Hockey
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Post by Hockey on May 23, 2020 0:40:40 GMT
Interestingly enough, I started thinking about this when another forums member was asking for tips on installing Linux. I had a Ubuntu installation, but quite frankly, it didn't feel much snappier than Windows, I thought it was ugly, and it came preloaded with a bunch of crapware that I didn't need. I decided to go Manjaro because it's based off of Arch and has a growing user base. Installation was pretty easy, but I did delete the partition that contained the bootloader (which was a pain to fix, but fixed nontheless). I downloaded the KDE version of Manjaro because I thought it looked nicer (and because there were more customization tutorials), and I am very happy with the end result. Here are some things I learned in the process: Linux IS viable for gaming.This was my primary concern going in, because I didn't want to have to flip between OSs. My main games rn are CS:GO, Warframe, Terraria, and MC, which all work completely smooth on Linux. Even games that don't have native Linux support run near flawlessly when combined with Steam Proton (I use a custom fork that helped solve a few issues). The only games that don't work are (some) games from Epic Games Store as well as games with heavy anti-cheat software like Siege, PUBG, and Fortnite. ProtonDB and Lutris have been indispensable, and they keep a list of games that work on Linux and games that don't. You'd be surprised at how many games you play are either native to Linux or work extremely well using a compatibility layer. UNIX is amazing, and you will have to tinker (a little).Linux is getting more and more user friendly. I've been able to get almost all of my apps through the package manager (including steam, discord, and more). Having a UNIX-based terminal on my main OS has been a godsend, and its been extremely useful. Things like SSH and basic network firewalling are so much better on Manjaro than Windows. That said, I have had to do a little tinkering to get a few things working like fixing low volume on Airpods and disabling systemd-resolved in favor of dnsmasq (I've literally never had a good experience with systemd-resolved, almost always have to switch because it breaks/doesn't work). Other than that, it's been pretty great so far. Linux can be really sexy (or really barebones).This is what Manjaro KDE looked like before I did any customizing (not too bad): This is what my setup now looks like, and I definitely prefer it to Windows: It's just snappier and more convenient for my workflow.I do some pretty techy things, and I do a lot of systems administration work, so having a Linux setup has just been so convenient. In general, my apps load faster than on Windows. Some things load MARKEDLY faster, like Intellij. Intellij on Windows took me like an entire minute to open. On Manjaro, it takes probably 10 seconds. Everything about Manjaro just feels faster. There's so much less system overhead, so it's got way more juice to give to things that actually matter. The experience has been so great that I've made Manjaro my main operating system now. I really don't like having to move to Windows because it's just slower and (imo) uglier. If you're interested in making the hop, lmk, because I'd love to talk. Hope this guide gave you a few insights or maybe even inspired you to make the switch! don't @ me about the i3. that's why i'm a barista now
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Post by Polaris Seltzeris on May 23, 2020 0:49:48 GMT
It's easy to use Linux and make it so much more appealing than Windows 10. The ugly commercialization of Windows (who the fuck wants to see Candy Crush the second they open the start menu?), the totally redundant Microsoft Store, horrific UWP API, and flat minimalist design takes all of the spirit out of the system that ever made it usable and popular in the past. In my opinion, though, nothing will ever beat this:
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Post by Telesphoreo on May 23, 2020 1:09:59 GMT
I personally have had great experiences with Linux. I love that everything works so well out of the box. My printer seems to perform the best on Ubuntu (no random disconnects, ALWAYS prints). The reason I've stuck with Windows is because there's no good alternative to ShareX (been looking for one that works on macOS and Linux FOREVER), and it doesn't work with Wine.
The problems I had were all the small things that just kept adding up. My mouse's middle click button didn't work, and there was no easy way to fix that. I had no idea where programs were actually installed (like C:\Program Files) so I couldn't tell FileZilla to open Notepad++ to edit files. Linux is great, but it's just all the small things that added up that made me stay on Windows.
The only thing keeping me from switching entirely to OS X is no good alternative to ShareX (the closest I've got is Dropshare 5, but the annotation features are terrible and you can't screenshot a window like you can on ShareX automatically). The built in tool is ok, but doesn't upload to SFTP, which is what I need the most.
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Post by Polaris Seltzeris on May 23, 2020 1:19:46 GMT
but it's just all the small things that added up that made me stay on Windows. This is pretty much it for most people. I'm the type of person that will try to keep their same install of Windows for decades, and for me it would be a whole lot more convenient to just install Windows 7 if I had to than switch to Linux.
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fionn
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Post by fionn on May 23, 2020 3:36:27 GMT
I'm actually thinking about switching to Linux but I'm not that knowledgable regarding Linux and all that in general. I installed Ubuntu on my PC once, like 2 years ago and immediately switched back to the lack of accessibility for applications I had whilst running Windows. Just looking at your screenshots, that looks miles better than Windows. And 10 seconds to launch Intellij? That's mad...
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Wild1145
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Post by Wild1145 on May 23, 2020 12:30:09 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux?
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square
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Post by square on May 23, 2020 13:12:56 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux? i personally have found that a method of virtualising both windows and mac on native speeds due to pcie passover has many benefits (it does require 2 gpus however) this allows me to: - copy and paste windows from a past save when an update or something bugs out, - privacy is not a concern, - have both linux/mac/windows running at the same time with no obvious speed impairments here's the link if you want to try it outthis of course is overkill and if you want things like MS office you'll have to sacrifice it for some linux counterpart sadly. you could try a regular vm with windows running on linux
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Wild1145
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Post by Wild1145 on May 23, 2020 13:25:06 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux? i personally have found that a method of virtualising both windows and mac on native speeds due to pcie passover has many benefits (it does require 2 gpus however) this allows me to: - copy and paste windows from a past save when an update or something bugs out, - privacy is not a concern, - have both linux/mac/windows running at the same time with no obvious speed impairments here's the link if you want to try it outthis of course is overkill and if you want things like MS office you'll have to sacrifice it for some linux counterpart sadly. you could try a regular vm with windows running on linux Yeah, tbh for me at that point it defets the point of running Linux. The benefit is running a lighter weight OS that is actually free. If you still have to run Windows in parallel than it's not really worth it for me. And I quite like MacOS so wouldn't run Windows on my Mac anyway, got remote desktop servers for that
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Post by DragonSlayer2189 on May 23, 2020 17:51:54 GMT
i like macos, its prob just cuz thats the OS i have had for most of my life, but, i love it, and i find it rly hard to switch to something like linux
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Hockey
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Post by Hockey on May 24, 2020 0:17:20 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux? I use Google Docs exclusively for school (ikik probably not the best solution as far as privacy is concerned). There’s also a really great company called “Arcane” that has created an end-to-end encrypted Google Docs like solution for docs, sheets, and slides. There’s a few other really good docs solutions on a platform called Blockstack if you’re interested. In what ways do you find them lacking? Function? Form? I personally find ugly software harder to use (just feel less motivated to use the things and learn it), so if that’s the major issue, there’s almost certainly theming available. Also Office Online. Never tried it but might be worth a look.
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Hockey
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Post by Hockey on May 24, 2020 0:19:12 GMT
I'm actually thinking about switching to Linux but I'm not that knowledgable regarding Linux and all that in general. I installed Ubuntu on my PC once, like 2 years ago and immediately switched back to the lack of accessibility for applications I had whilst running Windows. Just looking at your screenshots, that looks miles better than Windows. And 10 seconds to launch Intellij? That's mad... You’d be surprised the number of applications that run as if native when paired with Wine/Steam Proton. My experience with Manjaro has been much better than Ubuntu (less smooth at the start, but well worth it in the end), so I would highly recommend it. Ive just found it to be snappier and overall better to use. Definitely HMU if you want to talk/see the OS in action, or ask questions.
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Fleek
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Post by Fleek on May 24, 2020 0:30:30 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux? I use Google Docs exclusively for school (ikik probably not the best solution as far as privacy is concerned). There’s also a really great company called “Arcane” that has created an end-to-end encrypted Google Docs like solution for docs, sheets, and slides. There’s a few other really good docs solutions on a platform called Blockstack if you’re interested. In what ways do you find them lacking? Function? Form? I personally find ugly software harder to use (just feel less motivated to use the things and learn it), so if that’s the major issue, there’s almost certainly theming available. Also Office Online. Never tried it but might be worth a look. I would not recommend using office online, I used it for school last year and did not have a good experience with it especially when uploading documents and opening it (screws up the formatting).
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StevenNL2000
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Post by StevenNL2000 on May 24, 2020 7:15:20 GMT
I use Google Docs exclusively for school (ikik probably not the best solution as far as privacy is concerned). There’s also a really great company called “Arcane” that has created an end-to-end encrypted Google Docs like solution for docs, sheets, and slides. There’s a few other really good docs solutions on a platform called Blockstack if you’re interested. In what ways do you find them lacking? Function? Form? I personally find ugly software harder to use (just feel less motivated to use the things and learn it), so if that’s the major issue, there’s almost certainly theming available. Also Office Online. Never tried it but might be worth a look. I would not recommend using office online, I used it for school last year and did not have a good experience with it especially when uploading documents and opening it (screws up the formatting). Agreed. The only problem with Google Docs is that it is missing some advanced features, but Office Online actually doesn't work properly.
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Wild1145
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Post by Wild1145 on May 24, 2020 11:42:11 GMT
I've been tempted for a few years to make the switch but to be honest it's just not something that bothers me all that much. I use a Linux desktop at work as a development environment and like it's okay, and in a lot of ways it's easier to work with than Windows, but the other thing for me is I'm a fairly heavy user of MS Office, and have found the open source alternatives to be pretty shit. How have you found that sort of thing with making the Jump to Linux? I use Google Docs exclusively for school (ikik probably not the best solution as far as privacy is concerned). There’s also a really great company called “Arcane” that has created an end-to-end encrypted Google Docs like solution for docs, sheets, and slides. There’s a few other really good docs solutions on a platform called Blockstack if you’re interested. In what ways do you find them lacking? Function? Form? I personally find ugly software harder to use (just feel less motivated to use the things and learn it), so if that’s the major issue, there’s almost certainly theming available. Also Office Online. Never tried it but might be worth a look. Yeah, I'm a bit of a power user with Office so Outlook I use quite a lot, MS Project and MS Visio and while I know there are other tools I could switch to, it ends up as compatibility issues, plus I use O365 and OneDrive for my own business and we found GSuite was never that great in comparison. Hopefully it'll only be a few more years until Office is 'Standard' on Linux as well, as it certainly does gain popularity, and MS will just end up loosing more and more market share the longer they don't. They had to do it for Mac a few years back so hopefully will realize the same for Linux.
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Video
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Post by Video on May 24, 2020 22:31:38 GMT
One of my many complaints about Linux is how unfriendly it is to new users.
Despite the claims by its userbase that it is a viable replacement to an operating system like Windows, it's absolutely not. Many issues are solved in Linux using the Terminal and the commands required to do that differ from forum to forum, in contrast to Windows where most issues don't rely on the command prompt at all to fix them.
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