[Leonard D Neubache]

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

Small annoyances like that can get under my skin from time to time, but having said that at least the machine boots up in less than ten minutes and responds to commands in less than 60 seconds. And I'll put up with it, until I can afford a gaming level PC and then I'll bite the bullet and go to Windows 10.

As suggested elsewhere, make a bootable USB of Linux and try it out before you switch to it.

[John Michael Kane]

Regardless of which OS you go with, if you have an older computer a realatively cheap and super powerful upgrade is to run the OS on a solid state drive instead of the old school spinning platter hard drives. When I made the switch, Windows 10 boots up literally within seconds to the desktop.

[Valentine]

Also you can get cheap used ThinkPads with decent specs for ~$200, pretty good investment if you're running on outdated tech.

[MikeS]

I installed Ubuntu on a Core i3 laptop a little while ago (last time I experimented with Linux for a few months was around 15 years ago). Aside from needing some Google help and some commands added to a file to get the wifi up and running the installation went smoothly.
Then I was looking at a GUI that didn't look all that different from Windows or a Mac, just with things in different locations. My admittedly brief tests (it wasn't a laptop I was intending to start using again) showed web browsers (Firefox and Chromium) that were a bit more sluggish than my Windows browsers (Vivaldi and Chrome) and a fairly handy set of utilities and media applications I would need at various times, but nothing that seemed better or faster than whatever I'm using on my Core i5 Windows 10 laptop.

And then there are the few but critical things I'm using on Windows that as far as I know have no direct Linux alternative (only simpler, inferior applications) - Clip Studio Paint with a Wacom tablet.

Privacy concerns aside (it's not a major one for me, I've decided that Google and Android in particular are just too useful for me to give up or cripple) I rather like Windows 10. No issues at all with it so far and it's very fast (faster CPU and particularly an SSD disk obviously helps, and I certainly won't rule out that it might get as bogged down over time as previous Windows versions).

[michelin]

(12-29-2016 06:53 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

How to remedy it?

What Linux distro do you use? I don't use Netflix, but if you install VLC it should definitely work. VLC comes preinstalled on quite a few Linux distros, such as Ubuntu Mate and debian

[Leonard D Neubache]

I use Zorin.

[zoom]

I mentioned this in the other Linux thread, but making the switch from Windows to Linux was one of the best decisions I have made in recent memory. My computer runs so much faster and I'm able to get more work done.

[The Wire]

(12-29-2016 06:53 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

This is mainly why I don't want to switch. I don't want to spend my time fucking with the OS to get basic tasks done. Is there even an option to get 1080 stream from a browser in Linux for Netflix? Most browsers are 720 except Edge and Safari I think. Things like that would even annoy me. Lack of DMR in the browser preventing you from getting the stream which is just a time sink if you try and get around it.

I've spent many hours working in the shell on Red Hat servers at work so I'm pretty confident I could make a switch but I like using polished OSs like OSX and Windows.

[michelin]

(01-01-2017 09:27 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

I use Zorin.

If you use VLC on the latest version, it should definitely work

[PepeLePew]

(12-29-2016 06:53 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

Small annoyances like that can get under my skin from time to time, but having said that at least the machine boots up in less than ten minutes and responds to commands in less than 60 seconds. And I'll put up with it, until I can afford a gaming level PC and then I'll bite the bullet and go to Windows 10.

As suggested elsewhere, make a bootable USB of Linux and try it out before you switch to it.

Sacrificing netflix for freedom? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

[semibaron]

I know this is a Linux thread, but why is nobody talking about ChromeOS? Best OS in my opinion if you just need the browser.

[Valentine]

(09-19-2017 04:07 AM)semibaron Wrote:  

I know this is a Linux thread, but why is nobody talking about ChromeOS? Best OS in my opinion if you just need the browser.

Typically people are moving from Windows to Linux to avoid spyware, not simply switch to a new spyware company.

[sterling_archer]

Noob question: Can you play games on Linux and how they run?

[lonewolf]

(09-19-2017 07:20 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

Noob question: Can you play games on Linux and how they run?

You can but only if they are programmed for it. Best to check on the Steam Store if the have the Linux icon before buying. It's mostly only independent developers who develop for Linux as well -- you won't find Grand Theft Auto for Linux.

[TheFinalEpic]

There are complaints about how Linux has a massive learning curve, and I tend to agree, especially if you've never interacted with the terminal or written commands before. For 90% of people in this day and age, I would say that they shouldn't switch to Linux unless they are adamant that they want to learn more about computers, operating systems, and how to interact with their data. I've had my fair share of swearing fits with linux, especially with distros like arch. But once you are over that, you are far better off. As previously stated, if you fuck up real hard, you can reinstall the distro with not much loss, and get it back to where you had it previously in an hour. If you reinstall Windows, you are looking at numerous hours, days even, before you have everything back in line, drivers and all.

As soon as you step over the learning curve, Linux is massively powerful. You'll notice how much the Windows command line limits you, and that the structure of proprietary OS's is to make you fall in line with whatever the developer intended. Sometimes for the better, other times for the worse. For example, partitioning hard drives in linux is 5 times easier than windows or mac, and there are tons of file protocols you can access in something like gparted that are impossible or downright messy to get to in windows. Want to partition an external drive for exFAT so you can access files across all operating systems? Good luck in Windows.

The complaints about file/package managers are unfounded. I can download and install 50 programs from repository by typing in their names after a pacman -S or apt-get command in one fell swoop. Go click on 50 websites, and use each of their GUI installers, and come back to me with our times. You can be so much more productive in a Linux environment, if you know what you're doing. Command line is and always will be king for doing exactly what you want, and with speed and precision.

If you have any inclination towards software development, programming, or the like, you will use Linux. No, you still can't play many games on linux distros, but do as I do and have a Windows boot partition for that very purpose, it's pretty easy. I really enjoy the ability to have a deeply interactive experience with my computer, and the customizeability is second to none.

If you're wondering if you should do the switch, ask yourself if you're willing to spend the time to learn a tangible skill in computer understanding. But in today's world, I'd argue you'd be short-sighted to not expand your knowledge in this field. While everyone else is dumbing themselves down with IOs and Ipads, you can understand what really is going on under the hood, and design the applications that others use. It was a great decision to switch for me, and it could very well be for you, too.

[nomadbrah]

Linux is great but some things are infuriatingly annoying. I still can't figure out how to install Flash. As Lenny said "dont bother", I guess this is why Steve Jobbs hated it too.

It's still infuriatingly annoying that you can't just click-click-click install something like that.

As a work OS, it is a godsend though. Point Linux makes 10 year old Thinkpads run faster than low end new Windows machines.

[budoslavic]

Long time Linux user here. Debian and openSUSE are my primary operating systems. I had tried Elementary OS (almost look like a Mac OSx), Fedora, Mint, Parrot OS, and Red Hat. When I have time, I am planning on setting up a server machine with CentOS.

I mainly use Linux for browsing, web development (LAMP) and movies.

Only drawback with Linux is the lack of decent software - i.e., Adobe Suite such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, InDesign, etc. This is why I still use Windows 7 and Mac OSx.

(09-19-2017 04:07 AM)semibaron Wrote:  

I know this is a Linux thread, but why is nobody talking about ChromeOS? Best OS in my opinion if you just need the browser.

Because it is designed and developed by a bunch of snowflakes at Google. This has been discussed in another thread elsewhere. We don't want to support a company that is run by a bunch of hardcore Liberals and SJWs. Of course, they are in bed wth the CIA and NSA so we can't trust them.

[Cr33pin]

[Valentine]

One of the main reasons why people still keep a Windows partition is so they can play games, now that issue has now been mostly solved in past month with the latest version of Steam Play.

Valve has been supporting WINE (Windows emulation project) for a while now and are adding Proton in the latest update, a piece of software that allows you to run Windows games on Linux. See here for the current compatibility list of games.

[LINUX]

(09-19-2017 04:07 AM)semibaron Wrote:  

I know this is a Linux thread, but why is nobody talking about ChromeOS? Best OS in my opinion if you just need the browser.

Because chromeos is Linux.

[[email protected]]

Someone needs to explain how Linus T. ended up bending the knee to sjws and let them hold power over development of Linux... Makes no sense to me.

[louiebeans]

(09-24-2018 10:05 AM)LINUX Wrote:  

(09-19-2017 04:07 AM)semibaron Wrote:  

I know this is a Linux thread, but why is nobody talking about ChromeOS? Best OS in my opinion if you just need the browser.

Because chromeos is Linux.

I was hoping for LINUX to comment in the Linux thread, was not dissapointed.

[BBinger]

(09-24-2018 12:24 PM)[email protected] Wrote:  

Someone needs to explain how Linus T. ended up bending the knee to sjws and let them hold power over development of Linux... Makes no sense to me.

Activist intersectional feminist daughter. He had an expiration date.

[Heart Break Kid]

Any good guides to learning the basics of Linux? Book or web video are welcome.

There are some suggestions on here from 2012, not sure if those books are dated.

[BBinger]

(10-01-2018 05:58 AM)Heart Break Kid Wrote:  

Any good guides to learning the basics of Linux? Book or web video are welcome.

There are some suggestions on here from 2012, not sure if those books are dated.

The important stuff hasn't changed too much. In the "Linux Infiltrated By SJWs" thread I made a post which covered the basics of getting a hygenic linux going. If this is your first time it helps to have a spare computer or at least a spare drive for your computer that you can dedicate to your linux learning. Skip Ubuntu/RedHat/Debian and all the other SJW crap.

• Start from scratch with Gentoo. You'll learn more about how the pieces fit together.
• Don't get ung up on any one program you might want, explore alternatives
• And finally treat this like exercise or language learning.
  

In the near future an SJW free fork of Gentoo dubbed Cuntoo should be dropping. It will be interesting. Don't let anyone push you into "beginner distros" because you'll be learning new stuff for those as well. Stuff that might end up keeping you on an African linux longer than you'd like as you get accustomed to it.