[Linux-Fan]

I wonder if this is due to Linux being harder to work on or because it is possible to fix some errors which would be catastrophic on other OSes?

Back when I used Windows a lot (Windwos XP times...) I also had the "long, scarring evening of frustation" rather often. It was usually solved by a reinstall.

In recent times, the “standard” seems to be smartphones (I use Android). The logic of smartphones it: It works or it dosen't and if it doesn't there is nothing you can do about it. Like ... not supporting some docking station because its network interface is called usb0 rather than eth0 ... no bypass, no solution, buy another docking station.

Of course this is faster than debugging the issue and maybe fixing it for good or maybe waste the evening on it.

Effectively Linux giving you the option to do something about errors doesn't mean the workarounds from other OSes like “reinstall”, “buy a new one”, “use a friend's system because it doesn't work here” are still readily available?

[queenkjuul]

If only this were the whole story, but my Windows gaming desktop has been running more or less without issue (barring hardware failure), no reinstalls, since 2019. I tried so hard to use Linux on my laptop for two years but eventually gave up; i reinstalled Ubuntu three times in those two years.

Now, my Ubuntu server has also been running continuously since 2019. Linux can be that solid for the right use case. I've got a Linux HTPC that's pretty worry free, too.

Linux just legitimately has some hard-if-not-impossible problems on random specific consumer hardware, sadly. Until manufacturers start actually supporting it, that'll always be the case. Manufacturers have gotten better about it too, though, and I'm hoping valve continues making official Linux support more appealing for device manufacturers.

I guess all I'm saying is, some things on Linux still actually just can't be fixed, and every platform is gonna give you a night of extreme frustration from time to time.

[godelski]

  > but my Windows gaming desktop has been running more or less without issue (barring hardware failure), no reinstalls, since 2019

This also describes my Linux desktop.

  > I tried so hard to use Linux on my laptop

Unfortunately comparing a laptop to a desktop is not a fair comparison. Things are better than they were in 2019 but display and battery are constant issues (especially if you have a laptop with an nvidia graphics card).[0]

I'm not trying to say Linux doesn't have issues, but I do need to point out that your logic has a strong bias to it. I'll also add that while I have no problems gaming on my Linux desktop (thanks Valve!!), I don't usually play online games or MMOs but my understanding is that this is problematic for Linux systems as anticheat is a pain.

[0] My friend has a Framework laptop which has PopOS on it and he's said he's had no issues with it. He's used other Linux laptops before and has expressed this has been a very different experience. I think it helps that they're more aware of the hardware and can do more robust testing on that hardware.