Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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My friend didn't have a great experience with Linux (feddit.nl)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have been daily driving Linux for over two years now and I have switched distros many times. So, when my friend bought a new laptop, I convinced him to install Linux Mint on it. I asked him if he wanted to dual boot, he said no because it would fill up all his storage. We installed Linux Mint. The other day, he wanted to play FIFA 17 on his computer. After 5 whole hours of troubleshooting we were able to get FIFA running smoothly with some issues. Next, he wanted to play Roblox. I guided him through the process of installing Waydroid and libhoudini, only to discover that Roblox would run at 10 FPS. With Minecraft, it wasn't any better. It took us 1 hour to get it working (not skill issue, he wanted to play cracked through Prism Launcher). Now, he wants to go back to Windows 10. I have already told him about dual boot, but he has only 256GB of storage and he wants to play a lot of games. What should I do? Install Windows to his laptop, install some other Linux distro, or try to convince him more about dual boot? Thanks in advance and sorry for the essay.

UPDATE: Of course I will help him install Windows on his computer if he wants so, I don't want to force him to use Linux after all. I just wanted him to give it a try, and maybe daily drive it, if he can.

EDIT: Because for some reason it was misunderstood, let me clarify it here. Roblox ran with poor performance on Waydroid, not Minecraft. I just said that the installation of Prism Launcher cracked was difficult. After that, Minecraft ran smoothly without any problems.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I only suggest Linux if they complain about Windows. The only thing gushing about Linux unprompted and unwanted does is sour the waters.

And also double check whether their use case actually works on Linux, all the improvements in recent years are nice but there are still enough edge cases that checking beforehand is a good idea

[–] spicytuna62 11 points 5 months ago

The only time I forced Linux on anyone was when I gave my youngest brother a free laptop a couple years ago. It's the laptop I had in college in 2011. It has a Sandy Bridge mobile Core i7. It's too slow to run modern Windows. I told him he's free to install Windows, but I don't have a license to give him. For checking emails and web surfing, though, it was enough, and running Linux wasn't going to give him trouble with that. To my knowledge (and to his credit), he still runs Linux on it.

[–] Ziglin 1 points 5 months ago

I do the same but I recommend starting with dual boot and most people are stubborn and still don't. Two of my friends are interested, one is waiting until they get a new machine. With the other Bitlocker got in the way the first time but now on an older laptop we're going to try arch (it was their request) so I'm excited to give that a try. They are mostly interested because of security reasons, while the other is annoyed with the windows c compilers. It just shows how many reasons there are to use Linux and how difficult it can be in other cases.