That you can "do everything that windows does". You can't. You can do similar things, you can do different things, you can do basic things, yes, but Linux can't do everything that windows does.
I built an entire theatre using Linux. Architect was on autocad, that was alright, but engineering was on vectorworks & there I had to ask for .dxf exports.
Qlab (macos) is 100% a no-go, I actually own a macbook just for this piece of software.
Isadora runs on wine, but video play is problematic. Isadora is a video mapper/VJ/mixing software.
Of the big three of lighting console software, only Chamsys' MagicQ runs on Linux. Infuriating when you know Grand MA consoles are linux-based. ETC? Don't ask.
It's niche (how about Enttec or DMXKing interfaces configurator?) but it's my niche. I survive doing things differently, and, yes, owning a dual-boot AsahiLinux/MacOS device.
Interesting point, but when people want to switch, and they hear Linux can do everything that windows can, they will think that everything they can do on windows can be done on Linux. To make everyone happy, Linux must be a superset. That's a touch ask.
Another thing Linux can't do:
Run all hardware on many new computers.
Not that much of a problem, just buy different hardware or wait - they'll address the works. But if someone just bought fancy new hardware, and wants to put Linux on it, there is a decent chance of running into sore spots, or of Linux not booting at all.
Windows doesn't support running on a Raspberry Pi Zero or an M3 mac. And can't run a lot of the software that Linux runs. If you want to run Windows you just have to buy different hardware...
Usually the phrasing is something like "you can accomplish the same things on Linux that you can on Windows." Meaning "yes, you can use a web browser, edit photos, use email, etc." Many people have no idea what an operating system is and what it means to use a different one.
Are you telling someone what they need to do to get windows, converting from Linux?
I made it clear they support different things, even though there's significant overlap - and that means some of what Windows supports, Linux doesn't, which is critical info if you're switching from Windows to Linux. If someone were asking he reverse, I would likely tell them the reverse (if, for example, they were used to running a pi).
Not sure if when people say you can “do everything that windows does”, they should be interpreted to mean "every single piece of software/drivers ever written for windows was also written for linux".
When you work in an industry where the entire collaborative workflow of everyone is based on software that doesn't run on Linux, then not running that software is equal to not being able to work in that industry.
Yes, you can mix music on Linux PC's. No, you can't run a concert venue on Linux PC's.
Believe me, my team and I have tried. And we yell "fuck this proprietary shit" on a regular basis. But we're still forced to use it.
When you work in an industry where the entire collaborative workflow of everyone is based on software that doesn’t run on Linux, then not running that software is equal to not being able to work in that industry.
there's no denying that's true, though ofc it has alot to do with microsofts very agreessive and anti-competitive practices.
though its all a bit tangential, the main issue i think comes down to what someone means when they say "everything". certainly if someone said "you can do everything", i'd expect them to qualify what is (should be) obviously a slight exaggeration as parlance. they don't literally mean "everything" they just mean most everyday things. i think its fairly common in everyday speech for someone to be able to work out thats what they meant.
in the few rare cases when someone literally means absolutely everything, then yes that silly statement would be incorrect. and if strictly intended with that meaning would certainly qualify as misinformation.
Our media servers are W7 (!) but I access them with VNC. And lots of screens/beamers here are on PI computers.
...then of course we need a windows laptop for the wireless mics, for the FoH configuration, the videowall, stuff like that. Mails and docs are google anyway, remote access is teamviewer.
I can't run it all on linux, even if I sit at a linux computer the most.
Currently there are three things that stop me from going Linux and two of those are purely software related (the third is that I don’t want to hate my work software anymore than I currently do).
Is it vital software in the sense of it allowing me to work or bring me income? No. Is it something I wish to just use without fiddling after every update because I use them for fun? Absolutely yes.
So far, I have spent about 6 hours (sporadically over the past 3 years) trying to set up a way to do this, yet ultimately it didn't ever work at all. And every time I end up using some online third party service just to get it over with.
I did it on Windows once and the setup was a simple 5 step wizard. After which digitally signing a document just works with a couple of clicks.
Bonus round:
on Linux there is only one PDF viewer that implements tripple click for selecting a whole line AND can invert the colors of the document (which helps some partially blind users). That viewer is Atril and it has no way of even attempting to digitally sign a PDF. As soon as you want to do the signing, you lose those one of the two features and people with impairments can't do their work properly.
the screen readers have voices from the 90s and setting up anything modern with them is above my skill grade - as again, I fucked with it for days and didn't manage to get a natural sounding voice to work. On Windows it is way simpler, including working well for mixed language documents - for example German text with technical terms in english or latin.
Then again, it's not about Linux, it's just about your-favorite-few-click-program not being available for Linux.
There's nothing technically preventing Adobe from making Reader & Acrobat for Linux (they actually used to, around 2007 I even worked in a L10N company and we tested it.) It's just a business decision.
Once you start asking questions of why eg. Photoshop is not on Linux while eg. Firefox, VLC or GIMP are on all platforms, you will learn stuff about the world, which has little to do with Linux per se.
PDF was a proprietary format controlled by Adobe until it was released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008, at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts.
Yes, but still, it' something that may be commonly required, and Linux can't do it >!(according to the comment above, I never tried to do it so can't comment on how hard or easy it is)!<
I would also guess that probably a lot of Microsoft enterprise stuff like active directory group policies likely aren't supported well, but I don't have enough knowledge to back that up.
Linux can't prevent you from permanently removing files. While in Windows it's a chore to remove a number of files/bloat, which are then most often back after a system update.