It's been nearly a year since I last updated this. I did say maybe after all. I know, I'm a cheeky devil.
For the first time in nearly 15 years, Linux is no longer on one of my major, daily drive computers. I've always kept at least one Linux computer in the mix as a way of staying connected to the Linux community, doing a few things that Windows does poorly, and running on old equipment that still has some life in it.
Unfortunately, my last Ubuntu update went badly. While moving from Ubuntu 24.04 (which itself was problematic) to 24.10, my laptop found itself thoroughly borked. I reimaged the laptop back to 24.04 and tried the update again. Nope. Borked again. Sigh...
The good news was that I had a moment of clarity. I realized that there really is little that Linux does better than Windows these days. Seriously, unless you are developing software for Linux, there is nothing better about Linux. Sure, you can monkey with it but that's fun not useful.
Linux is, in some respects, behind the times. The Windows 11 and MacOS operating systems have demonstrably better user interfaces than Linux does. I can already hear the Penguin Brigade saying "But you can change the interface! Get a totally different one!" Sure, but that's not how I spend my useful time. I have stuff to get done and want the better experience. From a desktop experience point of view, the Linux ecosystem is severely limited. Some of that is because Microsoft won't port it's Office suite to Linux. That's unfortunate for Linux on the desktop because it is a key set of software for many people, including myself. Analogs such as LIbreOffice just don't cut it. For better or worse, we all buy into an ecosystem when we use certain software and that makes using something else hard to impossible. And no, I don't want to do everything in a browser. This leads to another point: having multiple, non-compatible operating systems is twice the work. You have to know two sets of commands and two sets of doing things that don't work well together. I got tired of having to mentally switch back and forth.
Linux is not really any more stable than anything else, if it ever was. It is just as apt to get borked or have serious errors as anything else. The idea that open source evolves faster and is more secure because of it's openness ignores the fact that it depends largely on volunteer labor (which is less reliable) and big companies with their own agendas (Canonical and Red Hat/IBM come to mind). The former especially contributes to instability in the ecosystem while the latter is no different than dealing with Microsoft or Apple.
Along the way, Linux lost one of it's main advantages over Windows and MacOS. In an attempt to keep pace with Windows and MacOS, Linux is getting just as big and resource hungry. New versions of most Linux distributions are not really for older hardware. One of the main reasons I had for running Linux in my environment was to keep old machines in service longer. That stretches out their useful lifespan. When Linux can't help with that, it loses one of it's best features, for me at least.
Finally, I'm retired now and my needs changed. I don't have to keep pace with the Linux world. I don't need the development environment Linux offered, and can get those tools on Windows now through the WSL. I don't run homemade servers anymore. There was no reason for me to have all the disadvantages of running Linux in my environment and there were few remaining advantages.
I don't thing, nor did I ever think, that Linux was going to become on the desktop what it became on the server. It's better this way. Linux servers run the world and it's best to put our energies there.
For the time being, for me, Linux is out of the picture.
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