I do use Ubuntu Desktop (22 LTS now, went through 16 and 18) on one of my laptops but I also have Windows and must say, even as a power user Linux sucks compared to Windows.
I got constant bugs over time, I can't place a breakpoint directly in the Java Swing GUI thread because it will block my entire desktop, completely dead, so I have to ctrl+alt+fX login to a different virtual desktop and kill the Java process. No such bug on Windows. Also the browser sometimes gets crazy, jitters or something, I have to kill it and restart the app, not to mention the weird "chromium" processes taking up 100% of CPU that pop up every time I try to visit Yahoo Finance.
On games, which is the main strongpoint of Windows, I installed Counterstrike 2 and it would work .. provided I unplug the second monitor and run it on the small laptop one. There's no way to tell what happens if I leave the second monitor on, all hell breaks loose and I have to physically turn off the power to be able to reboot the machine.
I can no longer connect to the internet using the (faster) wired connection because a bug in the RTL8111/8168/8411 driver. I tried everything, update, configure, still unusable, works enything from seconds to half an hour then it's dead. On top of that, the WiFi connection also drops occasionally, it sometimes reverts when I turn off / turn it on from UI, but often I have to reboot to have it work again. Needless to say on Windows both wired and wifi work flawlessly.
So on a 2022 release of the most popular desktop Linux distribution, both the UI and connectivity are nigh-unusable to someone who actually knows their way around computers. And you want regular people switching from Windows and MacOS. Not gonna happen.
Normal people will probably not read these long essays, but they might complain about their M$ OS getting worse.. and that is a great opportunity to present linux as the solution (because it is), you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work (it's 2025, they will in most cases) and how there's nothing to fear.
For me, it actually worked! Of course I did offer some help just in case she got stuck or something, but it went relatively smoothly.
I kind of hate articles like this. I use Linux, I think it's great, I think everyone should use it.
I don't think you need user skills to use it. Gnome is super friendly to use (although maybe it needs to make the dock visible by default). KDE isn't bad and is Windows-like.
I don't think Linux is more complex than Windows. Folders are laid out in a common sense way. Ever tried uninstalling a Windows program that was installed in a weird way by some proprietary installer?
I don't think normal users particularly need to care about OSS either, Linux is more than functional enough nowadays that it's a great choice merely for utility, ideology isn't needed.
What's up with everyone thinking they need Photoshop/GIMP? Those are photo editing tools. For design/content creation Krita is the best tool for raster images by far...
And NetBeans? Really? Is this article from 2005? IntelliJ Community is open-source. VSCode is kinda, VSCodium more so. Gnome Builder is really good now. So is QtCreator and KDevelop. Plus Vim/Neovim and Emacs, especially nowadays that distros make it easy to get started.
Linux nerds still don't quite get normies...
Here's my pitch: it's easier and less annoying than Windows. It's free. For normal everyday use, it has everything you need.
I'm in the middle of sorting out my next laptop (leaning towards an M4 Macbook). I've used a Thinkpad for years, but the the product direction of Windows has been annoying, and while WSL is decent, it's not great. Someone suggested I try Linux, and I did. This was on a 6-year-old X1 Carbon, so it's relatively well-supported. I ran into a few hard blockers. 1) Couldn't pair my Airpods Pro after 15 minutes of googling 2) Would get stuck on the lock screen on resume, sometimes for a minute, sometimes indefinitely 3) VMware kernel modules were a headache 4) Occasional lockups (could have been VMware modules). The soft blockers were 1) Less consistent UI than Windows 2) Poor hidpi support (but it's improved) 3) The UI feels 5% off in a lot of ways, and I'm not sure how to describe it 4) full-disk-encryption is an adventure. I didn't even make it to testing my webcam.
Break free from commercial vendor lock-ins and start using free systems. What do you think, is it inevitable these days?
For the first time ever, I managed to run Linux on a primary machine for a year. Before that, either issues with software or hardware would consistently have me through my hands up and give up.
While it was pleasant while it lastly, I ended up reinstalling Windows on my Surface Pro 9 since the machine began randomly freezing after installing a set of updates (I was running Ubuntu with SurfaceLinux kernel).
Surprisingly, Windows with WSL has been more pleasant to use than I remember. I haven’t run Windows in 10+ years, but so far im encouraged to continue trying it.
Except that for user freedom I think the best distro for Linux beginers would be somehting simple with good docs like Slackware or LFS, not the super-complex windows wannabe distros like Fedora or Ubuntu. It's much more welcomming, with very little ceremony around building and modifying packages.
Currently stuck in WSL2 on my Thinkpad, newish hardware that could use some more updates before jumping ship.
Switching to the linux world 20 years ago was one of the best decissions I ever made. What I learnt on the way is absolutely priceless. Thanks go out to all OSS developers!
Unfortunately, there aren't any Linux drivers for the audio hardware I use. The hardware replacement cost to switch to Linux would be prohibitive. I also would have a much narrower choice of audio and DAW apps.
I’ll chime in with a different anecdote than all the whiny ones. Fedora + Niri on a Dell XPS is great. Stock Fedora + Gnome is also great. I don’t miss Windows or OSX at all. The games I care to play work fine thanks to Proton. I don’t care about Adobe or MS Office. If you don’t care about those, either, then find a laptop with good Linux support and decent build quality and come on. It’s more than fine.
Wow thanks people, that is a lot of comments. I really value that and most of your points are valid. It is interesting to see all these new insights from users like you!
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Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.
I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work.
I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would creak. There were just too many small issues for such an expensive device.
Otherwise, macOS is bloated, slow, and has horrible window management. I also prefer GNU tooling over BSD, and having to install everything separately is an extra hassle. Plus, it’s getting more restrictive over the years, which I’m not a fan of.