I think that is a very reasonable take on that topic. I like my Linux desktop because it doesn't try to sell my data all the time and doesn't force stuff on me. I feel that I'm in control of my desktop not the other way around. I also really love the package system which makes it really easy to keep the OS and all programs up to date. And then there are all those great and free programs. Some are very well integrated into the KDE desktop too, which I really enjoy. But as you said, not everything is perfect with Linux. In my experience Linux desktops are just buggy. I have never installed a Linux desktop without having to fix some bugs within the first 24 hours. Sometimes even the installer crashed, which is just pathetic. If you want to use Linux distros as a desktop, you need to learn how to fix stuff, because you will eventually run into problems. Besides the huge variety of distributions the bugs are the main reason why I wouldn't recommend Linux distros to users who don't have time to learn Linux.

Although I'd never have called myself a Windows power user, I did switch to linux a few years ago & I think it'd be fair to say that there was an initial dip in productivity. It's a matter of taking one step back to take two steps forward.

"It reignited my love for technology". Couldn't agree more! I switched to Linux two and a half years ago and your videos helped me to understand the basis of using Linux. I was a windows power user, tweaked this, modded that but in the mid -10s I was technology tired. I just needed my browser and I thought that we were living through the smartphone age. The desktop is dead. But then came Linux and I dual booted Ubuntu. And from that time on (and discovering problems with secure boot on my first try) it was quite the ride. Linux keeps on giving and I keep on learning. Now I'm home lab-ing setting up my own proxmox servers, switched to VIM three weeks ago and configured my first WM (qtile) one week ago. The rabbit hole is deep and that's great.

I’ve been trying Linux on and off for years. What held me back was the gaming aspect. I spent way more time installing and tweaking things than actually using them. It became frustrating when I tried to play a game with friends and I found a bug instead of the game starting. Started again 3 months ago and the advances in Proton + steam deck release have been a huge game changer. I haven’t come across a game I needed to boot into windows for yet and they aren’t breaking every single update since proton is getting first-class support now. Popular games are even starting to implement proton support for Anti-Cheat software. It’s an exciting time. I’m actually using the machine more than I am tweaking it now and I’m loving it.

Keeping things in the home folder is an advice I will take to heart. I've been daily driving Linux for a good couple of years now and I've broken more installations than I care to count (it's how I learn, don't judge!)... 😂

I switched to linux mint about 2yrs ago and I haven't looked back hey. I wasn't a "windows power user" but I was able to fix most of my own problems, and you're right that any windows experience doesn't really matter, but I've still found mint and recently Pop OS easier to learn than windows or IOS. To me, as someone who is definitely no expert, it feels like linux has the ability to do exactly what I want if I put the effort in to work out how to do it, and everything is structured in a very logical way. Windows feels like they did that 30yrs ago and have been slapping bandaids and dodgy fixes on to it ever since, so when you want to do something you have to pick through such and extreme amount of rubbish it just becomes a waste of time. And the security dramas within Windows and Android, combined with the fact that a piece of 4x2 can run Linux, it was kind've a no brainer

Chris I have been using Linux as my primary operating system now for about 8 months. Your KZfaq videos have helped me immensely, once I came to point where I quit comparing it to Windows and started to educate myself on Linux and all it had offer I was sold I don't see me chasing Windows anymore. However, like you I had a lot invested in Windows software some that I like so over in the corner is a dedicated Windows computer that I use but lately mostly for games. I have been somewhat successful in bringing some over to Linux but I have discovered there Linux systems offer up a lot of gaming options too.

Yes!!!! Love your explanation and can relate 100%! It's so sad for me when you meet a Win,Mac,Linux fanboy that can not relate for the pros n cons. So thank you for putting My feelings into Words like this. Cheers //Crazy

This is what I love about this channel: it is not about being a fanboi of Linux, Windows or Mac. It is about learning all tools (including OSes) then choosing the ones that are right for you.

Switched to Lunix about the same time, 3-years ago. Absolute blast learning Linux, driving all three main flavors, Arch, Deb & Fedora. Still driving all three today and not looking back. Still have a Windows stream box for hardware, e.g., scanners/software that won't run without Windows. Working for a corporation, can't sever Windows completely. Good vid Chris.

That part of you that would use something like final cut while being a big time linux user is what really made you look apart from other linux enthusiasts and what I really admire about u. Keep going like that Chris. Good luck

I'm very glad for your success, well deserved. I was here 3 years ago when you started this journey, and from day 1 your videos were amazing. Keep up the good work!

Hey Chris! I agree with your points on this video, it's very similar to my experience, you put it to words very accurately. At the same time, I think you should consider making more content about optimizing and simplifying gaming on Linux, it's getting a lot of interest now due to "windows 11" combined with steam deck success, so there's definitely more people that are considering Linux over Windows, hopefully more so as things progress further. It would be a good bet to reach more people. Take care and keep it up.

Thanks for video! I've been going back and forth with the idea of trying Linux as a daily driver. I have a dual boot Fedora and Windows, I'm taking classes for web development. After watching some of Linus Tech Tips Linux challenge been wanting to try it myself. I enjoy using Fedora I moved over there from Manjaro after a few issues I've had with bugs.

I have always loved your approach because it's just so practical. I look toward to the next 3 years

WOW! has it been 3 years already? I've been following since your Linux challenges. I enjoy your content through the years. Please keep it coming. Thanks!

I think your take on this subject is pretty spot on. I had played with linux in the late 90's and early 2k and did all the big distro hopping. I ran business for a time and that was one of those proprietary software moments where my only choice would have been to design my own linux software. Fast forward and I am on a solid Debian platform and couldn't be happier. Thanks for the well reasoned update, I agree with your views on the matter 👍🏼

honestly, windows is getting worse and worse. i think your decision was and still is a good one as windows becomes a bloated, horrible, privacy-less mess. i'll be doing the same soon.

I got into Linux 3 years ago. I found I had a lot of time spent online due to the pandemic, so spending even more time to learn more and more about Linux seemed a natural enough thing to do (although it was far more time than I had planned or hoped). It was only last month that I completely jettisoned Windows and its apps. A lot of my reluctance was just finding and installing comparable apps on Linux. It often seemed like the app existed, but finding a version that actually works on my installed distros turned out to be rather difficult sometimes.

Many years back I was working for a company that produced magazines, and the some of the articles were submitted by stringers. The system they used was a Unix system. The fun part was it was considered secondary, and when they switched to a new system for the rest of the company they left the Unix system in tack sitting in a corner for the stringers, but the fired all the operators who worked on the old system, including the one Unix operator. Now they had a problem. There was no one who wanted to work on the Unix system. I was trying to break into the computer field so I told them I would be willing to take it over. So they sent me to school and ever since than I had a love for Unix and linux. I was a straight electronics technician and this was before the days of even 8 bit computer that ran on CP/M and HDOS. Anyway what I learned at one job, I went on to work a Comuncations Technican, and a lot of the conputers that drove the Muxes and other equipment was using Unix and Linux type systems to hold the software to run them. So Linux an Unix kind of gave me a career, plus the U.S. Army helping get practical experience, letting me work on Crypto equipment.

Love your videos. Watching your channel made me switch to Linux 2 years ago

One of the reasons why I love your channel so much is because you promote a very pragmatic, "use the right tool for the job" philosophy instead of a more ideological philosophy that tends to be relatively common with Linux youtubers. It's really fun to see you make the best use of whatever tech you have, whether it be windows, macos, linux or even chromeos!

Outstanding video. You're candor is unprecedented in this space. I'm agnostic in terms of using tools and programs. I simply want to use something that works well, and is generally intuitive for its intended purpose. Thank you for mentioning your experience with editing and use of GIMP versus Photoshop. Far too many people are fanboys about this stuff. I need a stable coding machine and ran into problems when I had to run my PHP code in a GUI server [XAMPP and MAMP] but I had all my Node JS stuff installed in my WSL2 Ubuntu setup. The two layers couldn't interact with each other. When I tried to install all the Node stuff natively in Windows, one of the installs got hung up and crashed my machine. I'm going with Linux as my programming environment because all the dependencies I need practically ship with the base install.

I really like the way you expres your self, and is very important to me. I was a hardware technician for windows based computers before Pentium1 existed at that time in Brazil I had no idea at allcabout software. Than I left the computer industry because of family situation and end up in US, now (54yo) after 5 years without and personal computer, just using android cell for all digital needs, I am checking the possibility to learn programming, starting very low on C+ language throughout KZfaq videos, a friend of mine give 3 his old and very low memory note book, I am planning to reinstall an windows 10 for free than add linux ubuntu to start learning C+. I Kinda seen my self in the future dancing between computers win/mac/lin to get my things done. You help a lot with this channel. God bless you 🙌🙏🙌

I'm with you for using the right tool for the job. My Linux journey started about 30 years ago, running SLS (Softlanding Linux System), and quickly moved to Slackware, with a big stack of 3.5" floppy disks and half of the computer lab downloading disk images. (A great time to be in college.) (Anyone else remember working on setting up their monitor timings to get X working? Today's VESA standards are wonderful.) Then, Debian became the new hot thing, and I switched, and stayed there a LONG time. I got my feet wet in the Arch ecosystem about 5 years ago with Antergos. I ran that a couple of months, had a few issues, and switched back to Debian. Then I discovered Manjaro. I had the time to spend getting "under the hood" and learning how Arch works. While my daily driver is straight up Arch, all of my Raspberry Pi systems are running Manjaro, and I recommend Manjaro for those looking to try Linux. The AUR (Arch User Repository) and Arch Wiki are 100% applicable, and are fantastic. I still have a dedicated Windows computer (my gaming laptop), and a Windows VM on my Unraid server for those utilities that are only available on Windows. I'm considering importing my rarely used Mac Mini drive into a VM on my main machine; I may do a bit more with MacOS that way.

I have been using Linux on my computers since 2004. I used Windows occationally, maybe once two months, with other computers installed, and most of the time at work. I learnt a lot daily and it gave me an understanding and confidence in technology as a whole.

As a longtime Linux user, ithink you’re a great teacher. I’ve learned a lot about how to make user more effective and even more interesting for me. Thanks. This is one of the better OS discussions- - with no breathless fan content! Next time, I would list more specifics of the enjoyable, productive aspects of Linux.. I love your work and how much YOU seem to enjoy it.

Very useful tips. I started with Gnome, but I feel you learn as you go. The main things I have seen is malware controls something in your system so if you notice a lot you will find it and get rid of. I would love for some antivirus companies to work with the programmers in finding a way to scan these files before they are installed. KDE Neon does a great job in skipping packages that have missing headers or not recognized functions. I also recommend you stick to OS only updates. Partners aren't necessarily friends, it takes commitment and show of integrity to trust.

I have learned so much from Chris that I turned Linux into my "daily driver" - I still have to go back to windows for a few things, but for the most part I don't need to. No, Linux isn't just like running windows...and yea, I wanted Chris to show me how it could be. I understand now though and will keep watching his journey... and, well, Linux is more of a daily driver for me than I would have had without Chris. My parents (in their late 60's) both use Linux now on their main machines, and my dad begrudgingly uses windows on his laptop for a game he loves that simply doesn't work on Linux. This journey has been great - thanks Chris!

Hi Chris, Thnx for your videos. These are very valid & valuable comments. I am a windows-user [I started with DOS3.0 actually way back when...] when it comes to the most commonly used applications. Simply because the applications work well, I know what to expect and I can get the job done quickly. Uneventful is a good thing. Recently I started to use Linux; Not so much for day-to-day-stuff, but as a basis for services / servers that 'run in the background. Home Automation, Printserver, Filesharing, Mediaserver, Back-up-server; Stuff like that. I am learning new things in Linux. I find it difficult, confusing and a completely different perspective on computing. 'YT is my friend' means I get most things up and running fairly quickly. I find tweaking and fine tuning difficult because my basic knowledge is insufficient to do troubleshooting all that well yet. These servers / services are as stable as a rock, once I got them going. I still have lots and lots to learn, but as long as there are results at the end, I'm willing to put in the effort.

I got my Mom (at 74 years old) to use Linux Mint on her computer three years ago. She has not a problem! She just uses Firefox, games and FreeOffice mostly. The thing she missed (the best thing Microsoft ever made) was the Bing picture of the day, which I found a Linux program to do.... That's story worthy too!

extremely well put, over the years I have raved on about it so much to friends that a fair few eventually want to try it, but it rarely goes well, mainly just a torrent of questions which google would help far better with than i can, and constant attempts at trying to download and install apps using google rather than the package manager after multiple explanations of how it all works, so when the android and eventual chromebook revolution happened it has helped a lot in converting muggles, my 85 year old granddad just got the out of updates eol warning from his first cbook, it's been by his side for 8 years and he instantly stopped switching his windows desktop on after buying it. the love of technology thing i think plays the biggest part in whether or not gnu is for you, and if you are frightened of breaking things or have any urge to give up on things then stick to windows and just triple your ram lol

Well said and well done. Such a good overview. Thank you.

I couldn't agree more! Really enjoyed! Thanks Chirs, You're amazing!!! 🙂🙂✌✌🥰🥰

Hi Chris, I did give a Thumbs Up and your channel is one of my few favourites. I was and am still also a Windows power user. The only problem is which I find confusing is an irony. I personally use OpenSUSE with KDE. The problem is a lot of Windows users absolutely fell out with Microsoft about the Metro design with Windows 8 or 8.1. Things got better in Windows 10 when the start menu came back. This is exactly why I won't use Gnome. In Gnome you have to search or use scrolling horizontally and then vertically depending on where their desired app is. I don't understand why users complained about the change in Windows 8 or 8.1 and was fine when things got to their usual GUI going forward to Windows 10, yet love GNOME which is also similar, kind of like Metro. I wont use Debian or Fedora for that reason. OpenSUSE with KDE has always been my stable distro for approximately 26 years now. The other desktop would be Cinnamon. But people complaining of the Metro design about Windows 8 or 8.1 would get something similar using Gnome. That doesn't make sense. Please don't get me wrong. I am NOT backing Windows 8 or 8.1, absolutely not, because I hated it. It served its purpose for Windows Surface tablets and Windows mobile phones, nothing else in my honest opinion. I am just pointing out something that lots of people got pissed off because of the difference in the GUI layout in Windows and it seems hypocritical when people are fine with it in Linux with Gnome but moan so much when it is Windows with Metro. Windows Server 2012 also had the same problem. On a different note, the other reason I love OpenSUSE is YAST. I don't know of any Linux distro that can beat that. But this was my 2 cents of viewpoints. Your videos are always amazing!

I appreciate you making this video. I have been tossing around the idea about building a cheap (or buying a decent used) PC to install and learn Linux. This video gave me some starting point to jump off of, and tells of some pitfalls to watch out for. While I have been using PCs since 386 days, I originally had an Amiga 1000 and then an A2000 as well, before finally switching over to PCs. Since I had that 'nix experience from the AmigaDOS/CLI , I just don't have any fear over learning Linux. I know that I know NOTHING about using Linux (at all) and my past knowledge with my Amiga will only take me a few steps towards learning a new OS, I feel more assured by this video (and a few others I have watched so far) and feel NO FEAR!

I'm with you on the pragmatic part of, get the OS that does what you need. am using Linux since 96, still got a windows partition though "something to do with a few games" but the need for me to reboot to windows is also getting less and less nowadays

It’s a very fair assessment, and a great video. In my experience, though, on your point about Linux not being stable for new users, I would say that point applies to both new Windows and Linux users, for the same reason of installing new random things and of the habit of clicking every link possible on the Web. 😃

"Reignited my Love for Technology"-- Big time... I enjoyed the video. I switched to Linux maybe 3 years ago myself. Distro Hopped for a while... Settled on Manjaro ran it for 2 years as my main os... Started getting buggy... so I installed Arch... I personally didn't think it was worth the time of going through the Wiki and Dissecting that, but I learned a lot more than I imagined just installing it. I settled on MX Linux... which I think is a brilliant OS out of the box. Maybe a little too many tools, but the MX Tools that come with it are incredible. I onyl use windows for Music Production which I am trying to get away from on Windows, but Learning and transitioning to OpenSource Softwares. Productivity and work flow is exceptionally greater than I am on Windows. I even installed Debian on my old MBP just to get some more mileage out of it. Great video. Appreciate the content.

Hey Chris, really great video. Long time user. But if I was new, these are the things, I know now, that I need to hear to understand Linux.

Have you tried Shotcut as a video editor? I find it to be a really nice video editing program if you figure out the keyboard shortcuts. It has never crashed on me (yet). Has basically all the video editing tools for a basic youtube video. For linux, mac, windows. And it's open source. Great stuff! Fast program start-up times as well which I absolutely love about it. Feels lightweight and it has so many tools

Yup, it always come down to applications and for the common user and his determines their computer platform. Thank you for sharing you're honest feedback on Linux.

Well Said, I started with PC DOS1. something and I still have three windows systems I use for my Business. I too Switched to Linux on my daily desktop in 2017 or 18 I forget. And your assessment is spot on, the desktop environment is by far more important than the distro. and stability is more a function of user than system.

Good Video. And about the comments about you using other computers. Well you said it perfectly. "You use the the right tool to get the job done"

Thank you, Chris. Yes, hardware does matter.

Great video Chris. Thanks.

I started using it as my main system back in 2008. It’s a heck of a lot of tinkering and time spent in forums with other tinkerers. The main problem I had with Linux over time is printing and graphics. I agree with you that AMD supports Linux best for GPUs.

I've been on the journey for a long time now, at least 10 years and it's been a roller coaster ride to say the least. But there has been a lot of good things that have happened. I'm very fortunate to have hardware that just works with Linux. I use an Asus motherboard with an Amd processor, Creative sound card, Linksys Gig Network card and a Radeon video card. Everything works seamlessly in Arch Linux for the past 4 years. Occasionally I have some package issues but nothing too bad. I was a Windows user from 1993-2013 but no longer use it. Linux is my daily driver and it does everything I need it to do. I do video editing and audio editing. There is plenty of free software that works great. Also I code in several different languages, mostly Python and some Javascript and Rust. They all work. I'm really impressed with the power of Linux and the stability. I back up nightly with Borg and have never had a major crash, a few minor issues that were resolved in a few hours to a day but that's all. I guess I've been one of the luckier people with switching over to Linux. Also I'm using a tiling window manager, bspwm and sxhkd and I absolutely love it!

I definitely agree, there are many things I love about Linux mostly its simplicity, customisability and bash. but I will probably never daily drive it, since there is so many ruff edges(sure just like on windows), more importantly missing programs and the constant need for searching non proprietary counterparts for my equipment or needs sometimes with the need of me creating something I get out of the box on windows. yes you can mostly overcome my issues a different way, If you search hard enough you will probably find a solution that can be maybe even faster. I did try it multiple times for extended periods. but at the end I always ended up switching back to windows as a daily, but now I did create multiple Linux wms for specific use cases. Programming, Web testing, prototyping and networking is where Linux does absolutely shine.

Chris, do you plan to continue work on ArchTitus? Just curious. After the last video on it, there was a flurry of activity from contributors, but it sort of fell off the radar.

I used Fedora (34) KDE spin before. But now, I no longer using it, because my fedora breaks after upgrading to vers. 35... Some application not working, even kde discover breaks. I really value stability, that's why I use ubuntu based distro now. ** btw, what DE are you using with Fedora?

One thing I love about linux is even though I broke it to the point beyond repeair by my current knowledge, I can easily re-install a clean installation. I did that several times. That’s how I learn. Each time I am getting better and better. As for someone like me, I would suggest backup some files such as work or school-work on cloud or external drive constantly so when the system break, we can just do a clean install which can sometimes be faster than fixing the broken one. Especially when you are fairly new to linux and don’t know much about it. You’ll learn like I do, but sometimes we just need a quickest way for it to work so you can do that school-work or some other work that is really close to deadline and finish it on time. When I used windows, if I break my system at midnight and have a homework due tomorrow at 8 AM, I will be in trouble because I would have to find someone else to fix my computer in a computer shop which usually open at 10:30 AM. At that time googling how to fix a window machine did not helpful at all. It usually started with turn it off and on again. If that did not work - fix these (though a bunch of useless setting configuration that if I did not google I would still try to fix it that way anyway). If it these two did not work - the advise would tell me to find tech support. I was so sick of that so I switch to linux. I started by dualboot it with window. Still do. I love my computer more after that. Linux gives me a better and more fun experience. I also agree that linux does have hardwares problems which is admittedly harder to fix.

I like your pragmatic approach and insight about program and os. I use Linux for work and Mac for personal stuff, hard to escape apple’s walled garden, once most of my friends, family lives in it. I hope Asahi Linux can running fully uncompromising on apple silicon in couple of years, dual boot in between Mac and Linux will be fantastic, with fanless design, long battery life, and great performance in thin and light form factor. My HP workstation running intel chips for work is nowhere near apple in regarding of hardware.

I wanted to know if you can go into more detail on installing packages using CLI from places like get hub and lutris? I have been trying to get Fusion 360 to work on Linux in lutris. I get confused on using the CLI to install packages. More specifically DEB packages. Thanks Chris keep up the excellent content.

Hey there Chris. What program do you use to stream from your Windows box into Linux?

I find what you said in this video solid and very agreeable. I use Mint as its where I am learning Linux at and I have it installed on 2 PCs (on my main rig on a secondary drive and as the OS of my older pc). Haven't made the full jump to daily drive a Linux Desktop OS as I have stuff that needs Windows (mostly due to school). If I didn't need to use Visual Studio I could daily drive Linux, though there's also me not being used to GIMP yet and PSD files being more common for working with projects so that needs Photoshop. Agree that distros are a mess and there's a lot of them that I don't even know or really want to spend energy to learn about what differences they have compared to other distros that use the same DEs and/or apps. I just landed on Mint after messing with a bunch of Ubuntu and Debian based ones over the past few years and found it to be decently polished, fast, and stable. Surprisingly I haven't broke a Linux distro by modifying the root directory and stuff that needs root permissions. (That may be due to having an idea that messing with the root directory and stuff that needs superuser permissions form my time messing with custom Android roms on my old phones from 2011 to 2018 and I've had major screwups where the phone wouldn't boot to anything but the kernel and recovery LOL.) I've broke Linux with Nvidia drivers though. Then there's Zorin OS that has never been stable for me 6 years ago or last year, the desktop itself has been very buggy and crashes on me and that's on Intel integrated graphics and not even on Nvidia. Learning about open source apps was a great step on figuring out what apps I can use to try them under Windows if possible the reverse of that also happened and led to me to adopting them into my Windows install after trying them under Linux and liking them. I might eventually swap Windows 10 and Linux which is my main OS on my PC but would probably still keep a Windows install for some programs, similarly to how I have a Windows 7 VM to use MS Visio 2016 and have it not interfere with Office 365 on Windows 10. I still have to figure out how to use my Epson Printer/Scanner combo unit on Linux as the jump of Linux MInt 21 to the Ubuntu 22.04 base broke the Epson ImageScan app + driver bundle for Linux that I use since the dependencies required don't exist on Ubuntu 22.04 repos. Anyway that's that thank you again for sharing the important parts of your Linux journey Chris.

Having worked with Linux since '92 (started with Slackware) it has been a fun ride for decades! I still have certain things that I have to use Windows for, and that's okay. I spend 99% of my time in Linux with that occasional time I have to use Windows to complete something for a client. I have enjoyed hearing you take on the state of Linux and couldn't agree more with your assessment.

@Chris Titus Tech ; What is your perspective on PhotoPea ( a Photoshop alternative ) ? As for your Linux style, you are actually highlighting the concept Of Linux being freedom and choice. I dual-boot Zorin and Windows 10 and use cross platform software to get things done. Zorin is just another black-box that I click on stuff. My original plan was to go 80 % Linux, then it went 50-50. The last couple of months it has been 2/3 Windows use, but that will probably change. The last couple of weeks in Windows, I have been getting these annoying pop ups from software begging to download and update various pieces of software while I am trying to do other things. And it is not a malware issue.

Recently have switched over to Linux. Mistakes I have made a few hundred, but each time I learn something new. Thank you for all your videos that have taught me a lot about how to navigate through this new experience.

The switch to Linux and a tiling window manager happened so naturally for me. It's like drinking coke your whole life and then trying water for the first time. Things just make sense there and aren't hidden away behind think walls of abstractions. It's just so clear and nice (unless it isn't and you run into issues).

Spot On,Thank You Chris ,I'm a 48yo and been using Linux now seriously for 8months and I've learnt more about computers on that time using Linux than the previous years, what a wonderful learning experience!!

I couldn't help but to notice 'afs' in your / (slash) directory. Are you really running the Andrew File System ? If so, I'd love to hear your use case. Not many people are familiar with AFS.

Hey Chris. I am CS student, want to start on linux journey. The only confusion which enviornment to go! I found newer gnome quite interesting, the only concern I am stuck which one should I go for debian, arch or fedora. I want to some newer and stable versions of the app. Any input?

Very well done and honest video! I'm a Linux sysadmin and network engineer since the '90's. I was there when Linux got out as Linus Torvalds personal project. I remember installing Slackware from floppy disks! At that time, i had a Sun Sparcstation 10 on my destkop and worked with DEC & IBM mini/mainframes. I used DOS/Windows and OS/2 since their inception. Very good memories! As you said, and it's very important, Linux is not Windows. And rightly so, we're not living in a black and white world. Distribution does matter for this: Fedora is the development branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (= RHEL which is ultra-stable) but lag-behind new features wise. Debian is about the same as RHEL for stability but is supported by community. Finally you have arch which is too supported by community but for real power users. I use Linux everywhere including my laptop, which i use everyday for my job. So i've chosen a laptop that is well supported by my Linux distribution. I use Ubuntu: I don't like it that much for many reason but at the end, Ubuntu takes sources from Debian, expand support from some things and add their own "spices" to the mix. Ubuntu is fully supported for 5 years for the LTS (Long Time Support) version. I'd like to use Fedora, all servers i manage are RHEL / CentOS / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux (all RHEL based) but Fedora is a bit flaky at time and it's tougher to use some software on it. As for Debian, it's very stable but lack a bit on hardware and software support, like RHEL. I'm testing arch on my latest laptop, it's going well but we'll see. Linux is not perfect, indeed. But the bunch of tools, the way it works is simply amazing. From "everything is a file", the filesystem and tools (mdraid, LVM, choice of filesystems and schedulers, etc), the multiple choices of UI (i use both GNOME + QTile window manager as needed), all the network tools and features, scripting (Python, Bash, etc) and surely the package manager (so much better that Windows ultra-crappy and slow updates!), you're on something you can infinitely adjust to your need. Ah, and Linux is usually much lighter on hardware that Windows! I installed Linux on a bunch of older computers and it flies! On top of all that, i use WINE for a couple of tools like Winbox, a Windows tool to manage Mikrotik network routers and switches. I have KVM on my laptop and i use it for test and demos + i have a Windows VM (virtual machine) in case i need it (seldom use it). WINE can't run every Windows app but it's quite good for many things, specially for simple sofware and some games. My Linux journey have been tremendously productive and flexible, i simply LOVE IT! For grandpa, a good and well configured distribution can easily cut it. My father is doing web browsing, print and scan a few document and use LibreOffice. It has done the job very well for the last 5 years, no complaints: Much easier when somebody hasn't done too much Windows. I'm always able to connect to his machine wherever i am to support him (vi ssh, i'm able to do anything!). I configured automatic backups using Borg Backup which is safe and very efficient: set it and forget it!

Hi, Chris. I was following the open core guide video with your and website guidance and did exactly as they had mentioned but still, i cannot install mac, nor I can come to the installation screen. Can you help me out?

I’ve always been a computer novice. But I started getting into computer programming last fall and then in the spring I took a class which forced me to work with vim and submit assignments with git on a Linux server. I had a windows laptop at the time so I tried dual booting Linux mint since it had a similar look to windows. There was no support for the screen resolution of my laptop and when I tried Ubuntu I ran into a horrible screen flickering issue. I was not equipped to deal with these issues-So I went back to windows. I now have a MacBook though, which is probably the perfect system for me. As a math student, I don’t have any system specific software requirements. I just want to quickly be able to make files of any type to write math simple programs to better understand concepts or to find counter examples for my research. On Mac I have all the tools I could need available right in the terminal. Vim for editing files, brew for installations, and any programming language or computer algebra system (pari/gp, gap, wolframscript) available at any time all from within the terminal. MacOS feels much more lightweight than windows for my use case since I don’t have to rely on ides or graphical interface to get things done, but also has none of the quirks that Linux does when it comes to bugs. If I were to use a computer as a server at some point, I would choose Linux any day though. I just think Mac does a great job with providing a good desktop experience.

Nice vid. Would have liked to hear whether you think WSL changes things at all for a windows user considering a switch.

Great video and very useful - Chris. Can you run the Mac OS on an AMD system if it is properly tweaked?

Honestly I agree with you. This was a great simple summary of what its like to use Linux as a daily driver for those coming from Windows and MacOS. I'm still dual-booting on my Desktop PC because some software doesn't work on Linux or the alternatives aren't good enough for my personal taste. With the arrival of Steam Proton I've even started gaming on Linux and it works amazingly well (if anti-cheat isn't an issue) I've even messed around with running Windows 10 as a VM using KVM and Hardware Pass-through. It actually works so good, I've considered using that instead of a native Windows install.

i’m wondering if i will prefer duel booting linux and windows with linux on one ssd and windows on another or if i will prefer making a huge switch to my desktop being linux but keeping my laptop windows. i’m not sure if i’m ready for that huge switch when i build my new pc. but i worry it won’t be worth even using linux if i don’t abandon windows to a certain extent. but also i want that fail safe of when things aren’t going incredibly on my linux to just be able to switch to windows, because i very well may get frustrated with linux and not use it at all if that’s my only option. what do you recommend?

I switched to penguin land ~4 years ago. And boy, the first month or so was rough indeed, even if I was using Kubuntu, a very noob-friendly distro. Eventually, I managed to learn to use LibreOffice, KAlgebra and Audacity for my work stuff, and Lutris/Steam (may Tux bless you, Gabe) for gaming. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that all of my games library worked, except for two really old games that I had already trouble running even in Windows. It wasn't easy, but (imo) it was well worth the initial headaches.

I remember your linux videos... I've seen then back in 2019. I got angry to Windows back then and moved to Linux Mint and I was searching for some videos for newbies and found yours. Anyway, I moved back to Windows after three months because my hardware doesn't fully work with Linux (it got frozen completely often). But despite of that, I still kinda love Linux and today I use it on my all notebooks. :)

It's a very long journey; one in which you must experience hard truths almost every day until you figure it out. It's one thing to boot up a distro for entertainment purposes- but to use it as an actual workstation is an entire different beast for some of us. The support for little things can be slim (for example: permission CAs) and spending way too much time trying to get it to work on distros we're comfortable with (Deb usually).. Then realize: "Oh, this works on Fedora, because of the bleeding edge aspect of it." What a awesome journey man, glad you made it through- can be a super bumpy ride sometimes & exhilarating the next.

your experience in windows and linux help me with using Linux as my daily driver. I think because you relate to us that use windows before. this review is fair for my opinion. I experience it all (confusion on desktop environment and the so many distributions) by the way, the beard looks to you Chris.

2 and a half years ago I built a new PC (with an Nvidia gpu) and also took the decision to start trying linux. I almost immediately ran into trouble with my graphics card, and my drawing tablet(s), and pretty quickly figured out that if I wanted to get all my hardware to work out of the box I needed to pick my distros very carefully. I've managed to run linux daily for certain spans of time since then, a few months end-to-end maybe. But I always eventually either encounter some kind of fatal error that means I have to reinstall the whole OS, or else I find that I need to do something in Windows, so I switch over on another harddrive and then just kinda forget to switch back until several months have passed. I desperately *want* to fully switch to linux, especially now that Microsoft are doing what they're doing with Windows 11 & 12, but it's definately a struggle. I'm hoping that a combination of the popularity of the Steam Deck and improvements to proton will make it easier and easier to run windows apps in linux (not just games), so that when Windows 10 finally reaches the end of it's life support in a few years, I can confidently *fully* switch (without dual-booting) and never look back. Still, I'm glad I got my feet wet with linux in the meantime.

Hi Chris, great video. I have Linux in my desktop (Ubuntu 20.04), but I'm having trouble cloning my drive to an SSD that is installed. I tried using dd command but on cloned the files partition but not the boot partition. How would I modify the dd command to clone both the directory partition and the boot drive?

I have made the definitive switch in 2003. Since 2000, I was using two machines side-by-side, one with Slackware and another with win2k. So with a KVM (the switcher) I could go back and forth with the long term goal of transitioning to Linux without losing too much on productivity dip because of adopting a new tool. Back then, it was not as today... many missing drivers, QT and GTK each having their own clipboards, no real standards between distros and desktops like key mapping), not even automatic hardware detection at boot to insert the driver modules (that changed with the advent of Knoppix LiveCD). When in 2003 my upgrade from Win2K to XP ended up with a BSOD I could not recover from, that's when I switched. 19 years later, I'm still using Linux as my main driver, with Windows as a KVM (the kernel module) virtual machine just in case.

@ChrisTitusTech What was the linux distro you recommended for Nvidia users? Tried googling it, but i coulnd't find anything...

I've used just about every distro out there and so far I love KDE neon. 🙂I like how it uses the latest and greatest version of KDE (which is my favorite DE) and they include snaps and flatpaks out of the box which is great imo because odds are they have the software you're looking for.

I just wanna add to your list of 3, and say openSUSE! I 100% agree with you though on the main ones, but would just add them as well :) Mostly used in Europe, they're basically the RedHat of Europe! I gotta agree with you about using all the different OSs as a tool! It's what they are, use what works for you. I've used Windows since 98, Linux since Ubuntu 11.04, and macOS since 2 months ago (06/11/2022). I thoroughly enjoy my M1 MBA as I use it as a portable programming device, and since I'm mainly in the terminal or in a VM, it doesn't really matter which tool I use for the job. Now! That being said, I did run into an issue where currently RedHat based OSs on AARCH64 (ARM) assume the wrong Page_File size and won't run atm in a VM on ARM, so I just went to my Ryzen and continued the job there! You gotta use what works, and being OS / Hardware agnostic to me is so important.

Which Window Manager is this? And can you please share your customizations to that WM

Hi! I have used computers all my life... My first experience with Linux was installing one of the very early versions of Slackware Linux (from physical 3.5" floppy disks). I tested several distributions at the time (like most beginners do), liked a lot Mandrake at the time, but then came back to Slackware (now with a CDs to install it) and loved it. I learned to customize almost everything (I remember recompile the kernel to change the color of my terminal xD)... Then, for many years I couldn't use Linux at work, I didn't have a computer at home, so, I lost track. But recently (this year) I had the opportunity to start working on Linux again. I work for a multinational telecommunications company that doesn't want to spend much on hardware, so I got an i7 gen6 notebook with 8GB RAM and a mechanical disk, with a corporate windows 10 image that turn the computer unusable. So, I installed Arch because seemed like most "Slackware like" distro and I am loving it so far. I still have to configure a box client to sync my files... All solutions I see are WebDAV based and since box remove support in 2019, I don't know how stable would be nowadays. Do you have any tip to do that?? Thanks in advance...

I agree with the pragmatic approach to the Linux desktop. As a user of Linux of ~21 years (more if you count my first encounter with it) I kept a windows desktop as a dual boot for many years for anything I couldn't do in Linux. I have now been using Linux as my primary OS since about 2018 and only boot up my Windows VM once in a blue moon. Yes I had to sacrifice certain games but since I have young kids I don't generally get all that much time to game and I choose games these days based on their protondb rating and usually if I do get a chance to game it is typically single player only. As my PC hasn't had any upgrades to speak of for about 13 years, running windows 11 is basically out of the question but as everything goes more and more to web and cloud services and the Linux desktop continues to improve my reliance on windows grows less and less with every passing year

Can you explain your Desktop Ricing please? Very keen to know!

Nice video! Greetings from Venezuela!

When you say you dont need to restart a linux server OS like ever, does that include when you run updates? My ubuntu server is always asking for restarts is that not really necessary?

What is the best RDP client if I want to connect from Linux to remote Windows? When I do Windows-to-Windows RDP, the quality is great, it most of the time indistinguishable from local. I don't know what magic RDP from MS is doing, but I guess they transfer "what to render" and it's actually my local GPU doing the rendering or something like that. On the other hand on Linux I tried many different RDP clients but it was always transfering raster images like VNC and it looked like crap. Is there some proper RDP client on Linux that can work like RDP on Windows?

hi. i love your videos. i currently installed Ubuntu distro on my asus laptop to familiarise myself with the linux OS. but ever since i downloaded it bare metal, i have seen a major hit in battery life, like i will need to be constantly plugged in, cannot charge without the laptop being on, automatically randomly shutsdown, takes nearly a whole day to charge up and lasting only a few hours unplugged. not to mention my fans running on full power, and i only use light web browsing, productivity apps and youtube. the entire operating system seems to be slow and quite often unresponsive. i tried uninstalling everything i dont need and reduce background tasks but it doesnt seem to make a difference. i have a core i5 and 8gb ram so specs seem fine for everyday tasks. what can i do to solve this issue?

Finally, an actual video of the many uses of various Operating Systems. I am an old-timer that lived in the PC vs. Mac, Windows vs. Mac OS flame wars of the 80s-90s. During my 62 years on Earth, I have collected numerous PCs (Personal Computers of different Operating Systems ), being my 1986 Amiga 1000, which I still use from time to time, as my first PC, and then I bought a Mac Se30 in 1989, which I still use when I am in the mood. I have a Windows PC that is only used to play games, old games. My main PC is a 2017 MackBook Pro which I use for my emails and writing when I am in my yard sipping rum and smoking cigars. When I do my final papers (I am finishing my master's degree ), I most likely use one of my Linux PCs, either on LibreWriter or LaTeX. Most of my time is spent on a Linux PC. Each OS has its pros and cons. There is no magical equation for deciding which OS to use; use the one that fits your needs. BTW, I rely on two Raspberry Pi to test out distros and DE 😂😂😂. After watching this video, I decided to subscribe, stay safe.

My Win10 avg uptime is 30-40 days lately, but probably only because I have 1-2 Proxmox nodes running 24/7 in addition to main desktop (and I had an auxiliarry one for several years with KVM and all the stuff). I have been introduced to desktop Linux in like 2005 (SUSE, Mandrake Linux lol, if you even heard of it), learned to install and configure it back then, and am still looking forward to the day I switch ever since. Right now, it feels as close as it gets, and still AAA support is way behind the market. I know exactly what you are talking about in every aspect of this video without attempting to switch even once.

Just recently after purchasing some ssd's and a new nvme I downloaded the newest version of Linux Mint and kind of started from scratch because I fully installed Mint and not have it run Windows side by side or through a virtual machine. So far the only thing I compromised on was using Edge browser because it had all of my saved websites, etc. I wanted to try out Linux and see if it would work for me on a daily basis and it has. However I can't use(or seem to find out) how to do Logitech software to get full use out of those peripherals and I can't go to AMD and use Adrenalin or their drivers, etc. I just am upset that Windows is kind of forcing all of us to merge to 11 but forcing the purchasing of a new cpu, motherboard and whatever else new I would need to run the failure of what is known as Windows 11. So far it has run seamlessly on my old Ryzen 5 1600/X370 AM4 motherboard system.

Yes Chris, you were such a newbie with Linux. 😁Something with !! and a few more examples like that.

What Linux system do you think is best on a MacBook Pro 2012, been Mac user for 20+ year now. PopOs.!

What's the window manager you're using there?

This vid got you my sub. CHeers man.

Hi, i switched from windows to Linux, because with time windows systems get slow due to clogged registry and huge data in the hard drive which is not in case of Linux. i installed Linux Mint, so far best experience with it, but i"am a pro user of windows like reverse engineering, i work for many websites to modified windows OS. But as a addiction to know much more things i switched to Linux. 2weeks ago i installed Manjaro Linux its also a beautiful of stability as we know there are many distros like Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, Suse, i just want to ask which two distros are suitable for me in my research Fedora for my websites work stuff and for personal use Suse or Manjaro can you share your experience about distros i didn't have any problem about commands and Hardware etc.

First off, thanks for all your videos. I would like to comment that getting and installing Linux does not have to be complicated. I have a 15" Dell Inspiron laptop that I have set up as a dual boot, Windows 10 and Linux Mint. I got mad at Windows 10 being so busy doing it's own thing and not allowing me to do what I wanted to do, I tried Linux Mint. First I tried out Linux Mint from a live boot on a USB Flash Drive. It worked so well, I installed it on a old laptop, then installed it as a dual boot on my Dell i7 2-core laptop. I use Linux Mint 99% of the time, it is simple and it works and it works fast. Linux Mint found our FIOS internet and was able to log in right away (with password). Linux Mint also found our HP Officejet Pro 8610 printer and was able to print and scan. LINUX MINT HAS INSTRUCTIONS THAT WILL GUIDE YOU: I am a 72 year old retired auto mechanic not a computer tech. With instructions from Linux Mint, I made a live bootable USB Flash drive, tried it out with great results, then installed it on an old laptop computer. A few month later I installed it on my i7 Dell Inspiron 15 laptop as a dual boot from the USB flash drive. This was all done without using the command line! THE COMMAND LINE: I have watched countless videos on the use of the command line and how easy it is to use for people like Chris and Jay the Linux Guy but it is not always easy for me. It is not as intuitive as GUI. I have used Linux Mint's "Software Manager" (GUI) to search for and review information about programs that I wanted to add. Then the "Software Manager" provided for installing and after the install Linux Mint's "Update Manager" keeps the app up to date. I have installed all of my apps from the "Software Manager". EXAMPLE: sudo apt-get luckybackup Does not work but searching for "Lucky Backup" from the "Software Manager" does get results and allowed me to view a description of the program and provided a button to click on to install it. I have been using Linux Mint for a few years now and have installed Google Chromium, Bitwarden, and a few other apps and Linux Mint's "Update Manger" automatically keeps them up to date. You do not have to use the command line. In fact while watching Chris type in some commands, I said to myself "boy you really pulled that out of your ..." with amazement.

Honestly I didn't understand distro-hopping until recently one of the fresh Linux user told me that looking at different distros, and the way they pre-configure their DEs gives him better understanding on what can be changes and to what extends, which is pretty valid point. I know that I can configure any distro to my liking considering my ~25 years of experience, but for someone not aware of what CAN be done, distro-hopping might be a good starting point to get to know what works best for them specifically.

@Chris Titus Tech , wich DE and Linux is your daily driver ?

When will we see your Linux Desktop distro? Or is it already out and i missed it?