this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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What can you do on Linux that you can't do on Windows? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by Subject6051@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
38 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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

  1. Adobe
  2. 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.
  3. Games ( a big one although steam is helping bridge the gap)
  4. Many torrented apps, most of these are Windows specific and thus I won't have any luck installing them on Linux.
  5. 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?

  1. I have applications which launch from terminal eg: vlc would open vlc (no questions asked, no other stuff needed, just type vlc)
  2. 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.
  3. I can basically automate most of my tasks and it has a good integration with my apps.
  4. I can create desktop launchers.
  5. 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.
  6. Create custom panel plugin.

  1. 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.

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[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • boot from a btrfs snapshot
  • run docker without running a second kernel
  • boot an older kernel, in case something fails
  • run the system completely without a gui, to save video RAM for other tasks
  • distro hopping
  • use multiple desktop environments
  • use your computer without a mouse
  • create a directory named CON
  • use old hardware painlessly
  • have your system not spy on you without extra effort
  • create weird stacks of software raid, volume manager, disk encryption and filesystems and then boot from it
  • read the kernel developer mailing list and be hyped for new kernel features like bcachefs, which will hopefully come someday
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I am an idiot. I've heard a lot about bcachefs and I only just realized the name is about a cache, not a bunch of cooks.

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 months ago

Knowing that it originates from bcache probably helps to prevent this confusion.

[–] sneaky_b45tard@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)
  • run the system completely without a gui, to save video RAM for other tasks
  • use your computer without a mouse

To be fair you can do these things with Windows too. There is a Windows server core edition without GUI.

[–] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But can you call it Windows if there are no windows?

[–] hydroel@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Microsoft Wall™

[–] dlove67@feddit.nl 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like Linux better

All the other reasons don't really matter.

[–] Subject6051@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I need new friends, I am gonna replace my best friend with you.

[–] Samihazah@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Friends shouldn't be platform exclusive.

[–] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Surprisingly profound for just another windows v linux slapfight. I recently watched Cory Doctorow's DEFCON talk on enshittification, and something he brought up is how once-good, now-shitty social media platforms held their users hostage by being the only platform with all their "friends" (or at least that specific group of people)—the alternatives being to organize dozens of people to migrate to a new service or losing all those friends.

Real friends aren't platform exclusive

[–] Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

okay basically so many things sooo much better, first of all i can change any part of software of the os for any other one i like. I can fix my installation no matter how broken it is as long as the filse system is still intact.

[–] Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

you can do anything without ever using a desktop environment

[–] cozydeer@mastodon.social 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@Subject6051 download and install at no cost, customize/change DE or not use one at all and opt for a simple window manager, use a packet manager to download and install applications

[–] Aetherion@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Windows has it's package managers. Winget and of course chocolatey and others

[–] cozydeer@mastodon.social 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@Aetherion that’s actually really cool to know, i haven’t used Windows 10/11 much on personal desktops but i’ll def take it for a spin

[–] Aetherion@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Yeah personally, I use Mac for the peace of mind, because generally, I don't trust package managers anymore. Don't get me wrong, Debians repository is extremely well maintained, and I use Debian as server OS, but I like the Mac as a daily driver for banking stuff, because I trust the Mac App Store (people have to pay, Apple checks every App and so on). And for the daily stuff I do with my Mac, I don't need any special software from Homebrew.

[–] packetloss@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Update the OS and all installed applications using a single command.

[–] Opafi@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Snap and flatpak would like to disagree.

[–] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)
  1. Not update my system

You can't do that on Windows, the updates are forced on you.

[–] Treeniks@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You definitely can with Group Policies.

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

I'm not enough of a windows cuck to know what that means. I'm guessing some registry nonsense.

[–] BitingChaos@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I found something I couldn't easily do on Linux...

I wanted to create a Shortcut to a GUI application directly on my Desktop on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04), and after fucking with Gnome extensions and googling multiple terms, I thought I was going insane. There is seriously no easy, standard, or simple way of doing that.

On Windows or macOS you can just click & drag to make a shortcut to a file, and then put the shortcut on your Desktop. Done.

On Gnome you have to manually create a .desktop file, fill it with the parameters to run the application (usually by opening a different .desktop file and copying & pasting the contents), ensure you also have Gnome configured to even allow desktop icons, and then copy the .desktop file to the Desktop.

The Gnome experience was the most-rigid, least user-friendly or user-customizable interface.

I guess the problem is that I shouldn't be using Gnome. I liked how simple & clean it is by default, but I hate how inflexible it is.

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Desktop icons should not exist. Now that is one thing gnome gets right.

[–] dark_stang@beehaw.org 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can use my computer without it installing software I don't want (like when Windows installs candy crush) and without it advertising to me.

[–] Treeniks@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only thing Windows installs without you wanting to is Edge. Ads like Candy Crush will only be installed after installing windows for the first time, not after any updates.

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Lol the excuses. "Windows only ever messes up all your settings twice a year with the big updates. The rest of the time it's fine."
How about they don't touch my shit at all?

[–] NormandyEssex@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Most if not all of these seem very easily done on windows. You can create scripts as you like and set up environment variables like vlc. Control of updates I’m not so sure about, I haven’t messed with it I just let it auto update.

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

The joy of creating powershell or cmd scripts. I'd rather do everything by hand. I get so irrationally angry whenever I have to even look at a script on windows.

[–] DrM@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

If you own a Windows 10/11 Pro version, you can set a group policy for control of updates. If you own a Home edition, you need to change a Registry entry. It's not hard, but just as you I like Auto update more because I tend to forget to manually update

[–] somenonewho@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Nothing. Also everything.

You can probably do most of not all of the things I do on Linux on a regular basis on windows just as well. But at this point I feel like I have a reverse "Windows is the default" effect going on since for me Linux has been and is the default for over 10 years.

When I start work in the morning I turn on my Linux laptop to ssh into some Linux servers (and RDP to the occasional windows servers/desktops).

After work I play games on my Linux handheld or do some work on my Linux desktop. Maybe move some files on my Linux Nas.

Like I said I could probably do all of this on windows. It would be a major change and in would have to relearn some things in addition to figuring out how to do some stuff on windows that I just never do. But at this point why even bother. There are a lot of ideological reasons to move to Linux there might be some technical reasons on either side but I just don't have any pull to use windows unless I need to (some special program/firmware updater whatever) for which I do have an install hanging around, which I boot once in 6months or so

[–] EccTM@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)
  1. You can start applications from windows command line. Depending on the program you might need to provide the full path to the executable though. Eg: Start chrome.exe
  2. Windows has a (preinstalled in Window 11, optional in Windows 10) software called WinGet that will update all recognized applications via command line. Covers stuff from Windows Store, and most popular software installers. Basically acts as a Windows package manager.
  3. batch files, software like autohotkey... automation can definitely be done in Windows too.
  4. You mean shortcuts?
  5. Pretty certain you can defer updates until the time suits, but Windows is definitely more forceful in pushing updates than Linux. There are ways of turning off updates too, but probably not without third party software or digging in regedit blindly.
  6. Rainmeter could provide something similar.
  7. Do you mean Command Prompt, or Windows Terminal? Terminal is actually pretty nice, and very customizable, both in terms of theme and functionality.

I run Arch Linux (btw) and have a very neglected Windows 11 partition.

I have a command set up in linux using ddcutil that allows me to tell my second monitor to swap source from HDMI (Chromecast) to DisplayPort (PC) and back as desired. No clue how I'd do that in Windows.

[–] PlexSheep@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

I use windows terminal at work. It's okay for a terminal emulator on windows, but I have some problems with it:

  1. It's not kitty
  2. When using FiraCode NF, italics are scaled super weird and I hate it. I opened a GitHub issue and was told to use the preview version. (No I'm not going to install a preview version on my work machine just to get something as basic as regularly scaled italics)
  3. Their mark mode is decent but has weird hotkeys and you can't change them. Must admit that the mark mode interface looks good through.
  4. I can't use my regular hotkey for the drop-down terminal (normally shift F12, but windows blocks that for some reason)
[–] mfat@lemdro.id 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Plug in every USB i find on the ground without fear.

[–] Magnetar@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

There are USB-killers, which produce voltage spikes to fry your mainboard, or just the USB part of it, if you're lucky.

[–] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Docker! I have never experienced a more unpleasant software than Docker for Windows.

[–] bzxt@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think I read somewhere a while ago that Docker is only really "native" on Linux, because on Mac and Windows it spawns some internal virtual machine or something like that. Not sure if i remember it correctly but that would probably be a reason for worse performance i guess.

[–] nous@programming.dev 0 points 11 months ago

There is a native windows docker as well, where you can run windows containers inside it. But no one uses it, everyone just wants to use the linux containers which require a linux kernel and thus virtualisation on windows. Performance should not be worst on it though, but the layer of a VM added to it adds a layer of jank to make it appear to work like the native linux version (ie mounting host folders need to be mounted on the VM first before they can appear in docker, and while that is mostly transparent it can cause a few issues with some things).

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Others have already answered your specific points, which are all (sort of) possible on Windows. I would like to present a quick list of things are not possible on Windows, this is split in 3 parts: Truly impossible, Possible but so convoluted it might as well be impossible, and possible but much harder than what it should.

Truly Impossible

  • Choose your preferred program for things. Sure you can do it for simple stuff like text or video, but what about my graphical interface backend, my file explorer or my DE.
  • Choose your disk format. Again you can use an incredible array of (I think) 3 formats, and while I also only use ext4 on Linux I know BTRFS is there for me if I ever want to switch to a modern filesystem.
  • Customise your system. Again people are going to claim that this is possible on Windows via regedit, but it's not on the same level, I can't have a Windows version stripped of controller support or wireless support if I know I'll never plug a controller or a wireless card on the machine.
  • Upgrade every single component of your system in one go. Because the way programs are installed on Windows you need to upgrade each one on its own.
  • Fix issues with the system, say you found a bug on Linux if you have the expertise you can 100% fix it, on Windows the best you can do is report it and hope for the best.

Almost impossible

  • Using a tiling window manager
  • Virtual desktops that actually work

Harder than what it should

  • Customise Super+ commands
  • Prevent auto updates