The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Side of Linux

The Linux Challenge 2026 edition, initially conceived as a three-part series, expanded due to unforeseen highs and lows in its first week, particularly after the hosts' distro choices ignited significant community discussion. While Luke received praise for his selections, the journey was less smooth for the other host, who experienced frustrating issues with Pop OS and other distros. Conversely, Luke found his experience so positive that he delved into more complex tasks, even experimenting with other operating systems. The host began by addressing the controversy surrounding his choice of Pop OS, a distro that caused him problems in a previous challenge. He clarified that he had used Manjaro last time, having been assured that his initial Pop OS bug was a fluke. This time, influenced by numerous recommendations, he decided to give Pop OS another chance, emphasizing that a willingness to re-evaluate after a negative experience is beneficial for Linux as a whole. However, he noted that Pop OS, like other distros, isn't perfect, especially with System76's ongoing development of the Cosmic desktop environment. He expressed frustration that Cosmic, despite being labeled "LTS" (Long-Term Support), is effectively in public beta, a fact not readily apparent to new users. He argued that System76, as a commercial entity, should be held accountable for shipping a non-production-ready environment rather than users being blamed for encountering issues. He framed the Linux challenge not as an attack, but as a "pen test" for Linux's friendliness to newcomers. Luke's experience with Bazite started better. He praised the ease of finding and accessing SMB shares, a stark contrast to Windows. However, he soon discovered that what appeared to be mounted shares were merely shortcuts, leading to permission issues. Resolving this required modifying the FS tab file, a process that proved overly complicated and ultimately unsuccessful despite numerous attempts. He highlighted the lack of a simple "quick mount" option in Bazite as a significant oversight. Meanwhile, the other host, feeling confident with Cashy, intentionally uninstalled his Cinnamon desktop environment to install KDE Plasma. This process took only about 20 minutes, with minimal cleanup required, demonstrating a surprisingly smooth transition. His initial gaming challenge stemmed from attempting to use an NTFS-formatted Windows game drive directly on Linux. While Linux can read NTFS, and development is ongoing, he found the experience rough, especially with Proton, the compatibility layer for non-native Linux games. He advised against using NTFS drives for gaming on Linux for now. Another gaming hurdle arose with Poppy Playtime Chapter 5, where pre-rendered cutscenes lacked audio and video. This was traced to Proton missing proprietary licenses for H.264 and H.265 video codecs. The solution was Proton GE, a community fork found in the Bazite store. This incident underscored that Linux often doesn't "just work" out of the box, a point often overlooked by some Linux evangelists. He argued against blaming developers who prioritize platforms with larger user bases, or Valve for not paying more for commercial codecs. Instead, he advocated for a "no blame mindset," acknowledging that some things will work and some won't, and everyone is doing their best. Despite his issues with Pop OS, he kept it on his main desktop, where it mostly functioned. However, for other systems, he opted for different distros. Bazite on his home theater PC presented a new challenge: selecting an installer version for Nvidia GPUs and the Steam OS full-screen experience led to an "unusable experience," which the Bazite team felt he should have anticipated. He argued that in the "Windows Google normie world," where beta software can be daily-driven, this expectation is unreasonable. He eventually switched to a Radeon card, which was "completely painless," and then installed Steam OS on his home theater PC, integrating seamlessly with his existing Microsoft IR receiver. For his laptop, he chose Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE desktop). Day one was problematic, with a black screen after setup, but it eventually resolved itself and has been stable since, albeit with a learning curve. He encountered issues with application installation, discovering that certain applications, like OBS, required Flatpak installers rather than Debian packages, despite Kubuntu being Debian-based. Further, Wayland, Kubuntu's display server, had built-in privacy features that interfered with screen capture, requiring a workaround found through extensive troubleshooting. He acknowledged that Windows also has problems but stressed the importance of honesty about Linux's challenges and the tinkering it often requires, contrasting it with his Mint-running laptop, which required no tinkering for basic browser use. He criticized the negative communication often found in Linux forums and communities, which can deter new users. His biggest challenge remained software compatibility. While he found alternatives for most of his basic software suite, Adobe Premiere, crucial for his editing workflow, simply doesn't work on Linux. He attempted to use "Bottles" to run Windows software, but it was unsuccessful. DaVinci Resolve, with a Linux build, proved challenging to install on Bazite, an immutable operating system. This required finding a specific command after much frustration. Even then, video codec issues, similar to Poppy Playtime, resurfaced with DaVinci Resolve. He found Kdenlive adequate for basic editing but insufficient for power users, and criticized GIMP for stills. Despite these frustrations, he expressed profound gratitude for the open-source community, acknowledging their efforts against corporate limitations. He emphasized that criticism comes from a place of love and appreciation, aiming to improve the Linux experience for users. He noted that their observations are already leading to clearer documentation. The series will continue with more challenges in part three and a conclusion in part four.