Iāve some weeks ago moved my main computer from Windows 10 to Linux, specifically OpenSUSE Leap with the Plasma user environment, mainly because it doesnāt have the magic Windows 11 chip. I had never used Linux and have been a Windows user since I was six years old or somewhere around then (Iām in my late twenties now). Iād just like to share my likes and dislikes.
Things I like about Linux (my specific install, anyway):
- Not being a corporate environment. There arenāt any cheeky attempts at making money or advertisement anywhere, like the annoying fake widgets in Windows 11 and the half-filled start menu. Iāve gotten used to that on my laptop (which is running 11), but you do always have the feeling of āwhat are they trying now?ā That not being a thing is quite refreshing.
- In that veign, having actual widgets. I loved them in Windows 7; Iāve got a webpage widget on my second screen showing a Zoho sheet I made with an RSS feed. Just being able to be a bit creative like that is cool.
- The system seems quite a bit quicker than it was in Windows - though in all honesty this will also be because Iām still on a fairly fresh install.
- Iām positively surprised by how little I miss from Windows when it comes to programs. Steam having compatibility tools is great, for example. Otherwise there are often replacements for what Iām missing (eg. Iāve found one to allow general settings for my Logitech mouse).
- The general ability to change the way everything looks and feels. I feel technical people sometimes look down a bit on aesthetics, but I really care about the user interface I use day in day out looking and feeling nice. While Iām a fan of the Windows 11 look myself, I really like how much Iāve been able to get my UI to look how I want it to in Plasma. Though Iām a bit surprised that itās so hard to change the appearance of the start menu and bottom panel. Iāve had to install a specific program to change their colouring.
- The little icon jumping next to your cursor when opening a program (I know, Iām easily amused).
Things Iāve found annoying:
- Not knowing where to find anything. Of course, coming from Windows Iām used to there being a program files folder with my programsā folders, and a documents folder with (often) user settings for those programs. In Linux, everything just seems to be everywhere. What seems to be the ādocumentsā equivalent for the game Factorio is in my user folder in a hidden .factorio, but Iāve to no avail been trying to find out where my ādocumentsā for Workers and Resources are. Iāll find them eventually, Iām sure. In general, Iām looking around a lot, though.
- The lingering feeling of instability. This is my second install of OpenSUSE, after I messed up something leading to my computer having some files which it wanted to update, but using urls which didnāt exist. After this, Iāve been feeling a bit insecure and afraid of doing something that ruins my installation. I know thereās the saying that Linux ājust worksā, but Iāve never messed up a Windows installationā¦
- The capslock works differently, apparently. Iām used to writing every capital letter using the capslock key, meaning if I write a capital at the beginning of a word, I press capslock, then type the first letter, then quickly press capslock again and type the rest. In Linux, this often doesnāt work as it somehow takes a while for the capslock press to go into effect, so you often end up with āLInuxā, for example. After lots of looking around, I have found some script that seems to fix this (āLinux CapsLock Delay Fixer Masterā), but it also randomly stops working and there are other āodditiesā I canāt really explain.
- Every once in a while, my desktop icons get rearranged. This seems to be a known issue, but itās really annoying.
- It seems impossible to get Firefox to not restore sessions after shutting down the computer with it still open. Iāve tried several things, but I canāt get Firefox to just give me a fresh session on startup.
- The above all add to a bit of a general āstuck together with adhesive tape and loveā feeling.
- Not knowing how to install programs. This is more of a learning-curve thing, obviously. The software centre didnāt contain everything I could find online - for some programs, you could use āone clickā in OpenSUSE, but that seems to work more like a self-destruct button: Iāve tried those several times and have always had bad results >.>. Iāve found itās easiest to install programs just using flatpaks.
All in all, I am quite happy. Though I am still afraid Iāll mess up my installation, and Iām now at a point where thatād hurt. I have installed Timeshift, but also with mixed resultsā¦
Do you need Timeshift on an opensuse system? I havenāt used Leap, but had a Tumbleweed install for years which has Snapper pre installed.
You can install btrfs-assistant to help you manage snapper. You could have it create backups of your /home, then you can rollback if you think youāve messed up too much.
The firefox thing seems just firefox behaviour to me. Does it not do that in Windows? But you could use a firefox based browser that respects privacy more. Librewolf and zen browser you can install via Flathub or an appimage from their website. Librewolf at least will by default end and forget a session when you close the browser.
(FYI - best way to deal with appimages is to install Gearlever from flathub, then when you download an appimage you open gearlever and āinstallā the appimage. Gearlever is just for better integrating appimages into your system but also for keeping them updated).
My last Tumbleweed install I ran from 2019 to 2023. During this time flatpaks got a lot better and flathub got a lot more programs available. Now I use flatpaks as my first option for software, unless I think itās something that will give me problems being containerised.
Opensuse 1-clickā¦ youāre right, those can be a pain. You often end up adding additional repos, and itās never fun trying to clean up the problems that come with that after a while.
My suggestion is search for āopensuse āprograms nameāā and see if they maintain it in their repository first. (You can use Opensuseās preinstalled Yast to search for it even to keep it simple). If no, look for it on flathub, remember to look to see when the flatpak was last built, in case itās been unmaintained for a while. Failing that, check the developers page (usually GitHub or gitlab or similar) to see if they have recommended steps for install.
To be honest, I just installed Timeshift because I first tried Mint and that had Timeshift pre-installed, so itās the only program I knew for making backups.
It really doesnāt. The first thing Iāve been doing is getting everything to behave as much like Iāve been used to on Windows, and this Firefox behavior is really sticking out like a sore thumb. But Iāll fix it at some point, hopefully.
Thanks for all the helpful information :)
I think the Firefox thing might actually be KDE restoring your session and not Firefox. Try to check KDE settings to see if you can start with a blank session on login.
I already had that turned on as I want to start with a completely new session everytime anyway.
If the Firefox thing is a real pain, do consider the librewolf project, since it wonāt save your session every time, but also has ublock origin already set up by default.
Remember that even if youāre unsure some software is for you or not, just try the flatpak. One command to install, and one command to remove if you didnāt like it. Because itās containerised you donāt need to worry about it leaving behind unused libraries or cluttering your system with leftover bits.