472]

2:53 That's absolutely true. It makes any distro completely modular. I always keep /home in a separate partition, and whenever I wanted/needed to hop/reinstall, I used the same partition (after manually deleting some config files) and then the new distro has everything I had from the previous one. On Windows it is an absolute pain. I have no idea what the Windows installer does, but just in case I either disable in the BIOS other hard drives, or unplug them because it has wiped out data before without warning.

[@adamfryman6789]

Id of argued the same but recently i did this very thing. AMD system to intel system with completely different hardware. Windows booted and worked fine. Not even sure I had license key issues maybe it activated again automatically because of the Microsoft account? Maybe I got lucky and I had fully expected a non booting system, colour me surprised when it just worked.

[@Akab]

@@adamfryman6789 if you have a microsoft account license rather than a manufacturer issued OEM license, it's bound to your microsoft account, thus transferable to a new device as well 👍

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

I like to reserve two OS partitions, and use just one to begin with. Later, if I want to try a different distro, I can install it into the spare partition, and have it point at the same /home area. Makes it easier to switch back and forth.

[@UrielCorinthian]

Absolutely love your videos! I've been using Linux pretty much exclusively for the last 15+ years, but I discover something new in pretty much each of your videos. Thanks!

[@aphoxema]

One thing that blew my mind was I broke my Mint installation but my /home is on a different drive entirely, after reinstalling and mounting that drive back on /home absolutely everything still worked. Reinstalling Windows is exhausting and something I've come to dread

[@ReinisIkass]

My experience with adding printers has been the exact opposite, at least on Arch based EndeavourOS, adding Epson printers has been a nightmare. Though, if I recall correctly, the experience of adding the same printer on Pop_OS was smooth.

[@willgallatin2802]

Brother printers are smooth as glass. Though Brother keeps a full set of Linux flat packs on their site.

[@schwingedeshaehers]

I think it really depends on the printer, the operating system, and the needed features

[@FOSSware_360]

U sure u used CUPS?

[@MemeMan69]

Well drivers are actually a non-issue anymore. Since Win10 they install automatically, even GPU driver, with normally no errors. But yeah sometimes with older hardware and does not work so good. But maybe the chipset driver for ryzen is necessary and won't be automatically installed, but then again Linux users also have too.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

But if your Ethernet or WiFi card isn’t detected by the default drivers, you’ll have a hard time down loading them, even automatically :)

[@MemeMan69]

@@TheLinuxEXP I did actually never encounter that problem, but old PCs may be more vulnerable for that

[@Dobaspl]

​@@TheLinuxEXP Not that hard as on linux in the same situations.

[@finderOC]

@user That is true like 95% of the time. Other times? Unlucky! I've had this happen on my personal machines before

[@finderOC]

@user Brother how are you googling without internet

[@shadovvx]

Here is another advantage. VFS - the Virtual File System, where everything is a file. Ewen a device or a process. You can rearrange your file tree as you want. You can move your entire partition to another drive without changing its location in the directory tree. You can mix different partitions and filesystems transparently. You can merge read only and writable partitions to form a single usable filesystem - like many Linux LiveOS-es do. And even more. Once I have created (just for curiosity) a filesystem that was a simple calculator. It had three files within - two for input numbers and the third to read the result. The only limit is your imagination.

[@yokowasis]

in some cases, some hardware doesn't have any driver for linux. But you can bet the vendor will always have driver for windows. This happens a lot on Laptop and MiniPC.

[@RoguishlyHandsome]

For network printers, if you go full firewall on all your machines like I do, you'll have tinker a bit for scanning documents. At least all my printers required some exceptions for the scanner to work.

[@dingdong2103]

Why bother firewalling individual machines when you can isolate them behind your router NAT/Firewall? Besides a firewall will only protect you if you have vulnerable services running so if you run a minimal install and keep it updated your risk of breach is almost as small as with a full fw lockout. An attacker can't penetrate your system by just a random port that has nothing listening to it.

[@RoguishlyHandsome]

@@dingdong2103 Why not? Also, machines can move. All sorts of thing can happen when you live in a populated area, with wifi and IOT. You do you.

[@michardlawman6102]

BSD operating systems also support booting from live USB-Sticks or CDs, such as Free BSD and are also able to tailor according to your needs. In fact most of your points (but not all).

[@metosoreru]

I’ve been running Linux for years because I’ve always ran computers with lower hardware specs that couldn’t ever handle Windows smoothly. I got myself a laptop recently with really nice specs and it came pre-installed with Windows, figured I would give it a shot since it had been a while. Boy when I tell you that lasted all of about an hour before I switched over 😂 I couldn’t stand that it felt like Windows was trying to advertise to me the whole time I was using it. That, and updating it was absolutely painstaking, and despite having solid specs (32GB RAM, 2.4 GHz i5 and 1TB SSD) the experience felt slow and stuttery. I switched to Garuda at first and now I’m on Mint 21.1, feeling pretty happy with the simple and professional aesthetic of it and it’s going to be my new daily driver. It’s just a much more seamless experience. Updates can run in the background without the OS bugging me about it and taking forever to do so and it’s just so much more lightweight and smooth to operate. I could never see myself moving back to windows again.

[@derekp2674]

I also really hate all the advertising on many Windows computers and their free (as in free beer) apps.

[@davidyoder5890]

Windows does have a live option, it's called Windows Pre-installation Environment (usually referred to as WinPE). WinPE is the basis for Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) which is built into Windows 10 and up. You can even build your own WinPE with preinstalled software and drivers.

[@korgmangeek]

Yes, but it's illegal to run. It's only meant to used for installation as the name suggests.

[@davidyoder5890]

@@korgmangeek It is perfectly legal to run. It's a tool for admins and technicians to assist in recovery and deployment, freely available by Microsoft.

[@korgmangeek]

@@davidyoder5890 recovery, deployment, installation is not running.

[@davidyoder5890]

@@korgmangeek I'm not understanding what you're arguing. All I'm saying is that Windows does have a live option that you can build yourself from the binaries Microsoft provides, and it isn't illegal to do so. You can even install most apps you would want.

[@korgmangeek]

@@davidyoder5890 you really don’t know the differences between running and installing an OS? 1. Running = install permanently user programs and user files and use them. 2. Installing = install OS files. Not using user programs or persistant storage. And you “forget” that you don’t have permission to run an MS OS without a purchased computer and a product key for that MS OS. You must inform the MS that it’s pre-installable environment but complète running OS from USB.

[@Tobi-ci3ns]

Love this! It's amazing what's possible when the people in charge care about something other than shareholder value.

[@dalfvideos]

I admit that when I first started using Linux the thing that impressed me the most was how easy it was to connect it to my old scanner/printer. It was like magic!

[@nalinux]

The problem is we don't always have access to the printer management, for example just knowing how much ink is left. With an old network printer, it's not really an issue.

[@lucasbertacchi6012]

Nice video as always ! It would be also interesting to flip it ypside down, to highlight where Linux is still lacking, so it can improve forever more.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I made a few videos about the things Linux sucks at!

[@R00kTruth]

debootstrap - download a distro to a folder (different names for different flavour of distro) chroot - The ability to login to a isolated distro, whilst your main os is still active (jail's) and then pivot_root - The ability to full swap your Linux os distro to a completely different one with no reboot (make sure kernels match/completable, and starts up scripts)

[@subrezon]

About printing on Linux: we actually have Apple to directly thank for that, since CUPS was developed by Apple. Oh, and if you have an older printer that isn't supported by CUPS (very likely if >10 years old) - get ready for major pain in the ass, getting it to work will suck. My Ricoh SP150SU's newest Linux drivers are for Ubuntu 12.04, getting that to work was hell.

[@GamingWithUncleJon]

CUPS was developed for Unix like OSes in 1999, and bought by Apple in 2007, not developed by Apple. Apple hired the original developer.

[@emarascalchi]

You can ever set the printer as standard postscript printer and it will work.. ever

[@billdawson6627]

I love how you present this. Never an attitude of "Linux will answer all your life's questions" or "Linux is perfection". Just the truth. Personally, I DO feel Linux is perfect in the sense that there has never been an issue I couldn't solve (although issues are very rare), and the Linux community is overall very friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help. 100% agree with everything you said, and I look forward to the day when the stigma of "Linux is only for computer geeks" is gone...you, sir, take us closer and closer to that day. Well done!

[@ratemisia]

I feel very happy with where Linux is going these past few years - more and more people exposed to it through Steam Deck and portable devices, and the stigma is slowly fading. Linux compatibility with mainstream software is only getting better, too! I may be a geek, but I'm a happier geek now because Linux is going mainstream more than it ever did before :)

[@ravm84]

I really like that video, just reminded me why I switched to Linux some years ago. Today I am using 3 systems because of some applications I need, for automating some stuff and because of my professional needs. I agree with all upsides of Linux you listed, but with one big exception related to printers. My experience is quite opposite, on Windows (10 and 11) and MAC printers I've been using works just fine without any issues even if I don't install any drivers. On Linux on the other hand, I had to install official drivers and it still makes a lot of trouble. Sometimes it can't detect the printer, which was detected a day ago. Or it detects the printer, but I can't print anything. When I got my MacBook I just opened printers settings, it discovered network printer automatically and I can just drag and drop any document to a printer. Far better than Linux.

[@monabuu]

Driverless printers on Linux never seems to be consistent (at least for me) I have an Epson printer and it works with AirPrint like magic. With windows you get taken back to XP times when you want to scan anything. But with Linux… it works flawlessly with Mint and Ubuntu. It didn’t work on Fedora 37 or 38 and Arch… we don’t talk about printing on Arch

[@emilkharisov7031]

Same for me, mismatch in printing capabilities with different distros. I think the problem is my HP printer branded with Samsung logo but it works now, even on arch (thanks, AUR)

[@sigh-cosis]

I guess I was lucky. I just needed to install hplip on my arch laptop and everything worked without a problem

[@timothyt.82]

Quick Tip: If you want a Linux OS that feels similar to your old OS you're moving from, Linux Mint feels like Windows, and Ubuntu feels like MacOS. Just don't forget to learn the terminal.

[@Roxor128]

Honestly, everybody should learn the command prompt of whatever OS they use. Happened by default for me for Windows, given I grew up on DOS. Linux may have different commands from DOS, but it's really not that hard. You do run afoul of muscle memory occasionally, though. I keep finding myself typing "ls" in DOSBox or "dir" at the Linux terminal.

[@comet.x]

oh so THAT'S why I never really liked ubuntu or it's variants like pop os

[@freeculture]

@@Roxor128 I got rid of that habit quickly, and i used DOS from all the way back to PC-DOS 3.3 (which i still have IBM original). My muscle memory actually always goes for ls -lah Indeed going back to dir is hard 🙂 I just play a few games with dosbox anyway.

[@iplyrunescape305]

Elementary OS is the MacOS one. Ubuntu is mostly its own thing. It's what people can call "Linux" in public eye.

[@KevinRollman]

Elementary OS used pantera file management system which is the only Linux file system that gives you column list view like Mac OS.

[@alexanderfederowicz]

😊 I'm 63 and have been using PCs since the commodore 64 which I actually coded a full 3D Rubik's cube game for back in the day I think the year was 19 81... It's good to hear from the rest of you that you were pensive about switching over but that you found it rewarding and that Linux was very transparent and clear with its information in terms of clearly structured proper composition of nouns and verbs and adjectives in their descriptions and functions. God knows we have enough crappy technical designs out there essentially built to create obsolescence we don't need it in our operating systems we need good quality transparency and integrity of structure that doesn't invite intrusion the way Windows has systematically built there spamware.

[@lostincyberspaceIII]

Printers used to be a crazy pain in the but on Linux but the last 10 years have changed that, and now mac is the hardest to set up printers now.

[@abdalnablse10]

You could've used a broken window for windows as a thumbnail.

[@Saieden]

The best part about the driverless printer support is that you can actually do basic functions without spyware/bloatware that all printers seem to enforce these days on Windows.

[@logicalfundy]

I don't seem to remember having driver issues with Windows - it just goes and downloads them, and generic drivers for most devices work fine. Modularity is definitely a plus for tech enthusiasts, but it can be argued that for people who are new to Linux it might be a bit much. Running on old hardware is definitely a big plus! Windows 11 is incompatible with some of my systems, due to Microsoft's "security" concerns, so they will eventually be moving to Linux. I definitely like escaping vendor lock-in, and even Microsoft is starting to do that, requiring a Microsoft account just to install Windows 11. I suspect things will get worse as time goes on. I definitely like that Linux doesn't force me to update (but I do it anyways). Actually what's the most annoying about Windows isn't automatic updates - but automatic reboots. I don't mind automatic updates if they allow me to finish what I'm doing and perform the reboot on my own terms. Libraries should be be handled by the OS or the applications - the reason why they don't appear in the store is because they're handled automatically. That said - the Windows store is still terrible. I don't know of anybody that uses it.

[@sergeykish]

Libraries should be accessible like applications, this makes platform great for developers. Development under Windows is such a mess.

[@jdilksjr]

You can install without a Microsoft account, just make sure the computer does not have access to the Internet when you set it up. It will eventually, let you set up a local account.

[@logicalfundy]

@@jdilksjr that does work on Windows 10, but I seem to recall hitting a wall on a Windows 11 system.

[@dermond]

Seriously, the big "but" for Linux is big tech apps ignoring it (Adobe, Affinity, some Autodesk software etc)

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

There was a survey of the VFX industry released a little over a year ago. Turns out 60% of their machines run Linux, and that proportion looks set to grow. So you see, the lack of support for Adobe etc in that industry is no longer a showstopper, it has declined to no more than a minor nuisance.

[@andrewjohnston359]

@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 interesting statistic...do you have a link? I wonder if this is more so for the high end commercial/hollywood VFX studios, rather than the smaller more independent ones (the guys you see on youtube). I know a huge amount of people are moving to Davinci Resolve & blender, which means they could use linux...but I barely see them using anything but windows PC's. Is it more the large VFX houses using nuke and houdini and Maya etc?

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

@@andrewjohnston359 “Visual Effects Society Technology Committee 2021 Studio Platform Report”.

[@Ubeogesh]

One thing I hate about linux is lack of wizard installers. I hate the concept of "yum install appname" or whatever. I love how on Windows I see where I download the file, and I love how the installer shows me the options - where to install and what options, which leads me to knowing the system better

[@robby3467]

Totally agree. My earlier comment relates to exactly that. I prefer a wizard based installer, preferably standalone so that it can work offline. I even develop Windows installers as part of my job. By having a self contained offline installer, I know I'll get exactly the same installation every time I use it. If I want to upgrade, that's when I download a new version.

[@TheViperZed]

frankly the biggest hurdle to this, at least in the case of windows, isn't that you can't run something because of the drivers, but the license of the OS being tied to the components of your system and Microsoft. The Microsoft standard drivers are usually good enough to get a VGA display and networking running which would then enable you to download more specific drivers from the net. Also if we are going to go with "completely different PC" I'd love to see you do this with a kernel compiled for one architecture being "hotswapped" into a different architecture, eg X64 to Arch or PowerPC. Linux is a whole lot more friendly to this, but not perfect. Also I'd say that while this, depending on your usecase potentially really huge, feature is partially enabled by driver locality (distros on swappable medium often actually download system specific drivers and components for a better experience) it's existence is owed to open source and a user first mentality that is inherent to the Linux ecosystem on the whole.

[@nadtz]

Used to use the portability thing all the time when I worked in a datacenter. Made it really easy to figure out of a problem was hardware or software when we could just take the whole drive (or drives) and move to another machine.

[@killbit01]

How were you allowed you to connect anything to a live server? That's bonkers.

[@nadtz]

@@killbit01 I worked in the datacenter as a technician, you kind of have to connect things to servers when they have problems the customer doesn't know how to fix or to replace hardware.

[@killbit01]

@@nadtz Same, but the only thing we are allowed to connect is a crash cart, every other installation\OS troubleshooting\etc is done remotely. IPMI.

[@nadtz]

@@killbit01 Installation was automated and OS troubleshooting could be done via IPMI/KVM but when it was hardware related we had had boot utils via pxe/usb to determine the problem if the customer didn't know what it was or if the customer broke something they didn't know how to fix we did the needful. How that was handled depended on what the customer was paying for. Not rocket science, just reliable smart hands.

[@killbit01]

@@nadtz Gottcha! For us, the troubleshooting was done without connecting anything to the server itself, we used logs for that. Most often than not the logs [IPMI logs as well] were showing what went wrong. And yes, OS installation is automated, but not for custom OSes.

[@jeschinstad]

Linux is in general a nirvana for people who like to experiment and explore. Like you could use a RAM disk as cache for NVMe devices which are caches for SATA SSDs that are caches for HDDs which are encrypted and network RAIDed to a cloud server. Just because something is possible, doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea, but it's a lot of fun! :)

[@romeoneverdies]

i don't even use swap... just buy a computer with enough memory :P you can run linux boxes from network images too! (no drives!)

[@wshyangify]

How can one do these interesting caching strategy? I'm keen on doing something like that to help with ssd wear. Would appreciate some kind links 😊

[@jeschinstad]

@@wshyangify: Numerous ways, but I think dm-cache is the most commonly used. It's a bit too much to explain in a youtube comment, but there's lots of good documentation on how to do it. Have fun! :)

[@wshyangify]

@@jeschinstad thanks!

[@scpatl4now]

One more thing about drivers for printers in Windows...when you download the driver, you get a ton of bloatware from HP or whomever makes your printer. I can't tell you how many times I've had to clean this stuff up when my mom gets a new printer.

[@macethorns1168]

At one time HP provided a minimal universal driver. Now a lot of their lineup wants constant internet access or the printer will stop working. Crazy.

[@moister3727]

I just use a brother laser one and is ok

[@0raj0]

A tip: I don't know if HP still does this, but they used to provide "standalone" and "enterprise" versions of the drivers for their printers. If you download the "standalone" versions, you get all the bloatware; but if you choose the "enterprise" one, you get only a "clean" driver without any unnecessary garbage...

[@alsmith2709]

It's a bit situational, but the ability to copy folders from a dead Windows installation and preserve the original modified dates recently saved me a ton of work.

[@Milosz_Ostrow]

Nice overview and comparison. I started migrating from Windows to Linux in 2009, and although I still use Windows machines from time to time, Linux has become my "daily driver" and preferred operating system for many of the reasons discussed in this video.

[@TTFlo-w1l]

6:33 Never had problems with this. I run Windows 11 on a 10 year old hp-Laptop. Works fine. (My main OS on this is Manjaro - but that's not the point. Windows works on this old machine.)

[@LeLocutusFranc]

True Windows 10 works fine on old machine with 8gb ram. The only think you must have is ssd else it's very slow.

[@MrDerekLRobinson]

Awesome content Sir. I am surrounded by windows and some MAC users at work or anywhere else ... evwn at home so thanks for lining up the Facts. Great Job. 👍👍

[@NorbiPeti]

6:04 I'm actually making my grandma and mom switch to Linux (partly) because of this. They're still running Windows 7 on very old hardware. Though buying an SSD for each computer helped a ton but the security aspect of running a very old version of Windows definitely bothers me.

[@TonyTheYouTuba]

Especially for less tech minded people that security aspect is all the more important - they should definitely not be risking running a post end of life OS.