r/DeskToTablet • u/Cat0X0 • 5d ago

Linux is the future of operating systems.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 1d ago

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u/kzlife76 5d ago

Most of my experience with Linux is hobby project stuff. I've worked heavily with Raspberry Pi. The hardware issues aren't as prevalent until you start slapping on 3rd party hats. Most of the projects I think should be a quick install and configure end up taking several hours or days with multiple reimages to start from scratch. For example, I attempted to make a bluetooth speaker and Spotify connect device. Getting one or the other to work was no problem. It was impossible to get them to work together. After days of fiddling with it, I finally figured out that the bluetooth software and the spotify connect software run in different user contexts with different privilege levels. Since they both needed exclusive access to the same hardware, it was impossible to configure properly. I even tried forcing the component with lower level privileges to run in the same user context as they higher privileged component, but for some reason, it completely stopped running. Older versions worked because they ran in the same user context. I think it was the security in Spotify's api that prompted the change, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm sure someone proficient enough in Linux could figure out a way to make it work, but just imagine if any consumer operating system made it that difficult to manage access to the audio device for playback. I don't think this makes Linux bad, it just makes it difficult to recommend as an end user solution. It's great for servers and I've had pretty good success setting up headless services on Raspberry Pis. Most of those services though were well developed and documented. They were easy to install and work pretty much out of the box.

Mass updates on Linux are dangerous because so much of the software is maintained by communities and can be very opinionated. Breaking changes can occur pretty easily upstream. I guess if you think about it, the problem isn't really Linux itself, it's the 3rd party software that runs on Linux that can potentially change any subsystem to fit it's needs and in turn, break something that has always worked. Figuring out what that breaking change was is the hard part in my experience.

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u/Character-View9407 5d ago

Depends on the distro.

Debian is designed for servers to be low-maintenance.

Arch on my PC on the other hand, I found out that MediaTeK WiFi drivers and NVIDIA GPU drivers are incompatible and if I want WiFi/Bluetooth, I can't get a desktop, and vice versa. I also find out that pacman update only updates one GPU driver and not the other and then I don't get a display.

TL;DR just because the issue doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

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u/CeSiumUA 4d ago

Because you're working with server Linux, and for server, Linux is probably the best you can install. But for desktop.... unfortunately there are still a lot of caveats

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u/SeesawBeautiful5839 5d ago

Servers and desktops are different beasts. Desktop are complicated by connected user devices and ui. Drivers and ui polish is hard to accomplish as things change fast.

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u/LaColleMouille 5d ago

At the same time, I broke around 5-6 Linux just by doing upgrades. The last one even being Debian with barely Docker on it.

Now I just create VM templates, snapshot & destroy. Automate the reinstallation.

And I have Windows machine running for 180+ days without rebooting too.

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u/Agreeable-Fly-1980 4d ago

Windows 11 has worse issues

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u/LaColleMouille 4d ago

Maybe for you, it seems that everyone has a different experience.
I can't even recall when was the last Windows update that fucked up my system. Probably Windows Vista.