My current issue is i see you guys constantly having issues, editing files etc.
Is it not stable?
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
Well since a few days my laptop speakers do not work anymore lmao. I had to install it 4 times to make my gpu drivers work. If you’re not that teck savy it’s fine but you need to atleast be interested in it and ready for it, and also patient. If you have a laptop I strongly advise you check online to see how well supported it is and if you have a nvidia card check if people are having issues.
Good luck on your journey, so far i don’t regret my choice mostly because i know that linux is so maleable no matter the issue i’ll get it fixed.
You’re always going to see people with problems in support forums. If your Linux system is running well, you’re less likely to post about it than if you’re having problems.
Hi! I’m not having any problems with linux. I just thought you’d like to know.
There. Now there’s a message in the support forums about a person not having problems!
gives an idea to create something like “stablelinux” where people share uptime and what practices they use to not get into trouble
Those communities got a little stale when enough people started reporting uptime in decades. Also, unless you’re on a flavor that can upgrade the kernel while the system is live, good uptimes these days are just the time between kernel updates.
It’s better than it was, but still not as user-friendly as Windows or macOS.
Is it not stable?
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
You are going to get gaslit to hell about this on lemmy. But no. It is not stable in the sense you mean.
The effort is worth it though.
I don’t know that I agree with this for anything but GPUs. There are plenty of distros that are stable and don’t require constant fiddling.
Make it an alternative OS before erasing your existing OS so you can switch back and forth and use the old one to research when something unexpected happens on your new one. This way you can transition slowly. Expect there to be challenges, but also expect to learn a lot. It’s a fantastic platform.
Until one of the RAM sticks went bad, my parents, who are in their 60s ran Ubuntu Linux for years without an issue. I set it up in 2016, as a dual boot with Windows. They almost never booted into Windows, and told me they preferred Linux.
Was it an LTS release? 2016 is a long way to go without a major update for Ubuntu.
Maybe I’m just spoilt as I have a rolling distro.
Yes, 16.04 LTS. And they updated as I helped them update, but never went beyond some patch level of 16.04. The point here is that they ran for many years with complete stability, no viruses or malware, and preferred it.
My children ran Mint desktops for years without issue or complaint. When I bought them new laptops though I decided to let them run the default Windows.
I’m genuinely curious, what was their reaction to the OS change?
No issues really. They had used Windows machines at school as well as chromebooks so they were not married to any single interface. For them the GUI was a way to open a browser or art program. It was the tools that mattered.
That makes sense. My kids were exposed to Chromebooks at some point (when I was still a Google tool), but the freedom to break and fix whatever that want with Linux just dazzled them, which adds to my happiness 😏
(To preface, when I say “Linux”, I’m referring to the effectively established colloquialism that “Linux” means kernel + utilities + distribution = operating system)
Right. In fact, at home, I run all three operating systems. To me, it’s using the right tool for the job. Windows is a great OS for gaming (though Valve is working to make it as viable on Linux, it’s still not…quite…there, but close). Mac is great for UX, media work, and as a work PC (software development or otherwise). Linux is great for tinkering, software development, and running services.
The “issues” that the OP even refers to are usually not so much real issues, but rather a person simply trying to learn. And that’s what is great about Linux for someone who doesn’t yet know it – there’s a LOT to learn. I’ve been using Linux since 1999 (big box Redhat 5.1!) and I still often learn something new about it.
The “issues” that the OP even refers to are usually not so much real issues, but rather a person simply trying to learn.
Very much agree. In a lot of cases the problems people encounter are just a different and therefor unfamiliar way of doing things. This can sometimes be remedied by finding a GUI that is more similar to what they are familiar with, but this is also likely a different and unfamiliar task :)
Just go ahead and try. You don’t really need our permission to do that. Most distros support “live install” direct from the installation media, without making changes to your system. If you don’t like it, reboot and you’re back to whatever you had before
Have fun!
And to answer your double negation questions, yes and yes.
You don’t really need our permission to do that.
User is not in the Install_Linuxers file. This incident will be reported.
I run Linux on my personal machine.
My needs aren’t particularly demanding. Web browsing, watching streaming services, accounting software, some low impact games, 3D modeling, and running a video server.
I assembled my machine from $500 worth of parts 12 years ago. In between, I’ve added some RAM, and about 8TB of mirrored disk to store movies for the video server.
Admittedly, I’m starting to be concerned about the age of the disks, and I think I’d like a better processor, but money is tight.
Given the age of the thing, there’s a chance that it’s just going to drop dead one of these days, but it’s been running for years without me having to do anything but install updates for the OS.
You can find used hardware online for fairly cheap. Maybe start keeping your eyes peeled for a good deal. Look for workstation class machines
Not using Windows except for work, I use Linux mostly because of Microsoft’s design decisions. I guess depending on your use case, Windows can be a perfectly fine OS. Personally, I think their behavior is unprofessional (trying to force Microsoft accounts on users, ads in the start menu, integration of AI into the system which means transmitting data to their servers etc) so I’m willing to accept tradeoffs for systems which do not come with these downsides.
In the end, OSs are inherently complex.
This is a forum where people seek help. Of course you’re going to see problems here. Nobody posts “hey it’s been several years and I’ve had no problems.”
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
Can confirm. I’ve been using Linux for nearly 30 years… I don’t post questions on forums. Bug reports for OSS projects, on the other hand…
Also can confirm. Been using Arch, which most people consider requires more fiddling than other distros, for almost 10 years now and have had few issues with it. I’ve had to fix my Windows install more than my Linux.
Only 80%?!? I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number. I really can’t see people running windows on their servers…
And to be honest, server stability != display server stability.
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number.
BSD isn’t Linux.
To be honest I pulled the 80% out of my ass… It was the first reasonable looking number that came up on a quick search.
Hey, it’s been well over a decade, and the largest problem I have is a crippling addiction to distro hopping…
Personally, I don’t get the appeal of distro hopping. I think it’s nice to try different concepts, but there aren’t that many.
You basically have the “classic” distributions, like Debian, Suse, Fedora and their derivatives and if you want those split up into the stable and the rolling distributions (Arch, maybe Debian Sid). Then there’s the source-based distributions, most notably Gentoo and derivatives. Declarative distributions, NixOS and GUIX system. And then maybe the newer breed of immutable distributions like Fedora Silverblue.
To me, the difference between an Arch system and Debian are kind of minimal. Yet I’d always prefer Arch. But why would I hop to OpenSUSE?
Granted, I always install from the terminal anyways and build my system to my needs, so I usually don’t get the default experience.
Welcome to the club. Just now I’m setting up Endeavour to give it another (14th) shot.
Big oof. May the kernel be with you.
I’m going to do my best to “wait” for PopOS 24.04 before I hop out again. It seemsbI finally got Endeavour right, with hybrid graphics and all. The only pain was actually how long it took to install Lubre Wolf. Ah, and that the first attempt at installing flatpaks, nothing was showing up after install until I rebooted. But now they work as expected.
Mmmmmm…that feeling when everything just finally falls into place and works right. chef’s kiss
I don’t know who these people having issues are but I run Linux Mint Debian Edition and have no issues editing my stuff.
The only issue I can imagine is if they had formatted an external HDD with ext4 and and copied docs from a previous Linux install, and now when they copy it to their new install, they don’t have permission to edit the doc.
For example, you try out Ubuntu for a few weeks/months. You format your ext HDD in ext4 and create docs in Ubuntu. You then copy those into the HDD. Or maybe you had another drive formatted with NTFS and copied docs from there onto the ext4 drive.
After a few weeks you erase Ubuntu from your machine and install Arch. Now when you try to edit a doc on the HDD or copy it to your machine, you find you don’t have permission because those permissions were set on your previous Ubuntu install.
I’ve had permission issues with that hence I format my ex HDD with exFAT and it works perfectly. Also works perfectly with Windows and macOS as they can all read/write to exFAT without permission issues.
There are a lot of help posts on the MS and other windows forums too. Computers and OSes will always have issues because of complexity and incompatibilities between hardware and software. No matter if you install Windows, Linux, or MacOS. The machines that are least buggy because each manufacturer is doing extensive tests, are the mobile OSes, iOS and (most) Android. It’s not as possible to do the same on a desktop OS. So cut your losses, and install Linux Mint, which is I believe it’s the best for newbies.
I use Ubuntu for everything I do (except building and testing windows binaries) beside upgrading when it asks me to I never really have to worry about anything, everything I use just works and the ui is fine.
I’m not a big gamer and I only really use open source software so I don’t know if you’ll want to do things I don’t but I do pretty much everything else: image editing, video editing, CAD, coding, all sorts of weird internet stuff.
What CAD software do you use?
All the professional CAD software I’ve used in my career is Windows only.
What’s your favorite open source option?
People will say I’m crazy but I love freeCAD, the sketch and part benches are all i really need because I’m mostly using it to make project boxes and dial holders but it’s nice that it can do so many other things. Not great for artistic tools I’d use blender for that but technical stuff it’s great.
It depends what you want it to do. For basic stuff, linux desktop works fine. If you need specific software i’d look into if it’s doable and how hard it is first.
Linux by default runs fine and without issues, if you pick a distro with stable releases. If you go with something like Arch, you likely will run into issues. If you want to do heavy modifications or run fancy software, you tend to run into issues. Thing about the fancy software is, it tenda to only work properly on linux, hence the issues being linux related.
If you’re a gamer, just don’t. A lot of people here will say you can run almost any game easily, but you usually need to do some fancy commands per specific game to get it to run properly. Which is fine if you just play one game occasionally, but if you hop between games or like buying the latest games, don’t.
If you have a specific preference for desktop environment, make sure it comes with the distro and is well supported by it. You can install whatever you want on any distro, but you have more chance to break shit.
I’d go with Mint or Ubuntu for your first try.
How out of date is your comment about gaming? I barely touch my terminal and have never had issues with my linux gaming pc. If you use steam proton just works
He’s just flat out wrong about gaming. I haven’t had to put in any special “commands” (unless he means the tick box in steam settings to allow compatibility on all games, which I checked once and didn’t have to futz with anymore…) and I haven’t run into a game I wanted to play and couldn’t. I’ve heard that games that rely on aggressive root-kit anti-cheat don’t work, but I’ve avoided those titles on principle for a decade at least. But if those are titles you want to play, then yes, you’ll need windows - no amount of tweaks or commands will make them work in Linux because of the game developer’s choices.
That said, it really makes me wonder if gaming on Debian derivatives is worse? I can only speak to what I’ve used which is fedora based and arch based. And no I don’t constantly run into issues with either. I’ve spent less time “fixing” stuff since I switched to Linux, not more. Ymmv.
Yeah i use Garuda which is also arch based and i have a lot of random shit break but never my games
Yes yes, i oversimplfied it for the sake of explaining to someone who doesnt know linux. I’m talking about having to figure out specific parameters that may or may not work on some hardware but not on others. I had this issue with 2 of 4 games i tried in 2021. Eventually i did get both games to work but with weird glitches.
I dont think debian is the issue, but nvidia and it’s wonky ass linux drivers. my 12 button mouse is also useless in linux. maybe it’s better by now. last time i tried i had issues with wayland. though i heard big update for fedora was coming for wayland in may (?) 2024, so i might try again then.
The biggest thing that always gets in my way is no Visual Studio IDE support. yes, theres other IDEs, i’ve tried them all with various levels of wonk to the point i end up jus not being able productive with c# or be even less productive in other languages.
Same with photoshop or video editing sofware. Sure, you got gimp and kedit, but theyre just not as good and have weird issues.
it’s been awhile since i dove into Linux, but last time i dabbled i was liking Kubuntu.
