So I’ve been getting grumpy at microsoft for not fixing glaring errors in their OS, like dissapearing taskbar icons, or slow file explorer, or onedrive automatically trying to backup my desktop (which is a scratch space for 10’s of gigs of data, why would I want that synced to the cloud?). I was fed up of Outlook (new), which is just a bundled web-app that can’t handle offline mail yet, can’t handle touch gestures for flagging and deleting email, and can’t put a shortcut to the calendar in the start menu. And I’m fed up of, oh my dear god, the inconsistent UI!
I still actually like Windows, mostly. I find the Window management (one of the main things an OS should do) to be superb; intuitive, fast, and robust (virtual desktops slightly less robust, but ok). I find app compatibility to be sublime (the other major thing an OS should do).
MacOS has terrible window management (though I gather window snapping is finally comming in the next MacOS version), and the taskbar, or whatever we call it, isn’t great. Also Finder is the worst thing ever come up with by OS developers. And, I currently need Nvidia for gaming and Reality Capture.
I use Linux every single day, via Windows Subsystem for Linux. I dabble occasionally with using the OS proper, and this was one of those times.
I like Gnome Desktop, it’s by far my favourite DE. I don’t see the point in windows clones like KDE or XFCE, they always feel like cheap knock-offs to me, though I appreciate that’s 100% subjective. I like the philosophy and robustness of Fedora, rather than Ubuntu that went a bit weird with flat packs and snaps and some weird business decisions. I tried Elementary OS most recently, and liked it, but it doesn’t update as fast as I’d like. So, I got myself an ISO of Fedora, and set out to boot my Surface Laptop Studio with it.
There was my first problem. Fedora won’t boot on surface devices, because of course it won’t. No, apparently there’s something in the kernel that means Fedora won’t boot. No error message, no output, just a blinking cursor like when they turn the power on again in Jurassic Park.
Ugh. I looked around a bit, then found that Nobora Project is based on Fedora, but has some tweaks that means it can boot on Surfaces. So I grabbed that, at this point not caring too much about distro philosophy, and more about just getting it to work.
It booted fine, I was presented with Gnome Desktop, and I revelled in how smooth and polished it was. Beautiful! Switching desktops, launching programs, all smooth and wonderful. I loved it. Then I twiddled my thumbs for a bit wondering what to do. All my data is in Onedrive. I use Office to access most of my documents, and find Libre Office to be a poor imitator, mainly because of it’s dated UI. Games would be a bit of a faff, needing to install Steam, which isn’t too much of a problem, but then also Epic games, which apparently is. Reality Capture won’t work in Linux (and requires Epic). Metashape only provides install instructions for Ubuntu… I got it working in Nobora/Fedora, but not installed.
Email is a major problem. LJMU have flipped settings so that only Outlook or Apple Mail can access our email, whether that’s on iOS, MacOS, Android, Windows, or Linux. Except Outlook and Apple Mail aren’t on Linux. So I can’t use an email client to check my email, I’m relegated only to the browser, which is far from ideal (I want my mail local so I can triage on trains and planes, and so I can access large attachments quickly).
So, I decided to just browse the internet. Then I realised two-finger scrolling on the touchpad was waaaay too fast. Ugh, another problem related to being on a Surface? Nope, not this time! This is just a thing in Linux, apparently. Here’s what the answer was on a stack overflow question:
A question on the fedora forums, for up-to-date fedora, had the following answers:
*sigh*
Right, all of the above are edge-cases. The failure to boot of Fedora was because of mixing Fedora and Surface. The issue with trackpad scrolling was a combo of Firefox and Gnome.
But it’s this myriad of edge-cases, that just crop up continuously, combined with just a total lack of compatibility with what my work (and hobbies) demand, that remind me why I gave up on Linux, and why I gave up again this time.
I spent a couple of hours solving Kernel problems and touchpad problems, and after all that I still couldn’t install the software I need to work and play.
Windows is getting worse with Ads and tracking and all that jazz. MacOS is getting better, but it’s not there yet for me, and Linux just can’t work for me stand alone. I can run anything I’d want to run in Linux, on Windows, via WSL. But I can’t run all the things I run in Windows on Linux.
Then as soon as I swiped to change desktops in windows, it stuttered, and some of my taskbar icons went invisible. Damn it!
If only Windows Devs cared about polish and consistency, and less about ramming upsells at us through our own computers, I’d be a much happier computer user.
This post was brought to you by the ‘troll everyone on Mastodon’ society 🙂
Prof. Peter L. Falkingham 
Leave a comment