
Ask HN: Anybody else have a hard time transitioning to Linux as daily driver? - bluffbluffpass
As much as I&#x27;d love to for sake of memory, I keep sliding back to Windows. Mostly just because of familiarity but also for technical reasons (driver compatibility and the like).  I feel like a fuckin Applehead
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ksaj
I'm very much a Linux-head since the 0.98a days, and my desktop computer that
I mostly use for recording music is OSX. Mainly I've avoided Windows for a
variety of personal reasons. I also have a dozen Raspberry Pis running Linux,
so I try to keep everything reasonably similar.

Recently I bought matching laptops for myself and my non-technical partner.
For ease of maintenance, I left Windows 10 on both of them, and set up LSW
under Windows Terminal (versus Windows Console, which is far too limited for
that use).

Dragging the terminal window to the edge of the screen does a half-screen
maximize, and then I have Chrome browser take up 3/4 of the opposite side of
the screen. I use tmux to split that screen in half so I effectively have 2
terminals available immediately, and of course tabs. So it literally feels
like I have 2 operating systems on one screen. Most importantly, with the
newer WSL you can simply add 'export DISPLAY=:0' to the end of .bashrc to run
GUI apps without the added overhead of whatever remote desktop software.

Having done that means I can keep our music files in sync (MusicBee), all our
shared resources are compatible in exactly the same way, and I still have
something of a familiar Linux experience at my fingertips when working on
either laptop.

Also, Windows 10 seems 10x better than the previous Windows versions I've
tried and worked with in the past. It's still sluggish and has annoying things
popping up and dinging, but it's easy enough to get used to, given the ease of
maintenance for everything else.

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rvz
You're not alone. I use macOS on my MacBook as a daily driver since my mental
model is suited to the experience and the apps I use. I have the same
expectation on another Windows machine that I use due to its consistent GUI.
Both of which "just work" well enough to get my work done.

However, as for dual-booting Ubuntu on my Mac and using it on my PC, I also
find myself booting back to Windows or macOS after testing some cross-platform
GUI applications I develop since last time I tried, they were prone to crashes
with strange errors related to either the DE, window manager, or a mismatch in
the toolkit used somehow. This doesn't happen on my Mac or Windows PC. Thus, I
end up spending time playing around with my computer running Ubuntu Linux with
those system components to fix the issue rather than using it for serious
productivity.

This is one of many issues plaguing Linux distros like Ubuntu from being my
daily driver instead of an occasional testing ground, which is why I dual-boot
instead to macOS.

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dustinmr
Maybe try changing the paradigm completely with a tiling window manager.

Take a look at [https://regolith-linux.org/](https://regolith-linux.org/)

I tried i3wm, a tiling window manager a few years ago, and it just sort of
clicked with me. Eventually I set up a laptop with it, and decided I like it
better than Mac. Around that time, Regolith was announced, and I found it to
be a great looking, and great set of defaults and starting point. Gnome is
still available if you get lost or break something.

Incidentally, I eventually arrived to using PopOS, and then installing
regolith from the package manager. Working well so far.

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snisarenko
I've been using Ubuntu as my daily driver (development and web browsing) for 2
years on a Dell XPS Laptop. I have not run into any critical issues. It's been
pretty stable, and "just works", and has regular updates. And running docker
is pretty easy.

I think you have less issues with linux if you pick the right hardware. Dell
XPS laptops and thinkpad laptops I think have the best reputation for being
stable at running linux.

I dual boot my laptop with windows 10. Last time I booted into Windows, my
CPU, RAM, and Network were all maxed out (probably some update, & virus
checking crap). I couldn't even use the computer. I don't think I can ever go
back to windows for daily use. I use a separate windows laptop for gaming.

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stakkur
I tool the plunge and converted to Linux a few years ago after MacOS forever.
Sometimes it's frustrating, but most of that frustration is over minor
conveniences. I like MacOS just fine, but just can't. Stand. Windows.

It really helped to get more than superficial knowledge about how Linux works
--especially the filesystem and the _why_ of things like config files. That
made life more pleasant.

And though I did this for several reasons, it was mainly because of the ethos
of open source/libre and the old school repairability of ThinkPads, which are
the only laptops I use now. I grew tired of premium-priced Macbooks that were
basically sealed units.

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q-base
I switched to primarily Ubuntu 3-4 months ago. I still have a Windows
partition for some older .Net projects I have and a 2014 Macbook Pro for
submitting builds to the App Store. But apart from that, most of my daily use
and development in .Net Core + React Native is done in Ubuntu. I have not
really had any major issues to report. The main issue is battery, but that may
also be because of my old T460s getting a bit tired. So 3-4 hours of
development work and she is done.

Now I just have a hard time deciding between switching to a T480s or an X1
Carbon.

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oregontechninja
I've been using some form of Linux for my daily driver since valve released
the Proton comparability changes for wine. Haven't looked back. My driver's
have been great and I'm on AMD hardware which I was warned about but seems to
work great. I like Solus, Ubuntu, MX Linux, and Redhat ordered by usability.

TLDR: use a distro with a decent community, but it's also ok to not use Linux.

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madamelic
Don't feel like you need to be a 'leet' hacker and use an obscure distro just
because someone trashes on Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 18.04 works just fine and is a great stepping stone. I switched
entirely maybe 5 years ago and have never had an issues with drivers or
anything.

I do keep a Windows 10 partition for any games I want to play.

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CyberFonic
With the exception of drivers for some devices on cheap notebooks, I have
found Ubuntu to work perfectly well. Unlike Windows and Mac OS (I have used
both extensively in the past) I remain in total control of my Linux systems. I
update when I want and with what I want. Functionally there is an alternative
to all the expensive packaged software.

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chandakmayank
go manjaro. I used to wipe my system every 6 months. Now i'm on this rolling
distro providing stable desktop experience

