How does your casual day with Linux go?

Longtime Windows user here, and I feel like it's time to switch to Linux, but with a lack of proprietary software, I just gotta know, what do you usually do on Linux other than surf the web?

Watch Videos.

Edit code/documents in vim.
Plot data with gnuplot.
Process data with Octave, R or python.
DS Remote to interface with my oscilloscope.
minicom to control my buspirate
KiCAD to design pcbs.
CubicSDR for software defined radio.
Wireshark to monitor network traffic to RE network comms.

I'll stop there with specific programs, but with just Linux-native programs I have everything I need for working with networks, programming, numerical simulation (esp circuits, but generally anything I could ever need), data set processing, graphing, and statistical analysis, drawing, document creation & editing, CAD, rf/radio, signal processing, and more.

I even play games, though I admit I tend to mostly play older games as I tend to find them more fun.

I fix everything that's broken by the latest updates.
I spend hours trying to do simple things.

It just doesn't werk :^)

Listen to music.

Practice writing good looking suicide notes in LateX whilst listening to distorted speeches of RMS in ogg format.

>install ubuntu
>3xx updates
>install them
>get a million errors
>fix them one by one
>reboot
>find more errors
>give up and install Windows

Works on my machine :^)

work, write music, play games occasionally

idk
what do you do on windows all day?

I watch porn, and then I cry myself to sleep.

Typically?

* Programming, of course. I'm partial to perl for a lot of it.

* Play games; there's good emulators for almost every system and Wine tends to cover the deficit where no native solutions exist (e.g. neko2, a shocking amount of Windows-only games like Kingdoms of Amalur and Assassin's Creed) and we also have Doom ports out the ass, Quake ports, native UT 2004, and lots of Steam games including Shadows of Mordor, Torchlight II, Bordlerands 2 and 2.5, and Terraria, to name a random handful of popular ones.

* Listen to music, typically with mocp or amarok, the latter of which has a nice built-in tagger and a wikipedia plugin for contextual information, if you're into that sort of thing.

* Composing documents and spreadsheets as needed, typically in LaTeX and LibreOffice Calc respectively.

You don't need a proprietary OS to have fun and do what you like, though I do wish some more good games would get ported. I understand it's a costly thing since the games tend to be proprietary and many are tied to proprietary MS protocols, but one can dream.

just run windows in a VM if you're missing some software? need games aswell? PCI passthrough. works great for me.

-play a game with friends
-use Skype for above (or some public teamspeak server)
-listen to music
-watch a movie/tv series
-torrent
-run vms when learning/breaking stuff
-tinker with python scripts
Only thing making me boot Windows are those games that don't even work with Wine, Overwatch comes to mind.
Kubuntu is very comfortable!

Ubuntu 16.04 has been known to be buggy even long after initial release. Why would you deliberately install it?

I haven't had any problems what so ever with it.

all my kek

>Get on computer
>Browse social media
>Watch Youtube videos
>Watch anime
>Browse for anime tiddies on ahoviewer
>Jerk off to said anime tiddies
>Play Dota for the entire day
That's more or less the typical day.
Anime and Dota.

Running Arch Linux. Openbox.

>boot kubuntu fearing something may be broken every single time
>no problems at all
>since 2 years ago

wow

programming and writing papers because it's my job.. what do you do on your windows pc all day ? and please don't say gaming

>Ubuntu
There's your problem. Ubuntu is notoriously the most difficult distribution to install and/or maintain. Install a more normie-friendly version next time, like Gentoo or Arch.

I don't do much besides programming, music, video and internet desu

>he fell for the linux meme
LMAO, linux fucking sucks, its garbage, feels like a webpage.
In windows everything is just solid.
Linux also does not have any productive software like adobe suite or office, 3dmax etc, the only thing you can do is fix problems LOL, or move terminals from one place to another to feel like you are doing something or impress someone.
>pic related, typical linux desktop on Sup Forums, notice how the screen is just full of pointless stuff

>CubicSDR

lmao

It's not Linux, that's the kernel it's GNU, but I mainly ptogram in C for fun, watch videos on MPV, browse, do paper work on LibreOffice and other things like Evince, browse the internet and shitpost on here, I dont play games unless its on a console like my PS4 even then I think gaming is stupid for a computer to have, because games are simply a time waster

play video games

I have windows on my desktop which I use to play games and other proprietary software, or when I need to spend extensive time typing, ms office is so much nicer than libre or open.

on my laptop, running Ubuntu: SDR and network programming for anything other than master mode. Doing electrophysiology research, installing dozens of python modules is significantly easier than in windows. One vanity use is being able to select different desktop environments, especially at first it was fun to switch around. I settled on MATE.

Really, if you don't have some real reason to be running some distro, don't bother. If you only have one or two things that you need a distro for, there's virtual machines, and barring that, live usbs.

Running linux exclusively is fucking dumb

Rem best grill

Currently had to reinstall Linux Mint 17.3

It's been a while since I messed with it, as I had gotten a Windows 7 PC for my bday. So I mainly use the Linux machine as a backup.

Should I update to Linux Mint 18? What are some other good distros? I used to use Backtrack for cracking WEP and using other people's wifi.

I have Tails, Kali, and Ipredia, on disc, and was thinking of maybe messing around with those. Though I know they say that some are mostly for hacking and such. They say Tails and Ipredia are the most "safe" and "secure".

What are the things you can do with a Linux machine and Windows? I assume downloading things on Linux for safety, then transferring to Windows?

Anyway. Since I just fresh installed 17.3, I need to get the best applications back from the repository. All I have now is VLC and K3b.

I know I need to get Wine back on there, but what are the essential Linux programs?

I Assume that using Tails, Kali, Ipredia are best just used when you need more privacy, so those could probably just be run off live disc? It says unless you are very advanced with Linux, you shouldn't use those as your main distro. True?

I check out Distrowatch to see what's new, but I'm still a newbie when it comes to Linux, which is why I mainly use Vanilla Mint.

Sorry for the long winded post, but could you offer help on how to get the best out of my Linux experience? I've considered buying books about them, but realized most of this info is available online for free.

Thanks friends.

You're an Arch man huh?

>I know I need to get Wine back on there, but what are the essential Linux programs?

You should install software when you need it, not all at one because you might need it at one point.

Also, we can't know what your essential Linux programs are. Every person has different needs.

And your post should go in
if you want proper answers

Play Darkest Dungeon and XCOM 2012 on Steam.
Play Heroes of Newerth (which has one of the best integrated voice chat systems of any game).
Edit memes in GIMP.
Play music on Quod Libet through my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 or alternately my Logitech wireless headset.
Download torrents of free software with Transmission.
Play my MIDI keyboard with output through LinuxSampler.
Edit documents in gVim and OpenOffice.
Optimize and compress video with ffmpeg and kdenlive.
Burn data to disc with k3b.
Talk with my friends on Pidgin and Skype.
What else do you want OP? Linux is literally easier than Windows if you didn't know either OS to start with.

Normally i keep my laptop turned on for weeks and ocasionally update the kernel and then reboot. Mainly i use it as video player and do other internet things,

I dual boot because part of my job includes the use of MS office, and whatever people say it doesn't work with the open alternative. something always fucks up.

I'd just like to interject for moment.

What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

I can smell the bait, but that's actually been my experience with it.

>Have old laptop that came with Vista, want to get rid of cancer
>Won't even connect to university wifi, but then again the network there is infamous for being dodgy

>Install Windows 7
>Takes minutes to boot, everything is slow as fuck
>Ten seconds to open a folder
>Office plain doesn't run|
>Still no uni wifi
>Give up, wipe hard drive

>Install Ubuntu
>Takes minutes to boot, not as bad as Windows 7 but still shit
>Try to connect to wifi, no networks available, takes hours to fix
>Try to create link on taskbar, link doesn't work
>Sound plain doesn't work, some shit to do with drivers
>Spend a day trying to fix it
>Eventually it works
>Still no uni wifi
>Give up, wipe hard drive

>Arch
>Followed the guide on the wiki having never used a cmd before
>Get it to work with a graphic interface within three hours
>Sound is working immediately
>Installing shit is super easy
>Uni wifi works perfectly, I never lose access while everyone with a mac around me screams in frustration
>Haven't had major errors since I installed it four months ago


Meanwhile, on my Windows 10 laptop I bought to replace my Vista shittop:
>Uni wifi works, if awfully slow
>Turns out it's updates using all the speed, turning them off doesn't actually stop them
>A week after buying it updates install for half an hour on boot
>Reboots itself, more updates
>Start menu stops fucking working
>Take two days trying to fix it, nothing works, have to reinstall OS and all programs
>Updates disabled and they install again, start menu broken again
>Return the piece of shit
>Later that month get phone bill, $80 extra due to excess mobile data usage in hotspot mode on the bus
>Probably the fucking updates