Down that hole

  • And009
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    11 months ago

    I’ve been seeing lot of these posts about Linux. Way more since I joined Lemmy. What’s the deal?

    I have 0 knowledge of programming/coding and feel should be as far away from Linux as possible. Is it not meant for GUI people like us?

    • glassyoghurtsipper@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Linux is perfectly fine for GUI users. It’s really great for most common use cases. You might have issues with games (or so do I’ve heard), but I’m not a gamer and don’t know much about this… Steam has helped make games on Linux a lot better. I just play supertux or supertuxcart or mahjong once in a blue moon and am happy.

      Most things work perfectly - stick to Ubuntu or Fedora or opensuse. Once you get the hang of things, things actually feel better on the Linux desktop:

      • much faster than Windows
      • no tracking
      • highly customizable
      • if you ever get into it, you can script your setup to be easily replicable across machines

      Things that you’ll have to fight

      • fingerprint scanners - only a small subset work. My Dell latitude scanner works perfectly though.
      • some printers might need manual driver download/install
      • some software is only built for Windows (less and less of those these days, unless you’re doing something specialized)
      • CharlestonChewbacca@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Gaming is actually pretty great on Linux now thanks to Proton. I still use Windows for games usually, but of the ones over tried in Linux, I haven’t had any issues.

      • Ebsku@sopuli.xyz
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        11 months ago

        Printers were a pain on Windows on Linux they worked without much tinkering at least for me

      • And009
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        11 months ago

        Is there any way to try Linux on a MacBook. My only gripe with it is lack of games. The Linux library can’t be worst than what I have now.

        • sgtlighttree@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If you have a Mac with M1/M2 chips then I’ve heard about great things about Asahi Linux. Not sure how it’ll work with games though, it already has a hard time on ARM Macs since most games are made for Intel Macs.

    • Grass@geddit.social
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      11 months ago

      Nah I put my parents and grandparents on opensuse so I don’t have to constantly clean up their viruses. Just installed whatever via flatpak like bottles for running my grandma’s old mahjong tile matching game in wine. They haven’t asked for help with anything else since and I can actually relax sometimes now.

      Hardest part was installing the printer driver I guess. For anyone not comfortable with cli installers anyway.