clarry: Well it isn't all rosy on the Linux front. People like to complain about Windows' unification of the UI with mobile, but those who have used Linux have witnessed the change in Gnome, the shift into Unity, major KDE rewrite, etc. At least you can opt out of that mess if you're using alternative, smaller desktops or window managers. On the other hand, if you liked (say) old Gnome, you're pretty much on your own.
This is true but at least there are a lot more options than on Windows, where your only choice is to accept it (while also paying for the privilege with your money and/or personal info) or stop using Windows. Still, Cinnamon and MATE seem a *lot* more stable in this respect.
clarry: <Concerns about terminal utilities>
I can't really comment much on this as I haven't used the terminal enough, but this seems like something that shouldn't be a major concern for the average user on a distro like Ubuntu or Mint.
clarry: <PulseAudio / Alsa issues>
I've only used Linux Mint for the past ~3.5 years but I've had sound issues only twice and neither was caused by PulseAudio: one was a driver issue on a laptop (fixed with a .conf tweak) and the other was a software-specific issue.
clarry: Massive change, massive churn all the time. Ten years ago, major distro updates always caused trouble. Unless you used something rolling release (Gentoo, which I did use). Five years ago, same thing. Today? Same thing. I watched my father update his Fedora today. It was sad. Actually, I was planning on trying Fedora on my new laptopt, but I just lost the appettite for that.
I can't say I've really noticed this in the time I've been using Mint, granted they moved to basing their releases off the LTS releases of Ubuntu since Mint 17, but even before then there weren't such drastic changes that things kept breaking between releases. One of the things I like about Mint is they tend not to change things without good reason.
clarry: The security thing is another front that isn't exactly rosy. Certainly fanboys keep telling Linux is secure, as if repeating the mantra made it so. Facts are often absent from the surrounding discourse.
Yes, security does depend a lot on the user too... fail to follow safe practices and keep the system updated on any OS and you potentially risk being compromised. Linux is certainly more secure in general than Windows though.
clarry: Back when I started with Linux (back in 2005) my image of the community was that it was helpful, inclusive, held portability as a highly regarded virtue, and choice was a natural human right. Now the community feels extremely polarized, discussion is very hateful and argumentative, and always uderlined by this "our way or highway" overtone, suggesting that people must make a choice, an exclusive choice, and abandon everything else, or be abandoned. Portability isn't a concern as long as whatever runs on the high and mighty Linux as it exists in the mind of Lennart or whoever..
That isn't how things are in my experience (although there definitely are a few places where things are like that). It depends on where you go and who you talk to, really.
clarry: As far as privacy goes, you have to be real careful especially with the distros led by corporations. Ubuntu in particular has made some, uh, questionable moves.
It's really only Ubuntu that's questionable on the privacy front (and only Ubuntu itself, not any of its variants/derivatives), and even then it's a lot less than what Microsoft tries to get from its users. IIRC it was just the Amazon search thing, but that's a pretty obvious thing & can easily be turned off, plus when you turn it off
it stays off.
TodaysLoneWolf: That might happen once I relearn Linux. The last time I touched Linux was in 2007 during the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon days. It was fast and decent on my Windows XP machine, but I didn't have time to completely learn it due to work and going to school part-time.
Right now I'm looking at Linux Mint as an alternative; maybe I can start using Linux in earnest before the fall semester. Not for classes though, because I still need a fully-functional MS Office (accounting major) but definitely to begin giving Mac OS X and eventually Windows the boot.
I recommend Linux Mint - I even wrote a
guide to help people start using it which you might find helpful, and if you have any questions or need any help there are a lot of Linux users here :) Trying it in a VM first is a good idea, you won't be able to play many games but it's quick to set up without needing any system changes or having to reboot & you'll at least be able to get a feel for it that way.
qwixter: I used Unix then Linux at work, and my home PC is for gaming which is why I will not be switching to Linux. Plus, I hate updating drivers on Linux.
In the time I've been using Mint I've never found updating drivers to be a hassle. The driver manager is very easy to use and drivers installed through that are easily updated via the update manager like any other update. Even when drivers haven't been available via the repositories it wasn't difficult to install them - either a case of updating the kernel, or (in the case of some wifi drivers that needed to be compiled from source) extracting from a tarball & running one or two commands as root.
