[tomrod]

My family and I have used Linux desktops since 2008, when Windows Vista failed to run full screen video with BSOD.

There was a learning curve for a few months, but I've never regretted the shift and it has made for significant contributions to my career.

YMMV.

[tachyonbeam]

I switched to Linux around the same time as you. Before that I was a Windows user from 1997 until ~2008. In the late 1990s and early 2000s people just accepted that Windows crashing everyday was a normal feature of that software, and they blamed every crash on user error, eg: "your drivers are bad", "you're running buggy software", etc. My Windows 98 install couldn't run for more than ~4 hours without crashing, it was infuriating. Windows 2000 did better, but it would still crash once every couple of days.

Linux was a million times more stable and much more pleasant to use as a programmer (no SDKs to download with complex installation instructions). It also had a package manager which made installs/reinstalls a breeze. You could actually write a bash script to redo your setup automatically, wow! Never looked back.

I recently installed Windows 8 on an older computer I was setting up for my mom (she didn't want Linux, understandably). It was my first time using Windows in two years or so. Windows Update was broken out of the box. It wouldn't run. You had to manually download a patch to get it to work. I don't really understand why desktop Linux gets so much hate when commercial software is this bad.

[Gwypaas]

Windows 8.1 reached end of mainstream support on January 9, 2018, over three years ago. Windows 8 support ended on January 12, 2016.

No wonder you ran into issues if you installed it and tried getting it "updated" recently.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/faq/windows#windo...

[tachyonbeam]

Here is a post from 2016 outlining the same problem I was describing: https://superuser.com/questions/1103966/windows-update-doesn...

There is a bug in the Windows Update client on Windows 8.1, and it can't update itself.

[pitay]

Do note that Windows Update may just not offer a major update because such as Windows 10 2004 because of concerns about driver compatibility. It happened to me because Microsoft and the manufacturer of the PC didn't come to an agreement about driver compatibility. Windows update gave me warning about updating to the new Windows 10 version (to 2004 or 20H2), but there was no update for it in Windows Update, I had to download the update manually to get it installed. Also had to do that manually for a previous version as well.

[cl0ckt0wer]

because printer/scanners don't work with the included software, and linux has a reputation.

[tachyonbeam]

I guess my point was, Windows should have just as much of a reputation, given Microsoft has shipped release builds with absolutely horrible and blatant bugs (does anyone remember windows millennium?).

I did do some research before I bought my printer and found a brother that connects to wifi and works flawlessly with both Mac and Linux. I find you can also make your life much easier as a Linux user by choosing popular distributions. It's always easy to Google specific fixes for Ubuntu.

[ginko]

I have an old Canon scanner that doesn't work on Windows because Canon never released a driver for anything after Windows XP. Works like a charm on Linux though.

Same experience with an old Nikon Super CoolScan negative scanner I recently bought used. It came with a Firewire PCI card. I installed the card, plugged in the scanner and it just worked.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

No, printers/scanners work without the manufacturer's software; if it's supported (which, I admit, is incomplete but more than you might expect), you just plug it in, tell CUPS to add a printer (which it can do seamlessly without installing extra garbage from the manufacturer), open Simple Scan (or any other SANE frontend) and off you go.

[crossroadsguy]

I’m looking for a laptop. I can’t find any good laptop with 16-32GB RAM at a non-Apple price. Also they all have windows preinstalled.

Defeats the purpose. That’s how it is.

[myk9001]

Where I am, it's much much cheaper to get a laptop with the least possible amount of RAM preinstalled but -- importantly! -- with two RAM slots.

Then just buy two stick of fast RAM and install them yourself. It often doesn't void your warranty (but make sure to check the warranty of your specific laptop, obviously).

Same applies to SSD, actually.

[nucleardog]

Got a Thinkpad during one of their sales last year for $1300 that had a generation old i7 and 48gb of RAM. Had the Dolby HDR 4K screen and a bunch of other odds and ends as well.

Didn’t look if there was an option without Windows preinstalled since it was for my wife.

Added bonus: lots of ports, onboard HDMI, onboard ethernet

If you need something now probably not a huge help, but if you’re not in a rush might be worth keeping an eye on.

[throwaway77388]

There's Tuxedo computers and System76.

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en

https://system76.com/

[tristan957]

Refurbished Lenovo Thinkpads on eBay or Amazon is what I've gone with for my past two machines. Not disappointed at all. Quality builds for quality prices.

[tomrod]

I like my Dell XPS15. It came with Windows and runs Fedora flawlessly. I maxed out RAM, extra SSD, and GPU because I do a lot of ML consulting (AWS works well too, but its nice to have my own hardware).

Much cheaper than Apple. I use an Apple 2015 MBP for a client's requirements. It screws up my muscle memory. The OS is ok I suppose but it's no Linux.

[ghaff]

There are Lenovo Thinkpad Linux configurations up to 16GB but they'll be in the same price range as MacBooks.