The bad things about using Linux

After using Linux (Kubuntu, specifically) for a little over 7 months, here's my report.

Two questions out of the way first.

Did I switch back to Windows?

No.

I still use Linux as my daily driver, and at this point I prefer it over Windows. Any time I turn on my Windows 10 laptop (I'll get to that in a minute), there is the nice feeling of, "Oh, I know where everything is, nice", but then run smack dab into a Windows annoyance.

Small example: Taskbar clock and date. Windows 10 has no option to put the date and time side-by-side on a single line when viewing your taskbar "small", and you can't change the font just for that area either.

In Linux, no problem:

Whenever Windows does the "you can't do that" thing for something as simple as this, that really puts me off. Any good feeling I had for Windows vanishes the instant I encounter crap like that.

Do I consider Linux better than Windows now?

Yes, for me.

I can write my articles, edit and publish my videos and do all my internet crap without issue...

...but that doesn't mean my experience has been problem-free.

The bad things I've encountered using Linux

Fortunately, the bad stuff I've had to deal with has been very minimal, but there have still be a few annoyances.

I can't print.

This isn't Linux's fault but rather the fault of printer manufacturers. Most modern printers don't talk to Linux at all because they're made only to talk to Windows and Mac (and sometimes they don't even talk to Macs properly).

When I need to print anything, I have to copy the document to a USB stick, fire up the spare Win10 laptop, copy it over there and then I can print.

I can't eject SD cards from the GUI.

Linux has no problem ejecting USB sticks as that works just like Windows did, more or less. But with SD cards, different story.

I can right-click/eject SD cards from Windows, but in Linux I have to bring up a Terminal and manually unmount using udisksctl. In the GUI, Linux offers the ability to eject SD, but it doesn't work, so I have to do the Terminal unmount thing.

Yes, I did research this and read various forums about why this happens. I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but at least I found a workaround that allows me to safely eject an SD card.

Save/Discard instead of Yes/No on dialog boxes

I'm certain this is something I can probably change in some configuration file somewhere, but I've not looked it up yet.

What I prefer whenever I see a dialog box that's asking to save is providing the option of YES or NO, answerable with a click or by pressing Y or N. Linux doesn't do that. It's SAVE or DISCARD, answerable with a click or pressing S or D.

I am still not used to this, and I don't know if I ever will be. It is burned into my brain to expect YES or NO from a dialog box and not anything else.

However, I can't blame this 100% on Linux, because Windows sometimes pulls this crap too with "Save" and "Don't Save". The words are slightly different, but it's the same S/D instead of Y/N thing going on.

The experience has still been good

My experience hasn't been problem-free, and yeah I've had to find workarounds for certain things, but Linux has been good enough to keep using daily.

There's been no point where Linux outright angered me to use it. I absolutely have felt anger using Windows, but not Linux. Yes, I am saying that for me, Linux has been less stressful in use for my daily computing life. It did take time to get used to how things worked, but I get along with it now. It's good.

Published 2024 Feb 1