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Comment by neilv | Hacker News Reader

Debian Stable (Linux) is here for you: https://www.debian.org/CD/

I just recently set up Debian with KDE on my media server after years without using the GUI, and I'm finding myself using it for light browsing now. I just forget to open my laptop.

Linux has gotten pretty friendly, even on a distro less focused on home users and features. I don't foresee installing Windows for myself again.

My clients are firms in the architecture and engineering space. Windows is the only viable platform for AutoCAD (yes, I know there is a Mac version, and yes it is shall we say "feature incomplete") or Revit (yes, I know that ArchiCAD runs on a Mac, but if you're a MechE firm and you want to land jobs you run Revit) or Tekla or Rhino. Microsoft is making it more and more painful for my clients to get their work done and get paid. My kingdom for something better, but until Linux gets reliable native support for Autodesk applications etc it's simply not a viable solution for most firms in AEC.

Your apps being perpetually 7 years behind everything is not a great desktop experience. I’ve tried. I’m not trying again.

This sounds like a skewed perspective. For instance, I use Proton Mail. Proton Mail released a UI for Linux, Windows, and Apple a few months ago. Does this mean my Linux version of the Proton Mail app is 7 years behind?

7 years ago, the Windows experience was a lot better than it is today.

Debian releases normally come out every 2 years. The last version came out in 2023 with the kernel version that came out 1.5 years ago, a libreoffice version from the same time frame and a firefox version from 10 months ago (ESR with up to date security fixes).

Debian is perpetually 1-2 years behind.

"7 years" is intended as hyperbole? On average, your Debian Stable versions will be 1 year old, plus security updates.

Debian Stable keeps everything stable, and something I want a newer version of (say, the latest version of some browser, for developing with a new feature), I just install separately. Everything else is very low drama.

may be ubuntu? i tried it 6 years ago, and 8 and 10, and other linuxes like suse before. never stick.

but now linux works like magic. i upgraded 3rd laptop in 3 years. just moved my nvme and all worked, even kernel and drivers in place upgrades.

i used dell and msi laptops. i was shocked that it works well on few month old released msi laptop. dell had touch screen, and it was working too.

I use KDE and the application launcher will show software that is not installed on my device.

Can you give me a few instance where it happens? Name of the apps?

For example I search for "spoti", and I get "Get Spotify...". Clicking that it opens Discover, the app install/update thingy and it shows an error message: "Could not open appstream://com.spotify.client because it was not found in any available software repositories". Very Linux-y, am I right? Debian Bookworm with KDE, I installed it back when bookworm was testing, but now it's stable.

I find I can disable this "Get X software" type search result when I right click the start menu icon, Configure App Launcher, click Configue enabled Seach plugins, and then disable Software Center.

This is the thing I was talking about. Thanks.

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