The Truth About Linux

Warning: I have not written this for a popularity contest. It’s written for the cold hard truth about Linux due to my experiences. I’ve written this for people who are new to Linux or considering using Linux so they won’t suffer like I did! I do emphasize that I hope Linux improves despite my article. There are some great things about Linux and it’s always good to have choice, but some of the problem is on Linux users themselves and even how Linux started – a micro kernel.

Note: I am acutely aware that arrogant Linux enthusiasts will give me a hard time and give me a grilling in a video. I would say to such people, take a hard look at yourself and be honest about Linux and not as a Linux fanboy. The community certainty needs more respectful and honest people indeed!

I’ve used Linux for the best part of a decade. The very first distro I used was Fedora and straight out of the box I encountered a bug – not being able to use the desktop for creating or moving files! (It was on Gnome, so not surprised with the experienced!) I thought it was an ok distro but it was all too overwhelming because I was very new to Linux. I would still use Fedora again if I felt I needed to… (but why are there so many new versions that come out so often!?) After using Fedora, I switched over to Ubuntu because that had a big name for itself, every time you look for help in an Internet search it’s always Ubuntu that comes up, if not that maybe something like Linux Mint and maybe Debian.

So, I used Ubuntu. I found out later on how corporate they were and how they fiddled with the desktop and did things that people didn’t like and a lot of people criticized Snap packages (and I understand why even if I don’t totally hate them.) I thought I could download different environments whilst using Ubuntu because I think I was sick of the Gnome desktop environment at the time. I used Budgie and may have used XFCE – I was told that this was used in Unix and how reliable it was. It’s also a lightweight desktop. I used Budgie and I thought it was a great desktop environment. XFCE looks quite dated before you start “renovating” it but I still like it. I noticed that when I went back to using Gnome that it became buggy and it had some weird graphics issues on the desktop environment. I had no knowledge that installing different desktop environments is not as “free” as you want it to be. I learnt the hard way that Linux is not as free (as in liberty free) as they claim it to be.

I got tired of the bugs in Ubuntu and felt punished for downloading different desktop environment so I went with Linux Mint. I thought it was fantastic immediately! I loved the desktop environment, I love how you could right click and into root for root privileges. The installation was really smooth. It was ridiculously simple (which I still want to remember and praise Mint over) and went without a hitch. Problems I had I noticed straight away on a hard disk where it had hard disk checks which wears out your hard disk after a while: http://linuxfocus.org/~guido/scripts/spin-down-usb-hard-drive-linux.html . I asked a computer expert and he confirmed this was the case. I asked him about Debian and he told me it doesn’t matter what distro they all do it and the solution is to get a solid state drive (which I did.) It doesn’t matter if it’s not a problem anymore, the fact is this would have been an issue for me for a long time. Not all hard disks do it, but why do I have to play “lottery” on that front? Why was Debian mentioned as a distro that could have “hard disk” wear out problems? With all the praise it gets, the history of that distro when earlier ones failed, it was just another disappointment and I haven’t even finished the article...

I went back to Windows very briefly. I had a solid state drive and I was impressed how fast it was! Where this was in my “Linux usage timeline” I cannot remember. But I thought about how depressed I was going back to Windows. I’ve always wanted to escape Windows for a very long time and depressed how many decades had gone by using Windows. Didn’t leave due to Linux not being available in a shop like I thought would eventually happen. If Windows 7 stayed as a standard, I would never want to switch to Linux and if there were nor privacy issues like Windows 10 onwards. I had a DVD or 2 that had a Linux distro on that I never used, because of that “trick” of Windows only (in those days) being available at shop and being in that loop. I eventually broke the vicious cycle and just decided to buy Linux pre installed with an online distributor instead.

I had used Mint for about 6 years roughly and I noticed some terrible things go wrong: the hard disk checks (as mentioned above) which was solved by using a solid state drive. But other problems crept up like my drive filling up! I was shocked the first time and then it happened again at least once or twice year after year and then every 6 months.

I used a program to finally figure out what was making my hard disk so huge (ironically Snaps which all the computer enthusiasts hate) and it was an Xsesssion type file! I had to disable it and that took a long time within itself and stumbled upon a great way of permanently disabling the file. I must have installed Mint about 3 times or more when something went wrong overall. Everyone raves about it because it’s “based on Debian” and somehow that gives you confidence. It does not. I installed applications that ruined my computer and then even the Grub failed on me. I was told about Timeshift and that was awful because of the amount of hard disk space it used. I later looked on a Linux Mint forum and was told you only need 1 or 2 “saves” of Timeshift by a very rude Mint user. Even when I loaded Mint in safety mode, again the “disk utility” is suppose to fix Grub and it did not. I installed Debian Edition and wanted to install the Nvidia graphics card. It gave me hell and similar things had happened and I had to reinstall Debian Edition Linux again. I thought that nothing can go wrong now if it’s based on Debian. Wrong! I don’t know what the original Debian distro is like. I’ve heard it’s good and stable and it probably is, but I have a right to be cynical based on what I’ve experienced.

Whether something is Debian, Mint, Ubuntu or whatever, the truth is you cannot install what you want from the Software store! That’s why there are universal package managers like Snap or Flatpaks…. To me Linux is an unfinished project because of that.

I have no idea why Linux distros ship with Gnome. It’s a terrible desktop environment with extensions not working on certain versions and the documentation about it admits they can crash your computer! I currently use Oracle but I really had to install KDE desktop to get away from how unpolished Gnome is.

Cinnamon is not much to Gnome. I came to that realization after a couple of years. Things just “grew on me,” the realization did. The contrast in themes from dark or light ones is not good because the start menu selection doesn’t match the panel. I spent far too much time with themes in Mint and never felt happy with most. I always felt I had to change it. It also crashed at times. Also, you can’t change the screen brightness by default. Most desktop environments are like that sadly. Even when I was in Cinnamon the instructions disappeared on the screen when trying to type commands in terminal! Like Gnome warn you extensions can cause your desktop to crash. There are some nice things about Cinnamon (like easy access to root) but overall I don’t miss it.

Linux users (I mean enthusiasts or fanboys) are not honest about what their distros do and ignore the fact that Steam is not FOSS (Free and Open Source Software.) People rave about it, but really get so angry when something else is not FOSS like Vivaldi.

I am not happy about the massive push to get people onto Wayland windows manager. X 11 works fine. People know it works better for gaming example, but yet it’s pushed onto is like something from Microsoft.

The good news is that Wayland (at least on my distro Oracle) does not have any xsession files that files up your hard drive anymore! I use Wayland now, but maybe that’s a good reason to not use X11 anymore… but it leaves more questions than answers why X 11 couldn’t fix up their windows manager? I looked at the X 11 site for updates and it’s been maintained. Linux users by similar principle like their distros updated often or upgraded which I think is mad! X11, any distro a to z is going to have security issues. I’ve seen it with Flatpaks as well, but that doesn’t mean people should stop using Flatpaks. But the Linux community obviously doesn’t make sense...

I don’t believe Linux is more secure than Windows. Nor do I think Linux is somehow “immune” from having viruses. In the Linux community “viruses” don’t exist unless you get something from Windows and then you scan them then. I am gobsmacked by this arrogant attitude! But you can’t change the culture. I still don’t know why many distros don’t have Firewalls turned on by default….. Again, you can’t change the culture…. It’s that “RTFM” attitude.

I believe I tried other distros like Kali Linux and then the it completely wiped my hard disk! I am sure computer enthusiast won’t believe me or even laugh at the fact that it happened to me. But I know it did happen. With the positives about Mint this can’t happen because their installation is extremely easty and probably the best one I’ve used on any operating system as I try to be as honest as possible (and that is honest.)

Try turning on your computer each day and facing freezing issues. Try having another one even Oracle freezes. Who do you blame? Maybe it’s Nvidia, maybe it’s the Linux kernel? That’s what makes Linux sucks is that there is no “head office!” (Wow! Linus really is a genius, isn’t he?)

I’ve heard quite a few computer enthusiast “distro hop.” I think that’s admission that Linux is an unfinished project. I continue to use Linux because I am experienced with it. Distro hopping is not fun. It’s only fun if you can try a demo on the USB ISO install which is a great positive about Linux.

They say at Oracle that their kernel is “unbreakable.” But what does that mean? My desktop crashes almost every single day in KDE desktop mode. In my opinion and from being this persecuted computer user, it may as well break to me! Try to find help and hardly anyone responds. But then again the bug reports in Linux are quite large…. It maybe like that with Windows too but from my Windows 7 days and prior there were never any big issues. You could call a big company like HP and that could help you out. No $500 US from Oracle which is ultra expensive!!!

I think Oracle is great but still has issues. I don’t like it changing my kernel. You do need to have computer experience to better manage it. Mint was easier to change things when needed (when it worked well of course…) I don’t know how many people have been disappointed in that distro, I definitely am. But, back to my main point, I would not recommend Linux because of all the problems I’ve had over the best of 10 years. WOULD NOT. I do have other distros in mind but despite some concerns I should have just gone over the Freebsd. Of course it would be a horrible if that didn’t work out. My cynicism tells me something bad would have happened with Freebsd anyway. I have every right to be skeptical.

The problem with Linux is that there is not enough support. Sometimes the forums are not enough and sometimes you get abused by people with that “RTFM” attitude (‘read the fucking manual.’) Even the computer I bought the man was quite rude to me. I will not mention the company. Of course there are different ways of looking at this when before I realize how buggy Linux is...

I also will never know why Linux users want to make their lives harder by using Windows tiling managers. I remember the days of Windows where people just accepted it the way it was and seemed happier than Linux users! I remember not caring and I don’t like the people that attracts. But then again, I am talking about something that can’t be fixed: the Linux culture.

I am sure companies like Nvidia haven’t made the Linux kernel/desktop smooth at times, but we can’t always be blaming them. People want to make community based distros because they don’t like the corporate world. Sure. But look at all the problems I’ve had with Linux Mint? So I’ve gone back to corporate and sure it doesn’t mean I like all the things they do. I certainly don’t!

Maybe Freebsd is better because it’s a full operating system and not an incomplete project? I am cynical with all the OS I’ve used in my life – Windows, Mac and various Linux distros. I have used GhostBSD for a shore period but long term…. Will the wifi work? Printer work? I have every right to be cynical. It may very well be more Unix like (like Oracle Linux in my opinion.) I believe that Linux has moved away from the magic of Unix and that’s the other reason why Linux has so many problems. Steam is a moral booster for games (despite people banging on about their supposed love for FOSS.) But sometimes games won’t work after a period of time and Steam won’t refund or help you! So they do their bit by damaging the community… and I haven’t even discussed ‘anti cheat,’ but I will not mention that in this article.

...That’s the sad truth! The Linux community will never speak out against Steam! There are no good alternatives for gaming on Linux without Steam. Maybe you could use Steamdeck which is based on Arch Linux is the solution? You could use it for business type purposes too if you hook it up to a monitor via an HDMI cable but I am not sure….

My experiences with Linux has lead me to believe that if FreeBSD didn’t have problems with lawsuits, it would have been a lot better because it’s a full operating system. With Linux and things go wrong, who do you blame? Gnome, Mint, Cinnamon, or Wayland which won’t do the computer enthusiasts favorite tiling manager properly? Or maybe SystemD for being a bad service manager? (I don’t have much of an opinion myself because I’m not a computer enthusiast…. But in any case it gets used a lot and forced onto Linux users good or bad just like the horrible Gnome desktop environment does.) Which reminds me, I can’t remember the Oracle installer but if I had to install Oracle on a new machine again, I’d have to go through the process of typing out quite a few commands in Terminal again just to have a nice desktop environment like KDE.

Oracle sucks with the support price $500 US. Redhat is better which is roughly around $200 so I might have to go with Zorin which seems cheaper at $48… but $48 per…. What? But again in terms of who to blame, it’s difficult when Linux has so many problems. It’s almost like a conspiracy when Linus with his Linux kernel made it so no one can blame him because he can always point to the distro! Freebsd can’t do this because it’s a full operating system with nice documentation (but I have never used it so I don’t want to give it too much praise. How did Linus win the debate on a micro kernel? I have no idea but he did! We need a time machine so that BSD would have won! Actually having a full operating system is keeping with the Unix-like motto “Keep it simple, stupid.”

I’ve had problems with printers and having little options at times when it comes to software availability with printers.

I don’t think Linux is to blame for everything and in someways it’s criminal what Windows and Mac do at computer stores. You just simply cannot buy Linux at a mainstream store in real life! There is no such thing as the “X year will be the year of Linux.” I CAN’T BELIEVE PEOPLE BELIEVED IT BECAUSE OF WHAT…. STEAM DECK! Who could forget their rude customer service and refusing to negotiate or relating to others!?

I’ve used Windows on other computers and I’ve been depressed by the much faster loading time of Windows compared to my Linux computer. It’s not the distro, it’s the Linux Kernel that’s making it load slower.

I don’t want to go into why I still use Linux. There are some good things but I just wanted to highlight all the negatives because there are a lot.

To summarize:

*Linux does get viruses – I’m living proof!

*Linux is not more secure!

*Linux needs to fix the “check hard disk” problems on Linux installed on HDD!

*You cannot download what you want from a software store for fear it will break your system!

*There are too many package managers and that’s why there are Flatpaks and Snaps which have their own problems.

*Gnome shouldn’t be the default desktop environment that’s heavily pushed! Changing desktop environments can basically only be changed with what the distro “gives a thumbs up to.”

*We should be able to continue to use X11. The Wayland change is to Microsoft like.

*Linux users are not honest about FOSS because of Steam (for gaming on Linux). Not all Linux users are or want to be enthusiasts!

*Freebsd is probably better because the file system is neater and has better memory usage. I have heard it’s closer to Unix (A couple reasons why Freebsd should have won in the courts!)

Why am I still using Linux? I feel I’m caught between a rock and a hard place and been involved with Linux for a very long time and feel that this time there is brightness at the end of the tunnel and I do have a plan.

I am sure a lot of Linux users would have given up by now and that’s sad. That’s the effect it has on you. Anyone who has had a lot more of a smoother ride than me and is happy, I say to them to keep using it. But I hope that Linux will improve regardless and that’s part of the reason why I wrote the article.

It’s nothing short of amazing that with Oracle, they don’t seem to use dependencies! Again, this was never an issue with Windows either! But then again, there was always driver problems with their nagging updates. But Linux Mint had a crazy “2 tier” system of dependencies. I can’t remember everything but it sure was complicated and seemed unnecessary. Also in the “update center” (it’s pretty big in Mint) there was always this fear of the actual updates themselves! “Oh! Will this package break my system? Will this one?” Lucky I have a lot of computer knowledge (but not as much as a computer enthusiast) and I knew which ones to get and based on the description Mint gives you before you download. With Fedora, Redhat, Debian I don’t think this is an issue. Oracle pride themselves on careful testing like Debian. Sometimes packages are downgraded and there isn’t a whole lot to update each month or whenever it is convenient to update with your schedule. It’s actually astonishing that people would think updating Debian is “boring” compared with other distros! Updating is always a terrible thing! That’s one of the worst things about Windows! But at least with Linux you are not forced to restart and get updates (or none at all) if you want. But Windows is a rolling release basically. Manjaro is rolling release and then you start having problems… modern Windows is problematic. Rolling releases are not good regardless of OS used. It all goes back to the eventual “packages breaking your system” problem. Oracle is the first distro where it’s humble with its downgrades!

If your system breaks (and if you want the latest distro upgrade and it’s too hard to upgrade), I would just reinstall the distro. Backup your data, don’t use Timeshift (which also takes a damn long time as well as hard disk space like Flatpaks….). I think USBs have a rescue option or there maybe a rescue kernel like with Oracle on restart. Anything else is a broken promise. Keep the process simple. Use simple backup programs for personal data only like Pika Backup. Just remember, you are not in Windows and Linux can be a very unforgiving operating system. But the Terminal is your best friend for installation and general maintenance. I don’t understand the hate it receives? As long as the website instructs you for installation, I don’t see how it can be a problem with typing or cutting and pasting? It’s one of the most powerful applications on Linux full stop!

I don’t think I’ll add anymore to this but the last thing I wanted to talk about was the software licensing. They are very complicated, confusing and tiresome to read, and also LONG! Which license do we use? Because there’s 3 of them remember! They don’t make a lot of sense. It kinda reminds me of Freebsd should have been a winner and their licensing conditions are extremely simple compared with Linux! I’m not a developer so I’m lucky. But we would have been more lucky had Freebsd won in the courts! I’m very tempted to use Freebsd in the future. They’ve helped make Playstation, Nintendo and other consoles that people enjoy out there. Linux…. Android is based off of it but it’s not really proper Linux. Sure, the BSD in Playstation is not proper Freebsd either but Android is based on the worst possible Linux distro: Gentoo. From what I’ve heard about it from Install to compiling… it sounds like a nightmare! But if you’re a computer enthusiast and developer go ahead. If it works for you, I’m happy for you and what I said doesn’t apply to you. But I digress as usual. Linux based Android phones spy on you. All phones do, but you want your personal data to be private and it’s not because it’s all sent back to Google! But this is not Linux’s fault, but the point making is that Freebsd license is a lot more attractive in what it says and in application. Linux has a very checkered history and then the big corporate giant Google gravitate to it with their Android phone (sadly too many people love.)

I think with all the many negatives about Linux, I think I still see the upside of using it now that I’ve gained more experience. 1 being privacy and no surveillance from Microsoft and no software bloat, better memory usage and the fact that there is choice from the big 2 OS available. I can update when I want and I am not forced to reset. Windows updates ruins your computer, so do Linux kernel updates! But we have choice in Linux and there is free (as in liberty free, not free as in “no cost” which a lot of Linux users don’t know or take advantage of free stuff and expect multiple meanings of the word “free.”) How would you explain Zorin premium? How would developers be motivated each day if there was no money? I would never update a kernel unless I had to (but I remind myself this was never a problem with Windows.)

Linux is an unfinished project and it’s a mess. I emphasize that. I would not recommend it.