6
kiki
167d

The reason I don't use Linux on my desktop is its hobby of saying “fuck off” spontaneously and without warning when I need it the most.

A designer friend shares his After Effects project and asks to export that to Lottie? Fuck off.
Your Android phone decided to brick itself with an OTA update (yep, happened to me, thanks Sony), and you need to unbrick it? Fuck off!
A musician friend wants to connect his audio card (that of course has no Linux drivers) and record some bass riffs? Tell him to fuck right off mate.
Your boss suddenly asks you to check an MS Access file for him as he's en route to an important meeting? Yep, you guessed it — fuck off.
Your government now requires your tax papers to have digital signatures? Fuck off, it only works for Mac and Windows.
Want to connect an old digital camera? Would you please fuck off?

I know I'm gonna get heat from Linux fanboys, especially on this platform. After all, a designer should know how to export to Lottie if he's a real designer, you should've bought a better phone, your friend should've had his laptop with him, your boss should've used open source tools instead of MS Access… Wait, he was tasked that from above? Then his boss should've used open source tools! Government mandates digital signatures? Well, tell them to port that to Linux! Start a riot! Get a better government! Move to a better country! Digital cameras? Who uses them in 2024, especially old ones! Are you some kind of hipster?

I know preparing for corner cases is bona fide premature optimization, but that's the whole point — with Mac or Windows, you don't have to prepare at all. You always have options. With Linux, your number one option is to have Windows handy if need be.

Linux works perfectly on my server, but not on my laptop.

Comments
  • 2
    You should probably have all 3 just in case there's a random use case only supported in one.

    It's normal to have 3 desktops/laptops at all times right?
  • 14
    It doesn't tell you to fuck off, it cordially invites you to spend a month writing device drivers or something. What's stopping you?
  • 3
    tbh I've had more and worse "fuck off" situations on Windows. From slightly buggy drivers that you need to patch yourself* to shit being broken beyond repair.

    * if you can find the forgotten knowledge of an ancient civilization buried deep in some obscure forums – otherwise you just gotta live with your WiFi card randomly going to "fuck off" mode

    Now I'm not saying it's necessarily better on Linux, but at least if someone there finds a fix, it could be fixed upstream.
  • 0
    @saucyatom can you tell me what was the model of that Wi-Fi device and which version of Windows did it have problems with?
  • 2
    @kiki It's a ~2013ish Laptop which got a fresh install of Windows 10 LTSC. To be fair, it probably wasn't sold with Win10. Not sure about the exact card but I could check the next time when I visit my parents.

    The problem was that Windows update supplied a buggy driver for this WiFi card. There is, however, a newer driver available for a some related cards. So you need to download the driver for the other card, add the identifiers for this card to the .INF (iirc) file and manually install this driver. No more WiFi drops, yay!
  • 3
    @saucyatom ah, so you just installed a driver manually, not patched an existing driver. Got it. I asked because I thought there was a Wi-Fi card with an open source driver (already weird) on WINDOWS (pretty much impossible)! But yeah, Windows do be like that. On Linux, your card won't work at all bc no driverz 4u
  • 1
    @kiki True, it's not really patching the driver itself. But I guess identifying the issue, failing to find a newer driver, finding similar cards are using the same driver but have a newer version available in the Windows Update catalog, downloading that and manually changing the driver package's config files does go a bit beyond "install".

    On Linux, that card just works..
  • 2
    As your brother partaking in GNU jihad, I am under legal obligation to inform you that many acts that would normally be considered *illicit* are pardonable if done out of necessity in extraordinary circumstances.

    Because of this, you may utilize prohibited proprietary software in such situations -- when an emergency rises, and no permissible alternative is available to you -- long as your mind and intention are not those of a transgressor.

    I would, however, recommend washing your hands afterwards ;>
  • 0
    @kiki there there.. those are not problems, just commercial crap issues.

    But I do understand where it comes from. It's not that the average consumer is thinking "I wonder if this thing is Linux/Foss compatible"
    .
  • 0
    @Liebranca I am jihadist, but I am part of the brotherhood of left hand wipers.
  • 2
    The business world, which we all have to make contact with periodically, is mostly Windows it seems. My boss HATES Windows. We use it as little as possible. Mostly in sales.
  • 0
    So you hate linux because no one else supports linux? Genius. With this kind of thinking, we shouldn't even have free options at all!

    Fucking stupid piece of shit graphite pencil, it just tells me to fuck off when I want to write on plastic bags, Markers don't do that! I hope pencil fanboys won't reeee at me :)
  • 1
    @Demolishun lmao, but I'm serious to some extent.

    To make jihad in the cause of God is, in short, struggling or striving for good; I see defense and promotion of software freedom, more or less as outlined by the FSF, to fall within that definition. Hence, GNU jihad.

    It's only made *doubly* appropiate given the added connotation the word carries in the US and it's satellites, as similar tactics of misrepresentation are employed against the FSF -- the usual suspects would apply the label of "extremist" to me either way, and so I have joined the two.

    Now, I'm not saying everyone around the world should libreboot AND prostrate on seven bones pointing towards the Cube -- I mean, not necessarily. But you get me, right? My brainwires connect these matters, it's like a King Terry mambo of sorts: "he doesn't panic, he just does what he can". ;>
  • 1
    @Liebranca I meant to say "I am not jihadist." But I like your definition of jihadist. Fight the good fight.
  • 1
    I’d rather have my machine tell me to fuck off than trying to keep walking with a huge memory leak in its stomache, while asking for feedback after giving the absolute batshit worst user experience possible. Looking at you, Microcuck
  • 2
    It's wild how we have vastly different experiences on desktop.
  • 1
    @thebiochemic

    People who hate Windows:

    I have had this and this and this...

    Me: never sees those issues

    People who hate Linux:

    I have had this and this and this...

    Me: I have had some of those issues, but its free and I can fix shit from the command line.

    Reminds me when I tried to help someone run Linux. They bought a printer. The disk didn't come with Linux drivers. So they were mad at me. I don't help anyone anymore. They can figure this shit out themselves. So, Linux user group stays small.
  • 2
    @Demolishun when I met my bf he thought he knew technology but I told him he doesn't and he's not a nerd. he works construction ffs

    anyway he was sick of windows and he knew I was using Linux for years so he got Linux and I kept telling him he's not a tech person. he disappeared for weeks, kept reinstalling various arch distros and wrestling with bugs, and came back and now he's lecturing me on how to fix my Linux issues lmao

    gotta love rebels

    the other day he was having issues with some "media server" thing he insists on using tho and motherfucker doesn't read error messages though. idk why I even fixed it for him I think I just did it by accident cuz I was baffled by what he was telling me and then in the process of figuring it out I had fixed it for him... he's still not a nerd anyway, is my opinion, smh
  • 1
    @Demolishun the thing is windows was for the longest time a "just works" OS. You get it if you have no idea about shit, or are too tired to mess around with it too much, and don't mind getting the occasional feature replaced by ads. It runs on most modern PCs.

    Get macOS, because you kinda want to mess with stuff, but don't like to commit to things, but if, then its similar to linux, and you don't mind selling your liver for hardware that is behind 5 years, which macOS exclusively runs on. Instead of ads you get branding.

    Or you get chromeOS, it's like android, but on chrome books. You just need a web browser. But it's from Google

    Get <insert linux distro here>, if you're tired from all of the above and don't mind tinkering around with stuff. You get a working system for what you use it for, and it runs on what you need it to. It's free and you fully own it.

    ---

    It's basically just what people are willing to put up with.

    @kiki is definitely a Windows person and that's fine.
  • 1
    @thebiochemic I'm a Mac person 🤦‍♀️
  • 1
    @thebiochemic

    > You get a working system for what you use it for

    this was exactly my point. I can do it, it's just like “what you use it for” tends to extend suddenly and without warning, with Linux not being able to handle it most of the time.
  • 1
    @kiki realising your faults is the first step to become a better person

    /s

    i would argue, that macOS has also a rather designer centric use case. If you for example have this friend, who is a frikkin good beat saber player, but they forgot their Laptop at home, i doubt, that you'd make it work with an apple device "without tinkering", if at all.
  • 1
    @saucyatom Uh huh. How is that Windows' fault? When you want to install an OS over an old laptop, you should the laptop driver's download page, to see which OS it supported. Windows 10 came out on 2015.
  • 1
    @kiki i have a intel nuc run over wifi, no driver problems, but hotspot config(custom dns for content filter) get corrupted.

    Maybe intel linux drivers are not an issue, but other manufacters don't like linux and thereby not offering a driver for linux!
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