PewDiePie made a video on why he installed Linux and explained why everyone should do it too. Due to his number of followers, this might be the year of the Linux Desktop? Hooray?
PewDiePie made a video on why he installed Linux and explained why everyone should do it too. Due to his number of followers, this might be the year of the Linux Desktop? Hooray?
Or rely on software that is not available in Linux and can’t be emulated, which unfortunately applies to both my work and personal use
It’s exactly this. There are SteamOS-like systems out there (Bazzite and CachyOS) but it’s a pain if you don’t know what you’re doing. Needless to say, Enterprises will be using Windows for a very long time since they can easily restrict software and such - and a lot of their software is Windows-based only.
Yeah every thread is basically “lol bro just use Linux, skill issue”… I’m very comfortable with Linux, shell scripting and all those things. Been doing is almost 30 years. There are a wide range of things that are just not supported, which makes it a non-starter for a lot of people.
It’s because, for the vast majority of people, it isn’t an issue. Web browsers work fine and gaming is pretty much solved. If you’re doing something technical enough to require specific software then you’re technical enough to figure out if it works for you. If you aren’t then it will work for you, and solve a lot of the issues Windows causes too.
I wanted to give new life to an old acer laptop/tablet hybrid. I installed Linux, but the webcam and microphone just won’t work no matter what. The power button also doesn’t work.
There’s still a long way to go before any casual user would accept this.
Your edge case is not indicative of a larger trend.
The good news is this isn’t an issue for most people, it was free, and your device was already doing so poorly with Windows you felt it was at the end of its life, so even not working perfectly it still worked.
Edit: Also, Linux isn’t one thing. Your distro may not have included the packages to make those devices work, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You could have searched for a solution, or perhaps a different distro would work.
This was the result of much research, I’m not entirely new to the space. No one got these peripherals to work on that device, unfortunately.
I don’t understand what you mean by this isn’t an issue for most people. Most people do care about a webcam not working right. Or do jou mean my device isn’t representative? That could be, but it doesn’t mean people with this device have a good Linux experience if they install it.
Yes, this. Most devices it just works, and a small minority will work with a little effort. A miniscule number will be like yours. It isn’t representative of the average experience. It’s an outlier.
Out of curiosity, how long ago was this? It very well may have the support now, though if it’s from some manufacturer using proprietary drivers for their webcams, for some crazy stupid reason, then maybe not.
This was just two weeks ago, and it’s a relatively old device, from 2014. It’s proprietary bullhonky all over that device unfortunately, from the screen brightness to the webcam to the bloody power button.
Work should supply you with a managed device. That’s out of your control.
I’m genuinely curious though - what ‘personal use’ software do you run that isn’t supported in Linux?