My transition from Windows to Linux in an anti-customer age

This comment is strange because the only OS that I never had serious issues with Bluetooth is Linux, specially after migrating to PipeWire.

Windows always had some strange driver that were hit or miss depending of the dongle.

However macOS is much worse: I have a Galaxy Buds 2 that works perfectly in all my devices (Android, Nintendo Switch, my notebooks running Linux, etc.), but with my work provided MacBook Pro it randomly disconnects one ear, or the audio gets completely garbled after a while. Other teammates report similar issues with their Bluetooth earbuds, from completely different manufacturers.

Even without the above issue, connecting/disconnecting the device opens Apple Music and there seems to be no way to disable this behavior unless you buy an Airpods or disable all other music shortcuts.

It kinda seems that Apple makes the Bluetooth experience horrible for everyone else just to sell more Airpods.

I use manjaro a version of arch and I will never go back. Yes, sometimes things to don't but windows has issues as well.

I had it with this anti user direction we are going because you know "security reasons". Microsoft decides what is malware, they decide what we are allowed to install, they track everything you do and if you want to turn if off forget it. Everytime you update they try to force you to make a MS account, I don't need this crap in my life.

I'd rather spend an hour fixing something and knowing it's all under my control and my interests not some corporation's profit interests.

What a strange sequence.

For my own part, I have never used Windows as my day to day machine. I moved from MSDOS to a UNIX Desktop in 1992 then to a Linux Desktop in 2001. I don't know why others seem to have problems with UNIX/Linux Desktops.

My take is that the 'super-duper Windows users' must take the time and effort to 'UNLEARN their Windows Thinking' but they don't bother taking that first step. Consequently every problem for them is a nail that they must hit with their only tool, a hammer.

3. Why is my battery life so bad?

I bought a Lenovo P53 laptop last year. For quite a while I thought that my battery icon on the panel ('taskbar' for you Windows types) was faulty because my battery just seems to go on and on.

> 2. Install latest Ubuntu. [...] I am so tired of constantly fixing something.

Maybe don't use a deliberately worsened version of Debian.

Do the settings once. Keep a copy of ~/ and /etc handy. Apply all settings in one go at will. Stop fiddling around, making a fuss about nothing and just keep on using it.

The answers to all your "whys" is: because vendors don't support linux as a first class citizen. It's as simple as that. And why don't they? Because people don't use their wallets enough to support the ones that do.

> I think now that WSL has matured

Again with the WSL. It's just a VM with preconfigured integration, and without the ability to tweak it to taste. I much prefer to run VirtualBox or VMWare, and we've been able to do this for a long, long time.

I've taken the dive to running Linux again recently. Not on all my machines, just on the older gaming laptop which I set up with a bigger SSD and Ubuntu Studio. I realized that I was right on the precipice of actually having an entirely open media creation app stack I could see myself using(Blender, Inkscape, Krita, plus Syncthing to move data from other devices), and therefore could have a media making box running Linux - so I booted up on a freshly flashed USB, tested my tablet, it worked. All the hardware has worked, although the laptop keyboard is doing the "shift and pageup acts like numpad 9" thing, which I haven't looked into yet - but isn't too important since I am gonna use external keebs. Then add in that Renoise works and supports plugins - maybe not all the commercial plugins, but in exchange you get hundreds of LV2 plugins with no separate install process, and I was sold on the concept. In this limited role, I wouldn't run into problems related to software I wasn't using, and therefore it wouldn't develop into that general frustration with Linux as an all-purpose desktop.

There are still flaws - the keyboard thing, and then Pulseaudio and JACK not getting along well so if I want to listen to a reference on YouTube while Renoise is open, I have to fiddle with the JACK session management to plug one into the other - but even that one has been addressed with the Ubuntu Studio UI having a feature just for that use case. And I have two installs of some of the media apps because I have a version from snap plus a version from apt. It's like, yeah, still rough edges, but these are comparable rough edges to what I see on contemporary Windows, and I'm in a better position to fix them.

I've actually been helping to troubleshoot a Windows issue for my mom while I set this up: "sometimes only the right side of my earphones (her term) plays sound, it's been happening for months". At first we thought this was a connection issue and after determining that the headphones were not faulty, replaced the speakers she plugs into(which she likes using because of the physical volume knob). Then it still happened afterwards and I finally caught on to the idea that it was software, and after poking around saw that there was preinstalled audio enhancement crap on top of the Realtek driver doing auto detection when the jack is plugged in - just poking around with the software, it started working, perhaps because doing that updated a config file somewhere. Perhaps it originally started because of a Windows update. It's all mystery meat, so who knows. For now I've advised her to turn the speakers off and then on again if it happens, but I might look into removing the bloatware too. I did have her temporarily on Linux at one point just running off a USB stick when the OS drive on her old machine failed. She loved it, all she ever did was watch YouTube and check email and it was perfect for months. Then Dad got her a new computer, and she's now a bit resistant to using Linux again because of her Word documents. But she also hates that Word has cloud features(even though she does nothing to properly archive her documents and is an obvious candidate to benefit from cloud sync). Perhaps I will broach the question of using a Word alternative if the computer issues keep up.

Bottom line, I do still think of Linux desktops as a tinkering space, but increasingly a viable one in a professional setting if you aren't working against a fixed standard(like an artist that needs Adobe CC or a grandma that needs Word) and can use tinkering to your advantage to hack out a custom workflow.

yeah i don't think linux is really a consumer OS. even ubuntu.

i tried ubuntu recently after about 5 years and it seems to have become much slower too.

Correct.

If the utility on Linux is not the exact same as Windows (or doesn't even exist, the horror!), then modifying your behavior or expectations is insane and is considered "ricing" and a complete waste of your time.

I laughed. Emacs is well-defined and well-designed. That doesn't apply to the rest of the software people have made for Linux in the last 50 years.

That's a wildly improper comparison, those secretaries were using that single text editor, strictly during their worktime. A (power)user today - besides learning the quirks of a whole operating system - possibly needs to adopt their workplace workflow, personal apps, media consumption, all the connected hardware like inputs, display, printer, smartphone connection, networking...

"Sorry... I'd love to make the switch but I can't do it until they get Apple Mail up and running."

> Do I have some magic aura that causes Microsoft to give me at least a 12 hour warning about updates? Because I honestly can't remember a time this sort of thing (instant update, no warning) has ever happened to me with Windows.

Many consider a 12 hour warning entirely insufficient. Many consider an auto reboot that you didn’t initiate entirely unacceptable.

It happens. The warning was probably ignored or forgotten. Keep in mind, a lot of people like Windows because they prioritize what they do with a computer over what they have to do for the computer. Interrupting their work is the last thing on their mind, particularly if it involves relaunching applications and pulling up documents after that interruption. They may have even developed habits such as walking away from the computer thinking that everything will be there when they return (including unsaved work).

I tend to ignore anything Windows tries to tell me because it’s usually an ad or otherwise useless.

Not all programs bubbles up those notifications when you are in full screen, and since default behavior is to shut down the computer after x minutes of the notification appearing it will look like the computer restarts out of nowhere.

Windows could have checked "if the user is actively using the computer do not restart", but no the computer just restarts in the middle of a gaming sessions or whatever.

Heh, that was what prompted me to switch to Linux, all the way back in 2003!

Suddenly saw that Windows was rebooting the computer. I had about 1 minute of warning and I lost a lot of work.

> In 2015 when Windows 10 rebooted my machine to automatically install an update, closing down an unsaved document I was in the middle of working on,

I'll never understand why Linux users have this inescapable urge to leave unsaves changes in their apps and go on a two-week vacation. You have to save your files, people. It's computer 101.

12 hours... Nice, people will just forget before 2 minutes.

I tried running on Linux (Ubuntu) and using Reaper, so I don't have to use Windows with it's BS.

Getting the audio stack running was a nightmare, and it always just sounded bad. Something was wrong with the drivers that caused a ton of latency and weird compression. It appeared to be something to do with everyone's favorite default audio system: Pulseaudio (have a look sometime at how many troubleshooting steps there are for the simple "I'm not getting audio out of Ubuntu", it's silly)

I spent a few days trying to figure out the proper magical incantation to make ALSA work with my setup (Scarlet 2i2, pretty common), with no success. No matter how many semi-sketchy and unofficial websites I went through.

Put it on Windows, works out of the box, sounds great. Went back to recording audio instead of doing IT.

Same here. I'm a Linux advocate (even named my son after the creator) and I definitely manage more Linux than Windows machines but after trying (forcing) Linux on my main workstation I gave up.

I need nvidia drivers (for ML and sysadmin stuff) and had so many random problems with multiple distros like sound randomly wasn't working or some USB ports were not detecting anything.

WSL has changed the game and now I have the stable and driver supported desktop environment with all the tools I love from my linux servers.

I like Linux and have used both professionally but too much of my income is dependent on Windows. That and it's just a great day to day environment. I'm just sticking with 10 for the foreseeable future and hope Microsoft turns direction. But I'm not holding my breath.

I switched about the time windows made a major change too. Maybe it was win10? I don't remember. The point is when I hop on a windows machine now it feels just foreign enough that I go back to Ubuntu.

Me too. Had to go back to Windows at $JOB recently and find the experience... unpleasant, to put it mildly. I guess once you get used to a certain way it's difficult to change it. Hoping to get rid of Windows again soon. Can't imagine using W11, from what I've seen.

Same situation. I've used Windows over the years for playing some games with friends, but even that had become something that I can do entirely in Linux too.

Call me a fool, but I'm also loving Gnome 40+ and GTK 4.6+, especially with libadwaita.

I also left Windows in the mid-1990's. I have tried looking back from time to time, when it felt like it would make life at work easier. The thing is, it never does. That doesn't really say anything about Windows, since it has improved a lot over the years and my reasons for leaving it are no longer valid. It says more about what I am used to, how I expect to get things done, what I am willing to put up with, and what I am not willing to put up with.

I've been trying since the 90s. I became a Linux expert, but I've still failed to switch to Linux. The reasons are probably: (A) The mythos of Microsoft collecting all of our information and storing it until the end of time seems incredibly unrealistic to me (B) I don't like friction, Linux is full of unnecessary friction to get anything done (C) Lack of commercial programs, and a user base that is actively hostile to the idea of commercial software (FOSS is better, don't you know?) and/or hostile to changes that would make commercial software more viable on Linux (D) Difficulty in actually fixing things, which I have tried to do many times (the Linux ecosystem is built from some truly awful codebases) (E) constant glitches and bugs, which I don't have time to track down and fix

Same story here, happy Linux user since the 90s... at home on family computers and at job. It's like choosing Netflix vs HBO Go - takes a few days to find your favorites, once you get it you are all set and don't worry anymore about the competition.

I also tried to stay away from "winmodems", but even in 2022 I have hardware issues on Linux, on a boring business-class HP desktop(!), the very thing people say never has any issues under Linux... lol... I tracked it down to the Intel driver for ACPI or something breaking sleep/wakeup. It's a kernel issue so I guess I'll just have to wait 5 years for someone to fix it.

i was similarly perplexed but upon reflection i may understand it. windows kept me at the level of "power user," and i suspect it lulls many into that complacency.

sure i wrote a few windows programs, debugged a few i hadn't written, and i ran some pretty niche tools, but i wasn't truly hacking on my system. most of it was off limits anyway, but more importantly i had stopped learning because i was a power user with niche tools and that felt like plenty.

with linux i can patch software to satisfy whims and have it cooperating with the package management ecosystem in minutes. suppose i want to do something simple, like suppress an annoying error message i don't care about. i expect that downloading the source code, grepping for the error, removing it, compiling, packaging, and installing will take me something like 3 minutes of effort.

seriously. these power users don't know what they're missing.

> with no way to automate anything

Most things in Windows can be automated with PowerShell, application installs are usually just a silent install switch away.

> I find it totally incomprehensible

Happy to help

> Installing software in Windows is insane, relies on you to blindly trust an exe, non reproducible, and with no way to automate anything

These three points are wrong, but I understand your confusion. You don't blindly trust an exe, you download it via https from the official website. The installs are "reproducible" to a point that 99% of users care about. You can automate installations for popular software quite easily.

> Don't conflate problems with your proprietary software and Linux. Shockingly you may have to adapt and learn something new, or find something equivalent.

"Conflation" is the wrong word there. But regardless, ironically you're conflating "not knowing" new software and complaining about bugs in new software. You seem to be saying that no one should do either, simply because both are a case of "not knowing". It's very popular to dismiss bugs in Linux software as someone "not knowing" how to use it, but it's lazy thinking.

> Don't conflate weird hardware issue as a fault with Linux for not supporting it. Blame the manufacturer for doing something esoteric.

That's wrong. On what basis do you say that all hardware issues on Linux are the result of the manufacturer doing "something esoteric"? In reality, having looked into it myself, it's very possible to hold Linux partly at fault for ALL hardware issues. Why? Because you may not know this but on Linux, unlike Windows, all drivers effectively must be approved and included in the kernel source code by L. Torvalds himself. That sets an incredibly high bar for driver availability, and causes Linux to lag behind other OSs in terms of driver support. Bet you also didn't know that hardware manufacturers need to retest their driver after every kernel update, because the kernel team often breaks things, and if the manufacturer doesn't keep on top of their driver code, it'll fall into disrepair. (Meanwhile on Windows your Windows vista drivers from 2007 will work in Windows 11(!)

> Not to mention all the blatantly user hostile features in Win 10/11

Most people do not experience features in Windows 10/11 that they consider harmful. You may experience them as harmful. You may see others experiencing them and consider them harmful. But most people who experience them do not find them harmful. Got it?

> inconsistencies (O(10) ways to decorate a window??)

Most people don't care about that, believe it or not (most people are smart enough to not fall off their chair and explode when they encounter a strangely-styled window border)

> I personally do not trust Microsoft at all.

Why do I get the feeing most posts like this could be summarized thusly...

> I find it totally incomprehensible how anyone could possibly still use Windows seriously as a developer/hacker/programmer/interested in computing.

Spoken like a true developer. I have one nit: I don't think anyone does use Windows for hacking. It's too locked down, too resource hungry, utterly opaque and the number of platforms it runs on can be counted on one hand. No one in their right mind would put Windows on a RPi.

I'm not sure what Windows is now. It's not a particularly reliable, robust, light, secure or stable platform for the masses to run apps and games on. iOS, Android (and WinPhone in its day) do a far better job. It's far too heavy, expensive and inflexible to use as a server platform. That leaves one niche: the company wide computer system for companies that can't build their own. Windows is the king of the "company owned, controlled and monitored computer". Admittedly it's a huge market, and they own it. If there are competitors that aren't selling "rent all your computing resources on our cloud infrastructure", I can't see them. And the companies that have the wherewithal to build their own corporate computing structure are few and far between: Google, Facebook, Amazon and the like. You won't find the vast bulk of normal businesses such as Bridgestone, local hospitals or banks in that list.

But equally, that market is ripe for the plucking. Microsoft does an appallingly bad job at it. To wit: most of the ransomware, and company owning (like Sony) are in fact failures in the security model Microsoft has sold these companies. If you look at the model Microsoft is peddling nowadays, it's almost the reverse of the best model we've developed so far, trustless. It's the "corporate locked down VPN" style, based on InTune.

And it's not getting better. Microsoft's software engineering processes have been getting worse, as in the poor API documentation now regularly commented on here, the testing rates have dropped and the effect is noticeable, Windows just keep getting slower and bigger. (Admittedly many Linux distro's are also getting bigger and slower, but Linux has distro's pulling in both directions: feature rich but big and tiny but few features. Users: take your pick. Windows is headed in one direction only.)

To add insult to injury, the companies are now being forced to rent computing resources from Microsoft's cloud for things like SSO (Azure AD), one drive storage, and even device control (InTune is cloud based). So Microsoft's corporate customers are being dragged toward a Google cloud like model where they rent every CPU cycle and byte of storage anyway.

I thought Kim Jong-un's take down and complete ownership of Sony would be enough to trigger change away from the Microsoft model. Clearly it wasn't. Now I'm not sure what it will take.

Screen size?

> Radarr is not in major package managers, and requires the CLI for install (https://wiki.servarr.com/radarr/installation#linux). In Windows, I double click an .exe. In Linux I have to follow a reasonably complicated and time consuming installation process, full of opportunities to misconfigure the install.

Why are directing this complaint against Linux and not Radarr? They could choose to package it for various Linux distributions if they do wish.

> For example, Radarr is an extremely popular tool for managing movies

Radarr definitely doesn't represent the status of Linux projects packaging; not providing any package is uncommon.

The vast majority of open source projects provide repositories, application packages, binaries (if one wants the latest-and-greatest version; the base repositories of the most common distros typically have almost anything under the sun).

As a matter of fact, Radarr's twin, Sonarr, provides repositories (https://sonarr.tv/#downloads-v3-linux), and snaps (e.g. https://snapcraft.io/install/sonarr/debian).

Radarr sounds like the type of software that no vendor would accept in their app store. Why would you expect it to be available through a Linux package manager?

As for the convoluted installation process under Linux, that is on the developer. They can provide packages directly, create a distribution agnostic application, or provide an installer. All of these approaches are in common use under Linux. None of them require the use of the command line. It is also worth noting that the second option is similar to how Mac applications are distributed while the third option is how Windows applications are distributed. The fact that Radarr's developers decided to do something else, something that required the command line, says more about them than it does about Linux.

With respect to user-hostile US approaches, please don't get me started. Windows itself is far from perfect in this respect.

So... what I say... if you want to use Linux, go ahead. But, know WHAT and WHY you are doing this. If you simply say "it's not Windows" -- not good enough. Yes, Linux is not Windows. It is ALSO not a Mac OS/X. So, why are you attempting, "many times" to adopt Linux? I honestly have no idea what "Radarr" is, or why on earth I would want it. If I did care, I would have a reason to use Windows. As it is, I don't. My use case is a good and reliable Posix platform, with good tooling. That is provided by Linux -- indeed, I use Fedora. Been that way for over 25 years. I need Java, but not .NET. My use cases... not yours.

I don't care about "package managers" Usenet is web for me (google groups), CLI is not an issue; indeed I prefer it, given my history. I find Windows UX/UI to be extremely difficult. I suggest that you do NOT consider Linux to be a competitor to Windows. It really isn't. Windows had been forced to run Linux. In full compatibility. This is supported by Microsoft -- unlike Wine is is somewhat there. If I needed Windows, I would run Windows, and use WSL.

The odd thing here is that Windows "blinked first". The existence of WSL means Linux has won. If I sent you a Linux binary, I would tell you to install WSL and then just run it. I can also send you JVM stuff to run. .NET? Haven't needed to bother with it.

Have I tried many times to adopt Windows? Frankly, no. If it doesn't work with Fedora, I generally just don't care, and move on.

FredW

Is servarr in the windows store? If not, it might as well not exist.

Just because users have been trained to download .exe's from random, unvetted websites that does not make it any less insane. See android, see iOS (and by now also windows) who all agree how insane that is.

If you use an Arch-based distro, it's available in the Arch User Repository (AUR) [1]. With Aura [2], installation is as simple as:

    aura -A radarr

Yes, you need to use the CLI to run that, but it's trivial to do so and a real package management system brings many advantages over exe installers. The AUR, inspired by BSD's Ports, is one of the major advantages of Arch. It's very rare to find a package that isn't supported.

[1] - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/radarr

[2] - https://github.com/fosskers/aura

This is true, although the Windows model of .exe installers , which require admin permissions, isn't even the one to follow. The macOS, and especially the App Store model is far more user friendly.

The non-esoteric distros and GNOME[1] recognize it and ship with a software manager akin to an app store. Those install snaps or flatpaks with one click. That's how you'd install Steam and all of its dependencies like Proton.

The problem is that some software authors, like Radarr's, don't believe in the model.

https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/41.0/figures/softw...

> In Linux I have to follow a reasonably complicated and time consuming installation process,

You don't /have/ to, you choose to. Docker provides a way easier path for all the *arr's.

Not to mention removal is equally easy - with windows can you be SURE all the registry stuff is gone?

Linux isn't necessarily for you and that's fine. The Linux community doesn't actually need to change any of this to succeed where it succeeds and that is among CLI-friendly power users and developers.

As to your specific issue, I just use the container image of Radar on my server, which is what most selfhosters should be using, since it's non-polluting to your local system.

> Bottom line: make it so users never ever, for any reason ever, need to use the CLI.

The more I think about, the more I'm convinced that it's an unconscious choices made by developers to keep away non power users.

Bottom line: You are ranting about a piracy app.

There's no technical limitation for Radarr to provide a package file that can be downloaded.

Any reason not to watch commercial streaming services on Linux, or physical media?

Thanks for your reply. It was helpful to hear someone on a similar journey. I am just reaching the point of take a stand for whats right, rather than what I have to get by with. No with Linux in much better shape, I can do it. From time to time I think about switching back but Im making most of what I do work.

> Adobe CC, Microsoft Office and Visual Studios prevent an all out shift to linux for the majority

How do you figure? Most people don't do any real photo editing or real asset creation. Microsoft Office isn't required for anything except Excel and that's fairly specific to a certain type of office worker. Visual Studio has many replacements, especially if you aren't using an MS stack top to bottom.

Heck, when I was in business school (majored in Finance) the profs told us to use Google Docs over MS Office for basically everything except our Excel-specific assignments... Like we'd hand in assignments simply by sharing a Google Doc. So much easier than dealing with Word compatibility nonsense.

> LibreOffice, VSCode, Gimp/Inkscape and everything JetBrains has to offer just doesn't make the cut yet. But we are getting close by each passing year.

I've been reading effectively this sentence for well over a decade and I know I'll still be hearing it from someone long after everyone else has left them behind.

LibreOffice is nowhere near Office or even Google Docs levels of quality, ease of use, or features, and the gap only widens each year.

I greatly prefer Google docs to Microsoft Office. Their online versions feel like afterthoughts.

They're not merely culture wars, they're also value wars. Both Windows and MacOS are headed toward continuous behind-your-back communication with their respective motherships. In the case of Windows, they have the audacity to shamelessly advertise on your personal computer.

Man its much worse than culture wars. It's really about anti-choice an anti-customer decisions, all for the possibility for profit.

1996 was the year for Linux on the desktop. FVWM, then Windomaker, then Sawmill/Sawfish, now Xmonad. Never looked back. From working at a publisher to doing development work at several companies to freelancing as hacker for hire to giving my 80+ mother a safe desktop to do administration and finances on while I live some 1300 km to the north of her, Linux rules the roost.

Why? Because it works. No nasty surprises, no forced upgrades, no nonsense.

As an old Slashdot reader, I came looking for a comment like this. Thanks for not disappointing.

The year of Linux Desktop for me was 2006. For every linux user/fan out there: when was yours?

Even my grandmother who used her first computer late in her seventies knew how to do that on linux.

To be fair, what you're looking for (black but not off) is probably not something many people would want or care about. But it does demonstrate how (A) inflexible and (B) feature-poor most Linux distros are

What? It really couldn't be simpler: You open settings -> screensaver, choose blank after N minutes and close the settings window. Works.

Use xautolock with i3lock w/ a black image..