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Comment by pipeline_peak | Hacker News Reader

“ Linux is only free if your time has no value”

That line seems to often be said in threads where people are fighting against Microsoft's latest barrage of dark patterns. For some reason the time spent on dealing with that is never compared fairly: "Windows is only usable if your time has no value".

Even when that line was true, I could get Linux working with a few hours of effort

No amount of effort is going to make windows usable when there’s a company actively working to make it user-hostile

This quote dates back to earlier than 2010. I don't think jwz would agree with it in 2023.

On Windows you burn time eliminating ads, Edge, "set up your machine" popups, and other bullshit.

On MacOS you burn time papering over what is a completely incompetent OS for dev: containers, package management, fourty-fucking-five minute security patches, and other bullshit.

Linux generally just works.

jwz still complains about linux, but less than mac! He uses Linux throughout his club and tech stack and still grumbles but I think he's finally recognized over time that Apple's attitude toward the UNIX core of Mac and its non-commitment to backwards comptability have repeatedly burned him.

> “Linux is only free if your time has no value”

This motto, although actually true in the past, is probably no longer valid. Install the latest Ubuntu/Kubuntu with KDE/Plasma and you get a high performance, GUI-configurable, aesthetically pleasing desktop. You will need to drop down to the Linux command line only if you need to pull off some kind of advanced networking, virtualization, etc. setup. (While you're at it, switch to the free ZFS filesystem and enjoy disk bit rot checking without Windows Enterprise/Pro ReFS). The entire Linux system and almost all user apps upgrade automatically from a set of pre-defined online installer repositories. If you want to game, boot Linux on a CPU-integrated graphics card and pass-through your stand-alone GPU to a Windows-guest KVM-host (QEMU) virtual machine for 99% native gaming performance, no need to dual-boot.

GNOME is a joke for triple monitor, and KDE's multi-monitor support is somewhat broken.

Meanwhile with Windows not only you pay for the OS but also with your time to make it approximate a decent environment (with increasingly less options ever new version).

Only when you start to learn to use it, just like when you start to learn to use Windows.

Tell me that after trying to get VR working in Linux. You'll have to buy an Index first of course, since it's basically the only one that works. Only just barely, of course.

I'll take your word for it, never tried and not interested in it at all. Though I'd suggest the lack of Linux support from VR vendors is nothing to do with Linux and everything to do with the VR vendors.

Time wasted. I tried to install Windows recently on a completely wiped laptop. I couldn't do it, it failed after partitioning or copying in several different ways. I find comments online that it might be sensitive to what USB drive is used (might be?). I had a license and an image from Microsoft and one from the laptop manufacturer, both failed the same way. I've installed a bunch of Linux distros on it in the past with no problem. When reinstalling a Mac you just go into recovery and net install.

I find it bizarre that windows is as bad as it is.

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