Windows & macOS can't do this, but Linux can!

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#Linux #macos #windows

00:00 Intro
00:29 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming Server
01:26 Ultimate portability
02:59 Modularity
04:52 Live Systems
06:03 Support for older computers
07:25 Driverless printer support
08:54 Visual customization
10:37 Escaping vendor lock-in
12:13 And more!
13:47 Sponsor: Get a PC that supports Linux perfectly
14:46 Support the channel

You can literally grab your hard drive or SSD, plug it into another completely different PC, and still enjoy a fully functional install, with all your files, applications, and configurations.

Since the drivers for all the hardware Linux supports are in the kernel, you don't depend on what the manufacturer has preinstalled on your computer, and you don't have anything to install either when you move your disk to another PC.

The second thing is the ability to replace parts of your operating system with others, that fit your needs better. Windows and macOS are one size fits all operating systems; they're designed to provide a good enough experience for everyone. On Linux, you can pick a distro that fits your needs out of the box, or you can replace components. Get a other file manager, get a different window manager, change the init system...

Third, we have the live USB, or Live CD. This is something only Linux based operating systems do. You slap a reasonably sized ISO onto a reasonably sized USB drive, and you boot from it, and you get a fully usable system.

Not only can you try before you install, which is crucial when you're deciding what will run on your PC, but you can also have a distro that ONLY runs through a Live USB, like Tails, which means your whole system is in your pocket, and you can boot from it from any computer you want.

Have you tried running Windows on a 10 year old computer? Or even older? The latest, still supported version of Windows? Good luck, without spending time building a custom ISO to debloat the OS, and crossing your fingers for drivers to exist for your old hardware and that specific version of Windows. On a Mac, it's even less doable, the latest version of macOS supports at most the mac pro from 2013, and that was a very powerful, expensive device when it released.

On Linux? No problem, pick a distro that's lightweight, and enjoy your old computer like it was new. You'll get patches, security fixes, the very latest applications if you want them, but your system will run fine. If what you want is an OS that occupies the least amount of space possible? You also can.

Fifth thing you can do on Linux but not on Windows or macOS? Driverless printer support. On Linux, printers are detected automatically, and work out of the box. No driver CD to try and fit in your computer that doesn't have a CD drive anymore, no need to download anything from the internet.
You plug it in, and you print.

Next is UI and UX customization. Windows and macOS can't be customized visually. Not out of the box, not more than light or dark theme, and an accent color. If you want to change the icons, the general theme, the layout of the desktop, you can't.

With Linux, all major desktop environments let you change how your system looks or works. Yes, even GNOME. With extensions, and themes, you can have a radically different experience than the default.

Next, is no vendor Lock-in. On Linux, you're free to move to anything else. Once your distro is end of life, and won't receive any patches, you can upgrade for free to the next version, or, if you don't like that new version, you can also just decide to change distributions entirely.

On Linux, you could even BUY extended support to keep a distro alive and patched even when the distro's developer have abandoned it.

[kelvinhbo]

You can shutdown your display server and only use CLI mode for extremely long battery life on a laptop. Highly overlooked Linux feature that I use a lot myself.

[mirage]

Package managers were such a game changer to me when I switched. It's just so nice having an app store like solution for handling software. It feels so much more polished than grabbing an installer online and it's just nice to have basically everything updated in a single click.

[judewestburner]

In the server world Linux is a game changer. Being able to treat servers as cattle instead of pets meaning you can create em and destroy em at will is something Windows cannot really ever hope to offer with its server licensing model

[dctb]

As a dedicated user of old equipment, Linux is what I turn to inevitably at some point. From netbooks to Mac Pros, Linux runs on them all, pretty much. Writing this on a 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac!

[dmpath]

I'm one week into my Linux experience after decades of running windows. I thought it would be too difficult to switch to Linux. Boy was I wrong. Linux does everything I need and after paying Microsoft for years I can now see a windows free future.

[israellai]

The lack of lock-in is huge for me. My entire philosophy regarding consumer products is to avoid any sort of lock-in.

[xymaryai]

learning that distros have to maintain all the packages in their repo if they modify any libraries that applications expect was mindblowing, having no stable target for what you can expect to have to include or what version to write for... Makes me really appreciate the Steam Linux Runtime, i'm confused why distros haven't agreed on something similar for user applications.

[pietstreet]

Not to forget: Linux can read (and often write) almost all Disk Filesystems, Network Filesystems and virtual Harddisk Formats. You can use qemu-img and backup your entire Harddisk to a .vhdx or .vmdk File on a external Drive or a Network Share. I use Knoppix Linux as my every Day Swiss Army Knife when fixing Computers.

[mrbloodyhyphen-]

By far the best feature of Linux for me is sheer freaking customizablity of your OS. You can change so much about it and really make it your own.

[Finkelfunk]

Modularity is probably the single biggest reason why any developer will choose Linux. The workflow you can achieve with a fully customized Linux install is unlike any that you can get even if you start to doctor around in your Windows configs for years

[ruthlessadmin]

Pretty good list. The only correction I'd add, is that you really do want to reboot after Linux updates, even if it is technically optional. You can run into a lot of very bizarre, if not harmful bugs & app crashes, when there is a different version of a library/app on disk than in memory. It's also the only way to guarantee you're using the updated versions of all libraries & apps, after an update.

Also, I wouldn't get too carried away trying to install a Linux HDD into another system. True, it works "fine" as a general rule, but depending on how customized your system is, the new hardware may barf all over your config.

[binaryduck]

I work as an IT specialist for more than 15 years now, and always used windows since most of my clients used windows. Months ago i started having problem with a notebook i had for some time that was really suffering trying to run windows 10 on a celeron with only 4GB RAM and a low speed HDD. After some research and some distro hopping i settled my notebook with Bodhi and it worked like a charm, this turned my curiosity on Linux up again after like 10 years of avoiding it. Now i already changed my main Machine to OpenSUSE Tw, my not so old i7 notebook to mint, a Proliant that the company i work for discarded with Debian for study, my Father's almost dead notebook (worse than my old celeron) have Bodhi now and everything works soooo smooth now, i don't even want to see a windows machine inside my house again anymore.

[stephencoakley]

Printing support cannot be understated. I'm one of the defacto resident "computer guys" for family and friends that can fix their computer problems for cheap or free, and printing issues happen *all the time* on Windows. I'd say its on the top 5 most common list of things that I fix.

Printing on Linux is a breath of fresh air. It just amazingly works all the time without me needing to do anything at all. MacOS is somewhere in the middle -- usually printing just works without doing anything, but every once in a while I have to remove a printer and add it again to reset some sort of stuck config.

[AggressiveHayBale]

Booting a system from USB is an amazing feature even just for fixing some errors that in other situation would result in a complete system reinstall. This feature saved my OS at least a couple of times

[randyvanheusden]

Great video and thank you for sharing. I would have liked a list summary so I could copy that and share it with others who do not understand those values. Again thank you.

[ldiesqi]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it before (a lot of comments!), but the verbosity and the transparency of Linux systems, is a key point for me.
You can always see and know what your computer does, you have all the information in your hands, and you can find out exactly what, how, when your computer does anything.
I have little experience with MacOS, but in windows, you can not understand what is going on (eg. why the drive is heavily loaded), except using complex and difficult third party tools.

[alishxn]

Only using linux i can proudly say *"i use arch btw"* with windows and mac I can't 😂

[yodarunamok]

And note that the "one size fits all" problem is getting worse. Constraints are getting worse and worse. Personally, that is the main reason I've moved to Linux. Also, in my experience MacOS gradually forces you to upgrade -- problems will start to crop up that don't go away until you upgrade, even though they would appear to have nothing to do with the OS version.

[zerpointnothing]

After getting my Steam Deck, I decided to get Linux on a USB so I had something portable, and I've honestly fallen in love with it. I've only tried Arch so far, but when I get my next PC, I'm definitely going to do some distro hopping until I find something that I can settle with. Then again, Arch's KDE Plasma is already perfect for my needs. Honestly, the one thing that's keeping me attached to Windows is the support for games. If the few games I love to play start supporting Linux too, I'm probably going to leave Windows and never go back. Sure, it has its quirks, but that's the fun part. Nothing feels better than finding something not working on your OS and being able to fix it *yourself*.

Fun fact, this was actually sent from my little ArchUSB I set up for the first time I ever had my own Linux OS (i don't count SteamOS since that's a little locked down lol).

[koenijnn]

Some nuances are in order:
- MacOS can be installed and booted from USB. So actually it’s a live stick, works also on other Macs (when on same architecture).
- A Mac can be put into Target Disk Mode. Technically that’s not MacOS, but when in this mode the EFI will make it act like a big USB drive you can plug into another Mac of PC to retrieve data. Doesn’t matter if MacOS is screwed up completely.
- Long time ago I’ve disabled the MacOS GUI and replaced it with X11 and a window manager. Underlying unix system is Darwin, a BSD like unix. A lot of years back, it was even possible to run some unmodified Mac apps in X11 with OpenStep as window manager (MacOS 10 is derivved from NextStep). Not sure about this now as I guess OpenStap and MacOS have drifted further apart.
- Printer support is actually quite good in MacOS, lots of drivers are available. I’ve never installed a printer driver, and I’m not talking about AirPrint compatible printers. But granted, I don’t print a lot and when it’s with printers targeted at businesses.
- MacOS APP Icons can be changed. Just inspect the APP and overwrite the APP icon, its a vector graphics file. Completely changing the UI is/was possible using 3th party tools.

In the past I’ve build many custom linux systems using Linux From Scratch or some half build minimalistic Linux distributions. In the end I wanted to have the ease of use of a well thought out desktop experience that’s reliable and just works, but also the power of a unix. For me that was MacOS. If it’s not on a desktop, then I use Linux.