I know everyone's tired of hearing this, but this doesn't happen on Linux. I know I know, it's different and a little janky here and there and maybe you have to find a replacement for one or two pieces of software. But like, you don't actually have to put up with this. There is a better way.
I recently built 2 mini PCs for my kids to play games on, and went with Bazzite.
It was really surprising how put together it all is. The steam integration is seamless and it can play a ton of stuff even on an older NUC w/out a GPU.
It was the first time I can say that installing a linux OS was easier and friendlier than Windows.
> It was the first time I can say that installing a linux OS was easier and friendlier than Windows.
I'd say that from work experience managing an IT department that maintains and deploys both Windows and Linux machines, the administrative overhead involved in working with Windows first exceeded that of Linux at some point in the Windows 10 life cycle -- at least five years ago. Since then, Windows has been getting worse and worse, and Linux has been getting better and better.
With most corporate software being accessible via the web and/or being cross-platform these days, we're seriously debating moving the standard corporate workstation configuration to Linux.
It's only getting easier and friendlier comparatively. Recently i bought a new computer and installing an external drive and putting kde linux on it was easier than fighting my way through the windows telemetry gauntlet, the setting, and all the bloat. Modern windows disgusts me continuously in new ways
Installing maybe… getting all the hardware to actually work was a completely different story. Broken WiFi was the norm. Bad display drivers that only worked in 640x480 or 800x600. Not to mention consulting website before installing to see how well your laptop was supported and what you could expect to never work.
So years ago you also generally had to understand partitioning and filesystem formats, which most people are clueless about.
Sure, they were learning opportunities, but most people weren’t trying to learn anything. They just wanted to get on MySpace, download free music, chat with friends.
I still have a wifi issue that forces me to pin to a specific wifi network. If I do not, it somehow cascades into a GPU driver failure that breaks everything.
My last laptop used an audio amplifier that made the speakers not work for ~2 years, that required patching the kernel to fix. It's only recently a vanilla version of the kernel works.
using linux feels like macos back in the mid-2000s and windows (in a good way) in the early 2000s, like its some kind "operating system" for you to do things instead of being advertised to...
Coming from 10 years of Linux to macOS, Apple deserves praise for this point too.
I don't use Apple Intelligence, Safari, or Siri on my Mac, and I'm extremely happy to report that Apple does not nag me to use these features at all. THANK YOU APPLE.
Windows would open Edge for random reasons instead of my preferred browser to nudge me to use it, Cortana was a constant reminder in W10 because it was part of Windows Search, and of course, we all know how they push Copilot.
Apple isn't perfect (iCloud is fine on macOS, but iOS is quite misleading and often defaults to on even if you really don't want it), but overall my Mac respects my wishes as a user and it makes me look forward to using my computer as a tool.
To be fair, Apple does do a one-time sales pitch during OS setup, but if you say NO, it remembers you mean NO.
macOS does have its own user-hostile issues, but they are more in the form of making things like running downloaded software and modifying your system irritatingly difficult, and not Windows's pathetic and desperate attempts to cajole you into using their features.
I can't get my ipad to shut up about iCloud storage. At least with windows I know how to turn that stuff off (worse case registry fix). I have no idea how to hack Apple's stuff.
I just got off from their 50GB plan and the amount of nagging has been insane. There's a giant banner in the photos app, a banner in the health app and everything else that I removed from icloud backups, strongly suggesting (in what I must imagine would be a well-studied message designed to induce panic amongst less tech-savvy users) that I am in a perilous situation and must restore icloud backups immediately. Deeply shameful and has made me even more aware of their shenanigans.
I wish I could fully agree. Canonical is a bit pushy: "Ubuntu Pro / ESM subscription will make your machine safer! and it is convenient mega free!! ((for non-business uses))"
Workplace very strictly requires Ubuntu LTS for toolchain & compatibility reasons, otherwise I'd run Debian or Fedora or Tumbleweed with Ubuntu containers/VMs where needed.
Nonetheless, Linux popups and promotions (even from enterprise distros) are not nearly as bad as the Windows 11 experience.
Up until very recently gaming is the only thing keeping my l and millions of others main pc from being Linux or Mac. I dual booted in the past but was annoyed. With all the work steam has put in I’m personally about 6 months out from just dumping Microsoft on all my personal products.
It’s impressive they have dropped the ball so hard that it’s causing a complete rethink for so many users like myself. Bullet >> golden goose.
People will passionately tell each other to vote for [$moralParty], then willingly prop up companies which go against everything they stand for the very next day. Curious indeed.
Same here. What frustrates me is that Apple pretty much invented seamless multiple monitor integration back in the early 90s, but the Apple of today has either forgotten how to do it or they just don't care.
I have a iMac with two external monitors, and during boot it does this crazy dance where one monitor goes on, then off, then two monitors go on, and so on for a few rounds until shit settles and all three are on.
Windows gives you nice sliders for things, which they will happily break on a whim. Linux forces you to memorize a Lovecraftian string of characters to do something, but it will generally stick for a long time.
I use both, with differing ideologies. My Linux is heavily customized with keybinds and semi-niche software that enables my workflows because I know it will stick. On my Windows machines, I've accepted that Microsoft owns that machine and I have to adapt my workflow to fit their sensibilities.
I'm no Windows defender but this is nonsense. Windows has BY FAR the best multi monitor support of any of the major OS's, including any variant of Linux.
Are we talking about the same Windows that moves all your windows around when you temporary disconnect a display, even when the computer is locked?
Or is it the windows that sometimes ends up with windows positioned partially on a display that is no longer connected so that you can't move it because any control for that is offscreen.
How do you get it to work then? Because at the moment whenever I open my Windows laptop plugged into a docking station the screens just come up in a random order.
Sometimes all three are mirrored, sometimes by chance they're the right way round, sometimes the "main" screen is one one of the external monitors and then you're absolutely knackered if you don't manage to convince it to go onto the laptop's panel before you unplug because there's no way to get it back.
It's all just so half-assed.
In Linux multiple monitors have worked perfectly for about 20 years.
You're probably right but it's really sad that an OS that shuffles everything you have open when it hits power save and turns off the screens would qualify as the best.
