I am now using Ubuntu for around 9 months, before that I was a windows user.
There are certainly many things in Ubuntu I love like custom themes, ...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Displaying a subset of the total comments. Please sign in to view all comments on this post.
I used some time off between my jobs to install and configure arch linux on my work laptop.
It was a lot of work, it took me 2 weeks to get a 100% fully functional system, but I learnt tremendously in the process, so it was definitely worth it.
Now I have a system that was built from the ground up by myself for myself. My workflow productivity increased tremendously. I have the joy of working every day on an amazing and beautiful operating system that I optimized for my needs and which I know everything about.
Granted, there were headaches along the way, and not everyone can give 2 weeks of their life for this. But if I had to I would do it all again.
And since arch is a rolling release, I don't need to perform any major upgrades. Btw, I use arch.
What a beautiful post, I feel like you summed it up really well. It's really a learning experience that only makes you better. I feel like anything else I say is just reiterating what you said.
Btw, I use arch.
I think back to issues that would take me hours to figure out some years ago, and how now similar ones take 5 min or less. It's all about learning. Granted that most learning comes, at least in my case, from screwing things up and ending up reading a ton of docs (there is no wiki like the arch wiki!) to fix things up.
Btw, I use Arch.
Arch wiki😎
Btw, I use Arch
As long as you're not shy to look at that wiki, it's literally the best documentation I've seen when it comes down to configuration as well as just general knowledge around a lot of tools and libs. I'm so happy that I use arch.
I have heard great things about the Arch Wiki, AUR.
Maybe I will switch to manjaro in future.
Btw, I use Debian
I think what people don't really understand about the stability differences between Windows, macOS, and Linux all have to do with the drivers that have been developed to support those platforms. If you try installing any OS on hardware that it wasn't intended for you are going to have problems. I spent many hours attempting to install Windows 10 on an older MacBook Pro only to be stuck in the end because of the lack of Windows support for the dual video card setup in the MacBook Pro. The macOS works great on Apple hardware, Windows works great on PCs because the OEMs have invested the time to develop solid Windows drivers for their hardware. Unless you are using a machine that the OEMs have invested time in to provide solid support for Linux you are going to have problems.
I run Ubuntu on a Dell XPS 13 that has solid OEM support for the device. Dell & Lenovo sell devices pre-installed with Linux which means they have invested time into supporting that hardware. However, that also doesn't mean that they have invested that time in every hardware combination they produce.
Before choosing Linux as your OS you have to ensure you are picking the right hardware with OEM support. If you purchase a System76 device you are in the realm of Apple because System76 is controlling both the hardware and the Linux distro it's running on.
And as we all know it doesn't matter what OS you are running Microsoft, Apple, etc can still put out bugs that cause their OS to have problems on their own hardware.
You make a good point but I think it should be added that stuff isn't always so black-and-white.
I use a Dell, didn't come with Linux, still the Dell with the worst Linux support will be 200% easier than something actually hard, such as your experience with the Mac, or, God forbid, my saga to install Linux on a PowerMac G5 (Nobody supports PowerPC anymore, still it runs Gentoo pretty nicely, took me a couple months to make it work though).
It's a trade-off, Ubuntu is especially bad but for most distros, there are many levels of hardships depending on the hardware.
OEM not supporting Linux is not a reason to drop Linux, is just an indication that you may have some degree of troubles masking it work, but it may be actually pretty easy.
Well, my point was more about those that struggle with getting a Linux distro working on their machine. And their concern that the time required to get things working was not worth it. If they want it to be easy, and just work, then they can't expect this for a Linux desktop with just any hardware. If they don't want to invest the time to get it working then they need to choose their hardware wisely.
Couldn't agree more. First, choose your hardware wisely: certification.ubuntu.com/.. I switched to Ubuntu after 20 years of using windows and never looked back. It's true that you have to invest more time in the beginning to operate it, but you get greater control. Plus you'll learn shell scripting on the way, which you'll benefit from when you're code ends up on a Linux server, which will inevitably happen.
The Ubuntu hardware certification list is pretty telling when you look at HP's 12 certified laptops, none of which are certified for 20.04, compared to Dell's 300+ certified laptops, only 5 of which are actually certified for 20.04.
I guess it is not updated yet. Both Dell and Lenovo go at great lengths to make their laptops Ubuntu ready. I just upgraded to 20.04 on an Inspiron 5000 series laptop and it works like a charm
I will definitely consider Using Windows 10, Please Now don't scroll down 😅, I know there are alot of lags, Memory Issues In Windows 10.
But I was also a Linux Lover Before I came to know following Points:
These are some good points.
When I was using windows, I had removed all bloatware manually using PowerShell. I just think WSL is not that stable right now. I had just moved to Linux to give it a try. Now it is very hard to go back.
I have been using Ubuntu installed in WSL2 for a few months now. It's been pretty stable other than a couple of minor quirks. I get the best of both worlds. I still run linux on a laptop for most of the development work, but I'm moving (back) to Windows for the main desktop experience.
I used Mac for 10 years before this. It used to provide the best desktop experience but not any more. The software quality has been declining while the price tag stays high. Once I realized I didn't need the "cool looking factor", I was ready to ditch it. :-)
Are you sure we didn't talk? Exactly what I had done. Two weeks into Winux and loving it so far. The high price tag of Mac forced me to consider this option and it's working great so far.
Counterpoints as a Linux user:
But then you will have the worst things about Windows still
I assume you installed Linux on your Laptop. May I ask which brand?
In general, I would only suggest Linux to anyone who has thinkpads or dell xps lines. Other than that: too much hassle, worse battery life, etc.
I code daily on Linux because I’m an embedded software engineer and because the target system is (embeded) Linux. Even then I only use it on my workstation.
My macbook pro is my daily driver because of 1) battery life 2) it works out of the box 3) almost all Linux tools are there.
On my Huawei MateBook D14 the battery life lasts bit more than I got on my MacBook Pro 13" 2017 touchbar, and getting more performance (that's why i sell the MacBook after some months).
Note that the comparison is from a 2.006€ MacBook "Pro" vs a 600€ Huawei.
Apple performance per price is a shame...
Right.. you compare battery life of a notebook with a different one. I’m not going to argue with your logic.
Hey, my Audi A4 uses more gas than my Vespa.
Note that "dealing more performance" on the text.
For further details, it was a MacBook Pro 13 with intel i5 with iris plus integrated graphics, 8Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD vs Huawei MateBook D14 with Ryzen 5 with Vega integrated graphics, 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb SSD. First one at 2006€, second one is 600€ (you have the i5 option at 650€). Both promoting 10H battery life.
It's like buying a vespa at the price of an A4, that's what disappointed me.
I’m not going to argue about price or performance of any laptop.
What I was trying to say is from my experience, if you have a windows laptop and you install linux on it, the battery life on Linux (on the same laptop) is comparatively worse than Windows (on the same laptop). At least out of the box. You could tweak the power usage but as I stated before, it might not worth it.
That's true on the major laptops with intel and from my experience the difference between windows and linux battery life it's almost 0 on AMD ones (i tried only 3)
I have been using Linux for the past 3 years, mainly Ubuntu. For me, being productive is about getting comfortable with the thing. There's no doubt that it's annoying when you have to troubleshoot basic problems like bluetooth not connecting or updating broken drivers. On the plus side, the very same process helps me in learning new things about the OS itself. TBH, I learned how to Google problems only because I switched to Linux from Windows and faced tonnes of problems during the transition.
Yes. I can't live at work without at least one Linux box with a tmux session running. However, Linux isn't the right tool for every job. Some things are easier on other systems, but it's usually worth the effort to learn the linux way.
Most of your weird issues can be avoided by carefully selecting hardware with good open source drivers. There are several vendor that treat linux as a first class citizen and make sure their supported distros work properly on their hardware.
I also run LTS releases... Usually CentOS, but sometimes Ubuntu LTS or Debian on stuff I just don't have the time or desire to be tinkering with. If I need cutting edge for something, I run Fedora because it's easy to do major release upgrades, and because it's upstream to RHEL.
I am far more productive than I would be without my time investment in Linux. I'm also a Senior Sysadmin instead of slapping out pizzas for a living because of it. Stick with it. The more you learn command line tools and shell programming, the more value the system will have for you.
As with all things, it depends.
After using Linux for 10+ years now, I feel safe in saying "the moment you leave the terminal your possible productivity declines rapidly".
Linux as in the kernel, is cli-centric. So all tools it brings are made to be used there. It is convention to give results in the form of exit codes or some sort of string so results can be easily piped and processed in other programs.
This is where productivity with Linux hits it's peak performance I would claim.
UI in the Linux world has always been lagging behind windows and MacOS. Though in the last decade several Linux distros made tremendous improvements and are very user-friendly. Some notable distros that come to mind would be
If you live in the terminal and can live without UI, like me, there is no contest really. Linux is very productive there :)
I have switched from Windows to Linux, and yes initially it was a different experience from Windows, I had to break my head over simple things like installing a software, extracting it, I was not aware of centralised repository concepts, I had to struggle for setting up environment variables etc. But at the end of the day, once you learn to use Linux, your entire workflow becomes faster and there are many free tools for photo editing , reading etc which I find even better than windows.
Hi Dhruv, as a base Ubuntu used to be a good choice. When it comes to productivity, it depends upon if you are planning to use it for personal use or professional use. For professional use suse, in my opinion, is the best choice due to yast. It's rock solid and it works. You can try opensuse and see what you think of it. For personal use you can try manjaro, but for me it was limited because it's dev use their own dependencies causing issues with certain software. If you want to learn , try arcolinux. You can start with a base and then at your own pace, you can learn to build basically your own distro from scratch.
Productivity is a relative term. What may be productive for me, may not be productive for you. When you design something that works best for you, with the apps you need, in a layout you like, you can be the most productive.
I admit it - I've been using Linux since... 1995 or so and things definitely got much better.
I work on headless Linux servers and things are generally fine.
BUT on the Desktop I still hate it.
Recently I switched to Pop OS because things were smoother with internal + nvidia GPU, CUDA and generally like the improvements I did.
But just in the last two days I gathered such a list of issues for my TOFIX list, it's not fun.
Apart from the usual "printer not working"... (ignoring that and just booting into windows or using the macbook):
On the Laptop - suddenly brightness controls completely stopped working, the function keys do something else and the slider does nothing.
I didn't expect the fingerprint scanner to work without tricks - doesn't, don't care enough to waste time on that.
Wasn't much better with plain Ubuntu. Over 3-4 years I reinstalled it a dozen times while that Win10 installation which was even updated from Win7 still runs without issues. The MacOS on my 5 year old cheapest Macbook Air also still working well (except that it seems to get slower and slower).
Previously I used Debian, Mint, Undead Linux, SuSE and a couple others but overall there were generally too many issues with the desktop environment to bother at some point.
While writing this article suddenly the airplane mode turned on? wtf?
I never had all those issues with Windows many people report, although I never early-adopted and also skipped Win8, XP, Vista etc. (went from 3.11 to 95 to Win2K (that one I had for ages and never reinstalled it) to Win7 to Win10). Since 2k I never had to reinstall any Windows once. I mostly want to get rid of it because of annoying ads, data gathering etc. I had 4 years with mostly using MacOS X, which was generally smooth but I hated the walled garden and forced upon choices.... what the hell do you mean you have to delete all my files on that ipod if I switch account? reparing that disk drive is 300€? really? on my PC I plug in a new one for 20€. I can't just upload that iOS app to the phone? Oh yeah, sure, just drop OpenGL support, makes sense. What do you mean that thing costs 3-4k€? I just got a ZBook for 1200€ with 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, dedicated GPU.
rant rant
Think it's just me getting old and hating everything ;)
Your experience seems even worst than mine. I understand your pain a little. The airplane mode line made me laugh, LOL.
Even though I have never bought MacOS but I don't like it exactly because of the reasons you mentioned. They force you to use everything Apple and even slows down devices so that users buy a new one(iPhone 6 case that happened). It is super expensive and not even allow to develop apps for their platform without MacOs again their close ecosystem mentality is very frustrating. Now people won't even be able to dual boot macOS with Linux or Windows after they start putting Apple chips in them (even though Intel version will also be available).
I don't really have anything particularly bad to say about windows other than what I already mentioned in OP. Because all the Bloatware can be removed and there can be much more customization done than people talk about through the windows registry (granted not on the level even close to Linux). Also, It is much more affordable.
I still prefer to use Ubuntu, but right now I feel less productive with it.
To have a smoother experience with Ubuntu IMHO, as well as with any other distro, the point is to buy hardware that is known to work well.
For example, most Lenovo laptops are Ubuntu certified hardware. certification.ubuntu.com/make/Lenovo
I haven't had any problems with Ubuntu on my T480, media keys, wifi, audio, Bluetooth all are working out of the box. There's one thing though, the digital imprint device, since it's proprietary, it only works on Windows.
After reading most of the comments, this is clear to me that the main issue is the support provided by the hardware. In my case, I had bought windows PC and then installed Linux on it (as many people out there do) and it seems HP doesn't provide that good support for Linux at least in my model.
So as many people have written the best thing would be to invest in a laptop with better support for Linux. I would certainly buy a Laptop that promises support for Linux next time, whenever I am financially able to do so.
One more thing, I have a problem with DELL for not providing all range of its laptops in India. There is some very good laptop like New XPS 13 Developer Edition, which are not available in India for some reason.
I feel like a lot of people might have missed the point that OP makes so because i share it, I'll reiterate it.
Linux doesn't "just work" in the way that Win 10 does. I think OP is pointing more at the out of box experience, setting it up inititally (because he refers to drivers etc), not the adding software on part.
my experience is with Ubuntu and Mint.
My problems were always with stuff that should just work. Bluetooth drivers are in an appalling state. they dont work out of the box, i can't pair my msft keyboard and mouse to either. I could only get mono audio on my sennheiser usb headset. I run a USB c hub to control my peripherals, but there are no drivers for it. power management issues, fans spinning constantly.
stuff that should just work. go back to windows 95 and 98, you could just plug anything into it and it'd mostly work. the driver library must have been colossal. but its just not there for linux.
in terms of the software experience, the thing that attracts me to linux is not having to tinker. Snaps, to get what i need working up and running. and yet all the die hard linux fans are not fans of snaps.
and back in the windows camp, lets look at windows terminal. it integrates with clipboard history which is native in windows, but you've got to mess with linux to get the same running. people say you've got more choice in linux because its not bundled, but when its bundled and it just works, its hard to argue with.
all imo and i get that some people want to spend a couple of weeks setting their OS up. I'd probably put that effort in if i could use backup and restore points as easily as in windows (3rd party software admittedly). i'll also admit to having never tried arch or read the wiki. i think i'll go look at that next.
With nine months, you're still a rookie. If you'd started to use Windows for the first time, it could have been similar after such period. To add to that, you've chosen Ubuntu, which is on the tech side, not on the user side of range of Linux distributions. So you can expect more configurations done via command line and in more raw way.
I've set up a new machine and upgraded old one this year (OpenSuse) and the only problem I had was with finger print reader dongle, which I knew was a trouble. I did my homework though and with the new machine, I checked compatibility beforehand.
I've been using Linux since 2002 and there have been many hours spent configuring and fixing broken functionality over the years, but I just installed Ubuntu 20.04 a few days ago (switched from Arch) and have experienced no problems at all. Everything is working perfectly out of the box as far as I can tell. It's unfortunate that you're having so many problems. I definitely know the frustration of getting hardware to work in Linux, but it's come a long way over the years.
You were lucky. They broke the clipboard (GNOME did) with Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) (it worked fine in Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo)), and it wasn't fixed in Ubuntu 20.04.
Ive spent about 2hrs in the last couple of days trying to get my bluetooth and sound working correctly on Fedora 32. I love the environment for development but some seriously basic things in daily use can be extremely frustrating to get working.
Interesting 🤓 I see a lot of answers from a lot of hard core Linux guys but I can't relate to them because I don't have the time or desire to constantly tinker with my OS. I too came from Windows background into a startup where no one used Windows and had to make a choice - always figure out how to make something work on Windows or switch to Linux or Mac. So I chose Mac, got used to it, set it up the way I need and able to run everything without any major issues. My dev environment just works and I am able to focus on my job without burning extra time maintaining my OS. I have a few older laptops at home running Linux Mint and they work great for basic user stuff but even then I see that certain software titles like Zoom work better on Mac or Windows. And that's the root of the issue to me - it doesn't matter how good you are with OS if the software you use is not maintained on Linux as well as it is on Windows or Mac so I guess one's experience on Linux may be highly dependent on the hardware and the software used, where on the popular desktop OSes it's a lot less of an issue.
No offense to Arch Linux fans but rebuilding a machine for what is mainly an IntelliJ issue is a terrible idea. Open a ticket with Jetbrains and they'll quickly figure that out.
If you can't drop everything for two weeks to build your OS installation from scratch there are other polished distros that can be installed in no time. Install Time Machine and backup ubuntu to somewhere besides the root file system. Back up your user files also. Both Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are easy to setup and be productive with in 30 minutes vs. weeks.
I use Ubuntu full-time. It is on my notebook computer and my desktop at home. The issue with Linux that yes, things don't always out of the box. However I have noticed that hardware vendors that have stronger support for Linux (i.e Dell and Lenovo) tendo to have the best experience. My PCs came with Windows, but they know run Ubuntu and it is perfectly fine. Nowadays, Ubuntu has better support for hardware than they did 15 years ago.
How does Linux work on the laptop wrt. the battery? It was not acceptable some years back (e.g. compared to Windows). Is it better now?
I keep running Ubuntu at home for two reasons:
That is awesome. I have always liked the role of system architect.
Noting the title, using linux is indeed productive. How productive is dependent on you.
The learning curve for linux is higher than other operating systems, that should be a given.
My recommendation to you is use whatever you are comfortable with and enjoy.
At the end of the day, every operating system is going to have pros and cons.
For me:
As a software developer, I use OSx for work on a Macbook Pro (I would not pay for mac products personally, but if your company offers it, it has bonuses).
My beefiest computer is running Windows 10, as I tend to game.
Every server I maintain is running Linux, the distribution/flavor does not really matter.
I could easily swap my OSx/Macbook experience to a *Nix/System76 one if a company offers that. But, generally speaking, Linux is 3rd place with Desktop compatibility and experience, 1st place for server experience.
Dhruv Agreed. But this worked for me. Instead of using Ubuntu desktop iso , I first used Ubuntu server iso then using taskel downloaded desktop environment. I don't know the reason why this give a bit stable system.
Also, Ubuntu with gnome desktop environment requires lot of resources. Instead try some other distro.
Look at CLEARLINUX . Design by intel for intel.
I remember reading a review recently that performance is good on amd chipsets too. Made clearlinux USB to test. However, issues booting with usb. So tried different distros. Namib looks promising (built on arch- although easier to install and configure than arch pure)
yeah, ubuntu certainly takes more resources than I had thought. I don't think ClearLinux is general-purpose distribution, It's more suitable for cloud.
If I remember they are not wording it for cloud only . In case, you are installing os , let us know your experience
I won't be changing distro right now for main system, but I am thinking about trying manjaro on USB stick.
Maybe will try ClearLinux also. will share my experience with it, if I do so.
Nice ... will wait for your experience
Decades Linux user here. When you purchase hardware designed for Windows you typically encounter the issues you're describing. Buy a computer from a company like System76 and, I PROMISE, you'll never have those issues you describe.
I love Linux for the following reasons:
That being said, I'm not entirely sure it makes me more productive. I have trouble finding normal features that I use on Windows 10 like a clipboard, hibernate (not available in Ubuntu 16.04) and much more that I can't recall. Also, I don't quite understand the package management system so it troubles me sometime.
I also haven't been able to find a proper substitute for AutoHotKey that works for Linux.
Hey, bug are part of Linux, but the experience is different for every people. I personally can't even cite you a but right know because I have so few and so little I can't think of one known. I have a friend who have a lot of problems.
maybe Ubuntu have some problems on your hardware. I personally use and recommand manjaro but Linux mint is a good just work distro. obviously there a lot of other distro. maybe you can try another distro ?
personally I don't ever had a problems that requires me more than 5min to fix it. so few bug and there a little.
sorry for my English
I would give another distro a try in the future.
No need to apologize for English. Try Grammarly chrome extension, it will certainly help you with it. I also use it.
I'd like to share my view on things. I used to be kind of polarized on this topic, Windows vs Linux, but currently things have settled down dramatically.
Linux is amazing. It has lots of possibilities. Super customize-able. You can fiddle all day long for weeks and months and still have stuff to play around with. You can build anything you want, made specifically for your needs.
At the same time, Windows is simply amazing. It just works, straight out of the box. For a fresh install you may want to fiddle for a bit - install fresh drivers and such, but then it is mostly smooth sailing. And it has a ton of software that works just the same way - you install it, it works.
My preference between the two is rather straightforward:
Windows
Let me explain: I need a tool to get the job done. No distractions, no fiddles. I've tried Linux a number of times, it has awesome features, but I always come back to Windows. I just install it, set it up and get the job done.
I've tried Linux a few times but came back to Windows, simply because I know it well and it allows me to just get the job done quickly and efficiently.
For someone else, Linux may be what Windows is for me and they can get the job done faster using Linux. And that's awesome!
In short: OS is just a tool to get the job done. The job is the important part, and I want to do it well and I want to do it fast (enough to meet the deadlines). As long as the tool helps me in that, its great. Use whatever works for you.
This sums up everything pretty well.
Windows is now integrating the Linux kernel with WSL. That should be a hint that development on Linux is productive. I quit using windows when 95 came out. Mac and Linux. It's easy to set up web development on both. Great cli utilities. Apple has switched CPU architectures a few times, dropped support for glsl, and has become bloated with unnecessary gui making it slow. Currently using Manjaro with gnome for desktop.
I use either Ubuntu or Xubuntu on my personal machines, except for an ageing white plastic Macbook that I only ever get out to sync my iPod with Last.fm, and have done so for over a decade. I moved my parents to Xubuntu six years ago when Windows XP came out of support, and they do fine - it's particularly amusing when they get Windows support scam phone calls. I've used it professionally in three different places, and would still do, but for the fact that my current employer doesn't allow it so I have to settle for a Macbook Pro.
Obviously it depends on the hardware, but by and large Ubuntu has mostly just worked for me, and in general for what I do it's easier than a Mac, let alone Windows. Homebrew is a reasonable package manager, but I spend more time fighting to get things working with that than I ever do in Ubuntu. And both Windows and OS X are terrible for locking out the whole system when installing a big update - in Ubuntu installing any update, no matter how big, you can keep using the system.
Recently I updated all of my personal machines and my parents' one from 18.04 to 20.04 and it was quick, efficient, and caused no problems at all. Overall I'm far happier using Ubuntu than either Windows or OS X, and will continue to do so unless something happens to make me stop.
I've used Ubuntu on both my work laptop and gaming pc. I had audio issues and sometimes USB mouse receiver isn't detected after sleep. the situation was worse on my gaming PC: Ubuntu didn't knew very well to remove old kernels and I ran out of space for many, MANY times.
on my gaming PC I've installed Manjaro two weeks ago and I'm happy about it. sure, I ran into small inconsistent stuff like white gtk color scheme in updater software, no dark theme in lutris (even if it's ticked) and visual artefacts after changing theme / cursor and stuff (which needed a reboot).
I want to install Manjaro on my work laptop but it's an old 860M Nvidia graphics card which isn't supported anymore and the proprietary driver gives me a black screen. hope in Manjaro I won't have these issues. and I hope it will play well along Windows.
My first exposure to Linux was Ubuntu's first release. I settled on Slackware in those days because it was the only distro I could get my 56k softmodem's drivers to compile on. When I hear people talk about hardware support almost two decades later, I'm not sure they appreciate how far things have come. I didn't fully make the switch to full time Linux until recently though, once Steam and Proton really had me impressed.
I try to stay in the habit of keeping pace with the major desktop and mobile OS ecosystems. I daily drive Linux and Android, but I try to keep an open mind. As a desktop environment, I use Cinnamon the most--Linux has the most freedom of choice in that department by far. I don't care for the direction Gnome took, but MATE reminds me a bit too much of 15 years ago. The choice is up to the user though. There's also no real shame in using the GUI interfaces available to you, and it's very possible to use Linux without spending much time at all in the terminal.
Though, you'd be doing yourself a disservice shying away from the CLI. It really is faster, but even with double digit years of experience I don't consider myself a pro.
Comparing Linux and Windows in terms of productivity is tough. It really depends on what you do. There's probably a FOSS attempt at anything you could ever want, but sometimes the feature parity isn't there or relearning something complex with a different interface and shortcuts just isn't worth it to you. And as far as an OS--they have different paradigms and different approaches. Being an expert in the Windows ecosystem doesn't mean you'll pick Linux up instantly, and vice versa. Things are "harder" insofar as they're not "the same". The overlap in skills required like diagnosing, troubleshooting, and researching solutions are cross-applicable though. The ability to Google an issue instead of immediately giving up isn't as universal as we'd like, and I often forget that myself
I kinda like CLI, when fn keys do not work with Rhythmbox, I open rhythmbox-client in CLI with -i flag and It solves my problem. I can then use n and p keys for next and prev.
After watching many videos on Linux(YouTube), I am finally able to understand little about terms like MATE and why people like it or why the arch is so loved.
I think I made one mistake, I should have worded post better and researched more about the Linux community before posting this because I can solve problems generally because of very helpful forums. The point was just that it can be a bit frustrating when you are working on something important and things like OS break. So you have to kinda initially invest time in OS and work gets bit delayed. But then again these things don't hamper productivity if you are good with Linux. So I will just have to improve my knowledge.
When I finished college years ago, I worked at a warranty repair facility for a major laptop manufacturer. Hardware features that people like (in this case, fingerprint readers for login) require development efforts. I had multiple "internal" tools, including a half dozen drivers for that thing for Windows alone. The slightest difference in SKU was very problematic for that little device.
I recall the days where installing Linux on a laptop and having a WLAN card was a "good luck" endeavor. Hardware support is far from perfect; I just spent an hour today getting my desktop's PCIE wireless card working after a kernel update myself.
I'm lucky that my discrete sound card (think what you will about that haha, I dabble in audio hobbyism) has Linux support because the manufacturer sure doesn't support it. It takes resources to develop, and a company (especially a laptop manufacturer) simply has to say "we don't support Linux" and they're off the hook.
Hardware support requires having the hardware to develop, and the Linux community isn't getting free documentation and (expensive) hardware to test with... it's mostly a community funded and development effort. I know I'm straying from the point, but the Linux community remains small enough for vendors to effectively ignore.
My point is I very much see where you're coming from: time spent troubleshooting my WiFi on a production machine is wasted effort and possibly income. My home computer is one of my hobbyist devices and it's a little easier to digest lost time there. No matter how long you use it Linux always seems to feel like a learning experience.
If you stay patient you'll start to unlock your potential. If you're using Linux as a production machine, I would recommend checking into distros that tout time tested stability at the cost of being bleeding edge. Something like Debian Stable might be a better fit for you.
I agree with all of your points. I think this is my problem, youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/JBR-2269. so I will just downgrade kernel for now.
But I think now the Linux community is expanding especially because of distros like Ubuntu, PopOs, Mint, and Manjaro which are more beginner-friendly. Some hardcore Linux lovers sometimes hate on these distros but they are very important for wider usage and support for Linux.
Now many hardware manufacturers/vendors have even started to provide better support like Dell developer edition laptops and System76. The only thing I don't like about this is that both are not available in India, LOL.
It depends. Simple problems are less common in polished consumer OSs like Mac and Windows; OTOH, hard server-side problems are virtually impossible to identify & solve in Windows and, to a lesser extent, in Mac. So, I put up with the extra time needed to solve client-side issues (e.g., audio and video) on Linux. Decades ago, I deployed server-side products to Solaris, HPUX, Linux, and Windows -- I now deploy strictly to Linux which an enormous load off my shoulders, in simplified deployment, analysis, and debugging once you learn the incredible tools available.
FWIW, my primary development system is exclusively Linux for last 15 years; I inherited my wife's old MacBook Air laptop which I can still use for light development when I'm on the road or typing stuff like this. I started with developing on Linux in the late 90s in mixed environments with Windows. While I've tried quite a few distributions I keep returning to openSuSE.
It gets easier and easier. I have been a full-time Linux user since 2007 and was using a Mac for about 5 years at work (still Linux at home). I then had a much better Mac that I used for everything for about three months before migrating back to Linux.
This last migration - partly from my old Linux laptop and partly from the Mac - went really quickly and without challenge. Almost everything works out of the box and I just copy my settings as part of the migration. I was surprised how easy it all was and how quickly it went.
I don't use IntelliJ so cannot comment, but I do use Emacs and that works for pretty much everything.
I Got Same Problem With Ubuntu My Bluetooth earphone always making Trouble To Connect With Laptop, Cant Change Desktop Effectively. multitasking So Poor In This. and I was dissatisfied with That
Lot Of thing Not Wokring Properly So Finally I Switched back To Windows 10, Now I'm Using Windows Sublinix System in That. and Im More Productive With Windows rather Than Linux.
No, please. Can you edit that?
You are experiencing the reality of Linux.
It doesn't have paid teams worth billions of man hours behind it propping/patching it up.
So things are mostly complete, and a LOT of it is barely complete.
So guess what, if you try Mac or Windows 10, whichever you haven't yet, you will find the same situation... there are some things you need/want to do that are simply easier/more stable on another OS.
Linux is great for SOME server programs that were built for it, and need an OS that will simply keep going. (I dropped a Progress/OpenEdge ERP database onto CentOS, 11 years ago, and that setup has been running without OS problems that long.)
Now if you want IntelliJ to "just run", AND your desktop to "just run" with your hardware, I would choose Windows or Mac.
(If you haven't been on Mac, wait for the ARM Mac, and spare yourself having "old Mac" hardware.).
Windows 10 is decent. My JetBrains IDEs run with no problem, as does sound, video, and wireless. I have Windows 10 running on AMD A10 and Intel i5 and i7, hardware.
(Just don't depend on the "Restore Partition", keep/make your install media and back your stuff up off your system.)
I have seen Windows Server 2019 run on the same level of hardware, but there the specific hardware may not automatically work like it does with Windows 10 (sound). And it works with no issue on old hardware I previously could not run Windows Server 2012 R2 on.
Choose your OS based on what you want to accomplish, (and on your hardware).
Oh and don't choose Mac if you are going to Administer Windows Servers... too much hoop jumping in that setup too.
If you want to run everything on VM's... my experience won't help. I am old-fashioned preferring my "iron" to be physical.
This is a matter of experience. How long were you using Windows?
I'm a "soft" Linux user - just get the job done - with Ubuntu / Mint / etc. I recently transitioned to Kubuntu, and my past 17 years experience made it a snap ( except for Snap packages, which are not ready for prime time).
My last salaried gig had me on a Windows PC in the (pre-COVID) office, and I am way more productive in my Linux box now.
So, learn Linux. It's a tool. Try several distros. It's not for everyone. Gain some experience. Enjoy!
Sometimes I find myself spending a lot of time configuring something that would be simple on a Mac or Windows. For me though, that's why I love it. Not only have I gotten so much better with Linux but it also has improved my ability to read, debug and write code. When I think back to when I first started using Linux how confusing it all was to the progress I've made now it's a real sense of accomplishment. I say stick with it you can learn so much and you're guaranteed to. That's the point of being a developer isn't it? Developers are lifelong learners.
I've been using Linux as my desktop exclusively for 20 + years. Ubuntu used to be very usable and efficient. Today, I use Linux mint. Ubuntu unity desktop makes working with the operating system less efficient then using the cinnamon desktop in Linux mint. There is also a strange divergence in Ubuntu from net tools and towards snap that makes the system overall more difficult to use. Having used distributions since around 1994, exclusively since 1999, pick a flavor that works best for you. Mint works with everything out of the box. I've been very happy with it as my desktop.
So, one of the things I hear about (I've used Linux for more than a decade and Ubuntu mainly) is all of a sudden features like audio start dropping out, including headsets, mics, and players or similar services. This is most commonly associated with a condition where the machine is hitting it's upper resource limits e.g. RAM. The machine having reached it's limits will start to shutdown less important services to prevent the OS from stalling out completely (freezing up). You can test for that condition by installing HTOP linuxhint.com/install-htop-ubuntu/.
Restart your machine and open a terminal. Then run
htopcommand and keep an eye on resource levels as you start adding/opening/using apps. a lot of tabs open on Chrome on Gnome, apps that load your machine. It's a pretty good method to see if you may need more RAM or maybe upgrade soundcard, especially on older machines and laptops. This is a WAG mind you, but could be helpful. At the least it will eliminate that cause.First off, if you use the words "Ubuntu" and "Linux" interchangeably, then you are mistaken. I love Linux but not overly fond of Ubuntu. I run Linux Mint Mate, and although based on Ubuntu, is NOT Ubuntu. It's solid as a rock right outta the box. Everything works except I replace caja with thunar and VLC seems to crash but celluloid works great. Aside from that, it just works.
I get what you are saying and I meant Linux in general as you will see from other comments other distros of Linux also have some issues as generally, hardware manufacturers such as HP don't give good support for Linux (many have started to give better support in newer laptops).
I mentioned ubuntu as an example of my experience since I have only used that.
hello, i have been entire life on windows and last year on ubuntu > pop!_os. After a year i realised how everybody talks about workflow and how everything is miracle on linux but in my case not. I just open vs code, dbeaver, browser, pomodoro and thats it. THATS IT!!! what others do so different to be 100x more effective on linux ? its same 😂... vs code, dbeaver, browser, everything opening and works same on any OS.... so i just wait to WSL2 on windows, tested, it worked very good so i am back on windows. I am not more productive on linux and dont have to resolve why nobody hear me on 50% meetings because linux has problems with many external devices etc. Only what i need is terminal and with WSL2 i can have it with solid performace ( honestly i dont see difference between ubuntu and windows WSL2 ) ... some tests says on windows it has -8% but i didnt notice.
I totally agree with you. For the actual work, all tools are mostly the same, I am still using IntelliJ idea, vscode, chrome, etc.
I had just moved away from windows because of some problematic updates in 2019 and to learn Docker. But I do like the level of customization that can be done in Linux. I spent 3 hrs yesterday to manually customize my terminals look instead of installing zsh or bash themes 😂. That's why I sometimes question my choices.
After writing this post, I have done close to zero development and am just looking for perfect Distro, Now I want to install manjaro. It would take another 2 days to get everything on it according to my needs and customizing applications on it again. That's why I think overall my personal productivity has declined recently on Ubuntu 20.04.
I think it's users' responsibility to research best hardware for using Linux. I have a Lenovo with none of these problems, and Ubuntu, Fedora, any distro really, is significantly more productive than Windows on the same machine because the software selection, ease of use, and portability are unmatched. Most complaints about Linux come from a place of not having much experience with it, like trying to shoehorn it into poorly supported hardware, not knowing your way around the filesystem and so on. When you plan, it's simly capable of much more than Mac or Windows, assuming the app tools you use are available for the platform. Simple as that.
I used Ubuntu for almost ten years but always found myself plagued with distractions as bits misbehaved, particularly connectivity.
I switched to Fedora and have had virtually nil issues to distract me, it seems to be rock solid.
I used to use xfce on Ubuntu though, and use gnome 3 generally on fedora, although I have used xfce on fedora and it also seems to not break as regularly.
linux is productive only in the hands of somebody who knows their system well. I mean who can do can use terminal better than gui. If you are trying to use apps made for windows, then better stick to windows. At the end of the day it gets your work done. But if you want more control then you need to do it unixish way like everything from terminal. I use mint for base install on top of it I use i3wm and vim for coding, gets most of my work done with very little effort.
I've found that I'm much more productive in Windows 10 than with Linux. People who are extremely skilled with Linux, and who focus on the command line, can be productive, but they'll still run into all sorts of hassles with drivers and desktop bugs.
Windows is much more polished, and has a higher quality interface than Linux (and macOS in my opinion). One example of greater productivity is the Your Phone app from Microsoft. It integrates with my Android phone and allows me to read and respond to text messages on my PC, make calls, move photos from my phone to PC, etc. I wouldn't know how to do any of that on a Linux distro – does Ubuntu have something like this?
I also don't like how old and obsolete most Linux distros are with their kernel versions and app versions. It's confusing. RHEL is using an ancient 4.x kernel on their latest release. I can never get the latest version of gcc or many other apps when using Ubuntu – their repo only has older versions for some reason. To use modern kernels and apps you have to use Fedora or maybe Arch. Fedora's docs are frustrating and their community is unfriendly. Arch's docs are great, but last time I checked Arch requires tons of maintenance effort, and doesn't have trivial automatic updates. And with any distro, there will be lots of glitches and hassles on desktop.
KDE Connect offers similar functionally to the Your Phone app. I really prefer using Google's Messages for Web, though, since it's mostly texting via the PC I'm interested in. It can be installed as a Chrome app and run in its own window. Photos can be accessed via Google Photos on the web or through USB. If you use iOS and not Android, I'll agree that Linux doesn't do much there.
It's difficult to compare package versions across distros strictly by version number though. Different distros have different ethos behind them.. Rock solid stability, bleeding edge, and in between. Sometimes a version appears outdated, and may be missing newer features, but upstream security patches and such are backported. It's not always intuitive, and I wouldn't blame somebody for having the opinion that it's more effort than it's worth keeping up with the differences that can pop up between distros that way.
RHEL probably isn't the best example since it's aimed at enterprise. My last job had me using a Windows laptop 4 or 5 "feature update" versions out of date (about 3 years) with newer security patches applied. Companies like that would still probably be running Windows XP if they could
With all due respect, no we don't. We buy hardware certified for Linux and never look back. Serious professionals don't buy machines preinstalled with Windows then try to run Linux on it for kicks.
What you need is a system integrator unless you want to learn how to optimize every bit for yourself. For most users, paying the small premium for tested and optimized hardware gets paid back constantly and many times over. This is true for every general purpose desktop OS, but it's often overlooked by people who try to convert a supported W10 or Mac device to an unsupported Linux device.
I think the Kubuntu Focus (kfocus.org) - a product I manage - does it best. Of course there are a number of system integrators, so shop around.
What do you mean by supported windows ??
Bill Gates never answered my questions when I had drivers trouble 😋
But with Linux you join a true community. There is bugs of course, but you can hope someone will try to fix them with you. Don't say things you don't know.
Well see that’s a mistake.. You should ask the hardware vendor to fix your driver, not Bill Gates...
I do not know about your hardware, but I'm using Linux for almost 20 years and it works as expected, some issues time to time but this is normal in every O.S. for me it's better use some time to solve something than reinstall the O.S. setting my developer envinronment is tedious and I do not do this for 7 Years since I bought my laptop.
One thing I always found is that cutting edge hardware may not be fully suported the moment it is introduced. this includes new motherboards, chipsets etc. The vendors rush to get windows support before release, but then it takes a while for Linux coders to get their hands on new stuff to write the drivers.
I have never had the problems you describe, but I always choose my hardware with Linux support in mind. I have been using Linux exclusively for over 20 years, and from my perspective things were great and now they are even better
I think that is somewhat correct. Last year I worked on over 20 Aiot Dev kits and what I found was there was a lack of Gnu Linux knowledge... To the point I needed to edit config files and build modules. Modules existed but they didn't even build them or load to the kernel. I mean let's be honest here, there are a lot of these windows developers trying to work on Linux and they don't even know how to roll out a package. I also have been using gnu Linux for over 20 years and I think maybe my insight about being new to Linux is not as applicable... But I can say that I recently converted a process workflow to remove proprietary software and this long-drawn Windows GUI workflow was replaced with a 20 line bash script... and this definitely improved my productivity!
Certainly - however, at this stage of Linux development, users expect the drivers to their hardware to be present and configured "out of the box". Very few new users will have the type of skills necessary to discover the correct driver/module, configure it or compile it for their kernel, especially if it requires tweaking the device tree.
As to the productivity gains, that is the reason I switched all those years ago. I prefer a system that I need to configure once, that works efficiently and without breakdowns, to one that automatically detects and configures new hardware, but breaks down over time and becomes unusable.
Why don't you switch Intellij Idea to something else? Visual Studio Code and Vim are better options. It takes a lot of time to configure and get use to Vim but it's capabilities cannot be matched by any other editor and it's native Linux app.
I do use vs code but it's not better than Intellij Idea. Don't know about vim but nothing out there can compete with Intellij Idea in my opinion. I can guarantee once you use IDEs by Jetbrains, it will be very hard to use anything else again. It's an IDE and capable of much more than any editor out there, especially for java projects.
I have not met a single soul who can argue that Intellij Idea is not good.
Sorry, I meant VS code and Vim are better options for Ubuntu in terms of stability (not as IDE) because of their bigger community and support for Linux. With Linux you should always sacrifice something if you don't want to try other IDEs then you should change the Linux distribution.
I got your point. This has only happened recently and honestly for me ubuntu 19.10 was working like a dream and both 18.04 and 20.04 have some issues.
I have been running Enlightenment on Arch since 2011. Before that I used Ubuntu since 2006. I am on my third laptop with Arch and have reinstalled only when upgrading my laptop.
On my last install (Dell precision) I discovered that LUKS2 forced me to use systemd boot with the latest nvme m2 PCI ssd. My discreet graphics are easier to access than previously and vulkan is more integrated. I have a Windows Enterprise 3 licence for my VM running with KVM libvirt for Microsoft administration.
For maximum use of my hardware, understanding exactly how my system works and having all my regular tools setup am really happy on Linux.
What version of Enlightenment? I used to use E16 back in the day. Now it's Gnome.
I've been using Ubuntu Linux for years and I've learned so much from it. Sure enough, I've had to spend some really long nights fixing the issues that show up, especially after an update, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
If your goal is to deliver value out of the box as a developer, then go with MacOs or Windows. GNU/Linux in a nutshell is about customization and giving the end user the power to decide. Basic things as color themes or fonts to low-level stuff like kernel and drivers.
I run Linux on my desktop but I wouldn't make that recommendation to everyone. I say that as a 20yr+ Linux user. My laptop is windows, but it runs an X server and I SSH everywhere. I'm using VS Code most of the time anyway, so it doesn't really matter what OS I use. I think a developer should have at least one Linux machine however, Even if that's just a raspberry PI or a VM.
I had the chance to try out Ubuntu after getting a new laptop about 3 weeks ago. I initially started with dual booting Ubuntu 20.04 with Windows 10. I had it for about 3 days before trying Manjaro instead. I think the issues I had with non smooth scrolling bugged me an awful lot (I came from using a Mac where this was never an issue). After that I switched to Manjaro before finally trying PopOS. I really liked it and had it installed for about 2 weeks before I went back to Windows 10, which I plan on sticking with.
My biggest issues were problems with battery life (2hrs on PopOS vs about 5 on Windows), smooth scrolling in VSCode and Firefox (everything felt quite slow and jittery), Bluetooth headphone issues with my airpods (sound was very quiet) and finally a vsync issue that I couldn't unsee and wouldn't go away even after 2 days of googling for a solution and tweaking a number of config files.
I was confident going into it that Linux would be great for me. I'm a PHP and Node Developer and having had a mac for the past 7 years I feel more confident with terminal. I really have respect for and understand people that want that extra level of customisation not found in other OS'. The fact that you can just jump in and change how absolutely everything works is a great strength. For me personally though those small remaining issues bugged me too much and used up way too much of my time, when I just wanted to jump in and start developing.
I'm actually getting by fine with using WSL on Windows 10 at the moment, I may however come across issues in the future that might change my mind.
When I'm next due for a hardware upgrade though (or WSL isn't cutting it for me), I'll definitely try a few different flavours of Linux again!
Dude 9 months is nothing. I would also say windows is for end users/personal PC's. That's what people pay for with Windows. It holds your hand through everything. Linux is a major time saver, only if you know what your doing. Ubuntu is like the total opposite of that spectrum I would say. It's completely open, as opposed to something like CentOS which cost less than Windows, more than Ubuntu, but is still commercially managed. Ubuntu is difficult to use, but it's free, and completely open source.
Everything you posted has nothing to do with Development. I work in Speech Recognition, I don't experience the problems you mention with third party apps as I don't use them. My personal laptop is an 8 yr old, still blazing fast Asus My company manages 20,000+ instances of RHEL Linux servers - only a few hundred relate to speech analytics though. The rest are telephony related.
Choose your Poison with hardware. I run Mint Cinnamon for my laptop, it just works and though I've been running desktop Linux since 1994, I just don't have the desire to fiddle with any OS on any laptop.
Yeah... If you are not using LTS, and you do not actually know how to configure it, it is actually your fault.
Linux system has this kind of problem where you need certain knowledge to make it work.
But if you want the easiest version, just use LTS.
Or if you do not know how then just go with manjaro or arch, it will keep everything fresh, which is the easiest one in some sense.
Ubuntu is awesome for 99% of the people who just want to use a GUI - if it works. I personally went through a series of distros and settled down with Fedora. Personally I don't have hardware problems since years, the thing that the audio goes on/off randomly is most probably Ubuntu's "magic" (which is what I hate the most of that distro).
Keep in mind that using Linux is in any case different from using Windows: it's a different approach to using an instrument (the OS).
In my opinion, particularly from a developer point of view, there is no match between Win and Linux: Windows has never been a productive environment besides writing in Visual Studio... all the instruments available in UNIX like make, bash scripts, compilers, simply have no match in Windows, or are way more difficult to install / use (i.e. try to compile a C source: Linux: install GCC and you're good to go, Windows: install 1GB+ of VS and figure out how to compile without a GUI)
I use Fedora in 4 different laptops, 3 brands:
No issues with none of them, even the Asus that has an nVidia GPU. Maybe the issue is not the software, maybe even it's not the hardware.
Personally I'm using alpine linux. I took an entire afternoon to set it up but now is pretty and works so fast. It took around 5 seconds to turn on/off (with connect to WiFi) and it uses around 500/600Mb whith Firefox opens. Windows need 3Gb only to be booted (my PC at work cries every time I boot it on) and it isn't optimized, it's just a bunch of s**t and nothing more than that.
I think the problems you mentioned may be more to do with Ubuntu than Linux itself. I've used Arch Linux, fedora, Ubuntu, and currently Clear Linux by Intel as my daily driver. Of all these, though with an easy installation process, Ubuntu was the most troublesome for me. Ubuntu just frustrated me, I switched back to Arch.
Linux is the most ubiquitous platform in server space, supercomputers, mobile systems (android), satellites, etc. And for good reason; it's fast, stable, secure, and reliable. Even Microsoft's servers operate on Linux primarily.
Desktop space, on the other hand, is certainly dominated by Windows and macOS, for reasons entirely different. Windows was released about 5 years before the first Linux kernel I believe. And windows have been developing on the OS and desktop server space, with particular importance on user experience, ease of use and productivity of general end users. Whereas Linux was focusing on building a solid kernel with high performance. Windows has had a very early head start. The only reason Windows desktop handles things like bluetooth and media better is because more people use windows, therefore more device drivers developed and optimised for Windows. It doesn't make windows a better platform.
I agree Linux desktop definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's prone to have some hiccups along the way for the small little things. But if you're skilled enough to be able to fix these little issues, perhaps with shell scripts and configuration files, you then have the full power of the Linux kernel/OS at your disposal. Like you said, native docker systems, more transparent and better organised filesystem, Unix tools, better integration with Linux servers, speed, etc. While windows can handle the small, little things better, it's an inferior platform for these more advanced things. WSL2 seems to address some of these, didn't try it out. But I doubt it'll give the same performance as native Linux. I personally wouldn't switch to windows just cos they now offer WSL2.
Chrome OS is an excellent example to illustrate how Linux can be successfully developed to shine in the desktop space as well. Chrome OS is essentially just like any other Linux distro, with a key difference. It's backed by corporation with tight integration of services that consumers already consume, like Google drive, play store and chrome. While not as prevalent as windows, it's definitely a success. And people don't even know that chrome OS is Linux.
Didn't mean to go off topic, but just wanted to illustrate why Linux desktop is definitely the superior operating system. Having said that, it might not make much sense if all you're doing with your desktop is MS office, YouTube, checking emails and the normal stuff. For normal, non-tech savvy users using normal productivity tools, or prefer something more classy, I'd recommend windows and macOS over Linux. Otherwise, loving my Clear Linux setup so far.
There's a big difference between using Ubuntu on a Dell laptop and really investing in Linux.
It might sound strange because nobody asks you to do much of anything to commit and use OSX. But Linux is not that.
Linux is owned by all of humanity, not a corporation. Linux is entirely programmable unlike Windows or OSX which are heavily proprietary and controlled.
Linux systems can be completely customized. When taken as a mission, a programmer can often create their ideal workspaces by combining tooling that other developers made freely available.
You are best off buying the right machine. It's a ThinkPad T series. I prefer the slim model like the T490s. ThinkPad T series is well supported because frankly they're the best business class machines available. I can elaborate on this or any other point via Twitter. I have over 25 years of Linux experience and plenty of experience with OSX, Windows, and about 16 other laptops.
Because these machines are so well respected in Linux / programmer circles they're very well supported. After all, these humans are improving their own computer software by doing so. Because it's a team effort.
Ubuntu is a distro meant for people who don't want to have to put as much time into customizing their computer etc. Unfortunately the packages in its repositories are always out of date and frankly the GUI stuff is trying to look pretty so that it had a wider appeal which makes it suffer in the UI department.
Learning to use a distro like Arch /Manjaro (there are others but I can't write forever) gives you more control and a more convenient packaging system.
You can spend a lifetime creating custom user interface tooling.. running tiled window managers and whatnot.
As a programmer you have incredible power.. total power actually... And because of the unix philosophy the software is written in ways that allow you to compose then easily.
But look.. Linux isn't just something you install to run spreadsheets on.. I mean it is.. not that's not all it is..
Linux is a lifestyle. You are part of something bigger than yourself. You can stay here and play for the rest of your life because you belong here because it is yours. You are not beholden to companies and their closed systems. much..
If you really want to benefit then I can show you lot.. I'm always happy to share.
I have a Windows machine in the other room for games. My work machine is my ThinkPad laptop on a dock with 2 monitors attached, or on the road.
My Linux machine is so customized that it's a part of me.. it's not standardized at all. Nobody would know how to use it. I do this because I like to take my computing experience to an extreme. I live for this and what I can do here is incredible. But it doesn't have to be done like that. It's up to the individual.
Anyway to each their own but I'm on Twitter @shawnmccool if you want to talk about it.
The most productive OS is the one that you are most productive on. Nothing else really matters.
Does it fit your needs? Does it work reliably on your hardware? Does it fit your workflow?
If the answer is "no" to any of those, then it's not going to be the most productive for you, and it doesn't matter if that "it" is Linux, Mac, or Windows.
About a year and a half ago, I built a gaming rig. I had designed it specifically to support VR gaming and aside from that, I had one other thing I wanted -- built in bluetooth support.
And I got it. ASUS ROG Crossfire motherboard with bluetooth and wireless support (I didn't care so much about the Wifi, but it was a nice perk given the layout of my house and potential places for my computer versus where the router was).
I also assumed this whole time that I would be running Windows, because VR gaming.
Fast forward three months and four Windows reinstalls later. I eventually said "screw it!" and installed Manjaro on it and found it ran better and ran all of my non-VR games (it'd probably run my VR games, too, but I made the mistake of getting an Oculus, but again...hadn't planned on running Linux).
Why did I have to reinstall Windows several times? Because of a bug in one of the critical updates that couldn't be bypassed at the time without doing some super low-level digging in the OS that bricked the computer.
Oh, and the drivers for the Wifi and the Bluetooth conflicted with one another, so even if the OS issue hadn't happened, I would have to choose between Wifi or Bluetooth, not both. Both chips were from the same manufacturer (and again, built in to the board), so it's not like this was a builder error.
On the other hand, Manjaro has been solid and I can use both the Wifi and the Bluetooth at the same time, should I choose to.
And yet, my work computer is a Mac, because I get my developer-friendly *nix environment and the specific userspace tools needed for supporting my clients.
That said, if you really don't want to go back to Windows for principle reasons, give a few other distributions a try. Some support a given set of hardware better than others, especially out of the box. Pop_os, Elementary, and Linux Mint are among the most popular "beginner friendly" distributions, but there's a huge selection to choose from to best fit your specific needs.
I don't know about your particular situation, but if I was going Linux, I would be very careful about hardware before I started.
I've had similar unpleasant experiences with Linux and computers/monitors etc. and I learned that certain hardware companies and Linux don't go well together. I note that the things you're complaining about are mostly to do with hardware.
After wrestling with different Linux distros over the years, I really wanted to find a stable, reliable system going forward.
I bought a System76 Thelio desktop running Pop!_OS, which is a variant of Ubuntu that is designed to work well on that hardware.
It has been very stable and fun to use as my main dev environment, and things simply work. With a well rounded stable system, it works much better than the custom setups I've tried before.
I've been using Linux since 2003 for professional purpose. Either graphical production or development production. I totally gave up windows since I had lost weeks of code.Today I run Debian stretch. I do not care about the play button on keyboard or Bluetooth since it is absolutely useless for productivity. You ask if using Linux is productive but you talk about Bluetooth and play button... Linux gives you full control to the system. You do not need to install extra software to get a fully functional shell for example. When the shell is loaded it does not stop like gitbash and so on. Moreover the skills you get using Linux rise you up to a strong level and help you to remain reactive on learning new technologies and update yours. I use jetbrain products as well and they are memory greedy.
It is really productive. In most cases free, and for developers who develop medium/small (or even Large) applications is the right tool. However, my experience in the last year has not been productive.
I've been using Linux Mint since 2014. I finished my degree and my master thesis using it and I am really proud of that (no one did that when I studied in the university). Even when I develope my personal projects or some enterprise project I prefered to use Linux rather than windows.
In this last year, while using eclipse and Visual studio code I have been experiencing a lot of problems (lag, freezings and so on) that I don't have the time right now to focus on solving them (via editing system files... ).
Last month I did the switch with Windows 10 and I am more confortable now.
From my point of view, It does not matter whether you are using Windows or Linux. Use the one that fits your needs the most. Of course, there are several things I miss from Linux (bash and theme customizations), but in the overall view I am happy with the change.
Dont get me wrong, I love open source software and collaborative work between developers, but right now I feel that Windows is my right tool.
If you want ... errrm ... need to use some piece of software that only runs on Windows or macOS, then Linux is a drag. Running Windows in a VM is just to much of a hassle.
Other than that, Linux beats any other OS, hands down. A week configured KDE on a fast machine even beats out macOS in usability.
I personally am done and finished with proprietary systems. Used macOS/OSX professionally for 15 years (it was nice but not any more), Windows is stuck at Win2k levels 20 years back and both systems have baaad lock-in issues. The only system I "recommend" for non-experts is chrome OS, that's an actual improvement for regular users who don't want to spend a small fortune on contemporary computing.
All other things is best done with Linux, arm or x86, doesn't matter. Manjaro, Ubuntu, SuSe, you name it. Zero fuss, no trouble, no lock-in. Linux has come a long way and it's my primary OS from here on out, I've ditched my alternatives completely.
And I am way more productive because I don't have to deal with licensing nonsense.
There's an old saying... "Linux is free, if you don't value your time. Windows is cheap if you don't value your sanity."
Window's advantage is CSP Applications (Constrant Satisfaction Problem). Basically, a number of apps run on Windows to fix problems, some with user interaction (Network Troubleshooter), some autonomous (Disk Repair).
Linux will remain the best choice for the developer and the techie, Windows for the occasional user and non-techie. If you want to change Linux to be more user friendly, write the code yourself. That's something that is off limits for Windows-- user change.
What stops you from doing that for Windows? And if we're talking about features outside of user-space, well, kernel development isn't exactly an accessible pursuit for the average tech-savvy/developer user.
I think a "productive" system means multiple things
1) How fast you can do things with your system, includes system efficiency, how much it fails, shortcuts etc, So even if you use it with out-of-the-box settings you could be extra productive, I suggest popOS for this.
2) Linux being extremely configurable makes it perfect for any person, given that you don't need software that does not run on linux.
Creating your own workflow, shortcuts, etc eanbles you to work faster.
I switched form popOS to manjaro i3, I change my settings every now and then and make it better for me.
3) How much of it you actually use, can you use it as it was meant to?
This means Linux might not be for some people, some work better with windows, some other with osX, depending on what you use and what you need your computer for.
About your BT issues, I bet there is a fix somewhere, on some forum for your specific system/OS combination, that is the beauty of linux. Imagina having a BT issue with windows? You are done, get a BT dongle.
Anyway, yeah, sort your issues, learn about them, customize your system, it is worth it :D
I hate using Linux desktop, instead I use Windows and putty for ssh access to my Linux servers. Because in the end you only need Linux for its shell access, not its GUI which is very inferior to what I'm used to with Windows. But that's just my style 😘
I recently purchased a laptop with the intention of only running Ubuntu on it. I ended up setting up dual boot because manufacturer updates only work in Windows. Other than that it has been a superior development machine for nodejs, php, ans anything else I've needed. I like how it starts up and shuts down quick and I can easily get into whatever projects on it.
That being said, I too have that weird Bluetooth glitch where I may need to restart the computer a couple times. Also, getting the wifi adapter setup and a few other things for the first time took a lot of time. I generally don't like to customize much so I haven't seen much advantage in that front. All-in-all it has been great for development, but there are some pain points getting things set up and maintained.
I've been using Linux since the late 90s in server roles. I don't use the desktop due to issues such as others have mentioned. I stick to basic hardware with in kernel driver support for everything except Nvidia if I need CUDA support. As much as possible I use official repos. For development I use windows with putty, winscp, git, and vscode with the ssh extension. Once you have your certificates setup it's a easy and you still get breakpoints and variable debugging and whatnot through vscode at least in .net core and python.
Bluetooth, audio, video hardware acceleration power management, wifi, non Intel or realtek NICs, etc have all caused me grief in the past. I also strongly recommend not using the latest hardware the day it comes out. Proper ryzen support took a while. New chipsets sometimes take a while as well.
One machine for work, one for play.
I love Linux for a work machine because it matches production - all the same libraries, tools, utilities, exactly where I expect them to be, and it runs my IDEs of choice (RubyMine and Idea) flawlessly. I have a desktop machine with two large monitors and a full-sized keyboard.
But for recreation, or for Photoshop/Lightroom, I use a Macbook Pro. Sure, the disk capacity is tiny, the keyboard is cramped... but I'm not programming on it all day. It's for morning and evening use.
This way I don't have to care that Linux doesn't support every video format known to mankind, or interface with oddball peripherals like drawing tablets, as I never ask it to do these things.
I've had Linux as my primary desktop environment since about 1996. (Yeah, I'm old).
I've been using Linux for about 15 years, ofc not exclusively but almost equally with Windows.
One of the things that I'm very grateful for linux, open source generally and the community is that, they taught many many things.
Linux is fine and has improved tremendously, as well as windows, but I would never force myself to use something that has many issues.
For the past 2 years I use mostly windows coz now I don't really have the need for linux.
Some reasons I'm not using linux as my main OS are mentioned in the following link but I'll list the most frustrating for me:
itvision.altervista.org/why.linux....
As I said, Linux is fine, in many cases is even better than windows but as a generic desktop OS is still not quite there yet.
About docker, personally I've never used it but I believe it works fairly good with wsl2, if not, virtualbox/vmware or dual-boot. Use linux as your dev OS and windows for everything else.
Moreover, you can disable search results via registry
howtogeek.com/224159/how-to-disabl...
PS. plz don't tell me linux is a kernel and not an OS
I've been using Arch Linux for work for more than 5 years and I wouldn't change it for anything. It all boils down to two things:
You can be more productive with Linux in the same way you can make your car faster by swapping parts: you need a good knowledge of the inner workings. if you're interested, you'll eventually learn them. If not, better stick with Mac or Windows, both are very good OSes to work and are much more streamlined.
I'm a linux user (for work) for long time. I suppose your issues are related to the eay you use linux. If you understand how it works you can tweak it like you want. Maybe Ubuntu is not the best distro for it.
I'm using Elementary OS as main OS for work.
BT issues are on Windows and Linux too when you try to use "mobile phone earbuds", after a disconnect you need to do the entire process again. That's why I use a Corsair Void Elite wireless headset or wire old iPod ones.
I've no issues with play,pause, next or prev buttons on spotify, nor on VLC. You may just need to use another APP for music.
By the way when you get your system working you may need to know which software is installed and which not, and remember the config (or storing it wherever), as when you do the common
apt update && apt full-upgrade -y, if you didn't read the changelog, you could get your things different. Same happen on windows when it updates (I've games that worked on first Win10 version and now they simply can't even start for example).