- Windows.
By not having to configure drivers and other compatibility problems which I have on Linux it definitely saved me 100 hours.
- Listary (windows)
Not sure if its 100 hours, but I love its search in any context of explorer. Default explorer search is terrible IMO. For example when you open file - you can use search there instead of navigating by hand.
> - Windows. By not having to configure drivers and other compatibility problems which I have on Linux it definitely saved me 100 hours.
OTOH building on windows takes literally multiple times the time it takes for building the same software on the same machine / SSD on linux. And that's something that I do every day, multiple times per day.
Have you tried WSL? I didn't like WSL 1, and early months of WSL2 were buggy af... but for the past 2 months, since I needed windows again, WSL2 with Docker Desktop support has been really nice.
The VS Code remote wsl and ssh support has also been invaluable.
Odd. Completely the opposite experience here. Windows requires searching and installation of drivers and configuration via GUI. Linux has drivers built in so just works. I haven't had to install a driver manually since ditching nvidia a year ago. And all my config lives in text files on Github.
I'm guessing you haven't tried Linux in 10 years or so, but even then I don't understand how Windows does any better on the drivers front.
I had been using Linux on desktop up until 2019~ for many years. I have never had hardware (desktop or laptop) which worked flawlessly with Linux. I even bought parts in my current machine to be compatible with Linux, but even then it did not run smoothly. Maybe I am just unlucky. However, with Winodws it does feel great to have everything run smoothly. Zero hiccups with bluetooth, games, hardware lightning or anything else. WSL2 and VMs cover the rest.
It certainly depends on the device. Several years ago I bought a Wii U Pro Controller before getting the actual console, so I'd planned to use it with my computer. On Windows I had to install the Toshiba bluetooth stack (on a non-Toshiba computer, fighting to remove what I'd had before from Windows Update), manually add the HID for my bluetooth dongle to the driver, then run in "Test Mode" for it to let it work. Test Mode watermarked the corner and also warned me it would only work for 30 days.
On GNU/Linux it really truly just worked out of the box.
This is an extreme example, but it's one I will never forget. I believe in the Windows world it's common to make controllers pretend to be Xbox 360 controllers because those are supported well, while the kernel known as Linux has support for more obscure things like Wii Remotes and such.
I miss Arch occasionally but I don’t like being responsible for the operation of my machine; I would rather delegate it to the operating system. ;)
The good thing about Ubuntu is that it’s the default “Linux” (distribution) so whatever you are looking for, there is likely an AskUbuntu question, a .deb package, a blogpost, or a mailing-list entry to help.
I don't know if I agree about software availability if you take AUR into account.
Also, it is dead simple to make your own PKGBUILD script for arch, but last time I tried looking into making a .deb my eyes rolled into the back of my head.
Well so do I (also mainly an Ubuntu user these days), but that can be orthogonal to time spent. I prefer it to Windows, which I used f/t for nearly a year after ditching macOS. I prefer the single file system (as opposed to the wsl/native Windows mishmash). I enjoy its speed (mostly filesystem related I think). I find the desktop (Gnome in my case) simpler yet more flexible at the same time (PaperWM ftw).
But there's no doubt I've spent at least 10x as much time on Ubuntu configuring and reading and fixing.
I have spent a considerable amount of time on Windows turning certain features off, removing some bloatware, and setting up my dev environment so Ubuntu doesn't feel any worse.
The only upside of Windows, and definitely a major one, is power management. On Ubuntu, my battery lasts around 2.5h with moderate use whereas on Windows, it's around 3-4 hours. Yes, I am already using powertop and TLP. =)
There are a few minor things I prefer about Windows here & there, but power management is the biggest single thing, agreed.
In truth I don't like any current OS - when you add up all the pros and cons, Linux has the best overall balance of attributes for my use. It's far from optimal though. I find the state of OSs in 2020 pretty sad.
A late addition because of something that came up today. I've had a laptop problem for a few days - screen blanking was failing. Immediately on blanking, the screen would reawaken, generally rearranging my open windows.
On Windows I would have vaguely but very briefly googled. I would either find a quick fix or not, and be on my way.
On Ubuntu I only bother searching online if I know what software's causing it, and it's open source. Otherwise I find the signal/noise ratio too high (and I rarely get useful answers on SO or other forums - I either get nothing or too many people helpfully but uselessly saying "try this!" "try that!"). More often I just dig into things myself.
So I trawled the syslog, couldn't initially find anything, narrowed down by triggering the issue deliberately while `journalctl -f`'ing, etc. I traced the problem to a recently installed Gnome extension that was crashing X on screen blanking. An uninstall failed so I had to find out where extensions are on the filesystem, remove it manually, restart mutter, etc.
The whole thing took about 25 mins.
The upside for Ubuntu here is that I could actually fix the issue. This is rarely a given with Windows (though for me it produces fewer such small issues). On Windows, if I can't fix something that's not critical within a few minutes, I end up just putting up with it. These accumulate over time and I find the OS increasingly irritating. Ubuntu's irritation level doesn't increase over time (though its plateau is way above zero). The downside for Ubuntu is that this really does involve more fiddling time (a known known because I keep logs). For me (a regular non-expert user) anyway.
I've used Ubuntu for development for the last 5 years, but due to the quarantine & hardware issues at home, I figured I'd give Windows a shot. With WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) available, it's gotten so good! I can run our dev stack with similar performance to Ubuntu inside the subsystem, while simultaneously enjoying the larger ecosystem of Windows.
The only major roadblock I encountered was with PHPStorm, as it doesn't have native access to files inside the Linux subsystem due to the different file system format. In the end I opted for running an X server on Windows (via MobaXTerm) and running PHPStorm inside the Linux subsystem.
I wouldn't mind going back to Ubuntu (and probably I'll do so when the quarantine ends), but it was a nice surprise to see how good Windows has become for dev work.
I'd say chocolatey has been really useful for me on windows.
And for the past 2 months or so, WSL2, Docker Desktop (WSL2 enabled) and VS Code's WSL extension have made using windows for development about as nice as it gets.... all the non-essential stuff works (rgb controls, etc), and I can still just use linux for development using my GUI editor.
Maybe it’s gotten better, but that same reason made me switch from windows to macos(with some Linux in between, which was not great indeed). That plus not having to reboot every time you sneeze.
Rebooting often was true for XP and earlier. I own 4 Windows 10 machines, 2 laptops and 2 desktops. I never rebooted the laptops. Desktops were rebooted when there was a power glitch because I don't own an UPS.
These day I read more stories about people switching from macOS to Windows than the other way around.
- Listary (windows) Not sure if its 100 hours, but I love its search in any context of explorer. Default explorer search is terrible IMO. For example when you open file - you can use search there instead of navigating by hand.