Is this supposed to be a jab at linux? Because it’s wrong. The kernel is updated at the same intervals as Windows / Mac updates, if not more frequently. Popular DEs are also maintained and frequently updated.
About popular programs: Firstly, this is not strictly a problem of the OS, because they can’t force developers to build their apps for Linux. However, developers can do that, and with the advent of flatpak they can build for that instead of hiding behind the excuse of not wanting to support multiple distros.
Secondly, this is almost irrelevant because the majority of people use computers to either browse the web, or use office suites, or play games. In linux, you can browse the web just fine, use browser-based office suites that are becoming increasingly popular (or LibreOffice/OpenOffice) and, with steam, you can play most games that don’t have a linux build.
All in all, the minimum everyone with a semblance of computer literacy should do is dual boot linux alongside windows and use that for their daily driver.
Android is an operating system it’s just one that runs mostly in a JVM. It has a very similar internal structure and architecture to Linux and does run the Linux kernel (heavily modified version of it), but it also has very different functions from Linux.
Android mostly runs within a JVM, it has command line features that are similar to Linux but they operate much differently to Linux.
It does use the Linux kernel and has structural similarities in the file system to Linux but it is not Linux, or at the very least it is very different from most versions of Linux and how they operate.
This is kind of nonsensical. I used to have to build code on Ubuntu 10.04 so that it would work on 10.04. if I tried to build on 18.04 I would get glibc errors. (Yes I know it was too old, but marketing insisted we support it).
I can still target Windows XP for builds on Windows 10 today.
Seeing so many Linux memes here on Lemmy has made me start to consider Linux in the future… I can’t use it for work, but maybe on an older computer or tablet.
I was actually considering a Pinetab 2 for my next tablet a few months ago, but the fact that they didn’t even have a working wifi driver (and AFAIK still don’t!) gave me the distinct impression that Linux tablets are currently still far from being suitable for regular users.
Switching to Linux was one of the best decisions I ever made. I did dual-boot for several years, though.
The thing that hooked me was all of the gorgeous screenshots people would post on 4chan and other image boards. Especially those terminals! The Linux desktops looked like something out of a Hollywood hacker film. In contrast, Windows had CMD.EXE, which was an ugly, clunky mess that hadn’t been updated in 20 years. I swear I could feel a slight delay between when I pressed the key and the letter appeared on the screen. I wouldn’t want to use that for anything.
The windows Terminal exists and it’s actually nice. Yeah, Linux is very good for many reasons, but Windows still got a lot of good things going for it. Most people won’t find their use of either to be different, except in installing accessories. The absolute unit that is windows support for just about any accessory that comes out is unmatched.
For a few examples, wireless Xbox gamepads, HP printers, webcams that require proprietary software, some of those professional audio setups.
I know that Linux has a lot going for it too, especially in the freedom of choice in how the operating system works and runs, as well as how the desktop environment looks and feels, but let’s not pretend Windows has not improved since Windows 7.
The other day I used my PC without Internet (cable not long enough in current location) and I tried logging into my windows SSD and it just wouldn’t let me.
It denied me access to my own computer because I didn’t have a long enough Ethernet cable, which I didn’t even need for the work I needed to get done.
It’s stuff like that which makes me so glad that I’m on Linux now.
My desktop has also never suited me so well, nor looked so pretty! The customizability of Linux goes WAY WAY DEEP. From desktop themes, fonts, layouts to kernel-level customization.
I have actually found that it’s quite frustrating to install old apps on Linux, though it’s definitely a different reason than for Mac OS, on Mac it’s because they maliciously blocked it but on Linux it’s just because apps depend on old dependencies which either are a newer version than the app expects, or they’ve been deprecated (Linux devs love to do that because it’s more “fun” to recreate something from scratch then it is to fix bugs).
That is true, it’s more of a problem for proprietary packages (like CleanFlash player) which may or may not run properly in isolation. At least I had problems getting it to work but I got it to work eventually.
You should install what’s available in your distro. If you need to run some old and potentially insecure code you should isolate that in a VM or container anyway, and there you can run any distro you want that has it.
In my experience it really depends on the language, Python apps constantly breaks, Java sometimes works and C nearly always works. (I have seen 40 year old programs that compile without any changes) When it comes to binarys however, C is horrible because even a hello world (by default, this can be changed) uses several hard coded library paths.
Correction: Deprecating removes stuff maintainers think nobody needs anymore, or stuff they don’t want or want people to use. Lots of stuff is deprecated without any replacement for it (gksudo/gksu).
But hey it’s more fun to rewrite stuff over again than it is to fix what already works, right.
As a victim of nonstop Windows updates at work, I’m convinced only 10-20% of them have anything to do with real security fixes or important bug fixes. The other 80-90% are some random Microsoft jackasses pushing pointless stuff out so they can say “look boss, I did a thing”. MS has always been a crappy software company, but they’ve become much worse over time as the MBAs have grabbed the wheel.
Recently my experience has been that updates come more frequently in Linux, but they are much quicker and more seamless. When I see the little system tray icon (or equivalent) showing an update is available, I usually check it out right away. Unless there’s a kernel update that requires a reboot, it’s usually done in seconds and doesn’t disrupt what I’m doing.
I have been using a couple distros lately at work, in VMs on a company windows machine. We use Fedora for some stuff, and I wanted to mess around with Linux Mint too.
Can’t proper AOSP delete system apps? I know essentially all phones come locked down but is there anything in base Android itself that precludes this? Just grab the su binary and Bob’s your uncle.
Any rooted phones can delete system apps, at least I’ve been able to on older Android versions, I’ve heard newer Android versions make it harder but I haven’t tried on those because I haven’t had the need to.
It is great that you can play some games, and it is improving. But Linux has a LOOONG way to go before you can say that “Windows games not running on Linux are clearly over”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that page exclusively for games with native Linux builds? When people talk highly of Linux gaming these days it’s because of the work that’s gone into Proton, a compatibility layer for Windows games on Linux. You can play a large portion of Windows native games on Linux with minimal fuss now.
Are these numbers only the Linux native ones or including the ones that run using Proton?
In any case, those are the ones that are officially supported, e.g. the ones Steam promises you those are working (or probably only the native).
You can, however, enable Proton for any game or application and you will find out most of them run without problems.
“Control” for example works flawlessy, even with DX12 RTX raytracing, using Wine, alas, it’s not shown on Steam for having Linux support and is also not in the list.
So the numbers are probably waaay too low and games that work with Linux support much much higher.
Just because they haven’t been checked yet doesn’t mean they won’t run. About 75% of the games that were tested were compatible with the Steam Deck. Also, all emulators work on Linux too and sometimes even better than on Windows. The number of games that are available to you on Linux is simply massive.
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