My current issue is i see you guys constantly having issues, editing files etc.
Is it not stable?
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
This is a forum where people seek help. Of course you’re going to see problems here. Nobody posts “hey it’s been several years and I’ve had no problems.”
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
Can confirm. I’ve been using Linux for nearly 30 years… I don’t post questions on forums. Bug reports for OSS projects, on the other hand…
Also can confirm. Been using Arch, which most people consider requires more fiddling than other distros, for almost 10 years now and have had few issues with it. I’ve had to fix my Windows install more than my Linux.
Only 80%?!? I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number. I really can’t see people running windows on their servers…
And to be honest, server stability != display server stability.
Of course linux is stable. It runs like 80% of servers on the Internet.
I assume *BSD isn’t counted in that number.
BSD isn’t Linux.
Unless there is a specific niche software that is only on windows, you shouldn’t have issues out of the box.
Some games have some compatibility issues, but it is getting better everyday.
I think the biggest hurdle for many people is that they are so used to Windows that it is daunting learning a new way of using their computer.
But once you get over that hurdle, it is frustrating going back to Windows. The amount of ads and pop-ups in Windows is criminal.
Try to use a user friendly distro. I use Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE plasma) and it is great.
Of course it’s stable.
Just like with Windows, the more advanced stuff you do, the more advanced problems you’ll have.
If you just wanna set and forget, avoid arch based and you’re golden.
Well unless it’s just editing the text file. God forbid you unknowingly enter vim and don’t know how to get out without rebooting.
There was a time when I had to do that. I was a teenager. I had no idea what I was doing. And it was many many years later that I finally learned how to quit it. That pain keeps me away to this day.
Long live nano, the warm and cuddly text editor.
Screw nano and ed, use mirco.
I’m imagining that same instance still stuck open for years until you found out.
To quit vim is simple!
Just get a second computer, network with the first one, SSH into the first one, find the process ID of vim, and pkill! Easy as pie!
… It didn’t occur to you to google “how to exit vim”?
It’s :q! and if you were in some special mode you can spam esc a bunch of times before.
They couldn’t, didn’t you read? They were stuck in vim!
I’d suggest that Linux tends to attract a higher percentage of people that want to tinker with their OS, and tinkering with your OS can lead to some unexpected outcomes, or outright break things that someone would have to turn to the community for help.
It depends a lot on what you want to do with it though too. Browsing the web, checking email, spreadsheets / word processing, etc? You could likely install literally any Linux os and be fine, and definitely be fine with the mainstream core distros.
If you’re gaming, I’d recommend a distro aimed at gaming. PopOS, nobara, bazzite, or Garuda all come to mind, depending on your preferred flavor.
But, as much as it pains me to say it, if you need to run, for example, Adobe or Autodesk products (or something similarly specialized and proprietary) you’ll probably have a better time doing it in windows. There are alternative options that will work in Linux fine, but if it’s for work or some other situation that requires you to use those specific proprietary products, you might be stuck.
You’re always going to see people with problems in support forums. If your Linux system is running well, you’re less likely to post about it than if you’re having problems.
gives an idea to create something like “stablelinux” where people share uptime and what practices they use to not get into trouble
Those communities got a little stale when enough people started reporting uptime in decades. Also, unless you’re on a flavor that can upgrade the kernel while the system is live, good uptimes these days are just the time between kernel updates.
For a reasonably stable but updated os I would recommend FreeBSD. You only have to install X yourself, and linux guides doesn’t work. But reading manual page and searching on mailing lists can solve every issue. OpenBSD is easier but it is a bit “slow” in performance, packages are not updated (you have to follow -current, the latest development branch).
I don’t know who these people having issues are but I run Linux Mint Debian Edition and have no issues editing my stuff.
The only issue I can imagine is if they had formatted an external HDD with ext4 and and copied docs from a previous Linux install, and now when they copy it to their new install, they don’t have permission to edit the doc.
For example, you try out Ubuntu for a few weeks/months. You format your ext HDD in ext4 and create docs in Ubuntu. You then copy those into the HDD. Or maybe you had another drive formatted with NTFS and copied docs from there onto the ext4 drive.
After a few weeks you erase Ubuntu from your machine and install Arch. Now when you try to edit a doc on the HDD or copy it to your machine, you find you don’t have permission because those permissions were set on your previous Ubuntu install.
I’ve had permission issues with that hence I format my ex HDD with exFAT and it works perfectly. Also works perfectly with Windows and macOS as they can all read/write to exFAT without permission issues.
The thing is that people use Linux and than find it so good that they try to find problems in order to spend time playing with it. It’s like a hobby, or a game… But you can also use it without making it a hobby. Ubuntu was born for this, but for that I would honestly suggest something like Manjaro
Manjaro? Are you sure?
I never tried PopOS, but I would never suggest Ubuntu. Manjaro is easy, updated, there are many people using it, offers large number of software, works well with Nvidia and other propietary drivers (the thing that generates issues for new users, usually). I know people think they had “security” problems, but they always explained what happened, and they just had a bad contract with the CDN service and a misleading error message in pamac, that didn’t impact the security of the user.
First time I tried switching to linux I went with mint and I had a lot of problems, everything I hated about windows seems to be even worse there. I switched back to windows for a year but last month I gave linux another shot with Manjaro. And I managed to fully switch to linux without any big problems so far. There is a lot to like about it, especially for a linux begginer like myself.
I am not really qualified to recommend it, but my experience as a noob has been great (gaming with linux native games and windows games, watching movies, customizing things, modding games…)
Is it not stable?
Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?
You are going to get gaslit to hell about this on lemmy. But no. It is not stable in the sense you mean.
The effort is worth it though.
It’s better than it was, but still not as user-friendly as Windows or macOS.
