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Comment by drnick1

3 days ago

The Penguin is calling.

Not being battered by upsells nobody asked for every time you turn the laptop on is so refreshing.

  • This reminds me of the situation with online ads.

    Most people with ad blockers don't realize how unusable the web is for those that don't have ad blockers. I think most would agree this is a poor state that industry incentives have landed us in, and with the web being distributed, it's hard to know how to fix.

    Similarly those who use Linux probably don't realize how bad Windows has got recently.

    Microsoft has managed to replicate this awful ux problem on a system that they entirely control...

  • When your computer does what you tell it and it doesn't actively try to undermine your intentions, computing becomes fun again.

    • Yes. It's a slow boiling frog thing. Kinda like a bad relation ship. You get used to the toxicity. But when you get out of it, it's soooo refreshing. Thank you everybody who made Linux on the desktop possible.

  • Windows used to be like that too, when MS was more focused on being hostile to the competition than its own customers.

  • My 5 year old laptop runs a lot faster as well.

    Linux was designed to run on potatoes and has very little bloat over the years. The UX isn't terribly worse on fairly old hardware.

    • > Linux was designed to run on potatoes and has very little bloat over the years. I think it's more that it was designed in the 80s-90s for hardware at the time, and hasn't added bloat or "requirements" since then. So as computers have gotten more capable Linux takes less of the overall capacity.

    • Quote: very little bloat over the years

      You should try Haiku, and read about its package virtual file system, Linux in comparison will forever after that look like a bloated hog.

Exactly.

Upgrade, to Linux.

  • 2026 year of the linux desktop

    • To be honest Linux desktop has been ready for the past 4-5 years or so. Long gone are the days where Bluetooth suddenly stopped, external monitors crashing and when closing the lid only put the laptop to sleep every fifth time. Heck, even Wayland, wireless printers and usb-c docking stations work these days, even with nvidia. You might even find some games.

      It’s become a boring appliance that just works every time. Just they way I want it. I even forgot how to use grub.

      3 replies →

  • Why bother with Linux when there is MacOS? You get decent hardware to go with it too

    • Actual control over my computer? Apple might have less ads, but they really go out of their way to make you feel uncomfortable doing anything they deem not the happy path. And they're still plenty willing to push subscriptions and their software.

    • Because some of us would rather not have to buy new hardware just because Apple says no more updates for your machine.

    • Because MacOS is just as insidious? Recent versions will bring up the iCloud pop-up on every boot. Won't go away until you comply.

      Both Mac and Windows are for suckers.

    • IMO Mac eco is good hardware plus meh software. Some built ins are really in bad shape — but I guess people have different opinions, although I think calling Finder a beta version is an insult to “beta”.

I sure like seeing

    Expanded Security Maintenance for Applications is not enabled.
    
    0 updates can be applied immediately.
    
    108 additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps.
    Learn more about enabling ESM Apps service at https://ubuntu.com/esm

every time I log in. Or

> You do not have a valid subscription for this server. Please visit www.proxmox.com to get a list of available options.

every time I log in.

  • Ubuntu broke new ground when it came out but around the time they switched to the Gnome desktop, they stopped focusing on a great desktop experience and it was surpassed by other, better distributions. I'd recommend trying Linux Mint instead as it has all the greatness of Linux without the crap from Canonical (eg. SNAPs).

    I haven't recommended Ubuntu to anyone for years but there are still people recommending it because it was great years ago and they don't seem to know it's now lagging other distributions.

  • That’s if you run a OS version older than 5 years. You can still update to a newer Ubuntu version for free and get another 5 years if you pick an LTS version.