This is false. Linux is better in every way, unless you are forced to use Windows at work or to use some Windows-software (whose developers thus make make the choice for you). But this also does not make Windows better.
Linux obeys the user, doesn't have malware in the repositories, fast and light even on older hardware and doesn't try extract as much money from you as possible.
IMHO it's the best OS as a games developer, Visual Studio just doesn't have anything remotely close. And all console toolchains are windows only. But genuinely as a C++ dev I much much much prefer it over MacOS or even Linux for work.
Of course this is a “I need the OS for work” situation. It reminds me a lot of 20 years ago when we’d say things like “I’d love a Mac but it’s not compatible with anything I do for work,” and that sentiment didn’t last.
I definitely wouldn’t predict that Linux is taking over the world or anything but it wasn’t that long ago that playing AAA games on Linux on day one of release was ludicrous. Now the most popular PC handheld runs Linux, a PC console launched that runs Linux.
Now we have hardware like the MacBook Neo that threatens Windows even more. Sure, the XPS 13 came out and is arguably a compelling alternative. But I think the mindshare damage has been done on that one.
The idea that Windows might disappear entirely is not that far-fetched, especially when you look at Microsoft’s financial results.
If I was a PC OEM like Dell I would probably band together with other OEMs like Lenovo to make my own Linux distribution and support Windows offboarding even further as a hedge to my business.
Yeah for sure. And I wouldn't be surprised if at least Sony and Nintendo released their toolchains for Linux for the next generation.
IMHO the big difference is in enterprise Vs personal Windows, enterprise Windows can genuinely be a very lean, fast experience that is great for work. But my personal PC running windows is very firmly in the "I wonder what the latest update will break" teritorry.
Have you tried Rider? I've been using that for C++ Unreal development and absolutely love it. It does help that IntelliJ was my daily driver for Java dev for a while.
Yes, for general writing/reading/navigating code it's fine. But (imho) when you really need to get down into debugging some engine level crash, I'll take VS over Rider every time. Might be personal preference.
Excellent hardware and software support (especially for Snapdragon/ARM64 CPUs and Microsoft Office) and best in class multitasking/window management are the top 2 reasons for me. Like someone else said, it's the worst OS, except for all the others :)
Buy preinstalled Linux, and you will not have to care about the hardware support. Worked for me. LibreOffice is better than MS Office for 90% of users.
I don't like the standard practices for installing software in Linux though. Most Mac or Windows users will go to the publisher's website and download. In Linux, it's often recommended to install via a package manager, possibly not even from an official repo, and especially not in Arch. More ways for the supply chain to get compromised, and it has.
So nobody is installing "monitor drivers" for Linux, but they're probably frantically installing packages trying to fix some random issue.
The reason people don't get malware on Linux is because they install software through the package manager, via trusted and reviewed repos. And drivers are all built-in to the operating system, not third party (with some exceptions, like nvidia).
On most Linux setups you aren't just downloading random junk from the internet and running it. Also the operating system won't install things automatically for you generally either. Even system updates are optional if you don't want them, and you won't be nagged for it.
Basically it comes down to a difference in culture.
I agree that culture makes a difference, but the largest aspect of it is that the average Linux user is fairly technically proficient and would be fairly unlikely to install malware even on Windows.
As for software installation, that is true for software packaged by your distro (for Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora and others, that only includes open-source software by default), and similarly, a lot of Windows software is now available from MS Store. But even on Linux, you'll need to download software manually (e.g., Chrome is not available in default Ubuntu repos, same for Discord, Slack, Teams, VS Code, Dropbox, Spotify and other common software). Even worse, less known dev tools are quite often installed with `curl ... | sh` or equivalent, which is a strictly worse alternative to installers on Windows from a security perspective.
Then, there's the question of phishing, infected torrents, fake movie pirating sites,... Currently, most malware from these sources will target Windows (various .mp4.exe files, Excel macros,...). If Windows users migrated to Linux, malware would adapt and start targeting Linux.
Desktop Linux is currently protected by being a low value target – it has low market share, and most of its users are power users, which makes them harder to trick. The opposite is true for server and embedded Linux, and it's a frequent malware target as a result.
Linux doesn't install malware, because it is free software, which guarantees the four user freedoms. Whenever someone adds malware, anybody else can remove it for everyone or create an equally useful fork without it. Try this with Windows.
In other words, Stallman was right, and proprietary software developers have too much power over users. And they inevitably, sooner or later, leverage this power for (more) profit, even if you paid for the product.
Did I say otherwise? Any proprietary software for Linux suffers or will suffer from the same problem. But not Linux itself or any free software running on it.
> Linux is great if you win the hardware support lottery.
This is fairly easy to do by just not buying the absolute latest hardware. Installing something like Fedora in a 8-12 month old laptop I just can't recall last time I had issues.
I've had plenty of issues on ~2y old hardware too. Does your laptop sleep properly, do the fans scale properly, do wireless chips like Bluetooth and wifi work right, does audio (incl over BT) work, and does it switch between graphics cards if applicable?
Yeah that's kinda true, but Linux is worse about it. And Hackintosh is the ultimate in not sleeping. Users of both will still often claim their machine works perfectly, and when you ask about sleep, shrug and say sleep isn't needed.