Mike’s Linux challenge - Does Linux "Just Work?"

[maflynn]

The open source model will not work for these purposes.

No question, Microsoft, Apple and Google, they spend boatloads of money on their respective operating systems. Without a single entity willing spend the money, its not going to take off.

I spent more time solving issues than everything else.

Yes, exactly, I wanted to find out whether Linux is closer to the ideal of "It just works". At some point you need to ask yourself, is it worth the hassle? You know, spending more time trying to get it to work, rather then just using it as you would with a macOS or windows machine.

I probably pulled the plug on my little test sooner that I ought have, but two things became evident. I'm spending too much time trying to get basic things working and when they did work, my experience was inferior to that of windows or macOS.

 

[skaertus]

No question, Microsoft, Apple and Google, they spend boatloads of money on their respective operating systems. Without a single entity willing spend the money, its not going to take off.


Yes, exactly, I wanted to find out whether Linux is closer to the ideal of "It just works". At some point you need to ask yourself, is it worth the hassle? You know, spending more time trying to get it to work, rather then just using it as you would with a macOS or windows machine.

I probably pulled the plug on my little test sooner that I ought have, but two things became evident. I'm spending too much time trying to get basic things working and when they did work, my experience was inferior to that of windows or macOS.

Precisely.

When I tested Linux, I started to value software more.

I came up to the conclusion that I much prefer paying for proprietary software so other companies can spend time and effort developing and perfecting it instead of getting open source software for free, having to spend my own time and effort making things work.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

At some point you need to ask yourself, is it worth the hassle? You know, spending more time trying to get it to work, rather then just using it as you would with a macOS or windows machine.

Quite the opposite here. macOS or should I say OS X just used to work for me in the PPC and most of the Intel days. The closer Apple came to the ARM transition, the more messed up things got. Things were ok-ish about two years ago with some extra effort. Then things went downhill, fast. With macOS it's always fiddling around. One thing needs to be changed from a CUDA backend to OpenCL, but what used to be a quick file edit turns into editing/changing a full chain of tools and dependencies. With linux... "git clone whatever", "./build.sh", done. macOS is always the troublemaker for me know while Windows and Linux "just works".

There are still cases where macOS just works for me and that is stuff like Capture One for photo work and Final Cut for video. It's almost like macOS should come with a warning these days: "Turn on and use with App Store only, don't attempt anything else, do not step outside our eco system!!! Or you're F'ed!!!". It's probably the transition from macOS to iBookPad OS showing where things are headed in the Apple world.

 

[Tari]

Linux is very good for the casual user (web browsing, youtube): it just works after the installation, no need to worry about security, viruses or privacy (pick any Linux desktop distribution).

I don't know about difficult to use part. My mother (60 years old) used it for 2 years with no issues (Linux Mint). You just click the browser icon... Want to shut down the system, click another icon.

For some jobs Linux is the best choice (ask programmer).

I don't know why Linux couldn't work for any person who is writing articles (creative work). Many things are in the cloud now if you don't like native solutions.

Do you know about Blender? It is a very powerful tool for some creative workflows.

Linux for gaming is not an ideal solution, but the situation is better than MacOS and is getting better every day.

If we are comparing Linux and MacOS, the ideological difference is huge. Absolute freedom, flexibility, privacy and power (Linux) versus a very controlled experience (MacOS).

 

[sracer]

I have installed various Linux distros on various devices, and with only a very few exceptions, Linux does indeed "just works". But then again, I don't use those systems for gaming.

The reason why Linux isn't my daily driver is because I heavily rely on Bible software, and the ones that I use don't have a Linux version. Otherwise, it would be a slam dunk choice for me.

I have quite a bit of experience with Unix, AIX, and minix back in the day and remember a time when a simple typo rendered a system unbootable. Today's Linux distros are on par (or better) than Windows or Mac OS with regard to stability.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Great post.

Linux does not just work, and this is an important point.

Both Windows and macOS have come a long way before they could "just work". Microsoft and Apple both invested a lot of money, time and effort to provide an experience that would not require much from users.

When you buy a Windows PC or a Mac, it just works. Out of the box. Everything works. If you install Windows on a pre-built PC, it will surprisingly work with little effort; there may be some issues, but it will generally be fine.

Linux does not. Every time I tried Linux, I spent more time solving issues than everything else. If you work with that, then it may be just fine. But if you need to be productive in some other field or if you just want to use your computer to consume content, then Linux is not an option.

The open source model will not work for these purposes. You need a multi-billion dollar company to spend all the money on a product that can be sold. And to be sold, the product must meet the requirements of the buyers and not of the developers.

Android is competitive only because Google invested in it. Linux for the enterprise is viable only because IBM backed it. With no real money from a mega-company, Linux is not and will never be viable.

Linux has come a far way from the early days when I first tried it in 2003 to when I started using it as a daily driver back in 2017. The reason why I ended up being a Windows user was only affordable option available at the time; bit of FUD. Oh, I need Microsoft Publisher, oh I need Microsoft Access - Office applications I hardly had a need for or used in my personal life. But required learning of Access in high school and seeing it used while interning at a company back then made it feel like needed. OS X even after Panther was pretty much a mature operating system and could do just about everything a PC fundamentally did. But, there was always this sense of incompatibility. When I play with vintage versions of OS X such as Jaguar on my PowerBook G4 Titanium today, I always say, I could use this and do everything I was doing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

The same can be said for Linux. I remember when I was doing my vocational studies in 2007, part of the course work required learning Linux fundamentals. Of course, they gave us RHEL 9 to do this, which was probably one of the worst and oldest distro's you could find to introduce someone to Linux. By 2007, there was a huge buzz about Ubuntu Linux and I remember downloading a copy at the time, think it was 8.04 and taking it to class then installing it on a few of the PC's we built. It was night and day difference, not only from RHEL, but also Windows XP, don't even mention Windows Vista at the time. Since the school only supplied us with like a cheap motherboard, AMD Sempron and 512 MBs of RAM. But out of the box driver compatibility was superb. I remember having to install the drivers from the motherboard CD for Windows XP and even though they were there it was a real chore. A Mac of course had the upper had since it came preinstalled and upgrades to new releases were straightforward.

But Ubuntu ran beautifully, class mates liked it, it could access the Internet, Facebook and just about all the computing an average user could want.

Also, the big reasoning as to why you can't say Linux does not work, iOS. The irony of the iPhone is that it became pretty much most of the computing for everybody. The iPad ended up replacing the cheap crappy Netbook and to some extent even Apples Mac business was changed by it. The company saw that as an opportunity and you can even see how much iOS has now even influenced macOS.

The conclusion though is that times have changed, but there is still an entrenchment of both Windows and macOS; the merit of them being better than Linux has practically faded. I can tell you my home use of Windows has gone out the window, I just don't have any reason any more. At work, its a different story, in fact, I see the growth of Windows in the enterprise on the client side every day. Yeah, there are the few rogue employees who bring their Mac to work when a Windows device fails.

The reason why I even use the Mac is due to the hardware and in a biased way like the aesthetics of the operating system more. But there is nothing fundamentally awesome anymore about it if a just as capable device was running Ubuntu Linux. For what the average every day user does on a computer these days you might be better off saving your money.

 

[Queen6]

Linux has come a far way from the early days when I first tried it in 2003 to when I started using it as a daily driver back in 2017. The reason why I ended up being a Windows user was only affordable option available at the time; bit of FUD. Oh, I need Microsoft Publisher, oh I need Microsoft Access - Office applications I hardly had a need for or used in my personal life. But required learning of Access in high school and seeing it used while interning at a company back then made it feel like needed. OS X even after Panther was pretty much a mature operating system and could do just about everything a PC fundamentally did. But, there was always this sense of incompatibility. When I play with vintage versions of OS X such as Jaguar on my PowerBook G4 Titanium today, I always say, I could use this and do everything I was doing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

The same can be said for Linux. I remember when I was doing my vocational studies in 2007, part of the course work required learning Linux fundamentals. Of course, they gave us RHEL 9 to do this, which was probably one of the worst and oldest distro's you could find to introduce someone to Linux. By 2007, there was a huge buzz about Ubuntu Linux and I remember downloading a copy at the time, think it was 8.04 and taking it to class then installing it on a few of the PC's we built. It was night and day difference, not only from RHEL, but also Windows XP, don't even mention Windows Vista at the time. Since the school only supplied us with like a cheap motherboard, AMD Sempron and 512 MBs of RAM. But out of the box driver compatibility was superb. I remember having to install the drivers from the motherboard CD for Windows XP and even though they were there it was a real chore. A Mac of course had the upper had since it came preinstalled and upgrades to new releases were straightforward.

But Ubuntu ran beautifully, class mates liked it, it could access the Internet, Facebook and just about all the computing an average user could want.

Also, the big reasoning as to why you can't say Linux does not work, iOS. The irony of the iPhone is that it became pretty much most of the computing for everybody. The iPad ended up replacing the cheap crappy Netbook and to some extent even Apples Mac business was changed by it. The company saw that as an opportunity and you can even see how much iOS has now even influenced macOS.

The conclusion though is that times have changed, but there is still an entrenchment of both Windows and macOS; the merit of them being better than Linux has practically faded. I can tell you my home use of Windows has gone out the window, I just don't have any reason any more. At work, its a different story, in fact, I see the growth of Windows in the enterprise on the client side every day. Yeah, there are the few rogue employees who bring their Mac to work when a Windows device fails.

The reason why I even use the Mac is due to the hardware and in a biased way like the aesthetics of the operating system more. But there is nothing fundamentally awesome anymore about it if a just as capable device was running Ubuntu Linux. For what the average every day user does on a computer these days you might be better off saving your money.

Nice read ?

Q-6

 

[skaertus]

Linux has come a far way from the early days when I first tried it in 2003 to when I started using it as a daily driver back in 2017. The reason why I ended up being a Windows user was only affordable option available at the time; bit of FUD. Oh, I need Microsoft Publisher, oh I need Microsoft Access - Office applications I hardly had a need for or used in my personal life. But required learning of Access in high school and seeing it used while interning at a company back then made it feel like needed. OS X even after Panther was pretty much a mature operating system and could do just about everything a PC fundamentally did. But, there was always this sense of incompatibility. When I play with vintage versions of OS X such as Jaguar on my PowerBook G4 Titanium today, I always say, I could use this and do everything I was doing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

The same can be said for Linux. I remember when I was doing my vocational studies in 2007, part of the course work required learning Linux fundamentals. Of course, they gave us RHEL 9 to do this, which was probably one of the worst and oldest distro's you could find to introduce someone to Linux. By 2007, there was a huge buzz about Ubuntu Linux and I remember downloading a copy at the time, think it was 8.04 and taking it to class then installing it on a few of the PC's we built. It was night and day difference, not only from RHEL, but also Windows XP, don't even mention Windows Vista at the time. Since the school only supplied us with like a cheap motherboard, AMD Sempron and 512 MBs of RAM. But out of the box driver compatibility was superb. I remember having to install the drivers from the motherboard CD for Windows XP and even though they were there it was a real chore. A Mac of course had the upper had since it came preinstalled and upgrades to new releases were straightforward.

But Ubuntu ran beautifully, class mates liked it, it could access the Internet, Facebook and just about all the computing an average user could want.

Also, the big reasoning as to why you can't say Linux does not work, iOS. The irony of the iPhone is that it became pretty much most of the computing for everybody. The iPad ended up replacing the cheap crappy Netbook and to some extent even Apples Mac business was changed by it. The company saw that as an opportunity and you can even see how much iOS has now even influenced macOS.

The conclusion though is that times have changed, but there is still an entrenchment of both Windows and macOS; the merit of them being better than Linux has practically faded. I can tell you my home use of Windows has gone out the window, I just don't have any reason any more. At work, its a different story, in fact, I see the growth of Windows in the enterprise on the client side every day. Yeah, there are the few rogue employees who bring their Mac to work when a Windows device fails.

The reason why I even use the Mac is due to the hardware and in a biased way like the aesthetics of the operating system more. But there is nothing fundamentally awesome anymore about it if a just as capable device was running Ubuntu Linux. For what the average every day user does on a computer these days you might be better off saving your money.

Very good post.

Indeed Linux has come a long way. But so did Windows and macOS/OS X.

For someone that uses only a web browser to navigate the Internet and little else, Linux will be fine. There will be differences, but minor. Linux may not have the same tipography or the same ergonomics of Windows or macOS, but it will do the job. A little worse, maybe, but quite much similarly.

However, if you need something else, it may be a problem. If you want to play games (which is common), then Linux is not an alternative. If you need an office suite, MS Office, the market standard, is not available. Not even Adobe Reader is supported anymore.

So, you can get it done if you have the most basic needs, but if you step out of the very basic, it makes a real difference.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Very good post.

Indeed Linux has come a long way. But so did Windows and macOS/OS X.

For someone that uses only a web browser to navigate the Internet and little else, Linux will be fine. There will be differences, but minor. Linux may not have the same tipography or the same ergonomics of Windows or macOS, but it will do the job. A little worse, maybe, but quite much similarly.

However, if you need something else, it may be a problem. If you want to play games (which is common), then Linux is not an alternative. If you need an office suite, MS Office, the market standard, is not available. Not even Adobe Reader is supported anymore.

So, you can get it done if you have the most basic needs, but if you step out of the very basic, it makes a real difference.

Depends on what you are doing with Office and apps like Adobe CC. There are functional alternatives for most of those apps. If you do things like vLookup and create complex queries in Access or work in a collaborative environment with services like Exchange and SharePoint, you need Windows. But for the one page document or the regular reports, Libre Office works just fine. But again, it all boils down to aesthetics. Windows and macOS both have aesthetics on point.

For instance my Office 365 sub expired, so I switched to Pages and Numbers, opened up my Resume and document was just as perfect as if I authored it in Word. So, interoperability game between macOS still remains a mutual benefit between both and the fact that they both share a lot compatibility and commercial applications Linux will never see.

Then again, this is not a detriment to say Linux is rough around the edges or it’s not usable. It all boils down to preference. These days I think I am operating system agnostic and could easily find and use the tools to get whatever job need done.

 

[skaertus]

Depends on what you are doing with Office and apps like Adobe CC. There are functional alternatives for most of those apps. If you do things like vLookup and create complex queries in Access or work in a collaborative environment with services like Exchange and SharePoint, you need Windows. But for the one page document or the regular reports, Libre Office works just fine. But again, it all boils down to aesthetics. Windows and macOS both have aesthetics on point.

For instance my Office 365 sub expired, so I switched to Pages and Numbers, opened up my Resume and document was just as perfect as if I authored it in Word. So, interoperability game between macOS still remains a mutual benefit between both and the fact that they both share a lot compatibility and commercial applications Linux will never see.

Then again, this is not a detriment to say Linux is rough around the edges or it’s not usable. It all boils down to preference. These days I think I am operating system agnostic and could easily find and use the tools to get whatever job need done.

Well, there are functional alternatives, but that is not equivalent to saying that they are even.

Linux has LibreOffice, which is also available for both Windows and macOS. Microsoft Office is only available for Windows and macOS. Not only do Windows and macOS have more choices, but they also have the better one. Microsoft Office is better than LibreOffice, hands down. It has a better interface, more features, and is compatible with the market standard. Even if you use the computer at home, you may want to edit Word or PowerPoint documents to send to clients, and Microsoft Office may be important to keep 100% compatibility. So, Linux is "functional", but it is inferior in this respect.

I would not say it is a matter of preference. Of course, if you are a developer or if you have specific needs, then you may prefer Linux. But, objectively, Windows and macOS have superior interfaces and more software available, because they both have better commercial support from mega-companies that develop them and from other developers that sell proprietary software.

So, even if your needs are very basic, Linux may be "functional", but it will be inferior. Even a person with very basic needs may have a relative who needs to use the computer for something else, or may need to edit an MS Office document at home now or then, or may need to use some other app that is rarely available for Linux (at least in its standard, non-alternative souped-up version).

I would say Linux is "usable" and "functional", but it is rough around the edges. Yes, now Linux is great for very basic use, but, as soon as you need anything else, it is not prepared to deliver. Not a matter of preference at all. If you can find the tools to get whatever job you need, then you are fine. But the mere fact that someone may need to search for such tools (when they are readily available for Windows, for instance) makes Linux an inferior alternative.

 

[MBAir2010]

wow great thread, Mike
sorry things did not work out with POP_OS and the battery life was horrid
hey, that sounds like windows 11 on my Dell XPS!

instead going into gaming aspects, can you go into depth on how an iPad or iPhone syncs with a linux program?
there are several iTunes and photo program linux and windows offers for these tablet and phones,
but there is not enough info or reviews on how there are solid or not.

anyways one of these day we intel MacBook owners will have to buy an M1 or switch to linux.
or compute without that iCloud.
personally i would rather run Unbuntu than BigSur or even Catalina again
on my Macbook air were nothing i need or use works.

thanks again!

 

[MBAir2010]

As a nerd I enjoy the period of time spent at the command line to get things set up the way I like, but for your average computer user (I'd bet most of us here don't fall under that category) I can see it still being too intimidating for large scale adoption to take place.

i never used the command line (terminal) on my MacBook air 2010 or Dell XPS
mainly because my typing skills are horrid.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Linux actually does excellent for games, sometimes better than Windows performance wise. Only game I can't run is Flight Simulator 2020. It shows the UI, does updates, but just before the main menu displays, the PC hard freezes, fans run full hilt, then screen goes blank and the monitor keeps showing 'DisplayPort No Signal' off and on.

I think that's Xbox integration built into Windows that's missing in Linux.

Fallout 76 had such crap ratings I never got into it (plus I got tired of the 'griefing' that's in almost all multiplayer titles) but Fallout 4 took time to make work. In the end it ran better than it did on Windows, but it took terminal hacks to make it run. It'd just crash instantly. Then I had no sound. All fixed. Point being, you can MAKE games run on Linux if you're hard headed enough. I still haven't found a solution for Flight Simulator so I dual boot Windows 11.

I run Ubuntu GamePack, which felt more compatible than POP!OS. Shame hardly anyone knows about Gamepack.

Other issues people have involve what they're used to. I remember hating Android for years after being spoiled by the smoothness of iOS. To this day Android still can't scroll as buttery as iOS. Not sure why that is. Linux isn't Windows. So if you're used to Windows, you'll expect Linux to run exactly like Windows but will be disappointed. I'm sure the reverse is true of those who grew up with Linux or Android. They will wonder how anyone tolerates an iOS or Windows device.

 

[maflynn]

Fallout 4 took time to make work.

Bolded for emphasis.

Do I want to spend days to try to get something to work, or do i want to just play games.

So far my early (and incomplete) expereince has been the polar opposite regarding game playing. I found I'm getting the most performance within windows rather then Linux. I did not find a any game that I owned able to match, never mind exceed the performance I'm getting on windows.

So that begs the question what benefit is there to using Linux when I need to spend inordinate amounts of time to get something to work, and when it is working, its performance or stability is inferior to windows.

I'm not saying my experience is universal, but by the same token its not completely unique. Fallout 76 is rated gold on protondb, and here's the latest 3 reports on running this game on proton (one of them is report from me). The most praise I've seen is that this is "playable". Fallout 76, its not a game that pushes the envelope, its a 3 year old game running on an older engine (I think its the same fallout 4 engine).

 

[nickdalzell1]

Part of why I enjoy making things work is because I enjoy a challenge. I work as a mechanic so part of that rubs off to computing. As much as I enjoy having things 'just work' part of me can't escape that satisfying feeling of fixing something. I can't explain it.

I grew up with computers a lot differently than most people today do. My first IBM compatible was given to me in pieces, told to assemble it by my father. I had to put it together, and install the 8 system floppy disks one by one and pray it worked. There's just something about that experience that makes me still enjoy building rigs today. I feel like I'm using my brain which is something sadly missing in later generations which expect everything done for them already.

As for performance, in Windows 95 or such maybe it was better. But factor in Cortana using 10% CPU, Microsoft Edge and Security Center taking more, plus games, and it always updating while playing, that harms performance. Since Windows 10, performance is limited by background processes. Just open up Task Manager just sitting at the desktop with nothing running. 5% GPU usage, 15% CPU usage, perhaps 20-30% Disk usage randomly, it shows in frame rates. 90% of those background processes don't even need to run 100% the time but on Windows you have little to no control over them. Linux the user has total control.

One big part I prefer about Linux is you have control over updates. I hate updates. Updates have broken stuff or changed things needlessly so much I just don't believe in them anymore. Windows can't stop attempting to update to the point it reboots during a game!

 

[maflynn]

As for performance, in Windows 95 or such maybe it was better. But factor in Cortana using 10% CPU, Microsoft Edge and Security Center taking more, plus games

Windows 95 - seriously?
First screen shot is my gaming machine, its plodding along with about 2% utilizations with a few spikes into the 4% range (gpu showing 0). Where as the second screen shot is my work computer with a ton of apps open and running and when I just let it sit there I see utilization in the 5% range, with spikes being higher as shown. My work computer is stock as its something that I cannot change. In both cases I don't see cortana using 10% nevermind the other services that you mentioned.

I'm not buying that Linux is a superior game playing platform, even other members in this thread scoffed at my little experiment. Linux is good for somethings, they don't believe game playing is one of them.

and it always updating while playing, that harms performance.

I suspect you may have something wrong with you windows machine if its updating itself every time you play games. I have my machine update over night and it will reboot then and not during my active days (and that's just once a month).

 

[MisterSavage]

A big corporation like Dell or HP needs to go all in before Linux can start really taking over some market share. If a big computer manufacturer could build a version specific to the hardware like Apple does with macOS, it may have the potential to take off. I am pretty sure that ChromeOS is Linux. If thats the case, it shows that big corporations could push it into the market. It also seems that Microsoft has taken an interest in Linux, I am curious to see what the long term plan is with that. If Microsoft did native Office 365 apps for Linux, that would also help it take off. The same goes for Adobe.

You're correct about it being Linux based. Chromebooks were the perfect solution for my Uncle who was not technically inclined at all and kept getting viruses.

 

[mi7chy]

You're correct about it being Linux based. Chromebooks were the perfect solution for my Uncle who was not technically inclined at all and kept getting viruses.

Removing user's admin permission eliminates the malware/virus issue. Just make sure to add yourself or whoever administers the machine as admin. Ever since I started doing that I've had zero issue and wasted zero time. Users will occasionally complain once in a while that they can't install something but I tell them it's for their own good to prevent getting computer VD. It eventually clicks and they stop complaining.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Windows 95 - seriously?
First screen shot is my gaming machine, its plodding along with about 2% utilizations with a few spikes into the 4% range (gpu showing 0). Where as the second screen shot is my work computer with a ton of apps open and running and when I just let it sit there I see utilization in the 5% range, with spikes being higher as shown. My work computer is stock as its something that I cannot change. In both cases I don't see cortana using 10% nevermind the other services that you mentioned.

I'm not buying that Linux is a superior game playing platform, even other members in this thread scoffed at my little experiment. Linux is good for somethings, they don't believe game playing is one of them.


I suspect you may have something wrong with you windows machine if its updating itself every time you play games. I have my machine update over night and it will reboot then and not during my active days (and that's just once a month).



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Id like to see your process list. I bet that unlike Linux you can't turn half the unnecessary services off. You also can't disable updates forever either. I use Windows, and I understand. But the performance of Fallout 4 on Windows 10 compared to it running on Ubuntu GamePack is night and day. On Windows I had to disable TAA and reduce the resolution just to get 30fps. Linux everything is maxed out. I also get more control over the GPU in Linux (Radeon RX750) than anything on Windows, including Wattman/Radeon settings or MSI Afterburner.

BTW what's utilizing 39% of your RAM? I'm assuming you're not running any apps during your screenshots? Linux only uses 10% of my 32GB RAM. Windows 11 floats around 20-25%, again, unnecessary background bloat.

 

[MisterSavage]

Removing user's admin permission eliminates the malware/virus issue. Just make sure to add yourself or whoever administers the machine as admin. Ever since I started doing that I've had zero issue and wasted zero time. Users will occasionally complain once in a while that they can't install something but I tell them it's for their own good to prevent getting computer VD. It eventually clicks and they stop complaining.

Eliminating Window as the OS was a big factor also. He did completely bork the machine once but it was easy for me to talk him through wiping it back to factory settings.

 

[maflynn]

I bet that unlike Linux you can't turn half the unnecessary services off.

To be honest, What I need turned off is off. Plus I prefer not mucking around with the services too much simply because I have a stable and fast system. You can get yourself into deep weeds so easily by turning off services, it doesn't matter if we're talking windows, macOS or Linux. I can run stuff without mucking around, you can't say the same with Linux.

I go by the old saying if it ain't broke don't fix it.

You also can't disable updates forever either.

I wouldn't want too. Turning off updates and not getting security updates is a recipe for disaster. I'd rather not make my system more vulnerable.

I use Windows, and I understand

Ok, if you say so.

But the performance of Fallout 4 on Windows 10 compared to it running on Ubuntu GamePack is night and day. On Windows I had to disable TAA and reduce the resolution just to get 30fps.

Seems like something is wrong on your PC if you can't get more then 30fps out of a 6+ year old game.

As for Linux - could I spend days/weeks working to fix the solution - yes, but that's my point. As I said:

Do I spend more time problem solving instead of using it? Yes and that’s a problem.

You yourself said the same thing:

but Fallout 4 took time to make work. In the end it ran better than it did on Windows, but it took terminal hacks to make it run. It'd just crash instantly. Then I had no sound. All fixed. Point being, you can MAKE games run on Linux if you're hard headed enough. I still haven't found a solution for Flight Simulator so I dual boot Windows 11.

Personally, I'd rather use the apps instead of trying terminal hacks just to get some software working ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also believe this is one major reason why most consumers don't consider Linux as a viable alternative.

I'm assuming you're not running any apps during your screenshots?

You know what they say about assuming Yes, I have a bunch of memory used, but I also have a bunch of apps open. I actually use my pc to do things, not just play games.

Here's the bottom line for me - Linux requires a lot of work, in configuring, installing or changing components and I would rather use the computer instead of constantly troubleshooting.

 

[TiggrToo]

Removing user's admin permission eliminates the malware/virus issue.

No, it doesn’t. Far far far from it.

It makes it harder, but bad malware has always had the means to break through that.

If it wasn’t Spectre or Meltdown, it was RowHammer. And now RowHammer has reared its ugly head again.

With RowHammer - ALL bets are off.

 

[nickdalzell1]

This FUD about lacking updates or security updates is just that, FUD. In the end, smart computing and browsing habits will always win out. I've used a Galaxy SII, set up an XP rig online just for the heck of it, and nothing bad happened. Now, if you love ThePirateBay, or Porn, or the Deep Web you will have problems, but more likely on modern systems, since any hacker worth their time will prefer the OS with the most market share.

Although it still sickens me at work the PC only runs Internet Explorer because that's what the boss is used to. No Edge, Chrome or Firefox. I.E. is so out of date it's not even funny. Heck, she also still uses Office 2010. Desktop full of dozens of shortcuts across two monitors. But hey, it's her computer. Sucks I have to use it though at times. Our entire database is on it.

Coming from Windows 11 it's visually jarring to see Windows 10 today. I'm still trying to figure out why that PC's taskbar is white.

 

[throAU]

If the apps you need are available, and your hardware isn't extremely esoteric, linux does indeed just work. In some ways better than windows. The PC in my sig for example required no driver updates, etc. - everything just worked out of the box like a Mac would. Not like windows which needs chipset platform drivers, display drivers, wifi drivers, etc.

Gaming isn't too bad now either with Steam/proton - most new games 'just work' unless they have denuvo DRM or something similar, which breaks alder lake anyway

laptops are a much worse experience than desktops though, linux power management has never been anywhere near windows or macOS in my experience, but I'm sure that's improving.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I would honestly hate to see Linux dumbed down just to get mainstream acceptance. I prefer an OS that doesn't treat me like an idiot out the gate, and gives me the total keys to the system. Obviously one needs a brain to make it work. But once done, it works very well. I'm sick of how idiot proofed our society has become; how accustomed we have become to AIs and Algorithms doing most of our thinking for us.

I got 49 games in my Steam library. 47 ran out the gate via Proton or Wine, one required terminal hacks that I simply copy pasted from Ubuntu's forums (the community behind Linux is astounding--pretty much every solution a Google or duckduckgo search away) and only ONE game that I'm sure depends on some service specific to Windows doesn't work. I stand by performance being better on Linux, and I can push my GPU much harder on Linux.

Can one even imagine a mainstream, dumbed down gaming rig? Oh wait! that's an Xbox or PlayStation!