If you told me a month ago I would be making this post I would have laughed at you. Linux was driving me mad. I was desperate to leave Windows behind due to not agreeing with the direction it is going in - in your face adverts, telemetry, AI, etc and when windows updates were reenabling these features after I had turned them off that was the final straw. However, my introduction to Linux has been anything but easy. I came very close to giving up and going back on many occassions. I tried almost every main disto out there.
It is Fedora and more specifically this community that has now lead to me removing the dual boot of Windows from my desktop PC so I can use that space as extra storage and also switched my laptop from Windows to Fedora. Yes, as of today, I’ve gone “all in” and I wouldn’t have expected that even a few weeks ago.
Thanks for all your help. It is genuinely appreciated. Sorry if I’ve come across as getting really frustated at times but, well, to be frank I was. But I got there with all your help. There’s still a few minor issues but nothing I’m not prepared to live with.
Thanks again. Hopefully before long I’ll have enough knowledge to be the one helping others out here when they need it.
Well in keeping with my Linux experience, I am already regretting this post and deleting Windows off my PC. I’m already hitting new issues that just work in Windows. It’s ridicuous. I don’t get how any OS (open source or otherwise) can be accepted to release in this mess. It is just Linux in general. Nothing “just works”.
Honestly, I think I have to be done with this. Just when you think you have all the serious issues resolved something else comes along to waste even more of your time.
Genuinely, it is no exaggeration that I have spent more time dealing with issues on this PC since installing Fedora than I have spent using this PC for what I should be using it for. It is completely ridiculous. Linux, not just Fedora, is just not fit for purpose as a desktop operating system.
I was a posh kid and my first computer had MS-DOS 6.22 with color TUI apps - not black-and-white MS-DOS 3.30 like everyone was using at the time… But still had enough time to “enjoy” most windows versions starting 3.0 and up. Initially they were horrible, unstable and much worse than linux that you are running today. Users were facing Blue screens of death on their own, without internet, with few people to ask for an advice. CONNECT 1200/NONE, anyone? Only starting Windows NT 4.0/XP people got some fresh air to breath… So you can imagine I have quite some windows background here. As you probably agree, with Windows 8 started the decline and people began to flee…
Well, it took me 2 good years to get accustomed to Linux and the way it works, and it was thanks to errors and issues and play and trial-and-error. But i experimented a lot and accepted it’s not perfect.
Do you want to be a basic user that clicks and runs a few programs, nothing more, or rather would be a power user enjoying all the things like command pipelines, grep, etc?
if so, these issues just serve as your personal training ground. You have to dig, learn, experiment, communicate with the community and share them back later in future as you mature. Linux and Windows are conceptually so different that you have to take your time to learn and adapt.
Of course it takes quite some energy and time, but it is worth it. You will quickly get the skill to solve (or find the recipe for) most issues quickly, they only seem unbearable in the very beginning. And with modern AI it’s easier than ever.
perhaps one unfortunate thing to start this path is with Fedora 43, according to forums it is a much more problematic release, but eventually these things will get fixed.
so I’d like to encourage you not to give up and take your time!
Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde post. Look, I will agree that this latest version of Fedora has been more problematic than anything I have previously experienced. But for the most part I just have to do the research by using Google or asking here. Sometimes that also involves reading things. It is a learning experience. If you have a certain issue that you want addressed then post it up here and we will see if we can help. You are not the only frustrated person at this point in time. Up to you what your next step is but I never liked Windows at all.
I would disagree that Linux is not fit to be used for a desktop environment. I have been using it for years now and have zero desire to go back to the virus known as Windows.
I have no interest in taking up my energy and time fixing issues with Linux. I want to install an operating system and it just silently lets me get on with what I need the PC for. At my age, I have no time to waste on such things.
Agreed. Simply because, in my experience, using Linux is such a ridiculous rollercoaster. Just when I thought that rollercoaster was slowing down and coming to the end of the ride with all the issues smoothed out, along come a bunch more issues to add to the frustation. Now I realise it’s a rollercoaster that never ends. You can choose to stay on the ride with the ups, downs and corkscrews or you can start to feel sick of it and jump off. Now I realise it is a neverending rollercoaster, I’m jumping. Well actually I’ve already jumped and put Windows back on this PC. Immediately, it’s like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Everything I want to do just works. My monitor now behaves as expected with no silly issues. My bluetooth headsets now just work as expected with no silly issues. My games just work without messing around with different Proton version and trying to resoilve silly issues like weird screen flickering in Cyberpunk 2077 (just one of many examples). My keyboard just works all the time without randomly stopping for no reason. My main menu just works without suddenly refusing to open. I could go on and on but you get the idea.
My PC just works again. Already I wish I had jumped off earlier. Microsoft can have my data. As much as they want. If I can thank Linux for one thing, it is helping me to stop caring about what data Microsoft are collecting off me. For me, the alternative is worse.
Anyway, that’s me out. I’ll leave you all to it. I’ve jumped off the rollercoaster.
Then perhaps you have chosen the wrong distro.
Fedora is bleeding edge, the avant-garde technology wise.
take a good look at Pop Os, due to be released shortly.
or Linux mint, if you don’t mind its simplicity.
but i have to mention that it’s not just about time or energy;
each additional issue you solve keeps Alzheimer away.
I must say that starting out with Linux by installing Fedora 43 may be a bit of a crazy thing to do right now. I don’t think I am alone in saying that I have never had so many issues before. Most of mine were solved fairly easily although I am glad that my son figured out the volumecion issue. I would have never gotten that one. I still have one minor issue with bwrap but that is not affecting functionality at the moment.
Also maybe the MATE spin is easier than what is going on with Gnome.
But either way, It is good to gain knowledge and keep the brain working. I don’t miss Windows one bit. Fedora does everything that I need to do. And it has been that way for years now.
I guess the “power user” does not enjoy those things because most of the times when you use those something has gone bad. The “power user” who gets old enjoys the hands free system. For example I moved to Fedora from Debian because it auto-installed my cheap USB printer. Maybe I am not “powerful” enough but for sure I am old and lazy.
Speaking of “linux” being demanding and annoying, the point is there isn’t any “linux”, there are many different collections of software each coming from a different direction. Those collections of mixed software try to run on top of any possible combination of hardware ever build since the eighties, from a watch to a rocket ship. There are countless things that can go wrong when you put it all together and honestly it is quite impressive that the circus mostly works.
The advantage is not easy to use, it is you can do almost anything instead of the things Microsoft or Apple or any big firm decides for you. And freedom is not free.
Not necessarily. For example, I enjoy automation and the terminal and numerous commands doing things etc is very enjoyable. Learned that there are many easier and more efficient ways to do things in Linux than we used to do in Windows (looking for a GUI app for everything and then depending on developers’ design). Such a pity I found out that curl exists and what it can do only in 2023!
It’s definitely a great time to use and learn linux, especially on modern laptops and great screens, decent stability… overall it’s a pleasure, just don’t rush too much.