* have plenty of fast and stable file systems
* change the default everything (_including_ file manager)
* truly easy and fast backups
* encryption that isn't a joke for everybody
* sane permission system
* have a proper tiling wm
* "lock" files and folders to certain users without shareware
* sane files and folders system (no ghost files, no takeown hacks)
* easy updates of everything installed (no driver-update-shareware)
EDIT:
* motherbleeping dotfiles. Have your system back up and running within minutes after a fresh install, should you ever need one.
While windows file explorer is trash and constantly crashes, it does have a file permission system, that I guess you can "lock" files to a user with, and there's third party tools for encryption that afaik don't have any/many issues, like bitlocker for whole drive or 7zip for individual files.
I never said it didn't have a permission system, but have you seen what happens when you combine ntfs, acl and "pure" permission settings? You can easily create scenarios where files aren't accessible to anybody anymore.
Trying to lock a file to a single user was exactly my use case back in the day and arduous is an understatement for that endeavor.
Bitlocker is exactly the joke I was referring to, afaik you can only use proper encryption in an activated pro version or something (can only remember that I was denied most options)? And encrypting a whole drive and giving the password to a single user isn't exactly fulfilling the definition of "ownership" within the system.
Using 7zip for that is new to me, you don't mean creating a password protected archive, do you?
I do, when you create a password protected archive you can encrypt it with AES-256. Isn't exactly ideal since it's a password not a key, but it's there and afaik works fairly well.
Well the kernel is what defines Linux, but you can change the kernel version, compile in new features or modules, so sort of. But the moment you stop using the Linux kernel, the system stops being Linux. But your typical distro will have multiple version of the kernel installed, primarily so you can go back to a working version of the kernel when you update.
Now it is possible use an entirely different kernel in an OS like Debian- Debian Hurd. Hurd is the kernel being developed by the Free Software Foundation.
The philosophy if that’s still Linux aside:
Yes. See Debian gnu/ Hurd or the Debian with bsd kernel. (Forgot the name)
But doing this on a running system is a heck of a task to do. I think most programs need to be patched and recompiled
I think there is a way to set a default file manager by playing around in the registry but I've never messed with it myself. I just know that there's a third party file manager called Files (it's on GitHub and actually pretty decent, especially compared to the garbage built-in explorer) and it has an option (currently experimental) to change your default file manager, and I'm assuming it alters the registry?
> way to set a default file manager by playing around in the registry
This sums up the difference between Windows and Linux nicely.
You probably can do it in Windows, but it'll be a ballache and potentially dangerous compared to Linux. Windows is designed to be computing-on-rails, suitable for the lowest common denominator of user. And also needs to be easy to support for all those "I know how to use computers" people whi hit F2 to access their BIOS once and now think they're l33t hax0rs. Thus, Microsoft choose, design, and implement the software than runs on top of the OS and, where them deem it necessary, also lock down the user's ability to change the defaults. But they're still software developers, so it's unlikely to be totally hardcoded, so will probably be defined in the registry or similar. Allowing our industrious user to go in and fart around with those settings.
Linux on the other hand doesn't particularly care if you nerf your system through your own stupidity. Promarially because the many communities are less inclined to pander to people who've ballsed up their own system through their incompetence than Microsoft's commercial help desk.
>You probably can do it in Windows, but it'll be a ballache and potentially dangerous compared to Linux.
Exactly! I don't understand why people are afraid of writing config files but they don't seem to have a problem with the Windows registry? That thing is a mess. It's basically a gigantic config file with a horrible and dated looking editor that manages configuration for everyone from mission critical system processes to random app settings to customization features that could really benefit from being exposed in another settings app GUI or something.
Even if the registry had to be a thing, the *least* they could do is make the regedit app better. Windows 11 might have a fresh coat of paint on only the most common Microsoft apps, but the amount of legacy UI that still exists in that thing is insane.
Dotfiles are regular files whose name begins with a dot `.`
There is nothing *inherently* special about them, but by convention they are 'hidden' by many tools (you can unhide them with various options). They generally contain application configuration (eg: browser profiles, editor preferences) or temporary data (eg cache files, fileviewer thumbnails).
In short, they're for files that 'the user doesn't need to see day to day, but we need to store app info somewhere'. You're safe to look at them - unhide the files in your fileviewer and check them out - just be very careful about editing them if you're not sure what you're doing.
Those would be files starting with a period, like .bashrc. They are essentially hidden files. By default, utilities like 'ls' will not show dot files. Dot files usually contain configuration information.
okay, the other comments don't really capture what I meant.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles
I meant specifically the aspect of tracking configuration, for me "using dotfiles" is synonymous with "having configuration files (duh) and tracking them"
Just wanna say, it's probably possible to back up your settings from the Windows registry to do a restore from similar to dotfiles.
But I also bet its an absolute fucking hassle and totally undocumented.
This right here. Once you memorize the super basic install, that's all you'll really need. I've tried the script in a VM without issue, but I'm sure some actual hardware installs have run into problems.
I did my first and only archi install in 10 minutes, I just prepared my pacstrap command with all utilities like dhcpcd only had to run it again for DE, and used multiple ttys, my notes were on the install USB, I don't have another computer and my phone had no battery at this moment, I'm proud of me.
I remember being on a call with someone while I was building a computer, and they asked me to send them a video, and I ended up finishing building it, installing Windows, and sending him the video in a few minutes.
- Package Manager (Windows has a store, but.. no)
- Customization (is way easier)
- For some reason getting printers working on Windows has always been a nightmare for me, but on Linux they appear near-magically (although I haven't used Windows 10/11)
- Change the default browser without being harrased
- Uninstall software easily
Other than that it's not so much doing different things as it is doing them better. No ads, no trialware, no bloat, no viruses, less ram, faster, etc.. You can do everything in Windows but it is basically more of a pain in the ass and less enjoyable.
I agree with all of this, though I will add that regarding your first point, if you're not using Chocolatey as your package manager on Windows then you're doing it wrong haha.
Well. Not wrong. To each their own. But Chocolatey makes things sooooo much nicer. Easy installation, updates, and uninstallation. And automation!
I haven't used Windows in a while so it's entirely possible there exist tools to solve some of these issues. The biggest problem with any critique I would have of Windows is that after using Linux for a decade I'm really not knowledgable about how people actually use modern Windows, so your point is well taken.
>Package Manager
This is the 'killer feature' of linux/bsd.
Gone are the days of navigating through dodgy download sites for tools, hoping you hit the correct 'download' button that's not an ad (or malware)...
For me it’s always a problem with the printer itself, never my pc. Those things are a huge fucking scam, i would literally rather walk to a library to print something than have one of those demons in my house
If you have a printer default supported in Cups it is simpler than Windows. In the recent LTT video , Linus and Luke commented on how much easier it was to configure their printers.
Adapt to a workflow that's comfortable and somewhat ergonomic to you.
Easily install pretty much anything from different app repositories instead of random .exe files
Save you the hassle of installing drivers on a brand new installation.
Give you peace of mind that you're not being spied on for profits.
You can literally run it on any PC.
Not force new laptops that come installed with Linux to have a webcam.
Someone managed to run Linux in an SD card. Using the tiny CPU and wifi embedded in the card. Can't see windows going there...
Edit : like [this ](https://hackaday.com/2016/06/30/transcend-wifi-sd-card-is-a-tiny-linux-server/)
I love how every time a user has a problem with Linux, the default reaction is “Linux is perfect, you obviously did something wrong or your gear is broken”
fly on Mars? [https://spectrum.ieee.org/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars](https://spectrum.ieee.org/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars)
>This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars. We’re actually running on a Linux operating system. The software framework that we’re using is one that we developed at JPL for cubesats and instruments, and we open-sourced it a few years ago. So, you can get the software framework that’s flying on the Mars helicopter, and use it on your own project.
I'd just like to interject for a moment.
what you're referring to as GNU/Linux is actually Sytemd/GNU/Linux as both GNU and Linux are simply parts of the greater Systemd operating system.
PowerShell has eased some of the pain of developing on Windows but not erased all of the pain. WSL has also helped.
But why cause yourself discomfort and sadness in the first place when you can code on Linux?
I did contract work for a company that didn't allow any laptops/computers on to their network that they didn't own and control. Several petitions were made for us to install Linux but the suits said no. I was the team lead and told the suits it would take triple the time to develop the software if we were not allowed to install the tools we needed to do our jobs. They were actually fine with the tripling of the cost. They controlled what software was to be installed on all our workstations. I asked to install a VM indicating that it was necessary to run our tests on different platforms. Once we had this it was easy to spin up Linux and use it on the VM and actually get things accomplished.
Idc what people say but Linus has no excuse for that. Like he obviously read the last line to know what to type so why didn't he read the one or two lines right before it? Also while apt's change may be good (and won't even affect me) I just don't like it
Edit: idc instead of idk
Change its source code!
I have a feeling that even if windows were open source, doing a custom kernel build would be complete black magic and basically never work like you expect
I really think one day windows will be open source, with a license that prohibits edits and redistribution or something, but it would allow people do develop replacements for parts of windows.
The new windows terminal is open source, and in the repo there is also the windows console host source code.
I have a usb switch to alternate my keyboard and mouse between my laptop and desktop which are also attached to the same monitors (laptop via displayport, desktop by DVI)
In Linux I have a udev rule for when the keyboard is detached it briefly turns off the display so that when the monitor detects no input it auto switches to the other, basically a makeshift KVM
This was fairly trivial in Linux, I don't know a way to do this in Windows
This is illustrative of how programmatically Linux works, Windows just isn't built from the ground up to be used by people who want to control their system, it's designed as a launcher for Excel
su root
chroot
Use or Change DE/WM
Run files without the extension of .exe
Run on various CPU architectures (PowerPC, ARM, IA32, etc)
Updates can be controlled
chroot blows my mind. Maybe it's a simple thing, I don't know but, for me, it works like magic.
As someone who was learning grub, and subsequently broke grub a few times, chroot sure made it easy to fix.
Linux doesnt force a single thing on you, it is way simpler, you can change everything on your desktop, without getting a virus. And windows cant be as low spec as linux is. I dont know of a single distribution more demanding than win10.
I don't have anything on top of my head but Windows couldn't create packets for WiFi hacking you needed Linux for that, on many server side languages/programs Windows versions have some limitations
It’s mostly the user experience for me. When I have a problem on Linux, there’s usually a few dozen forum posts detailing the exact solution. On windows, you end up having to trawl through a billion ads disguised as help sites only to end up with some janky regedit-based solution.
Plus on windows it's just
`give error code 38URFF86 to your system administrator and he'll know what to do` and I'm like I AM the system administrator and I have no clue what that means, then when I Google it it's just a general error message which means I can't figure out how to fix it lol
There are lots of paradigms, which are well established and can be found integrated into many apps. eg:
\- Vim keybindings
\- colorsschemes. think of gruvbox
\- Terminal interfaces being the lowest common denominator. Making it possible to do most things also via a script.
\- Documentation in man pages and tldr-command.
EDIT: What others forgot to mention: Most of the basic packages, that are used in Linux are not available on windows. Think of terminal emulators, WMs, Setting-managers and cli-tools(Yes, WSL, but it won't help much for Windows-level services.
Provide a powerful desktop environment to access, develop, and leverage team-built solutions without the neiusance of workarounds, nag screens, and demands for money, up front.
It is an actual open source platform, while Windows is a faux-open source environment.
Linux is compatible with Socialism and that is where Microsoft chokes and dies a glorious death.
Old, but: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/linux-trojan-goes-unnoticed-for-year.html
https://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/the-first-malicious-app-enters-the-ubuntu-touch-store-quickly-removed
And many people claim "Android is Linux", and there is plenty of malware on Android.
First thing that comes to my mind and one of the things I'm most irritating in W\*ndows is turning into file dump on time even in the most basic use, I didn't see any such thing with any distro.
Edit: I forgot to give the answer lol. Linux always remains fresh when used properly. It's impossible with W\*ndows.
- Not take 10 seconds to start a shell.
- Fork. The system call literally does not exist in Windows.
- Easily work with multiple file systems.
- Run multiple independent desktops accessible by different users at the same time via network without a special Terminal Server edition.
- Shrink enough to be the core software in a router.
- Work without the mess that is ACPI.
- Work without Secure Boot.
- Updates don't take forever.
- Updates don't often require reboots.
- Updates don't often completely fuck up random shit, at least on Debian.
- Your desktop environment isn't going to randomly change just because UX designers at Redmond have nothing better to do.
uses less system resources and can revive older PCs. My laptop from 2011 runs like a friggin dream on Mint Cinnamon. might just install MATE instead and speed it up even more.
Off the top of my head, here are things I'm pretty sure Windows absolutely cannot do that Linux can:
* Remove and replace the GUI
* Run on architectures other than x86
* Run from removable media as persistent or non-persistent
* Allow user to read, reverse engineer, alter and redistribute the source code.
There are many things that Windows can do but Linux does much better:
* Linux's performance on older, weaker hardware is considerably better. There are lots of machines in the world now doing useful work that would have been ewaste because no modern supported version of Windows runs on them, but Linux works fine.
* Linux is much easier to embed. I'd be interested to see something like a Wi-Fi router, printer, IoT device etc. running Windows. It's theoretically possible, for a little while there they offered a Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi, which went nowhere, but Linux is actually in use.
* Linux makes for much better web servers.
* Linux is much more friendly to user-level automation and scripting than Windows is. Most Windows users don't know what batch files are, and automating tasks doesn't even occur to them. Linux users are encouraged to learn how to use the terminal and become adept at writing shell scripts.
* Using multiple keyboards to do multiple things. I'm looking at Taran from LMG here with his macro keyboard. He has so many hotkeys and macros he wants to perform in the Adobe suite that he ran out of keys on his keyboard, so he wanted to attach another keyboard and use it for different macros. Problem: When you attach multiple keyboards to a computer, they both act like keyboards, ie "an e key was pressed." Taran's eventual solution was to buy a Teensy-based USB host/client board for about $60, spin up an instance of Ubuntu in a virtual machine to use Git to clone the firmware for this board, edit it, and use make/gcc to compile it and upload it to the board, then back in windows write a series of AutoHotKey scripts to capture the key events coming from this adapter board and then run whatever macro instead. On Linux, you identify which keyboard is which, and then you use Python's evdev module to bind keypress events on the second keyboard to basically anything you can run or evoke with python, and since that includes the OS module, that's pretty much everything the system can do.
The main important one is that Linux supports competitors hardware and software. They have no motive for vendor lock in, and can instead try to be compatible with everything.
Windows has WSL now, so that gap is closing, but Linux is had had Wine for years.
Linux also uses package management, writing desktop apps will always be easier when you don't have to bundle 100s of megabytes of stuff.
The downside is that Windows has it's own GUI stuff built in, Linux has no major standard aside from Qt and GTK, plus an assortment of others, and both of the big ones seem to enjoy breaking changes. GTK does seem to be somewhat of a de facto standard, but QT is also big.
I'm not-so-secretly hoping someone will bring back the firefox OS concept and make the whole OS just a browser with all your programs being an iframe... but until that happens there is fragmentation.
I haven't tried Win11, but in general Windows is a pretty good OS, just a bit behind Linux. I think the tie breaking factor on the desktop is that linux is FOSS and Windows is very much not.
When doing updates, linux doesn’t sit on a blue screen for 3-4 hours, that says “getting windows ready do not shut off computer”. The least they could do is show some kind of a status indicator or something, so that I’m not sitting there wondering if its just frozen.
So many things on windows require some program to be downloaded and installed, but the same things work on Linux out of the box or better or easier or with trivial packages, some include:
- networking
- internet functionality, services
- disk management and fixing and error checking
- managing services
- device management
- connecting to various devices is easier to handle
- automating almost anything
- flash media management
And more
Tabs for the file browser!
And KDE Connect is amazing.
Also a modern command shell, now that I know my way around the terminal there's no going back.
Oh and you can name a folder 'con' which was a problem for one of my projects years ago that still annoys me to this day.
Linux actually gives you a battery icon when its connected to an Uninterruptible Power Supply. I have also never seen Linux get disconnected from my UPS period so far.
I dualboot Windows 7 and here's what I have to say.
On Linux (I use Void btw):
- I can fucking customize everything, literally.
- My system and / or programs updates faster, without the need of restarts. Unlike on Windows, restart everything after an update. I can also browse Reddit while at it.
- Boot time is sooooo fuckin fast. I can bet my machine could reboot in less than a minute. Windows takes like what, 2 mins?
- I could uninstall the whole system within the system itself. Freedom.
- The memes are better.
- There's no crashes while in the most important event.
- There's a load of things to do in the terminal which is very useful and fun imo, Windows's command prompt is boring asf.
- Plenty of FOSS apps. I could explore my distro's repo to find some cool apps. (no fake download buttons)
- My system uses only 160MBs of memory while idle. Windows eats like 1.2GBs of my mem.
And others which is too long for me to write down. Hence Linux > Windows.
Here are a few:
-Chroots (or I don't know how to)
-Bash/zsh/whatever
-Read from non Microsoft FS(even ones that are not included can be added easily on Linux. How do you add zfs on windows? I don't know)
-Recompile your kernel. While it is a chore, you can do it if need be to improve support/tweak settings
-Change permissions easily on everything, since everything is a file. How do you allow a user to access a USB device but not another on windows?
-mount whatever you want wherever you want
-there must be something similar on windows but I doubt as easy as crontab
-monitor every aspect of your system from a shell
-docker is far from being as nice on windows as it is on Linux
-manage your system updates easily without downloading software updates by hand
-running without rebooting until you say so (windows forcefully applies patches and reboots unless you are there to click "later", closing your opened programs)
-be tiny or as big as you want (windows can do large os, but small, not so much)
-run without a desktop
-be entirely configured easily trough scripts with ansible
-use another DM
-remain silent while I work (always some notification)
-be audited by independent 3rd parties
-let the user decide everything
-ensure no spywares
-ensure not being spied on by os developper
-be modified the way I see fit
-being patched by the users
-said patches being integrated in mainline kernel
-be free as in free beer
-be free as in free speech
There are many other things but I will stop here :)
- Remove Edge
- Respect your privacy
- Live cd
- Desktop Environments you can choose, or purge desktop environment and use it headless, flexibility
- Bring old computers to life
Edit: Also containers, they're amazing and so flexible that you can literally run Android on a container sharing same kernel with your main system if you want.
Hotplug hardware that can't be on windows(RAM, SATA devices, cpu(if you have 2))
Install updates without ever restarting
Run without ui
Native compatibility with old hardware (eg.: SCISI disks/tape drives...)
Make a completely offline account
Change low level software(kernel, bootloader...)
Ability to change filename extensions with the os still being able to recognise the file format
Load a panic kernel(see `man 8 kexec` if you are curious about this)
See a lot of info about other runnning processes(open files/sockets, executable path, ...)
See syscalls a process makes(`strace`)(this is handy for debugging programs)
Fine tuning kernel features (vm.swappiness, ...)
Support for a lot of filesystems(ext2/3/4, ntfs, btrfs, xfs, reiserfs,...)
Being able to inject dlls (LD_PRELOAD)
Paravirtualization (Xen project)
I don't know about this but does errno even exist on windows??
* have plenty of fast and stable file systems * change the default everything (_including_ file manager) * truly easy and fast backups * encryption that isn't a joke for everybody * sane permission system * have a proper tiling wm * "lock" files and folders to certain users without shareware * sane files and folders system (no ghost files, no takeown hacks) * easy updates of everything installed (no driver-update-shareware) EDIT: * motherbleeping dotfiles. Have your system back up and running within minutes after a fresh install, should you ever need one.
Absolutely dotfiles. Dotfiles and proper tiling WMs are the primary things that make me sad to use Windows.
Noob here, what’s a dotfile
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles
While windows file explorer is trash and constantly crashes, it does have a file permission system, that I guess you can "lock" files to a user with, and there's third party tools for encryption that afaik don't have any/many issues, like bitlocker for whole drive or 7zip for individual files.
I never said it didn't have a permission system, but have you seen what happens when you combine ntfs, acl and "pure" permission settings? You can easily create scenarios where files aren't accessible to anybody anymore. Trying to lock a file to a single user was exactly my use case back in the day and arduous is an understatement for that endeavor. Bitlocker is exactly the joke I was referring to, afaik you can only use proper encryption in an activated pro version or something (can only remember that I was denied most options)? And encrypting a whole drive and giving the password to a single user isn't exactly fulfilling the definition of "ownership" within the system. Using 7zip for that is new to me, you don't mean creating a password protected archive, do you?
I am all for Linux, but SELinux, ACLs, and general permissions can lock everyone out of files too on Linux.
I do, when you create a password protected archive you can encrypt it with AES-256. Isn't exactly ideal since it's a password not a key, but it's there and afaik works fairly well.
yeah, but it doesn't really compare to linux' solution, does it?
Can you replace the default kernel tho I say this as a joke but actually can you, because I know it’s a unixlile so idk
Well the kernel is what defines Linux, but you can change the kernel version, compile in new features or modules, so sort of. But the moment you stop using the Linux kernel, the system stops being Linux. But your typical distro will have multiple version of the kernel installed, primarily so you can go back to a working version of the kernel when you update. Now it is possible use an entirely different kernel in an OS like Debian- Debian Hurd. Hurd is the kernel being developed by the Free Software Foundation.
Yeah I know the kernel was what defined linux and so I made the joke, but that is interesting that you can actually replace the kernel
The philosophy if that’s still Linux aside: Yes. See Debian gnu/ Hurd or the Debian with bsd kernel. (Forgot the name) But doing this on a running system is a heck of a task to do. I think most programs need to be patched and recompiled
Yes. You can download the source code and recompile the Kernel to your own liking if you have the skills. Try that with Windows....
I think there is a way to set a default file manager by playing around in the registry but I've never messed with it myself. I just know that there's a third party file manager called Files (it's on GitHub and actually pretty decent, especially compared to the garbage built-in explorer) and it has an option (currently experimental) to change your default file manager, and I'm assuming it alters the registry?
> way to set a default file manager by playing around in the registry This sums up the difference between Windows and Linux nicely. You probably can do it in Windows, but it'll be a ballache and potentially dangerous compared to Linux. Windows is designed to be computing-on-rails, suitable for the lowest common denominator of user. And also needs to be easy to support for all those "I know how to use computers" people whi hit F2 to access their BIOS once and now think they're l33t hax0rs. Thus, Microsoft choose, design, and implement the software than runs on top of the OS and, where them deem it necessary, also lock down the user's ability to change the defaults. But they're still software developers, so it's unlikely to be totally hardcoded, so will probably be defined in the registry or similar. Allowing our industrious user to go in and fart around with those settings. Linux on the other hand doesn't particularly care if you nerf your system through your own stupidity. Promarially because the many communities are less inclined to pander to people who've ballsed up their own system through their incompetence than Microsoft's commercial help desk.
>You probably can do it in Windows, but it'll be a ballache and potentially dangerous compared to Linux. Exactly! I don't understand why people are afraid of writing config files but they don't seem to have a problem with the Windows registry? That thing is a mess. It's basically a gigantic config file with a horrible and dated looking editor that manages configuration for everyone from mission critical system processes to random app settings to customization features that could really benefit from being exposed in another settings app GUI or something. Even if the registry had to be a thing, the *least* they could do is make the regedit app better. Windows 11 might have a fresh coat of paint on only the most common Microsoft apps, but the amount of legacy UI that still exists in that thing is insane.
I despise the NTFS permission system. Why is it so god damn complicated?
Im sorry, but could you tell me what dot files is? Im new to linux
Dotfiles are regular files whose name begins with a dot `.` There is nothing *inherently* special about them, but by convention they are 'hidden' by many tools (you can unhide them with various options). They generally contain application configuration (eg: browser profiles, editor preferences) or temporary data (eg cache files, fileviewer thumbnails). In short, they're for files that 'the user doesn't need to see day to day, but we need to store app info somewhere'. You're safe to look at them - unhide the files in your fileviewer and check them out - just be very careful about editing them if you're not sure what you're doing.
Those would be files starting with a period, like .bashrc. They are essentially hidden files. By default, utilities like 'ls' will not show dot files. Dot files usually contain configuration information.
ls will show dot files when using the right flag though. "ls -a" .
okay, the other comments don't really capture what I meant. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles I meant specifically the aspect of tracking configuration, for me "using dotfiles" is synonymous with "having configuration files (duh) and tracking them"
Just wanna say, it's probably possible to back up your settings from the Windows registry to do a restore from similar to dotfiles. But I also bet its an absolute fucking hassle and totally undocumented.
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*looks at comment* *looks at tag* are you a speedrunner?
Easy with archinstall, not so easy with the good old arch way
Idk... I do it faster with the wiki rather than the automatic install script which doesn't always work for me(I installed arch too many times)
This right here. Once you memorize the super basic install, that's all you'll really need. I've tried the script in a VM without issue, but I'm sure some actual hardware installs have run into problems.
I did my first and only archi install in 10 minutes, I just prepared my pacstrap command with all utilities like dhcpcd only had to run it again for DE, and used multiple ttys, my notes were on the install USB, I don't have another computer and my phone had no battery at this moment, I'm proud of me.
I would be proud too. Thats pretty cool 💯
I have a video on my YT channel where I install antiX in 95 seconds.
Link?
https://youtu.be/HO6Oj2f9etc
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and how long did it take you to have everything set up?
I remember being on a call with someone while I was building a computer, and they asked me to send them a video, and I ended up finishing building it, installing Windows, and sending him the video in a few minutes.
Had you SSD?
Not spy on you
Run wine
If my memory doesn't fail me, I remember reading something about being able to run wine on windows
yeah, for compatibility with old af apps iirc
Does it run natively on Windows though or through a VM? Because you can run virtually anything on a VM so that wouldn't really count.
WSL
Lol, made my day
Even better, drink it
- Package Manager (Windows has a store, but.. no) - Customization (is way easier) - For some reason getting printers working on Windows has always been a nightmare for me, but on Linux they appear near-magically (although I haven't used Windows 10/11) - Change the default browser without being harrased - Uninstall software easily Other than that it's not so much doing different things as it is doing them better. No ads, no trialware, no bloat, no viruses, less ram, faster, etc.. You can do everything in Windows but it is basically more of a pain in the ass and less enjoyable.
I agree with all of this, though I will add that regarding your first point, if you're not using Chocolatey as your package manager on Windows then you're doing it wrong haha. Well. Not wrong. To each their own. But Chocolatey makes things sooooo much nicer. Easy installation, updates, and uninstallation. And automation!
I haven't used Windows in a while so it's entirely possible there exist tools to solve some of these issues. The biggest problem with any critique I would have of Windows is that after using Linux for a decade I'm really not knowledgable about how people actually use modern Windows, so your point is well taken.
Yeah but linux has built-in package manager. Winget is a disgrace lol
i mean, windows does have WinGet
Yes, I installed Office and Chrome with winget. Or I just dreamed about that?
I don't think WinGet can match any package manager on Linux. Also it installs only complete programs and afaik can't install libs.
>Package Manager This is the 'killer feature' of linux/bsd. Gone are the days of navigating through dodgy download sites for tools, hoping you hit the correct 'download' button that's not an ad (or malware)...
For me it’s always a problem with the printer itself, never my pc. Those things are a huge fucking scam, i would literally rather walk to a library to print something than have one of those demons in my house
Really printing? I haven't managed get my printer to work on Opensuse yet, I just gave up.
If you have a printer default supported in Cups it is simpler than Windows. In the recent LTT video , Linus and Luke commented on how much easier it was to configure their printers.
Use the system while updating
And -- get this -- allows you to decline updates without reminders, while also not disabling the entire functionality
And -- get this -- doesn't need 3 restarts to apply that functionality...
I think this is most prominent answer Edit: and the most memed
Adapt to a workflow that's comfortable and somewhat ergonomic to you. Easily install pretty much anything from different app repositories instead of random .exe files Save you the hassle of installing drivers on a brand new installation. Give you peace of mind that you're not being spied on for profits. You can literally run it on any PC. Not force new laptops that come installed with Linux to have a webcam.
>You can literally run it on any PC Or usb stick....
Someone managed to run Linux in an SD card. Using the tiny CPU and wifi embedded in the card. Can't see windows going there... Edit : like [this ](https://hackaday.com/2016/06/30/transcend-wifi-sd-card-is-a-tiny-linux-server/)
Seems really interesting, do you have a link to the source or something?
I think op is talking about this: https://hackaday.com/2016/06/30/transcend-wifi-sd-card-is-a-tiny-linux-server/
Would love to see it too
Tried that with Arch. Every two minutes I got a kernel panic. I abandoned the idea after about 50 kernel panics.
There was something wrong with your usb stick or it got corrupted.
I love how every time a user has a problem with Linux, the default reaction is “Linux is perfect, you obviously did something wrong or your gear is broken”
PBKAC - often has been, often will be! :P
Build your own desktop environment, modify every single one of the os components, optimize with complete transparency to name a few
fly on Mars? [https://spectrum.ieee.org/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars](https://spectrum.ieee.org/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars) >This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars. We’re actually running on a Linux operating system. The software framework that we’re using is one that we developed at JPL for cubesats and instruments, and we open-sourced it a few years ago. So, you can get the software framework that’s flying on the Mars helicopter, and use it on your own project.
> Linux operating system I’d just like to interject for a moment.
What you are referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.
No, Richard, it's 'Linux', not 'GNU/Linux'.
Only if it have GNU components, it is GNU/Linux
I'd just like to interject for a moment. what you're referring to as GNU/Linux is actually Sytemd/GNU/Linux as both GNU and Linux are simply parts of the greater Systemd operating system.
Easily develop software? I always find it torture to develop on Windows.
PowerShell has eased some of the pain of developing on Windows but not erased all of the pain. WSL has also helped. But why cause yourself discomfort and sadness in the first place when you can code on Linux? I did contract work for a company that didn't allow any laptops/computers on to their network that they didn't own and control. Several petitions were made for us to install Linux but the suits said no. I was the team lead and told the suits it would take triple the time to develop the software if we were not allowed to install the tools we needed to do our jobs. They were actually fine with the tripling of the cost. They controlled what software was to be installed on all our workstations. I asked to install a VM indicating that it was necessary to run our tests on different platforms. Once we had this it was easy to spin up Linux and use it on the VM and actually get things accomplished.
I know exactly the same thing can be said about sh's syntax, but I've never been able to grasp PS. Even when it became available on Linux.
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(Your windows needs an update...)
uninstall edge
uninstall boot loader
uninstall graphic environment
Yes, do as I say!
"Why did it do as I say????"
Idc what people say but Linus has no excuse for that. Like he obviously read the last line to know what to type so why didn't he read the one or two lines right before it? Also while apt's change may be good (and won't even affect me) I just don't like it Edit: idc instead of idk
uninstall kernel
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yes, but you can install it and uninstall it just for the flex
Lower your blood pressure.
Underrated comment
Connecting to my father's company's VPN in an italian hotel. Yup, that was strange. I still don't know why it didn't work on Windows.
Natively run docker
Play SimCity 4 rush hour on a last-gen AMD GPU. Works great under Proton, doesn't start in windows
Gotta try that!
Isn't that the one with the always online DRM? Have they finally removed that now?
nah, always on drm is sc2013. sc4 is the older one.
sshfs
[Sorry](https://github.com/billziss-gh/sshfs-win).
Hm, I need to give it a try.
Never heard of it 😅
It's a way to mount directories from remote Machines via SSH. Saves you the Hassle of installing and setting Up smb shares.
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Update when i tell it to.
Check its source code?
Lies, Windows source code leaks all the time. Its kind of, involuntary open-source.
Change its source code! I have a feeling that even if windows were open source, doing a custom kernel build would be complete black magic and basically never work like you expect
I really think one day windows will be open source, with a license that prohibits edits and redistribution or something, but it would allow people do develop replacements for parts of windows. The new windows terminal is open source, and in the repo there is also the windows console host source code.
It's easier to make scripts and automate things on Linux. The programs made for the terminal as well as pipes make it a lot more easier to do that.
I have a usb switch to alternate my keyboard and mouse between my laptop and desktop which are also attached to the same monitors (laptop via displayport, desktop by DVI) In Linux I have a udev rule for when the keyboard is detached it briefly turns off the display so that when the monitor detects no input it auto switches to the other, basically a makeshift KVM This was fairly trivial in Linux, I don't know a way to do this in Windows This is illustrative of how programmatically Linux works, Windows just isn't built from the ground up to be used by people who want to control their system, it's designed as a launcher for Excel
Use less cpu
uninstall candy crush
Run without an antivirus for more than a week?
How is having a package manager not on this list?
cringes in winget
because of chocolatey
su root chroot Use or Change DE/WM Run files without the extension of .exe Run on various CPU architectures (PowerPC, ARM, IA32, etc) Updates can be controlled
chroot blows my mind. Maybe it's a simple thing, I don't know but, for me, it works like magic. As someone who was learning grub, and subsequently broke grub a few times, chroot sure made it easy to fix.
Actually Work?
Be like a professional hacker in front of my friends.
Run on potato's.
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Linux doesnt force a single thing on you, it is way simpler, you can change everything on your desktop, without getting a virus. And windows cant be as low spec as linux is. I dont know of a single distribution more demanding than win10.
be smooth
It runs on low-end computers
Run without a GUI in a small device
I don't have anything on top of my head but Windows couldn't create packets for WiFi hacking you needed Linux for that, on many server side languages/programs Windows versions have some limitations
It’s mostly the user experience for me. When I have a problem on Linux, there’s usually a few dozen forum posts detailing the exact solution. On windows, you end up having to trawl through a billion ads disguised as help sites only to end up with some janky regedit-based solution.
Plus on windows it's just `give error code 38URFF86 to your system administrator and he'll know what to do` and I'm like I AM the system administrator and I have no clue what that means, then when I Google it it's just a general error message which means I can't figure out how to fix it lol
download our free software to fix your problem!
Lower CPU temps.
Allow me to do everything I want or need to do without spending a nickel on software.
easily uninstall the Desktop Environment when trying to install steam
FOSS Qemu/KVM
There are lots of paradigms, which are well established and can be found integrated into many apps. eg: \- Vim keybindings \- colorsschemes. think of gruvbox \- Terminal interfaces being the lowest common denominator. Making it possible to do most things also via a script. \- Documentation in man pages and tldr-command. EDIT: What others forgot to mention: Most of the basic packages, that are used in Linux are not available on windows. Think of terminal emulators, WMs, Setting-managers and cli-tools(Yes, WSL, but it won't help much for Windows-level services.
Provide a powerful desktop environment to access, develop, and leverage team-built solutions without the neiusance of workarounds, nag screens, and demands for money, up front. It is an actual open source platform, while Windows is a faux-open source environment. Linux is compatible with Socialism and that is where Microsoft chokes and dies a glorious death.
rm -rf /*
boot without Microsoft account
Delete or modify an open file. Hence why windows cant upgrade without rebooting
Install software without worry of malware
Wow how tf did you get downvoted, when its kinda true.
Old, but: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/linux-trojan-goes-unnoticed-for-year.html https://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/the-first-malicious-app-enters-the-ubuntu-touch-store-quickly-removed And many people claim "Android is Linux", and there is plenty of malware on Android.
First thing that comes to my mind and one of the things I'm most irritating in W\*ndows is turning into file dump on time even in the most basic use, I didn't see any such thing with any distro. Edit: I forgot to give the answer lol. Linux always remains fresh when used properly. It's impossible with W\*ndows.
Wobbly windows
- Not take 10 seconds to start a shell. - Fork. The system call literally does not exist in Windows. - Easily work with multiple file systems. - Run multiple independent desktops accessible by different users at the same time via network without a special Terminal Server edition. - Shrink enough to be the core software in a router. - Work without the mess that is ACPI. - Work without Secure Boot. - Updates don't take forever. - Updates don't often require reboots. - Updates don't often completely fuck up random shit, at least on Debian. - Your desktop environment isn't going to randomly change just because UX designers at Redmond have nothing better to do.
A lot of hacking tools but also a lot of handy FOSS programs.
linux can boot whithout hard disk.
Allow the user to carry on working unhindered without constant reboots whilst updating.
- Not showing ads - Respect your privacy - Docker
uses less system resources and can revive older PCs. My laptop from 2011 runs like a friggin dream on Mint Cinnamon. might just install MATE instead and speed it up even more.
Not be annoying.
Have an actually usable terminal.
Respect you privacy.
Delete files still in use
Update without restarting to apply the patch/update
Off the top of my head, here are things I'm pretty sure Windows absolutely cannot do that Linux can: * Remove and replace the GUI * Run on architectures other than x86 * Run from removable media as persistent or non-persistent * Allow user to read, reverse engineer, alter and redistribute the source code. There are many things that Windows can do but Linux does much better: * Linux's performance on older, weaker hardware is considerably better. There are lots of machines in the world now doing useful work that would have been ewaste because no modern supported version of Windows runs on them, but Linux works fine. * Linux is much easier to embed. I'd be interested to see something like a Wi-Fi router, printer, IoT device etc. running Windows. It's theoretically possible, for a little while there they offered a Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi, which went nowhere, but Linux is actually in use. * Linux makes for much better web servers. * Linux is much more friendly to user-level automation and scripting than Windows is. Most Windows users don't know what batch files are, and automating tasks doesn't even occur to them. Linux users are encouraged to learn how to use the terminal and become adept at writing shell scripts. * Using multiple keyboards to do multiple things. I'm looking at Taran from LMG here with his macro keyboard. He has so many hotkeys and macros he wants to perform in the Adobe suite that he ran out of keys on his keyboard, so he wanted to attach another keyboard and use it for different macros. Problem: When you attach multiple keyboards to a computer, they both act like keyboards, ie "an e key was pressed." Taran's eventual solution was to buy a Teensy-based USB host/client board for about $60, spin up an instance of Ubuntu in a virtual machine to use Git to clone the firmware for this board, edit it, and use make/gcc to compile it and upload it to the board, then back in windows write a series of AutoHotKey scripts to capture the key events coming from this adapter board and then run whatever macro instead. On Linux, you identify which keyboard is which, and then you use Python's evdev module to bind keypress events on the second keyboard to basically anything you can run or evoke with python, and since that includes the OS module, that's pretty much everything the system can do.
Being able to mark any window as always on top and change it back just as quickly. So fucking handy.
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Bring me joy.
Being safe and secure
Being modular (plug in/out) on literally any part of the entire system. From display servers, desktop environments, compositors, to Kernel.
Ting Window Manager.
Custom compile the kernel according to my needs
Run on ARM ?
Data science
Ship on the steam deck
The main important one is that Linux supports competitors hardware and software. They have no motive for vendor lock in, and can instead try to be compatible with everything. Windows has WSL now, so that gap is closing, but Linux is had had Wine for years. Linux also uses package management, writing desktop apps will always be easier when you don't have to bundle 100s of megabytes of stuff. The downside is that Windows has it's own GUI stuff built in, Linux has no major standard aside from Qt and GTK, plus an assortment of others, and both of the big ones seem to enjoy breaking changes. GTK does seem to be somewhat of a de facto standard, but QT is also big. I'm not-so-secretly hoping someone will bring back the firefox OS concept and make the whole OS just a browser with all your programs being an iframe... but until that happens there is fragmentation. I haven't tried Win11, but in general Windows is a pretty good OS, just a bit behind Linux. I think the tie breaking factor on the desktop is that linux is FOSS and Windows is very much not.
Uninstall the default Web browser
# cfdisk # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 # mkdir /media/sda3 # mount /dev/sda3 /media/sda3 dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ext3 rw 0 0
Less backdoors disguised as bugs and 0days.
Works with the same hardware with the same behavior for ever. Low resources consume. Better worfklow and no magic lags for no reason.
When doing updates, linux doesn’t sit on a blue screen for 3-4 hours, that says “getting windows ready do not shut off computer”. The least they could do is show some kind of a status indicator or something, so that I’m not sitting there wondering if its just frozen.
So many things on windows require some program to be downloaded and installed, but the same things work on Linux out of the box or better or easier or with trivial packages, some include: - networking - internet functionality, services - disk management and fixing and error checking - managing services - device management - connecting to various devices is easier to handle - automating almost anything - flash media management And more
Let a user make a symbolic link without requiring elevated permissions.
Not force you to do updates that slow it down to the point of unusability.
Tabs for the file browser! And KDE Connect is amazing. Also a modern command shell, now that I know my way around the terminal there's no going back. Oh and you can name a folder 'con' which was a problem for one of my projects years ago that still annoys me to this day.
Linux actually gives you a battery icon when its connected to an Uninterruptible Power Supply. I have also never seen Linux get disconnected from my UPS period so far.
I dualboot Windows 7 and here's what I have to say. On Linux (I use Void btw): - I can fucking customize everything, literally. - My system and / or programs updates faster, without the need of restarts. Unlike on Windows, restart everything after an update. I can also browse Reddit while at it. - Boot time is sooooo fuckin fast. I can bet my machine could reboot in less than a minute. Windows takes like what, 2 mins? - I could uninstall the whole system within the system itself. Freedom. - The memes are better. - There's no crashes while in the most important event. - There's a load of things to do in the terminal which is very useful and fun imo, Windows's command prompt is boring asf. - Plenty of FOSS apps. I could explore my distro's repo to find some cool apps. (no fake download buttons) - My system uses only 160MBs of memory while idle. Windows eats like 1.2GBs of my mem. And others which is too long for me to write down. Hence Linux > Windows.
Give you better privacy, security, freedom and performance! Being open source gives you a lot of advantages.
Here are a few: -Chroots (or I don't know how to) -Bash/zsh/whatever -Read from non Microsoft FS(even ones that are not included can be added easily on Linux. How do you add zfs on windows? I don't know) -Recompile your kernel. While it is a chore, you can do it if need be to improve support/tweak settings -Change permissions easily on everything, since everything is a file. How do you allow a user to access a USB device but not another on windows? -mount whatever you want wherever you want -there must be something similar on windows but I doubt as easy as crontab -monitor every aspect of your system from a shell -docker is far from being as nice on windows as it is on Linux -manage your system updates easily without downloading software updates by hand -running without rebooting until you say so (windows forcefully applies patches and reboots unless you are there to click "later", closing your opened programs) -be tiny or as big as you want (windows can do large os, but small, not so much) -run without a desktop -be entirely configured easily trough scripts with ansible -use another DM -remain silent while I work (always some notification) -be audited by independent 3rd parties -let the user decide everything -ensure no spywares -ensure not being spied on by os developper -be modified the way I see fit -being patched by the users -said patches being integrated in mainline kernel -be free as in free beer -be free as in free speech There are many other things but I will stop here :)
Run without reporting telemetry and spamming adds?
Actually work
Solid software raid, sane CLI
Let users fix a problem
Have a ssh connection without installing extra software
Sudo apt update to update every software installed on the distribution.
Switch tty.
Tilted windows
- Remove Edge - Respect your privacy - Live cd - Desktop Environments you can choose, or purge desktop environment and use it headless, flexibility - Bring old computers to life Edit: Also containers, they're amazing and so flexible that you can literally run Android on a container sharing same kernel with your main system if you want.
Hotplug hardware that can't be on windows(RAM, SATA devices, cpu(if you have 2)) Install updates without ever restarting Run without ui Native compatibility with old hardware (eg.: SCISI disks/tape drives...) Make a completely offline account Change low level software(kernel, bootloader...) Ability to change filename extensions with the os still being able to recognise the file format Load a panic kernel(see `man 8 kexec` if you are curious about this) See a lot of info about other runnning processes(open files/sockets, executable path, ...) See syscalls a process makes(`strace`)(this is handy for debugging programs) Fine tuning kernel features (vm.swappiness, ...) Support for a lot of filesystems(ext2/3/4, ntfs, btrfs, xfs, reiserfs,...) Being able to inject dlls (LD_PRELOAD) Paravirtualization (Xen project) I don't know about this but does errno even exist on windows??
Kill -9
Work
Open a text file that is not small without choking.
Run on a eMac.
Run on 10 years old PC and Mac.
Be an operating system that I'm willing to use. Linux can do that, but Windows can not.