
How and why I transitioned to Linux, and how you can too - se7entime
http://larrysanger.org/2019/01/how-and-why-i-transitioned-to-linux-how-you-can-too/
======
Animats
I've used Linux on the desktop for over a decade. Currently, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
on x64.

It still sucks for the average user. The GUI is lipstick on a pig. As soon as
anything goes wrong, it's back to the command line. You look up the problem,
and there will be a dozen articles about it, all contradicting each other.
Look up what it takes to create a desktop icon for something. (Hint: the top
result in Google won't work.)

I'm currently restoring a Ubuntu system after a hard drive replacement. I've
been at this for a day now. Typical little stuff:

\- OpenGL frame rate is terrible. The default install turns out to be running
OpenGL in the Mesa emulator. Time to install a driver. There's lots of advice
on that. Get it from the NVidia site? From Ubuntu? From a driver-aggregation
site? (Scary). Want the open source version or the closed source binary? Need
CUDA support? Five choices of driver. Finally pick the latest open source
version and it works.

\- File restoration isn't working properly. I used iDrive for backup, and now
it's time to restore. I've restored one or two files from iDrive before, but
now I have to restore a lot of them. The interface is a bunch of Perl scripts,
with a command line menu system from the 1970s. After much struggling
("Restore From" means the name of the machine that was backed up), I get the
restore running. It runs, but about 8,000 files don't restore out of a few
hundred thousand. The message is just "FAILED". Files with "&" in the name
don't restore. Files with "__" in the name sometimes don't restore. Working on
that. Looks like most of what I lost was part of old builds of a big program,
but there are a few files I'd like back.

~~~
bootlooped
I have infrequently fooled around with Linux only a handful of times in the
last 15 years. I recently installed it on my laptop but was disheartened to
see how much you still need the command line to do some very basic things.

Installing a program (not from the Ubuntu Software Center) and getting a
launcher icon into the start-menu-equivalent took way too much time and
Googling.

~~~
beagle3
That’s true, but on the other hand, you have some 15000-30000 packages
installable from software center that are guaranteed virus free, with
automatic updates. (And they are liver and gratis to boot), so the average
user rarely if never needs to go there.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> installable from software center that are guaranteed virus free

This is not true. Repos can, and have, been hijacked. Packages can and have
had malicious code inserted. Hell, projects can and have accidentally accepted
stealth backdoors in the guise of bug fixes or feature commits.

The repo system is not a panacea for security.

~~~
beagle3
This is all true for any distribution system.

However, in addition to e.g. hacking the actual developer/distributor, on
Windows, you have to be wary of a rogue versions on e.g. download.com that
rank higher than the genuine one, and of google ads for trojaned VLCs and
stuff.

It is no panacea, but it is very significantly better than the Windows world
(and the Mac world outside of the app store)

Furthermore, modern snaps have limited privileges and file system views, so a
backdoor is much less effective; I assume appimages and flatpaks have similar
mechanisms (and if not, they should).

Situation is far from perfect, but it is about a billion time better than
Windows whichever way you measure it.

------
joe_the_user
I switched to Linux about ten years. I basically got tired of having an OS I
paid for (in buying a computer) not really be "mine". Lately, I have had few
problems installing and running Linux on the various cheap laptops I've
bought.

Ubuntu with a Mate GUI "just works", has all the software I need and lacks BS
like the Windows 10 interface.

I don't really think there's any objective barrier to using Linux for a
significant percentage of people - people who don't need Adobe Creative Suite
or similar monopolies. But this is the same population who probably won't both
doing something unusual given they have no strong motivation.

~~~
drb91
> Ubuntu with a Mate GUI "just works", has all the software I need and lacks
> BS like the Windows interface.

How do you figure? Every part about Ubuntu, from keybindings to menus to
window management to user interface expectations, are directly copying
windows.

~~~
ikfmpwdsoz
You pay for Windows, but Linux is free. Windows is filled with ads; Linux has
none. Windows is slow; Linux is less slow. Windows tried to pull some weird
tablet hybrid nonsense; Linux desktops are just desktops. Cinnamon, Mate and
KDE took the very best parts of old Windows and made them better. Gnome and
Pantheon ripped off macOS and they're also great. Every single one of them is
more polished and more useable than Windows 10.

But seriously, who in their right mind would tolerate advertisements in
software that they paid good money for?

~~~
tjoff
I have never seen an ad in windows in my entire life on any of my machines.
Apparently it is the first thing I disable when I open up the settings on a
new install. It's gotten to the point that I'm almost curious about it. Ubuntu
has the amazon integration which bothers me about just as much.

Ubuntu tried to pull some weird netbook phone hybrid that didn't work well on
any type of device. 8 years we had to live with Unity.

I'd say that the UI of Windows 10 is about ten years ahead of anything in the
linux world (and I doubt linux well ever be as polished). I say that as
someone who is possibly going to do the switch to linux this year, but I'm in
for a rough transition.

~~~
chess_buster
> I'd say that the UI of Windows 10 is about ten years ahead of anything in
> the linux world

Windows 10 is really really nice these days...

------
zzo38computer
I have used Linux for some time (I do not remember how many years), and it
works very well. I uninstalled the desktop environment (I don't use it (but I
do use X, with a window manager, which is not the same as the desktop
environment); I use the command shell to start programs and for almost all
other purposes too). It is much better than Windows!

Someone mentions restoring a Ubuntu system after a hard drive replacement. I
used a live CD, to run tar with --numeric-owner and other options I do not
commonly use, and gzip, to make backups onto three DVDs, and then to set up
the partitioning and boot loader on the new hard drive, and then to restore
all of the files. And then the new system just worked fine when booted, with
no problem (actually the first time I misconfigured the boot loader, but after
I corrected that, it booted fine).

Some people are disheartened to see how much you still need the command line
to do some very basic things. I rather see, is good that such thing can be
done by command line programs; you don't need the GUI to do so many thing like
Windows needs.

But if you don't like Linux, you do not need to use it; there are other
systems. But I find Linux is good.

~~~
jayalpha
"Some people are disheartened to see how much you still need the command line
to do some very basic things."

I am more surprised how someone can do serious IT work with windows. A
nightmare for me.

~~~
jimmy1
At my internship for a large logistics company I shadowed the system
administrators a couple of days.

There was so much clicking involved that It made _my_ left index finger start
hurting. Adding a MIME type to IIS seemed like a chore.

------
dgzl
I started using Ubuntu Linux about 8 years ago, about the same time I started
my CS degree at school. Over the years, my interest in Windows shrunk to
essentially just PC gaming. When school got serious I stopped gaming as much,
and all my needs from both school and personal computing were met with open
source tools.

Every once in a while I would try a new distro as live CD, just for kicks, and
to see how things are different. I learned how to use my own window manager
and terminal program. I found that the necessary elements needed for working
Linux are actually quite small, and most everything beyond that is for
convenience.

When you learn to use the terminal, your entire perspective on how to use a
computer changes. No longer are you wasting time swishing your mouse around,
clicking on folders and icons. Instead, you live on the keyboard, using
hotkeys, personal aliases, tab completion, STDIO piping, dot files, terminal
based text editors... There's a lot to master.

But don't feel put off by this, we actually have a lot of fun in the terminal.
We can play music with MPD/Ncmpcpp, play Tetris, retrieve HN articles and view
comments, retrieve 3-day local weather with animations, we can even browse
webpages. It's actually a fun world in the terminal, and we can eliminate the
need for otherwise fatty software.

If you're looking for something that Just Werks as a Windows replacement, any
Ubuntu derivative will be fine. If you're looking for something that requires
more work but might spur interest (i.e. hobby), you might try Arch or Gentoo.
And if you're looking for rice examples, check out Reddit/unixporn.

~~~
Krasnol
> But don't feel put off by this, we actually have a lot of fun in the
> terminal.

I believe you. I grew up on a C64 and later DOS and really, I don't miss it.
It's nice to have the console just in case but I don't want it to become
something I have to use again. It always was that "waste of time" you're
describing there and I've never seen it the other way around. I can do that
swishing with one hand. One finger even or my nose if I have to. A double
click does it. A GUI where I can see all the options, select them, apply and
run. So...human.

Every time I use my Linux laptop I find myself googling up commands or god
knows what weird solutions to problems that should be easy and are in their
equivalent on Win. It's such a waste of time and I feel lost if I can't go
online to do it.

There is a long way for Linux to get there and I see a solution where you can
have both. It does not contradict itself. But the biggest problem out there I
see is the aversion (or even hate) in relevant parts of the Linux community
towards everything GUI.

~~~
Alan_Dillman
"One finger even or my nose if I have to. A double click does it. A GUI where
I can see all the options, select them, apply and run. So...human."

Blech. Do you remember when games like Leisure Suit Larry went from text input
to "click the right pixel"? All sorts of exploration and hilarity was lost.

You can see all the options because there aren't as many.

~~~
zbentley
> All sorts of exploration and hilarity was lost.

About games, I agree with you. But when doing work, or even non-gaming fun
things on a computer, "exploration and hilarity" are damn near the last things
I want to be expected of me. I want to get things done in a _cognitively_
efficient way, even if that's not the most _temporally_ efficient way.

That means: if an application wants me to learn new skills, they should be
limited enough as to be relevant to the immediate task, discoverable, and with
a clear, immediate path towards competence.

No "Well, you want to do $x in a GUI, but have you considered learning the
CLI? it's much more flexible, and the next 10 things you might want to do with
$x will be so easy (once you've mastered the CLI)!" I may never need to do 10
more things with a given program/task; I may be happy to do what I need
inefficiently but in a familiar way; if I do need to do more in the future,
I'll set aside time to learn how rather than getting interrupted on my way to
a specific goal unrelated to leveling up my proficiency at something.

The attitude of many people and ecosystems in the Linux community seems to be
like that. The tools themselves are fine once you learn to use them, but the
people and conventions that proliferate those tools seem to often lose sight
of their (desktop, not power/dev/sysadmin) users' needs for immediate specific
task-accessibility, discoverability, and incremental increases in proficiency
rather than "exploratory" or deep-end-first learning styles.

I say this as someone who spends just as much time obsessively, wastefully
over-customizing my development workflow/shell/etc. as most programmers I
know. I do that for fun, but while I find it fun, I recognize that most of my
users do not, and likely never will.

------
sirwitti
I switched to Ubuntu in 2006 and ~3years ago my girlfriend wanted to switch
too (I did not talk her into it).

Yes there are problems, but for me the reasons to use linux (and firefox
instead of chrome) are trust and politics.

Maybe it's just me, but I really dislike software preventing or forcing random
functionality because google, apple, ms or even canonical want me to. In this
respect linux is in my opinion the best option.

As for the "things should just work" argument some people use - part of it is
probably still valid, _but_ I think linux is in some respects (handling of
updates, security, installation process,...) way ahead of windows for example.

Some anecdata on that: It takes ~5min when I need to do something on a windows
or mac machine for me to get frustrated due to me not knowing UI details or
the OS simply getting in my way (forcing updates on reboot for example). Maybe
it's me, but then I'm working in web development for a while, so I suspect I'm
of average intelligence.

The availability of professional software is a limiting factor in some areas
(design and gaming come to my mind). But for development work I can't
complain. The trend for web-based software helps too.

Think what you want about linux, all software has flaws - maybe we can get rid
of some of them :)

~~~
mehrdadn
> Some anecdata on that: It takes ~5min when I need to do something on a
> windows or mac machine for me to get frustrated due to me not knowing UI
> details of these OSes.

Honestly, these things do take a lot of time. People think using Windows
effectively is a trivial thing they already know, apparently because it's a
GUI and it looks like it should be easy. It very much is _not_. I think the
most important thing is, regardless of what OS you choose for your tasks, it
should be based on your knowledge of how to use them properly, not lack
thereof. Because whatever you end up preferring (I prefer Windows), there
really _are_ tasks in which your life is easier in one OS compared to another
(I have Linuxes handy for this reason), and if you aren't aware of where each
one shines, you're going to miss out and make your own life harder than it
needs to be.

------
kdamica
I've been using Linux as my primary OS for about a year now, and while I agree
that Linux has come a long way, it's definitely not ready for prime time just
yet. Here's why:

\- GUI performance is bad. I have a reasonably high end system, but switching
between desktops is choppy unless I turn my resolution down to 1600x900.

\- Trackpad support is bad. It works but feels clunky. You really feel the
difference when you use a Macbook for the first time in a while.

\- Hibernate doesn't work. I've tried and tried to get this to work but
haven't succeeded. So now I either need to keep my laptop plugged in all the
time or shut it down (which is annoying, because I encrypt my hard drive so I
have to enter two passwords to start).

\- Bluetooth doesn't work well. I have to run a command to restart my
bluetooth service every time I connect, and still sometimes have to re-pair my
headphones. I use a wired connection now to avoid dealing with it.

I bought a Linux-native laptop (System76 Galago) thinking things would work
out of the box, but this hasn't been the case. (Also, the Galago's battery is
awful so I wouldn't recommend it even if everything worked well.)

The next time I'm ready to drop $1500+ on a laptop, I'll probably just get a
Macbook.

~~~
AsyncAwait
> GUI performance is bad.

This depends heavily on the GPU drivers used, which in itself is probably a
problem, but is far from universal.

I didn't have any issues with Bluetooth & hibernate for years now, I am
surprised you'd have hibernate problems on a System76 laptop as I don't even
have a 'Linux-friendly' laptop per se and hibernate works.

> The next time I'm ready to drop $1500+ on a laptop, I'll probably just get a
> Macbook.

I use MacBooks sometimes at work and I'd say that past 2015 they've not been
on the right track. The keyboard and cooling especially. Software-wise, macOS
is indeed more 'uniform' in terms of hardware, so it's easier to make sure
everything 'works', (which is not really a fair comparison to Linux, which
works well on a much wider range of hardware, including the 2015 MBP).

As for macOS itself, you don't really have much in terms of customization
options, which you may prefer, but that also means if you don't like something
you're stuck. Be however prepared to pay $20-30 for every little utility from
a decent file manager to window snapping, (that's right, macOS doesn't ship
with a proper file manager and doesn't really support window snapping the way
you'd expect out of the box).

~~~
kdamica
I agree with what you're saying on the advantages of Linux. I _want_ it to be
awesome. I love all the customization and the fact that I don't need to worry
about the bad decisions of some company affecting my desktop experience (e.g.
the awful mac touchbar with its persistent Siri button), but right now there
are so many quality of life problems that the experience is sort of ruined for
me.

------
squirrelicus
It's funny. I recently switched from Linux after 10 years back to Windows.

I ran Arch Linux for about 7 years. After systemd I spent years justifying why
I used it even though it would constantly break and require a reformat more
often than Win7 did. I went to Ubuntu, and it was marginally more stable. But
even there, I was bitten too many times. Libicu upgrades breaking everything,
updating packages breaks the package manager or ruins systemctl settings.
Really, the whole problem that pushed me back to Windows is a combination of
constant systemd nightmares and bad package maintenance.

I've... Kind of been loving Win10. Sure, it's marginally more evil than Linux,
(but less so than Google and Apple products these days), but at least I don't
have to constantly wipe my machine or keep it out of date to keep using it.
Weird how the tables have turned.

~~~
zozbot123
Because system upgrades never break things in Windows 10, right? Seriously, if
updates are problematic for you and you don't care about running the "latest
and greatest", move to a stably-supported distribution like Ubuntu-LTS, Debian
or even CentOS. They won't be "out of date" as long as they're in their
support period. Updating every 6 months like vanilla Ubuntu does is just
pointless churn, and don't get me started on what Arch does...

------
doxavore
Is there a pleasant way to run a Linux laptop today with decent
drawing/touchscreen support, HiDPI, and working dock/undock multi-monitor
support?

I have used various distros on and off over the years, but today I can run
Windows 10 on a Surface Book 2, and the non-development portions of my
experience are spectacular, for the low, low price of selling my soul: lazy
file syncing with OneDrive, pen support combined with OneNote is spectacular.
Unfortunately, WSL only gets me so far when I want to use more than vim. For
better or worse, I don't get to spend all of my time coding, so I'd like Linux
with a real, modern notebook experience that can let me get my work done
without praying to the gods that my external monitors come back on when I plug
in.

~~~
davidscolgan
My strategy has for a long time been to run Windows 10 for all of my browsers
and games and paint programs and then run a virtual machine of linux with
VirtualBox. I just use terminal Vim, so I run the virtual machine headless and
ssh into it with a cygwin terminal.

It's a bit janky but no more janky than actually running Linux on a laptop. No
worries about my HDMI projector connection working, no fighting with wifi,
games on Steam work, and I get a full Linux for development.

The magic comes from proxying my development servers (like Django's) through
the guest machine into Windows. I've got it set up so that if I type
`localhost:8000` into any Windows browser, it hits my virtual machine's
localhost.

So yeah, complicated, but from what I can see it gives me the best setup I
know of with the least amount of fighting with the operating system.

~~~
SomeHacker44
I love this. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if there is a way to make a true
dual system on Windows, with full graphical support (even if it is the Linux
console), where you can flip between Windows desktop, Linux Desktop (if
desired), and Linux console with a "switch desktop" hotkey.

I think I will try this on one of my windows computers. I can't switch from
Mac to Linux because I use too much non Linux software, but most of it is on
Windows. Adobe suite, Ableton, Native Instruments, etc.

Does anyone know a way to virtualize Linux like the thought above please?

~~~
davidscolgan
You can certainly install a windowing environment into the virtual machine.
I've done this a few times when I actually needed a windowing environment
inside of Linux for complicated servers or doing things across multiple ports.
It works just fine, and VirtualBox even has a "seamless" mode where it sort of
feels like you have windows from both environments.

If you can set up Linux, you can set this up too.

------
gst
I've used Linux since the early 1.x kernel versions, but for my next laptop
I'm thinking about switching to a MacBook. Not because of the software (I
prefer Linux to macOS), but because of the hardware.

Apple seems to be the only manufacturer that so far escaped the race to the
bottom and which still produces somewhat premium hardware. I want: a hidpi
screen with lots of nits and a good contrast, a trackpoint or a huge touchpad,
good battery life and somewhat light weight.

In the past Thinkpads worked really well for that, but recently I had multiple
issues with Lenovo hardware. I'm currently using a X1C3 and originally
considered upgrading to a X1C6 or T480s, but given there are known issues such
as the throttling bug
([https://github.com/erpalma/throttled](https://github.com/erpalma/throttled))
that Lenovo hasn't fixed in over half a year I'm very close to giving up on
Thinkpads.

~~~
doublepg23
I've heard good things about the XPS line, but I'm surprised you'd move to a
Macbook over _throttling_. My understanding is Macbooks are notorious for
throttling, the last MB Pro bug being the worst in recent memory. If anything
I'd blame Intel.

~~~
gst
Regular thermal throttling is fine. The Thinkpad issue that I mentioned is a
software bug in the firmware that throttles the CPU way too early/often.

------
CaliforniaKarl
Tangentially-related rant (since the author is pushing Ubuntu): I wish
Canonical would offer an 'End-User Desktop Support' offering. Right now Ubuntu
Advantage is available for $150 per year, but that's only for enterprise (you
have to order at least 50 units).

I think it would be interesting if Canonical offered an equivalent product for
home users, understanding that the $/year would be higher. That would give all
the people moving to Ubuntu an option to support the people making the OS.

I do see that donations are accepted (the prompt is on the _Your download will
begin shortly…_ page), so at least there's that!

~~~
cwyers
You'll never get end users to pay more per seat than an enterprise product.
You just need to find a way to make the end user product sufficiently worse
that enterprises won't care about the price difference, they'll just buy what
they need.

~~~
jjeaff
When you have a minimum of 50 seats, it's not really $150 per seat.

It's $7,500 + $150 per seat over 50

$150 for a single seat would be significantly less.

~~~
cwyers
What value prop are you going to offer to get a consumer to pay $150 a year
for Linux support? Enterprises will pay it because they have a value prop and
because Windows seats aren't free. From a consumer's point of view, Windows
_is_ free.

------
gnunez
I prefer to use macOS as my main desktop environment; where I can easily drop
into a bash shell if the need arises. Mac also gives me access to standard iOS
development tools. I keep Linux vms running for server-side development and
experimenting. Sometimes I wish I also had a Windows machine so I can stay
abreast of the .Net ecosystem, but nowadays I don’t really have the need. Each
environment/OS is a tool with its own strengths and weaknesses. Don’t limit
yourself to just one environment. Learn how to secure yourself in each
environment. Use Tor, encryption and other tools to stay as safe and secure as
possible. Your privacy can be invaded on Linux, Windows, or any other OS, so
unfurtanely the burden of keep your system and date secure still remains.

------
rotskoff
I have been using Ubuntu on and off since about 2005. Last year I switched
from OSX on a dated macbook to Ubuntu on a newer Dell XPS. On the whole I am
happy with the switch: with many of the apps that I use based on electron
(slack, atom, mailspring) or directly in the browser (google docs), it is hard
to notice the difference. I do most of my work related writing in latex, so
this has also not been very noticeable.

I don't like latex slides and I give presentations frequently for work. The
only thing that has proved consistently annoying is that LibreOffice Impress
is nowhere near as good as keynote.

------
shmerl
_> If you’re a serious gamer, Linux won’t satisfy you (yet)._

That's moot. Linux gaming today is a lot better than ever before, considering
advances in graphics APIs (Vulkan), increasing amount of native Linux games
and rapidly improving support for Windows games through Wine, dxvk, vkd3d,
including projects like Proton integrated into Steam client and etc.

Many former Windows gamers find it acceptable to switch. So at the very least,
give Linux gaming a try and see for yourself.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
While the work Valve has done improving the Linux gaming situation is actually
quite impressive, 'serious' PC gamers already do enough configuration tweaking
and working around problems already, it doesn't strike me that they'll really
want to deal with even more of that.

~~~
shmerl
My point is, that Linux is already well usable for gaming, including for very
demanding games. "Serious gamer" is too much of a generalization, to assume
what people are willing or not willing to do to configure their systems.

Many gamers are actually very much into tweaking things as you say, from
custom PC builds to game mods and other customizations. They see
configurability as a benefit, not as a downside. So Linux is a natural fit.

Besides, Linux gaming is quite accessible today without any extensive manual
tweaking (while you can always do that if you want to, a lot more than on
Windows).

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Let me put it this way. What's the best damn GPU on the market right now? I'm
actually not sure, but I'd bet good money the top 3 slots are nVidia. Even if
you use the nVidia proprietary drivers, the data says you're suffering a
performance hit for it. God help if you're using nouveau, because you just
wasted hundreds of dollars.

The kinds of people I think of when you say "serious gamers" are not going to
be very happy with the idea that they're locked out of the best kit. These are
people for whom their computer's primary purpose is probably playing games.
Why would they sacrifice needlessly?

> So Linux is a natural fit.

If it were a natural fit, they'd be interested in using it. Data suggests they
aren't.

~~~
shmerl
_> The kinds of people I think of when you say "serious gamers" are not going
to be very happy with the idea that they're locked out of the best kit_

Again, generalizations like "serious gamer always does that" are not helpful.
Lot's of people are not satisfied with Windows for many reasons. Would they
switch to Linux if they could play their games? Many would and already do, and
I wouldn't call them not serious.

Performance variations are not uniform. I.e. it's not a given that Linux
always reduces performance. Proper made games actually perform better on
Linux. Of course if you are using translation layers like Wine, some
performance hit is expected to compensate. That's not necessarily a bad trade-
off for those who want to switch, as long as result is well playable.

 _> If it were a natural fit, they'd be interested in using it._

They are, increasingly.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> Again, generalizations like "serious gamer always does that" are not
> helpful.

Then why did you make a generalization in the first place and keep making it?
I didn't introduce the term to the conversation you know.

Let's ask a simple question: would your conception of a "serious gamer"
include literally anyone who plays PC games at all? You have to have some line
you're drawing somewhere right? Well, I can't read your mind so I'm using my
own line, which is drawn where someone considers gaming to be a very high
priority to them, and it seems unlikely to me that that kind of person is
willing to make that trade off for some nebulous concept of "privacy".

~~~
shmerl
_> Then why did you make a generalization in the first place and keep making
it_

I didn't introduce it either, I simply referenced what the article used, to
disagree with the point that Linux is not suitable for "serious gamer", as to
say that there are gamers today who switch to Linux and who aren't any less
serious than others.

 _> Let's ask a simple question: would your conception of a "serious gamer"
include literally anyone who plays PC games at all?_

I'd say someone who prefers to have good hardware to be able to play more
demanding games is serious enough about it. Many Linux gamers do that as well.
What's the reason to claim they aren't serious?

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Ok, if that's the line we're using, then that includes anyone who isn't
satisfied with the on-die GPU. That's a sufficiently broad definition of
"serious" to include quite a lot of people who would sacrifice performance and
compatibility for privacy, so I agree your statement is applicable to that
group.

That's just not the group I think of when someone uses the term "serious" in
this manner. Sure, they're on the spectrum of seriousness, but if I were to
tell you that someone was a "serious cigar smoker", do you honestly imagine a
guy who smokes machine rolled every few months?

~~~
shmerl
Not sure how smoking is relevant here, but I know many who play demanding
games on Linux, using high end GPUs, CPUs, custom PC builds and etc. It's as
serious as it gets. And "must use Windows" isn't something they care about, as
Linux users.

------
II2II
If you are thinking about Linux, this is pretty much the worse approach
possible. My advice would be to switch to open source applications first, to
ensure that you will have a suite of software that meets your needs and that
you will be able to transition your data. If the switch looks viable, spend
some time using your chosen distro on live media, to ensure that it will work
with your hardware. If the live media does not work, either try a different
distro or set the transition aside. Then make the jump if, and only if, it
looks like you will be able to make a total transition. Backing up your data
and telling the distro's installer to use the entire drive vastly simplies
everything from installation and support to everyday usage.

Linus itself is an excellent operating system that makes life for end users a
lot easier, but I suggest the applications first approach since it is not for
everyone. Even using this approach and testing it on live media first is bound
to have a few hiccups, yet it is a lot better than starting out by learning
everything from scratch or by troubleshooting major issues.

~~~
lsanger
Did I suggest that people follow my precise route? I'm not sure I did. I was
just reporting how I did it.

------
Havoc
The fact that he gets the name of MS's office suite wrong tells me perhaps he
isn't all that bound to MS turf in the first place...

~~~
lsanger
I'm not, really. Before they moved to the crowd (I refused to follow them
there), I used to be an Office expert. I knew the software inside and out. I
still use Word 2007. But no, I never did install Office 36 _5_ (I see my
mistake now!).

~~~
Havoc
haha maybe I shouldn't have judged based on a typo

------
bigiain
So 2019 is _finally_ gonna be the year of Linux on the Desktop?

(Pardon me if I seem a little skeptical, I've heard this song before...)

~~~
agumonkey
blender is getting fun; inkscape reaches 1.0, gimp might evolve

methinks if libreoffice gets a bit leaner and featured it might be

~~~
wyattpeak
I thought Libreoffice was fine enough until I started working in an office
with people on Windows.

I ran into so many compatibility problems I could barely believe it. Couldn't
edit each other's headers, no maths support worked between the two, images and
other objects would get randomly shuffled in the documents (one image showing
up where another used to be). To say nothing of the minor niggling display
differences reminiscent of the old IE6 box model problems.

I had to start sending documents in PDF, but then they couldn't edit them.
That alone was enough to move me back to Windows.

For better or worse, I don't think Libreoffice can move forward until
interoperability can be presumed.

~~~
amaccuish
Use OnlyOffice. It uses the Microsoft xml formats internally and I've found it
work miles better for compatibility than Libreoffice. Plus it looks nicer :)
you can install it as a snap.

~~~
lasagnaphil
I'm surprised that the desktop software is AGPL. When I first looked at the
website I initially thought it was proprietary...

Github Link: [https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE](https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE)

One question though: What desktop UI API are they using? Is it using the
native APIs, or using Electron under the hood?

~~~
amaccuish
No idea but definitely javascript. My Nextcloud server uses OnlyOffice in the
browser so I can edit my documents like with Google Docs or Office 365. It's
the same code I'm sure in the browser and on the desktop.

------
aembleton
Talks a lot about privacy, but adds Google Analytics to his website.

~~~
lsanger
I didn't even know that was running. I'm going to remove it.

------
rv-de
That guide is way too long and convoluted to successfully win over any regular
Joe or average Amanda.

For example the recommendation to learn about partitioning and stuff is
"funny". Just install Linux Mint 19, accept the suggested partitions and be
done already.

~~~
lsanger
It's not meant to win over an average Joe. It's meant to maybe win over the
sort of people who read my blog--technical or semi-technical, intelligent in
any case, capable of thinking outside the box...

------
mherrmann
I had similar experiences switching from macOS to Ubuntu. I wrote an article
about this, where I compare the two OSs as "Home and Hotel" [1].

1: [https://fman.io/blog/home-and-hotel/](https://fman.io/blog/home-and-
hotel/)

------
iamgopal
I am using Ubuntu since version 6, inkscape gimp web programming been handled
really well till date. Only complain is engineering drawing, for which AutoCAD
level replacement yet to find.

------
scarejunba
What's really funny is that I use Linux desktops at home and work, a Macbook
with OS X at work, and dual boot the home desktop to play games and barely
notice anything.

------
lsanger
Author of the article here. I just noticed that it had been posted on Hacker
News. Thanks to se7entime!

------
CaliforniaKarl
>1\. Pick a distro.

>2\. Put the distro on a thumb drive or DVD so you can boot to it from there.

>3\. Create a partition big enough for the Linux distro.

>4\. Install the Linux distro in the partition.

>5\. Configure Linux so you can use it on a daily basis.

I think there's a critical step missing from this list, which applies to the
'non-techies' reading the post.

(At first I wasn't going to post this, thinking that the article was only for
technically-minded people, but the author calls out notes for non-techies at
various points.)

The critical step is: Tell your support person, and your other users!

Many people have a support person. At work, this is your IT person. At home,
this may often be a family member. For example, I am the support person for my
father.

If you have a support person, let them know what you would like to do. Point
them to the article, and to the other pages that you're looking at.

Be respectful of your support person's time. It will take at least an hour to
go through all of the above steps; longer if something doesn't go exactly
right. If you do this out of the blue, run into a problem, and have to lean on
your support person unexpectedly, understand that you will be taking them away
from something else unexpectedly.

Be prepared for your support person to say "If you do this, I won't be able to
help you." If they say that, then accept it. If you need to go back to them
for help, don't be surprised if they say "You're going to have to wipe
everything and reinstall".

Back up your stuff! Do this before making Step 3. Make sure those backups are
good.

You may also have other users. If your family shares a machine, then your
family members are other users.

Talk to those people. Let them know what is going to happen. Even if you are
just adding Ubuntu as a new partition, you must assume there will be a time
when you have to leave the computer unexpectedly, another user will come in,
and be presented with a weird lock screen or login screen. Walk people through
at least the Ubuntu login and lock screens.

Let your other users know, if the machine is locked, restarting into Windows
may mean that anything still open under Linux may lose data.

Again, be respectful of everyone's time. If you're the parent, then you can
certainly say "I'm doing this tomorrow at 3 PM; come to me first before you
try to use the computer after that time.", but if your child then comes back
with "I had planned on working on $PROJECT at 4 PM tomorrow", responding with
"Well, you should've planned your time better." is BS.

If you're interested in running Linux on your desktop, then you can definitely
do it! But please, recognize that (most of) you have people in your life who
fulfill either the 'supporter' or 'co-user' role, and they deserve to be
brought into the loop.

(Source of rant: I once had my Dad upgrade several versions of macOS in one
single jump, on some random weekday. Of course the upgrade took longer than
expected, and also the jump of several versions caused lots of UI things to
change. That led to multiple unplanned hour-plus-long phone calls in the
middle of my workday, as this was my parents' only computer.)

~~~
lsanger
Good point.

My support person was my 12-year-old son. ;-)

------
fxj
Yawn! Really this discussion all over again? Just use the right tool for the
right job. I wonder whether carpenters also discuss their hammers and
screwdrivers like that. </rant>

------
simplecomplex
The author says he switched because of “Then came 2018, with its stunning
revelations and outrages by Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. With privacy
and free speech—in short, digital autonomy—deeply under threat”

Comparing Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple is apples to oranges. What did Apple
do that threatens customer privacy and free speech?

You don’t need to switch to Linux to stop using Facebook and Twitter...

~~~
shmerl
_> What did Apple do that threatens customer privacy and free speech_

Apple affects many things negatively by being extremely pro lock-in and patent
aggressive. So I'd say it's a good thing when someone stops using Apple's
products and switches to Linux instead.

~~~
simplecomplex
It’s not a good thing if you like seeing software devs get paid :)

~~~
shmerl
The company doesn't need to be a nasty anti-competitive jerk to pay
developers.

~~~
briandear
What’s anti competitive?

~~~
shmerl
It's when instead of competing on merit, companies focus on controlling the
market through monopolization techniques. I.e. simply banning competition.

Lock-in (i.e. refusal to support interoperability), patent aggression,
forbidding competing technologies in their store and so on and so forth.

------
sys_64738
Nothing he says Is dependent on the Linux kernel so he could have run WSL
under Windows 10. For Linux builds of GUI apps he could use a free X server.

I wonder if this can be applied to the majority of people. If the app is
available for Windows then use the Windows version (e.g. Chrome at least until
Edge uses Chrome engine) otherwise use the app under WSL.

Microsoft has made it easy to run GNU tools under Windows such that you don’t
need to be constrained to Linux installs for that.

~~~
tyingq
WSL can be pretty slow for some tasks. It's REALLY slow for me when creating
lots of files, like a git clone might do. See, for example:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18948601](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18948601)

------
jotm
If you have Windows-only software, you can always just be a "pirate", flip
Microsoft off and block all updates, telemetry and whatnot. Use what you want,
give nothing back heh

~~~
_emacsomancer_
> If you have Windows-only software, you can always just be a "pirate", flip
> Microsoft off and block all updates, telemetry and whatnot

It's an awful lot of work to maintain this, and of dubious value with the end
result being running a second-rate OS.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Windows is a first rate OS saddled with some stupid bullshit that's been piled
on top of it. And be fair, maintaining a Linux configuration just the way you
like it is a lot of work too. If it weren't, there wouldn't be hundreds of
slightly-different distros.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
> Windows is a first rate OS saddled with some stupid bullshit that's been
> piled on top of it.

I'm sure there are good bits of Windows - Microsoft has a lot of very smart
people working for them. But I've never experienced Windows as a first rate OS
- it's always had bullshit on top (and beneath) it.

> And be fair, maintaining a Linux configuration just the way you like it is a
> lot of work too. If it weren't, there wouldn't be hundreds of slightly-
> different distros.

Maybe "just the way you like it", but "functional and not sending your private
information off to a dubious corporation" is pretty easy.

When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent enough to
debug. Windows? Opaque all the way down. Ask for help online? They say "check
your anti-virus; if that doesn't work, reinstall your OS". In what world is
that sane?

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> Maybe "just the way you like it", but "functional and not sending your
> private information off to a dubious corporation" is pretty easy.

Sure, and that's great if that's all you want out of a personal computer.

> When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent enough
> to debug.

Bull. I've been using Linux for decades and it's always the same story. You
have a problem with X, you do a search for your problem with X, you find a
dozen solutions that don't apply to you because you're on a different distro
or they're from 2013 when half the software stack was different. Of course the
error reporting is vague and the documentation is out of date, referring you
to the source for details. If you dare go somewhere to ask about your problem,
you most likely get told you're using the wrong distro. It really isn't all
that different from the situation on Windows.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
> > When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent
> enough to debug.

> Bull. I've been using Linux for decades and it's always the same story. You
> have a problem with X, you do a search for your problem with X, you find a
> dozen solutions that don't apply to you because you're on a different distro
> or they're from 2013 when half the software stack was different.

Ok, so in some cases there can be complications. But once you've found (a/the)
solution, it makes a sort of sense. In contrast, in the cases I've
successfully found a solution to a problem on Windows, the reasons usually
remain opaque. This, surely, is a side-effect of running a proprietary OS, and
one I no longer have patience for.

For example, when I was dual-booting Windows 10 on two desktops a couple of
years ago, I ran into major problems just getting Windows installed (taking
far longer to ultimately install than it ever took me to install _any_ Linux
distro, from Ubuntu to Arch to Void to GuixSD).

I had downloaded the official Windows 10 image from Microsoft onto a usb
thumbdrive and went to install. During the installing process, it failed with
an obscure message about missing drivers. I try on the other differntly-
configured desktop (different motherboard etc). It's the same thing. I think
perhaps it's an chicken-and-egg issue with trying to install via a usb3 port
(i.e. maybe it's missing usb3 drivers or something). Seems unlikely, but I try
booting from a usb2 port. No luck. For good measure, even from different usb
ports. But it doesn't matter, it's always the same error message during
install. Seems like something which would be easy to debug, since there are in
fact lots of Windows users, but I can't find anything similar described.

I finally find a post on some obscure forum which describes a similar problem.
The suggested solution: wait until you get the 'drivers missing' error, and
then unplug the installation usb thumb and plug it into a different usb port.
(So it doesn't matter which usb port you start with, it will always 'miss' the
drivers until you unplug it and plug it into another usb port.)

I thought: what a stupid solution, surely it won't work, but what the hell,
let's try it for shits and giggles. Of course, that was the solution. That's
completely opaque. The solution might as well have been sprinkling the machine
with chicken blood while playing the Beatles' White Album.

I don't know how many hours were wasted trying to resolve that. After a year
or so, I ended up wiping all of the Windows partitions. Too much headache.

It sounds like you have better experiences with Window. Perhaps you have the
right magic touch that's needed.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
I won't disagree that Windows has this issue, I just disagree that Linux
doesn't have equally frustrating diagnosability issues. Just because you
haven't personally encountered them does not mean they don't exist.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
There are certainly irritating problems which can arise on Linux, I'm not in
any way denying that. But on Windows, the closed nature of the OS makes
certain things particularly irritatingly opaque and inflexible.

------
Theodores
I find it amusing that so people who are quite capable feel compelled to hold
onto the hand-rails for so long and won't just dive in to Linux. I was guilty
of hanging on to the dual boot for a few years but never ended up using the
Windows side or any of those programs that I thought were so fundamentally
important to my life.

I am not sure why people can't just give Ubuntu a go on a brand new machine
rather than maybe run it on Virtualbox. It is like cars and bicycles, people
will spend all their money on a car but want or insist on some second hand
stolen junk when it comes to buying a bicycle. In so doing they never get into
cycling and spend even more money on their car. Then one day they hear about
climate change and maybe decide to get the bike out the shed.

I feel this is the same story here, since when has there been any information
privacy with these commercial operating systems? DOS 6.22 with a locked floppy
drive was probably the last time. So to suddenly wake up to the 'scandal' of
Facebook et al. selling your every mouse click is a bit special.

These are just observations, obviously Ubuntu linux is the best operating
system there is and I would not change for a paid for OS if you paid me.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> I find it amusing that so people who are quite capable feel compelled to
> hold onto the hand-rails for so long and won't just dive in to Linux.

Well it doesn't help that Linux desktop is backed by one of the most
condescending cultures that ever stalked the internet.

Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, the way Linux works just doesn't
jive with a lot of people? Like, everything has a middleman involved. Drivers
for your hardware? Have to be merged into the kernel. Applications? Should go
through (all of) the distro package repo(s) unless you want it to be a pain in
the ass.

We get it, you find value in the way these things work, some of us don't.

~~~
saagarjha
> Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, the way Linux works just doesn't
> jive with a lot of people? Like, everything has a middleman involved.
> Drivers for your hardware? Have to be merged into the kernel. Applications?
> Should go through (all of) the distro package repo(s) unless you want it to
> be a pain

…? This is a really strange perspective, since I've found Linux to _remove_
middlemen. No more searching a manufacterer's website for some garbage closed-
source driver that has a dozen vulnerabilities and no support. No more waiting
for Microsoft to roll out fixes; you can apply your own changes yourself.

~~~
Godel_unicode
> No more waiting for Microsoft to roll out fixes; you can apply your own
> changes yourself.

And now you have to, forever, since you're no longer using a package manager
to get updates to your custom buggy horror show.

> No more searching a manufacterer's website for some garbage closed-source
> driver

Please point me to the source for the drivers for my rtx2080. That would be
super helpful!

~~~
simion314
>Please point me to the source for the drivers for my rtx2080. That would be
super helpful!

There are cases where good hardware has no drivers for latest windows, like I
had a Wacoom tablet that the vendfor would not result drivers for newer
Windows version but continued to work out of the box on Linux. The fact that
NVIDIA are jerks and not providing at least documentation for the community to
make drivers is not the fault of the Linux community or the fault of us the
NVIDIA customers,

The proprietary driver work well enough for my 970 but my next card will be an
AMD one

