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backTuesday 1st April 2025
Can linux be useful for pro work? and how do you get apps?
That rare wonder packed with soft that some people love.
Despite its increasingly modern appearance, GNU/Linux systems have not become more user-friendly over time. When I started using GNU, new modules were constantly being added to the kernel to support an increasing number of devices.
In theory, this is still true and thanks to third-party products like Steam Deck, any game - or at least 90% of them - runs smoothly on GNU/Linux systems without issues.
As a Debian user who has been using it for years, I can say that these days, the free repositories are more than enough for me. In summary, they don't contain even a kilobyte of proprietary software.
I'll explain better: A GNU/Linux system like Debian can have multiple sources from which to obtain software. The original and my favorite one is still working well - it's the repositories (in this case, Debian) where I download my software from the software center. Repositories are the safest and most reliable way since you don't rely on third-party platforms.
On the other hand, some Linux distributions like Fedora benefit from these platforms or packages from third parties because they lack a vast array of offerings in their own repositories - just like Debian does. In that case, there are platforms like Flathub (which uses the flatpak format) or snaps created by and for Ubuntu, which can be used by any distribution.
Finally, we have appimages, which I think deserve more attention because they're an executable similar to a Mac DMG file where the program is encapsulated and self-contained.
Free repositories from a system never contain proprietary components, whereas software obtained from third parties does.
In my case, I use an AMD graphics card. The driver is free and open-source. If I were using an Nvidia card, I would be forced to use non-free repositories or download the driver directly from Nvidia's website.
I'm not friends with Nvidia at all. A great change would be if the support forums weren't a nightmare where advanced users practically send newbies packing for not searching enough on Google.
With everything good and bad about GNU, it keeps many of my ideas and projects alive and alleviates my workload in many aspects.
I'd dare say that's the most user-friendly system - although you have to choose your friends wisely.
I started talking about drivers and mentioned Nvidia. The "dirty" part of Linux always deals with native support for weird Chinese devices, but lack of drivers for peripherals from well-known brands like Nvidia is absurd.
To such an extent that in many cases, that trendy peripheral will have a driver in its apocryphal version but not the original one. This can be annoying to some degree, but it makes sense. Sony also provides its dual-sense drivers as open-source code therefore we can use Sony's dualsense in our PCs.
That's all great. But many people with little moral space in their minds build GNU/Linux systems for commercial purposes or even quite opaque ones. In many cases, they convert and license their projects as GNU (like the case of stable diffusion) so that their use becomes massive within a short time.
There you have something that certainly bothers me. Seeing how GNU facilitates the unlimited expansion of artificial intelligence in all its forms - including questionable models from a moral, copyright, or functional perspective.
But not everything can be complaints. I'm still part of the free ecosystem with the same tools and new ones to tackle different projects, and for our case, as far as the sun shines, everything looks good. We'll continue creating our product in a free system to compile it or prepare it for use on Windows and macOS.
Final definition: Life is beautiful... and rare."
Oh by the way. I got a lot of hate for my wallpaper. I don't care if it's AI, pinoccio, or something else. Is just a wallpaper I got from the internet for fuck sake. I'm not on the mood for my own wallpaper. I mean, apple mood.