What can you do on Linux that you can't do on Windows?

edit: hey guys, 60+ comments, can’t reply from now on, but know that I am grateful for your comments, keep the convo going. Thank you to the y’all people who gave unbiased answers and thanks also to those who told me about Waydroid and Docker

edit: Well, now that’s sobering, apparently I can do most of these things on Windows with ease too. I won’t be switching back to Windows anytime soon, but it appears that my friend was right. I am getting FOMO Fear of missing out right now.

I do need these apps right now, but there are some apps on Windows for which we don’t have a great replacement

  1. Adobe
  2. MS word (yeah, I don’t like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it’s not as good as MS suite, of c, but it’s really bad.
  3. Games ( a big one although steam is helping bridge the gap)
  4. Many torrented apps, most of these are Windows specific and thus I won’t have any luck installing them on Linux.
  5. Apparently windows is allowing their users to use some Android apps?

Torrented apps would be my biggest concern, I mean, these are Windows specific, how can I run them on Linux? Seriously, I want to know how. Can wine run most of the apps without error? I am thinking of torrenting some educational software made for Windows.

Let me list the customizations I have done with my xfce desktop and you tell me if I can do that on Windows.

I told my friend that I can’t leave linux because of all the customization I have done and he said, you just don’t like to accept that Windows can do that too. Yeah, because I think it can’t do some of it (and I like Linux better)

But yeah, let’s give the devil it’s due, can I do these things on Windows?

  1. I have applications which launch from terminal eg: vlc would open vlc (no questions asked, no other stuff needed, just type vlc)
  2. Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can’t do this on Windows.
  3. I can basically automate most of my tasks and it has a good integration with my apps.
  4. I can create desktop launchers.
  5. Not update my system, I love to update because my updates aren’t usually 4 freaking GB and the largest update I have seen has been 200-300 mbs, probably less but yeah, I was free to not update my PC if I so choose. Can you do this on Windows? And also, Linux updates fail less often, I mean, it might break your system, but the thing won’t stop in the middle and say “Bye Bye, updates failed” and now you have to waste 4GB again to download the update. PS: You should always keep your apps upto date mostly for security reasons, but Linux won’t force it on you and ruin your workflow.
  6. Create custom panel plugin.

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/3e8c1c45-8e3e-4f35-b1f8-7cc2b3915a9e.png

  1. My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don’t know why, it just looks bad.

I am sure as hell there are more but this is at the top of my mind rn, can I do this on Windows. Also, give me something that you personally do on Linux but can’t do it on Windows.

EccTM,
  1. You can start applications from windows command line. Depending on the program you might need to provide the full path to the executable though. Eg: Start chrome.exe
  2. Windows has a (preinstalled in Window 11, optional in Windows 10) software called WinGet that will update all recognized applications via command line. Covers stuff from Windows Store, and most popular software installers. Basically acts as a Windows package manager.
  3. batch files, software like autohotkey… automation can definitely be done in Windows too.
  4. You mean shortcuts?
  5. Pretty certain you can defer updates until the time suits, but Windows is definitely more forceful in pushing updates than Linux. There are ways of turning off updates too, but probably not without third party software or digging in regedit blindly.
  6. Rainmeter could provide something similar.
  7. Do you mean Command Prompt, or Windows Terminal? Terminal is actually pretty nice, and very customizable, both in terms of theme and functionality.

I run Arch Linux (btw) and have a very neglected Windows 11 partition.

I have a command set up in linux using ddcutil that allows me to tell my second monitor to swap source from HDMI (Chromecast) to DisplayPort (PC) and back as desired. No clue how I’d do that in Windows.

Subject6051,

thank you for your comment,

PlexSheep,

I use windows terminal at work. It’s okay for a terminal emulator on windows, but I have some problems with it:

  1. It’s not kitty
  2. When using FiraCode NF, italics are scaled super weird and I hate it. I opened a GitHub issue and was told to use the preview version. (No I’m not going to install a preview version on my work machine just to get something as basic as regularly scaled italics)
  3. Their mark mode is decent but has weird hotkeys and you can’t change them. Must admit that the mark mode interface looks good through.
  4. I can’t use my regular hotkey for the drop-down terminal (normally shift F12, but windows blocks that for some reason)
Subject6051, (edited )

hear you mate! md looks gud han! Well that’s something

JC1,

I’ve been an on and off Linux user for a long time, but my main OS used to be Windows. I recently switched to Linux (Arch btw) and I love it.

For my use cases, here is what I like about windows:

  • Office 365
  • Gaming
  • Onedrive
  • Just works
  • touch screen and touch pad
  • Hardware support
  • Autohotkey (can live without)
  • Software compatibility
  • VR
  • Parsec

Here is what I like about Linux

  • Dynamic tiling window managers.
  • Customization, I can have my notifications on the top right, the way I like them.
  • Smooth as fuck: very fast!
  • Very clever solutions (looking into NixOS currently for example)
  • Terminal: fun to use and it’s fast!
  • Much more control over my system.

The things I dislike about windows are mainly that it’s stupid slow compared to Linux and the growing presence of telemetry and ads (though I wasn’t that affected). Also, I can’t replace windows default shortcuts or some functionalities.

What I dislike about Linux is that there is always something that doesn’t work properly. I currently have issues with DPMS. My laptop has trouble with the behavior if the touchpad, sometimes the gestures work, sometimes they don’t, it depends on its mood I guess. I tried Wayland, but with a nvidia card it has a lot of issues, I had to go back to X which sucks since I really prefer the way wayland works. I’m quite technical, but sometimes the solutions don’t really work.

I read a few things in this thread that I disagree with though, namely:

  • You can launch apps from PowerShell (terminal)
  • You can have package managers, I used scoop, choco and winget. Every app that I use can be installed and updated with those, from PowerShell.
  • Pretty sure you can update your system from PowerShell, then you probably can make a script to update everything.
  • You can disable auto-updates and auto-reboot in Windows. I never had my computer reboot on me and it stays open 24/7. What I liked is auto-update, but no auto-reboot. I chose when to reboot, only had a notification which was disabled when I was playing a game.
  • There are options for launchers, the windows menu or powertoy run.
  • You can create shortcuts (similar to .desktop) and you can also make a bat script instead of a bash script.

A lot of comments are about a knowledge deficit, not a capability deficit from Windows.

mintyfrog,
  1. Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can’t do this on Windows.

Can’t you just add a line in the script


<span style="color:#323232;">flatpak update
</span>
andruid,

I like Linux for a lot of reasons, but the reason I was dualbooting the most was more packages for AI and the like just worked on it and I was programming.

The reason I deleted my windows partition though was I had a faulty drive that on windows ment I would crash all the time, but my Linux boot just worked for like another year on the failing disk with no issue. When I got a new drive I just installed Linux and didn’t bother getting Windows again.

I have to Linux for work sometimes and the biggest pet peeve for me is that the app search bar is always slow or broken. Like it is so good on KDE, I default to superkey, search app, enter compared to opening any lists of menus.

glue_snorter,

My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don’t know why, it just looks bad.

Your understanding is wrong. I’ve tried 8 different terminals on mac, arch and kubuntu, and I miss Windows Terminal every day. It looks good and the config is a pleasure. I don’t expect Linux to look pretty, but MacOS had fucking awful font rendering and it’s supposed to be this upmarket OS for moneyed pricks in black turtlenecks. Was everyone in unixland busy doing drugs while Microsoft was implementing anti-aliasing? Is clear legible type for losers?

confusedbytheBasics,

CMD.EXE is eye cancer. Whatever launched when I searched for powershell was a slightly better blue version. What are you using that you actually like?

TexMexBazooka,

Cmd.exe with a custom color scheme

confusedbytheBasics,

Do you also prefer to drink water out of the toilet? I know taste is subjective but…

jasonlearst,

I think they are using this: github.com/microsoft/terminal

It’s what I use on my Windows machines as well. It’s a huge improvement from the old CMD window.

Prethoryn,
@Prethoryn@lemmy.world avatar

Terminal on Windows looks amazing.

NAK,

Yeah. This terminal is awesome. It even supports running whatever console you want in tabs. So if you have WSL enabled you can open a bash shell in it. It also fixes all the stupid fixed width stuff of legacy cmd.exe or even powershell

ryannathans,

What are you smoking

snake,

You verbalized my reaction to this so perfectly!

ThemboMcBembo,
@ThemboMcBembo@beehaw.org avatar

Set one mouse to left handed and another to right handed.

s_s,

Be the only user that can run code as root.

Microsoft and their “trusted partners” do not deserve closer access to my hardware than I have.

bouh,

Haha it’s very easy now: I have an os with no adds.

I am the one telling the os when it updates or not and when it reboots or not.

I have a working terminal so I don’t need dozens of shady softwares to do basic stuff like transferring a file on a local network.

And the biggest ones: I can disable my firewall and no defender will erase files from my computer without my consent.

Video games work surprisingly well today. Recent ones at least.

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yay for all of that except the games. :)

ryannathans,

Which? I have like 3 that don’t work (yet?)

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

No, I’m just not a proponent / promoter of gaming on Linux unless it’s a native Linux port. The Proton / Wine thing I am personally against, as it just perpetuates games being made for Windows, with Linux as an afterthought, often unsupported.

ryannathans,

Every native linux game I have purchased no longer works, while the windows version through proton does. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Payday 2, Dying light as examples.

Game developers need to take some responsibility for their product. Whilst the industry remains a quick cash grab with no long term support, we have to stick with the support we have - proton/wine.

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Which is why it’s just not worth pursuing gaming on Linux at all, and people who try, just end up complaining when it goes badly, hurting Linux… when it was never Linux’s fault.

ryannathans,

I don’t agree, it just needs to be made commercially viable

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

And when your game isn’t running right? Please remember not to hit the forums saying it was Linux.

pH3ra,
@pH3ra@lemmy.ml avatar

Use a system that’s not a personalized ad billboard

cozydeer,

@Subject6051 download and install at no cost, customize/change DE or not use one at all and opt for a simple window manager, use a packet manager to download and install applications

Aetherion,
@Aetherion@feddit.de avatar

Windows has it’s package managers. Winget and of course chocolatey and others

cozydeer,

@Aetherion that’s actually really cool to know, i haven’t used Windows 10/11 much on personal desktops but i’ll def take it for a spin

Aetherion,
@Aetherion@feddit.de avatar

Yeah personally, I use Mac for the peace of mind, because generally, I don’t trust package managers anymore. Don’t get me wrong, Debians repository is extremely well maintained, and I use Debian as server OS, but I like the Mac as a daily driver for banking stuff, because I trust the Mac App Store (people have to pay, Apple checks every App and so on). And for the daily stuff I do with my Mac, I don’t need any special software from Homebrew.

mfat,

Plug in every USB i find on the ground without fear.

MJBrune,

Uhh that’s still not true by a long shot.

s_s,

Maybe someone close to him has a hot glue gun.

Magnetar,

There are USB-killers, which produce voltage spikes to fry your mainboard, or just the USB part of it, if you’re lucky.

hellvolution,

I can actually use my computer on Linux!

featherfurl,

I can declare the complete state of my systems in a config file that I store on sourcehut with git and pull down to have a fully configured system on new hardware whenever I want it.

I can use tiling window managers.

I can work with native containers easily.

I can run an operating system that is designed to be the most useful tool it can be, not the most profitable product it can be.

mr_pip,
@mr_pip@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

about the full system config: how?

Madtsu,

I think they are using nixOS

icedterminal,

Arch can do this too. wiki.archlinux.org/title/archinstall


<span style="color:#323232;">archinstall --config [/path|http://]
</span>
SnowdenHeroOfOurTime,

How do you do this and on what distro? I truly need to know.

kuebic,

Probably referring to NixOS.

Arch apparently can do this too. wiki.archlinux.org/title/archinstall

If you want to learn Ansible, you can get a similar experience with most distros.

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Haaaave you met Ted, er, Ansible?

floofloof,

Use only the amount of CPU power I need, and have my stuff be top priority, rather than picking up the dregs when Windows indexing and updates and other services have a little bit of CPU to spare.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Too true. I have a relevant point to this that I noticed yesterday.

I run a Windows 10 VM via libvirt/kvm. All this VM does is run the OS and Microsoft teams. I need the full desktop Teams client for work, unfortunately. Everything was pretty idle and my CPU usage across all cores was at around 16%. After I shut the VM down, I was idling at about 3%. So it’s using up like… half a core to have some electron app idle. That seems ridiculous to me.

floofloof,

The only computer I can even get Teams to run somewhat stably on is a Linux machine. On Windows it crashes constantly.

glue_snorter,

That’s Teams. Slack used to be a CPU hog too, but Teams is a real piece of shit. And occasionally it used to just peg one core at 100% until I killed it.

I’m so glad I quit that company.

floofloof,

Install software updates when you want, and not lose half the day while they install.

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