When will they ever learn?
Glad that they specified WindyPlop11. Linux wins in every branch of every one its splendid variations
If they were actively trying to push people towards Linux, would their choices look any different? Perplexing.
IMO they’d be wise to take every step they can to make the OS feel like it belongs to the user, but more and more the attitude seems to be “it’s our OS, so we do what we want” which is their right, but it’s shit marketting that makes them feel more like Apple every day.
Good for them. Chrome needs a corporate competitor, and the recent lawsuits that (I think) prevent Google from giving FireFox hundred million dollar bribes might lead to a diminished product.
If my school didn’t absolutely require windows I would be fully Linux at this point.
I do have a few other pet peewees too for Linux, despite having that on my ThinkPad.
- GDB is pretty uncomfortable to use.
- The only usable GDB GUI is a glorified webpage by none other, than Micro$lop.
- Some low-level API (sound, input, etc.) are absolutely dogshit compared to their Windows counterparts (still haven’t found anything on how to specify to ALSA if I want to open a device other that
default, and how exactly, just found a massive issue with Evdev, etc.). - Want something better than those? jUsT USe sDl, except SDL is kind of dogshit under Windows (DirectInput/XInput + DirectAudio instead of newer APIs), could not get its audio system working at all as people were instead suggesting me to use MP3 player DLLs instead of writing my own audio solutions, etc.
VS Code is far from the best GDB GUI; in fact I would confidently say that everything about running and debugging in VS Code has been the biggest pain I have ever experienced. even with its recent decade of inattention from the community, Eclipse CDT is miles better than this thing. i’d wager that even Qt Creator is better than it
Anyways, JetBrains recently made CLion free for non-commercial, so that’s what you should use. it is obviously better than VS Code
Honestly (and probably naïvely), what exactly is it that Windows can do that you couldn’t do on another OS? Why would a school need to force such a retarded requirement?
As someone who has been dealing with exactly this issue with my new employer’s enterprise ICT department, I have some insight to share.
When you have thousands and thousands of laptops that you need to manage, it becomes a burden for the in-house IT department, so they often farm it out to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is particularly common for organisations like schools and hospitals that often don’t even have an in-house IT department. The MSP will install policies and management software on the laptops to ensure the OS is up to date, the antivirus is not disabled, the VPN is configured correctly, passwords are changed regularly, etc.
Yes of course there are linux-native solutions for each of these things, but the MSP doesn’t support it, doesn’t offer that service. To keep their service prices affordable for enterprise organisations, MSPs usually hire the lowest cost technicians and support staff. These poor underpaid staff probably have never even heard of Linux. The MSP can increase their marketable value by advertising the certifications they’ve attained. The certifications are provided by Microsoft and are related to Microsoft software and systems.
If you have a small fleet of devices and an in-house IT team that has a bunch of Linux enthusiasts, and a user base who drives demand, then it is possible to support Linux. But it requires a lot of effort and dedication. My old employer did that. They had a fleet of around 5,500 devices (a mix of desktops and laptops), mostly Windows, approx 500 of them were macbooks, and about 50 were Linux. Some of these were users who needed to use software that is available only on Linux, some were like me who are simply more productive and efficient using a linux-based OS. But maintaining, administering and supporting those 50 Linux devices took around 20% of the time of the IT department. That’s massively disproportionate to the number of Linux users.
Not long after I left there, the new CTO put an end to that, they saw and easy cost saving by simply refusing to allow users to have any OS other than Windows.
Ease of management and surveillance (most such tools marketed at schools are Windows only), first class integration into active directory for user and computer account management, hardware agnostic (rules out macos), and it’s already integrated into the IT team’s systems and processes so switching would be a major effort.
Run kernel level anticheat like EA Javelin.
I assume there’s an implicit /s here 😅
Its sometimes fun to watch this drama from the otherside. Windows is ‘that other OS’ for me now. I was switching between Linux and Windows a while ago, and made a permanant switch around 2021-ish (I think). I only use Windows at work as I don’t have a choice, and in certain instances where I’m forced to use a Windows device e.g. for online exams, etc…
That’s me too. Every time someone tells me that windows pulled off another shit move, all I can do is laugh at how they choose to deal with that and keep getting fucked.
Funnily enough I actually have Firefox open by default whenever I boot up my PC.
I have no taskbar or desktop items. I always default to a specific workflow of pressing the windows key (or whatever we call it for Linux), and searching for everything. I have since early windows 10.
I realised that 90% of the time, I was opening Firefox, so now it just opens. I have a pretty minimal toolbar setup for it, so it’s basically just an address bar that automatically focuses when I start typing.
One day I’ll set up something where I have multiple search hotkeys for web search, file search, application search, music etc, that will sort of replace this.
Sounds like you’d like a power launcher style workflow like KRunner or Rofi. Instead of hitting the meta key to bring up the start menu and search for the app you need, bind a key to KRunner or Rofi and invoke the app you want directly. These solutions also natively integrate file search, web search, quickly toggling settings, do in-place calculations etc.
We call it the “meta” key. And no, not related to the company formerly known as Facebook.
@echo off timeout /t 60 /nobreak >nul tasklist /fi "imagename eq msedge.exe" | find /i "msedge.exe" >nul if not errorlevel 1 ( taskkill /f /im msedge.exe >nul 2>&1 ) exitMy first thought was Power Automate, the same thing is probably pretty easily doable with it.
Ye olde active desktop for you noobs
I dual boot Linux with windows 10 for more than 10 years now, networking from windows is just unacceptable for me, on Linux you can also add any games that you want, if Adobe wouldn’t keep resisting I would be totally free of Windows! They were always trash
At this point I’m starting to wonder if Microsoft is paying Adobe to not work on Linux. For most people I know, Adobe is the main reason for not switching.
Maybe you can try Adobe through CrossOver Linux’s demo and see if it works? They contribute lots of work towards Wine, but also sell a more ‘hacky’ commercial software that isn’t as strict about how it does stuff.
After switching to Linux, I will try out their software and decide whether to buy a lifetime license.
I ll check it out for sure, thanx!
I recommend FOSS alternatives to Adobe’s garbage. GIMP for a photoshop alternative. Krita for digital art. Inkscape for an Illustrator alternative. Ruffle for the Flash Player Standalone Client. So on and so forth.
Mypaint and Krita are favorite programs that I use daily, but still I can’t import those photoshop brushes I accumulated over the years in Krita, the last time I tried the program didn’t load anything.
Mint guy here, since 6 months ago, best choice I have done. If you make some research, in few time you realiese you do not need Microsoft to live in the majority of the cases.
I have an idea. Linux should start automatically everytime you boot you PC.
IDK that seems pretty invasive
Perhaps just GRUB and waiting for my input one extra time to confirm I actually want to use my PC at that time
I just have one kernel and one Distro with secure boot. So I directly use UEFI.
When I bought a new gaming PC a few weeks ago (where I live the pre-builts that were assembled before rampocalypse are still at a reasonable price until the stock runs out), I asked if I could get it cheaper without the Windows 11 license. The sales guy said, “well, it’s already installed.” I told him, “I’m literally going to take it home and wipe it for Bazzite.” He said, “good call, but seriously, they’re practically giving these licenses away, so even if we could it would only take like $20 off the purchase price.”
Kind of a bummer to waste that $20, but honestly the satisfaction of hitting “reformat” on a brand new, slop-infused, bloatware-infested, data-harvesting-ready SSD and watching it all vanish before I even used it was almost worth the money.
EDIT: Not to mention, I got back a significant amount of space. 15+ GB.
How is Bazzite these days for gaming? I mostly use my steam deck these days and my desktop still has windows but I’m always interested if I should make that swap
I honestly feel like I’m doing Linux wrong, because with one exception it’s been seamless. No driver issues, no framerate problems, no game compatibility problems for anything I play. I thought I was having issues with Bluetooth dropping randomly, but I’ve tracked that down to a hardware issue with the antenna.
The exception is that my Wi-Fi chipset has a bad driver that I think causes it to sleep after every packet, meaning that my Wi-Fi speeds are so slow that a speed test times out. This isn’t an issue for me because I was planning to be hardwired anyway, but if you’re going to put it on a mobile device you should check your Wi-Fi hardware; I think a fix is coming soon, though.
In fairness, I’m not a cutting edge guy (I mostly play stuff a few years after it’s released, patient gamers style) and I don’t play many games that have any kind of anti-cheat. But I regularly get three-digit framerates on highest graphics settings.
Same. When bought a new laptop recently, I didn’t give a single chance for Windows to run. The first time I launched it was with Arch installation flash drive plugged in.
I ran windows on my new build (it was cheaper to get someone else to build it than to buy the same exact parts myself 😩) just to make sure everything works and my god, I could barely get past the setup before getting annoyed. Linux is just waaaay easier to deal with, even with having to troubleshoot driver installs. Windows is set up now to where you can’t really do anything to your own computer.
Linux storeage system just works better. I use CachyOS. In Windows, I could only play like 2 games, until my ssd would get full. But Linux is so unimaginably light-weight that I can play a lot of games, and still have a few GB space left. Linux is just plain better.
Some senior VP obviously has his annual performance bonus tied to increasing Edge market share, and is pulling shit like this to artificially inflate the numbers.
Ditto for Bing, Copilot, etc.
Inb4 it runs in the bg putting up randoms websites in the background without any UI “agentically”
Oh wait…
I honestly might switch to Linux. I know people say that a lot, but gaming has been the only thing keeping me on Windows.
But I’ve also come to realize I just don’t have that much free time to game any more. Most of my computer use is putting YouTube on in the background or web browsing. I still occasionally game, but Linux support keeps improving and even if I only pick Linux supported games… I still won’t have enough time to play them all.
I’ve been gaming on Linux for over ten years now: It has gotten to the point where the only major hurdle is kernel-level anti-cheat. Which does work in Linux, but the developer has to enable it to work in Linux, and most don’t. This is only a factor in competitive multiplayer games. I’m not into those so basically I haven’t noticed, I want to run a game, it runs.
I recommend installing Ventoy on a USB stick, then putting some ISOs on there of various distros to try. Like CachyOS, Bazzite, or perhaps Kubuntu.
You can boot into them straight from the Ventoy USB stick without having to format the USB between new tests.
And if you end up liking one over the others you can install straight from the stick.
You can do it, I believe in you random internet stranger!
Flash a distro onto a usb and boot from that to test drive it and ensure your hardware is compatible - zero risk.
Gaming works great on Linux now and often better. The only scenarios I can think of where things are majorly behind are competitive games with anti cheat that doesn’t work on Linux and anything requiring peripherals with custom software, for example SIM racing. This means that the vast majority of games work great!
Sim racing works great for me. Anything from Moza, Logitech, and even my PXN wheel “just worked” out of the box on cachyOS. Bazzite is now getting wheel support. I did have to add USB descriptors for udev rules on my simmsonn pedals, and also learn to always disable steam input and use glorious eggroll proton. JacKeTus did a fantastic job with the ffb driver and I see him on matrix ALL THE TIME helping newbies and getting stuff working.
I’ll be that guy, use bazzite. Unless your doing advanced shit or VR it’s basically everything you need in a simple package. Shit I didn’t even have to install drivers for my… well everything.
Only annoying thing I’m finding is my Firefox audio goes wonky sometimes while using the built in audio booster (FF extensions that boost audio were even worse) but rebooting Firefox fixes it.
I game often, and 100% on Linux. Unless you’re doing competitive multiplayer games with kernel level anti-cheat (read: rootkit malware), games run perfectly fine.
Good news!
Apparently DeNovo’s been hacked!
P.S. I’m shit at games… so I don’t know if this actually really matters 😝
The Denuvo workaround only runs on Windows and creates the mother of all security holes.
Yeah… I finished up the Tom’s article. Nope, I lied… I just gave up on reading it 😌
It just seems like something that could be encapsulated, no? I guess since they call it a hypervisor bypass it sits below the virtualization layer… which is essentially Greek to me. About 1 million years ago, I tried to get solid Works to run in a Windows VM on Lennox and it wouldn’t work. Best I could tell they were using device names that the virtual machine substituted for real hardware… I tried to recompile it and change the names, but I gave up because I didn’t care that much. Since I was using Solidworks pretty much all the time a dedicated machine wasn’t a big deal… as hard as most gamers game, that seems like the route I would go if it were me.
A deadhead gaming box more-or-less isolated… obviously it’s not exactly gaming on Linux, but if you’re playing a game on a windows computer from your Linux desktop… I’d argue that it’s the next best thing.
There are two exceptions to this still, STALKER Gamma doesn’t work on Linux still and SKSEx64 doesn’t work either. Also modding Baldurs gate 3 through Nexus is fucky.
I switched to Linux a year or two ago. Pretty much every game I’ve played has worked fine. (Elden ring, guild wars 2, nioh2, pillars of eternity…)
Even non-steam stuff was basically click and go with Heroic launcher
As long as you don’t jump on AAA title games on launch day, you’ll be fine gaming on Linux.
That, or if you are a fortnite, LoL addict… Those don’t work for reasons totally up to the devs.
You can test most Linux distros using a “live” image on a thumb drive. If you put Ventoy on a drive, you can try as many ISOs as you can fit on the drive.
Bazzite or Fedora are both really good places to start.
FYI, Bazzite may have issues with Ventoy. It is recommended to use the Fedora Media Writer. I learned this a couple months ago.
Come on in, the water is great!
I don’t consider myself to be an advanced PC user, but even I was able to get Arch Linux to run with some googling and tinkering as my first dive into Linux. I really think you should make the switch if you don’t have any work restrictions. I dualboot still, just in case, but I can’t remember the last time I needed to use Windows.
Like you and the others say, if you have limited time gaming or don’t play AAA on launch day, that’s just one more reason not to use Windows! Good luck!
Doesn’t “consider [themselves] to be an advanced PC user…”
Picks Arch as their first Linux distro.
Found Linus Sebastian.
I only did it to try to impress people online lol.
Everything is like a Hodge Podge of fixes just to make it work, so if anyone asks me about the inner workings of everything, I wouldn’t be able to answer like 75% of it. I’m still learning.
Nah, he would have removed his DE.
Lol that loser can’t even install popos right
Your scenario sounds like mine. Don’t game much anymore and definitely don’t play triple A crap that requires kernel.level anti cheat. Been on bazzite for about 6 mos and everything has been great. So much better than Windows.
Zorin OS is a good one if you want a nice UI transition from Windows or Mac.
I just gonna go live in the woods and take up bird watching or something.
Pop_OS has been a piece of cake to use. Switched last year, never looking back.
Is this…is this just an even worse active desktop?
Why would my browser Downloader need to start again after I download other browsers?
