let’s debunk all of this;
Forget about drivers. Binary blobs.
Update all [of] your software in a single click. Pip, Snaps, XDG-Apps / FlatPak, Git, AppImage etc.
Why copy software illegally if you can’t get it for free? Because some people will find a way to install commercial Linux utilities without paying for them anyway. That, and small businesses may not honour “Free for personal use” and instead use the software for business without charge.
Need new software? Don’t bother searching the web, Linux gets it for you. How; Apt? DNF? Yum? TGZ? Tarballs? And let’s not even begin to mention RPM files and PPAs you have to scout for online…
Jump into the next generation of desktops. If 3D effects and fancy decorations are your definition of next-gen, then game developers can just duplicate work to reskin and not bother to add more gameplay mechanics for the next generation of games.
Does your digital life seem fragmented? Why, yes, my Ext4 partitions are prone to fragmentation and occasionally need to have their file fragments resolved.
Choose what your desktop looks like. And waste your time trying to do just that instead of just finding a distro with a DE that mostly satisfies your workflow so you can get on with life.
Why does your Windows get slower day after day? Because people keep installing software without specifying it not to run automatically at login. That, and older antivirus software tends to drag a system down.
Do something for the environment. Recycle your E-waste today, and upgrade to newer, more energy-efficient hardware.
No back doors in your software. Applies to most things, except for non-free software by corporate entities and Canonical’s Unity circa 2010.
Enjoy free and unlmited support. From who? Which entity? Forums? IRC? Old posts about bugs in the early 2000s yet to be resolved and patched in?
Too many windows? Use workspaces. Windows XP had the virtual desktops powertoy. Dexpot has been a thing since Windows Vista. And Windows 10 has workspaces; I use them occasionally.
No big mess in your start menu. There are too many program menus.
Don’t wait for years for bugs to be solved, report and track them down. Shellshock.
Are you tired of restarting your computer all the time? Erm, what? Ubuntu occasionally prompts me to reboot after updates.
Let your old computer have a second life. And spend more money for your old power supply to drive all that older hardware.
Play hundreds of games for free. Steam.
Help other countries, and your own Ideological bullcrap that doesn’t apply to how Linux is directly better for you.
Use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber with a single program. You mean, Pidgin? The program I use in Windows?
Get a great music player. VLC’s for Windows too.
Keep an eye on the weather. Or, look outside and use your preferred weather website for predictive analysis.
I mean, sorry to deuce all over the love parade that video and its thumbnail posits, but today it means nothing.Absolutely nothing. And it’s full of misinformation and truth-stretching that rivals the worst of religious ideology.
Stop it.
…I mean, okay. I love Linux too. I think some of the best stuff that’s seen in Windows today is directly a result of features that Microsoft researched from different distros and implemented. But, here’s the thing; The only reason I recommend a Linux system to anyone is because, and this applies moreso now than ever, Windows isn’t free. If someone needs a system to do the basics with, absolutely I would recommend Ubuntu MATE ten out of ten times. But, you don’t get converts by presenting outdated, easily-counterable crap like that.
I’m not being mean because I hate what it all represents, I’m being mean out of tough love, and for people to better represent Linux for what it is; A kernel that runs hundreds of free operating systems, all for the end purpose of providing a free choice for the end-user who desires to have a computer but not to pay for the system. As a “Get by” solution, most modern Linux systems work… so long you’ve used all the same software in Windows. And that’s what needs to happen first; Use of alternative and cross-platform software in Windows, so much to the point where Windows becomes irrelevant to users that do not rely on DirectX for their livelihood and enjoyment.
I put a like there because a) it takes guts to write what you did, and b) I largely agree with one exception.
As a Linux user, fan and advocate, I too get bored and insulted by this type of colorful, vain and misguided advocacy of Linux. Bored, because I like to to waste my time reading or looking at things that are inspiring and show at least a modicum amount of intelligence. Insulted, because I don’t like seeing my own advocacy of Linux being marred by the type of speech in that video, which makes the whole Linux ecosystem look exactly the same as the load of BS coming from the heavily market lingo of the corporate world that Microsoft represents.
Hard metrics don’t lie. And here in Linux land we have the exact same overflow of posts in Support forums. The truth is that Linux sucks as much as Windows. It comes with its own set of different problems that in the end ensure that computing is still today a hard task for anyone wishing to do something more with their computers than opening a text editor or browsing the web. And this is exactly as it should, because computers are, after all, a rather new addition to our societies. We can count at most 30 years of personal computers. Not even that much. As a young, still seminal in many respects, technology, it will take our world engineers maybe another 50 years to come up with something less horrible than the current computer architecture and the current software development paradigms. The latter, dependent on the former.
Linux exists because it was inevitable that it would exist. In an open computer architecture, the sky is the limit and anyone (who learns how to) can make an operating system. It is thus inevitable that the human spirit and its canopy of different personalities will just give birth to capable individuals that wish to do it outside the context of a business. And so Linux doesn’t need to sell itself. It will find its most fervent adopters in those people that share similar ideas.
But Linux solves some problems, while leaving others unsolved and bringing a few new ones with itself. Linux is not a magical bullet. It’s a preference. A way. One way. Linux brought an important social solution to home computing by being free, and it was also extremely successful in penetrating the corporate world by virtue of its strong adoption by the academia (as a direct result of being free) and the great minds that form and get formed there every year, who were capable of developing impressive server-client solutions.
But Linux leaves still many stones unturned. It solved software availability, but didn’t solve software quality issues that permeate the industry. Programming is a hard activity. It is still very primitive and prone to errors. We are essentially running on an architecture that was invented and hasn’t change for 50 years. And as the complexity of the problems that computers can solve rise with faster and more powerful hardware, so rises the challenge of programming solutions in our inadequate programming languages and programming paradigms. Linux, is thus no different than Windows, with its buggy software, sometimes bloated out of market pressure, and with its many projects that run for years with constant updates and with constant new bugs.
But were I disagree with you is that Linux is indeed a viable alternative to Windows on every field, including gasp gaming. It’s been successfully introduced by many companies in its dekstop versions, it’s been adopted by governmental departments, it’s running on doctors computers in hospitals, and its been fun playing games with it. In some areas it may still be lacking in comparison to Windows, on others it is ahead. Like with all things in life, it doesn’t come up ahead, it comes up alongside.
To conclude, that video is a disservice. The typical nonsense of someone or a group of someones, who likes to drive the bandwagon of vain and futile speech that just misguides its audience with half-truths, false promises and the fake belief that this is the best solution to our problems. I think that’s what we usually accuse companies like Microsoft of doing, isn’t it? But, that is not what Linux is or represents. It is merely a video aimed at the dumb and unimaginative, like its authors.
Instead, we have a growing community of computer scientists and engineers who understand very well the problems we are facing and this road we are taking that will soon lead us nowhere. We can’t simply keep up this logic of increased computing power without a matching development in programming languages and paradigms. Our current computer architecture is a dead end and it can’t produce any new tooling in the area of software development. Re-engineering solutions like Scrum development are only half-measures, hard to understand by many, impossible to implement by many others. And they don’t tackle the core of the problem. So we see development teams growing their numbers exponentially every new decade as the software becomes more complex because computers can tackle more complex problems. We are are trying to build jet planes with hammers and nails. Linux will die on the day that problem is solved. Like any other operating system with it, because it is a victim of our legacy technology.
On that day I will say good riddance and welcome the next OS that, like Linux, will offer me a productive and mentally stimulating environment and following the same social principles that today make Linux such a great choice without compromising on its ability to be a solution to our computing problems.
I should had cleared something up; When I say it’s a “Get by” solution, that is in the Windows mindset. For the avid open-source user any Linux system is adequate. Ubuntu MATE is an ideal solution for someone who is completely new, needs a guiding hand in what software to install (thanks to the boutique) and provide a lot of the open-source applications they used in Windows.
For dealing with somebody who is already using Microsoft-exclusive software, any Linux system will be a harder transition because that user doesn’t use cross-platform software. To move somebody away from Windows, you need to give them the tools they can use outside of Windows first before you can make someone even begin to consider transitioning away from it.
I agree with most of what @tiox and @marfig have said.
Nothing against you @jcjordyn130 but that video seriously bothered me.
As someone who contributed my fair share of bug reports, and has hit quite a few bumps in the road, from lock screen problems to stability issues with a bunch of network troubles in between, I have no illusion that this system is perfect.
For those who don't know what that is, I strongly recommend you look it up.
I remember when it hit. I was by chance watching the slashdot feed at 2AM. By 3AM I had updated 4 machines under my control and notified my school's IT dept on account of how bad it was. It took me a while to determine none of my systems were vulnerable. In the following days all over the Internet massive automated scanning was underway to try and pwn the maximum number of systems as fast as possible.
One of the things that bothered me the most in the video was the implication that bugs are quickly fixed.
Tell that to any owner of an Intel BayTrail processor, you'll get punched in the face.
I don't think the author of the video is dumb, only that he's blinded by the stars in his eyes from discovering a new toy that is for him better than Windows and that's he's way too quick on the trigger when it comes to publishing a video on a subject he doesn't understand for the world to see.
I did not watch the video.
Free - as in freedom…
That’s why I came.
Free - as in beer…
I donate to OS developers and projects, so no, for me it is not gratis.
By the way, I made the video. I really need to redo it.
It would be better to take it down, use a variety of Linux systems for a year, and some time in between return to Windows (7, 8, 8.1, 10), try Linux systems again and see if they’re really better. Only then, would I consider someone having enough experience between operating systems to actually hear why some Linux sysrems are better.
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that any Linux system might be better than Windows, because Linux isn’t better if it doesn’t run the software you need to use. Allow me to explain; If some employer wants me to be well-versed with Microsoft Office (older versions of it), then said employer isn’t going to look at any accreditation by affiliates of The Document Foundation, because TDF means nothing to a business that doesn’t know what LibreOffice is. By extension, any certification by Oracle or Apache for OpenOffice.org wouldn’t net me a job that requires experience in MS Office, bar none.
Even if I explain to my employer that I only use Linux systems because I find them more practical and less expensive for personal use than Windows, an employer wouldn’t care. If I can VM into any version of Windows and run Office that way, that’s all an employer would care about.
Even then, I would probably lose a job that requires MS Office even if I can run it because the moment I get into the topic of VMs and Hyper-V, said employer would probably think I’m above the company’s pay grade and dump me if they have no tech jobs for me to occupy; Companies will always pick the person one step below the level of incompetence said person possess because that person can be paid less, and are less of a future risk for the company than, somebody that could convert an entire workplace into a Linux-using Fortune 500 asset that can incorporate into much more than what the company is in.
If a job requires me to use Photoshop, too bad, I’m a Linux user. If a job requires me to use AutoCAD, too bad, I’m a Linux user. If a job requires me to force people into converting files into a format compatible with a program I use, Too damn bad I use Linux. You see where the problem is?
I’ve tried to use a Linux system as part of my college coursework; I believe I was on Linux Mint at the time. I failed, because my Linux-using ambitions stood firmly in the way of my college being able to vet my stuff, because nobody wanted to learn how to use OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice just for my stuff. So there I was, floundering because I couldn’t win with Linux. And it sucked. It crushed my morale as an open-source user and made me just quit this stuff altogether; I still used my free tools, but a free OS is something I gave up on for a long while after that critical failure which made me think for a moment, Maybe Linux isn’t what every LUG says it is.
But by all means, give it a try. Things have become a bit better since then, with Ubuntu MATE and all it encompasses, the proliferation of “Independent applications” (as I call them; software not dependent on shared libs or packed with specific-version libs) and the growing popularity of open systems that do not, by any means track your use habits or allow implicitly authorized third-parties access to your personal data.
I haven't had a chance to watch your video but as you can see it had quite an unusual after-effect. The comments it sparked are very valuable and provide an extraordinary learning experience.
I have to say this - started to play the video but just couldn’t stand it, if you are going to make a video you need to speak clearly otherwise no-one would listen anyway. Write it down, see that your sentences have real meaning, then make a video -preferably standing up so that your voice is stronger. I’m just trying to help, not to be ass about it.
My voice is strong even when sitting. It’s not that hard to convey yourself audibly when your microphone volume is loud enough, but it’s actually needing to do a decent setup with JACK / qjackctl and some higher-end hardware that is a pain in the butt.
It’s the lack of confidence. Don’t be nervous, don’t be uncertain. Script things out, and see if the script works on other people. If it does, convey into the mic and make a finished, polished piece of video.
Remember; you don’t make stuff like this for yourself, you make it for others. However you would prefer for information to be conveyed, that’s how you do it; work from the perspective of others who would be using what you create.
I make my videos at 3am, so I can be really loud.
That is a good piece of advice. Anyone who has had to sit for hours on end working through issues in Linux knows it is anything but perfect. The best excuse I can give for my using it is I have worked through enough issues with the various systems I've installed Linux on as well as the different distributions I have used that I'm comfortable with it. For the most part I can take care of about 99.9% of my computing needs using it. I also look at Linux as a more modular design than windows. Like a child playing with a box of Legos I can pick and choose how the system will look and function, and for the most part what will be installed on it. All that has come from years of using it, and a lot of frustration as well.
As far as Linux distributions go Ubuntu Mate in it's latest incarnation is an excellent choice for the Windows user wanting to get a little taste of Linux without being overwhelmed. Ubuntu Mate 16.04 is about as user friendly for the new comer as I have seen in a Linux release. With that said I would suggest that the Linux curious install it first inside of a virtual system to give it a test drive. Nothing can be more frustrating to a new user than to wipe out the system they are use to using, to be left looking at a system they do not know how to use.
jcjordyn130 I'm not going to bash you over your video. At one point in time we were all excited about the possibilities that Linux put in front of us. Give it some time though. The time will come when like the proverbial snake it will bite you. When that happens you will see it is not all wine and roses in Linux land.
I never recommend people to wipe out their system. I always recommend the setup I use; I should dedicate a forum post entirely to that since I talk about it every so often but never have a place where it’s all together.
I've been using Linux for almost 4 years, so I know a good bit about Linux. I'm not no noob.
You’re still a noob.
You’re always a noob. As am I.
If one is not a noob, they have nothing to learn. 
I've been using Linux for 22 years. Technology, kernels, DEs and programs change usually bringing a whole new list of issues to work through. Things like systemd get added by one distribution, and in time get adopted by all whether you like it or not.
About the time you think you have it all figured out change happens leaving you learning another process to deal with the change. All accumulated time with Linux gives you is the ability to learn how to manipulate the system a little more than someone else might. That knowledge can often times lead to more catastrophic failures when they happen. The balance comes when you learn to manipulate the system a little for added performance, or tweak your sources a to get newer packages than what is available in the official stock repositories.
These days I edit /etc/default/grub to adjust wait times and comment out stuff that frankly doesn't enhance anything in the boot process for me. I also adjust my swappiness to between 0 and 10 as my laptop has 12 GBs of DDR3 in it and I have yet to need a swap partition using any distribution I have installed on it. I would not have included a swap partition when setting up the partition table during the current install, except for the fact that the installer was complaining there was no swap partition.
On the current daily driver my laptop I've added the following PPAs as well as turned on Developer Options so I could have the latest kernel currently 4.4.0-37-generic , Mate 1.14.1, and the latest LibreOffice which currently is 5.2.1.2.
ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/xenial-mate
ppa:libreoffice/ppa
I do these as well as install the proprietary drives for my system. The last step is to add the software I prefer using over that which comes stock with a release. That is followed my either purging the stock programs I don't use, or using the menu editor to comment them out if removing them will break other parts of the system because they were installed as part of a meta package.
Yes it complains, but will still install without a swap partition.
Another way around it is just turn it off. In terminal:
man swapoff
...and run fine that way, indeed. 
I've yet to come across one of those mythical applications that supposedly make the system unstable if plenty of free RAM is present but no swap space.
If they do exist, I'd really appreciate if someone would name at least one of them.
I know.
It is nothing that is really hurting anything. The system specs are higher than what I need for anything I do other than watch movies or tv at work when it is slow.