[Samurai]

Originally Posted by bpnpmr

Thanks for your reply, I had wifi issues in my new laptop with SSD - installed Mint on it. I went through blogs and got the driver, faced an issue of slow wifi and the linux mint forum helped me out with it. So the first 2 days with the new system was an issue after that my laptop is doing fine.

And thus you know the answer to the question you asked in the title of this thread.

[Kosfactor]

I have always used windows, I found Mac to be a handicap at least in my workplace. Mac users routinely borrow my laptop for some work or the other.

I have this old (museum spec) Acer laptop that used to run on XP and now in 7, One day I tried Ubuntu Linux on it, It wasn't as fast as 7 but useable. The UI looked super cool , the file management was not very intuitive however what eventually got me to revert back to Win 7 is Adobe Lightroom & google drive, whatever I develop gets uploaded automatically to google drive and so on.

For now I would stick to Windows, I am interested in Chrome though if it can run full lightroom classic.

[R2D2]

I used IBM's AIX, Solaris and Linux in the late 90s and early 2Ks at the office.

And while current distros are certainly friendlier today especally Ubuntu, my family preferred/s Windows and given the zillions of programs of all types built around Windows its a far more practical solution for home use. Yeah it doesn't appeal so much to the geek in me but I use a relative of Linux called FreeBSD (which MacOS is built on) on my router/firewall where I occasionally practice my network and "UNIX like" OS commands via PuTTY or other terminal program. Fooled around with CentOS too..but as they say horses for courses and I am back to Windows and FreeBSD. I find W10 a likeable OS, pretty stable.

[alpha1]

1) Peripherals that work as plug-n-play are more for Windows compared to Linux, for others (non plug & play): OEMs mostly have drivers for Windows and iOS

2) Installation of software (is easier, more elegant in linux ONLY if it is in repository) is usually easier on Windows

3) Setting permissions, configurations to make things work n linux (obviously lends extra security but at the expense of ease of use). Something as simple as running of executable file is not as easy as double clicking on the icon.

[bpnpmr]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

For now I would stick to Windows, I am interested in Chrome though if it can run full lightroom classic.

Thanks for your reply. Yes how chrome OS will be doing in the future will be interesting, since any solid development needs backing of a large developer community and a company.

Originally Posted by R2D2

And while current distros are certainly friendlier today especally Ubuntu, my family preferred/s Windows and given the zillions of programs of all types built around Windows its a far more practical solution for home use.

Originally Posted by alpha1

1) Peripherals that work as plug-n-play are more for Windows compared to Linux, for others (non plug & play)

Thanks for the reply R2D2 and alpha1, the learning curve for a family with windows is easier as you have pointed out and looks like peripherals support is a big issue (being pointed out in most replies in this thread)

[landcruiser123]

For a generation that is not computer savvy, I think Windows is still the way to go. Honestly, Linux is not refined enough for commercial use. Imagine what my mom would do if she ran a problem running Linux? She'd go to a local repair guy and the solution to the problem would be installing windows.

I use Windows now, but used to be a Linux user. Why the (backward) move you ask me?
1. Windows has got much better and faster- especially with 10. Vista, 7, and 8 were notorious for BSOD
2. I've got a better computer with an SSD
3. Some Optimization engines (IBM CPLEX) which I used during graduate school were actually only available on on Windows/Mac. Linux had Open Source rivals which were slower
4. Ubuntu for Windows!
5. I don't see a point in buying a low-end computer given how much iPads and Chromebooks have evolved.

Mobile devices is a different story: Android and iOS are Linux/Unix based, but the UI is refined and polished. Linux is also more efficient on less-powerful hardware like phone processors. Almost all apps are developer backed not open-source in the true sense. They are not made by community of geeks and hobbyists, but rather large companies which monetize the data you share.

[narayans80]

I've worked with Linux since Red-hat 6.x days, when I was single had the time to do a stage 1 Gentoo install. Working with Linux even for private use needs time and effort. With work and family commitments, I rarely get time for it. Key problem is lack of device support and you'll have to be conscious on the peripherals you choose, like the HP printer case you mentioned. Again it boils down to time and effort.

I do get to use RHEL professionally, and as a server OS for the enterprise application we support the remote and general administration is leagues ahead of Windoze. For workstation we are on Windows and all professional applications including O365, most of which don't have native support in any distro.

For personal use, which has been good apart from the recent macOS Catalina.

User experience with Linux is akin to using custom ROMs as opposed to stock in Android

[sdp1975]

I've been working and programming on Unix for over 2 decades but I prefer windows for a desktop. The windows look and feel used to be better in the older days - maybe linux has caught up now.

Software availability on windows is far better than on Unix or Linux. Canon's DPP is available only on windows. Corporates still prefer windows for desktop use. My company uses Microsoft Outlook for mails and Microsoft Teams for communication, and I need to use these when I work from home. So windows it is for me !

[civic-sense]

Linux is not just an OS, its a religion. Most of them who are proponents of Linux are those who just want to spread the word and convert the non-believers.

Most computer users are just commoners who knows nothing about this religion, and just want to get their things done in their computers. They don't care about which OS is winning and which is not. They don't hate other OSes. Feed them the story how how one OS is superior than the other, how the chosen OS would liberate you and how the other OS tried to kill the chosen OS - then you would have a convert. Everybody loves to see an underdog beat an 'evil' corporate. Had Linux proponents not played the victim card, Linux would have been long dead.

I have installed and used Linux in my computers from the 90s, but never felt the need to use it as a primary desktop OS. I have spent more time installing and configuring various Linux distros than actually using it. When I needed to get anything useful done, I had to reboot into Windows. Even now I have a Linux Mint installation on a pen drive for that occasional need, but hardly need to use it.

Linux has come a long way, but on the desktop - even after taking into account all the drawbacks and the BSODs, Windows is still superior.

[lrsays]

I've used Linux for decades but for few Adobe softwares (Photoshop and Lightroom) I can't delete Micro$oft.
With same H/W you get better performance and configuration using command line/config files is much easier than remembering those millions of U.I. options of Window.

[ohaak]

Originally Posted by bpnpmr

I request BHPians to comment on what reasons they think prevent them from trying out Linux or using it on their desktop on a day to day basis.

I work in software industry and majority of my team runs Linux on their development laptops. Gaming and Microsoft Office compatibility are two major reasons for staying away from Linux for personal use. I personally prefer gaming console + Google docs / Office 365 to mitigate that. Microsoft has recently announced teams for Linux. Libre Office is almost on par with Office 2013.

As a note, CentOS is way more stable than Ubuntu which has a tendency to run after latest patches and become unstable.

[GTO]

From the regular consumer's point-of-view, why fix something that isn't broken? Even cheap entry-level laptops come with pre-loaded Windows 10 today.

Personally, I don't care what OS runs on my laptop. What matters to me more is convenience, speed and all my apps running fine. We interact more with software apps (e.g. Chrome, Excel) than with the OS on a daily basis.

A majority of my software (MS Money) won't even run on Linux.

[Vishfull]

I am a techie. Have been working in IT field for the past 15 years. I haven't actively used Linux for the past 15 years.

While in college I used to install both windows and linux in my PC, and use both. Windows was convenient and Linux was exotic.

I do have Linux systems in my office which I use sparingly. But for home use I don't even consider it, because of only one thing - MS Office. I use it a lot, and to be frank there is nothing in Linux which has the same convenience of MS Office. Not google docs, not open office, not LibreOffice. I will happily move to Linux once MS Office provides Linux support, period .

[LobsterB]

My daily work laptop run KDE neon. Like others I also started with Slackware in the 90s, before turning to Redhat/Corel/Ubuntu with Desktop Environments like Gnome/Enlightment/GNUStep/LXDE etc. The work laptop is actually on dual boot but hasn't booted into Windows 10 for the last 6 months or so. The reason why it on Linux is because the product that I develop uses POSIX RT message queues for communication. Emulation of the same on Windows Services For Linux isn't available. IT team officially do support Linux, but their Linux skill level lags a bit behind Windows. But the main thing I miss in Linux is the work mail client (Outlook). Calendar Desktop notifications in Outlook 365 web version doesn't work well enough.

Btw, at home have Windows and Mac on 2 laptops and Linux on NAS Server(Ubuntu/Ryzen) & SBCs (PiCorePlayer/Pi3 and LibreELEC/Odroid-C2). In short I use more Linux than Windows/Mac but still prefer Windows/Mac for 'Desktop application usage'! Once native Microsoft Office and Adobe products are available for Linux I might switch...

As a side note, for Adobe Lightroom, the Mac OS experience is miles ahead of Windows 10

[DudeWithaFiat]

For most users computer is just something that they use to get the work done. Unless one is a tech enthusiast and enjoy debugging tech stuff, there is no point is spending hours after hours trying to fix something when something that 'simply works' out of the box is available (Windows).

My personal laptop has Kali Linux installed, but I mainly use my work laptop that runs Windows 7. The last time I opened that laptop was 1 month back because it is a pain in the back to use it

1) wi-fi gets disconnected frequently, sometimes fails to connect.
2) Keyboard types funny. Each tap on space puts in a '~' character.

Never had inclination to fix it.

I don't recommend using Linux to any of my non-tech friends for their day-to-day regular use. Windows works beautifully out of the box, so let them put their time and energy on something meaningful to them than trying to fix a OS when they don't have to.

For servers, yes, Windows can never beat Linux (except for their Active Directory services).