A few months ago, I changed my laptop from Windows to a dualboot of Windows and Linux (NixOS). Since then, Windows has never seen the light of day.

Best decision I've ever made - Windows is useless.

Hmmm. Not exactly.

I was thinking the same, but at the end completely got rid of windows as I saw no reason to keep windows and to create a sensless complexity by having a dual boot system. Also why using dual boot If you could use VMs?

@Skepter
How is NixOS?
Thought about trying it out, but ain't sure about this whole config-file thing.

Until we see games and other Windows-specific software 1) run and 2) have the same performance on another platform, Windows is not useless. For you - maybe, but not in general.

Maybe for you. I actually prefer Windows. It's the many little things that always need fixing and tweaking, the "death by a thousand paper cuts", that I just don't want to deal with.

Ah shit, here we go again.

- C.J.

What are your thoughts on nix?

@iskandergaba 😂

@Skepter I used to think that too until this https://devrant.com/rants/2043971/... happened

It's a personal choice. I use Windows for development and mac for personal use. To be honest, Dev work on Windows brings money to lots of devs coz of Windows market penetration.
Most of humans are not tech, and they prefer Windows.

@metamourge NixOS is pretty wild - the configuration thing is something I really do like about it. Installing programs is a breeze (add it to the configuration) and uninstalling is even easier.

Downside with NixOS is the learning curve is steep. Also, if the programs you want aren't available in Nix, it's a pain to install.

@oxmox VMs are slow on a laptop. I initially installed NixOS with the intention of deleting Windows later on down the line... I just haven't gotten round to it. (It's nice to know that if everything goes horribly wrong, I'm not without a working laptop if I'm out and about - I've had issues where my incompetence has damaged bootloaders in the past)

@toriyuno I personally think it's great - it's an operating system that's really complex to setup and get to grips with, but once you've got a good configuration, it's wonderful.

I love Nix's ability to just create sandboxes with a single command. If I want to "try out" a program for example but don't want to go through the full install process, I can open up a nix-shell with whatever programs I want and test them right there and then without affecting the whole system.

@Skepter How would a full install differ?

@toriyuno Now I think about it... it doesn't really differ. The only difference I guess is that it's only available within that sandbox - I tend to use it as a "let's try this program" and if I don't like it, I don't have to go through the "ugh, time to uninstall it" phase - it just doesn't exist outside of the sandbox.

@Skepter and sandbox == Linux container?

Windows is useful for gaming and testing