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TsomArp | 5 years ago

I have to agree with you.

I consider myself a geek, a fairly advanced user of software and a software developer.

I have been trying different versions of Linux since the Mandrake Linux times, so about what, 20 years?

I always come back to Windows, which from Windows 2000 has been getting better and better. Of course there have been sh*t moments like Windows Vista and Windows 8, but Windows 2k, XP, 7, and now 10 (enterprise version), have always been good to me.

I can use Linux for sure, and I appreciate the effort the community does, however, for my use case, I don't see the advantage of using Linux over Windows, and I find many disadvantages: missing software (office, adobe, although I have run it under wine), missing or not perfect drivers (energy efficiency is a problem even on thinkpads).

Again, I really like the effort, and if I must use it, I can, but I don't see the advantage.

Now, I use it on my dad's computer (he is 80), as it is much difficult for him to screw up than Windows.

discuss

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ACS_Solver|5 years ago

I think it really comes down to what software you need, more than proficiency. Just like you, I'm an advanced user, a software developer, and Mandrake was my first serious Linux.

For me though, software isn't missing on Linux, it's missing on Windows. I rarely need an office suite, and my needs are limited to simple Word/Writer documents and even simpler Excel/Calc spreadsheets, so even MS Office 97 or StarOffice 5 have all the needed features (minus support for XML file formats). The extent of image editing I do is limited to cropping, rotating and resizing images, so even GIMP is way overkill.

On the other hand, the software I do use and like is a pain on Windows. First it's basic text manipulation tools. Things like grep and sed are missing on Windows, and I want to e.g. "replace this line in all files in this folder" far more often than I open an Excel file. I use SSH, which isn't on Windows, and applications like putty are great but don't provide anywhere near the seamless experience that Linux has with SSH. Then there's the desktop environment itself - I use KDE Plasma 5 and find it amazing, having been a fan of KDE since 3.5. I like KDE Plasma overall much more than Windows Explorer, and then there are the individual power features, e.g. I have a button on the titlebar that toggles always-on-top for a window, and I exclude certain applications from appearing in the taskbar because they already have a systray icon.

I use Linux at work, and haven't had to boot Win7 at home since Steam Proton. I've heard that Win10 makes some things better, like it has built-in SSH. But I haven't tried Win10 myself, and at this point it'd take some Windows killer feature to make me switch.

TsomArp|5 years ago

Agree with you. It is a matter of what software do you need.

That said, for my use case, I have never found a software that I need on Windows that is only available on Linux.

The opposite happens to me a lot.

Nginx487|5 years ago

Probably we use different Windows. Cygwin installation is simple and gives you grep, sed, ssh, any Unix utility. Windows 10 comes with complete Linux Subsystem.

majkinetor|5 years ago

Say it like it is, you don't know the tools, not that they are missing.

> grep and sed are missing on Windows,

cinst grep sed dngrep ...

> "replace this line in all files in this folder"

Everything file search engine is beyond anything LInux has to offer.

> I use SSH, which isn't on Windows,

cist mls-software-openssh

Besides, Open SSH is now OTB in Windows

> use KDE Plasma 5 and find it amazing, having been a fan of KDE since 3.5. I like KDE Plasma overall much more than Windows Explorer,

All GUIs everywhere are equal SHIT. Its just your preference.

GoblinSlayer|5 years ago

I use grep and ssh on windows regularly, didn't find any problems yet, have sed too.

utxaa|5 years ago

check out the WSL. that's the killer feature that will cause me to switch.