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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • I swear it’s always the same mistake each time someone has an issue trying linux. It should be a rule at this point : never switch to another OS without knowing what will work and what will not.

    Going at it blindly is a quick way to get overwhelmed and discouraged.

    (Not pointing fingers here, had a friend who wanted to try it out too, didn’t listen to my warnings, didn’t wanna check if everything would work out and then spent three month of pure hell, with me picking up the pieces and fixing their pc all the god damn time…)


  • 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




  • Regarding Wine not working, if you feel overwhelmed with that and really need help, just make another post or edit this one and specify :

    • what Linux distro you are using
    • what windows software you’d like to run on Linux
    • what it is you are trying and failing to do exactly (as precisely as you can, you might get even better answers that way)

    Otherwise you will get chaotic and vague answers that might not even apply to you. But frankly, some softwares you might still need windows for them, or you could find an alternative (if you can, if it exists alternativeto.net is your friend in that regard). It really depends on what you are using.

    Also I get it can be bothersome to deal with and frustrating, but mostly this kind of stuff you configure it once and then it’s done. So it might still be worth it.


    1. As others pointed out already, most distros will ask you which program you want to use on a file the first time you double click on them, and you can tell it to always use the same program for all other similar files (just like windows btw)…the only difference with windows (regarding exe files) is that you need to have wine installed first (lots of distros have it preinstalled though). You can still do it later by right clicking (again, just the same as windows). I fail to see what’s so complex about that.

    2. You cant have the same expectation with Wine regarding any windows software vs Proton for games, games and softwares can be awfully different, that’s why Wine can be a pain to use, and why it sometimes needs more fiddling for some soft than Proton does with games. Also some soft wont work on Wine period. Some softs will work just as simply as games on proton, some absolutely wont.

    3. I am sure you are aware that windows softs are made for windows, so it is a bit odd to expect a different OS to handle exe files perfectly and make it an out of the box experience, it was never made for that. I have yet to see anyone complain about not being able to run any Apple exclusive app on windows, sure Linux has Wine and Proton, and that’s cool… but some people don’t use it. So yeah it won’t be smooth and yeah it can get complicated, yet it’s still better than nothing don’t you think ?

    I think all this should answer your post and your comment. Sorry if it sounds like I am scolding you, but to be plain your post is asking why an apple can’t be an orange.

    If you need any help with something and don’t want unconstructive or vague answers it’s better to be specific about your issues and to consider that one problem with an exe file (or anything really) won’t be solved the same way as another. And if you don’t get something just say it instead of accusing anyone offering advice of being cryptic or unhelpful snobs, you won’t get far if you annoy everyone…just saying ;)


  • I read “boot”, “side by side with windows, “ubuntu”, Nvidia” and some awfull war flashbacks came back to haunt me.

    As someone who grew up toying with both windows, Mac and Linux I think people always underestimate how hard it’ll be to migrate to an OS they never tried before. I’ve seen lots of people getting frustrated that way, regardless of the OS.

    So I’d say being an IT guy or a tech illiterate won’t change much in that regard. I guess being an IT might at least give you shortcuts but you’ll still hit a wall if you don’t check beforehand if all your needs will be easy to access and how much pain you’ll have to deal with.

    At least that’s my take on it.

    But yeah, Ubuntu can be awfull depending on your needs. Windows and Linux don’t make good neighbors, windows is always the one trying to murder the other, and Nvidia is a nasty piece of work.


  • I never said that, actually just said exactly what you did : that Google pay them to still have a competitor.
    But that’s a big problem, because that make them competitors just in name, and using their browser won’t change that sadly. Another problem is the lucrative part of Mozilla that have made a number of bad decisions over the years with firefox, and are partly to blame as to how it fell out of favour.

    To be clear Firefox is far from being the worst browser out there, it’s not what I am saying, and it can have forks, we can also edit most of the crap out of it wich is great. But it would be silly to consider it a spotless software run by saints. That’s all I am saying.

    I would even go back to it or (better) a fork of it if I could get the features I use in Vivaldi without using countless and broken (or non savy) extentions, because I’d still find that better than using something based on chromium (even if there is a dedicated and seemingly good intended team behind it). But I would still not find it ideal, not without that lucrative side of Mozilla hanging onto firefox and that damn Google pay.


  • No need to support firefox, they get 1/2 a billion dollars each year from Google :D

    We’re at a point where most of the browsers are just rotten sadly, now it’s just a question of what is less worse than the others. With the coming of manifest v3 I don’t know if Vivaldi will still be worth it to me, I hope it will because even if I’d really like to use librewolf or another good fork of firefox…it’s just so lackluster compared to what Vivaldi offers, especially since I use a lot of its features.



  • Shotcut is great if you never dived into video editing before, simply because it’s great for quick and simple video editing, it’s also fairly intuitive. But it can fall flat when you have specific (or more advanced) needs, like adding subtitles or specific effects, it’s doable, features are not fully the problem here…just that it can be a needless pain to use in such instances.

    Kdenlive on the other hand is more complete but less intuitive, yet if you want something a bit more advanced it will do the job more than nicely.

    So it widely depends on your needs and how far you want to delve into video editing.

    I’d say if you wanna go crazy go for Kdenlive, if you want something simple go for Shotcut. If you want to start simple and go crazy later go for both.

    They are both more than decent editing softwares, but Kdenlive is surely the best of the two, if not one of the best out there.