My current issue is i see you guys constantly having issues, editing files etc.
Is it not stable?
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
This is a forum where people seek help. Of course you’re going to see problems here. Nobody posts “hey it’s been several years and I’ve had no problems.”
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
Can confirm. I’ve been using Linux for nearly 30 years… I don’t post questions on forums. Bug reports for OSS projects, on the other hand…
Also can confirm. Been using Arch, which most people consider requires more fiddling than other distros, for almost 10 years now and have had few issues with it. I’ve had to fix my Windows install more than my Linux.
Only 80%?!? I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number. I really can’t see people running windows on their servers…
And to be honest, server stability != display server stability.
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number.
BSD isn’t Linux.
To be honest I pulled the 80% out of my ass… It was the first reasonable looking number that came up on a quick search.
Hey, it’s been well over a decade, and the largest problem I have is a crippling addiction to distro hopping…
Welcome to the club. Just now I’m setting up Endeavour to give it another (14th) shot.
Big oof. May the kernel be with you.
I’m going to do my best to “wait” for PopOS 24.04 before I hop out again. It seemsbI finally got Endeavour right, with hybrid graphics and all. The only pain was actually how long it took to install Lubre Wolf. Ah, and that the first attempt at installing flatpaks, nothing was showing up after install until I rebooted. But now they work as expected.
Mmmmmm…that feeling when everything just finally falls into place and works right. chef’s kiss
I’d suggest that Linux tends to attract a higher percentage of people that want to tinker with their OS, and tinkering with your OS can lead to some unexpected outcomes, or outright break things that someone would have to turn to the community for help.
It depends a lot on what you want to do with it though too. Browsing the web, checking email, spreadsheets / word processing, etc? You could likely install literally any Linux os and be fine, and definitely be fine with the mainstream core distros.
If you’re gaming, I’d recommend a distro aimed at gaming. PopOS, nobara, bazzite, or Garuda all come to mind, depending on your preferred flavor.
But, as much as it pains me to say it, if you need to run, for example, Adobe or Autodesk products (or something similarly specialized and proprietary) you’ll probably have a better time doing it in windows. There are alternative options that will work in Linux fine, but if it’s for work or some other situation that requires you to use those specific proprietary products, you might be stuck.
Linux is stable if you pick a stable distribution. The big thing is the skill floor is higher than windows, but the skill ceiling is way higher too. But yeah pick a well respected LTS distribution (not arch based, use a Debian based one) and Linux will be just a boring computer until you start fucking with it. But you can fuck with it, and that’s the beauty and the danger of it. Remember the “delete system 32” memes? Yeah you can’t do that in windows anymore, they idiot proofed it so hard it’s smart people proof too, linux will let you make a terrible decision if you sudo it.
I really wish Linux desktop was stable. On Ubuntu 22.04, this year alone I had nvidia driver failures, wake up from sleep issues, crypsetup failing to decrypt the root drive on startup (and dropping to a busybox shell), gnome UI freezing and more.
I’ve been using Linux for over ten years and love it. On servers, it’s rock solid but on desktop it’s hit and miss. The good part is that problems are fixable, it’s just not user friendly.
Not sure what you’re doing, but I’ve been using Debian and Pop_OS! without issue for work and gaming for 4 years. I’ve never had to reinstall or troubleshoot something unless I created a problem doing something stupid.
You’re always going to see people with problems in support forums. If your Linux system is running well, you’re less likely to post about it than if you’re having problems.
Hi! I’m not having any problems with linux. I just thought you’d like to know.
There. Now there’s a message in the support forums about a person not having problems!
gives an idea to create something like “stablelinux” where people share uptime and what practices they use to not get into trouble
Those communities got a little stale when enough people started reporting uptime in decades. Also, unless you’re on a flavor that can upgrade the kernel while the system is live, good uptimes these days are just the time between kernel updates.
If you leave it alone, it’s practically always fine. But the urge to tinker is strong!
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
That’s a tough one to answer, because Linux has one key element that is different from other OS : it isn’t one single thing dumbed down to cater to everyone, instead it has multiple variations (distributions), each has their own logic and ideas, and everyone of them are highly customisable (so yeah you can spend a lot of time editing stuff if you want to). This means that it higly depends on what you chose to use, what you wanna do with it, and what are your skills.
I could say that you would get as much issues as you would with any other OS, but that would be wrong depending on the distribution you use, that would be wrong if you have a specific need that isn’t easy to get on Linux or not yet troublefree to use, and that would be wrong if you have no idea what you are doing. You could even have less issues (but I wouldn’t advertise that thought). This is why there are what people call “noob friendly distros”, meaning as much troublefree as possible and easy to learn (doesn’t mean it has all your needed features, or that it will grant you the best experience).
I have been toying with Linux since I was 15, but I only made the switch some years ago (I’m 29). Most of my issues were either that the distribution I used did’nt satsfy me, or that my needs were a bit complicated to get working, but once I found something that worked for me most of my experience has been «you configure it once and then you are good to go», I cannot say it is the same for everyone.
One important thing to note is that switching from a familiar OS to an unfamiliar one is never easy (people tend to forget how hard they had to learn using a pc), and it can get painfully hard to do if you go at it with the wrong mindset. So if you want to try it out, I’d suggest you first spend some time looking if everything you need will be available and easy to get working, then find a distribution that you think would suit you (since it’s a first dive you might try something “noob friendly”). Ideally you would first look how it works before trying anything, for exemple don’t be fooled thinking a distribution is only defined by how it looks, it’s how it works that matters most. It’s a bit like preparing yourself for a trip, never try it blindly (it’s a common mistake people do when switching between OS, be it Linux or otherwise), it will require patience and an open mind because you will have to learn how thing works since it’s new to you and it might feel like nothing is working the way it should, so it’s better if you can still go back to an OS that is familiar to you if something goes wrong. And then you’ll see for yourself if it is a troublefree experience or a masochist one :p
I don’t know who these people having issues are but I run Linux Mint Debian Edition and have no issues editing my stuff.
The only issue I can imagine is if they had formatted an external HDD with ext4 and and copied docs from a previous Linux install, and now when they copy it to their new install, they don’t have permission to edit the doc.
For example, you try out Ubuntu for a few weeks/months. You format your ext HDD in ext4 and create docs in Ubuntu. You then copy those into the HDD. Or maybe you had another drive formatted with NTFS and copied docs from there onto the ext4 drive.
After a few weeks you erase Ubuntu from your machine and install Arch. Now when you try to edit a doc on the HDD or copy it to your machine, you find you don’t have permission because those permissions were set on your previous Ubuntu install.
I’ve had permission issues with that hence I format my ex HDD with exFAT and it works perfectly. Also works perfectly with Windows and macOS as they can all read/write to exFAT without permission issues.
For a reasonably stable but updated os I would recommend FreeBSD. You only have to install X yourself, and linux guides doesn’t work. But reading manual page and searching on mailing lists can solve every issue. OpenBSD is easier but it is a bit “slow” in performance, packages are not updated (you have to follow -current, the latest development branch).
80% of my linux issues happened because of me
Make it an alternative OS before erasing your existing OS so you can switch back and forth and use the old one to research when something unexpected happens on your new one. This way you can transition slowly. Expect there to be challenges, but also expect to learn a lot. It’s a fantastic platform.
Of course it’s stable.
Just like with Windows, the more advanced stuff you do, the more advanced problems you’ll have.
If you just wanna set and forget, avoid arch based and you’re golden.
Exactly … If all you’re going to do is go online and maybe write a document once in a while … a simple distro like Mint or PopOS will just work without issue.
This is odd phrasing. It sounds like you’re saying mint and pop aren’t capable of more. Same when people call them "good for newbs"n implying that more advanced users flock elsewhere.
Well unless it’s just editing the text file. God forbid you unknowingly enter vim and don’t know how to get out without rebooting.
There was a time when I had to do that. I was a teenager. I had no idea what I was doing. And it was many many years later that I finally learned how to quit it. That pain keeps me away to this day.
Long live nano, the warm and cuddly text editor.
Screw nano and ed, use mirco.
… It didn’t occur to you to google “how to exit vim”?
It’s :q! and if you were in some special mode you can spam esc a bunch of times before.
They couldn’t, didn’t you read? They were stuck in vim!
I’m imagining that same instance still stuck open for years until you found out.
To quit vim is simple!
Just get a second computer, network with the first one, SSH into the first one, find the process ID of vim, and pkill! Easy as pie!
Keep in mind that all the people who are just happily going about their day to day with it and not having issues are probably not posting. The only reason most people make posts is to complain about something or get assistance troubleshooting an issue. It also really depends on what all you want to do with it.
the dark secret of linux is that there are just as many people who dont understand how to solve problems and resort to searching the correct way to shake a dead chicken as with every other platform.
This seems to imply that other operating systems don’t have issues and don’t require editing files.
Compared to Windows, I’ve had fewer frustrating issues on Linux. I think the reason you hear about these issues is because the Linux community naturally encourages sharing these issues. If I have a niche problem, I can share it, then the community will work together to solve it so it isn’t an issue anymore. On Windows, you might run a troubleshooting wizard that might solve the problem, and if it doesn’t you’ll probably take it to MS support who’ll walk you through it. If that doesn’t fix it, you’ll likely just wait for a bug fix in the next update. Point being, they get talked about less because the system doesn’t encourage problem solving on the users end (as much as Linux does).
As for editing files, sure, you do a lot of that on Linux. On Windows, you use a settings menu to fiddle with things, but all that settings menu does is give you a button to press. Pressing that button is just a fancy visual way of editing a file somewhere. Linux just often forgoes the graphical interface and encourages you to get used to editing those files directly.
Just to add one point to the end there, a lot of times in Windows it isn’t even a file it’s editing, or at least not a plain text file you could even edit manually, so it’s much more obfuscated even than that.
Or it’s a setting in the registry that pretty much everyone says “do not touch if you don’t know what you’re doing, you will break your system”… Nowhere in Linux will you be editing something that can break your install while configuring your default keyboard layout (as an example)
Linux distros are maintained by people that want to create the best OS possible. Windows is maintained by a company that wants to sell you something.
From my experience having used Linux for years: Here is the full list of problems I encountered that I’d say are not the result of me tinkering:
- Nvidia driver is fucked up
- A hard drive also used by Windows won’t mount
- The software app can’t update my system
- 2nd monitor won’t work correctly (pretty much solved nowadays)
Those are fairly common issues afaik, and they are caused by using a slightly more complex setup (dual-booting Windows, extra repos in the package manager) and notoriously troublesome Nvidia hardware. For all but the last there is a one-line command you can run to fix it, and it took maybe 2 min to find it on my phone.
Apart from these issues it’s been rock solid, so I’d say you’re good as long as you avoid those known causes for problems (No Nvidia, no Windows, no extra repos), or you are able to find solutions to the most common problems and run simple commands on the terminal.
