15 Years of Linux as my Desktop OS: Overcoming Challenges and How It’s Become Easier
More people are considering switching to Linux due to Microsoft’s increasing hostility towards users. While I do acknowledg that the availability of certain applications and games on Linux can be a deterrent for some people more thing run on Linux than ever before. Is now the right time for you to move to Linux on the desktop?
Microsoft Is KILLING Windows | ft. Steve @GamersNexus
Jeff Craft Computer switching to Linux
Control multiple computers at the same time with Barrier
My Linux Apps List
– Normal apps I use
– Logseq for notes (flatpak)
– Slack for business (flatpak)
– Signal Messenger (flatpak)
– Chrome for business Firefox for personal (deb package)
– Libre Office (apt package)
– VirtualBox for Windows (apt package)
– Remmina (flatpak)
– KmyMoney (apt package)
– Draw IO (flatpak)
– Bitwarden (flatpak)
– Creative apps
– GIMP, but it’s far from photo shop (apt package)
– OBS Studio (apt package)
– Audacity (apt package)
– KdenLive (flatpak)
– Shutter for screenshots (apt package)
– Davinci Resolve (their own installer)
– AAC audio issue
– Utilities
– Syncthing (added their repositories )
– Déjà Dup Backups for backups (flatpak)
– Barrier to control my media ingestion computer (apt package)
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Chapters
00:00 Why Move To Linux?
01:22 Linux Hardware Compatibility
02:30 My Distribution Choices
05:30 Linux Windows App Workarounds
06:18 APT and Flatpak Package Management Issues
08:41 The Linux Applications I use
12:20 The Linux Desktop in 2024
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I first tried Linux back in the 90s, installing it on a spare computer at work, with my bosses permission. Had to download a separate kernel because all our machines were IBM PC with Micro Channel architecture. My boss was impressed that I got it up and working, and we fiddled with it for a bit before the PC got reimaged and put back into use.
Since then, I've poked at Linux off and on, until now, I'm ready to swap (partially). I'm a gamer, and I want to make sure everything is working, so I'm saving up enough for a Linux boot drive large enough to host not only the OS, but the games I want to play. I already know that Linux versions or alternatives exist for everything I use on a regular basis, so it's all about the games.
I'll duel-boot for at least a time to make sure I'm not leaving anything behind, but I know it's going to happen eventually. Windows is cutting their own throats with the changes they're making, IMO
They main issue for users in Linux is actually still software fragmentation! Distro packages vs flatkpaks gor exemple… m9st will not know when it's best to use one over the other. This will end up hitting brick walls, getting frustrated and give up. What percentage of people are willing to go dig up articles or YouTube videos trying to find out why the softwwre they needs isn't working?
I'm very close to change over.. If Valuve would release a SteamOS for everyone, i'd be set. But yeah.. Windows withs its.. "you'll pay us we'll stil put ads and track you and etc.etc…" no thank.
I run Arch, btw!
Just kidding – I went Debian and then PopOS for my personal computer system once it was clear that W11 wasn't compatible with my older hardware. However I still find MacOS the best of both worlds. The careful attention to a "perfectly crafted" UI but all the popular tools at your disposal without the need of running virtual machines. (like Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.)
If I wasn't that into photography, or didn't think Gimp & darktable/rawtherapee were such a mess, I'd be using Linux. Right now I only use my Macbook Pro and decommissioned my desktop. However I converted it into a server, which is now running Proxmox.
i like fedora based distros. currently going between nobara and bazzite
I've been exposed to Linux since the early 2000s…. some red hat CD my brother wanted to try on my computer. I myself didn't try Linux again until 2015, around the 14.10 release of Ubuntu. I've bounced around to many distros since then but I decided due to Linux Mint being the best expereince I'd had and Windows 10 being annoying I went all in 3 years ago and started converting everything to linux at the house here that was possible. 3 years now on Linux and its still wild to me how long its been and how well things have gone (it has not been without issue but it has been less problematic)
I ditched Windows the day TurboTax went online and I didn't need Windows to do my taxes anymore. Been a Linux user since Slackware 3.3.
By the way I use Arch
I've played with Linux distros for years but never fully used them as a daily driver. Due to the lack of support for HW and the need for Windows commercial software. No Linux equivalent for my workflow. But Win 10 will be my last Windows, No Win 11 for me!
I switched to Linux over a year ago. Steam deck has helped a lot in terms of games, we have not reached a state of serenity yet, but it's absolutely doable. My next statement is going to be user to user dependant but personally I've only had one game so far that was glitchy, and that was PC Building Simulator 2. I could get the game to run and look good, but I couldn't remove the screws on the first pc on the bench… So weird. Some anticheat software isn't friendly to Linux yet, but to be honest it's coming along, largely because of the steam deck.
I think most people, oddly enough, specifically the NON tech savvy users could easily switch to Linux and not even realize they have.
Eventually I think companies like Adobe will one day see the writing on the wall, we're just not there yet. And it might be years away, but I have faith it will come.
As a bored student during lockdown I tried switching to linux and was happy user ever since.. Having linux as a daily driver and not just on a server in my homelab helped me get much more familiar with everything. This was useful when getting a job as a sysadmin
Due to me getting a Steam Deck, I purchased a Legion Go, put Bazzite on it, then a Mini AMD machine for my living room, I put Bazzite on it, then I decided to get rid of the M1 Macbook after trying Asahi on it, and picked up a nice used Dell Latitude 2 in 1 and throw Fedora on it, but unfortunately my workstation needs Windows as I use Fusion 360 daily on it, so thats a show stopper for me, but I use the Dell Laptop daily as my Youtube streaming device around the house, and for emails, we browser and SSH client, and generally everything other than CADD 🙂
but hadn't you said that you use a macbook air as a daily driver?
2010 was the year I ditched Linux on the desktop for macOS. The Linux desktop is just too fragmented for me to keep bothering.
my distro is…… proxmox
2024 is most likely my Linux year.
I'm working on cutting down to a VM and my gaming box for Windows. Everything else is on Mint with 1 Bazzite exception.
I've been moving away from Microsoft. The extensive workarounds to use a local account, the "let's finish setting up your PC" flash bangs, the changing of my settings on updates, the telemetry all over an OS that I PAID for, and the final straw being anything and everything about copilot.
I switched to Bazzite and it's been pretty much great so far. I also run Mint on an N100 mini PC and gnome fedora on one of my laptops. I've left my gaming laptop as a purely Windows machine so far in case I need it for certain multiplayer games that demand Windows, but so far that hasn't happened.
I was just thinking about ditching Windows…
Ditched MS 4 years ago, been running Ubuntu or Fedora as my GoTo distro's
Nice video! I have a similar journey as you. I started in 2008 and dual booted for some years until one day my system crashed and I decided to move on with linux only (in my laptop). At work, I still kept a PC with Windows for using MS Office mainly. I then decided to go all libre and kept windows only in a VM that I would need once or twice a year for specific formatting of documents. In 2017 I deleted this windows VM. My distro was Ubuntu LTS for the first ten years, but I have tested several other distros in older computers and in VMs. I then went full arch everywhere and now I am in a fedora phase with debian for computers that stay always on and ubuntu for my servers at work. I am still playing with Arch in a laptop. For a desktop, I used whatever came with Ubuntu until 2018 and then Mate for a while. Since 2019 I am using only tiling WMs that are great especially in multi-screen setups. My PCs and laptops were usually older. Last year I decided to invest in a linux manufacturer and got a mini-PC from Slimbook. It has proven to be exactly what I needed!
I tried PopOS, But I’m still looking for a good Linux alternative for ‘Everything’ by void tools. I found FSearch, but it’s a long way from feature parity. It’s literally my one ‘killer’ app. I do a lot of file management stuff so despite Microsoft’s best attempts at making Explorer worse in Windows 11, I still find it and Everything to be the best. At least Linux has better options than Finder on Mac, cannot believe how that’s worse than Explorer of 15 years ago still.
I learned RedHat about 25 years ago at school. It might be why my main desktop is Fedora 40 (switch completely in 2022, no regret).
I tried and liked PopOS, but it crashed during updates (twice) so I am not happy with it. Though, I used a laptop on Mint a couple years ago and it worked wonders!
Senior here using Mint, just can't remember all the commands when in terminal mode. And I die in acronym hell. Occasionally I have to reboot the computer.
3 of my 4 pcs are on linux and have been for a year
only the gaming one left, but that dosnt seem to be in the near future
I ditched Windows for Android. I wish Android would get the native app attention Linux does. The install base on Android is a lot bigger than any Linux distribution.
My Samsung phone with DeX is incredibly capable. It's just missing an abundance of "desktop class" software.
The Year of the Linux Desktop was 1995 for me.
a simple thing such as installing FortiClient is so complicated in Linux
Have you tried the new COSMIC DE yet?
I switched to Rocky Linux – took the deep dive. Was painful learning curve but I haven’t looked back.
Really enjoyed this video. I did a lot of distro hopping for a while and I always found my way back to manjaro. Was using manjaro gnome back in about 2020 but then tried kde plasma a couple years later and fell in love with it. I do a lot of flight sim gaming, and I dont even want to think of all the tweaks i would have to get my new pc to run all this and the game on to work. Audio issues are also a huge issue for me to switch full time. Thanks Tom for the honest and realistic view on the linux desktop evolution.
i am about to install tuxedoos on my desktop.
Is there a good list about things that should be configured or done to get the most out of linux? I mean things like using a sepearate partition for the home directory etc. Or how I should go around updating the system since Linux can be sometimes not so forgiving and user friendly.
I was planning to build a new gaming machine this year to replace my aging windows desktop, still running windows 10. We switched to windows 11 at work about a year ago, and it drives me absolutely crazy for the reasons you mentioned. Before I build a new machine, I am definitely going to replace windows on this old 6th gen Intel machine with a linux distribution and test out my games from Steam to see what works and what doesn't before I commit to new hardware. I might end up going linux for that desktop machine.
And Linux distros setting apps to stream by default rather than install locally isn't messing with your settings? The problem with Linux is the ecosystem is very fragmented, there are far too many distros, use in an enterprise would be problematic as training on one distro wouldn't ensure you could just go work somewhere else if the used a different distro. It's definitely got much better now, desktop wise, so I'm hoping it really will represent a viable alternative. But it isn't a replacement for windows in the enterprise, lack of SCCM, group policy, In tune, Active Directory, NTFS permissions, all those apps already written and deployed which use .Net, WASM, etc. For home users it's a viable alternative under certain circumstances.
I got my first Linux exposure in the mid 90's. First time I tried it as a daily driver was Mandrake, circa 2002-223. Used it besides Windows for a number of years. When my last job was looking at new thin clients, I tried to get them to save a buck and use Linux, specifically to use Remmina to connect to the remote desktop. They really weren't interested. My current job is a full-on Windows shop on desktop and with Office, etc. I use MacOS and Mint on desktop, though I do keep a Windows box around that I sometimes run.
Totally agree Linux has made leaps and bounds and is actually a really good alternative to Windows, however it's still not there yet, either from an end-user perspective, or from an IT administration perspective. Mac OS is looking to be the leader these days. It just works out of the box and is not horrible like Windows. Windows has been hot garbage after Windows 7, with no signs of improvement on the horizon.
Tom, sudo apt install cosmic-store
Not a big thing, but if you are ever "looking" for something, the new cosmic store is better than the pop shop and eats several hundred less MB of RAM and doesn't stay resident in memory. Even s76 recommends it, and it works on 22.04 great even though it's really meant with cosmic 24.04 in mind.