Hacker News Reader

Comment by CuriouslyC | Hacker News Reader

The main issue with Linux as a desktop OS is hardware support (still, sadly). If you get a gaming rig with newer equipment stuff is likely not to work, or require a LOT of hacking to make functional, to the point that it's easier just to install windows and use WSL for everything. I say this as someone who got his start with Linux using Slackware 96.

View on HN

This is outdated, with the exception of perhaps webcams I've had hardly any issues with hardware on Linux in years, and that includes a couple of Intel MBPs. Just got a latest model laptop with a RTX 4080 and everything worked out of the box. I had to install Windows recently for someone and I had way more issues there.

It's still quite true at times for stuff integrated into the motherboard, sadly. You really should do due diligence on your hardware before you buy it if you intend to use Linux. You can still buy laptops that will not work well with Linux, and as of about a year and a half ago at least there were still new motherboards being released with components that have spotty Linux support.

> Linux as a desktop OS is hardware support

Things have changed a lot here. I now regularly buy windows laptops, toss windows and they just work. When there is a hardware problem, it usually takes a few minutes to resolve.

The hard part is realizing that you have to do the EFEI setup and not just try to boot in insecure mode.

I just built a rig with new, top of the line, hardware and installed fedora on it without an issue. What components are you talking about specifically?

I have an Asus ROG Strix mobo with integrated networking and audio, and both of them were extremely problematic.

I had the opposite experience actually. Windows didn't include network drivers for my custom PC mobo+chipset, while linux had them included. Actually had to download the windows drivers on linux then boot into windows and install them...

I've a new AMD 7800X3D build with an ASUS ROG Strix board, had Network Manager issues (100% CPU) on Ubuntu but everything works great under Fedora 40.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com