Surprising to myself, I have been a Linux user for over 12 years…
Through the many years I have bounced between and tried Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Parrot OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro. I have tried Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, KDE, Mate, Deepin. And more. I have 3 computers, all using a Linux distro right now.
I love the idea of Linux - free, free as in freedom, free of telemetry. And well, I thought I would never entertain the idea of switching, here I am today, strongly considering Mac OS.
Lately, I have become extremely frustrated and tired of dealing with little bugs, crashes, versions, and dependencies. Not to mention notable UI issues. It is starting to hamper my productivity when working.
Right now I am using Ubuntu and I cannot drag and drop into VS Code from Nautilus, I can’t drag and drop from the default archive manager, I am experiencing screen tearing issues, one piece of software I use crashes often but not Debian and vice versa, I have to manually reset screen brightness when it dims after timeout, etc. I have experienced issues of similar nature across all distros I have used and I am becoming burnt out.
I think part of the issue is that there is a huge variety of Linux distros, different combinations of kernels, desktop environments, window managers, package managers, file managers, network managers, etc… Not to mention devices. There is too many variables, and too many projects to maintain.
Sorry for the rant, I have seen many similar posts, but I have been using Linux for over 12 years, powering through, ignoring and working around these issues and I am pretty fed up.
While I am conflicted, I am thinking Mac OS looks like a good middle ground.
Any suggestions? What has been the most stable distro and compatible for you?
Been trying out Linux mint recently and I haven’t had any significant issues with it yet. I do miss some of the the tiling options that I get with windows though. I’ve been gaming with the steam deck, though I keep around a windows 11 desktop with WSL2 for windows only workflows and some games.
Whenever there’s an issue I just RDP into the other machine for what I need, haven’t had anything game breaking for me yet
I second Mint with XFCE. I have been using it for a decade and since I’m family tech support guy I installed it on all the PCs I have to support including some used for watching TV and YouTube high end Thinkpads, cheap Laptops used for school. It stays out of my way and just works. Of course there are issues here and there, but it was most solid distro for me. The ease of upgrade is stunning, dealing with Ubuntu servers an upgrade is almost always a new install and data migration, with Mint upgrading feels easy and fun.