Linux.. is it ready?

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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Well here we are again..
I am fascinated by Linux for a while now. I like it's mindset by being opensource, its beauty, and how strong and robust it is.

But I can't get over the fact that it is never been easy to use.

I have tried most Ubuntu flavors and some other popular distros here and there. But always find myself back in the magical foolish world of Microsoft.

Most must be done by command line. Or there is no way to do things I would do with Windows with just a few clicks. For example: I use outlook as a real backbone of my work environment. Planning meetings, Skype for business meetings etc.

There are always things like wine. But there is something odd by putting old Windows manners into Linux.

Steam would run good with some tweaking here and there. But I always miss half of my games, that I ofcourse put my money in and like to play.

And if I then outrageous switch back to Windows, somehow grub massed up bad and need the completely reinstall windows.

Everyone and his dog is recommending a dual boot. But why should I need to delay my startup with something that frustrated me more than Windows.

This is not a rage against Linux but rather a question. Sense Linux has been going for the sun the last couple of years.
When and how would you guys think Linux would "be ready"

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Linux has its quirks and at least some of the easy of use issues stem from using Microsoft for so long and it just takes some getting used to. I'm now at the point where I can do the same thing in Linux/Windows and my workflow is faster and more efficient in Linux but I have been using it since 2008.

Also we are on the edge of being able to do one click GPU passthrough in Linux which would be a game changer for running Windows software on top of Linux, so you could run Outlook/games in the Windows VM but still be using Linux at the same time.

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Linux is already preferred in server environments. So in that case it is ready.

For desktop environments, probably not for a while. If you want something as easy as Windows you are stuck with Windows.

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Running Linux in a server environment can be a really good way of getting into to Linux and learning its quirks and how it works. It will make switching from Windows to Linux easier down the line if you decide to do it as it wouldn't be so much of a learning curve than going directly to a Linux desktop from Windows.

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I just started as a sysadmin in the company I work for. We use mainly Windows server because there is everything in the server's build in. We build application's for banks. You are not able to sell a opensource solution without any support.

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Most of those applications you can buy support.

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you have an oblivious company

I'm not saying windows server is always the wrong choice. But saying you cannot sell opensource software, or that there is no linux distro that has professional support, is incorrect.

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If it wasn't for Microsoft intentionally obfuscating MS Office document types, and Outlook's integration with Exchange, there would be a lot less pressure to stay in Windows.

However, at my work, we can't switch to Windows because we run software that's Windows only. And while it's been largely unchanged for the last 20 years, it's both critical, and requires constant support from the vendor. If we tried to run it under WINE we would be immediately told that is unsupported and wouldn't receive help. That being said, except for that business software, a lot of other things we use are moving more toward web based. Even the web clients are getting thinner (less reliance on Java).

For me personally, I'm still running Windows 7... but I'm really getting tired of Microsoft's shit. Windows 7 was a near masterpiece of software... honestly I think they messed up - it's too good. However, little by little, they are adding spying (telemetry) to it, and allowing it to age out of support.

I've been running Linux in various capacities since 1993. It's been hard to make a switch to it permenantly because of applications, games, hardware support, etc. over the years. However, now that I have separate workstation and game rig (Wintendo), as well as the fact that VM software has really matured, I'll be able to switch anytime I want. At this point I'm waiting for the next LTS of Ubuntu (2018.04) or Debian with a more modern kernel. I'm also, for the first time in over 15 years, considering Fedora. And of course, I'd really like to run Gentoo, but I don't know that I trust myself enough to run my mission critical workstation on a kernel, and components I compiled.

So to sum it up, I'm switching to Linux from Windows 7 eventually. It'll be before M$ pulls support from Windows 7 (although, I have a sneaky suspicion they will extend Windows 7 support a couple years shortly before their support period ends). I just have to figure out what distro I want to go to and get a few technical details determined.

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There are enterprise distributions out there. Oracle enterprise Linux is free and has their own customized Linux kernel for enterprise hardware. There are also enterprise Linux distrox that you can pay for Like Suse enterprise, and with that comes real technical support.

I was also considering moving back to Gentoo. But with hardware being as fast as it is now a days the only reason to do Gentoo is to learn Linux or for the nostalgia.

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If I wanted enterprise, I'd run CentOS.

I have no intention of paying a snake oil company any money for Linux or the pretense of support. They aren't going to be able to solve the issues I'd run into.

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I honestly don't care if my company dedicated to use Linux or Windows servers. All I care for is to use Linux as my client operatingsystem.

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My company has build a large Forrest in Windows, I am not the one to change that. Of course there are ways to sell on Linux. But that is not mine to thouse. If would be able to run office and most of my games. I would jump to Linux in a heartbeat. All of my server's I would be able to run through a web client or in a remote server.

But to come back to my original point. The client system is just not really easy to use.

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When will Linux be ready? It will be ready for the general public by the time Half Life 3 comes out, Star Citizen (the complete game) comes out and mankind lives together as one in peace and harmony. That is my guess.

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You forgot about the Leafs winning the cup. Although... I guess that implies Linux will never be ready. Gabe has said that new games in the Half Life universe are at least possible.

Of course you can buy Linux support. Ever heard of Red Hat?

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Is Linux ready for.. what?

Could you give some specific examples?

You've listed a couple of things but not much about why. Exchange, Skype, Windows, all promote vendor lockin and more often than not, it isnt that Linux is hard to use, its that people are using locked in formats making it impossible for anyone to work without Microsoft tech.

Examples?
I'm wondering what your doing.

Little personal fact, the past couple of weeks i've used the command line in Windows more than I have in Linux.

The fact is the command line is just more efficient for certain things, on Windows and on Linux. And on Linux its mature and very powerful.

But these days, unless im playing with something specific (containers for example) my day to day use of my computer rarely needs the command line. Day to day, I use it for file management (mkdir -p ~/{1,2,3,4,5,6,7} is far easier then using the mouse and file manager to create 7 directories regardless of what OS your in), and updates (mainly because of habbit, the GUI update program is perfectly capable), and SSH, etc.

This again is about lock-in, everyone uses it and its "built in" so people get stuck. Why not use https://meet.jit.si/ when you book in your meetings? (or you could use the Linux version of skype, but i get the feeling you want to stop using this stuff)

What tweaking? Ive noticed there's tweaking if the distro doesnt ship it properly, no issues on Fedora.

As for games... Half my DOS games don't work on Windows. I get that it would be great if all your games worked on one platform, but look around, there's dozens of game platforms, and only a recent shift in engine support for Linux. You cant expect native ports of old games (in fact its remarkable how many old games did get native ports)

My thought is, what is it exactly that you find not ready? What can be done to improve that? And consider that the OS might not be the thing that needs changing, but your perception and resolve when it comes to using other software.

Its not Windows, so it cant be expected to work like it.

You should consider virtualising Windows.

A last long term tip, remember (for anyone thinking about moving OS), more likely than not your system was built for Windows, more often than not at least one piece of hardware was built specifically and only for Windows.

Vendors are hostile to open source a lot of the time (who knows why :?) and drivers are in a lot of cases reversed engineered. When your planning an upgrade or new system, take into consideration other OS' When you do switch you'll find it a far smoother experience.

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Well one of the examples would be installing Spotify. It is not just go to software center and login to Spotify as it should be

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I agree with you on that one. But as in my previous example, it's more needed than an option.

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Web clinet and multiple audio players have spotify support like Clementine.

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I mostly meant the use of graphics drivers.

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AMD works out of the box now (easier than windows) NVIDIA is like two mouse clicks on most distros (still easier than Windows).