Finally migrated from Windows to Linux. For anyone wondering, what is the state of Linux as your primary OS for home PC\laptop in 2023.
I’ve finalised my Archlinux installation yesterday, I dropped of Linux more than 10 years ago and experience in 2023 in comparison is awesome and beyond even wildest dreams back then:
- For average user looking for more out of the box experience I would suggest something Arch based (people in comments suggest EndeavourOS, please do your research). Archlinux installation took me quite some time
- Almost everything works out of the box, by just installing corresponding package
- KDE Plasma environment is fast and beautiful
- Pipewire audio server (Jack\Pulseaudio replacement) works great
- Wayland window server is not there yet, especially if you have Nvidia with proprietary drivers and want to use VR. Waking up, session restoration and other scenarios have issues. Use X11.
- Wine is great!
- Music making - Bitwig Studio DAW has linux native version, yabridge allow you to use windows VSTs, which are easily installed via wine
- Gaming works out of the box with Steam for majority of titles, some games have native linux version. Performance is great. In worst case windows game might loose 5-15% in performance. Was not case for my titles
- Gaming outside steam is fine too. Use Wine, Lutris, Proton
- VR is a mixed bag. Not everything is there (Desktop view, sound control and mirroring, camera, motions smooth, lighthouses do not wake up os go to sleep. I use my phone to turn them on/off). But if its not the problem for you, quite some titles work. Tried: native HF Alyx, Lab, windows: Beat Saber and Boneworks. For me it’s a surprise, I did not count on it. Performance is great.
So overall my experience is great. Eventually I’m going to get rid of WIndows on other computers and laptops at howe. I can finally wave goodbye to Windows, with lots of ads and bloatware. Alway glad to help with answers regarding installation while my memory and history logs are fresh. ^^
Arch for an average user?
Do you mean for the average nerd? Arch is def not for an average internet or computer user.
Stop using x11. X11 is legacy.
Youc’ve got nvidia? Get a better system and don’t complain that wayland dorsn’t work. You’ve got the wrong thing. It’s your fault, not waylands.
Wayland doesn’t work with the hardware of a major vendor. That’s totally Wayland’s fault.
I do use vanilla arch but i never suggest anyone to use it because the amount of full system update necessary to prevent it from breaking, i always run sudo pacman -Syu after login and if a user don’t have broadband connection then i don’t think arch and gentoo linux are for them.
Waking and sleeping does not work properly with my RX6600+wayland either (MX Linux). So I think you are (besides being rude) also partially incorrect. I get Arch family is not for regular people, but otherwise I kind of think you need to rethink your comment.
don’t recommend manjaro. instead - vanilla arch or endeavour os
Noob question here. Why so many ppl is against Manjaro? As someone who just tried many distros , Manjaro was the one that just worked for me without errors, untill I was bored to try something else.
I think it’s mostly do with the carelessness of the devs. They’ve let their certificates expire multiple times (and suggested their users put their clocks back as a workaround) and DDOSed the AUR a couple of times by accident. To be fair, I haven’t heard of any foul ups in a long time so maybe they’re being more careful now.
TLDR: poor project management & bad security and stability even though it specifically promotes itself as stable. Here’s a video I think explains it pretty well https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNK3e9ScPo&pp=ygURbWFuamFybyBsaW51eCBiYWQ%3D
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://m.piped.video/watch?v=5KNK3e9ScPo&pp=ygURbWFuamFybyBsaW51eCBiYWQ%3D
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
https://manjarno.pages.dev/ (kinda ironic that the original manjarno site is dead)
Also https://dont-ship.it/ for Linux mobile where Manjaro shipped broken WIP pull requests
I used manjaro for a while, and it just worked out of the box. The problem is with the AUR. Manjaro is always a little bit behind the aur, and this leads to breakages because a package needs a dependency version that isn’t available. It’s like doing partial upgrades which arch is clear about: don’t do it. The other thing is that this delay is for testing, but there’s been questions raised if manjaro really does the testing justice.
If you stay away from the aur and use flatpaks, manjaro won’t have issues generally speaking. But now there’s an alternative in endeavor-it’s got a nice installer and dumps you into an arch+ environment. Me personally I didn’t find arch difficult to install, so I just went that route.
The biggest reason is instability - packages in its main repo are held back two weeks, while the same isn’t true of anything from the AUR, meaning potential dependency version mismatch. It’s kinda rare for this to be an issue, but it happens enough to make it a subpar choice for long-term usage. More info here
Do they literally just delay everything by a week or make weekly “releases”? Both don’t make anything more stable. I’m confused what their goal is. The weekly “releases” would at least seem like a good idea but you’re just as well risking being stuck with a bug for a week.
Please stop recommending Arch…
Its unstable. I don’t have any issues with you using it (it would be concerning if I did), there are better alternatives
For average user looking for more out of the box experience I would suggest something Arch based (people in comments suggest EndeavourOS, please do your research). Archlinux installation took me quite some time
A simple install of Debian + GNOME install (with all the defaults, easier to install than Windows) will provide you with a useful store that can even load flatpaks… and there’s nothing that easy an practical on the KDE land.
Almost everything works out of the box, by just installing corresponding package
^No extra package required
Wine is great!
No it isn’t. It is a piece of shit that does a garbage of a job to get Windows application to “run”. It doesn’t run old/basic applications well nor does it run useful modern applications such as MS Office without constant glitches and hours of hacking around
TL:DR; the Linux experience might be great but it isn’t for everyone and anyone. If you need to do your job and not constantly be dealing with small annoyances that will curb your productivity it isn’t, most likely, for you.
They hated him because he spoke the truth. I can’t even get “simple” distros like mint or popos to run on my work laptop because the keyboard will just not work on boot 19 out of 20 times and no amount of googling or chatgpt was able to fix this. It just won’t work.
On my gaming rig with an Nvidia card there were no fan controls and no VRR on wayland and x11 doesn’t have proper multi monitor support. This sub is delusional, if they think that Linux is usable for the average Joe and I’m coming from an IT background and it’s still too much of a hassle for me. I just want to get things done.
A Windows key is way cheaper from a time and effort standpoint isn’t it? :D
I use Linux at work because Windows has too many “annoyances that will curb [my] productivity”. I can understand that it is not for everybody though.
Yeah, sure. Thing is: it isn’t for:
- Regular folks that need MS Office cause it won’t run it properly and if you’ve to collaborate with others Open/Libre/OnlyOffice won’t cut it;
- Regular folks that just installed a password manager (KeePassXC) and a browser (Firefox/Ungoogled) via flatpak only to find out that the KeePassXC app can’t communicate with the browser extension because people are “beating around the bush” on GitHub instead of fixing the issue;
- Regular folks who want a simple Virtual Machine and have to go thought cumbersome installation procedures like this one just to reach the end and have error messages saying virtualization isn’t enable when, in fact, it is… or trying to use GNOME Boxes and have a sub-par virtualization experience;
- Designers because Adobe apps won’t run properly without having a dedicated GPU, passthrough and a some hacky way to get the image back into your main system that will cause noticeable delays;
- Gamers because of the reasons above + as the OP said a 5-15% hit in performance;
- People that run old software / games because not even those will run properly on Wine;
- A lot of electrical engineers as typical toolsets ( Circuit Design Suite combines Multisim and Ultiboard), IDEs and whatnot are primarily designed for Windows. And again there are alternatives such as KiCad and EasyEDA for some jobs but they don’t work great if you’ve to collaborate with others users of Multisim;
- Labs that require data acquisition from specialized hardware because companies making that hardware won’t make drivers and software for Linux;
- Architects because AutoCAD isn’t available (not even the limited web version works) and Libre/FreeCAD don’t cut it if you’ve to collaborate with AutoCAD users;
- Developers, because if you aren’t a dip shit so up your ass that you only know how to use Docker and Github actions to deploy to some proprietary cloud solution you won’t even be able to find a decently working FTP/SFTP/FTPS desktop client (similar WinSCP or Cyberduck). There a few, all worse than the other and they all fail even at basic stuff like dragging and dropping a file.
Linux desktop is great, I love it but I don’t sugar coat it nor I’m delusional like most people I see here.
If you live in a bubble where you don’t have to collaborate with anyone else and you can use native Linux apps things might work, you might have a decent workflow and get stuff done but once you’ve to collaborate with other who use Windows/Mac it’s game over.
When you get/install Windows you pay a minimal license and get things working out of the box without further issues. Getting software to run is easy all vendors support whatever you’re trying to do and you get very high productivity from day zero. There are annoyances from time to time, sure, but they’re way fewer and simpler to deal with than the hoops you’ve to go through to get a minimal and viable/productive desktop experience on Linux. And I’m even talking about all the situations where you’ve to collaborate with others and the “alternatives” aren’t just up to it.
It all comes down to a question of how much time (days?) you want spend fixing shit in one platform that will be working out of the box in another one for a minimal fee. If you buy a Windows license and spend the time you would’ve spent dealing with Linux compatibility issues doing your actual job you’ll, most likely, get a better ROI.
You make some good points - I don’t think anyone can reasonably argue linux is in a state where a ‘regular’ user will find it more productive than windows. But, statements like these make as many assumptions about an individual’s use case and workflow as saying ‘everyone should use linux because xyz’:
If you live in a bubble where you don’t have to collaborate with anyone else
There are annoyances from time to time, sure, but they’re way fewer and simpler to deal with than the hoops you’ve to go through to get a minimal and viable/productive desktop experience on Linux
If you buy a Windows license and spend the time you would’ve spent dealing with Linux compatibility issues doing your actual job you’ll, most likely, get a better ROI.
Again, it’s certainly not reasonable to say linux is universally (or even generally) better for productivity. But neither is it reasonable to say it always isn’t. Operating systems are tools, which one to use depends entirely on the situation.
