Hacker News Reader

Comment by bboygravity | Hacker News Reader

I want to love Linux, but No. Last time I tried Mint, I had to use a script that runs on startup to configure mouse scrollweel speed?!

No.

There's probably a long list of these types of experiences ranging from scaling issues on external monitors (if they work at all) to other basic hardware and functionality just not working.

The best coders I know use Mac or even Windows while managing FreeBSD on their servers. There are reasons why they don't use Linux or (non-Apple) Unix on their desktop.

There are 2 usable desktop OS'es for the masses and those are Windows and Mac. Don't take my word for it, just look at the market. The market has spoken.

View on HN

In 2024, Mint is a net negative to Linux adoption and its name.

>Last time I tried Mint, I had to use a script that runs on startup to configure mouse scrollweel speed

not a linux but Mint issue. Both Plasma and GNOME offer this.

Not trying to be a jerk to you but this is the type of response that keeps Windows firmly ahead of Linux. Most users don't care who in the Linux ecosystem is at fault for things not working, they just know some function that works without a thought on Windows is an issue on Linux and they don't care about who in what stack is to blame. If they have to research which combination of distro, desktop environment, and bundle of hacks and flags they need, they'll go back to Windows where the scroll wheel just works. Ditto for all the excuses and finger pointing over audio, printing, and dozens of other pain points that have lingered around for decades.

>this is the type of response that keeps Windows firmly ahead of Linux

and that is fine. they can keep using a continuously worse and hostile OS while linux just keeps on improving with or without them :)

The surveillance, ads, and preference reverts just work as well. Choose your poison.

The problem is that people expect Linux to work exactly the same as Windows. But they simultaneously expect it to fix all the things Windows has broken. Those two aren't compatible.

Linux desktops having different design philosophies is why they're any good. if they worked like Windows, they would suck ass, and nobody would even think about switching. I mean, really? Windows or shitty cheap Windows? Come on now. We need to think about what makes Linux intriguing in the first place.

You can talk about design philosophy all you want. You can confirm that Windows sucks all you want (I agree).

That doesn't change the fact that my external monitor doesn't work and will never work on Linux/Unix (random example, I can give you tons of others of things not working).

Is it Linux's fault? No. Does it make Linux suck in that it is completely unusable for most people? Yes.

Apple (and System76 and Frame.work) understood this and are changing this fortunately.

It’s not like those are better. I switched back from Fedora KDE a month or so ago. If it isn’t mouse scroll wheel it’s fractional scaling in X11 applications. And if it isn’t that then it is broken hibernation. And if it isn’t that it is broken fan control. And if it isn’t that then it’s device driver support. And if it isn’t that then it is that one application that supports Linux but actually doesn’t well enough to be usable.

There is always something messed up. At least with Windows, people have spent time building scripts to remove the garbage.

> fractional scaling in X11 applications

Very real, no solution either. The only solution is Wayland.

> broken hibernation

This is broken on Windows, too. Basically, suspend to RAM just doesn't work properly/reliably on a bunch of laptop manufacturers firmware.

> device driver support

Pretty much not a problem on x86 and commodity hardware. It becomes a problem on ARM because ARM is a hot mess, but then again that's the case on Windows, too. Some laptops have strange hardware, unfortunately. This is becoming less of a problem as time goes on.

> supports Linux but actually doesn’t well enough

Getting better with containerization deployments like Flatpak.

Yeah, I use Mint on my laptop (not my main PC), but it's a bit rough around the edges. I spent an hour trying to get the fingerprint reader to work, having to compile the driver myself, and it's still a bit buggy sometimes.

Bluetooth also randomly bugs out, mouse or airpods refuse to connect for no reason. Touchpad a bit wonky, pinch zoom doesn't work out of the box, I assume it's some setting somewhere but can't be bothered.

Discord can't update itself, I have to download and install it from a file each update.

Little things that add up to hours and hours of your time wasted.

Would you like a list of the hours needed to deshittify Windows (and free disk space)? Preventing macos telemetry is another time sink.

There’s no free lunch.

I don't think it's that bad, the duration is certainly not enumerated in hours, at least on Windows. It depends on how high a standard you have, but since other people were long aware of the issue, third-party scripts and software to automate a lot of the tedium exist and work pretty well, anything else can be smoothed out by hand.

so you don't trust ms but you trust a script from some guy in his mom's basement in Russia?

Any such tools that are worth their salt have their code posted publicly, you can check it yourself. Most of it isn't some groundbreaking stuff, a lot can be stripped out by just changing registry values and other deeply-ingrained settings that would take a long time to find and edit by hand. I also don't see how "trust into Microsoft" factors in here - it's not about trust, we know there's telemetry that can't be disabled through standard settings, and I know there are features I'd like to uproot entirely (like deep OneDrive integration).

Yeah I can't deal with rug pulls every version. I use xmonad on linux, with no rug for anybody to pull on me.

Freeing up the disk space in a VM is definitely an hours long struggle the first time, must count research time into it as well. I did it last year. Don’t forget the privacy tweaks and research. Sure you could script most of it, like anywhere.

I've never had to deshittify Windows, everything just works. But every time install Linux, I have to spend hours searching for little configuration problems. Like why Ctrl+C doesn't work in the terminal. Why doesn't Shift+arrow select text? Yes, there are solutions for these problems, but you have either install some crap or copy-paste stuff into config files.

> Like why Ctrl+C doesn't work in the terminal.

Bad example, this is the same as asking why doesn't sudo work in windows.

Sudo is a thing now in Windows [1]

[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-sudo-...

sudo literally works in Windows.

Both in Windows itself as well as in WSL.

>Ctrl-C

Ctrl-C it's a signal. Now, try creating these folders under Windows:

- NUL

- AUX

- PRN

- COM

Good luck.

I don't care about creating such folders.

But I care about Ctrl+C working.

Your obscure requirements are meaningless.

I'm happy to report Ctrl+C doesn't work in cmd either.

Also if Windows is perfect out of the box then just use Windows. For me, I'd always have to spend hours configuring Windows to not be shitty and to adapt to my workflow. At that point I'm better off just running Debian.

This post is evidence against. There’s hundreds more. Ctrl+C has always worked on Linux—but there are real issues, which makes me think you’re not being honest.

Ctrl+C also doesn't "work" (assuming you mean "copy text"?) in Windows command prompt last I checked. (Ctrl+Insert I believe performs copy.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com