Unironically me as an IT professional who uses Windows. It just works. I have to fuck around with all that shit all day, I don’t want to go home and do it too.
As a windows user in corporate IT. It just doesn’t work. I spend most of my time hacking my way through useless unix pseudo toys, wsl2, cygwin, mingw… Each one for every tool because… Reasons. And because wsl2 is just painful. So we spend time creating fake unix virtual machines via docker on kubernetes using vs code remotely on expensive linux clusters… Frustrating.
Go home and turn on a linux laptop just to see a real functional terminal. Deep breath, zen, cathartic.
Windows makes my otherwise fine daily work miserable.
I hate enterprise IT. Built for sending around emails and working with excel sheets.
I am seriously thinking about starting an AI start up just to avoid risking another windows laptop switching job (they always promise cool stuff, at the end they always deliver overpriced windows garbage, my 8 years old laptop is more functional than their $ 3k notebook)
Sounds like you’re just more familiar with Linux and that’s fine. I use Linux, Windows and MacOS regularly and haven’t had a problem with Windows honestly. The most frustrating of the 3 is MacOS, and even then it’s nitpicking.
In sorry, but they’re kind of right. Windows is HELL ON EARTH to support. Fixing issues is a guessing game because no one really knows what’s wrong, its garbage driver enumeration system means a year down the line a users monitor/headset/dock will magically stop working, restarting is a 50/50 shot of getting stuck on the spinning circle, I could go on and on and on.
Within three months of starting that job windows was gone from every PC I owned.
10+ years of Windows and I still can’t say I’m familiar with it.
Linux has a steep learning curve for sure, but if I have to say one good thing about it, it’s the openness of Linux.
I dread seeing the message “An unknown error has just occurred” when I use Windows. Tell me, Microsoft, tell me what the error was!
I am familiar with all 3. Power user some would say. But I must use unix. I do ML/AI, corporations pay money for the ML/AI guys and give them windows. Like partecipating to an f1 race with a Fiat panda…
For my work windows is simply painfully useless
Sounds like you’re just more familiar with Linux and that’s fine
While it is partly true, I can’t deny I spent the last 15years on linux, I have my fair amount of deal with windows in a professional setup, I can’t totally accept this response then, hence the word partly true :P.
Now, explain me how any familiarity with Windows can help when a vanilla installation for windows 10 pro, used for two specific application (nothing cloudy), no game, almost offline, etc… How this system decides, randomly to not allow me to literally login in, looping forever before giving prompt, or pretend there is issue with my PIN and or my profile although I use plain passphrase and my account is local and literally nothing has changed system wise since the last session! I have disabled all the auto update shit everywhere (the obvious one and the one I know about) and no updates in between.
You could say I might no know this particular register bit field. Probably but then, we are not in the easy/just works view.
Honestly sounds like you’re just not very good at your job. As a windows wsl2 user I don’t have any of these problems. Everything just works for me.
Happy for you. I am literally the one who fixes the issues for the whole department, that chooses technologies and design systems and solutions and lead integrations. I have no issues with pretty complex technologies, including cuda on kubernetes, that is pretty tricky.
But I know c# developers are also happy with just windows and visual studio.
As suggestion, try the real thing, you’d likely never want to go back
There is no way security would give you a full terminal with all kinds of stuff to break or leak.
I do have access to multiple terminals. Terminals are just another interface alternative to GUIs. There is no way I could work without. I simply have access to the plethora of crappy terminals you can find for windows, and wls2. And clearly I have access to the remote linux VMs and can attach to containers running on the remote clusters, and deploy there hardened images I build, that are secured full OSes just lacking the kernel
While I can definitely understand and respect that, ever since I had an experience where I had to dual-boot Windows for work reasons and the printer that just worked without issue in Linux required a three-digit MB download of a bloated driver-suite with borderline spyware included in Windows, I don’t trust Windows to “just work” any more.
Not saying it’s on-par with each other, there’s probably still more fidgeting with Linux (haven’t used Windows in ages, genuinely have no perspective any more), but that experience taught me that Linux isn’t the short straw any more in every situation, like it definitely used to be a few years ago.
(Also, was amused when during a LAN party when we wanted to play classic Warcraft III a while back, mine ran in wine without issue, but for a friend we had to deep-dive into the registry because of some obscure problem that prevented it from starting at all in native Windows).
There are generic printer drivers that work fine on windows too. You generally don’t need to get the manufacturers bloated driver/utility/update/subscription package. Also that’s not really the OS’ fault, it’s the shitty printer vendors.
First point, i readily agree. I could not be bothered to search for any longer back then, but there most likely was a better alternative than going with the official driver suite.
Second point though - if the OS doesn’t come with drivers that allow for a plug and play experience out of the box (like my Linux install, think it was Manjaro back then, did), I think that can be held against it. Shitty vendors harm the Linux experience all the time, and it is very often - legitimately as it can severely impact the user exerience - held against it.
Every one that bitches about Linux and plug-and-play always says it’s Linux’ fault for not working.
Now you say it’s the vendors fault for not supporting Windows.
Make it make sense, other than ‘I will defend my preferred option without logic’.
I remember building a PC with motherboard not supported by Windows, with drivers on a CD. Obviously I didn’t have a CD drive, since why would I. Ubuntu supported it out of the box. Had way more success with printers on Linux than Windows. And god bless AMD.
It just works.
Same as GNU/Linux
Except if somebody uses distro like arch just because memes, and then complain on the internet that they have to download some stuff to connect to wifi or projector in this case
Even Arch can be made to “just work”.
Install a generic kernel, install a famous desktop environment (GNOME or KDE), don’t go out of your way customizing everything. I never had much problem with this setup, maybe except that my installation is 1GB larger than the “minimalist” ones. But hey, I would trade 0.05% of my disk space for sheer convenience!
Except when I start a 10h build before going home only to find out in the morning that windows update restarted my computer in the middle of the night. Or when I can’t edit a folder because a file “is being used”, then I close absolutely every running program and it’s still somehow “being used”. Or when I can’t turn off the PC because something is running in the background, even though I closed everything one by one. Or when my PC starts screaming because a VSCode subprocess is using all my resources, I kill it in task manager, and it somehow respawns as a process of its own. I can’t end it, and closing VSCode doesn’t do anything. My laptop became so hot I couldn’t hold it.
I mean Linux causes problems too, ofc. I once spent like 2h trying to set up a keyboard to input Chinese characters on Fedora. But in my experience, Linux caused me less frustration by far. Or when a problem arises, I can fix it quickly.
This is not to bash on you for using windows, just thought I’d throw in that “just works” isn’t universal.
As someone who had to switch to windows at work, why the fuck do I have to set the path variable so often for every program. choco does it sometimes but most often something doesn’t work ootb and I have to set this path variable
A looooot of tech workers start as tech enthusiasts but have the enthusiasm part of them ground away by the sands of time and toil.
As an IT professional i got rid of anything Microsoft related at home years ago just to not get bothered, can’t imagine anything i’m missing and shit just works.
Same. I swear, people running Windows don’t really know what “just works” means.
I have Windows on my work and home machines for years. Never needed a reinstallation or recovery.
Fellow IT pro (don’t feel like it though) who also uses Windows here. It’s not the perfect OS, but I’m kinda getting tired lately of the amount of Windows bad over exaggeration going on (seriously I’m seeing people complain about windows not having features that it actually does have or running into errors that are entirely user related in cause). If I want to sit down and have a 90% chance of not having to mess with anything then Windows is my choice.
In the chance it does mess up it’s usually something I can find and fix easily even for obscure issues just cause the amount of exposure to errors and documentation for Windows is insane… That and usually a reboot will fix it 9/10 times.
While I do dual boot and use linux from time to time for enthusiast stuff, and while Linux is now fairly comparable to Windows in “it just works” stuff. A lot of programs still don’t have full or even well kept Linux versions. And after getting off of work where I deal with fixing a ton of complicated Linux errors, a lot of times with little documentation or similar error documentation. I just want something that will be reliable, fairly predictable, and also “just work”.
Honestly. I’m basically the same I just use a fedora because it works. I tried arch and its cool but I’m too lazy to keep up with stuff at home since I already have to do so much at works. Linux is as stable as you want and you actually can do whatever you want unlike linux
I have the exact opposite experience. Windows at work just doesn’t work. I start every day by clicking away a few error messages (like the KDC certificate or a PIN that doesn’t work without any more details) when logging in, then checking for updates and installing them while I get a drink so windows won’t force a restart on me during the day. Then I fix all the shared drives we use because they just don’t mount properly without help from a batch script. If I didn’t reboot the PC for updates already, I restart outlook and teams because otherwise they will eventually lose connection and stop working without any error messages.
That continues through the rest of the day.
When I get home, I can confidently run a pacman -Syu (unless there are nvidia updates) and everything just works. I can launch games and (after a minute or two because proton and excluding EA of course) they just work. Usually better than on windows too.
Oh, I actually meant Windows at home. Windows at work is definitely problematic.
But at home, for my own stuff, Windows just works, with zero setup or maintenance hassle. I used to do the whole Linux thing, had set up dual boot (again for games that only work on Windows ) it was not only not fun, what was I getting out of it? I found myself not even booting to Linux because it literally was not providing me with anything I needed.
Linux Mint for people who have better things to do with their time.
EndeavorOS, arch based, gui installer up and running just as fast as a linux mint, but simply better
Arch is the truest test of how much you’re willing to sacrifice for control.
You get control of everything on your system, but you’re basically on your own when it all goes to shit… which from how many of these posts I keep seeing seems to be a daily occurance haha
Yep. Why not take Mint/Pop/etc and actually be productive instead of solving the ever so trivial issues on cmd? Matter of taste
I’ve had more issues on mint than I ever had on arch, and I’m in no way a computer expert. Arch is just more simple.
After using Ubuntu for a while I wanted to try out Arch once. Grabbed a step by step instruction and followed it.
Around step… 7 or something I ran into a wall, because the commands simply didn’t work. After messing around for an hour or two I finally gave up at that point. Of course that was years ago, so it might be easier now to install.
But overall I’d rather use Windows, Ubuntu or whatever, give me an OS where things just work, as I have actual work to do (instead of trying to fight with my OS). Hell, back in the day (~14 years ago) when using Ubuntu for school I once spent hours to get HDMI Audio to work, it was a nightmare.
Right now I just use Windows 11 on my desktop (as I game a lot and use Visual Studio) and Ubuntu on a server. I’d love to fully switch to Linux as my daily driver, but there’s simply too many features that wouldn’t work :-/
I’m often very happy with Manjaro in such a case.
Easy install, nicely pre-configured, quite some variants to choose from (i like i3), and I still have practically Arch running - with some more stable Repos (which could bring some problems with AUR, but I never really had any major ones)
If you switch from Visual Studio to Rider it’ll make the migration fully to Linux much easier.
Lol, Rider is paid only. And it’s a subscription too!
My work pays for Visual Studio in the office and at home when I want to mess around in my free time Visual Studio Community (which has around 95% of the features of the paid versions) is free.
If I ever work for a company that uses Rider I might switch. But paying over a hundred bucks a year just for the little bit of personal use is insane.
I tried out ubuntu about as long ago as you did, and for some reason I couldn’t get the internet to work. But because this was before smartphones, I had to boot back into windows, look up a possible solution, write it down, boot back into ubuntu, try it, didn’t work, rinse and repeat. After 2 hours I just gave up and went back to windows. It’s probably way easier now, but I’m still hesitant to give it another try.
Huh? That’s weird. Internet always worked for me, both over Ethernet and over WiFi. The only issue I had once (where it took me an extra hour or two) was with a school network that had extra protections, like a login. That one was tougher, especially when I then wanted to route a tunnel through it so I could play games in class.
But usually internet works flawlessly on any Linux distribution.
I had to laugh at “minimal kernel”.
