> Just today I dumped Windows 11 and moved to Linux, lots to learn but wow, so nice not to be inside their walls.
Well, best of luck. I don’t regret switching from Windows to Linux decades ago, I learned a lot, but I can’t say the problems ever stopped. If anything, I ran into more issues than I did on Windows, many of them caused by things I did at the command line, and others due to quirks or bugs in open‑source software. Still, it was a long learning journey that ended up helping my career. I’m not sure you’ll have the same steep learning curve we did back then, but I hope the switch pays off for you.
I've used Linux (and FreeBSD) for decades. My first linux distribution was Yggdrasil Plug & Play Linux Fall 1994 (https://github.com/jtsagata/Yggdrasil-1994). Windows stuck around for gaming.
My experience may have been different as Linux was less mature back then, but ultimately i had a lot of "issues" that required Linux knowledge to fix, so while it was "fine" for me, i wouldn't push it to my family for day to day usage.
Since then i've moved pretty much everyone to Mac. My parents, my in-laws, wife, kids, all use Macs, and the number of "support" calls have fallen from weekly to "once or twice per year", and that's compared to when they ran Windows.
Linux on the desktop is certainly better than it was a decade ago (i still lurk and install new releases from time to time), but it's still a far cry from being optimized for the average user that just needs things to work. Not saying it won't ever get there, but it will take some effort to make it frictionless.
guessmyname|1 month ago
Well, best of luck. I don’t regret switching from Windows to Linux decades ago, I learned a lot, but I can’t say the problems ever stopped. If anything, I ran into more issues than I did on Windows, many of them caused by things I did at the command line, and others due to quirks or bugs in open‑source software. Still, it was a long learning journey that ended up helping my career. I’m not sure you’ll have the same steep learning curve we did back then, but I hope the switch pays off for you.
8fingerlouie|1 month ago
My experience may have been different as Linux was less mature back then, but ultimately i had a lot of "issues" that required Linux knowledge to fix, so while it was "fine" for me, i wouldn't push it to my family for day to day usage.
Since then i've moved pretty much everyone to Mac. My parents, my in-laws, wife, kids, all use Macs, and the number of "support" calls have fallen from weekly to "once or twice per year", and that's compared to when they ran Windows.
Linux on the desktop is certainly better than it was a decade ago (i still lurk and install new releases from time to time), but it's still a far cry from being optimized for the average user that just needs things to work. Not saying it won't ever get there, but it will take some effort to make it frictionless.