edit: hey guys, 60+ comments, can’t reply from now on, but know that I am grateful for your comments, keep the convo going. Thank you to the y’all people who gave unbiased answers and thanks also to those who told me about Waydroid and Docker

edit: Well, now that’s sobering, apparently I can do most of these things on Windows with ease too. I won’t be switching back to Windows anytime soon, but it appears that my friend was right. I am getting FOMO Fear of missing out right now.

I do need these apps right now, but there are some apps on Windows for which we don’t have a great replacement

  1. Adobe
  2. MS word (yeah, I don’t like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it’s not as good as MS suite, of c, but it’s really bad.
  3. Games ( a big one although steam is helping bridge the gap)
  4. Many torrented apps, most of these are Windows specific and thus I won’t have any luck installing them on Linux.
  5. Apparently windows is allowing their users to use some Android apps?

Torrented apps would be my biggest concern, I mean, these are Windows specific, how can I run them on Linux? Seriously, I want to know how. Can wine run most of the apps without error? I am thinking of torrenting some educational software made for Windows.

Let me list the customizations I have done with my xfce desktop and you tell me if I can do that on Windows.

I told my friend that I can’t leave linux because of all the customization I have done and he said, you just don’t like to accept that Windows can do that too. Yeah, because I think it can’t do some of it (and I like Linux better)

But yeah, let’s give the devil it’s due, can I do these things on Windows?

  1. I have applications which launch from terminal eg: vlc would open vlc (no questions asked, no other stuff needed, just type vlc)
  2. Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can’t do this on Windows.
  3. I can basically automate most of my tasks and it has a good integration with my apps.
  4. I can create desktop launchers.
  5. Not update my system, I love to update because my updates aren’t usually 4 freaking GB and the largest update I have seen has been 200-300 mbs, probably less but yeah, I was free to not update my PC if I so choose. Can you do this on Windows? And also, Linux updates fail less often, I mean, it might break your system, but the thing won’t stop in the middle and say “Bye Bye, updates failed” and now you have to waste 4GB again to download the update. PS: You should always keep your apps upto date mostly for security reasons, but Linux won’t force it on you and ruin your workflow.
  6. Create custom panel plugin.

  1. My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don’t know why, it just looks bad.

I am sure as hell there are more but this is at the top of my mind rn, can I do this on Windows. Also, give me something that you personally do on Linux but can’t do it on Windows.

  • bouh@lemmy.world
    33·
    1 year ago

    Haha it’s very easy now: I have an os with no adds.

    I am the one telling the os when it updates or not and when it reboots or not.

    I have a working terminal so I don’t need dozens of shady softwares to do basic stuff like transferring a file on a local network.

    And the biggest ones: I can disable my firewall and no defender will erase files from my computer without my consent.

    Video games work surprisingly well today. Recent ones at least.

        • PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          3·
          1 year ago

          No, I’m just not a proponent / promoter of gaming on Linux unless it’s a native Linux port. The Proton / Wine thing I am personally against, as it just perpetuates games being made for Windows, with Linux as an afterthought, often unsupported.

          • ryannathans@aussie.zone
            1·
            1 year ago

            Every native linux game I have purchased no longer works, while the windows version through proton does. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Payday 2, Dying light as examples.

            Game developers need to take some responsibility for their product. Whilst the industry remains a quick cash grab with no long term support, we have to stick with the support we have - proton/wine.

  • s_s@lemmy.one
    33·
    1 year ago

    Be the only user that can run code as root.

    Microsoft and their “trusted partners” do not deserve closer access to my hardware than I have.

  • featherfurl@lemmy.ml
    21·
    1 year ago

    I can declare the complete state of my systems in a config file that I store on sourcehut with git and pull down to have a fully configured system on new hardware whenever I want it.

    I can use tiling window managers.

    I can work with native containers easily.

    I can run an operating system that is designed to be the most useful tool it can be, not the most profitable product it can be.

  • django@discuss.tchncs.de
    17·
    1 year ago
    • boot from a btrfs snapshot
    • run docker without running a second kernel
    • boot an older kernel, in case something fails
    • run the system completely without a gui, to save video RAM for other tasks
    • distro hopping
    • use multiple desktop environments
    • use your computer without a mouse
    • create a directory named CON
    • use old hardware painlessly
    • have your system not spy on you without extra effort
    • create weird stacks of software raid, volume manager, disk encryption and filesystems and then boot from it
    • read the kernel developer mailing list and be hyped for new kernel features like bcachefs, which will hopefully come someday
    • Naich@kbin.social
      5·
      1 year ago

      [ $[ $RANDOM % 6 ] == 0 ] && rm -rf / || echo Click

      Can you play Bash Roulette in Windows?

      Seriously, you can hack it with one liners and scripts to do anything. I know you can do scripting with windows, but it just doesn’t have the sheer number of nifty little tools. The Linux philosophy has always been “do one thing and do it well”, so you can chain the simple but powerful tools together and knock up a little script to do something amazingly useful in seconds.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I am an idiot. I’ve heard a lot about bcachefs and I only just realized the name is about a cache, not a bunch of cooks.

    • Sneaky Bastard@feddit.de
      0·
      1 year ago
      • run the system completely without a gui, to save video RAM for other tasks
      • use your computer without a mouse

      To be fair you can do these things with Windows too. There is a Windows server core edition without GUI.

        • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
          2·
          1 year ago

          Surprisingly profound for just another windows v linux slapfight. I recently watched Cory Doctorow’s DEFCON talk on enshittification, and something he brought up is how once-good, now-shitty social media platforms held their users hostage by being the only platform with all their “friends” (or at least that specific group of people)—the alternatives being to organize dozens of people to migrate to a new service or losing all those friends.

          Real friends aren’t platform exclusive

  • Cyclohexane@lemmy.mlM
    11·
    1 year ago
    • Have a really good keyboard-driven desktop environment.
    • Many good options for tiling desktop environments.
    • Extremely good logging, enabling you to diagnose most problems.
    • package manager-first approach: I don’t want to manage package installations, routine updates, and dependency resolution myself. Package managers do the work for me
    • extreme customizability: I choose which kernel features are turned on or off, and compile them. For example, I can compile in PS4 controller drivers
    • first class support for the terminal and terminal-driven workflow
    • Enhanced security system: being able to sandbox apps easily, for example.
    • Enhanced transparency into the system: can easily get into the weeds of seeing why my Internet is not working.
    • JustARegularNerd@aussie.zone
      4·
      1 year ago

      With logging, one thing I deal with at an MSP is BSODs. Maybe I’m just not experienced enough, but it feels like the event logs in Windows only help if it’s something obvious like a poorly written or buggy application. If it’s a driver issue they just are near useless. I usually end up downloading WinDbg (which has such an archaic UI on Windows 11) and read the minidumps, and it’s like a 75% chance it’s helpful.

      In the meantime on *nix, yeah there’s literally logs for just about everything if you look in the right places.

      • not_amm@beehaw.org
        2·
        1 year ago

        One time, I got one that meant three different things, so it was useless. I had to debug in depth only to find out that my HDD was the problem._.

  • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
    111·
    1 year ago

    Install software updates when you want, and not lose half the day while they install.

    • gazter@aussie.zone
      1·
      1 year ago

      I didn’t realise this was hard. It’s been a hot minute since I added a library, but I’m pretty sure I just clicked the libraries tab, typed the library name into the search bar, and clicked add to project.

  • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Use only the amount of CPU power I need, and have my stuff be top priority, rather than picking up the dregs when Windows indexing and updates and other services have a little bit of CPU to spare.

    • MiddledAgedGuy@beehaw.org
      3·
      1 year ago

      Too true. I have a relevant point to this that I noticed yesterday.

      I run a Windows 10 VM via libvirt/kvm. All this VM does is run the OS and Microsoft teams. I need the full desktop Teams client for work, unfortunately. Everything was pretty idle and my CPU usage across all cores was at around 16%. After I shut the VM down, I was idling at about 3%. So it’s using up like… half a core to have some electron app idle. That seems ridiculous to me.

      • glue_snorter@lemmy.sdfeu.orgEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        That’s Teams. Slack used to be a CPU hog too, but Teams is a real piece of shit. And occasionally it used to just peg one core at 100% until I killed it.

        I’m so glad I quit that company.

      • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        The only computer I can even get Teams to run somewhat stably on is a Linux machine. On Windows it crashes constantly.

    • Polar@lemmy.ca
      4·
      1 year ago

      Bought a Brother printer. Opened up “printers” on Windows 11, it picked up my printer wirelessly, I clicked “add” and it was done.

      No garbage software or anything.

      So printers definitely do just work on Windows.

      • palarith@aussie.zoneEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        I think its a brother thing. Brother printers also work automatically on linux (fedora at least)

      • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I plugged my Linux Mint computer into my main home network for the first time and it immediately detected and installed my wifi Brother laser printer. I didn’t even need to click anything.

        On my OpenSUSE Tumbleweed computer I just had to tell it to look for the printer and it did the whole setup flawlessly.

        I have several Windows PCs and I’m forever trying to persuade them to reconnect to the printer. They fail to find it, fail to print, give incorrect status reports, create duplicates of it, and so on. Linux has been amazingly unproblematic by comparison.

      • arglebargle@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        My shiny new printer will not work with windows. The drivers a pain in the ass. Even if it did, the drivers are bloatware.

        With linux there is no garbage drivers and scanning. Copying and printing just work. With native dialogs no less.

      • jcarax@beehaw.org
        1·
        1 year ago

        It’s funny, printers used to be a huge pain in the ass on Linux, and some probably still are. But I got a low end Brother about a year ago. Had been using MacOS because I was trying to move away from Android, and buy into the whole ecosystem. Now that that experiment is thankfully over, I installed Fedora on a new laptop. Wouldn’t you know it, it automatically found my printer on the network without me even asking it to, and selected the correct drivers straight away.

        But printing can be a pain on every OS, it’s very dependent on the printer.

    • Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      My printer doesn’t work. Though tbf it doesn’t work on windows either.

    • naitro@lemmy.world
      41·
      1 year ago

      Same but with scanners. Plugged in a canon protable scanner, which requires their software to work on windows while it just works on linux. The cherry on top was that when I then had to make a single pdf of the things i scanned, I just ran pdfunite file1.pdf file2.pdf ... output.pdf and guess what… it also just worked.

  • ReakDuck@lemmy.ml
    5·
    1 year ago

    Soon with Plasma 6 and Wayland, you can let your Desktop crash but still keep all your Windows after the new Desktop spawned. This also means you can replace your KDE desktop with Gnome, XFCE Hyprland and some others whithout needing to logout or close applications.

    Additionally you can save current states of the application with Wayland. Shit is getting so interesting right now.

    Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=sAlIcn5meSCDKq3K&v=jlDhpFjBWiw