Jon S. von Tetzchner

I have finally moved over to Linux as my primary platform. In many ways it is like coming home, as I loved working on UNIX machines in the past. Of course, I have been using Linux as a secondary OS for a long time, but I finally made the switch. Microsoft cancelling Windows 10 and the direction Windows 11 is going was just too much for me.

@ruario helped the transition, by making it easy for me to work with multiple concurrent @Vivaldi installs.
That is a must for me as I test a lot of builds at the same time.

#Windows #Linux #computing #Technology #AI #Vivaldi

Sep 14, 2025 at 4:59pmWeb
Show threadAlex SemёnovSep 14, 2025

@jon

Welcome to the family.
I'm here only because of Vivaldi community.
What about distro and DE?

Show threadJon S. von TetzchnerSep 14, 2025
@SemenovSherin , been trying different diistributions, but am currently on Ubuntu. I have not settled on an editor, yet, but I am more emacs than vi for sure.
Show threadTrit’Sep 14, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi I did it 10 years ago (even before Vivaldi was released in its first Stable version!), I never regretted it as a daily driver OS.
Show threadFlakySep 14, 2025
@jon Unfortunately there’s still some stuff where I’ll need Windows (VR gaming is one; my headset’s Linux drivers are in veeeery early development), so I’ve got a dual boot going, maybe I’ll do a VM or spare laptop with Windows as well.
Show threadEdwardSep 14, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi Been using #Linux since 2003. Began to use Linux - and only Linux, once support for Windows 7 ended.
Show threadNetuxSep 14, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi does that mean that we'll get passkeys to integrate more smoothly so I don't have to tap my phone 4 times to get through the steps?
Show threadJames TinmouthSep 14, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi i need to bite the bullet and get this done. I've put up with win since '98 through XP and 7 which were all agreeable enough. But this latest nonsense.. needs to go.
Show threadLuís Filipe TeixeiraSep 14, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi welcome. I did it for a 10 years. The best part is the simplicity, the only way to have what you need installed. Windows for a long time I do not feel the need it for my life.
So I looking forward to see, the way you will improve of Vivaldi in open source.
Show threadexitcodeSep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi Solus would be also a good choice as it has Vivaldi in the repo 
Show threadRuarí ØdegaardSep 15, 2025

@exitcode Yes well, being in the repos or not will not matter too much as @jon runs internal builds for the most part and would therefore likely use the installer I made for him (hence his comment '…work with multiple concurrent @Vivaldi installs', something native packages would not do). 😉

https://social.vivaldi.net/@ruario/115192460685059386

Ruarí Ødegaard (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Let me just upgrade my Vivaldi browser. I am using Ubuntu here, so of course I download the rpm. On double clicking it from the download panel it launches into an ncurses based installer that looks like it is straight from DOS, no authentication password is asked for. It defaults to the install location `~/Vivaldi-Builds/stable` (but I could of course change that). After it is done I just restart Vivaldi and there you go, new version. Easy! For those of you running Windows or macOS, this is the normal install method for all software on Linux. 🙃 #VivaldiBrowser #Linux

Vivaldi Social
Show threadRuarí ØdegaardSep 15, 2025

@exitcode That said, always nice to support/use a distro that supports us 😉

@jon @Vivaldi

Show threadsmyruSep 15, 2025
@jon @Vivaldi on FreeBSD would be even more unixy… 🙂
Show thread🇵🇸 Panino, o Moço 🇮🇷Sep 15, 2025

@jon Good to know, but what "Linux" exactly?

After years of experience, and pain, I recently discovered that Debian/Ubuntu based distros aren't as good as believed.
I'm on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and not only every works and works better, there even a lot of graphical tools to mess with the system!

Show threadRenderBSep 15, 2025

@jon The moment we stopped being paying customers and became nothing but the product, while still paying for our licenses, is when M$ shot themselves squarely in the foot.

They aren't even offering a paid opt out with some "pay 50 extra for full control over my own machine" version of windows. Even on *pro* versions there is only so much you can do with 3rd party tools+group policies.

Forcing "ai" down our throats isn't helping either.

Show threadTim ChambersSep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi I love the MacOS, but frankly even so, mostly it's a thin layer of operating system and I almost always am using one form of web app or another for 90 percent of my work. Might try reforming an old laptop to some version of LinuxOS just to experiment. What desktop environment did you use?
Show threadunattributed 𓂃✍︎Sep 15, 2025

@tchambers @jon @ruario @Vivaldi Hey Tim, I know you asked @ruario for his choice, but I thought I might offer some input.

For users that are most familiar with MacOS the choice is generally KDE. It's more easily setup in a manner that is familiar to Mac users. It has also made the transition from X.org to Wayland -- which is a more secure windowing severing than X. (Although I don't see most of the security concerns as all that significant.)

Show threadTokenizerSep 15, 2025
@jon @Vivaldi This is the way! I suggest looking into distrobox if you have not done so yet. I like it a lot, as it allows me to keep my base system light.
Show threadDawid WiktorSep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi Welcome to Linux family, Jon!
Show threadFingelSep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi lots of opinions in this thread. No matter what you choose, it doesn’t really matter. Congrats on the upgrade!
Show threadsparekontoSep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi ohh congratz on the move Jon! Have a wish for that step to, but fear I will miss a lot from my macOS and Apple HW. Was tinkering a lot with Linux from -95 to 2008 before I jumped to macOS.
Show threadekariSep 15, 2025
@jon Welcome $HOME 🌻
Show threadAbaixoDeCaoSep 15, 2025

@jon @ruario @Vivaldi

Welcome to freedom!

Show threadFer24 🇲🇽Sep 15, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi
Welcome home!!
Show threadzbrandoSep 16, 2025
@jon Please post your feelings vs. Windows and if you use a laptop how is the battery life.
Show threadJon S. von TetzchnerSep 16, 2025

@zbrando

Vivaldi looks and feels the same, so that is good. I use Vivaldi for most things.I was already using LibreOffice, so that is not much of a change either. I prefer the terminal on Linux to that of Windows. I spent a bit of time customizing the setup, but not much was needed there either for the OS.

The big difference is really the things that are not there. Things like Copilot, AI, OneDrive, profiling, ads, etc. It is kind of like installing a new PC and finding someone has already cleared out all the junk. Recently when setting up new Windows computers, I have spent more than 1 hour just removing stuff and still finding there are things on there I do not want and typically it does not take long for things to reappear.

I think I might be getting a bit better battery life and things might be a bit faster, but it is hard to compare as I installed Linux on a different computer than I was using for Windows before.

Show threadzbrandoSep 16, 2025
@jon Thank you for the detailed impressions. I will probably migrate my old PCs too (3rd gen Intel i7) but I will need Windows in emulation or dual boot for a CAD/CAM software.
I only need to test LibreOffice with some MS Office files and find another cloud provider for backup files.
Show threadMarcus Anthony CyganiakSep 21, 2025
@jon @ruario @Vivaldi If I wanted to get on Linux, what machine should I use? For context, I’m currently on the M4 iMac and M4 MacBook Air. I’m not expecting a match in specs with my Macintosh computers, but something high-quality and more premium than the average computer with Linux would be great.
Show threadJon S. von TetzchnerSep 21, 2025

@MarcusAnthonyCyganiak @ruario @Vivaldi

I really think you should go with what you like. A lot of people mention Thinkpads. A number of the large brands have devices that are pre-installed with Linux as well as some smaller brands that are pure Linux.

Show threadant123Oct 30

@jon @ruario @Vivaldi Font rendering is too faint/gray on Linux due to a longstanding improper gamma correction in chromium. Simple fix: build Vivaldi with changed parameters: "SK_GAMMA_EXPONENT=2.2",
"SK_GAMMA_CONTRAST=0.0" in skia/Build.gn

This problem has been mentioned by many Linux users but no action has been taken. Interestingly, Opera on Linux is the only chromium-based browser to get this right (last time I checked).

Maybe now you are using Linux you could ask the Vivaldi team to change this?