A perfectly descriptive word. This thread started as a 'gloom and doom' thread about Linux. IMHO, it's been proven to be wrong on many occasions. We must never forget the reason that each respective OS was created. Windows was designed as a 'for profit' endeavor, with MS providing service to Windows users. (A unified driver platform. Updates. Tech support.) Linux was created to provide a 'free' OS, with the proviso that you have to do your homework to maintain and upgrade it. Of course there are going to be problems. Older hardware may not be supported because the "community" provides support. If your hardware is old, you're out of luck. The question becomes: "What kind of user are you?" Are you the kind of car owner that services your own vehicle? Or do you bring it to the shop?
I have made the experience that age of hardware isn't 'the' reason at first place. It's rather the brand, better said if it was widely spread that time. (In other words is the hardware exotic/special or not) Sometimes there are even contrary experiences....old hardware works quite well with Linux, because it doesn't need that much resources. It's quite funny in this regard that my external DAC gets auto installed by Linux Mint 17 and now Kubuntu 18.04 whereas on windows I need to install drivers.... Also a special Renesas (NEC) USB3.0 controller gets recognized by Linux.
What I find amusing in all of this is just how little demand there is for repairs when using Linux. It is such an extreme non-concern that it defies description to those who are devout win-doze users. Mandatory restarts ?? Almost unheard of. Very regular restarts ?? Not required. Lockups/freezes at the system level ?? So seldom as to be forgotten. BSODs ?? No such things anymore. Winrot ?? Non-existent. File corruptions ?? Almost never. Then again - perhaps I have just redefined the actual problem in switching to a (mostly) maintenance-free OS: Could it be that some folks actually PREFER the drama & stresses of an unreliable OS that reports back to the mothership ?!? (On a related note, I will soon post here about something that very few know of & may benefit from using...)
The issue I have with Linux, mostly, is the lack of most apps and drivers available in Windows or Mac OS X.
Back to the 'gloom & doom' theme I see. Yawn. For ordinary, average users all the apps they need are easily gotten or already installed; Drivers for those same folks are a non-question as they are never seen or touched by the average user with average h/w. For gamers & those who need the very fanciest of everything & their beloved adooobee type apps & so forth, perhaps it is a smidgin disappointing UNTIL they have an epiphany & start using their wonderful, previous OS inside a VM, thereby not only having access to all their so-needed apps & such - but also better, more stable performance when it is done right & with care. (Of course this idea requires a willingness to embrace change openly & adjust accordingly which is lost on those who only wish to linger in the gloom & doom space...) Given that the very high tech crowd ALWAYS must have tonnage of RAM, petabyte sized storage & 20-core CPUs, such fire breathing rigs are usually terrifically well suited to run VMs wonderfully well inside of a very stable Linux host OS. (I do this on only slightly better than averae h/w myself & it is great & very responsive.)
With open source, most of those same apps are available on Windows. The only time you should have to be concerned with drivers is during the initial installation of the hardware. After that, it should be something that can be safely forgotten about. And then...there's Gimp. An open source Photoshop clone that most people can use to accomplish what they need to do. I wonder if the 'nix version of Gimp works on the MAC? It also involves a willingness to spend money and retool for 'nix. As a music composer, it would cost me almost as much as I already paid to purchase a suitable DAW for 'nix. I've spent about $2000 USD just to get VSTs and Cubase working under Windows. What would make you think I'd throw all of that away to "embrace change"? My rig has 32 Tonnes (uhh...gigabytes) of RAM, only 4 cores (I feel so dirty and cheap) -AND- an Intel CPU, which has not been patched for Spectre. (Sorry...I like my quad-cores un-hobbled thankyouverymuch) My "petabyte" storage unit only has about 115 GB left. (Please feel free to yell and scream at my purse, as it has long since dried up and has become a senior citizen.) In summation, it's not always about "gloom and doom". Often times, it's about finances. Just my 2 cents worth.
Hi Michaela Joy. The gloom & doom theme I was referring to was mentioned before here by...you !!: I was reminded of that statement by this: I never, never, never suggest change simply for its own sake to anyone - ever !! But for anyone not wishing to use the lobotomized versions of win-doze - or for anyone (like myself) who has good reasons to stay with older versions of that OS, running their preferred OS in a VM under Linux is an excellent, stable, reliable choice. (This has worked very well for folks I've helped who have industry-specific s/w that needs an older OS...for example.) I would never think this, nor would I consider it a valid suggestion if I heard it said thus: Very cute & funny !!: Back to your musical needs as a possible example - running all your existing & needed s/w within a VM could possibly be as simple as importing your existing, perfectly tweaked OS via a P2V process. This allows you to have all that goodness in a sort of 'canned' form thereby eliminating many, many worries which exist when using win-doze natively. It is that reliabilty & stability which I enjoy so much by using win-doze as a guest VM under Linux. (Of course, your mileage may vary...) My 'daily driver has a very nice dual core CPU & it uses a mere 4GB to run XP very happily - and I'm too close to 'senior citizen' status myself - never mind my tired old wallet. No need for new, fire-breathing h/w here...my newest is a 6-core with 8GB & for all I know it may be the last I ever buy !! Indeed I know quite well that quite often it's ALL about finances. What gives me giggles is those gamer types I mentioned, those who MUST have the fastest - bestest - latest - liquid cooled monster rigs so that they can pretend to be shooting at others & things. The last time I bothered with a game it was SimCity 2000 (minus disasters) & that was pretty cool way back then, IMO !! Thanks for your thoughtful response, and best wishes !!
My bad - sorry !! Not being any sort of musician, I openly admit to full ignorance in regards to your subject matter - I had zero idea such a work would be so absolutely fussy of fine tuning - thanks for educating me a little about this. (I'll leave this subject matter to those who know it well as it is certainly not anything for me to get near.) The average windows user who IS NOT a stubborn bonehead can certainly switch - I know, because I've helped a small bunch to do just that with excellent results. For those folks with needs to remain safely within the corporate type of mentality - great - go for it & keep buying all the latest/greatest stuff to support the corpies !! Its all good, right ??
i read all 53 pages. i do not know if i should be optimistic or if i should cry. i hate windows 10. 10 is filled with bloat. 10 is unstable if you remove the bloat. i keep reading how 10 will become a subscription which i will never agree to pay. there is a build of 10 without the bloat and possibly without the subscription but it is old and dated. what was microsoft thinking? i looked into getting a mac but for those prices, i could put a downpayment for a brand new car. all i want is a computer with the latest software and updates. i want nothing old and dated. i do not want bloat. i want it to be stable. i would like it to be easy to use. i do not want it to spy on me and call home. i am willing to pay a reasonable initial payment up front but i do not want a subscription. is that such an unreasonable thing to want today?
At the moment I use Windows, it does all I require but I am not happy with it for all the reasons mentioned. I have a Linux machine that I tinker with, if MS piss me off enough I can easily make the switch. For me Windows at this time is more polished and has a greater choice of software, I doubt that this will ever change but Linux will do 95% of what I need from a PC. If you do consider switching get hold of a second PC and work your way through all the distros you fancy at your leisure until you find the one you like, Debian is a good place to start.
Yes, thanks to corporate greed, that is indeed hard to get by nowadays. The solution, for me, is to use Linux. I used to dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu, but I almost exclusively use Ubuntu all the time. So I eliminated Windows all together.
I like all the comments posted so far and I really admire the courageous idea of switching to Linux from Windows completely. I have tried it several times but I keep coming back to Windows 10 for some reasons best known to me. From a simple perspective or as a youth who is not complacent with the type of modesty expressed in most views here, I believe Windows 10 is more of a well polished operating system than any Linux distro out there irrespective of the conspiracies of Microsoft spying on users. The major thing that got me attracted to Linux is not because it is open source(I am an advocate of open source) but because it has the terminal which is more versatile and issuing commands on it like a geek(that sounds childish though - don't blame me blame the modern world of braggards we live in). Despite saying that, it is by no less of an operating system compared to the mainstream Windows or Mac OS X.
I am of the same opinion but where I go in the future depends on the direction MS take. I am also an opensource fan, curiously there is far more choice of open source software for Windows than is available for Linux.
@Hadron; that`s right, a person tends to get into a groove, and to stick to what one is used to..in my case windose, in your case too, i suspect.i switched to linux a few months ago, and liked it a lot. i returned to w7, just because i was more confortable with it. after all windose was all i knew for the last 25 years.[that groove again, i guess.] but m$ is on borrowed time for me.i think that i just need to jump out of my groove..fact is, that i like linux a lot better than m$.even if it is less comfy to use untill you get used to it.
I moved to linux about a year ago and I've never switched back - it was a final decision. If you find yourself switch back then you haven't really moved to linux, more like you occasionaly use it.