Linux has loads of problems, but at least to me, I register these problems in a very different way.
The problems with Windows and MacOS are almost all the result of bad incentives, user hostile arrogant design, or just neglect. As such, the presence of these problems feels malcious, and it always feels like I'm pitted against the very company that I'm paying quite a bit of money to. I'm left with very little hope of things actually improving, because these companies seem to have no incentive to actually make their operating systems more useful or aligned with my needs.
On Linux, the problems are almost always just a result of "hey man, I tried my best to make something good and useful, but I either don't have the resources or the skills to get it all the way there." Sometimes things break or are ugly or whatever, but it's not malicious. There's a strong sense that things are rapidly improving, and that I can play a small part in helping those improvements along (via the patches I submit, or with donations or other forms of support). Because of this, I find the problems on Linux so much less frustrating than analogous problems on MacOS or Windows.
I also think a lot of people might not realize just how rapidly things have been improving on Linux. The situation today is pretty different versus even just 3-5 years ago.
> On Linux, the problems are almost always just a result of "hey man, I tried my best to make something good and useful, but I either don't have the resources or the skills to get it all the way there."
Or, since there are few to zero gatekeepers of UI and/or UX on Linux, you and the person who was responsible for the UI/UX in question just don't agree.
On Windows and macOS, at least for components provided by MS or Apple, there's a degree of gatekeeping that means you agree or disagree with one to 10 people. On Linux, not so much.
I think a lot of people on HN don't realize that some people require software outside of a terminal and a web browser. Can I run Ableton on linux? can I run all the audio plugins that only ship windows/mac versions? is there a decent graphics editor? (gimp is not it.) If all I did was play in the terminal and a web browser, I'd have switched to Linux by now.
Well, they do (what do you think powers the Push 3?) They just choose not to let you make that choice.
> can I run all the audio plugins that only ship windows/mac versions?
Obviously not (though yabridge can go quite a long way). Also note that you cannot run AudioUnit-only plugins on Windows, though there are not many released in only this format.
Fortunately, however, you can run Bitwig on Linux, along with one of a thousand or so 3rd party plugins. If you prefer a FLOSS alternative, those exist too, though the core functionality of Live & Bitwig is still not quite as polished (it is getting there, though).
Your point, however, is well taken. There's a world of software out there beyond the browser, and it is absolutely OS-dependent.
> a lot of people on HN don't realize that some people require software outside of a terminal and a web browser. Can I run Ableton on linux?
"$OS is wonderful because I can run $myapp"
and
"$OS is terrible because I cannot run $myapp"
are both very narrow (even wrong) assessments of what $OS offers.
Linux is much more than "a terminal and a Web browser" and I think the abundance of software available in Linux should make that obvious to anyone who is actually trying to do more than find satisfaction with $myapp.
you are correct, "$OS is wonderful because I can run $myapp" ; that's why I choose an OS, because it can run $myapp. Why would I want to run an os that doesn't run $myapp?
back in the day, I used Linux for everything, I spent hours just screwing around with Linux, and then for some reason I switched to MacOS and almost over night I went from just screwing around with settings all the time to actually doing something with the computer.
Exactly. There’s nothing that comes close to the Adobe suite. Maybe someday an investment similar to what was made in Proton will happen to Wine in general.
- Menu bar is not visible in windowed mode, can be accessed wth ALT+F and arrow keys
- Program needs to be fullscreen, non fullscreen window cannot be controlled/resized and mouse location data is innacurate
- Multiple Windows are a struggle because the program is fullscreen
- Sometimes the program becomes uncontrollable, even in fullscreen mode, the work around is press ctrl + , to open settings and then close settings, then the fullscreen program becomes controllable again
- Max for live doesn't work or works inconsistently, your millage may vary
Once you run the installer, and have a broken version of live running, you then have to install the Jack bridge to get audio working, after that you can install https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge to try and get some of your plugins working.
Windows is horrible, yes. But Linux definitely isn't "just as bad" as MacOS, it's already better, and it keeps getting better every year while MacOS keeps getting worse.
I think that depends a ton on what your hardware is.
For desktop, I think there's a real arugment to be made for Linux at this point.
For laptop, what laptop running Liunx has comporable hardware quality, battery life, and perfomance to an Apple Silicon mac? AFAIK most people say "Thinkpads!" and then immeidately turn around and say "well, the battery life is worse but I can just plug it in! Or "the trackpad is worse but I don't care!"
Obviously not representative, but recently I installed the most recent release of the "user friendliest desktop Linux" and tried to get it to stop asking me for my password, or asking me to select the user, on startup.
Not only is the issue spread across more than one similar sounding system setting which interact in strange and mysterious ways, but nothing works as designed or described. It's a horrible mess.
Searching for an fix was great: forums were full of sanctimonious "you shouldn't be doing that, it's not secure" and no solution.
I gave up. The average user has no chance with desktop Linux is my experience is any guide.
> But Linux definitely isn't "just as bad" as MacOS, it's already better
Is this better Linux in the room with us [1]?
My main gaming computer used to be Windows until this year when Windows has gone completely to shit. So first I ran Omarchy for a few months, and now running CachyOS because it's better for gaming.
Yeah... Even with things going to shit MacOS is still a better proposition (at least I have a working sleep and restore, and the OS remembers which windows need to be open next time you restart/go out of sleep, and in which locations). Though I haven't upgraded to Liquid Ass yet.
[1] Let's count the number of "oh, you chose the wrong distribution" and count the number of different distirbutions people will come up with that are 100% guaranteed to not have issues.
I will civilly contradict you about both MW11 and about Linux.
MW11 is rather good for usability. The failures at this point are the egregious telemetry, the spyware misfeatures (e.g. Recall), and the AI slop being squeezed into everything including Notepad for pity's sake.
Linux with Wayland is sweet. Gnome and KDE now use Wayland by default and they are celebrated for their usability. I personally have taken a leaner approach by opting for Sway (tiled) and labwc (floating) depending on the current task.
TL;dr _ Get with the times, Linux is great. Windows UX is actually rather good, but the leadership of MSFT continues to be ghoulish.
Unless you want to run KiCAD. Or Ardour. Or any other number of applications that assume X Window functionality that Wayland does not yet (and might never) support.
If the universe is an ever repeating pattern and time is meaningless in death, Karp will soon * endoftime^∞ buy that mansion again and again and again. Perhaps with in between variants where you buy that mansion or the mansion turns out to be a mountain goat.
Because Apple already does...? There's still PowerPC and MIPS code that runs in macOS. Asking for CUDA compatibility is not somehow too hard for the trillion-dollar megacorp to handle.
No, Waymo is just going to license their tech to normal automakers, like Toyota, and those licensees will win. Rivian is run by a Musk-wannabe but even this stock pump isn’t going to help with his sociopath, multibillion dollar compensation package.
The market wants them to sell the $40k cars asap. All the other side quests are distractions. When they spun off their electric bike side project, the stock went up.
Incendiary language aside, this does seem pretty likely to me. Waymo has already talked about wanting to license their driver for personally owned cars eventually; it just doesn't make sense for them to do so until they can cover more of the country (or countries). The more areas they cover, and especially when they can cover various popular freeways connecting different metro areas, the more it'll make sense for them to start partnering with automakers to sell the technology to consumers.
Congrats, you invented a codec five years after H.265 which is very cheap, but inferior to state of the art. Meanwhile, Apple will eventually add hardware support for VVC and retain the best user experience for 8K and beyond.
