Lmao tbf this is on a work computer where I don’t have that kind of control.
I still have 10 on the home PC and I get closer and closer to installing Linux on it every time I tinker with my raspberry pi. That said, I fear the same issues will come up. The second something doesn’t work right, I’m gonna have to turn to hunting down forum posts with issues similar to mine but slightly different and randomly applying fixes I don’t truly understand until something works. Not that this is all that dissimilar to when windows 10 breaks, but that happens far less often than it does with the Linux distros I’ve used.
Then comes the concern that I won’t be able to find drivers for the hardware I have, or if I upgrade hardware that it’ll be much harder to get drivers for newer stuff… I’d love to ditch Microsoft, but Linux, while much better than a decade ago, is still a shlep to use
With Linux, you select the right tool to the job. The ones given to you out the gate depending on what you install (Mint vs Arch, for instance) might be enough for all your needs, and you get to pick and choose starting gear. If you need more tools after the fact, you have a software center to install flatpacks for anything generic you may want, and the terminal lets you go wild if there’s anything special not covered you need modified. There’s manual pages, and the forms are last resort for most.
On Windows, you are given a generic toolset. Usually it works, but sometimes they just break for no discernable reason. You can call Microsoft for support, but good luck talking to a human. You can’t pick a different starting toolset, and while you can install software (by using a web browser and hoping you don’t get phished), it’s difficult to change underlying components without getting blocked by the OS or breaking a core function. Windows forums are quite a wasteland, and almost nothing is documented for the user.
But the frequency of issues requiring extra work is far higher with Linux than Windows, in my experience, and it’s often a much longer process to fix with Linux.
With Linux, I often run into issues that I’ll patiently tinker with for hours, but eventually run into a wall, resolve to address another day. And I’ll learn a lot about computers along the way! That’s fine and even fun when it’s my self-hosted recipe app (which apparently simply cannot run on a Raspberry Pi except for all the people who said they got it working on their machine yet their solutions don’t work on mine), but it’s far more frustrating when it’s an application for something more basic like music or video playback, word processing or spreadsheets or internet browsing.
Of course all the same kind of problems can occur on a Windows machine, but, at least in my life, it happens less than once a year as opposed to Linux where it seems to happen once per “new thing” I try to do. Some day I’ll do it. But right now, Windows 10 “just works” in a way that’s more valuable.
There’s a pretty good chance the Linux issues you’re having are actually Raspberry Pi issues. I’ve had to do so much more tinkering with SBCs to get things to work compared to x86 systems
The rpi 5 processor is armv8 and it lacks a lot of support in general. That thing has made me want to break my keyboard in half a few too many times lol
I’m gonna have to turn to hunting down forum posts
The real strength of Linux is you can go on the forums and get a flood of enthusiastic help from people who know what they’re talking about, no matter how basic the problem. Every Microsoft help thread I’ve seen is fifty people saying “I have this exact problem!” and one rep saying “This is a known problem. Thread closed.”
Just pick a distro and a small cheap ssd, and make sure you use btrfs and enable snapshotting schedule from day one. Then If you get in that situation its super easy to flip back to an earlier state.
You will absolutely me counter situations that force you to investigate a bit, but as you use it those will become less frequent.
Stay in the Linux environment as long as you can take it. If you get frustrated hop back in windows a bit until you get the hankering to try again.
Worst case scenario is you’re out ~20 USD. (Though I understand that’s too much for some)
It’s easy, you just need >!to install Linux!<
Lmao tbf this is on a work computer where I don’t have that kind of control.
I still have 10 on the home PC and I get closer and closer to installing Linux on it every time I tinker with my raspberry pi. That said, I fear the same issues will come up. The second something doesn’t work right, I’m gonna have to turn to hunting down forum posts with issues similar to mine but slightly different and randomly applying fixes I don’t truly understand until something works. Not that this is all that dissimilar to when windows 10 breaks, but that happens far less often than it does with the Linux distros I’ve used.
Then comes the concern that I won’t be able to find drivers for the hardware I have, or if I upgrade hardware that it’ll be much harder to get drivers for newer stuff… I’d love to ditch Microsoft, but Linux, while much better than a decade ago, is still a shlep to use
I mean here’s the comparison:
With Linux, you select the right tool to the job. The ones given to you out the gate depending on what you install (Mint vs Arch, for instance) might be enough for all your needs, and you get to pick and choose starting gear. If you need more tools after the fact, you have a software center to install flatpacks for anything generic you may want, and the terminal lets you go wild if there’s anything special not covered you need modified. There’s manual pages, and the forms are last resort for most.
On Windows, you are given a generic toolset. Usually it works, but sometimes they just break for no discernable reason. You can call Microsoft for support, but good luck talking to a human. You can’t pick a different starting toolset, and while you can install software (by using a web browser and hoping you don’t get phished), it’s difficult to change underlying components without getting blocked by the OS or breaking a core function. Windows forums are quite a wasteland, and almost nothing is documented for the user.
That’s true and it makes sense.
But the frequency of issues requiring extra work is far higher with Linux than Windows, in my experience, and it’s often a much longer process to fix with Linux.
With Linux, I often run into issues that I’ll patiently tinker with for hours, but eventually run into a wall, resolve to address another day. And I’ll learn a lot about computers along the way! That’s fine and even fun when it’s my self-hosted recipe app (which apparently simply cannot run on a Raspberry Pi except for all the people who said they got it working on their machine yet their solutions don’t work on mine), but it’s far more frustrating when it’s an application for something more basic like music or video playback, word processing or spreadsheets or internet browsing.
Of course all the same kind of problems can occur on a Windows machine, but, at least in my life, it happens less than once a year as opposed to Linux where it seems to happen once per “new thing” I try to do. Some day I’ll do it. But right now, Windows 10 “just works” in a way that’s more valuable.
There’s a pretty good chance the Linux issues you’re having are actually Raspberry Pi issues. I’ve had to do so much more tinkering with SBCs to get things to work compared to x86 systems
I thought that too, at least when I was trying all this on my Pi Zero 2 W but I think the 5 is x64 innit?
I take on projects on my weeks off, tho, so maybe I’ll set up a dual boot during my Q1 week off and take it from there.
The rpi 5 processor is armv8 and it lacks a lot of support in general. That thing has made me want to break my keyboard in half a few too many times lol
The real strength of Linux is you can go on the forums and get a flood of enthusiastic help from people who know what they’re talking about, no matter how basic the problem. Every Microsoft help thread I’ve seen is fifty people saying “I have this exact problem!” and one rep saying “This is a known problem. Thread closed.”
Just pick a distro and a small cheap ssd, and make sure you use btrfs and enable snapshotting schedule from day one. Then If you get in that situation its super easy to flip back to an earlier state.
You will absolutely me counter situations that force you to investigate a bit, but as you use it those will become less frequent.
Stay in the Linux environment as long as you can take it. If you get frustrated hop back in windows a bit until you get the hankering to try again.
Worst case scenario is you’re out ~20 USD. (Though I understand that’s too much for some)