But, Linux is bad! | Who is linux not for?
To those who think linux isn't as good as windows (and may have even used linux before)
linux has evolved a lot in the recent past. 2014 linux isn't current year linux.
- Linux can play virtually all your windows games with Proton (which is built in to Steam), and a ton of windows programs with Bottles.
- Most "just werks"/beginner distros are easier than windows with less troubleshooting (i'd sooner give linux mint to my grandma than windows).
- Linux gives you options. If you dont like something you can change it. It's almost always free as in beer and as in freedom.
- Linux is safer, faster, more sensible, more freeing, and more efficient.
Using windows again (which i've done recently for reasons below) is infuriating. You don't know how much windows sucks until you don't have to tolerate it anymore.
You do not need advanced knowledge of the terminal/command-line. Most of the distros can be demo'd from a live-USB without install. Demoing this way will be less performant, but it lets you try a distro before you fully install it. You can also try linux in a virtual machine, but that has its own limitations.
Linux will come with some learning pains (just as any new workflow will) but after it clicks you'll never want to go back.
Who is linux NOT for?
- Users of games with kernel level anti-cheat that disallow linux
- (check Are We Anti-Cheat Yet to see if your game has anticheat, and protondb to see if your game has any available fixes (anti-cheat or otherwise).
- note that not all games with kernel level anti-cheat have this issue (for example, Rocket League, Fall Guys, and VRChat are linux compatible).
- Those looking to use the adobe creative suite software outside of old photoshop releases
- if this is you, you may want to stick with windows or MacOS (except photoshop, which has viable alternatives like Photopea, and Gimp 3. old versions of PS even works in wine with some elbow grease via software like WinApps). If you'd like a premiere alternative, check out DavanciResolve (easy linux installer). Blender, Krita, and more are also great and work on linux, too.
- Users of certain DAW or CAD software
- There are some that work on linux (DAWs, CAD software), but if you have one you absolutely need on another system, then use those. Though note Ableton has Silver compatibility, FLStudio has Gold compatibility, and Audodesk Fusion has Bronze compatibility in Bottles at the time of writing.
- Those who need windows or mac for niche proprietary work/school software which might not work in wine/bottles or a virtual machine
- Try it first, wine/bottles may just work for the program. You can test it in a live demo with the distro running off USB without installing. If the software doesn't need a lot of system resources, then you may also be able to use a VM just fine.
- Blind users who rely on NVDA for accessibility
- Those who use NVDA will have trouble using linux outside of a virtual machine. Since NVDA relies on propietary windows APIs. Though some distros have a larger focus on accessibility like ElementaryOS
I either Dual-Boot windows or run it in a virtual machine for the above rare use cases. Though my workflow has mostly removed the need for Windows entirely.
Anyways, if you dont fall into any of the above parties, linux will probably work for your use case. Sometimes it'll take some elbow grease to get something working on linux. However, more often than not it takes elbow grease to get many things working properly or well on windows, where it takes little or no effort on linux. sometimes what you're looking to do is just impossible on windows, like having workflows you'll find in many linux DEs that stray away from Windows' design philosophy.