I've been trying to switch from Windows 8.1 to Linux, but it's not going so well. I'll detail my issues and perhaps some of you can offer some advice and solutions. I'm not a noob, I'm actually an embedded software developer and use Linux systems via command line all the time. It's the desktop that is giving me problems.
First I tried Linux Mint (Cinnamon) in a VM. It's okay... high DPI support is limited to 2x scaling. The biggest issue was the mouse wheel. In Chrome it scrolls extremely slowly, one line at a time. I tried imwheel which either made no difference or broke random apps, and libinput which made no difference. Tried a few Chrome extensions, they made the wheel unreliable.
The mouse wheel is a deal-breaker, I use it all the time. The problem seems to be that unlike Windows there is no system setting for it, every app does its own thing and many of them have fixed settings that are extremely stupid.
The other major issue is Atmel Studio. I use it a lot, and it doesn't work well under WINE. You can load it, but it seems unstable and can't see the debugger attached to the machine via USB. Apparently you can use avrdude and GNU debugging tools, but it looks like a nightmare and seems to lack source level debug capability.
I tried Ubuntu to see if the mouse wheel would be any better. It wasn't. I don't know what they were thinking with the UI in Ubuntu, it's batshit.
One other requirement is OPAL v2 support for self-encrypting drives. I understand that an Intel engineer has recently submitted patches to support it, so that things like resume from sleep work, so I guess it might be a bit early to expect it to work.
Other niggly issues are lack of information on bit-perfect audio playback and difficulty finding a good GUI git client. Maybe I just need a recommendation.
What distro should I use to get a working mouse? And is there anything I can do about Atmel Studio?
Is it possible you don't have enough resources on your virtual machine?
How much ram/processors did you throw at it? Ubuntu and mint are pretty heavy distros and then throw a chrome instance on top ... perhaps a resource issue?
Is Ubuntu a good system to use? It just seems a bit rubbish, comes with Amazon crapware baked in etc. How about Debian with GNOME or Mint with MATE?
cotton, my VM has 8GB of RAM, hardware accelerated graphics, 8 threads etc. The issue is not performance I think, it's bad design, or rather lack of any design at all. There is no standard for mouse wheel events on Linux, and no standard preference, and no standard way to interpret those events.
Ubuntu Mate does not suffer from the above mentioned amazon baked in crap.
Mint is based off Ubuntu is based off Debian.
Mate is just Ubuntu with the Mate DE with a bit more tweaking.
If you want a bit more vanilla/libre experience, then you could go full debian with GNOME.
The only reason I don't recommend using things debian based is if they have a modern GPU in them.
Debian is focused on stability and will hold back packages a lot longer then some others which could be an issue if running newer stuff. However, for most other use cases its perfectly fine.
If its a relatively recent GPU, you would do far better using Fedora, Open SUSE, or Arch/Arch based.
Thanks everyone, seems like Fedora is definitely worth a go.
The idea of having many Linux distros to choose from is great on paper, but unfortunately for people not familiar with the landscape it's things like the mouse wheel not working properly in some of them that sites like distrowatch don't tell you and make you wonder if it's just you, or your hardware, or Linux in general, or...
Damn it, Microsoft, I could put up with Windows 8.1, even kinda like it. Then you went all Windows 10 on us.
Looking at everything else, Atmel Studio seems to be a case of a VM or nothing, and SED will just have to wait or avoid using sleep mode for now. My laptop running Windows 8.1 doesn't support SED in the BIOS so I use the Linux sedtool via a bootable USB stick.
IMO there is no "perfect" Linux distro. There are many options but none tick all the boxes. For example, my laptop has trouble waking up from hibrinate. Also, wifi is really a pain in the neck, but I have figured out how to operate with these issues.
On my workstation I use Fedora - the gnome interface allows me for a very efficient workflow. However, there's a new version every 6 months. Prepare to upgrade. Every time I do this VMware breaks. Just part of the game.
On my laptop I use Ubuntu. I want LTS with a decent array of stable packages. On the other hand - I have to deal with Unity. Oh well, it's all worth it because of the BASH shell and gnu tools. That's really all I Truely need.
Bit perfect audio is the other thing... My sound card (a USB Musiland one) isn't supported but I'm hoping at least for bit perfect from the motherboard optical port.
I agree with the statement above about resources given to the vm.
If you cant increase the resources, you could try a less taxing gtk theme.
Back in the day, I was running Ubuntu 11.10 on an old Pentium 4 with an old nvidia crap gpu and scrolling was slow and choppy. I switched to an ugly theme called Ralegh ( its spelled kinda like this ) and scrolling became smoother.
i always ask people who seem like they're trying to pull a 90 degree turn into Linux, why?
is there some legitimate need in your professional life? are you tired of dropping cash for Windows? did you listen to Richard Stallman while baked and wish to become baptised in the Holy.Light-git?
the reason matters. if it's just a matter of exploration, i'd suggest a VM or a laptop you don't use too much. if you're planning on jumping off the cliff, there are going to be things you'll need to adjust to. there will be PROBLEMS, as you already mentioned. sometimes people treat Linux like a fad because they've browsed r/unixporn or some forum glowing with the radiant light of people expounding on how awesome everything is under Linux and how you totally can switch in a day and your coffee will taste better if you just ditch proprietary software, mannnnn
and then they expect everything to be like Windows and run off to swear in forums because X doesn't load or Y doesn't have a Linux equivalent they like. then they leave what's actually a fun experience because nobody bothered to tell then that it's going to be hard.
What I mean is, scrolling is nice and smooth, it's just that for every "notch" you turn the mouse wheel it only scrolls the page by one line of text. On Windows you can configure this globally - the default is 3 lines but I set it to 6 lines.
Scrolling is smooth, it's not a performance issue. It's that on Linux it takes a long, long time to scroll down a long page with the mouse wheel and Chrome offers no way to configure it.
The main reason is that Windows 10 is so awful. The lack of control over updates and major changes is bothersome, as is the need to block all the spyware. I am very careful about my privacy. Windows 8.1 is okay but doesn't officially support Ryzen, and hacking it seems like it could cause problems down the line.
I heard a lot of good things about Linux desktops. Most of the software I use on Windows is free and available on Linux anyway (Inkscape, Kicad, GCC, LibreOffice, Chrome/Firefox, VMWare, SSH, RDP etc.) The rest I can hopefully fill in. I'm a developer, I use Linux on headless/embedded systems, used to be an Amiga guy, it shouldn't be that hard...
I love RMS, the guy is a visionary and we have a lot to thank him for. I don't hate everything about Microsoft though - some stuff is actually great, like most of Windows 10, C#, WPF... But now it's a choice between fighting Windows 10 or fighting Linux, and in the long term Linux seems like a better bet if basic stuff like the mouse can be made to work.
Well thats your first problem. Mint is an outdated piece of shit.
-whacks the bell-
Ok bub look I can't help you with the code stuff, I can say that linux has probably a lot more tools for this stuff than you realize, but I only know the common ones. Eclipse, Notepadqq, nano, and some memory readers are all that I use in sev stuff. Theres plenty if other tools available though.
For you I would say fedora, probably. I hate fedora, a lot, but devs seem to drool over it and I think you need more stability than arch can provide. However if you get stuck in packages grab antergos and go ham on the arch AUR. If you don't manage to find what you need I'll be surprised.
honestly i enjoy ubuntu-mate, it has descent performance, and all that jazz, and not really much of the bloat, have'nt had any issues sofar even at work, albeit your use case is different then mine, since i usually just ssh to device xyz, and do my stuff cli, you might just wanna get used to using open source version of your M$ specific software. Else get used to VMing window$ and passthrough the ports your developing for. Once you get the hang of developing for ports and so in linux you'll find that most of it is ALOT easier then in window$.
