Is linux your daily driver?

[Dani]

Linux has come a long way, but it's still primarily a server OS, correct? How many of you linux fanboys and girls use it as your primary operating system for daily tasks? How does it compare to Windows or macOS in terms of productivity and overall user experience?

[Reverend Jim]

I've tried loinux several times over the years on spare computers, virtual machines, and a Raspberry Pi. I gave up on all of them because it was too difficult to maintain. Now all I use it for is Live USB recovery tools.

[Salem]

I use it all day, every day.

TBH, M$ stopped being an OS company after Windows 7 and the so-called OS just became a marketing tool to ram ever more crap in front of your face.

[Vince_6]

I used Linux on and off for years. I was finally willing to commit to Windows 11 when it installed some updates and it went into a reboot loop afterwards. I said screw it and went back to Linux. Been using it for months as my primary OS and I am quite happy with the decision.

[Dani]

I started this thread thinking about James, DaniWeb's sysadmin, who I was surprised to hear uses Windows as his daily driver, despite his proficiency in Linux. I believe he quoted things like Linux not being ideal for gaming.

I'm macOS only these days.

[Benjamin_17]

The last time I used Windows was Windows XP when I got a blue screen of death trying to install it. Since then, I have been daily driving with Linux (Ubuntu then Pop! then back to Ubuntu) since then. No real problems, yes I do not play the games I use to, but within Steam there is still quite a healthy choice to pick from. Honestly I would struggle going back now as I am used to the Linux environment. Occasionally I run into trouble with normal products from Microsoft (since I am in a Microsoft ecosystem with my job) where they might support some application with Linux on the first release, but then fail to keep the support going, but the basics are still covered.

[jkon]

I exclusively use Linux on my personal PCs, currently the Ubuntu distribution. I switched from Windows between 2010 and 2012. Before that, I used Linux on a different PC for several years, followed by a period of dual booting. Thanks to WINE, I have yet to encounter software I cannot run on my PC. I believe Ubuntu has become so user-friendly that even inexperienced users are unlikely to face significant problems. However, precisely because they might lack someone to ask for help – and often struggle with effective searching and understanding online resources – I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone completely unfamiliar with operating systems. My gaming experience is limited, so I can't comment on Ubuntu's performance in that area. Ultimately, I prefer an operating system that doesn't require me to constantly think about its usage, allowing for a seamless transition between work and personal tasks.

[Reverend Jim]

When I ran into problems with linux I found the online help was less than helpful. The help, when offered, consisted of experts explaining things to other experts, even though I mentioned that I was anything but. All help assumed I had much more knowledge than I did. The explanations sounded like Trek techno-babble.

[Reverend Jim]

Yes , that is still an issue...

Many years back a neighbour was taking an evening course to become more computer literate. She was confused one day, telling me that her instructor had tried to explain to the class what "formatting a disk" meant. He talked about magnetic fields, tracks, sectors, etc. but she was still in the dark as to what formatting actually did. In under 60 seconds I explained what formatting was in terms of paving and marking lines in a parking lot. As a bonus, once I was done she also understood fragmentation and file pointers as well as the difference between a full and quick format.

In order to be an effective communicator you have to be aware of your audience.

[Dani]

Wow, I'm surprised how many people here are primarily Linux users compared to how infrequently our Linux forum gets posted in these days.

[Ulfson]

Linux has come a long way, but it's still primarily a server OS, correct? How many of you linux fanboys and girls use it as your primary operating system for daily tasks?

I've been a Mac user for 30 years or so, as I like the hardware Apple makes. And macOS has a Unix command line, which I rely on heavily - getting the best of both worlds. I also use Windows, as I've had to in some companies, but not voluntarily :-) And yes, on servers it's Linux all the time.

[trcooke]

While I was at university 20 years ago one of my course friends regularly extolled the virtues of Linux. He was a big fan of Gentoo which I never really got into, he like fiddling with the configuration and I liked a working system, two characteristics that rarely overlapped for me except for rare moments.

But, I was sold on Linux in general and have been mostly an Ubuntu user since then. I've had a few diversions over the years into other distributions but they don't usually last long and it's back to Ubuntu. We use Ubuntu at work too, mainly because I am in the useful position of being able to decide what operating system we use in the development team. Since our production environment is Linux it's really useful that our development environment is also Linux. I will concede that you can achieve the same goal with Apple OSX since it's essentially Unix with a fancy Window Manager, but we didn't have the budget at the time. The company has matured a bit since then, i.e. we have some money now, and I floated the idea of getting Macs in the next hardware refresh but the team resisted it fairly strongly, so I guess they're all Linux users now too :)

[Dani]

If I can assume you attended university right out of high school (or at least the US equivalent), then that would put you at pretty much my age. Nice :)

Please switch to macOS. It's sooo much more refined, and I would say much more than BSD "with a fancy window manager" these days. Although I haven't used Linux for my personal PC in just over 20 years.

[trcooke]

Maybe a wee bit older than you Dani, I was 26 or 27 doing a Masters degree when I met my Linux loving friend. I'm 46 now.

I have had Macs but it annoys me that they get obsoleted by software long before the hardware runs out. My wife has a MacBook Air and it's great because it's zero effort to maintain but the cost is replacing it even when it's still in perfect working order, apart from nothing works because Apple have decided it's too old.

[fzlr]

Yes, it is.
I may be forced to work with Microsoft products at work but in my free time I'm using Aurora.
bootc is a GAME CHANGER.

[Adin_1]

Me as a teenager: dualboot debian + windows and even unironically Mandrake.
My in my 20s: vmware
My in my 30s, now: cygwin (yes really, it works great!).

This is the path of half-windows people: dualboot -> vmware -> cygwin.

[Dani]

As a teenager, I was all about playing around with linux and experimenting. Nowadays, it's all about what is the most efficient way I can be as productive as possible.

[Adin_1]

^ @Dani: Absolutely. Yet, I'm also a .NET person with moderate interest in gaming and development of games so Linux can't win me entirely. Though i know in recent years with ".net core" Microsoft put a lot of efforts to make net cross-platform so this leans things towards Linux, but another pro-windows point: viruses are no longer the threat they were in say 2010, trojans even on windows are rarity, hackers are almost exclusively targetting Android or cross platform web apps. For PHP however and C, Apache, Qt windows makes little sense. Another possible use: windows and VLC to remote linux (been there done that).

[Hans Jakup]

but another pro-windows point: viruses are no longer the threat they were in say 2010, trojans even on windows are rarity, hackers are almost exclusively targetting Android or cross platform web apps.

^ but another pro-windows point: viruses are no longer the threat they were in say 2010, trojans even on windows are rarity, hackers are almost exclusively targetting Android or cross platform web apps.

Don't bet to much on this, the attack of ransomware is pretty severe these days, and all cases I have heard of are attacking Windows users.

I have been using Fedora linux for 10+ years now, and there is no way back for me. The first thing I do thoug, is installing the Cinnamon desktop, as it suits me best. I also have a VirtualBox running Windows, as I'm still devoloping windows applications.

[Dani]

Absolutely. Yet, I'm also a .NET person with moderate interest in gaming and development of games so Linux can't win me entirely.

DaniWeb's sysadmin (with tons of Linux certifications under his belt) of 20+ years still runs Windows as his primary computer because he's a gamer too.