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Comment by prometheus76 | Hacker News Reader

Yeah until an update to the graphics driver, followed by a reboot, takes you to a black screen and nothing happens. So you use another computer to look online and there are five different solutions for five slightly different versions of different linux distributions, but none of them are the version you have and none of them work for your version.

This all happened six months ago, which is the most recent attempt at using the "now user-friendly version" of linux that stretches back 20 years.

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I've been using various Linux and BSD flavours as my main desktop OS and also at work for over 15 years now and never had any major issue such as the one you describe. So now what are we going to do? How do we decide who is right and who is wrong? I don't understand these types of comments, if an alternative doesn't work for you then you keep using what you were in the first place. There's no problem here. What exactly are you suggesting, that you experienced a problem so it won't work for anyone else?

The original poster is correct. For some configurations Linux is a complete shit show of pain. And it is not stable over time. I had a nicely working T495 which is apparently officially supported by Ubuntu. Worked wonderfully for ages. Then about 3 months ago a kernel update broke it. It works for about ten minutes then the GPU driver craps itself.

My experience was the same until I started to use off-the-shelf or simply “consumer top” hardware, then it changed. It all shines and then you get a recent laptop or a mobo that aren’t a sped up version of IBM PC/AT or 8259. I also managed a small park of BSD and Linux boxes at work for a while.

What exactly are you suggesting, that you experienced a problem so it won't work for anyone else?

People can give it a try, but shouldn’t expect that it’s all okay once it shows a wallpaper. Committing to something like OS requires a prior knowledge of operational risks. I think this.

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ReactOS in a nutshell: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U6d7E1uKSmg

They obviously make fun of it too shamelessly, but suggesting to use it… is it another level of trolling (no offense)?

Do you carefully curate your hardware? Only purchase from a very limited selection and don't use advanced hardware features (biometric authentication, for example)?

Those are loaded questions, I'm quite sure I know the answers (yes and yes).

It's on an older thinkpad. I can't remember the model. When linux blew up and I tried three different variants of linux and they all had different, annoying, time-consuming issues after about a week of use, I threw it in a drawer and got the ad blocker on my router working (which was the main thing I was trying to use linux for on my home network).

The point of this kind of post is a counter-voice to the "Hey guys! Linux is desktop-ready now and so much better!" That might be true for some people. It hasn't been true for me every time I've tried out Linux, and I've been giving various flavors a shot since RedHat 2. And trying to find help or documentation for troubleshooting problems in Linux can be an absolute nightmare because of the million flavors and versions of linux and the chains of dependency for all of the different installations. If one person gets lazy (or is on vacation or dies) and doesn't update one specific part of a dependency chain, everything falls apart and good luck finding someone who is having the same problem who documented it in a way that google can bring you to.

I'm happy Linux "just works" for you, but that hasn't been my experience.

Nvidia graphics driver perhaps? Linux with proprietary drivers tends to suck (and Nvidia has been especially unfriendly to FOSS drivers). Intel and AMD support open GPU drivers, which tend to be be better. This might be why you're hearing about experiences that don't match yours.

Also, people can have legitimately different priorities. Some folks might want freedom from vendors badly enough to buy inferior but supported hardware, and/or get their hands dirty dealing with problems. At least there's a choice.

I made the AMD choice and bought a T495 which is Ryzen + Radeon powered and supported by Ubuntu. The GPU drivers shit a brick every 10 minutes.

I now own a Macbook Air.

I'm really interested in what happened. because Ubuntu isn't the best distro to choose when you have cutting/bleeding edge hardware.

Well basically I went here and it said it was supported https://ubuntu.com/certified/201905-27049

Which it was. Then it broke.

On NixOS, you just reboot to the previous version thanks to immutability.

Linux GPU stuff is rough, but the above really helped. + Nix has a declarative way to configure the driver so other people did the hard part for me anyways.

Nix allows fearless Linux hacking (and thus, gaining of expertise.)

Personally I'd rather deal with a few bugs than deal with a hostile operating system which is determined to surveil me and curtail my freedom of choice using dark patterns and uncontrollable settings.

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