
An Ode to Linux Desktop Users Everywhere - levlaz
https://levlaz.org/an-ode-to-linux-desktop-users-everywhere/
======
bfrog
Linux as a desktop has come a _long_ way. Most things Just Work now. I
actually enjoy the experience a great deal more than either Windows or Mac at
this point, and I'm no Masochist.

Windows, Mac... plug a device in, install the driver through some lame wizard.

Linux... plug the device in, it Just Works.

Windows, Mac... software is out of date, go through dozens different wizards
and CLI tools to update all your stuff.

Linux... run a yum/apt/pacman/whatever update, everything is good to roll. If
your using NixOS you even get a complete system rollback, with configurations,
feature without any disk snap shotting required.

No microscopic close button. No spying on my desktop activity. No expensive
custom hardware required.

About the only downside is the lack of Adobe, which I personally don't use but
I know it would continue to be a blocker for many. Dear Adobe, get your shit
together.

~~~
xgbi
I'm not sure we have the same experience on Mac. Everything I ever plugged in
there works, from Arduino to Androids to USB sound cards, DVBT/SDR tuners,
webcams, or USB ethernet adapters, even my little USB scanner. I migght have
had problems with Wifi, but it was usually the same in linux with the
ndiswrapper dance. I even plugged a Social Security card reader (Frenchman
here) in there and it was detected correctly as a serial adapter.

~~~
taeric
Oddly, the number one "I can't believe this doesn't just work category" is
printers.

It is frustrating that I can just start printing from my ubuntu machine, but
have to figure out how to get the right drivers for my other machines.

As a standard caveat, I don't actually use that many devices on my network.
So, YMMV. A lot.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
To contrast, IME, CUPS is a pain. Absolutely awful. Printing Just Works
everywhere except Linux.

And I'm using an EPSON printer, too.

~~~
taeric
I'm pretty sure if you are ever at a point where you know the name of a
service implementation, it likely forced you to use it in anger.

Which is to say, I had forgotten printing was with CUPS since it has been a
long time since I had to mess with it. Hate to hear it went so poorly for you.

------
loudmax
For anyone who misses it, this is a reference to Apple's 1997 Think Different
marketing campaign. The original ode is here:
[http://www.thecrazyones.it/spot-en.html](http://www.thecrazyones.it/spot-
en.html)

I'd forgotten about this campaign, and I would have missed the reference
myself, but I just happened to listen to an audiobook chapter from Steve Jobs'
biography yesterday.

~~~
levlaz
> For anyone who misses it, this is a reference to Apple's 1997 Think
> Different marketing campaign.

Yes, thank you! This post was careful crafted trolling. I am glad the not so
subtle plagiarism was completely lost. ;)

~~~
Anthony-G
As a happy Lubuntu user, I interpreted it as an homage to the original Think
Different quote.

On a related note, the Atlantic has an interesting article on the Think
Different advertising campaign:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/12/true-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/12/true-
history-apples-think-different-campaign/334256/)

------
rodolphoarruda
I'm so glad this one reached the top page in HN. It's our chance to talk about
it.

I've been using Linux on my personal and professional desktops since 2006. I
really enjoyed when Ubuntu got its presence and relevance in the scene, and I
didn't mind when they decided to adopt Unity. KDE has always been my preferred
option until I read an article where Linus T. said he used Gnome. So by the
time I moved to Gnome I also doubled by RAM and swapped to a SSD. Those were
the happiest days in my life. Using a computer was a real joy mainly because
of response times brought down to nearly zero. OpenOffice, Files, browsers,
and IMs were loaded before you could notice you had released the mouse button.
I even started to advertise this terminology among friends and family:
"instant computing experience". It was my own way to describe experience to
Windows users who still had to wait seconds for things to load on their
screens.

Those were the gold pre-UEFI days. Machines were shipped OEM with Windows 7,
which you could swipe out and replace with your favorite Linux ditro. No
strings attached, no major headaches etc. Of course, some would have to
struggle to make some hardware work, but once those things were sorted out and
optimized, again: pure joy.

I'm writing this because I hate UEFI. It made my life difficult because I have
a hard time whenever I decide to install Linux on any new machine. Double or
single boot, it doesn't matter.

Today the so-called "instant computing experience" is just as a memory in my
head. I'm stuck with Windows 10 and trying to get used to the fact
applications take time to load. I wave to wait. I wait for the OS to start up.
I wait until it resumes from sleeping mode. I wait for everything.

I'm waiting for a definitive solution to the UEFI problem either from Ubuntu
or from the community. Desperately!

~~~
grp
Maybe rEFInd[1] can help!

UEFI has some cool things, like you don't really need a bootloader if you
don't mind switching kernels. Just tell the _bios_ which partition you want to
boot.

[1] [http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/](http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/)

~~~
rodolphoarruda
>Just tell the bios which partition you want to boot.

That would work! Thanks a lot.

~~~
grp
In case of, I found that tool when I was searching for something just like
_efibootmgr_ (it might help too).

Have fun, you don't have to wait.

------
greydius
> How else can you stare at an empty screen and know that you have to
> blacklist your video card driver? Or sit in silence while tweaking alsamixer
> on the command line? Or write bash aliases to reload your network driver
> kernel module each time your laptop resumes from suspension?

The good old days! I've been a desktop Linux user for going on a decade. Yes,
it used to be a mess. Something only someone with technical acumen, enormous
amounts of free time, and an endless supply of patience would subject
themselves to. It's amazing how much has changed. Maybe I was lucky. I
transitioned from 'student with plenty of time to mess around with my
computer' into 'adult who actually needs to get work done' at around the time
that Linux desktops were becoming mature. I've been using Ubuntu for the last
two years and rarely have problems. Granted, I'm not a typical computer user.
I don't need everything dumbed down and made pretty. I need a stable and
reliable system that I have complete control over. It doesn't hurt that any
software I need is an 'apt-get install' away as well.

So thank you Linux, and thanks to all the developers that contribute to the
ecosystem.

~~~
antnisp
I regularly have to $sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service after
suspend on Ubuntu LTS :(.

~~~
therealjumbo
16.04 or 14.04? I have to do the same after suspend on 16.04 gnome ubuntu, on
my personal laptop. Network manager is such a shame on a system that otherwise
gives me no trouble. I stay in the terminal and the web browser the vast
majority of the time, so I don't need tons of fancy desktop stuff, but if it
stays out of my way? Meh, sure whatever.

At work, I have a RNDIS USB network device I need to connect to (work laptop,
not personal) and Network Manager is just insane, I don't even know what its
trying to do. It only works if I delete the connection every time it boots,
and re-add it. I just wish I could figure out where to add it in a config file
and never touch it, but all the documentation seems out of date.

Ubuntu is trying to do so many changes in such a short period of time I guess
they were bound to have some difficulties but it does seem like Network
Manager is the worst of the bunch, otherwise everything else seems great.

------
mathw
This brought back memories, but I haven't had to do any of those things for
ten years or so now. I've been careful in my hardware purchases, yes, but I've
been running mostly Fedora on a couple of ThinkPads and it almost always just
keeps on working. Especially the last four or five years, which is about how
long it's been since I last had to switch to Ubuntu because Fedora was too
broken.

The latest shock was upgrading to Fedora 25 and finding out the Wayland
session was running and I could barely tell the difference. All that extra
time before making it the default was definitely worth it! Most impressive.

Sure, desktop Linux isn't for everyone and it's not for every workload (I'm a
.NET developer, I more or less have to use Windows at work; and I do have a
big Windows box at home for gaming) but it lets me do my web browsing and my
artwork and my hobby development stuff in great comfort and mostly just stays
out of my way.

~~~
antongribok
I'm running Fedora 24 on my laptop and just installed 25 on a desktop, and I
can't tell any difference in user experience. They did a great job indeed!

I've switched to running Linux full time on my work desktop or laptop around
Ubuntu Lucid, and then switched to Fedora around 18 or 19. I'll run some
Ubuntu desktop VMs from time to time for certain things, but for most things I
prefer Fedora.

I can't wait for the Dell XPS 13 DE that my wife just ordered for me for
Christmas to arrive in the mail.

------
wiz21c
My wife is on KDE, kids are on KDE every day (although they spend their time
mostly inside firefox). I use openbox exclusively. It's debian stable (testing
was a bit too stressful to update every week, I'm getting old :-))

Everything works : printing works (provided the driver is flawed); network
works, cd burner works, Nvidia card works. electronic ID card works, USB stuff
works. I even use a pretty old scanner and a pretty old drawing tablet; both
work.

The PC is 7 years old. I've added hard drives, changed video card and moved to
SSD drives.

The only pain point is that somehow, sometimes the PC doesn't shutdown because
it has received a wake-on-lan packet.

~~~
thecatspaw
> sometimes the PC doesn't shutdown because it has received a wake-on-lan
> packet.

you should be able to fix that through the bios

------
drewg123
How about *nix desktop?

I miss the days where a TWM was "enough". I started with TWM on Xterms and
DECstations, moving up to CTWM on DEC alphas. I finally switched away from
CTWM around the year 2000, due to it not supporting some kind of modern
nonsense that web browsers wanted. Thankfully, KDE let me configure most of
the keybindings in my .twmrc file & retain my muscle memory. Gnome rejected a
patch that I sent them to allow the same config there, so I've been using KDE
ever since.

I ran FreeBSD for years as a desktop and always thought Linux was the gold
standard for things like KDE. First FreeBSD/alpha in the early 2000s, and then
FreeBSD/i386 on a P4. I remember getting sick of things "not working",
switching to Ubuntu, and realizing that things were just as flaky there. So
after ~6 years on a linux desktop, I'm back to FreeBSD.

~~~
arethuza
Which desktop technology though - at one point (~1990) I had a login menu that
prompted me to select Sunview, X or NeWS.

TWM was the first X window manager I used, I remember spending ages getting it
just so - just in time for a newer fancier one to come out (probably olwm in
OpenWindows) - liked mwm for a few years as well.

Must be something that I grew out of as I don't spend that much time
personalizing computing environments these days.

~~~
drewg123
The Sun NewS stuff was some kind of postscript based rendering system that ran
in parallel to X with an X server sharing the screen -- kind of like how X
works on MacOSX today). I stayed away from it because I used mostly X windows
terminals & DECstations. There was very little Sun hardware I could sit in
front of in my formative years as an undergrad in the late 80s / early 90s.

I kept the same basic customizations for years, mostly around focus-follows-
mouse and what mouse buttons + key combos moved, resize, iconify windows. My
problem was that the key things my muscle memory depended on were fairly hard
to configure in most things, and by that time, it was too late to change my
muscle memory.

Eg, I have this hard-coded in my brain:

Button1=m :w|f : f.function "move-raise"

Button2=m :w|f : f.resize

Button3=m :w|f : f.iconify

(this means alt with mouse button 1 = raise window to front, and move it,
alt+mouse2 = resize, alt+mouse3 = iconify)

So changing to anything else that didn't easily allow this customization was
painful. I used a Mac for almost a year, and lived in the X environment so
much that I went back to a *nix desktop. I kept doing crazy thing when I moved
my mouse to another window, and the focus did not follow the mouse. So I'd
start typing code in an Xemacs window, and i'd be deleting or forwarding mail.
Argh.

~~~
arethuza
Sorry - wasn't meaning to imply that _you_ had those options merely that some
of us were daft enough to work with multiple graphical environments at the
same time.

NB Subsequently OpenWindows came along and actually (AFAIR) supported client
applications from all three platforms at the same time.

------
donquichotte
Last fall I bought a Thinkpad T540s that came with Windows 10 + Lenovo
Crapware and a sound driver that did not work out of the box. I installed
Ubuntu on it and everything, including multiple displays, just worked. I
didn't even have to recompile the kernel to get WiFi running.

~~~
rglullis
This "Linux has too many issues on the desktop" thing got old already. To be
precise, it is as old as Ubuntu 12.04.

I have more than a handful of people that had PCs that "got too slow" and
wanted to get a new PC or a Mac. I'd tell them to get an SSD. When they did,
I'd go take a look at their computers, install the SSD myself and in less than
an hour I'd guide them (not do it myself, _guide_ ) how to install Ubuntu and
set up printers, scanners and which programs could substitute whatever they
were used to use on Windows. The hardware was never a problem: HP printers,
Canon all-in-ones, onboard wi-fi, you name it.

The one thing that is still sub-par on Linux is power management, so batteries
do suffer some abuse compared with other OSes. But for slightly older laptops
with removable/replaceable batteries and desktops, I fail to see how Windows
or MacOS is better in any way for the casual PC user.

I think the ones complaining about hardware/configuration issues with Linux
today are the ones pushing the envelope and trying to do things that will be
tricky even on Windows/MacOS.

~~~
levlaz
Maybe, if you pick the right hardware life is good. I picked up an Acer V3
which is an awesome machine except the network dies when you resume from
suspend (which then prompted this troll-ey blog post :))

------
Fwirt
After reading many glowing comments, just chiming in with my own anecdote
here. As someone who recently gave the Linux desktop a second (third?) chance,
my experience seems to match up well with the author's. From what I've seen,
the Linux desktop works very well if you have a very "standard" setup - One
monitor of average size, one sound output, a very standard network chipset,
etc. In other words, a Thinkpad. If you're trying to get everything to work
on, say, a living room HTPC with HDMI sound output and an HiDPI UHD display,
good luck.

This is of course anecdotal, but my recent experience went something like
this:

    
    
      - Install Kubuntu for simplicity my wife can relate to. "Oh wow! Most things are actually working out-of-the-box! Even wireless networking!"
      - "Hmm, everything's a little small... Maybe I can just adjust the dpi..." 6 hours of editing config files and restarting daemons later, Qt applications are mostly behaving, Gtk applications are still popping up with random scaling factors between 1x and 3x.
      - "That's funny, the sound is only coming out of the headphone jack..." 3 hours of tweaking settings later, sound over HDMI is *mostly* working, but if I logout and back in then everything believes my audio device has vaporized.
      - Wife walks in and says, "Just install Windows, please."
    

I know my experience may be unique, but "Just Works" has _never_ been the case
for me. I love the concept and ideology of the Linux desktop, but I always end
up spending more time editing config files and tearing my hair out than I do
actually working. That being said, I'm glad it works well for some of us...

------
zeroviscosity
I don't think anything on HN has ever made me as happy as this. Really
captures the experience - both the frustrations and the joys.

~~~
levlaz
Wow, thanks so much for this amazing compliment. :)

------
smhg
Related to Ubuntu's Unity (might apply to other environments):

I remember last time I switched from Windows (~3 years ago) it was once again
harsh on my eyes. The way things (fonts?) are rendered is just different.

What made me survive the first days was switching the default font to Roboto
Condensed (of Google fame) [1] with:

    
    
      sudo apt-get install fonts-roboto unity-tweak-tool 
    

I wouldn't want to trade it for any other OS currently. It just looks so good.
But I guess it is more because I got used to it than anything else.

If you find what works for you (right hardware, right kernel), issues can be
minimal. I definitely don't consider it to be buggy. Maybe the way sound
output switching works is a bit awkward, but that's about it.

[1] [http://pasteboard.co/6zgtPnMb7.png](http://pasteboard.co/6zgtPnMb7.png)

~~~
type0
First time I hear something other than praise for Ubuntu fonts. Bodhi Linux
was the only distro I tried that had terrible fonts, all others were good or
very good and I tried about 10 of them.

~~~
smhg
I definitely didn't want to say they are bad.

For me, personally, the switch from Windows was rough. Not because I consider
any of them to be superior, but because the way things are rendered is just so
different.

A more compact font (the 'Condensed' part) helped me a lot.

So many other things (window animations, shadows, straight borders,...) I
really love. And the compact font is the finishing touch for my untrained eye.

------
cdevs
Running kali and then mint is when I first had to experience all this hunting
down the nomodeset option, ubuntu was fine but can flip out on wifi after
standby which I think my first goto fix was Sudo ifconfig wlan0 down then Sudo
ifconfig wlan0 up. Cheers to the crazy ones running a low ram hogging distro
and less background processes so they can carry on a $200 i3 cpu / 4gig ram
laptop for many years beyond windows and Mac users.

~~~
digi_owl
Heh, i think the motherboard in the desktop i am typing this on is 10 years
old soon. At least that seems to be the case based on the copyright year given
for the bios on each boot.

------
swayvil
I install Linux for impoverished, computer-illiterate old ladies. Debian, with
the Mate desktop, specifically.

They like it because it's free, it just works, it never breaks, it runs fast
on your old machine, it never gets malware and it doesn't waste your time and
money with bullshit like Windows and Mac does.

------
abrowne
I've recently switched from MacOS to Linux. After trying lots of distros and
desktops, I went with Ubuntu MATE. Other than needing to plug into ethernet to
get the (Broadcom) wifi driver, it was an 100% automatic install, and I
configure and tweak a new MacOS install _more_ these days.

~~~
vanderZwan
For me Kubuntu was the one that finally stopped giving me grief with dual
monitor support (also, I miss ALT+Space Bar whenever I'm on another computer
now). I suspect which distro works best also really depends on your hardware.

------
berntb
Funny but really out of date. :-)

I used to do some sysadmin stuff a long time ago, but am losing my UNIX/Linux
skills -- because the Ubuntu (and follow ups) desktop _just works_ with very
little trouble, since lots of years. It seems I only use apt-get these days.

Maybe I am just careful when I buy hardware, I don't know.

That said, right now I am irritated and will soon have to download and read
sources, because of problems getting an ipsec configuration to work on Mint
18. (It worked copying it from Ubuntu to Mint 17.3).

But I really can't remember the previous time I broke out the source.

Edit: It seems most people have the same experience as me. (I should also add
to my claims of only needing apt-get, that it often work better if I get
printer drivers from the manufacturer and not from the distro.)

------
scandox
I'm using Arch with the i3 window manager for the last 8 months. I've run
pacman -Syu (equivalent of apt-get dist-upgrade) probably once a day that
entire time. I've had exactly zero problems. It is amazingly smooth.

The setup was a mild chore and yes the laptop is UEFI and I am dual booting.
But I can't remember the last time I used Windows, though I do remember it
seemed insanely slow.

I often find myself doing something in the Terminal thinking: "This is
objectively easier than filling in an online form". And when I see teenagers
and geriatrics behind the counter at Dunnes Stores (Irish thing) using
Terminal based stock control with flying fingers, I do think we've chosen a
strange path. Then I shake my head and move along.

~~~
Accacin
As a fellow Arch i3wm user I completely agree. I love i3's simple and readable
config.

It's odd that in Windows I dread updates, but using Arch I love to go home and
see how many packages are ready to be installed and I usually end up running
Pacman -Syu when I'm bored heh.

------
staticelf
I use desktop linux on my work computer, it barely works and I have some
issues. Although it's red hat enterprise which is running a lot of old shit.

I think using a friendlier distro like Ubuntu or Fedora would probably be a
lot better and give a much better experience.

~~~
to3m
I use Ubuntu on my work PC.

\- had to buy a 2nd GPU to get 3 monitors to work

\- GPU driver won't drive my 2560x1440 monitor at the max res

\- popup volume control pops up every minute or so (and sound pops and
stutters a bit each time this happens)

\- when waking from sleep, TTY works immediately, but GUI takes about 30
seconds to appear

\- something crashes on every boot, but it doesn't tell me what (I dutifully
submit a crash report)

\- any time I drag something in Firefox (text, image, tab, etc.), Firefox
crashes

USB throughput and FS performance are very good though, and 3d, wifi and
suspend-to-disk do work!

(Whatever the root cause of all of these things, be it Linux per se or some
other issue, the fact remains that I don't have any of these problems on
Windows. Of course, I don't get the smashing filing system speed either...)

~~~
loudmax
Sounds like problems with the video card drivers. In Linux, it pays to
research how well hardware is supported before you buy it, especially for
video and wifi. Even then, you may still benefit from looking at alternative
drivers or seeing if there are xorg.conf or kernel boot time options that
resolve those issues.

Whether it's worth the trouble of tracking down arcane options to get your
system working optimally is up to you. For most people it's not worth the
effort, so there are relatively few of us running Linux on the desktop. If
you're willing to put in the time and effort (and you happen to have
compatible hardware) it is possible to get a system that matches or exceeds
proprietary software desktops. Just be prepared to start all over again when
you upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu.

~~~
izacus
It always pays to research if your hardware is supported on given OS, whether
it's Linux, macOS or Windows.

~~~
pmontra
Yes, but we usually run MacOS on Apple hardware and we get Windows on the PC
we buy, with drivers tested by the manufacturer, so we can trust the hw/os
combination. Instead I always researched how Linux would run on my computers.
No major problems but some little issues that a manufacturer would have fixed
before going to the market.

We have to check MacOS and Windows compatibility only if we do strange things,
like hackintoshes or installing Windows from scratch on a different generation
computer. I must admit that installing desktop Linux is always a strange
thing, because very few manufacturers care of testing any distro on their hw.
Quite the opposite for server Linux.

------
legulere
> Because they ship your bug fixes.

Sadly they often don't. Especially on the desktop most open source developers
seem to be doing the work for free and it's totally understandable that they
prefer playing around with new features rather than fixing bugs.

~~~
levlaz
Sorry maybe I said this wrong.

A lot of developers that I know run Linux on the desktop. They don't necessary
ship bug fixes for desktop linux but they write code for Google, Facebook,
Some other Startup, etc.. "shipping bug fixes" may not have gotten that point
across but my point is "Hackers make the Software that we all enjoy".

------
manishsharan
Thank you OP for recognizing us. I have been rocking a Ubuntu on desktop for
over 10 years. My 10 year old desktop boots up faster that my new windows
laptop at work with all the security anti-virus etc. crapware.

------
qwertyuiop924
I do love this. It's an enjoyable humorous piece. And it's just a little
cathartic for those of us who remember when running a Linux desktop wasn't as
easy as it is now.

But nowadays, everything Just Works, modulo the occasional kernel/driver
version bump that needs a reboot, and the irritations of running systemdless.

I wasn't around when running Linux on the desktop was that bad, but I do
remember the insanity of Linux Gaming between when Loki folded and when Valve
took the mantle. It was... bad.

------
aamederen
Unfortunately, this is true, we have all been there.

~~~
levlaz
I started writing a post about the latest addition to my ~/.bash_profile file:

``` # Restart Network Driver alias n="sudo modprobe -r ath10k_pci && sudo
modprobe ath10k_pci" ``` And ended up stealing the Apple ad instead. Much more
fun. :)

~~~
andreicon
does stuff in ~/.bash_profile also get executed when you return from
suspend/hibernation or rather just at first boot?

~~~
levlaz
Oh no, this is just an alias called `n` that I execute when the drivers are
borked. Every _other_ time that my laptop resumes from hibernate my wifi
doesn't work. There is probably a much better solution here, but this one
works for me.

~~~
andreicon
i went through the same pains with my hp stream 11

this helped: [http://askubuntu.com/questions/632719/my-wifi-drops-the-
conn...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/632719/my-wifi-drops-the-connection-
after-a-few-minutes-realtek8723be)

the fwlps=0 option disables the sleep feature altogether which might reduce
battery life, but installing tlp gave me ~2 hrs extra per charge

~~~
levlaz
Nice! Thanks for sharing that. I think that AskUbuntu thread is a living
testimonial to what I am trying to express through my trolly blog post.

I am honestly proud to be in a community of users who would read that thread
and _not_ reinstall Windows. It takes a special breed.

~~~
andreicon
i'm reading your "about" page and thinking... what have i been doing all my
life?

i've followed you on twitter. keep writing good content!

~~~
levlaz
Wow thanks so much! Best compliment I've received on HN :)

Cheers!

------
Mister_Snuggles
I'm running OpenSuSE Leap 42.1 on my ThinkPad x131e (Intel).

I've also added the repositories that give me the latest Qt, KDE, and KDE
Applications. The net result is that I've got a stable base and a rolling
release of the desktop environment.

The only "issues" I've had are:

\- Needed to add a repository to get the Broadcom wireless driver.

\- Sometimes the network status applet gets "stuck" with the progress
indicator spinning even though the network is actually connected. It's like
part of the applet knows it's connected, but the icon state didn't get
updated. A logout/login fixes this.

\- Sometimes I have to toggle the Wifi on and off to get it to reconnect after
a wake.

\- Sometimes if I close the lid too quickly after shutdown it decides that it
wants to reboot.

Honestly, these are the only real problems I have with the machine and they're
very minor. For the most part, the machine performs exactly like you'd expect
a small low-end laptop to perform.

------
jcoffland
My wife is not a computer person and she has been using Linux exclusively for
about 15 years now. I help every now and then.

------
reitanqild
KDE Neon user here. As long as I work at a place that doesn't care then I
guess it will be KDE for the next few releases.

Have left a partition with my Windows installation but as much as I think
Windows 10 is a step forward, lenovo drivers or something still manage to
drive me mad.

Build now takes 22-25 seconds compared to > 45 seconds.

Edit: Neon gives me the stability of Ubuntu as I remember it together with the
beauty and (power user at least : ) usability of KDE 5.

Perfect? No.[0]

Nice? Fast? Easy to use? Yes, yes and yes.

[0]: (I sometimes run a sudo service networking restart or sudo service
network-manager restart, but Windows used to either refuse to sleep or somehow
restart in my bag, which destroyed my display last year.) Fast

~~~
reitanqild
Too late to edit but it should be "...but Windows _sometimes_ used to...".

------
nekopa
I'm a very happy Xubuntu user. Have been for about 5 years, and even switched
my partners laptop over to it a few months ago, after her win10 borked itself.
Previously I used to dual boot windows and Slackware, but after 10 odd years
on Slackware I wanted a Linux system I could just use and not spend every
minute tweaking.

I must be getting old.

But I still have fond memories of plugging into Ethernet to get online with
lynx and try to find out how did I manage to fuč up WiFi _and_ Xorg by editing
and completely unrelated (or so I thought) file.

Ah, good times.

~~~
k__
I'm using xubuntu for years now, but I have the feeling it got heavier every
year.

Now I'm searching for a better alternative

~~~
moderation
Xubuntu user for years also. I still find it pretty zippy and everytime I go
out looking at alternatives I always come back.

~~~
nekopa
Same here. But I must confess that I do get a new laptop every 2-3 years, so
maybe it is getting heavier, but I don't notice it.

But I was surprised recently when win10 killed my ssd, so I installed Xubuntu
on the spinning disk. And it runs as fast as win10 did on the ssd. The only
thing that does take longer is booting up, but I always had the feeling that
windows was cheating somehow, it would boot to the desktop really quick, but
it was not a usable desktop. That still took a while to become responsive.

------
BrandoElFollito
I am a Linux fan since ca. 1993. Yesterday I tried once again to give a chance
to ubuntu desktop on my dual boot Lenovo P50 with a docking station and two
screens. Complete failure, the screens were not recognized, the cursor was
leaving a trace, etc.

A complete failure.

So while Linux as a server is a dream came true, I will stick to Windows as my
desktop OS.

------
throw2016
I current use Unity on Ubuntu 16.04 as my main system and I prefer it to my
macbook pro and Windows desktop. Its smooth, fast and minimal.

For someone who has used Linux desktops for more than 15 years it has come a
long way. Gnome and Kde are both good but Unity provides a rare minimalism and
polish on Linux.

But for those who need specialized apps that app determines their work
machine.

~~~
erelde
If you're after minimalism, you should take a look at /r/unixporn (kinda SFW
despite the name).

Not necessarily the most efficient DEs or WMs, but it looks damn good. Some
people seem to get a sharp looking Unity.

I use bspwm on ArchLinux myself.

------
skraelingjar
I bought a $250 chromebook and a new SSD just to run Ubuntu as my daily driver
and it's been great! Of course I've written scripts to reload network-manager
on wake, add the keyboard backlight driver back into the kernel after updates,
and I can't let the battery dip below 2% or everything will be erased...

~~~
partisan
I bought a Dell Chromebook 13 with an i5 processor and I upgraded the SSD. In
the end, I might have been better off getting a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition,
but I am somewhat smitten with this pretty amazing little machine. I am
worried about flashing the BIOS and bricking it, but that seems to be the only
way, apart from constantly charging it, to avoid loss of data.

~~~
dennylfromga
Why flash the BIOS? I have a Dell Chromebook 13 (i5/8GB) and I upgraded the
SSD to 256GB. I installed Linux Mint 18 (Sarah) on partition 7 which I can
dual-boot into and I have several crouton chroots installed to run with CrOS.
I find this a perfect setup for my needs.

------
wiredfool
I think status quo is a good thing. Linux users don't want stuff to break for
no good reason.

I say this after reading the article, then hoping that the new kernel install
doesn't bring back the video tearing/blinking when moving the mouse from
screen 0 to 1.

~~~
module0000
At least we can downgrade our kernels without re-install-and-recover-from-
time-machine though, but otherwise yea :)

~~~
aruggirello
Speaking of Time Machine, I use Timeshift to do backups on Ubuntu. It's a GUI
rsnapshot-based tool, and will backup/restore the full system, including boot
sector, so it's perfect for a desktop user. Backing up your machine(s)
regularly is important, regardless of the number of kernel images you have
available. Because sh*t happens. :)

------
dman
As an avid Linux user I used to be troubled by people claiming the utter
unusability of Linux as a productive desktop environment. The thing that
brought me some peace was the realization that a lot of the users that
complain about desktop linux being broken want the computing equivalent of a
Toyota Camry - something that takes them from point A to point B with a
minimum of fuss. I would like to think of the Linux desktop environment as
being closer to a Miata - something fun and enjoyable for those that are
willing to accept different tradeoffs and enjoy being closer to the road.

~~~
levlaz
> I would like to think of the Linux desktop environment as being closer to a
> Miata - something fun and enjoyable for those that are willing to accept
> different tradeoffs and enjoy being closer to the road.

I really like this analogy.

------
smashu
my ThinkCentre home desktop runs on Ubuntu for 3 years, my Dell laptop runs on
Fedora for 1 year. All smooth ;)

~~~
grp
and my Vaio laptop runs voidlinux for 2 years, after arch for 4 years and
fedora for 3!

Still booting in less time than the bios needs to. :)

------
earthly10x
I've been Linux on the desktop since 93' and especially since VMWare came out.

~~~
erelde
Do you mean you're using Linux as guests on another host OS ? Or do you mean
you're using Linux as hosts for other machines ?

------
arc_of_descent
I've been using Linux as my desktop for 10 years now. I really love it and
can't imagine how people (especially devs) make do with Windows or Mac (To be
honest I've never used a Mac).

But here's to Linux on the Desktop!

