I moved to Linux - Here's an attempt at a realistic opinion.

25-09-2024

I have used desktop Linux, mostly forms of Ubuntu, on rare occasions for years. Mostly for messing around and seeing what it was like, as well as running it from a USB drive on school computers ;P

However, a few weeks ago it became a permanent feature of my system, 1 week ago Kubuntu became my main OS, and 5 days ago I deleted Windows entirely from my machine.
I'd like to make one thing clear - I am not a Linux fan. Linux seems to be aimed largely at offering users an almost infinite amount of control over their system, and that isn't something that appeals to me. Regularly using the command line doesn't appeal to me either, nor does scripting. I casually edit video, photos, HTML, Kotlin, and play the odd game in between that.

You may be wondering why the hell I moved to Kubuntu then? Well, as I've explained, it's not because I found Linux really appealing - it's because I found Windows really unappealing.

A Rant about Windows

When I updated to Windows 11 a few months ago I had to run 3 seperate sets of scripts/patches - which took several hours and required several restarts, to get it to how I liked it - but even then, I wasn't really happy. If you're curious, these were Chris Titus' winutil, Win Debloat Tools, and Atlas OS - these get increasingly invasive.
I simply wanted to remove all of the bloat, analytics, ads and background downloading. Even after all of that though, a few weeks ago... The new outlook appeared in my start menu. I didn't even have the original outlook for Christ sake - at this point I'd had it.

Along with that, there's two types of programs - normal and UWP, the latter of which frankly sucks. There's two settings menus - why not just add a "simple" mode to the Control Panel? Onedrive, Phonelink, Edge Webview, all running in the background for no apparent reason... these are the main reasons I decided I'd had enough of Windows.

So are you a nerd now?

I hope not. The argument about whether you should move to Linux or not is just pure tribalism now, as most internet discussions are - that's why I'm even making this post. I want to try and tell you what it's really like: To summarize, it is as hard to setup as described, but it is also very usable once you're up and running.

Gaming

The elephant in the room, gaming, has actually caused me less trouble than everything else. Valve's Proton has always simply worked whenever I add a game to Steam, and a handy tool called PortProton allows you to use it on any exe file without having to add it to Steam. The only issue I've had is with BeamNG Drive's launcher - I simply added the main EXE to Steam, bypassing the launcher, and it works flawlessly.
Halo MCC, Night runners, Project Cars, CarX, and even Microsoft Flight Sim all run in such a way that I can't tell the difference. Lets be clear - in modern games there's often a 5-10% loss of framerate, but stuttering doesn't seem to be any more common, so really the experience is mostly the same. I was very surprised by this, and it was after completely several levels in Halo 1 without issues that I decided to pull the plug on Windows for good.

Basics

Now the slightly smaller elephant - Kubuntu comes with a decent suite of programs for basic tasks that I believe are all FOSS. The LibreOffice suite, Firefox, Ark (Archiving), and Dolphin (Files) are the main examples. You can browse the web, open documents, and most common files without issue with the stuff it comes with. What's more, my internet connection has been consistently better on Kubuntu, with download speeds being around 500KB/s faster - my fiber exchange is 2 miles away, making my max 1.5MB/s - so that's a significant difference.
However, installing stuff is the one thing that's known to not be intuitive - and don't let anyone tell you otherwise - it can be as bad as described. Dependencies are the main issue here - Windows is very good at having most things you need, or fetching more, for most programs to run. Gone are the days of going to sketchy .dll download sites, but with Linux, those days come right back - only this time, you're adding random repositories to APT in a desperate attempt to get it to download a dependency you need - and that's if you're lucky. Because sometimes, the developer of a program you want might not have even built it, meaning you've got to compile the source code yourself.
For common tasks, you will probably find a high quality program that comes in a .deb format, which you just open and install like you would on Windows. You might get really lucky and find something in the "Discover" app store - but if you need anything out of the ordinary, good luck.

System Config

This is a double-edged sword. I will fight to the death about this - Linux has far to much control for the average user. If I am able to go through 3 installs before I get it right without breaking anything, a normal user is fucked.

Kubuntu has good UIs for the majority of settings, that sit somewhere between the new Windows settings and the old Control Panel. More involved tasks, like GPU overclocking or setting Mouse DPI/button binds, are bordering on impossible. Since most mouse softwares made for those tasks don't exist on Linux - there's no MSI afterburner here, and there's nothing remotely close to it either. Even with the command line, I do not yet know how one would undervolt a 2080 Super on Ubuntu. For most people, fine, but ironically, it's power users that're suffering here.

Photo/Video

There is an obvious issue with editing on Linux - no Adobe. However, I already hated Adobe, so I was one step ahead. I had already used both Darktable and Rawtherapee, and I quite like both of them. Actually, I'm yet to fully figure out my favorite. Some professionals might not be able to use these, but most amateur shooters like myself will have no issues.

Video editing, holy fuck. That is something else. I have used no less than 10 video editors built for Linux - I don't want to point fingers since actually most of the software is technically well made... but basically, there are several good choices for basic video editing, but when it comes to advanced stuff, you can REALLY tell they were made by Linux users. The UX is... interesting. I could not get on with them, and sometimes, something as simple as adding text felt like a complicated task. I have yet to find a solution. Davinci resolve is the obvious choice, but with no GPU or MP4 support in the free version, it's practically useless on Linux. A video editor that doesn't use the video card... why even bother. I liked it a lot on windows, so I might see if PortProton will run it. I'll post about the results.

So... what do I think?

I think I like Linux. I like Kubuntu. However, it's a technically optional headache that I have taken on largely for moral reasons, and whilst I no longer have any ads, bloat, chatbots, or automatic downloads I don't like, I do have to regularly use the command line, and I've been forced to move away from my totally legally obtained Adobe products - although, I already wanted to do that, I was just lazy. It's exactly as I said at the start - I don't find Linux really appealing, I just find Windows really unappealing.