Intro

Hey guys, it’s Trafotin. Everywhere across the internet, people brag about the choice of Linux, and while not too complicated, Linux actually has less choice if your someone who cares about your decisions and I’m going to unpack why in my TED talk just shy of 20 minutes.

B… BUT MY CHOICE!

People like to think their computer is in all about choice and go ahead and crucify me, choice is actually very limited and I say this as someone with a channel who needs to recommend things to others. Linux just so happens to be the desktop OS that offers the most choices, but I would argue that most of them are “fake choices” at best or serious pitfalls at worst. Let’s back that up with an example, like say, your desktop environment or window manager.

Linux has lots of desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Mate, Cinnamon, LXQT, and LXDE. If you’re a window manager user, there’s plenty for you too: i3, awesomewm, Sway, xmonad, bspwm, and so much more! But what if you drill down to what matters: you want a system that’s comfortable to use, secure, and efficient at getting things done.

But let’s take security for example and this “choice” starts to break down. In order to promote the “secure” Linux desktop, we need to be using Wayland. Wayland is the next generation of display management on Linux and is more secure than the legacy window system X11. So how many of what I just showed support Wayland? The answer is only 3 of them: GNOME, KDE, and Sway. It’s a hard truth and that shows there’s actually less choice because most of these desktop environments and window managers are stuck in the past.

I’m not saying it’s easy; if it was easy, people would have moved already. But some Linux users practically worship their desktop environment and it’s just gross! Look, anything that can watch movies and communicate with my friends is like gold to me. The mentality I have is one of a digital nomad; if you use something and that something isn’t keeping up with either your needs or industry/security standards, then you have to move on to something better in life. The harsh truth is most desktop environments and window managers can’t keep up with the fast pace of development, either due to lack of developers, funding, or leadership. GNOME and KDE prove you can move fast because they both have lots of developers, funding, and solid leadership. That doesn’t mean you can’t go slow, because Sway helps build up wlroots for all the Wayland users who want window managers. And it can’t mean you go too fast either, because that’s why not many people willingly package Hyprland.

Gotta Go Fast

But it gets worse. Not only do your desktop environment or your window manager matter when it comes to speed, but your packages and everything you install does too, all the way down to your operating system. That’s why I recommend to stick to rolling releases. A rolling release means you’ll always get the latest and most up to date software with their newest features.

Fedora is cutting edge of Linux desktop users and has been dead-set on revolutionizing the Linux desktop as we know it. Many things critical to Linux, Flatpak, Wayland, image-based distributions like Fedora Silverblue, and Pipewire are just some of many. Fedora has been what I have stayed with for years because of its push for innovation in the desktop space and strong defaults.

Using Fedora is why I have been a long time advocate for rolling release distributions. Fedora adopts these new technologies faster, which means your system becomes not only more usable for you, but also more secure. I daily drove Debian for years and let me tell you: having outdated, crusty packages like GNOME 3.22, which at the time had a severe memory leak that went unpatched for years), just felt wrong. No offense to Debian, it’s a joy to work with in the cloud, but for desktop usage? No thanks.

Not only that, it does a disservice to the people who work so hard to create their software, only to find out there are weirdos in the wild using ancient versions, which they don’t maintain anymore. It’s about getting close we can to what is actually given to users. We’re seeing Canonical drop support for Firefox or cups and Red Hat with LibreOffice, but supporting the Firefox or LibreOffice’s snap/Flatpak means you are getting an experience curated by Firefox and LibreOffice’s devs. It’s only better for everyone.

And I know that there’s serious distrust over “but installing feature updates will break my computer!” Guys, this fallacy was created by Microsoft because they have beta-tested updates on their users since Windows 7. Features are not bad! Features fix problems and make your life better. If you are seriously concerned about stability, check out something like Fedora Silverblue, Kinoite, or Sericea. You don’t like an update, you can always roll back if you encounter a problem AND experience the awesome new features!

What are you going to do… use Windows or Mac?

The other thing I want to seriously stress Linux is not some silver bullet. Using Linux takes away one choice and it’s a choice I’m sure is going to piss the old people who watch me off—it’s using proprietary software.

Let me speak for experience as someone who does quasi-professional video editing, photo editing, and design work. I use the Adobe products pretty regularly and I’m familiar with the Affinity suite and let me tell you, unless it was Inkscape, using the other open-source solution felt like I was handicapping myself. GIMP’s supposed “stable” version is actually more unstable than the beta and Kdenlive can’t even show you something on a screen accurately (especially with proxy clips).

But the plot thickens, because using DaVinci Resolve Studio on Linux (yes, the paid one), you’re limited in what codecs you can use because of the stupid American legal system. And don’t get me started on getting proprietary solutions like it on Linux! You might not like proprietary software (trust me I don’t either), but when it’s an action I know for a fact can be done more efficiently somewhere else, I’m going to do it there.

And this forces you to surrender to Windows and macOS again. You’re a creative type like me and you find the behavior of Microsoft worsening every day—go use macOS if it means you doing what you need to and be aware of the privacy invasion and the trap of the Apple ecosystem. You want to play Destiny 2 or Roblox without being penalized or banned or you’re an aspiring game dev? Windows is there too.

Takeaways

In the end, it’s all about what works for you. And that’s what most important after all. If you can use your computer as a tool, that’s great! But only as tool. Temper your expectations and acknowledge what you can/cannot do, but always leave the door open to learn and don’t get attached to this stuff. It’s just a bunch of text buzzing around in a computer.