If you do these 5 things... You should NOT use Linux

Proton & Lutris
Libreoffice & Nextcloud
G.I.M.P, Inkscape, Krita
It's cooler, more secure, more private, more trusting etc.
More compatible than Windows 11 that's for sure

this is 100% valid. even on wayland it's working great.

it took like 3 days to migrate my whole workflow to libreoffice. it's definitely doable for 95% of ms office users but when you're in a big company it gets tricky. formulas work a little bit different so you have to consider that. libreoffice is case sensitive, ms office is not.

this is again mostly a compatibility with other parties issue. and from what i understand photoshop has a lot of third party addons that would definitely be cumbursome to migrate.

i have to use windows at work and it drives me crazy. constant notifications for mundane stuff, no package manager, no sane way to keep apps up-to-date, commandline is shit.

even freebsd was better at handling my thinkpad. i have a wifi dongle, on linux it just works, on windows i have to install an xp app to be able to use that.
- Really the only thing that I miss on Linux is creative cloud stuff. Yeah, gimp and inkscape cover 80% of the functionality of PS and Illustrator right out of the gate, and I bet I could get to 90% if I sank a bunch of hours into learning the differences. Which is amazing for open source software.
  
  But there's a gap when you have a team of dedicated and highly paid developers and hordes of creatives testing everything out and demanding progress that's going to be hard to overcome.
  
  sometimes that's right, but other times it fires back. like in autodesk software, it turns into a money making machine. because they're the industry standard for more than a decade now, they just pump out new version every year with barely any changes and deliberately not forward compatible. so you just pay more every month, because everything is subscription based now.
  
  That's fair. Another example of what you describe that I'm more familiar with is Epic (medical records software). My hypothesis is that the differences that matter are:
  
  Cost of switching is higher and/or
  
  The people making the decision (business manager, hospital admin) are farther from the actual users of the software.
  
  Could be lots of other reasons too, but these are the ones that jump out at me.
- And I have a wifi dongle that works on Windows but not on Linux so... PBBBBBBBTTTTTT
  
  Why are you trying to find opportunities on every comment to bash (no pun intended) Linux on a Linux community?
  
  If you don’t like it then just leave.
  
  If you want a circlejerk piss back off to reddit and get to wanking.
  
  Such a loving and friendly individual....
  
  Yes, I am.
  
  It's tolerance for willful stupidity that I lack.
  
  So you lack self tolerance. It was noticeable from the random lashing out at others.
  
  Yes, you're quite the intellectual. I bet all your friend tells you that all the time.
  
  👍
  
  Dude. Calm down. I’m literally just asking a question and giving you an answer based on the way you’re talking about Linux.
  
  No, you're literally just being an elitist asshole that wants to swim in a sea of your own fartwater, free from anyone telling you that your shit stinks. This sort of attitude is the very reason Linux is still half-assed garbage for anything other than the most basic computing tasks or dedicated environments where a staff of people is paid to manhandle it.
  
  If you don't like reality, you fucking leave. Ketamine might help.
  
  Ok dude wtf I’m literally just trying to be honest with you and you just tell me to “Keep Myself Safe” (kid friendly kys)? How do you fit into society? People will disagree with you every turn you take in life, and you would just tell them to take Ketamine? No, I refuse to take advice from someone is more disconnected from reality than you’re believing I am, and also, how am I being an elitist asshole when I’m trying to ask a question? That’s like a teacher asking a student a math question and then the student calls them a facist. Clearly you don’t like Linux or it’s community and you should just leave, nobody wants or is forcing you to stay here with people “free from anyone telling you that your shit stinks.”
  
  Are you even literate? Because you seem to be reading a lot of shit I didn't fucking type.
  
  Take your fucking meds, dude, and stop posting until you do.
  
  I am literate, thank you very much. Plus, I don’t have meds to take, and yes you did type a lot of stuff I read and responded accordingly to your attack of a comment telling me to “take Ketamine” <- You typed this btw (shocker😮). Also, am I supposed to go word by word to your comment like it’s an article? I’m not stating many quotes because it is drawn from a conclusion on the way you are harshly criticizing Linux (on a Linux community nonetheless) and how you are attacking the community when they just ask you to leave a place you clearly don’t like.
Not even close, half my shit doesn't work.

If you think either are replacements for Office, you've never actually had to use Office for work.

GIMP sucks and has nowhere near the feature set. Good luck working in CMYK.

None of this matters.

Tell that to wifi cards, audio interfaces, instruments, or other hardware that some rando hasn't written a half-assed driver for.
- ProtonDB says that my personal library in steam with over 800 games only has 1% games which don't work, and a total of 7% that doesn't just run when you click play. This means that the most pessimistic view of my library is that 93% of the games work, that's probably more than on windows 11 for what I heard about compatibility for old games. I highly doubt your library is even remotely close to the 50% incompatibility you're claiming.
  
  They are. I do. If you need something in the level of complexity that "only" Microsoft office can provide, you shouldn't be using excel to begin with, a simple script with a database will be a lot more powerful and fast.
  
  GIMP not supporting CMYK natively is getting quite ridiculous. However as far as I remember there have been plugins for it since forever, plus this is only important for printed jobs, anything digital doesn't need CMYK. Also depending on what you're trying to do Krita might be a better option.
  
  If that doesn't matter then what does?
  
  All of the ones I have tried work out of the box, also the ones that work is only so because windows has more users so companies bend over backwards to write drivers for it, but whenever companies give the same amount of treatment to both Windows and Linux the compatibility is always better on Linux, e.g. PlayStation controllers are a pain to get working on windows but work out of the box on Linux.
  
  What ProtonDB says and what reality is differ quite a lot.
  
  "Well you shouldn't do that because I said so." Irrelevant response.
  
  Yes, there are numerous jank plugins that all half-work. CMYK support is only the tip of the iceberg and it's enough to exclude GIMP from entire industries. I do not know why people keep mentioning Krita in the same breath as GIMP, given that it's fully cross-platform and is specifically geared towards illustration. I can use it on Windows or Mac just as easy as Linux. That's not a selling point for Linux, it's an example of why Linux isn't really needed in a given area.
  
  I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about the average user here. That's what people keep telling me in other responses. Since when did the command line matter to average users?
  
  Well, you know, maybe if Windows was more popular Sony would make a driver for it. This excuse works for hardware that doesn't work in Linux, so same should apply there.
- What games do you play so that nothing works? The only problems I had in over half a year with Linux and pretty much daily gaming are cyberpunk 2.0 (which is nvidias fault and already a lot better with 2.01) and the Xbox service in aoe2. Everything else works perfectly normal, from DOS games like Commander Keen and fate of Atlantis to MMOs like LOTRO and ESO to triple A games like Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 3. They all work perfectly fine and in >90% of cases out of the box, only sometimes do they need minor adjustments like a certain proton version or commands
- Playstation also doesn't support PC or Xbox games. It's pretty clear what IS supported and its like 60% of steam games for PC along with a massive library of classic games via emulation. Excuse me while I switch between playing a switch game and a windows game and take a break to play a native game.
  
  Most of what people do "for work" with office is crap out a presentation, word processor doc, or spreadsheet which all work fine in Libre Office. In fact for a lot of users the triviality of shared editing of google docs actually trumps every other feature that office has.
  
  Most people's usage of an image editor is resizing and cropping. Only a tiny minority actually need a professional image editor like most people don't need a backhoe
  
  Good hardware support is having good hardware to buy in every category not supporting literally every piece of hardware in existence. Smart people who use Linux buy Linux friendly hardware.
  
  K. Have fun.
  
  Yes, LibreOffice works fine. Now save that document and send it over to the attorney for approval. Wait for the email telling you it's broken and shit because they're using Office and LibreOffice still has problems export to different file formats. Interoperability is the issue. Google Docs is not an answer for anything.
  
  So between this and the previous one you're basically saying that advanced USERS need not apply to Linux, right?
  
  Then why the fuck is every dick with an ISO telling me that Linux can be installed on any old hardware I have laying around?
  
  This is the problem with Linux in general. Such a huge portion of the user base are elitist pricks. "Well just buy the RIGHT hardware." Nah mate, I can't be arsed to buy a new motherboard with a wifi chip that's supported by this OS. I've already bought the audio interface. That scanner was a gift. The printer was a deal. It goes on.
  
  Compatibility with old hardware and hardware support in general is fairly good and traditionally Linux has been a lightweight solution to re-use hardware that otherwise might end up as e-waste. This doesn't mean it supports everything nor does it mean continuing to buy random windows hardware and hope is a reasonable strategy nor is it a failure of the overall ecosystem if the hardware you yourself purchased isn't supported.
  
  For instance when I discovered linux back in 2003 I tried Linux on my existing hardware it happily worked. Since I liked how it worked so my next computer was purchased with Linux in mind. If that machine hadn't worked well but I liked how the software worked I would have done the same thing.
  
  Since people with working computers don't bitch much forums are full of people at Linux Computer 1 bitching about how it doesn't work as if not supporting that singular machine as if continuing to use Linux would require them to continually purchase random hardware based on what was on sale at walmart that week and rolling the dice
  
  It's funny you mention printers. Printers that are a "deal" usually aren't. More often than not they are of poor quality with ridiculous printing costs. 80 dollars now 800 dollars of the next 5 years before it breaks down.
  
  Instead for a few dollars more I got a laser with great per unit costs good reliability and I ensured compatibility through the magical and technical art of googling the model number and the word Linux. It took longer to remove the packaging than configuration and it works great but then it wasn't like I picked it out by 1 factor I had several parameters to satisfy so I narrowed down the entire range of options in 15 minutes of research for a device I'll probably be using for 10 years.
  
  Laser/double sided printing/reasonable speed/scanner/linux support/affordable toner/ ethernet support/good resolution/price range.
  
  Good hardware support doesn't mean every cheap piece of shit you find in the reject pile in walmart will work perfectly because the support of free labor to build that support isn't infinite. F
  
  Lastly making memes with photoshop doesn't make one an "advanced" user and most "advanced" usage doesn't require photoshop specifically.
  
  If you're too fucking stupid to know who the actual users of Photoshop are and why moving to Linux doesn't work for them, brother, you can fuck off.
  
  yes the point is that this is constantly brought up as if Photoshop was a staple of everyday computer use that was a vital missing piece of making Linux "ready for the desktop" instead of a professional tool by its nature primarily used by a minority. Of course if you are an artist and use windows/mac software to make money you probably shouldn't bother with Linux but random bob kid who uses pirated photoshop to make memes can probably learn to make memes with gimp considering one can copy crop and put text on images fairly easy.
- -Fuck you -Fuck you -Fuck you -Fuck you -Fuck you -Fuck you
  
  "Fuck you" instead of anything useful or meaningful. Like trying to get help on a Linux forum.
  
  You sound like someone who can't figure out their own problems and feel the need to attack the community because you don't understand.
  
  You sound like the kind of imbecile that thinks "it's open source, fix it yourself!" is a valid response to anything.
  
  😂

The first three boil down to, “If software that you need/want only develops for a specific OS, use that OS.”

It’s time we stop blaming linux for vendor choices.

Gaming: Only if you're playing one of the VERY few games that doesn't run in Linux yet, and that number continues to drop rapidly. There's plenty of tools out there to make games work well in Linux.

Office: For basic things, there's a million and one office suites that work in Linux and you can even use Office 365 Online if you really need that Microsoft Office experience/compatibility. This is only valid if you or your company need specific add-ons that don't have any equivalent in other office suites. My own employer uses these, so in that instance, yes, I do need MS Office for those. But from what I know, still not an entirely common thing, and you can still get by with Linux compatible office suites for most things.

Photoshop: I don't work with images, but from what I understand this one has some validity, comparing the tools available in Photoshop vs the GIMP or other drawing tools. But that's just if you're doing some really advanced image editing.

Ecosystem: if this is just referring to the fact that most people don't use Linux, there are plenty of FOSS programs that work in both Windows and Linux and very few common file types that aren't mutually compatible.

Hardware: another instance that has greatly improved over time, and there hasn't been anything in years that I haven't had "just work" by plugging it in. If the proprietary drivers don't install, there's probably an open source driver out there to get your hardware running. Will admit that in some instances features may be more limited, depending on what the drivers will be able to do, but as I mentioned that's really getting better almost daily.

Out of this list, Photoshop is really the only main thing blocking people, unless they play anticheat-ridden games the likes of Destiny 2, who are outright linux-hostile.
You don't have to be doing advanced work to notice the difference between GIMP and Photoshop. Working in GIMP is painful. Working in Photoshop is also painful, but at least you know your files will work with everyone else.

Try some audio hardware. Linux is still a fucking wasteland when it comes to that.
- Most people don't use specialized audio hardware.
  
  And this is about the average use case for most people, not some randomly small niche case point.
  
  Random? Small? Niche? Nah, just an entire global professional industry and hundreds of millions of hobbyists across every walk of life around the world. Nothing important there.
  
  Here's a 19 minute video trying to explain the brainfuck of stupid that is the Linux sound landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxEXMHcwtlI
  
  Is that the sound of goalposts being moved in the background?
  
  We are talking about average users (the whole thread is about it) and you want to now claim that "hundreds of millions" of people use specialized audio equipment and that this is supposed to represent the average person?
  
  That would be moving the goal post... Not to mention grossly inflated numbers of affected people.
  
  @hiddengoat @original_reader @LastYearsPumpkin @Grangle1 @Xatolos yikes. Troll much?
  
  Pipewire fixes a lot of issues and is a huge improvement. The best part of OSS and Linux is its the upstart, the underdog, the do-it-for-the-love, the chronically underfunded, hacker os. You’ll find things not as polished as the proprietary alternatives but that’s okay. There’s far more to enjoy: auditable code, open to contributions, infinitely customizable
  
  Oh honey, you'll know when I'm trolling.
  
  Pipewire sucks less. It still does not make hardware work properly.
  
  I have no use for underdogs when it comes to getting shit done. Being less polished is not okay when it comes to getting shit done. I do not give a shit about auditing code when what I want to do is record a song. I do not give a shit about contributing code to literally everything I ever open because precious few pieces of software are actually feature-complete. Trying to push "it's half-assed and broken" as a positive is a new level of Linux evangelist gaslighting I haven't seen and I've been around for a whiiiiiiile.
  
  "Sure, only of your hardware works and the half that does has latency issues or can't communicate with more than one piece of software and also the software can't really communicate with itself very well BUT AT LEAST WE HAVE THEMES!"
  
  I really REALLY would like Linux to suck less ass at audio but more than two decades of trying to get any developers to listen to someone that actively makes music rather than software has proven completely fruitless. At a certain point you realize that devs are there to wank their egos, not produce usable software. At that point you shrug and buy a Mac. Then you plug in almost any piece of musical gear made in the past four decades and holy shit it actually works because MacOS has one sound system that everyone uses because it isn't shit.
  
  But yeah, somehow having three or four incompatible systems is totally better...
  
  Well good thing it's all open source, feel free to get in there and fix your problems with your audio equipment. Something makes me think you'd rather complain about it on the internet than fix anything though.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=HxEXMHcwtlI
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- A fraction of 1% of Windows users use Photoshop. 99.9% of users just crop and resize
  
  Which is utterly fucking irrelevant to the conversation.

Gaming... yeah it's not like there's a dedicated portable hardware device for gaming that runs on Linux by default.

MS Office, well it's literally a Microsoft product so yeah, though O365 does work.

Photoshop I haven't tried in years to run on Linux but I wish haven't bothered with Photoshop in years period so...

He does counter with Gimp tbf.