You couldn't pay me to put up with the massively inferior environment of any of the Linux DEs at this point. They are all, in varying ways, completely miserable to use.
Windows 10 is actually a really solid OS, and virtualization makes it so easy to spin up a Linux VM if I really need it.
I've tried Windows 10, it is not bad as consumer OS. Tray notifications gone, so good. WSL1 has limitations, should be solved in WSL2. PowerShell, OpenSSH and winget are good improvements.
Windows interface is changing, at least some people should like it. I feel it is getting progressively worse. That's strange — I like macOS Aqua. I didn't like brushed metal, it has gone now. I have no other explanation but blind spot of Windows users.
So we suck up MS treatment of us as cattle whose data and behaviours to be harvested and the dumbing down of the UI in the interest of getting things done and getting on with our lives.
It's a faustian bargain, but the alternative is worse.
I already work on a computer all week, then and spend a lot of my discretionary time on it for career research, for necessary involvement in modern life and for some leisure.
If I fulfil my desire to use linux for all the various advanced desktop scenarios I demand of my computer I'm giving up the remaining free time in my life!! And for what - to tweak driver configurations and DEs, again, AGAIN, for the hundredth or thousandth time in my life to keep things working. Learning how everything works was fun but constantly canoodling with configuration and setup for the nth time is as pointless as working around MS antifeatures, and seems to take up more time on balance if you are doing a wide variety of advanced scenarios occasionally (in my experience as a 20 year linux tinkerer).
So it's not a blind spot, it's a faustian bargain to have some hours left in my life to exercise, to look after my health, to go outside and enjoy the garden and live a wider life.
Sounds like you're using Visual Studio... which at this point is closer to an Operating System than an IDE...
PS: I haven't had any version of Visual Studio installed since about 2004.
I would encourage you to try Gnome again. I use it everyday on a 7 year old laptop with Ubuntu, and it is impressively stable and smooth and a pleasure to multi-task with vertical windows.
Maybe this is interesting for you?
Well, some things are arguably not getting better.
> Flatpak
That's part of what's getting worse: Fracturing/deterioration of the use of distribution package management, instead of improving and expanding it.
> web applications
Another part of what's getting worse: Instead of having compact apps you have to load a behemoth of some web browser/app framework, to do semi-trivial things.
There's also systemd; Gnome having taken application UI in a weird an (IMHO) unfortunate direction, and the fact (?) that the hardware resource requirements have risen significantly.
There is a need to package closed source software, to provide dependencies. Some people use outdated distributions, that's root cause. If distribution is switching I'd better search like minded and help with maintaining (or it would be systemd scenario).
At least there is application. Everyone is free to make native. There is Void (Linux), runit [1], at least on Arch Linux there is big choice [2]. Fork Gnome, KDE 3 forked as Trinity Desktop Environment [3]. Boot to xmonad — 100MB RAM, Chromium — several GB RAM.
It is easy to imagine arguments against — Steam builds distribution platform on top of Linux, no packages there, Wayland vs X11, distributions spread resources, maintainers breaks software. I am not Steam user, I am not Ubuntu user, but I benefit from wider community.
Indeed, the popularity of docker, flatpak and hobby/fad distributions and language-specific package managers is leading to many security nightmares and harming traditional distributions.
There are reasons for painstakingly vet and package software:
- security
- stability AKA you don't want to force feature upgrades with new bugs on servers and workstations
- legal compliance: people are unaware of the amount of license issues in docker hub, flatpaks and most distributions
I wouldn't include those on the same list. It makes sense for various (source-form) libraries to be maintained and updated and made available independently of the OS and uniformly across operating systems. I don't see this as undermining Linux distributions - as these are used when you're making your own builds anyway.
Otherwise - yes, agreed, and it's also about redundancy and bloat when installing software; and some entities writing software that can only run on their own docker image; etc.
That's the problem: they encourage building with tons of random stuff pulled from the Internet on the fly, sidestepping OS distributions completely and providing no reproducible building, no vetting, no license review, no long-term security.
The leftpad disaster is a good example.
Also - it's not supposed to be "tons of random stuff", it's supposed to be the libraries you're relying on. Maybe I'm missing something in the point you're making?
> it's supposed to be the libraries you're relying on
When an ecosystem has poor engineering practices and encourages small libraries with many dependencies you get a quadratic explosion of indirect dependencies.
You might not care about having 100 transitive dependencies until a poor soul has to maintain your code in 4 or 10 years from now.
I was a thing I just did once in a while more than a decade ago but I haven't had to on multiple systems for a long time now.
I do that, and have had no issues in the Windows 10 timeframe across 3-4 Win 10 OSes, one on canary, err Windows Insider (slow ring).
If you write it this way (without details) then how people can argue?
What's so scary? I think I'm using 99% of my software from an actual vendor sites and never felt that way. Also using things like virustotal.com.
I've used open source OS for a decade. It has changed my mind. I've never downloaded software from site. I trust community, not vendors. I use just one non open source application (slack) and I do not trust them, I'd rather run it in a sandbox.
My system comes with a framework to download, build, install any package with just a few commands:
$ yay -G foo
$ cd foo
$ makepkg -sei
No other ecosystem comes close. Browser extensions and smartphone applications replicate some of it but
* it can be adware/spyware/malware
* it can change overnight, no one checks
* one gallery by popularity or by restriction
Even my closed source software comes from community maintained recipes, Windows finally got it with winget.
Oh, I know! Compare it with programming language package managers — gems, pip, cargo.
And having all these different package managers require me to either have blind trust in a lot of different communities, or spend a lot of time comparing CRCs and reading code.
I do not like apt, dpkg, aptitude — interface is not good, output extremely verbose by default and it was slow. Its existence does not annoy me as I do not use it anymore. I use pacman, but this annoys you, what should I do? Abandon it and fill the web with grieve?
Maybe you have to work with different distributions, it should not be hard to create (or google) wrapper https://github.com/icy/pacapt
Separate communities is Linux power. We do not argue on a true form, we solve our needs.
Maybe because it requires "huge shittons" of effort to try to controle the software, and yet, at the end of the day I still have to trust somebody (OS, Drivers, ISP, Firmware/Hardware, Govt)
If you get your packages from a single source, you mostly have to trust that source (lower attack surface), and can be assured they will meet a minimum quality level.
Example oopses from valve (but really, most vendors have theirs):
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671
Sure, it is about trust. Browser addons and language packages pushed by authors, this results in leftpad, spyware. Distributions dissolves authors power, provides buffer, they pull new versions, walk it through stages, there are many eyes and build is (often) reproducible, stable distributions pull only critical updates. Overall effect would not be as dramatic.
https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/archlinux/archlinux.ht...
# Linux is more stable and reliable.
I've reinstalled Windows so many times, never reinstalled Linux. System is separate from the user, I can remove all user configurations and it would work like new.
# Linux is more secure and private.
I have so many packages, they are free and safe. I've tried Windows recently, have to install software from the web. It is scary.
No telemetry by default. I send package statistics, have install it myself:
# Linux is faster and less bloatedThere are many communities, some run Destkop Environments, I run quite minimal setup, boot to graphical environment takes 100MB RAM. Old netbook is router/NAS, 1GB is plenty.
# Linux is more flexible and customizable.
Primary reason I've switched. So many options, it is awesome! GNOME, KDE, XFCE, OpenBox, wmii, dwm, xmonad. Entire distributions — Ubuntu, Arch, Nix and many more.
# Linux gives you more control over your computer.
There was liberating feeling — my computer is just a hardware. Never felt it with Windows, it always had its own way. You know, some people kick their computers in rage. That has gone.
Linux has a great driver support for supported hardware, it is like complaining about hackintosh. Windows adopting command line and package management tools. Yes, had to stop gaming, that's changing with Proton. I find Windows UI atrocious, my desktop for comparison:
http://sergeykish.com/side-by-side-no-decorations.png
multiple workspaces, no decorations, not even browser scroll bar. I'd like to have universal solution for sticky headers.
And, maybe, the most valuable — Linux is getting better while Windows and macOS getting worse. Telemetry, advertisement, walled garden, executable restrictions, firewall bypass, proprietary hardware — scandal after scandal. While on the Linux side — AMD GPU, Wayland, Flatpak, Steam Proton, web applications, better than ever laptops support.