i get a little annoyed at posts that start with broad statements like “is linux actually ready for the average user?” but then it’s just someone asking for help to fix a problem they have with their sources.list or whatever. it’s not a massive problem, but it’s misleading and it feels borderline inflammatory sometimes
please tell when you’re asking for help
ty
On another note, I sometimes get tired of “Please recommend a good laptop” posts - they’re always just the same old advice: “I liked my Framework” or “Get a Thinkpad”.
I kind of wonder if we could just have an annual mega-post for Linux hardware that gets pinned and mentioned in the server links. For example, “(Pinned) Linux Hardware 2025”. Then we have a rule that you don’t do hardware recommendation posts unless it’s something extremely oddly specific, like “Best Linux hardware for a Pentium II build” or maybe even a question about people’s experiences with VFIO on recent motherboard.
I swear I remember there being a website dedicated to documenting laptops and other hardware linux compatibility. Someone here must know what I’m talking about.
I do use that sometimes. I was able to use it to look at similar laptop models to my Thinkpad to inform my purchase. I then uploaded a probe when I got my hands on it.
I see the need for posts with recommendations in some ways, though - neither the main site or the forum are the easiest to parse, and it doesn’t have every computer model. It is nice to have a human to guide you - it just isn’t so nice when the community starts to get cluttered with these requests.
Honestly part of it is some of these people just don’t do online research, and they might not read the community rules anyway, but it would be nice if we had an explicit rule that hardware recommendations either go to the annual post or be for very oddly specific needs.
h-node?
I feel you and that’s the main reason why I eventually give up on Linux discussion groups. “Is Linux ready”? Yeah, it’s been ready for decades now. I sometimes wonder if these annoying posts are just FUD coming from Apple and Microsoft.
to be fair, I understand the frustration and i myself hate linux sometimes too. i just wish they’d communicate they’re asking for help
Seriously, as someone who has been using linux as their daily driver since 2000, I find it pretry amusing.
Yeah, I started my journey in about 2001. Linux was definitely more geeky back then.
Linux feels so mainstream to me now. Some days I’m temped to switch to OpenBSD or something ;)
Sometimes I think about doing this, but then I remember that Linux is not my hobby these days, it’s my productivity platform.
I understand! For most of my career its been the same for me.
The “big” switch I’m currently contemplating at the moment is moving to FreeBSD on my home file server.
I do sometimes consider switching my workstation to OpenBSD when I get nostalgic for the early struggle days of linux. Like when you had to be really careful with hardware selection and what not.
But then I remember I had a lot more free time in those days!
Same here - daily driving Linux at home for at least 25 years now. I’m not a gamer, but for all the things I do, Linux has worked perfectly fine.
