Linux on the desktop isn't where it needs to be to be usable for me. Media playback is a royal headache, there's not anywhere near enough agreement on foundational matters, such as how to configure the kernel, let alone things like the desktop; support for super-high resolution monitors is still not where it needs to be; and some things have been allowed to proliferate well beyond what is realistic to maintain. Nobody wants to take the metaphorical bull by the horns and reduce the chaos. Sure, all the new ideas are great, but if nobody's maintaining them enough to achieve critical mass with any of them... is it even worth doing?
That being said, the command-line environment only has the proliferation of package managers and kernel configurations, something MUCH easier to deal with, and I can wholeheartedly recommend using. There are some incredibly powerful tools out there...
Currently developing futuristic smart-device, IoT connected, highway construction site safety system in EU.
Used to work on infrastructure, application architecture and cloud engineering.
What do you mean by "there's not anywhere near enough agreement on foundational matters, such as how to configure the kernel, let alone things like the desktop"?
I configure my kernel based on my requirements and liking, the same applies for my desktop. If you feel uncomfortable take .config file from some major distro vendor like Ubuntu or Arch, you won't miss anything.
I'm currently running Sabayon Linux (Gentoo based distro) on 4k 144 PPI LED panel with KDE and it's perfect. Fonts are sharp, sizing is right. I'm running Radeon 5600XT with open source driver (mesa 21.0) playing Dota2 at 4k with 160 FPS. Video and Audio playback cannot be compared to Windows or MacOS. Everything is smooth with low latency and there's free (open-source) equalizer/effects panel called pulseeffects that has no match in either Windows or MacOs, even if I'm willing to pay for commercial product.
I was missing Visual Stido for a while but Rider got so much better that I haven't rebooted to Windows for several months now.
Clearly your idea of a Linux user differs from mine... I never configure the kernel, or even the loaded modules. I am coming from a standpoint of a Mac or Windows user here.
Currently developing futuristic smart-device, IoT connected, highway construction site safety system in EU.
Used to work on infrastructure, application architecture and cloud engineering.
Windows and Mac users configure the kernel and load/unload modules (drivers in Windows world) all the time. It's just hidden behind dull graphical interfaces that are only capable of telling you "Oops, something went wrong during the installation. Please reboot and try again." in case there is a problem that can be fixed easily.
In Linux in almost all cases you don't even need to reboot to fix problems. Windows and MacOS just doesn't care to involve the user in understanding them because it looks like their fault. It's just a stupid PR trick to fault your computer needs rebooting and it has nothing to do with the OS.
There are tons of Linux OS distros that "just work" out of the box just like Windows and Linux. If they don't, it's in 99% cases a driver issue which can be attributed to ignorant vendors refusing to release API and documentation to build open-source driver. Linux kernel has tens of thousands of different drivers Windows and MacOS can only dream about to have. If you miss yours it's not linux kernel's fault since there was hundreds of thousands of volunteers that built drivers for your hardware before and they are probably waiting for your stupid vendor to release some information so they can build that much needed driver for your hardware so people can stop ranting about "stupid Linux does not suppor my sound/graphics/bluetooth/wifi card!"
Linux on the desktop isn't where it needs to be to be usable for me. Media playback is a royal headache, there's not anywhere near enough agreement on foundational matters, such as how to configure the kernel, let alone things like the desktop; support for super-high resolution monitors is still not where it needs to be; and some things have been allowed to proliferate well beyond what is realistic to maintain. Nobody wants to take the metaphorical bull by the horns and reduce the chaos. Sure, all the new ideas are great, but if nobody's maintaining them enough to achieve critical mass with any of them... is it even worth doing?
That being said, the command-line environment only has the proliferation of package managers and kernel configurations, something MUCH easier to deal with, and I can wholeheartedly recommend using. There are some incredibly powerful tools out there...
What do you mean by "there's not anywhere near enough agreement on foundational matters, such as how to configure the kernel, let alone things like the desktop"?
I configure my kernel based on my requirements and liking, the same applies for my desktop. If you feel uncomfortable take .config file from some major distro vendor like Ubuntu or Arch, you won't miss anything.
I'm currently running Sabayon Linux (Gentoo based distro) on 4k 144 PPI LED panel with KDE and it's perfect. Fonts are sharp, sizing is right. I'm running Radeon 5600XT with open source driver (mesa 21.0) playing Dota2 at 4k with 160 FPS. Video and Audio playback cannot be compared to Windows or MacOS. Everything is smooth with low latency and there's free (open-source) equalizer/effects panel called pulseeffects that has no match in either Windows or MacOs, even if I'm willing to pay for commercial product.
I was missing Visual Stido for a while but Rider got so much better that I haven't rebooted to Windows for several months now.
Clearly your idea of a Linux user differs from mine... I never configure the kernel, or even the loaded modules. I am coming from a standpoint of a Mac or Windows user here.
Windows and Mac users configure the kernel and load/unload modules (drivers in Windows world) all the time. It's just hidden behind dull graphical interfaces that are only capable of telling you "Oops, something went wrong during the installation. Please reboot and try again." in case there is a problem that can be fixed easily.
In Linux in almost all cases you don't even need to reboot to fix problems. Windows and MacOS just doesn't care to involve the user in understanding them because it looks like their fault. It's just a stupid PR trick to fault your computer needs rebooting and it has nothing to do with the OS.
There are tons of Linux OS distros that "just work" out of the box just like Windows and Linux. If they don't, it's in 99% cases a driver issue which can be attributed to ignorant vendors refusing to release API and documentation to build open-source driver. Linux kernel has tens of thousands of different drivers Windows and MacOS can only dream about to have. If you miss yours it's not linux kernel's fault since there was hundreds of thousands of volunteers that built drivers for your hardware before and they are probably waiting for your stupid vendor to release some information so they can build that much needed driver for your hardware so people can stop ranting about "stupid Linux does not suppor my sound/graphics/bluetooth/wifi card!"
Ah, I meant settings for compiling the kernel, rather than the sense you referred to. Silly language getting in the way.