Is Using Linux Really Productive? - A Reply
It’s a question I’ve heard over and over through the years, and I’ve recently run into it yet again. “Is using Linux really productive?”
If you’d like to read the thread of the original article, you can find it here, but I want to give you my opinion on my own page.
I am now using Ubuntu for around 9 months, before that I was a windows user.
There are certainly many things in Ubuntu I love like custom themes, terminal, native docker support, and search bar without irritating web results (referring to the Windows search bar, getting web results when you just need to open a local app).
But the time I have to invest sometimes to get simple things working is just crazy. My Bluetooth doesn’t work from time to time. Sometimes even audio doesn’t work, keys like play/pause never work with Rhythmbox and suspend was working in ubuntu 19.10 version but it is again behaving weirdly in 20.04 (and never worked for me on 18.04). Many more similar problems.
Now the above problems are pretty common and after spending some hours(sometimes many hrs) things start to work. So why I am writing this post, because from last week Intellij Idea is freezing again and again because of some bug and I can’t live without Intellij Idea.
Even though I can’t think about moving away from ubuntu. I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic, dev community?
These kinds of questions annoy me, frankly. I understand it comes from a place of frustration for the original poster, but really?
I’ve been using Linux for more that two decades now, and I’ve used Ubuntu for as long as there’s been Ubuntu to use. I can state without equivocation that using Linux is productive. For me.
I’m guessing it’s a thing about the “PC” market that since they all run Windows, everybody thinks one PC is just like another. That’s just not the case. Microsoft has dominated the desktop computer market since the 80s. Software makers know that if they want to succeed in that market, they have to work with Windows.
The same is not true of Linux.
Some companies put a lot of work into making sure their product works with Linux. Others don’t.
Just because you have a PC that’s running fine with Windows on it doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect if you install a completely different OS on it.
I’d love to live in a world where you didn’t have to think about your hardware and everything would just work with Linux, but I don’t. I live in a world where a lot of people have put in a lot of effort to make sure that most things work most of the time in Linux.
If you’re going to install Linux, do some research before hand and make sure your hardware is compatible. Don’t get mad at Linux when your Packard Bell Pentium from 1997 runs a little weird.
My main computer is an eight year old Lenovo X1 Carbon. It’s obviously not new, but it runs perfectly. I don’t have application crashes. I don’t have OS crashes. All the hardware works.
Am I productive with this system?
I’d like to think so, absolutely. I can work more quickly and efficiently on my eight year old Lenovo than the junker I was issued at work with Windows 10.
Day 62 of the #100DaysToOffload Series:
Looking for comments? There are no comments. It's not that I don't care what you think, it's just that I don't want to manage a comments section.
If you want to comment, there's a really good chance I at least mentioned this post on Fosstodon, and you can reply to me there. If you don't have a Mastodon account, I'd suggest giving it a try.
If you don't want to join Mastodon, and you still want to comment, feel free to use my contact information.
Also, don't feel obligated, but if you feel like buying me a ☕ cup of coffee ☕ I won't say no.