Comment by y4mi
8 years ago
linux desktop does not suck.
Linux on unsupported laptops (which is most of them) sucks big time, but not linux desktop itself. It works great on standard desktop computers (towers)
you should make that distinction, because otherwise you'll just start a flame war.
I tend to disagree. Yes it works but I find it unpleasent to use. None of the available desktops is pleasant to use, especially fonts and symbols often look much worse than Windows or MacOS. As much as I like Linux on servers, I don't see any reason to use it with a graphic interface.
I've recently gotten a new laptop, and everything is supported out of the box in Debian. It has a 2160x1440 screen, and the hidpi support with gnome on Wayland is outstanding. I would say that the fonts and symbols look on par with the new MacBook pro (I was using my new computer side by side with a new model MacBook pro).
The Linux desktop has come a long way, even in just the last year or two. I know everyone always says that, so take it with a grain of salt, but I have never been happier with the state of the Linux desktop.
What desktop environment?
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Interesting. Personally, I find Windows quite unpleasant to use, even basic window management is a hassle (just an example: you have to target very small hit boxes for simple things like resizing and moving windows around, and default keyboard shortcuts are not configurable). As to fonts, many if not most custom fonts you see more and more on websites look quite odd, and sometimes simply bad with Windows' font hinting (I do agree the built-in fonts work nicely, but so do fonts on certain Linux systems as well, and have done so for at least a decade since Canonical merged certain patches to their Ubuntu's version of freetype).
Might it be that we tend to like what we're used to? When I jumped from WinXP to a Gnome2-desktop, I tried to make it a bit more like WinXP, even though these days I would probably want nothing of how WinXP desktop is laid about.
Windows 10 is the exception by the way, the hotkeys for windows management are wonderfully executed — and, well thought out. Worth giving it a try.
Head on over to /r/unixporn for some inspiration on gui aesthetics. It's not hard to make it look great.
When was the last time you used Linux on a Desktop?
Almost every time I hear this complaint it was years ago and with one distro. There is so much more than Ubuntu out there people (Ubuntu sucks IMHO).
One thing I've learned is distrohopping is a must if your hardware is an edge case... that said, since moving to Manjaro, I haven't had to use anything else.
~10 months ago. Looking at screenshots on their website I still don't like it. But maybe that's just because I grew up with Windows (although I do like how macOS looks). Think it's very much a taste thing. Most of what I do is browser based (incl. IDE) anyway so the OS doesn't really matter anymore.
I am using Manjaro with KDE Plasma desktop, and IMO it's the best linux desktop i've ever tried. And the best part is, you can customize it yourself.