The real reasons I use Linux are mostly out of convenience. For example, updating all my software and OS using one command rather than clicking on 50 updaters.
Interestingly for me it is the other way around. I have Windows 10 on the main PC, KDE Neon on a NUC and "obviously" several Raspberry Pi's doing various things.
I spend far more time maintaining the Linux machines, while my Windows box just works.
KDE Neon has been much better last year, but still every now and then some conflict pops up which requires manual command line intervention.
Clearly YMMV...
That said, I'm quite happy with KDE Neon and would most likely be quite content if I had to use it as my primary OS and didn't have any need for RDP. Sadly the latter is a showstopper for me.
What exactly are you doing to maintain the Linux system? Configuring it? I haven't done much of any Linux maintenance over the past decade, and I'm nearing two decades of full time use.
The only issue I could sink time into is the lack of deep (S3) and that's completely an issue caused by Microsoft's capture of most laptop manufacturers (they have forced new hybrid sleep states that don't even work on windows machines).
Well I try to update packages every now and then, security and that jazz, which has a non-zero chance of requiring manual intervention. Merging config file changes is a common one, every now and then some package mess to clean up.
Not saying it's a huge deal, though I do worry about screwing up the config changes, but it's a lot more work than what I have to do to keep my Windows machine running.
Try different distro, e.g. Fedora. Fedora heavily uses "convention over configuration" principle, which helps to avoid issues with merging of configs, because each piece of config is stored in it own file in .d-directory.
I always found KDE to be too much of a moving target. Maybe I should have mentioned linux mint xfce over a thinkpad without fancy hardware nor fancy software config.
But even then, the same machine with the same programs on windows would require a lot more care to avoid rot.
This still doesn't make sense. What type of software do you have installed that's messing with other "apps configuration"? Furthermore, what does "bloatware has the rights to change boot settings" have anything to do with "apps configuration"?
This is it for me too. On my desktop where I play some windows-only games it makes sense to go with windows because it's less hassle. On my laptop, it's just easier to use ubuntu or fedora than to manage another windows installation and keep it up to date & click through another set of installers for each piece of software.
Linux has its conveniences but I think I definitely spend more times on updates. Some break things and some like Nvidia's drivers can take me ages to actually apply (though with that one the usual trick seems to be to remove --purge nvidia-* first).
> Linux has its conveniences but I think I definitely spend more times on updates.
That depends on which distro and hardware you're using. I use laptops that are known to work well with Linux and Ubuntu LTS releases. This way, I spend perhaps 3-5h a year on admin tasks and it's mostly easy stuff.
It's actually amazing how GNU/Linux allowed me to gradually transition from configuring everything (when I was a student: XFree86, custom kernels, ...) to using GNU/Linux productively with almost zero housekeeping effort.
On my optimus laptop fedora+nvidia work quite well, I recommend you give it a try. Use official instructions for adding nvidia drivers from the rpmfusion repository.
You can even try Silverblue. On the off chance something breaks, i do an rpm-ostree rollback, reboot and the system is on it's previous working state. I could troubleshoot stuff If I want to but I usually wait for an upstream fix before I update again.
Silverblue is a desktop os not a server.
There is the coreos version that is intended for server use. It does need a different paradigm however. On normal fedoara server you are installing packages for applications you want to use, however on an rpm-ostree based system it is intended that you install applications by using containers.
Depending on what you want to do, you use the appropriate version.
Indeed if one is not willing/able to climb the learning curve of this paradigm shift, then they shouldn't use it.
Well I was setting up a desktop machine as a server. The idea of silverblue is great, only it sucks to actually use. Updates are slow, and everything is just needlessly harder.
I get why maintainers want to push flappypacks, I just don't care, it's a shit solution that leaks all over your users. Find a better way to fix your problems.
You might want to look into something less unstable.
I've had arch running unattended upgrades in a Cron for years.
Worst case I have to find my USB stick and do some debugging, not that an update has ever broken anything.
There is some minor maintenance I run maybe once every 6-12 months to clear caches or fix up any configs that need updating but I've never run into anything that prevents booting.
Just Ubuntu though admittedly I use a lot more packages than average so there's more that can break across updates. Also a lot of things that have caused me problems over the years are getting more stable.
Ubuntu is famous for breaking spectacularly as soon as you start install PPAs or non-stock packages. I'm still convinced that APT is not the right tool for a desktop OS, it's way too complex and has too much automagic to withstand a user that wants stuff like the latest versions of GCC, etc.
Once you learn to avoid NVIDIA, your life gets way easier. I've bought an RX 580 4 years ago and it's been a pleasant plug'n'play experience ever since.
I've never heard anyone advocate Linux out of convenience! Windows is way more convenient overall even if it doesn't have a package manager because you spend so much less time dealing with hardware and compatibility issues.
I do it out of respect for my hardware. On Windows, it wasn't unusual to be idling ~45c with Spotify and Discord open. That same workload stays well under 35c on Linux, even with my rather paltry 6-year-old CPU.
