Windows 11, heavily modified with Group Policy Editor. No Microsoft account though.
I’d love to use Linux… But I’ve tried Mint, Ubuntu, pure Debian and Pop_OS and they all have severe issues with my hardware: from audio stuttering to dropped frames in hardware accelerated video decoding to random boot issues. Plus, some of the software I unfortunately use doesn’t support Linux. And even my game controller didn’t work correctly.
Most of the times it is not that it isn’t stable, is more that you’re trying to do thinks the Windows way but I get that learning the Linux way can be hard since most of the times it’s not obvious or intuitive.
Sorry, but no. Putting that on the users is a no-go.
I agree that Linux is generally stable - when it works (i.e. hardware well supported and the pains of installing and initial setup is gone). But the experience to get to that point is still far from polished, and that don’t usually has anything to do with user expectations on how the OS should work.
I’ve been using Linux on the desktop on and off since 1998 aproximately - way before it was “cool” - and that has always been the case - it was always “almost there, but not quite”. That’s not a knock on developers either (I’m a developer myself, just not on Linux) - Linux for server stuff is excellent and I’ve always used it for that, but user experience for desktop stuff always had wrinkles, and I understand how many user experience problems can be hard to solve for developers (who more often than not are volunteers) for many reasons, just let’s not put that on the users: things are the way they are for reasons that, at heart, often go beyond users or developers - market, business politics, etc.
I use Windows 11 – mildly modified – StartAllBack for a proper start menu and taskbar experience. I have it pretty much exactly as I want it without any annoyances.
I’m perfectly comfortable with Linux but I feel the same as you about using it on the desktop for all the same reasons.
Start11 to bring back the windows 10 start menu is the only reason I am able to keep windows 11 as a daily driver.
I am still lost on how anyone thought the abomination of the windows 11 start menu and the inability to move the start bar to the side or top was a good idea.
I can’t stand Windows 11’s start menu because I feel like it’s too basic up-front, and then when you search anything, it’s completely ad ridden. I’ve been using Startisback to fix this; however, I never really liked the start menu from Windows 7 and prior. The W10 start menu has always been my favorite.
I’m a windows user but recently I’ve been thinking that I’d like to learn linux - so I rented a cheap docker server - it’s still sat there untouched for now! Can I ask you: how did you get into linux, what do you really like about it and do you have any thoughts on if starting with a docker server is a good way forward to learning linux?
Some distros, like Fedora, don’t come with proprietary codecs needed for MPEG or hardware video acceleration, due to legal or ideological reasons. Unfortunately, if you don’t know that you have to install them manually, or even how, which ones and where to find them, it does seem like Linux is being difficult on purpose. Most Flatpaks from Flathub (the apps you install on the Steam Deck) include those codecs, however, so at least for them it works out of the box.
In case anyone reading this wants to know how to install the necessary codecs on Fedora, here’s their documentation page to enable RPM Fusion.
That’s a good comment in general, leave it up so users can learn about it, but not applicable to my situation unfortunately. I had installed all proprietary codecs and drivers, and could verify within the browser that decoding was indeed using the correct format and hardware. It just dropped lots of frames, which the same hardware doesn’t on Windows.
In that case, I’m sorry you had such a struggle to use Linux with your hardware configuration 😔. I hope that you will have more luck the next time you try it 😉.
Windows 11, heavily modified with Group Policy Editor. No Microsoft account though.
I’d love to use Linux… But I’ve tried Mint, Ubuntu, pure Debian and Pop_OS and they all have severe issues with my hardware: from audio stuttering to dropped frames in hardware accelerated video decoding to random boot issues. Plus, some of the software I unfortunately use doesn’t support Linux. And even my game controller didn’t work correctly.
Same here. Tried so many different versions of Linux and none have been stable so back on Windows 11.
Most of the times it is not that it isn’t stable, is more that you’re trying to do thinks the Windows way but I get that learning the Linux way can be hard since most of the times it’s not obvious or intuitive.
Sorry, but no. Putting that on the users is a no-go.
I agree that Linux is generally stable - when it works (i.e. hardware well supported and the pains of installing and initial setup is gone). But the experience to get to that point is still far from polished, and that don’t usually has anything to do with user expectations on how the OS should work.
I’ve been using Linux on the desktop on and off since 1998 aproximately - way before it was “cool” - and that has always been the case - it was always “almost there, but not quite”. That’s not a knock on developers either (I’m a developer myself, just not on Linux) - Linux for server stuff is excellent and I’ve always used it for that, but user experience for desktop stuff always had wrinkles, and I understand how many user experience problems can be hard to solve for developers (who more often than not are volunteers) for many reasons, just let’s not put that on the users: things are the way they are for reasons that, at heart, often go beyond users or developers - market, business politics, etc.
I use Windows 11 – mildly modified – StartAllBack for a proper start menu and taskbar experience. I have it pretty much exactly as I want it without any annoyances.
I’m perfectly comfortable with Linux but I feel the same as you about using it on the desktop for all the same reasons.
Start11 to bring back the windows 10 start menu is the only reason I am able to keep windows 11 as a daily driver.
I am still lost on how anyone thought the abomination of the windows 11 start menu and the inability to move the start bar to the side or top was a good idea.
THANK YOU. I’M SO GLAD I FOUND THIS.
I can’t stand Windows 11’s start menu because I feel like it’s too basic up-front, and then when you search anything, it’s completely ad ridden. I’ve been using Startisback to fix this; however, I never really liked the start menu from Windows 7 and prior. The W10 start menu has always been my favorite.
There are also some method for disabling internet results in the start menu search; I will try to find the method I used tonight and share that.
I’m a windows user but recently I’ve been thinking that I’d like to learn linux - so I rented a cheap docker server - it’s still sat there untouched for now! Can I ask you: how did you get into linux, what do you really like about it and do you have any thoughts on if starting with a docker server is a good way forward to learning linux?
Windows 11 thats heavily modded with Windows 10 explorer and such. Also, I really hope we can have hyprland on Ubuntu.
What applications do you use to modify it, if you don’t mind me asking?
Some distros, like Fedora, don’t come with proprietary codecs needed for MPEG or hardware video acceleration, due to legal or ideological reasons. Unfortunately, if you don’t know that you have to install them manually, or even how, which ones and where to find them, it does seem like Linux is being difficult on purpose. Most Flatpaks from Flathub (the apps you install on the Steam Deck) include those codecs, however, so at least for them it works out of the box.
In case anyone reading this wants to know how to install the necessary codecs on Fedora, here’s their documentation page to enable RPM Fusion.
That’s a good comment in general, leave it up so users can learn about it, but not applicable to my situation unfortunately. I had installed all proprietary codecs and drivers, and could verify within the browser that decoding was indeed using the correct format and hardware. It just dropped lots of frames, which the same hardware doesn’t on Windows.
In that case, I’m sorry you had such a struggle to use Linux with your hardware configuration 😔. I hope that you will have more luck the next time you try it 😉.