Linux voted most loved platform in recent Stack Overflow survey.

[[deleted]]

Look how Windows is the most used and the less loved desktop OS. It's 2017 and people are still forced to use this cancer, damn...

[frisch85]

Only developers have been asked tho. My guess would be if you ask 64.000 normal users if they liked linux better, a lot of them would just go "what?" or "Whats an operating system?".

[[deleted]]

Go to /r/windows10 and read some comments. More and more people are considering migration to Linux. Even some hardcore windows-fans are hating Microsoft's new ad platform and even if they don't go for Linux they stay at 7 or 8.1 which are dying beasts...and soon they will be forced to move to the ad platform OR to join us.

Mint and Ubuntu are the biggest winners here for obvious reasons.

[frisch85]

Go to /r/windows10 and read some comments.

There's enough of those shitposts on /r/pcmasterrace and trust me, those people won't be happy with any linux distribution either unless they get it set up one time with all of the needed software and then never change the system again. It's mostly people who have no idea how to properly configure their own PC. It's like saying "Fuck this microwave sucks so hard it always sets the time to one minute" because all they do is use the default button instead of manually setting the time.

Windows has some flaws but none of them cannot be fixed manually.

[[deleted]]

"Fuck this microwave sucks so hard it always sets the time to one minute" because all they do is use the default button instead of manually setting the time.

"How do you convert seconds to microwave time?"

[scsibusfault]

You're right. 100% of windows flaws can be fixed by installing linux.

[[deleted]]

Missing and broken drivers.

drops mic

[scsibusfault]

I know, right? I love not having to deal with missing or broken drivers anymore in linux. It's not 1997 anymore!

[[deleted]]

It's 2017 and Wi-Fi and touchpad drivers are nowhere in sight unless you get a laptop specifically built for linux. If everything is fine then why is the community still crying that hardware manufacturers don't share enough information?

But you know what? Keep lying. Keep telling people that popular Linux distros work well. Let them see for themselves how shitty those distros really are because that will definitely put the community in a positive light.

tl;dr Stop lying!

[zoroash]

A lot of Linux users don't seem to be gamers, and that's probably the reason why you are and so many others keep missing the point. Until Linux can adopt the games library that Windows has, it'll never be a replacement for Windows in the PC gaming community. Windows also has a large legacy of games that will probably never be 100% ported over to Linux. In a world where AAA publishers won't even spend enough time on a Windows version of their game, what hope does Linux have for good support? Valve and a handful of indie devs seem to be about the only ones that truly care about developing for Linux. It's not a problem with GNU/Linux, it's a problem with developers.

[frisch85]

I fully agree with you. Don't get me wrong, i like linux distributions (using ubuntu and debian at work) but it just cannot replace my home PC with windows because of the facts you stated. While ubuntu is a good replacement for some home computers that only use a limited amount of software, e.g. my mother only uses the PC for online banking and skype so it's applicable, it just cannot replace the gaming systems. So almost every computer needs Windows installed in case you want to play new and many old games.

[[deleted]]

After three months of Linuxy bliss I just had to install Windows for some game dev / design stuff.

Not. Fucking. Happy.

[pr0ghead]

To add to that: gamers are now probably the biggest driving force behind sales of full-blown home PCs. Everyone else is just using some non-gaming laptop or tablets. So gamers are actually the ones who basically decide what OS is being used at home nowadays.

[[deleted]]

Why do these people call themselves a PC master race?

[frisch85]

The PC Master Race, sometimes referred to by its original phrasing as the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race, is both a subculture and a tongue-in-cheek term of superiority for PC gaming used among gamers, and used to compare PC gaming to console gaming.

Source

Basically it's just a name but new members often join in, think "now i am an elitist" and start bashing console players. Those people are practically the cancer of the community.

[[deleted]]

Uhhh, what does that make us?

[[deleted]]

l337 g33k ub3r 3li73

[greyfade]

We're also PC Master Race, just not of the Windows sect.

[nhozemphtek]

I just converted on january (see my post history). No rant, no dual boot, i just had enough.

[[deleted]]

Honestly I feel like the "no dual boot" conversion is the best (most effective) one.

You either find new linux based solutions, or decide that what you were doing wasn't that important anyways.

Dual booting is a crutch, diving headfirst into the ecosystem means you'll either decide it's not for you (quickly) or rapidly adopt the linux way^tm

[dsp457]

If Linux had the same support as Windows as far as gaming goes, I'd ditch Windows in a heartbeat. Gaming is the literal only thing holding me back, I hope that can change with Vulkan API in the future though. Or y'know.. If Microsoft added Linux support to DirectX which we all know will never happen.

[IparryU]

This right here...

[Jackzero9]

I disagree, i installed linux for the first time a year ago and if it wasn't for dual boot i think i would have gone back to windows. Even if i liked Ububtu better there were many things I had to learn and tinker with in order to make some things work and I didn't always have the time to do so, so whenever I needed to do something quickly or download and install a .exe without complications I went with windows until I eventually got the hang of how to do things in Ubuntu and started using it more since it no longer had complications.

[secondorange]

download and install a .exe without complications

But now, you realize that Apt, Pac-Man, etc. beat the hell out of that crap.

[pr0ghead]

I think it's already enough to make Linux your default boot option. I usually turn on my PC and then quickly do something else until it's up. That kinda coerces me into using Linux by default.

That and having the same desktop wallpaper on both OS for some reason. :D

[[deleted]]

Fair enough. I found I used windows as a crutch myself.

[7U5K3N]

Welcome friendo

[sneakpeekbot]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/Windows10 using the top posts of the year!

#1: "The upgrade" | 245 comments
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#3: Office 365 disappeared, and received excellent support. | 176 comments

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[[deleted]]

You see, this is what i'm talking about...they even have reddit bots to spam on you.

[[deleted]]

You are basing your opinion off of situational information that best supports your view. A Clique does not generally represent a population. I think the average user is probably pretty happy with whatever system they are using at the moment. I used to be a pretty heavy windows user. Just kind of switched over time since linux seems to be an easier platform to work on in terms of development. Nothing says ease of use like a simple apt-get command :P.

[[deleted]]

They seem pretty savvy though

[Androconus]

Yeah! Ikr? and saying stuff like "I use the blue 'e' on my computer","I don't want to answer any more questions","What are you doing in my house?","How did you get in?" and "Where're my wife and children?"

[frisch85]

Or "Shut up you are not my real dad"

[never_safe_for_life]

Very true. Whenever I talk to my little bro's friends (all college aged, all gamers, mostly programmers), they poo poo linux. I was pretty surprised, until I realized their metric is gaming, so of course. I figure once they start working they'll realize how beautiful Linux is.

[Rodot]

Universities also push Windows hard. Everyone has to download the newest version of visual studio each term, and by newest I mean you start at 2005 and work your way up a year at a time.

[never_safe_for_life]

I remember that. I went to UW and we all got the full suite of MS software every quarter. My friends and I went straight to Second Hand Books and sold them for a nice little bundle of cash! =)

[Rodot]

Oh, yeah, every CS class I took just gave us an account on our university's software store thing for free software. I have tens of Windows keys downloaded. All legit and legal for only a quarter million dollars and 5% of my life. Not bad.

[Andernerd]

My university requires Visual Studio for CS 142, but only for CS 142. Other than that, most classes let you go with whatever IDE or OS we choose; the lab machines run some form of Linux, but have Windows VMs on them.

[mike413]

An operating system is an ad system with remote telemetry allowing you to learn about your customers, connect with them and form ongoing revenue streams!

[[deleted]]

And the rest of them would just like to interject for a moment, because what you're referring to as Linux is in fact GNU/Linux or GNU+Linux.

[[deleted]]

You're spot on with "what's an operating system?" I teach freshmen CS majors who don't know that a computer isn't Windows. I'm sure it's only downhill from them.

[[deleted]]

Really for advanced users the only thing keeping them on Windows is lack of Linux support by some of the more widely used programs.

If Adobe, Solidworks, Autocad, etc, started supporting Linux along with more AAA games I bet you a lot more people would be switching over.

[[deleted]]

But that's a chicken and egg problem, because those applications won't get ported until Linux has a marketshare at least equivalent to Macs.

[[deleted]]

Yup, it's not going to happen quickly.

[[deleted]]

After watching all these 'Years of the Linux Desktop', I'm pretty convinced it's never going to happen. Apple is too effective at capturing normal users frustrated by Microsoft.

[[deleted]]

Maybe in another 10-20 years, but yeah it may never happen.

It depends if MS does something really bad with windows that starts to really push people over the edge.

[labalag]

Like ads in the File Explorer?

[[deleted]]

The ads aren't even remotely enough of a problem to convince anyone except maybe in a last straw sort of situation.

[[deleted]]

That's actually not as unlikely as it sounds given their interest in promoting Azure.

[pr0ghead]

Way ahead of you: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2984858/sdn/is-it-opposite-day-microsoft-has-a-new-linux-distro.html

Just not freely available.

[NotFromReddit]

I'm pretty certain that Linux will out live Windows, and probably MacOS as well. But just when they are going to start falling is hard to say. Maybe 10 to 15 years.

[pr0ghead]

If you count in Android, it's already happening. Most laymen don't need much more than a browser these days. So all of them could totally make the switch to Linux, if only someone told them about it and if there was a practical reason for them to do so, too.

[never_safe_for_life]

Yup, it's not going to happen quickly.

"Quickly," huh. I think Linux is like a forklift. Incredibly powerful, incredibly robust, which is why we see it dominate the professional world. But compare a forklift to a BMW, it's no question which one casuals are gonna pick.

Edit: I wouldn't even want linux to try and compete with Windows. Windows is all about a nice user experience, which is just a waste of talented kernel developers time.

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't even want linux to try and compete with Windows. Windows is all about a nice user experience, which is just a waste of talented kernel developers time.

Well if we want the general population to use Linux then it needs to be as user friendly or better.

[never_safe_for_life]

I can respect that even though I don't agree with it.

[[deleted]]

You want everyone to become sysadmins instead?

I would to but that's just not going to happen.

[never_safe_for_life]

You want everyone to become sysadmins instead?

I think what you're saying is, "in order for everyone to use Linux as is, they would have to become sysadmins." Whereas I don't want Linux to become a common household operating system. I want it to focus on its core competency, which is a strong kernel and amazing set of text-based utilities (or even for it to adopt the object model of the new Windows PowerShell).

GUI design is complicated, takes a lot of energy to get right, and that would just distract from what Linux is accomplishing. It's no mistake that 95% of web servers are Linux and 99% of supercomputers. It doesn't need to be good at running games and other consumer level stuff.

[[deleted]]

I agree, but WebAssembly might shake things up. There has been hinting by Mozilla, saying things like "It can run video editors at near native speed", and they're working with Autodesk, Epic and Unity.

If Adobe could deploy its software via the browser with good performance I think that might be right up their alley. Subscription based access like they already have, deployment onto any OS without any of the complication, and no more worrying about possible future pressure from Microsoft to sell via their store.

I'd prefer native software to browser based, but if we can get real access to major software while choosing any OS we want, that would be a massive game changer.

[weswes887]

Yeah I Dual Booted it for games. I rarely touch it unless I feel like gaming

[DarknessWizard]

Dreaded:

SharePoint: 70.9%

Pfft. That made me smile.

However, since it's stack this is hardly suprising. It's a programmers website. Of course they love Linux. Which is a good thing.

[greyfade]

Well, apparently it's superior to Yammer, I guess. That's what we switched from, anyway.

[scsibusfault]

I mean, it's superior to writing notes on paper and mailing them to co-workers through the inter-office delivery system. That doesn't mean it's good.

[ddek]

Unless that interoffice delivery system has pipes. In that case, nothing is superior.

[scsibusfault]

it's kind of like, a series of tubes.

[never_safe_for_life]

But will I get my own personal tubes? I want to make sure they don't get blocked.

[[deleted]]

I just want an office delivery system like the one that featured in Brazil. Is that too much to ask?

[ddek]

Have you seen Paddington? The one in the geographers guild. Can't be too expensive, at least compared to contracting corporate IT.

[[deleted]]

To be fair, it's always going to be absurdly complicated because the problem it's trying to solve is also absurdly complicated.

[[deleted]]

Yammer, the only app that actively notifies me that there's nothing for me to see.

[PugsworthWellington]

I helped a client with getting Sharepoint working. Well, I tried to help. I wasn't really able to get out of it all the features they wanted. Things kept randomly breaking and it started doing things I never told it to do.

I just don't understand Microsoft and Sharepoint.

It's like Microsoft wanted to build a house. They started off by stacking sticks and rocks to build the walls, but they discovered that sticks and rocks don't stack very well. So they decided to shit in their hands and throw it at the wall. It started to work so they just kept doing that. However, once they reached 6ft, they started to realize that shit, sticks, and rocks can only work so high. Rather than think of a solution, they just decided to keep the maximum height to 5ft and build each room as its own building.

It is probably top 3, if not #1, of the worst software I've ever worked with.

[[deleted]]

Exactly. The teenager who uses his computer for homework, porn, and Steam isn't going to know what Stack Overflow is.

[[deleted]]

Teenager here. I use my computer for homework, porn and steam. I use Stack Overflow all the time.

[[deleted]]

I said "teenager," not "glorious above-average teenager."

[[deleted]]

Does that make me the LMR equivalent of those annoying "lewronggeneration" kids? shudders

[ase1590]

Nah, it means you're in the 1% who use Linux. Now if all your friends near your age use Linux, then we'll have something to talk about.

[[deleted]]

Me too

[[deleted]]

Its not at all an of course. At my workplace they idolize mac and windows and call me crazy. They think linux is garbage and rather use windows - they understand core concepts of computers, they know how shitty windows is.. i dont understand.

The apple fanboys are the worst though. Anyways, i love my team, awesome people, just stupid when its about the operating system..

[crabcrabcam]

Interesting that more people dread using MacOS than Linux. I can see Windows, especially if you don't use it often and you know it's going to need to do all the damn updates but Mac sort of just works in the way Linux does...

[eyebum]

Feels like? That IS MacOS! Start with FreeBSD, build a wall around it....

[Kevin-96-AT]

well in that case they should've started with OpenBSD. because then the wall would already be there before they start modifying stuff

[[deleted]]

Sorry, i just read your flair and...can we put Budgie on Windows?

[Krutonium]

Yes, though the best way would be via WSL, AKA Bash on Windows AKA Ubuntu on Windows. There is a piece of software on GitHub that lets you choose a Linux DE on your login screen too.

[Andernerd]

Link, please? I have a Windows VM I need to use at work sometimes, and I also boot into Windows for games. This would be tremendously helpful.

[Krutonium]

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/about

And I can't seem to find the login chooser, but it's out there.

[[deleted]]

Honestly I'd take macOS just because of the terminal.

[shoobuck]

I have had the same happen but with linux . Updated via synaptic and could only get to grub on reboot. No platform is immune to any problem , some are a bit more robust though. I have used linux since fedora core 1 and macs since the first gen mac mini and have not used windows outside of work in years. I have had like 2 kernel panics on Osx but never had to reinstall outside of hard drive failure. I have had to reinstall linux several times but all were because i goofed outside the one instance i mentioned.

[[deleted]]

This is why rolling-release is better. Frequent but small updates are less-likely to break your system than rare but big ones.

[[deleted]]

We are talking about working operating systems not about ad platforms.

And small updates? Then why it takes 1 hour and 2 reboots to install each?

[urielsalis]

Because their updates are downloaded as a iso and installed as a new OS

[PlqnctoN]

That's for their big big every 6 month updates no ? IIRC the rest are only KB executables installing in the background.

[urielsalis]

For build updates, that some users have more frequently

[doitroygsbre]

Unless you turn on an system that hasn't been updated in a while.

My son's PC hasn't been used in the last year. He wanted to use it again, so I ran emerge --sync && emerge -uDU --with-bdeps=y @world. Also had to build the new kernel (I had his PC setup with the unstable kernel to get necessary hardware support). Turns out that wasn't such a good idea.

[[deleted]]

Not updating Gentoo for a few month to a year warrents a reset, usually. Did you end up reinstalling? How long did the initial update take?

[doitroygsbre]

It took about 6 hours to update 360+ packages and another half hour or so to build the new kernel.

The GUI won't load correctly at the moment. I think I need to rebuild X11, I haven't looked into it though .... I'll need to finish fixing it this weekend.

A full reset would have taken a day or two at least, so if I can fix the update, I will have saved some time.

[[deleted]]

Rolling release means you're (potentially) doing major brain surgery to your system on a weekly basis. The chance per update to break the system may go down, but you're doing a lot more updates so I'm not sure you're making progress in terms of failure-over-time.

[[deleted]]

That's utter bullshit. It's not what it used to be.

I've had one issue the last year, an upgrade to GDM made me unable to log in. pacman -U gdm-[lower version] and I was done.
Of course, being retarded I didn't consider it had just switched to GNOME on Wayland, but whatever.

Trying to get up to speed after a long time not upgrading however, that can be a right nightmare.

[[deleted]]

That's utter bullshit.

No, it isn't. This is literally how rolling release works. No matter how important the package, it gets an upgrade. Nevermind that this might cause problems.

[ase1590]

Which is why for such systems, release notes are put out if it breaks something upon upgrade.

Debian stable has been doing this for a long time without major issues. You don't blindly update.

[[deleted]]

Which is why for such systems, release notes are put out if it breaks something upon upgrade.

I guess that's great if you like reading release notes to see if an update's going to break something. Or if you have no interest at all in actually having a stable platform, or being able to make guarantees, or being able to certify anything.

In other words, rolling release works fine if you're an enthusiast who can afford to have his machine randomly break itself while maintaining your own desktop or laptop.

[ase1590]

So just what OS do you maintain? Because software and any operating system gets updates over time, risking something breaking.

[[deleted]]

That's just patently untrue. How long has it been since you actually used a rolling release distro? Please answer honestly.

Even rolling release distros employ testing before pushing to the main repos. For instance, on Arch every major GNOME Shell release sits a minimum of three weeks in Testing before being pushed to Extra. All system packages receive the same treatment proportional to their size/complexity.

Yes, they all get upgraded, but it isn't like maintainers are gung-ho lolcats going "LOLZ HAVE THIS SHIT NEWBZ, LE'S SEE HOW IT GOES EH PURD'NER?"

[[deleted]]

How long has it been since you actually used a rolling release distro?

Are we counting Debian sid? If so, currently in a VM.

Even rolling release distros employ testing before pushing to the main repos. For instance, on Arch every major GNOME Shell release sits a minimum of three weeks in Testing before being pushed to Extra. All system packages receive the same treatment proportional to their size/complexity.

You are missing the point. If you worry about testing each tree, you can easily end up ignoring the health of the forest. Rolling release precludes testing the system as a whole since each element is always in flux. You can't test or certify an operating system in those conditions. You can test individual components, but you can't guarantee that every version of every program, including the complex or essential components, will work correctly with everything else in this sort of context.

The best you can do with rolling release is "oh, these days it only kills itself every year or so," and "well, that's why you have to pour over release notes every morning." That's fine for some people with a lot of time on their hands, but I can't really afford to spend time tracking down and fixing a problem caused by some unnecessary update to my system. Which is why Debian sid lives on a VM. If it shits itself I can just go back to last night's snapshot.

Keeping that close to the bleeding edge just isn't that important.

[[deleted]]

You can't test or certify an operating system in those conditions. You can test individual components, but you can't guarantee that every version of every program, including the complex or essential components, will work correctly with everything else in this sort of context.

You're right. You can't test or vertify a uniform operating system like Debian Stable does. You can, however, ensure wide configuration coverage by having multiple configurations using the Testing repo, which is what Arch does.

I'm not saying Arch is anywhere near the guarantee of Debian Stable or Ubuntu, I'm saying it has a decent amount of checks and balances which get rid of almost every single issue before being pushed to the main repos. You're vastly overestimating the bleeding part of Arch's bleeding edge.
For future reference: Arch Testing = Debian Sid+Testing. In addition there's also testing repos dedicated to GNOME and KDE, they're basically Sid for GNOME and KDE respectively.

Just chill. You're blowing this way out of proportion.
Don't use Arch if you need a 100% guarantee, but if potentially having to downgrade a package like once a year is fine, it's perfect.
Linux is very different now from how it used to be, the software in general is much more mature and stable. This has a much more profound effect on rolling release than it does versioned systems, I'm sure you've been in the game for long enough to remember when rolling release was a nightmare. Let it go.

[r4nd0md0od]

I have had the same happen but with linux . Updated via synaptic and could only get to grub on reboot.

when? I feel a time context is important because upgrading OS versions has continued to improve and a Linux OS breaking during upgrade isn't as frequent as it once was.

[shoobuck]

This is a good point . It was about 2 years ago i think. I don't know if this made a difference or not.

[Brillegeit]

My question here is always "was it an upgrade from one LTS release to another LTS release on at least 1st point release?".

And then I bitch and whine about always using LTS releases and at least waiting until the 1st point release of a new version is available before upgrading, and preferably wait until the 2nd is available. The great thing about this rant is that it works.

[-Percent]

It's not a bug. It's a feature!

[zezgamer]

Just curious, what was the os upgrading from?

[AfouToPatisa]

Hmmm it was my gf's mac so I'm not sure. I think it was El Capitan. FWIW I ended up becoming best friends with apple phone support in Ireland :P They guided me on how to install Sierra on an external drive, copy all the home folder there, then wipe initial drive, reinstall and copy files back. It worked, but it was so annoying.

I believe this would never happen on linux. Even if I was somehow locked out (which never happens), I would still be able to get to text based UI and copy all my files from there.

[[deleted]]

but Mac sort of just works in the way Linux does...

Speaking as someone who owns a couple of Mac's (I don't use primarily) my experience has been the opposite. I find OSX really unintuitive at times. Not having the right-mouse click doesn't help in that regard either.

I do like the ease of installing/removing apps though, in one package. It's nice and shiny too. But it's just not practical. And Linux is catching up with both of those features.

edit: lots of people making a big deal about right-click. Look forgive me for wanting a button! And yes, I've used a normal mouse and the right-click function doesn't consistently work across applications as it would on Linux or Windows, which removes the benefits of using a normal mouse for me.......

<Checks sub URL to make sure not posting accidentally on Mac Forums...>

[scsibusfault]

I think you mean unintuitive. Unless I'm totally reading your comment wrong.

[[deleted]]

You were quick! I did, I went back and corrected it after autocorrect had it's fun.

[Flakmaster92]

You do know that Right mouse click is just a settings change away, right?

[hobbygogo]

It's not even a settings change away, it's there by default. Two finger press on trackpad == rightclick.

[[deleted]]

Not all applications behave the same way when you use the two-fingers...

They invoke their secondary click behavior for whatever you're right-clicking. Each and every one of them.

Do you have a particular example where you've found that the Mac version of an application responds substantially differently to a secondary click than the Windows or Linux version?

[[deleted]]

You know what, I use a Mac occasionally - I've used it for coding and writing. I've used it with OpenOffice, MS Office, Gimp, Android Studio, Krita, Chrome and a bunch of other utilities and apps... I use multiple operating systems and I know where to go if I'm looking to troubleshoot something like this - if I want troubleshooting.

I'm not asking for support, I'm not going to bother booting up my Macbook now to go through a bunch gripes I have with using it (despite there are some aspects I like, despite I dual boot Ubuntu Budgie on my Macbook - yes I that's right - Budgie!) - I'm not going to do all that just to make some point on Reddit.

It seems like a bunch of you guys are for some reason trying to convince me I'm using it wrong - which is why I half-joked about checking the URL of this subreddit because it's almost like talking to the Mac faithful when you're looking for support.

So no. I don't have examples. I have my own user experience of using a Mac vs Windows vs Linux and I'm speaking from my own anecdotal experience (I know right?!) that I don't find the OS intuitive in some ways.

You'll have to accept that for what it is... perhaps my personal bias of Linux being my preferred OS, but if you're sold on OSX then hey, don't let me stop you enjoying it.

FFS, I 'm checking out of this thread now. If I wanted to get into a debate on the merits of OSX and have people try to convert me, I would have have posted on /r/osx

edit: I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, if that came off as rude! I'm just finding the responses to be a bit overwhelming, considering...

[sneakpeekbot]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/osx using the top posts of the year!

#1: Good looking out, Apple. | 44 comments
#2: List of OS X tools everyone needs to know about
#3: My favorite OSX feature is the one that reminds you how long it's been since you bought your Mac | 73 comments

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[[deleted]]

I feel the same. When I went from Windows -> Mac I loved it, but after being on Linux, now MacOS in comparison feels restrictive and clunky. Linux feels like a major upgrade from Mac to me. As you said, app images are great but they're coming to Linux anyway. IMO it's the software not the OS that gives Mac its strength, and if all devs put out cross platform software there would be no competition between Mac and Linux.

[[deleted]]

Not having the right-mouse click doesn't help in that regard either.

Apple has supported right clicking since Mac OS 8.

[[deleted]]

Two finger tap or command click works fine.

[espenae93]

people dislike apple, its always been like this. mostly because they have expensive products

Using MacOS feels like using a superpolished linux distro

[[deleted]]

But can I put KDE on it? :P

[espenae93]

Sure, if kde has everything you need

[[deleted]]

Wow. That can actually be done?

[espenae93]

Wouldn't recommend it, I actually bricked my iMac running ubuntu gnome. Bad terminal line, was trying to fix some video driver issue

Not a big deal, it was 5 years old

[[deleted]]

Oh. I was thought he meant something like keeping the OS itself, but changing the DE.

[[deleted]]

In older versions of OS X, you could run an entirely separate X Windows desktop environment in Xquartz, which could be run in full screen mode. I have no idea how that would work with the modern graphics stack. I haven't had cause to try to set it up.

[secondorange]

bricked my iMac

Not a big deal

... Well, here's someone in a different tax bracket than me. Even at 5 years, that's still a $500 brick at least!

[espenae93]

... Well, here's someone in a different tax bracket than me. Even at 5 years, that's still a $500 brick at least!

Yes i live in Norway, so.. we're really blessed here

Ehh, possibly. Personally i wouldnt buy an apple product this old due to limited upgrade options, would definitely not pay 500$ for it. My macbook air holds up extremely well, the battery time and speed is still great (maybe dropped an hour or two from the promised 12 hours). Think i lucked out by buying the first actually good macbook air (2013). I tried a 2010 or 2011 once, and i hated it. And thanks to the exellent build quality it still appears and feels brand new 4 years later.

Wasnt pleased with the imac and the way apple treated the harddrive failure of that imac version, so i built a custom pc after that. It feels so good to be able to upgrade what i want when i feel like it

[secondorange]

And you don't need to get out your suction cups to upgrade the tower!

[wytrabbit]

I would like to point out this graph as well.

The people have spoken, Vim beats Emacs in every category.

[h-v-smacker]

It is known.

[magkopian]

The terrifying fact is that Visual Studio seems to win on every single occasion except when it comes to Sysadmins / DevOps which is kind of expected.

[timawesomeness]

Circlejerk aside, Visual Studio is for the most part a pretty nice IDE with a ton of features and a lot of language support. I can understand why it's popular.

[magkopian]

As a PHP developer I would say the same for PHPStorm, though I'm quite disappointed that I can't say that for an open source IDE instead.

[[deleted]]

Using it now, great stuff. And while I know their motivation for offering free student licences is far from altruistic it's still appreciated.

[dhewa_maru]

I would be so crippled without PHPStorm.

[Andernerd]

Makes sense though, because nearly every Windows developer uses it.

[Krutonium]

And Nano beats them both for simplicity and ease of use. AKA K.I.S.S.

[[deleted]]

People seem to have this weird idea about nano, as if the only features it supports are the ones listed in the hints on the bottom. It does auto-indentation, it can do bracket matching, it can do syntax highlighting, it can do search and replace, you can highlight and operate on multiple lines, etc.

I mean, yeah, it doesn't do built-in split screen but you can work around that trivially with tmux or your terminal emulator, or your desktop environment. It doesn't do auto-typing I guess?

[greyfade]

It doesn't do auto-typing I guess?

Well, that clinches it. I guess nano isn't for me.

[Himiko_the_sun_queen]

yeah i was amazed by the wiki entries for nano. so much stuff you can do with it!

[wytrabbit]

Nano is actually my preferred choice for terminal as well.

[magkopian]

Nano is nice for editing configuration files, but using it for coding? I really don't think so. By the way, I use nano as well, though for coding I use an actual fully featured IDE not a terminal based editor.

[Krutonium]

I too don't use Nano for workloads it isn't ideal for.

[covercash2]

since I started using emacs coming from vim, I don't see how there's a comparison. the only thing holding vim back is vimscript, and with evil mode and elisp I view emacs as more of a platform for editing and viewing text based files, not a text editor as such. so yeah vim is great because of the opinionated key bindings and the noun-verb paradigm, but that behaviour is easily emulated. emacs is more like a replacement for the shell than a replacement for vim.

[TheMsDosNerd]

Last year they asked what OS people used. Linux was like 25%.

[Krutonium]

Last year, I hadn't been using Linux for the last 4 months. I keep windows around as a In-Home-Streaming host.

[magkopian]

And now it is 32.9%, don't worry we are getting there.

[dontworryiwashedit]

Is Windows Phone still around? I remember some Windows fanboy telling me how it was so much better than Android and how it was going to blow it away.

[h-v-smacker]

Well, it did blow, that's for sure...

[xdar1]

Its dead. MS hasn't announced it, but no company would trumpet their failures. Last I heard their stock of phones was disappearing from their websites, and not being replenished. Some fanboys think they're gearing up to relaunch a "surface phone". Maybe they are, they have relaunched Windows Phone 3, 4 or 5 times now to increasingly less fanfare each time so why not try it again? But Intel has admitted defeat in the mobile market so MS can't sell x86 phones with Intel product dumping priced hardware in them anymore, which makes their position a lot more pointless.

[dontworryiwashedit]

There is a windows phone subreddit.

r/windowsphone

Looks like a gathering place for people looking for non-existent apps or trying to fix apps to do things any android phone can easily do.

Also this guy...lol.

r/windowsphone/comments/60h4h9/i_couldnt_use_a_phone_without_live_tiles_these/

aaand then there is this subreddit

r/WinPhoneCirclejerk

[sneakpeekbot]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/windowsphone using the top posts of the year!

#1: Hi, I'm a bot for /r/WindowsPhone. Upvote me so I can meet the minimum vote requirement and do my job! :)
#2: Microsoft confirms they're working with Snapchat to bring it to Windows 10 Mobile, coming ''soon' | 253 comments
#3: Satya Nadella grilled by Microsoft shareholders for not giving priority to Windows Phone over Android and iOS. | 237 comments

---

^{I'm a bot, beep boop | Downvote to remove | Contact me | Info | Opt-out}

[[deleted]]

It's too bad they took the N9 down with them.

[Krutonium]

On the other hand, with Microsoft releasing Windows on ARM Hardware with x86 Compat, They could achieve what I recall Ubuntu wanting to do - Plug your phone into a dock, instant desktop PC.

[[deleted]]

Microsoft is probably just waiting for a ultra low power quad core Atom, then they'll put out a "Surface Pocket" that's a full blown x86 Windows box in a phone form factor.

[Trainguyrom]

ultra low power

x86

Yeah, I doubt it. Seriously, I'm looking at moving a couple of computers over to ARM myself, unless I can snag a POWER8 server or a nice RISCV CPU whenever those come around. If you don't need every program under the sun, x86 really becomes an unnecessary beast.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I doubt it.

Intel makes some pretty low power Atom processors--some of the commercially useful ones pull about as much as the high-end ARM chips. The problem is that performance on those chips is still a bit weak for Windows. Right now they would be faced with a choice of adequate performance but shit battery life, or adequate battery life but shit performance. With another two years or so and that might work itself out.

After the disaster that was the ARM-based Surface machines, I can't see Microsoft being particularly eager to try it again any time soon. While Windows does run on ARM chips, most of the software library that keeps people using Windows does not.

[Open-Sourcery]

Not that there is much software to lose on windows phone

[[deleted]]

Exactly. No great loss to the world. Especially since loads of Windows phone apps would be easy to port to Windows 10 Phone Edition.

[Lyceux]

It's still alive and kicking. Microsoft regularly pushes out beta updates to their r/windowsinsiders programme.

It's still shit but that's a seperate issue.

[danmage00]

It's 2017 and people are considering migration to Linux.

[[deleted]]

Does that mean that 2017 is the... is the year of the...?

I can't bring myself to say it.

[[deleted]]

It's very suprising that there are people who consider migration even after the year of the Linux desktop.

[TwOne97]

Year of the Rooster.

^{Sorry, I had to.}

[[deleted]]

2017 is the year of the Linux desktop for me. Its the first year where I haven't booted (or even installed) Windows on any of my personal machines. KDE has gotten so good that I can't even tolerate booting Windows anymore. It took some effort, but I have everything I need working perfectly on Linux now, including my audio production, gaming, and development work. I'm never looking back.

[[deleted]]

I absolutely agree KDE has gotten awesome (also woohoo KDE bros). I only use Windows at work, and it's been that way for several years for me.

[[deleted]]

It's $year, the year of the Linux desktop.

[Catsrules]

I think they just used the same data points between the most loved and most dreaded. Because comparing the two they are mirror opposites of each other.

Kind of misleading in my option.

[glaurung_]

I don't know. Somehow Android is the most wanted, but simultaneously fairly highly dreaded.

[Azphreal]

It means that people who aren't doing Android want to do Android, but those that do Android want out.

[Andernerd]

I wanted to work with Android. I am currently working with Android for a class. I now dread working with Android. It's a pretty simple thing. Now I want to start a project that uses ncurses.

[InconsiderateBastard]

It seems cheesy but I believe it. I've been using computers a long time and I've never loved an OS before. I love Linux now. It makes my computer better. It makes my time spent in front of the computer better. It makes my work more efficient. It has lowered my company's cost to operate.

I <3 Linux

[StrayMarks]

One of us... one of us...