I think most of the complaints are that Microsoft Office doesn’t work. Which is true. The web version of Microsoft Office is honestly kinda terrible.
And no, people don’t want to use a product that does the same thing as Microsoft Office, they want to use a product called “Microsoft Office”. No, it’s not logical, and doesn’t make any sense at all but it’s how people are.
The only sense it makes is that M$ hasn’t followed the spec, and so things done in office display fine in say libreOffice, but not the other way around. So if your company is willing to transition, but everyone you deal with outside the company is still on Office, there’s a bit of a communication issue. That’s M$'s biggest strength, homogenous work environments.
That’s why my business only uses pure, crisp .txt files. If I can’t open it in notepad, I don’t want it!
I have unironically been preaching the powers of text and JSON, and have some converts. Universal compatibility is great.
Json is a garbage format for anything that’s meant to ever be touched by a human. At least use yaml or json5.
In the first paragraph of JSON5’s site:
It is not intended to be used for machine-to-machine communication.
YAML is not supported by a lot of enterprise software (example: Azure pipelines supports it but Power Automate does not). JSON, XML, CSV, or failing that Text are the safe bets. We use a few options for reading or building presentation layers quickly. Ultimately the idea is to move data around in a way that is friendly to our current and future applications.
It’s absolutely trivial to convert either format to json if necessary. The real killer for me with json is the lack of comments. Human-maintained files absolutely need comments.
With markdown or asciidoctor or restext or … you get both worlds.
Fuck it! I’m in!
This needs to become illegal and bear a bankruptcy inducing fine if repeatedly done.
We need to get rid of these monopolists
Pretty sure it is “illegal” I mean didn’t they get dragged through court in what the 90s 00s? Specifically for anti-competative monopolistic actions. Illegal was in quotes there because nothing really changed.
They’re a feature of the economic system, not a bug. We don’t have a good track record working against it.
I agree with your second sentence. Thats what we need to change.
There shouldn’t even be word processor documents between companies. PDF is the file type for maintaining consistency of page formatting!
Should be and is in fact? Two veeeerrrry different things
So use OnlyOffice instead of LibreOffice
You spelt monopoly wrong.
Microsoft’s biggest strength is the Active Directory. Linux user and computer management is a huge PITA.
For Linux user management you can just use an LDAP solution like FreeIPA. You can even tailor sudoer rules based on security groups, so like you can allow someone to reboot the server but not actually make configuration changes to system config files and what-not. It’ll also handle CA and PKI with smart card support and of course DNS. It has a web interface as well.
I’ve done workstation maintenance in a previous job. Every part of the Linux centralized management was worse than Windows. We did it to support our coworker’s wishes, but SSSD constantly shits the bed, and having to code (config management) to write some pretty simple rules like default printers is super annoying compared to the Active Directory built ins.
I don’t know, I like using Fleet Commander with FreeIPA (where it stores the profile). You just spin up the template VM for whatever like-clients on the network you want to make default profiles for and make the changes, shut it down, checkbox the changes (the configurations and stuff) that you approve and let it apply the profiles across the network. Easier than depending on Puppet or Ansible playbooks IMO.
I have had issues with SSSD as well though and it had to do with Kerberos tickets but I can’t remember what I did to fix it. We’d have to manually use kinit on each machine when it’d basically fall off the realm. I want to say it was a DNS issue but it was so long ago, I just don’t remember.
We used to use Centrify for Linux and Solaris and it was easy using Access Manager to basically handle AD users and computers with Active Directory and had some GPO support (you could push config writes with GPOs for example and organize it all via OUs for example) but it would get a little wonky between trusts in the forest sometimes (in regards to zone management in Centrify) and they kept getting more expensive. Maybe they’ve fixed that stuff now but it was really simple to use and you could basically manage a lot through the AD and create group profiles in the Access Manager. I think the last straw was wanting to force us to license the entire suite regardless of whether we were using it or not. Personally, I never liked it because it wouldn’t use SSSD or kclient/nsswitch and if some service tried to join the realm/domain, it’d join using the same computer accounts and basically break the account since Centrify used its own client, so you’d specifically need to join the computer accounts via Centrify as a different name. It wasn’t detrimental or anything – just annoying that it was a problem at all. Also, sometimes the user cache database saved in specific users’ appdata that use Access Manager would corrupt from time to time and you’d need to manually delete it to use Access Manager. I’d hope they fixed that by now too though.
All and all, I’m not saying Active Directory isn’t an excellent product because it is and I’m not saying that there is a 1:1 solution for Linux but I’m saying it that in my experience it isn’t terrible either with FreeIPA and products you can use with it. I definitely hated other 389 solutions prior to FreeIPA though.
AD is easy top set up in Linux with a samba4 docker container. For instance: https://github.com/Fmstrat/samba-domain. Even HSS a script to easily join debian based machines.
I installed a Windows 11 update. Office no longer worked. Office refused to re-install despite trying a huge number of things. It literally refuses to install. Tried their help tool which even does removal of old references in the system. Failed 5 times.
Tried using the web version for a simple thing. First localization struggle which doesn’t carry across sessions. Excel column formatted to number. Then to currency. Then to general. Autosum shows #Div!0 still. Tried seeing if the AI could help. Have to re-login. (Using Mozilla this whole time btw). After re-login, ai tool says stop using private mode. I’m not…
Literally trying to do the simplest autosum on about 25 lines and it can’t function.
Installed LibreOffice. No problem with ‘Excel’.
I’m really not exaggerating. I saw online a similar issue and the guy had to reinstall the entire OS to get office to work again 🤨
I’m really not exaggerating. I saw online a similar issue and the guy had to reinstall the entire OS to get office to work again
That’s windows for you, have a major issue? Reinstall the OS. Been using the computer for to long? Reinstall the OS
Edit the menu entry?
My dad initially wanted his old Norton Antivirus, so i made an internet shortcut with the logo and name, to a webpage explaining why antivirus sucks.
I have seriously considered trying to install Microsoft Office 2024 (aka OnlyOffice) for a family member to see if they even notice.
OnlyOffice is pretty nice for homegamers I think. I just don’t need or want a full up heavyweight office suite anymore. And I’ve gotten to the point where I remove LibreOffice and replace it with OnlyOffice every time.
So do it, just do it. You know you want to…
Oh I run OnlyOffice locally and in NextCloud already ;) So it would only be for someone who lives in another state, simply to see the reaction.
I would do it for the reaction. I doubt they would complain very much at all.
You know, i made my dad try OnlyOffice and he loved it except for the fact that not all shortcuts worked. Years of experience with excel shortcuts didn’t translate in exactly the way he wanted. Which makes sense ig but i think that would give it away
Have you tried excel ? Its WAY AHEAD of any excel like thing available as office in wild. Just example vlookup , Power tables , vba are no whwre near in any of the products.
You’re giving me VBA flashbacks. The worst language I’ve ever programmed in.
Our company has bought into the whole onedrive/teams/ Microsoft family.
They’ll do what the IT guy says but that first time copilot popped up grrr
If only libreoffice had an app for mobile platforms…
Being unable to open the documents I wrote on my computer without using some kind of crappy ad filled third-party app is annoying.
Libre Office has a mobile app. The one called LibreOffice viewer is only a file viewer but works perfectly if you only look at documents, it is developed by the same foundation that develops LibreOffice. If you want to edit, Collabora is the name of the app, it is based on LibreOffice and is officially approved by The Document Foundation. It is developed by one of their certified collaborators. Both are available on Android and iOS.
Thank you!
Try Collabora Office!
Thanks!
Office 2016 works, there is office online and LibreOffice. What now?
Ironically, Microsoft has retired the “Microsoft Office” name.
At least one good thing that Google has done is that Docs/Slides work on browsers and (where I live) most people use that now.
Not great if you are also trying to de-Google, though.
If the alternative is Microsoft, you’re between a rock and another rock that used to claim not being evil.
Libreoffice all the way. Most users don’t need more than that.
Google is not really much better than MS. It still leaves you under the yoke of big tech. “Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss”.
We recently got hdr support tho
And lack of Adobe is a feature, not an issue.
Linux wins again.
To access a lot of pdfs used in the military you need adobe or it won’t open, you get this stupid screen telling you to download the latest version. So it’s required for some jobs :(
HDR works. On KDE Wayland and in games only with Gamescope, but we are getting there. And there is the Steam Deck of course.
I never managed to get gamescope working on my Nobara. Any docs I should look into?
Depends on what you mean with not working. Get any errors? e.g. i like to test with vkcube (vulkan-tools need to be installed. don’t know the package name on Nobara / Fedora). if
gamescope vkcuberuns, then its likely not a gamescope problem but one with the e.g. game you try to run or wine / proton.But the latest versions seem to be indeed a bit problematic. The last that works (mostly) flawless on my Arch is 3.14.2. So maybe worth a shot to downgrade to that if your current one fails with vkcube.
Otherwise, it is probably a good idea to get in contact with the Nobara community or the developer. I hate to recommend Discord, but as far i know that is unfortunately the only place where they are active.
And there is of course always the excellent Arch Wiki which is usuable for other distros as well: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamescope
There’s also the games trap as MS gobbles up development studios left and right. I’m guessing that’s not a coincidence.
I’m personally not a fan of Steam, but HUGE props to Valve for thinking ahead.
The funniest thing is, people say Linux is not ready, cause [insert feature] doesn’t work. The problem is said feature doesn’t work on Windows either.
For example pausing/resuming playback across multiple appliacations using media keys. It’s not perfect on Linux (not every app uses MPRIS), but it’s not great on Winodws either
It works way better on Linux. I especially like the gnome screenshot tool
Try flameshot or spectacle, way better.
Last time I tried HDR on Windows, that sucked too.
My Android TV and consoles are about the only devices where it works properly.
HDR games is fucking baller on the steam deck. I’m legitimately thinking of switching to kde from sway so I can take advantage of it on my new OLED monitor.
My TV and PS4 Pro have HDR. I’m sure it helps make brightness better, but it just makes everything look yellow.
Also, I don’t even think my TV’s HDR works with its apps. I distinctly remember House of the Dragon and trying to see something. I accidentally closed the app and reopened and suddenly it was super clear. It’s like it turned the HDR on (or off) and suddenly everything was visible in an otherwise dark scene.
Quality of HDR is very much dependent on the TV you have I think.
I’m still rocking a 2017 LG OLED which are considered pretty good, but as you go down into LCDs and the cheaper brands, you’ll probably take a hit on image quality. Some TVs used to have a yellow pixel as well as red blue and green, so could even be that.
HDR is less about the brightness (although they are brighter than older TVs) and more about colour and brightness accuracy.
Brightness is very key imo. If your display can’t easily hit 1000nits it won’t be very good.
HDR is awesome if you have the right hardware. I’ve never seen a movie look so good. Someone needs to get HDR working.
It works in KDE + Wayland… mostly… for applications that support it… and there was this update that ruined my color profile for a while but they fixed that now!
first game I played in HDR was mass effect legendary. I don’t care that the game itself is close to 15 years old, the 4k remaster + HDR blew my mind and set a new standard for how good games could look.
It’ll be finished on Wayland before the end of this year
It does work for most games. MPV player supports it as well. It’s still rough around the edges, but it’s definitely there.
I actually do use acrobat for legal document work
It good for adding signatures and making changes to pdf format schtuff
what do you use for illegal documents?
A pirated copy of acrobat
Like this?
Pirate acrobatWe got pirate acrobat at home.
Pirate acrobat at home:
Adobe Acrobat works for me using Bottles/Wine. Pirated and old version of course
If that’s your only use case you can also use Xournal++ on Linux which does the job.
Of course your choice of OS is totally up to you and you don’t have to justify it to anyone, just letting you know the tool exists.
Xournal lets you paint on a document, which I guess isn’t what they need when they talk about legal stuff. Digitally signing a document is still one of the rare cases where I boot up my windows vm. It’s so annoying that there’s practically no way to do that in Linux as my company’s processes rely on it.
Okular can digitally sign
Ohhhh yeah you’re right, I forgot digitally signing is different from just painting a signature on there >< .
We use foxit reader on Linux for that at work.
hdr support is coming tho
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steamos already has it iirc (well, specifically gamescope)
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kde 6 has experimental hdr support with wayland session
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cosmic de devs promised hdr support in the first public stable release
what i really miss is passkeys (specifically, using tpm2 to store them like windows hello does)
SteamOS has HDR support indeed, and it works really well with pretty much all HDR-enabled Windows games in Proton I’ve tried.
Linux is getting support for Windows Hello
Could you elaborate please? What aspects are you referring to? Biometrics for pam? Facial recognition support? Genuinely curious, since I saw the bounty to streamline keepass and pam auth for instance, or howdy for biometrics. Looking forward to both but do you have more information?
IntraID in Azure
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint works on Linux too.
But like… Why.i was asking about the passkeys specifically tho, not the biometric auth part of it
linux only supports hardware security keys like yubikey, not on-device passkeys atmI was thinking of EntraID on Linux.
There is a Samba talk about making it work
Right? I wish that had more focus than HDR.
I think a big problem is TPM enforcing initramfs. Hoping ukis get wrapped up and as a result more focus is on trusted compute in general
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Removed by mod
My condolences.
Eh, I keep a Windows 10 machine because Linux won’t run Reason even in wine. Everything else gets done on my laptop running Mint. Adobe does things that aren’t easily replaced. No point in shaming folks for the tools they use.
Same. They really have you over a barrel if you’re a professional.
Removed by mod
I would run it in a VM
From my experience in Linux:
- Many pirated games installer doesn’t work under wine (like from xatab, RG Mechanic, Razor, etc) unless you download pre-installed games like from IGG Games or you just download pirated gog games
- Buggy glitching games work under wine (i don’t know why that happened)
- Many mod organizer & tools (MO, VORTEX, NMM, etc) doesn’t work unless you download old version or download some sketchy dll files from sketchy website to make those programs works well
- Sometimes after running games under wine my system crashes like unable to restart/shutdown or failed to open some programs like dolphin, terminal, etc (maybe bc my system running on wayland)
- No Photoshop, After Effects, or Microsoft Office (yes…i know linux has similar programs but those suck & my workplace has standard)
- Hard to fine tuning some apps unless you wanna do some dirty work in YAML or XML or CONF files
Mod organizer 2 leastest exe work with wine (I used Lutris) I have yet to find a games installers that didn’t work with wine (I download my games from fit girl repacks)
Fitgirl installers just crash on me 🤷♂️
Weird, what distro are you using?
It not working on certain distros is yet an other point of pain for Linux
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Nobara. But I’ve had them work on nobara before
Have you tried running it with Bottles?
My solution to #1 is installing it in a VM and copying the installed game over. It works, but quite annoying
You’ve just said your 5 biggest problems with Linux are things that Microsoft did.
Microsoft made mod organizers not work?
It does though
Well this is why I’m asking, it does seem to work for my 100% Linux friend.
Vortex is written in .Net, so, yeah.
Xatab’s work fine. I only had one pirate installer in hundreds of games that i couldn’t get to work. You sometimes need vcrun (newest is vcrun2022) from winetricks to get it working.
Mod organizers usually have a linux version or at least work in wine. What hurts is wabbajack hasn’t and doesn’t work.
Edit: nevermind. The one that didn’t work at all was the installer of ‘Network Addon Mod’ for SimCity4k.
Vortex works quite well for me, the only game that is not working correctly is BG3 because of the third party tool to mod the game requires .NET 8 and even if I install it with ProtonTricks/WineTricks the tool doesn’t recognize it. With the game receiving official mod support I think the issue will be fixed.
Mate you can’t tune apps on windows at all. Most of those things actually work on Linux. You just exposing yourself
The first one I’ve never encountered, but I also never heard about those (only razor). Fit girl always works (the one with Amelie). I’ve tried others and also worked.
It could be those installers have dependencies that are not in your base bottle?
For the first one, try Lutris
I’m still waiting for gimp to actually be a viable alternative program to photoshop before installing dual boot linux
Gimp lacks photoshop features and still isn’t catered towards creatives which is the main demographic of people using the software
I’m aware of krita but it’s suited as a drawing program and also lacks many of the photo editing features I would use in photoshop
Sadly, I don’t see Gimp ever competing with Photoshop. It’s not necessarily a feature parity thing, nor is it a mind share thing. It’s as you’ve said - it’s not built by creatives to be the best possible tool for many types of design.
It’s truly a shame, because for years Adobe slept on different aspects of digital design, and there was a true opportunity to build a Linux-first tool that made things like Web Design so much simpler. It’s an unpopular opinion, but Linux window managers have always lacked creative input. There has always either been a design-by-commitee, or a design-by-engineer feel - and this is reflected in how poor Gimp and design tools are in the Linux space.
In reality, Linux could have the best photo editing and design-specific tooling, but sadly the tooling either lacks a creative touch, or lacks features that are truly needed to be competitive.
I think my biggest issue with the Gimp is that it simply exists. If it didn’t exist there’d be a huge hole in the free software space and people would get together to build software to fill it. But of course there’s no guarantee that would actually produce something better.
Maybe the real problem with the Gimp is that it’s built to scratch an itch for its own developers who are used to its bizarre UIs and workflows. For all the people I’ve seen complaining about the Gimp over the years, none have stepped up to create an alternative. I think this is likely due to the intersection between visual arts people and software engineers being extremely small (and likely most working for Adobe already).
I mean…that’s the reason Gimp exists?
That’s like saying “The biggest problem with the French Revolution is that it happened. If it hadn’t then the conditions would have been perfect for a popular uprising against the ruling class.”
I mean the Gimp in particular. My point is that if we could suddenly wish the Gimp into non-existence (a counterfactual) then we could get a do-over. But because the Gimp actually exists it occupies a niche that could go to something better. Instead of banding together to create a better tool, people just grumble a bit and then use the Gimp (or hand over their wallet to Adobe).
You can learn any workflow. Adobe Photoshop was pretty alien to me the first time I used it in school. The thing that made it easier was how good the documentation was on adobes website. I recommend anyone try krita to see if it works better for them.
I’ve heard it’s not as feature rich as gimp but more people coming from Photoshop seem to like it.
but, since it’s open source - in principle those creatives and ux designers could actually pitch in and offer their expertise to help improve further versions?
Engineers don’t know how to manage or include designers in their process. At least all of the “full stack” and “front end” devs I’ve encountered — almost always they never know how to do a single thing about design unless they have some background or appreciation for it.
Most open source tool have the same thing that it feels like it’s made by engineers. I think that’s because it’s true, most FOSS tools are made by engineers for engineers. Because most project start with someone needing something and then creating it and sharing it.
Chances of a programmer needing something and then making it is a lot higher, than an artist needing it and then making it as then there’d be a need to have the necessary skills to make the software. As someone not from CS field I’ve seen how much of redundant programs are present for CS related tasks while barely some exists for other fields because the overlap of programmer and that field is low specifically FOSS programmers. And a few programmers that field would have don’t have the high level software development skills, so most open source tools made by them are “works on my machine, or works for this specific task” even though with less than 1% more effort they could have made a generalized tool.
but Linux window managers have always lacked creative input.
What do you mean? Window managers’ job is to show windows where they are desired and not show windows where they are not desired. With optional bells and whistles like snapping to edges and autoresizing to screen quadrants.
So, can anyone elaborate on question instead of downvoting? Is it dragging windows that lacks creative input? Is it resizing windows that lacks creative input? Or it is showing window itself what lacks creative input?
It’s like saying clipboard always lacked creative input. There is only so much it does. Copying, pasting and optionally working with history. That’s it.
Well, I guess you might want to rotate the window by 45 degrees, then ok, this is not what most window managers just allow to do. And other major OSes doesn’t allow at all AFAIK.
I’m still waiting for DOS to reach feature parity with MacOS
Have you tried photopea? It doesn’t have everything Photoshop has but it’s been able to fit my needs
Use Krita simply
Krita > Gimp gang
Krita was mentioned
From a software engineering POV Photoshop is a bad software (against unix philosophy) and no Free Software wants to be a bad software, so forget about feature parity and use different apps for different things that mistakenly all done by Photoshop.
(against unix philosophy)
I’m not sure what to say, so I’ll just say this is GUI program.
Don’t you know that GUIs are super double duper against the unix philosophies of old? Mr Linux Torbald rolling in his grave just thinking of it
Huh. I always thought his last name was mint
Not exactly, Plan 9 is a thing.
I’m really glad DaVinci Resolve exists to fill the void of a proper video editor too, Kdenlive just ain’t it for me.
Unfortunately the free version on Linux doesn’t support H.264/H.265 and even the paid version doesn’t support AAC so using Resolve requires you to transcode if you’re using any normal consumer camera.
doesn’t support AAC
Use OPUS. Better and free.
The point was probably that if your equipment or sources use aac, you will need to transcode it, losing quality in the process. We don’t always control our media sources and the formats they use.
That’s it exactly. Most consumer camera gear uses H.264/H.265 for video and AAC for audio in an MP4 container and the free version of Davinci Resolve just doesn’t support that on Linux. (But does on Windows)
If it even doesn’t support import and export in those formats, you can try externally decode audio and video and store in lossless format. FLAC for audio and something like FFV1 for video.
Since you are cutting video in pieces, applying filters and all the fun stuff, you are transcoding it anyway.
Yes, but then you would be transcoding an already transcoded video, potentially making the losses apparent. It would be better to just transcode once at the exporting process.
It would be better to just transcode once at the exporting process.
Lossy encoding only happens once in both cases.
How direct import-export works: input file -> lossy format decompressor of editor -> filters -> lossy format compressor of editor -> output
How external codecs work: input -> external lossy format decompressor -> intermediate representation(lossless codec, can be just storing raw frames) -> IR decoder of editor -> filters -> IR encoder of editor -> external lossy format compressor -> output
Both options have only one lossy step - lossy encoder. Or technically two - also filters, but this is editor’s intention.
Oh, I get it now, you mean using a lossless format as intermediate. Well, it would work but still it would be better if they didn’t require this extra work on linux.
I love kden, very logical ui and love that it can do anything. What is it about DaVinci that appeals?
Both work well, but DaVinci is better with color grading, audio post-production, visual effects, collaboration, and format support, just to name a few. It’s a professional product made for professionals.
I’ve had the same experience too. Last I checked, Kdenlive doesn’t have GPU rendering either. DaVinci resolve slaps though. And you can get a paid copy. Get outta here with that subscription nonsense, Adobe.
I am wondering how many people give up because their exact program isn’t on there.
I get having to use Adobe software if you are an industry professional, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people who don’t want to change because qbittorrent is not the same as utorrent. Or peazip is different than 7zip.
The biggest problem with Linux (other than the whole “most people give up the second they see a terminal” thing) is software availability, which will hopefully improve as Linux gains market share.
