I'm doing another one of my little surveys, this time to see which parts of using #Linux on the desktop are the most problematic, and the various issues people are having.
I'll make a video on these results next week, and depending on the answers, maybe I'll make more videos on specific issues, either to explain these topics, or to see how we could improve.
So, here is the form, feel free to fill it out and share it around, so we have as many answers as possible!
@thelinuxEXP nice survey but there seems to be a small bias towards gui tools here. Especially with the question about using the terminal to set up the system. Now I know I'm an edge case, but my desktops are like 50% terminals. For example, I use bash as my file manager and don't even have a GUI file manager installed.
I know people love hating on #systemd but there are so many things that are great about it. The journal is among the best (and the one that people seem to hate the most for reasons I find hard to relate to). Building a service with good logging is literally free, no code required, STDOUT/STDERR goes to the journal, you're done. Ingesting those logs into something like Loki is also free. #linux
@grimmy yeah, I mean, I get that. The docs are pretty dense and aimed at people who already understand systemd and the journal, which is a big leap for people new to it. But, the journal does a lot of things much more easily than you can do it with traditional UNIX tools. I can figure out how to find a specific time range in files (assuming the file has timestamps), but I sure prefer the one-liner with the journal (--since and --until) to the several commands needed on a plain text log.
Ultimately, when I do purchase a Mac Mini, I have a safety net for being able to experiment with #Linux freely. It's easier to experiment when failure doesn't cause any significant issues in one's life. General anxiety is a struggle of mine, so doing sensible things to mitigate the intensity of anxiety helps me take chances I wouldn't risk ordinarily. The #Windows PC can become my Linux experiment, I can follow the documentation about Linux to increase my comfort levels with Linux.
@WanderingInDigitalWorlds
Hmmm, doing almost everything in virtual machines myself. But yes, I can understand you are curious about MacOS. No longer my cup of tea, but I understand its appeal.
@mboelen Having used Android, Linux for a few years, and Windows even longer; the curiosity of what MacOS has to offer is there. Especially since iOS has piqued my interest despite some unpleasant default behaviors for handling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi toggles (easily fixed by creating shortcuts to mimic Android Toggle behavior).
@Corb_The_Lesser@visone But then you make the assumption that we only have users that want to use the GUI. On Windows there are also "power users" using PowerShell to automate their work or activities. My goal is to provide information (for free) to anyone that can use it. From the starter that wonders about viruses on #linux up to the Unix wizards. I understand that not everything uses a terminal that often, but that is also the reason to create blog posts: the #terminal is not a scary place.
@Corb_The_Lesser@mboelen@visone There's a very tricky middle ground between scaring them away from the hard parts and hiding the hard parts to turn into a "gotcha" later.
Trying to hit the sweet spot of "this is available and useful if you need it later" is one of the very hard parts of doing user education.
One of the fun parts of being a #Linux mirror operator is that you get to deal with China Mobile using ISO download mirrors to fix their traffic ratios with other ISPs at peering points.
Looks like they've moved to using Slackware now...
@kwf Interesting; I wonder if other relatively closed countries have the same effect. Russia is a big example of that, but e.g., France also has a larger-than usual (I feel) domestic culture consumption.
When corps do questionable decisions I see it as #Linux advertisement. If you are a #Windows user, how do you feel about the new feature of #Windows and are you planning to continue putting your trust in #Microsoft over safeguarding your personal data?
Please support my YT channel. I am a long time free software enthusiast, but I am new at being an evangelist for this freedom and I am thankful for any motivation you can provide, even if it's just one video playback.
This morning, I talked myself out of installing #linux as I thought of all the scenarios which I would need Windows. It irked me quite a bit, Dual Booting is certainly an option; as I have invested a large chunk of my digital life on Windows, I would spend a lot of time on the Windows partition because so many programs are easier to run on that OS.
Investing in an iMac or Mac Mini would be a safer option. As I wouldn't be using Windows, I could keep access to my iPhone troubleshooting tools.
I'm shocked that an iMac costs less than my Windows PC after tax. I could even come up with the capital to fund that purchase (a small chunk of change from my 401K). Not using Windows is my goal, but I will go about it in a different way, it seems. I do worry about the security of Mac OS, but realistically, I am a pretty safe internet user.
It would be a lie to insinuate that one walled garden is better than the other. Currently this is a means of giving myself more time to figure out what I want to truly do. As a lot of my research regarding compatibility layers for #Linux do indicate software will work but not necessarily well (the reality of using such software to begin on a different OS). I don't want to risk bricking my iPhone which is a means of vital communication. I don't live in a place with an Apple Store...
Adding myself here: I'm happy to chat about #Linux and answer what I can or help find resources. I don't know a lot about the latest, fanciest KDE and Gnome desktops but maybe you don't want that anyway and want to run something like xfce or another lightweight desktop (and yeah, for better or worse, there are lots of options with this stuff). Or #BSD. OpenBSD has been the daily driver for years now. One starting point might be https://fedoraproject.org/spins/ to easily try different desktops...
I'm not a huge Fedora fan for reasons including IBM ownership of RedHat and governance, but the install/live boot experience is slick and there's a strong desktop/laptop focus (versus server). Knoppix is an oldie but it's another great "live boot" system where you can run it from USB stick without having to do any kind of install first, to play with it. (Back in the day, the way to do this was to uncompress zipslack and run the Linux loader .com and boom, you're in Linux.) So anyway AMA =)
@scrottie one of my favorites - admittedly - is something that I concocted myself in buildroot, because i would totally like to replace my Qubes some day, with something that runs from RAM.
Seriously looking into Linux for my PC because Microsoft and their overzealous approach to AI is making me nervous as heck.
I'm going to settle on Ubuntu as my familiarity with that Linux distro is high enough; I do need to check for any major changes with CLI commands, reworking of OS features, and the like before switching over. I don't want any surprises.
Over the next few days, I will back-up anything I need in the future digitally.
@WanderingInDigitalWorlds its alright, I will give POP_OS! A try again, I did it a few years ago and felt ok, saw that nvidia got Updated recently so I will give it another shot
@nicabar Yeah, I did read about Pop_OS as well, nvidia recently did announce better drivers for Linux, as they wanted there to be parity with the drivers available to Windows users. Time will tell if this is an announcement they back up diligently with action.
Der riesige Unterschiede zwischen #Linux und #Windows ist auch:
Wenn irgendeine Distribution auf die gleiche, völlig bescheuerte Idee käme, wie #Microsoft alles zwingend an online-Accounts und AI-Krampf und sogar automatisierte Screenshots zu tackern, könnte man einfach die Distribution wechseln oder auf einen Fork warten, der vermutlich innerhalb kürzester Zeit entstehen würde und den Murks nicht an Bord hätte. Auditierbar.
Bei Microsoft ist man auf Gedeih und Verderb dem Konzern ausgeliefert.