Posted on 04/04/2018 3:53:50 AM PDT by ShadowAce
I’ve been running Linux on the desktop for decades. When I was starting with it, Linux was, comparatively, harder to use than the GUI-based operating systems then available from Apple and Microsoft. That was then. This is now.
Today, Linux, especially such distributions as openSUSE, Ubuntu and, my favorite, Linux Mint, are just as easy to use as macOS and Windows. And they don’t have the security bugs.
What’s that? You don’t mind dealing with a few bugs? Well, on the latest Patch Tuesday, as Woody Leonhard put it, an “enormous number of patches spewed out of Microsoft this month, with two ponderous cumulative updates.” Every month, we see a new flood of critical Windows updates. Maybe updating Windows is your idea of a good time. It’s not mine.
As for Apple, a “shameful” security flaw was discovered in macOS last fall, and the malware rate for the OS went up 270% last year. If you still think Macs are secure, you haven’t been paying attention.
No, if you want a desktop operating system with a real proven security record, you want Linux. As David Taylor reported recently, “The clear consensus among experts is that Linux is the most secure operating system.”
OK, so you’re sold on the security factor, but you still don’t want to commit to an OS that doesn’t run your favorite applications? Nowadays, the alternatives that are available are excellent. For everyday work, you can substitute LibreOffice or even Microsoft Office Online for Microsoft Office, use Gmail instead of Outlook, and you’re good to go.
I know, I know: “Using Linux is just too hard!” Please.
The Linux desktop hasn’t been hard to use for ages. You can go weeks — months — without touching a shell.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
I did just this year, and was told it can be hard to get Broadcom cards to work. not working Linux. As is testified to.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/installing-broadcom-wireless-drivers/60395
How to solve Broadcom SD card reader issue with Linux - cialu.net
And besides more problems, recent look what i had to go thru to get a Lexmark printer working in 2012 .
But even more laborious was trying to remapp the CapsLock key to ctrl+c (and then Esc. to ctrl+v, and NumLock to Esc), as explained in this FR post , which for me is actually essential due to my arthritic fingers and frequent copy and paste functions. AutoCopy is not the answer, nor is AutoKey.
And among other lacking fully functional equivalents (though software like Firefox and Apache/LibreOffice are), i know of no word processor in Linux that enables AutoPaste, which also saves me a lot of time each month as part of what I do, but which the old Text Shield provides, thank God.
But you should use what works for you. Computers should be your tools, not your master.
Are you using Fedora or OpenSUSE?
If OpenSUSE, how is the learning curve from Mint KDE to TW KDE?
Sorry :(
I may end up just installing M xfce and put KDE over it..
Which is the downside of a good thing. Variety of distros can enable faster and greater improvement, yet what works on one distro may not work on another. I think i was finally able to get that remapp to work on Fedora, but none else.
I am just reacting against the hype that the Linux Desktop is superior to Windows, just as i do to those who promote Chrome over Firefox, when in both cases the user has hardly touched the surface of what the latter can do, though in the case of Linux, that means without having to learn coding, something specific to the distro.
And i think Linux has far more potential than it has realized.
I think both Dolphin and Nautilus have a preview.
The problem is - the web browsers don’t call the stock system file browser for uploading.
The only combo that worked the way I wanted was KDE+CHROME - which calls “KDialog” when picking files for upload.
Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon - no go! I think I made a post on the Mint forum pointing out this deficiency.
A nuanced thing - but - these are the kind of obstacles you encounter in Linux once you start trying to actually do something.
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