Well, Linux is not that bad. Have a look at this distro made in France. Rodolphe Bachelart had been doing this since 2012. His latest distro is a 2 in 1 - Gnome and XFCE together in one. His distro can be run on tablets too. We can install it in a "Windows" computer and dual boot. Wish I could do that in my MBP.
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Windows isn't terrible and Linux is great if all and I mean ALL of your hardware is compatible. Even then a bad kernel update can bork your entire system.
The problem with one man distro's is they are dependent on the one person and generally they are not getting paid and at a certain point they may stop and the distro could end and I personally like team projects as more eyes auditing and compiling the software the better. I also like foundational linux distros like Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, etc.
Linux on the desktop has improved a lot but still has the same issues like fragmentation, different distros running different package managers and on different architecture like slackware vs Mandriva or Debian. If you have a desktop Linux is most likely most compatible but then you still have to deal with software incompatibility. Banking software may not work even on a browser in Linux for example. Have printer, hope it works with Linux.
If you have a laptop and it has any special functions or keys that control the hardware, brightness controls, volume, sound cards, wifi, etc may not work and you may not ever get it working. If you have a laptop built for Linux then it isn't an issue but there are few brands that sell Linux laptops and those that do aren't cheap and often times have old or cheaper hardware.
Windows on the other hand works. You can not only turn off any ads anywhere in Windows in the settings easily but you can disable telemetry altogether with a couple of registry modifications. Most laptops running Windows will be supported for many years. I don't have major breaks in my system with Windows updates and if I do most of the time I can go back and I can't do that in Linux. Windows has improved a lot over the years. There are a ton of things I think Microsoft should do to improve Windows instead of AI> like clean up the menus, settings and control panel and make it all one UI, maybe I don't know introduce a new Windows kernel?? NT has been improved over the years but I think it is time to at least try to improve the internals of Windows. How about an improved file system? What if regular 64 bit x86 Windows supported ARM? Continue to improve security and PRIVACY. But I like the changes in Windows 11 and hope they just continue to polish the details of the OS and as I said start to improve the internal workings to speed things up and improve efficiency.
But overall Windows allows more choice and freedom while being extremely stable and secure. NO OS is perfect and all have areas where they are better than other OS but on the balance they are all about equal with one exception.
MacOS and Windows are generally supported both by many accessory brands and peripherals but also with tons of software. This lends itself to a very important part of using a computer. compatibility and how many other people are using similar software? Why does it matter? Business. If you are doing anything that requires communicating with another computer and it requires specific platform related software most likely Linux if off the table. Sure Linux powers the servers but most businesses use Windows and more are using Macs but few use Linux desktop and Linux software like LibreOffice. So sending files in the correct format and being able to do things business related is a very big part of using a computer and if the software I am using is creating blocks instead of just working then that is a problem. In my personal experience over the years this is the biggest problem with having a Linux desktop for my personal use is trying to operate in the business world. It can be done and there is plenty of Linux software but the quality of that software and compatibility with proprietary software is not always good. And personally I am too old to always be looking for work arounds and band aids to things that should just work.
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Its not bad, but its not going to replace, Windows or macOS. Steam has done a great job with the steam deck - no argument but for general purpose computing, the landscape has not changed, linux is an outlier
Is 2024 finally the year of Linux on the Desktop?
No.
No.
There are brands (Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, HP, Huawei, Medion for example) you can install Linux (and BSD) and dual/multi boot, everything works.
Agree that Windows 11 works out of the box. I simply don't get any ads in my Dell and the Win11 came without the bloat. I don't really care much about telemetry, as nowadays everything about us is practically known to all concerned agencies -- mobile phones, bank cards etc.
Agree to that!
The macOS is pretty good at what I do daily. I'm running quite a few Linux apps (open source apps first arrived for Linux) in my MBP. I'm having a hard time choosing a Linux distro to dual boot my Dell with.
Oh, clearly you are not all that up to date about EV, but that is ok, EV is a complete scam, a fraud, snake oil.. EV has zero benefits long term, none..
Voyager... Isn't that the 1970 stuff that NASA try desperately to keep alive?
Personally I'm plainly satisfied with Ubuntu Mate and don't see what another brew of Linux could bring more.
If only the top dog software foundries would make Apps for Linux as well.
Not really. It is about a voyage, on a trip. It is made by a Frenchman, and the voyage was going on from 2012.
Actually, there are no "brews" in Linux, only distributions, or distros. Mate came about when old Gnome moved to Gnome 3, and started in Arch. Mate is alright, but not very eye catching. The name came from tea, so one might consider it a "brew"...
...but not very eye catching?
What do you miss in e.g. Mate with the Tweak Cupertino?
Quite disappointed by your reply.Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
It is not pasture green...somewhat muddy
I would have expected that you knew how to adjust that to your taste.
From all three OS, Windows, macOS and Ubuntu Mate , the later is the nicer.
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Sorry about that.
I had let go of Gnome2 and its derivatives a long time ago. One can still use WinXP, but what's the use? The guy, who created Gnome2, left it later and created other stuff for/or to sell to MS. He used macOS to create Gnome2. Perberos, who created Mate, also left the project, a long time ago. Now, it is Gnome4, actually 46. We have come a long way!
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Hey, Beethoven and Mozart also stopped composing. Does that mean that what came after is better?
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You better ask a musician on that.
There too, it is, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
I like macOS because it is quite old-fashioned, but at the same time polished and modern. I can't say that about Mate, sorry.
Old fashioned is an euphemism.You better ask a musician on that.
There too, it is, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
I like macOS because it is quite old-fashioned, but at the same time polished and modern. I can't say that about Mate, sorry.
The single menu was great with tiny laptops, in times of 5K screens is now stupid. Just plainly stupid.
Off topic. Yes EV as they are currently using lithium ion batteries charged often by natural gas, oil, and coal is not environmentally sound at all. I didn't even talk about Lithium mining and what that is doing to some small fishing villages in Asia. Or that Lithium batteries are not a viable solution even if mining was not an environmental disaster. Lithium Ion batteries only hold about a 99% charge for the first few months and start to degrade after that. The charging process itself is not 100% efficient. You lose electricity in the charging process. So some of the electricity used to charge a vehicle is just wasted as heat. Then you have the problem that Lithium ion batteries only last about 5 years in good conditions. Heat is bad and extreme cold is bad. Two things these batteries are exposed to on a daily basis depending where they are. This can affect longevity and performance. Rendering the range much less. If you have an emergency and your car is not fully charged and the power goes out what do you do? You can't just fill up a tank and go. Gasoline engines may not be the best environmental device in the world but the efficiency they get out of gasoline is pretty much unequaled by anything else. In theory an electric motor is much more efficient than any internal combustion engine but it is not the electric motor that is the problem it is the BAD Lithium ion battery tech they are pushing on the public NOT for the environment BUT for profit. Clearly a hydrogen fuel cell using water as a fuel source and running off the hydrogen in water with Oxygen as a waste product to power electric motors is a much more sustainable and viable solution YET we are all being sold a much more inferior and environmentally inferior product at a very high cost.
I would sell my combustion engine vehicle today if fuel cell powered electric vehicles were available and affordable. It is the best solution and doesn't suffer from any of the downsides of needing to charge anything. You just add water and go. So much better than having to wait to charge and the fact that Lithium ion batteries have a tendency to self ignite and it has happened in EV before would make me pause.
So I agree as it is now EV are a complete scam BUT it is only because there are huge profits by certain powerful countries and individuals that this inferior tech is being pushed on the people and being sold as a morally superior choice which is rich in irony. If people would actually educate themselves then no one would buy a lithium ion EV and would push for fuel cells!!
You can buy a Toyota Hybrid, a lesser villain. I personally won't buy an EV. I love the sound of the engine.
It would be quite dangerous to the "western" countries, when the lithium producing countries in the Global South suddenly refuse (usually called sanction) to sell it to them.
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I consider it mostly a buzzword at this point. Its like when you hear that an oven has an air fryer, those have been around as convection ovens - but air fryer - well that sounds better
Arc from The Browser Company
Experience a calmer, more personal internet in this browser designed for you. Let go of the clicks, the clutter, the distractions.
arc.net
The ARC browser has been released for Windows. Runs on Chromium but without all the Google trackers. Completely designed from the ground up except the chromium base. Took them 6 years to release for Windows.
Going to give it a try as primary browser and see how I like it. It is different and a little bare bones but as I am learning how to use it I do notice it is very fast. I am sure their will be some compatibility issues at some point but so far seems to be working very well.
I don't get it, here you have some bloke running a number successful tech companies, one is for the internet, one for transport of humans, and yet he has done bugger all to solve the H20 fuel issue.. H2 is combustible, 02 is combustible, water should power every device, without the need for lithium, but all his X branded companies, not one PHD has come close to turning tap water into a fuel.. If cars ran on tap water, that would be the best thing since the invention of the domestic malliard reactor..
Have you tried Chromium? The open-source original, not Chrome. Always the newest at the given moment, just before you download it. Uses much less energy and memory than even Safari.
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What's the difference between that, brave, and the other chromium based browsers? I'm not knocking this browser but the field seems rather crowded and its really only going to get the scraps left behind google
It's the beauty of open source!
Safari is not available for other OS platforms, so cannot be taken into consideration on popularity.
What beauty? I'm not being facetious, Its seems these privacy minded browsers are not garnering any market share. 1 or 2 percent of usage.
Safari used to be on windows, it never grabbed any market share and it wasn't very good, i.e., it ran rather poorly on windows.