Don’t bother with Desktop Linux

36 thoughts on “Don’t bother with Desktop Linux”

• Stability issue is really a non issue if you use distros reputed for stability and reliability like Debian. Besides nowadays Immutability is getting popular which might make Linux even more unbreakable.

  Downloading from a distro's repo is an old-school thing in my opinion which causes issues you mentioned. Cross platform packaging formats like Flatpak, Nix, Appimages are the future. You are pretty much fine and can access almost every Linux software if you use Flathub and Nix packages alone. Besides we also have Android apps with Waydroid too….. and many apps becoming PWAs anyways (I mean who could have imagined using MS Office and Adobe Photoshop on Linux few years ago?).

  I am very excited about Vanilla OS Orchid, which is in Beta right now and will probably not release until before mid 2024…… because it solves every single issue that you mentioned. It is a Debian based Immutable distro which supports Flatpaks, Nix, and Android apps out of the box. It can also install Deb packages in a container which are well integrated into the system like all the other apps. It would be a very stable, reliable, secure distro with very up-to-date apps from the two of the biggest repositories of Linux apps.

• Linux is trash

• once you learn a few core things like btrfs and modprobe and shit, linux stability stops mattering as much. maybe once every 6 months a bad update will come through, and il just rollback to before the update and wait a few days to update again. i use rolling release fedora workstation for my server and its been running smooth for about a year. my desktop and laptop runs the same. its definitely a giant time sink i wouldnt expect most people to be interested in but you do reach a point where you can debug most things fairly quickly or just rollback if you dont have time to.

• Windows for image/video/sound production and gaming. Linux for Devedopment. And since WSL is a thing you can just use that instead of dual-booting.

• I've been using desktop Linux for nine years now (first Ubuntu, now Mint), and I would never go back to either Windows or Mac (I had used both in the past). I might go back to my Amiga 3000, though. 🙂

• just pick something conservative and resit the urge to ricing the beep out of your linux desktop, and linux desktop will be a good workhorse to get job done.

• The most stable distro is has probably got to be NixOS. Ubuntu based distros do not work well for me. Ive tried Arch Linux but I broke it but since NixOS is immutable I literally cannot break it even with sudo prilvedges. I use NixOS unstable (for Wine 9.0 and home manager) but its still very stable, some people even say its more stable than stable. Also, you can enable sandboxing for Nix packages and stick to flatpaks and containers to make it a bit more harder to break since everything will either be sandboxed or containerised.

  Would I recommend Linux to the average computer user? Yes, most definitely. With new advancements in technology Wayland this year like the addition of HDR, Gsync, and VRR support, people with newer more feature full displays like me can actually experience them fully now and also Wine 9.0 which fixes alot of bugs and issues plaguing Wine 8.1 and it also officially supports Wayland so you can get all the features like HDR, VRR, and refresh rates higher than 60 on all your favourite Windows games and Apps without having to use Xwayland and lose all those features in the process. You get more customisability over your desktop with multiple desktop environments like GNOME, Xfce, KDE, Hyprland and i3wm which can all give you unique experiences, GNOME looks like MacOS, KDE looks like a mix of Windows 10 and 11, Xfce looks like Windows XP, Hyprland does its own thing and it looks beautiful same wkth i3wm. The only problem I've ever had in Linux was setting up internet in an Arch Linux virtual machine under KVM which I remedied by using Distrobox which is ultimately faster than a Virtual Machine.

  In short, ditch proprietary software, embrace freedom.

• Me: "What the fuck is this dude talking abou… Oh. … right, adding repos. Yeah, that's a fair point."

  And while we're on the subject, there's been at least a few occasions where even adding packages IN the repository have borked things, though admittedly this wasn't recently at this point, but it wasn't entirely forever ago either.

  Still, despite that — I've had terrible luck with Windows stability worse luck personally than with Linux, but mileage does vary.. I have a few Linux computers around here I've been meaning to upgrade, but honestly they haven't given me the excuse, they've been too solid.

• I've used Linux as my main OS on my home desktop since 2003, and haven't had Windows installed at all since around 2007. I'm currently running Manjaro with AUR.

  I've had problems here and there, but then I had problems on Windows and on OSX (my work laptop). Lack of access to MS Office (which I hate but am required to use for work sometimes) is really the only thing that gives me a reason to ever use anything else. Otherwise, I'm a very happy desktop Linux user.

• I swear when people move to linux they install software left and right for no reason then wonder why it fails, its like a windows user downloading some random "free antivirus" then wondering why their computers is moving at a snails pace

• Also, you wont bork your system as much if you use it as intended. Ive heard people use other package managers than the distro default then wonder why they borked their ststem.
  If you go through the gnome/kde store for software youll have no issues

• If you bork you Linux desktop, I'd say it's mostly on your part, aside from occasional freezes. KDE Plasma on Manjaro is very stable for me, although I've experienced hangs or freezes with games made with Unity. Dunno why. Other than that… it runs very nicely (on my hardware at least).

• Davinci resolve isnt the best "compatibility" example, davinci has been buggy on every os ive ran it on, including windowz. Its not fedoras fault that davinci ships with outdated libraries.

• I agree with most of your points, honestly. One thing I will say, however, is that the "common" end user won't need to use things like PPA, because either the distributors have already packaged a stable and reliable Linux build (Spotify, Zoom, Chrome) or because there's a strong community of people that wish that were the case, and thus take it upon themselves to port the existing software to Flatpak (Spotify and Zoom again, the former mostly because only the Snap is official, Discord, etc). And then, naturally, unless you're using straight Ubuntu (which I don't recommend), you'll have a breeze downloading flatpaks. Like others have mentioned, too, the immutable distro scene is likely going to be a big shifter in the usability and reliability space.

  Finally, as a point of preference, your title doesn't match up with the video very much. The entire video took a very reasonable and subjective approach to why the Linux desktop doesn't work for *you*, which is always important to hear as it fields reasonable complaints against things that could feasibly be improved upon, but the title feels incredibly imflammatory and clickbaity by comparison. I highly recommend you change it. Cheers!

• I have played with the idea of trying Linux, I even tried a couple distros in a VM. What gave me pause was the distro scene itself, with all the various tier lists and very opinionated, passionate, distro users. Some background, I used to be heavily into modding Skyrim, and I could recognize the addictiveness of trying different mods that I felt there in this community and all the various distros. Ironically, many people who get into Skyrim modding end up actually not playing the actual game, it is an endless cycle of finding new exciting mods and troubleshooting. So, even though distros are interesting and it would be nice to not have to worry so much about privacy in Windows, it does seem to me to be more of a hobby scene for people to play around in.

• 1. Stability on Linux desktops is generally better than on windows. I use Fedora Workstation on a professional level and it has crashed on me once while with windows that is more or less a weekly occurrence.
  2. If you stick to the right distros, you can leave the Terminal alone for 99% of the stuff you do. And for the rest you can always google or ask chatgpt. And if you cant do this, you most likely need assistance on a pc either way like my mom who dosn't know how to plug in a USB stick.
  3. Even extra repos arent an issue on e.g. Fedora, where you can enable even flatpaks with a simple click. (If they aren't on by default by now)

  The only valid points are drivers if you use a NVIDIA gpu. But in that case I highly encourage you to stop supporting that company. And the other point is software compatibility. For basic gaming (like most popular steam games) you are all set, but for a many titles outside of that, you still need a little tinkering but with that you get almost everything running and for other apps like the adobe cloud or MS office, there are only alternatives or the option to run them emulated/ in VMs etc. But that is something only the developers can change.

  If you dont like Linux at all, that's your thing no problem with that but maybe just try another distro. There are so many 🙂

  And just to mention: On linux you aren't spied upon. On windows and mac, you can be sure that at least some data is going to Microsoft/ Apple. And for the majority of people not only some data is collected by the giants. By using open source software you stop big data from collecting your data at an OS level.

  There is constant work involved to make Linux more accessible and easier to use. But for the Linux desktop to be used by more people there are still many things that can be accomplished to make it more accessible. The Wayland needs more development to be finally done and devs need to adopt it more broadly. But since many distros start using it by default now, this is going faster and faster. also there are mayn other more technical "small" things that deter potential users from using Linux, those need to be ironed out too.

• just yesterday borked ubuntu trying to run game

• I never really have serious problems, but I don't really use a desktop. I just use the Xorg server and a custom window manager that I wrote years ago. And I'm very picky about software I install. Linux suffers from a ridiculous amount of "system" software that tends to conflict with each other, mess up configuration, and break things. Even applications that should be simple often pull in 20 dependencies. Linux itself is far better than Windows, but to be honest Linux userspace is a mess.

• Don't get me wrong friend, some of what you describe is indeed a skill issue… But the skill issue is not so much that you're clueless, but rather that you know enough to get yourself in trouble but not enough to get yourself out of trouble.
  For instance, you mentioned how that making a mistake while editing your fstab can bork your system, which while technically true it is also a moot point because any half-decent desktop distro has handled the mounting and unmounting of volumes automatically for close to 20 years now… Even NTFS volumes "just work".

• Interesting!

• Windows' desktop experience is simply better. Linux desktops are laggier – moving the mouse, switching windows, browsing the Internet, playing audio. Yuck.

• Debian Sid + flatpaks = Perfect desktop setup for my needs at least!
  (standard 'safe Debian' for each TV & the home server! Life with Linux is so much better – for some of the reasons you mention in your video no less!!

• Hi there! I've been using Linux on the desktop for a few years, and I just wanted to write down my thoughts about these issues you bring up.

  You mention that Linux on the desktop tends to be less reliable, and less stable than Windows. In my experience, the opposite tends to be true. When I got my father a laptop, I installed an LTS Linux distro on it. He only uses it for some web browsing and emails, but the user experience is consistent, and he doesn't have to deal with the many issues of Windows, such as the never-ending Windows updates, or the occasional blue screen of death.

  As for packages, on desktop Linux you can use Flatpaks, which (although not my personal favorite) are incredible for novice users. They are entirely sandboxed, so there is no chance of messing up your OS.

  You mention some security issues regarding the AUR, and snaps, but those are issues that also apply to Windows. Going online and downloading some .exe file is (in my opinion) infinitely less secure than using some well-known package manager.

  Of course, you have the right to use whatever desktop OS you want! At the end of the day, use the OS that works for your needs.

• Who care about any of this? Windows sends your data to Microsoft and even third party data collectors, Linux doesn't. So you either are the corporation's female canine or you aren't helping implement the social credit system.
  Anyway for desktop use I prefer OpenBSD for obvious reasons.

• Linux is great as long as you don't have to game online. Alot of games anti cheat are not supported on Linux. But besides that the OS is so much better. I don't like Flat or Snap because it's extreme bloat. But it's a good solution to install the newest version on distros with less frequent updates.

• i bought an hp laptop with linux mint …so far, no problems! other than relearning. for years, i planned on doing an install on an old laptop and never got around to it. when i started using windows 10 i said, 'i will go no farther with windows!' now, i'm not that deep into it, a little python, bash and vmware. other than that: websurf, email and simple office apps. I'm loving it! it has come so far from my first install, circa 1996! suse, yast before plug & play, all day project and still not get everything working, lol! now, i can 'spin-up' an install on a virtual machine in minutes!

• I used to jump distros just to have a feel of everything happening on the desktop side of Linux, until I thought "this is stupid". what I wanted was something with a nice hw support, stable and with regular security updates. And between, CentOS, OpenSuse, Debian, Ubuntu and several others, I just kept with Linux Mint. It's my daily driver. I don't need all the "bells and whistles", so I customize everything. The only bad thing about Linux, is the divide about how the kernel should be developed and maintained, the "to systemd or not to systemd" and the recent X11 .vs Wayland stuff. Useless. I did went towards my old passion FreeBSD and its fork-outs, but there's always the HW support thing when it comes to graphic cards and Wifi device drivers. Linux distros have been doing a great job developing a lot of stuff, but we should apply the KISS philosophy and keep it so. Linux Mint ftw 🙂

• You're talking nonsense. I switched to Linux at around 2016, and I was one of those people who tried to convert everyone to Linux at every opportunity, but after a year I toned it down because I realized I couldn't be their tech support every time they had an issue since they were using their computers for things I never do.
  But today, I would recommend Linux over Windows any time. For an average user it's a perfect system out of the box. Just pick something like Linux Mint and you're golden. Stable, up to date system that comes out of the box with office, multimedia. internet browsing and communication software. Gaming is getting on par with Windows, especially for Steam users. Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to use Adobe products or some specific industry-standard proprietary Windows software, Linux desktop is just a better experience. Yes, you can break your system by messing around with fstab or installing software from unofficial repos. Does an average user even know how to open fstab to even begin to mess with it? And it's not like Windows doesn't break, it surely can and will break. But with Linux you have a better chance of actually fixing your system before you opt to give up and reinstall it. Again, all in my personal experience and the experience of people I know or met.
  I'd rather have to deal with different package managers and distros rather than any of Windows bullshit.

• Having used "desktop linux" for nearly 20years it has improved hugely wrt stability and reliability. But there are definitely still issues. I think part of it is psychological. On Windows (which I still use for work) if you want to do something you have a limited number of options. On Linux something is nearly always possible if you are willing to go far enough. I can't tell you how many times I have broken my system because I wanted to get that one esoteric app to work and so I changed, recompiled, reconfigured, reinstalled other components to make it fit. On WIndows I'd've given up because it just wasn't available to me.
  That aside my current set up is pretty stable but I've gotten good at isolating my own data and settings, I can re-install and/or distro-hop fairly easily and get back to a system that looks and works very much the same. (which btw is why distros don't matter as much as we sometimes think)
  I think there's some interesting work in this area using immutable distros with containers and flatpaks. I've tried a few – microOs, Vanilla OS, Fedora Silverblue. They're not quite there yet IME but I am keeping my eye on them. I suspect though that I'll hit the same psychological issue – it'll be super stable and I'll break it because I love to tinker lol.

• If you're having trouble with system stability and feel like there's a serious problem managing your packages, odds are good you're running a distro based on Debian. That would be your wide variety of Ubuntu-based nonsense like Pop!_OS and Linux Mint. You absolutely DO NOT have to scour the web for dependencies that are somehow missing for packages in the main repository. And you do not have to muck about with adding a bunch of different repositories. That's a Debian-exclusive problem based on my experience, and no efforts to fork it will ever change that.

  My advice is to switch to a Fedora spin or an Arch-based system that uses your desktop environment of choice by default. With Arch, there are pacman wrappers like pamac or paru that make installing packages from the Arch User Repository a breeze. You'll never need to use pacman (the Arch package manager) after that because the wrappers run those commands for official packages automatically. And if you run Fedora, I'm pretty sure you can manage this entirely in the settings and the package manager's GUI without even opening a terminal. If not, the guide to install RPM Fusion is remarkably short.

  Everything I've used since abandoning Debian has been more user-friendly, even Void Linux. I'm even considering Gentoo, but I'd NEVER return to Debian.

• Anyone can easily resolve these conflicts and install and run any software they want. They just need to be developers to do it right.

• My experience is 180 degrees different from yours.

• LMDE works great for me!

• My only question is if you don't like desktop linux but don't use windows but use linux. then what do you use? do you just suck it up and use windows? or what OS are you even using?

• I use Linux on the desktop as my daily driver. My Linux Desktop have never eaten themselves, or be unreliable. While I humbly have to disagree with you, I think you made some good points in a cogent and well presented way.

• Been using Arch Linux for like 3 months now, only had a few minor glitches other than that it's solid for everything I need.

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