Rambling about Linux vs. Windows

After Effects alternative? Blender!
GNOME for example uses it to create their 2D info graphic animations and AFAIK you can also add effects (which After Effects is all about)

Anti-cheat, I must say yes…that’s a thing, but that’s anti-competitive behaviour from Windows developers. Some developers even check and block Wine!

LibreOffice is a great office suite, it has everything I need and I even wrote my college papers on it. Works great!

CAD software is a whole different story and I hope there will be some good programs to do it right, same for very specialized Windows software for let’s say big machines.

These are just Windows/Linux side-by-side…but the end-goal of Linux is not growing bigger, it’s just to have a perfectly capable operating system for most people next to the proprietary walled gardens we already have for decades now. I think where Linux can shine is 1) everywhere else, but not on the desktop 2) the average grandma user that just wants to write them e-mails and surf “The Internet”.

Sure Linux has its advantages, but if we want to help it to grow we should get all the rather inexperienced people onto the boat and then laugh about hardcore Windows gamers then. But again: Linux’s end goal is not to grow bigger, it’s just an alternative (or better: a break) from all the garbled mess we have on the desktop.

What do I like about Windows?

  • Great hardware compatibility
  • Modern features well supported (disk encryption, TPM module configuration, OEM boot logo etc.)
  • Powerful applications (Adobe, MS Office etc.)
  • Games (sorry, Linux)
  • A “known” thing everyone knows how to use it (because they probably already have a Windows computer at home)

What am I not liking about Windows?

  • Privacy
  • Annoying nags (Cortana, Windows Update etc.)
  • Inconsistent user interface (Win32 VS UWP)
  • Almost empty Windows Store (Developers, Developers, Developers)
  • Stuff breaks more easily, especially after updates
  • Messed up Spooler (printing is hell on Windows, really)
  • Gets slow over time forcing me to switch OS or hardware
  • Preinstalled bloatware
  • Stressful user interface
  • Almost no freedoms changing things around to suit your needs
  • Costs money even though they already serve ads and mine data
  • Installer doesn’t like more than three drives and Windows Home only likes up to 16GB of RAM, Windows Pro only 2TB (but I would never be able to afford a machine with more than 2TB of RAM)
  • Community is almost dead, at least I barely get any help for my Windows system and have to fix stuff on blind luck alone
  • Updates require a restart

What do I like about Linux?

  • A stable, fast and efficient system
  • Hackable down to the core, literally
  • Easy to use interface
  • No bloat, nags or crap
  • Free (both cost and actual freedom)
  • Updates actually fix stuff
  • Doesn’t slow down after more than half a year of use
  • Simply is my friendliest companion
  • Development is easy! (especially developing stuff for servers as they already run on Linux most of the time)
  • Installation just works (except if you use Ubuntu lol)
  • If you don’t like it patch it out
  • Generally smaller and less bloated (see above)
  • Hell lot of customization features (see above)
  • Somebody probably has a fix for it
  • Huge and active community
  • Updates don’t really require a restart and updates update everything on my system, both my software and my operating system

What am I not liking about Linux? (and yes, it’s not perfect)

  • It’s free if you don’t value your time
  • Games (Windows just has too much of them)
  • Hardware support may be spotty (which is today almost not a problem and most of the time there are workarounds…thanks HP)
  • Not many vocal vendors selling Linux machines (which is the #1 reason why the Linux desktop isn’t there yet even though Linux was initially thought as a desktop OS)
  • Some OSS software isn’t as good as their proprietary counterparts (nothing can beat Adobe and it annoys the hell out of me that I can’t close Spotify to tray)
  • Fragmented choice of user interfaces and system base structures (makes it harder to optimize for one platform only, QT or GTK, does it have systemd etc.)
  • Butthurt /g/ community wanting to make Linux as inaccessible to “normies” as possible
  • Some radical opinions about FLOSS and Stallman which I am not a fan of
  • Chicken-egg problem (with users come developers, but developers want users)

TL;DR computers are garbage and society is shit. Linux rocks, but Windows does as well. I would prefer Linux though, because most of the time I spend on a computer is doing actual work and that’s where Linux can shine.

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