[zwaps]

Linux UIs can’t even align fonts correctly within the elements.

It is miles away from the original and you can immediately see its Linux because things don’t quite line up. Huge difference in quality, attention to detail, and the entire interface becomes unpleasant to look at.

Also, Linux power management and lack of hibernation means its useless on laptops

[adrian_b]

I do not know what kind of Linux UI you have seen, but the problem mentioned by you is certainly not universal.

I have never seen it, but it may exist, because there are many kinds of Linux UI that I do not use, e.g. Gnome.

That said, I have seen many Linux GUI applications that are ugly, at least by default, but many of them can be reconfigured to be beautiful enough.

I have never been content with the default appearance of any Linux distribution, but the good ones can be customized to look completely different and better than Windows, especially if you replace all default fonts with some high-quality fonts.

[hylaride]

I don’t want to spend eons heavily customizing, only for my customizations to break down the line, though.

[9rx]

But you[1] are willing to spend money, so you can pay someone else to worry about that.

[1] Based on the original comment. If you personally are not willing to spend money, your reply doesn't fit the conversation.

[Liftyee]

Out of curiosity, when was the last time you used Linux on a laptop platform? Anecdotally, it's come a long way since 5 years ago - daily driving Ubuntu 24.04 on my Thinkpad, and I can get 8 hours of use (engineering workload) in a day. It's not ARM level of performance, but far from "useless".

[trinix912]

That's "It works on my machine". Especially with ThinkPads, Dell XPS, and other laptops usually used by the Linux folks. Try it on a random cheap HP and you might not even have sound working (I've gone through this a few months ago). You can sometimes easily fix it through the terminal, but then we get into the debate of whether a normal user would be able to do that.

[guenthert]

Well, how many "it works on my machine" does it take to make it a general statement? It works on all of my machines, from dirt-cheap lenovo EDU series ThinkPad to portable workstation Dell M6800 and Pixel Chromebook in between.

It generally doesn't work for people buying computers from vendors who use hardware were the manufacturer doesn't disclose the documentation. Just don't give money to those who seek to prevent free software.

[wruza]

Solid advice, but choosing good hw for the rig is already a challenge. Tick the virtual "linux" checkbox and you often get an empty list. That is, if you have that checkbox, in any sense. How the hell should I know if a mobo/laptop is supported? Googling "<model> linux issue" always yields hundreds of threads regardless. Even when <model> is Thinkpad: https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+thinkpad+issue

[josephg]

I mean, yeah? But it’s far from the seamless experience of macOS or windows. On my desktop pc:

- My wireless card isn’t detected

- I’m using Linux mint, which means I’m still on X11. Some software doesn’t support X as well as wayland. Some only supports X I guess?

- I use Davinci resolve - which has a native Linux install. But I need to use some weird tool to convert it to a dpkg to install and run it. It doesn’t have a window bar - so the only way I can change the size of the window is by right clicking in the task bar

- My two monitors have different DPI - so I need to use window scaling. This confuses IntelliJ - which made all the text super tiny for some reason. I have a DPI override for that in a weird Java config file.

- I want consistent copy / paste shortcuts. I can’t use ctrl+C in terminal because that’s SIGINT. So I have it set to meta+C. But I can’t bind meta+C in IntelliJ because of Java limitations. So my copy/paste shortcut is just different in different apps now.

- Smooth scrolling is still an inconsistent mess between different programs. Particularly Firefox.

I’ve also been running into problems where my second monitor won’t turn on after I resume the computer from sleep. But apparently that’s a bug that affects windows as well when using recent nvidia drivers, so that isn’t Linux’s fault.

I’m not saying it’s bad. It mostly works great! I love my workstation, and I’m enjoying distancing myself from Apple’s increasingly buggy software stack. But it’s far from perfect.

I’m happy enough to use Linux despite all its warts. But when my parents ask for a new computer, I recommend macOS or windows.

[chuckadams]

> - I want consistent copy / paste shortcuts.

I really miss Sun keyboards, with dedicated copy and paste keys.

The skinny Enter key, not so much... anyone else ever set SUNKEYBOARDHACK in zsh?

[wruza]

Anecdotally, it's come a long way since 5 years ago

I hear this trope for two decades now.

my Thinkpad

Are you even surprised that I'm not?

[chuckadams]

2025 is truly the Year Of The Linux Desktop.

[bigfatkitten]

> Also, Linux power management and lack of hibernation means its useless on laptops

I gotten better battery life under Linux than on Windows on every Thinkpad I've owned in the last 15 years or so.

That's not to say everything is smooth sailing. Audio is a battle I'll still be fighting on my deathbed in ~40 years.

[dijit]

Pulseaudio was not a blessing to Linux.

Overcomplicated and hard to configure, the only way it even got measurably usable is because of distro's putting in the sweat here.

However, pipewire is really great. Audio on Linux has been a lot better since pipewire became increasingly the default.