edit: hey guys, 60+ comments, can't reply from now on, but know that I am grateful for your comments, keep the convo going. Thank you to the y'all people who gave unbiased answers and thanks also to those who told me about Waydroid and Docker
edit: Well, now that's sobering, apparently I can do most of these things on Windows with ease too. I won't be switching back to Windows anytime soon, but it appears that my friend was right. I am getting FOMO Fear of missing out right now.
I do need these apps right now, but there are some apps on Windows for which we don't have a great replacement
- Adobe
- MS word (yeah, I don't like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it's not as good as MS suite, of c, but it's really bad.
- Games ( a big one although steam is helping bridge the gap)
- Many torrented apps, most of these are Windows specific and thus I won't have any luck installing them on Linux.
- Apparently windows is allowing their users to use some Android apps?
Torrented apps would be my biggest concern, I mean, these are Windows specific, how can I run them on Linux? Seriously, I want to know how. Can wine run most of the apps without error? I am thinking of torrenting some educational software made for Windows.
Let me list the customizations I have done with my xfce desktop and you tell me if I can do that on Windows.
I told my friend that I can't leave linux because of all the customization I have done and he said, you just don't like to accept that Windows can do that too. Yeah, because I think it can't do some of it (and I like Linux better)
But yeah, let's give the devil it's due, can I do these things on Windows?
- I have applications which launch from terminal eg:
vlcwould open vlc (no questions asked, no other stuff needed, just type vlc) - Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can't do this on Windows.
- I can basically automate most of my tasks and it has a good integration with my apps.
- I can create desktop launchers.
- Not update my system, I love to update because my updates aren't usually 4 freaking GB and the largest update I have seen has been 200-300 mbs, probably less but yeah, I was free to not update my PC if I so choose. Can you do this on Windows? And also, Linux updates fail less often, I mean, it might break your system, but the thing won't stop in the middle and say "Bye Bye, updates failed" and now you have to waste 4GB again to download the update. PS: You should always keep your apps upto date mostly for security reasons, but Linux won't force it on you and ruin your workflow.
- Create custom panel plugin.
- My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don't know why, it just looks bad.
I am sure as hell there are more but this is at the top of my mind rn, can I do this on Windows. Also, give me something that you personally do on Linux but can't do it on Windows.
Open a link in any browser i like. Say "no" to updates. Have a main menu that doesn't look like a kiosk at the mall. Have my habits on my computer kept to myself. Install applications from outside an application store. Not need an antivirus software.
Ofc that’s possible in windows
Maybe he refers to
apt,pamacordnf/yumwhich on Windows would be https://chocolatey.org/ which is like Brew from Apple, not a standard from OS but a third party that helps you to update/install apps. That's the big issues with Microsoft/Apple, the lack of a repo to install updates/apps safely and officially.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/
I see, this was released 3 years ago (Chocolatey is 12 years old)... I'm not sure if this replaces Chocolatey.
For
sudoI usually use this:https://github.com/gerardog/gsudo
That's cool and can be installed with winget as
winget install gerardog.gsudo, maybe they still need to fix the terminal's look then, the Windows terminal preview were pretty cool when I tested it compared to the cmd and PowerShellThe terminal and the shell are two different things.
cmdandpsare shells, which automatically use the built-in terminal as I recall.Windows Terminal is not a shell. But it can open
cmdorpsorbashshells.Well their shell also sucks, but on Windows Terminal Preview I just select to run a WSL with
zshif it's not buggy.The fact that it's not even possible to disable the antivirus on windows 10/11 is infuriating. So much lost CPU for no reason.
IMHO, anti-virus on windows is actually important. Yes, it takes up a lot of CPU, but there are so many viruses that target windows.
Windows Defender is actually pretty good to the point where I wouldn't even put another anti-virus besides, maybe Malwarebytes. Some shops will still try to upsell McAfee to you though. :|
I've never had a true positive virus detection with Defender since 2010 (neither with Avast, which I used before Defender came out). All I've ever had alerts for are PUPs.
My only windows machine is just for gaming and doesn't browse the internet much, let alone install anything from the internet. The rest of my computers are Linux machines.
My biggest security threats are just phishing attacks trying to take over my Steam account, and I would rather save some FPS over having Windows waste CPU scanning every file for viruses.
Huh? You can absolutely disable defender. What are you talking about?
You're mistaken. It is not not possible to disable real time Scanning, even using GPO on Enterprise.
No I'm not, you absolutely can. Not all companies use windows defender, and you have to disable it for most 3rd party EDRs that don't use AMSI (defender API).
Huh? Is that a new thing? Last time I used Windows I could and did just turn off real-time protection in the UI.
Granted, it's annoying how you can't actually just uninstall it, but I'm pretty sure you can turn it off.
You can, but you may need to edit some registers to avoid windows reseting them.