To make a long post short, windows is shitty but its setup bullshit is very straight forward and clear to deal with, linux is great when it works but its setup bullshit is byzantine as all hell. I got Linux working with only light bullshit on a laptop but just gave up entierly after 3 days of trying to get different distros at different advice working on my desktop.
windows is shitty but its setup bullshit is very straight forward and clear to deal with
Unfortunately, you definitely get a false sense of simplicity when you’re essentially forced down a lazy river of:
“Accept all these corporate agreements, make an account with our centralized authority structure, try to deny a litany of invasive ad permissions (you can’t turn it all off lol nice try.), enable our one touch AI button, shut up, and click go.”
"(Pulsing blue light) We’Re TaKiNg CaRe Of YoU. . ."
Some setup things in Linux can be confusing at first, like how I’ve agonized over the implications of which file system to use. (Settled on BTRFS for rollbacks, otherwise it doesn’t matter for 99.9% of people lol.)
But also I think we’re just at a sad point in history where computers are everywhere but people have terrible computer education (self included), and it’s left up to private interests who mainly want a cattle-like customer base.
…So everything seems scary and complicated.
I imagine cars would be the same way if we weren’t required to test for a license. They’re getting that way quickly though, people wanting a “Push ignition and turn off brain” machine that seemingly “just works” until it doesn’t and they must take it to Special Wizards. A black box which they ultimately have no control over, but feels “easy”.
I think it’s because people are forced to use these devices. Like driving, some people enjoy the act of computing. Linux is for those people.
When everybody is forced to use computers every day and most of those computers run something by Apple, Microsoft, or Google, anything else feels like yet another stupid thing to deal with.
TL;DR: Linux respects the user, but respect is built on a two way street of understanding. People hate learning because they’re systemically stressed TF out all the time.
In theory all Linux distributions support the same hardware. Its just that sometimes you need to manually install drivers and configure sth. And on Other distros you don’t need to do that for certain hardware.
I guess Linux Mint is usually pretty good at default support, but of course not everything will work.
Now about if certain hardware has Linux support:
Check if the manufacturer is claiming Linux support. This is the best case, you can assume it just works.
If there is no mention about it from the manufacturer it is still possible to have support. Use an online search machine and enter “specific hardware Linux support” or use linux mint instead of linux so that you can be sure it works for your distro.
What usually works almost always:
Motherboards(except if they are a few months old from release)
Keyboards (unless they are gaming keyboards with special tools like razer, then only the normal keyboard functions are working without special config)
Monitors
Grafic cards (they don’t work from day one release, you should always wait a few months)
I suspect Mint would work fine on that same desktop at this point, since it was just very new at the time and support take a bit to come in, but now its all set up how I want. Perhaps when windows next shits itself and I need to re-format anyway.
To make a long post short, windows is shitty but its setup bullshit is very straight forward and clear to deal with, linux is great when it works but its setup bullshit is byzantine as all hell. I got Linux working with only light bullshit on a laptop but just gave up entierly after 3 days of trying to get different distros at different advice working on my desktop.
Unfortunately, you definitely get a false sense of simplicity when you’re essentially forced down a lazy river of:
“Accept all these corporate agreements, make an account with our centralized authority structure, try to deny a litany of invasive ad permissions (you can’t turn it all off lol nice try.), enable our one touch AI button, shut up, and click go.”
"(Pulsing blue light) We’Re TaKiNg CaRe Of YoU. . ."
Some setup things in Linux can be confusing at first, like how I’ve agonized over the implications of which file system to use. (Settled on BTRFS for rollbacks, otherwise it doesn’t matter for 99.9% of people lol.)
But also I think we’re just at a sad point in history where computers are everywhere but people have terrible computer education (self included), and it’s left up to private interests who mainly want a cattle-like customer base.
…So everything seems scary and complicated.
I imagine cars would be the same way if we weren’t required to test for a license. They’re getting that way quickly though, people wanting a “Push ignition and turn off brain” machine that seemingly “just works” until it doesn’t and they must take it to Special Wizards. A black box which they ultimately have no control over, but feels “easy”.
I think it’s because people are forced to use these devices. Like driving, some people enjoy the act of computing. Linux is for those people.
When everybody is forced to use computers every day and most of those computers run something by Apple, Microsoft, or Google, anything else feels like yet another stupid thing to deal with.
TL;DR: Linux respects the user, but respect is built on a two way street of understanding. People hate learning because they’re systemically stressed TF out all the time.
True. Linux supports a lot of hardware. However some distros support some better than others.
Basically before you buy hardware you need to check if it works on Linux. Usually it does, but better check throughly
Is there some distribution or tool i could search my hardware specs for the best distro?
Uff, that one is difficult.
In theory all Linux distributions support the same hardware. Its just that sometimes you need to manually install drivers and configure sth. And on Other distros you don’t need to do that for certain hardware.
I guess Linux Mint is usually pretty good at default support, but of course not everything will work.
Now about if certain hardware has Linux support:
Check if the manufacturer is claiming Linux support. This is the best case, you can assume it just works.
If there is no mention about it from the manufacturer it is still possible to have support. Use an online search machine and enter “specific hardware Linux support” or use linux mint instead of linux so that you can be sure it works for your distro.
What usually works almost always:
Motherboards(except if they are a few months old from release)
Keyboards (unless they are gaming keyboards with special tools like razer, then only the normal keyboard functions are working without special config)
Monitors
Grafic cards (they don’t work from day one release, you should always wait a few months)
I suspect Mint would work fine on that same desktop at this point, since it was just very new at the time and support take a bit to come in, but now its all set up how I want. Perhaps when windows next shits itself and I need to re-format anyway.