With Windows 10 reaching EOL and with all the hype about Steam on Linux, I finally decided to format my old desktop and install PopOS.
I haven't seriously used desktop Linux in a while (almost a decade), however I used PopOS in a VM a while ago and was quite happy. I also wanted something that "just works", and PopOS promised just that.
Overall and I've got to say... I'm a bit disappointed with the current status of desktop Linux. I've got everything working now, but there's no way some things would be acceptable for a non-technical user.
I was mostly surprised with Flatpak and the amount of tweaks that I have to do with Flatseal... For something that seems to be the recommended install method in the Pop!Shop, I would expect most things to just work . Instead, by default:
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Steam doesn't let you setup alternative install directories
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VLC doesn't have GPU acceleration
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Syncthing (via Syncthingy) cannot run in background mode
Also, getting Steam to install games to a separate drive was such a pain in the ass (mostly because steam silently fails, but also due to some quirks with auto-mounting)...
Hopefully things will get better in the near future, but 2024 is clearly not yet the year of Linux desktop.
@JD557 nice having one more joining the linux front 😉.
Flatpak is being pushed in some places as "the way" to install apps, but clearly somethings with it have bad UX.
I find it useful for some particular things only when required and for all the usual applications just installing with the traditional package manager.
It's a nice use case for proprietary apps, for when wanting different versions of certain apps or things like that.