The problem is that there's now nowhere to go, unless you can deal with using Linux as your daily driver desktop OS. I have tried many times and have never succeeded, but if it gets bad enough I may have to find a way eventually.
Maybe it will be like some of Apple's changes that allowed Apple's apps to bypass a whole lot of the network stack, VPNs, content filters, firewalls.
They later removed it, and tried to spin it as a "temporary feature while they resolved bugs in those pieces of software", though it's hard to imagine what apps like TextEdit needed a network kernel extension for...
Even if they blocked it in the OS you’d still be able to block with an off device network solution like pihole.
Or just use alternatives to the offending apps. I don’t mind Apple’s stock software and try to use it in most cases to avoid the software tinkering trap, but it’s not like there’s any that’s best in class/irreplaceable.
I think the commenters objection is more about principle.
It's definitely difficult at first - the loss of polish, and the extra up-front setup to make it nice.
If you do try again, my advice is: Play to the strengths of the new OS.
MacOS makes decisions for you (usually good ones), but you're SOL if you don't like them. This culture affects native apps, too.
For me, getting good results out of Linux has been a question of putting in more up-front work to figure out what I actually want the computer to do. The result is... very comfy.
The big problem for me is that there just... isn't a way to do a lot of things on Linux without a looot of effort.
I use Linux as a daily, but I still have a windows computer for all the things you can't do anywhere else. Random executables that I (begrudgingly) need for work, life, etc.
It's definitely getting better, but it's still not quite there. I still need my windows computer for various things that have no alternative.
Yea similar for me. I run native linux for work, but a windows machine with a Ubuntu vm for private use. I just can't get around certain things only being really available on Windows.
Though I have a harder time thinking about macos things that are lacking in Linux apart from the Microsoft Office and the Adobe Suite. Especially since the dev experience on Linux is much better considering your servers or embedded devices are running on linux and macOS just adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to your dev environment. yea, you often don't realize it, until you work with C (which might sneek in as a library in your favorite higher language written in C for efficiency) or something else "native".
My point being it's much harder to get rid of windows than getting rid of macos. Even with a Mac I still needed a windows machine at least for games. But many people maybe just need pc + office + Adobe which is exactly mac.
Which is why I'm so glad that Valve/Steam are putting in the efforts they have been, even if it's yet another (less) walled garden. I don't play games a lot, but appreciate their efforts all the same.
Thankfully WINE's licensing ensures that Steam's compatibility layer doesn't get stuck in their walled garden exclusively, and all Linux users get to take advantage of Proton and their upstream WINE contributions for free.
I usually set up any new computer of mine as dual boot Linux (default) / Windows.
The Windows installation remains largely untouched and unconfigured, and only used for when there's no other option than a damn .exe. It's permanently there as an option when required.
I have been daily-driving Plasma (KDE) for ... eesh, at least 5 years now, maybe 7. I can't remember the last time I booted a Windows or Mac OS (for my own use). Plasma just keeps getting better too.
I use it as a generalist dev (so, interacting with lots of different environments) as well as hobby & entertainment (incl. photography).
The biggest pain point IMO is lack of a good email application. They're all aggravating in different ways.
The initial getting-started process requires a bit of reading to figure out hardware support and get a few things dialed in. That's a little painful, but shouldn't be a deal-breaker for dev types.
If you want to jump ship from the Windows/Mac dichotomy, check out Plasma. Runs great on Debian. Debian's less "sexy" than other distros, but it's a great solution for the "I just wanna get my work done" crowd.
I've used KDE for several years and it's gotten less stable for me. It doesn't fail loudly but there are just minor things in almost every KDE application that make it weird to use. Most recently the Night Color in KDE doesn't work even when it's on unless I close it and restart it.
Fair. I run into a handful of recurring glitches too. I just usually find them to be mild nuisances and not show-stoppers, and the rest works well enough that I'm still far, far happier with it overall than the mainstream alternatives.
Plasma really impressed me, as well. I went back to Linux expecting jank and to have to tinker a lot, and was pleasantly surprised when Plasma proved those expectations wrong.
What is missing from the Linux experience that is keeping you from switching? I have found Linux Mint to be quite capable for the last decade personally
There's a general jankiness that I don't enjoy dealing with (especially when using high DPI screens), but the real dealbreaker for me is the lack of support by professional-level photo editing software. I personally use Capture One for most of my editing, and it won't run on Linux.
I can't speak to high DPI screens, but I've certainly had display issues out of the box. Usually they just required installing the right proprietary drivers (which surprisingly the graphics card company supplied).
Have you tried Raw Therapee or Darktable? I'm not sure how well they would work first-hand, but they sound promising for photo editing and might have some overlap with Capture One
Yeah, its sad but its still very hard to operate in most full professional senior roles using only Linux. MS Office and high quality video conferencing are the two that are show stoppers for me. Pure technical positions its probably more viable but I could not get away with the quality my staff using Linux only suffice with (misformatted documents, unable to open things, Zoom crashing regularly, etc).
When even my healthcare websites contain Google tracking tags, it's getting harder to find _anything_ untainted by advertising companies, even after paying what I would consider a reasonable price for the service itself.
PopOS and Ubuntu-Budgie are pretty nice for general use... I think my only problem really is that Bluetooth headphones don't always auto negotiate to mono+mic to/from stereo... but I'd rather deal with that than ads in the Start menu search.
If you use a rolling release distribution, you'll get up-to-date Pipewire libraries and the latest Wireplumber, both of which improve compatibility with Bluetooth headphones a lot, especially with hardware with different profiles like Bluetooth headsets.
Bluetooth headphones actually work reliably now for me, whereas I used to not even bother because Bluetooth audio was always a gamble on Linux in the past.
Even just running a live Linux instance off of a USB drive can give you an idea if the latest versions of Linux + Pipewire can solve your use case better than distributions that are based on older software, like Ubuntu and PopOS are.
That's cool. If rather stay with a more stable release.. Though as it is most of what I do is in docker and tend to stick with flatpak as much as possible. So limit my risk of breaks a bit.
May give a rolling distro a chance when I do a new build in the late spring next year. Thinking of doing open loop water cooling for the first time. Mad as well go rolling release for the OS.
I haven't noticed any ads in Windows 10 LTSC on my gaming computer. I do have multiple layers of ad blocking though so it's possible they are being blocked by something and I just don't notice. Laptop is Debian.
Does LTSC still lag behind other Windows releases? I remember trying to get WSL 2 working on it but it turned out that the LTSC release didn't support it yet.
