I have tried over and over for 30 years now and every time I discover something is missing, something I’m not willing to give up. Today it was Google Drive. There are multiple solutions for Linux to mount Google Drive as a folder in the local filtersystem, none of them offer decent performance compared to the windows client. Every time I try Linux something like this comes up.
The time it takes to open and list a directory using Nautilus in GNOME desktop. It can take 5-10 seconds with a directory of 5 files, a lot longer if there are 50 files in a directory.
And all the “solutions” I find on the web involve some kind of guesswork and tweaking settings left and right, hoping to somehow hit a magic combination that works.
The bigger problem is that most people just aren’t up for installing an OS themselves. I’ve certainly never had the chutzpah to replace Android, and I’m more tech savvy than most
100%. I think a lot about one of my friends when trying to think about that kind of user. Smart lady. Advanced degree. Has her life together. Would absolutely not want to try to install an OS. Wouldn’t even know how to start.
But I’m confident if I handed her a Linux laptop, she’d use it just the same as a Mac or Windows machine.
This is my issue. There are two specific pieces of software that only run on Windows. Even worse, there is one program that only runs on Mac. So in order to properly do my job, I need to maintain both a Windows laptop and a Mac. And ditching them is virtually impossible, because the Windows machine is used to control/configure a lot of gear, and the Mac program is an industry standard program that virtually every technician is expected to know.
I don’t think that’s actually very many people. Not for their personal computers. Most people don’t run much more than a web browser, if they don’t play games.
People tend to use the stuff they’re already used to. They could probably use Linux but if they buy a Laptop which has Windows preinstalled and they’re used to Windows it’s hard to get them to make the jump
i miss photoshop. not enough to boot into my windows partition, but it sure would be nifty if it would just work on linux. krita is decent but danggit, not the same
It’s nifty on Windows where I can run all kinds of other professional productivity programs. I went back to Windows because Linux can’t deliver and likes to break on updates. -Someone that loves CLI and didn’t mind that about it.
I agree. But I think more to the other side of it. I worry that a vast influx, who don’t care about privacy and computing freedom, would make for huge market pressure to lock down Linux. Same way we see Windows, IOS, Android locked.
Game co’s, big tech, and others will demand it, if the masses flee to Linux. Today, most Linux users go nah, we want freedom more than your AAA game. If that changes, we could lose the very culture that resists locked down corporate controlled computing.
Year of the Linux desktop anyone?
I have tried over and over for 30 years now and every time I discover something is missing, something I’m not willing to give up. Today it was Google Drive. There are multiple solutions for Linux to mount Google Drive as a folder in the local filtersystem, none of them offer decent performance compared to the windows client. Every time I try Linux something like this comes up.
could you elaborate on what you mean by “performance” of cloud storage? the speed of upload, download?
The time it takes to open and list a directory using Nautilus in GNOME desktop. It can take 5-10 seconds with a directory of 5 files, a lot longer if there are 50 files in a directory. And all the “solutions” I find on the web involve some kind of guesswork and tweaking settings left and right, hoping to somehow hit a magic combination that works.
Seems like the answer is never. The masses are too addicted to PC games to give it up.
Gaming hasn’t been an issue for years
It’s not the PC games keeping people so much. Proton solved a lot of that problem. It’s inertia.
Most people don’t care about things. They just don’t. Their brains just don’t have the juice.
The bigger problem is that most people just aren’t up for installing an OS themselves. I’ve certainly never had the chutzpah to replace Android, and I’m more tech savvy than most
100%. I think a lot about one of my friends when trying to think about that kind of user. Smart lady. Advanced degree. Has her life together. Would absolutely not want to try to install an OS. Wouldn’t even know how to start.
But I’m confident if I handed her a Linux laptop, she’d use it just the same as a Mac or Windows machine.
A lot is professional software. Many people have one or two pieces of software they use a lot which doesn’t run on Linux.
This is my issue. There are two specific pieces of software that only run on Windows. Even worse, there is one program that only runs on Mac. So in order to properly do my job, I need to maintain both a Windows laptop and a Mac. And ditching them is virtually impossible, because the Windows machine is used to control/configure a lot of gear, and the Mac program is an industry standard program that virtually every technician is expected to know.
I don’t think that’s actually very many people. Not for their personal computers. Most people don’t run much more than a web browser, if they don’t play games.
People tend to use the stuff they’re already used to. They could probably use Linux but if they buy a Laptop which has Windows preinstalled and they’re used to Windows it’s hard to get them to make the jump
Right. Inertia is the metaphor I used to express that idea.
i miss photoshop. not enough to boot into my windows partition, but it sure would be nifty if it would just work on linux. krita is decent but danggit, not the same
It’s nifty on Windows where I can run all kinds of other professional productivity programs. I went back to Windows because Linux can’t deliver and likes to break on updates. -Someone that loves CLI and didn’t mind that about it.
But if you were a professional photoshopper I’d imagine you wouldn’t work with Krita all day.
I agree. But I think more to the other side of it. I worry that a vast influx, who don’t care about privacy and computing freedom, would make for huge market pressure to lock down Linux. Same way we see Windows, IOS, Android locked.
Game co’s, big tech, and others will demand it, if the masses flee to Linux. Today, most Linux users go nah, we want freedom more than your AAA game. If that changes, we could lose the very culture that resists locked down corporate controlled computing.
Linux is PC…
Also you can play almost all games on linux
And in some cases they run better then on windows.
true, although the opposite is also sometimes true. Really it’s mostly the same experience on a much less bloated OS that’s highly configurable.
The same user posted a thread in this comm about the Linux equivalent, device-id, which is possibly more problematic.
https://lemmy.ml/post/49710604