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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux Mint - NOT "Usable Out of the Box" - Probably switching back to Windows (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My time with Linux has been equal parts amazing and absolutely infuriating. Linux Mint is NOT usable out of the box. Here have been my issues:

Nvidia GPU - Trying to figure out how to get the drivers working was a nightmare with ten million different people giving different advice on how to get it to work. Eventually I was able to get them signed and it seems to work

Bluetooth - Another nightmare. Bluetooth is terrible on Linux. It took hours to get it even remotely working ok, but I still don't think it's perfect.

Compatibility - Some things just straight up don't work for seemingly no reason. None of my controllers work with Steam, no matter how many countless hours I've spent troubleshooting.

And that is where I am disappointed. Troubleshooting Linux issues sucks. There are so many people giving their opinions and all of them are different and most don't work.

When Linux is working right it is amazing, and I love it. But right now, it just isn't as good as Windows and extremely infuriating more often than not. Guess I am going to switch back and give Bill Gates all of my info again. Really fucking disappointing

Update: Controllers seem to work after forcing compatibility mode in Steam. No idea why that was off or why Steam was essentially hijacking my controller, but it seems to work now. For everyone that helped thank you.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not the guy your responding to and I 100% get your frustration, but I want to provide a little anecdote.

Back in November, I built a new desktop to replace my 7 year old one and put OpenSUSE on it. No matter what I tried, I could not get either Bluetooth or WiFi working. I tried updating drivers, restarting controllers, reinstalling the OS, replacing the OS with Mint. Nothing worked.

I did a lot of searching over the next few days, and it turned out that my motherboard was so new that it's built in WiFi chip did not have Linux drivers yet. Like at all.

Most products aren't created with Linux in mind, so compatibility isn't a concern. It's up to the community to create patches & drivers to make things work, and it can take a bit to get things working.

I'm genuinely sorry you had the experience you did, but I hope that if you do return to Windows that you'll give Linux another try in the future. Search your products to see if others have had issues, along with potential solutions, before you dive in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks for the thoughtful response, and not chastising me like half the other people in this thread. Yes it's been very frustrating because I want to switch full time. I don't understand how I am having these issues on a reinstall of Linux, when my first install had none of these issues.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

If you have newer hardware mint isnt what you wanna use. It is more stability focused. There are other distros that arr more geared towards faster updates and supporting new stuff faster.