I haven’t used Windows for more than 10 years and I’m happy too.
I think it’s worth repeating that Ubuntu has been available since 2005 (20 years now) and from the start it filled the needs of most users at home (i.e. watching crap on YouTube and using LibreOffice). Most users I have seen around me only have basic requirements and should have switched decades ago.
TL;DR: if you complain about your computer nowadays and don’t play games, install Ubuntu or Mint or anything else, I don’t care anymore.
Even playing games on Linux is much better now thanks to Steam. Never a better time to change. I want my next phone to have Ubuntu Touch as well. Fuck the horrible Google/Apple ecosystem.
Amusingly, I’ve seen that, and I’ve also considered the similarly named Volla phone built by the Germans. You can have Ubuntu Touch as well as their own Android-based VollaOS.
Shoutout to the crew at Lutris for their gaming platform as well. I play Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online with it, and couldn’t be more pleased with the performance.
Because my games library is much bigger in GoG than Steam, I’ve been using Lutris alongside the Steam App from the start (for over a year now) and the rate of no-hassle success I’ve had is just as good as with Steam and the whole process of installing a game from GoG and running it is just as slick in Lutris as doing so for Steam games in the Steam App.
Further, Lutris is much more open and flexible than Steam, so for example I’ve configured it to by default run my games inside a firejail sandbox with localhost-only networking, I can install games from many sources and formats rather than just digital distribution from a specific game store and it’s even perfectly possible to run pirated games with it (one of my Steam games won’t at all run in Linux, but a pirated version of it works just fine from Lutris), none of which is possible with Steam.
The actual gaming is just as seamless with Steam as with Lutris, but Steam is purposefully a closed solution highly integrated with a single games store, so it’s way more restrictive about what you can do with your games than Lutris (which follows the open source ethos, up to and including having a ton of obscure configuration options)
There is only a subset of Windows games left that does not run on Linux. Mostly games with kernelbased Anti-Cheat and a few other outliers. I’ve been gaming exclusively on Linux for years now. Have a look at the ProtonDB website to see if your favourite games are running on Linux
AAA games from around the 00s and 10s with heavy DRM are also often a problem, with the official version of a game not at all running in Linux no matter what you do, whilst a pirate version of the same game will work just fine.
I know we’re all eager to rag on Windows, but can we not act as though Ubuntu is a flawless replacement?
My tech-savvy mother and software engineering spouse have both tried switching to Ubuntu but ultimately switched to Windows and ChromeOS because of the constant errors and unreliability of Ubuntu. Everything from ambiguous “problem detected” messages at startup to terrible video performance and a lack of basic functionality out of the box like DPI settings per display or clipboard history. Even the most basic interaction with display settings cause Ubuntu to go haywire.
I’m well aware that Ubuntu can be customized, but I wish I could say it’s designed for daily use by the same demographic as Windows or Mac. Unfortunately, it’s really not.
Even corporate IT suffers. At my job, we have to apply updates pretty quickly. If Microsoft pushes a bad update, it’ll probably affect a lot of us. Or when they add a new feature like Copilot, they ship it without any administrative controls to turn it off.
I won’t deny it’s godawful to have shit split across AD, Group Policy, Regedit, and Azure/Entra/Intune.
But they very much still have controls for all this shit, almost always available before the feature rolls out. I’ve literally never seen this shit make it through to our end user devices in an un-intended fashion.
Hell, just hold non-security updates for a period of time for review before pushing it to your entire environment if this (not actually happening) issue is a concern. That’s like basic table stakes for Windows environment administration: update cadence management and pilot machines.
Please don’t claim to speak from a place of authority on this and then spread falsehoods. There’s plenty of shit to hate without making things up.
Like the third party app approvals in Azure and Teams defaulting to allow any non-admin user to be able to approve any azure app access to all of their data with no oversight. You can (and should) lock that the fuck down. It’s a batshit default, not a lack of controls.
The problem is Microsoft is trying to push the corporate environment away from on-prem infrastructure and into the cloud. There is less and less you can do from Active Directory and Group Policy, more and more of it gets moved to InTune everyday.
Microsoft is pushing Azure Arc as well, which is intended to let you manage your on-prem resources using your cloud management interfaces.
I can ignore it because I don’t have any of these issues. Haven’t read a single article in the last year or two that bitched about Windows problems I’ve seen IRL.
I can ignore them just fine since I am no longer using Windows.
I haven’t used Windows for more than 10 years and I’m happy too.
I think it’s worth repeating that Ubuntu has been available since 2005 (20 years now) and from the start it filled the needs of most users at home (i.e. watching crap on YouTube and using LibreOffice). Most users I have seen around me only have basic requirements and should have switched decades ago.
TL;DR: if you complain about your computer nowadays and don’t play games, install Ubuntu or Mint or anything else, I don’t care anymore.
Even playing games on Linux is much better now thanks to Steam. Never a better time to change. I want my next phone to have Ubuntu Touch as well. Fuck the horrible Google/Apple ecosystem.
This might interest you https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder
Amusingly, I’ve seen that, and I’ve also considered the similarly named Volla phone built by the Germans. You can have Ubuntu Touch as well as their own Android-based VollaOS.
https://volla.online/en/volla-phone/
damn that looks great. I can’t wait to get a decent linux phone!
Since the rise of proton gaming is now absolutely viable on Linux as well. The exclusive use cases for Windows are disappearing fast.
Shoutout to the crew at Lutris for their gaming platform as well. I play Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online with it, and couldn’t be more pleased with the performance.
https://lutris.net/
Because my games library is much bigger in GoG than Steam, I’ve been using Lutris alongside the Steam App from the start (for over a year now) and the rate of no-hassle success I’ve had is just as good as with Steam and the whole process of installing a game from GoG and running it is just as slick in Lutris as doing so for Steam games in the Steam App.
Further, Lutris is much more open and flexible than Steam, so for example I’ve configured it to by default run my games inside a firejail sandbox with localhost-only networking, I can install games from many sources and formats rather than just digital distribution from a specific game store and it’s even perfectly possible to run pirated games with it (one of my Steam games won’t at all run in Linux, but a pirated version of it works just fine from Lutris), none of which is possible with Steam.
The actual gaming is just as seamless with Steam as with Lutris, but Steam is purposefully a closed solution highly integrated with a single games store, so it’s way more restrictive about what you can do with your games than Lutris (which follows the open source ethos, up to and including having a ton of obscure configuration options)
Adobe has entered the chat
Edit: I guess you can use Adobe on Mac so it isn’t an example of windows exclusivity. They are what’s keeping me from going 100% to Linux, though
There is only a subset of Windows games left that does not run on Linux. Mostly games with kernelbased Anti-Cheat and a few other outliers. I’ve been gaming exclusively on Linux for years now. Have a look at the ProtonDB website to see if your favourite games are running on Linux
AAA games from around the 00s and 10s with heavy DRM are also often a problem, with the official version of a game not at all running in Linux no matter what you do, whilst a pirate version of the same game will work just fine.
Not questioning you, but curious to hear some examples since this hasn’t been my experience.
You can play almost any game on Linux these days. Often runs better than on Windows
I know we’re all eager to rag on Windows, but can we not act as though Ubuntu is a flawless replacement?
My tech-savvy mother and software engineering spouse have both tried switching to Ubuntu but ultimately switched to Windows and ChromeOS because of the constant errors and unreliability of Ubuntu. Everything from ambiguous “problem detected” messages at startup to terrible video performance and a lack of basic functionality out of the box like DPI settings per display or clipboard history. Even the most basic interaction with display settings cause Ubuntu to go haywire.
I’m well aware that Ubuntu can be customized, but I wish I could say it’s designed for daily use by the same demographic as Windows or Mac. Unfortunately, it’s really not.
I’ve been playing games on [K]Ubuntu just for almost a decade now. There are no excuses, and haven’t been for a long time.
I’ve never used Windows - apart from new workplace requiring it. I largely not see it, unless corporate IT screws up.
Even corporate IT suffers. At my job, we have to apply updates pretty quickly. If Microsoft pushes a bad update, it’ll probably affect a lot of us. Or when they add a new feature like Copilot, they ship it without any administrative controls to turn it off.
I won’t deny it’s godawful to have shit split across AD, Group Policy, Regedit, and Azure/Entra/Intune.
But they very much still have controls for all this shit, almost always available before the feature rolls out. I’ve literally never seen this shit make it through to our end user devices in an un-intended fashion.
Hell, just hold non-security updates for a period of time for review before pushing it to your entire environment if this (not actually happening) issue is a concern. That’s like basic table stakes for Windows environment administration: update cadence management and pilot machines.
Please don’t claim to speak from a place of authority on this and then spread falsehoods. There’s plenty of shit to hate without making things up.
Like the third party app approvals in Azure and Teams defaulting to allow any non-admin user to be able to approve any azure app access to all of their data with no oversight. You can (and should) lock that the fuck down. It’s a batshit default, not a lack of controls.
That’s what I heard from the guys managing group policy in my org. It’s been several years since I did any group policy admin.
I also remember something about Teams pushing features without control. Maybe it was when they started letting users create teams groups.
I thought one of the saving grace of windows corporate was having finer control?
The problem is Microsoft is trying to push the corporate environment away from on-prem infrastructure and into the cloud. There is less and less you can do from Active Directory and Group Policy, more and more of it gets moved to InTune everyday.
Microsoft is pushing Azure Arc as well, which is intended to let you manage your on-prem resources using your cloud management interfaces.
I don’t know what this guy is smoking. Copilot had administrative controls before it rolled out, through Intune and Group Policy.
I can ignore it because I don’t have any of these issues. Haven’t read a single article in the last year or two that bitched about Windows problems I’ve seen IRL.