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I switched two of my PCs over to Linux Mint last week. The automatic driver support is shockingly good compared to when I last installed Linux on a PC (almost 2

I switched two of my PCs over to Linux Mint last week. The automatic driver support is shockingly good compared to when I last installed Linux on a PC (almost 20 years ago). It even found a driver for the random no-name USB wireless receiver I bought on Amazon, whereas I had to install that driver manually on Windows. Part of my motivation was that one of the machines was still on Windows 7, but more than anything it was the incessant push to associate my OS account with an online Microsoft account, and the cramming of Copilot into everything, that have left a bad taste in my mouth.

davsti4 19d ago
I switched my primary PC over in 1999, my secondary over in 2001, and haven't looked back since. You're in a better place today than back then as finding software solutions to common problems is much easier now. For other OS needs, just virtualize. I started off using VMware Workstation, after a decade (or so) transitioned to Virtualbox, and now today, virt-manager (qemu, kvm through libvirt).
- SV_BubbleTime 19d ago
  It was so brutal in 2006 that it took me nearly 20 years to shrug it off and try again. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth.
  - tough 19d ago
    Its been only 20 years since 2006 maybe you meant 19?
    - SV_BubbleTime 19d ago
      Typo… but it felt like nearly 29. I remember trying again with Ibex and nearly rage quitting X11 config. Glad all that BS has been worked out.
      - davsti4 16d ago
        That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use it today, albeit with KDE since Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing.
scrollop 19d ago
Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant. Even used it to make a task bar applet adjacent to Media Controls, where I can rate the current plexamp song without having to open plexamp. A big plus of linux is the easy ability to use workspaces and switch between them with a hover over the workspace taskbar applet and the mousewheel (and other options).
- cdmckay 19d ago
  Yeah this is an actually good use of AI in an OS.
- 93po 19d ago
  A recent ubuntu update made my boot fail - the splash screen for disk decryption has a known bug in the latest update for my exact video card. Being able to get into terminal-only recovery mode and launch Codex CLI and ask it to diagnose the problem was incredibly nice. I don't think I'll ever deviate from Linux again since most of my issues with it were random bugs like this, but they're now easily solvable.
  - onemoresoop 19d ago
    I agree, using LLMs makes all the linux issues very easy to troubleshoot. However, Im not sure it’s ready for the masses just yet.
- openfront 19d ago
  I run claude code with 'dangerously skip permissions' flag enabled, and just tell it what I want. I hardly even interact with the OS anymore. I literally just tell it "install X, fix problem Y".
  - bauruine 19d ago
    Someone should develop, or vibecode I guess, a Linux tool that does exactly this. A support agent so I can just install it for my mom and she can vaguely write her issues and needs and the agent does it.
qmr 19d ago
It was good back then as long as your hardware wasn't too new.
MoonWalk 19d ago
"more than anything it was the incessant push to associate my OS account with an online Microsoft account" Absolutely. Obnoxious and unacceptable. Then there's the fact that Windows has regressed into a clinic on UI incompetence and defective design. I put Mint on my 2014 27" Intel iMac and it's slick.
shevy-java 19d ago
Good that you decided to do the move. Often any existing problem on Linux has already been solved by someone; it may just take a while when you find a solution. In that case I also recommend to make local notes. I do so since +20 years. Some of those local notes helped me many years later.
deleted 19d ago
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davsti4 19d ago

I switched my primary PC over in 1999, my secondary over in 2001, and haven't looked back since. You're in a better place today than back then as finding software solutions to common problems is much easier now. For other OS needs, just virtualize. I started off using VMware Workstation, after a decade (or so) transitioned to Virtualbox, and now today, virt-manager (qemu, kvm through libvirt).

SV_BubbleTime 19d ago
It was so brutal in 2006 that it took me nearly 20 years to shrug it off and try again. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth.
- tough 19d ago
  Its been only 20 years since 2006 maybe you meant 19?
  - SV_BubbleTime 19d ago
    Typo… but it felt like nearly 29. I remember trying again with Ibex and nearly rage quitting X11 config. Glad all that BS has been worked out.
    - davsti4 16d ago
      That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use it today, albeit with KDE since Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing.

scrollop 19d ago

Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant. Even used it to make a task bar applet adjacent to Media Controls, where I can rate the current plexamp song without having to open plexamp. A big plus of linux is the easy ability to use workspaces and switch between them with a hover over the workspace taskbar applet and the mousewheel (and other options).

cdmckay 19d ago
Yeah this is an actually good use of AI in an OS.
93po 19d ago
A recent ubuntu update made my boot fail - the splash screen for disk decryption has a known bug in the latest update for my exact video card. Being able to get into terminal-only recovery mode and launch Codex CLI and ask it to diagnose the problem was incredibly nice. I don't think I'll ever deviate from Linux again since most of my issues with it were random bugs like this, but they're now easily solvable.
- onemoresoop 19d ago
  I agree, using LLMs makes all the linux issues very easy to troubleshoot. However, Im not sure it’s ready for the masses just yet.
openfront 19d ago
I run claude code with 'dangerously skip permissions' flag enabled, and just tell it what I want. I hardly even interact with the OS anymore. I literally just tell it "install X, fix problem Y".
- bauruine 19d ago
  Someone should develop, or vibecode I guess, a Linux tool that does exactly this. A support agent so I can just install it for my mom and she can vaguely write her issues and needs and the agent does it.

qmr 19d ago

It was good back then as long as your hardware wasn't too new.

MoonWalk 19d ago

"more than anything it was the incessant push to associate my OS account with an online Microsoft account" Absolutely. Obnoxious and unacceptable. Then there's the fact that Windows has regressed into a clinic on UI incompetence and defective design. I put Mint on my 2014 27" Intel iMac and it's slick.

shevy-java 19d ago

Good that you decided to do the move. Often any existing problem on Linux has already been solved by someone; it may just take a while when you find a solution. In that case I also recommend to make local notes. I do so since +20 years. Some of those local notes helped me many years later.

deleted 19d ago

[deleted]