Posted on 03/16/2017 2:54:56 AM PDT by markomalley
While users of proprietary operating systems suffer with new, slower, buggier, more spy-filled systems, Linux users are enjoying better performance and more support.
I can be a pretty pessimistic guy. I’m fairly convinced that the Internet of Things spells certain doom for mankind, and I’ve made a habit of standing in front of large rooms full of people simply to tell them how much I think “Linux sucks.”
If you were to call me a Negative Nancy, you wouldn’t be far off.
To make matters worse, I’m about to publish three new articles—each of them extremely pessimistic and gloomy—over the next week. otal “sky is falling, we’re all gonna die” sort of stuff.
In the interest of not becoming the internet’s crotchety old grandpa, eternally spouting off about “those kids” and their proximity to “my lawn,” I figured now would be a good time to talk about something happy that I’ve been thinking about. Something optimistic and wonderful. Something I could point people to whenever asked if I ever have anything nice to say.
And that is this: Desktop Linux, right now, is better than it’s ever been.
By a long shot. A feat that is truly amazing.
You know how some operating system companies (not mentioning names or pointing fingers here) tend to release new versions of their systems with the promise of amazing new features, but in reality, each release almost seems to be worse than the one before? Massive performance degradation. Huge jumps in memory usage. Decreases in stability. Increases in annoying adware or spyware built into the system.
As I listed off those problems, every one of us immediately thought of a specific OS and a specific feature. And when that thought crossed our minds, we were either amused (because we don’t use that system) or annoyed (because we do). Regardless, we’ve all got examples of those problems added in with new releases of big-name, proprietary operating systems.
But not Linux. Linux has actually gotten—better. At least for the most part.
Wi-Fi driver issues are (mostly) a thing of the past. Sound problems are, if nothing else, at least quite a lot less prevalent than they used to be. As a general rule, hardware support has dramatically improved across the board.
The availability and variety of quality software has absolutely skyrocketed. Video editing under Linux, while not perfect, is actually in a usable state now. All of my videos can be produced entirely under Linux using nothing but free software. That is, putting it simply, absolutely amazing.
And gaming? Holy guacamole! We have games coming out of our ears now! Almost everyone I know uses Steam and has a small (or large) stockpile of professional games purchased with in it—all running natively on Linux. Gonna say it. I don’t care how much flak I get for it. 2017—Year of the Linux Desktop.
There is never a point during my day where I need to reboot into Microsoft Windows. Or even fire up a virtual machine. Heck, I don’t even need Wine anymore.
Don’t need Windows. Don’t want Windows. Don’t have Windows.
That, to me, is a huge statement. Not only is Linux powerful (it’s always been that), but now, at the start of 2017, it is viable and enjoyable to use for just about every purpose conceivable.
When I think about new releases of various Linux distributions, I actually get excited. I’ve applied more than one update recently (on two different distros) that led to modest speed bumps and improvements in stability. The fact that I’m applauding that as something unique and amazing might be a sign that just maybe there is a problem outside of the free software world in this area.
Regardless of the sadness faced on a regular basis by users of those proprietary systems as they “upgrade” to their new, slower, buggier, more-spy-y systems, I’m damned happy here in free software land. No advertisements in my desktop environments. No spyware built into the system. Speed and stability improvements rolling out here and there.
Just downright lovely.
The hell with it. Gonna say it. I don’t care how much flak I get for it.
2017—Year of the Linux Desktop.
PONG
Very happy with Linux Mint (version 18). I run it on laptop with Windows 10.
Kinda like saying that "the Yugo, right now, is better than it's ever been."
Linux for servers? Sure. On the desktop? Less sure.
Will Linux Mint still run off the cd drive without a hard drive installed? I see all new versiona are approaching 2 gigs in size so I am assuming you need to burn DVDs in order to install? Surprising there in no install FAQ or info which to me is the big reason Linux will never be mainstream, as it seems they purposely keep things vague.
I’ve been working in the Linux kernel for 10 years now.
I use Fedora for my desktop, as it provides a developer friendly environment and is close to the environment of the distro I work for.
There are still some windows apps I need, like Studio One and Camtasia. I run those in the seamless desktop provided by Oracle Virtual Box.
Yep. I’m using Mint (17) 99.8% of the time now. The only time I boot windows anymore it to run photoshop. Gimp is just too unwieldy for my taste. Other than that, it does everything I need.
I’ve gone to Linux Mint 18 on the main desktop. I see no reason to stop, though I do use a couple of windows virtual boxes on occasion.
It does lock up ocassionaly but since I went back to a spinning disk, nothing is screwed up on reboot.
Ubuntu is the distro you want, not mint. It has FAQs and tons of support. Just type in your question and the word Ubuntu into any search engine, and you will find your answer.
Compared to anything microsoft, Ubuntu is a snap to install, and just plain works.
I like that the updates don’t require endless rebooting during shutdown and startup.
I even installed a usb bluetooth radio in about 10 min while the same hardware doesn’t work under Win7 yet after hours of screwing around.
Mint will run off the CD drive. It will also run off a USB stick. Better to install it to a hard drive though... (Or better yet a SSD. That’s how I do it on three laptops and a desktop. Takes about 20 seconds for it to boot from an SSD, and you don’t need a big expensive one either.)
Fairly easy to install. Instructions are HERE:
https://www.linuxmint.com/documentation/user-guide/Cinnamon/english_18.0.pdf
I noticed the latest update is noticeably faster than before. You never see that with MS.
Plus, you do not need to buy a new computer every 3 years to get the latest OS to run.
Linux Mint 18.1 is a decently user-friendly distribution.
I’ve been using it on a partition on my laptop since a few weeks after it was released, and I quite like it. Even my wife is choosing to use it.
We can both boot Windows 10 when needed on our systems.
My main desktop is a 7 year old hand me down box with a new p/s and a 100’s of gpus video card. Works great / less filling.
I still don’t understand why the SSDs I tried would not accommodate cinnamon lockups.
You can make a bootable USB and install it from there.
Or as we used to be told by manufacturing in sales meetings when complaining about product lead times, "Well, at least our competitors' lead times are worse than ours."
We call that 'slim consolation.'
Or as we used to be told by manufacturing in sales meetings when complaining about product lead times, "Well, at least our competitors' lead times are worse than ours."
We call that 'slim consolation.'
You can install from a USB drive
You can run Windows from a CD? Congrats
Our mainframe is a Red Hat box. Some scripting differences and you use gpg instead of pgp.
I’d like to say Linux is a viable Windows alternative.
It isn’t.
On the consumer side, the A-list video game studios do not release their titles for Linux.
On the business side, Linux lacks anything like Active Directory that I’m aware of. Samba doesn’t count. It’s an incomplete implementation.
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