The funny thing is that the biggest practical benefit to most Linux users is not the access to do these things.
It is the secondary effects of not needing to restrict access in order to preserve lock-in and enshittification. It makes the whole user experience better because it is only doing wider you’ve asked it to do. For example, I apply updates more quickly on Linux than I ever did on Windows, even though my Linux DEs are way less pushy about it, because the process is an absolute breeze!
Look at each OS option like you were a product development team, and think “who are my stakeholders?”
The commercial products have long lists of what’s driving the product features and anti-features. Linux has the developers who want the code to be helpful and stay free, and the users who want it to do what it says on the tin, with the option to audit or modify the system’s code. But of course it’s still run by humans, so big personalities and bad actors and whatnot do affect things.
I can’t stop you from breaking the whole system when you try to configure something and you do it wrong 😅
That’s the burden of assuming the operator is a person capable of understanding the consequences of their actions.
looks at the camera
“When will you learn!!! When will you learn that YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!!”
On Linux you can indeed install old apps. You will just need to spend few hours doing so… or use Flatpak I guess.
I use Debian GNU/Linux ftw.
The updates are unwelcome because currently the updates remove desirable functionality while adding unwanted functionality. If they removed the ads and AI, they might actually stop the bleeding.
A serious software company offers separate update channels for feature updates and security updates. But not Microsoft. They don’t offer the bread and the shit separately. You have to eat the whole shit sandwich.
i’ve used linux and i got to say it’s gotten way better than it was a few years ago. most of the stuff works and only had to troubleshoot like a few times
Also, troubleshooting in Linux is different than on Windows. Every time I had to fix a problem with my Linux system I walked away smarter than before. I learned a bit more about how my computer works, so in total it was a slightly positive experience for me.
But anytime I had to troubleshoot my Windows computer it was because Microsoft fucked something up. Fixing Windows feels like wasted time to me, because you never know when they will break it again.
But anytime I had to troubleshoot my Windows computer
"Hi, my name is Gilbert from Microsoft Support volunteer program! Please try the following and report back:
- Uninstall all drivers, reboot, reinstall all drivers.
- Reinstall all your hardware by re-seating it.
- Delete and recreate your user account.
- Run chkdsk.
- IP config for no real reason but hey text output feels like progress.
- a dozen other steps. . .
- Completely reformat and reinstall Windows.
…And let us know if that fixes the issue!"
I’m convinced I would need to do a lot more troubleshooting on windows nowadays. Just turning off all the AI is probably a pain in the ass.
i constantly have to troubleshoot my linux computers, but still less than my windows laptop, which is a pain to even boot up
Is your Windows laptop still running a spinning disk? Putting a SSD in there is a game changer.
no it has a tiny ssd, but every time windows takes about 30 min to 2 hours to start because it’s configuring and updating and rebooting before i get to even log in. kubuntu starts in a minute but i have to go through a blindingly white bios menu to start it and then it can’t suspend or even shutdown properly…
Yikes, less than 60 GB? I’m betting you are practically out of disk space and/or you don’t have enough memory. What’s the model laptop?
If you feel really froggy, post the memory configuration too: number of sticks and size.
I realize it’s a Linux conversation, but some people need Windows-only tools. Case in point: there is no way I’m updating insulin pump firmware via a compatibility layer
Wanna remove the only way to boot into the computer? Go ahead, you are in control. But sure hope you have a baxkup boot loader somewhere lol
Linux really doesn’t get bragging rights for “install[ing] old applications”. Linux ironically has been somewhat better for me than Windows for running older Windows applications thanks to WINE, but when it comes to installing old Linux applications, even when I wasn’t on a rolling release distro, it’s been a total crapshoot.
If, for example, there’s a native Linux game that hasn’t been updated in a few years, my experience buying it has generally been hoping the Linux version works, it doesn’t, and I’m stuck running it through WINE.
PCSX2 1.6.0, which used wxWidgets, released May 2020, and even five years after that, opening it on Linux shows you a frozen, unusable window that you have to manually kill. (citing PCSX2 because it’s a use case of mine as a contributor.) IIIRC, on Windows, you can straight-up go back to versions from like 2010 and still have them work.
The linux way to handle it is with a
chroot. Used to do this back in the day to get 32bit libraries on a 64bit distro that didn’t include 32bit libraries.chrootis the basis for modern containerization technologies. These days, I usually use it for bleeding edge application builds that don’t have a build for my distro, yet. Distrobox makes it pretty simple. With distrobox, you can install the application you need in the OS that supports the application you want, then just map the binary into your OS.See here: https://distrobox.it/useful_tips/#export-to-the-host
The reason this is a problem is that devs think they need to save 10MB of RAM by dynamically linking libc instead of statically compiling it or just including the blob with the game.
Puritans on Linux are a real menace. Every time someone calls an OS install image of 3-4gb “bloated” I want to scream uncontrollably. Not statically linking stuff is part of this cultural issue.
Flatpak might solves these issues in the long run. Of course the same people therefore hate it, because it’s “bloated” and “convoluted”.
<rant> How dare we have different versions of the same lib! Where will we end up, like MS Windows? Where I can boot up apps as old as myself? Outrageous! Not my precious mibibytes!). </rant>
You can add to the dog “I support a global a global human trafficking and child rape network.”
Moreso than the Apple dude?
And the Google dudes too?
They’re all the same: billionaires.
Remove le French at once I say!!
What a nice way to say
sudo rm -fr /You can tell it’s sudo by the “I say!!” at the end :).
