KindaABigDyl
Sure, but from what I've heard, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of new features that I will want to use :)
I need to get caught up on C#. I stopped using it just before C# 8
NixOS is great
My workflow hasn't changed much except I now find myself writing shell.nix files in my projects instead of having various compilers and build tools installed in my config itself since adding a random one-off dependency for a project is tedious if it doesn't get added to the correct environment variable or something. Ultimately, this is really a benefit tho as it means I have a reproducible dev environment that can be shared with anyone else.
It also simplifies a lot of configuration stuff with sane defaults making it way easier to spin up things that might take a little bit of messing around, e.g. different desktop sessions (currently, I mostly use i3 and GNOME Wayland + Pop Shell, but I've experimented with others).
It's more about how clear it is for me to get to my workflow. The Nix system (language, package manager, and OS) is really just beautiful once you get your head around everything.
I've been on Nix now for a few months coming from Fedora (1 year) and before that Arch (3 years), and I've loved every second so far. I use it for both work (embedded software engineer) and personal. It feels like the last thing I'll ever config
I've had this issue with X11 on GNOME in recent releases as well. Blender probably does this too if you haven't checked.
Let the enshittification begin. I had hoped federated media would be mostly immune
No, the choices are absolutely not clear in any way
That's a ridiculous thing to say. You're being disingenuous.
difficult for you to distinguish at a quick glance
That's what I'm saying though. You're just mincing words. If you look at GNOME and then look at KDE, you're not going to see very many similarities. The choices are clear.
They're going for drastically different things. So yeah, it's obvious; they're not trying. They haven't done a single search.
Mint is currently my recommendation for Windows refugees and has been for a while.
- Cinnamon desktop environment works like Windows' UX
- Ubuntu-based, so you'll find help online for basically anything
- Not just Ubuntu; follows more popular, community decisions rather than Canonical's (e.g. things like Flatpak instead of Snap) which will help you in the long run since you'll be using what everyone else is using
- Ubuntu-based, so Debian-based, so pretty stable with lots of available software (even outside of Flatpak)
- Significant amount of work put into UX with less you have to do
If you're not worried about high-performance gaming, you'll be fine with whatever. For developers, any Linux distro is gonna be leagues better than what you're used to on Windows. For Assembly, NASM + VS Code will be great.
it's impossible to keep up with all of the changes
Literally not true. It's all handled for you. You could use a stable system like Debian or Gentoo for years without updating or only getting security patches or use a rolling system and get all the updates easily. No one says you've gotta reinstall your system all the time. Every distro has some way to keep up with updates. It's not like you've gotta compile every program yourself and pull the git repo every few days or reinstall your OS every year.
Way Too Many Choices
Linux's biggest obstacle is the paradox of choice
If you are scared of the options available for Linux, you are ignorant. It's understandable some people get anxiety when presented with too many equal options, but the thing is they have to be equal options. This is not the case in the Linux world. The options are all different. You as a user will want different things than other users. You may not have thought about what you want, but you do have wants. You have an idea of how you want to use your computer. It's a matter of doing a Google search to find what option provides your choice. It's not like choosing between 5 ice cream flavors you all like; it's like choosing what to eat between ice cream, vomit, feces, a rock, and a block of wood. There's a clear right choice. If you really believe that there are an overwhelming amount of choices of Linux, you are simply ignorant of the most basic UX differences. Like, you haven't even tried to compare. You just heard "there are 2 things" and panicked.
I'm really tired of this stupid myth of too much fragmentation in Linux that gets passed around. There's a reason for the fragmentation; it's not arbitrary, so it doesn't hurt to have it. We're talking bare minimum looking stuff up or asking a question.
Why? Because Linux is high maintenance.
Only true if you mess with stuff. If you're a newcomer and just want stuff to work. Pick some common, stable OS like Ubuntu, use flatpaks or snaps, and it will just work.
I did nothing out of the ordinary -- yet somehow it ended up breaking my desktop. The result? Neither Unity nor Gnome worked properly, so I went back to Windows to cool off... and haven't been back to Linux since.
Ah okay, this article was written nearly a decade ago. That checks out. There were several significant improvements to Linux around 5 years ago or so.
But also, "nothing out of the ordinary?" Installing a totally new desktop environment is "nothing out of the ordinary?" It's something you can't even do on Mac and Windows!
Software Quality Is Mostly Sub-Par
Just untrue. There are tons of fantastic FOSS apps out there with better UX than I get even from proprietary apps. Another myth that has 0 Google searching behind it. I mean look at the GNOME apps. They're all really really good for the most part.
This probably also comes from the age of the article too. A lot of that came like 5 or so years ago. There were some big pushes.
There are some important proprietary apps that are unavailable with no great alternatives like Photoshop, that's fair, but for FOSS apps that are just trying to do what they want to do, there's some with great UI.
Yeah I never could figure out Ableton either lol
Pick Rust, learn Bevy, and make a Flappy Bird clone. Is it the best way? Who cares just get started.
You could mull over and discuss a million different ways to get started. The most important thing is to be decisive and just do