I also want something hat just works! When I boot Windows, my 2 plugged monitors work seamlessly. When I boot Linux... it's complicated [1] (pragmatically it doesn't work because I am using Nvidia drivers, and won't use the shitty Nouveau drivers. And even if you use them , good luck tinkering for hours with text config files and whatnot)

Linux mint 20 is my main OS in my self-built PC ( and works for me pretty well (for development, browsing and gaming via Proton). But I wouldn't try to convince ANY non-technical user to get into Linux. Because installing it is half the battle, once they start doing "their stuff" (plug a second monitor, plug some device, open some file, etc) there's good chance that it won't work.

[1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/593938/how-to-run-both-intel...

Your experience is clearly different to mine, I have 1 monitors on my desktop which work fine, I also have a separate fitlet PC for monitoring purposes with a hdmi monitor and a separate touchscreen USB one.

Both just work, with the only configuration I had to do was to swap them round (left/right) is display settings.

Maybe windows has caught up with this now, last time I used windows I had to install "drivers", which seemed to be advertising programs which took up most of my CPU, to use basic peripherals.

> Maybe windows has caught up with this now, last time I used windows I had to install "drivers", which seemed to be advertising programs which took up most of my CPU, to use basic peripherals.

This comment kind of decreases the your argument. If you are using Linux you know what a device driver is. This naïve take on drivers just doesn't fly. I couldn't ware less about windows, but the last time I used it (I think Windows 7) I didn't have to install any additional driver.

And on Linux you also have to install "drivers" either closed source (nvidia) or open source (nouveau) to make use of 3d acceleration. So, if you don't know what these "drivers" are, I suggest you read on them and how to install them in your preferred Linux distro, as it can strongly improve your Linux experience if you happen to have a discrete graphics chip in your computer.

While I can imagine that making Nvidia cooperate with another GPU is difficult under Linux, it is not just "plug a second monitor".

It is running two GPUs, one of them Nvidia. That's an entirely different league, than plugging a second monitor into a Linux system.

Funny, that's why I still use Windows on my desktop.

Yeah, I don't feel that way at all about Linux and I daily drive it. Could you imagine our mothers troubleshooting any of the following things that have regularly happened to me on Linux in the last 5 years I've been daily driving it:

* Hm, my sound stopped working. * Hm, dhcp stopped working. * X has completely failed to start. * This website just straight up doesn't load. * Thia game won't load (pretend it's solitaire). * This update broke my boot. * Seemingly doing nothing broke my boot. * This update broke my browser. * This application does not work without configuration. * My monitor layout is broken.

Maybe things are better in Ubuntu land, but I doubt it's as seamless as Windows/Mac.

My mom uses Fedora Linux for more than 15 years. She never saw any of that. I perform upgrades when necessary.

Similarly, my parents are on Ubuntu LTS since 6.06 (not on the same computer, obviously), when I got tired with regular windows reinstallations. There have been exactly two problems:

- "internet doesn't work" -> yanked ethernet cable. Later I made sure it cannot be easily yanked.

- "printer doesn't print" -> classic inkjet problem with dried ink. Inkjet replaced with b/w laser. no problems since.

To add to the funny story, I have Ryzen 1900X on my desk (literally, the cpu in a small plastic box). Nowadays, those 8 Zen cores clocked at 3.8 GHz are not enough to run Windows, apparently.

This is obviously not true. Which Windows can't you run on that?

He's talking about the Windows 11 hardware requirements, which are very strict and only support the newest CPUs.

However Windows 11 can be installed on the same hardware that runs Windows 10, it just won't allow you to upgrade. Otherwise it runs fine.

Microsoft is basically turning Windows into what mobile OS's are: tightly controlled and requiring specific hardware to ensure a particular set of user expectations with their devices. In other words, it's becoming a laptop OS.

> However Windows 11 can be installed on the same hardware that runs Windows 10, it just won't allow you to upgrade.

It was not possible to either run the update assistant or boot from install media and install from there; both means said that the machine doesn't meet minimum requirements.

They didn't even say which ones, just shown a generic link. Only the Health Check running under W10 said that it is the CPU.

Does it meet 11's hardware requirements? I thought I had heard older Ryzens wouldn't- not from performance, but other chip features.

Yeah, who should I believe, you, a random stranger on the Internet, or my lying eyes? /s

It is Windows 11 that doesn't run on it.