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Comment by billy99k | Hacker News Reader

I use Linux daily (command line only) alongside Windows. It's amazing to think that after all these years, Linux on the desktop (with GUI) still isn't even close to windows in terms of functionality.

I've tried it over they years and finally gave up. It would work for awhile, until some random change would break something I used every day and I wasn't interested in spending many hours trying to research a fix and manually hack some .c file to make it work.

MacOS essentially became a form of Unix with a fantastic GUI. It's what Linux could have been. I like to use Linux with the windows WSL and I get the best of both worlds: a nice GUI and the ability to run all of my favorite Linux apps.

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I have 3 machines at my desk (with 3 monitors) one running Ubuntu, (and a bunch VMs) one with Windows 11, and a Mac. They use the same keyboard and mouse, and I can move my mouse cursor and keyboard focus across the three OSes easily (I use synergy to do this).

My experience with the desktops across all the OSes largely similar. They do things differently, but once you get used to the OS, it becomes second nature.

Linux is my preferred environment for anything to do with development. I use my Windows machine for office productivity (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint browsing) and VisualStudio. I use my Mac for the Adobe creative suite and Figma and iOS/visionOS development.

The difference in OSes isn't the desktop itself. It's the software that runs on it. I don't really want use GIMP on Linux for example, or do web dev on Windows.

I would argue that you’re doing a bad job using those OSes through software like Synergy, which doesn’t really understand things like multitouch or smooth scrolling.

It's fine in my experience. I use Synergy 1 and I turn off smooth scrolling on my laptops and desktops. I find it more distracting that some apps support smooth scrolling and some don't, so I just turn it off altogether. Together with AutoHotkey on Windows and (Built-in) Applescript and Rectangle on MacOS, one is able to have similar keybinds on both operating systems.

Every app on macOS supports smooth scrolling. That’s why people use it. You’re using the lowest common denominator and going “wow everything is the same I can’t tell the difference”.

Only with hardware acceleration turned off. Which in my experience causes a stuttery and laggy experience which can hardly be described as "smooth".

If you really want to use MacOS's smooth scrolling, use MOS (https://mos.caldis.me) and get a beefy Mac because the base models will stutter like I mentioned.

I am very confused what you are talking about. You definitely do not need hardware acceleration to be disabled to get smooth scrolling. Something seems very broken with your setup?

>, or do web dev on Windows.

Personally, I find any development on Windows to be a pain!

To be honest I've never had issues like you're describing and I've been using Linux nearly exclusively as a desktop OS since the 2010s. The main deficiency is that it doesn't have eg a good Photoshop alternative, but what's there works well-- and these days the browser has supplanted most native proprietary software, anyway. Things have only broken for me when I've hacked/customized them to the point that it's a miracle they work at all.

OTOH, Windows has never given me anything but trouble... stuff that's easy on Linux semi-frequently required regedit hacks. I remember having to mess with some DCOM thing and ended up hosing my Windows install. Not to mention that it's awfully slow without installing a bunch of debloating tools (and even then...).

Windows is a complete subscription hell, with annoying pop-ups unless you regularly pay Microsoft etc. fairly large amounts, and then there's the commercials and MSN. My mother switched to Linux because she felt that she with Windows didn't have a real computer, but that Microsoft had a computer she borrowed.

It was never great-- there was always bloat, but recently it's crossed a line of unusability where the OS itself is more distracting than useful.

Pay Microsoft for what?

Word, for example, but I think there are also other subscriptions in it.

Meanwhile, with Libreoffice, it just works.

Yes, it constantly bugs you about buying OneDrive.

I was gonna (silently) disagree with you, but in the last couple of weeks I updated Windows and now it's periodically asking if it can know my location. I'm not clear if Windows is asking, or it's asking on behalf of a specific app, or so it can give this info to any app that wants it. And I don't care - the answer is no, no matter how many times it asks.

I always admired Linux, and was able to get around in Linux, but never seriously considered using it until that MS AI thing that works by taking a screenshot every couple of seconds. And now this pester-ware asking for my location.

I'm interested to know what breaks in the Linux desktop experience.

I've been using Linux exclusively as a desktop environment at home for 5 years or more and my primary pain point is kernel updates breaking DisplayLink, via a docking stattion I use for multiple monitors. I now have a specific command line that rolls back the kernel to the previous version, and then I wait for updated DisplayLink drivers.

It's a pain, but it's still (much!) better than the circles of hell that Windows has been putting users through since Windows 7.

Strangely, the Windows laptop provided by my work just stopped being able to pipe audio through the speakers plugged into the docking station. Which feels like Windows "doing a Linux". The tables are turning?

I don't think that I've ever had an issue like that on Windows. Their business practices with the ads and whatnot are awful, but the drivers and hardware work very, very well. Honestly even as a pretty knowledgeable person I don't consider your situation to be acceptable, much less someone who isn't knowledgeable. "You have to roll back the kernel" is just not reasonable to expect of people.

Have you tried the i3 tiling window manager? If you're comfortable on the command line, you may enjoy the keyboard-forward focus of i3.

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