As someone who uses the big three desktops daily, freedom is just one facet. I also want an operating system that respects my time. None of the free operating systems out there do that.
Considering the state of Ubuntu, probably the "easiest" to use desktop out there at the moment, my freedom is second to my ability to get a working desktop.
The problem isn't execution speed, it is the time you have to spend getting thinks to work properly. Linux doesn't necessarily work straight out of the box, and you may have to spend hours getting it to work properly with your hardware setup.
No to condescend, but that just means that what you do most likely only has to do with programming. If you attempt to branch out into other fields of activities, Linux software is just not capable enough. Try to edit a photo beyond the basic capabilities of Gimp. Try to author a video project. Try to master audio. Try to design and edit documents beyond the most basic capabilities of LibreOffice. Attempt spreadsheet workflows.
It's just not there. But yes, if you want to run Python, GCC or Ruby from the commandline, Linux is very capable of giving you a faster experience.
> No to condescend, but that just means that what you do most likely only has to do with programming.
Well, yeah, but I never claimed that Linux would be suitable for everyone's uses; just mine.
Image editing: I've never needed more than the Gimp. Why would I pay for something like Photoshop, full of features that I'll never use? It'd be like buying a power tool to assemble Ikea furniture.
Video project: I did a little in Windows XP with Windows Movie Maker, pasting together porn videos about 15 years ago, and conversions with stuff like Handbrake since then. I've never been inclined to do anything more advanced. It's not a need that I've had...but I've got Windows available if I did.
Try to master audio: Audacity covered all that I used to do, but honestly, I haven't used it in 5 years or so. Oh, plus some of my own waveform-generating and mixing software (simple stuff like generating audio for video game emulators).
LibreOffice: It, and previously OpenOffice, have covered every single need that I've had in the last 15 years. Granted, my needs have been simple, but I've never claimed differently.
It's as if I claimed that Windows is all I ever needed, and you came in asking how I intended to hack on the Linux kernel from Visual Studio...
I mentioned this is another comment, but it's worth saying again. For video/audio editing Blender can be used. Plus a bunch of other stuff, from their website:
"Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation."
Now its not the most intuitive pieces of software and you'll be spending a lot of time on youtube following tutorials, but its freely available and opensource.
Please let me know how editing goes for you on Blender on a semi advanced video project. These types of comments are the worst. It's on the same level as "Yes, GIMP is an alternative to Photoshop because it has brush and layers".
The tiniest of examples: try to enable "advanced" typography features in a document, such as ligatures, small caps, proportional figures, mathematical equations – without having to convert your document into TeX.
> such as ligatures, small caps, proportional figures, mathematical equations
Out of those, I recognize "mathematical equations" as something I've ever tried, regardless of which software I've been using, and LibreOffice Math always fit my needs. The truth is, outside of programming, I don't use enough of the features of office software for it to make a difference which suite I use.
I'm not sure what you're trying to prove. That there are features in some Windows software that aren't in Linux software? Granted, but I don't see how that's relevant to my original comment.
Why "without having to convert your document into TeX"? Is there something wrong with TeX?
Anyway, LibreOffice has been able to do all these things for a long time with Graphite fonts, and, since version 5.3, it can also do them with OpenType fonts.
> I'd rather struggle with some Windows warts than reverse engineer my drivers.
I'd guess that any *nix user who reverse engineer their own drivers in 2017 does so because they want to and/or have a job that pays them to do so (most likely handsomely).
For the rest of us at least mainstream Linux distros are almost as easy as Windows if not easier in some cases (until you come to MS Office, AutoCAD etc which is a whole different story, mostly unrelated to drivers IMO.)
> For the rest of us at least mainstream Linux distros are almost as easy as Windows if not easier in some cases (until you come to MS Office, AutoCAD etc which is a whole different story, mostly unrelated to drivers IMO.)
I.E. Unless you need to use mainstream business software.
> have a job that pays them to do so (most likely handsomely).
Nope, that's just fiction, the awesomely rewarded jobs are boring banking systems written in plain old Windows Forms (or WPF/Angular if you're lucky).
Most jobs would send you with HR to have a serious talk if they found out you lost a week reverse engineering a display link docking station because your multi-monitor setup wouldn't run after installing Fedora in your job laptop.
But that's none of my business. Kids are free to believe in Santa.
> For the rest of us at least mainstream Linux distros are almost as easy as Windows if not easier in some cases.
You usually install Linux because you enjoy working with the terminal, not because it's easy to use, but I certainly understand where do you come from. Ubuntu has done an amazing job to lower the barrier to start using Linux.
> Most jobs would send you with HR to have a serious talk if they found out you lost a week reverse engineering a display link docking station because your multi-monitor setup wouldn't run after installing Fedora in your job laptop.
That would be reasonable, if Linux development isn't your job.
And if you do it for the fun of it I say of course you should do it on your own time.
> But that's none of my business. Kids are free to believe in Santa.
Unnecessary attempt at an insult IMO.
>> For the rest of us at least mainstream Linux distros are almost as easy as Windows if not easier in some cases.
> You usually install Linux because you enjoy working with the terminal, not because it's easy to use, but I certainly understand where do you come from. Ubuntu has done an amazing job to lower the barrier to start using Linux.
Plain wrong IMO: I can interact with a terminal all I want without installing Linux just by running putty. In fact I prefer gui for most things except sysadmin stuff.
It's no struggle; someone wrote a PowerShell script and posted it to Hacker News!
More serious answer: I do use other OSs. But I keep using Windows because I want access to the fruits of millions of man-hours spent in Redmond and elsewhere developing for the Windows platform. It's a non-trivial body of work.
Tell that to my employer! Sometimes we don't get to choose our OS, but my personal PC is running Ubuntu. This script is a treasure trove of commands that just killed off over a dozen annoying and undesirable Windows behaviours that I haven't had the time to hunt down.
Considering the state of Ubuntu, probably the "easiest" to use desktop out there at the moment, my freedom is second to my ability to get a working desktop.