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Comment by darrmit | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure this might be an unpopular opinion here, but my experience has been that when you do normal business collaboration - WebEx, etc. - in Linux, you spend more time fighting to make things work than you do actually working. Chrome and the proliferation of webapps has helped this somewhat, but it always ends up being something.

Scott Lowe did a pretty interesting series of blog posts [1] on it and ultimately ended up back on a Mac because it just killed his productivity and called it "death by a thousand cuts". This mirrors my experience. I want to be on Linux and there's a lot to love, but it's just not..stable? evolved? polished? (not sure what the right word is) enough to be a daily driver for most non-development oriented people.

[1] https://blog.scottlowe.org/2017/10/25/linux-migration-wrap-u...

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I said in another reply that I ignore these things because I "know what I signed up for", which is true. In fact, if you whine about a UI problem in linux and don't know how to fix it, the replies often have that sentiment as an undertone.

I do know what I signed up for, and these missing desktop users rightly suspect what they're signing up for if they were to switch.

Anecdotally I see the same.

One of the developers at a client uses Ubuntu desktop (I use macOS). The issues at her end with voip calls have been crazy. We've been through Skype, Discord and now Slack. Nothing has been reliable.

Edit, because I'm sick of "i can save the reputation of Linux" responses:

Its never a network issue its never even a protocol issue. Its a "application detects no input from microphone" issue.

So please stop telling me how its everything except a shitty desktop experience.

Anecdotally, as a PC gamer I've seen my fair share of people having constant mic issues on windows. Sometimes mics are just a pain in the ass.

Try Telegram, Linphone or a WebRTC service. Skype is truly bad on linux but Discord served me and my friends well so, check your developer's internet connection.

Internet connection doesnt affect her microphone.

But a lousy internet connection will certainly make VOIP unreliable.

I would ditto the recomendation to try SIP-based or web-based VOIP. I've never had an issue on Linux. Haven't used Skype, Discord, or Slack, so can't comment there.

Maybe you misunderstood.

The problem isnt that the quality is poor. The problem is that the client application fails to recognise microphone input.

The calls are fine if it works, but when it doesn't its a one way call.

Again: this whole thread is why linux on desktop is a fucking fantasy. Any problem and the mere idea that its because of unreliable software is avoided like a hooker with an eye patch, lest people have to recognise "yeah this shit just doesn't work well"

Then she should get a better mic. I'd no issues with mics over the last decade I've been using linux on the desktop.

And this response is why linux on the desktop is a fucking fantasy.

You haven't read the post at all...

I'm a Linux Desktop user. IMO, the thousand cuts can be boiled down to some few major apps not being natively available for Linux, namely Office, incl Outlook, and Photoshop, Autocad, and AAA games. And the eventual niche Windows only app - but for those you could use a VM like Apple users do.

When using a stable distro like Mint in my laptop, everything just worked and the desktop UX is quite similar to what you get in Windows.

The average user couldnt Care less about the OS nowadays. They just want their apps running.

For corporate OTOH, Windows desktop is much simpler to support. Linux, or Apple, has nothing not even remotely close.

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