Pretty close to default. Using SF Compact Display fonts and Newaita reborn icons. Most of the time I have a bunch of windows open and I rarely see the desktop, except when I start the day :)
I'm a bit confused, OS upgrades are free... I've been back and forth between iOS and Android a few times, I avoid lock-in to either ecosystem by using 3rd party cloud services like Bitwarden, Signal, Dropbox free (10GB), etc. I can switch over in half an hour. Most recently they started supporting the open standard Matter so they can use same smart home things as Google or Home Assistant.
As for "bloat", well there's a few apps I don't use, most can be uninstalled, if not it only takes up a bit of disk space, not RAM/CPU so they don't impact performance and I keep my phones for many years. Right now I got an iPhone 13, it runs like new, it'll last for a long time.
Are we upset about what they call support staff? All companies do weird marketing stuff, it matters not.
I don't use a Mac, I run Linux on my gaming PC. If I didn't game I'd be equally happy with a Mac, the new hardware is great and the OS doesnt get in my way. In contrast with Windows where one feels like a hand-puppet.
Yeah, I also had apps like Steam native break once or twice due to library updates (such as Mesa) - the downside to rolling distros. However, the Flatpak version continued to work so now I only use that. I don't use mods though.
I'm now gravitating towards treating my rolling distro a bit like an immutable; more Flatpaks, avoid user repositories.
Yeah, I was amazed when I started gaming on Linux. The desktop and VA-API uses Intel iGPU and Steam games use the Nvidia GPU through offload, I never have to do anything. It works even better than it did on Windows.
I don’t want to manage 20 different instances of VS Code.
The way I do it is all my development in one or two distroboxes, other stuff in another. So I don't end up having 20 but just a few. Nothing really to manage.
Same, it's basically installing Arch while I make a coffee and then I come back to a nice desktop with sane defaults. And I don't have to mess around afterwards installing NV driver or codecs, it's all done.
Same, I heard about Digg but never went there. Usenet->Slashdot->Reddit.
I still have a low 4-digit Slashdot account I never use. I felt sad when it got sour. In the the beginning when people announced passion projects on Slashdot the comments were "That's so cool, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Not something I'll be needing but I wish them the best of luck.". In late stage Slashdot it would be "Why! What a waste of time. They should all focus on what I use". Unfortunately that self centered type of negativity is everywhere these days.
It was not a joke, I've worked on Windows and Linux for decades and I've worked on Symbian OS and Android as an OS engineer. With the right hardware and stable drivers neither crash. Anecdotally (which admittedly proves nothing) my gaming PC's only ever crashed because I had bad RAM, which i diagnosed with memtest86.
It's not the operating system. This is the weakness of Windows/Linux - the many many vendors of PC components and badly written drivers. It's not the operating system's fault as such, unless you count the OS' fault for not running a microkernel with drivers in a less privileged ring like Symbian OS did.
Now, the UI freezing and having weird random slowdown that's another thing and one of the reasons I prefer Linux. I'm very grateful for Valve/Proton that I have been able to ditch Windows completely now.
I use it too, it’s great. I’ve been using Linux for decades and I know it intimately but why waste time fiddling with installing when Endeavour OS can do it with sane defaults while I brew a coffee ‽ I recently got a new laptop and I was ready to play Baldur’s Gate 3 from the old SSD in 20 min.
I did spend a minute installing btrfs-assistant and btrfsmaintenance though, it’s nice being able to boot a snapshot from grub just in case. I could probably have grabbed Garuda Linux instead but I’m happy with Endeavour.
Windows is rock solid and doesn’t crash unless there are problems with a 3rd party driver or hardware like RAM. That’s why custom rigs can sometimes have problems because it’s not all controlled by one company.
And much time is saved from debugging. It makes a lot of sense that we let the computer/compiler keep an eye on lifetimes, allocations and access so the code is much more correct once it compiles.
I feel like my old colleagues and I have spent a far too large part of the last 20 years chasing memory issues in C++. We are all fallible, let the compiler do more.
I got two of those in my fridge right now, next to le gruyère and a pungent delicious Gamle Ole.
I get the Gamle Ole sent from Europe. One summer the package had been punctured and the cheese had gone angry and stunk up the postal van, my friendly postman looked a bit green in the face.
Neon is bleeding edge showcase for Plasma, might not be good for beginners.