A middle-aged man tried Linux desktop

I'd like to share my experiences after trying Linux ecosystem with Fedora as my main computer, after a a life of mostly Windows and Mac. This was a summer project for me. My situation is somewhat unusual as I am both a Clinical Psychologist and the CTO of an electronic health-journal company. My work ranges from providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: CBT to CLI! (an attempt at joke was made!).

I am 42 years old and have tried Linux a bit in the past, and know enough to set up a Nginx server on AWS EC2 going in to this. I never ran Linux as my daily driver before. I love to game in my spare time, so this is an important consideration for me.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or insights, particularly concerning the features I found to be missing – perhaps I've overlooked something.

After some research i decided to go with Fedora, as it seems to be a good combination of speed, stability, support, documentation and userfriendliness.

Positive Aspects:

• Linux gives me a pleasantly satisfying sensation; there's an inherent appeal for me. Functionality is generally reliable, and when issues do arise, I often feel capable of addressing them. This contrasts with my experiences on Windows or Mac, where I sometimes hit a wall and can't find a way to resolve problems.
• Hardware compatibility is superb – Bluetooth, wireless, webcam, sound, all work seamlessly. This includes a new gaming laptop equipped with an RTX 4060, AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, 32GB RAM, and a 1.5TB hard drive.
• My Pixel Buds Bluetooth earpieces functioned flawlessly straight out of the box.
• I've been using GeForce NOW through a Chromium PWA without issue, although it's limited to 60 FPS, and I haven't pursued higher frame rates though dedicated packages.
• Configuring an Nginx Reverse Proxy and an array of self-hosted Docker services was remarkably simple. My current setup includes a customized Django webpage, Jellyfin, Filebrowser, Librechat with various AI integrations, Immich photos, and a Valheim dedicated server.
• Steam works remarkably well, and Proton is almost magic.

Challenges:

• Firefox has trouble with certain 1080p+ YouTube videos, although this improved after I added more video codecs at the OS level.
• The uBlock Origin addon for Chromium occasionally crashes in a loop, but this does not happen consistently, but once it starts, its gone.
• The Files App randomly shuts down, particularly during file renaming.
• Zed text editor unexpectedly closes without warning (This is a brand new editor for Linux so might be growing pains only).
• Transmission, a torrent GUI client, Allways crash upon closing.
• Certain applications, like ClipQ, failed to work, possibly due to X11/Wayland incompatibility.
• A persistent issue with my network is the ethernet connection will not automatically reestablish after a reboot, necessitating a physical unplugging and replugging, which may be due to Linux since it worked well under Windows.
• Sadly, Chromium is just plain more stable, faster, and better supported than Firefox. There are so many random bugs, crashes, and weirdness with Firefox. For instance, my first attempt at posting this using Firefox did not work, and Firefox got stuck and couldn't scroll.

Major Missing Features:

• Text-to-speech capabilities: Nothing rivals the quality found on macOS. The local text-to-speech engine on my Mac is remarkably clear, responsive, and accurate for both English and Norwegian. Setting up is effortless, making most open-source alternatives pale in comparison. I explored Festival, coqui-ai, eSpeak, and others, but all had significant issues, ranging from installation problems to a lack of Norwegian language support. I resorted to a Python script that chucks the text (to get faster initial response) then sends its to the OpenAI TTS API, which, despite being somewhat cumbersome, outperforms other options I've tried.
• Speech-to-text: I encountered the same issues; slow or malfunctioning software. APIs form a better solution, especially when compared to Apple inn-line dictation, where you can stop taking, type out a difficult word, then continue talking, without skipping a beat.
• Automation tools like Keyboard Maestro: I couldn't find any Linux equivalents with comparable functionality. Autohotkey and Gnome Tweaks lack the comprehensive features I am looking for. It should not be complicated to have a service that monitors for a certain keyboard combination, then run custom code.
• Organization unser management of computer fleets: As a CTO of a small company, I find it perplexing that there isn’t a straightforward Linux tool for managing hardware with active-directory features. Options like Action1 or Wazuh don't satisfy user management needs. Why is not fleet and user management a solved problem by now?

Final Thoughts:

• Linux is entirely capable of serving as the primary operating system for most people. Setting up a Fedora system for my family members would be quite feasible, potentially with fewer issues than they might encounter with Windows Home edition (Seriously, screw Microsoft).
• Self-hosting Nextcloud is still overly complicated; it's far from the "All in One" solution it claims to be, generating more containers and volumes than necessary, is buggy, undocumented and fails with the most important aspect: Backup.
• The critical need for text-to-speech and speech-to-text services goes beyond personal preferences; they are essential for accessibility. Their absence within the Linux ecosystem is a significant shortcoming if we want to be inclusive. But it is also useful for thous without disabilities. I blow most of my colleagues out of the water with regards to producing text with speech-to-text. I never understood why so few people utilize this immensely powerful tool more. I can easily dictate at 150 words per minute with fewer mistakes compared to when I type at 80 WPM. Also, I can do it while out walking. The same goes for text-to-speech. To me, it's an absolutely essential tool, and I wish it were more popular.
• In conclusion, given the tremendous progress, Linux is ready for a broader, non-technical audience. This is further encouraged by the current state of Windows and the high cost of Macs.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am eager to hear any comments or feedback you might have.