hey!!!
I currently work with an HP laptop running Windows 10. I have ever been tempted to switch to Linux and lately the idea has been coming back to my head.
Actually, as a programming student, I do a bit of everything: web, mobile, desktop, databases, graphic design...
I think I could continue using all the programs I use (VSCode, Netbeans, JetBrains IDE's, Figma, Gimp...) although I think I would lose compatibility for my vices (Steam, etc... ahahaha).
Tell me, should I switch to Linux? Why? What advantages does it give me compared to Windows? What can't I do on Windows that I can do on Linux? What can't I do on Linux that I can do on Windows?
As always, any help is appreciated.
Cheers!
Latest comments (61)
Update from the future:
Yes, please switch!
I like the customization of Linux tbh. Being able to use different shells and changing my desktop environment the way I like.
Games actually work a lot better these days. Steam now has this thing called Proton protondb.com/ they use to run games in a windows like environment on linux.
I think the biggest drawback of linux is that sometimes things just break and it requires a bit of tinkering. The more freedom you get to do what you want the more ways it could go wrong :)
I've grew up on Windows and during my undergrad, I've found that linux and Unix are both power. From a sys admin approach linux is much easier for developing anything. Unlike Windows you have some restrictions to certain packages. Linux is the way to go and I've used both linux and Unix and never touched Windows. Though, windows is moving more to support linux and there's even a way to make linux look like Windows. reddit.com/r/unixporn/ is a great first step. I've change my dev to linux and Unix and I've nevered looked bad. (Windows) let's update to v2 (user) ok..... Waits ten hours...... Update is spinning.... (Windows) ok never mind, let's roll back till we fix the bug.
Ok I'm done. Anyways which linux flavors you used, you'll never look back
best way to test which Linux flavor you like is by using virtual box or VMware
It's been almost 3 months since i have switched from windows to ubuntu and i don't regret.
I'm not a gamer and its only development, programming and once in a month of illustrations that i do.
See ubuntu is all about customisation and tuning your system to your needs.
So are passionate about tech and love to try out new things then its a perfect OS.
And ya ubuntu is way smooth and fast compared to windows.
If u got any problem with performance then there are a lot of onboard tweaks that can improve it
Currently dual booting macOS and Windows might consider trying Linux to join the rest of the cool kids here 😎
In your case, I would choose Linux over Windows + WSL2 if:
You could use WSL2 and have the best of both worlds.
Why? Enable WSL and you can do linux. I play games on windows and code on WSL.
I pretty much have the same requirements as you do. I use a dual boot system, and all my development work is done in Linux. It's just more comfortable, and I personally find it much more enjoyable.
I, however use Windows specifically for Gaming, Photoshop (GIMP, Krita, etc. are excellent in linux, I'm just used to photoshop) and MS Office. You can definitely work with LibreOffice or Google Docs in linux, but I feel extremely comfortable using a dedicated suite that is well maintained by Microsoft.
So yes, I would recommend a dual boot system, it's super easy to do and you can experience the best of both worlds!
As someone that have been primarily using Linux without dual-boot for more than 6 years, I warn you that perhaps there are not many reasons to do the switch anymore.
WSL2 was a remarkable step in closing the gap between windows and Linux, and it can provide almost everything that a native Linux experience would.
Still, if you make heavy use of docker/docker-compose and other ops/server-side tools you may find that they will run much better on Linux. By "better" I mean, less dependency errors and much less resource consumption.
Also, by getting used to Linux in your desktop you will be much more "fluent" when dealing with server-side in general. :)
But for simple full stack development, WSL2 is more then enough.