TLDR: For the average person, use Windows for desktop (with WSL if you love Linux) to save yourself some headaches.
Yes I know this is r/linux and I'm talking shit about Linux but I figured I would get more perspective here than anywhere else. Feel free to prove me wrong, I'm somewhat new to the Linux world as well.
Linux server is fantastic. I have a home server running on Ubuntu LTS 20.04 on an old laptop 24/7 for the past two months and it's perfect. Shitty dual core? No problem. It still runs smooth as butter. Can't say the same for Windows 10. I also vastly prefer bash and zsh to whatever Windows comes up with. Moreover APT is a godsend.
My GCP instances also run on Debian 10 without any issues.
Linux desktop is another story. Here's a list of what I deem to be necessary for a desktop operating system.
Absolutely necessary
- Minimal bugs, even with relatively obscure third-party software - Windows wins as most pieces of software are developed for it)
- No driver issues - Windows wins as most pieces of hardware are made for it
- Smooth desktop environment that feels "premium". (i.e. no visual glitches and clipping out of the box) - Windows wins
- Intuitive UI and settings placement - Both are equally shit
Nice to haves
- Free (as in freedom) and open source - Linux wins
- Very low CPU and RAM idle usage. (I have a good PC with 32 gb of RAM so this doesn't matter that much) - Linux wins
- No restart necessary for updates - Linux wins
- Customizability - Linux wins
- Free (as in money) - Tie, you can get legit Windows license for $10
- Gaming - Windows wins
Needless to say, while Linux fulfills more "nice to haves", Windows wins or ties in every single point of "absolutely necessary". Here are a few anecdotes to back my point.
- jblas works perfectly in intellij on Windows. On Linux there was firstly a libgfortran dependency issue which was resolved quickly, so nevermind. But then there was a temp file permissions issue present on Fedora but not Debian that had no easy fix. Point is I shouldn't have to find fixes to problems that shouldn't exist in the first place. I just want to get my assignment done.
- Firefox has a text scaling issue that happens exclusively on Linux. I have a 1440p monitor so I increase the scaling factor in about:config but the font size is still tiny (UI elements are fine).
- The button to change between clicking once to open a file and clicking twice is confusingly placed under mouse settings. I would have thought that something exclusive to file management should be under Dolphin or Nautilus. This one is entirely personal opinion because I don't know what is intuitive for anybody else.
- Trackpad does not work due to lack of drivers on my Legion 5 laptop. There is no fix as of now.
- Remember when I said good things about my server? Well, it functions well as a server but the audio driver is completely screwed and does not work despite hours of debugging. This is when I already had over a hundred hours of experience in Linux so it isn't some newbie mistake. Then again this is minor as I'm using that machine as a server.
- KDE just feels unpolished compared to Windows when you compare the fine details. For instance, when you turn off animations and drag the window to the edge of the screen, there is a very choppy animation of the region getting outlined. Turning off animations in Windows has no such issues.
- Multi-monitor sometimes gets weird. In Windows when you drag a window to the edge of one screen, your cursor gets stopped if there isn't enough speed on it. In KDE you have to precisely maneuver it to a thin region of a few pixels on the edge of one screen and hold it there without going to the next.
I've sunk many hours into setting up various Linux distros for fun and it's one of the most educational and rewarding experiences I've ever had, but I can't use Linux as a daily driver.
I use WSL on a daily basis because I'm more used to linux commands. I find this to be a nice compromise.
I love open source software and I try my best to use them, and even contribute to some projects myself, but I use an operating system to first and foremost get shit done, not to protest against big bad corporations.
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