Awesome but at the same time sad to see that we're finally at the point where there's no usable good windows anymore
Windows 10 support running out in a year (or whenever it does) is gonna be a disaster. I dual boot to play games from time to time but when they cut updates for LTSC then I won't bother. Windows 11 is an incurable cancer
i already gave up :D
I ended up restoring the image I took of my Windows 8.1 install and upgraded it to Windows 10 (thankfully there's still a licence associated with an HWID so i didn't have to dig). I don't think Linux desktop maining is something I'll end up revisiting because it really, really just is NOT for me as someone who cannot be bothered to fight their computer anymore, and like part of switching was a promise of "don't worry its better now!!!" and while it certainly is, it is just still not for me.
There's a bunch of little things that I want to do that are a single checkbox on both Windows and macOS that require shell scripts and whatever else to get to work on a Linux desktop environment, something as simple as passing through input audio from one device to the output on another is a bother that goes further than that single checkbox and while it might still be something that can be thrown in a script file: I shouldn't have to do that.
Then there's the massive footgun that having an Nvidia card is in general, I already had to compromise on the distro I used (originally I wanted to use Endeavour OS, but the process of installing the GPU driver indeed had the OS live up to its name and I ended up settling for Kubuntu) still being suboptimal because the graphics driver that they actually focus on doesn't support my card anymore and I'm not investing more money into this stupid rectangle.
The catalyst was probably the generally awful experience accessing network storage is for no reason whatsoever. The industry seems have settled on SMB as the "standard" for network storage and on both Windows and macOS it works well enough but on Linux it continues to be a pain for no reason. Every file manager seems to implement support for it and various other non-default file storage systems in their own way and no software ever is compatible with it, even the companion save dialogs to the file managers. FUSE already exists, I don't get why they don't at least use that so you can at least access things even if its through a roundabout method??? The greatest kicker was that at some point Dolphin's SMB support just Stopped working for me, I could reboot and reconnect all I want, I kept getting the same "Something Happened!" tier error message about a process, and I quote, Dying. Like I get that that's pretty ancient well established wording on the enthusiast and developer side of things, but showing that to a user in an error message that's already unclear and confusing is just baffling.
I'll be honest that there's also a big unwillingness to relearn on my part, I'm sure if you really went for it all the problems I'm having could have proper solutions but I really can't be bothered anymore. The most excited I've been about computers in the past 8 years was the announcement of Apple Silicon because it actually brought something new to the desktop/laptop computer side of things that didn't require an extra 0 at the end of your power bill and PSU wattage and I wasn't even an iPhone user yet at that point, and even Apple's recent bending over to investor cock with half baked machine learning functionality is making that less of a surefire jump to make.
I'll probably remember even more tiny details but I think I've made my point for myself, epic if it works for you, it really doesn't for me I do not have the patience required to get it going properly and it ruined my weekend. Windows 10 may blow chunks but at least I know how to make it blow those chunks fairly reliably.
this post is way too detailed for Desktop Thread reply lmoa
I ended up restoring the image I took of my Windows 8.1 install and upgraded it to Windows 10 (thankfully there's still a licence associated with an HWID so i didn't have to dig). I don't think Linux desktop maining is something I'll end up revisiting because it really, really just is NOT for me as someone who cannot be bothered to fight their computer anymore, and like part of switching was a promise of "don't worry its better now!!!" and while it certainly is, it is just still not for me.
There's a bunch of little things that I want to do that are a single checkbox on both Windows and macOS that require shell scripts and whatever else to get to work on a Linux desktop environment, something as simple as passing through input audio from one device to the output on another is a bother that goes further than that single checkbox and while it might still be something that can be thrown in a script file: I shouldn't have to do that.
Then there's the massive footgun that having an Nvidia card is in general, I already had to compromise on the distro I used (originally I wanted to use Endeavour OS, but the process of installing the GPU driver indeed had the OS live up to its name and I ended up settling for Kubuntu) still being suboptimal because the graphics driver that they actually focus on doesn't support my card anymore and I'm not investing more money into this stupid rectangle.
The catalyst was probably the generally awful experience accessing network storage is for no reason whatsoever. The industry seems have settled on SMB as the "standard" for network storage and on both Windows and macOS it works well enough but on Linux it continues to be a pain for no reason. Every file manager seems to implement support for it and various other non-default file storage systems in their own way and no software ever is compatible with it, even the companion save dialogs to the file managers. FUSE already exists, I don't get why they don't at least use that so you can at least access things even if its through a roundabout method??? The greatest kicker was that at some point Dolphin's SMB support just Stopped working for me, I could reboot and reconnect all I want, I kept getting the same "Something Happened!" tier error message about a process, and I quote, Dying. Like I get that that's pretty ancient well established wording on the enthusiast and developer side of things, but showing that to a user in an error message that's already unclear and confusing is just baffling.
I'll be honest that there's also a big unwillingness to relearn on my part, I'm sure if you really went for it all the problems I'm having could have proper solutions but I really can't be bothered anymore. The most excited I've been about computers in the past 8 years was the announcement of Apple Silicon because it actually brought something new to the desktop/laptop computer side of things that didn't require an extra 0 at the end of your power bill and PSU wattage and I wasn't even an iPhone user yet at that point, and even Apple's recent bending over to investor cock with half baked machine learning functionality is making that less of a surefire jump to make.
I'll probably remember even more tiny details but I think I've made my point for myself, epic if it works for you, it really doesn't for me I do not have the patience required to get it going properly and it ruined my weekend. Windows 10 may blow chunks but at least I know how to make it blow those chunks fairly reliably.
this post is way too detailed for Desktop Thread reply lmoa
I kinda get why flash feels like this, it might seem that I went windows to linux in a day sometimes but truth is it took me years to adjust to it and I just have the hardware that it likes, I started testing linux in general in 2019, plasma was the most jank and buggy desktop you could ever use so I obviously couldn't stay no windows thing really run properly before steamdeck either. This was the case for the next 3 and a half years, I was always on off either on bare metal or vms trying lots of distros and desktops to get used to it and eventually I did, it really needs some effort and isn't for everyone especially someone who doesn't like to fuck with their pc all the time and thats okay.
What isn't okay is Nvidia, I'm gonna start sounding like a broken record but no matter how good the driver gets, on it's own it's just not survivable longterm, especially on old gpus. The main reason I decided to pull the trigger and drop windows was just cause I switched to AMD in 2022 and suddenly more than half of the jank vanished magically, if I still was with my 1660 ti I would've never switched it's just a masochistic test of how long you can take it before letting go on top of all your other issues.
Even though the AI takeover is happening with commercial OSes, Macos will one day save you
What isn't okay is Nvidia, I'm gonna start sounding like a broken record but no matter how good the driver gets, on it's own it's just not survivable longterm, especially on old gpus. The main reason I decided to pull the trigger and drop windows was just cause I switched to AMD in 2022 and suddenly more than half of the jank vanished magically, if I still was with my 1660 ti I would've never switched it's just a masochistic test of how long you can take it before letting go on top of all your other issues.
Even though the AI takeover is happening with commercial OSes, Macos will one day save you
Well, I would go even further & say I don't think anyone needs to justify his using another operating system period. Otherwise I myself would be found a hypocrite; I used Linux as a desktop OS far before the "year of the linux desktop" (whenever that was or will be) back when Gnome 3 was brand spanking new. IIRC I didn't even use systemd at that time, it was a totally different world. And I didn't care that Linux was in this or that respect an inferior system because I used what I wanted.
Everyone is free to use Windows or Mac as long as they want. I'm skeptical that Apple & MacOS will evade the AI trend for a variety of reasons, but I think there's a point where a choice needs to be made. I think the great thing about many free operating systems (Linux being the best example) is there are many points where I can make a choice. I am perfectly fine with choosing what hardware to use based on whether the kernel supports it well because I'd much rather have Linux than the hardware. Others don't feel the same way. Things get bad when the hardware & software companies try and take away that choice, as was the case with Secure Boot for example.
EDIT: I also want to give an addendum and say I used Linux with a GTX 1060 for a year or two with no problems, but Nvidia on Linux is crap because they go very far to make it even werk much less werk well
Everyone is free to use Windows or Mac as long as they want. I'm skeptical that Apple & MacOS will evade the AI trend for a variety of reasons, but I think there's a point where a choice needs to be made. I think the great thing about many free operating systems (Linux being the best example) is there are many points where I can make a choice. I am perfectly fine with choosing what hardware to use based on whether the kernel supports it well because I'd much rather have Linux than the hardware. Others don't feel the same way. Things get bad when the hardware & software companies try and take away that choice, as was the case with Secure Boot for example.
EDIT: I also want to give an addendum and say I used Linux with a GTX 1060 for a year or two with no problems, but Nvidia on Linux is crap because they go very far to make it even werk much less werk well
Yeah it should be obvious that everyone is free to choose whatever they want, I'm always very positive about flash using mac just cause I think it fits for him. Linux or Macos is usually more interesting in a conversation than "company did bad" way every single week like windows is. Although I think for anyone that likes windows it still sucks really bad that you sometimes can't even use the newest version just cause they want to fuck over the sake of "security" (locking down the system even more).
Everyone has their own usecase, for me it's games and rarely school stuff that don't require specific commercial programs. They thankfully give us free (as in freedom) options simply cause they're free (as in beer) so the workflow and quick development of projects like KDE Plasma are perfect for me. For this exact usecase Nvidia just never worked on my hardware this is why I keep pondering about it on chat or on the forum to warn others but for some it might not be that way, and understandable that not anyone can change their hardware on a whim, I myself only got amd cause I straight up burned the 1660 ti with excessive overclocking lol.
Lastly I think AMD in general is better for user freedom not only cause of their open source drivers but they generally offer more control over their things like how they allow you to disable their Management Engine equivalent, PSP after CPU initialization, thus eliminating the secure boot problem, in conjunction with linux or modded windows.
Conversation not fit for desktop thread but felt like adding to it my bad
Everyone has their own usecase, for me it's games and rarely school stuff that don't require specific commercial programs. They thankfully give us free (as in freedom) options simply cause they're free (as in beer) so the workflow and quick development of projects like KDE Plasma are perfect for me. For this exact usecase Nvidia just never worked on my hardware this is why I keep pondering about it on chat or on the forum to warn others but for some it might not be that way, and understandable that not anyone can change their hardware on a whim, I myself only got amd cause I straight up burned the 1660 ti with excessive overclocking lol.
Lastly I think AMD in general is better for user freedom not only cause of their open source drivers but they generally offer more control over their things like how they allow you to disable their Management Engine equivalent, PSP after CPU initialization, thus eliminating the secure boot problem, in conjunction with linux or modded windows.
Conversation not fit for desktop thread but felt like adding to it my bad